TRUMP AGENDA: Remembering 9/11
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Trump will preside over his first 9/11 commemoration in office today.
POLITICO: “President Donald Trump’s closest allies are planning a slate of primary challenges against Republican senators, potentially undermining the party’s prospects in 2018 and further inflaming tensions between GOP leaders and the White House. The effort is being led by Steve Bannon, Trump’s bomb-throwing former chief strategist, who is launching an all-out war against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican establishment. Bannon has begun holding private meetings with insurgent challengers, vowing his support. He’s coordinating with conservative mega-donor Robert Mercer, who is prepared to pour millions of dollars into attacks on GOP incumbents. Bannon has also installed a confidant at an outside group that is expected to target Republican lawmakers and push the Trump agenda.”
More from The Washington Post, on Steve Bannon’s war on the GOP: “Stephen K. Bannon — President Trump’s former chief strategist who left the White House in August — declared war Sunday against the Republican congressional leadership, called on Gary Cohn, Trump’s top economic adviser, to resign, and outlined his views on issues ranging from immigration to trade. Bannon, in an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) of “trying to nullify the 2016 election.” It was Bannon’s first television interview since leaving the White House and returning as executive chairman to Breitbart News, the conservative website he previously led.”
Steve Bannon is calling Trump’s decision to fire James Comey the biggest mistake in “modern political history.”
Will Paul Ryan emerge stronger from his clashes with the administration? “President Trump’s fiscal deal with Democratic leaders in Congress — which passed the House with more than a third of Republicans voting against it — infuriated House conservatives, who struck first at Mr. Ryan, but ultimately turned their ire on the Trump White House,” writes the New York Times. “By week’s end, the men feeling the lash were Mr. Trump’s Treasury secretary and budget director. If anything, Mr. Ryan may have emerged stronger.”
And from POLITICO: “Trump's surprise partnership with Democrats may have bolstered, at least temporarily, Ryan's standing among rank-and-file Republicans. Many lawmakers rallied behind the speaker and directed their anger at the White House over the debt deal. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and budget director Mick Mulvaney were booed when they came to Capitol Hill to plead with Republicans to support the deal.”
You can read the transcript of Bannon’s 60 Minutes interview here.
On CBS, Hillary Clinton described the aftermath of the election and said “I am done with being a candidate. But I am not done with politics because I literally believe that our country's future is at stake.”
NBC’s Dartunorro Clark: “Trump's vote fraud panel is coming to New Hampshire on Tuesday for its second public meeting, only days after the commission's vice-chair amplified the president's baseless claims in an op-ed that illegal voting had possibly swayed the election in the state.”
The New York Times: “The Trump administration opened the door to allowing more firearms on federal lands. It scrubbed references to “L.G.B.T.Q. youth” from the description of a federal program for victims of sex trafficking. And, on the advice of religious leaders, it eliminated funding to international groups that provide abortion. While these initiatives lacked the fanfare of some of President Trump’s high-profile proclamations — like his ban on transgender people in the military — they point to a fundamental repurposing of the federal bureaucracy to promote conservative social priorities.”
The Wall Street Journal notes that the hurricane will delay tests of Trump’s newfound bipartisan deal-making.
(But remember, this bipartisan deal – over a three-month extension of the debt limit – follows months of Trump pursuing a partisan agenda, on health care, taxes, regulations and judicial appointments.)
OFF TO THE RACES: California dreamin’ about an earlier presidential primary
“California is pushing forward with a plan to change the state’s primary date from June to March, a move that could scramble the 2020 presidential nominating contest and swing the early weight of the campaign to the West,” writes POLITICO.
AL-SEN: Does Roy Moore’s DACA gaffe matter?
NJ-SEN: NJ.com has the latest on the Menendez bribery trial.
TN-SEN: Is Bob Corker thinking of retiring? He told CNN he’s “still contemplating the future.”