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Home Unlabelled Politics|Donald Trump Holds 'Thank You' Rally in Cincinnati, and Announces His Pick for Defense Secretary - New York Times

Politics|Donald Trump Holds 'Thank You' Rally in Cincinnati, and Announces His Pick for Defense Secretary - New York Times

6:59 AM


Mr. Becerra, like Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland before him and former Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois (now the mayor of Chicago) before them, had risen as far as he could in the House leadership. Mr. Becerra faced a blockade of older members of Congress, like Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Steny H. Hoyer, and James E. Clyburn, in the top ranks.


Unlike Mr. Van Hollen, who was elected to the Senate last month, Mr. Becerra opted against running for his state’s open Senate seat, but he has found his own way to statewide office.

Mr. Becerra was in line for a huge consolation prize in the House, however. The veteran Representative Sander M. Levin of Michigan had just stepped aside as the ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee — and he recommended the telegenic Californian for the post.

That would have put Mr. Becerra on the front lines as Mr. Trump tries to repeal the Affordable Care Act, cut taxes, overhaul the tax code and possibly convert Medicare into a system that offers fixed sums to seniors to buy private health plans.

Instead, it looks as if that role will go to Representative Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, who may be less camera ready but is actually better versed on the intricacies of tax policy.

Speaking of Democratic divides, Keith Ellison edition.




Representative Keith Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota, in Washington in May.


Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

So far Representative Keith Ellison’s drive to be the next Democratic National Committee chairman has gone swimmingly, with no strong competition in sight.

But CNN went where other outlets have feared to tread, printing old writings of Mr. Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, in defense of the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam and other contentious black activists.

As a law student at the University of Minnesota, Mr. Ellison, writing under the name Keith E. Hakim in the student newspaper, said: “Whether one supports or opposes the establishment of Israel in Palestine and Israel’s present policies, Zionism, the ideological undergirding of Israel, is a debatable political philosophy. Anyone, including black people, has the right to hear and voice alternative views on the subject — notwithstanding our nominal citizenship.”

He continued:

“Alternatively, the University’s position appears to be this: Political Zionism is off limits no matter what dubious circumstances Israel was founded under; no matter what the Zionists do to the Palestinians; and no matter what wicked regimes Israel allies itself with — like South Africa. This position is untenable.”

Mr. Ellison long ago renounced his associations with the Nation of Islam, and has had Jewish groups defend him. But the report could prove troublesome, to say the least.


The Anti-Defamation League, which has been mildly supportive, reacted strongly.

“Ellison’s remarks are both deeply disturbing and disqualifying. His words imply that U.S. foreign policy is based on religiously or national origin-based special interests rather than simply on America’s best interests. Additionally, whether intentional or not, his words raise the specter of age-old stereotypes about Jewish control of our government, a poisonous myth that may persist in parts of the world where intolerance thrives, but that has no place in open societies like the U.S. These comments sharply contrast with the Democratic National Committee platform position, which states: ‘A strong and secure Israel is vital to the United States because we share overarching strategic interests and the common values of democracy, equality, tolerance and pluralism.’ ”

Then there’s that Democratic senator from North Dakota.

Senator Heidi Heitkamp, Democrat of North Dakota, is paying a visit to Trump Tower on Friday, and Senator Chuck E. Schumer of New York, the incoming minority leader, is having heart palpitations.

“I appreciate the president-elect inviting me for a meeting. ... Whatever job I do, I hope to work with the president-elect and all of my colleagues in Congress on both sides of the aisle to best support my state.”

To Democrats, that last line can mean two things, neither of them good. If she is in line for an administration job, her Senate seat would turn Republican. If not, she seems to be indicating she is a possible vote for the Trump agenda.

And no matter what, her seat is up in 2018 — in a state that went to Mr. Trump with 62 percent of the vote.

But really, history is a game of inches.

The great chronicler of this year’s presidential vote, Dave Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, declared it official on Thursday: Jill Stein is the Ralph Nader of 2016. Her vote tallies in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania now exceed Mr. Trump’s margins in the three Rust Belt states that gave him the presidency.

Another point:

In the end, the difference between a Trump presidency and another Clinton administration came down to 79,646 votes — fewer than a sellout for a Wisconsin Badgers football game.

For the record, Mrs. Clinton’s overall lead in the popular vote stands at 2,544,817.

And the Democrats haven’t disappeared.


Trump is "Draining the Swamp" into the White House Video by The Democrats

Trump’s foreign policy: Praise for Kazakhstan’s strong man, gushing over Pakistan.

President-elect Trump took phone calls Wednesday from Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan. The results were instructive.

According to Kazakhstan, Mr. Trump said “that under the leadership of Nursultan Nazarbayev our country over the years of Independence had achieved fantastic success that can be called a ‘miracle’.”

Through some rather circuitous paths, Mr. Trump’s real estate empire has been tied to Kazakhstan in ways a Financial Times investigation labeled “dirty.” Mr. Nazarbayev has run Kazakhstan since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1989. Last year, he won a fifth consecutive term with 97.7 percent of the vote.


The Pakistani government released its own account of the telephone conversation between and Mr. Trump and Mr. Sharif that sounded, well, Trumpian.

“President Trump said: ‘Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, you have a very good reputation. You are a terrific guy. You are doing amazing work, which is visible in every way. I am looking forward to see you soon. As I am talking to you, prime minister, I feel I am talking to a person I have known for long. Your country is amazing, with tremendous opportunities. Pakistanis are one of the most intelligent people. I am ready and willing to play any role that you want me to play to address and find solutions to the outstanding problems. It will be an honor, and I will personally do it. Feel free to call me anytime, even before 20th January, that is before I assume my office.’ ”


“On being invited to visit Pakistan by the prime minister, Mr. Trump said that he would love to come to a fantastic country, fantastic place of fantastic people. ‘Please convey to the Pakistani people that they are amazing, and all Pakistanis I have known are exceptional people,’ said Mr. Donald Trump.”

While not exactly confirming the content, the Trump transition team did acknowledge both calls.

The White House responds: Please, get help.

The White House has been trying its best not to criticize Mr. Trump, but after those two phone calls, a top administration official suggested that Mr. Trump get some expert help.

Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, noted that the relationship between Pakistan and the United States was “quite complicated” and got more so after the American raid into Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden. And then Mr. Earnest mentioned where Mr. Trump could get some assistance.

“I’m just making the observation that there are dedicated experts, public servants at the State Department that have years of experience that they have amassed that they’re prepared to use to advise the incoming president,” Mr. Earnest said.

Democrats plead with Trump to reconsider climate change.

Ten Democratic senators have sent a strongly worded letter to Mr. Trump criticizing the number of “lobbyists and others with extensive ties to the fossil fuel industry” in his transition team and among potential nominees for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior.

Citing advisers like Myron Ebell of the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute and the former fossil fuel lobbyist Thomas Pyle, the senators argued that “you have raised serious questions about your desire to ‘drain the swamp’ with respect to energy and environmental issues.” The letter, signed by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Ron Wyden of Oregon and others, quoted a 2009 advertisement signed by Mr. Trump calling climate change “scientifically irrefutable,” with “catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet.”

Trump cabinet picks break tradition, to their detriment.

Chalk up another tradition broken in the Trump era: the practice of cabinet picks going mum once they are named, shunning the news media until confirmed by the Senate.

Steven Mnuchin, the newly named choice for Treasury secretary, made that break most evident on Wednesday, appearing on CNBC and before reporters at Trump Tower, musing at length on tax policy. Others including Wilbur L. Ross, tapped for commerce secretary, have been similarly voluble.


This has surprised people in both parties familiar with the tortuous Senate confirmation process — and with what they see as the good reasons to stay silent.

Talking to the press is “an opportunity to fail — it can only kind of cause you more headaches and questions,” said Dean Zerbe, a former adviser to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, on the Senate Finance Committee.

Mr. Mnuchin, for example, said the Trump tax plan would give a big tax cut to the middle class but not to the wealthy, though a range of nonpartisan analyses have concluded the opposite.

“As soon as I saw that,” Mr. Zerbe said, “my immediate thought was, ‘O.K., you’ve just now given about a dozen questions to senators to ask about.’”

And about that Carrier deal.




President-elect Donald J. Trump toured the Carrier plant in Indianapolis on Thursday.


Doug Mills/The New York Times

Not that the 1,000 workers whose jobs were saved will care, but the deal to keep that Carrier plant in the United States, which included a multiyear, $7 million incentive package from Indiana, is starting to take flack from the right and the left. To conservatives, government intervention at such a microlevel is just bad economics.

The Libertarian-leaning Representative Justin Amash, Republican of Michigan, weighed in early:

Now it’s coming from more intellectual circles.

“This is all terrible for a nation’s economic vitality if businesses make decisions to please politicians rather than customers and shareholders. Yet America’s private sector has just been sent a strong signal that playing ball with Trump might be part of what it now means to run an American company,” wrote James Pethokoukis, the DeWitt Wallace Fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.




Liberals have latched onto the tax breaks and incentives offered to Carrier’s parent company, United Technologies, by Gov. Pence of Indiana just before he leaves for Washington. Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, put it this way in The Washington Post:

In exchange for allowing United Technologies to continue to offshore more than 1,000 jobs, Trump will reportedly give the company tax and regulatory favors that the corporation has sought. Just a short few months ago, Trump was pledging to force United Technologies to “pay a damn tax.” He was insisting on very steep tariffs for companies like Carrier that left the United States and wanted to sell their foreign-made products back in the United States. Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with a damn tax cut. Wow! How’s that for standing up to corporate greed?

If companies can extract tax concessions by threatening to move to Mexico, they may have found a partner willing to play ball with the new president, the critics say. Economists call that “moral hazard.”


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