Backdoor influence peddling from Michael Cohen and others; Gutting regulations to protect consumers from scams run by political donors in the Payday Lending industry, the retirement industry, and just about any other industry you can think of; side deals with foreign countries.
A new report from the Center for American Progress does a deep dive into some of the most blatant examples of Trump’s corruption: just those examples alone are costing American families more than $24 billion per year and counting. It also cites a prescient quote from somebody taking on this corruption in the Russia investigation now…
- FBI Director Robert Mueller, 2011: “You might pay more for a gallon of gas. You might pay more for a luxury car from overseas. You will pay more for health care, mortgages, clothes, and food. Yet we are concerned with more than just the financial impact. These groups may infiltrate our businesses. They may provide logistical support to hostile foreign powers. They may try to manipulate those at the highest levels of government. Indeed, these so-called ‘iron triangles’ of organized criminals, corrupt government officials, and business leaders pose a significant national security threat.”
A DESPERATE AND DISTRACTING DOG WHISTLE
Last night, President Trump cancelled the Philadelphia Eagles’ celebratory White House visit because some members of the team and coaching staff didn’t want to attend. Imagine that.
Racing to make his statement first, Trump declared the event cancelled and resurrected his racist tirade that Black athletes who protest systemic racism and police brutality should be pulled off the field and fired.
Forget that Colin Kaepernick’s first kneeling action—following his original decision to sit during the Anthem—was a suggestion by a veteran who saw the action as “a sign of reverence.”
Forget that a visit to the White House by Superbowl champs has nothing to do with the National Anthem.
President Trump is deflecting once again. This was never about the Anthem. This was always about systematic injustices African Americans face in American society. Instead of dealing with the real issues of police brutality, economic injustice, and civil rights abuses, Trump uses his classic bait and switch to stoke racial animus.
The NFL needs to stop pandering to Trump’s racist whims and focus on the real issues the players face and bring awareness to vital issues facing America today.
Use our easy click-to-tweet tool to call on the NFL to choose the rights of the players over Trump and NFL team owners.
REPUBLICANS RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS
GOP Senators are a little bit lost. So they’re surveying their conference to see what they should do before November.
Senators Ted Cruz and Lamar Alexander sent a survey to their Republican colleagues asking them to weigh in on various legislative agendas—many of them as despicable as you would expect and oddly familiar:
- Round 2 of the #GOPTaxScam tax cuts
- Defunding Planned Parenthood
- Requiring work requirements for welfare
- Attempting to repeal the ACA
Most of the controversial measures are unlikely to reach the 60-vote threshold necessary for passage. Even so, the poll reveals a staunch, stale Republican agenda: undo every positive thing achieved by the previous Administration—even at the expense of the American people.
COLLEGES TACKLING POVERTY
Russell Lowery-Hart, president of Amarillo College in Texas, spent a winter weekend sleeping outside in frigid temperatures and rain to find a better way to lead a school where poverty intrudes into the classroom every day.
CAP’s Marcella Bombardieri writes in The Atlantic about what happens when a college thinks outside the box to takes on poverty in bold new ways.
THINKING CAP
50 years ago today, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. In this week’s bonus episode of Thinking CAP, Dawn Porter, director of the new Netflix documentary, discusses Bobby Kennedy’s legacy and the disconcerting parallels between the turbulent 1960s and modern politics in America.