Roadblocks for the Russia investigation, a closer look on who’s cooperating from Team Trump and a presidential change of heart — it’s all part of this week’s “Inside Politics” forecast, where you get a bit of tomorrow’s news today.
1) Capitol Hill wants to hear from Team Trump
The Russia investigation on the Hill is starting to kick into high gear. Investigators with the Senate Intelligence Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee are interested in interviewing whomever was in the room during that June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer.
As Karoun Demirjian of The Washington Post explains, some of the people connected to the President are cooperating, while others are still up in the air.
“Manafort could show up very very soon. And if he does, if he speaks publicly, the question is, will he start to turn the narrative? And will anybody start to turn the narrative? Because now there’s almost a race on cooperation and who is going to speak first,” Demirjian reports.
“They say Manafort is cooperating. They expect Kushner will be cooperating too, but Don Junior is an open question. The question is, are they going to start to protect themselves and will their stories start to collide and change, and whose will dominate? “
2) House Intel Committee hitting roadblocks when it comes to Russia investigation
The House Intelligence Committee canceled its upcoming questioning of Roger Stone. The former Trump campaign adviser was supposed to take the hot seat July 24. This is the second Trump associate whose testimony has been canceled. J.D. Gordon’s Q&A was also put on the back burner by House investigators.
As CNN’s Manu Raju reports, all this stop and go and hurry up and wait is causing some Capitol Hill irritation.
“The Republican who’s leading that investigation, Mike Connelly, said on Friday that he’s growing increasingly frustrated by the slow pace of this investigation. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat, told me this investigation is global in scope and it could take a while to get through everything there,” Raju explains. “This comes as this panel is still facing a lot of partisan strife internally about the witnesses they’re interviewing. This was supposed to sort of go away when Devin Nunes stepped away from the investigation, but it’s pretty clear that the partisan disagreements about the direction of the investigation still remain.”
3) The steel fight happening inside the White House
There’s a steel fight going on inside the White House. This week, the Commerce Department could issue its report on what type of national security implications steel imports would have on the US. And the West Wing can’t seem to come to a consensus on steel. As CNN’s Jeff Zeleny tells us, there’s now a political equation, even when it involves a simple can of soda.
“A lot of companies, manufacturers, are sounding the alarm here, saying look, this could increase the price of everything from the aluminum [on things like] those cans of soda and beer, other things, aluminum in sunscreen. …So this is something that hasn’t gotten a ton of attention inside Washington with so much else going on,” Zeleny divulges. “But watch for that steel decision this week, very controversial. And it’s going to affect your bottom line.”
4) Trump’s changed his tune on a certain aircraft carrier
President Trump will be part of an official commissioning of the U.S.S. Gerald Ford aircraft carrier in Norfolk, Virginia. It’s his second visit to the ship and it’s classic Trump because he’s gone back and forth on if he’s for or against the project.
Margaret Talev of Bloomberg Politics explains.
“He has both praised this project effusively and the great American military members who will serve on it, but also criticized it for cost overruns. He is going to make it cheaper. He sort of classically attacked the technology,” Talev says. So, what should we watch for out of this presidential commission?
“There are two things to look for: number one is just sort of the magnificence of this project — 90,000 tons, it’s a $13 billion project, it’ll hold 4,500 personnel and 70 aircraft. But number two is whenever a president goes [to] an aircraft carrier, it’s an opportunity to talk about defense, the military and kind of the national posture on foreign policy, vis-a-vis both our allies and challenges and threats. Could be an interesting performance,” Talev said.