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Republican lawmakers are casting a wider net in their search for wrongdoing at federal agencies in past election cycles, after learning the Postal Service violated the law by allowing employees to do union-funded work for Hillary Clintons campaign while on leave.

The lawmakers blasted out letters on Monday to 10 other federal government agencies questioning their unpaid leave policy for union-related political work.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., led the charge on the review of agencies practices after spurring an investigation by the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) beginning in October 2016. That inquiry revealed that the USPS violated federal law by letting employees perform union-funded work for Clintons campaign and other Democratic candidates while on leave from the agency.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., joined Johnsons efforts this week by penning joint letters to the departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, Defense, Justice, Labor, Transportation, Treasury, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and the Social Security Administration Monday. The letters concerned what's known as union official Leave Without Pay (LWOP) for political campaign activity.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, left, and Sen. Ron Johnson.

USPS BROKE LAW IN ALLOWING WORKERS TO BOOST CLINTON CAMPAIGN, WATCHDOG SAYS

The letters cited the OSCs findings regarding the USPS that only [employees] who wanted to campaign for the [unions] endorsed candidates were given the opportunity to take several weeks of leave on short notice, over the objections of local supervisors who raised concerns about potential operational impact. The OSCs findings revealed that the USPS violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that limits certain political activities of federal employees. While employees are allowed to do some political work on leave, the report said the USPS showed a bias favoring the unions 2016 campaign operation.

The procedures by which federal employees request LWOP, and by which managers and supervisors consider these requests, are the product of negotiation between the agency and the employees collective bargaining representative, Johnson and Gowdy wrote, requesting specific information to ensure federal agencies are granting LWOP in a politically neutral manner.

USPS TAKES HEARING HEAT FOR 'FAVORING' PRO-CLINTON UNION'S CAMPAIGN WORK

Johnson and Gowdy asked for information regarding use of LWOP in the three months prior to a federal election dating back to 2008, agreements between the agency and employees regarding their leave, written policies and all documents and communications related to the use of LWOP.

Johnson and Gowdy requested state-by-state data for the requested information, giving a deadline of 5 p.m. on Sept. 11.

Brooke Singman is a Reporter for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter at @brookefoxnews.

Originally posted here:
Republicans dig deeper after Postal Service cited for workers ...

Speaking to a crowd of supporters at a rally Tuesday night in Phoenix, President Trump vowed to make good on one of the signature promises of his campaign-- the wall along the Mexican border. He even went as far as to threaten a government shutdown over the issue.

Now the obstructionist Democrats would like us not to do it, but believe me -- we have to close down our government -- we're building that wall! he declared.

While some Republicans back the idea of funding and building a wall on the southern U.S. border, there is far from universal support across the party. There has been little indication that Republican leadership would be willing to risk a government shutdowns to get their way, as shutdowns can cost the federal government billions of dollars, and tend to be politically unpopular.

Despite the presidents remarks, House Speaker Paul Ryan Wednesday afternoon said a shutdown is unnecessary.

I dont think most people want to see a government shutdown, Ryan said during a press conference in Oregon today. He added that both he and the president share very legitimate concerns about the border and agree on the need for a physical wall, but said that a shutdown is not in our interest.

In a written statement Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not directly address the presidents comments on the border wall, but suggested he does not want to hold basic federal funding hostage over this issue. He wrote that his team was working with the White House to "prevent a government default" and "fund the government.

Trumps comments in Phoenix, however, likely emboldened staunch conservatives on the Hill who have held up negotiations over budgets and raising the debt ceiling in the past.

Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) has argued repeatedly that the GOP should go to the mat over funding for a border wall, and on Tuesday tweeted, "I applaud @POTUS @realDonaldTrump for his commitment to keeping a promise that was central to his campaign -- securing our southern border." He added, "Congress would do well to join the president by keeping our own commitments and including border wall funding in upcoming spending measures."

If the Freedom Caucus, which consists of conservative and libertarian Republican members, is unwilling to compromise on spending bills, as expected, GOP leadership will likely need to win over some Democrats in order to pass their budget bills or raise the debt ceiling and avoid a shutdown.

Knowing this, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer today warned Republicans and the White House not to draw a line in the sand over the wall.

If the president pursues this path, against the wishes of both Republicans and Democrats, as well as the majority of the American people, he will be heading towards a government shutdown which nobody will like and which wont accomplish anything, he wrote in a statement.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi echoed Schumers criticism of Trumps willingness to risk government shutdown in order to secure border wall funding.

Trump will purposefully hurt American communities to force American taxpayers to fund an immoral, ineffective and expensive border wall, she wrote in a statement. She warned of the large financial costs that come with a shutdown, saying, The last time Republicans shut down the government, their callous recklessness cost the American economy $24 billion and 120,000 jobs.

Pelosi signaled that Democrats will push back on Trumps efforts, adding they will stand fast against the immoral, ineffective border wall and the rest of Republicans unacceptable poison pill riders.

While Ryan has emerged as a vocal advocate for a wall, his Senate counterpart McConnell has been more tepid about the idea. When asked in March about how much the wall was a priority for him this year, he replied, Im in favor of border security. There are some places along the border where thats probably not the best way to secure the border. In a press conference in April, McConnell said funding for border security or a wall would be subject to negotiation with our Democratic colleagues.

Lawmakers in the last few years have used the threat of a government shutdown as a tricky negotiating tool. Democrats have said they will not work with Republicans on the budget if they feel like they are being backed into a corner with ultimatums.

During an April 23 interview with ABC News on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that he can't imagine the Democrats would shut down the government over an objection to building a down payment on a wall that can end the lawlessness. In the coming months, Democrats will likely say the same line back to their Republican colleagues.

ABC News' Saisha Talwar and Dylan Wells contributed to this report.

Read the rest here:
How Republicans are responding to Trump's government shutdown threat - ABC News

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's stepped-up attacks against Senate Republicans are threatening the fall's busy legislative agenda and any cooperation that remains between them.

In a raucous speech Tuesday night followed up by Wednesday morning tweets, Trump endorsed a government shutdown, criticized both of the state's GOP senators, called out Majority Leader Mitch McConnell by name and once again called for drastic changes to the rules governing the upper chamber of Congress.

By Wednesday evening, however, the White House put out a statement that said Trump and McConnell "remain united on many shared priorities, "including middle class tax relief, strengthening the military, constructing a southern border wall, and other important issues." The statement also promised the two would hold previously scheduled meetings this month.

But the onslaught of criticism continues to erode a relationship between Senate Republicans and the White House that has grown more tense in recent weeks, especially after a series of failures on health care reform. And the president took out his frustration in front of a crowd of supporters in Phoenix Tuesday.

Reviving one of his biggest campaign promises, Trump pressed Congress to build a wall on the nation's southern border, threatening to shut down the government if Congress doesnt move forward.

Build that wall," he demanded. "The obstructionist Democrats would like us not to do it. But believe me, if we have to close down our government, we're building that wall, Trump said.

The House of Representatives has approved a down payment of $1.6 billion for a wall while the Senate hasnt committed to such an expenditure.

Trumps statement is setting up another intra-party fight with Republican senators just as a Sept. 30 deadline is quickly approaching to continue funding the government. Even though a shutdown appears unlikely with the party in control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, Republicans believe they would suffer severe repercussions at the ballot box in 2018 if the government were forced to close its doors.

In a move likely to further strain what is supposed to be a partnership with the Senate majority leader, Trump also called out McConnell by name as a way to pressure him into changing Senate rules so that passing legislation would require the support of just 51 senators instead of 60.

We have to get rid of what's called the filibuster rule; we have to. And if we don't, the Republicans will never get anything passed. You're wasting your time, Trump said. And we have to speak to Mitch and we have to speak to everybody.

Trump followed up with a tweet Wednesday morning.

But McConnell has no plans to change the Senate rules. Even if he wanted to, he would need the support of 50 senators.

Theres not a single senator in the majority who thinks we ought to change the legislative filibuster. Not one, he told reporters in April, a position that hasnt changed.

Trumps focus on changing Senate rules and building the border wall is out of line with what Republicans want to accomplish. They are facing a busy fall in which they must raise the debt limit to allow the U.S. government to pay its bills, and to pass vital legislation like reauthorizing the childrens health insurance program. Theyd also like to accomplish tax reform, but Trump didnt mention any of these priorities at his rally.

Hes got the best pulpit out there and he understands the importance of messaging, said Billy Piper, former chief of staff to McConnell. Piper said the president "ought to be talking about" moderate Democratic senators like Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., "and the need to get them on board with tax reform.

Instead of pressuring Democrats, Trump appears to be focused on the shortcomings of his own party after months of bubbling tensions.

Trump was not supportive of sanctions Congress overwhelmingly passed against Russia earlier this summer, even though he did sign them into law.He has publicly attacked McConnell, suggesting he should step down as leader and blaming him for the failure of health care legislation. And the two had at least one contentious phone conversation in early August that resulted in Trump lobbing additional attacks on the majority leader.

And Senate Republicans have been expressing their own frustration more openly in recent weeks. After Trump's defense of some of the white nationalist protesters in Charlottesville, some members of the party stepped up their criticism. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said that Trump doesn't have the "stability nor some of the competence" necessary for the job.

In public, Republican leaders have tried to downplay any challenges with Trump. The President and I, and our teams, have been and continue to be in regular contact about our shared goals, McConnell said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we are committed to advancing our shared agenda together and anyone who suggests otherwise is clearly not part of the conversation."

And House Speaker Paul Ryan dismissed the idea of a shutdown.

I don't think a government shutdown is necessary and I don't think most people want to see a government shutdown, ourselves included, Ryan told reporters in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Theres no desire to get into it with Trump, Piper said of congressional Republicans.

But the president's criticisms continue. He attacked Arizona Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake in their home state Tuesday night despite admitting that Republicans asked him not to criticize members of his own party.

Flake refused to respond to Trump's attacks on Fox Radio's Brian Kilmeade show Wednesday, saying, "I saw that part where he talked obviously about me and about Sen. McCain and you know Im just focused on working for the state doing my day job."

Steven Law, a former chief of staff to McConnell and current CEO of the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC endorsed by McConnell to elect Senate Republicans, said that Republicans will be hyper-focused not on Trump but on tax reform in the fall.

"The president needs to make up his own mind on how to invest his political capital," Law said.

Read more:
Trump's Continued Attacks On Senate Republicans Hamper Party's Agenda - NBCNews.com

The media, some GOP senators and even White House staff were aghast at President Trump's decision to blame many sides and both sides for the violence in Charlottesville two weeks ago.

Trump's base, though, is decidedly not. In fact, much of it blames the counterprotesters.

A new poll from Quinnipiac University shows 38 percent of Republicans say white supremacists were more to blame for the violence in Charlottesville. But 30 percent the counterprotesterswere more to blame. Thirty-twopercent offered no opinion.

This was a rally, mind you, at which a white supremacist allegedly killed someone andinjured 19 others by driving a car into the counterprotesters. Three in 10 Republicans believe the group victimized in this particular incident was more to blame for the violence at the rally.

On that topic, they are considerably out of step with the rest of America. Democrats almost universally blame white supremacists more (88 percent to 4 percent for the counterprotesters), and independents are 4:1 more likely to blame the white supremacists (60percent to 15 percent).

This is hardly the first time that lots of Republicans have bought into a narrative being pitched by Trump that flies in the face of the available evidence. As I noted in March, Republicans have largely shunned the intelligence community's consensus conclusion that Russia tried to help Trump in the 2016 election. And not only that, but they also have doubted its more basic conclusion that Russia even interfered at all:

And the new CBS poll also shows this. It shows that just one in four Republicans think Russia interfered, vs. 64 percent who think it did not even attempt to do so. And just 13 percent of Republicans accept the intelligence community's conclusion that this interference existedandwas intended to help Trump one in eight.

Similarly, Republicans also bought into Trump's still-evidence-free assertion that his campaign was surveilled during the 2016 election. The same CBS poll asked whether Donald Trumps offices were wiretapped or under government surveillance, and 74 percent in the GOP said it was at least somewhat likely.

Other examples:

And on and on.

In the case of Charlottesville, Republicans don't side with Trump as strongly as they did on these other questions; instead, they are somewhat close to evenly split. But that's actually pretty remarkable when you consider Trump didn't even blame the counterprotesters more. He simply said there was blame to go around.

Three in 10 Republicans apparently think even that was too wishy-washy when it comes to the counterprotesters' culpability.

Originally posted here:
30 percent of Republicans say white supremacists don't carry the most blame for Charlottesville - Washington Post

Noted fiscal conservative Midna discusses the merits of a flat tax approach with Link (Screenshot: The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD/Nintendo)

In a bold attempt to speak to Americas youths, the Republican Party has apparently thrown itself into the world of video game criticism. For its first foray into this famously lucrative industry, the website of the House GOP published an incredibly insightful thinkpiece entitled What Do the The Legend of Zelda and the American Tax Code Have In Common? The thesis of this groundbreaking essay? The action-adventure game was released in 1986, only one year after Nintendos founding in 1985. And you know what else was released in 1986? Yeah, you do. The last major reform to the American tax code was signed into law in 1986.

After that, it immediately pivots into a GOP spiel about the current tax code strangling small businesses and Zelda is never mentioned again, so yes, thats pretty much the whole article. Now, setting aside the fact that Nintendo wasnt founded in 1985 (thats only approximately 100 years off the mark, but hey, the GOP isnt exactly known for its fact-checking prowess) the article is accurate: That is literally one thing these two completely disparate concepts have in common. 1986 is also the year Pixar was founded, Short Circuit was released, and Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capones infamously empty vault. Coincidence? We think not.

Playing devils advocate (emphasis on devil) for a second, the poor GOP staffer who got roped into writing this has more of a point than they realize. If they were serious about making this comparison and stumping for tax reform while dunking on Zelda, it should have read something like this: Just like our destructive, archaic tax code, The Legend Of Zelda hadnt changed since it was established in 1986. But you know what happened in 2017? The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild was released and completely changed the game. Its time for the GOP to lead the charge for tax reform and do the same!

Then again, if they couldnt even be bothered to Google, What year was Nintendo founded? we shouldnt exactly be surprised when they miss such low-hanging fruit.

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Republicans try comparing Zelda to the American tax code, fail miserably - A.V. Club