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Rank-and-file Republicans are far more willing to blame the GOP-led Congress for their partys lack of progress, not President Trump.

NEW YORK In firm control of the federal government, President Trump and his Republican Party have so far failed to deliver on core campaign promises on health care, taxes, and infrastructure. But in New Yorks Trump Tower cafe, the Gentry family blames Congress, not the president.

Like many Trump voters across America, the Alabama couple, vacationing last week with their three children, says they are deeply frustrated with the presidents GOP allies, faulting them for derailing Trumps plans. As the family of five lunched in Trump Tower, Sheila Gentry offered a pointed message to those concerned with the GOPs ability to govern five months into the Trump presidency.

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Shut up. Get on board. And lets give President Trump the benefit of the doubt. It takes a while, said the 46-year-old nursing educator from Section, Ala.

They just need a good whoopin, said her husband, Travis Gentry, a 48-year-old engineer, likening congressional infighting to unruly kids in the back seat of the car.

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As Washington Republicans decry Trumps latest round of Twitter attacks, Republicans on the ground from New York to Louisiana to Iowa continue to stand by the president and his unorthodox leadership style. For now at least, rank-and-file Republicans are far more willing to blame the GOP-led Congress for their partys lack of progress, sending an early warning sign as the GOP looks to preserve its House and Senate majorities in next years midterm elections.

Inside and outside the Beltway surrounding the nations capital, Republicans worry their party could pay a steep political price unless they show significant progress on their years-long promise to repeal and replace Democrat Barack Obamas health care law. Even more disturbing, some say, is the Republican Partys nascent struggle to overhaul the nations tax system, never mind Trumps unfulfilled vows to repair roads and bridges across America and build a massive border wall.

Its a problem for Republicans, who were put in place to fix this stuff. If you cant fix it, I need someone who can, said Ernie Rudolph, a 72-year-old cybersecurity executive from suburban Des Moines, Iowa.

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There is no easy path forward for the Republican Party.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that health care legislation backed by House and Senate Republican leaders and favored by Trump would ultimately leave more than 20 million additional Americans without health care, while enacting deep cuts to Medicaid and other programs that address the opioid epidemic. In some cases, the plans would most hurt Trumps most passionate supporters.

Just 17 percent of Americans support the Senates health care plan, according to a poll released last week, making it one of the least popular major legislative proposals in history.

The president on Friday injected new uncertainty into the debate by urging congressional Republicans simply to repeal Obamas health care law immediately while crafting a replacement plan later, which would leave tens of millions of Americans without health care with no clear solution.

That shift came a day after several Republicans in Congress condemned Trumps personal Twitter attack against MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, which was viewed across Washington as an unwanted distraction in the midst of a sensitive policy debate.

Trumps nationwide approval rating hovered below 40 percent in Gallups weekly tracking survey, even before the tweet. At the same time, just one in four voters approve of Republicans in Congress, Quinnipiac University found.

Democrats, meanwhile, report sustained energy on the ground in swing districts where Republicans face tough re-election challenges. Democrats need to flip 24 seats to win the House majority next fall, a goal that operatives in both parties see as increasingly possible as the GOP struggles to govern.

A former Obama administration national security aide, Andy Kim, is among a large class of fresh Democratic recruits.

People are fired up, said Kim, whos challenging Representative Tom MacArthur of New Jersey. Its not just about the health care bill. Its not just about Trump. ... Theyre concerned about the ability of this government to put together any credible legislation going forward.

Republicans are also concerned.

In Iowas Adair County, GOP county chairman Ryan Frederick fears that Republican voters will begin to lose confidence in their partys plans for taxes, infrastructure, and immigration should the health care overhaul fail.

Everyone I know looks at trying to get Obamacare repealed and says, If were making this much of a pigs breakfast out of that, what are we going to do with tax reform? Frederick said.

Weve dreamed of killing Obamacare for seven years. And we have the House, the Senate and the presidency, and we cant do it? Whats the deal, guys?

Louisiana Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere bemoans factionalism in his party. Intraparty divisions are holding up health care, he says, which in turn keeps the GOP-led government from tackling other priorities.

Hes looking to Trump for leadership.

Hes the ultimate negotiator, Villere said. Well see how good he is.

Back in Trump Tower, Sheila Gentry conceded that Trumps tweets sometimes make her cringe, but she still has confidence in her president. She cant say the same for congressional Republicans.

The Republicans who are in there now that arent being very supportive, theyre going to find themselves without a job soon if they dont step it up, she said.

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Republican voters blame Congress, not Trump, for stalemate - The Boston Globe

Sen. Bernie Sanders pointed the finger squarely at Republicans for kicking up a federal probe into allegations his wife fraudulently obtained a loan for the Vermont college she once led, saying Sunday the Republican National Committee is very excited about the controversy.

The interview marked the 2016 presidential candidates latest effort to downplay the FBI investigation, which reportedly is looking at whether Jane Sanders committed fraud to get a $10 million loan for a Burlington College expansion.

Asked on CNNs State of the Union about the case, Sen. Sanders quickly pointed out how the allegations first surfaced.

I know this will shock the viewers -- the vice-chairman of the Vermont Republican Party who happened to be Donald Trump's campaign manager raised this issue and initiated this investigation, he said. I think what you're looking at is something that [the] Republican National Committee is very excited about.

SANDERS PANS PROBE, BUT ALLEGATIONS ARE SERIOUS

The Vermont independent senator adamantly denied that he or his staff ever reached out to the bank in question to approve any loans related to the transaction and defended his wife.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and embraces his wife Jane on stage during a rally in Vallejo, California, May 18, 2016. (REUTERS/Stephen Lam)

My wife is perhaps the most honest person I know. She did a great job in Burlington College, Sanders said. Sadly we are in a moment where parties not only attack public officials, they have to go after wives and children. You know, this is pathetic and that's the way politics is in America today.

The comments track with others the senator made last week dismissing the probe as a pathetic and political attack.

The Republican Sanders referred to in his CNN interview was Brady Toensing, a former Donald Trump presidential campaign official who wrote the original complaint. The complaint, however, raised numerous red flags about the application that might not be so easily ignored, including the sources she listed as proof of the school's ability to repay.

The loan was arranged by Sanders wife when she was president of the now-closed college to acquire 33 acres of lakefront property to improve and expand the small, non-traditional school.

People close to the couple, including Sanders' presidential campaign manager Jeff Weaver, have confirmed that the independent senator and his wife each have retained a lawyer in connection with the case.

Jane Sanders, college president from 2004-2011, structured the loan deal in two parts -- a $6.5 million loan from Peoples United Bank to buy tax-exempt bonds issued by a state agency that signed off on the deal and a $3.65 million second mortgage from the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Burlington.

To secure the money, Sanders submitted a spreadsheet that attempted to show the school had $2.4 million in confirmed pledges, grants and other funds to repay the debt.

The document -- obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and listed as exhibit B in the original complaint -- showed the money would come from 40 separate entries.

However, each entry was denoted only by initials, under such categories as friends or faculty and staff and with no additional documentation, according to the complaint filed to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.s office of the inspector general.

See the article here:
Sanders blames Republicans for FBI probe of wife - Fox News

Congressional Republicans and Trump administration officials were at odds Sunday over how close the Senate is to a deal on an Obamacare repeal package and what the legislation should look like an indication that the upper chamber may be further from agreement than some politicians let on.

We are getting close, Marc Short, President Donald Trumps director of legislative affairs, said on Fox News Sunday. The White House is making calls this weekend to try and get the Senate package across the finish line, Short added.

Story Continued Below

But Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a conservative who was one of the holdouts who doomed efforts to vote on health legislation last week, disagreed: I don't think we're getting anywhere with the bill we have. We're at an impasse, Paul said on the same show.

Republicans have scrambled to put together a bill repealing President Barack Obamas signature reform, but conservative and moderate lawmakers in the party remain at odds on how to do it. And on Sunday, Republicans appeared no closer to agreeing on how to deliver on years of promises to undo the 2010 legislation.

Among the issues theyll have to grapple with when they return from the July 4th recess: Whether to approve a proposal by conservatives to dial back regulation on some insurance plans. Short said the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office had been asked to analyze two versions of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells bill one with and one without the conservatives proposal to estimate their impact on the federal budget and on insurance coverage.

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The proposal, from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), would create parallel health insurance markets in states. One market would contain protections for people with pre-existing conditions and coverage of essential health benefits like maternity care and mental health services, and the other would allow the sale of skimpier plans, likely without federal subsidies.

Short said the White House supports Cruzs and Lees effort to come up with a conservative adjustment to the bill. He said he anticipated a vote on the Senate bill the week after the July 4th recess.

But their proposal could cost McConnell votes from more moderate senators who believe the two-market approach would lead to the collapse of the individual insurance market because all the older and sicker patients would be served by the highly regulated, more expensive system, separate from healthier and younger Americans.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) argued on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the way to make coverage more affordable is to keep everyone in the same insurance pool.

Turns out to lower premiums, theres ways you do that. You get more people into the risk pool so its healthier and younger, number one. Number two, for those who are lower income, theyre going to need some assistance. And so you need money for that assistance, Cassidy said.

Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich, who is seen as influential with Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican still on the fence about the Senates approach so far, said on ABCs This Week that the bill needs more Medicaid funding, and he said its tax credits would not be enough to help people buy individual insurance plans.

Kasich, who faced off against Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, also said the bill doesnt do enough to stem the opioid crisis. McConnell added an extra $45 billion in opioid funding to try to win over moderate Republicans who have argued that the bill's cuts to Medicaid would hurt people struggling with addiction.

"It's anemic," Kasich said. "As I said to Sen. Portman at one point, it's like spitting in the ocean. It's not enough."

Republicans are also rehashing an old argument about whether to simultaneously repeal Obamacare and approve its replacement, or whether they can wait to work out a new health care system until after they undo the 2010 law.

Trump disrupted the Senates efforts Friday morning by tweeting that Republicans could follow the latter course, which had been rejected by congressional leaders. If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date! he wrote on Twitter.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said on Meet the Press that despite Trumps tweet, the administrations official stance is not to repeal and replace Obamacare separately. McConnell has also rejected that approach.

But Paul pushed for separate tracks Sunday, saying the only thing a majority of Republicans agreed on was repealing Obamacare. Fellow Republicans Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and Lee also said lawmakers could pass repeal legislation by itself but delay the implementation to give themselves time to craft a replacement.

Kasich said repealing Obamacare without an idea of what would take its place could cause people to lose insurance coverage.

You cant just get rid of this, because you cant leave people without what they need, he said.

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Republicans can't agree on where Senate Obamacare repeal stands - Politico

Their bills projected plummet in Medicaid spending isnt helping matters for G.O.P. leaders. Even a proposal for $45 billion to fight opioid abuse is under fire, as addiction specialists say its simply not enough to counter the cuts.

Dean Heller, above, the Republican senator from Nevada who denounced his partys bill, is facing the wrath of Las Vegas titans and the states rank and file.

____

3. Newly unfettered by the Supreme Court, the Trump administration swiftly enacted portions of its travel ban, which bars entry to the U.S. by refugees and visitors from six predominantly Muslim countries. Heres who can get in, and who cant.

The court will hear arguments on the travel ban in October.

____

4. In a meeting on Miami Beach, where fighting rising seas is now routine, American mayors called on President Trump and Congress to rejoin the Paris climate accord, and they doubled down on their own efforts to combat climate change and commit to renewable energy.

According to a new study, Southern states will be hardest hit by global warming.

____

5. Combating climate change and bolstering international institutions are priorities as Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, above, prepares to host a G-20 summit meeting beginning Friday. She has her sights set on President Trump, predicting very difficult talks.

Mr. Trump will meet with Vladimir V. Putin on the sidelines. The White House wouldnt say whether Mr. Trump would press him on Russias meddling in last years election.

There was, however, some action on the election: A White House commission set up to examine unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud set off bipartisan furor with a sweeping request for the personal and public data of the nations 200 million voters. Many states said no.

____

6. Questions about President Trumps priorities grew pointed after a particularly crude explosion on Twitter.

Rebukes abounded, even in media usually friendly to Mr. Trump, after he lashed out at the often critical co-hosts of MSNBCs Morning Joe, above, bashing Mika Brzezinskis appearance and intellect and calling Joe Scarborough psycho. The co-hosts then said the White House had told them that The National Enquirer would quash a story about their romantic relationship if they apologized to the president for criticizing him.

Our media columnist took the fracas as proof of TVs iron grip on the president.

____

7. Doctors and hospital staff moved quickly and worked furiously to help those shot during a rampage at a New York hospital on Friday. Had the injured not been treated where they fell, they might not have lived.

Six people were wounded and one doctor was killed before the gunman, a disgruntled doctor, committed suicide.

And a shooting at a nightclub in Little Rock, Ark., early Saturday left at least 25 people with gunshot wounds; all are expected to survive. The police said it appeared to be the result of a dispute.

Above, the scene in New York.

____

8. Disclosures that a venture capitalist, Justin Caldbeck, had preyed on female entrepreneurs prompted more than two dozen women to speak to our tech reporter about being sexually harassed by investors and mentors.

Ten named the investors involved, often providing corroborating messages and emails.

For instance, this Facebook message: I was getting confused figuring out whether to hire you or hit on you.

____

9. Turning our attention upward, a new initiative to beam messages into space may be our best shot yet at learning whether were alone in the universe.

But if were not, theres an important consideration. As Stephen Hawking once said, If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America.

Above, the astronomer Frank Drake at the Green Bank observatory in West Virginia in the 1960s.

____

10. Back down on Earth, Hong Kong also observed a major anniversary: the 20th of the territorys return from British rule.

President Xi Jinpings speech underscored Chinas tightening grip, and it came as mainland authorities refused to allow the democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Peace laureate paroled from prison for cancer treatment, to go abroad for care, despite appeals to Mr. Xi, above, from dozens of prominent writers.

And China reacted with fury over the U.S. decision to sell $1.4 billion in arms to Taiwan, which one Chinese official said contradicted President Trumps agreements with Mr. Xi.

____

11. Bankers and economists are increasingly discussing whether artificial intelligence could permanently eliminate huge numbers of jobs.

The U.S. jobs numbers for June come out Friday. In the previous report, unemployment was at a 16-year low, but with stubborn weak spots, like lagging wage growth and a shrinking labor force.

____

12. Finally, welcome to Broadways biggest night for teenagers.

More than 70 of the countrys most talented theatrical hopefuls took the stage last week for the Jimmy Awards, the Tonys for teens. They warbled, kicked and smiled until their faces hurt, vying for scholarships, cash prizes, and maybe even the eye of a Broadway casting director.

We also went behind the scenes at the Met Opera just before a show, a wondrous maze. Here are the 12 rooms youll probably never see otherwise, featuring Misty Copeland, Toscaninis head, wigs, harps and a snow yak.

Have a great week.

_____

Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help.

Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6 a.m. Eastern.

And dont miss Your Morning Briefing, weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern, and Your Evening Briefing, weeknights at 6 p.m. Eastern.

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What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes.com.

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Republicans, Mika Brzezinski, Trump: Your Weekend Briefing - New York Times

Senate Republicans better get ready for some fireworks. Their July 4 recess is going to be a hot one.

Earlier this week, with Republican ranks deeply fractured, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky announced he was postponing a critical, make-or-break procedural vote on a bill repealing the Affordable Care Act, until after a weeklong holiday break.

The not-entirely-unsurprising announcement is a virtual guarantee that GOP senators will be deluged by lobbyists and constituents on both sides of the issue at a time most of them would rather be marching in home state parades or crashing barbecues.

The Kentucky Republican needed 50 votes to approve a measure allowing debate to proceed on the Obamacare replacement bill, which would result in 22 million more Americans losing their insurance over the next decade, even as it drove up out-of-pocket expenses.

The analysis by the independent Congressional Budget Office also concluded that the GOP bill would reduce federal spending by $321 billion during the same time period.

But in a perfect storm of awful, McConnell couldnt muster the support. As was the case in the House, conservatives complained that the bill didnt go far enough.

For example, they demanded that states be allowed to waive the existing laws prohibition against insurance companies charging sick people higher prices for coverage, The New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, GOP senators from states that embraced the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare worried about the bills impact on home state beneficiaries of the that expansion.

One of the exceptions in that case was U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who spent the weekend trying to minimize the impact of the Medicaid rollback in the Senate Republican bill.

The CBO analysis knocked the legs out from under that argument on Monday.

McConnells action was also an embarrassing setback for the Trump White House, which, while it may be basking in special election victories, is still zero-for-life in serious legislative accomplishments.

So, youd expect that, faced with the seeming collapse of his domestic agenda, President Donald Trump would be appealing for comity and cooperation from his fractious party.

Nope.

Trump has spent most of his time on Twitter flipping out on CNN after three staffers resigned, and the network retracted, a story about a Trump fund-raisers alleged Russia connection.

So they caught Fake News CNN cold, but what about NBC, CBS & ABC?, Trump harrumphed. What about the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost? They are all Fake News!

The delay, of course, cuts both ways.

On the one hand, it gives McConnell time to sway skeptics to his side.

On the other, the longer this vote gets delayed, the more likely it is that other Republicans will find a reason to peel off and join Team No.

But, as The Washington Posts Aaron Blake points out, the House got to yes back in May by wooing more conservatives to its cause. And there, they control 55.4 percent of the chamber.

Republicans in the Senate, conversely, control a little bit more than 52 percent. And divisions are such that moving the bill either way is going to be very difficult.

Get ready for the fireworks.

Award-winning political journalist, Micek is the opinion editor and political columnist for PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. Readers may follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek and email him at jmicek@pennlive.com.

The rest is here:
It should be an interesting July 4 for Republicans - Times-Enterprise