BY PRIYANKA ARIBINDI, BRIAN BEUTLER
& CROOKED MEDIA

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

(Source: CNBC)

NORTH KOREA SAYS SOMETHING… POSITIVE?

North Korea “clearly stated it’s willingness to denuclearize” and to hold negotiations with the United States, according to South Korean envoys who spoke to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. They say the North could give up nuclear weapons if they feel the “military threat” to their country from the U.S. was eliminated, and its security was guaranteed. South and North Korean leaders also agreed to meet next month.

The U.S. has demanded that North Korea show a willingness to give up nuclear weapons as a precondition for any talks with the regime. Trump also announced a new round of sanctions against North Korea’s shipping and trade industries last month to create additional pressure.

Trump met the news of “possible progress” by tweeting “may be false hope, but the U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction!” 

From Tommy Vietor: To quote a tired Twitter joke, BIG IF TRUE. The announcement comes at the end of a two-day summit in Pyongyang that was the first meeting between Kim and South Korean officials since Kim took power. Veteran North Korea negotiators have often seen North Korea make promises to get sanctions relief or other concessions and then reverse course. Skepticism is warranted.

FINALLY, CONGRESS SIDES WITH THE BIG BANKS!

Today, 17 members of the Democratic caucus joined Senate Republicans to support a bill that will allow large banks to take on greater risk with less oversight. Progressives like Elizabeth Warren are understandably furious. Why? 

First, it’s a bill that could make another bank bailout more likely. The proposal would rewrite parts of the Dodd-Frank Act so that large banks could hold riskier assets on their balance sheets, and more banks would be exempt from stricter oversight. Currently, banks with assets greater than $50 billion experience stricter oversight from the Federal Reserve. This bill would raise that threshold to $250 billion, leaving fewer than 10 banks (that’s right, ten) subject to certain rules designed to prevent another financial collapse. Awesome.

Second, Democrats are voting for this bill without any kind of concession from Republicans, even though Republicans need Democratic votes to meet the 60-vote threshold. There are many demands Democrats could make as part of this negotiation to protect consumers against the excesses of Wall Street. For example, they could demand that Trump appoint an independent consumer watchdog to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is temporarily being run by Trump lackey Mick Mulvaney, who wants to shut it down. But these Democrats, with the blessing of Senate leadership, are cooperating with Republicans on a bill that helps big banks without asking for anything in return. They’re hoping you don’t notice, but it’s not too late to stop this bill. Give those Democrats a call! 

Read more from Brian’s latest →

Trump’s top economic adviser Gary Cohn announced his resignation today—the latest high profile departure from the White House. This followed Trump’s imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum, despite Cohn’s objections. Chaos, corruption, obstruction of justice, racism—sure that’s bad. But Gary Cohn has a line. And the line is tariffs.  

Special Counsel Robert Mueller may be investigating if foreign money influenced Donald Trump through George Nader, an adviser to the United Arab Emirates with ties to Trump aides. According to new reports, Nader represented the UAE crown prince at a January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles between a Russian investor close to Putin and Erik Prince, an informal Trump adviser and the founder of Blackwater. UAE officials believed Prince represented the Trump transition team in the meeting, which Prince has since denied. Nader is not only cooperating with Mueller—the New York Times is reporting that he testified to a grand jury last week. Trouble! 

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel says Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act twice by “advocating for and against candidates" in Alabama’s special election, in her official capacity as a federal government employee. Conway is the second administration official to be accused of a Hatch Act violation by an independent agency, and in a stunning turn of events, the White House says it won’t do shit. 

Stormy Daniels is suing Donald Trump, claiming that he never signed the non-disclosure agreement between them, though his attorney Michael Cohen did. She alleges that this invalidates her agreement to not talk about their relationship. Maybe Becca could sue Arie next?

The West Virginia teachers’ strike ended today after the House and Senate voted unanimously to raise all state workers’ pay by 5 percent, making it one of the most successful labor actions in recent U.S. history. Public schools are set to reopen statewide this week.

On Pod Save the People: The news crew tackles land reform in South Africa, a child marriage bill in Kentucky, and progressive voting rights legislation in Washington state.  

Listen→

“The Russians had no impact on our votes whatsoever. But certainly there was meddling and probably there was meddling from other countries and maybe other individuals…. we’ll counteract whatever they do. We'll counteract it very strongly.” —Donald Trump

Fact Check: The Trump administration hasn’t spent a dime of the $120 million allocated to the State Department to fight Russian meddling, has not authorized the NSA chief to disrupt Russian hacking operations, and has refused to impose sanctions against Russia passed by Congress last year. 

On Sunday, Axios touted a scoop, sourced to a witness, describing a grand jury subpoena for communications between the anonymous witness and members of the Trump team. On Tuesday, after Sam Nunberg outed himself as their source and made much larger news by threatening to defy the subpoena, Axios published a new item blasting the media for interviewing Nunberg because he was a “hanger on” in the midst of “a sad, epic meltdown.” 

Nunberg was one of Trump’s longest-serving political advisers, and became unglued over a subpoena stemming from a criminal investigation of the Trump campaign. His claims are undeniably newsworthy. The ugliness of the meltdown calls for tact and grace, not silence. It seems strange for a reporter to claim that it is the job of his fellow journalists to protect sources from the consequences of speaking out.  

Was Nunberg more reliable when his words were printed anonymously? Seems unlikely.

Michelle Obama dancing with the 2-year-old girl who was photographed staring up in awe at the portrait of our former FLOTUS is wonderful.

Levi Sanders interacting with the people who planned his high school reunion is also wonderful—just not for anyone who was part of the interactions.

Oopsie doopsie: Yesterday we described Thad Cochran as a “Missouri senator”—he’s actually from Mississippi. We regret our error. We also noticed that Sean Hannity said “all roads in the Russia investigation lead directly back to Hillary Clinton” yesterday. So, things could be worse.