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Democrats hold lessons on how to talk to real people – Politico

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will prep Democrats on how to engage against Republicans over Trump's Supreme Court pick. | Getty

Senate Democrats geared up for battle with President Donald Trump by preparing to talk to people who voted for him and by hearing from one of his arch-nemeses.

Gathering in Sheperdstown, W.Va., Democrats were scheduled to hear from liberal political operative David Brock on Thursday, who ran a session called Hold Trump Accountable with Center for American Progress CEO Neera Tanden and Priorities USA CEO Guy Cecil. Earlier in the day, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) moderated a discussion with Trump voters," according to a draft schedule obtained by POLITICO.

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Manchin and nine other Senate Democrats are up for reelection next year in states that Trump won. Much of the event appears geared at figuring out how to turn people who supported Trump into Democratic voters in 2018.

Former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D), along with Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), held a session on speaking to those who feel invisible in rural America," according to the schedule. Other sessions were along similar lines: Listening to those feel unheard and Rising America They feel unheard too.

On Thursday Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) will discuss political tactics for the midterm election and Democrats will strategize on how to define themselves and Trump. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) will talk about Triangulating Trump, emphasizing that they can go around Republicans by trying to work with Trump on infrastructure, outsourcing and trade.

Finally, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will prep Democrats on how to engage against Republicans over Trump's Supreme Court pick, which is expected to come as soon as next week.

On Wednesday evening, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) led a wine and cheese reception, then got a history show about Harpers Ferry called September Suspense: Lincolns Union in Peril.

Democrats did not allow reporters to attend.

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Democrats hold lessons on how to talk to real people - Politico

Democrats warn Trump’s voter fraud investigation will increase voter suppression – Politico

House Democrats on Wednesday panned President Donald Trumps pledge to pursue a major investigation into alleged voter fraud, describing the presidents demand as insecure and saying the probe will only increase voter suppression.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she "felt sorry" for Trump and even prayed for him after learning of his calls for an investigation.

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For a person who is newly elected president of the United States to be so insecure ... to suggest and to undermine the integrity of our voting system, is really strange, she told reporters Wednesday during a news conference in the Capitol.

I frankly feel very sad about the president making this claim, she added. I felt sorry for him. I even prayed for him.

Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to call for an investigation into voter fraud and irregularities in the voting rolls two days after he repeated his claim during a private meeting with Hill leaders, without evidence, that he only lost the popular vote because millions of people illegally voted for Hillary Clinton.

Pelosi confronted Trump during that meeting, telling him his claim was false.

Now, Democrats are shooting back. In an attempt to prove Trump wrong with their own investigation, a trio of House Democrats sent a letter to top law officials in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., calling for a list of any known cases of voting fraud during the election.

The thing that I worry about with this argument about voter fraud is it gives the Republicans and others another tool and another reason to justify to the public of denying people the right to vote, Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said on MSNBC. Assistant House Minority Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Rep. Bob Brady (D-Pa.), top Democrat on House Administration Committee, also signed the letter.

The president can join me and my staff, and we will show him that there is no voter fraud, Cummings continued. The thing I do want him to do, I want him to investigate, are all of the people who don't get the chance to vote, who have been denied the right to vote.

The claim has been debunked by numerous independent fact-checkers. Some Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Lindsey Graham, agreed this week that there is no evidence to support it.

In general, voter fraud in American elections is rare, and widespread voter fraud is virtually nonexistent. While one 2012 Pew Research study found that some voter registration records were out of date because people had died or moved, the studys author, David Becker, has said that there is zero evidence that voter fraud resulted from them.

Still, in recent years, generally Republican-led state legislatures have cited fears of voter fraud to make a case for enacting new regulations around voting, like voter ID laws. Civil rights groups charge that those restrictions are discriminatory because they disproportionately affect minorities and young people who lack government-issued photo identification and also tend to vote for Democrats.

Liberals sounded the alarm on Wednesday that Trumps talk of voter fraud could be used to support more of those measures going forward.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a progressive independent who challenged Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, replied to Trumps tweet on Wednesday and charged that the president is telling Republicans to accelerate voter suppression, to make it harder for the poor, young, elderly and people of color to vote.

The great political crisis we face is not voter fraud, which barely exists. Its voter suppression and the denial of voting rights, he wrote. Our job is to fight back and do everything we can to protect American democracy from cowardly Republican governors and legislators.

David Axelrod, former chief strategist of Barack Obamas presidential campaigns, said on CNN: What I fear on this voter fraud stuff is that it becomes an impetus for those who want to further erode voter protections for people who legitimately want to vote and are facing a series of barriers.

If you want to investigate voting in this country, probably the most productive thing you can do is investigate that and try to ascertain whether these stringent new requirements in some states have, or more stringent new requirements, have kept some people from voting, he added.

Aidan Quigley contributed to this report.

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Democrats warn Trump's voter fraud investigation will increase voter suppression - Politico

The Democrats Need to Figure This Thing Out – Esquire.com

So apparently the big noise in Democratic circles is this guy Pete Buttigieg, the openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, wherein lies a nice little Catholic university that did not upset the Number One team in the nation Tuesday night. (Sorry for the diversion, but I take my wins where I can find them these days.) He has emerged as what used to be called "the Compromise Italian" during papal conclaves in the days before the Holy Spirit went crazy and started picking Poles, Germans, and Argentines. He's the consensus middle choice between Keith Ellison and Tom Perez. Frankly, I can live with any of these guys, although my preference is for Ellison, not least because he's willing to give up a safe congressional seat to do this thankless job.

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However, it is also my considered opinion that the Democratic Party should get its shit together in one quick hurry. Waiting until March, and dragging out a pointless internal slanging match for three months, is such typically Democratic bungling that it's almost classic. Get a chairman because, cats and kittens, they're coming already for what's left of you.

Let us take, for a moment, Senator Professor Warren. She's undoubtedly Target A in 2018, if only to derail any possibility that she'll run for president. She would be a big prize in any case. They're already running attack ads against her on the radio up here and, on Tuesday, WBUR, one of the local public radio stations in Boston, came out with a poll that was remarkably gloomy on her prospects for re-election.

Melina Mara

There are other factors in play as well. First of all, there is no shortage of ambitious Republican tech millionnaires up here who can self finance a serious challenge. (Keep an eye on this guy Rick Green, an auto parts magnate who's close to Republican Governor Charlie Baker. Also keep an eye on Curt Schilling, if only for laughs.) Second, you can count on local press to stumble all over itself being fair to whoever the Republican candidate is. (More than a few people are nettled that Warren has failed to kiss up the way the the local press thinks it deserves.) Third, believe it or not, and sometimes even I don't, there are purity trolls on the left who have not forgiven her for endorsing Hillary Clinton last June, and for not jumping aboard the Bernie bandwagon prior to the Massachusetts primary.

She's not a lock, basically, is what I'm saying. And the one thing she doesn't need is a lengthy squabble over who's running the party, especially one that leaves delicate fee-fees wounded for months.

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(And all of that was the case before SPW announced that she would be voting for a completely unqualified space alien, Ben Carson, to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is going to require some 'splainin' back home.)

There are 23 Democratic seats up in 2018. Angus King and Bernie, the two independents, also will be running for re-election. There is no such thing as a mortal lock. And, by the way, if you think I'm a special pleader in this case, then look around the country. They're coming for Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, too.

Update (2:16 PM): Yeah, they're coming for her. Watch nervous Democrats run.

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The trouble with Democrats’ infrastructure job promises – Politico

Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, an 11-page blueprint that shovels money into roads, bridges, waterways, airportsbasically anything that needs building or fixing, intended to boost jobs. In total, top Democrats said it would create 15 million jobs over the next decadea number designed to appeal to President Donald Trump, who has made infrastructure investment and job creation a top priority.

Only one problem: That job estimate is wildly unrealistic.

To come up with that 15 million figure, according to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumers office, the Democrats used a 2011 report from the Council of Economic Advisers that estimated that every $1 billion in infrastructure investment creates about 13,000 jobs. (Its unclear where the extra 200,000 jobs per year come fromlikely generous rounding.)

Unfortunately for the Democrats, and for any Republicans hoping to leverage spending into construction jobs, the economy has changed since 2011. Those numbers may have made sense back then, but they certainly arent applicable todayfor a couple of reasons.

In 2011, the unemployment rate for construction workers hovered around 15 percent, while the overall unemployment rate was around 9 percent. So there were plenty of unemployed workers who would jump at a chance for a job rebuilding a road or fixing up a school. Thats not the case today: The unemployment rate for construction workers has plummeted to around 5 percent, while the overall unemployment rate is 4.7 percent. Those numbers are near what economists consider full employmentany lower, and inflation could start to rise. In fact, in the construction industry itself, experts are more worried about a shortage of workers than a surplus. Any massive investment in construction will start driving up wages, which will be good for the Americans in that industry, but will make everything elsethose roads, as well as homes, schools, office buildingsmore expensive for taxpayers.

Second, if the Democrats infrastructure proposal does provide a huge stimulus to the economy, its effects would likely be offsetdeliberatelyby the Federal Reserve. In 2011, the Fed had set interest rates at essentially 0 percent. If the government had launched a major infrastructure plan, the Federal Reserve would surely have welcomed itin fact, Ben Bernanke, then the chair of the Fed, had been imploring Congress to do more to stimulate the economy. Today, however, the economy is in a much different positionunemployment is low enough that the Fed is worried about inflation. Facing a massive new government spending program, it would almost certainly raise its benchmark rate to prevent the stimulus from leading to a burst of inflation, cooling the economy down and negating much of the job creation in the Democrats plan.

That doesnt mean a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan is a bad idea. There are good structural reasons to rebuild Americas roads, bridges and airports. And its possible that a future economic crisis will cause millions of construction workers to lose their jobs, forcing the Fed to drop its interest rate back to zero. In that case, an ongoing infrastructure investment could act as a safety net, ensuring that the construction sector continues chugging along even as the broader economy falters.

But right now, there are no signs of such an economic downturn on the horizon, although, to be fair, economists track record of predicting recessions is not good. Until that changes, the Democrats promiseor anyones promiseto create 15 million jobs through a $1 trillion infrastructure plan should be treated as highly unlikely to bear out in reality.

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The trouble with Democrats' infrastructure job promises - Politico

Senate Democrats to Unveil $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan – New York Times


New York Times
Senate Democrats to Unveil $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan
New York Times
Senate Democrats will unveil a $1 trillion infrastructure plan and offer President Trump their support if he backs it. Mr. Trump has invited Senate leaders and the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee to the White House ...
Senate Democrats unveil a Trump-size infrastructure planWashington Post
Senate Democrats Propose $1 Trillion Infrastructure PlanABC News
Democrats to Unveil Massive $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan. Will Trump Bite?Slate Magazine (blog)
Business Insider -New York Magazine
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Senate Democrats to Unveil $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan - New York Times