Senate Blocks Trump From Making Recess Appointments, And Other Trump News From Friday
Friday. August 4th. Day 197.
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Senate Blocks Trump From Making Recess Appointments: The Senate agreed Thursday to block President Trump from making recess appointments while Congress is on break. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who voted against the Republican health care bill, locked in nine "pro-forma" sessions that will last around a minute. The measure allows the Senate to skirt recess appointment rules by technically keeping the Senate in session. It requires the approval of every senator.
Michael Flynn To File Undisclosed Connections With Cambridge Analytica: President Trump's former NSC chief, and now one of the focuses of the investigation into President Trump's connections to Russia, Michael Flynn will amend his public financial disclosures to include an advisory role at the data company credited with getting Trump elected — Cambridge Analytica.
In the context of Michael Flynn's seemingly extensive connections to Russia, involvement with the data company could be perceived as a ripe opening for Russian election interference. It has been suggested that Cambridge Analytica was infiltrated by Russia to specifically target certain voters with fake news.
In West Virginia, Trump Downplays Russia, Focuses On Hillary: It sounds like 2016 all over again. In a West Virginia rally, President Trump mocked the Russia investigation, insisting there were no Russians in his campaign, and suggested that investigators should be looking into "Hillary Clinton's 33,000 deleted emails" instead.
Trump also used the rally to announce that West Virginia's Governor Jim Justice would be changing parties to become a Republican. Trump tweeted about the moment this morning:
Trump's Tweets
Friday morning, Trump took partial credit for a new $1.6 billion US factory that was announced by Toyota and Mazda. It's unclear whether or not the White House had a hand in the decision to build the factory, but in January Trump loudly attacked Toyota for building a factory in Mexico that would make cars for the US market.
