With President Trump tweeting about a possible government shutdown, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson appeared Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation with a little pushback: "I certainly don't like playing shutdown politics," he says, per the Hill. "I don't think it'd be helpful, so let's try and avoid it." Does he expect it to happen anyway? "Let's hope not." Johnson's utterance follows a flurry of Trump tweets involving Michael Cohen, immigration, and the possibility of a shutdown, per Politico: "I would be willing to 'shut down' government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall! Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT!" tweets Trump. For more around the dial:
- Unloved Cohen: "The man is a pathological manipulator, a liar," says Rudy Giuliani of Michael Cohen on Fox News Sunday, per Politico. "Here's what happened: I found out, as everyone did, that he was surreptitiously recording his clients, which is a disbarrable offense. Obviously, if I knew that I never would have said he was a reputable lawyer, I'd have said he was a scoundrel."
- Loving the Fed: "We as an administration absolutely support the independence of the Fed," says Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Fox News Sunday. He was responding to comments about Trump questioning recent interest-rate hikes, reports Politico. "These are really more just comments saying, as interest rates are going up, it’s something that the president has a concern."
- Gotta love Kavanaugh? "To go on a fishing expedition into millions of documents that he had nothing substantive to say about I think would be a mistake," says Republican Sen. Rob Portman on NBC's Meet the Press of Trump's Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh, per the Hill. "And I think, frankly, it’s not necessarily in Democrats' interest to do that, because it’s going to postpone this until even closer to the election, which I'm not sure they want."
- Tough-love tariffs: "This is a hard thing to do," says White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow on CNN's State of the Union about Trump's trade war, per the Hill. "People say, 'Well, President Trump's tariffs are damaging this and that and the other thing.' I say don't blame President Trump. He inherited a completely broken world trading system."
- China vs the EU: "You know, if they're targeted for good purpose, as per China, I think the answer is absolutely yes," adds Kudlow on tariffs, per Politico. But ultimately Trump "wants to have no tariffs" with the European Union. "If the deal works through nicely ... I don't think there will be steel tariffs for the European Union."
One Republican says he wouldn't be "surprised" if
Trump knew about his son's Russia meeting. (More
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