House GOP Fears Mass Exodus, Trump Says Wall Will Come 'Later,' And Motel 6 Suspected Of Calling ICE On Guests

September 14th, 2017 Top Stories --------------------------------------------------------------- [House GOP Worries About ‘Mass Exodus’ Of Frustrated Members]( The Gist: Following a rash of retirements, House Republican leaders are scrambling to get something done legislatively to convince other frustrated members not to toss in the towel in a tough political environment. President Trump has repeatedly taken potshots at their conference. Primary challenges burble on the right. Congress has been unable to pass much meaningful legislation in spite of unified control of Washington. Every trip home means an earful both from liberals furious at their support of the president and conservatives irate they’re not doing enough to support his agenda. And members who haven’t seen real competition for years face tough races due to Trump’s deep unpopularity. [Trump On DACA Deal With Congress: ‘The Wall Will Come Later’]( The Gist: President Donald Trump on Thursday morning appeared to confirm Democratic leaders’ claims that Trump will not demand that funding for the border wall be included in legislation restoring the protections of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. [Russian Trolls Promoted Trump While Trashing Black Lives Matter On Twitter]( The Gist: When a Russian troll farm was fishing for Trump supporters on Twitter, it baited the hook by targeting minority activists and public figures. TPM has reviewed tweets and images from a pro-Trump Twitter account run by the Russian troll farm that likely purchased $100,000 worth of political ads on Facebook. Among the account’s favorite targets during the 2016 campaign season were Michelle Obama, undocumented immigrants, and antiracist activist movement Black Lives Matter. From The Reporter's Notebook --------------------------------------------------------------- [TPM's Tierney Sneed covered]( the tension at a meeting of President Trump's voter fraud commission Tuesday in New Hampshire, where vice-chair Kris Kobach was not the only commission member who had the logic behind his voter fraud claims challenged. One of the commission witnesses, Election Data Services president Kimball Brace, picked apart a formula that commission member J. Christian Adams likes to use to allege voter fraud. The formula — a comparison of the number of registered voters in a jurisdiction to the number of its voting-age citizens — is not as clean-cut as it looks, Brace said, because of it draws upon different types of data sets, the practices of defining these numbers varies jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and the data is also susceptible to a margin of error. Agree Or Disagree? --------------------------------------------------------------- John Judis: "For the moment, Sanders’ and the fifteen co-sponsors’ support of Medicare for All – for its potential political pitfalls – is [a step forward for a Democratic party]( that has been mired in thinktank incrementalism (see “a Better Deal”) and identity politics. It gives them something to talk about that an average voter and not just a policy wonk can understand." Say What?! --------------------------------------------------------------- "I think that’s one of the more outrageous comments that anyone could make, and certainly something that I think is a fireable offense by ESPN." - White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday [saying]( an ESPN anchor’s tweets calling President Donald Trump “a white supremacist” and “a bigot” were grounds for termination. BUZZING: Today in the Hive --------------------------------------------------------------- From a TPM Prime member: "We're going to have to figure out a way to talk about the influence of reactionary Catholicism on contemporary politics without getting into a poisonous attack on Catholicism itself. This is a battle that is raging within the Vatican right now, and beyond the Vatican, in every country where the Church is represented...In an era when critical--potentially radically regressive--decisions are being made about LGBTQ rights, about contraception and abortion rights, about free speech rights, and about the rights of women, it seems to me we have a moral obligation to be very open about the different influences at play in our national politics." Related: [Trump FEC Pick’s Twitter Goes Dark After Users Spot Anti-Protestant Links]( Have something to add? Become a [Prime]( member and join the discussion [here](. What We're Reading --------------------------------------------------------------- The Perfect Wife: How Edith Windsor Fell In Love, Got Married, And Won A Landmark Case For Gay Marriage ([The New Yorker]( Attorneys Suspect Motel 6 Calling ICE On Undocumented Guests ([The Phoenix New Times]( [unsubscribe from this list]( | [update subscription preferences]( | [view email in browser](