If GOP Can’t Pass Tax Cuts, What Can They Do?, Backlash On Spicer’s Hitler Comment And How To Know If Your Tweet Is Bad

April 12, 2017 11:19 a.m.

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April 12, 2017

The Gist: As Republicans turn their attentions from their failed health care overhaul to rewriting the tax code, the road ahead is anything but smooth. Even with control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, many political and fiscal obstacles could derail efforts to slash tax rates for the wealthy and corporations.

Report: GOP, Dem Lawmakers Say Intel Reports Don’t Back Up Nunes Claims

The Gist: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say the classified intelligence reports that House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) explosively surfaced in March press conference show no evidence that the Obama administration improperly surveilled the Trump transition team, CNN reported Wednesday.

Trump Dodges When Asked If He Has Confidence In Steve Bannon

The Gist: President Donald Trump would not say whether he has confidence in Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon, who was recently removed from his spot on the National Security Council’s Principals Committee.

From The Reporter’s Notebook

The Daily Mail agreed to pay damages to first lady Melania Trump Tuesday in her defamation suit following a story the publication ran that alleged Trump may have worked as an escort, TPM’s Kristin Salaky reported. The publication retracted the story and apologized in a statement. “We accept that these allegations about Mrs Trump are not true and we retract and withdraw them,” the statement read. “We apologize to Mrs Trump for any distress that our publication caused her.”

Agree or Disagree?

Josh Marshall: “This White House has the unique feature of both having a number of high profile Jewish appointees and an uncharacteristically large number of notoriously anti-Semitic appointees. That only adds to Spicer’s problems, though I think Spicer is one of the relatively few non-Jewish and non-anti-Semitic appointees. The biggest story here isn’t that Spicer is an anti-Semite (not remotely) or even insensitive. It’s just that he’s not remotely competent and in fairness has to speak for an administration that constantly changes policy and frequently lies. It would be a hard job for anyone and he’s clearly not up to it in any case.”

Say What?!

“On Passover no less, Sean Spicer has engaged in Holocaust denial, the most offensive form of fake news imaginable, by denying Hitler gassed millions of Jews to death.”

– The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect on Tuesday called for President Donald Trump to fire White House press secretary Sean Spicer “at once” for his comments about Adolf Hitler and chemical weapons.

BUZZING: Today in the Hive

From a TPM Prime member: “I wish everyone would stop using the word “overbooking” when discussing this incident. Overbooking had nothing to do with it. Overbooking policies had nothing to do with it. There was no second passenger holding a paid ticket for the same seat, who might have had a legal claim to be accommodated. This was United deciding at the last minute to bump some passengers in order to move their own personnel. This was United failing to handle their own internal logistics properly, and forcing the customers to pay the price for United’s own failure. It’s true that the Police are solely responsible for beating the crap out of the guy, but everything else up to that moment is entirely United’s fault, for which they have no excuse whatsoever.”

Related: United Airlines Pledges To Review Policies On Removal Of Passengers

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What We’re Reading

How I Discovered That My Dad Is a Right-Wing Conspiracy Theorist (Lenny Letter)

How to Know If You’ve Sent a Horrible Tweet (Esquire)

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