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Republicans Hunt for Ways to Pay for Tax Cuts

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Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, right, presided over the House-Senate Conference Committee meeting with Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, left, chairman of the finance committee, on Wednesday.CreditPete Marovich for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — A day after House and Senate Republican leaders said they had reached agreement on a merged version of their tax bill, they continued looking for ways to pay for the tax overhaul and faced the possible defection of a Republican senator, Marco Rubio of Florida.

Republicans plan to unveil a final bill on Friday, with the aim of voting on the legislation early next week and delivering it to President Trump for signing before Christmas.

But many of the changes made to assuage the concerns of businesses and Republican lawmakers are expected to drive up the cost of the bill and will need to be paid for to ensure the legislation does not add more than $1.5 trillion to the deficit over a decade. On Thursday, Mr. Rubio indicated he would vote no on the bill unless the expanded version of the child tax credit that he and another senator, Mike Lee of Utah, have been pushing was included. That change, which would allow families to claim the child tax credit even if they owe no income taxes, would drive up the cost of the bill even more.

“I think my requests have been pretty reasonable and consistent and direct. Right now the refundability level is $1,100, it needs to be higher,” Mr. Rubio said. “It’s a pretty straightforward ask. If the refundable portion of the child credit is substantially increased beyond the $1,100 it currently is, I’ll vote for the bill. If it’s not, I won’t.”

In an online town hall meeting on Wednesday night, Mr. Lee told constituents that negotiations were ongoing to include such an expansion in the conference tax bill.

Among the potential ideas being discussed on Capitol Hill to pay for the bill is allowing the tax cuts for individuals to expire even sooner than the 2025 date already stipulated in the Senate bill. Another idea under consideration, according to Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, is raising the tax rate on profits that companies have parked overseas as a way to pay for the bill.

“We’re literally trying to squeeze about $2 trillion in tax reform into a $1.5 trillion box and that’s been a problem,” Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, who held out on supporting the initial version of the Senate tax bill until it gave more generous tax breaks to “pass through” businesses.

In an early morning cheer on Twitter, Mr. Trump encouraged Republicans to get the job done.

House and Senate Republicans agreed in principle on Wednesday to the framework of a consensus bill. Late changes included a slightly higher corporate tax rate of 21 percent, rather than the 20 percent in the legislation that passed both chambers, and a lower top individual tax rate of 37 percent for the wealthiest Americans, who currently pay 39.6 percent. But the bill will still scale back some popular tax breaks, including the state and local tax deduction and the deductibility of mortgage interest.

Breaking from the House bill, the agreement would allow taxpayers to continue to deduct high out-of-pocket medical expenses, and it would retain a provision allowing graduate students who receive tuition waivers to avoid paying taxes on that benefit. Also included is the Senate’s repeal of the Affordable Care Act requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty and a provision that opens the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to energy exploration.

How the Final Tax Bill Will Affect Families, Homeowners, Businesses and More

Republicans have resolved the differences between the two versions of their tax bill.

Dec. 8, 2017

Still, the bill contains a host of tax changes that are expected to increase the cost of the bill that passed the Senate, such as repealing the corporate alternative minimum tax and increasing the income threshold at which the individual alternative minimum tax kicks in.

While the late changes to the tax bill were mean to alleviate concerns of skeptical Republicans, it was not clear how they would be paid for while still complying with the strict Senate budget rules that will allow the bill to pass without votes from any Democrats. Republicans can add no more than $1.5 trillion to the deficit if they are to pass the bill along party lines.

On Thursday, Republican leaders continued to express confidence that they were getting close to passing the most sweeping tax overhaul in decades.

“I think there’s going to be strong support in the House and Senate on this or we wouldn’t be moving forward,” Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said on CNN.

Mr. Brady has scheduled a signing of the signature sheets for the conference report — which is the deal that’s been struck between the House and Senate lawmakers on the congressional conference committee — between 10 a.m. and noon on Friday. A majority of the House and Senate lawmakers who are on the conference committee have to sign affirmatively for the bill to move forward.

But other concerns are looming, including the health of two Republican senators, John McCain of Arizona, who is in the hospital, and Thad Cochran of Mississippi, who recently received medical treatment for health problems. Republicans, who hold a narrow 52-48 majority, can only afford to lose two senate votes, and Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee has already expressed his opposition to the bill.

Vice President Mike Pence decided on Thursday to delay a trip to the Middle East trip that he was planning to take next week so that he can preside over the tax vote in the event he needs to break a tie between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate.

Democrats have been largely sidelined in the final stages of the tax discussions.

They assailed the single public meeting of the conference committee on Wednesday as a “sham” and a “farce” and they continue to point to polls that show Republicans will likely pay for pushing tax cuts that do not appear to be popular with the general public. Democrats have also been calling on Republicans to delay the vote so that Alabama’s incoming Democratic senator, Doug Jones, has time to be seated.

“It’s the same rushed, awful process as before and it can only result in mistakes and unintended consequences that can wreak havoc on the economy,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, said on Thursday. “Every day, the more people know about the bill, the more they don’t like.”

At his weekly news conference on Thursday, Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, dismissed polls suggesting people are not supportive of the tax plan and predicted that the public would eventually warm to the legislation.

“Results are going to be what sells this bill, not the confusion before it passes,” Mr. Ryan said.

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FCC Repeals Net Neutrality Rules

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The discarding of net neutrality regulations is the most significant and controversial action by the F.C.C. under Mr. Pai. In his first 11 months as chairman, he has lifted media ownership limits, eased caps on how much broadband providers can charge business customers and cut back on a low-income broadband program that was slated to be expanded to nationwide carriers.

His plan for the net neutrality rules, first outlined early this year, set off a flurry of opposition. Critics of the changes say that consumers may have more difficulty finding content online and that start-ups will have to pay to reach consumers. In the past week, there have been hundreds of protests across the country, and many websites have encouraged users to speak up against the repeal. After the vote, numerous groups said they planned to file a lawsuit challenging the change.

The five commissioners were fiercely divided along party lines. In front of a room packed with reporters and television cameras from the major networks, the two Democratic commissioners warned of consumer harms to come from the changes.

What Is Net Neutrality?

The F.C.C. voted to dismantle rules that require internet providers to give consumers equal access to all content online. Here’s how net neutrality works.


By AARON BYRD and NATALIA V. OSIPOVA on November 21, 2017.


Photo by Michael Bocchieri/Getty Images.

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Mignon Clyburn, one of the Democratic commissioners, presented two accordion folders full of letters in protest to the changes, and accused the three Republican commissioners of defying the wishes of millions of Americans.

“I dissent, because I am among the millions outraged,” said Ms. Clyburn. “Outraged, because the F.C.C. pulls its own teeth, abdicating responsibility to protect the nation’s broadband consumers.”

Brendan Carr, a Republican commissioner, said it was a “great day” and dismissed “apocalyptic” warnings.

“I’m proud to end this two-year experiment with heavy-handed regulation,” Mr. Carr said.

During Mr. Pai’s speech before the vote, security guards entered the meeting room at the F.C.C. headquarters and told everyone to evacuate. Commissioners were ushered out a back door. The hearing restarted a short time later.

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Despite all the uproar, it is unclear how much will change for internet users. The rules were essentially a protective measure, largely meant to prevent telecom companies from favoring some sites over others. And major telecom companies have promised consumers that their experiences online would not change.

Mr. Pai and his Republican colleagues have echoed the comments of telecom companies, who have told regulators that they weren’t expanding and upgrading their networks as quickly as they wanted to since the creation of the rules in 2015.

“There is a lot of misinformation that this is the ‘end of the world as we know it’ for the internet,” Comcast’s senior executive vice president, David Cohen, wrote in a blog post this week. “Our internet service is not going to change.”

But with the F.C.C. making clear that it will no longer oversee the behavior of broadband providers, telecom experts say, the companies could feel freer to come up with new offerings, such as faster tiers of service for business partners such as HBO’s streaming service or Fox News.

Such prioritization could stifle certain political voices or give the telecom conglomerates with media assets an edge over rivals.

Consumer groups, start-ups and many small businesses say there are examples of net neutrality violations by companies, such as when ATT blocked FaceTime on iPhones using its network.

These critics of Mr. Pai, who was nominated by President Trump, say there isn’t enough competition in the broadband market to trust that the companies will try to offer the best services for customers. The providers have the incentive to begin charging websites to reach consumers, a strong business model when there are few places for consumers to turn when they don’t like those practices.

“Let’s remember why we have these rules in the first place,” said Michael Beckerman, president of the Internet Association, a trade group that represents big tech firms such as Google and Facebook. “There is little competition in the broadband service market.”

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Mr. Beckerman said his group was weighing legal action against the commission. Public interest groups including Public Knowledge and the National Hispanic Media Coalition said they planned to challenge Mr. Pai’s order in court. Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, also said he would file a lawsuit.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers, and some Republicans, have pushed for Congress to pass a law on the issue, if only to prevent it from flaring up every couple of years at the F.C.C. — and then leading to a court challenge.

One Republican commissioner, Mike O’Reilly, said he supported a federal law created by Congress for net neutrality. But he said any law should protect the ability of companies to charge for faster lanes, a practice known as “paid prioritization.”

Any legislation action appears to be far off, however, and numerous online companies warned that the changes approved on Thursday should be taken seriously.

“If we don’t have net neutrality protections that enforce tenets of fairness online, you give internet service providers the ability to choose winners and losers,” Steve Huffman, chief executive of Reddit, said in an interview. “This is not hyperbole.”

Netflix, which has been relatively quiet in recent weeks about its opposition to the change, said that the decision “is the beginning of a longer legal battle.”

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Justice Dept. Official Defends Mueller as Republicans Try to Discredit Him

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Instead, Mr. Rosenstein mounted a step-by-step defense of Mr. Mueller’s conduct. He noted that department rules prevented Mr. Mueller from taking political affiliation into consideration when hiring for career positions, and he distinguished between officials holding political views and making investigative decisions out of bias. He said Mr. Mueller would be careful not to allow the latter.

“We recognize we have employees with political opinions. And it’s our responsibility to make sure those opinions do not influence their actions,” Mr. Rosenstein said after Representative Steve Chabot, Republican of Ohio, read out the names of members of Mr. Mueller’s team and political contributions they had made to Democratic causes.

“I believe that Director Mueller understands that, and he is running that office appropriately,” Mr. Rosenstein added.

Asked by Representative Bob Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who chairs the committee, why he remained satisfied with Mr. Mueller, Mr. Rosenstein replied:

“Based upon what I know, I believe Director Mueller is appropriately remaining in his scope and conducting himself appropriately, and in the event there is any credible allegation of misconduct by anybody on his staff, that he is taking appropriate action.”

Mr. Rosenstein’s stance signaled that despite the mounting assault on Mr. Mueller by Mr. Trump’s supporters, the fundamental dynamic surrounding the special counsel had not changed: If Mr. Trump were to try to fire Mr. Mueller based on any developments so far, the president would likely first have to fire or force the resignation of Mr. Rosenstein and then hunt for a replacement willing to carry out his orders, echoing Richard Nixon’s so-called Saturday Night Massacre during the Watergate scandal.

Republicans repeatedly pressed Mr. Rosenstein to appoint a second special counsel to investigate political partisanship in the department in its handling of the Trump-Russia investigation or in last year’s decision not to charge Mrs. Clinton with a crime over her use of a private email server while secretary of state — an idea that has been promoted heavily by commentators on Fox News and elsewhere in recent days.

Mr. Rosenstein said he could not appoint another special counsel without a credible allegation of a potential crime to investigate.

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The campaign against the special counsel, at the very least, provides a rallying cry for the president’s supporters to counter the drumbeat of news about Russian interference in the election and possible links to the Trump campaign. And a move by the Justice Department to show reporters the text messages that are the subject of an ongoing inspector general’s inquiry served to fuel the Republican campaign against Mr. Mueller.

Mr. Rosenstein confirmed that in addition to sending the messages to Congress the night before his testimony, the Justice Department had invited reporters to view the messages it was giving to lawmakers. That was a rare step, although officials in previous administrations have sometimes done so to avoid selective or misleading leaks from Capitol Hill.

On Wednesday, the deputy attorney general was pressed by Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, about who authorized the messages’ release. Mr. Rosenstein said that he had approved the step after consulting with the department’s independent inspector general, Michael Horowitz. His answers left ambiguous any distinction between merely providing them to lawmakers — who would essentially be free to leak them — and making them directly available to the news media.

“Our goal, congressman, is to make sure that it is clear to you and the American people that we are not concealing anything that’s embarrassing to the F.B.I.,” he said.

Ian Prior, a Justice Department spokesman, said that the texts were released in response to requests from lawmakers and after a review that determined that doing so would be lawful and ethical.

“The department ensures that its release of information from the department to members of Congress or to the media is consistent with law, including the Privacy Act,” he said in a statement.

Mr. Mueller, a registered Republican appointed by President George W. Bush to direct the F.B.I., has long had critics in the most pro-Trump corners of the House and the conservative news media. But in recent weeks, as his investigation has delivered a series of indictments to high-profile associates of the president and evidence that at least two of them are cooperating with the inquiry, those critics have grown louder and in numbers.

Moreover, the voices of doubt are no longer confined to the party’s far-right wing. They include Republican mainstays like Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa.

Representative Louie Gohmert, Republican of Texas, rattled off a list of high-ranking F.B.I. officials and questioned whether they had politically motivations.


Pete Marovich for The New York Times

“I was the lone voice in the wilderness, and now I have a robust chorus behind me,” said Representative Matt Gaetz, a first-term Florida Republican who has emerged as one of Mr. Trump’s most vocal defenders on Capitol Hill.

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The president’s own legal team also appears to be part of the campaign. Jay Sekulow, one of Mr. Trump’s outside lawyers for matters related to the Russia investigation, told Axios that mounting evidence warranted the appointment of a second special counsel to look at conflicts of interest in the Justice Department.

In an interview, Mr. Sekulow cited a Fox News report that Bruce Ohr, a senior Justice Department official, had been demoted for not disclosing meetings with officials from Fusion GPS, the investigative firm behind a controversial dossier of opposition research on the Trump campaign. Republicans have repeatedly charged that the F.B.I. may have relied on the dossier to obtain a warrant to secretly monitor Americans.

Republicans see further evidence of bias in an email sent by Andrew Weissmann, one of Mr. Mueller’s top deputies, in January telling the acting attorney general, Sally Q. Yates, that he was “so proud and in awe” of her decision not to defend Mr. Trump’s travel ban in court.

Democrats say the pattern is becoming clear: As Mr. Mueller moves closer to Mr. Trump’s inner circle, Republicans try to discredit federal law enforcement and undercut the eventual findings of the special counsel. The Republican effort may also be intended to blunt the political repercussions should Mr. Mueller be fired, Democrats say.

Representative Jerrold Nadler, the Judiciary Committee’s senior Democrat, called the new Republican demands “wildly dangerous” to American institutions.

“I understand the instinct to want to give cover to the president,” he said. “I am fearful that the majority’s effort to turn the tables on the special counsel will get louder and more frantic as the walls continue to close in around the president.”

Perhaps more portentous is the restive Senate, a less partisan body where Mr. Mueller’s appointment in May was greeted with relief. Skepticism about the special counsel’s investigation is starting to take root there, too.

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“He’s got a tough job to do, but it seems he’s running far afield,” said Senator Richard C. Shelby, a long-serving Republican from Alabama. “Maybe it’s part of what he can do, but I thought he was going to investigate the Russian influence in the election, and it seems like he is going after a lot of other places, too.”

Mr. Graham, who a year ago was a leading Republican voice for a thorough investigation of Russian campaign interference, seems to have shifted his focus as well.

“I will be challenging Rs and Ds on Senate Judiciary Committee to support a Special Counsel to investigate ALL THINGS 2016 — not just Trump and Russia,” he wrote on Twitter.

Adam Goldman contributed reporting.


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Republicans’ Tax Bill Nears the Finish Line

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The looming loss of the Republican seat in the Senate from Alabama adds to the pressure that party members in Congress face to ensure that their tax overhaul faces no last-minute hiccups that push the bill into next year. On Wednesday, they will look to keep the momentum going in the face of Democrats who are feeling newly emboldened.

The conference committee met and Democrats expressed displeasure

The conference committee that was created to merge the House and Senate tax bills began its one public meeting on Wednesday afternoon and Democrats immediately denounced the gathering as an exercise in trying to make the tax overhaul look transparent.

“Let’s understand what’s happening today is a sham,” said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. “Nobody ought to mistake this conference for real debate.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, said the “so-called conference committee,” as he put it, “is a farce.”

Members of the committee assembled for their public session in a basement meeting room in the Capitol, and the partisan skirmishing began right at the outset.

Representative Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, asked that the conference committee postpone its work until Doug Jones, the winner of Tuesday’s special election for Senate in Alabama, is sworn into office.

The lawmaker presiding over the meeting, Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the motion was not allowed.

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Representative Lloyd Doggett, Democrat of Texas, quickly clashed with Mr. Brady over his handling of the meeting, reminding him that the session was not being conducted under “Putin rules.”

Democrats also denounced the substance of the tax overhaul.

“The American people are witnessing a master class in how one political party, relying on secrecy, distortion and brute force, can muscle an unpopular, deficit exploding corporate giveaway to passage,” Mr. Wyden said. “This is the ultimate betrayal of the middle class.”

The gathering will be one of the final times that Democrats will be able to publicly criticize the tax legislation while being face-to-face with the Republicans who are crafting it. Thus far, they have largely assailed the partisan process and argued that the bill benefits the rich and corporations and doesn’t do enough to help the middle class.

For Republicans, the public meeting is largely for show, as the final negotiations happened behind closed doors and the major details have already been agreed upon. Republicans are planning to pass the bill along party lines and have so far rebuffed Democrats’ requests to change the bill.

Alabama’s election is unlikely to derail the tax bill

The odds remain strong that congressional Republicans will send a consensus tax bill to Mr. Trump, despite Democrats’ upset Senate victory in Alabama on Tuesday.

The news that Doug Jones, a Democrat, had defeated Roy Moore, a Republican, in the election immediately sent many liberal activists dreaming of another improbable win: blocking the tax bill.

Math and momentum fueled that activist optimism. Once Mr. Jones is seated in the Senate, Republicans’ majority in the chamber will narrow to a single seat. The tax bill passed the Senate on a 51-49 vote, with one Republican, Bob Corker of Tennessee, defecting. The hope among liberals was that Mr. Jones’ victory would give other Republicans pause and delay the process of reconciling the bills.

That seems unlikely to happen, however. Lawmakers have agreed on the contours of a final deal and an influential Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, said she saw no reason to wait for Mr. Jones to be seated before voting on the tax bill.

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However, Republicans still need to tread carefully and ensure they have enough support to get the bills over the finish line. If another Republican senator were then to defect — for example, Ms. Collins, who extracted concessions from party leadership in order to vote yes on the bill initially, but has watched some of those concessions go as yet unfulfilled — then the bill could stall.

Graphic

House vs. Senate: The Tax Changes Up for Debate and How Different Taxpayers Would Fare

Republicans must resolve the differences between the two versions of their tax bill before they can pass a final version.


Those scenarios still appear highly unlikely. Republican leaders are prepared to hold votes early next week on the measure, well before the Alabama results are expected to be certified, making Mr. Jones eligible to be seated. Party leaders remain confident Mr. Trump will sign the bill before Christmas — most likely before Mr. Jones enters the Senate.

The one wrinkle from Tuesday night, for Republicans and the bill, is that the results empower individual senators to demand even more from the leadership for their votes. Ms. Collins and Marco Rubio of Florida have both raised concerns this week about the compromise bill as it is shaping up. Party leaders may be forced to address their concerns or apply more pressure to keep them, and possibly others, in line.

But even if Republicans were to defect en masse in the Senate, the tax bill could still sail to Mr. Trump — if House Republicans were to approve the version that passed the Senate. That version included some apparent drafting errors that have upset business interests, most notably the rate of the corporate alternative minimum tax. But in a worst-case scenario, party leaders could decide that bill is better than no bill at all, and promise to return to fix the provisions later — an echo of how Democrats proceeded to pass the Affordable Care Act after they lost a similarly stunning Senate special election, in Massachusetts, in 2010.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine spoke with Vice President Mike Pence at the Capitol on Tuesday. Ms. Collins has watched some of the concessions for her “yes” vote on the tax bill go as yet unfulfilled.


Pete Marovich for The New York Times

Democrats tell Republicans to hit pause on tax bill

Democrats are mounting a concerted, though likely fruitless, effort to get Republican leadership in the Senate to delay the tax bill vote until Mr. Jones is seated as a senator from Alabama.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, called on Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, to “hit pause on his tax bill” after the Democratic candidate won the special election for Senate in Alabama on Tuesday.

“It would be wrong for Senate Republicans to jam through this tax bill without giving the newly elected senator from Alabama the opportunity to cast his vote,” Mr. Schumer said at a news conference at the Capitol on Wednesday morning.

Mr. Schumer drew a parallel with the election of Scott Brown, a Republican, in a special election in Massachusetts in 2010 as Democrats were trying to enact their health care overhaul.

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Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon similarly said the bill should be delayed until Mr. Jones arrives, saying in a tweet “The people of Alabama have spoken.”

Trump dines with Republican lawmakers

Mr. Trump hosted Republican lawmakers working on tax legislation for lunch at the White House. Flanked by Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, Mr. Trump gave brief remarks on the tax plan.

“We’re very close to getting it done, we’re very close to voting,” he said.

The White House on Wednesday released a name of those dining with Mr. Trump, including Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, eight Republican senators and Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas and chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

Democrats make a last-ditch effort to pressure Republicans

Ahead of the Conference Committee meeting, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee will be joined by House Democratic leaders for a noon “forum” on the Republican tax legislation.

House Democrats have invited economists including Mark Zandi, of Moody’s Analytics, and Jason Furman, former chairman of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, to participate.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has come under attack from Democrats for using “fake math” to defend the Republican tax plan, was also invited. He is not expected to attend.

Progressive groups hold protests in the Capitol

Liberal activists are planning to fan across the Capitol on Wednesday to try to flip Republican members of Congress who they think could be persuaded to change their minds on the tax bill.

Members of Housing Works, the Center for Popular Democracy, Women’s March, Hedge Clippers, People for Bernie, Strong Economy for All Coalition are planning to stage sit-ins at the offices of Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona.

Ady Barkan, a progressive activist with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis who confronted Mr. Flake on an airplane last week, is headlining the rally. According to one of its organizers, he is also hoping to have a meeting with Ms. Collins.

#FlakesonAPlane Ady talks to Jeff Flake about the #GOPTaxScam Video by Shawn Sebastian

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Democrats call on GOP to hold off on tax bill until Jones is seated in the Senate

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Democrats warned Wednesday that Republican plans to speed ahead with plans to revamp the nation’s tax code could spell more electoral trouble for President Trump and his party next year, especially with young people and suburban families.

Just hours after Republicans suffered a humiliating defeat in a special U.S. Senate election in the GOP stronghold of Alabama, party leaders unveiled a compromise on a sweeping $1.5 trillion tax plan that will significantly lower corporate rates and slash taxes for upper-income households.

But Democrats — now able to tout recent electoral victories in deep-blue New Jersey, swing state Virginia and Republican-leaning Alabama that all showed signs of voter discontent with GOP policies — called on Republicans to wait to vote on their tax plan until Democrat Doug Jones, the winner of the Alabama race, arrives in Washington.

Mired in the minority and sapped of any control of Capitol Hill, Democrats crowed about the implications of the Alabama contest, touting how the party’s base — young people, black women and, increasingly, suburbanites — turned out at higher rates than normal in off-year elections. Jones also cut into Republican advantages in counties that overwhelmingly backed Trump in last year’s presidential election.

If the Republicans move ahead with their plans to rush tax reform, “there will be many more Alabamas in 2018,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “Many more.”

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speak before the House-Senate Conference on tax reform starts on Dec. 13, 2017, on Capitol Hill. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

“The suburbs are swinging back to us,” he told reporters, adding that the GOP tax plan is “an anti-suburban tax bill” because it would reduce how much homeowners can deduct in state and local taxes.

[As Democrats add Senate seat, GOP left to bicker over what happened in Alabama]

Republicans, however, ignored the Democrats and said they did not expect any slowdown in he tax push, citing a Christmas deadline for action that had been set months in advance.

“The people back home want to get it done, now,” said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), a member of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee.

In closed-door meetings of Republican lawmakers Wednesday on both sides of Capitol Hill, the Alabama results were not even a topic of official discussion. Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.), leaving a Senate Republican lunch meeting, said the topic simply hadn’t come up.

“Changing the entire 10 million-word tax code is of great magnitude, too, so that’s what we spent our time talking about,” he said.

The House and Senate are poised to vote on the GOP tax plan by the end of next week.

When exactly Jones will join the Senate remains unclear. Alabama’s secretary of state, the state’s senior elections official, said Tuesday that the soonest the election will be certified is Dec. 26 or 27. The Senate’s holiday break is scheduled to begin Dec. 22, and senators are not expected to return until Jan. 3, although that schedule could change.

Calls to slow down the tax reform plan are only the most immediate consequences of Jones’s unlikely victory. His arrival will cut the Republican majority in the Senate from two votes to one, making it even harder to move the GOP legislative agenda forward without some bipartisan cooperation. Possible efforts to cut back entitlement programs or replace current health-care policy with a more conservative alternative, already difficult, could be impossible in a Senate divided 51 to 49.

One veteran Democrat played down the notion that Jones could scramble the Senate’s political dynamics in a significant way, citing his lack of a voting record that would indicate that he is a reliable supporter of the Democratic agenda and the pressures he may face from his conservative state.

“I don’t know what he wants to do, and he’ll have to decide what he wants to do,” Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the Senate’s longest serving member, said. But, he added, the mere presence of Jones could shape the way Republicans and the White House craft their priorities for the coming year.

During the campaign, Jones ran as a centrist, and in his victory speech, he spoke of the need for politicians in Washington to find “common ground.”

Schumer conceded that he doesn’t know whether or not Jones would back the GOP tax plan, saying, “He will make a decision based on what he believes is best for the people of Alabama.”

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who has become friendly with Trump and frequently plays golf with him, said he has spoken to the president in recent weeks about working on bipartisan deals next year and expects more willingness to reach out to Democrats after a year of focusing on GOP concerns.

“In terms of base politics, he’s done a lot — regulatory reform, [confirming Supreme Court Justice Neil] Gorsuch, the tax cut. In the bipartisan portfolio, there’s not a whole lot in it,” Graham said. “There needs to be both. He gets it. Infrastructure is a bipartisan project; immigration is bipartisan.”

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), a key moderate Democrat who stands to see his clout build in a closely divided chamber, also urged Trump and Republicans to seek new ways to work with Democrats.

“Every time I’ve been around the president I’ve always felt he’s more comfortable working on something bipartisan than on something partisan,” he said in an interview. “The push he’s getting from his party is, it’s all for the base.”

In calling for a delay in the tax debate, Democrats pointed to their party’s decision to slow down controversial health-care legislation in 2010 — after a Republican, Scott Brown, won a special election to fill the Senate seat of the late Edward M. Kennedy in liberal Massachusetts.

Democrats cited comments that Sen. Mitch McConnell, now the majority leader, made in January 2010 in the immediate aftermath of Brown’s win, calling on Democrats to slow down passage of the Affordable Care Act until he was sworn in.

“I think the message of the moment is that the American people, all across the country, are asking us, even in the most liberal state, Massachusetts, to stop this health-care bill,” he said the day after Brown was elected.

The Massachusetts election was squarely focused on the Democratic health-care bill, however, while the Republican tax bill was only an ancillary issue in an Alabama election that was more squarely focused as a referendum on the character of the Republican candidate, Roy Moore.

Ultimately, Democrats ended up using special procedures to pass the health-care bill without Brown’s vote — the same “reconciliation” rules Republicans are now using to pass the tax bill along party lines.

Publicly, Democrats cite the need to wait for Jones as a reason to slow debate on tax reform. But they also know that a delay could help build opposition — just as the summer-long fight among Republicans over how to repeal the ACA derailed the effort as closer scrutiny sparked broad public opposition.

Republicans offered their own reasons why Luther Strange, the outgoing Republican placeholder, should vote on the bill rather than Jones.

“He doesn’t know anything about it,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said of Jones. “He’s been on a campaign; he’s not been studying the bill. . . . Ideally, you want somebody who’s more informed than not, and Luther’s informed.”

For moderate Democrats like Manchin facing reelection in 2018 in states that Trump won handily last year, waiting might give them more time to rewrite the tax plan.

“There’s no economic meltdown. The stock market’s doing fine. There are 17 Democrats who are ready to work on a bipartisan tax bill if they slow things down,” Manchin said.

Manchin and at least 16 other members of the Senate Democratic caucus have tried at various points to work with Republicans on tax reform. But they have rebuffed pressure from Trump, McConnell and other Republicans to support the tax plan given its generous tax cuts for high earners and the repeal of the ACA’s mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance.

Earlier this month, the Senate passed the GOP tax plan by a single-vote margin, 51 to 49. Had Jones been seated then, however, Republicans still would have been able to pass the measure, albeit with Vice President Pence casting the tiebreaking vote.

Democrats are hoping that at least two Republican senators will step away from the fast-moving legislation in the coming days, forcing GOP leaders to pull back. But on Wednesday, key GOP senators Susan Collins (Maine), Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Ron Johnson (Wis.) said they saw no reason for delay.

But one potential complication arose for GOP leaders: The office of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has an aggressive brain tumor and missed Senate votes Wednesday, issued a statement explaining he being treated at Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland.

“Senator McCain looks forward to returning to work as soon as possible,” said the statement, which not did say when he might return.

Erica Werner and David Weigel contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPost

‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Embraces the Magic and Mystery. Read Our Review.

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One of the truisms of the “Star Wars” series is that its battle between good and bad has always uneasily and sometimes openly mirrored the attendant struggle between good and bad filmmaking. Mr. Lucas’s 1977 foundational movie mostly transcends its flaws with slick looks, hooky effects, old-school heroics and loads of marketable material that helped turn fan love into an ecumenical cult. The second trilogy, entirely directed by Mr. Lucas, began in 1999 with “The Phantom Menace” (infamous for the minor scandal called Jar Jar Binks) and is pretty much a drag outside of some fleet light-saber duels and the arresting black-and-red patterning that distinguishes one villain.

Mark Hamill’s moody Luke Skywalker has retreated to a lovely, isolated island.


Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Part of what has already made the new trilogy more successful is that its directors, J.J. Abrams (“The Force Awakens”) and Mr. Johnson, are technically adept, commercially savvy “Star Wars” true believers who came of age in the post-Lucas blockbuster era. Each has had to navigate the intricacies of Mr. Lucas’s sprawling fiction while handling the deep imprint created by Darth Vader’s heavy-breathing menace, R2-D2’s amusing beeps, Mr. Ford’s insouciance, Mr. Hamill’s earnestness, and Ms. Fisher’s smarts and latter-day screwball charm. Unlike Mr. Lucas, though, Mr. Abrams and Mr. Johnson don’t feel burdened by that legacy; they’re into it, charged up, despite the pressures of such an industrial enterprise. They’re resolving their cinematic father issues with a sense of fun.

Mr. Johnson can make you forget about those issues as well as the franchise’s insistent obligations; it also seems like he had a good time at work. He brings lightness to his banter, visual flair (not simply bleeding-edge special effects) to the design, and narrative savvy to Rey and Kylo Ren’s relationship. Mr. Johnson’s use of deep red is characteristic of how he turns ideas into images, most vividly with a set that looks like something Vincente Minnelli might have dreamed up for a Flash Gordon musical with Gene Kelly. When that set becomes the backdrop to a viscerally exciting fight, all the red abruptly evokes the spilled blood that this otherwise squeaky clean series insistently elides.

Carrie Fisher’s Leia plays a critical role in “The Last Jedi.”


Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Like “The Force Awakens,” “The Last Jedi” engages with the first “Star Wars” movie less as a fetish than as a necessary point of departure. And, like Alec Guinness’s Obi-Wan Kenobi once did, Luke comes off as a brooding monastic loner. With a hooded robe, beard and inexplicable moodiness, he has retreated to an eerily lovely, isolated island where imaginatively designed critters roam and trill. The cutest (right in time for Christmas tie-ins) are Porgs, saucer-eyed mewling creatures with plump, puffin-like bodies that are mainly on hand for easy laughs. The creature design throughout is so inventive — there are less-fuzzy whatsits on the island, too — that you wish more had been added.

You feel Mr. Johnson periodically reining himself in, yet the movie cuts loose when he does, as when he embraces the galaxy’s strangeness, its non-humanoid beings as well as its magic and mystery. There’s a trippy scene in which a character floats into a resurrection, an ethereal drift that borders on the surreal. It’s a fleeting bliss-out in a series that knows how to bring the weird but has too often neglected to do so amid its blaster zapping, machinations and Oedipal stressing and storming. This is, after all, a franchise in which the most indelible character remains Yoda, the wee, far-out philosophizer with the tufted pate and syntactically distinct truth telling: “Wars not make one great.”

Wars do, however, make warehouses of money as this franchise has been affirming for decades. It’s instructive how normalized its permanent war has become, with its high body count, bloodlessness and fascist chic (the black uniforms evoking the Nazi SS). Given this, it’s notable, too, that while Mr. Johnson manages the big-canvas battles well enough, he’s better with smaller-scaled fights, in which the sweat, vulnerabilities and personal costs of violence are foregrounded. With Mr. Driver — who delivers a startlingly raw performance — Mr. Johnson delivers a potent portrait of villainy that suggests evil isn’t hard-wired, an inheritance or even enigmatic. Here, it is a choice — an act of self-creation in the service of annihilation.

Mr. Johnson has picked up the baton — notably the myth of a female Jedi — that was handed to Mr. Abrams when he signed on to revive the series with “The Force Awakens.” Mr. Johnson doesn’t have to make the important introductions; for the most part, the principals were in place, as was an overarching mythology that during some arid periods has seemed more sustained by fan faith than anything else. Even so, he has to convince you that these searching, burgeoning heroes and villains fit together emotionally, not simply on a Lucasfilm whiteboard, and that they have the requisite lightness and heaviness, the ineffable spirit and grandeur to reinvigorate a pop-cultural juggernaut. That he’s made a good movie in doing so isn’t icing; it’s the whole cake.


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The Latest: Pelosi calls Trump tweet ‘disgusting’

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President Trump smiles as he speaks before hosting a lunch with Senate Republicans in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Dec. 5. (Evan Vucci/AP)

President Trump attacked Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in a sexually suggestive tweet Tuesday morning that implied Gillibrand would do just about anything for money, prompting a swift and immediate backlash.

“Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Charles E. Schumer and someone who would come to my office ‘begging’ for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump,” the president wrote. “Very disloyal to Bill Crooked-USED!”

The tweet came as Trump is already facing negative publicity from renewed allegations from three women who had previously accused him of sexual harassment, which are coming amid the #MeToo movement that is roiling the nation and forcing powerful men accused of sexual misbehavior from their posts.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders disputed the characterization of Trump’s tweet as sexually suggestive, telling reporters that “there’s no way this is sexist at all” and later adding: “I think only if your mind is in the gutter would you have read it that way.”

“He’s used that same terminology many times in reference to men,” Sanders added, arguing that Trump was motivated by his long-standing concern about the corrupting influence of money in politics.

The president ignored a reporter’s question about the tweet after he signed a defense authorization bill shortly after noon.

The backlash and criticism was near instantaneous, with Gillibrand replying directly to Trump on Twitter. “You cannot silence me or the millions of women who have gotten off the sidelines to speak out about the unfitness and shame you have brought to the Oval Office,” she wrote.

At a news conference later on an unrelated issue, Gillibrand called Trump’s tweet “a sexist smear attempting to silence my voice.”

“I will not be silent on this issue, neither will women who stood up to the president yesterday and neither will the millions of women who have been marching since the Women’s March to stand up against policies they do not agree with,” she added.

Gillibrand once again called on GOP congressional leaders to launch investigations into the allegations made by women against Trump, saying, “It’s the right thing to do, and these allegations should be investigated. They should be investigated thoroughly. That is the right thing to do, and I’m urging them to do that — as should their constituents.”

Asked about her interactions with the president, Gillibrand told reporters that Trump was “just a supporter — a supporter of my first campaign.”

Several Democratic senators also rallied around Gillibrand, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who pointedly asked Trump on Twitter whether he was trying to “bully, intimidate and slut-shame” Gillibrand.

“Do you know who you’re picking a fight with?” Warren said. “Good luck with that, @realDonaldTrump.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) also weighed in on Twitter, writing that there is “nobody tougher than @SenGillibrand she won’t be intimidated. Women will continue to speak up.”

Gillibrand was attending a bipartisan Bible study Tuesday morning when Trump’s tweet landed, and her phone was immediately filled with supportive and befuddled messages, wondering just what the president was thinking, a Gillibrand aide said.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who was in the Bible study group with Gillibrand, later issued a statement, saying: “Respectful dialogue and disagreement sets a better example for our children and the world. Our leaders should focus on the issues, not personal attacks.”

Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox News personality whose lawsuit against Roger Ailes for sexual harassment led to the resignation of the late network chairman, also weighed in with a duo of tweets defending Gillibrand.

“What do u mean @SenGillibrand would ‘do anything’ for campaign contributions? By the way she isn’t a lightweight,” she wrote. In a second tweet, Carlson continued: “Sexual harassment is apolitical. Women will not be silenced no matter what party they are in. Period.”

Katty Kay, an anchor for BBC World News America, also took to social media to respond to the president’s missive against Gillibrand, casting it in tweets as “clearly sexual” and “demeaning to women.”

“What is so maddening about the Gillibrand tweet is that women can be smart, work hard, become Senator and STILL get sexual c**p thrown at us,” she wrote. “Enough.”

Trump offered no evidence to support his wink-and-nod claim that Gillibrand had gone to him “begging” for campaign donations “and would do anything for them.” In fact, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit website that tracks campaign contributions, since 1996, Trump has donated $8,900 to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and $5,850 to Gillibrand.

Gillibrand met with Trump once in 2010, the Gillibrand aide said, and Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka, who has tried to cast herself as a champion of women, attended the meeting,

On Monday, Gillibrand, a leading voice in Congress for combating sexual assault in the military, became the fifth Democratic senator to call on Trump to step down because of the allegations of sexual misconduct against him — accusations the president has denied and the White House dismissed again on Monday.

“President Trump has committed assault, according to these women, and those are very credible allegations of misconduct and criminal activity, and he should be fully investigated and he should resign,” Gillibrand said on CNN. “These allegations are credible; they are numerous. I’ve heard these women’s testimony, and many of them are heartbreaking.”

She joined Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in calling for Trump’s resignation.

Trump has not commented on the male senators’ demand that he resign.

On Tuesday, a sixth senator — Democrat Mazie Hirono of Hawaii — called on Trump to resign, citing his morning tweet targeting Gillibrand.

“@realDonaldTrump is a misogynist, compulsive liar, and admitted sexual predator,” she said. “Attacks on Kirsten are the latest example that no one is safe from this bully. He must resign.”

Trump’s attack on Twitter also coincided with a previously scheduled event led by at least 59 female House Democrats, who formally called on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to launch an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by the president. The oversight panel has the broadest subpoena power and investigatory mandate of any congressional committee. The female lawmakers had requested the investigation in a letter to the committee on Monday.

What Trump tweeted Tuesday “is grotesque, it took my breath away and it represents the conduct of a person who is ill-equipped to be the president of the United States,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said at the news conference.

Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) said Democrats are seeking “a fair process” to review the allegations and allow the president to respond.

By Tuesday afternoon, more than 100 House Democrats had joined in on the calls to formally investigate Trump after the letter was opened up to male colleagues.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to say whether Congress should investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump, saying, “We’re focused on the Senate,” and that his chamber’s ethics committee can only investigate allegations against senators.

“What we’re in charge of here is the Senate,” McConnell told reporters.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended his Empire State colleague, calling Trump’s attack “nasty” and “unbecoming” of the presidency.

But he declined to join other Democrats calling for a formal investigation of allegations of sexual misconduct of Trump, saying he would let the comments of other Democrats speak for themselves.

Gillibrand, New York’s junior senator and a rising political star, is widely considered a likely 2020 presidential candidate against Trump, and the president’s Twitter assault Tuesday offered an early glimpse of just how vicious the next race for the White House could become.

Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, called Trump’s tweet “disgusting” but also noted, “It will make the Gillibrand folks ecstatic,” implying that the sparring with Trump would raise her profile.

Gillibrand, however, does have her critics. After she said in November that Bill Clinton should have resigned as president after his inappropriate affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, longtime Hillary Clinton adviser and confidant Philippe Reines excoriated her on Twitter for being ungrateful and two-faced.

“Senate voted to keep POTUS WJC. But not enough for you @SenGillibrand? Over 20 yrs you took the Clintons’ endorsements, money, and seat. Hypocrite. Interesting strategy for 2020 primaries. Best of luck,” Reines wrote.

Joshua Dawsey contributed to this report.

‘More Black Abortions.’ ‘Neo-Nazis.’ Sharp-edged radio ads target Alabama’s black voters.

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The ad from Stars and Stripes Forever runs only infrequently; the conservative super PAC has spent just $4,720 to put it on some of Alabama’s black radio stations. But like all of the super PAC’s work, it grabs the listener’s attention with a fictional conversation between two fictional black voters about Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Doug Jones.

“I heard Doug Jones would add even more black babies to the 300,000 already being aborted this year,” a female voice says.

“Three hundred thousand black babies aborted?” a shocked male voice responds.

“A vote for Doug Jones is a vote for more black abortions, no school choice and higher taxes for job creators,” the first voice says.

“So he says whatever he needs to get our votes …”

. . . then keeps us down once he’s elected.”

The ad, which makes no mention of Republican nominee Roy Moore, is the latest product of a group originally created to help win the 2016 presidential nomination for Ben Carson. But in Alabama, it has been drowned out by harsh Democratic ads that attack Moore directly, accusing him of unexplored ties to white supremacists.

In urban areas where Jones needs to win big, the super PAC Highway 31 — a team-up between the Senate Majority PAC and Priorities USA, two Democratic groups — has purchased pre-roll ads that run before some YouTube videos. Over just a few seconds, images of Dylann Roof, who has been sentenced to death for killing nine people at a historically black church in South Carolina, flash across the screen.

[Why party identity causes voters to stand behind their politicians – no matter what]

“Roy Moore has ties to the same white supremacists who inspired the Charleston shooter,” says a narrator in the ad. “Vote for Doug Jones.”

In another spot, paid for by the Jones campaign and playing on radio stations, male and female narrators take turns warning of the support Moore has received from the far right.

“A Mississippi KKK group backed Moore’s refusal to enforce federal law,” the narrators say. “Moore’s organization took $1,000 from a neo-Nazi group. His candidacy is backed by the racist alt-right groups. And Moore is a birther, still insisting that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, and isn’t an American.”

Not every ad aimed at black voters is quite as bracing. In another common spot, paid for by the Alabama New South Alliance, a recap of Jones’s work as a U.S. attorney who prosecuted hate groups is coupled with his promise of what he would do in the Senate.

“Just one vote in the United States Senate saved Obamacare,” the ad’s narrator says. “Just one more vote can save this whole country.”

Both camps are confident that their direct approaches — which are not reflected in the TV ads that most voters have seen — will help their sides meet turnout models. In Stars and Stripes Forever’s case, the ad is designed to urge black voters not to vote at all. On its website, the PAC takes partial credit for Donald Trump’s gains with black voters relative to Mitt Romney, something Democrats think was more of a response to Hillary Clinton motivating fewer voters than Barack Obama. The anti-Democratic ads were designed after 2002 spots, controversial at the time, that ran on black radio in areas where black turnout decreased.

“While the increase in the Republican vote was not dramatic, the decrease in votes for the Democratic candidate was very significant,” the PAC explains. “Not only did the black and Hispanic vote total not increase as predicted by the Washington, D.C., GOP consultants, it actually declined substantially in both black and Hispanic areas reached by the radio and television advertising.”

Alabama Democrats, however, are cautiously optimistic about black turnout today. Jones spent the morning zipping between heavily black precincts; in Montgomery County, the single largest stronghold of black Democratic voters, local election officials said Tuesday that turnout might reach that of the 2016 general election. Jones, the first competitive Democratic candidate for federal office here since the early 1990s, also has been able to fully fund turnout operations in the so-called “black belt.”

Reporter asks Sanders if she has ever been sexually harassed

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Amid an ongoing national discussion about sexual misconduct, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to answer directly when asked during Monday’s press briefing if she herself has ever been sexually harassed.

CNN’s Brian Karem asked Sanders the question during a tense briefing in which Sanders had sparred with reporters over “fake news” and discussed the sexual harassment allegations against President TrumpDonald John TrumpHouse Democrat slams Donald Trump Jr. for ‘serious case of amnesia’ after testimony Skier Lindsey Vonn: I don’t want to represent Trump at Olympics Poll: 4 in 10 Republicans think senior Trump advisers had improper dealings with Russia MORE.

“As a woman standing up there talking to us, I know your job is to relate what the president says, have you ever been sexually harassed and do you understand — and I’m not saying by the president — I’m saying ever,” Karem asked. “And secondly, do you have any empathy for those who come forward? Because it’s very difficult.”

Sanders responded that she does empathize with sexual harassment victims, but did not say whether she had personal experiences with harassment.

“I absolutely would say that I have an empathy for any individual who has been sexually harassed, and that certainly would be the policy of the White House,” she said. “I’m not here to speak about my personal experience on that front, but I’m here to relay information on behalf of the president.”

The press briefing came after several senators called for Trump to step down over the resurgence of the more than 16 accusations that he sexually harassed or assaulted women. Three of Trump’s accusers held a press conference Monday in which they called for a congressional investigation into their allegations.

The official White House position on the Trump allegations is that all of the women are lying.

Trump accusers renew sexual misconduct charges against him, say it was ‘heartbreaking’ to see him elected

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As the country grapples with a national reckoning over sexual misconduct allegations against powerful men, three women who accused the most high-profile man in America again questioned Monday why their claims did nothing to stop him from winning the presidency.

It was “heartbreaking” for women to go public with their claims against President Trump last year, only to see him ascend to the Oval Office, said Samantha Holvey, a former Miss USA contestant who in October 2016 said Trump inappropriately inspected pageant participants.

“I put myself out there for the entire world, and nobody cared,” Holvey said Monday on NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today” show.

[President Trump and accusations of sexual misconduct: The complete list]

During the television appearance and a news conference, Holvey sat alongside Jessica Leeds, a New York woman who said Trump groped her on a plane, and Rachel Crooks, who said he kissed her on the lips at Trump Tower, to renew their allegations against the president.

The women also called for Congress to investigate these allegations amid the dramatic shift happening nationwide in response to charges of sexual misconduct against men from Hollywood to Capitol Hill. Claims have erupted across industry after industry, against lawmakers and movie stars alike, as the country has shown a sudden, newfound willingness to take such accusations seriously.

Trump has denied all of the allegations against him, which were made public after The Washington Post published the “Access Hollywood” recording last year capturing Trump boasting about grabbing women by the genitals.

The White House’s position is that Trump’s accusers are lying and that the issue was settled when he was elected president after the stories emerged.

“These false claims, totally disputed in most cases by eyewitness accounts, were addressed at length during last year’s campaign, and the American people voiced their judgment by delivering a decisive victory,” the White House said in a statement Monday. “The timing and absurdity of these false claims speaks volumes, and the publicity tour that has begun only further confirms the political motives behind them.”

[‘My pain is everyday’: After Weinstein’s fall, Trump accusers wonder: Why not him?]

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s press secretary, repeated that sentiment later Monday afternoon, telling reporters the president has denied all the charges against him and saying “these allegations have been answered through” the election.

“The American people knew this and voted for the president and we feel like we’re ready to move forward,” Sanders said of the allegations. She added: “The president has firsthand knowledge on what he did and didn’t do.”

The women who spoke Monday morning on television recounted their allegations against Trump, saying they felt threatened and disgusted by these encounters with the future president.

“I was shocked,” Crooks told Kelly after describing Trump kissing her at Trump Tower. “Devastated. It happened so fast. … I wish I would’ve been courageous enough to say, ‘What’s going on and you need to stop this.’”

Crooks said she felt at the time that she had no way to respond to the situation out of fear that if she reported it to her bosses — who did business with Trump’s organization — she might lose her job. “I wish I had been stronger,” she said. Crooks said she came forward after reading an account from another woman accusing Trump of misconduct, saying that this made her feel a sense of relief knowing that “it wasn’t just me.”

When the women were read the White House’s statement Monday describing their claims as false, Crooks called it “laughable.”

[‘All that anger’s unleashed’: How sexual misconduct stories persuade other victims to come forward]

The news conference was organized by Brave New Films, a nonprofit group launched by Robert Greenwald, an Emmy Award-winning producer, with the goal of promoting activism around progressive causes through short low-budget documentaries. The group has a budget of about $2.6 million, according to Jim Miller, its executive director.

The company, which aims for mass free distribution via YouTube and other social networks, has produced videos about gun control and mass incarceration. In November, it posted a video about the women accusing Trump, weaving together clips of them retelling their stories. That video, along with the news conference, was funded by donations of between $5 and $50 that came in response to social media and email solicitations, the group said.

Greenwald said after the video was launched, his group decided to contact the women, some of whom hesitated when they received an email about it.

“I didn’t want to go through it all again,” Holvey said in an interview after the news conference, recalling the backlash a year ago and the feeling that she hadn’t been heard. But the idea of getting together with other women who had similar experiences interested her.

“As a group there might be more of an impact,” she said. And she was also noticing a change in her Facebook feed in the #MeToo era, seeing people asking: “What about Trump?”

[While Democrats call for resignations, conservative women stand by colleagues accused of sexual misconduct]

Some women contacted by Brave New Films were too fearful of joining the news conference, Greenwald said. The three who did gather met at a dinner Sunday night for the first time.

Beyond pushing for renewed attention to their claims, it was unclear what the women hoped would be the next step after the news conference. Greenwald said that answer would come later, saying for now that he believes “we have an opportunity.”

Leeds said at the news conference Monday that none of the women were speaking publicly for fame, but instead were doing it because they felt it was the right thing to do.

“None of us want this attention,” Leeds said at the news conference. “None of us are comfortable with it. … But this is important, so when asked, we speak out.”

The women spoke Monday as a wave of allegations of sexual assault and harassment by men have swept across the country in recent weeks, stretching into fields including politics, entertainment, the media, the courts and the finance industry.

Numerous high-profile men have been fired or suspended, including Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and broadcaster Charlie Rose, while others have announced plans to step down, including Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), both of whom said last week that they would leave Congress over mounting allegations.

[How Congress plays by different rules on sexual harassment and misconduct]

At least four senators have called on Trump to resign over the allegations. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) told CNN on Monday that Trump should step down over what she called “credible” allegations, echoing comments made by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) saying that Trump should resign or consider doing so.

Trump has endorsed Roy Moore, the Republican nominee in Alabama’s closely fought Senate election, even after multiple women came forward to say that Moore made advances toward them when they were teens and he was in his 30s. One of the accusers said she was 14 at the time. Moore has denied the allegations,

For Trump’s accusers, they say it appears Moore is following the script Trump used a year ago in his own election.

“He was able to just deny what we said, and that got him elected just fine,” Crooks said Monday about Trump. “It’s like he’s passing the torch for Roy to do the same.”

Holvey suggested it made sense for Trump’s accusers to speak to the public again given the way the country’s atmosphere — and response to alleged sexual misconduct — has shifted over the last year.

“Let’s try round two,” she said. “The environment’s different, let’s try again.”

A day before the women spoke, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that women who have accused Trump “should be heard.”

Haley’s comments were a sharp break from the White House’s position, and they were particularly notable coming from one of the most high-profile women serving in Trump’s administration.

“They should be heard, and they should be dealt with,” Haley said when asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation” about the allegations other women have made against Trump. “And I think we heard from them before the election. And I think any woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way, they have every right to speak up.”

[Trump may face a reckoning in case brought by female accuser]

For women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct last year, watching other men felled by allegations has left them wondering why their claims did not have the same impact during the presidential campaign.

In addition to denying the accusations against him, Trump has vowed to sue his accusers and produce “substantial evidence” he said would disprove their claims. So far, Trump has not followed through on either promise.

The only lawsuit to emerge from the allegations against Trump came from one of his accusers, Summer Zervos, who sued him in New York for defamation over Trump’s repeated comments that all of the women were liars.

Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice,” said Trump kissed and groped her during a 2007 encounter at the Beverly Hills Hotel. In response, Trump said: “False stories. All made up. Lies. Lies. No witnesses. No nothing. All big lies.”

Trump’s attorneys have decried Zervos’s lawsuit, calling it “politically motivated” and based on allegations of something “that never occurred.” They are seeking to have it dismissed, saying Trump was expressing a political opinion and that a sitting U.S. president cannot be sued in state court.

Sellers reported from New York. This story has been updated.

Further reading:

Nikki Haley says Trump’s accusers ‘should be heard’

In Franken’s wake, three senators call on President Trump to resign