Epstein Secrets

virtual policy, it has also been more open to the media than any White House in recent memory. In the beginning, I sought a level of formal access to this White House, something of a fly-on- the-wall status. The president himself encouraged this idea. But, given the many fiefdoms in the Trump White House that came

heeding Senate leader Mitch McConnell’s prescription that “this president will sign whatever is put in front of him,” while also taking advantage of the White House’s lack of political and legislative experience and outsourcing as much policy as possible to Capitol Hill. In the early weeks of the administration, P

om he had never met before, for positions whose importance Trump did not particularly understand. Ailes, a veteran of the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush 41 White Houses, was growing worried by the president-elect’s lack of immediate focus on a White House structure that could serve and protect him. He tried to impres

cific ideas about how to turn his themes and vitriol into policy, nor a team that could reasonably unite behind him. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019969 In most White Houses, policy and action flow down, with staff trying to implement what the president wants—or, at the very least, what the chief of staff says the preside

president. In the hours before the inauguration, the whole of Washington seemed to be holding its breath. On the evening before Trump was sworn in, Bob Corker, the Republican senator from Tennessee and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, opened his remarks as the featured speaker at a ga

ction begins to think about his second term well before victory is assured. In early 2009, Rahm Emanuel, Obama's first chief of staff, told me that the White House was already contemplating the Presidency in terms of eight years. He said that it was folly to try to accomplish E FTA_R1_02204162 EFTA02720633

d-budget package by September. "Everyone is kind of holding their cards, because we realize that it's not game time yet," the Tennessee Republican Bob Corker told Politico last week. In late May, Mitch McConnell, an architect of the G.O.P. strategy of non- cooperation since 2009, also told Politico, "I th

as "key contacts") began reaching out to Republican senators to say that now was not the time to vote on an Iran sanctions bill opposed fiercely by the White House, according to four Senate sources who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity. Until then, AIPAC was willing to endure open criticism fr

y backs somehow managed to piss off just about everyone. Even the Israeli government isn't happy with AIPAC's handling of the sanctions bill. Sen. Bob Corker, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he had a "very direct conversation" with Ron Dermer, Israel's ambassador to the

twell (D-WA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Tom Carper (D-DE), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Bob Casey (D-PA). Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN) Ranking Member Ben Cardin (D-MD) Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) lf Senator Murray opts for ranking membe

icans can achieve. Hensarling notably has enjoyed a longtime friendship with Vice President- elect Mike Pence, which will give him a powerful ally in the White House as the new administration plots its strategy for financial regulation and nominates key appointees for the regulatory agencies. Hensarling agrees wit