GOP/HOUSE OF REPS/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The House will vote on two broad immigration proposals Thursday [6-21-18], but barring some major shift in momentum, both of those proposals are headed toward failure. Despite an all-out blitz from the Trump administration — including face-to-face entreaties from the President to skeptical House Republicans — to lock in the votes, there is still significant work to do to get one across the finish line, according to multiple senior aides and lawmakers. That doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but the path forward wasn’t clear as of Wednesday [6-21-18] night. ‘Closer to cooked than passage,’ was how one senior aide put it last night. Bottom line: There will be a real-time, on-the-record display of President Donald Trump’s lobbying power on the House floor in a few hours. Yes, it was late in the game, but the administration didn’t hedge Wednesday. Amid the outrage and furor over the family separation policy — and the subsequent effort to mitigate that, they went all in to try and get an immigration bill teetering on failure across the finish line. By all accounts Republicans enter the day still short of the votes. Here’s a simple frame of this day: Does the President have the juice to turn it around on his own?”
-Phil Mattingly, “Immigration reform bills: Both options headed for failure,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, June 21, 2018 2:11 pm