BORDER/CONGRESS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “…A quick catch-up: Today, a dozen Republicans in the Senate voted with Democrats to reject President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to secure funding for his border wall. Their rebuke comes just hours after the House — in an overwhelming, bipartisan, 420-0 vote — backed a resolution urging the Justice Department to publicly release the special counsel’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. And it comes a day after the Senate voted to end support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, an effort seen as a reproach of the president’s defense of the kingdom after the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Practically, this all means very little. The House resolution cannot force the Justice Department to release more of the report. And Mr. Trump has made it clear that he will veto the other two measures — a step his opponents don’t have the numbers to override in the Senate. But politically, the trifecta of rejections tells us that Mr. Trump’s grip on congressional Republicans may be loosening. The political ground may be ever so slightly shifting — and with it, the control Mr. Trump has over his party.”
–Lisa Lerer, “2 Days in Congress, 3 Trump Rejections,” The New York Times online, March 14, 2019