CONGRESS/INVESTIGATIONS/LEGISLATION/SENATE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “One day after President Donald Trump indicated he would not cut deals with Congress while he’s being investigated, he cut a deal with Congress. With Trump’s support, the Senate passed a long-stalled disaster aid bill, in the perfect encapsulation of a whiplash-inducing week. On Tuesday [5-22-19], hopes of a two-year budget deal rose and fell. On Wednesday [5-23-19], a bipartisan infrastructure meeting at the White House went off the rails, sparking open warfare between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the president. And with Washington at rock bottom, and Congress preparing to leave for a week-long recess on Thursday, it looked dire for disaster aid. Yet through backchannel negotiations with senators, Trump dropped demands for emergency border spending and signed off on $19.1 billion in much-needed aid for hurricane, wildfire and flooding victims. The Senate even took the first set of roll call votes on legislation in weeks — to ban robocalls — after a monomaniacal focus on nominations.”
–Burgess Everett, John Bresnahan and Nancy Cook, “A week of Trump-fueled dysfunction leaves Congress gasping,” Politico, May 23, 2019 7:14 pm