READ: President Trump Tears Up Part Of His Deal With Congress, May Censor Special IG's Accountability Reports

Although Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin proclaimed he reached a "Deal!" with the leaders of both Houses of Congress - and he knew of the accountability provisions included in the deal - President Donald Trump ripped up a key part of that deal two hours after signing it into law.

The smooth-yet-gutless trick came in the form of a rare presidential "signing statement". However, this statement was not released until the Congressional leaders and Cabinet members left the Oval Office signing ceremony. (No doubt, Democratic leaders are even more glad that they were not invited to stand behind him.)

The key provision that the signing statement demolished was that the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (the actual title) would report to Congress every three months. That report is to include "a detailed statement of all loans, loan guarantees, other transactions, obligations, expenditures, and revenues associated" with the monies spent abroad.

This was one of the provisions that Democrats held out for in the early part of the week. It is inconceivable that Mnuchin had not signed off on it before either the Senate or the House had voted. Not so fast, people who are concerned with this accountability. The Signing Statement says that the President can censor the report before it goes to Congress.

"I do not understand, and my Administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the SIGPR to issue reports to the Congress without the presidential supervision required by the Take Care Clause, Article II, section 3."

That is the Clause in the Constitution that says he shall "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed" allows him to censor the Special IG's reports. He is treating that *very* expansively, to say the least.

(The impacted accountability provisions are set forth on page 540 of the Bill.)

The Signing Statement unilaterally changes his deal in a couple of other ways, and those are set forth in the annotated copy of the Statement below.

Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego reacted today on Twitter, saying "He is not a king."

*The picture/meme is from Mnuchin's Instagram. (Highlighting added)


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Anti-Trump Group To Spend $600k Running Controversial "Hoax" Ad In Arizona (WATCH ad, READ cease and desist)

An anti-Trump Super PAC announced this morning that it will spend $600,000 in Arizona over the next few weeks to air an ad that the President's campaign is demanding stations not air.

Priorities USA Action responded to yesterday's cease and desist letters in other battleground states by doubling down and buying air time in Phoenix and Tucson for the ad. (The ad is below.)

Guy Cecil, the Chair of the committee, was defiant: "The fact that Trump is going to such great

lengths to keep the American people from hearing his own words adds to the urgency of communicating them far and wide. Trump doesn't want voters to know the truth. We will not be intimidated."

The Trump campaign made its cease and desist letter public yesterday and noted that Fox News agreed not to air the ad. It claims that the President's well-publicized "hoax" comment referred to the Democrats' politicization of the crisis, and not the virus itself. The letter leans heavily - without irony - on several articles from mainstream media fact-checkers that presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's campaign misleadingly tried to make it seem the comment referred to the latter. (The cease and desist letter is below.)

At the SC "hoax" rally

As transcribed in the Trump letter, here is the "hoax" statement by the President at a rally. (It would appear both sides have an argument.)

"Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. You know that, right? Coronavirus. They’re politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs, you say, “How’s President Trump doing?”, “Oh, nothing, nothing.” They have no clue, they don’t have any clue. They can’t even count their votes in Iowa, they can’t even count. No, they can’t. They can’t count their votes. One of my people came up to me and said, “Mr. President, they
tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia.” That didn’t work out too
well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was
on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over,
they’ve been doing it since he got in. It’s all turning, they lost. It’s all
turning, think of it, think of it. And this is their new hoax. But you know
we did something that’s been pretty amazing. We have 15 people in this
massive country and because of the fact that we went early, we went early,
we could have had a lot more than that."

Priorities USA Action discloses its donors, and its two largest are well-known contributors Donald Sussman and George Soros' Democracy PAC.

Here is the ad, followed by the cease and desist letter

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BREAKING: Pro-McSally Group Reserves $7.7M TV Ad Buy For Autumn; Most Expensive Race In The Nation, Indeed

Arizona is, indeed, going to be home to the most expensive Senate race in the nation. Further evidence comes today with this information that the largest pro-McSally SuperPAC has reserved $7.7 MILLION in TV ad time during the last eight weeks of the campaign.

A notorious mailer from DefendArizona, 2018

DefendArizona - which spent more than $22M trying to help Martha McSally defeat Kyrsten Sinema to fill Jeff Flake's Senate seat - snatched up $2.2M on Tucson's stations, and nearly $5.5M in the Phoenix market. KNXV (Ch.15, Phoenix) alone, received an order for more than three-quarters of a million dollars in 30-second bites.

DefendArizona (aka DefendMcSally, or aka AttackKelly) started out in 2018 as a locally-funded committee to support McSally in both the primary and the election. However, the McConnell-affiliated Senate Leadership Fund quickly became took it over as its Arizona affiliate in the general election, pouring more than $16.5M in the final weeks of the battle for the open seat.

DefendArizona spokesperson Barrett Marson declined to tell Arizona's Politics where the funding will be coming from in 2020, but this week's reservation came on the same day that the Senate Leadership Fund made similar reservations in Colorado, Maine, Iowa and North Carolina. (And, in Kentucky, through an apparently-affiliated group.)

The Democrats have their own SuperPAC set up. Advancing Arizona already spent in seven figure territory in the latter 1/3 of last year. Presumptive Democratic nominee Mark Kelly is the best-funded Senate candidate in the nation and has been running his own ads, too.

Other groups on both sides of the heavyweight air war have also been running ads.

(h/t and thanks to Advertising Analytics for computing the total size of the ad reservation.)

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ANALYSIS: Governor's New Executive Order Prevents Mayors From Taking The Lead (READ Exec Order)

This afternoon's news coverage of the new Executive Order from Arizona Governor Doug Ducey seems to miss the point. The Governor is not setting out a broad list of "essential businesses" "just in case" he issues a shelter-in-place or lockdown order as the Covid-19 outbreak worsens in the state.

Rather, Ducey is explicitly preempting and tying the hands of mayors who may want to get out ahead of him and shut down more businesses in their communities. That intent is clear not just from the title and the opening "therefore" paragraph, but in more subtle ways. The entire Executive Order is reproduced, below.

The title of the Executive Order is "Prohibiting the Closure of Essential Services". If this was intended to define essential services for a statewide lockdown, it could and would be included in such an order. The first action paragraph spells it out: "No county, city or town may make or issue any order, rule or regulation that restricts or prohibits any person...."

The 2nd paragraph is a bit trickier, though. It requires any Mayor (or county) from issuing any order or proclamation without coordinating with the state in advance, and as long as it is "consistent" with the state's "advice".

And, finally, the list of what the Governor has deemed to be "essential businesses" is quite broad, and includes golf courses, trails and other outdoor recreation, hotels/motels, photography stores, appliance stores, and so on.

This comes on the heels of divergent approaches to the crisis by Ducey and Mayors of several Arizona cities. Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff mayors led the way in closing bars, dine-in at restaurants and more.

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego took a not-so-veiled swipe this evening, noting the controversy about crowded hiking trails and that city attorneys are "researching whether today’s Executive Order from the Governor limits our ability to restrict access."

The Governor apparently did not fill mayors in on the Executive Order in his briefing call this morning. And, when asked at the press briefing this afternoon what was in the Order, he declined to go into specifics.

This preemptive action also comes as several states and communities around the nation have ordered people to shelter in place or to be locked down in order to help prevent an overwhelming spike of cases. And, as Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and others urge Gov. Ducey to take more aggressive action.

*

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BREAKING: Mark Kelly Campaign Resumes TV Advertising With Broad Attack On Prescription Drug Costs (WATCH)

Arizona's presumptive Democratic nominee for this November's heavyweight battle for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Martha McSally is launching a new TV ad tonight. It broadly attacks Congress for protecting Big Pharma while promising to fight to lower prescription drug costs.

Mark Kelly's campaign - with the biggest campaign war-chest in the country - is spending approximately $75,000 running the 30-second spot over the next couple of weeks. In it, he notes that he is not taking money from corporate PACs, "will push for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices and make cheaper generic drugs more available."

Earlier this month, Senator McSally introduced her own bill which would permit Medicare to negotiate lower prices on certain prescription drugs, among other provisions. Below the surface, the devil between her bill and what Kelly would prefer may be in the details.

A check of Open Secrets compilation of the Senator's campaign contributions over the past five years indicates that her committees have received only $65,000 from pharmaceutical industry PACs - a mere rounding error in the $12.4M she has received during that period.

The healthcare and prescription drugs issue is sure to be on the minds of many voters after this pandemic crisis subsides and November gets closer.

Here is the new ad:



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MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: Arizona's Senators Agree On One Thing Today - Their Swimming Colleague Was "Absolutely Irresponsible"

11:05am: Arizona's two Senators agree about at least one thing: their colleague was "absolutely irresponsible" for using the Senate gym and pool yesterday as he was awaiting his Covid-19 test results. Confronted with the news about Rand Paul's Sunday workout, Kyrsten Sinema (D) took to Twitter - a familiar venue for her during this pandemic crisis - to strongly denounce it. "I’ve never commented about a fellow Senator’s choices/actions. Never once. This, America, is absolutely irresponsible. You cannot be near other people while waiting for coronavirus test results. It endangers others & likely increases the spread of the virus."

Last night, Martha McSally (R) tweeted her complete agreement. "I couldn't agree more @kyrstensinema. As we ask all Americans to sacrifice their livelihoods and alter their behavior to save lives, we must ourselves model appropriate #coronavirus behavior. No one is too important to disregard guidance to self-quarantine pending test results."

11:00am: Senator Sinema's explanation for her "no" vote: "We must get 2 things done in this legislative package: 🔘Help small businesses, which are 94% of all Arizona businesses 🔘 Funding for our health system so we can take care of Arizonans with coronavirus I'm urging Congressional leaders to get this done immediately for Arizona.

We must get 2 things done in this legislative package:

🔘Help small businesses, which are 94% of all Arizona businesses

🔘 Funding for our health system so we can take care of Arizonans with coronavirus

I'm urging Congressional leaders to get this done immediately for Arizona.

— Kyrsten Sinema (@SenatorSinema) March 23, 2020

Still "No Deal"; Arizona Senators Again Split Along Party Lines On Moving Forward With 3rd Coronavirus Relief Package
10:55am: A new cloture vote this morning - still taking place - is yielding the same results. Arizona's Senators split along party lines, and the vote is not going to receive the necessary 60 votes to close debate. The vote in progress is currently 39-31.

Arizona's two Senators both voted their party lines on whether or not to move forward with Congress's 3rd coronavirus relief package. The cloture motion needed 60 votes; it failed 47-47.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for blowing up a deal he believed had been reached, while Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blamed McConnell for moving forward before the deal was reached. Schumer says the $1.4T package still has "many problems."

Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D) voted against closing debate, while Sen. Martha McSally (R) voted "aye".

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INCENDIARY REMARKS: McSally Says China Should Forfeit $1 Trillion In U.S. Treasury Notes, As "Part Of Their Accountability For This Virus" (WATCH)

In incendiary remarks, Arizona Senator Martha McSally suggested this evening that China should forfeit $1T in U.S. Treasury notes and bonds that they hold, as "part of their accountability for this virus."

Speaking on Fox Business Network, McSally (R-AZ) launched into her attack when asked whether people should be "dialing back" on their criticism of China in order to work with them regarding needed medical supplies. "I've never trusted a communist, as a general rule," McSally began.

She then fired another round, stating that China's current actions and statements are "like an arsonist lighting a fire and then coming to help to put it out, wanting to be the hero. And there's a lot of propaganda around it that our mainstream media should not be repeating. We have a trillion dollars of debt with China - they should forgive it as a part of their accountability to this virus."

She sidestepped an effort to get her to comment on the possibility that the virus got out of a Chinese lab, but the Senator's comments fit in with the President's concerted effort to brand the virus as Chinese. (The World Health Organization says they work hard to name a virus so that it is NOT associated with a particular nation or group.)

WATCH below:
*If the embedded video is (still) not working, you can go to this page.

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AZ Political Groups, Elected Officials Running Digital Ads Regarding Current Coronavirus Crisis

One Arizona Congresswoman and three Arizona political groups are currently running coronavirus-related ads on Facebook. Nationally, Republican elected officials are more likely (than their Democratic counterparts) to be running such ads while Democratic-leaning groups are more likely than GOP groups; that pattern holds true in Arizona.

Advertising Analytics reports that Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-CD8) is the only member of Arizona's delegation to be running such ads. Hers - a sample included at right - seek to steer people to like her Congressional Facebook page in order to receive updates. Her office has spent $2,670 in the past week, according to Facebook.

The ad tracking firm also reports that a trio of Democratic-leaning groups focused on Arizona are running ads. The dark money group Advancing Arizona exists to hammer Sen. Martha McSally before November's special

election has spent more than $15,000 on Facebook this week. The ad to the left is the one using the current crisis to make a larger point on healthcare.

Progress Now Arizona and Opportunity Arizona are running ads aimed at the statewide level, promoting paid sick leave, expanded unemployed benefits and other measures that could be taken to address the crisis.




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PUBLIC MARK-UP: Text of Senate Republicans' New "CARES Act" (Coronavirus Relief); PLEASE READ and HELP "Mark It Up"

Here is the text of what could be Congress' third Coronavirus relief measure. It was introduced this afternoon by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, along with a few other GOP Senators.

It is a 247-page measure, and we cannot study it alone. So, we are posting it here and asking for you to notify us of portions in the bill that should gain public attention. Drop us an email (Info@ArizonasPolitics.com) or direct message us on Twitter (@AZs_Politics). Give us the page number, the section, your name, and why you believe it to be noteworthy.

We will then be able to highlight your submissions, and open them up for further public discussion.

*
Here is initial article from CNN to get you started, and Sen. McConnell's comments.

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BREAKING: Arizona's Biggs, Lesko Vote Against Emergency Coronavirus Response Package

Two of Arizona's three (voting*) Republican Representatives voted tonight against the emergency coronavirus response package. The compromise package agreed to by President Donald Trump passed  363-40.

 Representatives Andy Biggs (R-CD5) and Debbie Lesko (R-CD8) were among the 40 Republicans to vote "nay". Rep. David Schweikert (R-CD6) cast his "aye" vote along with 39 other GOP members and all of the Democrats.

Rep. Lesko indicated that she voted "nay" because she "could not in good conscience vote for a 100-plus page bill that neither I nor my staff had an opportunity to read or review." Rep. Biggs has not yet commented.

Neither nay voter has yet issued an explanation of their decision.

The measure was held up until after midnight, as Republicans were waiting for the President to signal that he would sign it if sent to his desk. The Senate is expected to take up the measure on Monday.

UPDATE: Here is a copy of the bill that the House passed last night, courtesy of the Minority Leader's Office. For quick comparison purposes, we have screen-shotted the "Table of Contents" from the initially-proposed bill and the version that passed last night, below: 

Initial table of contents, with the amended below that:

UPDATE, 8:00am: We have added Rep. Lesko's explanation of her no vote.

*Rep. Paul Gosar remains in self-quarantine. Representatives Raul Grijalva and Ann Kirkpatrick were also not present for the vote.

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BREAKING: AG Heads To Court To Stop M.C. Recorder Fontes From Mailing Ballots For Tuesday

Early today, Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes announced that he would mail out ballots for Tuesday's Presidential Preference Election as an anti-coronoavirus measure. The ballots could then be dropped off on Tuesday, thus avoiding extra contact with poll workers.

Late this afternoon, the Attorney General's Office asked Maricopa County Superior Court to issue an injunction preventing Fontes from mailing the ballots.

“The Maricopa County Recorder cannot unilaterally rewrite state election laws,” said Attorney General Mark Brnovich. “Fontes is creating chaos in our elections during an already difficult time. In times of crisis, the public looks to our elected officials to follow the law -- not make reactionary decisions for political gain.”

#BREAKING @RecorderFontes is mailing ballots to all remaining Democrats not on the Permanent Early Voting List.

Says there is a lack of cleaning supplies available to meet the needs of all Maricopa county polling places. pic.twitter.com/Ptm8vXLDPx

— The AZ - abc15 - Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) March 13, 2020

 Here is the proposed Temporary Restraining Order:

Case number: CV2020-003477

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Don't Worry, Arizona Bernie Supporters! Club For Growth Is Helping Cheer You On (WATCH, ARIZONA'S AIR WARS)

Club for Growth Action group has got your back, Arizona's Bernie Sanders supporters. The conservative organization is spending nearly $19,000 on digital ads in the state cheering on Sanders fans to not let "them steal" the Democratic nomination from the Vermont Senator. The kicker? "And if they do, remember in November."

While similar games have been played in the past, the ad is a brazen, in-the-open effort to sow discord in the Democratic party ahead of the general election - following the playbook used by Russian interests in the 2016 election.

The independent expenditure filing with the Federal Election Commission shows the Club spending $18,765 producing, promoting and running the digital ad in Arizona ahead of next Tuesday's Democratic Presidential Preference Election here. It notes that they will also be running it nationwide, but the total national expenditure is not included.

Here is the digital ad that Arizonans may be seeing.



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BREAKING: At Last Minute, Biden and His SuperPAC Flood Arizona Airwaves, But Can't Match Sanders (WATCH, ARIZONA'S AIR WAR)

Jumping in at the last minute, former VP Joe Biden and the SuperPAC supporting him are flooding Arizona airwaves ahead of Tuesday's Presidential Preference Election. Even with the $800,000 blitz, the frontrunner for the Democratic Presidential nomination probably will not catch up with the

million-dollar Bernie Sanders effort.

The Vermont Senator got a one week jump on broadcast TV in both Phoenix and Tucson, and will have spent approximately $1,100,000 in 30-second chunks - on both English and Spanish language stations.

Yesterday, the revivified Biden campaign bought some time on the Spanish language stations, as well. That was followed up with contracts to spend $461,000 on Phoenix's English language TV, and approximately $100,000 in Tucson.

The Unite the Country SuperPAC supporting Biden bought more than $300,000 of airtime to show its 30-second spot praising Biden as a uniter and refuting "attacks" by Sanders. (Their ad is below.)

Arizona is the smallest of the four states voting on St. Patrick's Day, but is one of three that are considered as key battlegrounds in November against incumbent President Donald Trump.




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BREAKING: Rep. Schweikert Joins Dems To Pass Resolution Ending Hostilities With Iran (ARIZONA'S POLITICAL SHORTS)

4:00pm: Arizona Rep. David Schweikert (R-CD6) joined 5 other Republicans and most Democrats this afternoon in passing a resolution requiring President Donald Trump to get approval from Congress before engaging in further hostilities with Iran. The measure goes to the President's desk

for an expected veto.

The resolution passed the House, 227-186. The rest of Arizona's delegation voted along party lines. (Rep. Gosar is in his house in self-quarantine.) Last month in the Senate, Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally also voted along party lines as it passed, 55-45.  Neither vote indicates an ability to override a veto.

Rep. Schweikert has not yet commented on his "aye" vote.

Here is the text of the resolution.


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Sen. McSally Queries CBP About Coronavirus Preparedness At the Border, As Trump Admin Contemplates Border Closure

Arizona Senator Martha McSally lead a letter Friday to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) about its preparedness to stop the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) over the U.S.-Mexico border. This came the same day that the Administration told a conservative conference that it was looking at "ways to bar entry" due to the public health crisis.

The letter (below) from McSally (R-AZ) and the two Republican Senators from Texas focuses on concern about the virus being spread by people crossing into the U.S. across the border. "As southern border Senators, we are concerned about the possible spread of the coronavirus across our borders. We are similarly concerned about recent reports that the virus is spreading in Europe. Border shortcomings by the European Union have resulted in the spread of the virus across a number of nations, and it is essential that the United States not repeat these mistakes. We write to ask how your agency is prepared to address the threat presented by the coronavirus at U.S. borders.”

The letter goes on to ask about whether CBP has enough test kits, whether it is prepared for an outbreak at a detention facility, can it meet staffing needs if stricter screenings are necessary, etc. The Senators ask for an update "this week".

Also on Friday, Acting Deputy Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security Ken Cucinelli told the conservatives gathered at the annual CPAC conference that COVID-19 "adds a new wrinkle to the crisis" at the border "where we have to look at ways to bar entry."

Reuters reported exclusively the following day that DHS is "considering imposing entry restrictions."

Here's Cucinelli's response to the question at CPAC.

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