Check out Monday’s newsletter!
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Top Stories
Trump Hits Back At Meryl Streep In Early-Morning Tweetstorm
The Gist: Donald Trump on Monday continued his morning ritual of publishing several tweets responding to his critics, this time lashing out at actress Meryl Streep, who criticized the President-elect in her speech at the Golden Globes award ceremony on Sunday night.
Five Points On Where The Obamacare Repeal Saga Stands Right Now
The Gist: What once was a campaign slogan now must be done, but jamming the bill through could come with unintended consequences rank-and-file Republicans are waking up to. We list five major tension points that have emerged as Republicans debate their Obamacare repeal plan.
Obama Takes ‘Some Responsibility’ For Significant Democratic Losses
The Gist: During an interview that aired Sunday morning on ABC’s “This Week,” President Obama said that he takes “some responsibility” for the Democratic losses in elections over the past few years.
From The Reporter’s Notebook
A subcontractor that worked on Donald Trump’s new luxury Washington, D.C. hotel has filed a lien claiming that the Trump Organization and its construction manager have not paid it almost $2.1 million, TPM’s Matt Shuham wrote Friday. Tim Miller, the executive vice president of AES Electrical told The Washington Post his claim was not meant to be political. “We’re not in this for any sort of political reasons,” Miller told the Post. “We have no ax to grind, political or otherwise. We’re a business. We have 700 employees that we pay every week. We have bills. We are effectively financing this work, and we don’t think it’s right. That’s really it.”
Agree or Disagree?
Josh Marshall: “Whether these senators will stick to their guns and effectively block repeal absent replacement I don’t know. I’d say be skeptical. But it highlights another point. These used to be very Democratic states, in significant measure because they’re generally poor and benefit a lot from federal programs like Obamacare – and earlier ones like Social Security, Medicare and so forth. Both have shifted hard to the GOP as cultural and social issues have grown more salient and as the urban/rural divide has aligned more closely with partisanship.”
Say What?!
“Joe if me asking @wikileaks questions is so repulsive why did you use that information on your low rated show?”
– Two modest cable news egos were at each other’s throats Friday after MSNBC’s Joe Scarbough said Fox News’ Sean Hannity’s interview with Julian Assange was “repulsive.” Hannity, naturally, fought back.
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “Even if you think of it as a zero sum financial gain for society, there are a lot of positive externalities for having a universal health care system—the easiest to understand is that sick people with infectious conditions not being treated is a risk to everyone, but our general economic productivity also improves when people are healthier and there is a general loss of productivity when people go bankrupt due to health care costs. Are there negative externalities for universal health care—perhaps you could say that having universal health care might encourage unhealthy behaviour.”
Related: Only one in five Americans agrees with the current Republican plan of repealing Obamacare without details of a replacement, a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found.
Have something to add? Become a Prime member and join the discussion here.
What We’re Reading
An Investigation Into The “Liberal Tears” Mug (The Outline)
A Selection of the 30 Most Disappointing Under 30 (The New Yorker)
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