November 20, 2018 10:32 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (November 20)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Dia de la Revolución! It’s time to Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► In a twist of irony that is almost too ridiculous to comprehend, Ivanka Trump is under fire for using her personal email account to conduct official White House business.

Read that sentence again.

As Chris Cillizza explains for CNN, Ivanka’s response is absolutely absurd:

Faced with a Washington Post report that Ivanka Trump had regularly used a private email account to conduct government business in 2017, the explanation from her side went like this: She didn’t know that was wrong! [Pols emphasis]

I’m not kidding…

…How could Ivanka Trump have not known — even prior to the White House providing her “guidance” — that using a private email account to conduct official business was a giant no-no?

As you may remember, the central attack by Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign centered on her decision to use a private email account and server while serving as secretary of state. Trump insisted that Clinton was not being fully transparent about why she used a private email server for government business — and used that as a foothold into a broader questioning of whether the former secretary of state could be trusted with the nation’s top job.

Lock her up?

The House Oversight Committee plans to investigate Ivanka Trump’s use of a personal email account for government business, because of course it should.

► Gun violence erupted in multiple cities on Monday, including in Denver, where 1 person was killed and four others injured in a shooting near Coors Field.

► A federal judge issued another defeat to President Trump on Monday. From the Washington Post:

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from denying asylum to migrants who crossed the southern border illegally, saying the president violated a “clear command” from Congress to allow them to apply.

In a ruling late Monday, U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar of San Francisco issued a nationwide restraining order barring enforcement of the policy announced by President Trump on Nov. 8, which he billed as an urgent attempt to halt the flow of thousands of asylum-seeking families across the border each month.

The rule pursued by the Trump administration would allow only people who cross at legal checkpoints to request asylum. Those entering elsewhere would be able to seek a temporary form of protection that is harder to win and doesn’t yield full citizenship. The changes would amount to a transformation of long-established asylum procedures, codified both at the international level and by Congress.

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post picks up on this thread in relation to the big scary caravan of brown people that Trump warned us about before the election:

We are now learning that the troops President Trump sent to the southern border are already being brought home, even as the first migrants in the “caravan” begin to arrive. In case you doubt that this whole exercise was a campaign stunt, note that since the election, Trump himself has gone oddly quiet about what he previously claimed was a national emergency.

Here’s the key part:

But for our purposes here, there’s something remarkable buried deep in the decision: The judge warns that Trump’s proclamation and the interim rule that went with it actually claim for Trump the authority to shut down the southern border to any and all asylum-seeking.

As one immigration attorney explains in Sargent’s story, the judge in this case is sounding “a constitutional alarm bell.”

► The 2020 election cycle can officially begin now that The Big Line 2020 is online.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Congressman Ed Perlmutter (D-Jefferson County) is among a group of Democrats who signed their name to a letter opposing Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker. From Politico:

Sixteen Democrats vowed Monday to oppose Nancy Pelosi for speaker on the House floor, throwing the California Democrat’s bid to reclaim the gavel in serious jeopardy.

In a highly anticipated letter that went public Monday, the Democrats praised Pelosi as “a historic figure” but argued that it is time for change at the top.

“Our majority came on the backs of candidates who said that they would support new leadership because voters in hard-won districts, and across the country, want to see real change in Washington,” the group of Democrats said in the letter. “We promised to change the status quo, and we intend to deliver on that promise.”

The show of force underscores the depth of the challenge facing Pelosi, who has led the caucus for 16 years. Pelosi needs 218 votes among lawmakers present and voting to be elected speaker on Jan. 3. House Democrats have won 233 seats, meaning Pelosi can currently afford to lose only 15 votes.

Perlmutter has not been shy about his belief that Democrats need new leadership. In November 2016, Perlmutter supported Rep. Tim Ryan for House Minority Leader instead of Pelosi.

► According to AAA Colorado, roughly 930,000 Coloradans will travel at least 50 miles during the Thanksgiving holiday — the highest travel volume for Thanksgiving since 2005.

► Colorado Republicans are divided on how to regroup following an electoral beatdown of historical proportions in 2018. It seems to be clear, however, that President Trump is death for the Colorado GOP.

► Grumbling over a particular appointment on Democrat Jared Polis’ transition team for Governor is a bit overstated.

► As Politico reports, a mass exodus of senior officials from the Justice Department is a real concern for immigration hardliners:

According to more than a half-dozen former and current administration officials, at least four top officials — mostly Sessions loyalists — have either quit or are eyeing the exit as they await Trump’s decision on who will succeed their former boss, who implemented and vigorously defended even Trump’s most controversial immigration policies.

Among those leaving are Danielle Cutrona, a senior counsel to Sessions who had been with him since his Senate days. She departed DOJ last Friday. Rachael Tucker, a senior counselor to the attorney general, could also exit “in the next couple of months,” citing her fidelity to Sessions, or possibly take another job within the agency, said two sources close to the situation. Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeff Wood, another former Sessions Senate staffer, may also soon make an exit, according to one senior administration official.

And while the White House could find another strident immigration hawk to lead DOJ and name ideologically similar aides, several of the names being floated for attorney general — such as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and George H.W. Bush-era Attorney General Bill Barr — represent a more GOP establishment line on the subject.

► President Trump’s decision to criticize the military leader who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden is (unsurprisingly) not going over well at all.

► A county official in Kansas who made remarks in favor of a “master race” at a public meeting has resigned from his position.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► President Trump, Raker-in-Chief.

► President Trump is in the middle of a Twitter war with Pakistan. While annoying, this is significantly better than any other sort of war. 

ICYMI

► The 2018 election was another example of the power of gerrymandering.

► “Radicalifornia” really didn’t work in Colorado.

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