For the first time since the Federal Election Commission was created in 1975, President Trump is poised to name all six members, reviving the politically divided agency and steering members, especially free-ranging Democrats, off soap boxes and back to their jobs.
While Democrat Ann Ravel recently announced her intent to resign in the coming days, she is reportedly not the only commissioner looking to move on from the agency. Other commissioners, according to insiders, are exploring leaving, retirement or taking jobs within the Trump administration.
All but Ravel, who made headlines for pushing regulation of Internet speech and political sites, are serving on expired six-year terms and can be replaced at any time by Trump.
Typically, commissioner names are suggested by the sitting president and Senate leader on the other political side. By law, the commission is split, three Democrats and three Republicans.
But experts said Trump could shake up the process, especially since his top White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, was a commissioner. He pushed several issues that irked Democrats, including deregulating campaign finance.
Trump can’t pick a Republican for the Democratic seats, but he can go with an independent or moderate and is sure to look for a change from liberals Ravel and fellow Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, who recently has gone on a campaign to demand from the president proof of voter fraud, an issue outside the FEC’s authority.
Weintraub, whose term expired a decade ago, could have the biggest target on her. Besides challenging Trump, and claiming “I will not be silenced” for her push on voter fraud, she and Ravel attacked McGahn in the New York Times when Trump named him.
“It is expected that Don McGahn will have significant input into who the Republican nominees are, and Chuck Schumer will likely have a leading role in picking the Democratic nominees. But because Republican leader Mitch McConnell cares about FEC issues, too, I wouldn’t rule his input out,” said one election law expert.
Trump is expected to focus on potential commissioners with views more in tune with McGahn, and less likely to tangle with issues outside the FEC’s authority or push the pet projects of Ravel and Weintraub.
Media vs. Trump: 33 ‘fake news’ stories in 33 days
President Trump’s claim that he has been the subject of false and “fake news” stories has been mocked by an eye-rolling media, but a Washington Secrets analysis of Trump coverage reveals that Team Trump has been hit with an average of one false, distorted or denied story a day.
Starting on the eve of Inauguration Day and going through last week, at least 33 widely reported “fake” stories have run about the president and his team.
They range from singer Nancy Sinatra denying a CNN report that she wasn’t happy the president and first lady danced to her dad’s “My Way” to a CBS report that the president packed a CIA audience with cheering staffers. The media went 0-2.
“It never ceases to amaze me the lengths to which the mainstream media conjures up fake news,” said White House spokesman Sean Spicer.
In our list (see it online), a majority — 23 — were false stories. Another four were denied, like a New York Times report about the president hanging out in a bathrobe in the early evenings watching TV. And six were distorted reports, like a Washington Post report on how Trump violated the “sacrosanct” CIA Memorial Wall in giving a speech there. So did former President Barack Obama.
Of course, the president has been fact-challenged, too, like when he suggested his Electoral College victory was the widest since former President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 blowout of Democrat Walter Mondale. NBC White House correspondent Peter Alexander tweeted, “Not true. Pres Obama won 332 in 2012.”
FDR and first pup Fala inspire 2017 White House ornament
There are only 301 shopping days left until Christmas, but there’s one group in Washington already helping out the most frantic shoppers — the White House Historical Association.
The nonprofit that is just steps away from the White House has revealed its 2017 annual Christmas ornament, the most popular of its kind sold by Washington agencies and groups, including the Secret Service and Pentagon.
The new ornament features Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his dog, Fala, and was inspired by the gold eagle that adorned the podium at his first inaugural address.
“For all that can be said to celebrate President Franklin Roosevelt’s life and service, it is well to pause on that morning of March 4, 1933, when he stood before thousands on the Capitol’s East Front, above the elaborate eagle reproduced on this White House ornament, and delivered one of the finest of all inaugural addresses,” White House Historian William Seale said.
Fala is on the back of the $20.95 ornament, sitting under a Christmas tree.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
