Say, where are those new sanctions on Iran? The White House was said last week to be considering new, non-nuclear sanctions against Iran in response to the anti-government and anti-regime protests—and the violent response by government forces. The administration last week did sanction five subsidiaries of an Iranian industrial group that together manufacture ballistic missiles. The parent company, Shahid Bakeri, was already under U.S. sanction. But will there be more? As Bill Kristol noted Tuesday, there seems to be little sense of urgency from Washington in capitalizing on the Iran protests to make a change.
I’m told to expect some kind of announcement on new sanctions at the same time President Trump makes a decision about whether to renew waivers on a number of nuclear-related sanctions, the deadlines for which are this week. The idea is to draw a distinction between waiving the sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program, as part of the 2015 nuclear agreement, and new actions to send a message about Tehran’s repression of its citizens.
One More Thing—The president has not yet made a decision on whether to continue waiving those sanctions, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday. “A couple months ago, he said he needed to see action in Congress and from American allies.”
“Has he seen enough of that action?” asked Olivier Knox of Yahoo! News. “Senator [Bob] Corker is under the impression that it’s possible there’s been enough progress on the legislative fix, at least, that the president might be willing to not re-impose sanctions.”
“We haven’t made a final decision on that,” Sanders replied.
Mark It Down—“It doesn’t affect the U.S. participation in the Olympics.” —Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House press secretary, on the news that North Korea would send a delegation to the upcoming Winter Olympics in Seoul, January 9, 2018
Photo of the Day
Donald Trump presides over a meeting about immigration with Republican and Democrat members of Congress in the Cabinet Room at the White House January 9, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham called it the “most fascinating meeting I’ve been involved with in 20-plus years in politics.” Graham was referring to Tuesday’s bipartisan confab at the White House, where members of the House and Senate discussed a way forward on a border wall, border security, and a legislative fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which the administration is winding down.
Part of what made it fascinating was the fact that the White House press pool was allowed to witness it for nearly an hour as Republican and Democratic lawmakers both discussed the issues with Trump. So the public was able to see Trump preside over an extended negotiation, making the president’s case for his own stability, if not necessarily his genius.
But what did the White House and lawmakers agree to? It’s not clear. There was some confusion, for instance, when Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein suggested a “clean” DACA fix giving legal status to most program participants, then dealing with border enforcement in a comprehensive immigration reform package later.
“I have no problem,” Trump responded to Feinstein. “We’re going to come up with DACA. We’re going to do DACA, and then we can start immediately on the phase two, which would be comprehensive.”
“I would like to do it,” he added when pressed on the question of doing a clean DACA bill. House majority leader Kevin McCarthy interjected to pull back from the idea of a clean amnesty that did not address border security and ending chain migration, two Republican goals that GOP leaders had hoped to negotiate with in exchange for the DACA fix. Trump eventually agreed to a “phase one” of DACA and security measures, with “phase 2” being “comprehensive immigration reform”—the bête noire for immigration conservatives.
Whatever confusion there was seems to have been hammered out after the press left the room, according to the White House. “During the closed-door portion of the meeting, they reached an agreement to negotiate legislation that accomplishes critically needed reforms in four high-priority areas: border security, chain migration, the visa lottery, and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders in a statement.
But questions remain about whether both parties can come together on an agreement and if that agreement will come in the form of the upcoming funding package, the deadline for which is January 19.
Bannon Watch—Former White House aide and Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon has stepped down from the right-wing news organization. My colleague Andrew Egger has more:
Bannon Watch, Part II—Jonathan V. Last has a terrific look on our website at what Breitbart’s ouster of Bannon says about ideas vs. power. Give it a read here.
On the President’s Schedule—President Trump will attend the World Economic Forum, an annual conference of wealthy individuals and other members of the global elite, in Davos, Switzerland. The forum will take place this year from January 23 to 26.
Song of the Day— “Lonely Boy” by the Black Keys
