The grade 50 plus days into the President Trump rein will be determined this week
This is by far the biggest week in the short period that President Donald Trump has been in office. He faces challenges on at least three fronts this week.
Today FBI Director James Comey is due to testify before a House panel this morning, on President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that his predecessor “wire tapped” Trump Tower during the campaign last year.
This is one of the most anticipated hearings on Capitol Hill in years and it could once and for all end the wiretapping controversy. This morning’s hearings before the House Intelligence Committee, one of several congressional panels probing allegations of Russian meddling, could allow for the greatest public accounting to date of investigations that have shadowed the Trump administration in its first two months.
President Trump faces a credibility problem if Comey comes out and says that there has been no wiretapping or any type of surveillance at Trump Tower in New York. This could be one of those situations where someone in the Trump campaign might have been under investigation for their potential ties to Russia.
Meanwhile, also this morning on Capitol Hill, some thirteen months after Antonin Scalia’s death created a vacancy on the Supreme Court, hearings get underway on President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace the conservative icon on the bench. That man is the highly respected 49-year-old Judge Neil Gorsuch, of the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. His nomination has been cheered by Republicans and praised by some left-leaning legal scholars, and Democrats head into the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Monday wondering if they should block his nomination for at least a year.
Lastly, Thursday Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) wants to take the American Health Care Act to the House floor on Thursday. The bill is meant as a replacement for Obamacare.
President Trump has backed Speaker Ryan on the replacement act and it would be a giant setback to the White House. That said it is likely that Ryan will be able to get the 216 votes needed to pass the House.
There is push-back from both the conservative and the more moderate members of Congress. But Ryan and his vote wranglers are likely to be able pass the bill but the Senate is another story.
The Senate will be a tough sell and President Trump will have to be very invested pushing the healthcare bill through the upper chamber.
So, this week will be a quick midterm grade for President Trump and his entire White House team.
