CNN Was Doing Its Best “This Is The Day Trump Truly Became President" Again

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer heaped praise on President Trump and his administration for opening an immigration reform meeting to the press on yesterday.  Blitzer spoke with Marc Short, White House Director of Legislative Affairs saying, “Thank you for allowing that meeting today to be open to our TV cameras.  I think it was very important, very productive.  Glad that we got to see the President and the Republicans and Democrats in action.  Keep doing it.”  Short affirmed, “We’ll keep doing it, Wolf.”

What was supposed to be a pool spray at the beginning of the meeting turned into a 55-minute discussion between Democrat and Republican lawmakers as the press watched.

Some journalists remarked they couldn’t remember a president ever inviting members of the press to watch negotiations before.  Steve Peoples who covers politics for The Associated Press and Paul Singer, an editor/reporter for USA Today tweeted:

Trump smart for opening immigration discussion to press. Public gets to see deal making POTUS at his best.

— Steve Peoples (@sppeoples) January 9, 2018

Also: I have covered Washington/politics for 2 decades. I have NEVER seen a president invite the press in to film negotiations with Congress.

— Paul Singer (@singernews) January 9, 2018

Former toadie and Senior Advisor for Strategy and Communications for The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer, Dan Pfeiffer, became super pissed and fired off a tweet at the suggestion his “master” had not been adequately credited with the same transparency.

Obama did this with the House GOP conference in 2010 on health care on live TV. He would have done it every year, but the GOP refused to let cameras back in ever again https://t.co/eGP5y76WoT

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) January 9, 2018

Pfeiffer conveniently forgot during the 2008 campaign Obama often promised to put health care reform negotiations on C-SPAN so the public could see and comment on the demands made by various players.

Perhaps what Pfeiffer is directing our attention to is the so-called 2010 Health Care Summit at the Blair House located across from the White House.  It was there he indignantly squabbled with John McCain.

McCain complained of "unsavory" deal making to get Obamacare passed in the Senate, including promises to give special deals to residents of Louisiana, Nebraska and Florida.

He pointed to several issues, including the PhRMA deal and a provision mandating $100 million for a Connecticut hospital, asking "why should that happen?"

"People are angry. We promised them change in Washington and what we got was a process that you and I both said we would change," McCain said.

A visibly annoyed Obama immediately responded saying, "We can spend the remainder of the time with our respective talking points going back and forth. We were supposed to be talking about insurance. We're not campaigning anymore," he told McCain. "The election's over." 

 

After weeks of denials from the White House that the health care reform effort failed to exhibit the transparency Obama promised on the campaign trail, he conceded locking the public out of key discussions was a “mistake.”

“We had to make so many decisions quickly in a very difficult set of circumstances that after a while, we started worrying more about getting the policy right than getting the process right. But I had campaigned on process—part of what I had campaigned on was changing how Washington works, opening up, transparency. ...The health care debate as it unfolded legitimately raised concerns not just among my opponents, but also amongst supporters that we just don't know what's going on. And it's an ugly process and it looks like there are a bunch of back room deals.”

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer in a statement yesterday on the immigration meeting:

“Today’s meeting at the White House was a positive step forward in that everyone in the room agreed that we must take action on DACA immediately; however, the statement issued by the White House is inaccurate. Republicans put forward their four priority areas, but our priority remains the same:  ensuring that DREAMers can remain in the only country they’ve ever called home. I was pleased that the President agreed that we need to address DACA now, and I hope that we can come together to quickly reach an agreement on legislation that will pass the House and Senate and be signed into law."

A Bill Clinton-appointed federal judge, William Alsup, issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday night following the meeting President Trump held earlier in the day ordering DHS to resume accepting renewal applications from people already protected under DACA (Obama’s name for amnesty).

"I'm appealing to everyone in the room to put the country before Party, and to sit down and negotiate and to compromise, and let's see if we can get something done."─President Trump January 9, 2018