Week 7 began with Trump tweeting an unprecedented and unfounded accusation against his predecessor: that Obama wire tapped Trump Tower during the campaign. Here is how the Washington Post and the New York Times covered the story the day of the tweets.
The accusation motivated FBI Director Comey to ask the DOJ to refute the claim. These statements were not public. We only know about them because of reporting from the NYTimes, later independently confirmed by CNN. The Justice Department has declined to comment one way or the other, despite Comey’s request. However, Republicans in Congress have declined to support Trump’s wiretap claim. Suffice to say, Sean Spicer has had a tough week answering questions about all this.
Also this week, for the first time the House and Senate congressional committees investigating the 2016 election began to receive classified evidence of Russia’s involvement.
Paul Ryan rolled out his health care bill. It did not go over well. Here are some good explainers: Conservative, Obamacare critic Avik Roy offers a balanced critique; an exploration of whether Ryan’s bill is Obamacare lite; here is Vox’s Mathew Yglesias on why Republicans just aren’t very good at health care legislation; and here is Ross Douthat on Trump’s role in all of this.
There is Republican opposition to the propoposed replacement of Affordable Care Act. Republican Senator Shellie Moore Capito from WV IS ONE OF THOSE. She realizes that a lot of her constituents would loose their medical coverage.