Another dysfunctional and combative week in the Trump era

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By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann

WASHINGTON – The week has begun with President Trump, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer welcoming progress on infrastructure. (Yes, the week of infrastructure is finally here!)

And that ends after Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, charges the Attorney General of the United States with lying to Congress. (Oh no, there's Infrastructure Week!)

That should not mention yet another potential Trump candidate – this time, a possible choice from the Fed, Stephen Moore – that goes from "swiftly" to a challenging position in a matter of hours.

This whiplash – including Trump's "It's time to go back to work" tweet this morning – highlights the government dysfunction of the Trump era.

And all the political struggle that goes with it.

It is difficult for a president to negotiate in good faith when his administration does not see Congress as a branch of government on an equal footing.

It is also difficult for Democratic leaders to sell bipartite contracts to their ranks after what has happened in the past two years.

The bare minimum on Capitol Hill is achieved – and even that becomes a real lift. (Do you remember the longest government stop in American history?)

And, yes, Trump fills more vacancies in the court and takes more executive action.

But everything else? It's as dysfunctional as possible.

NYT: The FBI sent an investigator to meet with Trump's assistant in 2016

The advancement of this New York Times story is really appealing:

"The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting in front of George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign advisor, asked a direct question: was the Trump campaign working with Russia?"

"The woman had organized the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator pretending to be a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. "

But it is this part at the end that will probably trigger President Trump's next tweet: The FBI has invited an informant to attend the Trump White House meetings.

"[Evan Halper] was invited as a member of a group of Chinese experts to meet the White House advisers in 2017. Mr. Halper informed the F.B.I. of the invitation but received no indication, said people familiar with this episode. "

"The group met briefly with Peter Navarro, the president's most senior sales representative, who had interviewed Mr. Halper years earlier at Mr. Halper's home in Virginia for a documentary. According to Axios, the administration also considered Mr. Halper as ambassador. "

Vision 2020: the center has held – until now

Despite all the talk about socialism in the Democratic Party and the attention paid to such personalities as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the center has remained in the race for the Dem Presidency. 2020.

Joe Biden is leading the polls.

Many Dem candidates, like Biden, Amy Klobuchar and newcomer Michael Bennet, promise a public option on health care instead of a single payer.

And Pete Buttigieg says that free university courses are not progressive because they benefit the most fortunate in society.

This does not mean that Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren will not win the Dem nomination, they could very well.

And that does not mean that the Democratic Party as a whole is much more liberal and progressive than it was in 2016 – that's fine.

But if your litmus tests are medicare for all, free college and pragmatism versus progressivism, the field is much more ideologically diverse than it was two months ago.

In campaign

Today & # 39; hui: The Elizabeth Warren strains in Ames, Iowa … John Hickenlooper is in New Hampshire … Beto O'Rourke and Pete Buttigieg are both in Texas … And Kamala Harris raises funds in California.

Saturday: Warren, Bernie Sanders, Beto O'Rourke and Amy Klobuchar in the Hawkeye State Campaign … O Rourke also delivers an opening speech in Dallas … Hickenlooper stays in New Hampshire … Joe Biden travels in South Carolina … And Buttigieg is raising money in the Lone Star State.

Sunday: Warren, Sanders and O'Rourke stay in Iowa … Biden stays in South Carolina … And Harris speaks at a dinner organized by the NAACP in Detroit, Michigan.

Data Download: The number of days is … 62

Sixty-two.

This is the number of people appointed by the administration that Trump has withdrawn since taking office, according to data provided to POLITICO by the Partnership for Public Service.

And this is just the official count of those officially appointed at the start, which does not include those who withdrew from the debate earlier in the nomination process.

The number of candidates has more than doubled compared to the number of candidates (30). President Barack Obama has retired at this stage of his presidency.

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