Reddit Politics Summary Monday Dec 25th 17

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This is a digest of the top posts on reddit/r/politics over the last 24 hours.
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President Trump Spent Nearly One-Third of First Year in Office at Trump-Owned Properties

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Donald Trump's former top strategist Steve Bannon called to testify in Russia probe

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• The invitation, which did not come in the form of a subpoena forcing them to testify, was for a "voluntary interview" in the committee’s offices, which means it would be held behind closed doors, the official said.
• Nix faced questions about whether he sought material from WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange that was stolen from computers of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, who managed Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
• Lewandowski has said publicly he does not recall whether he received emails from Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty in early October to lying to federal agents about his outreach to Russia.

Republican Senate Starting to Block Trump Nominees

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• Scott Garrett, R-N.J., to lead the Export-Import Bank, with Republicans Tim Scott of South Carolina and Mike Rounds of South Dakota joining Democrats to vote him down.
• Petersen’s decision followed last week’s news that Brett Talley, a nominee to be a district judge in Alabama, was withdrawing his nomination after the Judiciary Committee had already sent his bid for the bench to the floor and offered to withdraw his nomination.

Trump’s Tweets About FBI Could Be Witness Intimidation, Former White House Lawyers Say

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• In the same tweet, the president also resurfaced a claim that McCabe received $700,000 from "puppets" of Hillary Clinton, a reference to a state senate campaign in which McCabe’s wife received $675,288 in contributions from two entities associated with Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton ally. In a tweet on December 23, Trump repeated a previous claim that Comey leaked a memo to a friend to pass along to a reporter.
• The FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller are investigating Trump’s 2016 campaign, including whether Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey in May—and it’s possible that Comey, McCabe and Baker could be witnesses in that probe.
• In May, Trump tweeted about Yates the day she was testifying about Russia before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, "Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Counsel." The president has also tweeted negatively about Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, both of whom could be witnesses to an obstruction of justice probe, as Ryan wrote. Trump’s tweeting about former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, whom he fired in January, might have also involved intimidation, Hannah Ryan has written for Just Security, a national security law and policy online forum.

Sally Yates: Watch out for ghosts at Mar-a-Lago

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• Many of Trump’s attacks have focused on McCabe, who is also a target of Trump allies in Congress.

Trump has spent almost one-third of presidency at one of his properties

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Poverty Is Both a Political and a Moral Choice Made By the Powerful

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• For two weeks this past autumn, Professor Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, sought to find out, traveling over the U.S. to assess the state of extreme poverty in this country and its impact on human rights. His report, published in mid-December by the Office of the UN’s High Commissioner of Human Rights, pulls the curtains on the illusions this country cherishes about itself and reveals the startling truth about where we stand and where we are headed.
• Wherever he went Alston met people living at the edge of survival: homeless people on Skid Row in Los Angeles; unemployed workers forced into unpayable debt; families and communities devastated by the scourge of drug addiction; people who lost all their teeth because they did not have access to dental care.
• Policies stacked against the poor are, according to the report, driven by "caricatured narratives about the purported innate differences between the rich and poor." The rich are depicted as industrious and responsible, the poor as wasters, losers, and scammers.

White college grads' distaste for Trump hurt GOP in 2017. Will they flip control of Congress to Democrats in 2018?

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• Still, it’s Republicans like Gale and Brenda Fraser, a recently retired Summerlin couple, that Heller and others in the party need to fear.The Frasers, both 63, wince at the derogatory things Trump says about Muslims, they don’t appreciate his call for firing football players who take a knee during the national anthem, and they were turned off by his support for Roy Moore after the Alabama Senate hopeful was accused of sexual assault. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Darrell Issa of Vista are two of the Democrats’ top targets for 2018.It also puts at risk the Republicans’ one-vote majority in the Senate.Heller is widely seen as the party’s most vulnerable senator, and his reelection in this closely divided state depends on convincing white voters in upscale swing suburbs like Summerlin that Trump’s shortcomings should not be held against the senator. CAPTION Former national security advisor Michael Flynn said Friday he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI because his actions were wrong and he wanted to "set things right." Former national security advisor Michael Flynn said Friday he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI because his actions were wrong and he wanted to "set things right." CAPTION Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore speaks on Sept. White college graduates in America’s suburbs have turned hard against Republicans in elections around the country and threaten to upend the party’s control of Congress in the 2018 midterm elections.Put off by Donald Trump’s presidency, they have been shunning Republicans in congressional and state legislative contests.

How about health care as a gift for kids — let's pass CHIP this season

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• The father works seasonally as a construction worker and while they can afford private insurance in the summer, they rely on CHIP to provide coverage in the winter when he is not insured.
• As he grows, this child will also need early intervention services for physical and occupational therapy, as well as social work support, daily medications and multiple visits to the hospital during his childhood years.
• To be sure, everything that a society chooses to provide as a basic right or a safety net has a cost that must be met by generation of revenue.

The "What happened in your state last week?" Megathread, Week 52

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• Welcome to the 'What happened in your state last week' thread, where you can post any local political news stories that you find important in the comments. Since this is intended to be a thread about local politics, top-level comments that are exclusively about national issues will not be allowed.
• Speaking of November, Kyrsten Sinema, Ward's presumed opponent, voted Yes on the government continuing resolution despite lack of a DACA pledge or DREAM ACT legislation.