Reddit Politics Summary Monday Jan 8th 18

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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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Initial talks underway about Trump interview in Mueller Russia probe

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• Trump's legal team is seeking clarification on whether the president would be interviewed directly by Mueller, as well as the legal standard for when a president can be interviewed, the location of a possible interview, the topics and the duration.
• One individual familiar with the strategy said those internal discussions within Trump's legal team began shortly after the president's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was indicted in late October for money laundering in connection with his business dealings with Ukraine.
• In addition to the possibility of suggesting the president submit written responses in place of an interview, a second person familiar with the president's legal strategy said another possibility being contemplated was an affidavit signed by the president affirming he was innocent of any wrongdoing and denying any collusion.

Donald Trump’s lawyers don’t want Robert Mueller to interview him

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White House Staff Could be in Trouble if They Help Trump With Fake News Awards, Says Former WH Lawyer

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• President Donald Trump said he still plans to go ahead with "fake news" awards he first suggested in November and promised on Twitter to hand out Monday. However, he tweeted late Sunday that he would push back the announcement of winners to January 17.
• on misuse of position BUT YOU ARE NOT," tweeted Norm Eisen, who served as White House Special Counsel for Ethics in the Obama administration. "WARNING to White House staff: the president may be exempt from the rules at 5 CFR § 2635.701 et seq.

Fox News Host Laura Ingraham Shares Anti-Immigrant Tweet by Neo-Nazi David Duke Ally

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• one with which I am unfamiliar! It’s critical that more of us Q the authenticity of random videos on line that our followers retweet w/out verifying," she wrote. "When I ask abt the veracity of a video from a Twitter acct that posted it, I am NOT endorsing the source, esp.
• President Donald Trump in November retweeted videos posted on the social network by British ultranationalist activist Jayda Fransen, which allegedly showed Muslims committing crimes. Trump's tweets were condemned by British Prime Minister Theresa May, whom Trump then attacked for rebuking him.
• In September, Fox News host Tucker Carlson was criticized for promoting Gab on his show, a social media platform favored by the alt-right.

Report: Trump Is Seeking to Avoid Direct Mueller Interview

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White House Aides “Infuriated” as Trump Bulldozes His Own Infrastructure Plan

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• only by me." Yet after he was inexplicably elected, instead of designing a plan that could actually win Democratic support, not to mention the support of many Americans, the self-described "genius" decided to direct his energies first toward attempting to kill Obamacare and second toward passing a wildly unpopular tax bill.
• Perhaps having heard that Cohn wouldn’t commit to sticking around the White House for more than five days, on Saturday Trump pulled his economic adviser up on stage and asked, "Are you happy Gary?" "Yes, I’m happy," Cohn with all the enthusiasm of a hostage.

Senate bill to reverse net neutrality repeal gains 30th co-sponsor, ensuring floor vote

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• With Republicans in control of both the House and Senate, the bill faces long odds to win the simple majorities it needs to reach the president’s desk. But Democrats and activists see a clear upside in forcing GOP lawmakers to take an official stance during an election year on the consumer protections, which polls have shown to be popular among voters.

Whitehouse & Blumenthal Demand Immediate Release of Fusion GPS Testimony

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We tested the effects of hiding downvotes in r/politics. Here's what we learned

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• Working on a short timeline and expecting the platform to change reddit’s design any day, we assembled a quick pilot study that we hoped would offer further evidence on the question, even if it wouldn’t provide a conclusive answer. From July 31st through September 7th, we tested this idea by using a CSS rule to hide reddit's comment downvote button on randomly assigned days and looking for systematic differences.
• Based on this research, I can say that hiding downvotes does not appear to have had any of the substantial benefits or disastrous outcomes that people expected.
• Now I think it's a pretty wide and reasonably diverse echochamber, left of left of center, but there's still a lot of stuff we don't ever see. Now I'm not going to say that universe deserves our respect, but at the same time it's good to know what's going on on Earth X.

The "What happened in your state last week?" Megathread, Week 2

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• Among my favorite is a new law that allows you to enter a crosswalk after the countdown timer has started as long as you can get to the other side.
• There have already been numerous legislators who have resigned in disgrace over the last few months, and Democrats no longer control a super majority in both houses as a result. We also saw another member of the Senate take a leave of absence in the wake of allegations that he was inappropriate with female members of his staff.
• Son from her first husband will run for Mirandas state Senate seat , and her current husband and his "wrestling buddy" are going to run for two state representative seats against our Legislative Minority Leader Rebecca Rios, and an amazing progressive Dem legislator named Reginald Bolding, the only black member of the AZ House.