trying to claim they re focused on impeachment. fan fifer who worked with david axelrod on the obama team has a different view. i ve been semi retired, bt it seems like things to help trump win should not be on the to do list. if i can say that they re both correct. they each have a point. but i do think this was strategic by pelosi that not only does she want members to have something to go back and show their constituents, particularly the democrats in the more moderate districts, but she wants to take away the talking point that the president has used that all the democrats can do, all they ve been focused on has been impeachment. instead, these are some of the big bipartisan things that they have been working on. and frankly, as manu said, were on the track to get done. they had to finish a spending deal. we haven t had a year where we don t have a big defense authorization bill in the end. but they cued them up such that the timing would be advantageous for members. and on the u
scenes to get the trade deal approved and pelosi strategically made the decision to announce the deal the same day they announced moving forward with articles of impeachment. and also interestingly, wednesday will be the impeachment vote, thursday will be the vote to approve the trade deal. that s what they re going to go home on. and as a reminder, we just talked about mitch mcconnell. just a reminder that mcconnell and pelosi, the top republican in the senate and the top democrat in congress, they care about protecting their majority. yes, mitch mcconnell wants a republican president, yes, nancy pelosi wants a democrat to win the next election. but she is going to do things on protecting her majority. so a lot of democrats are saying why give president trump a gift? he can go and say this usmca deal is going to help you. david axelrod, smart of speaker pelosi to deliver the trade deal just at a time when potus is
fear and a partisan divide in the impeachment hearings, and a guide over the new justice department wash dog report outlining lapses in the trump investigation. and there were bipartisan achievements and a defense budget that includes paid family leave for workers and the president s new space force. and an agreement on the president s top 2019 legislative priority, the revised trade deal between the united states, mexico and canada. count the president among the confused. in a tweet he said it was a great deal and good news the democrats were backing usmca. but at a campaign rally he suggested speaker pelosi came around only out of fear. you know why it s a huge deal and it plays down the impeachment, because they re embarrassed by the impeachment. the silver lining of impeachment and this witch hunt, that s the
manage to ring a lot of concessions away from the administration on this. they negotiated to get probably what is the most progressive trade deal that they will have considered and that is something that i think pelosi thought would be worthwhile if they could pull it off. the interesting part is the grumbling is coming from republicans who say he gave away too much on usmca, who say where is the fiscal conservatism in family leave. there s also some grumbling about china. essentially they agreed to hit the pause button, but the china hard line has went around and the pushback here against the president s deal making which he believes help him is from republicans saying this is not conservative. and what is amazing about what pelosi negotiated is she has senator sherrod brown on her side who doesn t like trade deals and who appears to be supporting this one. and so if somehow republicans tank this, that could also be another boon for pelosi because
reason they approved usmca, so that s okay with me. now speaker pelosi did want moderate house democrats for whom impeachment is tough to have a policy achievement to tout back home. but the democrats also won several giant concessions with the white house. so many concessions there s grumbling now among republicans that the president gave away too much. i call it whiplash week. it is striking that at a time when the president is stoking his base on twitter, calling the democrats the party of hate, they re calling the president somebody who is unethical and should be removed from office and then, boom, progress on a bunch of things that have been stuck in the quicksand for a long time. a lot of it has to do with the end of the congressional calendar. but this was also a clear calculation by the democratic leadership of the house knowing full well that a lot of these moderates do have a tough vote to cast on impeachment, and wanted to run on usmca. they had been pushing behind the