The Morning Briefing: Interest Groups Ready to Fight Trump's Citizenship Exec. Order

Good Friday morning.

Here is what’s on the president’s agenda today:

The president participates in a roundtable with supporters in Fox Point, WI
President Trump delivers remarks at a joint fundraising committee luncheon
The president delivers remarks on supporting the passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in Milwaukee, WI
President Trump participates in a roundtable with supporters in Chagrin Falls, OH
The president delivers remarks at a joint fundraising committee reception in Chagrin Falls, OH

Trump changes plans on citizenship census question, ACLU ready to fight

On Thursday, the president held a press conference with A.G. Bill Barr to announce the administration would not continue to fight to get the citizenship question onto the census. Progressive left interest groups sued the administration and for some inexplicable reason, Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the nutters. Do you ever wonder if “certain people” have some dirt on Roberts? He sure delivers for the left on really important issues. I digress. AG Barr reiterated that the SCOTUS determined that putting a question on the census was legal but due to time constraints, the administration would not furnish a more agreeable rationale to the court and continue to fight. Instead they were taking new path using an executive order.

Instead, the president will issue an executive order directing various agencies to obtain citizenship data by tapping existing databases and documents. “We will leave no stone unturned,” Trump declared from the Rose Garden.

“We are not backing down on our effort to determine the citizenship status of the United States population.”

“Are you a citizen of the United States of America? Oh, gee, I’m sorry, I just can’t answer that question,” Trump snarked before delivering his prepared remarks. “There used to be a time when you could answer questions like that very easily.”

Indeed. But never fear, the progressives are ready to fight this.

The ACLU’s response has been equally robust, with Dale Ho, the head of the ACLU’s Voting Right Project saying, “If President Trump takes executive action, we will take legal action.”

Gird your loins because this fight isn’t over.

Rumble in the Rose Garden

You can see from this kerfuffle how professional these “journalists” are. Some kind of fight broke out between Playboy’s (!!) White House reporter and Seb Gorka. Here’s how the New York Post describes it.

After Trump’s speech, one of the attendees sarcastically told Playboy correspondent Brian Karem, who was with the White House press corps, “don’t be sad.”

Karem responded, telling the attendees of the Social Media Summit that they are people “eager for demonic possession,” video of the incident shows.

Gorka then shouted at Karem: “And you’re a journalist, right?”

“Come on over here and talk to me, brother. Or we can go outside and have a long conversation,” Karem responded, the video shows.

Gorka then walked up to Karem and shouted at him, “You’re not a journalist. You’re a punk!” the video shows.

Gorka walked away after the brief dust up, the video shows.

Here’s some video of the episode.

https://twitter.com/katierogers/status/1149436290707927043

My money would be on Seb. He’s a big guy.

Sebastian Gorka and Playboy Reporter Get Into Shouting Match at White House: ‘You’re a Punk!’

Democrat Representative slaps AOC for her “race card” schtick

Good. Does it even carry any weight to be called a racist? Everyone is a racist, yeah, yeah, yeah. They call Trump a racist but they called Bush, McCain and Romney racists, among other things, so it’s a charge that’s neutered from overuse.

But Democrats aren’t used to being on the receiving end of it. Welcome, Democrats!

Rep. William Lacy Clay, a black Democrat from Missouri, lashed out at social media political influencer AOC for using the race card against Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“How dare they try to play the race card at this point,” Clay said Thursday.

“It shows the weakness of their argument. It’s damaging to this party and the internal workings of the Democratic Party.”

Rep. John Lewis, a Civil Rights movement veteran, also piled on, saying AOC went “a little too far.”

“We all must work together, pull together for the country’s good,” Lewis, who represents a Georgia district, said. “The great majority of the caucus membership tends to work together and get along. We need to go forward, not backward.”

You bought the ticket, now take that ride, racist.

Other morsels:

Storm Barry cuts half U.S. Gulf Coast oil output, flooding fears close coastal refinery

Trump knocks bitcoin, Facebook cryptocurrency: ‘Not a fan’

This is true. Donald Trump tears into ‘lame duck failure’ Paul Ryan

These stores are closing locations in 2019

Trump ‘not on board’ with Jeff Sessions running for Alabama Senate seat: report

OH COME ON, MAN. Arizona governor welcomes Nike again after bad-mouthing move to pull Betsy Ross sneaker

Politics, policy and procedure of Mueller’s upcoming Congressional testimony

Georgia homeowner shoots, kills machete-wielding intruder: cops

Driver charged with a using case of beer as booster seat for 2-year-old

Michael Flynn blames prosecutors, and argues he helped them enough to avoid jail