Page 8A
NATION
East Oregonian
Scaramucci out of White House
job as John Kelly takes charge
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Anthony Scaramucci is out
as White House communi-
cations director after just 11
days on the job — and just
hours after former Gen. John
Kelly took over as President
Donald Trump’s new chief
of staff.
Hoping to turn the page
on a tumultuous opening
chapter to his presidency,
Trump had insisted earlier
Monday that there was “no
chaos” in his White House
as he swore in the retired
Marine general as his second
chief of staff.
Not long after, Scara-
mucci, who shocked many
with a profane outburst last
week against then-chief of
staff Reince Priebus, was
gone.
In the words of the White
House announcement, he
was leaving because he “felt
it was best to give Chief of
Staff John Kelly a clean slate
and the ability to build his
own team.” The three-sen-
tence release concluded,
“We wish him all the best.”
The statement about Scar-
amucci’s departure used the
same “clean slate” language
that departing press secretary
Sean Spicer used to describe
his reason for resigning on
July 21 — the day Trump
brought Scaramucci aboard.
Spicer was at the White
House on Monday, saying
he was assisting with the
communications transitions.
As the Scaramucci news
spread, Kelly was in the East
Room smiling and taking
pictures with guests who
were gathering for a Medal
of Honor presentation.
White House spokes-
woman Sarah Huckabee
Sanders said Trump felt
that Scaramucci’s profani-
ty-laced comments against
Priebus “were inappropriate
for a person in that position”
of White House communica-
tions director. The president
had not publicly expressed
disapproval
of
those
comments in the days after
they became public.
Sanders added that Kelly
has “the full authority to
operate within the White
House and that all staff will
report to him,” a change
from Priebus’ tenure.
Earlier, in an Oval
Offi ce ceremony, Trump
predicted Kelly, who previ-
ously served as Homeland
Security chief, would do a
“spectacular job.” And the
president chose to highlight
the rising stock market and
positive jobs outlook rather
than talk about how things
might need to change in his
White House under Kelly.
Trump on Friday ousted
Priebus as chief of staff
and turned to Kelly, who
he hopes will bring military
discipline to an adminis-
tration weighed down by a
stalled legislative agenda,
infi ghting among West Wing
aides and a stack of investi-
gations.
Scaramucci’s brief tenure
shoved internal White
House disputes into the
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
In this July 25 photo, White House communications di-
rector Anthony Scaramucci speaks to members of the
media at the White House in Washington. Scaramucci
is out as White House communications director after
just 11 days on the job.
Sanders says President was ‘making
a joke’ about police brutality
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House defended
President Donald Trump’s recent remarks that police
shouldn’t be too nice when transporting suspects, saying
Monday that the president was “making a joke.”
On a visit to Long Island. New York, last week, Trump
implored police offi cers, “Please don’t be too nice.”
He said some offi cers are too courteous to suspected
criminals when arresting them.
“Like when you guys put somebody in the car, and
you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you
put your hand over” their head, he said, putting his hand
above his head for emphasis. “I said, ‘You can take the
hand away, OK?”
His remarks prompted critics to accuse the president of
encouraging police brutality.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
told reporters Monday, “I believe he was making a joke at
the time.”
open. In media interviews,
he trashed Priebus as a
“leaker” and senior White
House aide Steve Bannon
as a self-promoter. One of
Scaramucci’s fi rst — and it
turns out only — acts was to
force out a communications
aide seen as loyal to Priebus.
Spicer, Priebus and
Bannon had all objected to
Trump’s decision to hire
Scaramucci, who would
have reported directly to the
president.
While Trump is looking
for a reset, he pushed
back
against
criticism
of
his
administration
with this tweet: “Highest
Stock Market EVER, best
economic numbers in years,
unemployment lowest in
17 years, wages raising,
border secure, S.C.: No WH
chaos!”
In fact, economic growth
averaged 2 percent in the
fi rst half of this year, a pace
Trump railed against as a
candidate and promised to
lift to 3 percent. The stock
market fi rst hit a record under
President Barack Obama
and has kept growing.
The unemployment rate,
too, started to decline on
Obama’s watch. And wage
gains have been weak.
Trump
on
Monday
convened his fi rst Cabinet
meeting with Kelly at his
side, telling his team it is
“doing incredibly well” and
“starting from a really good
base.” On how he would deal
with rising tensions with
North Korea, Trump said
only: “It will be handled.”
Seated
across
from
Trump
was
Attorney
General Jeff Sessions, who
has stayed on the job while
Trump has publicly savaged
him in interviews and on
social media.
Kelly’s success in a
chaotic White House will
depend on how much
authority he is granted and
whether Trump’s dueling
aides will put aside their
rivalries to work together.
Also unclear is whether
a new chief of staff will
have any infl uence over the
president’s social media
histrionics.
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Tax plan has aggressive
timeline but no details
WASHINGTON (AP)
— The Trump administra-
tion started its public push
Monday to overhaul taxes
but, just as with health care,
the White House lacks a
detailed plan to promote to
voters.
What it has, instead, is
an aggressive deadline.
The White House hopes
to have the House pass a
tax overhaul in October
that the Senate could then
approve in November,
said Marc Short, the
White House director of
legislative affairs. Under
this plan, President Donald
Trump would travel the
country to rally support for
the intended tax cuts, while
conservative activists and
business groups act as
valuable allies to encourage
and pressure Congress into
clearing the fi rst major tax
code rewrite since 1986.
Short said the strategy
comes from lessons learned
in the troubled attempts
to repeal and replace the
2010 health insurance law
signed by President Barack
Obama, an ongoing frus-
tration for Trump.
“In the health care battle,
there was not an organized
effort to bring on board
a lot of the conservative
grass-roots organizations
in support,” he said at a
panel at the Newseum.
“But there has been in tax
reform.”
The panel was spon-
sored by Americans for
Prosperity and Freedom
Partners, two conservative
groups
supported
by
billionaire
industrialists
Charles and David Koch.
Americans for Prosperity
is having its state chap-
ters call lawmakers this
summer to encourage
support for the overhaul.
Separately, the Business
Roundtable, an association
of CEOs, is sponsoring a
multimillion-dollar radio
and TV ad campaign.
The
outreach
is
occurring even though
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet
meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House,
Monday in Washington.
key elements of the tax
overhaul are still unknown.
Trump and Republican
lawmakers agree on broad
contours such as the
importance of a simpler
tax code, a lower corporate
rate and fi nancial relief
for the middle class, but
the details of an overhaul
remain murky.
The Trump administra-
tion released a one-page set
of goals in April, followed
by a joint statement last
week with congressional
leaders.
As of now, the adminis-
tration can’t say for sure if
the tax cuts would increase
the budget defi cit. It can’t
say how large of a break
a typical taxpayer would
receive. It can’t say how
it would prevent wealthy
individuals from setting up
tax shelters to take advan-
tage of a reduced corporate
rate. And while the White
House has pushed to
reduce the top corporate
tax rate to 15 percent from
35 percent, offi cials can’t
say if the rate will end up
being that low in the plan.
Each of these unknowns
could thwart a tax overhaul.
The Trump administration
has said it would remove
deductions in order to lower
rates, but those deductions
generally have supporters
who will fi ght to preserve
them. House Republicans
already dropped plans for
an import-based tax system
to help lower national rates
after pushback by retailers
and groups such as Ameri-
cans for Prosperity.
Despite those uncer-
tainties, the administration
says the effort has universal
support from Republican
lawmakers.
“We are now in what I
would say is a 100 percent
coherent place,” Gary
Cohn, the president’s
top economics aide, said
Monday at a White House
meeting. “We have total
agreement on major, major
issues.”
White House spokes-
woman Sarah Huckabee
Sanders said at Monday’s
news briefi ng that the
administration is “working
hand and glove” with
congressional committees
on tax overhaul, but she did
not say whether the White
House would support
whatever measure comes
out of the committees.
Tax experts say the
administration has raised
expectations of a tax over-
haul without providing
much of a roadmap for how
it can happen, possibly
setting voters and compa-
nies up for disappointment
if the tax cuts prove to be
modest or the overhaul
leads to higher taxes for
some.
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