From VP to DNC? Vice President Joe Biden’s possible role leading the Democratic Party, potential conflicts of interest for Donald Trump as commander in chief, and the GOP’s “Kumbaya” moment with the incoming leader and how long it will last. It’s all in the “Inside Politics” forecast — where you get a taste of tomorrow’s news today.
1) Revamping the Democratic Party… with Uncle Joe?
It was the post-election narrative almost no one saw coming: The Democrats are picking up the pieces and considering revamping the party.
Their goal is to win back those voters who went Trump’s way. As The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reports, one name that’s been floated as a possible Democratic National Committee chair: Biden, the outgoing vice president.
“There are a lot of people who think that he would be the sort of perfect voice toward the white working-class voters who the party is looking to attract,” Haberman said. “There’s been no indication that this is what Biden wants, but it is something that is being talked about right now.”
2) Possible conflicts of interest for incoming commander in chief?
The President-elect has agreed to pay $25 million to settle lawsuits dealing with Trump University. But will this case be the first of many possible corporate wrenches thrown into Trump’s White House? Trump University isn’t the only possible hiccup, according to Errol Louis, host of “Inside City Hall,” a nightly political show on NY1 news channel.
“40 Wall St., which is by far the most successful of the real estate deals that still has Trump’s name on it, was the place where Trump University was headquartered,” Louis said.
“But there are also a couple of dozen other places where prosecutors have either convicted or investigated various people,” he said, referring to investigations of alleged scams tied to the Manhattan skyscraper.
“. … It raises an interesting kind of conflict. Can the sitting president be earning money from people who his same federal government is supposed to be investigating, prosecuting, pursuing and in some cases prosecuting and imprisoning?”
3) How long will that GOP ‘Kumbaya’ moment last?
Republicans on the Hill are all smiles right now as they wait for their incoming leader. But behind the scenes, they are also trying to determine what type of president Trump will be legislatively. As Caitlin Huey-Burns of RealClear Politics puts it: “They don’t really know him that well.”
Huey-Burns said, “They are still at odds (when it comes to) a lot of significant policy issues that are going to come out, perhaps, right off the gate.
“Government spending, when it comes to infrastructure projects, foreign policy, when it comes to Russia, and touching entitlements and those sorts of things; we’ll be watching how Republicans navigate this new Trump world.”
4) What Trump tweets say about how he’ll be as President
We all know the President-elect likes to tweet. In his recent appearance on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” he called it “tremendous” and a “modern form of communication.”
But as Philip Bump of The Washington Post notes, how Trump tweets may say a lot about how he’ll transition from candidate to commander in chief. Bump said he’ll be watching.
“The way he interacts with the media, the way he keeps floating various rumors about his Cabinet picks, the way he gets into weird fights on Twitter continually, even as President-elect …,” Bump said.
“I think it’s going to be interesting to watch this transitional period, how he uses social media, how he uses rumors, as an indicator of how he’ll actually be once he’s President.”