Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Exactly what the White House wanted to see: “In a setback for Democrats in Congress, a federal appeals court has ruled that judges have no role to play in the subpoena fight between the House of Representatives and the Trump administration over the testimony of high-ranking officials.”
* On the other hand, this wasn’t what the White House wanted to see: “A federal appeals court on Friday delivered two blows to the Trump administration’s immigration policy, ruling against a program to force migrants seeking asylum to wait in Mexico and against a rule severely limiting the number of migrants who were eligible for asylum.”
* Here’s hoping the CDC is right: “After missteps, CDC says its coronavirus test kit is ready for primetime.”
* Things aren’t great on Capitol Hill: “Several House Republicans walked out of a closed-door coronavirus briefing Friday with Trump health officials in protest after a senior Democrat blasted the Trump administration’s handling of the response effort.”
* Major developments in Turkey: “The Turkish Army suffered mass casualties in an airstrike in northwest Syria late Thursday, an attack that could dramatically change the course of the Syrian war as fears grow of a direct conflict between Russia and Turkey, a NATO member.”
* Seriously? “One day after briefing the press in an attempt to calm nerves about the spread of the new coronavirus, President Donald Trump spent 45 minutes talking to the lead actors of a low-budget conservative play about the so-called Deep State.”
* VA: “The Department of Veterans Affairs’ inspector general has opened an investigation into allegations that Secretary Robert Wilkie tried to dig up dirt on an aide to a top Democrat in Congress after she said she was sexually assaulted at the agency’s Washington hospital.” * An appropriate honor: “The House Oversight and Reform hearing room was named Thursday in honor of late Chairman Elijah E. Cummings — the first room in the Capitol complex to ever be named for an African American lawmaker.” * She probably shouldn’t look for a Trump pardon: “Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh was sentenced to three years in federal prison for a yearslong criminal scheme in which she illegally profited from the sale of her self-published ‘Healthy Holly’ children’s books.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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