Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The “safe third country” agreement that’s been in the works: “President Donald Trump announced Friday that Guatemala is signing an agreement to restrict asylum applications to the U.S. from Central America.”
* New signs of possible trouble in Puerto Rico: “On her first day as bankrupt Puerto Rico’s governor-in-waiting, Secretary of Justice Wanda Vazquez was immediately embroiled in an investigation when the island’s Office of Government Ethics announced a review of her conduct as the commonwealth’s chief law-enforcement officer.”
* Russia scandal: “House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler filed a petition in federal court Friday to obtain secret grand jury material underlying former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.”
* On to the Senate: “Observing a rare cease-fire in their battles with President Donald Trump, the Democrat-controlled House on Thursday easily passed bipartisan debt and budget legislation to permit the Treasury to issue bonds to pay the government’s bills and lock in place recent budget gains for both the Pentagon and domestic agencies.”
* It’s not hard to draw a line between this news and Trump’s decision to walk away from the Iran deal: “Iran test-launched a medium-range ballistic missile inside its borders, U.S. officials said Friday, defying Trump administration demands that it curtail the weapon program and demonstrating its intent to further push back against U.S. sanctions.”
* I wonder if T-Mobile’s strategy of booking a bunch of rooms at the president’s D.C. hotel helped make a difference: “The Department of Justice gave its blessing Friday to T-Mobile’s $26.5 billion acquisition of its closest rival, Sprint, after confirming it has reached an agreement with five states that had previously raised objections to the deal.” * The confirmation hearings for Trump’s new Labor-secretary nominee should be interesting: “In 1998, Eugene Scalia criticized ‘quid pro quo’ laws designed to hold bad bosses accountable. His writings animated his last Senate confirmation in 2001.” * Not every confirmation vote is contentious: “The Senate has voted 89-1 to confirm the Army’s top officer, Gen. Mark Milley, to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Milley will succeed Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, whose term expires Oct. 1.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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." Recommended
