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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Trumpcare backers try to soothe skeptics

Who knew this would be such a headache?
Who knew this would be such a headache? Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

1. Trying to sell Trumpcare

Price and Pence sent to sell it.
Price and Pence sent to sell it. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Vice-president Mike Pence and health and human services secretary Tom Price headed to the Capitol on Tuesday after the Congressional Budget Office’s damning report on the Trumpcare bill yesterday, to try and convince skeptical Republicans.

The CBO found that 24 million people could lose coverage and older Americans would suffer the most financial cost.

Summary

Spicy frustration.
Spicy frustration. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

White House press secretary Sean Spicer criticized media coverage of the Congressional Budget Office report yesterday, noting that the CBO did not predict accurate figures of how many people would be insured with Obamacare and he doesn’t trust their numbers.

“When they’ve come to counting people they’ve been wrong, and vastly so,” said Spicer in his daily press briefing on Tuesday.

Cruzing for a bruising

“This is not the mandate that we were elected to fulfill.”

– Senator Ted Cruz, who lead the charge against Obamacare but says the “most troubling aspect” of Trumpcare is the expected rising insurance premiums.

It’s troubling.
It’s troubling. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

2. Snow slows down politics

The snow storms hitting the east coast delayed Trump’s meeting with German leader Angela Merkel, which was rescheduled until Friday.

But the snow didn’t stop Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the deputy crown prince and minister of defense of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who had lunch with the president.

No snow day at the White House
No snow day at the White House Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Ivanka did it for the gram

Watching the snowfall from the West Wing

A post shared by Ivanka Trump (@ivankatrump) on

3. Surveilling Trump's claims

Wire tapping doesn’t mean wire tapping.
Wire tapping doesn’t mean wire tapping. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

White House press secretary Sean Spicer says Trump is “extremely confident” that the Department of Justice will provide evidence that he was surveilled during the election campaign.

Yesterday, Spicer claimed that Trump’s use of quotation marks around “wire tapping” justified his unsubstantiated claim, because he meant broader surveillance, not just wire tapping.

Summary

5. Tillerson used alias email address

Had to learn about climate change somehow.
Had to learn about climate change somehow. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP

US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who used to head ExxonMobil, used an alias email address under the pseudonym “Wayne Tracker” to send and receive information about climate change, according to the New York attorney general.

Wayne is Tillerson’s middle name.

4. Muslim fears on eve of new travel ban

“Could it get as bad as us wearing yellow Ms on our shirts and having to go to a camp? Yeah, it could get that bad.”

– Dr Ed Tori from the Islamic Society of Baltimore.

At mosque Obama visited, fear replaces hope as new Trump travel ban looms

During Obama’s 2016 visit.
During Obama’s 2016 visit. Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Updated

6. Become a Guardian member

Join the family.
We swear it’s worth it. Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

It might take just a minute to catch up on the latest politics news. But good journalism takes time and costs money. If you like the Guardian’s politics coverage, please consider joining us by becoming a member for only $6.99 a month. Thanks for reading!

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