After unsuccessfully pleading for Trump’s praise, Cramer endorses a convicted Peeping Tom, then blames White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short for GOP legislative failures

(BISMARCK, ND) — Still jilted from getting snubbed by President Trump – or perhaps just jealous of his opponent’s legislative prowess – Kevin Cramer came a little…unhinged.

After pleading with the White House to campaign more for him just last week, the president’s gratitude for Senator Heitkamp’s leadership during the signing of the Banking bill caused Cramer to – well, snap. Asked about reports that he was upset that the White House wasn’t campaigning for him enough and being too friendly to Heitkamp, Cramer lashed out at White House Legislative Director Marc Short, saying yesterday, “If Marc Short was very good at his job, you know, we’d have a repeal and replacement of Obamacare, we’d have a replacement of the venting and flaring rule.”

This comes one week after Cramer rushed to the defense of the political career of a convicted Peeping Tom who preyed on freshman female students at North Dakota State University where he was employed as a 29-year-old married father. Cramer called the predator, Will Gardner, a “very good man” who handled the exposure of the criminal record he tried to hide in a “gentlemanly way,” saying Gardner “absolutely” has a bright political future ahead of him.

Politico: GOP Senate candidate lashes out at Trump’s legislative director

• Rep. Kevin Cramer, one of the GOP’s top Senate recruits, launched an unusual attack on the White House’s legislative director Wednesday, blaming him explicitly for the party’s legislative failures in the Senate.

• The comments from Cramer (R-N.D.) come amid rising GOP angst over President Donald Trump’s close relationship with his opponent in the North Dakota Senate race, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.

• After POLITICO published a story on Wednesday outlining the awkward dynamic between Heitkamp, Cramer and the White House, Cramer told North Dakota radio host Rob Port that he had done some digging and believes that there “are some people in the White House that think, you know, the president’s too friendly too her.”

• Then Cramer laid into White House legislative affairs director Marc Short for two prominent failed GOP efforts in the Senate: Repeal of Obamacare and the rollback of an Obama-era regulation that would limit flaring and venting from oil and gas wells. Heitkamp voted against both and Cramer has criticized her in particular over the flaring vote.

• “If Marc Short was very good at his job, you know, we’d have a repeal and replacement of Obamacare, we’d have a replacement of the venting and flaring rule,” Cramer said.

Daily Kos: ND Congressman leaps to the defense of Republican candidate caught peeping with his pants unzipped

• The party of questionable “family values” is at it once again. This time Congressman Kevin Cramer (R-At-large) of North Dakota appeared on the conservative “Jarrod Thomas Show” to discuss his feelings about Republican Secretary of State candidate Will Gardner dropping out of the race after revelations he was arrested in 2006.

• Although currently serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, Cramer is challenging Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), hoping to make the leap to the United States Senate this fall. At the time, Gardner was a 29-year-old married father of two who was caught peeping on women undressing in a North Dakota State dorm.

• To this day, Gardner’s account does not match those of the three officers who witnessed his prowling. You’d think that would be enough for North Dakota Republicans to distance themselves, but not United States Congressman Kevin Cramer. No sir! on the “Jarrod Thomas Show” Cramer thought Gardner’s withdrawal from the race for secretary of state was premature and he wishes he would’ve weathered the storm.

• Furthermore, he called Gardner a “good man” and hopes he runs again.Does a good man, a married 29-year-old with two kids at home go creeping outside the women’s dorm with his pants unzipped? Is this someone who should be representing North Dakota?

• On whether he would’ve won the primary if voters had known in advance?

  • I’m not so sure Will wouldn’t have still won the Republican endorsement had he done, had he revealed this much, much earlier and explained it to people, and in which case, I think he wouldn’t have much of an issue.

• Should Gardner have exited the race as quickly as he did once the arrest became public? Cramer thinks he should’ve chilled out for a bit, let the peeping brouhaha die down.

  • I think that a little time, you know, is always valuable when you are faced with something like this. […] So but you’re right, there was, in my view, there was no urgency for the party to have had to have this settled immediately.

• Should Gardner run again some day? Why, of course! Everyone loves to see creepy guys get another chance at public office.

  • [Could Gardner] one day run for a state office again? I absolutely think there is. I absolutely think there is. And I think that maybe that was part of this calculation of how he handled it because I do think, again, North Dakotans, like other Americans, like the redemption story. Will is that. He is by all measure, by anybody who knows him and knows him well, including his wife, a very good man.

As the Trump administration moves ahead with $50 billion of tariffs on Chinese goods, ag producers brace for blowback

(BISMARCK, ND) — Now that the Trump administration announced its plans to move forward with tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods, North Dakotans are wondering: Why Kevin Cramer has been saluting harmful measures like these, risking real harm to the livelihoods of North Dakota farmers and ranchers?

It’s no secret Congressman Cramer is a follower and not a leader — embracing the administration’s misguided trade policies even as North Dakota’s farmers and manufacturers brace for the negative impact Chinese targeted retaliation would have on their industries. He’s been called out again and again, but he has remained dismissive of farmer’s concerns and willing to sacrifice their livelihoods to advance his career.

“Just like too many members of Congress who are in Washington for themselves and not the people they represent, Congressman Cramer has been falling in line to climb the political ladder rather than standing with farmers and ranchers on trade issues,” said Scott McNeil, Executive Director of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL. “China is a key market for North Dakota farmers, but Cramer would rather see that door closed than push back on policies that will do real damage to farmers’ bottom line. The crops are already in the ground, and they’re going to need a market come harvest time. If Kevin Cramer has his way, there will be nowhere for them to go.”

Kevin Cramer Only Cares About His Audience of One 

(BISMARCK, ND) – Forget North Dakota farmers, ranchers and manufacturers – Kevin Cramer only cares about his audience of one, and that’s the president. He still can’t muster up support for North Dakota agricultural producers who are concerned about the trade war – he even condescendingly calls their concerns “hysteria.”

But it looks like Cramer is becoming even more isolated in his support for a trade war, as key Trump allies in the Congress voice their concerns. Highlights from two important articles below:

The Hill: Republicans think Trump is losing trade war

• President Trump is facing a significant backlash from Senate Republicans over his trade talks with China, which they see as delivering far less than he promised. Several GOP senators say Trump has wound up on the losing side of the discussions, and his talk of lifting rules barring U.S. companies from selling to the Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE has prompted a revolt.

• “Sadly #China is out-negotiating the administration & winning the trade talks right now,” [Senator Marco Rubio] wrote on Twitter. “They have avoided tariffs & got a #ZTE deal without giving up anything meaningful in return by using N. Korea talks & agriculture issues as leverage.”

• Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said farmers and ranchers he met with on Tuesday are not reassured by Trump’s claim over the weekend via Twitter that “China has agreed to buy massive amounts of additional farm/agricultural products.” “I’ve been meeting with farmers and ranchers all morning. I have not yet heard one who thinks the U.S. has won anything from the Chinese leadership,” he said. “They’re scared to death.”

• Sasse, who ripped Trump’s trade policies earlier this year as the “dumbest possible way” to take on China, said Trump doesn’t appear to have made significant progress addressing two major economic threats facing the United States: China’s ambitions to dominate high-tech industries and its rampant theft of U.S. intellectual property.

• Even Trump’s most loyal allies are expressing frustration. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said he agreed with Rubio’s critique.

• “Is there a plan somewhere?” asked Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Politico: Who’s winning the trade war? Everyone but Trump.

• There may be new winners as President Donald Trump ramps up trade pressures on China: America’s top competitors.

• Brazil could bring millions of new acres of land into production faster with the help of Chinese investments in its roads and railways, a boom for soybean farmers seeking an edge over U.S. farmers. In Europe, Airbus is poised to ramp up production to fill Chinese orders that were originally meant to go to U.S.-based Boeing. Australia, Canada and other countries may be able to export the scrap aluminum and other recyclables the U.S. used to send to China en masse.

• Beijing will continue to pour resources into other countries to diversify its sources for everything from food to consumer goods to meet growing demand. And that worries American manufacturers and growers who stand to lose market share to competitors whose governments are friendlier to global trade.

• Brazil’s push on soybeans is a prime example of the unintended — and irreversible — consequences of a U.S.-China trade war. The U.S. once was the major grower and exporter of soybeans, with China as the major consumer and importer. Now, the South American nation has supplanted the U.S. as the biggest global supplier. Protracted discussions between the U.S. and China are just expected to exacerbate the widening gap.

• Any further losses in market share could have devastating effects on U.S. farmers, who saw 61 percent of their total exports go to China last year, amounting to $14 billion worth of shipments. Farm incomes are already at their lowest point since 2009 and are expected to stay stagnant for the remainder of 2018.

• Economists say that situation could worsen if the threat of tariffs continues through the summer and, as the U.S. harvest nears, Chinese buyers grow even more reluctant to import the commodity only to have a duty imposed while the shipment is out to sea.

Less than two months after nominating Window-Peeping Will Gardner for Secretary of State, Republicans plead with Al Jaeger to run as an Independent

(BISMARCK, ND) — After news broke last weekend that the North Dakota Republican Party-endorsed candidate for Secretary of State Will Gardner was arrested in a 2006 peeping tom incident, the GOP was left scrambling for a replacement. So, they decided to go back to the candidate they cast aside after 26 years in office: Al Jaeger.

While Republican Gardner backers issue denials of any knowledge of Gardner’s behavior, Jaeger is mounting an independent campaign with the help of his establishment friends to try and keep the job he’s clung on to for over two and a half decades. But many questions remain around how the campaign will work and how it will interact with the Republican party infrastructure, and North Dakotans deserve answers.

“The whole debacle has been embarrassing for North Dakotans,” said Scott McNeil, Executive Director of the Democratic-NPL. “It’s a stunning reversal: the Republicans went from questioning Al Jaeger’s competency for yet another term in office to the unusual route of an ad hoc endorsement. Given the extraordinary circumstance this race is now in, voters deserve the utmost transparency from the ND GOP and the Secretary of State’s office. The North Dakota Republican Party, by not properly vetting their first choice and now supporting a candidate who has stood in the way of modernizing the office, have shown they are would rather hold onto power than better the lives of their constituents.”

(BISMARCK, ND) – Amid growing threats of a global trade war last week, this weekend the administration backed off tariffs against China, saying “we’re putting a trade war on hold.” After initially announcing a deal that promised $200 billion in U.S. commodity buys – which China denied and experts called actually achieving “a tricky task” – U.S. officials quickly backtracked, calling that figure as a “rough ballpark estimate.”

Now that no concrete deal is on the table, experts are questioning whether the administration’s tough talk on tariffs will actually yield results, one of those experts sayingthe U.S. will have to ask itself, “whether going through all this was worth it.” According to the New York Times, an expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute said “the United States’ response to China’s ‘predatory behavior’ had been put on hold ‘in exchange for things yet to occur, and Mnuchin won’t tell us what they are.’”

Here’s some analysis on what isn’t included as part of trade discussions with China:

Washington Post: China is winning Trump’s trade war

• It was easy to miss the U.S.-China trade statement that the White House released Saturday, right in the midst of royal wedding mania. But it’s hard to hide that China looks as if it’s winning President Trump’s trade skirmish — so far.
• Notice China didn’t agree to a specific amount. On Friday, Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, was telling reporters that the Chinese had agreed to reduce the deficit by “at least” $200 billion. China quickly denied that, and, a day later, the official statement didn’t have a concrete number, a seeming victory for the Chinese.
• What about the IP fight? The real battle against the Chinese was supposed to be over intellectual property theft, which the Trump administration says has been going on for years and costs the U.S. economy $225 billion to $600 billion a year. Trump was supposed to get the Chinese to stop stealing U.S. business secrets and technology. On this front, the statement was brief and lackluster, saying that both sides agreed to “strengthen cooperation” (diplomatic speak for not doing much) and that China would “advance relevant amendments” to its patent law.
• Dan DiMicco, a former steel CEO who has been a big supporter of Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, tweeted shortly after the statement came out, “Not good enough. Time to take the gloves off.” He followed that up with: “Did [the] president just blink? China and friends appear to be carrying the day.” Fox Business host Lou Dobbs summed up the situation this way: “Chinese say ‘no deal.’”
• Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted, “Why do U.S. officials always fall for China trickery?” Wall Street Journal trade reporter Bob Davis tweeted that the big takeaway is: “Trump administration gets rolled by the Chinese.”
• It was always unlikely that the United States would get China to alter its marquee economic growth plan, but it’s yet another reminder that the Chinese gave a few concessions on things that aren’t sacrifices for China.

New York Times: U.S. Suspends Tariffs on China, Stoking Fears of a Loss of Leverage

• The Trump administration has suspended its plan to impose sweeping tariffs on China as it presses forward with trade talks, a gesture that will temporarily ease tensions between the two nations but rapidly increase pressure on President Trump to secure the type of tough deal that he has long said is necessary to protect American workers.
• “We’re putting the trade war on hold,” Mr. Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.”
• The reprieve came as many crucial details remained undecided, and trade experts warned that the suspension of tariffs could undercut Mr. Trump’s leverage and thrust the United States back into the kind of lengthy — and ultimately fruitless — negotiations with China that have bogged down previous administrations.
• On Saturday, both countries released a joint statement that offered little detail about what had been agreed to, other than holding another round of discussions in China. Mr. Mnuchin said on Sunday that the countries had agreed on a “framework” under which China would increase its purchases of American goods,while putting in place “structural” changes to protect American technology and make it easier for American companies to compete in China.
• And while Trump administration officials said last week that China was prepared to increase its purchases of American products by $200 billion by 2020, Chinese officials had pushed back on that claim, and the joint statement the two sides released lacked any such dollar figure.
• Mr. Kudlow said on Sunday that the $200 billion number was a “rough ballpark estimate” that both sides had used.
• “It certainly looks like President Trump is failing us on China,” said Daniel DiMicco, the chairman of the trade lobbying group Coalition for a Prosperous America and a former trade adviser to Mr. Trump during his campaign. “He is letting down all those who voted for him and rewarding those who didn’t. It appears the swamp got him.”
• Some supporters of the administration’s tough stance on China now fear that the White House is pursuing a quicker deal that would reduce the trade deficit — a longtime goal of Mr. Trump’s — as well as forestall a trade war, butsacrifice more ambitious goals the administration had discussed for reforming the Chinese economy.
• Derek Scissors, resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said the United States’ response to China’s “predatory behavior” had been put on hold “in exchange for things yet to occur, and Mnuchin won’t tell us what they are.”