Newsletter: Essential Politics: 23 minutes with President Trump

Politicians facing news coverage that they’d rather avoid generally don’t convene free-wheeling press conferences. But as we’ve seen most every week of his time in office, President Trump is not a normal politician or public figure.

Look no further than the 23 minutes he spent with reporters on Tuesday.

Good morning from the state capital. I’m Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers, and things have been quiet here on the final week of a month-long legislative recess.

But not so in the lobby of the Manhattan skyscraper that bears the president’s name.

‘TWO SIDES,’ TRUMP INSISTS

Trump’s news conference — ostensibly convened to talk about his infrastructure plans — was dominated by his decision to again insist that it wasn’t just white nationalists responsible for the melee in Charlottesville.

And then, he insisted that some attendees wanted nothing more than to protect the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

“This week it’s Robert E. Lee. I noticed Stonewall Jackson is coming down,” Trump said, alluding to another Confederate general. “I wonder — is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You really have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”

All of this just one day after much more stern comments about, and condemnation of, the various far-right groups that assembled in Virginia’s most well-known college town. If you’ve lost track a little of the president’s various comments about the deadly violence there, we’re keeping tabs.

We’ve also got the full transcript of Trump’s remarks to reporters in New York City on Tuesday.

THE AWKWARD AFTERMATH FOR REPUBLICANS

Like so many times before in the first seven months of this presidency, and the second time since the weekend, Republicans sought some way on Tuesday to put some daylight between themselves and their party standard-bearer.

THE BLAME AND THE BACKLASH

Matt Pearce takes a closer look at what happens now for the “alt-right” movement — and how all of the attention these groups have received is likely a double-edged sword.

Pearce also compiles a look at how blame for Saturday’s violent clashes is being assigned by far-right and mainstream media.

AND SPEAKING OF RACE, HATE AND SPEECH...

There are laws in many states about who can take down statues like those of Confederate soldiers, and when.

California lawmakers have urged the National Park Service to think twice about a permit for an “alt-right” group’s event next weekend in San Francisco.

In the aftermath of the weekend’s events, Los Angeles officials took aim at a Canoga Park house from where they allege a white supremacist group has been running a major drug operation.

The Hollywood Forever Cemetery plans to take down a monument commemorating Confederate veterans after calls from activists and vandalism threats.

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger donated $100,000 to a group devoted to fighting hate speech.

And the new chancellor of UC Berkeley, where earlier clashes have made news, told returning students that the new academic year will be devoted to free speech.

SWEET HOME, ALABAMA: ELECTION NIGHT

The furor over Trump’s comments obscured important political news from Alabama, where the president’s pick, Sen. Luther Strange, advanced to a Republican runoff next month with Roy Moore.

Democrat Doug Jones cleared a crowded field to become his party’s nominee.

THE DANGER OF CUTTING OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES

Also overshadowed by Tuesday afternoon’s events was a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that showed even Trump’s talk of ending federal healthcare subsidies could have huge effects.

The analysis shows that doing so would balloon the size of insurance payments for some Americans as well as the federal government’s deficit.

White House officials responded by calling the budget office projection a “flawed report,” although they didn’t actually identify any flaws in it.

A FALL RECALL ELECTION IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA?

The backers of an effort to remove state Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton) after only months in office won an early round in court on Monday. An appeals court put a temporary stay on the election law that Democrats crafted to lengthen the election calendar and push a potential contest into 2018.

Meanwhile, the state’s campaign finance watchdog agency takes a big vote on Thursday — deciding whether to remove campaign contribution limits for Newman’s fellow lawmakers who want to give money to the anti-recall effort.

As Patrick McGreevy reports, the agency’s vote comes on the heels of surprising new information — revealed through public records obtained by several news organizations — that show the effort to erase the campaign donation limits was quietly discussed by one labor union backed commissioner and a Democratic attorney.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra joined San Francisco City Atty. Dennis Herrera on Monday in suing the Trump administration over threats to take money from “sanctuary cities.”

-- The Koch network’s influence hasn’t exactly waned, even after its backers snubbed the president.

-- Homicide detectives in L.A. want to know more about the overdose death of a man at the home of a prominent local Democratic Party donor.

-- Former state Sen. Ron Calderon could be getting out of federal prison early after his conviction last year after a corruption investigation. That’s not sitting so well with one Assembly Democrat.

-- The two most prominent GOP candidates for governor talked up their support for Trump at a convention of California tea party members.

-- Thirteen people filed paperwork to run for the vacant Assembly seat in Los Angeles. None of them are Republicans.

LOGISTICS

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