Subject: Daily, 5.17
From: "Kasnetz, Joel" <[email-masked]>
To: "Bauer, Nick" <[email-masked]>, "Dillon, Lauren" <[email-masked]>, "Graham, Caroline" <[email-masked]>, Veepstakes <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 May 2016 18:03:45 -0700

*         Completed Sessions and Christie dailies

*         Compiled Daily updates

*         Continued with top hits book

Today's WTFs:

JEFF SESSIONS BELIEVED VETERANS WOULD WANT THE UNITED STATES TO PRIORITIZE DEBT REDUCTION OVER SPENDING MORE ON VETERANS HEALTH CARE

Jeff Sessions: "I Don't Think Our Veterans Want Their Programs To Be Enhanced If Every Penny Of The Money To Enhance Those Programs Is Added To The Debt Of The United States Of America." "The real VHA story is ideological opposition by the right-and clinical excellence despite chronic under-funding. The main opponents of the Veterans Health Administration are congressional Republicans. This Republican opposition is odd, since Republicans go to great lengths to demonstrate their support for Americans in uniform. But when vets return home and are hidden from view, the right short-changes their care and then blames the VHA. During the Senate debate about the $24 billion Department of Veterans Affairs allocation, for example, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions echoed the sentiments of his fellow Republicans, insisting, 'I don't think our veterans want their programs to be enhanced if every penny of the money to enhance those programs is added to the debt of the United States of America.' Has he asked any vets about that?" [American Prospect, 10/30/15<http://prospect.org/article/why-veterans-health-system-better-you-think>]

JEFF SESSIONS CLAIMED DONALD TRUMP WOULD BE ABLE TO NEGOTIATE EFFECTIVELY WITH NORTH KOREA, BUT SESSIONS COULD NOT CORRECTLY NAME THE COUNTRY'S CURRENT LEADER

Jeff Sessions: "And I Do Believe [Donald Trump] Will Not Be Disadvantaged By Kim Jong-Il [Sic] Or Anybody In North Korea." "Sessions then remarked that nobody has run for president 'in years who understands how to negotiate more effectively than Donald Trump.' 'And I do believe he will not be disadvantaged by Kim Jong-Il [sic] or anybody in North Korea,' Sessions said. (Blitzer later corrected him to clarify that he was referring to the current leader and not his father, who died in 2011.)" [Politico, 5/17/16<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/trump-sessions-north-korea-223287>]