Mark Meadows

On the eve of his second meeting with congressional Democrats about a potential $2 trillion public works bill, President Donald Trump told them such legislation should take a back seat to his trade deal with Canada and Mexico.

“Before we get to infrastructure, it is my strong view that Congress should first pass the important and popular USMCA trade deal,” Trump wrote in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. “Once Congress has passed USMCA, we should turn our attention to a bipartisan infrastructure package,” the president continued.

The House is set to vote Thursday on legislation meant to lower prescription drug prices and strengthen the individual health insurance exchanges, setting up a political minefield for Republicans who are torn between the two issues.

Democratic leaders’ decision to combine legislation that would make it easier to bring generic drugs to market with bills that would bolster the 2010 health care law does not damage the prospects of passage for the package of bills. But that does make it certain that most Republicans will vote against the bipartisan drug pricing legislation.

The race for North Carolina’s 9th District is the 2018 election that just won’t end. Tuesday’s Republican primary will go a long way toward determining where this competitive special election is headed next. 

It all started with Republican Rep. Robert Pittenger. Just over a year ago, he became the first incumbent of the cycle to lose. He lost his primary to Mark Harris, who’d come within 133 votes of knocking him off in a recount two years earlier. Harris then faced Democrat Dan McCready, a solar energy financier and Marine veteran. 

The email from Dan McCready was telling.

The North Carolina Democrat, who’s amassed more than $2.6 million for a redo election in the 9th District, was fundraising off a poll that showed state Sen. Dan Bishop leading the 10-person Republican field for next Tuesday’s primary. 

We heard it through the grapevine that National Theatre is putting on “Pride & Joy,” a musical based on the marriage of D.C. legend Marvin Gaye and his wife Anna. The play runs this week through May 12. Tickets range from $49 to $99.

R&B great Ginuwine is playing City Winery in Ivy City on Wednesday. The crooner, best known for his sex jam “Pony,” is probably responsible for a slight baby boom in the late-’90s and early-2000s. Tickets start at $60, and doors open at 6 p.m.

An agreement between congressional Democrats and President Donald Trump to pursue a $2 trillion infrastructure package could be short-lived if the president walks back his position or if the parties fail to agree on how to pay for it. 

Both are familiar scenarios and ones lawmakers in both parties acknowledge could nullify the agreement top congressional Democrats say they reached with Trump during a White House meeting meeting Tuesday.

The first special election primary of the year is heading into overtime, with two of the 17 Republicans in North Carolina’s 3rd District advancing to a July 9 runoff for a seat that’s likely to remain in GOP hands. 

State Rep. Greg Murphy and pediatrician Joan Perry led the multi-candidate field, but since neither surpassed the 30 percent threshold to avoid a runoff, the race continues. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Murphy was in first place with 22.5 percent of the vote, followed by Perry with 15.4 percent, according to the Associated Press.  

A bipartisan group of Florida lawmakers introduced a measure to permanently ban drilling off their coast, the latest sign resistance may be swift among coastal Republicans if the administration tries to open their states’ waters to oil and gas exploration.

The legislation introduced Monday by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., would bar oil and gas drilling off Florida’s coasts and call on the Coast Guard to determine what areas face heightened risk from oil spills. It was introduced with support from Republican Reps. Vern Buchanan and Matt Gaetz, a close ally of President Donald Trump.

Republicans’ biggest problem electing women has been in primaries.

But in the first special election primary of the year, where 17 Republicans are vying next week for the nod in North Carolina’s 3rd District, the two candidates who have attracted the most significant outside support are women.

President Donald Trump and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows are continuing to discredit the report by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Russian election meddling and obstruction of justice.

A redacted version of the long-anticipated report is expected to be released Thursday, the Justice Department confirmed Monday. The president and the North Carolina Republican took to Twitter, calling the probe a hoax and suggesting that Democrats will spin findings, no matter what the report says, in a way that looks bad for Trump.