GOP leaders talk politics in Pasco. They stay mum on Cohen, Manafort

In town for different reasons, two of Washington’s top Republicans said they don’t know enough about the criminal convictions of two of President Trump’s former aides to comment.

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, and Susan Hutchison, a Republican running to represent Washington in the U.S. Senate, declined to discuss the guilty convictions Michael Cohen, the president’s former personal attorney, and Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, during Tri-City visits on Wednesday.

Newhouse visited to headline a Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

Hutchison was making her first campaign visit to the Tri-Cities since her second-place finish in the Aug. 7 primary. She attended the chamber luncheon as a guest and spent the afternoon at the Benton-Franklin Fair & Rodeo, among other stops.

Newhouse said he wasn’t equipped to comment because he had been traveling and hadn’t had a chance to read about the developments Tuesday.

Hutchison also said she hadn’t had an opportunity to learn enough to comment, and wanted to see what happens next.

Cohen pleaded guilty to eight felony counts of income tax evasion, lying to banks to obtain loans and making illegal contributions to the president’s campaign.

The lawyer explicitly stated he broke election law at the behest of his client. Manafort was convicted on eight tax and bank fraud charges, while a mistrial was declared on additional counts.

The muted response echoes the national reaction.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin reportedly told the Washington Post he needed more information before commenting. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had made no statement as of Wednesday afternoon.

Republicans weren’t alone. Vulnerable Democrats also declined to comment, according to McClatchy’s bureau in Washington, D.C.

Dan Newhouse

Newhouse gives an annual update to the regional chamber, and his visit was chiefly a business update by a working politico.

He told the crowd of about 300 that advocating for Hanford remains his top priority.

With a new Congress set to convene in 2019, he said Washington’s federal delegation will once again have to educate newcomers to the government’s responsibility to cleanup the legacy of weapons-grade plutonium production.

“It’s no small thing to bring $2 billion every year to the Tri-Cities,” he said.

Newhouse praised the tax bill Trump signed at Christmas, which he said is inspiring businesses to invest in growth, citing Prosser’s Chukar Cherries, which is doubling its production capacity to keep up with growth.

He said he remains frustrated that Washington D.C. has not yet enacted immigration reform, saying it’s critical to national economic health to fix it.

He said the lack of progress is his biggest frustration, but said there’s has been progress.

Newhouse, who raises hops in the Yakima Valley, acknowledged his fellow farmers are caught in the crosshairs as the administration seeks to upend trade deals it considers unfair.

A series of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs have put an estimated $650 million of Washington-grown apples, cherries, potatoes, wheat and other products in jeopardy.

Newhouse said there needs to be a quick solution, but emphasized that he supports the president’s vision of a fairer playing field.

He’s also pushing the administration to consider giving more aid to affected farmers. An initial round of $12 billion in aid was announced last month.

The administration announced a preliminary trade deal with the European Union in July and hopes to reach a deal with Mexico by Labor Day and Canada sometime after that.

Newhouse is running for a third term representing Washington’s Fourth District in the U.S. House.

He faces Democrat Christine Brown in November, a race he is favored to win after he received more than 63 percent of the votes in the Aug. 7 primary ballot. He had no Republican contender.

Susan Hutchison

A former anchor for Seattle’s KIRO TV News, Hutchison later led the charitable arts and science foundation established by Microsoft’s Charles Simonyi for a decade and most recently chaired the Washington State Republican Party.

She stepped down last year and soon threw her hat in the crowded ring for the Senate. She lives in Seattle.

She and the incumbent Democrat, Maria Cantwell, were the top finishers in August and face off in November.

Hutchison received 24.3 percent of the primary ballots cast statewide. Cantwell received nearly 55 percent.

The remaining votes were split between 27 other candidates.

Hutchison said Wednesday she will campaign heavily in Eastern Washington.

She said she’s following the lead of Kim Wyman, a fellow Republican who was re-elected Secretary of State in 2016, when she won 55 percent of the statewide ballot and carried all but three counties.

Women Republicans can win statewide races, she said.

Hutchison said she would be an advocate for Hanford and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, operated by Battelle for the Department of Energy.

Noting her background running the Simony foundation, she said she’s interested in data and science.

“I am one who really believes in the role of the federal government for research,” she said.

As smoke from forest fires chokes the Northwest, Hutchison is casting herself as an advocate for new forest management policies that emphasize forest health, including sustainable forestry.

“There’s really no question that better forest management would alleviate these catastrophic forest fires,” she said.

This story was originally published August 22, 2018 at 6:55 PM.