Axios: “Next year, the entire under 18 population will be majority non-white… In less than a decade, the population under 30 will be majority non-white.”
Betsy DeVos Is a Trump Cabinet Survivor
“Education Secretary Betsy DeVos remains so disliked in certain circles that her very name is a punchline. She mostly lands in the news for the wrong reasons, such as being forced last month to defend budget cuts for the Special Olympics before angry lawmakers. President Trump has privately complained about her, insulting her intelligence on several occasions,” the Washington Post reports.
“Yet the president shows no signs of asking her to resign, reflecting in part his lack of interest in the issue of education and the department responsible for it. And DeVos has no interest in departing.”
Why No One Votes In Local Elections
Jonathan Bernstein: “One is a lack of consolidated elections. If we held municipal polls in November on even-numbered years – that is, when we’re already voting for president, governor and other high-profile offices – most people would continue down the ballot and vote for mayor and other local offices. But many areas don’t do it this way; voters instead have to turn up for additional elections in off-cycle years. As usual when voting is difficult, the reason is because the people who schedule these things don’t want people to vote. In this case, most of the fault lies with Democrats, who have often opposed consolidation at the urging of unions that have disproportionate power in off-cycle elections. The party has done a good job of pushing to make voting easier in other contexts, but not in this one, and it’s important too.”
“The other reason is because many of these contests are, by law, nonpartisan. Parties aren’t popular in U.S. political culture. But they’re extremely helpful to voters, because they provide a lot of information in a very small package. Although that “R” or “D” after a candidate’s name may not tell us everything we want to know about a given contest, it’s enough for most people to make a reasonably informed decision. Those places that do hold partisan elections demonstrate that local parties can differ sharply from their cousins at the state and national levels.”
Kamala Harris Can’t Afford to Be Cagey
George Skelton: “Clarity, courage and candor. That’s what voters want from political candidates. Not circular claptrap. That’s especially true of candidates running in a crowded field of 20 for the Democratic nomination to take on President Trump next year. Voters are looking for differences. Everyone’s pounding on Trump. That’s no distinction.”
“California Sen. Kamala Harris, who’s considered among the top tier of contenders, isn’t always performing up to speed. It’s not enough just to feed the voter base with red meat and focus group-certified talking points. Harris has long been afflicted with too much caution, as I’ve previously written.”
Trump Campaign Moves to Defend Arizona
“The Republican Party is moving early to build a political firewall around Arizona’s critical Electoral College votes, a recognition that the perennial red state is threatening to turn against President Trump in 2020,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“The Trump campaign is hiring Brian Seitchik, a veteran Arizona operative, to run political operations in the state. He could take the helm as early as Wednesday, a full 18 months before Election Day, and would work in tandem with the Republican National Committee to build and oversee an extensive field program supported by paid staff and volunteers.”
The consensus electoral map currently shows Arizona a Toss Up.
Michael Cohen’s Last Days of Freedom
Jeffrey Toobin: “Cohen chose to do Trump’s bidding for a decade, and that included lying to reporters and others as well as committing felonies on his boss’s behalf. In pleading guilty to all the counts against him, he surrendered his right to contest the charges before a jury. In the light of all this, Cohen has at best a modest claim on our sympathies. And yet there can be little doubt that he is a fall guy in Trump’s web of misconduct, and these days he looks like a victim as well as a perpetrator.”
Bullock Looks Likely to Launch Presidential Bid
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is making major staffing moves — including hiring in Iowa — the clearest sign yet that he’s nearing a White House run, Politico reports.
Health Care Ranks As Trump’s Greatest Challenge
ABC News: “The key issue of the 2018 midterms may stick around to trouble President Trump in 2020: Americans, by a 17-point margin, say his handling of health care makes them more likely to oppose than support him for a second term.”
Economic Frustration Threatens Trump’s Re-Election
“President Trump’s strongest case for reelection remains the country’s healthy economy, but the potency of that issue for him is complicated by a widespread belief that the economy mainly benefits people already in power,” a Washington Post-ABC News poll finds.
“The result previews a fresh wave of populism that could reshape yet another presidential campaign with about 18 months to go before voters decide whether to return Trump to the White House.”
“This sentiment runs the deepest among Democratic and independent registered voters, but also exists among a significant slice of Republicans. About 8 in 10 Democrats and more than 6 in 10 independents say the country’s economic system gives an advantage to those already in power, while nearly a third of Republicans share that view.”
Democratic Strategists Launch Effort to Rebrand Party
“A group of Democratic operatives are launching a $60 million political group with plans to reclaim values-laden terms like ‘freedom’ and ‘opportunity’ for their party ahead of the 2020 election,” Politico reports.
“The nonprofit organization, called Future Majority, plans to provide strategic advice to other Democratic groups, as well as branding efforts, communications and a ‘war room’ that will debunk fake news and counter conservative social media. The group quietly soft-launched during the 2018 midterms and advised organizations including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on how to message to voters.”
Chinese Spying Poses Rising Threat to U.S.
“Chinese spies are increasingly recruiting U.S. intelligence officers as part of a widening, sustained campaign to shake loose government secrets,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Senior U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials have escalated their warnings characterizing Chinese espionage as the single most significant long-term strategic threat, encompassing both spycraft intended to steal government secrets and the sustained heist of intellectual property and research from the corporate and academic worlds.”
Trump Has Lied More Than 10,000 Times
“It took President Trump 601 days to top 5,000 false and misleading claims in The Fact Checker’s database, an average of eight claims a day,” the Washington Post reports.
“But on April 26, just 226 days later, the president crossed the 10,000 mark — an average of nearly 23 claims a day in this seven-month period, which included the many rallies he held before the midterm elections, the partial government shutdown over his promised border wall and the release of the special counsel’s report on Russian interference in the presidential election.”
Democrats See Biden as Wobbly Frontrunner
“In another election, at another time, the late entrance of a well-funded candidate leading in the polls might send convulsions through the primary field,” Politico reports.
“But Joe Biden’s arrival into the 2020 race has not had that effect. No Democratic rival appears doomed. No one’s fundraising seems in danger of drying up. Instead, in joining the race, the former vice president has laid bare how unsettled the entire 20-candidate contest remains — and how many in the party don’t believe the 76-year-old Biden is prepared for the rigors of a modern campaign, or the demands of a party transformed.”
First Read: “Bottom line: 96 hours in, Biden looks more like John Kerry of 2004 (the slight frontrunner in a volatile Democratic field) than Al Gore of 2000 or Hillary Clinton of 2016.”
Trump’s New NAFTA Faces Hurdles In House
“President Trump’s push to revamp North America’s trade rules is hitting a roadblock in Washington as Democrats and labor groups demand changes, dimming its chances of passage before next year’s presidential election,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“As Congress returns from recess this week with a full plate of priorities, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other prominent Democrats have signaled they won’t allow a vote on the administration’s new agreement with Canada and Mexico without certain changes.”
Graham Calls for More Sanctions on Russia
Sen. Lindsay Graham, a close ally of Donald Trump, called for more sanctions on Russia and criticized presidential adviser Jared Kushner’s statements downplaying the significance of that country’s interference in the 2016 election, Bloomberg reports.
Said Graham: “I like Jared a lot, but he’s leaving out a big detail. Can you imagine what we would be saying if the Russians or the Iranians hacked into the presidential team of the Republican Party?”
Trump’s $2 Trillion Spending Dream
“At last month’s St. Patrick’s Day lunch in the Capitol, President Trump told Richard Neal, the powerful Democratic chairman of the House’s tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, that he wants to spend close to $2 trillion on infrastructure,” Axios reports.
“A former senior White House official told me that on infrastructure, Trump’s instincts are much closer to Elizabeth Warren’s than they are to his tight-fisted acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.”
“Trump meets on Tuesday with Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to discuss infrastructure. These meetings usually amount to nothing besides a media circus. But Democrats still take these meetings — in fact, Pelosi requested this one — because they know that, left to his own devices, Trump would happily spend a ton of federal money on infrastructure. (It’s his own party that won’t let him.)”
Jonathan Swan: Inside the Pelosi-Schumer Trump meeting prep.
Congress Returns to Confront Impeachment
Washington Post: “Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election will drive internal Democratic politics, as lawmakers wrestle with whether to investigate or launch impeachment proceedings after Mueller found 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice by the president.”
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has argued against impeachment, faces the tough task of preventing the loud calls to impeach from turning into a groundswell that Democratic leaders fear will overwhelm their agenda ahead of the 2020 election.”
Joe Biden’s Campaign Begins In Pennsylvania
New York Times: “It is not just that the former vice president, who jumped into the presidential race last week, is a native son of a state that is a 2020 must-win for Democrats.”
“The argument is that Mr. Biden’s brand of politics — appealing to a traditional coalition shredded by Donald J. Trump in 2016 — still has latent appeal in Pennsylvania and across the Midwest, and that stitching the coalition back together would restore Democrats to the White House.”
