“We don’t know what the Russians have on Donald Trump. And we need — and we need to see, if anything — we need to see his tax returns.”
— Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), quoted by ABC News.
Arkansas Lawmaker Wants His Gun at State Capitol
“Despite metal detectors and armed guards at the doors to the Capitol and leading to galleries overlooking the Arkansas House, a state lawmaker says he would feel safer if he were allowed to pack his own heat,” the AP reports.
“Republican Rep. Mickey Gates is proposing that lawmakers licensed to carry a concealed handgun be allowed to bring their weapons into the Arkansas Capitol and other publicly owned facilities throughout the state.”
A Peek Inside the Conspiracy Theory Feedback Loop
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Think about what just happened this weekend: President Trump tweeted unsubstantiated allegations — which apparently originated in Brietbart — that President Obama ordered wiretaps of Trump Tower during the presidential campaign. Mainstream news publications then ran stories about the president’s “explosive allegations.” Trump then doubled-down on the allegations and demanded a Congressional investigation.
Now imagine you’re a writer for one of an alt-right publication like Breitbart. You no longer need to write clickbait stories to get attention. If you write a piece that confirms President Trump’s worldview, he might promote it to 26 million Twitter followers which then forces the national news media to talk about it for days.
In addition to the clicks and attention, you may also get influence. Congress could even launch an investigation!
As Derek Thompson noted, “You don’t need a media dictatorship to build 21st century Pravda. In the right conditions, it will self-construct under attention-driven economics.”
Koch-Backed Groups Will Pressure GOP on Health Repeal
“Saying their patience is at an end, conservative activist groups backed by the billionaire Koch brothers and other powerful interests on the right are mobilizing to pressure Republicans to fulfill their promise to swiftly repeal the Affordable Care Act,” the New York Times reports.
“Their message is blunt and unforgiving, with the goal of reawakening some of the most extensive conservative grass-roots networks in the country. It is a reminder that even as Republicans control both the White House and Congress for the first time in a decade, the party’s activist wing remains restless and will not go along passively for the sake of party unity.”
“With angry constituents storming town hall-style meetings across the country and demanding that Congress not repeal the law, these new campaigns are a sign of a growing concern on the right that lawmakers might buckle to the pressure.”
Quote of the Day
“You make up something and then you have the press write about it, and then you say, ‘everybody’s writing about this charge.’ It’s a tool of an authoritarian, to just have you always be talking about what you want to be talking about.”
— House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in an interview on CNN, on President Trump’s suggesting he was wiretapped during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Rubio Says We’ll Know About Trump’s Claims Soon
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told CNN that whether or not President Trump’s unsubstantiated assertions that President Barack Obama wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower during the presidential election are true will become clear “very quickly.”
Said Rubio: “I imagine we’re going to learn more about it here over the next few days, one way or the other.”
He added: “I’m not sure what it is he is talking about. Perhaps the President has information that is not yet available to us or to the public. And if it’s true, obviously we’re going to find out very quickly. And if it isn’t, then obviously he’ll have to explain what he meant by it.”
Politico: Lawmakers “stunned, baffled” by Trump’s wiretap accusations.
Baby Boomers Won’t Be Largest Voting Bloc in 2020
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Ron Brownstein points out that the brightest spot for Democrats in an otherwise bleak electoral landscape may be President Trump’s continued weakness “with members of the Millennial generation—who are poised to surpass the more Republican-leaning baby boomers in 2020 as the largest generation of eligible voters.”
While conventional wisdom holds that Democrats always do better among young voters, Will Jordan shows this age gap is actually a relatively recent phenomenon. It was not evident at all during the Clinton or Bush presidencies.
With Millennials soon to become the largest generation of voters, the stakes are steadily rising for the political parties.
But Browstein has a pretty big warning for Democrats:
There’s no guarantee Democrats can reap big benefits from Millennial mistrust of Trump. The best evidence is that turnout among Millennials remained mediocre in 2016—and, based on historic patterns, could decline more substantially in the 2018 midterm election than among older voters. And while Trump faces grim numbers among Millennials overall, he has displayed strength among them with the same groups that responded to him most in older generations: evangelical, non-urban, and blue-collar whites.
It’s instructive to look the white Millennial vote by education levels. From 2012 to 2016, there was a 17-point swing to Democrats among 18-29 year old voters. They voted for Mitt Romney by two points in 2012 and for Hillary Clinton by 15 points in 2016.
Among those without college degrees, however, they voted for Romney by 10 points in 2012 and for Trump by 18 points in 2016.
If Trump can hold those young working-class whites, it will bolster him in the 2018 midterm elections and beyond.
For Democrats, the challenge is to appeal to this generation so they actually vote in larger numbers. The key to Barack Obama’s victories was energizing young voters. In his re-election campaign in 2012, he actually defied expectations and increased turnout among these voters. Clinton failed dismally with younger voters.
As we saw in last year’s election, demographic trends don’t dictate election results. All that matters is who actually turns out to vote. Nonetheless, this is a trend Democrats need to ride if they hope to retake the White House in four years.
What People Are Reading
On the Washington Post fiction bestseller list:
3. 1984 by George Orwell: “A novel of the perils of a totalitarian police state.”
5. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: “A dystopian novel set in a theocratic-totalitarian state.”
7. It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis: “A populist president becomes a dictator.”
White House Says Trump Won’t Comment on Allegations
White House press secretary Sean Spicer released the following statement on President Trump’s accusation that former President Obama ordered wiretaps against the Trump campaign:
Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling.
President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016. Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted.
It’s Literally Pay to Play at Mar-a-Lago
Washington Examiner: “If you pay $200,000 a year to the company Donald Trump owns, you too can have access most weekends to the president and his top officials. As an alternative, your organization could cut a $150,000 check to bring in a couple of hundred people who will have a chance to schmooze with the president and cabinet officials. Foreign moguls and dignitaries welcome.”
“This isn’t Bill Clinton’s Lincoln Bedroom. This isn’t the Clinton Foundation during Hillary’s reign at the State Department. This is Mar-a-Lago.”
Palm Beach Post: Trump mingles with Mar-a-Lago guests outside charity ball.
A Blockbuster In Search of a Hero
Washington Post: “The truth is that most every Republican is thoroughly gun-shy about going against Trump.”
Trump’s Russia Controversy Isn’t Going Away
Dan Balz: “Russia has become the slow burn of President Trump’s administration. It is the issue that he and his team cannot get beyond. They cannot get beyond it because they are skittish about accepting what is already known. They cannot get beyond it because they have not been as forthcoming as they could be about what they did. They cannot get beyond it because they don’t know what they don’t know.”
“It’s important to remember that much isn’t yet known about the whole controversy, particularly the contacts between Trump campaign officials or advisers and the Russians. That there were contacts is not in dispute. Some appear routine, but the circumstances and the content of all those contacts is far from fully known. It’s possible they will add up to little or nothing. It’s also possible they will add up to something significant.”
Trump Inherits Secret Cyber War Against North Korea
“An examination of the Pentagon’s disruption effort, based on interviews with officials of the Obama and Trump administrations as well as a review of extensive but obscure public records, found that the United States still does not have the ability to effectively counter the North Korean nuclear and missile programs. Those threats are far more resilient than many experts thought, the New York Times’s reporting found, and pose such a danger that Mr. Obama, as he left office, warned President Trump they were likely to be the most urgent problem he would confront.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“We are in the midst of a civilization-warping crisis of public trust, and the President’s allegations today demand the thorough and dispassionate attention of serious patriots.”
— Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), in a statement.
Trump Will Unveil New Travel Ban on Monday
President Trump “is expected to sign on Monday a new executive order on his controversial travel ban at the Department of Homeland Security,” Politico reports.
“It is unclear how significant the changes to the current order will be or whether the White House will continue a court fight over its old order.”
This is odd: “Employees at DHS were instructed to work from home on Monday morning.”
Trump Went ‘Ballistic’ at White House Staff
Before heading off to his so-called “winter White House” in Palm Beach, President Trump summoned some of his senior staff to the Oval Office and went “ballistic,” senior White House sources told ABC News.
“The president erupted with anger over the latest slew of news reports connecting Russia with the new administration — specifically the abrupt decision by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.”
Politico: “The meeting on Friday got heated once it turned to the topic of Sessions. What, Trump wanted to know, was the logic of the move? The president made it clear he thought the whole thing had been handled poorly, and that Sessions shouldn’t have recused himself, according to sources familiar with the meeting. His exasperation was apparent.”
How Trump May Be Skirting His Own Ethics Rules
ProPublica: “In a little-noticed action, Trump killed the Obama-era requirement that the Office of Government Ethics publish an annual report disclosing such waivers. Trump’s order also removed the requirement to provide a public interest justification for waivers.”
“That means Trump can exempt an official from the lobbying limits at any time, for any reason, with no public disclosure.”
Democrats Try New Tactic to Get Trump’s Tax Returns
“State legislators across the country are debating new measures that would require candidates running for president to publicly disclose their tax returns to qualify for the ballot,” The Hill reports.
“Democrats, incensed by Trump’s false claims of being prevented from releasing the documents because of an IRS audit, see the legislation on the state level as a way to force the president’s hand when he seeks reelection in 2020.”
