General
Facebook Backs Away From the Hard Sell on Political Ads
Emily Glazer and Jeff Horwitz, The Wall Street Journal
Facebook Inc. said it stopped paying commissions to employees who sell political ads, as the tech giant overhauls how it engages with campaigns ahead of elections in 2020. Once seen as a growth area, political ads are now viewed within Facebook as more of a headache, according to former employees and campaign staffers who work on digital strategies.
A 10-year-old migrant girl died last year in government care, officials acknowledge
Graham Kates and Angel Canales, CBS News
The federal agency that oversees the care of unaccompanied migrant children acknowledged to CBS News on Wednesday that a 10-year-old girl from El Salvador died in its custody on Sept. 29, 2018. The child’s death had not been previously reported.
China calls out U.S. ‘wrong actions’ as Huawei ban rattles supply chains
Stella Qiu and Tony Munroe, Reuters
Beijing said Washington needs to correct its “wrong actions” for trade talks to continue after the U.S. blacklisted Huawei, a blow that has rippled through global supply chains and battered tech shares as investors feared a looming technology cold war. Japanese conglomerate Panasonic Corp on Thursday joined the growing list of global companies which have said they are disengaging with Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the world’s second-largest seller of smartphones and the largest telecom-gear maker, saying it had stopped shipments of some components.
Faced with relentless American pressure, Iran starts to hit back
Tamer El-Ghobashy and Liz Sly, The Washington Post
Iran has made a dramatic shift in how it confronts the United States, abandoning a policy of restraint in recent weeks for a series of offensive actions aimed at pushing the White House to rethink its efforts at isolating Tehran, say diplomats and analysts. With the Trump administration tightening economic sanctions and intensifying military pressure, Iran is now seeking to highlight the costs it could also impose on the United States — for instance, by disrupting the world’s oil supply — without taking actions likely to trigger an all-out war.
The Truth Behind Trump Tower Moscow: How Trump Risked Everything For A (Relatively) Tiny Deal
Dan Alexander and Richard Behar, Forbes
It’s getting late, and Felix Sater—a onetime Trump partner, two-time convicted felon and longtime federal informant—sits in the back of a New York City restaurant, ready for a drink. “A very dirty martini, Russian vodka,”he tells the waiter.
Avenatti Charged With Misappropriating Funds Owed to Stormy Daniels
Rebecca Davis O’Brien, The Wall Street Journal
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged lawyer Michael Avenatti with misappropriating funds owed to his former client, Stormy Daniels, during the former adult-film actress’ legal battle against President Trump. The charges, detailed in an indictment unsealed Wednesday, add to the legal woes facing Mr. Avenatti, since his arrest in March on extortion and bank fraud charges in New York and California.
White House & Administration
Pentagon mulling U.S. military request to send 5,000 troops to Middle East: officials
Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart, Reuters
The U.S. Department of Defense is considering a U.S. military request to send about 5,000 additional troops to the Middle East amid increasing tensions with Iran, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday. Tehran and Washington have this month been escalating rhetoric against each other, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to try to cut Iran’s oil exports to zero and beef up the U.S. military presence in the Gulf in response to what he said were Iranian threats.
Tensions rise between Pompeo and Bolton
Pamela Brown et al., CNN
As national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo jockey for influence amid a variety of pressing international concerns, including Iran, North Korea and Venezuela, there is growing tension between the two men, four people familiar with the matter say. That tension, sources say, doesn’t stem so much from policy differences as it does from clashes over their personal operating styles.
Mnuchin Says It’s ‘Unlawful’ to Give Democrats Trump’s Tax Returns
Saleha Mohsin, Bloomberg
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said it would be “unlawful” to give President Donald Trump’s tax returns to Congress and asserted that a confidential IRS draft memo revealed on Tuesday didn’t contradict him. “If I had turned them over, I would have been violating the law,” Mnuchin told the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.
Harriet Tubman $20 Bill Is Delayed Until Trump Leaves Office, Mnuchin Says
Alan Rappeport, The New York Times
Harriet Tubman — former slave, abolitionist, “conductor” on the Underground Railroad — will not become the face of the $20 bill until after President Trump leaves office, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday. Plans to unveil the Tubman bill in 2020, an Obama administration initiative, would be postponed until at least 2026, Mr. Mnuchin said, and the bill itself would not likely be in circulation until 2028.
Trump officials struggle to fight the fentanyl crisis
Sari Horwitz et al., The Washington Post
In a dungeon-like jail in the center of this depressed farming town, 18 women in orange-and-white-striped prison uniforms are crammed into a two-story cellblock. Many of them are withdrawing from fentanyl. The jail, built in 1884 to hold 24, now houses 55 men and women, a number that can swell to as many as 90.
Proposed HUD rule would strip transgender protections at homeless shelters
Tracy Jan, The Washington Post
The Department of Housing and Urban Development on Wednesday proposed a new rule that would weaken Obama-era protections for homeless transgender people, allowing federally funded shelters to deny people admission on religious grounds or force transgender women to share bathrooms and sleeping quarters with men. The proposed rule comes one day after HUD Secretary Ben Carson assured members of Congress the agency had no plans to eliminate the 2012 Equal Access Rule, which barred federal housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
USDA researchers quit in droves as Trump administration plans relocation
Ben Guarino, The Washington Post
A plan to move Agriculture Department researchers out of Washington, D.C., has thrown two small but influential science agencies into upheaval. Federal employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) have quit in unusually large numbers since August, when Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced he would relocate the offices.
Senate
Advocates Say Mitch McConnell’s Anti-Smoking Bill Is Flawed And Will Be Exploited By Tobacco Companies
Paul McLeod, BuzzFeed News
On first glance it seems like a huge win for anti-smoking activists: a bipartisan bill to raise the minimum age for purchasing tobacco up to 21, introduced by the most powerful man in Congress. But anti-smoking groups are raising concerns that a bipartisan bill backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is drafted in such a way that it could reverse tobacco control measures passed by local governments. McConnell introduced the bill with Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia.
House
House Democrats in Swing Districts Are Torn Over Impeachment
Siobhan Hughes, The Wall Street Journal
House Democrats in swing districts said they were torn over whether Congress should launch impeachment proceedings against President Trump, a decision that could play a central role in the 2020 election. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Democratic leaders see pursuing impeachment as politically risky, and potentially endangering their House majority.
Canceled Fund-Raiser Prompts Question: Can a Democrat Oppose Abortion?
Jonathan Martin, The New York Times
A top Democratic official on Wednesday canceled a planned fund-raiser for an anti-abortion congressman that had prompted an outcry among progressives, raising the question of whether there is room left in the party for lawmakers who oppose abortion at a moment when numerous Republican-controlled states are trying to effectively outlaw the procedure. The decision by Representative Cheri Bustos of Illinois, the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, underscored the extent to which support for abortion rights has become a central litmus test for Democrats in the aftermath of President Trump’s two appointments to the Supreme Court.
DeVos family ends longtime Amash support
Jonathan Oosting, The Detroit News
The powerful DeVos family of West Michigan is ending its longtime support of U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, the libertarian Republican who has repeatedly clashed with President Donald Trump. The family has not made any political contributions to Amash this cycle and “they have no plans to do so,” said family spokesman Nick Wasmiller.
Republicans Seethe as NSA Slow-Rolls ‘Unmasking’ Reform
Betsy Woodruff, The Daily Beast
Republicans were outraged when they learned that the Obama administration had “unmasked”—revealed the real names of—Trump associates who were caught in the surveillance of foreign officials. The National Security Agency, the eavesdropping arm of the U.S. intelligence community, indicated over a year ago it would give Republicans in Congress more visibility into who gets unmasked and why, according to members of Congress.
2020
High-Dollar Donations Funded Bernie Sanders’ Policy Group A Year Before His 2020 Campaign
Ruby Cramer, BuzzFeed News
More than a dozen high-dollar contributions funded Bernie Sanders’ policy institute the year before he launched his second presidential bid, including one donation totaling $100,000, according to tax forms filed this month with the Internal Revenue Service. The Sanders Institute, a progressive think tank founded in 2017 by the Vermont senator’s wife, Jane Sanders, raised more than $361,000 last year from a total of 13 large contributions ranging from $5,000 to $100,000, the tax filing shows.
“Elizabeth Warren called me!” is turning into a meme
Emily Stewart, Vox
Elizabeth Warren is giving people a new reason to pick up their phones when a call comes in from an unknown number: She might be on the line. It’s a way for the Massachusetts Democrat to thank her backers. It’s also a savvy political strategy to highlight and spread her grassroots support.
States
Mystery of racist photo in governor’s yearbook left unsolved
Ben Finley and Alan Suderman, The Associated Press
The mystery of whether Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam was in the racist yearbook photo that nearly destroyed his career remains unsolved. A months-long investigation ordered up by Eastern Virginia Medical School failed to determine whether Northam is in the picture published in 1984 of a man in blackface standing next to someone in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe.
A False Answer, a Big Political Connection and $260 Million in Tax Breaks
Nancy Solomon and Jeff Pilletts, WNYC and ProPublica
A company that won the second-largest tax break in New Jersey history gave a false answer about being prohibited from working with a federal agency in sworn statements made to win $260 million in taxpayer assistance for a new plant in Camden. A review by WNYC and ProPublica found that Holtec International CEO Kris Singh responded “no” on certified forms submitted to the state in 2014 that asked if the applicant had ever been barred from doing business with a state or federal agency.
Michigan AG: Lame-duck ballot drive law is unconstitutional
David Eggert, The Associated Press
Michigan’s attorney general said Wednesday that a Republican-enacted law making it harder to put proposals on the ballot is unconstitutional. Democrat Dana Nessel’s opinion binds state officials unless it is reversed by a court.
Kansas Supreme Court’s abortion rights ruling now being used to fight restrictions
Jonathan Shorman, The Kansas City Star
A Kansas Supreme Court opinion recognizing women have the right to an abortion under the state constitution is now being cited in court in an effort to block restrictions on abortion. Abortion opponents fear it’s the first of many times the sweeping decision will be used against a host of anti-abortion laws in Kansas.
Advocacy
NRA Sues Ad Agency, Claims It Engineered Failed Leadership Coup
Mark Maremont, The Wall Street Journal
The National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit accusing its longtime advertising firm of orchestrating a failed executive coup at the gun-rights group and leaking details about lavish expenses, as part of an alleged attempt to “tarnish and ultimately destroy the public image of the NRA and its senior leadership.” The lawsuit against Ackerman McQueen Inc., filed Wednesday in a local court in Alexandria, Va., is the latest salvo in a battle between the NRA and the ad firm.
K Street giants scoop up coveted ex-lawmakers
Alex Gangitano, The Hill
K Street’s largest law and lobbying shops are scooping up the most recent batch of lawmakers-turned-lobbyists, a sign of how the influence world’s powerhouse firms are expanding their clout. Those large and wealthy firms are increasingly taking their pick of the congressional class, particularly this year with a number of long-serving Republican chairmen, and powerful Democrats who were upset in primaries, up for grabs after the 2018 midterm elections.
Former FDA head Scott Gottlieb rejoins VC firm
Dan Primack, Axios
Scott Gottlieb, who recently stepped down as the head of the Food and Drug Administration, has rejoined venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates as a full-time investing partner, Axios has learned. Context: Gottlieb had been a venture partner with NEA before President Trump tapped him to lead the FDA, where he became known for cracking down on e-cigarettes and working to battle the opioid epidemic.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
Match Words With Actions in Venezuela, Mr. President
Lindsey Graham, The Wall Street Journal
President Trump has stood firmly on the side of the Venezuelan people. He correctly declared Juan Guaidó the legitimate leader and Nicolás Maduro an impostor, urged Venezuelans to resist the Maduro regime, and promised that America stands with them. The Trump administration has done a terrific job building a regional and global coalition against Mr. Maduro.
I Commanded Several of the Servicemen Trump May Pardon. Letting Them Off Will Undermine the Military
James Stavridis, Time
In 2012, I was the Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, in overall command of NATO operational forces worldwide. My trusted subordinate commander of the International Security Force Afghanistan was a superb U.S. Marine Corps General and a Naval Academy classmate of mine, John Allen.
Research Reports and Polling
Domestic Issues Dominate The Priorities Of The Jewish Electorate
Jewish Electorate Institute
On behalf of the Jewish Electorate Institute (JEI), we conducted a survey of 1,000 Jewish voters to understand what drives their engagement in politics in advance of the 2020 elections. The results demonstrate that domestic issues dominate the policy priorities of the Jewish community as they determine which candidate to support in the 2020 election, as opposed to issues related to Israel, which remains the lowest policy priority of Jewish voters.
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