General
Exclusive: U.S., China sketch outlines of deal to end trade war – sources
Jeff Mason, Reuters
The United States and China have started to outline commitments in principle on the stickiest issues in their trade dispute, marking the most significant progress yet toward ending a seven-month trade war, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. The world’s two largest economies have slapped tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of goods, slowing global economic growth, skewing supply chains and disrupting manufacturing.
Feds: Coast Guard lieutenant compiled hit list of lawmakers
Michael Balsamo, The Associated Press
A Coast Guard lieutenant who was arrested last week is a “domestic terrorist” who drafted an email discussing biological attacks and had what appeared to be a hit list that included prominent Democrats and media figures, prosecutors said in court papers. Christopher Paul Hasson is due to appear Thursday in federal court in Maryland after his arrest on gun and drug offenses, but prosecutors say those charges are the “proverbial tip of the iceberg.”
U.S. Hate Groups Rose 30 Percent In Recent Years, Watchdog Group Reports
Leila Fadel, NPR News
For the fourth year in a row, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that tracks hate groups, reports that hate and domestic extremism are rising in an unabated trend. The center found a 30 percent increase in U.S. hate groups over the past four years and a 7 percent increase in hate groups in 2018 alone, according to the center’s annual “Year in Hate and Extremism” report.
Your phone and TV are tracking you, and political campaigns are listening in
Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times
It was a crowded primary field and Tony Evers, running for governor, was eager to win the support of officials gathered at a Wisconsin state Democratic party meeting, so the candidate did all the usual things: he read the room, he shook hands, he networked. Then he put an electronic fence around everyone there.
White House & Administration
White House talks U.N. post with John James
Gabby Orr and Daniel Lippman, Politico
The White House is in discussions with former Michigan Senate candidate John James about the vacant United Nations ambassador post, with President Donald Trump leaning toward nominating the former businessman and Iraq War veteran, according to three people close to the process. The talks have included frequent phone calls as Trump’s team searches for a new top diplomat after State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert withdrew herself from consideration for the post over the weekend, citing family concerns.
White House Panel Will Study Whether Climate Change Is a National Security Threat. It Includes a Climate Denialist.
Coral Davenport, The New York Times
President Trump is preparing to establish a panel to examine whether climate change affects national security, despite existing reports from his own government showing that global warming is a growing threat. According to a White House memo dated Feb. 14, Mr. Trump’s staff members have drafted an executive order to create a 12-member committee, which will include a White House adviser, William Happer, whose views are sharply at odds with the established scientific consensus that carbon dioxide pollution is dangerous for the planet.
Despite Trump’s Tough Talk About Migrant Smugglers, He’s Undercut Efforts to Stop Them
Sebastian Rotella and Tim Golden, ProPublica
In his quest to build a border wall, President Donald Trump has warned of jobs stolen from American workers, suburbs terrorized by criminal aliens, and desperate migrant caravans headed north. Lately, though, he has found a favorite new target in the “ruthless coyotes” and “vicious cartels” that smuggle migrants into the United States.
Bolton to visit South Korea ahead of Trump-Kim summit
Kylie Atwood and Jeremy Diamond, CNN
US National Security Advisor John Bolton will travel to South Korea later this week for a round of consultations ahead of President Donald Trump’s upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, two administration officials told CNN. Bolton’s trip comes as top US officials continue to hammer out the details of Trump’s second summit with Kim.
Trump White House Is Forcing Interns to Sign NDAs and Threatening Them With Financial Ruin
Asawin Suebsaeng, The Daily Beast
When the Trump White House welcomed its newest batch of interns earlier this year, the director of the internship program, Zoe Jackman, did what administration officials normally do when fresh blood arrives: She warned them against being “leakers.” Soon enough, according to three sources familiar with the process, a representative from the White House counsel’s office materialized to greet the newcomers, and to demand what the Trump White House has required of so many other interns and senior officials.
Senate
Senate investigators pursue Moscow-based former Trump associate
Nina dos Santos, CNN
Senate investigators want to question a Moscow-based American businessman with longstanding ties to President Donald Trump after witnesses told them he could shed light on the President’s commercial and personal activities in Russia dating back to the 1990s, multiple sources have told CNN. The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is probing allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 elections, has been keen to speak with David Geovanis for several months, the sources say.
Marco Rubio on Venezuela’s tipping point
Jonathan Swan, Axios
Saturday looms as a flash point in Venezuela’s crisis, which threatens to spill into civil strife, as thousands of members of the opposition, spurred by their leader Juan Guaido, are expected to dare dictator Nicolas Maduro and his military to stop them from forcing emergency medicine and food across the Colombian border into Venezuela. Driving the news: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), an early shaper of the Trump administration’s Venezuela policy, recently returned from the Colombian border, where more than 300 metric tons of aid are stockpiled, and told me he met with members of the Venezuelan opposition.
House
After Delay, Michael Cohen To Testify On Capitol Hill Next Week
Arnie Seipel, NPR News
President Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, is set to appear on Capitol Hill next week to give highly anticipated testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The hearing was originally scheduled for earlier in the month but was delayed after Cohen cited “threats” from the president and attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Some Republicans with bases in their districts break ranks with Trump over wall funding
Emily Kopp, Roll Call
Though typically aligned with the White House, some Republicans who have military bases in their districts oppose President Donald Trump raiding $3.6 billion in military construction projects to finance walls along the southern border. Recent polling finds that most Americans oppose Trump’s circumvention of Congress to divert already-appropriated funds to build a wall, and the percentage of voters who endorse the idea tracks closely to the president’s approval rating.
2020
Kamala Harris swipes at Beto O’Rourke, far-left Dems, says ‘We can’t have open borders’
Lukas Mikelionis, Fox News
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said “We can’t have open borders” as she continues to disassociate from her party’s calls for unrestricted immigration and tearing down existing barriers at the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S. senator from California, a leading 2020 hopeful for the White House on the Democratic side, has recently been overshadowed by the entry of Senate colleague Bernie Sanders — the progressives’ likely first choice — into the race, and the potential candidacy of Beto O’Rourke the former congressman from Texas who’s been making inroads and positioning himself as the anti-Trump candidate.
Biden gets closer to a White House bid but serious concerns remain
Mike Memoli, NBC News
Joe Biden wants to be president. And each day, he’s closer to being ready to run for the office.
Bernie crushes 2020 Democratic field in first-day money chase
Holly Otterbein, Politico
Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign is off to an impressive start: The Vermont senator crushed other Democratic candidates in his first day of online fundraising, and boasted social media stats that easily outstripped his competition, too. Sanders brought in more than $5.9 million from more than 220,000 donors in the 24 hours since he announced his presidential candidacy, according to his campaign.
‘Sustained and ongoing’ disinformation assault targets Dem presidential candidates
Natasha Korecki, Politico
A wide-ranging disinformation campaign aimed at Democratic 2020 candidates is already underway on social media, with signs that foreign state actors are driving at least some of the activity. The main targets appear to be Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), four of the most prominent announced or prospective candidates for president.
States
John Harris warned his father about legal red flags involving Bladen operative
Brian Murphy et al., The News & Observer
Contradicting his father’s previous denials, the son of Republican Mark Harris testified Wednesday that he told the candidate multiple times that he had concerns about the political operative hired to run an absentee ballot campaign in Bladen County. The testimony from John Harris rebutted suggestions by Harris and his campaign that they’d seen no red flags about McCrae Dowless, who is now at the center of allegations into voting irregularities in the 9th Congressional District.
Northam cancels launch of ‘reconciliation’ tour after student leader objects to visit
Laura Vozzella, The Washington Post
Gov. Ralph Northam canceled plans Wednesday to launch his “reconciliation tour” at a historically black college after a student leader asked him to stay away for now, saying the governor’s blackface scandal would detract from the civil rights commemoration he was supposed to attend. The governor had been scheduled to visit Richmond’s Virginia Union University Thursday as it honors the Richmond 34 — students arrested in 1960 for holding a sit-in at the whites-only lunch counter at Thalhimers department store.
Striking West Virginia teachers told it’s time to go back to school
Holly Yan and Sarah Jorgensen, CNN
West Virginia teachers and service personnel have been told to report to their schools Thursday, ending their strike, West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee told CNN. The announcement comes after the state House chose not to bring up controversial bill SB 451 on Wednesday night, ensuring the legislation is dead.
South Carolina Isn’t Happy with Trump’s Atlantic Oil Search
Carlyann Edwards, Bloomberg
More than half the registered voters in Republican-controlled South Carolina supported Donald Trump in a poll last month, but there’s at least one area where state leaders are ditching the president to join rival Democrats: a fight against oil exploration off the Atlantic coast. While no new drilling has been approved in U.S. Atlantic waters, the Interior Department said in 2014 the region may contain 90 billion barrels of oil and 300 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Advocacy
How a top EPA regulator’s law firm profited
Zack Colman and Alex Gullén, Politico
The nation’s biggest coal-burning power companies paid a top lobbying firm millions of dollars to fight a wide range of Obama-era environmental rules, documents obtained by POLITICO reveal — shortly before one of the firm’s partners became President Donald Trump’s top air pollution regulator. Now that ex-partner, Bill Wehrum, is aggressively working to undo many of those same regulations at the EPA, where he is an assistant administrator in charge of issues including climate change, smog and power plants’ mercury pollution.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
Congress Needs to Get on Board With Modern Freight Regulations
Daniel Savickas, Morning Consult
The 116th Congress appears to have learned none of the lessons of its predecessors. In 2017, the Department of Transportation, under then-President Barack Obama, issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to require all freight rail operations to have at least two members aboard.
Lower tax refunds show how the Republican tax cut is keeping money in your hands all year
Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Kevin Brady, USA Today
When Republicans transformed America’s broken tax code for the first time in three decades, then-Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi famously predicted “this is Armageddon” for the nation’s economy. Barely a year later, how things have changed.
Inside Patrick Shanahan’s clash with Congress in Munich over Syria
Josh Rogin, The Washington Post
In a private meeting in Munich with more than a dozen lawmakers, acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan got an earful about President Trump’s plan to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria by the end of April. Shanahan’s response left lawmakers in both parties even more worried about the United States’ Syria policy and lacking confidence in the team leading it.
Research Reports and Polling
New Virginia poll: Northam approval weak, but Virginians not demanding his resignation
University of Virginia Center for Politics
A new University of Virginia Center for Politics/Ipsos poll of Virginia adults shows Gov. Ralph Northam (D) with weak approval numbers, but Virginians surveyed are not demanding his resignation and do not favor the state legislature removing him through impeachment. Meanwhile, a plurality of respondents say Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) should resign, but another quarter say he should not and a third are not sure what he should do, and the public is ambivalent on impeachment.
American Democracy in Crisis: The Fate of Pluralism in a Divided Nation
Maxine Najle and Robert P. Jones, PRRI
After two years in office, the public’s view of President Trump remains negative. As of late December 2018, when this survey was conducted, only 36% of Americans reported that they held a favorable view of President Trump. Six in ten (60%) of the general public said their view of the president was unfavorable.
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