Top Stories

  • Rep. Seth Moulton announced he’s running for president, becoming the 19th candidate to join the crowded Democratic field. The Massachusetts Democrat, a 40-year-old Iraq veteran who’s serving his third term, led an unsuccessful effort to derail Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s bid for speaker last year. (Politico)
  • The Trump administration is set to tell five countries that they will no longer be exempt from U.S. sanctions if they continue to import oil from Iran. The countries include U.S. allies Japan, South Korea and Turkey, and officials say the move is intended to further increase pressure on Iran by strangling the revenue it gets from oil exports. (The Associated Press)
  • House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said House Democrats will meet in the coming weeks to discuss whether to pursue impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Democrats have been divided over impeachment since the Justice Department’s release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report, with two 2020 Democratic presidential contenders — Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Julián Castro of Texas – pushing for it while House leaders have urged members of their party to hold off. (The Washington Post)

Chart Review

Events Calendar (All Times Local)

04/22/2019
CNN “town-hall” event with Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren 7:00 pm
Brookings holds event on U.S.-China diplomacy 10:00 am
04/23/2019
AFL-CIO President Trumka participates in Economic Club of Washington, D.C., event 7:15 am
NEC Director Kudlow participates in National Press Club event 12:30 pm
04/24/2019
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin participates in FDIC event 8:00 am
She The People presidential forum 1:00 pm
04/26/2019
FBI Director Wray participates in Council on Foreign Relations event 8:30 am
NRA-ILA Leadership Forum 12:00 pm
04/28/2019
Milken Institute global conference
04/29/2019
Milken Institute global conference
View full calendar

The Brands That Define American Culture and Commerce

Morning Consult analyzed over 400,000 survey interviews to determine this year’s rankings. See who made the list.

General

Easter Sunday bomb blasts kill more than 200 in Sri Lanka
Bharatha Mallawarachi and Krishan Francis, The Associated Press

Nine bombings of churches, luxury hotels and other sites on Easter Sunday killed more than 200 people and wounded hundreds more in Sri Lanka’s deadliest violence since a devastating civil war in the South Asian island nation ended a decade ago. Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena described the blasts as a terrorist attack by religious extremists, and police said 13 suspects were arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

FBI arrests leader of armed group stopping migrants in New Mexico
Andrew Hay, Reuters

The FBI on Saturday said it had arrested Larry Hopkins, the leader of an armed group that is stopping undocumented migrants after they cross the U.S.-Mexico border into New Mexico. The arrest came two days after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) accused the group of illegally detaining migrants and New Mexico’s Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham ordered an investigation.

How Michael Cohen Turned Against President Trump
Ben Protess et al., The New York Times

Michael D. Cohen was at a breaking point. He told friends he was suicidal.

Inside the special counsel’s long hunt to uncover whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia
Rosalind S. Helderman, The Washington Post

On a cloudy day in early November, the last of conservative writer Jerome Corsi’s six marathon interviews with the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was about to begin. Sitting in a building in Southwest Washington, three prosecutors assigned to his case opened with a lecture.

White House & Administration

Nothing wrong with help from Russians, Trump lawyer says
Hope Yen, The Associated Press

President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani insisted there was “nothing wrong” with the president’s 2016 campaign taking information from the Russians, as House Democrats pledged stepped-up investigations into campaign misconduct and possible crimes of obstruction detailed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Giuliani called the Trump campaign’s effort to get political help from representatives of the Russian government possibly ill-advised but not illegal.

Scoop: Trump administration opposes military intervention in Iran
Jonathan Swan, Axios

In a closed-door meeting with Iranian-American community leaders last Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration is “not going to do a military exercise inside Iran” to expedite a regime change, according to three sources who were in the room, including one who took detailed contemporaneous notes and shared them with me. Pompeo also sought to distance the Trump administration from a controversial Iranian resistance group that has welcomed John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani as speakers in a private capacity.

How Stephen Miller made immigration personal
Gabby Orr and Andrew Restuccia, Politico

In the summer of 2017, a group of White House aides were in Paris, enjoying some rare downtime during Donald Trump’s first trip to France as president. As the Trump officials soaked up a July evening along the banks of the Seine, one stepped away to take a phone call from the U.S.

Trump administration’s proposed hiring requirement alarms criminal justice reform advocates on left and right
Lisa Rein, The Washington Post

President Trump was joined by 300 guests at the White House one evening early this month to celebrate the criminal justice system’s most significant overhaul in a decade. The president applauded the First Step Act, which revises sentencing laws and expands reentry and early release programs, as a bipartisan victory.

Trump Privately Praises Bernie Sanders, Even as He Publicly Calls Him Crazy
Asawin Suebsaeng and Gideon Resnick, The Daily Beast

To his rally-goers, Donald Trump openly craves a 2020 showdown with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), salivating at the prospect of getting to run against an elderly, self-declared democratic socialist. But in private, his view of a potential run against the senator is a lot more complex and less swaggeringly self-assured.

Trump’s Washing Machine Tariffs Stung Consumers While Lifting Corporate Profits
Jim Tankersley, The New York Times

President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on imported washing machines has had an odd effect: It raised prices on washing machines, as expected, but also drove up the cost of clothes dryers, which rose by $92 last year. What appears to have happened, according to new research from economists at the University of Chicago and the Federal Reserve, is a case study in how a measure meant to help domestic factory workers can rebound on American consumers, creating unexpected costs and leaving shoppers with a sky-high bill for every factory job created.

Trump called on spy chiefs for help as Mueller probe began
Deb Riechmann and Susannah George, The Associated Press

Two months before special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed in the spring of 2017, President Donald Trump picked up the phone and called the head of the largest U.S. intelligence agency. Trump told Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, that news stories alleging that Trump’s 2016 White House campaign had ties to Russia were false and the president asked whether Rogers could do anything to counter them.

Senate

Senate Republicans tested on Trump support after Mueller
Alexander Bolton, The Hill

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report poses a test for vulnerable Senate Republicans running for reelection, forcing them to decide how far to distance themselves from President Trump heading into 2020. Mueller declined to pursue charges of conspiracy, illegal coordination or obstruction of justice, but much of his report reflects poorly on the  president and reveals there are several more federal investigations that have yet to wrap up.

House

Reparations debate gets new life in Dem House
Heather Caygle and Laura Barrón-López, Politico

Democrats have sidestepped the debate over reparations for African-Americans for decades. But now the issue is bubbling up in the House, and the new majority is wrestling with how to tackle it ahead of the 2020 campaign. Sparked in part by the support of several presidential contenders, the topic has been discussed multiple times by top House Democrats, including at their retreat in the exurbs of Virginia earlier this month.

The Last Kennedy
Edward-Isaac Dovere, The Atlantic

Four new members of the House were hanging out at a bar back at the end of 2012, after a long day of new-member orientation at Harvard’s Kennedy School: Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts, Beto O’Rourke of Texas, Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, and Eric Swalwell of California. A woman approached the table, and caught O’Rourke’s eye.

Meet the Democrats’ New Voice on Foreign Policy
Andrew Desiderio, Politico

It was a Friday in March at 5:00 p.m. on the dot. Rep. Tom Malinowski and I had just sat down in his largely empty temporary congressional office when special counsel Robert Mueller informed Attorney General William Barr that his 22-month investigation was complete, prompting a dizzying whirlwind of speculation about what comes next. Malinowski, a Democrat, took his iPhone out of his pocket to glance at the update but appeared largely uninterested — and disappointed.

2020

How 2020 Democrats Are Gaming Out Trump Impeachment Quandary
Matt Flegenheimer and Jonathan Martin, The New York Times

Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has worked for months to find traction in a crowded Democratic presidential primary, stepped forward on Friday with a call to arms: President Trump must be impeached. What followed, generally, was conspicuous silence — and not just from her colleagues in Congress.

Mum’s the Word: Some Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Won’t Discuss Their Big-Dollar ‘Bundlers’
Dave Levinthal, The Center for Public Integrity

Most Democrats who want to win the White House have all but fetishized small-dollar donors. Enthusiastic supporters who contribute $20 here or $50 there offer candidates grassroots street cred during a presidential primary season in which corporate money and tony fundraisers have become decidedly unfashionable.

Buttigieg scrambles to turn 2020 buzz into momentum
Steve Peoples and Hunter Woodall, The Associated Press

There are no policy positions on his website. He has virtually no paid presence in the states that matter most.

A Top Adviser To Beto O’Rourke Has Left His Presidential Campaign
Ruby Cramer and Molly Hensley-Clancy, BuzzFeed News

A top adviser to Beto O’Rourke, Becky Bond, has split with his campaign, an O’Rourke spokesperson confirmed. Bond, a longtime progressive activist and organizer known for her work on O’Rourke’s 2018 Senate bid against Republican Ted Cruz, left the campaign along with her deputy Zack Malitz.

Trump wins over big donors who snubbed him in 2016
Alex Isenstadt, Politico

Deep-pocketed Republicans who snubbed Donald Trump in 2016 are going all in for him in 2020, throwing their weight behind a newly created fundraising drive that’s expected to dump tens of millions into his reelection coffers. The effort involves scores of high-powered businessmen, lobbyists and former ambassadors who raised big money for George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney — and who are now preparing to tap their expansive networks for Trump after rebuffing his first presidential bid.

States

Silicon Valley Came to Kansas Schools. That Started a Rebellion.
Nellie Bowles, The New York Times

The seed of rebellion was planted in classrooms. It grew in kitchens and living rooms, in conversations between students and their parents.

Why Having a Gun in New Jersey Could Soon Cost 20 Times as Much
Nick Corasaniti, The New York Times

Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey wants to put the state at the forefront of a movement to raise fees on gun permits in order to expand efforts to tackle gun violence and reduce the flow of illegal firearms. Though New Jersey has strict gun control laws, its firearms fees have not changed since the mid-1960s, making it a bargain for gun owners.

Advocacy

Trade Deal Alone Won’t Fix Strained U.S.-China Business Relations
Josh Zumbrun, The Wall Street Journal

The accord now being drawn up to resolve the trade fight between the world’s two largest economies promises better treatment of U.S. companies in China and more Chinese orders for U.S. crops and other products. But rattled businesses on both sides of the Pacific are skittish about rushing back in to revive the once-booming investment activity between the two countries.

Numbers of Maine lawmakers who went on to lobby
Marina Villeneuve, The Associated Press

At least 14 Democrat and eight Republican lawmakers in Maine have gone on to register as paid lobbyists over the past three decades, a practice that is being targeted by a bill moving through the Legislature. The Maine House and Senate last week advanced a bill to ban future lawmakers from any paid lobbying within their first year out of office.

Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives

Americans to Congress: Pass DRIVE-Safe Act to Fix Crippling Truck Driver Shortage
Mark Allen, Morning Consult

In this era of deep polarization, it seems as if Americans can’t agree on much of anything. In fact, research shows that Americans are more divided than any time in recent history.

Trump’s Second Term
Paul Starr, The Atlantic

Of all the questions that will be answered by the 2020 election, one matters above the others: Is Trumpism a temporary aberration or a long-term phenomenon? Put another way: Will the changes brought about by Donald Trump and today’s Republican Party fade away, or will they become entrenched?

Forgiving Joe Biden
Ben Smith, BuzzFeed News

The day that made Joe Biden vice president was the worst day of his public career: the brisk afternoon of Jan. 22, 2007. Biden had lunch by the Wilmington train station that day with a New York Observer reporter, Jason Horowitz.

Research Reports and Polling

Spring 2019 Poll
Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics

Ahead of tonight’s youth-focused CNN Town Hall event co-hosted by the Institute of Politics (IOP) at Harvard Kennedy School, the IOP released new findings from the Harvard IOP Youth Poll. For nearly twenty years, the Harvard Public Opinion Project has provided the most comprehensive look at the political opinions, voting trends, and views on public service held by young Americans.

FY 2020 State Budget Status
National Conference of State Legislatures

Forty-six states begin fiscal year (FY) 2020 on July 1, 2019. New York’s fiscal year begins on April 1, Texas begins its fiscal year on Sept. 1 and Alabama and Michigan begin on Oct. 1. As of April 18, 12 states have enacted a budget for FY 2020.

Morning Consult