INVESTIGATIONS: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has hired for his investigations at least one former White House aide who served under President Obama and then remained beyond the transition to help the Trump administration. News of the chairman's move dramatically escalated tensions with the president. Olivia Beavers reports that Schiff brought on Abigail Grace, an Obama-era holdover and former member of Trump's National Security Council. The president is fuming. © Twitter
Schiff replied: "We have a long tradition of hiring out of the intelligence community, the National Security Council. And if the president is worried about our hiring any former administration people, maybe he should work on being a better employer." The Hill: Dems ready to issue subpoena for phone records linked to Trump Tower meeting. © Getty Images
> Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker will testify before the House Judiciary Committee today after a standoff with House Democrats. Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) authorized a subpoena to compel Whitaker's testimony, even though Whitaker had already agreed to attend. Whitaker promptly withdrew, saying that he would not attend under threat of a subpoena. Late Thursday, Nadler sought to defuse the situation, saying that if Whitaker shows up there would be no need to subpoena him. Whitaker is now slated to testify, according to Nadler (The Hill). Democrats are planning to grill him on whether he has sought to influence special counsel Robert Mueller's probe and whether he's talked with the president about the investigation's findings (The Hill). Whitaker will soon turn over the keys of the Justice Department to William Barr, Trump's nominee for attorney general. Barr was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday and will be considered by the GOP-controlled Senate sometime later this month (The Hill). Poll: 90 percent say Mueller's report should be made public. > Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote an extraordinary blog post late Thursday in which he accused American Media Inc. (AMI), the publisher of the National Enquirer, of "extortion and blackmail." Read the blog post HERE. Bezos said the tabloid threatened to publish embarrassing pictures of him if he did not publicly state that the Enquirer's coverage of an alleged affair was not politically motivated. Trump is close friends with AMI CEO David Pecker. The Associated Press: Bezos tells of Enquirer threat to publish revealing pictures. Bloomberg: Trump era's biggest winner is his nemesis Bezos. *** POLITICS & 2020: A new survey of the Democratic presidential field has former Vice President Joe Biden in the lead at 25 percent, followed by Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) at 17 percent, Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 11 percent and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 10 percent. Amie Parnes writes that Biden could be haunted by his decades-long political record, and in particular his vote to authorize war in Iraq (The Hill). © Twitter
> Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke has set an end of the month deadline to decide whether he's running for president. The Dallas Morning News reports that some Texas Democrats would like to see O'Rourke pass on a presidential run and instead take another shot at the Senate, where Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is up for reelection. > Five-term Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.) will not seek reelection in 2020, making Georgia's 7th District a prime pick-up opportunity for Democrats (The Atlanta Journal Constitution). > In Virginia, the scandals that have engulfed the top three Democrats in the state have spread to the GOP side, where state Sen. Tommy Norment was revealed to have edited a yearbook in 1981 with racist and anti-Semitic photos and statements (The Virginian- Pilot). None of the Democrats embroiled in blackface controversies or accused of sexual assault has stepped down. Scott Wong and Mike Lillis write that the assault allegation against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax puts Democrats in a bind after their zero-tolerance declarations tied to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's nomination. The Hill: Dems accused of MeToo hypocrisy. Virginia's congressional delegation released a statement late Thursday night. They did not call on Fairfax to resign: "We are deeply disturbed by the account detailing the alleged actions of Lieutenant Governor Fairfax. We believe these allegations need to be taken very seriously, and we respect the right of women to come forward and be heard. We will continue in dialogue with one another and our constituents in the coming days, and evaluate additional information as it comes to light." The Washington Post: Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam reaches out to Fairfax and attorney general Mark Herring, the other men at the center of the scandals. On your radar: Tune to C-SPAN today for the latest on the Road to the White House. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) will hold a roundtable on jobs from New Hampshire at 5 p.m. and South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) will hold a meet and greet in Iowa at 7:15 p.m. |