The Commentariat -- March 16, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Sean Lahman, et al., of the (Rochester, N.Y.) Democrat & Chronicle: "Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat who represented the Rochester area in Congress since 1987, died Friday morning in a Washington, DC, hospital. She was 88.... Slaughter fell at her Washington residence last week and was taken to George Washington University Hospital to receive treatment and monitoring for a concussion. Slaughter was recognized as a fierce legislator who blazed trails for other women to enter politics." ...

     ... Slaughter's Washington Post obituary is here.

"Trump & Friends," the New Fox "News" Slapstick Series. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "Trump ... is actively discussing Fox News contributor John Bolton as a potential successor [to H.R. McMaster]. A leading contender to replace Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is Pete Hegseth, the co-host of 'Fox and Friends Weekend.' The president named CNBC analyst and former host Larry Kudlow ... as his chief economic adviser on Wednesday. Heather Nauert, a former co-host of 'Fox and Friends,' got promoted on Monday from being a spokeswoman for the State Department to acting undersecretary of state.... Trump's plot to poach from green rooms is an additional proof point that validates two important themes I've written about: Trump has debased the value of expertise and supercharged the celebrification of American politics.... Foreign policy pros were aghast when Trump named K.T. McFarland [-- a former Fox 'News" host --] as his deputy national security adviser, [who was a disaster who also got caught up the Russia scandal].... Trump initially named another Fox talking head, Monica Crowley as the senior director of strategic communications for the NSC... [but she had to withdraw after CNN provided evidence of her proclivity for plagiarizing everything]." And so forth. See also Marvin S.'s & Akhilleus' commentary in today's thead on this low-rated show.

First, Shoot All the Elephants. Michael Biesecker, et al., of the AP: "A new U.S. advisory board created to help rewrite federal rules for importing the heads and hides of African elephants, lions and rhinos is stacked with trophy hunters, including some members with direct ties to ... Donald Trump and his family. A review by The Associated Press of the backgrounds and social media posts of the 16 board members appointed by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke indicates they will agree with his position that the best way to protect critically threatened or endangered species is by encouraging wealthy Americans to shoot some of them.... Appointees include celebrity hunting guides, representatives from rifle and bow manufacturers, and wealthy sportspeople who boast of bagging the coveted 'Big Five' -- elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and Cape buffalo."

Adam Raymond of New York: "A lawyer for Stormy Daniels, the porn star who says she was paid $130,000 to stay quiet about an affair with Donald Trump, said on Morning Joe Friday that his client has been 'physically threatened' as a part of the effort to cover up her relationship with Trump. It was the second major revelation Friday morning by Michael Avenatti, who previously told CNN that six other women have approached him with stories about Trump similar to his client's."

Cleta Got Her Guns. Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "A former lawyer for the National Rifle Association says she's 'totally outraged' over a report that she expressed concerns about the gun group's ties to Russia and possible use of Russian money to help Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. In a Friday email to TPM, Cleta Mitchell, a longtime conservative lawyer and former NRA board member, came out swinging against McClatchy’s report that congressional investigators have learned she was worried about the Russian links.... Mitchell, a veteran conservative election lawyer who played a key role in stoking the IRS 'scandal' under the Obama administration, blamed 'scumbags' on 'the left,' namely the House Intelligence Committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and the press for raising questions about reported ties between the NRA and Russia."

Robert Booth, et al., of the Guardian: "Police have launched a murder investigation into the death of the Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov after a pathologist concluded he died from compression to the neck, suggesting he may have been strangled by hand or ligature. The Met police's counter-terrorism command is retaining its lead role in the investigation 'because of the associations Mr Glushkov is believed to have had' but has cautioned that there is no suggestion of a link with the attempted murders of the Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury almost two weeks ago. At the time of his death, Glushkov was about to defend a claim against him by the Russian airline Aeroflot at the commercial court in >London, where he was accused of fraud."

*****

Today in Federal Employment News:

Who Says Bullies Don't Have a Sense of Humor? Zeke Miller of the AP: "... Donald Trump consumed Thursday morning's TV headlines with amusement. Reports of tumult in the administration were at a feverish pitch -- even on his beloved Fox News -- as the president reflected on the latest staff departures during an Oval Office conversation with Vice President Mike Pence and Chief of Staff John Kelly. With a laugh, Trump said: 'Who's next?'" Mrs. McC: Ha ha. If I worked in the West Wing & read this, I'd quietly pack up my things, don my jacket, walk out & snail-mail my polite resignation letter to the Joker.

Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has decided to remove H.R. McMaster as his national security adviser and is actively discussing potential replacements, according to five people with knowledge of the plans, preparing to deliver yet another jolt to the senior ranks of his administration. Trump is now comfortable with ousting McMaster, with whom he never personally gelled, but is willing to take time executing the move because he wants to ensure both that the three-star Army general is not humiliated and that there is a strong successor lined up, these people said. The turbulence is part of a broader potential shake-up under consideration by Trump that is likely to include senior officials at the White House, where staffers are gripped by fear and un­certainty as they await the next move from an impulsive president who enjoys stoking conflict.... The mood inside the White House in recent days has verged on mania, as Trump increasingly keeps his own counsel and senior aides struggle to determine the gradations between rumor and truth. At times, they say, they are anxious and nervous, wondering what each new headline may mean for them personally." ...

     ... Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC reports that Sarah Sanders has tweeted that McMaster has not been fired. BUT the Wall Street Journal, according to O'Donnell, has confirmed that Trump has told John Kelly that McMaster is out. ...

... Michael Shear & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "In his first full cabinet meeting last June, President Trump invited a chorus of gushing praise from his top aides by boasting that he had assembled a 'phenomenal team of people, a great group of talent.' But in the nine months since then, Mr. Trump has fired or forced out a half-dozen of the 'incredible, talented' people in the Cabinet Room that day: his secretaries of state and health, along with his chief strategist, his chief of staff, his top economic aide and his press secretary. And the purge at the top may not be over. Mr. Trump, who is famously fickle, appears to have soured on additional members of his senior leadership team.... 'There will always be change. I think you want to see change,' Mr. Trump said, ominously, on Thursday. 'I want to also see different ideas.'" ...

... Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "Although the number of [Trump administration] departures is unusual, the biggest change in how Washington operates is the way in which Trump has gone about swapping out personnel. Tillerson learned that he was being fired via a presidential tweet. FBI Director James B. Comey found out he was sacked last year by seeing a headline on cable news. Last summer, chief of staff Reince Priebus;s White House career ended when other top officials hopped out of the black Suburban SUV that was carrying them from Air Force One back to Washington, leaving Priebus the lone passenger in a vehicle that then peeled out of the president's motorcade. In these and many other cases over the first 14 months of Trump's administration, there was no 'You're fired' moment, at least not from the president. Presidents often outsource the unseemly business of firing people to their chief of staff, but 'what's really unusual about this president is the public humiliations,' said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, who studies presidential transitions at the Brookings Institution." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Carol Leonnig & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump's personal assistant, John McEntee, lost his White House job this week because an investigation found he was a frequent gambler whose habit posed a security risk, according to two people familiar with his departure. A background investigation found that McEntee bet tens of thousands of dollars at a time, making him unsuitable for a sensitive position close to the president, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. There was no indication his gambling was illegal, but there was concern that the 27-year-old could be vulnerable to outside influence, the person said." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Yes, but how did McEntee get his job in the first place? Oh, he "... worked as a production assistant at Fox News. He joined the Trump campaign as a volunteer in July 2015 after doggedly writing to the campaign's website asking for a job. When no one responded, he offered to take a position responding to website email, according to Trump advisers."

Karoun Demirjian & Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "Two top House Democrats said Thursday that they have proof the Trump administration engaged in an intentional effort to rid the State Department of career officials they suspected of being 'disloyal' to President Trump, citing documents a whistleblower gave to the panel. The ranking Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs and Oversight [Elijah Cummings (D-Md.)] and Government Reform [Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.)] committees sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, writing that they received documents 'indicating that high-level officials at the White House and State Department worked with a network of conservative activists to conduct a "cleaning" of employees they believed were not sufficiently "supportive" of President Trump's agenda.'"

Adele Stan of the American Progress reckons the reason Trump plans to promote Mike Pompeo to secretary of state is Pompeo's connection to (and massive campaign contributions from) the Koch brothers. "So now, we're about to have a secretary of state who denies the role of human activity in climate change, which is just as the Koch brothers, who rule over a conglomerate rooted in fossil fuels, would have it. And Trump just bought himself that much more insulation against any possibility of a Republican-majority House of Representatives turning on him."

Emily Atkin of the New Republic: "Trump's frustration with [Jeff] Sessions isn't a new development, nor is the rumor that [Scott] Pruitt could be his replacement. In January, Politico reported that Pruitt 'told friends and associates that he's interested i becoming attorney general,' a report the EPA swiftly denied. For nearly a year, speculation has swirled that Pruitt has political ambitions beyond the EPA. What's new is the belief that Pruitt himself started the rumor about replacing Sessions. On Thursday, The Atlantic's Elaina Plott tweeted that she heard as much from 'EPA sources.' Axios' Jonathan Swan followed up, saying the 'conventional wisdom' at the White House is that Pruitt is spreading the rumor about himself."

This Russia Thing, Ctd.

Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, according to two people briefed on the matter. The order is the first known time that the special counsel demanded documents directly related to President Trump's businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president.... The subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation, which Mr. Trump's lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now, will drag on for at least several more months. Word of the subpoena comes as Mr. Mueller appears to be broadening his investigation to examine the role foreign money may have played in funding Mr. Trump's political activities.... Mr. Mueller could run afoul of a red line the president has warned him not to cross." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Cristian Farias of New York: "... it wouldn't be surprising if Mueller is interested in specific sensitive records related to Trump's long-held desire to grow his real-estate empire in Moscow. Mueller's team has already asked witnesses about those plans -- among them Felix Sater, an estranged Trump associate who knows better than most about the president's interest in Russia.... Unlike a sit-down with Trump, which Mueller is still trying to negotiate with his legal team, subpoenas are nonnegotiable and extremely hard to quash." ...

... Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "One way to get a sense of the White House reaction to [news of the Mueller subpoena] is to turn on Fox News.... Immediately after the report, Fox News turned to its chief intelligence correspondent, Catherine Herridge. 'Every time Mr. Mueller goes beyond [his] mandate, Herridge said, 'it's not like he's a rogue actor. He has to get the permission of the deputy attorney general. What we know is that he's had Rod Rosenstein's permission to go beyond that original mandate....'... Hugh Hewitt, a conservative pundit with close ties to the administration, also used the New York Times report as a way to attack Rosenstein and suggest [in a tweet] Trump should fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions." ...

     ... Flying too Close to the Sun. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The great irony of Trump's presidency is that for decades Trump has gotten away with activity worthy of a mob boss, & it was his becoming president that will bring that illegal activity into the light & will likely finally undo him. The subpoena, which was issued "in recent weeks," kinda explains Trump's recent surge of erratic behavior. It also explains why Devin Nunes' committee rolled out its fake "no collusion" report, likely at Trump's urging. ...

... Which Makes This Report Hilarious. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "House Republicans are privately venting that they've fumbled the release of their own Russia probe report. The blaring headline the GOP wanted from this week's rollout was clear: After a year of searching, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee found no evidence that ... Donald Trump or his associates aided Moscow's scheme to interfere in the 2016 election but that the nation must still prepare for another assault from the Kremlin. Instead, much of the focus has been on lawmakers' startling conclusion that the nation's intelligence agencies botched their analysis when they determined Russia wanted Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton.... The muddled messaging was the subject of a closed-door meeting of committee Republicans on Wednesday.... Speaker Paul Ryan's office also felt compelled to intervene as Republicans offered increasingly scattershot responses in interviews, with some more eager to criticize the agencies than others." ...

... There's This. Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's private company was 'actively negotiating' a business deal in Moscow with a sanctioned Russian bank during the 2016 election campaign, according to a memo by Democratic lawmakers investigating possible collusion between the campaign and the Kremlin. The statement by Democrats on the House intelligence committee, who have had access to internal Trump Organization documents and interviewed key witnesses, raises new questions about the Trump Organization's financial ties to Russia and its possible willingness to deal with a bank that had been placed under US sanctions. Trump has personally denied that he ever had business dealings with Russia. In a tweet that was published shortly before his 2016 inauguration, he said he had 'nothing to do with Russia -- no deals, no loans, no nothing'. But doubts about the veracity of that statement began to emerge last August, when the New York Times published emails from a longtime business associate of Trump called Felix Sater, who boasted that he had lined up financing for a Trump Tower in Moscow with VTB Bank, which is under US sanctions." ...

... AND This. Peter Stone & Greg Gordon of McClatchy News: "Congressional investigators have learned that a longtime attorney for the National Rifle Association expressed concerns about the group's ties to Russia and possible involvement in channeling Russian money into the 2016 elections to help Donald Trump, two sources familiar with the matter say. Cleta Mitchell, a former NRA board member who has done legal work for the organization, is on a newly disclosed list of people whom Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee are seeking to interview. Democratic investigators for that committee's Senate counterpart also are interested in what she may know about relationships between the NRA or its allies and wealthy Russians, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.... Mitchell's name surfaced after House Republicans announced this week they were ending the panel's year-old investigation into Russia's meddling, which had been plagued by months of partisan friction.... Angry Democrats responded by issuing a wide-ranging, 21-page status report on Tuesday laying out areas of inquiry that were short-circuited by the majority's decision.... Mitchell was among more than two dozen people the Democrats said they would like to interview...."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump's administration imposed sanctions on a series of Russian organizations and individuals on Thursday in retaliation for interference in the 2016 presidential elections and other 'malicious' cyberattacks. It was the most significant action taken against Moscow since Mr. Trump took office. The sanctions came at the same time the Trump administration joined a collective statement with Britain, France and Germany on Thursday denouncing Russia for its apparent role in a nerve gas attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil, calling it a 'clear violation' of international law. But the statement included no joint action in response. The American sanctions announced on Thursday targeted many of the same Russian organizations and operatives identified by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, in an indictment that outlined an audacious attempt to spread disinformation and propaganda to disrupt American democracy and, eventually, influence the vote on behalf of Mr. Trump. The sanctions also responded to other cyberattacks, including a previously undisclosed attempt to penetrate the American energy grid." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made the announcement. Mrs. McC: No word from Donaldovich. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Rachel Maddow had a very good segment that puts this move in context:

... Andrew Desiderio of the Daily Beast: "Administration officials holding a conference call on Thursday demurred when asked whether the president himself would directly address efforts to counter Russian election-meddling in particular, on which Trump has repeatedly cast doubt. 'I'm not in any way qualified' to predict the president's public position, one official remarked.... But the fact that the Trump administration has now included these targets among its sanctions lists complicates efforts to discredit the Mueller probe -- an argument Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) made in a statement Thursday. 'The fact that the administration has issued sanctions against individuals and entities indicted by Special Counsel Mueller proves that his investigation is not a "witch hunt" as the president and his allies have claimed,' Schumer said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Karla Adam & Matthew Bodner of the Washington Post: "The United States and two major European allies on Thursday formally backed Britain's claims of likely Russian links to a chemical toxin attack against a former spy, calling it the 'first offensive use of a nerve agent' in Europe since World War II. The joint statement from the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and Britain signaled another step in mounting international pressure on Russia over apparent ties to the assault. The statement said the four nations shared the view of British investigators of Russian ties to last week's attack against a former double agent and his daughter[.] There was no 'plausible alternative explanation,' the statement added, noting that Russia's 'failure to address the legitimate request by the U.K. government further underlines its responsibility.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Mrs. McC: And not a word from our top Putin puppet.

Nicole Perlroth & David Sanger of the New York Times: "The Trump administration accused Russia on Thursday of engineering a series of cyberattacks that targeted American and European nuclear power plants and water and electric systems, and could have sabotaged or shut power plants off at will. United States officials and private security firms saw the attacks as a signal by Moscow that it could disrupt the West's critical facilities in the event of a conflict. They said the strikes accelerated in late 2015, at the same time the Russian interference in the American election was underway. The attackers had successfully compromised some operators in North America and Europe by spring 2017, after President Trump was inaugurated. In the following months, according to a Department of Homeland Security report issued on Thursday, Russian hackers made their way to machines with access to critical control systems at power plants that were not identified. The hackers never went so far as to sabotage or shut down the computer systems that guide the operations of the plants. Still, new computer screenshots released by the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday made clear that Russian state hackers had the foothold they would have needed to manipulate or shut down power plants." Mrs. McC: And no word from Trumpskyev himself.

Dan Diamond of Politico: "The Trump administration is finalizing a long-awaited plan that it says will solve the opioid crisis, but it also calls for law enforcement measures -- like the death penalty for some drug dealers -- that public health advocates and congressional Republicans warn will detract from efforts to reverse the epidemic. The ambitious plan, which the White House has quietly been circulating among political appointees this month, could be announced as soon as Monday when ... Donald Trump visits New Hampshire, a state hard hit by the epidemic. It includes a mix of prevention and treatment measures that advocates have long endorsed, as well as beefed-up enforcement in line with the president's frequent calls for a harsh crackdown on drug traffickers and dealers."

Trump Doubles Down on His Lie to Trudeau. Julie Davis of the New York Times: In a tweet, "President Trump repeated on Thursday his false assertion that the United States runs a trade deficit with Canada, the morning after privately telling Republican donors that he had deliberately insisted on that claim in a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada without knowing whether it was true. Mr. Trump's private admission to having a loose grasp of the facts and his public refusal to back down from the incorrect statement -- the United States has an overall surplus in trade with Canada -- were vivid illustrations of the president's cavalier attitude about the truth, and a reminder of how that approach has taken hold at the White House. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Trump had chosen his figures selectively in the conversation with Mr. Trudeau and in a subsequent Twitter post that repeated the claim. The president was referring only to the trade of goods, Ms. Sanders said, which ignores the larger trade surplus in services the United States exports to Canada. And in a briefing with reporters, she acknowledged that Mr. Trump had fabricated an anecdote he told the donors about unfair trading practices --- Japanese officials, he claimed, conduct a test on American cars by dropping a bowling ball on their hoods from 20 feet high, and those that dent are barred from being imported." Sanders said he was "joking." ...

Steve M. is not impressed with Trump's lie to Justin Trudeau (story linked below): "... I think Trump would dispute the notion that he 'made up information.' Yes, he admitted he 'didn't even know' what the U.S.-Canada trade balance is. But to Trump, that doesn't mean he was making stuff up.... Trump doesn't need facts -- he inevitably grasps the truth because, as he never tires of telling us, he has a very high IQ[.]... So of course he was right. And he was right without checking first. In fact, if you have to bone up before a trade meeting with another head of state, that proves you have a lower IQ than Trump, and therefore you have genes that are inferior to his!" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "What we have is a president who is publicly bragging about the fact that, in a meeting with a foreign head of state, he was (1) ignorant about our trade relationship and, (2) he made up a lie.... Trump's remarks ... this tell us a lot about why he lies so much. The first thing to note is the fact that he went in to that meeting with Trudeau completely ignorant of the facts. That confirms a lot of what we've learned about him: he isn't simply ignorant, he's not the least bit interested in knowing the facts.... He isn't merely shameless, he thinks there is some value in not knowing what he's talking about and simply making things up.... He bragged about this episode [Wednesday] night because he thinks it makes him look tough and Trudeau weak.... According to the Washington Post report on this speech, the president went on to denigrate almost all of this country's allies.... He thinks that berating our allies makes him look tough.... Nothing -- absolutely nothing -- matters to Donald Trump other than clinging to the idea that he is winning via dominance. He will bully, lie, cheat or steal in order to fulfill that delusion." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: LeTourneau has it right. And Trump thinks you & are dimwitted, loser weaklings because we rely on facts to form our "theories," as Steve M. calls them. If we discover we've made a factual error, we do "weak" things, like apologize and/or change our "theories" to adapt to our corrected knowledge base. This is another reason Trump admires dictators. They spew propaganda & order everyone to accept their lies.

Gossip Page. Matthew Haag & Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "Vanessa Haydon Trump, the wife of President Trump's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., filed for divorce on Thursday afternoon in a Manhattan court. Ms. Trump, 40, is seeking an uncontested divorce to end her 12-year marriage with the president's son.... The New York Post first reported the divorce filing on Thursday." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I am so looking forward to news reports about whom Junior is dating. He's a classy guy. According the the Times report above, "At the time of their engagement, Mr. Trump accepted a ring from the Bailey Banks & Biddle jewelry store in Short Hills, N.J., in exchange for publicity, recreating his proposal in a New Jersey mall." Everything is commercial.

Your Tax Dollars at Work. Gabrielle Bluestone of Vice News: A "report, compiled by the nonpartisan ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), relies on documents that show that [Treasury Secretary Steven] Mnuchin used military jets for at least seven separate trips last year, which cost taxpayers almost $1 million. Those trips would have cost less than $25,000 in total on commercial flights, according to analysis from the New York Times. 'The public still has no reasonable explanation for why Secretary Mnuchin apparently has never used commercial aircraft while his predecessors did, or why he needs military aircraft that can accommodate 120 passengers when his travel manifests contain far fewer names,' CREW attorney Anne Weismann said in a statement. An investigation by the Treasury Department's Office of Inspector General concluded in October that Mnuchin had not violated any laws but did note a 'disconnect between the standard of proof' required to use military jets for travel 'and the actual amount of proof provided by Treasury and accepted by the White House in justifying these trip requests.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd like to know what these military jets are like. According to reports, the jets Mnuchin & Lady Mnuchin took were "the military version of a Gulfstream 550." I think of military jets as very bare-bones, but since private Gulfstream jets are handsomely-appointed, I assume the military planes have similar luxury interiors. If anybody knows better, let us know. Update: Patrick says my assumption is right. So the plane the Mnuchins take at our expense is more like this --

... than this --

All the Best People, Ctd. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: Naved "Jafry, 38, said he had resigned from his position with Hud after the Guardian asked him to explain multiple allegations of fraud as well as exaggerations in his biography. Jafry, who has also been known by Jafari and Jafri, apologised for inflating his military record but denied making other false claims. He said he resigned because the Guardian's questions tarnished his reputation inside Hud. 'You and I both know we live in the world of opinion and facts merging together,' he said." Mrs. McC: Yes, we all do know that. AND "exaggerations" is an understatement. As for Jafry's lies about his U.S. military service, he might be subject to federal prosecution.

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe on Thursday made a final pitch to the Justice Department about why he should not be fired just 72 hours before his retirement, leaving Attorney General Jeff Sessions to decide the matter with a deadline rapidly approaching. McCabe arrived at the Justice Department about 1 p.m. McCabe did not meet with Sessions, who was traveling Thursday, but with other senior officials, including Scott Schools, the most senior career attorney in the department. He arrived around 1 p.m. and departed four hours later." (An earlier version was linked yesterday afternoon.)

Paul Krugman: "There's no mystery about the Republican agenda. For at least the past 40 years, the G.O.P.'s central policy goal has been upward redistribution of income: lower taxes for the wealthy, big cuts in programs that help the poor and the middle class. We've seen that agenda at work in the policies of every Republican president from Reagan to Trump, every budget proposal from party stars like Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House.... The party has mastered the tactics of bait and switch: pretending to stand for one thing, then doing something quite different in office. But if special elections in the Trump era are any indication, voters are wising up. Rick Saccone, the Republican candidate in a deep-red Pennsylvania congressional district that Trump won by almost 20 points, tried not one, not two, but three different bait-and-switch strategies. And on Tuesday he still seems to have suffered a hair-thin defeat."

Congressional Race. Natasha Korecki of Politico: "A campaign mailer from a super PAC backing [Chicago Democrat Dan] Lipinski ... featured a photo of [Barack Obama] on one side, and the words, 'Known for Leading.' The flip side offered a picture of Democratic opponent Marie Newman under the headline, 'Known for Misleading.' The idea that Lipinski -- who voted against the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature achievement, and declined to endorse Obama's reelection in 2012 -- would try to use the former president's image resurrected such deep feelings of betrayal that the group of former staffers and supporters quickly assembled for a news conference to call out the congressman for what they called hypocrisy.... Over Twitter on Wednesday night, former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod called the move 'galling.'... [Ten] former aides and volunteers stood in Axelrod's old offices for the Thursday news conference ... [and] recounted the difficulties of corralling enough votes to pass the Affordable Care Act eight years ago -- and lamented that Lipinski was the only Illinois Democrat to vote against it.... [Lipinski's] campaign on Thursday said it had nothing to do with the mailer."

Tara Bernard of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that the Department of Labor overstepped its authority when it wrote a rule that required financial professionals, including brokers and insurance agents, to put their customers' financial interests ahead of their own. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned a lower court's ruling in a 2-to-1 decision siding with the plaintiffs, which include several groups representing the financial services industry." Mrs. McC: Yes, because financial advisors are supposed to rip off their customers. Thanks, Fifth Circuit!

Beyond the Beltway

What a Surprise. Ryan Lenz of the Southern Poverty Law Center: "Stewart Rhodes, the head of the antigovernment Oath Keepers, will frequently threaten himself and his family with a weapon he always carries, and he has a history of violent outbursts against his family, including an incident in 2016 when he choked his teenage daughter by the throat. That history was outlined in a sworn petition Rhodes' wife, Tosha Vonn Adams Rhodes, filed last month in a Lincoln County, Montana, court room asking for a temporary protective order against her husband."

One Sick Family. Andy Shain of the Charleston, S.C., Post & Courier: "The sister of Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof was arrested Wednesday for carrying weapons at her affluent Columbia-area high school, authorities said. Morgan Roof, 18, also was charged with simple possession of marijuana, the Richland County Sheriff's Department said. An administrator at A.C. Flora High School alerted a school resource officer about a student having pepper spray and a knife and making a Snapchat post that alarmed the campus. The incident took place on a same day when thousands of students nationwide walked out of schools to protest gun violence.... [Morgan's Snapchat] post read: 'Your (sic) walking out for the allowed time of 17min, They are letting you do this, nothing is going to change what (the expletive) you think it's gonna do? I hope it's a trap and y'all get shot we know it's fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Cooper of the New York Times: "The conductor James Levine sued the Metropolitan Opera for breach of contract and defamation on Thursday, three days after the company he defined for more than four decades fired him when an investigation found he had 'engaged in sexually abusive and harassing conduct.' The lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, states that Mr. Levine 'has clearly and unequivocally denied any wrongdoing in connection with those allegations,' and paints his firing as a result of an effort by the Met's general manager, Peter Gelb, 'to oust Levine from the Met and completely erase his legacy from the organization.'"

Way Beyond

Saudi Family Values. Carol Lee & Courtney Kube of NBC News: "When Saudi Arabia's crown prince visits the White House next week, he's expected to be welcomed as a reformer who's expanded women's rights in one of the most restrictive countries in the world, allowing them to drive and attend sports events. Yet ... fourteen current and former senior U.S. officials told NBC News that intelligence shows Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- often referred to by his initials MBS -- blocked his mother from seeing his father, King Salman, more than two years ago and has kept her away from him as the young prince rapidly amassed power. Prince Mohammed, a key ally of the Trump White House, has concocted various explanations of his mother's whereabouts.... U.S. officials interviewed for this story believe, based on several years of intelligence, that MBS took action against his mother because he was concerned that she opposed his plans for a power grab that could divide the royal family and might use her influence with the king to prevent it. The officials said MBS placed his mother under house arrest at least for some time at a palace in Saudi Arabia, without the king's knowledge.... Donald Trump defended the Saudi government for 'harshly treating' those who were imprisoned as part of the effort." (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

New York Times: "An American military helicopter crashed Thursday near the city of Qaim in western Iraq, killing some of the seven service members aboard, United States officials said. It was unclear why the aircraft, an HH-60 Pave Hawk, went down, the officials added. They did not rule out ground fire, and they could not confirm how many people had been killed. One official said the helicopter was not on a combat operation but was ferrying troops."

Ides of March 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, according to two people briefed on the matter. The order is the first known time that the special counsel demanded documents directly related to President Trump's businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president.... The subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation, which Mr. Trump's lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now, will drag on for at least several more months. Word of the subpoena comes as Mr. Mueller appears to be broadening his investigation to examine the role foreign money may have played in funding Mr. Trump's political activities.... Mr. Mueller could run afoul of a red line the president has warned him not to cross."

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe on Thursday is expected to make a final pitch to the Justice Department about why he should not be fired just 72 hours before his retirement, leaving Attorney General Jeff Sessions to decide the matter with a deadline rapidly approaching. McCabe arrived at the Justice Department about 1 p.m. He is not meeting with Sessions, who was traveling Thursday, but with other senior officials.... The decision could be consequential for McCabe's financial future, as if he is fired, he could lose significant retirement benefits."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump's administration imposed sanctions on a series of Russian organizations and individuals on Thursday in retaliation for interference in the 2016 presidential elections and other 'malicious' cyberattacks. It was the most significant action taken against Moscow since Mr. Trump took office. The sanctions came at the same time the Trump administration joined a collective statement with Britain, France and Germany on Thursday denouncing Russia for its apparent role in a nerve gas attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil, calling it a 'clear violation' of international law. But the statement included no joint action in response. The American sanctions announced on Thursday targeted many of the same Russian organizations and operatives identified by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, in an indictment that outlined an audacious attempt to spread disinformation and propaganda to disrupt American democracy and, eventually, influence the vote on behalf of Mr. Trump. The sanctions also responded to other cyberattacks, including a previously undisclosed attempt to penetrate the American energy grid." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made the announcement. Mrs. McC: No word from Donaldovich. ...

     ... Andrew Desiderio of the Daily Beast: "Administration officials holding a conference call on Thursday demurred when asked whether the president himself would directly address efforts to counter Russian election-meddling in particular, on which Trump has repeatedly cast doubt. 'I'm not in any way qualified' to predict the president's public position, one official remarked.... But the fact that the Trump administration has now included these targets among its sanctions lists complicates efforts to discredit the Mueller probe -- an argument Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) made in a statement Thursday. 'The fact that the administration has issued sanctions against individuals and entities indicted by Special Counsel Mueller proves that his investigation is not a "witch hunt" as the president and his allies have claimed,' Schumer said."

... Karla Adam & Matthew Bodner of the Washington Post: "The United States and two major European allies on Thursday formally backed Britain's claims of likely Russian links to a chemical toxin attack against a former spy, calling it the 'first offensive use of a nerve agent' in Europe since World War II. The joint statement from the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and Britain signaled another step in mounting international pressure on Russia over apparent ties to the assault. The statement said the four nations shared the view of British investigators of Russian ties to last week's attack against a former double agent and his daughter[.] There was no 'plausible alternative explanation,' the statement added, noting that Russia's 'failure to address the legitimate request by the U.K. government further underlines its responsibility.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: And not a word from our top Putin puppet.

Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "Although the number of [Trump administration] departures is unusual, the biggest change in how Washington operates is the way in which Trump has gone about swapping out personnel. Tillerson learned that he was being fired via a presidential tweet. FBI Director James B. Comey found out he was sacked last year by seeing a headline on cable news. Last summer, chief of staff Reince Priebus's White House career ended when other top officials hopped out of the black Suburban SUV that was carrying them from Air Force One back to Washington, leaving Priebus the lone passenger in a vehicle that then peeled out of the president's motorcade. In these and many other cases over the first 14 months of Trump's administration, there was no 'You're fired' moment, at least not from the president. Presidents often outsource the unseemly business of firing people to their chief of staff, but 'what's really unusual about this president is the public humiliations,' said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, who studies presidential transitions at the Brookings Institution."

Steve M. is not impressed with Trump's lie to Justin Trudeau (story linked below): "... I think Trump would dispute the notion that he 'made up information.' Yes, he admitted he 'didn't even know' what the U.S.-Canada trade balance is. But to Trump, that doesn't mean he was making stuff up.... Trump doesn't need facts -- he inevitably grasps the truth because, as he never tires of telling us, he has a very high IQ[.]... So of course he was right. And he was right without checking first. In fact, if you have to bone up before a trade meeting with another head of state, that proves you have a lower IQ than Trump, and therefore you have genes that are inferior to his!" ...

... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "What we have is a president who is publicly bragging about the fact that, in a meeting with a foreign head of state, he was (1) ignorant about our trade relationship and, (2) he made up a lie.... Trump's remarks ... this tell us a lot about why he lies so much. The first thing to note is the fact that he went in to that meeting with Trudeau completely ignorant of the facts. That confirms a lot of what we're learned about him: he isn't simply ignorant, he's not the least bit interested in knowing the facts.... He isn't merely shameless, he thinks there is some value in not knowing what he's talking about and simply making things up.... He bragged about this episode [Wednesday] night because he thinks it makes him look tough and Trudeau weak.... According to the Washington Post report on this speech, the president went on to denigrate almost all of this country's allies.... He thinks that berating our allies makes him look tough.... Nothing -- absolutely nothing -- matters to Donald Trump other than clinging to the idea that he is winning via dominance. He will bully, lie, cheat or steal in order to fulfill that delusion." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: LeTourneau has it right. And Trump thinks you & are dimwitted, loser weaklings because we rely on facts to form our "theories," as Steve M. calls them. If we discover we've made a factual error, we do "weak" things, like apologize and/or change our "theories" to adapt to our corrected knowledge base. This is another reason Trump admires dictators. They spew propaganda & order everyone to accept their lies.

See also David Roberts' essay, linked this morning at the bottom of the page.

One Sick Family. Andy Shain of the Charleston, S.C., Post & Courier: "The sister of Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof was arrested Wednesday for carrying weapons at her affluent Columbia-area high school, authorities said. Morgan Roof, 18, also was charged with simple possession of marijuana, the Richland County Sheriff's Department said. An administrator at A.C. Flora High School alerted a school resource officer about a student having pepper spray and a knife and making a Snapchat post that alarmed the campus. The incident took place on a same day when thousands of students nationwide walked out of schools to protest gun violence.... [Morgan's Snapchat] post read: 'Your (sic) walking out for the allowed time of 17min, They are letting you do this, nothing is going to change what (the expletive) you think it's gonna do? I hope it's a trap and y'all get shot we know it's fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway.'"

Saudi Family Values. Carol Lee & Courtney Kube of NBC News: "When Saudi Arabia's crown prince visits the White House next week, he's expected to be welcomed as a reformer who's expanded women's rights in one of the most restrictive countries in the world, allowing them to drive and attend sports events. Yet ... fourteen current and former senior U.S. officials told NBC News that intelligence shows Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- often referred to by his initials MBS -- blocked his mother from seeing his father, King Salman, more than two years ago and has kept her away from him as the young prince rapidly amassed power. Prince Mohammed, a key ally of the Trump White House, has concocted various explanations of his mother's whereabouts.... U.S. officials interviewed for this story believe, based on several years of intelligence, that MBS took action against his mother because he was concerned that she opposed his plans for a power grab that coul divide the royal family and might use her influence with the king to prevent it. The officials said MBS placed his mother under house arrest at least for some time at a palace in Saudi Arabia, without the king's knowledge.... Donald Trump defended the Saudi government for 'harshly treating' those who were imprisoned as part of the effort."

*****

** "Conor Lamb Wins Pennsylvania House Seat." Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Conor Lamb, a Democrat and former Marine, scored a razor-thin but extraordinary upset in a special House election in southwestern Pennsylvania after a few thousand absentee ballots delivered Democrats a win in the heart of President Trump's Rust Belt base. The victory still may be contested, but Mr. Lamb's 627-vote lead Wednesday afternoon appeared insurmountable, given that the four counties in Pennsylvania's 18th district have about 500 provisional, military and other absentee ballots left to count, county election officials said. That slim margin, out of almost 230,000 ballots cast, nonetheless upended the political landscape ahead of November's midterm elections and emboldened fellow Democrats to run maverick campaigns even in deep-red areas where Republicans remain bedeviled by Mr. Trump's unpopularity." ...

... Elena Schneider of Politico: "The special congressional election in Pennsylvania appears headed to a recount, with Republicans preparing behind the scenes to cry foul after the vote count showed Democrat Conor Lamb leading Republican Rick Saccone by 627 votes. The GOP is considering challenging the accuracy of voting machines in the district, in addition to confusion over the state's changing congressional map later this year, according to two sources familiar with the process...." ...

... Elaina Plott of the Atlantic: "Trump broke his silence on the election at a private fundraiser for Missouri Senate candidate Josh Hawley Wednesday night, telling a crowd of donors that Lamb had run 'a pretty smart race, actually,' according to an audio recording of the remarks obtained by The Atlantic.... 'The young man last night that ran, he said, "Oh, I’m like Trump. Second Amendment, everything. I love the tax cuts, everything." He ran on that basis,' Trump said. 'He ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me. I said, "Is he a Republican? He sounds like a Republican to me."'... Trump had been unusually silent about the race on Wednesday, a departure from past elections Republicans have lost during his time as president." ...

... Nate Silver: "One reason that the results are especially scary for Republicans -- Democrat Conor Lamb is the apparent winner in a district that President Trump won by 20 percentage points -- is because it came on reasonably high turnout, the sort of turnout one might expect in this year's midterms." ...

... Harry Enten of CNN: "... at the present time, [Democrat Conor] Lamb's performance in Pennsylvania 18 is merely the latest sign Democrats are surging right now, spelling trouble for Republicans heading into the midterm elections.... The overperformance in special elections by Democrats is key to understanding the national environment heading into the midterms. When parties do well in special elections, they usually do well in the midterms. When they do poorly in special elections, they usually do poorly in the midterms." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)...

... BUT. "Porn Stache." GOP Blames Candidate for Poor Showing in Pennsylvania. Amanda Terkel, et al., of the Huffington Post: "Saccone was overwhelmingly favored to win the race. The district was so solidly Republican that Democrats didn't even field a congressional candidate here in 2014 and 2016. GOP groups dumped nearly $11 million into the campaign on advertising and media messaging ― an astounding amount for a district that will not exist due to redistricting next year.... An anonymous Pennsylvania GOP strategist told The Washington Examiner they had a very specific complaint about Saccone: His moustache was disgusting. It's a porn stache,' the strategist said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

<... Frank Rich: "The Republicans are stuck with only one plan for November: Donald Trump. They can run, but they can't hide from the president they have embraced unequivocally since his inauguration. The Democrats' plans? The very question is an oxymoron. They have many ways to try to commit self-sabotage between now and Election Day, and will surely indulge in more than a few during the ideological battles of primary season."<

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Britain's tough response in holding Russia responsible for a poisoning attack on its soil increased the pressure on President Trump to join with a NATO ally in taking action, even as he has been reluctant to retaliate for Moscow's intervention in the 2016 election in the United States. Mr. Trump, who was visiting California before heading to Missouri on Wednesday, has not personally addressed the attack since London assigned blame to Russia. Aides released a statement in his name on Tuesday evening after he spoke with Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain by telephone expressing his solidarity.... Critics noted that, under the NATO charter, an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.... By Tuesday morning, lower-level American officials joined in backing Britain as it retaliated against Russia.... The pattern resembles the way Mr. Trump has responded to the consensus finding of American intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections. He has allowed top advisers to condemn Moscow for its election meddling but personally has used equivocal language in saying he accepts the conclusion — and generally expresses no outrage or criticism of Mr. Putin." ...

... Michael Schwirtz of the New York Times: "Britain called an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday to formally accuse Russia of trying to murder a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil with a military-grade nerve agent. The March 4 attack in the British cathedral town of Salisbury was 'indiscriminate and reckless,' Ambassador Jonathan Allen said, part of what he suggested was a pattern of Russian misbehavior that had become a threat to international peace and security. He received unequivocal support from his American counterpart, Nikki R. Haley, who, unlike her boss, President Trump, has bluntly rebuked Russia on a range of topics. 'Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom using a military-grade nerve agent,' Ms. Haley said, calling the poisoning 'an atrocious crime.' The Security Council session was unusual. Permanent members of the council do not normally accuse one another of what under certain circumstances could be construed as acts of war."

M.J. Lee & Curt Devine of CNN: "New documents obtained by CNN's 'Anderson Cooper 360' on Wednesday suggest a deeper link than previously known between the Trump Organization and the company that Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, established in 2016 to pay off porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for silence about her alleged affair with Trump. The documents also offer the first evidence of an individual employed by the Trump Organization -- other than Cohen -- being involved in an ongoing legal battle regarding Daniels' alleged affair with Trump. A 'demand for arbitration' document dated February 22, 2018, names Jill Martin, a top lawyer at the Trump Organization based in California, as the attorney representing 'EC, LLC.' 'EC, LLC' is Essential Consultants, according to Daniels' lawsuit, a company that Cohen established in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Daniels. Martin's title at the Trump Organization is vice president and assistant general counsel, according to her LinkedIn page. The address listed for Martin on both documents is One Trump National Drive in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, which is the location of Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles." ...

... Jen Kirby of Vox: "This is a big deal because it ties a top Trump Organization lawyer directly to the scandal for the first time. [Trump person attorney Michael] Cohen has said that he personally paid [Stormy] Daniels the $130,000 in exchange for her silence, but has denied that the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign had anything to do with it.... Martin responded Wednesday with a statement from the Trump Organization that indicated she was working on the Daniels matter in a private capacity." ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "BuzzFeed may have found a legal opening to allow the porn actress Stormy Daniels to discuss her alleged relationship with ... Donald Trump and a $130,000 payment she received just before the 2016 election as part of a nondisclosure agreement she is now trying to void. The same Trump attorney who brokered the deal with Daniels, Michael Cohen, filed a libel suit in January against BuzzFeed and four of its staffers over publication of the so-called dossier compiling accurate, inaccurate and unproven allegations about Trump's relationship with Russia. Now, BuzzFeed is using Cohen's libel suit as a vehicle to demand that Daniels preserve all records relating to her relationship with Trump, as well as her dealings with Cohen and the payment he has acknowledged arranging in 2016. On Tuesday, BuzzFeed's lawyer wrote to Daniels' attorney asking that the adult film actress ... preserve various categories of documents. Such preservation letters are often a prelude to a subpoena. If Daniels' testimony is formally demanded in a deposition, the nondisclosure agreement would likely be no obstacle, legal experts said." ...

... Jim Dalrymple of BuzzFeed: "Multiple women are exploring potential legal cases against ... Donald Trump, following the lead of an adult film actress who has filed a lawsuit in order to speak out about an affair she says she had with Trump in 2006, her attorney said Wednesday. Michael Avenatti, who represents Stephanie Clifford -- better known by her professional name Stormy Daniels -- told BuzzFeed News that other women have reached out to him for representation in cases against Trump. Avenatti did not answer questions about the number of women, or the nature of their allegations. When asked by BuzzFeed News if other women had approached him about potential legal cases, Avenatti replied, 'confirmed.'"

Trump Boasts He Lied to Trudeau. Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump boasted in a fundraising speech Wednesday that he made up information in a meeting with the leader of a top U.S. ally, saying he insisted to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbor to the north without knowing whether that was the case.... The Office of the United States Trade Representative says the United States has a trade surplus with Canada."

Cristina Alesci and Aaron Cooper of CNN: "Defense Department employees charged just over $138,000 at Trump branded properties in the first eight months of Donald Trump's presidency, according to a CNN review of hundreds of records.... The CNN analysis found military personnel spent more than a third of the total amount, or $58,875.69, on lodging and food at what appears to be Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Most of the expenses generally align with the 25 days the President spent at his Florida club from February to April.... Some watchdog groups, former government ethics officials and Democrats say the President's businesses shouldn't accept any taxpayer dollars."

Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "... Donald Trump's personal lawyer in the Russia probe, John Dowd, contributed more money last year to the president's re-election campaign than is legally permissible, according to a recent letter from the Federal Election Commission to the Trump campaign.... A March 8 letter from the FEC to Bradley Crate, the Trump campaign treasurer, put the campaign on notice that there were 108 donors who had made 'excessive, prohibited and impermissible contributions to the Trump campaign in the last quarter of 2017. Dowd's name appeared on this list...."

Trump Plans to (Have Somebody) Fire Most of His Top Staff. Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "Speaking to reporters shortly after tweeting that he had replaced Tillerson at Foggy Bottom with hardline C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo, Trump indicated he would soon move against his remaining antagonists, many of whom he appointed with glee, in the executive branch. 'I'm really at a point where we're getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want,' he said. Some of what's driving Trump is a desire to surround himself with loyalists.... Three sources told me that the next official likely to go is National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.... Last Tuesday, Trump met with ultra-hawkish former U.N. ambassador John Bolton in the Oval Office to discuss a potential job offer.... Bolton responded that there were only two jobs he'd consider: secretary of state and national security adviser. Trump said, 'O.K, I'll call you really soon.'... Sources said Trump has discussed a plan to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions ... [and] replace Sessions with E.P.A. Administrator Scott Pruitt, who would not be recused from overseeing the Russia probe.... Trump has told people for months that he wants [Jared Kushner & Ivanka Trump] to go back to New York." Sherman also suggests Trump is considering getting rid of John Kelly. ...

... Jonathan Swan & Mike Allen of Axios: "Never in the 14 months of the Trump White House has there been such a mood of acute anxiety from within the West Wing.... Nobody knows what exactly is happening, who's about to be fired, or which staffer will next be frogmarched out the door by security for some shadowy clearance issue.... It's not just Johnny McEntee --; the president's trusted body man -- who's been pushed out for security clearance issues in recent days. The same thing happened last week to an aide to the First Lady. He was escorted from the premises and his former colleagues don't know what the security clearance issue was that forced him out." ...

... Frank Rich: "Trump's top appointees, exemplified by the Cabinet, are in their jobs for only three reasons [same link as above]: to demolish the federal government; to spend taxpayers' money on luxury travel and office refurbishing; and to toady to the president in public and obey his policy whims in private. Tillerson is out because he succeeded in only the first of these by decimating the State Department. His successor, Mike Pompeo, will not make Tillerson's mistake. He's the very model of a heel-clicking Vichy Republican.... Trump doesn't want adults in the room; he wants malleable dolts (Ben Carson, Steve Mnuchin, Betsy DeVos) who are happy to join him in his Oval Office playpen, where he can make all the rules and hoard the toys." ...

... digby: "If you thought that all that crazy shit [Trump] promised on the campaign trail couldn't possibly happen well, think again. Look for some really dangerous foreign policy coming down the pike. He's just as stupid as he always was but now he's powerful. And he's on a roll."

Former Cheesy TV Personality Chooses Cheesy TV Personality as Economic Advisor. Eamon Javers & Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "... Donald Trump plans to name Larry Kudlow as his top economic advisor, sources told CNBC. Trump could announce his decision to choose Kudlow as his National Economic Council director as soon as Thursday. The president offered the CNBC senior contributor and on-air personality the job on Tuesday night, and Kudlow accepted, a person familiar told CNBC." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... "Kudlow Has Been Wrong about Everything for Decades." Jonathan Chait: "The appointment of Lawrence Kudlow as head of the National Economic Council indicates how firmly supply-siders control Republican economic policy, and how little impact years of failed analysis have had upon their place of power.... Kudlow attributes every positive economic indicator to lower taxes, and every piece of negative news to higher taxes.... Now that true believer Lawrence Kudlow is taking the helm, the dawn of fiscal sanity in the GOP is receding ever farther into the distant future." ...

... Dana Milbank: "Trump has just put the country's economic fate in the hands of the man who has arguably been more publicly and consistently wrong about the economy than any person alive. Kudlow's tendency to err has been nearly flawless.... If you heeded Kudlow's advice in the months before the 2008 crash, you would have been ruined.... Kudlow, a CNBC pundit..., is not trained in economics." Milbank lists some of Kudlow's greatest hits. It's a stunning list.

** Former Cheesy TV Personality Chooses Cheesy TV Personality for a Top State Job. Andy Borowitz should have written this report. Except it's a true joke. Chantal Da Silva of Newsweek: "In the major White House shake-up on Tuesday that saw former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sacked, the Trump administration also promoted the U.S. Department of State's spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, to the fourth-highest ranking position within the division. Nauert, a former Fox News host who joined the State Department as a spokeswoman in April 2017, will now serve as acting under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, replacing Steve Goldstein, who was fired shortly after Tillerson, having publicly contradicted the White House on how the secretary of state was notified about being axed." ...

... The All-"Fox & Friends" Administration. Former Cheesy TV Personality May Choose Cheesy TV Personality for Cabinet Job. Rob Tornoe of Philly.com: "Fox & Friends weekend co-host Pete Hegseth, who was reportedly among Trump's top candidates to be Veterans Affairs Secretary during the transition, is on[c]e again being rumored to run the department, this time as a possible replacement for the agency's current secretary, David Shulkin. According to Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich, Hegseth is among the frontrunners to replace the embattled Shulkin, an Obama administration holdover that [who] used taxpayer dollars to pay for his wife to go to Europe and currently faces allegations he used a member of his security detail to help him purchase and transport furniture from Home Depot."

Burgess Everett of Politico: "Rand Paul is vowing to do everything he can to stop Mike Pompeo from becoming secretary of state. The libertarian-leaning GOP senator said Wednesday that Pompeo's earlier support for the Iraq war and defense of enhanced interrogation techniques -- or 'torture' in the view of Paul and many other senators -- is disqualifying. And the Kentucky senator indicated he may be willing to filibuster both Pompeo's nomination and CIA director nominee Gina Haspel, who he says is 'gleeful' in her defense of torture techniques." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jeff Hauser of Slate: "Like so much today, what ailed the rule of law under [George W.] Bush is returning in even more virulent fashion under Donald J. Trump. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is abusing a little-used statute in an unprecedented way that is leading to an end run around the Senate's advice and consent authority with respect to U.S. attorneys. Given what we know about the ongoing investigations into the president and Trump's authoritarian instincts, this is a frightening and dangerous development.... On Jan. 3, the Justice Department announced the appointment of 17 interim U.S. attorneys to replace acting officials whose time had run out. The 17 interim appointments were nearly exclusively from states with at least one Democratic senator [so these Democrats couldn't 'blue slip' the appointees].... Lethargic oversight by the Senate Judiciary Committee majority and the media have allowed Trump and Sessions to install loyalists in U.S. attorney positions across the country, especially in districts that are the locus of Trump and Kushner family legal exposure."

Rene Marsh & Gregory Wallace of CNN: "Newly released emails cast doubt on claims by Secretary Ben Carson and his spokesman that he had little or no involvement in the purchase of a $31,000 furniture set for his Department of Housing and Urban Development dining room. Emails [obtained through an FOIA request] show Carson and his wife selected the furniture themselves.... HUD spokesman Raffi Williams initially denied the Carsons had any involvement in the dining set selection.... A HUD spokesman went further at the time, blaming the purchase on an unnamed career staffer." Actually, staffers "asked for repairs to the chairs of the existing furniture." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pamela Brown & Laura Jarrett of CNN: "Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was set to officially retire on March 18, but according to a source familiar with the matter, he could be fired just days before and lose his pension after a more than two-decade career at the bureau. The embattled official abruptly stepped down at the end of January and has been on leave since that time. CNN has learned the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility has recommended McCabe be fired and now the decision is up to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The issue stems from findings in an internal Justice Department watchdog report that claims he misled investigators about his decision to authorize FBI officials to speak to the media about an investigation into the Clinton Foundation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Kevin Drum: "Trump has tweeted more than once that McCabe should be fired, and now he's close to getting his wish.... For what it's worth..., McCabe was arguing in favor of investigating the Clinton Foundation, which would hurt Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump. Whatever. So what is it that McCabe supposedly did wrong? 'The details of why the inspector general viewed Mr. McCabe as not forthcoming are not clear.' Anyway, McCabe is scheduled to retire on Sunday, but if he gets fired on Friday instead it will reduce his retirement benefits. Trump actually tweeted a few months ago that he thinks it would be outrageous if McCabe got his full benefits[.]... Our government is being run like a mafia family. A very, very petty mafia family."

Why Trump Warmed to Japan. Caleb Melby of Bloomberg (March 13): "Two months after Jared Kushner joined the White House as a senior adviser, his family firm sold a stake in a Brooklyn building to a unit of a company whose largest shareholder is the government of Japan. The buyer of record in the $103-million deal for 175 Pearl St. was Normandy Real Estate Partners, a New Jersey-based investment firm. But documents filed in Tokyo show that it was operating on behalf of a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. By law, the Japanese government owns at least a third of NTT, in effect a controlling share. Questions have been raised repeatedly whether Kushner, whose family business has been in search of overseas investors, might pursue a personal agenda while helping run U.S. policy. This is the first known deal with a government-affiliated firm since he entered the White House." ...

Washington Post: "Several Democrats joined Republicans to pass legislation that would exempt mid-size and regional banks from some of the strictest levels of supervision put in place after the 2008 financial crisis. The bill's backers argue it will jumpstart the economy and strip away unnecessary red tape, while critics — including progressive Democrats such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) -- argue it will encourage the type of risky behavior that destabilized the global economy a decade ago.... The House version makes deeper cuts to banking rules, but Republican leaders are hopeful they can reconcile the two measures and send it to President Trump's desk. This is a developing story. It will be updated."

Senate Race. Robert Costa & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Insurgent Mississippi conservative Chris McDaniel plans to run for retiring Sen. Thad Cochran's seat, ending his primary challenge against the state’s other Republican senator, Roger Wicker.... His decision spares Wicker a potentially bruising primary. But it opens up a new challenge for Republican officials who don’t like the controversial conservative state senator."

NBC News: "Exactly one month after 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, survivors of the massacre joined tens of thousands of students across the U.S. by walking out of school on Wednesday morning. The mass protests were held at 10 a.m. local time in each time zone and lasted 17 minutes, one for each of the Parkland victims. Organizers said the purpose was to highlight 'Congress' inaction against the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)...

... The New York Times report, by Alan Blinder & Julie Turkewitz, cites numerous schools' walkouts. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Trump's Excellent Plan to Arm Teachers! Amy Larson of KSBW: "A teacher who also serves as a reserve police officer accidentally fired a gun inside a Seaside [California] High School classroom Tuesday, police said, and three students were injured. Dennis Alexander was teaching a course about gun safety for his Administration of Justice class when his gun went off at 1:20 p.m. Alexander was pointing his gun at the ceiling when it fired. Pieces of the ceiling fell to the ground. A news release from the Seaside Police Department said no one suffered 'serious injuries.' One 17-year-old boy suffered moderate injuries when fragments from the bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and lodged into his neck, the student's father, Fermin Gonzales, told KSBW." See also commentary by P.D. Pepe & Akhilleus below.(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Ed Kilgore: "California state law requires a special authorization for anyone to bring a firearm onto public school property. Alexander did not have that authorization. He's been placed on administrative leave by the school district, and also by the nearby municipal police force on which he was a decorated reserve officer. What makes the incident even more striking is that Alexander is a member (and currently mayor pro tem) of the (non-partisan) Seaside City Council, first elected in 2006."

Gail Collins is trying to place people in White House jobs. I didn't find her column especially amusing, but I did find her some perfect candidates. Among them a gorgeous grifter, an insider-trader & a whole board of directors who drove their huuuge company into bankruptcy. If the FBI immediately deems them security risks & a year or more from now, John Kelly marches them out of the White House without their jackets, they can move seamlessly to the Trump campaign. How prominent a job they get would probably depend on how well they do on their "Fox & Friends" demo discs. ...

... Katie Thomas & Reed Abelson of the New York Times: Elizabeth "Holmes, a Stanford University dropout who founded her company, Theranos, at age 19, captivated investors and the public with her invention: a technology cheaply done at a local drugstore that could detect a range of illnesses, from diabetes to cancer. With that carefully crafted pitch, Ms. Holmes, whose striking stage presence in a uniform of black turtlenecks drew comparisons to Steve Jobs, became an overnight celebrity, featured on magazine covers and richest-woman lists and in glowing articles. Her fall -- and the near-collapse of Theranos -- has been equally dramatic in the last few years. On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Ms. Holmes, now 34, with widespread fraud, accusing her of exaggerating -- even lying -- about her technology while raising $700 million from investors." ...

... Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "A former top Equifax executive was charged on Wednesday with insider trading for selling nearly $1 million in company stock after he learned about a major data breach in 2017 but before it was publicly announced. Jun Ying, the former chief information officer of Equifax's core United States consumer reporting division, exercised all of his vested stock options and sold nearly $1 million in shares a little more than a week before Equifax announced that hackers had broken into its systems, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The breach compromised sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, of more than 140 million Americans. Mr. Ying avoided $117,000 in losses because of the timing of his sale, the S.E.C. said in a civil complaint."

Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "Toys 'R' Us, the iconic retail chain that has sold toys and games to millions of children for generations, is closing up shop in the United States. The company decided to close or sell its remaining stores after its executives met with creditors throughout the day on Wednesday, according to three people briefed on the discussions. More than 30,000 American jobs are at risk as a result. Liquidation sales will take place over the next few months, as the company clears the shelves at its roughly 880 Toys 'R' Us and Babies 'R' Us stores around the country. In September, the private-equity-owned retailer filed for bankruptcy, one of the largest ever in the retail industry."

** Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. David Roberts of Vox reveals "the real problem with the New York Times op-ed page: it's not honest about U.S. conservatism."

News Ledes

Miami Herald: "The [Florida International University] pedestrian bridge across Southwest Eighth Street [in Miami, Florida] collapsed Thursday afternoon, trapping an unknown number of people and cars underneath. The bridge was installed at Southwest 109th Avenue Saturday morning, intended eventually to provide pedestrian access across Tamiami Trail from FIU's main campus to Sweetwater, where thousands of students live in off-campus housing or in FIU's newer dorms. Before Saturday's installation, FIU said the method of overall installation significantly reduced the risk to workers, walkers, drivers and minimized traffic disruptions for construction." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: This is a developing story. MSNBC tentatively reported that "mass casualties" had occurred. ...

... New York Times Update: "At least four people were killed, according to the Miami-Dade County fire chief, Dave Downey. Some reports put the number of dead at six to 10."

The Commentariat -- March 14, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Former Cheesy TV Personality Chooses Cheesy TV Personality as Economic Advisor. Eamon Javers & Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "... Donald Trump plans to name Larry Kudlow as his top economic advisor, sources told CNBC. Trump could announce his decision to choose Kudlow as his National Economic Council director as soon as Thursday. The president offered the CNBC senior contributor and on-air personality the job on Tuesday night, and Kudlow accepted, a person familiar told CNBC."

Burgess Everett of Politico: "Rand Paul is vowing to do everything he can to stop Mike Pompeo from becoming secretary of state. The libertarian-leaning GOP senator said Wednesday that Pompeo's earlier support for the Iraq war and defense of enhanced interrogation techniques -- or 'torture' in the view of Paul and many other senators -- is disqualifying. And the Kentucky senator indicated he may be willing to filibuster both Pompeo's nomination and CIA director nominee Gina Haspel, who he says is 'gleeful' in her defense of torture techniques."

Rene Marsh & Gregory Wallace of CNN: "Newly released emails cast doubt on claims by Secretary Ben Carson and his spokesman that he had little or no involvement in the purchase of a $31,000 furniture set for his Department of Housing and Urban Development dining room. Emails [obtained through an FOIA request] show Carson and his wife selected the furniture themselves.... HUD spokesman Raffi Williams initially denied the Carsons had any involvement in the dining set selection.... A HUD spokesman went further at the time, blaming the purchase on an unnamed career staffer." Actually, staffers "asked for repairs to the chairs of the existing furniture."

Pamela Brown & Laura Jarrett of CNN: "Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was set to officially retire on March 18, but according to a source familiar with the matter, he could be fired just days before and lose his pension after a more than two-decade career at the bureau. The embattled official abruptly stepped down at the end of January and has been on leave since that time. CNN has learned the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility has recommended McCabe be fired and now the decision is up to Attorney General Jeff Sessions . The issue stems from findings in an internal Justice Department watchdog report that claims he misled investigators about his decision to authorize FBI officials to speak to the media about an investigation into the Clinton Foundation."

NBC News: "Exactly one month after 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, survivors of the massacre joined tens of thousands of students across the U.S. by walking out of school on Wednesday morning. The mass protests were held at 10 a.m. local time in each time zone and lasted 17 minutes, one for each of the Parkland victims. Organizers said the purpose was to highlight 'Congress' inaction against the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods.'" ...

... The New York Times report, by Alan Blinder & Julie Turkewitz, cites numerous schools' walkouts. ...

... Arm Teachers! Amy Larson of KSBW: "A teacher who also serves as a reserve police officer accidentally fired a gun inside a Seaside [California] High School classroom Tuesday, police said, and three students were injured. Dennis Alexander was teaching a course about gun safety for his Administration of Justice class when his gun went off at 1:20 p.m. Alexander was pointing his gun at the ceiling when it fired. Pieces of the ceiling fell to the ground. A news release from the Seaside Police Department said no one suffered 'serious injuries.' One 17-year-old boy suffered moderate injuries when fragments from the bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and lodged into his neck, the student's father, Fermin Gonzales, told KSBW." See also commentary by P.D. Pepe & Akhilleus below.

Harry Enten of CNN: "... at the present time, [Democrat Conor] Lamb's performance in Pennsylvania 18 is merely the latest sign Democrats are surging right now, spelling trouble for Republicans heading into the midterm elections.... The overperformance in special elections by Democrats is key to understanding the national environment heading into the midterms. When parties do well in special elections, they usually do well in the midterms. When they do poorly in special elections, they usually do poorly in the midterms." ...

... BUT. "Porn Stache." GOP Blames Candidate for Poor Showing in Pennsylvania. Amanda Terkel, et al., of the Huffington Post: "Saccone was overwhelmingly favored to win the race. The district was so solidly Republican that Democrats didn't even field a congressional candidate here in 2014 and 2016. GOP groups dumped nearly $11 million into the campaign on advertising and media messaging ― an astounding amount for a district that will not exist due to redistricting next year.... An anonymous Pennsylvania GOP strategist told The Washington Examiner they had a very specific complaint about Saccone: His moustache was disgusting. It' a porn stache,' the strategist said."

*****

Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times, Updated Again: "The Democrat and Republican in a special House election in the heart of Pennsylvania's Trump country were divided by a few hundred votes in a race that was too close to call early Wednesday -- an ominous sign for Republicans in a district that Donald J. Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points. With 100 percent of votes counted,Conor Lamb, a Democrat, was clinging to a 641-vote lead over Rick Saccone, a Republican. But one county in the four-county district had not yet counted its absentee ballots, so no winner had been declared as of Wednesday morning. And it was possible that, if Mr. Saccone challenged the results, a legal battle could ensue. Taking the stage to applause at 12:45 a.m., Mr. Lamb was introduced as 'Congressman-elect' and exulted, 'It took a little longer than we thought, but we did it!' House Democrats also did not wait for a final count to claim victory, and House Republicans were already talking about a legal challenge. Under Pennsylvania law, there is no automatic recount in such a race, no matter how close." ...

... The New York Times is publishing results in the special election in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District here. As of 8:10 pm ET, no results have been reported. With 1% of results in, Lamb (D) leads Saccone (R) 51-47%. With 5% in, Lamb leads 60-39%. With 13% counted, Lamb leads 59-40%. With 45% counted, Lamb leads 53-46%. With 62% of the vote in, Lamb leads 53-47%. With 87% of the vote in, Lamb is leading by slightly more than 1 point. with 94% counted, Lamb is ahead by 0.4%. With 95% counted, Saccone is leading with 0.5%. With 96% in, Lamb leads by 0.6%. Lamb's lead has been reduced to 0.4%. With 98% of votes counted, Lamb leads by 0.3% (755 votes). With 99% of the vote in, Lamb leads by 95 votes. A graph showing the shift from the 2016 election is interesting -- the shifts are almost all toward the Democratic candidate. CNN is reporting that election officials are beginning to count absentee ballots. With the Allegheny County absentee ballots now counted, Lamb is leading by 0.4% or 847 votes. Absentee ballots from the more rural counties have not been reported. At 11:20 pm ET Tuesday, Steve Kornacki of MSNBC says that of the remaining uncounted votes, Saccone will have to "overperform" to win. With 100% of the on-site vote counted, Lamb leads by 579 votes. Two counties' -- Green & Washington -- absentee ballots have not been reported. Kornacki reckons Saccone would have to get something like 90% of those absentee votes, which is not likely. There's a question of law on whether or not an automatic recount is required. With only one county's absentee ballots outstanding, Lamb increased his lead by about 60 votes to 641. ...

... Peter Baker & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "While the president hobnobbed with wealthy donors in the exclusive enclave of Beverly Park, the voters in the suburbs south of Pittsburgh were in revolt, giving the Democratic candidate a narrow lead in a special election in Pennsylvania that was taking on outsize proportions. Just as they did outside Birmingham and Montgomery, Ala., in December, and Richmond, Va., and Washington, D.C., in November, energized and angry suburban voters were swamping the Trump stalwarts in the more rural parts of those regions, sending a clear message to Republicans around the country. While Republican turnout in a district that Mr. Trump won by 20 percentage points was healthy, Democrats showed once again that they could tap unions and other traditionally friendly groups to get their voters out in droves." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie Note to Democratic Leadership: Find yourself some attractive young candidates who express views that more-or-less track with their districts. It's true that ConservoDems will be harder to corral during legislative debates, but it's far better to pass bills that are less than ideal than to have perfect party agreement against horrible bills that Republicans handily pass. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie Note to Democratic Primary Voters: Vote for the Democratic candidate who best fits your district, not necessarily the one who most agrees with you. Also, go for young, good-looking & energetic. (Lamb looks about 14, but he's been a Marine & a prosecutor and comes across as a sincere guy who "feels your pain.")

@RealDonald Trump. Worst President Ever Just Got Worse. David Nakamura & Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "For much of his tumultuous tenure, President Trump has made impulsive, gut-level pronouncements -- about dealing with Democrats on immigration, tearing up the Iran nuclear deal and supporting stricter gun control -- only to be walked back by his more cautious staff. Those days, it appears, are over. In the past two weeks, Trump has ordered tariffs on steel and aluminum imports over the fierce objections of his top economic adviser and agreed to an unprecedented meeting with North Korea's dictator despite concerns from national security aides. On Tuesday, Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had forged a tight working relationship with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to try to rein in some of Trump's most impetuous decisions.... Trump's moves have shaken and alarmed a West Wing staff who fear the president has felt less restrained about acting on his whims amid the recent departures of several longtime aides.... Critics warned that Trump was overseeing a massive consolidation of groupthink within the West Wing...."

Karoun Demirjian, et al., of the Washington Post: "The confirmation of President Trump's picks for secretary of state and CIA director is likely to be hampered but not stymied by a mostly partisan backlash to their past statements and actions, and to the decision that led to their nominations -- the termination of Rex Tillerson for being one of the few Cabinet members, Democrats argued Tuesday, who was willing to stand up to the president on foreign policy. Leaders of both parties predicted it could take a while to confirm CIA Director Mike Pompeo as the new secretary of state and Gina Haspel as Pompeo's replacement at the CIA, leaving the State Department officially rudderless at a time when the administration faces pressing challenges surrounding newly announced talks with North Korea, looming deadlines for continued compliance with the Iran nuclear deal, Russian aggression in advance of the 2018 midterm elections, the rollout of new tariffs and a deteriorating situation in Syria." ...

... Andrew Desiderio & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump's announcement on Tuesday that he would be re-shuffling his foreign policy team gave congressional Democrats two new, high-profile opportunities to press the administration on a host of sensitive political matters. Early indications suggest that they will try to turn the upcoming confirmation hearings for Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel into a fresh political hell for the administration.... 'There's so many issues. Russia sanctions, North Korea, Syria, the Middle East -- it's a fertile field for questioning,' Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) told The Daily Beast.... 'It's the best opportunity for oversight of the executive branch, and we have to use that opportunity on a bipartisan basis on Russia, on Iran, on North Korea, on the question of the dismantling of the professional staff at the State Department -- all of that will be discussed in the confirmation hearings,' Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) told The Daily Beast." ...

... David Sanger of the New York Times: "Mr. Tillerson's anticipated replacement, Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, was among the harshest critics of the 2015 nuclear agreement that world powers brokered with Iran. If confirmed, Mr. Pompeo will take over the State Department just as the president is weighing whether to ditch the deal altogether -- even if it outrages European allies. The move would also put Mr. Pompeo, who has been immersed in the details of Pyongyang's nuclear program, in a central role in running the negotiations with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator whom Mr. Trump has said he will meet by May. For all the criticisms of Mr. Tillerson -- and there were many, particularly in the State Department as he moved to slash its size -- he was considered a restraining influence on Mr. Trump. Mr. Pompeo, in contrast, has been an enthusiastic defender of the president's policies, to the point that many senior current and former C.I.A. officials worried that he was far too political for the job." ...

... Chris Mooney of the Washington Post: "Mike Pompeo's coming elevation to secretary of state would put an official who has expressed doubts about climate science in charge of the department tasked with representing the United State at a crucial upcoming international climate summit. President Trump on Tuesday announced Pompeo would replace the outgoing Rex Tillerson, the former ExxonMobil CEO who supported the Paris climate agreement and agreed that greenhouse gases warm the planet and cause climate change. Tillerson called climate change an 'engineering problem.'... In contrast to Tillerson, Pompeo said on C-SPAN in 2013 that 'there are scientists that think lots of different things about climate change. There's some who think we're warming, there's some who think we're cooling, there's some who think that the last 16 years have shown a pretty stable climate environment.'"

Eliza Relman of Business Insider: "... Donald Trump's controversial nominee to lead the Central Intelligence Agency helped implement the agency's torture program under the George W. Bush administration, a record that will make her confirmation process difficult and likely ugly. Gina Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985 and spent most of her career undercover, oversaw the waterboarding and use of other 'enhanced interrogation techniques' - authorized by the Bush administration and later outlawed by President Barack Obama and Congress -- at a secret CIA prison in Thailand in 2002.... In 2005, Haspel signed a cable ordering the destruction of 92 video tapes of [Abu] Zubaydah's interrogations -- a decision that became the subject of a lengthy criminal investigation by the Justice Department that did not result in charges. Haspel also helped facilitate the 'extraordinary rendition program,' in which the US government handed detainees over to foreign officials, who detained and tortured them in secret prisons.... Trump repeatedly expressed his support for torture, including waterboarding, on the campaign trail." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Here's the New York Times' February 2, 2017, story by Matthew Rosenberg, on Gina Haspel, which was updated Tuesday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "Haspel, whom under Pompeo became the agency's deputy director, briefly ran the off-the-books prison in Thailand used as a torture laboratory for the earliest detained terrorism suspects. There, in 2002 -- including while Haspel ran the so-called black site -- the man known as Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times; stuffed into a wooden box barely bigger than a coffin; had his body shackled in painful contorted positions; and had his head slammed into walls.... Years later, Haspel drafted an instruction to CIA officers in the field to destroy videotapes of torturous interrogations at the site. Though the Justice Department later declined to bring charges, the destruction of the tapes was widely considered in human-rights circles to be a key moment in covering up the torture -- and it prompted the Senate intelligence committee's landmark 2014 investigation, which occurred amid the backdrop of the agency spying on the work product of the Senate investigators."

... Ed Kilgore: "In 2013, when then-CIA Director John Brennan sought to promote Haspel into the position of directing all of the agency's covert operations, Senator Diane Feinstein objected and blocked the move, citing her involvement in the illegal torture program.... Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, is already saying that her torturous background makes her 'unsuitable to serve as CIA director.' And civil liberties groups are even more determined to oppose her[.]" (Also linked yesterday.)

The Tick-Tock on Trump's Class Act. Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was asleep in his Nairobi hotel room early Saturday morning fighting a stomach bug when White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly called to wake him around 2 a.m. to relay a terse message from President Trump: The boss was not happy. The president was so eager to fire Tillerson that he wanted to do so in a tweet on Friday, but Kelly persuaded Trump to wait until his secretary of state was back in the United States from Africa, two people familiar with the conversation said. It was Tillerson's first trip there since Trump disparaged parts of the continent as 'shithole countries.' But Kelly had also warned Tillerson to possibly expect a pejorative tweet from Trump over the weekend, a State Department official said. Tillerson failed to fully understand that the chief of staff was gently signaling to him that he was about to be fired. And so, just over four hours after Tillerson's government plane touched down at Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday morning, the secretary of state learned of his dismissal from a tweet Trump issued just minutes after The Washington Post first reported the news." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Sounds like the classic cat-on-the-roof joke. ...

... Andy Borowitz: "Millions of Americans on Tuesday marvelled at Donald J. Trump's ability to transform the former C.E.O. of ExxonMobil into a figure deserving of their sympathy."

... Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "[Rex] Tillerson learned he had been fired on Tuesday morning when a top aide showed him a tweet from Mr. Trump announcing the change, according to a senior State Department official. But he had gotten an oblique warning of what was coming the previous Friday from the White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, who called to tell him to cut short a trip to Africa and advised him 'you may get a tweet.' It was an abrupt end -- after months of speculation -- to a rocky tenure for a former oil executive who never meshed with the president who hired him. Mr. Tillerson clashed repeatedly with the White House staff and broke publicly with Mr. Trump on issues ranging from the dispute between Saudi Arabia and Qatar to the American response to Russia's cyber aggression. 'We were not really thinking the same,' Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House, explaining his decision to replace Mr. Tillerson. He added: 'Really, it was a different mind-set, a different thinking.'" (This is an update of a story linked Tuesday morning.) ...

... Kevin Drum: "We've now heard from Rex Tillerson. In a wavering voice, he held a press briefing in which he thanked everyone for their contributions over the past year. He thanked State Department workers. He thanked Defense Secretary James Mattis. He literally thanked all 300 million Americans. Except for Donald Trump. He didn't thank Donald Trump." And Drum reminds us of an October BuzzFeed report: "'a so-called 'suicide pact' forged between Defense Secretary James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Tillerson....'... I guess the suicide pact is no longer operative.... Tillerson has never denied saying [that Trump is a 'fucking moron'], but he's never admitted it either. Now that he's been fired, I wonder if he'll open up a bit about just how big a moron Trump is?" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Asawin Suebsaeng, et al., of the Daily Beast: "'On Tillerson: hallelujah!' one State Department official said.... State Department officials were horrified by what they perceived as his disdain for them. His reforms left many experienced diplomats internally marginalized -- with little to do but vent to reporters about Tillerson presiding over a decline of American diplomacy that many felt was the entire point of his tenure.... As news of Tillerson's ouster spread on Tuesday morning -- as Tillerson was supposed to be wrapping up a weeklong trip to five African countries -- diplomats who talked to The Daily Beast whipsawed between euphoria at his departure and fear about their likely new boss, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, emboldening Trump's ignorance, bellicosity and impulsiveness.... 'Pompeo will have the president's trust but enable his worst foreign policy instincts. Sanity has never been the guiding principle of this White House, [a] diplomat said."

John Kelly Cleans House

... Trump Didn't Have Guts to Fire Tillerson in Person. Ali Vitali, et al., of NBC News: "NBC News learned Tuesday from sources familiar with the situation that Chief of Staff John Kelly spoke with Tillerson by phone on Friday and told him that Trump intended to ask him to 'step aside.' In that call -- which came while Tillerson was traveling through Africa -- Kelly did not specify when that change might come. Kelly also called Tillerson again on Saturday, a senior White House official said, expressing once again the president's 'imminent' intention to replace his secretary of state. The Associated Press, citing senior State Department officials, reported Tuesday that Tillerson had been even more blindsided, saying that Kelly had warned him on that Friday call that there might be a tweet from the president coming that would concern him, but did not detail what the tweet might say or when it would post." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jonathan Chait: "... one thing that stands out about the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is that Tillerson explicitly identified Russia as the culprit in the [Mrs. McC: attempted] murder of Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom, and Donald Trump did not.... [Monday] night, Rex Tillerson told reporters the attack 'clearly' was undertaken by Russia. Then [Tuesday] morning Trump fired Tillerson, without any advance notice whatsoever. After that, Trump briefly appeared on the White House lawn, and when asked about the murder, said, 'We will condemn Russia ... or whoever it may be.' Whoever it might be? Round up all the 400-pound guys! The fact Tillerson was fired almost immediately after contradicting the official White House line on the murder of a Russian double agent might, or might not, be a coincidence. But what possible innocent explanation can be provided for the administration's refusal to concede Russian involvement when our closest ally, on whose territory the murder took place, is perfectly clear about who committed it?" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As far as I know, Skripal is still alive, if in critical condition. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) See also related story re: readout of Trump's conversation with British PM Theresa May, linked below. The New York Times has published the full transcript of Trump's remarks to reporters on the White House lawn Tuesday regarding this issue & the dismissal of Tillerson. On Russia, Trump seems to want to have it two ways. If history is any indicator, he will soon forget his assertion that British intelligence could be right about Russia's culpability in the poisoning, just as he keeps forgetting that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, even as he has once or twice conceded the fact immediately after intelligence officials presented him with the evidence. ...

... AND. John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "If Tillerson did know that the President was about to can him, his statement on Russia was perhaps a final act of defiance. On Tuesday, the Russian government again denied responsibility for the attack in Salisbury and said it wouldn't respond to British claims unless it was provided with samples of the nerve agent used. Trump also spoke with [Theresa] May, finally, and, after the call, the White House issued a statement saying he agreed with her 'that the Government of the Russian Federation must provide unambiguous answers regarding how this chemical weapon, developed in Russia, came to be used in the United Kingdom.' However, the statement stopped short of saying Trump agreed with the British assessment that the Russian government was very likely responsible.... With Tillerson's departure so closely following the resignation of Gary Cohn..., the circle around the President is getting even tighter. Pompeo, Tillerson's replacement, is a Trump loyalist who has tried to downplay Russian interference in the 2016 election. And so it goes on." ...

... AND. David Frum of the Atlantic: "The White House’s account of the Tillerson firing collapsed within minutes.... A lot turns on [the] timing. On March 12, Tillerson had backed the British government's accusation that Russia was culpable for a nerve-agent attack on United Kingdom soil. If Tillerson had been fired March 9, then his words of support for Britain could not explain his firing three days before. But if the White House was lying about the timing, it could be lying about the motive. And since it now seems all but certain that the White House was lying about the timing, it looks more probable that it was lying about the motive too.... It echoes the approach [Trump] took toward Russian intervention in the U.S. election to help elect him in 2016: Feign uncertainty about what is not uncertain in order to justify inaction." ...

... New York Times Editors: "If Rex Tillerson had ended his professional career as chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, his reputation would have been that of a successful leader of one of the world's largest companies and a devoted supporter of the Boy Scouts. Instead he will be remembered as one of the country's weakest and least effective secretaries of state. With no experience in foreign policy or government, he provided little leadership and eviscerated the department he was chosen to lead, enthusiastically carrying out the budget-cutting orders of a hot-headed president uninterested in diplomacy. Scores of senior diplomats and other professionals, the core of America's foreign service, were either forced out or chose to flee. And yet we have cause to regret his departure, because his replacement is likely to be worse." The editors share their assessments of Mike Pompeo & Gina Haspel. ...

... "You'll Miss Him When He's Gone." Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Some on the left are declaring Tillerson among the worst secretaries of state, ever.... But Tillerson was far from the worst modern secretary of state in terms of the actual consequences of his actions. Nothing in his short tenure matches the horrors inflicted on the world by predecessors such as Dean Rusk (the Vietnam War), Henry Kissinger (the secret bombing of Cambodia, the support for the coup in Chile) or Colin Powell (the Iraq war). In purely policy terms, Tillerson was a moderating force in the Trump White House, pushing Trump to stay in the Paris climate agreement, uphold the Iran nuclear deal, condemn Russian interference in the 2016 election, and engage in diplomacy with North Korea. On all these issues, Pompeo will be much more hawkish and closer to Trump.... The question of Tillerson versus Pompeo comes down to whether it is better to be incompetent and have the right policies (as Tillerson does) or be competent but with more dangerous policies." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... It's Not Just the Left. Conservative Max Boot in the Washington Post: "... I stand by my judgment that Tillerson was the worst secretary of state since the United States' rise to global power began in 1898. If he had any self-respect, he would have resigned long ago. And yet the manner in which 'Rexit' finally occurred was despicable. Trump became famous on television for saying 'you're fired,' but it turns out that in real life he is too cowardly to look people in the face when he is getting rid of them. FBI Director James B. Comey found out he was canned from seeing the news on television; Tillerson reportedly from Twitter. No one deserves to be treated this way. Trump demands maximum loyalty from his followers, but he does not give any loyalty -- or respect -- in return...."

... Emily Stewart of Vox: "Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's pride might be hurt by his forced ouster on Tuesday, but his pocketbook won't be. The former Exxon Mobil CEO will still get to enjoy the millions of dollars in tax deferrals he got when he joined the Trump administration in the first place, even though he spent just a little over a year on the job. Tillerson and Exxon reached an agreement when then-President-elect Donald Trump tapped Tillerson to head the State Department. The deal outlined steps for Tillerson to sever all ties with the company to comply with conflict of interest requirements while at the same time defining what he was to do with his multimillion-dollar retirement package and hundreds of thousands of Exxon shares. As a result, Tillerson got a major tax break -- and is one of several Trump Cabinet appointees with immense personal wealth who did so. He'll continue to benefit from that arrangement even after he leaves the public sector." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Contributor Patrick wrote yesterday that Tillerson had to stay on the job for a year, & that was my recollection as well, thanks to Patrick's reminder. But Stewart writes, "... there's no requirement for how long officials remain in their posts to enjoy the tax benefit." This October 2017 story by Bill Alpert in Barron's backs up Stewart: "To dispute the tax deferral of an administration short-timer, the Internal Revenue Service would have to show that the official took office just to beat the tax code." It looks as if the one-year requirement was more rumor than fact.

... Mike Calia & Dan Mangan of CNBC: "Steve Goldstein, Rex Tillerson's top spokesman at the State Department, was fired Tuesday for contradicting the official administration account of Tillerson's firing, a White House official told NBC News. A State Department official confirmed the firing of Goldstein, who was an undersecretary of State, to NBC News, as well.... Trump announced over Twitter on Tuesday that he was replacing Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Goldstein had said soon afterward that Tillerson had not spoken directly about the move with the president.... NBC News reported that Tillerson had learned of his firing from Trump's tweet." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Elise Labott of CNN: "Tillerson's chief of staff, Margaret Peterlin, and deputy chief of staff, Christine Ciccone, also submitted their resignations on Tuesday, according to two senior State Department officials. Both are expected to serve until Tillerson leaves on March 31."

Michael Shear & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "John McEntee, who has served as President Trump's personal assistant since Mr. Trump won the presidency, was forced out of his position and escorted from the White House on Monday after his security clearance was revoked, officials with knowledge of the incident said. But Mr. McEntee will remain in the president's orbit despite his abrupt departure from the White House. Mr. Trump's re-election campaign announced Tuesday that Mr. McEntee has been named Senior Adviser for Campaign Operations, putting him in a position to remain as a close aide during the next several years. The campaign's decision underscores Mr. Trump's tolerance for -- and often encouragement of — dueling centers of power around him. And it highlights the extent to which the re-election campaign has already become a landing pad for former Trump associates who have left the White House but remain loyal to the president.... A senior administration official said that many of the president's top aides were shocked and dismayed by the abrupt departure.... John F. Kelly ... has said in recent weeks that too many staff members were operating on interim security clearances because they could not pass F.B.I. background checks. A White House spokesman declined to comment on Mr. McEntee's firing." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Kaitlan Collins, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump's longtime personal aide John McEntee was fired because he is currently under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes, a source familiar with his firing told CNN. The charges are not related to the President, the source said. Minutes after news of his departure broke, the Trump campaign announced McEntee would be joining the reelection effort as a senior adviser for campaign operations.... His abrupt firing came out of nowhere and there was no warning, [White House aides] said.... He was scheduled to travel to California with Trump on Tuesday, but then he was fired." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Brent Samuels of the Hill: "The Secret Service is investigating McEntee over his alleged online gambling problems and 'mishandling' of taxes, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing senior administration officials." ...

... Nicole Lafond of TPM: "House Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) has requested the White House hand over documents related to the firing of ... Donald Trump's personal assistant Tuesday.... Cummings addressed the letter to Chief of Staff John Kelly and scolded the White House official for the 'deficient background check process' in the West Wing. McEntee was reportedly escorted out of the White House after his firing on Tuesday and was not even given time to collect his personal belongings, including his jacket." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND the next questions are, "What does the bodyman know & will he spill it to Bob Mueller in exchange for a get-out-of-jail card for his "financial crimes"?

... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly runs down Tuesday's terminations: "Frankly, I've run out of words for what a train wreck this administration has become. People who lie are valued for their loyalty and staff who tell the truth are fired. If aides engage in financial misconduct or beat their wife, that's cool as long as they can keep it under wraps. When that becomes impossible, they&'re offered a job with the re-election campaign. Given the one industry where Trump excelled, perhaps the best metaphor is television. But the characters in 'The Americans' and 'House of Cards' had way to[o] much class for this crew. Even 'The Apprentice' had more structure than we're witnessing. It's like having 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey' running the White House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maggie Haberman & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "President Trump, fresh off replacing his secretary of state and C.I.A. director, is considering firing his secretary of veterans affairs and installing Energy Secretary Rick Perry in the post, according to two people close to the White House. Mr. Trump did not make a formal offer to Mr. Perry when the two men met on Monday. But the people said the president has grown impatient with the department's current secretary, Dr. David Shulkin, and may want to replace him with someone already in his cabinet. It was unclear if Mr. Perry, who was an Air Force pilot before entering politics, would accept the change in position if Mr. Trump offered it, or if Mr. Trump had a successor in mind to lead the Energy Department."

Jonathan Kesh of Outer Places: "Robert Lightfoot, the current Acting Administrator of NASA, just announced his retirement [Monday] in a surprise statement. As of now, Lightfoot will be stepping down on April 30, 2018 after having served as the de facto chief of NASA for over a year, when he took over for his predecessor Charles Bolden. It's worth noting that as the Acting Administrator, Lightfoot was never officially confirmed as the head of the space agency, but since the Senate never confirmed anybody to be Bolden's replacement, leadership duties fell to Lightfoot. The current frontrunner for the job has been Trump's appointee Jim Bridenstine, but there's still no clear indication that he'll be confirmed for the position - Senate Democrats and even a few Republicans like Marco Rubio have opposed Bridenstine on the grounds that he has zero qualifications in science or engineering, and he's dismissive of scientific consensus that humans caused climate change (NASA also studies our home planet's climate)."

Brian Bennett & Noah Bierman of the Los Angeles Times: "President Trump broke from his inspection of border wall prototypes near San Diego on Tuesday to castigate California's Democratic state government, saying that Gov. Jerry Brown is 'doing a terrible job running the state.' Trump's first visit to the nation's most populous state is brief -- just one day -- but long on symbolism. He spent about an hour inspecting border wall prototypes built at his direction, plans to speak at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar then travel to a fundraiser in near Beverly Hills that is expected to raise $5 million for the Republican National Committee. The attention Trump wanted to bring to his signature issue, the border wall and related immigration crackdowns, was overshadowed, as often happens by the president's own distracting actions -- in this case a new round of chaos within his leadership team after his abrupt firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Trump called Tillerson as Air Force One was flying him to California, hours after firing his secretary via a morning tweet."

David Lynch of the Washington Post: "President Trump has ordered his chief trade negotiator to develop tougher tariff proposals to punish China for years of stealing U.S. trade secrets, according to industry executives familiar with the matter. The order came after Trump last week rejected as inadequate a proposal from U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer to levy import taxes on $30 billion in Chinese imports, the people said. The president's message to his trade chief was 'make it bigger,' said one lobbyist familiar with the discussion."

Cristiano Lima of Politico: "... Donald Trump and Theresa May of Britain say that Russian officials 'must provide unambiguous answers' about the attempted murder of a former spy in southern England, according to a White House readout of a call between the two leaders released on Tuesday. The White House said that Trump expressed his 'solidarity' with May during a call on Tuesday and that he vowed 'to provide any assistance the United Kingdom requests for its investigation' of the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, and his daughter that took place in Salisbury last week.... 'It sounds to me like it would be Russia based on all the evidence they have,' Trump told reporters outside the White House. 'It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia, and I would certainly take that finding as fact.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

This Russia Thing

Mary Jalonick of the AP: House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam "Schiff [D-Calif.] on Tuesday released a 22-page report detailing threads that Democrats still believe the committee should pursue and witnesses they still want to hear from. Those include White House officials, campaign officials and people in the intelligence community. As examples of evidence of coordination, Schiff cited multiple contacts between Trump's campaign and Russia, including a meeting in Trump Tower in June 2016 and information passed on to an Australian diplomat by a former Trump campaign aide, George Papadopolous, that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. Schiff said Democrats would try to release all committee interview transcripts in their report. He also signaled that he would reopen or begin certain lines of inquiry if Democrats retake the majority of the House this November." ...

... Blair Guild of CBS News: "Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said Tuesday night that 'there is significant evidence, much of it in the public domain, on the issue of collusion' between the Trump campaign and Russia, although the committee has officially concluded its Russia investigation interviews. The Texas Republican leading the House's investigation, Rep. Mike Conaway, announced Monday that the committee has finished interviewing witnesses after its yearlong investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election as well as potential collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.... California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat leading the investigation, says that there are select individuals who will continue to work with the committee.... House Intelligence Democrats plan to release a 22-page report detailing relevant evidence the committee has found regarding Russian meddling in U.S. affairs. Schiff claimed there are other non-public details that may allude to Trump campaign collusion." ...

... Karoun Demirjian: "The leader of the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation seemed to back off Tuesday from the most surprising finding in the GOP's report that Russia was not trying to help President Trump as the panel's top Democrat trashed the product as a political gift to the White House. Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Tex.) told reporters Tuesday that 'it's clear [Russian officials] were trying to hurt Hillary [Clinton]' by interfering in the 2016 election, and that 'everybody gets to make up their own mind, whether they were trying to hurt Hillary, help Trump, it's kind of glass half-full, glass half-empty.' That equivalence stands in sharp contrast to the conclusions of a 150-page, GOP-drafted report Conaway announced to the press on Monday, which concluded the intelligence community 'didn't meet the standards' of proof necessary to determine that Russia had meddled in the 2016 election with the aim of helping Trump. When it comes to determining whether Russia interfered to hurt clinton or help Trump, 'you can pitch that either way,' Conaway said Tuesday. His comments come after other panel Republicans, including Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Thomas J. Rooney (R-Fla.) gave interviews in which they stressed that there was evidence that Russia had tried to damage Clinton's candidacy."

... Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., on Tuesday contradicted his own GOP-led committee's findings in its probe of Russian meddling during the 2016 U.S. election. In a statement, Gowdy said it was 'clear, based on the evidence, Russia had disdain for Secretary Clinton and was motivated in whole or in part by a desire to harm her candidacy or undermine her Presidency had she prevailed.' The statement from Gowdy, who is not seeking re-election at the end of his current term, cuts against conclusions announced Monday by the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, runs a significant risk of spending the rest of his life in prison and the evidence against him by special counsel Robert Mueller's office seems strong, a federal judge declared in an order made public on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who is based in Alexandria, Virginia, and is assigned to a newly filed indictment against Manafort dealing with bank fraud and tax evasion, said the veteran lobbyist and political consultant posed 'a substantial risk of flight' because of his assets and the gravity of his legal predicament. 'The defendant is a person of great wealth who has the financial means and international connections to flee and remain at large, as well as every incentive to do so,' Ellis wrote in an order setting the terms of what the judge called 'home incarceration' for Manafort...."

Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "Facebook has banned from its platform the pages of the far-right British group Britain First and its two leaders, one of whom President Trump retweeted last year. Facebook said in a statement that content posted by the Britain First Facebook page and the pages of its party leaders, Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, have 'repeatedly broken our Community Standards.'... Trump sparked controversy last year after he retweeted unverified videos that purported to show Muslims engaged in acts of violence, which were shared by Fransen.... The tweets sparked swift backlash from lawmakers in the U.S. and Britain, including British Prime Minister Theresa May." ...

... Blake Montgomery, et al., of BuzzFeed: "YouTube will accompany conspiracy theory videos with links to Wikipedia to better inform viewers, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference on Tuesday in Austin, Texas. 'If there is an important news event, we want to be delivering the right information,' Wojcicki said on stage. She qualified that by saying, 'we are not a news organization.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You might say that crass, for-profit social media behemoths are more responsible & civic-minded than are the POTUS* & Congressional Republicans. You may remember the old days when it was the government that reined in corporate behemoths; now we the people have to hope the corporations are run by CEOs & directors with some minimal level of decency because our leaders are crass, for-profit loons.

Beyond the Beltway

Jeremy Roebuck of the Philadelphia Daily News: "A former political strategist for U.S. Rep. Bob Brady [D] was targeted in a murder-for-hire plot to stop him from cooperating with an ongoing corruption probe in Arkansas and Missouri, federal authorities said. Prosecutors detailed the previously undisclosed scheme to silence Donald 'D.A.' Jones, 62, of Willingboro, in federal court filings late Monday in Missouri. They say Milton Russel 'Rusty' Cranford, a prominent Arkansas lobbyist, tried to set up Jones’ slaying earlier this year. Cranford, 56, was arrested last month in Bentonville, Ark., carrying a .45-caliber, derringer-style pistol and $17,700 in cash that authorities say he intended to pay to a contract killer. 'He needs to go away,' the lobbyist purportedly said in a caught-on-tape conversation with Jones' would-be killer. Miming a shooting motion with his hands, a transcript states, Cranford added: 'He needs to be gone.'"

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "A Florida prosecutor said Tuesday that he would seek the death penalty against the man accused of killing 17 people last month at a high school in Parkland, moving the state closer to a rare trial for someone charged in a mass shooting. Michael J. Satz, the state attorney for Broward County, made his decision public less than a month after the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and one day before students nationwide were expected to stage walkouts to demand new gun-control measures." ...

... Marc Caputo of Politico: "Led by the congressman who represents Parkland [Ted Deutch (D)] and a neighboring mayor [Coral Springs Mayor Skip Campbell], a new Florida political committee called Ban Assault Weapons Now is advocating for a state constitutional amendment to halt the sale of tactical semiautomatic rifles. The committee has a dual purpose: support a proposed 2018 constitutional amendment under consideration by the state's Constitution Revision Commission or, if the amendment is rejected by the commission, draft a new proposal for the 2020 ballot."

Michael Tarm & Amy Forliti of the AP: "Federal authorities on Tuesday charged three men from rural central Illinois with the bombing of a Minnesota mosque last year and said one of the suspects told an investigator the goal of the attack was to 'scare' Muslims out of the United States. A statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Springfield, Illinois, says the men also are suspected in the attempted bombing of an abortion clinic in November. The Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, was bombed just before morning prayers on Aug. 5, causing a fire and extensive damage although no one was injured or killed. There was an attempted bombing of the Champaign, Illinois, Women's Health Practice on Nov. 7. The three men are identified as Michael B. Hari, 47; Joe Morris, 22; Michael McWhorter, 29. All are from Clarence, a rural community 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Champaign-Urbana. A fourth man was charged with a gun offense, but he was not identified as a suspect in the bombing or attempted bombing." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Mind you, these sick bastards who (allegedly) were running around the Midwest setting off bombs are not "terrorists."

Way Beyond

Zach Sayer of Politico: "Nikolai Glushkov, a Russian exile and former close associate of the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky, was found dead in his London home Monday night, the Telegraph reported. The death of Glushkov, who worked for Berezovsky's car company as well as Russian state airline Aeroflot in the 1990s, was confirmed by his lawyer on Russia's Business FM radio. No cause of death was given. When the oligarch Berezovsky clashed with Vladimir Putin in 1999, he fled to the U.K. and obtained political asylum. Glushkov was subsequently charged with money laundering and fraud and served five years in jail in Russia. After another sentencing for fraud, Glushkov also fled to the U.K. Last March, he was charged with allegedly defrauding Aeroflot of $122 million and was sentenced to eight years in jail. In March 2013, Berezovsky was found hanged in his ex-wife's home. Glushkov maintained that he believed the death was murder, though police said a post mortem showed no signs of a struggle." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... The lede grafs in the Telegraph story, which is firewalled: "Counter terrorism police have launched an investigation into the 'unexplained' death of a Russian business partner of Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Putin's arch enemy. Nikolai Grushkov, 69, was found dead at his home in New Malden in south London on Monday evening." ...

... Ellen Barry of the New York Times: "Russia now has more intelligence agents deployed in London than at the height of the Cold War, former British intelligence officials have said. They serve a variety of functions, including building contacts among British politicians. But the most important task is to keep an eye on the hundreds of heavyweight Russians -- those aligned with President Vladimir V. Putin, and those arrayed against him -- who have built lives in Britain, attracted by its property market and banking system. The poisoning last week of Sergei V. Skripal, a retired Russian double agent, and his daughter has put pressure on the British government to rein them in." ...

... Peter Walker & Jessica Elgot of the Guardian: "The UK is to expel 23 Russian diplomats, consider new laws to combat spying and impose sanctions in response to the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, Theresa May has said. Announcing a sweeping response to the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, the prime minister told parliament the expulsions were the biggest such move for 30 years. The UK would also cut off all top-level ties with Russia, and would send no ministers or royals to the World Cup this summer, she said. May said Russia had treated a UK request to explain how the military-grade nerve agent novichok was used in the attack with 'sarcasm, contempt and defiance', and had offered no credible explanation for it."