Summary
That’s it for Thursday! Here’s what happened in politics this evening:
- Hundreds of accounts with ties to Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, believed to be part of an anti-west coordinated influence campaign, were removed from Twitter and Facebook. Read more here:
- A new poll suggests a majority of Americans think Trump knew what his team was up to when they misled investigators. But deep division over the president hasn’t slowed his ability to bring in cash. His Q4 fundraising totals came in at $21m, eclipsing the amounts his presidential predecessors were able to raise in their first terms.
- Trump has blamed his spat with his intelligence chiefs on the press, after first ridiculing them for contradicting his foreign policy priorities in a Senate testimony on the biggest threats to the US.
- Negotiations with Russian officials over nuclear arms failed today, and the US is now poised to pull out of a crucial treaty signed in 1987. An official announcement is expected tomorrow, which would kick off a six-month withdrawal process from the intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) treaty.
- Donald Trump appears closer to declaring an emergency for his border wall. Read more here.
A new report outlining the first National Drug Control Strategy was released today, just as new director Jim Carroll was sworn in to his role heading the White House’s National Drug Control Policy.
The department’s priorities center heavily on combatting the opioid epidemic, and reducing drug-related deaths. Along with the report, the agency launched a new multimillion dollar media campaign targeting young adults and teens.
From CNN:
The first four ads of the campaign are all based on true stories illustrating the extreme lengths young adults have gone to get a hold of Oxycodone and Vicodin — from smashing their hand or arm, to wrecking their car or breaking their back”.
Report: US to pull out of arms control treaty with Russia
The 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, agreed to by Russia and the US to stop both nations from developing and deploying ground-launched ballistic and cruise missies may be dissolved at the end of this week, after negotiations failed today.
Breaking: @SecPompeo expected to announce Friday US will suspend participation in Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) arms control treaty with Russia that has been a centerpiece of European security since the Cold War - @kylieatwood @NicoleCNN reporting
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) February 1, 2019
Reuters is reporting that a the six-month withdrawal process will likely move forward on February 2 unless the Russians admit and amend their alleged violation of the agreement:
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson on Thursday held last-ditch talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in Beijing ahead of the expiration on Saturday of a U.S. 60-day deadline for Moscow to return to compliance with the treaty.
Thompson and Ryabkov said afterwards that the two countries had failed to bridge their differences. They met on the sidelines of a meeting of the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members - the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain - all nuclear powers.
European officials are concerned about the treaty’s possible collapse, fearful that Europe could again become an arena for nuclear-armed, intermediate-range missile buildups by the United States and Russia”.
In a statement issued by the NATO Foreign Ministers in December, which was updated today, the INF Treaty was described as “crucial in upholding NATO’s security for over 30 years”. Russia, the allies concluded, violated the pact by developing a missile system that poses risks to European countries:
We continue to aspire to a constructive relationship with Russia, when Russia’s actions make that possible. As most recently confirmed at the Brussels Summit, we remain open to dialogue with Russia, including in the NATO-Russia Council. We call on Russia to return urgently to full and verifiable compliance. It is now up to Russia to preserve the INF Treaty”.
Russian leaders have vehemently denied the allegations, and on Wednesday President Vladamir Putin threatened the US with an amping up of nuclear arms should the treaty fall apart.
“Now it seems our American partners believe that the situation has changed so much that the United States must also have such a weapon,” Putin said on TV in Moscow. “What’s our response? It’s simple: in that case we will also do this”.
ABC News is reporting that the identities of the blocked-number phone calls with Donald Trump Jr around the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 have been revealed to be NASCAR CEO Brian France and developer Howard Lorber, two close friends of the Trump family who publicly and financially supported his campaign.
The three phone calls with Donald Trump Jr. to blocked numbers in June 2016 have until now fueled questions about whether Trump Jr. informed his father about the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting before or after it occurred. The controversial meeting between high ranking members of the Trump campaign and an ensemble of Russians has been a source of intense interest from investigators seeking to determine whether the campaign worked in concert with agents of the Russian government to impact the election”.
Trump campaign releases Q4 fundraising totals
Today the Trump campaign shared that they have raised more than $21 million this quarter and that most of the contributions came in small doses. According to a press release published by the President’s team, 98.5% of the funds came from donations of $200 or less.
Trump has, throughout his first term, raised unprecedented amounts of money and claims to have $19.2 million in cash on hand to start 2019. Comparatively, President Obama had raised $4 million with $2.3 million on hand by 2010, when he was at the same point in his first term, and George W. Bush raised $3.2 million with $2.8 million on hand in 2002.
Just a day after Trump insulted his intelligence chiefs saying they should “go back to school” for contradicting his foreign policy priorities in an on-camera testimony to Congress, the president is now claiming they were misquoted by the media.
....I would suggest you read the COMPLETE testimony from Tuesday. A false narrative is so bad for our Country. I value our intelligence community. Happily, we had a very good meeting, and we are all on the same page!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019
On Tuesday, a team of top intelligence officials including Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, CIA Director Gina Haspel, and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray outlined the biggest threats to the US for the Senate Intelligence Committee.
They diverged from the President’s claims in several key areas and described what they believe actually poses the greatest risks to American safety. They cited Russia and China among the biggest threats, saying the two countries were becoming more aligned and could continue to use cyber attacks to disrupt US elections, and said North Korea was unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons. They also negated Trump’s claims of victory over the Islamic State — which prompted him to announce a highly disputed and controversial troop withdrawal from Syria — and told Senators that ISIS still commands thousands and could have a resurgence.
The testimonies were televised and transcribed, but Trump insists his team was taken out of context.
As Trump tries to misconstrue the testimony from his intel chiefs, remember that not once did they, in hours of discussion of security threats, mention the need for a wall along the southern border, which Trump has portrayed as the single most pressing need facing the country.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 31, 2019
Progressives are preparing to take on Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz — who is considering a run for president in 2020 as an independent — hoping to arm themselves with information about the billionaire’s governmental dealings.
Axios reports that Democratic super PAC, Priorities USA, has requested documents from roughly 70 national and state agencies who may have connected with Shultz or his coffee company over the last 3 decades:
The group is gathering as much potential opposition research as they can on Schultz and his business in anticipation of his decision to possibly run for president as an independent. This is yet another example of liberals trying to push Schultz out of the 2020 race before he begins, in part because they view his candidacy as a “threat” that could be “a major step toward re-electing Donald Trump,” Priorities USA communications director Josh Schwerin told Axios”.
“While we hope he reconsiders and this never needs to be used” Schwerin said, “Priorities is sending out a full round of FOIA requests ... as a start to our research efforts combatting his potential candidacy.”
A new poll released by Monmouth University says more than 60% of Americans think the president knew that high-ranking members of his campaign lied to investigators and half believe he asked them to do it.
The survey also found that there’s still significant concern among the electorate that Russia has influence over Trump, and that not enough has been done to stop the Kremlin from meddling into elections.
Was Trump aware of campaign associated trying to mislead investigators or Congress?
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 31, 2019
62% Yes
32% No
Do you think Trump personally asked people to mislead investigators or Congress?
50% Yes
42% No
Monmouth poll
“After a number of indictments and guilty pleas, there’s a pervading sense that Trump was aware that others were trying to cover up his business dealings or what his campaign may have known about Russian meddling in the 2016 race”, Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute said in a statement released with the results.
But, the results are still heavily divided along party lines:
‘Views of the president’s ties to Russia look like almost any other aspect of public opinion related to Trump. Very few Republicans believe anything negative about him and nearly all Democrats are inclined to accept damaging information, while independents are almost evenly split’, said Murray.
Just over half of Americans (51%) feel that the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election interference and possible links to the Trump campaign should continue. Another 45% say this investigation should be brought to an end. Support for continuing the special counsel investigation has hovered between 52% and 54% in polls taken between April and November 2018. Prior to that, about 6-in-10 Americans supported continuing the investigation (60% in March 2018 and 62% in July 2017)“.
Gabrielle Canon here, taking over for Ben Jacobs.
Today Facebook and Twitter announced that hundreds of accounts and groups with links Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, appear to have been part of coordinated influence operations with aims to perpetuate anti-West views.
From my colleague Julia Carrie Wong:
Facebook removed 783 pages, groups and accounts that it said posed as local actors in countries across Europe, the Middle East and South Asia and shared content that was largely repurposed from Iranian state media. The accounts, some of which had been active since 2010, had garnered about two million followers on Facebook and more than 250,000 followers on Instagram...
...Separately, Twitter announced that it had deleted thousands of “malicious” accounts from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. The accounts had “limited operations” targeting the US midterm elections in November, the company said, and the majority were suspended prior to election day.”
To learn more, read her full story here:
Summary
- Nancy Pelosi has doubled down on her insistence that Congress will not fund a border wall.
- Prosecutors outlined the evidence against Roger Stone as “voluminous and complex.”
- Bernie Sanders outlined a proposal to raise the estate tax.
New Jersey has just passed a bill that will increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024.
The New Jersey Legislature just passed a bill that will raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024. @GovMurphy plans to sign within days.
— Ryan Hutchins (@ryanhutchins) January 31, 2019
The chair of the House Armed Services Committee is raising questions about the Trump Administration’s plans to deploy more troops to the border.
In a letter to acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Democrat Adam Smith raised concerns that the Pentagon was “not transparent” about the move and may have intentionally withheld information from Congress.
JUST IN: House Armed Services chairman says Pentagon "was not transparent" and policy chief John Rood was possibly "knowingly withholding information from this committee" about Trump admin plans to send 3500 additional US troops to the border. @HASCDemocrats @RepAdamSmith letter: pic.twitter.com/ySS6waAtfn
— Kevin Baron (@DefenseBaron) January 31, 2019
The Senate overwhelmingly backed an amendment this afternoon that argued the continuing presence of ISIS in Afghanistan and Syria is a threat and requires a continued military presence. The vote is a rebuke for Trump who is seeking to withdraw U.S. forces from both countries.
Trump appoints climate skeptic to EPA board
A well-known skeptic of the seriousness of climate change will join the Environmental Protection Agency’s science advisory board. Alabama climatologist John Christy has been a favorite of Republican lawmakers who disagree with the science that shows humans are heating the planet and causing an environmental crisis.
Christy was a lead author of a section of a 2011 report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But that year he testified to a House panel that “it has become popular to try and attribute certain extreme events to human causation.”
“The Earth, however, is very large, the weather is very dynamic, especially at local scales, so that extreme events of one type or another will occur somewhere on the planet in every year,” he said.
International scientists have warned that climate change will cause more heat waves, stronger storms, and more erratic weather.
In 2014, in a column he co-authored in the Wall Street Journal defending his views, Christy said scientists at one time had achieved consensus that the Earth was flat.
The Trump administration’s picks for EPA science boards have been controversial, as they have removed scientists who received agency grants to conduct research and replaced them with more representatives from industry and state government. The panels review the research EPA uses to make major decisions about protecting public health.
Another new member, Richard Williams, is a consultant and the former director of regulatory studies at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he focused on cost-benefit and risk analysis.
New addition Hugh Barton retired from the biopharmaceutical company Pfizer.
An appointee to a chemical assessment committee, Michael Jayjock, has previously consulted for Dow Chemical, as well as government agencies, according to his website.
Updated
Democrats are revisiting how they approach social media and a digital operation in advance of the 2020 presidential campaign.
As the 2020 Democratic presidential primary gets underway, the current and potential White House contenders are trying to connect with supporters online, convinced it’s an essential way to gain an advantage in what could be the biggest Democratic field ever.
These public, seemingly lighthearted moments reflect something going on behind the scenes, where strategists — racing to adjust to power of social media — are grappling with how to build a digital-first operation that can cultivate an online army. That could mean radical changes to the personnel and organization of the campaign itself — including a fundamental rethinking of traditional roles in areas such as communications and fundraising.
“I’ve been talking through that with a lot of people,” said Robby Mook, who managed Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. “Do you even have a digital department anymore? It’s complicated.”
“We don’t talk about having a telephone department,” he added. “We don’t talk about using telephones anymore. We need to get to the same place in digital where it’s just seamlessly part of everything we do.”
Sanders unveils bill to increase estate tax
Bernie Sanders unveiled new legislation today that would significantly increase the estate tax. The bill by the likely 2020 presidential candidate would lower the current exemption under which estates are not liable for the tax from $11 million to 3.5 million. It also would raise the top rate and tax inheritances over $1 billion at 77%.
Updated
Wayne Messam, the mayor of Miramar, Florida is the latest Democrat to contemplate a presidential bid.
The Miami Herald reports that Messam, who has led the Miami suburb with a population of 140,000 since 2015, has been talking to operatives and advisors about a bid for the White House.
A former college football player who won a national championship at Florida would be the second mayor of a midsize city to launch a presidential bid following Peter Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
Marianne Williamson, a best-selling new age author who has launched a longshot Democratic presidential campaign, met with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register today.
It comes on her first visit to Iowa since announcing her bid earlier this week. She is already making some interesting comments.
"You want to see real entrepreneurial spirit? go to any kindergarten classroom in this country." https://t.co/CmZlzXbUED
— Ben Terris (@bterris) January 31, 2019
A whistleblower inside the White House security office has been suspended after raising concerns about Jared Kushner’s security clearance.
The whistleblower, Tricia Newbold, had previously filed a discrimination complaint against her supervisor.
NBC reports:
The document also harshly criticizes Newbold for her “defiance” and notes that Newbold said she would “continue to do what is best for the Executive Office of the President.”
In the notice, the chief security officer denies that the suspension has anything to do with Newbold’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint.
Newbold’s lawyer, Ed Passman, considers her a whistleblower and said he believes the administrative charges were brought as payback for her decision to file the complaint against Kline.
“It’s clearly reprisal for her whistleblowing,” Passman said. “[It] has no basis in merit whatsoever.”
Newbold told NBC News, “I confidently feel that this is completely unwarranted and I am also confident that I have done nothing wrong, every decision I and my team have made have always been in the best interest of the United States,” she said. “There is no compromise of personal identifiable information or sensitive information.”
The White House has hired two new press secretaries and promoted longtime aide Hogan Gidley to officially be Sarah Sanders’s deputy. It marks a significant addition to a press office that has long been in turmoil
Republican state legislators in three states have switched parties since November. A state senator in New Jersey, a state assemblyman in California and four legislators in Kansas have all gone from being Republicans to Democrats since the midterms.
The AP reports:
Over the past two months, as lawmakers were sworn in to office and this year’s legislative sessions got underway, Republicans in California, Kansas and New Jersey switched their party affiliations and became Democrats.
Their reasons varied, but the party-switchers have one thing in common: They say the GOP under President Donald Trump has become too extreme.
“The Republican Party, for all of its statements of having a big tent, continues to limit the tent,” said Kansas state Sen. Barbara Bollier, of Mission Hills, one of the switchers. “Those of us who were moderates are clearly not welcome.”
Bollier was one of four moderate Republicans from the Kansas City suburbs to switch parties.
Trump says he has low expectations for any congressional deal on border security.
“I don’t expect much coming out of the committee,” Trump says about congressional negotiators tasked with hashing out a deal. He said he won’t accept a deal without money for the border wall. Pelosi said earlier it won’t include money for the wall.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) January 31, 2019
Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump insists he will be vindicated in his dispute with top US intelligence officials.
President Trump on his beef with his intelligence chiefs: “Time will prove me right, probably.”
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) January 31, 2019
Updated
Trump condemned an alleged attack on Jussie Smollett, an actor on the television show Empire, in the Oval Office just now.
Smollett says two men attacked him earlier this week, wrapped a rope around his neck and shouted homophobic and racist slurs against the gay, African American actor.
Per the pool, Trump said “That I can tell you is horrible. It doesn’t get worse.”
Updated
Texas senator John Cornyn is preparing for a re-election bid in a state that is trending increasingly Democratic. However, the three-term Republican seems to be prepared. In his latest FEC report, Cornyn has just under $6 million on hand in advance of his 2020 election campaign.
US Sen. John Cornyn has nearly $6 million on hand ahead of his 2020 re-election: https://t.co/XXjArmPCQp
— Abby Livingston (@TexasTribAbby) January 31, 2019
Prosecutors: evidence against Roger Stone 'voluminous and complex'
In a new court filing, prosecutors have laid out the accumulated evidence against Roger Stone which they describe as “voluminous and complex.”
NOW U.S. prosecutors in Roger Stone case say evidence in the case is "voluminous and complex," incl multiple hard drives, results of search warrants for Apple iCloud accounts, email accounts, bank/financial records and contents of phones/computers/drives spanning "several years". pic.twitter.com/HD81b8ipDj
— Spencer Hsu (@hsu_spencer) January 31, 2019
Updated
The White House is considering nominating Herman Cain to a seat on the Federal Reserve. Cain mounted an outsider bid for the Republican presidential nomination that ended in scandal after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
The former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza was chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in the 1990s.
SCOOP: Trump is considering Herman Cain, the former pizza company CEO who ran for president in 2012, for a seat on the Federal Reserve board, five sources told me.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 31, 2019
Pelosi renews pledge against wall funding
At her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged that any compromise produced by the conference committee currently meeting to avoid another government shutdown will not include funding for a wall.
"There’s not going to be any wall money in the legislation," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at her weekly press conference, @KilloughCNN reports
— Amanda Golden (@amandawgolden) January 31, 2019
Updated
As Roger Stone does his post indictment media tour, the longtime Trump confidante has taken the time to record a video with the Daily Caller where he describes the fashion choices that he made for his appearance in federal court.
Stone faces a seven count indictment connected with the Mueller investigation and is charged with obstructing justice, witness tampering and five counts of lying to investigators.
After his arraignment in federal court Roger Stone came to our office and explained how to dress if you're going to have a day in court.
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) January 31, 2019
Roger Stone Gives Special Counsel On How To Dress For Your Day In Court pic.twitter.com/K9bNCgXQGv
Updated
Several contributors to the conservative website Red State have left after the website has taken a more militantly pro-Trump tone. The site, now owned by conservative media conglomerate Salem Media Group purged a number of Trump critics in 2018.
As Kimberly Ross and Andrea Ruth, two of the writers who have resigned today, write in the Bulwark:
Before that purge, RedState had a healthy mix of stories that were critical of Trump and supportive of him. Afterward, despite holding on to some Trump critics, the tenor of the site shifted. The leftover Trump critics wrote fewer entries and the hostility toward those who still did was palpable.
We learned personally that writers who dare to examine President Trump or the MAGA mentality are purposely suppressed in private or even publicly criticized. In one case, one of us (Kimberly) wrote a piece that was critical of Trump supporters’ attempts to dismiss bomb threats as a liberal hoax. It was published but any references to it on Twitter or Facebook were deleted and done so repeatedly without explanation. Only after speaking up did she learn the piece wouldn’t get shared on social media, and instructions came down from Salem management to stop discussing the incident with colleagues.
Though we continued on in the hopes the atmosphere might change, that approach is now untenable.
I submitted my resignation from RedState this morning.
— Santa 🎅🏼uinlan (@sarahmquinlan) January 31, 2019
It’s hard to put into words just how much I truly loved being able to write for the RedState audience over the past year, so I’m *extremely* grateful for the opportunity to do so. However, it was simply no longer a good fit.
Stacey Abrams is airing a commercial that will be televised in Georgia during the Super Bowl. Abrams, who lost a gubernatorial race in the Peach State in 2018, will deliver the Democratic response to the State of the Union next week and is considering a Senate bid in 2020.
.@staceyabrams is set to make Super Bowl debut #gapol https://t.co/Q1zWDJEcyk
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) January 31, 2019
Speaking in Washington, former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper continues to play coy about a potential presidential bid. He visited Iowa last weekend.
.@hickforco says he hasn’t made a decision yet on #2020; looking at whether there’s an appetite for “someone who has taken progressive principles and policies & put them into place.” pic.twitter.com/KbteVPjPkE
— Ken Thomas (@KThomasDC) January 31, 2019
Former Colorado state senator Mike Johnston became the first prominent Democrat to throw his hat in the ring to unseat incumbent Republican senator Cory Gardner in 2020.
Gardner is one of two Republican senators up for re-election in a state won by Hillary Clinton in 2016.
In an interview with the Daily Caller, Trump has praised NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
I was very pleased that he called me to thank me for helping him with Canada and, yeah, it looks good. And their games have really been good, other than one call.
Axios reports that legislation to outline a “Green New Deal” is set to be introduced in the next week. The bill sponsored by Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York would flesh out details of the plan which Axios describes as “a set of vague, but broad progressive policy goals seeking to transform the economy in the name of fighting climate change.”
Opening summary
Good morning.
President Donald Trump is renewing his calls for a wall on the southern border on Twitter, the White House is planning for a national emergency declaration to start building a wall and Trump interviewed Ted Cruz’s wife Heidi for an administration job less than three years after personally attacking her on Twitter.
It’s Wednesday in American politics.
Updated
