The Daily 202: Liberal hostility toward Trump aides could galvanize the GOP base
| Liberal hostility toward Trump aides could galvanize the GOP base | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, left, watches a baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees on Saturday in St. Petersburg, Fla. (Chris O'Meara/AP)
THE BIG IDEA: Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Republican who is close with President Trump, was accosted by liberal activists on Friday night as she watched a documentary called “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Ironically the film highlights Fred Rogers’s teachings of love and kindness, but Bondi had to be escorted from the theater in Tampa by police as partisans screamed at her.
“I'm not Mister Rogers,” one of the activists told the Tampa Bay Times afterward. “I don't have the poise or temperament of Mister Rogers.”
“We're coming to where you're watching a movie or eating dinner," added another. “Sorry, not sorry.”
It’s a far cry from Michelle Obama’s 2016 mantra: “When they go low, we go high.”
It’s also increasingly common. On same night Bondi got heckled in Florida, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant in Virginia and protesters rallied outside the home of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. That came at the end of a week in which Nielsen and White House domestic policy adviser Stephen Miller were heckled at separate Mexican eateries in D.C. One website even posted Miller’s personal cellphone number.
There are growing fears at senior levels of the government that threats and protests could turn violent. The acting deputy secretary of DHS is warning employees of a “heightened threat” against them in a memo: “This assessment is based on specific and credible threats that have been levied against certain DHS employees and a sharp increase in the overall number of general threats against DHS employees -- although the veracity of each threat varies,” wrote Claire M. Grady. “In addition, over the last few days, thousands of employees have had their personally identifiable information publicly released on social media.”
All of this reflects widespread progressive disgust with Trump, which has been inflamed by his policy of separating immigrant families, and anyone implementing or even defending the president’s agenda. But these episodes, which have gone viral on social media, risk backfiring by playing into Trump’s hands. It supercharges the president’s sense of grievance and gives fodder for the argument, made in his stump speech, that he and his followers are disrespected. In a backlash to the backlash, there’s evidence in the polls of Republicans rallying around the flag. The nastiness could also alienate and depress middle-of-the-road independents who prize pluralism.
-- Sanders and a group of friends were already eating cheese plates at the Red Hen in Lexington, Va., when the owner took the press secretary aside and asked her to leave. Many employees at the establishment are gay, and the proprietor said afterward that she thinks Sanders works for and defends an “inhumane and unethical” administration.
The White House’s eagerness to talk publicly about what happened shows that they see Sanders getting 86’d from a 26-seat restaurant as a winning issue that they can play to their advantage. Happy to keep the story alive, the president tweeted this Monday morning:
Sanders also tweeted about it on Saturday morning from her official White House account, which has 3 million followers:
The former director of the Office of Government Ethics believes Sanders’s tweet runs afoul of ethics rules:
-- Privately, Republican operatives are downright giddy after an elected Democrat called for activists to actively “harass” members of the Trump Cabinet.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who is in line to chair the Financial Services Committee if Democrats win the House, cheered those who booed Trump officials at restaurants and picketed their homes. “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up,” Waters said during a Saturday rally in Los Angeles. “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store (or) at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
She doubled down during an appearance yesterday on MSNBC. “I have no sympathy for these people that are in this administration who know it is wrong what they’re doing ... but they tend to not want to confront this president,” Waters said. “The people are going to turn on them. They’re going to protest. They’re going to absolutely harass them until they decide that they’re going to tell the president: ’No ... this is wrong. This is unconscionable. We can’t keep doing this to children.’”
-- Many on the left are quick to note that Trump has often used combative rhetoric. Last summer, Trump shared an edited video of himself body-slamming someone with the CNN logo super-imposed on his face. He also said “both sides” were to blame for the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
In February 2016, during an event in Iowa, he told members of his crowd that he would pay their legal fees if they engaged in violence against protesters. “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, OK? Just knock the hell ... I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise," he said. The same month, he criticized security guards for not being tough enough with a protester who interrupted him. “I'd like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you,” Trump said. (There are many more examples like this.)
That August in North Carolina, Trump suggested that “Second Amendment people” could stop Hillary Clinton from appointing a justice to the Supreme Court. “If she gets to pick her judges — there’s nothing you can do, folks,” Trump said. “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know…” (Trump later claimed his remarks referred to gun owners voting, but many did not take them that way.)
-- Former Trump deputy campaign manager David Bossie, who traveled on Air Force One with the president this weekend to a rally in Las Vegas, apologized Sunday after he told Democratic strategist Joel Payne, who is black, that he was “out of his cotton-picking mind” during a “Fox & Friends” panel. Avi Selk reports: "The remark earned an immediate reaction from Payne, who replied: 'Cotton-picking mind? Let me tell you something … I've got some relatives who picked cotton, okay? … And I’m not going to allow you to attack me like that on TV.' Fox News addressed Bossie’s remarks in a statement Sunday, calling them 'deeply offensive and wholly inappropriate.' They declined to say whether Bossie would be invited back on the network."
A Black Lives Matter activist reacted:
-- Many Democrats are expressing concern about the more confrontational direction of the resistance movement. A lot of prominent voices from the establishment wing of the party said over the weekend that people should not join what they see as Trump’s race to the bottom.
It didn’t just start in the last week. A Nebraska sociology professor, for example, was found guilty of vandalism last month for spraying fake blood at the Alexandria home of National Rifle Association lobbyist Chris Cox.
From Barack Obama's former chief strategist:
A Democratic senator from Hawaii urged party regulars not to get distracted from pocketbook issues:
-- Several prominent conservatives who have been critical of Trump criticized Waters and said she was playing into the president’s hands: A Naval War College professor and former GOP staffer, who wrote “The Death of Expertise,” added:
From a National Review writer:
After a prominent GOP operative wondered whether there's a “cultural rupture” underway, the chief strategist for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign replied:
From the longest-serving Republican senator in American history:
-- Important context: Until recently, there have been few examples of these kinds of incidents. Mary Jordan tracks the history of public shaming: “In 2012, the owner of a Virginia bakery and ice cream shop made national headlines when he declined to allow Vice President Joe Biden to hold a media stop at his place. But the owner said at the time that the exchange was ‘very kind, it wasn’t at all heated. We just had a difference of opinion politically.'
“Jon Meacham, a historian and author, said he cannot recall a ‘similarly tribal moment’ in recent history. ‘We’re kind of back to the Colonial era in terms of public shaming, with virtual and symbolic stocks in the public square rather than literal ones,’ Meacham said. During the Depression of the 1930s and Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency in the 1960s, there was much political division … ‘But the New Dealers or LBJ officials didn’t face this kind of public treatment during the ’30s or ’60s. That said, neither [Franklin Roosevelt] nor LBJ conducted their presidencies in as contentious and confrontational a manner as Trump and his allies do, so I think the Trump world is reaping what they’ve sown. And that’s bad for all of us.’
“Presidential historian Michael Beschloss recalled a 1974 incident at the Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, Calif.Its staff did not want to serve H.R. Haldeman, chief of staff in Richard M. Nixon’s White House and a key figure in the Watergate coverup. But Beschloss said that in those days, incidents of political division were not instantly amplified through cellphones and social media accounts. Another key difference: In the end, Haldeman was served. … Haldeman personally thanked Jeremiah Tower, then head chef at Alice Waters’s iconic restaurant, for ‘not shaming him in front of his daughter.’”
-- In today’s newspaper, The Washington Post’s Editorial Board urges readers to “let the Trump team eat in peace”:“Those who are insisting that we are in a special moment justifying incivility should think for a moment how many Americans might find their own special moment. How hard is it to imagine, for example, people who strongly believe that abortion is murder deciding that judges or other officials who protect abortion rights should not be able to live peaceably with their families? Down that road lies a world in which only the most zealous sign up for public service. That benefits no one.”
GET SMART FAST:
THE RULE OF LAW:
-- The president explicitly advocated for depriving immigrants of their due process rights, tweeting that anyone who crosses the border illegally is an “invader” who should be deported without getting to appear before a court. Philip Rucker and David Weigel report: “Trump’s attack on the judicial system sowed more confusion as lawmakers struggle to reach consensus on immigration legislation and as federal agencies scramble to reunite thousands of migrant children and their parents [after Trump’s abrupt policy reversal last week]. ‘We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country,’ Trump wrote. ‘When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.'”
-- Trump has claimed his restrictive immigration policies are about enforcing the “rule of law.” But this is the latest example of how the president is willing to ignore federal laws with which he disagrees. Remember, the president said in February that he'd like to deny due process rights for gun owners who have not been accused of a crime. He has also undercut the historic independence of law enforcement, including by repeatedly prodding his Justice Department to prosecute his political opponents and asserting his prerogativeto end any investigation at any time.
-- Many conservative judges have expressed concerns about Trump's apparent disregard for the rule of law and long-standing norms, from the travel ban to immigration. A panel of three judges, each appointed by a Republican president to the federal appeals court in Chicago, ruled unanimously in April against Trump’s effort to withhold money from “sanctuary cities.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit upheld a nationwide injunction that blocks the Justice Department from using “the sword of federal funding to conscript state and local authorities to aid in federal civil immigration enforcement.” A judge appointed by Ronald Reagan warned of “tyranny” in her opinion.
THE IMMIGRATION WARS:
-- House lawmakers are still preparing to vote this week on the broader GOP immigration bill, but because it does not have the votes to pass, there was some momentum over the weekend for a more narrow package. "Should the broader bill fail, the White House is preparing to throw its support behind the measure, which is expected to garner wider support among lawmakers," per Phil and Dave. Trump implied in a tweet last night that any bill the House passed would not be able to make it through the Senate, but Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), who co-sponsored the broader bill, sought to underscore the president’s support: “I did talk to the White House yesterday. They say the president is still 100 percent behind us," he said on "Fox News Sunday."
Asked whether he felt the White House has been “fully transparent with the American public” about its immigration crackdown, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said: “I don't, actually.” “This has been one of the great frustrations,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The White House has not been clear about how bad the Flores settlement is.”
-- Some Democratic voters and very liberal primary candidates support the abolition of ICE — which Republicans, including Trump, have sought to capitalize on. But Democratic leaders are very eager to avoid that debate. Weigel reports: “The argument, carried out online and in campaign forums, is about how to win a larger debate about immigration. Although Democratic leaders are confident in attacking Trump administration policies, they want to focus on legislation clarifying and curtailing immigration enforcement — and believe that voters want the same. … Supporters of ‘abolish ICE,’ which grew quickly from a hashtag to the chant that followed Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen out of a D.C. restaurant this past week, want more. They argue that questioning the legitimacy of ICE, which was created 15 years ago as part of a post-9/11 government reorganization, gives the left a stronger position in any immigration negotiation.”
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), a Democratic contender for president in 2020, said Sunday: “We’ve got to critically reexamine ICE and its role and the way that it is being administered, and what it is doing. … And we need to probably think about starting from scratch because there’s a lot that’s wrong with how it’s conducting itself.”
DOWN AT THE BORDER:
-- The Trump administration said it is taking steps to reunite more than 2,000 migrant children with their parents and is proceeding with plans to reunite and deport families together from a remote South Texas detention facility. Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti report: “In a statement issued late Saturday, the government said it has 2,053 ‘separated minors’ in its custody, while 522 migrant children have already been returned to their parents. The government said it would allow mothers and fathers who had been separated from their children and are facing deportation to request that their children be sent home with them. ‘The [U.S.] government knows the location of all children in its custody and is working to reunite them with their families,’ the statement read. ‘This process is well coordinated.’ . . . The reunification plan will have a few exceptions, the statement said. ‘There will be a small number of children who were separated for reasons other than zero tolerance that will remain separated,’ it read. ‘Generally only if the familial relationship cannot be confirmed, we believe the adult is a threat to the safety of the child, or the adult is a criminal alien.’”
-- But Elizabeth Warren said she saw no evidence of migrant children and parents being reunited at the detention center she visited this weekend, which ICE has designated as “the primary family reunification” site. Sacchetti, Michael E. Miller and Robert Moore report from Los Fresnos, Tex.: “Warren (D-Mass.) spent two hours inside the facility speaking with immigration officials and detained immigrant mothers Sunday night and said there were no reunifications to report. She said she spoke with nine women: ‘In every case, they were lied to. In every case, save one, they have not spoken with their children. And in every case, they do not know where their children are.’ ‘It’s clear,’ Warren said. ‘They’re not running a reunification process here.’ … [Advocates] also noted that the Port Isabel facility is not set up to house minors.”
-- Many migrant children remain thousands of miles away from their detained parents. Sacchetti, Kevin Sieff and Marc Fisher report: “[The children] are all over the country now, in Michigan and Maryland, in foster homes in California and shelters in Virginia, in cold, institutional settings with adults who are not permitted to touch them or with foster parents who do not speak Spanish but who hug them when they cry. … The children have been through hell. They are babies who were carried across rivers and toddlers who rode for hours in trucks and buses and older kids who were told that a better place was just beyond the horizon. And now they live and wait in unfamiliar places … U.S. authorities are compiling mug shots of the children in detention. Immigration lawyers who have seen the pictures say some of them show children in tears.”
-- A 15-year-old migrant boy housed in the Casa Padre shelter walked off its premises and disappeared. From the New York Times’s Mihir Zaveri and Manny Fernandez: “On Sunday, the nonprofit group Southwest Key Programs, which operates the center [in Brownsville, Tex.], confirmed that the teenager was missing. The news of a teenager’s departure came as company officials sought to reassure members of Congress and the news media who had toured the center that the roughly 1,500 boys living there, aged 10 to 17, were well cared for and closely monitored.”
-- Federal officials told Central American migrants being held at a detention facility outside Houston that they can be reunited with their children if they agree to sign a voluntary deportation order. The Texas Tribune reports: “A Honduran man … estimated that 20 to 25 men who have been separated from their children are being housed at the [center]. He said the majority of those detainees had received the same offer … The [detainee said he] abandoned his asylum case and agreed to sign voluntary deportation paperwork Friday out of ‘desperation’ to see his 6-year-old daughter[.] The man said two federal officials suggested he’d be reunited with his daughter at the airport if he agreed to sign the order, which could lead to him being repatriated to his violence-torn home country in less than two weeks. ‘I was told I would not be deported without my daughter,” said Carlos, adding that he's now hoping to revoke the voluntary deportation order … and get legal help to fight his case. ‘I signed it out of desperation … but the truth is I can’t go back to Honduras; I need help.’”
-- In case you missed it on Sunday: “U.S. officials separated him from his child. Then he was deported to El Salvador,” by Joshua Partlow: “Arnovis Guidos Portillo remembers the authorities in green uniforms telling him that this would only be temporary. They told him that his 6-year-old daughter, Meybelin, should really go with them, he recalled. The holding cell was cold, he said he was told, and the child was not sleeping well. Don't worry, he was assured, she would take the first bus, and he would follow soon. 'What's best is we take her to another place,' he recalled a U.S. official telling him. It's a conversation this 26-year-old farmer … has replayed for nearly a month. His daughter was taken from him on his second day in U.S. immigration custody in Texas … and she remains somewhere in the United States. Guidos was deported Thursday back to this small Central American nation, where he lives in a one-room, dirt-floor shack with no electricity and two goats in the yard."
-- Another cause for concern: More than three dozen illicit drones have been spotted flying on the U.S.-Mexico border since October, according to federal officials, more than four times the number from the previous year. The increase in unmanned aircrafts has prompted concern at the DHS, where officials say they are concerned that smugglers are surveilling the border for vulnerable spots to traffic drugs and other illicit material into the country. (Gina Harkins)
Stormy Daniels receives a key to the city of West Hollywood, Calif. (Robyn Beck/Getty Images)
ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN AND WOMEN:
-- Federal prosecutors investigating Michael Cohen canceled their planned meeting with Stormy Daniels after it was reported by several news organizations, including The Post. Beth Reinhard reports: “Daniels had been scheduled to be interviewed Monday by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, preparing for a potential grand jury appearance about a $130,000 payment from [Cohen] in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump, according to a person familiar with the investigation, but her lawyer said late Sunday that the meeting has been canceled. Michael Avenatti said he received a call late Sunday from two prosecutors who said they were concerned about media interest in the interview and canceled the meeting … Daniels and Avenatti have been cooperating with prosecutors and provided documents about the payment, made shortly before the 2016 election, in response to a subpoena, said the person.”
-- White House officials say Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is no longer a part of Trump’s inner decision-making circle, often finding out about major national security policy shifts after the fact. NBC News’s Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee report: “In recent months … the president has cooled on Mattis, in part because he's come to believe his defense secretary looks down on him and slow-walks his policy directives, according to current and former administration officials. The dynamic was exacerbated with Trump's announcement in March that he had chosen John Bolton as national security adviser, a move Mattis opposed, and Mike Pompeo's confirmation as secretary of state soon after. The president is now more inclined to rely on his own instincts or the advice of Pompeo and Bolton, three people familiar with the matter said.”
-- The lobbyist tied to Scott Pruitt’s Capitol Hill condo rental also lobbied his chief of staff to hire a family friend, according to newly released emails. Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis report: “The exchange is among several previously undisclosed interactions that show how J. Steven Hart, who served as chairman of the law firm Williams & Jensen until earlier this year, sought to exert influence over decisions at the agency … The communications [also] appear to undermine initial arguments that Hart had not lobbied the EPA during Pruitt’s tenure. The emails show that both Hart and his wife, Vicki … pushed for the EPA to hire Jimmy Guilliano, a recent college graduate. ‘I seldom talk to Scott but Vicki does,’ Hart wrote to Pruitt’s chief of staff Ryan Jackson … ‘She has talked to Scott about this kid who is important to us. … I am not sure personally that this is a good idea for Jimmy unless he is working near you. Sticking him down in the bowels is death at EPA. His family is all Naval Academy by the way.’ . . . The emails show that the lobbyist repeatedly contacted Jackson on a range of topics, asking him to arrange meetings for his clients and place allies of his in different EPA jobs.”
-- Another Pruitt probe: The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is investigating claims that the EPA chief retaliated against employees who spoke out against his controversial spending practices. Politico’s Emily Holden reports: “At least six current and former agency officials were reportedly fired or reassigned to new jobs, allegedly for questioning Pruitt's need for a 24-hour security protection — which has now cost at least $4.6 million — as well as his other spending and practices. OSC is in the process of interviewing some of those employees, according to the sources, although an OSC spokesman said the agency cannot comment on or confirm any open investigations. The previously unreported review by OSC adds to the roughly dozen other inquiries into Pruitt.”
-- Many former Trump officials are struggling to attract the same kind of lucrative offers previously guaranteed to White House alumni. From Sarah Ellison: “Some of the bigger names to have left the White House are still enjoying some of the early perks that awaited top-line veterans of previous administrations in those first vacation months — among them, lucrative speaking gigs. … Yet the book deals and cable-news jobs lavished on prior White House alumni seem more elusive now. … [Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer] met with 11 different publishers as he tried to find the right publisher for a book. Rather than signing a deal with a mainstream publishing house, he landed with the conservative imprint Regnery, whose other authors include the recently pardoned Dinesh D’Souza and former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks with the media at the conclusion of an informal E.U. summit on migration. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)
THE NEW WORLD ORDER:
-- The global fight on immigration: European leaders met in Brussels to discuss migration in the European Union, but they appeared to make little progress on the politically charged issue. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's leadership has been increasingly threatened in recent weeks amid an anti-immigration rebellion within her own conservative coalition. Michael Birnbaum reports: “Sunday’s discussions came as fights over migration have heated up even though the overall number of newly arrived migrants and asylum seekers has dropped dramatically . . . [But even so], political consequences of migration pressures are still reverberating across Europe. Merkel is seeking a way to redistribute across the continent the migrants who have already arrived. Italy, a front-line state to asylum seekers and migrants … is more focused [on] avoiding what it says is an unfair burden that has been placed on it by countries to its north.”
-- Algeria has expelled thousands of migrants from across sub-Saharan Africa, leaving them to cross the Sahara by foot to reach Niger. An unknown number of migrants — including pregnant women and children — have died in the desert, where temperatures can reach up to 118 degrees. (AP)
-- Saudi Arabia allowed women to drive for the first time ever on Sunday, becoming the last country in the world to lift its ban on female drivers. The move comes as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has moved to loosen some of his country’s harshest social restrictions, including its policy of gender segregation. (Kareem Fahim)
-- Jared Kushner, currently in Israel as the administration prepares to release its Middle East peace plan, accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of being “scared” to seek peace because he is “only focused on his political survival.” From the New York Times’s David M. Halbfinger: “[Kushner] said the Trump administration was ‘almost done’ preparing its peace plan and would roll it out soon. He appeared to be attempting to goad Mr. Abbas into talks the leader has vowed to boycott, while doing considerable pre-emptive damage control in the event that Mr. Abbas does not relent. But Mr. Kushner offered little in the way of enticements to Mr. Abbas. Asked what the leaders of other Arab nations wanted to see in an Israel-Palestinian settlement, the White House aide mentioned nothing about a sovereign Palestinian state or of Palestinian refugees.”
-- The Trump administration is expected to announce later this week heightened limits on Chinese investment in U.S. technology and technology exports to Beijing. The Wall Street Journal’s Bob Davis reports: “The twin initiatives, set to be announced by the end of the week, are designed to prevent Beijing from moving ahead with plans outlined in its ‘Made in China 2025’ report to become a global leader in 10 broad areas of technology, including information technology, aerospace, electric vehicles and biotechnology. The Treasury Department is crafting rules that would block firms with at least 25% Chinese ownership from buying companies involved in what the White House calls ‘industrially significant technology.’ … In addition, the National Security Council and the Commerce Department are putting together plans for ‘enhanced’ export controls, designed to keep such technologies from being shipped to China.”
-- U.S. officials fear complex travel logistics in Europe could impede military forces if they needed to head off a conflict with Russia. From Michael Birnbaum: “Humvees could snarl behind plodding semis on narrow roads as they made their way east across Europe. U.S. tanks could crush rusting bridges too weak to hold their weight. Troops could be held up by officious passport-checkers and stubborn railway companies. Although many barriers would drop away if there were a declaration of war, the hazy period before a military engagement would present a major problem. NATO has just a skeleton force deployed to its member countries that share a border with Russia. Backup forces would need to traverse hundreds of miles. And the delays — a mixture of bureaucracy, bad planning and decaying infrastructure — could enable Russia to seize NATO territory in the Baltics while U.S. Army planners were still filling out the 17 forms needed to cross Germany and into Poland. During at least one White House exercise that gamed out a European war with Russia, the logistical stumbles contributed to a NATO loss.”
Democratic candidates for Maryland governor from left, Rushern L. Baker III, Richard S. Madaleno Jr., and Ben Jealous listen to the host before a candidates forum. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
THE MIDTERMS:
-- Maryland will hold its primaries tomorrow. Attention has focused on the Democratic gubernatorial primary, where Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker and former NAACP president Ben Jealous are considered front-runners. Ovetta Wiggins and Arelis R. Hernández report: “Analysts say the race between Baker and Jealous could be decided by who has the best ground game, especially since polls in early June showed many likely voters had not closely focused on the race. … Over the weekend, volunteers for the candidates knocked on doors and set up phone banks. They mainly targeted the four major Democratic strongholds of Baltimore City and Baltimore, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties … Jealous, a first-time candidate, is relying heavily on unions to mobilize their members. … Baker, a veteran officeholder in Maryland, is counting on the support of more than 60 current and retired elected officials who are reaching out to their constituents and political bases, essentially acting as precinct captains on his behalf.”
-- Jealous’s candidacy is being read as a critical test of Bernie Sanders’s political “revolution.” From the New York Times’s Sydney Ember and Alexander Burns: “If his policy agenda has caught on widely among Democratic candidates, and succeeded in moving the party to the left, Mr. Sanders himself has struggled so far to expand his political base and propel his personal allies to victory in Democratic primaries. He has endorsed only a handful of candidates in contested primaries, and three of them have recently lost difficult races in Iowa and Pennsylvania. … [F]or a figure of his prominence, who may run for president a second time in 2020, the midterm elections could represent a significant missed opportunity if Mr. Sanders fails to usher any allies into high office. At the moment, Mr. Jealous’s campaign in Maryland appears to be the best remaining chance for him to do so.”
-- Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) faces seven challengers in his primary, including Chelsea Manning, but the two-term incumbent is considered the overwhelming favorite to win. Teo Armus reports: “Cardin, 74, has represented the state in Congress for over 30 years and is the former ranking Democrat of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He maintains broad popularity among Marylanders — winning 61 percent support among Democratic voters in a recent Goucher poll — and raised over $3.1 million in the most recent election cycle. … Still, a total of 21 other candidates — including 11 Republicans and seven Democrats — are seeking their party’s nomination for the seat this year for reasons that range from his ‘no’ vote on the Iran deal to greater representation for women and disabled people in Congress.”
-- A computer glitch at Maryland’s Motor Vehicle Administration could force nearly 19,000 voters to file provisional ballots. Faiz Siddiqui reports: “Officials said a ‘computer programming error’ prevented the transmission of updated addresses and party affiliations to the Board of Elections in cases where voters changed their address but did not buy a driver’s license, vehicle registration or title, or identification card.” But a spokesperson for Gov. Larry Hogan (R) assured state residents that, “no Maryland voter will be denied the franchise.”
-- Four high-profile congressional Democrats in New York will face down primary challenges from their left tomorrow. “While each campaign is different, all feature newcomers casting veterans as too beholden to corporations or too representative of a mostly white district that no longer exists,” David Weigel reports. “[Rep. Joe Crowley] will face Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, a 28-year-old activist whose campaign has less than one-tenth as much money as Crowley’s but is competitive in organization and hype. … Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, who was first elected in 1992, is facing Suraj Patel, a 34-year-old hotel executive who argues that the wealthiest district in America needs ‘new blood.’ Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, who won her Brooklyn seat in 2006, is being challenged by Adem Bunkeddeko, the Harvard University-educated son of Ugandan war refugees. Rep. Eliot L. Engel, who arrived in Washington at the end of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, has spent $1.3 million to fend off academic and businessman Jonathan Lewis — who entered the race only three months ago.”
-- Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is avoiding hugs on the campaign trail due to a cracked rib – caused by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) performing the Heimlich maneuver on her. From David Weigel: “A spokesman for Manchin said the accident occurred Thursday, when Senate Democrats met for lunch, a gathering that usually excludes most staffers. McCaskill began choking, and Manchin ran over to give her the Heimlich maneuver. That dislodged the blockage in McCaskill’s throat, but unbeknownst to Manchin, it left his colleague injured. … McCaskill kept up her campaign schedule over the weekend, addressing Democrats on Saturday evening at their annual dinner. ‘I’m really grateful to Joe – a little bit of a sore rib for a couple of weeks is no big deal,’ McCaskill told The Post, through a spokesman.”
SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:
Trump said he has “tried to stay uninvolved" with law enforcement issues:
Trump claimed that his administration’s immigration policies were the same as the Obama administration’s:
In fact, as Seung Min Kim wrote last week: “Trump’s predecessor had a different strategy when confronted with the rising numbers of migrant families at the border in the latter years of his administration. Typically, families from Central America who came to the border and sought asylum would be processed and given a ‘notice to appear’ for a court date. They would then be released together into the United States after a brief stint in custody … ”
And Trump revived a debunked claim about surveillance on Trump Tower:
Joe Biden's former chief of staff made an important point about Trump's call to deny due process to undocumented immigrants:
Politico's legal correspondent made another important point:
From the president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund:
An American Urban Radio Networks reporter asked this question:
A House Democrat visited another immigrant detention center:
Mississippi's GOP governor called for boycotting Time magazine because the migrant girl featured on its cover was not actually separated from her mother at the border:
Trump has stepped up his “witch hunt” references on Twitter, per a CNN producer:
Trump reiterated his support for Rep. Clay Higgins (La.) in his GOP primary, pitting the president against his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who is backing Higgins's opponent:
Trump also appeared to respond to Jimmy Fallon's recent comment that he “made a mistake” by inviting Trump on “The Tonight Show” during the 2016 presidential campaign:
Fallon responded with a promise to donate to an organization working with undocumented immigrants:
Many pushed back on Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and father of the White House press secretary, for posting a picture of MS-13 gang members and describing them as Nancy Pelosi's campaign committee to retake the House. From the president of the Family Leader, a social conservative organization in Iowa that was key to Huckabee's 2008 victory in the caucuses:
A Post columnist got into a back-and-forth with Huckabee about the tweet:
And Trump's son envisioned a high honor for his father:
James Wolfe, a former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer, with James Comey. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
GOOD READS FROM ELSEWHERE:
-- New York Times, “How an Affair Between a Reporter and a Security Aide Has Rattled Washington Media,” by Michael M. Grynbaum, Scott Shane and Emily Flitter: “The pearl bracelet arrived in May 2014, in the spring of Ali Watkins’s senior year in college, a graduation gift from a man many years her senior. It was the sort of bauble that might imply something more deeply felt than friendship — but then again, might not. Ms. Watkins, then a 22-year-old intern … was not entirely surprised. She had met [James Wolfe] while hunting for scoops on Capitol Hill. He had become a helpful source, but there were times when he seemed interested in other pursuits … She asked an editor for advice, and was told that as long as the gift was not exorbitant — no stock in a company, the editor joshed — it was fine. The story of what happened next — of a three-year affair that unfolded between a young reporter and a government official with access to top-secret information— is now part of a federal investigation that has rattled the world of Washington journalists and the sources they rely on …”
-- New York magazine, “Where Is Barack Obama?” by Gabriel Debenedetti: “How did the most ubiquitous man in America for eight years virtually disappear? Over the course of his presidency, Obama cast himself as the country’s secular minister as much as its commander-in-chief, someone who understood the moral core of the nation and felt compelled to insist that we live up to it. What explains his near absence from the political stage, where he might argue publicly against the reversals of his policy accomplishments, and also from American life more broadly? … And, tactically, what is behind the relative silence of one of the most popular figures alive just as American politics appears to so many to be on the brink of breaking?”
-- New York Times, “Postcards From Another Era: Obama Team Memoirs Flood the Stores,” by Peter Baker: “Nearly a year and a half after Mr. Obama left office, his team is back in the arena, or at least in the bookstores, with a blitz of roughly two dozen memoirs of their time in the White House, telling tales, settling scores, justifying mistakes, selling nostalgia, setting the record straight, attacking successors and spinning history. Everyone who ever spent even a few minutes with Mr. Obama, it seems, has penned a volume of reminiscences, postcards from a less head-spinning era.”
DAYBOOK:
Trump will meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He and the first lady will then welcome the king and queen of Jordan to the White House. He has a South Carolina rally tonight for Henry McMaster’s gubernatorial campaign.
NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.:
-- It will be mostly sunny with lowered humidity in the District today. The Capital Weather Gang forecasts: “A very enjoyable day for late June. We’ll have a picturesque mix of clouds and sun, and comfortably warm afternoon temperatures mostly in the low 80s. Humidity levels take a step down from the weekend, with dew points in the low 60s.”
-- The Nationals beat the Phillies 8-6 after a slight rain delay. (Jorge Castillo)
-- National Zoo officials closed the giant panda habitat to “keep a quiet area around female giant panda Mei Xiang’s den who is exhibiting signs of pregnancy or pseudopregnancy.” (Martin Weil)
-- Virginia’s GOP Senate candidate Corey Stewart defended himself against recent charges of racism. “They can’t attack me on my record, so they attack me with false allegations of racism, bigotry and anti-Semitism,” Stewart said in a speech before Fairfax County voters. “Let me tell you something, folks: I completely disavow all those ideologies 100 percent.” Stewart also denounced illegal immigration in Virginia, promising, “We will build the wall!” (Jennifer Barrios)
-- A D.C. restaurant attracted criticism after its management asked to see the ID of a transgender woman attempting to use the women’s restroom. Two employees of the restaurant, Cuba Libre, claimed a city law required people who use the women’s restroom to have the designation “female” on their IDs. The customer – Charlotte Clymer, a spokeswoman for the Human Right Campaign – attempted to inform them no such law existed. When they refused to believe her, she called the police, who confirmed her assertion and took statements from other restaurant-goers. Cuba Libre executives apologized for the incident and said restaurant staff would be retrained. (Amy B Wang)
VIDEOS OF THE DAY:
A white woman in San Francisco who threatened to call the police on an 8-year-old girl of color who was selling water bottles to raise money for a family trip to Disneyland went viral. (Cleve R. Wootson Jr. has the backstory.)
John Oliver explained why Americans should pay attention to Mexico's presidential election:
The Post's Sudarsan Raghavan visited Yemen as it faces a humanitarian crisis:
Saudi women shared their thoughts as the country officially lifted its ban on female drivers:
And elephants at the Dublin Zoo enjoyed their new pool:
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