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Presented by the American Beverage Association: Feb 20, 2019 View in browser
By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, Daniel Lippman, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross

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BREAKING -- COURTHOUSE NEWS' ADAM KLASFELD (@KlasfeldReports): "NEW: Michael Cohen's new attorney Michael Monico just filed a letter requesting a 60-day extension of his surrender date to prison on March 6, to recover from shoulder surgery and testify to Congress." ... "Judge Pauley granted the request. Michael Cohen must now report to prison on May 6."

2020 WATCH -- "'Sustained and ongoing' disinformation assault targets Dem presidential candidates," by Natasha Korecki: "The main targets appear to be Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ...

"A POLITICO review of recent data extracted from Twitter and from other platforms, as well as interviews with data scientists and digital campaign strategists, suggests that the goal of the coordinated barrage appears to be undermining the nascent candidacies through the dissemination of memes, hashtags, misinformation, and distortions of their positions. But the divisive nature of many of the posts also hint at a broader effort to sow discord and chaos within the Democratic presidential primary.

"The cyber propaganda - which frequently picks at the rawest, most sensitive issues in public discourse - is being pushed across a variety of platforms and with a more insidious approach than in the 2016 presidential election ... Over a recent 30-day period, between 2 and 15 percent of all Twitter mentions of the four candidates emanated in some way from within that cluster of [roughly 200] accounts." POLITICO

STAT DU JOUR -- MIKE ZAPLER: "Bernie crushes 2020 Democratic field in first-day money chase": "The Vermont senator brought in more than $5.9 million from more than 220,000 donors in the 24 hours since he announced his presidential candidacy, according to his campaign. ... Another show of his digital strength: The Vermont senator's announcement video racked up nearly 5.4 million views on Twitter in the first day." POLITICO

-- STAFF MOVES: Sarah Badawi will be national deputy political director for the Bernie Sanders campaign. She is the former legislative affairs director for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Good Wednesday afternoon.

SCOTUS WATCH -- WAPO'S ROBERT BARNES: "Supreme Court says constitutional protection against excessive fines applies to state actions": "The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that the Constitution's prohibition on excessive fines applies to state and local governments, limiting their abilities to impose fines and seize property.

"Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, on just her second day back on the bench after undergoing cancer surgery in December, announced the decision for the court, saying that the 8th Amendment's Excessive Fines Clause protects against government retribution." WaPo

COMING ATTRACTIONS -- BLOOMBERG'S JENNIFER JACOBS and MARGARET TALEV: "Trump Plans Japan Trips for New Emperor and G20 Summit, Official Says": "The president will travel to Japan in May to meet with the new emperor, Crown Prince Naruhito, whose accession is May 1, the official said. He'll return in late June for a summit of the Group of 20 industrialized nations." Bloomberg

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS released a readout of the president's call with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, via pooler Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast: "The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to achieving the final, fully verified denuclearization of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and discussed President Trump's February 27-28, 2019 summit with DPRK Chairman Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam. President Trump and Prime Minister Abe committed to coordinating closely in advance of U.S.-DPRK talks."

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WHAT'S ON THE PRESIDENT'S MIND -- @realDonaldTrump at 7:07 a.m.: "Crazy Bernie has just entered the race. I wish him well!"

... at 7:20 a.m.: "The Press has never been more dishonest than it is today. Stories are written that have absolutely no basis in fact. The writers don't even call asking for verification. They are totally out of control. Sadly, I kept many of them in business. In six years, they all go BUST!"

... at 7:44 a.m.: "'The Washington Post ignored basic journalistic standards because it wanted to advance its well-known and easily documented biased agenda against President Donald J. Trump.' Covington student suing WAPO. Go get them Nick. Fake News!"

... at 8:49 a.m.: "The New York Times reporting is false. They are a true ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!" Response from A.G. Sulzberger

... at 9:13 a.m.: "California now wants to scale back their already failed 'fast train' project by substantially shortening the distance so that it no longer goes from L.A. to San Francisco. A different deal and record cost overruns. Send the Federal Government back the Billions of Dollars WASTED!"

TELL US HOW YA REALLY FEEL! ... WAPO'S JOSH ROGIN: "Inside Patrick Shanahan's clash with Congress in Munich over Syria": "Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), the leader of the main congressional delegation, pressed Shanahan on whether he was telling European officials in Munich that the full U.S. withdrawal from Syria was a done deal. 'Are you telling our allies that we are going to go to zero by April 30?' he asked Shanahan, according to Graham. 'Yes, that's been our direction [from the president],' Shanahan replied.

"'That's the dumbest f---ing idea I've ever heard,' Graham responded. ... '[I]f the policy is going to be that we are leaving by April 30, I am now your adversary, not your friend' ... Inside the meeting, after Graham confronted Shanahan, several other lawmakers from both parties chimed in, warning Shanahan of what they believed were the risks of Trump's Syria withdrawal plan. They implored Shanahan to persuade the president to change course. ... They said he failed to articulate a substantive response - other than to reiterate these were Trump's instructions." WaPo

THE NEW COLD WAR -- "Putin Says Russia Will Target U.S. If It Puts Missiles in Europe," by Bloomberg's Henry Meyer and Stepan Kravchenko: "Still, the tone of Putin's annual state-of-the-nation speech was less belligerent than a year ago, when he showed computer-graphics demonstrations of a series of new missiles and other high-tech weapons that appeared to target the U.S. With its only graphic displays focused on economics, this year's address was devoted primarily to pledges to improve living standards and boost welfare benefits." Bloomberg

CLIMATE FILES -- "White House readies panel to assess if climate change poses a national security threat," by WaPo's Juliet Eilperin and Missy Ryan: "The proposed Presidential Committee on Climate Security, which would be established by executive order, is being spearheaded by William Happer, a National Security Council senior director. Happer, an emeritus professor of physics at Princeton University, has said that carbon emissions linked to climate change should be viewed as an asset rather than a pollutant.

"The initiative represents the Trump administration's most recent attempt to question the findings of federal scientists and experts on climate change and comes less than three weeks after Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats delivered a worldwide threat assessment that identified it as a significant security risk." WaPo

MORE 2020 WATCH -- NYT'S ALEX BURNS: "On Health Care, 2020 Democrats Find Their First Real Fault Lines": "As the Democratic primary field develops and grows, the party is headed for a fuller public conversation about the role of government and the scale of their own ambitions. ... It mirrors a larger struggle among Democrats over how daring their message ought to be, and whether promising to rapidly expand social-welfare programs is the best way to defeat President Trump. ...

"While throngs of Democrats have endorsed 'Medicare for all' as a campaign slogan, Mr. Sanders has been nearly alone among the presidential candidates in demanding an immediate-term, full-blown version of the idea. ... [Sherrod] Brown and [Amy] Klobuchar stand out for their willingness to say 'no.'" NYT

-- ZACH WARMBRODT and DANIEL STRAUSS: "Sherrod Brown's opening: Less liberal than the liberals": "In the Senate, Sherrod Brown is known as a scourge of Wall Street. But in a Democratic presidential primary with fellow Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren thundering away at bankers, Brown is viewed by many in the industry as a reasonable alternative." POLITICO

-- MARYLAND GOV. LARRY HOGAN to CBS' ED O'KEEFE when asked if he is considering challenging Trump in a 2020 Republican primary: "I'm being approached by a lot of different people, and I guess the best way to put it is I haven't thrown them out of my office." Full interview

-- VARIETY'S TED JOHNSON: "J.J. Abrams, Katie McGrath to Host Fundraiser for Kamala Harris"

THE BRAVE NEW WORLD ... "Your phone and TV are tracking you, and political campaigns are listening in," by L.A. Times' Evan Halper: "Welcome to the new frontier of campaign tech - a loosely regulated world in which simply downloading a weather app or game, connecting to Wi-Fi at a coffee shop or powering up a home router can allow a data broker to monitor your movements with ease, then compile the location information and sell it to a political candidate who can use it to surround you with messages. ...

"Campaigns don't match the names of voters with the personal information they scoop up - although that could be possible in many cases. Instead, they use the information to micro-target ads to appear on phones and other devices based on individual profiles that show where a voter goes, whether a gun range, a Whole Foods or a town hall debate over Medicare." LAT

FOR YOUR RADAR -- "Elections Commission Chief Uses the 'Nuclear Option' to Rescue the Agency From Gridlock," by Mother Jones' Nihal Krishan: "Fed up with the [FEC's] gridlock that has given violators of election law a free pass, the agency's new chair says she won't allow FEC lawyers to defend the government when the FEC has been sued for not enforcing the law.

"This drastic step, which one former FEC lawyer called the 'nuclear option,' is effectively an effort to sabotage her own agency in order to enforce the law and create more campaign finance disclosure." Mother Jones

THREAT ASSESSMENT -- "U.S. steps up winter-warfare training as global threat shifts," by AP's Lolita Baldor at the Marine Mountain Warfare Training Center, Calif.: "[T]he next war [is] one the U.S. believes will be against a more capable, high-tech enemy like Russia, North Korea or China. The weather conditions on the mountain mimic the kind of frigid fight that forces could face in one of those future hotspots. ...

"After 17 years of war against Taliban and al-Qaida-linked insurgents, the military is shifting its focus ... U.S. forces must be able to survive and fight while countering drones, sophisticated jamming equipment and other electronic and cyber warfare that can track them, disrupt communications and kill them - technology they didn't routinely face over the last decade." AP

LOOK WHO'S BACK -- "Jack Abramoff joins super PAC, targets 'Green New Deal,'" by E&E News' Corbin Hiar

THE LATEST IN VIRGINIA -- STEVE SHEPARD: "Va. voters - including African-Americans - get Northam's back": "Two new polls out Wednesday show pluralities say the Democrat should not quit or be forced out over a racist photo that appeared on his medical-school yearbook page 35 years ago. Most African-American voters agree that he shouldn't go, according to one of the surveys." POLITICO

BEN WERMUND: "'Give these brown babies a shot': UNC defends its use of race in admissions": "'Can we get excited for this brown ... boy who's being raised by his grandfather, wants to become a surgeon, #2 in his class?' an admissions officer wrote in one online chat unearthed by opponents of affirmative action. 'Yes! Admit w/ merit!'

"This chat and others were entered as evidence last month in a federal court case in the Middle District of North Carolina, filed by a group that wants to undermine affirmative action. ... The frank back-and-forth among unidentified UNC staffers, dating from 2014, is part of a slew of chats and emails figuring in a lawsuit over how UNC considers race in admissions. Roughly a third of U.S. universities consider the race of applicants when they reach decisions about which students receive highly coveted acceptance letters and which are denied." POLITICO

MEDIAWATCH -- Mark Seibel will be technology policy editor at WaPo. He previously was national security editor at BuzzFeed. Announcement

-- Carol Rosenberg is joining the NYT. She has been the longtime Guantanamo Bay reporter for the Miami Herald and McClatchy. Announcement

TRANSITIONS -- Shelly Marc is now deputy COS to Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). She previously was a policy adviser in the Obama WH office of public engagement and is a Kirsten Gillibrand alum. ... Former Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.) is now VP for federal affairs for States Trust, a new initiative of the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

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