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Presented by Everytown for Gun Safety: Feb 28, 2019 View in browser
By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Daniel Lippman, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun

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PELOSI LAYS DOWN THE HAMMER ... HEATHER CAYGLE and JOHN BRESNAHAN: "'This is not a day at the beach': Pelosi tells moderate Dems to stop voting with GOP": "House Democrats held an emotional debate behind closed doors Thursday over how to stop losing embarrassing procedural battles with Republicans - a clash that exposed the divide between moderates and progressives as well as between party leaders.

"Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took a hard line at the caucus meeting, saying that being a member of Congress sometimes requires taking tough votes.

"'This is not a day at the beach. This is the Congress of the United States,' Pelosi said, according to two sources.

"Pelosi also warned that Democrats who voted with Republicans on the 'motion to recommit' could lose support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, although her threat may be more bluster than reality, according to Democratic lawmakers and aides. And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the superstar New York freshman Democrat, suggested she would alert progressive activists when Democrats are voting with the GOP on these motions, said the sources." POLITICO

BULLETIN ... AP/JERUSALEM: "Israel's attorney general says he has decided to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a series of corruption charges.

"Avichai Mandelblit said Thursday he has accepted the police recommendations to file charges against Netanyahu in three different cases, pending a final hearing. In a Justice Ministry statement, Mandelblit says he plans to charge Netanyahu with bribery for promoting regulatory changes worth hundreds of millions of dollars to telecom giant Bezeq in return for positive press coverage in Bezeq's popular subsidiary news site Walla.

"He will also charge Netanyahu with fraud and breach of trust in two other cases. The first involves accepting gifts from billionaire friends and the second revolves around alleged offers of advantageous legislation for a major newspaper in return for favorable coverage." AP

NEW ... THE LEADERS SPEAK ...

-- SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI (D-CALIF.) at her weekly news conference called KIM JONG UN a "big winner" in securing a face-to-face meeting with PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, but praised Trump for walking away and not giving Kim anything more. "I guess it took him two meetings to realize that Kim Jong Un is not on the level," Pelosi said. Full news conference

-- HOUSE MINORITY LEADER KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CALIF.): MCCARTHY said he doesn't see the leader of North Korea as a friend. "I do not have a misbelief of who this leader is," McCarthy said. Full news conference

NEW ... BLOOMBERG'S SHANNON PETTYPIECE (@spettypi): "BREAKING: In rare press conference, North Korean official says 'Chairman Kim got the feeling that he didn't understand the way Americans calculate' says Kim may have 'lost the will' for further negotiations."

INTERESTING DETAIL ... BLOOMBERG'S JUSTIN SINK and MARGARET TALEV: "A reporter asked Kim if he'd consider letting the U.S. open a diplomatic liaison office in Pyongyang, in exchange for a facility of his own in Washington. The North Korean leader initially demurred, indicating to Trump that he thought it was time for reporters to leave. But Trump told the North Korean he'd be interested to hear his answer.

"Kim paused, then allowed that he might welcome the idea. But, he added, every minute of the summit was valuable, so it would be best for the journalists to leave." Bloomberg

A message from Everytown for Gun Safety:

This week, Congress made a choice. The House voted for H.R. 8 to #UpdateBackgroundChecks and help bring this country closer to a nation free from gun violence. We thank the House for passing this important bill and now call on the Senate to act. Learn more here.

AND THEREIN LIES THE RUB ... THE NORTH KOREA SUMMIT FALLOUT ... CAITLIN OPRYSKO: "Trump: I 'fully' understand why North Korea wouldn't denuclearize": "In a clip of Trump's interview that aired on 'Fox & Friends,' Trump said that Kim only 'wanted to denuke certain areas, and I wanted everything.'

"'The sanctions are there, and I didn't want to give up the sanctions unless we had a real program, and they're not ready for that and I understand that fully, I really do,' he continued. 'I mean, they spent a lot of time building it. But that doesn't mean the world has to be happy. But I wanted them to denuke.'" POLITICO

-- CAITLIN OPRYSKO: "Trump trusts Kim's 'word' that he was unaware of Otto Warmbier mistreatment": "Trump said Thursday that he didn't believe Kim - whose regime is accused of a laundry list of human rights violations - would have ordered the mistreatment of Warmbier.

"'What happened is horrible. I really believe something really bad happened to him and I don't think the top leadership knew about it,' the president told reporters after his second summit with Kim, adding that 'I did speak about it and I don't believe that he would have allowed that to happen - it just wasn't to his advantage to allow that to happen.'" POLITICO

-- NIKKI HALEY (@NikkiHaley): "Americans know the cruelty that was placed on Otto Warmbier by the North Korean regime. Our hearts are with the Warmbier family for their strength and courage. We will never forget Otto."

-- POLITICO: "Transcript: President Donald Trump's press conference in Vietnam"

THE ATLANTIC'S ISAAC DOVERE (@IsaacDovere): "President Trump called @mattgaetz last night from Hanoi to talk the Cohen testimony and the threats (since rescinded) Gaetz made about Cohen. 'I was happy to do it for you. You just keep killing it,' Gaetz was heard telling him. (Gaetz told me he doesn't discuss calls w/POTUS)."

Good Thursday afternoon. WAPO'S GLENN KESSLER and SALVADOR RIZZO: "Fact-checking the Michael Cohen hearing"

TRUMP'S TOP HILL ALLIES -- Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) -- sent a letter to DOJ referring Michael Cohen for perjury. The letter

BURGESS EVERETT: "Sen. Hawley backs off as judicial nominee Rao advances": "After wavering over her nomination and abortion views, freshman GOP Sen. Josh Hawley on Thursday supported Neomi Rao's nomination to the D.C. Circuit, clearing her way to confirmation on the Senate floor in the coming weeks.

"Thought by many to be a Supreme Court nominee in the making, Rao won support in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday on a party-line vote with the support of both Hawley and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), both of whom withheld their explicit support until right before her vote." POLITICO

BEN SCHRECKINGER: "CPAC's new boogeyman: China": "This year's sudden focus on China marks a moment of flux for conservative foreign policy priorities. The Islamic State is crippled, al-Qaida is quiet and public fear of terrorism is at a recent low. Meanwhile President Donald Trump, whose campaign is under investigation for possible collusion with the Kremlin, says the U.S. can befriend Russia and polls show that the country's president, Vladimir Putin, has grown more popular among Republicans since Trump's election.

"The new emphasis also reflects a desire on the part of CPAC organizers to promote the Trump administration's priorities, according to a person involved with planning the event. Trump and his top officials have made challenging China's rise - through issues like trade, military power and cybersecurity - one of their top priorities." POLITICO

ECONOMY REPORT -- NYT'S BEN CASSELMAN: "U.S. Economy Cooled to 2.6% G.D.P. Growth Rate in Fourth Quarter": "Gross domestic product - the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the United States - grew at a 2.6 percent annual rate in the final three months of last year, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That marks a significant slowdown from the middle of the year, when a sugar high fueled by tax cuts briefly pushed growth above 4 percent.

"This year looks to be off to an even worse start. Many economists expect growth to drop below 2 percent in the first quarter, in part because of the partial government shutdown, which began in December and extended through most of January." NYT

-- BRIAN FALER: "Mnuchin says tax refunds poised to make up lost ground"

2020 WATCH -- WASHINGTON EXAMINER'S DAVID DRUCKER: "GOP nightmare as Alabama's Roy Moore signals he might run again": "Moore, 72, a former state judge, made the rounds at last Friday's Alabama Republican Party dinner gala. A few days later, a new political action committee run by Moore's son, Caleb Moore, issued an email fundraising appeal.

"Republican insiders, including conservative allies of President Trump, fret that Moore ... might divide the party in the primary and advance to a rematch with Jones. On Wednesday, a Moore confidant pointedly declined to rule out that his buddy might run for Senate next year. ... 'The NRSC's official stance is ABRM: anyone but Roy Moore,' said Kevin McLaughlin, the committee's executive director. 'The only thing Doug Jones and I agree on is that his only prayer for electoral success in 2020 is a rematch with Roy Moore.'" Washington Examiner

K FILE -- "Group running robocalls impersonating Trump's campaign has already raised more than $100,000," by CNN's Andrew Kaczynski and Nathan McDermott: "[T]he calls are coming from a political action committee that isn't affiliated with Trump's re-election effort and hasn't spent any money so far in this or last election cycle, according to records from the Federal Election Commission.

"A CNN KFile investigation into the group behind the calls, Support American Leaders PAC, reveals it is run by 32-year-old Matthew Tunstall, who has a history of managing shadowy groups that target people with politically charged calls in order to raise money while doing very little -- if anything at all -- to put that money toward a political purpose." CNN

MEDIAWATCH -- "Scoop: A new conservative media company," by Axios' Mike Allen: "Jonah Goldberg is leaving National Review in the coming months to start a new conservative media company with Steve Hayes, who was editor-in-chief of The Weekly Standard when its owner shut it down in December. ...

"Goldberg and Hayes tell me they plan a reporting-driven, Trump-skeptical company that will begin with newsletters as soon as this summer, then add a website in September, and perhaps ultimately a print magazine." Axios

-- Greta Van Susteren is now chief national political analyst for Gray Television. She currently is a host for Voice of America. ... Jim Finkle is now director of social media and influencer strategy at cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks. He previously was cybersecurity editor at Reuters.

SPOTTED at a party at the Anheuser-Busch offices on Wednesday for Maura Keefe, who is leaving as Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's chief of staff: Sens. Shaheen, Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.); Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Mandy Grunwald, Mike Spahn, Brian Rice, Susan McCue, Tamera Luzzatto, Laurie Rubiner, Alison Betty, Chad Kreikemeier, Laura Schiller, Tom O'Donnell, Mike Henry, Mindy Myers, Krista O'Neill, Lyndon Boozer, Julie Dwyer, Luke Albee, Sean Cartwright, Reema Dodin, Neil Campbell, Mike Harney, Mike Meehan, David Leiter, Ed Pagano, Patrick O'Neill, Stacy Beck, Andy Blocker, Andrea LaRue and Louisa Terrell.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- OBAMA ALUMNI -- Sam Houshower, former associate counsel to President Barack Obama and now senior counsel for emerging technologies at Uber, and Eleanor Blume, economic adviser to California AG Xavier Becerra and former counsel at CFPB, welcomed Theodore Toumine Houshower. Pic ... Another pic

-- Rebecca Cousins, head of Middle East policy at the British Embassy, and Joe Shonkwiler, a Rob Portman alum now with health tech start-up Aledade, welcomed Ara Grace Shonkwiler. Pic

A message from Everytown for Gun Safety:


Everytown thanks the House for passing H.R. 8. Now the Senate must update background checks. Learn more here.

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Anna Palmer @apalmerdc

Jake Sherman @JakeSherman

Daniel Lippman @dlippman

Eli Okun @eliokun

Garrett Ross @garrett_ross

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