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08/11/2017 07:49 AM EDT


By Heather Caygle (hcaygle@politico.com or @heatherscope)

HAPPY FRIDAY HUDDLE READERS. President Trump spent his morning retweeting Fox News stories highlighting the White House's targeting of vulnerable GOP senators like Jeff Flake and Dean Heller and the president's ongoing feud with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

TRUMP UNLOADS ON McCONNELL - Trump took his feud with McConnell to the next level Thursday, saying he's "very disappointed in Mitch" and tiptoeing around whether he thinks the Kentucky Republican should resign. "If he doesn't get repeal and replace done, and if he doesn't get taxes done, meaning cuts and reform, and if he doesn't get a very easy one to get done, infrastructure, if he doesn't get them done, then you can ask me that question," Trump told reporters from his Bedminster golf club when asked if McConnell should step down.

We got your back: The barbs from Trump prompted multiple Republican senators to tweet their support for McConnell including Heller and Flake, who are both facing tough reelections next year, Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, who will be a leader on any tax reform effort, and Sen. Thom Tillis.

Inside Trump's strategy: Trump's criticism of McConnell is part of a broader plan by the president to distance himself from Capitol Hill Republicans if they don't start scoring major legislative victories, Josh Dawsey reports. "The president is prepared to cast himself as an outsider - and Congress as an 'insider' Washington institution. ...Trump believes that his supporters will largely blame Congress instead of him, two people who have spoken to him said." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=271c306366ff3e33a5ac07e72bc5612b66103ce14b567377f1536235543cdec32a399425202986d99f155212d7e2317e28094970f029969e

Carl's corner: "Mr. McConnell's original point was that the president was still learning how things work in Washington. By publicly berating the man who should be his most indispensable ally on Capitol Hill, Mr. Trump may have affirmed Mr. McConnell's point," Carl Hulse writes for the New York Times.


Meanwhile, down in the land of the Crimson Tide: Not one of the three leading Alabama GOP Senate candidates is standing up for McConnell, Seung Min reports from Birmingham. Even Sen. Luther Strange, who McConnell for months pressed a hesitant White House to support, said, "Mitch, get back to work." "When pressed about Trump's apparent lack of confidence in the majority leader, Strange noted that 'he's frustrated like I am, and this is no secret.' The incumbent senator added, however, that he didn't believe the Senate GOP conference needed new leadership." SMK with the dispatch from Huddle's hometown: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=271c306366ff3e33fafd4b8376edbf4c2070be83d73c138e57aa4efc7ca9a81d622a1db3c1aae653d9f3ec27ef2c1893dede854d32ee6afc

FREEDOM CAUCUS TRIES TO FORCE REPEAL VOTE - The House Freedom Caucus will file a discharge petition later today in an effort to force GOP leaders to bring up a "clean" Obamacare repeal for a floor vote, Playbook scooped this morning. Leaders of the hardline group had first floated the idea in mid-July. With Trump impatient for a win, expect the president to bring added pressure to the group's plan.

WHITE HOUSE SNUBS DEMS - The White House is snubbing Democrats on what's typically a bipartisan affair in the Senate: vetting lifetime judicial appointments. The unusually high number of open judicial vacancies is a bright spot for Trump. But multiple judicial nominees have been breaking with bipartisan tradition and not meeting with senators from their home states if they happen to be Democrats. And Senate Democrats say unlike in the past, they aren't being consulted ahead of time on nominees. Now "conservatives are pushing Senate Republicans to break with courtesy that gives deference to home-state senators on judicial nominees - a move that would upend yet another longstanding tradition
in the chamber," Seung Min reports. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=271c306366ff3e3362376b7e3ff609693536122371e4415d432267f1a31145f4d6d43140b2acf4fb19af8bb806d171416d8582991d2a146a

ANDDDD WE'RE BACK TO FRIDAY. Welcome to Aug. 11 and thanks for tuning in to POLITICO's Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill. Your Huddle host is headed off for a little August vacation but don't worry, I've left y'all in good hands while I'm gone. My colleagues Elana Schor, Kyle Cheney and Austin Wright will be taking Huddle for a spin in my absence. See you soon!

THURSDAY'S MOST CLICKED: The Instapic from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of the cake she baked with a measuring spoon inside got the most clicks.

KEY VACANCIES REMAIN - The Senate ended its session before recess on a rare bipartisan note, quickly confirming more than five dozen nominees. But it looks like senators have a lot more work to do in the fall if Democrats, who had been purposely slow walking nominations, agree to cooperate. The pre-recess spree of approvals "still leaves the president with 147 nominees awaiting Senate action - significantly more than the previous four administrations had as of early August, according to a tally kept by the independent Partnership for Public Service," Elana reports.

It's not just Democrats slowing down the process: "Trump also lags in naming advisers to critical positions, with 354 of the 577 top jobs tracked by the Partnership still unfilled more than six months after his inauguration." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=271c306366ff3e3336cca4dcd1dddb2296d50d9dcc8749278275a35800ac3558926e52cd0674cd91cb030a1f971c8a787e73be9cdae01082

GRASSLEY HAVING THE TIME OF HIS LIFE - If you think that Sen. Chuck Grassley doesn't love the Iowa State Fair just as much as the first time he went, then you don't know Grassley. The Iowa Republican went to the fair's opening day Thursday - something he's done every year since 1974. His first stop? To see the butter cow sculpture of course. Grassley also dropped by the Laura Ingalls Wilder sculpture (also made out of butter), got a temporary tattoo with a local 4-H student and talked to Iowa media about his favorite fair activities.

COMING ATTRACTIONS - House Republicans are tentatively planning to bring their controversial budget resolution to the floor for a vote the second week of September, Sarah Ferris and Jen Scholtes report. If that's the case, House Budget Chairwoman Diane Black - who's running for governor of Tennessee - would manage the floor debate before relinquishing her gavel after the resolution passes. But it took months for Black to corral enough votes within her committee to support the resolution and GOP leaders purposefully didn't bring it to the floor before recess because they didn't have the votes. It's unclear what, if anything, has changed between now and then.

BOOZMAN TO UNDERGO SURGERY - Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) will undergo surgery next week in Washington stemming from a years-old tear in his aorta, his office said in a note. "As many of you may remember, I had surgery in 2014 to repair a tear in my aorta. About 30 percent of the time after this type of procedure, additional surgery is required," he said in a statement.

WHAT DOES RHONA KNOW? Lawmakers want to question Trump's longtime secretary Rhona Graff as part of their quest to learn more about last year's controversial meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer claiming to have dirt on Hillary Clinton. In an email exchange with Trump Jr. ahead of time, a British publicist setting up the meeting offered to relay the information to the elder Trump "via Rhona." ABC News' Benjamin Siegel with more: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=271c306366ff3e33fa51cf99cdb86835e6398e98b66c5f84c5652acc6ef34632068779a674c38f8df331dc7bae97ee8ebe9016b55b907749

SENTENCING DELAY FOR MENENDEZ CO-DEFENDANT - Lawyers have agreed to postpone sentencing in a health care fraud case for Salomon Melgen, the wealthy Florida eye doctor who is preparing for a federal corruption trial with Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). "Melgen's fraud case and the lead-up to his expected sentencing were being closely watched to see whether he would try to cut a deal with prosecutors, which could affect the separate, high-stakes corruption case," Josh Gerstein and Bres report. Jury selection in that case, where Melgen and Menendez are co-defendants, starts Aug. 22. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=271c306366ff3e3308682f2422fc5aab54bb4e02059629b0843649fc734ba686f6b4cf6d992d9973dc79d6e9923bd45f1259bd2c23b674ce

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The House and Senate are out until September.

AROUND THE HILL - Recess, all we ever wanted. Enjoy the weekend.

THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Claude Marx was first to guess that President John Kennedy presented then-Sen. Robert Byrd with his law degree during a commencement address at American University in 1963. Byrd, the only sitting member to start and complete a law degree while in Congress, actually received his J.D. before earning his undergraduate degree. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, a West Virginia native like Byrd, is the current president of American University.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Claude with today's question: Given Alabama's deep red leanings, winning the GOP Senate primary is considered tantamount to winning the election. Who is the last Democrat elected to the Senate from Alabama? When did that happen and what is this person doing now? The first person to correctly answer today's trivia gets a shout out in the next edition of Huddle. Send answers my way: hcaygle@politico.com

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