White House staff in "survival mode ... scared to death"

Mike Allen
Feb 15

Featured

White House staff in "survival mode ... scared to death"

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

Here's a twist that has top GOP sources buzzing:

On Jan. 26, Sally Yates, then the acting attorney general, tells the White House that national security adviser Mike Flynn — who has just been grilled by FBI agents — had, in fact, discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador during the transition, despite denying it, and therefore is vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
Four days later, on Jan. 30, Trump fires Yates, citing her unwillingness to enforce his border order.
Two weeks after her heads-up to the White House, the Flynn secret explodes.

"They had to know she was radioactive, and that there would be consequences," said a West Wing confidant. "It was either reckless, or total incompetence. It leads back to the fact that nobody is in charge."

A top source described "borderline chaos" in the White House.

"Some staff is in survival mode ... scared to death," the source said.

Internal leaks distract a White House. What we're seeing now is something much more consequential: leaks from throughout the government, plus a host of Obama alumni emptying their clips.

The news eruptions are gaining a Watergate aura — constant, complicated revelations from intelligence agencies and federal law enforcement; White House denials; frenzied competition among the great news organizations.

Chuck Todd said at 5 p.m. on MSNBC (as quoted by Brian Stelter): "Welcome to Day 1 of what is arguably the biggest presidential scandal involving a foreign government since Iran-Contra. ... [H]unker down, because this is a Class 5 political hurricane that's hitting Washington."

Hours later, first from The New York Times, and then from CNN: "Trump aides were in constant touch with senior Russian officials during campaign."

And Trump has known that since the transition, per CNN's Pamela Brown, Jim Sciutto and Evan Perez: "President-elect Trump and then-President Barack Obama were both briefed on details of the extensive communications between suspected Russian operatives and people associated with the Trump campaign and the Trump business."

The Russia connection now becomes a consequential, ongoing story -- with not just threads for Dems to pull, but a whole new big ball of yarn.

Axios's Jonathan Swan reports that Pence's spokesman, Marc Lotter, said the V.P. only learned of Flynn's misleading statements from the Washington Post's story Thursday night. And Swan reminds us of an overarching unanswered question: "Why did it take so long for the President to request Flynn's resignation?"

Bloomberg's well-wired Eli Lake takes up for Flynn (and gets a "POLITICAL ASSASSINATION" Drudge banner): "[F]or a White House that has such a casual ... relationship with the truth, it's strange that Flynn's 'lie' to Pence would get him fired. It doesn't add up. It's not even clear that Flynn lied."

So does this change now? An AP overnighter ... "For GOP, a dimmed zeal for investigations in Trump era," by Erica Werner: "Rather than go along with Democrats' call for an independent outside investigation [of Flynn resignation -- what Trump knew, and when], Senate Republicans insisted ... that the Intelligence Committee could look at the circumstances as part of an existing probe into Russia's interference in the presidential election."

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The recent explosion of right-wing news sites

Axios mapped the launch date of 89 news websites over the past quarter century. The data shows there has been an explosion of right-leaning news sites, coinciding with the rise of the Tea Party and alt-right movements beginning in 2010. Many of these sites, in turn, were instrumental in spreading pro-Trump news during the 2016 elections.

Data: Staff research; Chart: Lazaro Gamio / Axios

The data also shows a similar rise in left-leaning news sites during the Bush Administration and the launch of the Iraq war in 2003. Overall, while there has been a large increase in the number of new news sites over the past 20 years, almost all of them have a partisan angle.

Why it matters: According to experts, digital technology has made it easier to exploit the political divisions that have always existed. Sarah Sobieraj, associate professor of Sociology at Tufts University, told CNN there has been an increase in political polarization in the U.S., but not nearly enough to account for this development. "The technological, regulatory, and media space has shifted into one in which this is profitable, and profit is the driving force."

How they profit: Google and Facebook's algorithmically-driven news distribution platforms have created an environment in which:

a) partisan news sites can easily reach fringe audiences, and
b) news sites are financially incentivized to tilt one way or another.

Facebook, in particular, algorithmically favors content that appeals to user bias and interest. According to comScore Vice President Andrew Lipsman, to elicit high engagement and repeat visitation, "sites must usually speak to a very specific audience." Although this limits the appeal to a broader readership, it creates a sustained and engaged audience that appeals to advertisers.

The Bush burst: The launch of some left-leaning news sites during the Bush Administration captured audiences opposed to the administration's policies, primarily the Iraq War. John Amato, founder and publisher of the liberal, progressive news blog Crooks and Liars, tells Axios he started the site in September of 2004 because he thought that mainstream media wasn't critical enough of the Bush Administration, and he felt motivated to speak out.

The Obama opposition: According to Greg Mueller, president of CRC Public Relations, which has been representing conservative-leaning clients for decades, the rise of right-wing sites around the rise of the Tea Party movement came from the notion that the mainstream media was not fairly covering the scandals in the Obama Administration, like Fast-and-Furious and Benghazi. Vince Coglianese, editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller, which launched in 2010, said the founders, Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel, started the site because they saw a tremendous market opportunity where a conservative news site could report on news with a different form of selection bias. "A different news outlet could come in and report on stories that people weren't seeing covered by mainstream outlets," he said.

What to watch: The same profit motive that created and helped sustain ideological news sites led to the creation of fake news sites. As Google and Facebook figure out their response to being the conduit for all those ad dollars for fake news sites, it might change the business models for ideological sites as well.

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Shane Savitsky
6 mins ago

Featured

Manafort allegedly blackmailed by Ukrainian lawmaker

Matt Rourke / AP

Politico has the weird story of an alleged blackmail attempt on Paul Manafort by Serhiy Leshchenko, the man who later provided documents to the New York Times that seemed to show Manafort's receipt of $12.7 million from pro-Russian Ukrainian political parties.

A portion of the note: "I think you and Mr Trump will work out a way to solve this problem of yours. Otherwise official investigation that will be reinforced by the facts that are in my posession will reach also the Federal Government. [sic]"

The weird: The note was texted to Manafort's daughter and released in a hack of her phone by a collective that one former cybersecurity analyst called "randos." Manafort himself confirmed that the hack was legit.

Alayna Treene
30 mins ago

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Google's donating $11.5m to fight racial injustice

Joe Brusky / Flickr cc

Google's charitable branch will give $11.5 million to 10 different organizations that fight racial injustice, per CNN. The largest grant, $5 million, will go to the Center for Policing Equity — a New York think tank that's helping to create a database to track police interactions with citizens.

Google engineers will also lend their time and experience to help the organization's efforts. Justin Steele, a principal at Google.org, told CNN that after the police shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling last summer, several engineers in the Black Googlers Network were looking to gain access to national policing data. Once they got their hands on it, they realized that the data was minimal, and that's when Google stepped in.

A hint of irony: As CNN points out, Google has struggled to diversify its company. Only 2% of Google employees are black and 3% are Hispanic, according to its diversity report released in June 2016.

Stef W. Kight
1 hr ago

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Jared and Ivanka make their move

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

This week, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have grabbed some attention for their increased influence in DC:

Jared came up with the idea for today's working sessions with CEOs and cabinet secretaries, as Axios' Jonathan Swan reported last night. Those ideas will make their way to Trump later today.
President Trump will hold a meeting about human trafficking today as well, which Ivanka pushed for and helped orchestrate. A source told Axios' Mike Allen: "Ivanka recommended the meeting to the president and he immediately agreed, given what a horrible issue it is in the U.S. and internationally."
The couple joined President Trump earlier this week on his visit to the African-American museum.
After news of several attacks on synagogues, Ivanka, who converted to Orthodox Judaism before marrying Jared, tweeted that "America is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance. We must protect our houses of worship & religious centers."

Dan Primack
1 hr ago

Featured

The key date for Snap's IPO is in July, not March

Mark Lennihan / AP

Some notes on Snap's IPO, as the investor roadshow today rolls into Boston's Four Seasons hotel:

When to watch: There will be an enormous amount of attention paid to Snap's IPO price and where the stock closes on its first day of trading (pop, dip, etc.). But the much more important day will be Monday, July 31, since that will be the first day of trading when the lockup expires for most of Snap's current shareholders (both investors and vested employees). Some investors are getting partial liquidity via next week's offering, but the big sells can't come until at least 150 days post-pricing.

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Dan Primack
1 hr ago

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What's missing at today's White House meeting on manufacturing

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

A group of 24 manufacturing CEOs is visiting the White House this morning, to work with VP Pence and various cabinet secretaries on policy ideas that will then be presented to President Trump. Per Sean Spicer during yesterday's press briefing, the working groups will cover: "Deregulation, tax and trade, training and the workforce of the future and infrastructure."

It seems like two big things are missing:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who is not among the participants. Instead, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will serve as cabinet rep on the "workforce of the future" group. Retraining of current working-age adults is clearly an important issue, but shouldn't there be equal (if not greater) concern about the next generation? And, if so, shouldn't the Ed Sec be present?
Any explicit mention of automation. Perhaps this is in the "workforce of the future" session, but there are no technologists or futurists invited (let alone labor reps). Trump talks a lot about America's loss of manufacturing jobs, but never about how American manufacturing output is actually at an all-time high. Or, put another way, the invited CEOs are making more with fewer workers. Consider U.S. manufacturing to be like a tricycle: Taxes/trade policy and regulation are the two small wheels in the back. Integral, but not nearly so much as the big wheel (automation) in the front.

Alayna Treene
1 hr ago

Featured

Kellyanne Conway's advice for women

Susan Walsh / AP

Kellyanne Conway kicked off CPAC in an interview with Fox News contributor Mercedes Schlapp. The theme? Being female.

Her advice for women: 1) "Know who you are, put your priorities in order, and don't worry about what the critics say." 2) "Don't undercut your value. When in doubt, say, "I'll have what he's having, and indeed you'll get it." 3) "The job for first female President of the United States is still open, so go for it!"

Her stance on feminism: "We didn't need words like feminism in my home — we were just taught to be strong, hard-working women," said Conway. "This generation, particularly the younger people, don't like labels. So I don't know about the word feminist... I wouldn't really call myself a feminist. It seems to be very anti-male. And it certainly is very pro-abortion."

On women's marches: "Turns out that a lot of women just have a problem with women in power."

Her take on Trump's influence on conservatism: "By tomorrow this will be TPAC when he's here," Conway joked, as the crowd cheered.

Christopher Matthews
1 hr ago

Featured

Big business gives Trump a regulation-cutting wish list

Evan Vucci / AP

The Business Roundtable has submitted a letter to the Trump Administration listing " recent regulations that are of most concern across all our business sectors."

This comes ahead of a planned meeting Thursday between manufacturing executives—many of whom are members of the Roundtable—and President Trump at the White House. Here are the big items on the group's regulatory-reform wish list.

The wish list Show less

Shane Savitsky
2 hrs ago

Featured

Trump's new national security adviser wants another shakeup

Susan Walsh / AP

The NYT reports that Trump's new national security advisor, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, is planning another restructuring of the White House's foreign policy team. The changes being discussed…

The director of national intelligence and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would rejoin the principals committee of the National Security Council. They were only left out because the Trump team copied a Bush-era organizational chart — not realizing that President Obama had made both positions full members of the committee.
Steve Bannon may be removed from the principals committee. The White House has downplayed the significance of his inclusion, but the criticism surrounding that elevation caught President Trump off guard.
The Homeland Security Council would reform under the National Security Council, as it had during the Obama administration. It had been split off under Trump to remove power from McMaster's predecessor, Michael Flynn.

Alayna Treene
2 hrs ago

Featured

Senate Republican won't vote to repeal Medicaid expansion

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski told Alaska lawmakers on Wednesday that she "will not support a reckless repeal process" of Obamacare, emphasizing that she would fight the repeal of Medicaid expansion — a key component of the health care law — as long as the state legislature wants to keep it, per Alaska Dispatch News.

Murkowski said that although she was concerned about the long-term cost of the expanded Medicaid program, she also recognized that it has strengthened Alaska's Native health care system and reduced the number of uninsured people visiting emergency rooms.

So as long as this Legislature wants to keep the expansion, Alaska should have that option.

Why it matters: Senate Republicans can't afford to lose votes on Obamacare repeal. If they lose three, they can't pass it.

Featured

Kellyanne is back

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, after a hiatus following a rough bout of coverage, returned to TV last night to audience chants of "Kellyanne! Kellyanne!" She joined Sean Hannity on Fox News, before a live audience in suburban Maryland on the stage of CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, where Trump will speak tomorrow morning. One man held a "Socialism Sucks" sign.