Axios

At her presser on Thursday, Nancy Pelosi called for an independent bipartisan commission to investigate Trump-Russia ties. She said House Intel Chair Devin "Nunes is deeply compromised" and was "either duped or a willing stooge" for briefing Trump on how his team may have been caught inadvertently in surveillance of other targets.

What are the Republicans afraid of? The truth? This is very serious because it has an impact on our national security.

Nunes apologized to the committee for briefing Trump and the press before committee members today.

House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes apologized to committee members for going to the media and President Trump about his statement regarding the alleged "incidental collection" of surveillance on the Trump transition team before briefing Democrats on the intelligence committee, according to a Democratic member on the committee.

Rep. Jackie Speier said on Thursday that Nunes promised to share his information with the committee, although he declined to give a timeline on that action.

In an interview with NBC News, Nunes also experienced regret on his actions the other day:

It's a judgment call on my part. At the end of the day sometime[s] you make the right decision, and sometimes you don't.

TIME's new cover, "Is Truth Dead?," echoes the typography of TIME's classic "Is God Dead?" cover from April 8, 1966. In a phone interview from the Oval on March 22, Trump told TIME's Michael Scherer:

• "Hey, look, I can't be doing so badly, because I'm President and you're not."
• On accusing President Obama of wiretapping: "I'm a very instinctual person, but my instinct turns out to be right. I have articles saying that it happened."
• "When I said 'wire tapping,' it was in quotes."
• On his unsubstantiated claim that 3 million undocumented immigrants voted illegally, Trump said he would be proved right eventually, though he hinted that he no longer stood by all parts of that claim: "When I say that, mostly they register wrong. In other words, for the votes, they register incorrectly, and/ or illegally. I'm forming a committee on it."
• On Sweden: "I was right about that."

In an interview out this morning, President Trump tells TIME Washington Bureau Chief Michael Scherer, in response to a question about the risk to his reputation caused by false and ever-changing utterances: "Hey, look, I can't be doing so badly, because I'm President and you're not."

That "My Way" approach is part of the reason the Russia story has been festering, and now is erupting.

U.S. Treasury officials have unearthed information on former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's offshore financial transactions through banks in Cyprus, per the AP:

• Manafort was known to route financial transactions through Cyprus, and used Cypriot shell companies as part of a nearly $19 million deal with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska to purchase Ukrainian cable television provider Black Sea Cable.
• In one case, the AP found that a Manafort-linked company received a $1 million payment in October 2009 from a mysterious firm through the Bank of Cyprus. The $1 million payment left the account the same day — split in two, roughly $500,000 disbursements to accounts with no obvious owner.
• Senate intel committee member Martin Heinrich (D-NM) told the AP revelations about Manafort's work were "serious and disturbing."
• "This is not a drip, drip, drip," Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier of California, a member of the House intelligence committee, told the AP. "This is now dam-breaking with water flushing out with all kinds of entanglements."

The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday afternoon to move forward with a resolution to overturn FCC privacy rules for broadband providers like Comcast and AT&T, according to a spokesman for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The FCC's privacy rules require broadband providers to first get permission from their customers before sharing or selling their personal data to advertisers and other third-parties. Republicans in the House and Senate introduced resolutions to overturn those rules, and the vote on the Senate floor tonight officially kicks off debate, led by Republican Sen. Jeff Flake. Democrat Bill Nelson, Senate Commerce Committee ranking member, will help lead the opposition to the rollback effort.

What's next: A vote on the resolution will likely occur Thursday after debate has concluded.

Update: The Senate made it official Wednesday night, voting to start debate on the issue and vote on whether to send it to the House.

On Monday, House Intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes lectured FBI Director James Comey for putting "a big, gray cloud" over the Trump White House. Two days later, Nunes floated a new gray cloud — this time over the Obama Administration.

Most extraordinarily, Nunes wouldn't rule out the possibility that the surveillance of Trump and his transition team was a politically motivated act by the Obama Administration. That's probably why Trump said afterwards that he now feels vindicated for his wiretapping tweet, even though Nunes still says Obama himself didn't order a tap of Trump's phone.

Bottom line: Nunes' actions today were extraordinary. They raise both substantive and political questions. Was Trump being inappropriately surveilled? Were they appropriately surveilled and inappropriately unmasked? And is Nunes risking his credibility as intelligence chair by giving the administration a giant political gift?

House Intel Chairman Devin Nunes went to the White House today to brief President Trump regarding intelligence reports which he claimed showed "incidental collection" of Trump team communications. President Trump said he felt his claims to have been wiretapped by the Obama administration were "somewhat" vindicated by Nunes' claims:

House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes stunned Washington on Wednesday by saying a source told him intelligence reports are circulating featuring Trump team communications that were "incidentally collected" after the election. He then spoke to reporters at the White House.

Nunes explained why he briefed Trump, whose campaign is being investigated by the FBI: "Because what I saw had nothing to do with Russia and the Russian investigation. It has everything to do with possible surveillance activities and the president needs to know these intelligence reports are out there and I have a duty to tell him that."

Next up: Nunes said he hopes to have more information by Friday, and that intelligence agencies are cooperating.

Trump's approval rating is 37% in the latest Quinnipiac University Poll, his lowest ever. His rating among Republicans, white voters and men fell.

Why this matters: Trump's "fiercely loyal base appears to be eroding," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

Spicer opened the briefing with comments about the terrorist attack in London, noting that President Trump has spoken by telephone with Prime Minister Theresa May and has condemned the attacks.

• Devin Nunes statement: Spicer read from the statement delivered Wednesday by House Intel Chair Devin Nunes, who said "sources" told him of "incidental collection" of surveillance on the Trump transition team. Spicer added that Nunes "went down and spoke to the media before he spoke to us."
• On the AHCA vote: "We're not looking at a plan B, there's only plan A... and we're gonna get this done." He called Trump a "closer" and added that he's confident the House bill will pass tomorrow.
• Paul Manafort's ties to Russia: Spicer gave a lengthy answer, emphasizing that Manafort's work for a Russian billionaire was "a decade ago." As for whether Trump knew? "Of course he didn't!" said Spicer. It'd be "insane" to think the president would have known all of his past clients.
• Can you confirm no one in the WH is working for a foreign government? "I can confirm every form has been filled out," said Spicer.

The week before the Women's March on Washington, poster board sales increased by 33% and foam boards sales by 42% (compared to the year before). Sales totaled $4.1 million, according to the Times. 6.5 million poster boards were sold in the month of January.

Specialty markers, permanent markers, glue and scissors got sales boosts as well.

BTW: Axios' Dan Primack called it.

Trump's SCOTUS nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, testified again today in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Today he revealed his take on technology, birth control, and a SCOTUS decision that came out today regarding his ruling.

Check out our roundup of yesterday's marathon session here.

North Korea attempted a missile launch Wednesday morning on the country's east coast, but it failed almost immediately, U.S. military officials and South Korea said.

"A missile appears to have exploded within seconds of launch," U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Dave Benham said in a statement. "We are working with our interagency partners on a more detailed assessment. We continue to monitor North Korea's actions closely."

The attempted launch came just 4 days after North Korea announced it had tested a new rocket engine, describing it as a "great leap forward" in their missile program.

In the West Wing, the single biggest mistake President Trump has made is not elevating someone who can and will say "no" to him, and make it stick.

• One discouraged confidant, worried that the Russia investigation will be a long-term problem, emailed Axios: "DJT has been sort of brilliant at times about navigating things. But... he was never held accountable by anyone."
• The N.Y. Times' Tom Friedman wrote a memo to Trump's War Cabinet this morning, urging the "five adults with the most integrity in the Trump administration" to act as Trump's parents.
• The Daddy for today is burly economic adviser Gary Cohn, according to the juiciest (and last) paragraph of an account by the N.Y. Times' Thrush and Haberman: "In a recent meeting in the Oval Office, Mr. Cohn was speaking when Mr. Trump interrupted him. 'Let me finish,' Mr. Cohn interjected ... Trump, unaccustomed to ceding the floor, let him make his point."

No one else does that. Frank Bruni writes in his N.Y. Times column today, "Tweeting Toward Oblivion," that Trump's demons are winning: "He can tweet, or he can govern. ... Trump is no victim. He's the luckiest man alive — or has been, until now." This is the week that it either runs out — or the series gets extended.

The WSJ goes after President Trump's habit of not telling the truth in an editorial that features "endless stream of exaggerations, evidence-free accusations, implausible denials and other falsehoods" in the opening paragraph, then gets even rougher:

[T]he President clings to his assertion like a drunk to an empty gin bottle, rolling out his press spokesman to make more dubious claims ... Two months into his Presidency, Gallup has Mr. Trump's approval rating at 39%. No doubt Mr. Trump considers that fake news, but if he doesn't show more respect for the truth most Americans may conclude he's a fake President."

The personal angle: WSJ owner Rupert Murdoch is dealing with fallout in the U.K. from the White House parroting anonymously-sourced claims on Murdoch-owned Fox News that British intelligence helped wiretap Trump. Murdoch wants to become the full owner of the European Broadcasting Company Sky TV, but as Sara Fischer reported for Axios over the weekend, Trump's claims could complicate regulatory approval in the U.K.

The AP has unearthed a 2005 memo from former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska on boosting Vladimir Putin's agenda and undermining anti-Russian opposition across Europe, the U.S. and former Soviet republics.

• "We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success," Manafort wrote, adding it "will be offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government."
• Manafort and Deripaska eventually signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006, and maintained a business relationship until at least 2009.
• Manafort confirmed to the AP that he worked for Deripaska in various countries, but said the work was being unfairly cast as "inappropriate or nefarious" as part of a "smear campaign."

The New York Times puts President Trump on the psychiatrist's couch in a story about how his father's memory drives him and staff can't rein him in; "Within the White House, aides describe a nearly paralytic inability to tell Mr. Trump that he has erred or gone too far on Twitter."

One other key point: The Times retells what everybody knows, that Steve Bannon is a key figure in the administration, and then gives us something new by relating an anecdote showing the power of Trump's top economic adviser, Gary Cohn.

"In a recent meeting in the Oval Office, Mr. Cohn was speaking when Mr. Trump interrupted him. "Let me finish,'' Mr. Cohn interjected, according to a person with knowledge of the interaction. Mr. Trump, unaccustomed to ceding the floor, let him make his point."

Neil Gorsuch took on controversial topics such as Roe v Wade, sex discrimination and gun rights in a marathon session before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He also said attacks on the judiciary by anyone (including President Trump) were "demoralizing".

Highlights from day two of his confirmation hearings: