New York Rep. Kathleen Rice, Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, and Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, who tried and failed to knock Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi from her leadership post in November 2016, are meeting Thursday to discuss if and how they can oust Pelosi, Politico reports.
The doubts about Pelosi's leadership come after Dems lost out in the Georgia 6th special election, where Republican Karen Handel tied Democrat Jon Ossoff to Pelosi in an effort to keep Republicans onside. Approximately 20 Dems have been invited to attend the meeting.
Pelosi's response to efforts to oust her: "I feel very confident in the support that I have in my caucus."
Just hours before Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders briefed reporters at the White House Thursday, the Senate released its version of the GOP health care bill, which included a series of cuts to Medicaid — something President Trump pledged he wouldn't do throughout his campaign. Reporters hoped she'd have answers on whether Trump still believed in protecting the program, but Sanders simply stated that she hadn't talked to the president about it.
Drone and wireless companies came to the White House to ask President Trump for help in rolling out their emerging technology — and turning it into big business. The event also featured representatives from venture capital, though most major firms weren't present.
"We want our innovators to dream big, like the folks around me and surrounding me in this room," he said. "And we want them to create new companies and to create lots of jobs."
Hackers of state and local election databases had "at least one successful attempt to alter voter information" in the 2016 election cycle, current and former officials told TIME. Investigators have not yet identified whether the hackers were Russian, and the manipulations in a county database were reportedly "discovered and rectified."
Context: U.S. officials have said Russian hackers targeted local voter registration systems, but no successful alterations have been officially reported.
Why it matters: While these manipulation were fixed, this shows hackers are apparently capable of altering voter records. If there was one successful manipulation of voter data, there could have been more. This also sends a message that cyber security needs to be beefed up before the next election cycle.
The Senate health bill, which was drafted by a small group of Republicans and kept secret from even some members of the GOP caucus, has now been publicly posted. The Axios health care team will be giving live analysis, but if you want to read it yourself, dive in:
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and NSA Director Mike Rogers reportedly told Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller and Senate investigators last week that President Trump "suggested" they publicly state there was no collusion between his campaign team and Russia, reports CNN.
In individual, closed-door briefings with the Senate Intelligence Committee, Coats and Rogers also allegedly said that Trump asked them to tell the media he was not personally under investigation for collusion.
Sources told CNN that Coats and Rogers described their conversations with Trump as "odd and uncomfortable," but noted they didn't feel the president was ordering them to directly interfere.
Flashback: During a June 7 Intel hearing, senators were furious with Coats and Rogers for refusing to answer questions on whether Trump has asked them to downplay claims of collusion. Coats and Rogers both said they felt it was "inappropriate" to share that information in a public session.
Democrats' embarrassing special-election loss in Georgia, after the vocal left fanned unrealistic expectations, provokes a wave of bitter post-gaming that targets House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. It's part of a generational argument that's also driving the party's 2020 conversation.
Be smart: With a wobbly start for Trump and his agenda, Dems we talk to as we travel the country have gotten the idea that of course the House will flip in midterms next year. In fact, this year's special elections showed that vulnerability by the other side doesn't necessarily translate into raw votes for you. Republicans are more reliable voters in midterms, and reversing that will be a massive task for Dems.
The White House will host executives and investors on Thursday for sessions on emerging technology like drones, 5G wireless and the Internet of Things.
Why it matters: The Office of Science and Technology Policy was, under the Obama administration, a key way for the White House to engage in thorny problems involving new technology like artificial intelligence and self-driving cars. But it's been far less active so far under Trump, who hasn't appointed a chief technology officer to lead it. The event is part of a larger "Tech Week" at the White House that included a meeting with major company execs on Monday.
House Democrats on the Oversight and Government Reform committee have "serious concerns" over the White House's handling of classified information and are pushing for documents relating to security clearances granted to ousted National Security Advisor Mike Flynn and Jared Kushner, Trump's advisor and son-in-law.
Their concerns: That the White House allowed Flynn to access sensitive material even after learning he had misled the administration about his conversations with a Russian diplomat, and that Kushner failed to disclose contacts with foreign officials.
The Trump administration plans to delay and then scrap a rule allowing foreign entrepreneurs to enter the U.S. to build companies, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, citing an anonymous administration official.
Timing: Ironically, the report of plans to scrap the International Entrepreneur Rule comes as tech leaders are in Washington to meet with White House officials. Immigration was one of the topics Trump addressed with tech CEOs earlier this week, as it has been a major source of tension between Silicon Valley and the administration.
President Trump is gearing up to travel to Cedar Rapids, Iowa today — the first state he'll visit west of the Mississippi River since becoming president. Within the first three months of Barack Obama and George W. Bush's presidencies, both leaders ventured out West on a few separate occasions.
During a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee this morning, officials from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security discussed the scope of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and how the federal government is preparing for potential future cyberattacks.
The big thing: Jeanette Manfra, the Acting Deputy Undersecretary for Cybersecurity and Communications at DHS, confirmed that election-related systems in 21 states were targeted in the lead-up to the 2016 election, but reiterated that no vote tallies were altered.
Related: Manfra refused to name those 21 states, but said that the "system owners" had been made aware of the targeting. She also said that some states had data exfiltrated by Russian hackers but refused to provide details regarding the nature or scope of the exfiltrated election data.
GOP Congressional baseball shooter James Hodgkinson "acted alone" and "there was no nexus to terrorism," the FBI told reporters Wednesday.
The FBI's definition of terrorism: The "unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, to further political or social objectives."
Other details: The FBI is investigating this as an "assault" on a member of Congress and a federal officer. Hodgkinson had a list of six members of Congress in his pocket at the time of the shooting. He was "known to have an anger management problem" and "suffered from taking some prescription medications" but had no history of mental illness.
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday that there is no doubt Vladimir Putin ordered his government to hack the U.S. November election:
"In 2016 the Russian government, at the direction of Vladimir Putin himself, orchestrated cyber attacks on our nation for the purpose of influencing our election. That is a fact, plain and simple. Now, the key question for the president and congress is: What are we going to do to protect the American people and their democracy from this kind of thing in the future?"
The Washington Post's Emily Heil has the latest on Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's Saturday nupitals:
"Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was introducing Mnuchin at a conference and concluded ... with a personal flourish: 'Hilary and I also extend our congratulations and look forward to seeing you wed your dear fiancee, Louise Linton, on Saturday,' he said, referring to his wife, Hilary Geary Ross.
"Mnuchin has been engaged to Linton, a Scottish model/actress, since 2015. Linton, 36, ... had small roles in a number of movies and TV shows ... In May, Linton stepped down as chief executive of film-financing firm Dune Entertainment — a company that Mnuchin had divested from — after some questioned the ethics of her retaining a role in the company.
"Mnuchin, 54, will have something ... in common with Wilbur Ross and with Trump — both his Cabinet colleague and his boss are married to wife No. 3."
Silicon Valley doesn't see eye to eye with Trump on social and climate change policy. But major tech executives showed up to the White House for a set of meetings Monday focused on updating the government's use of technology. From tax reform to high-skilled immigration, these companies have a number of business priorities they feel they need to work with the White House on, and they want Trump to understand their perspective on technology-driven economic shifts.
Here's our rundown of what each of the players featured in this photo (from White House social media aide Dan Scavino) brought to the table:
The White House's "Tech Week" is hitting the road, and President Trump plans to tell Iowans Wednesday that he's committed to "including internet connectivity" in any infrastructure package the administration builds with Congress, aide Ray Starling told reporters.
That pledge will come as part of an event at Cedar Rapids' Kirkwood Community College that will highlight agricultural technology.
Let's talk details: It's expensive to build networks in rural areas, because providers struggle to recoup their investment from a small customer base, so it could be difficult to find money for rural broadband. Starling said the administration recognizes that "we'll have to invest monetarily" but also hopes to look to the private sector and money already deployed by the government. "At this point I think the conversation is relatively high-level and the president is committed to working with whatever Congress sees as the best solution there," Starling said when asked for specifics.
