Joe Biden isn't ruling out running for president in 2020, AP reports, especially if he thinks it's the "right thing to do." He recently talked about it with NBC News, saying: "I'm focused on one thing: electing a Democratic Congress ... I have plenty of time to consider whether or not to run."
President Trump went to a Florida hospital tonight and met with victims of this week's school shooting. Later he met with law enforcement officials. He was on a previously scheduled trip to his hotel in Florida for the weekend.
About speaking with victims he said: "It’s sad something like that could happen.”
Why it matters: Trump did not address calls for more gun control in response to the shooting. According to the AP, he "ignored a shouted question about whether guns should be more tightly regulated."
Reed Cordish, assistant to the president for intergovernmental and technology initiatives, is stepping down, the Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: Cordish is a good friend of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, and played a crucial role in creating the administration's infrastructure plan. Cordish is the latest to join the list of over a dozen White House aides who have left since Trump's inauguration.
The 37-page indictment filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller Friday reveals that the Russians who interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign targeted specific candidates.
The backdrop, per the U.S. intelligence community: The primary goal of the Russians' meddling was "to exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States," which they did by focusing on polarizing cultural flashpoints like the Black Lives Matter movement, illegal immigration and terrorism.
The White House has followed up a tweet from President Trump with a statement saying Trump is "glad to see" that Robert Mueller's indictments indicate "there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected."
Between the lines: There was no evidence of collusion in these indictments, nor any conclusion that the result was affected. That by no means proves that the Trump campaign didn't collude with Russia, or that Russia didn't impact the outcome.
Trump campaign surrogate and prominent televangelist Mark Burns announced he will be running for South Carolina's 4th Congressional district seat, which is being vacated by retiring Rep. Trey Gowdy.
Burns, a pastor and the founder of the Christian NOW Television Network, sits on President Trump’s Faith Advisory Council and gave the benediction on the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention. Burns became embroiled in controversy in Sept. 2016 when CNN revealed he falsified claims about his professional background, including that he graduated from North Greenville University (he attended for one semester) and that he served six years in the Army Reserve.
The Department of Commerce will recommend tariffs on steel and aluminum that, if applied, would be the first shots in a global trade war, according to two sources briefed on the report.
Background: The fight over whether to use the Section 232 law to impose tariffs has already become the hottest trade fight inside the Trump White House. Gary Cohn, Steven Mnuchin, Rex Tillerson and James Mattis have all been fighting against these tariffs on steel and aluminum — arguing they would harm the global economy and damage relationships with allies.
Under Trump's tax plan, divorcees in lower income brackets can exclude alimony payments from their taxable income but alimony payers no longer get a tax break, giving them less incentive to be generous to their former spouses.
Why it matters: In a recent survey, 64% of lawyers from the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers said that they expect divorces to become even more hostile because of the changes to the tax code.
Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson explaining that he will no longer prevent U.S. arms sales from flowing to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on board with the move, according to a letter he penned.
Why it matters: Corker was blocking the sales to put pressure on the countries to resolve the Qatar blockade. There is still no remedy to the blockade, which both Corker and Tillerson admit in their letters. Corker says he is stepping back from his tactic since he says it is important to maintain counterterrorism and security ties with those countries, and said he will support sales to those countries if the administration can show they are working to combat terrorism.
Mitt Romney officially announced he's running for Senate in Utah in a video message Friday.
Key quote: "Utah has a lot to teach the politicians in Washington. Utah has balanced its budgets, Washington is buried in debt. Utah exports more abroad than it imports, Washington has that backwards. Utah welcomes legal immigrants from around the world, Washington sends them a message of exclusion. And on Utah’s Capitol Hill, people treat one another with respect."
The backdrop: Romney's name has been floated for months, and Orrin Hatch announcing his retirement opened the way for him.
"Donald Trump, a Playboy Model, and a System for Concealing Infidelity: One woman’s account of clandestine meetings, financial transactions, and legal pacts designed to hide an extramarital affair," by Ronan Farrow for The New Yorker:
The details: In 2006, "Trump and [Karen McDougal, a former Playmate of the Year] began an affair, which McDougal later memorialized in an eight-page, handwritten document provided to The New Yorker by John Crawford, a friend of McDougal’s. When I showed McDougal the document, she expressed surprise that I had obtained it but confirmed that the handwriting was her own."
President Trump didn't mention the word "gun" during his six-minute statement on the Florida high-school shooting. That wasn't an accident. Trump is uniquely positioned for a "Nixon to China" moment on gun control, because no political figure in America has as much potential to push bipartisan gun control legislation, given his credibility on the issue with the Republican base.
Why it matters: Sources familiar with Trump's thinking say that, on this issue, the president doesn't want to go to China.
The NY Post has issued a rare message opposing President Trump's policies and urging change:
Why it matters: As Maggie Haberman points out, the Post is Trump's favorite paper. It's reportedly his first read in the morning. He'll probably see this message, and he probably won't like it.
The FBI had photos of Rob Porter's ex-wife Colbie Holderness' bruised face "days after President Donald Trump's inauguration last year" according to a CNN report. That puts White House counsel Don McGahn in the spotlight as, per CNN, clearance lawyers in the counsel's office would almost certainly be made aware of such evidence.
The details: Porter "approached McGahn" early on in his time at the White House, "and told [McGahn] that disparaging information from his ex-wives...could be revealed" in the background check process, CNN reports. Their conversation reportedly did not touch on domestic violence. It isn't clear if the FBI sent the photo to the White House, but the agency "would have at least provided a synopsis of what they portray," per CNN.
