Axios

Attorney General Jeff Sessions responded to President Trump's public criticism on Wednesday, saying he will continue his "duties with integrity and honor."

Why it matters: Trump's tweet was a "tipping point" for Sessions as he went after Inspector General Michael Horowitz, a career lawyer who was appointed by the Obama administration, and worked in top DOJ positions under Presidents George W. Bush. and Bill Clinton. Sessions broke his silence to defend his department after taking months of criticism from the president.

The body of the late Rev. Billy Graham has arrived at the Capitol for a private ceremony with President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and members of Congress.

Graham's body will lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda — where notably influential citizens, including a dozen former presidents, are honored — on Wednesday and Thursday, before his burial Friday at Graham's library in Charlotte, N.C.

Oprah Winfrey told People Magazine that she would consider a 2020 presidential run if she received a call from God that was "so clear that not even [she could] miss it." The media mogul made waves last month with her Golden Globes speech that instantly fueled presidential speculation.

I went into prayer: ‘God, if you think I’m supposed to run, you gotta tell me, and it has to be so clear that not even I can miss it.’ And I haven’t gotten that.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley was given the White House's prison reform goals which focus on funding programs that help inmates prepare for a successful re-entry. The issue, Grassley "is focused on passing sound policy, not the path of least resistance," according to spokesman George Hartmann.

Big picture: The Judiciary Chairman will continue talking with the White House about comprehensive criminal justice reform including sentencing reform and mens rea reform, according to Hartmann.

Fred Guttenberg, the father of a Parkland shooting victim, talked about the threats being made to the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School:

I need our president, Trump, today, to address it publicly and demand that everyone making these threats stop ... this community has been through trauma, we can't have additional trauma.

President Trump has reached an informal deal with Boeing to provide the next generation of presidential aircraft, AP reports.

The terms: White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said the president negotiated a $3.9 billion "fixed-price contract" for a pair of new planes, known as Air Force One when the president is on board.

The gun debate is still stalled in the Senate, just like the immigration debate stalled out a few weeks ago. But there's one big difference that could help the gun debate avoid the same fate: This time, there's a base bill that is pretty popular with both parties. The question is whether to have additional votes and, if so, which ones could scuttle the whole thing.

The big picture: There's growing openness to a vote on Majority Whip John Cornyn and Sen. Chris Murphy's bill strengthening background checks with additional amendment votes. But it's an uphill climb towards getting both parties to agree to a set of votes that could damage members on each side.

Hope Hicks, White House communications director and highly trusted member of the Trump team, testified behind closed doors for nine hours with the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, but declined to answer questions about the transition and her time in the White House. However, according to the New York Times, Hicks told House investigators that she is occasionally forced to tell "white lies" from her work in the administration.

Flashback: Hicks was involved in the scramble to respond to reports of a 2016 meeting between Don Jr. and a Russian lawyer, and allegedly said details of the meeting “will never get out" — a claim her lawyer has denied. She has also been in the room for other key moments that members were anxious to ask about.

An intelligence assessment undertaken at the end of Barack Obama's presidency found that seven states’ election systems were compromised before the 2016 election, NBC News reports.

Update: The Department of Homeland Security has released a statement claiming the findings were preliminary, out of date and later disproven.

Judge Gonzalo Curiel ruled today that the Department of Homeland Security can lawfully waive environmental protection statutes in order to build a border wall in San Diego because the existing fence is “no longer optimal for border patrol operations.”

Remember when: This was the same judge who presided over the $25 million settlement to the students of Trump University. At the time, Trump insinuated that Curiel was biased because of his Mexican heritage and called the judge a "hater."

Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chuck Grassley, both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have written a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray and White House Counsel Don McGahn asking about the process of granting interim security clearances, who has clearances in the White House, and what they're able to access. The FBI confirmed to Axios that they received a letter from the Senators today.

Why it matters: There are reportedly more than 100 people working in the White House now with interim security clearances that are not eligible to have access to sensitive information. Sens. Blumenthal and Grassley write that they want to figure out whether this is a "common problem or one unique to this administration." They want a response by March 13.

California U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez ordered a nationwide injunction on Tuesday, which blocks the Trump administration from arbitrarily deporting or removing work permits from DACA recipients "without notice, a reasoned explanation, or an opportunity to respond." ACLU had filed the lawsuit on behalf of three "Dreamers" whose visas were revoked without reason.

Why it matters: There was some concern that "Dreamers" could still lose status on an individual basis even after the earlier injunction blocking DACA from ending. This ruling treats DACA more like a green card than "prosecutorial discretion"— it can't be taken away unless the immigrant does something illegal that would get them deported.

The director of the NSA, Mike Rogers, who also heads up the Pentagon’s Cyber Command, told lawmakers during a hearing Tuesday that President Trump hasn’t directed him to stop Russian hacking attempts.

Why it matters, according to Rogers: "They have not paid a price that is sufficient to change their behavior.” Intel leaders told lawmakers earlier this month that Russia’s hacking behavior has not changed since 2016 and that the country is expected to meddle in the 2018 midterms.

Brad Parscale was the leading force behind President Trump's digital media campaign strategy, which relied heavily on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook and played a vital role in Trump's 2016 win. Now, he'll run Trump's 2020 re-election bid as a campaign manager.

The bottom line: Trump prizes loyalty and appreciates the power of marketing, and Parscale has been at Trump’s side successfully promoting his business and then political agenda on digital platforms since 2012.

President Trump has tapped his longtime digital strategist Brad Parscale, who served as the digital media director of his 2016 campaign, as his campaign manager for 2020. The news was first reported by The Drudge Report and has been confirmed by Axios.

Why it matters: This decision reflects Jared Kushner’s continued influence inside Trumpworld. Nobody has promoted Brad Parscale more than Jared, and during the campaign he was Parscale’s biggest advocate. It also shows that Trump wants somebody adept at digital campaigning to run his campaign.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that certain immigrants, including those who have recently arrived and those with a criminal record, have been detained and face possible deportation, are not entitled to a bond hearing after six months of detention.

Why it matters: The Trump administration has signaled that it aims to grow the number of immigrant arrests and detainments. Leon Fresco, who was a former Deputy Assistant A.G. at the DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation, said he expects that "the immediate reaction of the Administration will be to fill every available detention bed that exists now and to seek significant funding for new detention beds."

Starbucks executive chairman Howard Schultz this morning batted down speculation that he plans to run for president, in an interview on Fox Business Network.

No I'm not.

After reconsidering his decision to retire in recent weeks, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) says he will not run for reelection this fall, per Politico. Corker announced last year that he wouldn't seek to return to the Senate in 2018, opening up a war of words with President Trump — though the two have recently patched up their relationship.

And he was willing to listen to folks but he really believes the decision he made in September was the right one and is going to be leaving the Senate at the end of the year.

President Trump will host the first state dinner of his presidency on April 24, with French President Emmanuel Macron. "The French presidency said in a brief statement Macron’s visit would take place on April 23-25 and include a joint news conference," per Reuters.

Why it matters, from AP: Trump was the first U.S. president in decades to close his first year in office without welcoming a fellow world leader for a state visit.

David Brooks, Axios CEO Jim VandeHei and I had a worthy email exchange last night about David's column in today's New York Times, "A Generation Emerging From The Wreckage":

"I’ve been going around to campuses asking undergraduate and graduate students how they see the world. Most of the students I’ve met with so far are at super-competitive schools — Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago and Davidson — so this is a tiny slice of the rising generation. Still, their comments are striking."

A culture clash between the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue that we've detected during our conversations with the Hill and White House:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) plans to focus this year on steady work like confirming judges, while the White House and some younger senators would like him to be more aggressive up taking up new legislation.

President Trump's call to bring back "mental institutions" isn't likely to catch on, but some experts hope it could be a springboard to addressing legitimate gaps in the mental-health system, including a lack of treatment options for low-income patients.

Why it matters: Most people who suffer from a mental illness aren't violent, but addressing the broader failings of the mental-health system could — in addition to improving millions of people's lives — also help prevent another mass shooter from falling through the cracks.

No one knows what, if anything, Congress is going to be able to do on guns. If there was tepid optimism going into the week that the Senate would be able to quickly pass a bipartisan, NRA-backed bill that strengthens the existing background check system, it was quickly replaced by the chaos that now erupts every time Congress tries to address something difficult.

Between the lines: The confusion and lack of a clear direction on the Hill mirrors the White House. President Trump has been all over the place since the Parkland shooting, and congressional Republicans are either not taking him seriously or unwilling to embrace many of the gun control policies he's floated.

The front-runner in the Republican primary to replace Arizona Rep. Trent Franks is embroiled in a sexting scandal, leading to concern among Republicans that they could lose a reliably Republican seat, Politico reports.

The details: Former state Sen. Steve Montenegro, a married Christian minister, admitted last week that he exchanged lewd text messages with a legislative staffer over several months, per Politico. The texts reportedly include a nude photo. One Republican strategist told Politico that "it could be Alabama all over again," in reference to Roy Moore's failed Senate bid.