New today: House Speaker Paul Ryan won’t run for re-election, a decision whose timing was first reported by Axios’ Jonathan Swan.
By the time Nov. 6 rolls around, there will be at least 56 vacated House seats up for grabs — more than two-thirds of those are held by Republicans this term. The openings are significant because incumbents have outperformed non-incumbents of the same party in similar districts by about seven points in the last decade or so, per the New York Times.
Notes: The Cook Partisan Voter Index is a measure of how liberal or conservative a district leans based on the two most recent elections. Pennsylvania PVI and vote margins reflect the 2016 district map prior to being redrawn; Data: Daily Kos Elections and Cook Political Reports; Chart: Chris Canipe / Axios
The Justice Department will be implementing a new quota system to federal immigration judges' performance reviews, reports the WSJ, under which judges will be expected to clear 700 cases to receive a "satisfactory" rating.
Why it matters: The new quotas, detailed in a memo sent to immigration judges on Friday, are part of a wider effort to speed up deportation decisions and reduce a hefty backlog of more than 600,000 cases that are pending before the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR).
Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn.) announced Monday that she is not seeking re-election after facing continued criticism for her handling of harassment allegations against her former chief of staff Tony Baker, reports the Hartford Courant.
Fellow Democratic lawmakers had called on Esty to resign following reports that Baker had remained on her staff for three months after she learned he had threatened to kill a former female colleague he had dated. The victim said she told Esty that Baker "had punched, harassed and berated her in 2014 when they both worked in Esty’s Capitol Hill office," according to the Washington Post.
The White House is working with lawmakers on a new immigration package that would end the practice of "catch and release," make it easier to deport immigrant children from countries outside of Mexico and Canada, and toughen screening for asylum applicants, according to a background briefing with senior administration officials.
Why it matters: The officials did not say whether the package would include protections for DACA recipients, which has come into question following the president's weekend tweets pronouncing DACA "dead."
President Trump called Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi today to congratulate him for winning an election last week in which potential challengers were pushed aside, allowing the former general to run essentially unopposed.
The Koch-backed advocacy groups Freedom Partners, Americans for Prosperity and The LIBRE Initiative are expressed their "disappointment" in President Trump's latest tweets calling DACA "dead." They are demanding a permanent solution for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children in exchange for $25 billion in funding for border security.
Why it matters: The Koch brothers are some of the GOP's biggest financial contributors. These statements clearly put blame on both Republicans and Democrats for not reaching a DACA deal — while Trump attempts to solely blame Democrats. "Pointing fingers, shifting blame and, ultimately, abandoning efforts to reach a consensus would be irresponsible and represent a grave injustice," Freedom Partners Executive Vice President James Davis said in a statement.
Ohio Governor John Kasich said President Trump's Easter Sunday tweets about immigration made him "really upset." "I don't think it's right. That's not what leaders do," Kasich said at an Axios event today at The Ohio State University. He said Trump is taking the "wrong approach" on DACA.
President Trump started off his Monday morning with a tweetstorm about illegal immigration and border control, adding to a trio of Sunday tweets on the same topic:
What spurred his tweets: Trump's tweets closely aligned with a Fox & Friends segment this morning that used the same "caravan" phrasing, according to MMFA's Matthew Gertz. Yesterday's tweets were similarly timed.
The White House confirmed this morning that President Trump will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago from April 17-18 — ahead of a meeting between Korean leaders Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in on April 27 and Trump's planned meeting with Kim in May. While North Korea will be a primary topic of discussion, the White House announcement said the two leaders will "explore ways to expand fair and reciprocal trade and investment ties" — relevant because Japan, a key ally, was not exempted from Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs that were announced last month.
Flashback: The last time that Abe visited Mar-a-Lago was in February 2017 when a North Korean missile launch turned the club's "terrace into an open-air situation room," according to The Washington Post.
Out tomorrow from Ronald Kessler, a former Washington Post reporter, "The Trump White House: Changing the Rules of the Game." And one anecdote from the book showcases Melania's power in the Trump household.
The setup: The book features a tale involving Anthony Senecal, Trump’s longtime butler at Mar-a-Lago, who opened the door of the estate one Saturday to find Martha Stewart standing there...
