President Trump told the Washington Post today he's considering cancelling a meeting later this week with Vladimir Putin after Russia seized three Ukrainian ships Sunday off the coast of Crimea. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, meanwhile, told NBC News that he's asking Trump to make a demand of Putin in the meeting: "Get out of Ukraine."
The backdrop: Ukraine's parliament voted yesterday to impose martial law for 30 days in areas under threat from Russia, which is still holding 24 Ukrainian sailors after Sunday's incident. Poroshenko told CNN Russia was concentrating troops near the border, and the order was needed to "move troops more easily" and "defend our territorial integrity." The conflict is now likely to play a central role in the Trump-Putin meeting, assuming it goes ahead.
Senate Republicans are weighing a floor vote this week on one of President Trump’s lifetime judicial nominees, Thomas Farr, whose record of supporting election policies that have been struck down by federal courts as racially discriminatory has sparked concern among Democrats and a coalition of civil rights and progressive groups.
Driving the news: Farr, a Raleigh-based attorney who would serve as a District Judge in North Carolina if confirmed, has previously come under fire for helping craft a voter ID law that a lower court determined was passed to target black voters with "almost surgical precision.” Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court decided against taking up an appeal by North Carolina Republicans. Farr had also defended the state’s legislative and congressional maps, some of which the Supreme Court ruled as illegal racial gerrymandering.
The use of tear gas on crowds of asylum-seekers is only the latest attack in an ongoing war the Trump administration has launched at the border.
The big picture: Trump campaigned on drastic immigration changes, including building “the wall” on the border, but Congress is nowhere near passing any sweeping immigration legislation and the Trump administration is struggling with a surge of asylum claims, chaos at the border and a record number of unaccompanied minors.
National security adviser John Bolton denied a report from the Guardian Tuesday that said the White House is preventing CIA Director Gina Haspel and other intelligence officials from briefing the Senate on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
What's new: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis briefed the Senate on Wednesday. Pompeo avoided answering why Haspel did not appear at the briefing. CIA press secretary Timothy Barrett later told NBC News that "The notion that anyone told Director Haspel not to attend today's briefing is false."
White House National Security Adviser John Bolton told reporters on Tuesday that he has not listened to the tape of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying "unless you speak Arabic, what are you going to get from it?"
52% of Americans — including 45% of men and 60% of women — say they would feel "very comfortable" having a female president, according to a new study by Kantar Public.
The big picture: The Reykjavik Index for Leadership ranks the U.S. third among G7 countries in terms of the percentage of people who would be comfortable with a female head of state. The U.K., which is currently led by Prime Minister Theresa May, came first with 58%, while Germany — which has been governed by Chancellor Angela Merkel for the past 13 years — ranked sixth with 26%.
Democrats took control of the House this year with the largest midterms margin of victory in history, surpassing the previous record of 8.7 million votes in 1974, according to NBC News election data.
By the numbers: Democratic House candidates currently have an 8,805,130 vote lead over Republicans, gaining 53.1% of the more than 111 million votes cast nationwide compared to the GOP's 45.2%, according to the data. The House flipped 41 seats during the 2018 election cycle, and could flip another if California Democratic candidate T.J. Cox, who has overtaken Republican incumbent David Valadao, ultimately wins the state's 21st district.
Editor's Note: This article has been corrected to note that this is the largest margin in a midterm election (not that it was the largest margin ever).
California Democrat TJ Cox has taken the lead over Republican incumbent Rep. David Valadao in the country’s final undecided House race, according to the AP.
Why it matters: The AP initially declared Valadao as the winner of the 21st congressional district. But the race has narrowed as votes continue to be counted, and late Monday the AP retracted its call after the release of new vote tallies. If Cox is ultimately declared the winner, this would be the 7th House seat Democrats flipped in California and the 42nd nationwide.
Details: A spokesperson for Google confirmed the refund request to Axios. Hyde-Smith, who is running against Democratic challenger Mike Espy to complete the term of retired Sen. Thad Cochran (R), sparked national backlash after saying at a campaign event earlier this month that she would be “front row” if invited to a “public hanging.” The remark triggered outrage due to Mississippi’s history of racially motivated lynchings. News of Google's contribution was first reported by the political newsletter Popular Information.
Beto O’Rourke, who recently lost his Texas Senate race to Ted Cruz, says he is not ruling out running for president in 2020, according to Politico’s David Siders.
Why it matters: O’Rourke told 60 Minutes’ Jon Wertheim earlier this year that he “will not” be running for president.
There are more than 430 days until the Iowa caucuses for the 2020 presidential election, but Crooked Media's Dan Pfeiffer, who served as Barack Obama's communications director, is making the case that Beto O'Rourke is "one of the strongest candidates in the field."
Why it matters: Even though O'Rourke lost his Texas Senate race to Ted Cruz, several Democrats are hoping he'll run for president in 2020. And between this endorsement from a prominent member of Crooked Media — whose podcast, "Pod Save America," has been downloaded more than 330 million times since its launch in early 2017 — and recent praise from Obama, Beto already has some strong Democratic support if he chooses to pursue a presidential bid.
Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) said President Trump’s comments mocking her for losing her midterm race to Democratic opponent Ben McAdams were "hurtful" and that she thinks Trump has "no real relationships, just transactions," per NPR’s Julia Ritchey.
The big picture: Love was speaking publicly for the first time since she conceded to McAdams over the weekend. In a post-midterms press conference, Trump criticized Republican incumbents who did not embrace his support, pointedly singling out Love for giving him "no love."
Images of migrant families choking on and fleeing tear gas launched by U.S. border officials at the southern border garnered outrage from some top officials and pundits and defense from others.
Why it matters: The action, reportedly in response to migrants throwing rocks, is not the first time that border agents have used tear gas or pepper spray at the border. But, coupled with the Trump administration's latest order allowing military troops to use force to defend border agents, it highlights the growing threat of violence as Central American caravans reach the border only to be met with closed crossings and long lines.
Three more danger signs for Trump's Saudi strategy — from today's shows:
Republican Sen. Mike Lee today told Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press," he disagreed with Trump's assessment of Khashoggi's murder saying, "It's inconsistent with the intelligence" he's seen. "Intelligence I've seen suggests that this was ordered by the crown prince," Lee told Todd.
Republican Sen. Ben Sasse today told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday," that Trump's "was a very weak statement. ... MBS murdered — contributed to murdering somebody abroad and it is not strength to sort of mumble past that."
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff told Dana Bash on CNN's "State of the Union": "I have been briefed by the CIA. And while I cannot discuss the contents of the briefing in any way, I can say that I think the president is being dishonest with the American people."
Cliff Sims, former director of White House message strategy, sat down with Mike Allen and me for "Axios on HBO" and described what it's like sitting with @realDonaldTrump while he tweets.
Sims, who left the White House in May, said he's seen Trump dictate tweets to aides from the Oval Office or from the private dining room that adjoins it. "He's meticulous with not just the words that he wants to use but the punctuation," Sims said. "So he'll say, you know, 'Jonathan Swan at Axios is an awful terrible reporter dash dash capital S capital A capital D exclamation point.'"
