In the first White House press briefing in 42 days, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders refused to directly answer whether President Trump believes Democrats hates Jews, following an Axios report that Trump made that comment in a speech to RNC donors this weekend.
The White House has rejected House Oversight chairman Elijah Cummings' request to interview former deputy counsel Stefan Passantino, who represented President Trump to federal ethics officials looking into hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels in 2016, CNN reports.
Why it matters: Cummings wrote in his interview request last month that the committee had new documents showing Passantino and another Trump attorney "may have provided false information" about the payments — campaign finance violations for which Michael Cohen is now going to prison. This is the second time that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone has rejected a request from House Oversight, with the first — which involved documents about the White House's process for granting security clearances — prompting Cummings to threaten a subpoena.
President Trump on Monday sent a record $4.75 trillion 2020 budget proposal to Congress, in which he called for a 5% increase in military spending, a $1.9 trillion cut to safety net programs and an additional $8.6 billion for his border wall.
Why it matters: Trump's budget won't balance for 15 years, and Capitol Hill will promptly reject this budget, as it does every year with every president. But the proposal nonetheless highlights the White House's priorities for 2020.
The Democratic Party will hold its 2020 national convention in Milwaukee on July 13–16, the AP reports.
The big picture: Wisconsin is a key state for Democrats to win back after President Trump defeated Hillary Clinton there in 2016. The GOP will hold the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 24–27.
Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Friday unveiled a tech trust-busting plan that would theoretically undo some of the past decade's most influential mergers, including Facebook's 2012 acquisition of Instagram, Google's 2007 deal for DoubleClick, and Amazon's 2017 purchase of Whole Foods Markets.
What to watch: Other companies affected could theoretically include Apple and Walmart, although Warren didn't explicitly call them out. Warren has repeatedly said on the campaign trail that she is a capitalist, not a socialist, but that she believes America's current application of capitalism is so lawless as to be counterproductive.
Advisers to former Vice President Biden say it will be apparent within days whether he has decided to activate a presidential campaign that would likely launch by early April.
Between the lines: A Biden insider tells me the "final, final" decision is now "imminent."
Creatives in music, film and tech that have for decades been the center of attention at the annual SXSW (South by Southwest) festival in Austin, Texas, have been overshadowed this year by the arrival of rising political stars.
Why it matters: The invasion of politicians, regulators and political reporters at the festival shows just how much politics has become entrenched in every aspect of our cultural lives.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg called Vice President Pence a "cheerleader for the porn star presidency" during a CNN townhall event Sunday.
Details: Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, made the comments after CNN host Jake Tapper asked him whether Former Indiana Gov. Pence would make a better commander-in-chief than President Trump. "Does it have to be between those two?” Buttigieg replied. Buttigieg went on to talk about Trump's alleged affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels, which the president denies having had.
