Mar 2, 2017

Schumer to Sessions: Resign, or I've got a 3-point plan

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called for Jeff Sessions' resignation today during a press conference on reports that the AG withheld information about two meetings with the Russian ambassador during his Senate confirmation hearings.

Schumer's message to Trump: "It would be of Alice in Wonderland quality if this administration were to sanction [Sessions] to investigate himself."

Schumer's three-point plan should Sessions refuse to resign:

Acting Deputy AG Dana Boente must immediately appoint a special prosecutor of "real experience and unimpeachable impartiality."
If DOJ fails to appoint a special prosecutor, Dems will urge Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan to work with them to create a new version of an independent counsel law — like the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 put in place after Watergate — that would give a panel of 3 federal judges the authority to appoint a special prosecutor.
The Inspector General of the DOJ must immediately begin an investigation into Sessions' involvement in the Russia investigation thus far to determine if the investigation has already been compromised.

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Scott Rosenberg

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The U.S. is now playing by China's internet rules

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

President Trump's crackdown on TikTok suggests that the U.S. government is starting to see the internet more like China does — as a network that countries can and should control within their borders.

The big picture: Today's global internet has split into three zones, according to many observers: The EU's privacy-focused network; China's government-dominated network; and the U.S.-led network dominated by a handful of American companies. TikTok's fate suggests China's model has U.S. fans as well.

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Alayna Treene

12 mins ago - Politics & Policy

GOP plans "nightly surprise" for revamped convention

President Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Photo: Bill Clark/Getty Images

The reworked Republican National Convention will be a four-night spectacle including still-under-wraps venues, a 10 p.m. "nightly surprise" and guests and themes playing to "the forgotten men and women of America," two senior Trump campaign officials involved tell Axios.

Driving the news: The messaging will focus heavily on "very granular details" of what a second term for President Trump would look like — answering a question Trump left hanging in a Fox News event earlier this summer — and attack cancel culture, "radical elements" of society and threats to public safety.

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Margaret Talev

41 mins ago - Health

Axios-Ipsos poll: Fear of voting

Data: Axios/Ipsos poll; Note: ±3.0% margin of error for the total sample; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

Democrats are twice as likely as Republicans to worry about in-person voting — with nearly two in three seeing it as a large or moderate risk to their health — according to this week's installment of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index.

Why it matters: This could pose a significant disadvantage for Joe Biden and other Democratic candidates in November if the pattern holds — especially in states where high infection rates persist, or where there are significant hurdles to mail-in, absentee or early voting.