Subject: POLITICO Huddle: TRUMP TERROR RESPONSE WORRIES GOP -- Gun votes likely this week -- MANCHIN MULLS NO LABELS REVERSAL
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2016 05:37:02 -0600

06/14/2016 07:34 AM EDT

By Burgess Everett (@burgessev or [email-masked]) 

MORE GOP HAND-WRINGING OVER TRUMP: After the horrific shootings in Orlando, Republicans were looking to hear Donald Trump embrace his role as national healer as the party's nominee and potential president. That, of course, didn't happen: Trump told President Barack Obama to resign, suggested Obama knew more about the attack than he is letting on and then expanded his calls for a Muslim and immigration ban from countries with histories of terrorism. This is not exactly what GOP leaders were hoping for, Kyle and Bres write this morning. 

Impossible to keep up: "It was the latest display of the party's conundrum of how to deal with their unpredictable standard-bearer whose views they often don't share. Many Republicans appeared downright fatigued by the almost daily exercise of Trump saying something provocative or worse, and them having to answer questions about it. '"[Trump] just blows up everything we want to do,' said a senior GOP lawmaker, speaking on the condition of anonymity. 'Every time you turn around, he's said something new. It's impossible for us to keep up.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4b3dbcc1240bc3a4036a6b96dec4fa9a702e27c6d9f76b37a40eb29b948c47dd

The response from the West Wing: "When you are focused on something as big as helping the country respond to the worst mass shooting in our nation's history ... it's important not to get distracted by things that are so small," said press secretary Josh Earnest. L.A. Times: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4b3dbcc1240bc3a4d27d5f12efa75495e4a22ffa409ee610ee6175a8b6767ab5

#Republicans4Hillary: Former South Dakota Sen. Larry Pressler, fresh off a crushing loss in the 2014 Senate race as an independent, is throwing his lot behind Hillary Clinton. "'I can't believe I'm endorsing Hillary Clinton for president, but I am,' said Pressler ... 'This election is starting to sound like the German elections in [the late 1920s] ... 'This is a very dangerous national conversation we're slipping into.'" The Hill: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4b3dbcc1240bc3a45fc2badbee1bbfcc21037b04b7654a1ae4708f1f0047fc7f

DEALING WITH IT: Interviewing GOP lawmakers about Trump's Orlando response was downright painful yesterday. Several pleaded (or feigned) ignorance about Trump's latest attacks on Obama and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) stuck to his ban on Trump questions. I caught up with an emotional Sen. Steve Daines as he walked off the floor, and he pleaded for everyone to hit pause for a day: "49 families received a phone call that they never wanted to receive. 49 families are planning for funerals. The focus needs to be to grieve with these families and not to minimize the tragedy that just occurred ... there will be a time to have the battle over the policy and politics of all of this.
 But the focus right now needs to be on the 49 families that are grieving." 

DEMS SEEK TO MAKE GOP SQUIRM: Party leaders are off and running with a push to amend this week's CJS spending bill with a proposal to ban people on the terrorism watch list from buying firearms. Sound familiar? Yep it's the same amendment that failed in December alongside the GOP alternative that forced the feds to prove there was "probable cause" that a suspect would use the gun for terrorism. But now we are five months before election day and Democrats are hoping for a different result -- or at least to use GOP opposition against at-risk incumbents. "We believe we'll do better than we did last time," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). "Circumstances are going to force them to see the
 light." SMK, Bres and my story: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4b3dbcc1240bc3a4a82aae59c175a58feb1ed82fca8e9ac0c5638c0ad0f9f80f

Room for compromise? One might think that since both parties are interested in doing something about the terrorism watch list, there'd be room for compromise. "The question I want to ask is: Do you want to stop these things from happening?" Cornyn said when asked about the Democrats' plans. "We're going to see what happens with Sen. Feinstein. If she offers the same amendment, we're going to offer something similar .... I'm not sure Democrats want compromise. I think what they're trying to do is score political points." Cornyn, for his part, seems most interested in adding new tools for the FBI to track lone wolf terrorism suspects. 

Good morning D.C. And welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, where we can all talk about how annoying Draymond Green is for at least two more days. Please send tips to [email-masked] and follow along on Twitter @burgessev. 

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate is in at 10 a.m. and will vote at 11 a.m. on NDAA and proceeding to CJS approps. The House is in at 10 a.m. and will be working on defense approps and an IRS crackdown bill, with votes skedded at 1:15 p.m. and around 4 p.m. 

AROUND THE HILL - At 9:15 a.m. the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will receive the Dalai Lama and Dr. Lobsang Sangay, PM of the Tibetan government, at S-116. At 10 a.m. House Democratic caucus chair Xavier Becerra leads a presser on gun safety in the HVC-210 alcove and in the RNC lobby House Speaker Paul Ryan holds a media availability. At 10:30 a.m. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appears with the Dalai Lama in H-204. At 11 a.m. on the House Triangle Reps. Tim Murphy and Fred Upton talk mental health reform and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer will hold his pen and pad in H-144. At 2:30 p.m. Rep. Mike Quigley will urge an end to the blood ban on gay and bisexual men on the House
 Triangle. 

The big one: At 3 p.m. the House will receive an all-members briefing on the Orlando shootings outside CVC-217. (The Senate's briefing is tomorrow). 

MONDAY'S MOST CLICKED: Our wrap on Congress's stunned reaction to the Orlando shootings. 

GET OUT AND VOTE: If you are a registered Democrat in Washington, and there's a good chance are you are, today is primary day. There are several contested city council races that should make things interesting even if the presidential primary is kaput. I early voted on Saturday and tried to change my address to my new address in Ward 4 but the poll workers made me vote at my old address in Ward 6 anyway. Democracy is messy, man. 

Silver State: There are a couple of good House primaries in Nevada in the third and fourth districts, but the Senate primary between Joe Heck and Sharron Angle appears a bust (Heck will win or I will wake up before 6 a.m. tomorrow and write a morning newsletter). 

CENTRISM LIVES: Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia tells me he's mulling rejoining the leadership of No Labels, a moderate think tank that irked Manchin in 2014 (http://goo.gl/EgVQz4) by working to elect Sen. Cory Gardner over former Sen. Mark Udall. Manchin stepped down from the group's leadership then, but Manchin says he is "very much involved" with No Labels and may take his involvement further by joining the likes of Evan Bayh, Jon Huntsman and Joe Lieberman at the head of the table. "I might. We've been talking about it. We have have been talking about it. I haven't done anything yet. But I very much support the efforts and Jon Huntsman's a very dear friend and so is Joe," Manchin
 said. 

ART HALVORSON WILL NOT GO AWAY - Bill Shuster should be done with Art Halvorson. The Republican incumbent and House Transportation Committee Chairman has beat Halvorson in a primary -- twice. Yet Halvorson is close to winning the Democratic nomination on a write-in ballot after a narrow loss to Shuster earlier this year, a bizarre situation any way you slice it. "'I'm sure Shuster's sweating it, trying to figure out what I'm going to do,' Halvorson, a retired Coast Guard captain, said in an interview ... a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State said it's unlikely the other Democratic challenger has enough votes in that county to change the outcome, meaning the nomination is
 likely Halvorson's if he wants it."

Ouch: "Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.), longtime chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic Party, said he would pick Shuster over Halvorson. 'I'd rather have Shuster than [Halvorson]. ... He's a nice man, he's a good guy. And [on] transportation, he takes care of us, that's what we gotta do,' Brady said in an interview. 'A real Democrat has no chance, so why would I want get a Republican in sheep's clothing and another tea partier? We don't need that.'" Heather's got it for y'all: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4b3dbcc1240bc3a42d481b9aa8f58fe303195a0adddd75480b3ed9df7ab4ea64

RUN MARCO RUN: The attacks in Orlando are bringing out new answers from Sen. Marco Rubio, who has exactly 10 days to decide if he will flip-flop on running for reelection. He seems to be getting closer. "'My family and I will be praying about all this, and we'll see what I need to do next with my life with regards to how I can best serve,' the former presidential candidate told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt." Niels at Roll Call: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4b3dbcc1240bc3a4e1c786d23868249e379c6384585897768fef1a0fda791ec8

The view from the NRSC: RoboKevin and I sat down with the NRSC peeps last week, and they aren't being shy about their Rubio pining. "I hope he does [run]. He's weighing it and a lot of people are encouraging him," said NRSC Chair Roger Wicker. "What do the polls say today? Seventy-seven percent of Republican respondents in the poll want him to run." He added that he believes "it's entirely likely" Rubio enters the race. NRSC Executive Director Ward Baker said the group would be committing "malpractice" if it didn't encourage Rubio to run, considering his high name ID and support in public polling. 

MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Justin Arnold was the first to answer that Rock Creek Park was the third national park established by Congress, though John Vaughan also answered that Sequoia National Park was established simultaneously. Everyone that said Yosemite was wrong though. 

TODAY'S TRIVIA - I'll take today's question: As we all stop to remember former Sen. John Voinovich, he went on something of a crusade to raise this tax at the end of his career. Name it. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at [email-masked]

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