Subject: Axios AM: Mike’s Top 10 — Changes coming to travel ban? * Clinton bitterness * Biggest fears of Rs, Ds
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2017 06:41:11 -0500 (EST)

Presented by Walmart:

Changes coming to travel ban? * Clinton vs. Obama * Prime-time court pic= * Biggest fears of Rs, Ds

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Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Jan 31, 2017

1 big thing: Trump's wild ride

U.S. embassy in Tokyo today / AP

Republican sources tell us that the Department of Homel=nd Security may issue "implementation guidance" that would allow for softe=ing, and even policy changes, to President Trump's travel restrictions on =igrants. The White House insists that any further guidance wouldn't consti=ute a walk-back.

But the internal conversation, le= by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, reflects the widespread view a=ong top Republicans that the current chaotic situation -- beset with blame=casting, backstabbing and unintended consequences -- is untenable.

<=trong>An official at one of the top firms in corporate America em=ils: "The pressure from inside these companies is intense. One of my deput=es spent all day with a relative who needs to go back to Iran to see her m=m who is dying. Worried she might get stuck but had to go. Lots of needles= worrying. They have been Americans since the Shah left" 38 years ago.
=p>Yesterday was a day that'll be dissected by historians =nd political scientists forever:

A made-for-the-movies =wist came at 9:16 last night, after a day in which corporation af=er corporation had condemned the policy, helping produce the worst stock-m=rket day of 2017. A White House statement announced that the acting attorney general, Sa=ly Yates, had been fired because she "has betrayed the Department of Justi=e by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of=the United States" and is "weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigr=tion."

Hours earlier, Yates had sent a letter to=Justice Department lawyers telling them not to defend the travel ban in co=rt arguments, because she was not "convinced that the Executive Order is l=wful."

The N.Y. Times, which reports that Yates =as informed of her dismissal two minutes before the statement went out, wr=tes in its lead story that the sacking "recalled the so-called S=turday Night Massacre in 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon fired his a=torney general and deputy attorney general for refusing to dismiss the spe=ial prosecutor in the Watergate case."

Fox News employees<=strong> got a corporation-wide email last night from their parent, 21st Ce=tury Fox (signed by Lachlan and James Murdoch), saying: "We deeply value d=versity and believe immigration is an essential part of America's strength="

That all happened AFTER a crazy day of dram= over the executive order that has become the defining opening act of Trum='s presidency. Check out the fallout from the refugee ban over a 12-hour p=riod, from Trump allies alone:

"Morning" Joe Scarborou=h, fresh off=meeting with Trump and his foreign-policy team, blamed policy chief St=phen Miller for botching the order and P.R.

Steve Bannon,<=strong> one of the authors of the executive order, said in an email to the Washington Post tha= there was an adult deeply involved in setting "policy and philosophy": in=oming Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Rex Tillerson, soon to be Sec of State, made plain through friends he was cut out of t=e loop -- and not happy: "Tillerson has told the president'= political advisers that he was baffled over not being consulted on the su=stance of the order."

Capitol Hill aides secretly=helped draft the EO and signed non-disclosure agreements to assist WITHOUT=telling their bosses, Politico reported -- an extraordinary move =iven the separation of powers between the White House and Congress.
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly was also cut out =nd upset, on top of feeling the White House was trying to jam a hard-liner=he didn't want in as his number two.

Retired Gen. James Ma=tis, the incoming SecDef, "is said to be particularly incensed," =a href="http://link.axios.com/click/8743476.29865/aHR0cDovL3N0YWdpbmcuaG=zdGVkLmFwLm9yZy9keW5hbWljL3N0b3JpZXMvVS9VU19UUlVNUF9UUkFWRUxfQkFOX0ZBTExPV=Q_U0lURT1BUCZTRUNUSU9OPUhPTUUmVEVNUExBVEU9REVGQVVMVCZDVElNRT0yMDE3LTAxLTMx=TAzLTI5LTE0JnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1=YWlnbj1uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2F4aW9zYW0/5871993924c17c54d77a8b8cCe88e4c7b" target=3D"_blank">AP reports. "Mattis, along with Joint Chiefs Chairman Josep= Dunford, was aware of the general concept of Trump's order but not the de=ails."

2. More popular than it looks?

Stephen Miller, by AP's Evan Vucci

Dems are more torn about how to react than you'd think.=Some well-known Democrats told us they think the first polls will show Tru=p's plan is more popular than the current coverage suggests -- maybe 45% t= 52% support, tracking the fault lines of the country. So Dems thinking ab=ut the presidency, like Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, will make hay. But=senators facing reelection in Trump states have a tricky balancing act.
The author ... Even Democrats told us that Stephen Mi=ler, 31, the Trump senior policy adviser who was a key author of the ban, =ooked remarkably composed as he did television interviews calmly, even rob=tically defending his handiwork: "[I]f nobody's disagreeing with what you'=e doing, then you're probably not doing anything that really matters in th= scheme of things," he said on CNN.

This'll stay in the=news ... On "CBS This Morning," Miller said: "W='re going to take the next 30 days to develop a new set of screening proto=ols."

A David Brooks column in the N.Y. Time= warns "The Republican Fausts" in Congress who don't partic=larly trust, admire or agree with Trump, but "respect the grip he has on t=eir voters": "[I]f the last 10 days have made anything clear, it's this: T=e Republican Fausts are in an untenable position. The deal they've struck =ith the devil comes at too high a price. It really will cost them their so=l."

3. Scoop: Clinton v. Obama

The worst-kept secret inside Democratic circle is how b=tter Hillary Clinton's team is at President Obama over her election loss. =e have heard from numerous, anguished people in Clinton-land blaming Obama=-- more than Putin, FBI Director James Comey or, um, Hillary herself -- fo= the defeat.

The reason: Clintonites feel that if =bama had come out early and forcefully with evidence of Russian interferen=e in the campaign, and perhaps quicker sanctions, she might be president t=day. His caution, they argue, allowed the public to have a foggy sense of =lear, calculated, consistent Russian meddling in the campaign. We can't st=ess enough how upset some Democrats are. It's testing relationships betwee= Clinton and Obama loyalists. It's making efforts to form a new Trump oppo=ition coalition harder.

A Clinton campaign official to=d us: "The White House was like everyone else: They thought she'd=win anyway. ... If he had done more, it might have lessened a lot of aggri=ved feelings, although I don't think it would have altered the outcome. Th= Russia thing was like a spy novel, and anything he said or did would have=helped get people to believe it was real."

On the flip=side, Obama has let it be know he remains befuddled how she misse= what to him was an easy layup of a win, given his own popularity on Elect=on Day and Trump's vulgarity:

A top Obama aide=told us the White House was very deliberate about not being seen as politi=izing the hacks. The aide said the first priority was making sure that the=actual voting was untainted, and coordination with Republican state offici=ls would have collapsed if Obama was seen as grandstanding.

Obama acknowledged the issue at his year-end news conference: "I=know that there [have] been folks out there who suggested that somehow if =e went out there and made big announcements and thumped our chests about a=bunch of stuff, that somehow that would potentially spook the Russians ...=[T]he idea that somehow public shaming is going to be effective, I think d=esn't read the thought process in Russia very well."

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4. First look: Stunning poll

Edelman

Houston, we have a problem. In new findings from Edelman's 201= Trust Barometer, only 15% of Trump voters trust the media after the e=ection, compared with 51% of Clinton voters. Even after the election, only=26% of Trump voters trust government, compared with 46% of Clinton voters.=Other findings:

Among all voters, 10% think th= system is working and 57% think it is failing.

T=ump voters were overall more fearful, with immigration and global=zation at the top of their list. Clinton voters were most fearful of corru=tion and eroding social values.

96% of Trump vote=s believe that the outcome of the election was a fair and accurat= reflection of the will of the people; 34% of Clinton voters believe the s=me.

5. Prime-time pick

Trump plans to announce his nominee to replace Justice =ntonin Scalia on the Supreme Court at 8 p.m., and CNN's Brian Stelter points out the "Apprentice" aura: "Trump was counterprogramming: pitting=one show (his announcement) against another (the rolling and largely negat=ve coverage of his exec order and the protests against it). By turning one=of the most consequential decisions of the presidency into a primetime tel=vision event, ... Trump is governing in the way a TV executive might."
=p>Axios' Jonathan Swan has this inside look at the=pick: A source who knows the final decision would only tell us it's one of=two men: Judge Neil Grouch, 49, who serves on United Sta=es Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit; or Judge Thomas Hardima=, 51, who sits on United States Court of Appeals for the Third Ci=cuit and works out of Pittsburgh.

How the finalists wer= picked: The advisory team — which included Vice Presiden= Pence, Steve Bannon, incoming Attorney General Jeff Sessions, White House=counsel Don McGahn and the Federalist Society's Leonard Leo (who drew up t=e original list of 21) — studied both Gorsuch's and Hardiman's rec=rds and found enough case evidence to convince them that these were unbend=ng originalists.

6. Trade war begins

The day's most arresting headline is on a New York Time= business story, "Trump's Trade War May H=ve Already Begun," which reports that traditional allies in Europ=, Asia and Latin America are already "shifting focus to other potential pa=tners for new sources of trade and investment" -- most notably China.
<=>The kicker to the article, which the paper makes its Quota=ion of the Day, is from a lunch in Davos two days after the address by=China's President Xi Jinping asserting that Beijing will be a reliable cha=pion of expanded trade if the United States steps back. Andr=C3� Loesekrug-Pietri, Berlin-based private equity fund manager, said: "W= heard a Chinese president becoming the leader of the free world."

7. New RNC money man

The RNC plans to announce as soon as today that casino =agnate Steve Wynn wil= be named RNC finance chairman.

In other casino-mogul n=ws, Sheldon Adelson pulled=out of a $1.9 billion deal to build a domed stadium for the Oakland Ra=ders to Vegas.

8. Tops in tech

Axios' Dan Primack got his hands on a draft Trump executive ord=r showing plans "to kill a program that would have encouraged startup comp=ny founders to immigrate to the United States ... The International Entrep=eneur Rule (IER) generally would make special immigration exceptions for f=reign entrepreneurs who meet [certain] requirements."

9. Tops in media trends

"Instagram Stories is stealing Snapchat's users," TechCrunch reports: <=span>: "[A] dozen analytics providers, social media celebrities, and talen= managers [said] they've seen a decline in Snapchat Stories usage since In=tagram Stories launched on August 2nd.."

10. 1 fun thing

A Galentine's Day celebration / AP

The women's marches after the inauguration have amped up interest in Gal=ntine's Day, per AP: "Designating Feb. 13 for the lad=es has endured since 2010, when Amy Poehler's 'Parks and Recreation' chara=ter, Leslie Knope, declared the fictional holiday her favorite day of the =ear: ... 'Ladies celebrating ladies ... It's like Lilith Fair, minus the a=gst. Plus frittatas.' ... Since, women in real life have embraced the idea=of gathering when Valentine's Day rolls around."

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