Subject: Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 — ? The guardrails give way — How Comey escaped a hug with Trump — Rage builds an empire
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 May 2017 06:52:10 -0400 (EDT)

Presented by BP:

The guardrails give way — How Comey escaped a hug with Trump =E2�� Rage builds an empire

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Presented By BP

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·May 19, 2017

1 big thing: The Swamp

President Trump in the East Room yesterday, during a news conference wit= Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos / AP's Susan Walsh

Russia is The Swamp, and The Swamp is =inning.

On Day 120 of the Trump presidency, Russia =as become the administration's unintended but self-imposed mood music and =arrative arc — sucking bandwith, draining esprit, looming as a po=ential calamity.

The price and opportunity cost ha=e already been high — in time, in credibility, in possibility.And it may just be starting. Legal scholar Jonathan Tu=ley pointed out on Fox News that the Mueller miniseries may run for ye=rs.

The mood among some top Republicans is tur=ing to anger: So much has been squandered.

"The damage to t=e agenda is permanent," said a Republican working to pass Trump's=plans.

Et tu, Putin? In an article headlined, "Russia Grows Anxious<=a> Over U.S. Political Chaos Engulfing Trump," Bloomberg reports: "Trump's=presidency appears hijacked by the U.S. obsession with Russia, one senior =remlin official said. ... [H]is fate looks increasingly uncertain to Kreml=n policy makers."

The Mueller appointment could hav= been used as a temporary lifeline — an excuse to fence The Swamp= and try to get lawmakers and journalists to focus on Trump's plans, at le=st until findings emerged.

Several top operatives g=ve me a similar plan of attack. You'd say: "I'm happy Robert Mueller is go=ng to get to the bottom of this. He's perfect for the job, and I'm eager t= cooperate." Then say no more. When you're asked about Russia, point the q=estioner to your previous statement, then talk about tax reform.

Instead, after a restrained statementtweeted the next morning: "Thi= is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!" <=p>
Asked about the special counsel at an East Room presser yeste=day, Trump said: "I respect the move, but the entire thing has been a witc= hunt. ... I think it divides the country."

At 2:10 p.m. tod=y, Air Force One takes off from Joint Base Andrews to Riyadh, Sau=i Arabia, for a nine-day trip that will also take the President to Israel,=Italy and Belgium.

Be smart: Absent a gaffe, =merican presidents always look bigger on the world stage. Trump aides hope=this will be the beginning of a reset. One big problem: The Swamp awaits.<=li>

2. Article of the day

Former FBI Director James Comey "has spoken privately o= his concerns that the contacts from Mr. Trump and his aides were inapprop=iate, and how he felt compelled to resist them," according to an ominous <= href="http://link.axios.com/click/9651658.34090/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1=cy5jb20vMjAxNy8wNS8xOC91cy9wb2xpdGljcy9qYW1lcy1jb21leS1tZW1vLWZiaS10cnVtcC=odG1sP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnb=1uZXdzbGV0dGVyX2F4aW9zYW0/5871993924c17c54d77a8b8cB9ec02327" target="_bl=nk">N.Y. Times front-pager by Michael Schmidt:

Ben =ittes, a friend of Comey's who is a senior fellow at the Brooking= Institution and the editor in chief of the Lawfare blog: "He had to throw=some brushback pitches to the administration."

In the Blue=Room of the White House on Jan. 22, "Trump hosted a ceremony to h=nor law enforcement officials who had provided security for the inaugurati=n. Mr. Wittes said Mr. Comey told him that he initially did not want to go=to the meeting because the F.B.I. director should not have too close a rel=tionship with the White House. But Mr. Comey went because he wanted to rep=esent the bureau."

"Comey — who is 6 feet=8 inches tall and was wearing a dark blue suit that day – told Mr.=Wittes that he tried to blend in with the blue curtains in the back of the=room, in the hopes that Mr. Trump would not spot him and call him out."
Wittes: "Comey said that as he was walk=ng across the room he was determined that there wasn't going to be a hug .=. Comey has long arms so Comey said he pre-emptively reached out for a han=shake and grabbed the president's hand. But Trump pulled him into an embra=e and Comey didn't reciprocate. If you look at the video, it's one person =haking hands and another hugging."

Ben Wittes later posted his own account on Lawfare, "What James Comey Told Me About =onald Trump": "Comey was preoccupied throughout this period with the need =o protect the FBI from these inquiries on investigative matters from the W=ite House."

"Comey described at least two incidents which he regarded as efforts on the part of t=e President personally to compromise him or implicate him with either show= of closeness or actual chumminess with the President."

Why =t matters: Comey will be testifying, before Congress and perhaps =efore a grand jury. This article spells trouble for 1600: He's aggrieved, =e has notes, and he's not known for holding back.

3. "Fair and balanced"? "We report. You decide."

Vice President George H.W. Bush and media adviser Roger Ailes on Aug. 17= 1988, behind the podium at the Superdome in New Orleans, before the start=of the Republican National Convention / AP's Ron Edmonds

Roger Eugene Ailes of Warren, Ohio, despite his humilia=ing end, changed America with Fox News — one of the great media, =usiness, social, political stories of our lives.

A speed re=d of the coverage of his death yesterday at 77, from complications after he fell and hit his head in the bathroom of h=s Palm Beach home on May 10:

Michael Wolff for Hollywood Re=orter: "The Fox News exec understood the intensity of the unhappiness and =nger in another America that liberal media people are only now waking up t= with Donald Trump."

New York magazine: "According to Debra S. Katz, an employment and civil-=ights attorney, the lawsuits will continue to move forwar=." She said: "The estate will be responsible for any kind of liability tha= ensues."

N.Y. Times front-page obit, "A Fighter=Who Turned Rage Into a News Empire," by Clyde Haberman: "shaped the images=that helped elect three Republican presidents."

Wall Street Journal "If Ronald Reagan was rightly called the Great Communi=ator, Roger Ailes ... has to be considered the greatest creator of communi=ators in the history of politics or television."

With Fox,="Ailes redesigned the playing field."

L.A. Times' Stephen Battaglio: "Fox News ... would alter ho= Americans view the media, ushering in the era of personality-driven, opin=onated journalism that now dominates the cable news business."

Shep Smith: a "media genius, revolutiona=y in American politics, shaper of American history, uproariously funny man=with now well documented flaws...I loved him."

A message from BP

How is BP contributing to America?

BP invests more in the U.S. than anywhere else, and over the past 10 yea=s no energy company has invested more in America.

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4. Trump's budget to include family leave

"Ivanka Trump plays guiding role in plan to grant six w=eks of paid leave to new moms and dads," by WashPost's Danielle Paquette and Damian Pal=tta:

"Trump's budget proposal n=xt week will include a new benefit for America's working parents,=one Democrats have long championed and Republicans have long opposed: paid=family leave."

"The president's=first detailed budget request on Tuesday will seek funds for the =reation of a program to grant mothers and fathers six weeks of paid leave =fter the birth or adoption of a child."

<=a>

5. What to expect from Trump's first overseas trip

A cool card deck from Axios' Shane Savitsky, =ebecca Zisser, Lazaro Gamio, and Gerald Rich: "Over nine days, he's tackli=g five countries, three major world religions, and two core American allia=ces."

See the cards.

6. Pence washes his hands

Vaughn Hillyard, who was NBC's Pence embed on the campa=gn, gets the goods:

"Vice Presi=ent Mike Pence has been kept in the dark about former National Se=urity Adviser Mike Flynn's alleged wrongdoing, according to a source close=to the administration, who cited a potential 'pattern' of not informing th= vice president and calling it 'malpractice or intentional, and either are=unacceptable.'"

7. Zeitgeist

Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter's =etter from the upcoming summer issue, on N.Y./L.A. newsstands on June 1: "=he media, the opposition, the resistance, and indeed the rest of the Free =orld are playing by outmoded rules of engagement with regard to the man in=the White House."

David Brooks, on "The Trump Ad=inistration Talent Vacuum": "[T]he Trump White House has just become a Hum=n Resources disaster area."

Charles Krauthammer for National Review: "[I]t=seemed as if the guardrails of our democracy — Congress, the court=, the states, the media, the cabinet — were keeping things within =ounds. Then came the last ten days. ... Chaos reigns. No guardrails can ho=d."

8. House GOP leaders fear tape leaks

The House Republican leadership is agitated after the W=shPost published a transcript from a secret recording of one of the inner-=anctum conversations in the office of Speaker Ryan, Axios' Jonathan Swan reports:

T=e most widespread theory in House leadership is that the secret r=corder and the leaker was Evan McMullin (the former presidential candidate=, who as a former leadership aide participated in the June 15 conversation= and confirmed the private conversation to the Washington Post.

Swan writes: "I am told that the Post, in their back-and-for=h with leadership over the story, privately said that the source wasn't Mc=ullin. There's no evidence that he was the leaker and I've reached out to =im for comment."

Evidence or not, leadership sour=es are privately worried that McMullin had a tape on while he sat silently=through all of their confidential meetings. They're concerned about what l=aks could come next.

9. "The Trump card"

The Economist cover, "The legacy of the six-day war: =hy Israel needs a Palestinian state — More than ever, land for pea=e also means land for democracy":

=strong>Unexpectedly, there may be a new opportunity to make peace= Donald Trump wants to secure "the ultimate deal" and is due to visit the =oly Land on May 22nd, during his first foreign trip. The Israeli prime min=ster, Binyamin Netanyahu, appears as nervous as the Palestinian president,=Mahmoud Abbas, seems upbeat. Mr Trump has, rightly, urged Israel to curb s=ttlement-building. Israel wants him to keep his promise to move the Americ=n embassy to Jerusalem. He should hold off until he is ready to go really =ig: recognise Palestine at the same time and open a second embassy in Jeru=alem to talk to it.

10. 1 fun thing

Jean-Michel Basquiat's masterpiece, "Untitled" / Sotheby's via AP

Record price<=strong> for an American artist at auction ... A 1982 artwork by Jean-M=chel Basquiat ("Untitled") sold for a record $110.5 million at Sotheby's a=ction of contemporary art last night, per AP:

"The painting's graf=iti-like typography depicts a face in the shape of a skull."

Gregoire Billault, head of Sotheby's Contemporary Art Departmen= in New York: "Tonight, Jean-Michel Basquiat entered the pantheon of artis=s whose works have commanded prices over $100 million, including Picasso, =iacometti, Bacon, and Warhol."

"The piece was purchased by noted Japanese collector and e-commerce entrepreneur=Yusaku Maezawa after a 10-minute bidding war that was watched by thousands=live on Instagram."

"'Untitled' was =irtually unknown before it was unveiled at Sotheby's weeks ago. The auctio= house said it remained in the same private collection since it was bought=at auction in 1984 for $19,000."

A message from BP

How is BP contributing to America?

BP invests more in the U.S. than anywhere else, and over the past 10 yea=s no energy company has invested more in America.

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