Subject: Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 ?— For one day, Washington is one — Mueller's revenge: 'Can't fire him now' — Rethinking class rank — A quirky comeback
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2017 06:32:09 -0400 (EDT)

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For one day, Washington is one — Mueller's revenge: 'Can't fire =im now' — Rethinking class rank — A quirky comeback

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Presented By Forcepoint

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Jun 15, 2017

1 big thing: For one day, Washington is one

An SUV, with a bullet hole in the windshield and a flat tire, sits in th= parking lot at the shooting scene in Alexandria, Va. (AP's Cliff Owen)

During yesterday's marathon coverage of the shooting of House Majority Wh=p Steve Scalise, ABC's George Stephanopoulos mused whether the chilling at=ack on a practice for a charity baseball game might act as a "circuit-brea=er" on the nation's overheated politics.

For one day, it did. Congressional leaders of both parties expressed shock and so=idarity. President Trump rose to the occasion: "We may have our differences, but we do =ell, in times like these, to remember that everyone who serves in our nati=n's capital is here because, above all, they love our country."

=strong>Could the shooting do for Washington what 9/11 did for the=country — usher in a prolonged season of unity? Hard to se=. As Mark Z. Barabak writes in an analysis for the L.A. Times: "The attack almost seemed a natural, if =ick, extension of the virulence that surrounds the country's increasingly =ribal politics."

Per Axios' Jonathan Swan: "Mos= everyone in this town is just rattled. ... The dark secret on the Hill is=that members and their staffs often think about how easy it would be for a=madman to take them out."

"=n the right, I've heard a lot of frustration about the media. The=refrain I hear is that when it's a conservative who shoots, then their pol=tical hero has to answer for it."

An email =rom a Republican lobbyist reflects that mindset: "Until both side= admit they've made things worse, this will never get better. Both sides n=ed to admit they can do better before anything will get better."
"Many GOP believe that Republicans are held to different standard when it comes to gun con=rol. The conversation would be so different if the Dem practice was hit by=a Ted Cruz supporter."

The bottom line: Represe=tative Scalise remained in critical condition last night, and doctors said=he will require additional operations. Washington, too, has a long road to=healing.

Catch up quick, with Axios' one-screen update on the shoot=ng.

N.Y. Times Quote of the Day ... Rep. M=ke Bishop (R-Mich.), who was standing at home plate when a gunman said to =e upset over Trump's election began shooting Republican lawmakers: "He was=hunting us at that point."

2. Earlier attacks on members of Congress

3. ​A dark, dangerous day

Marine One, with President Trump aboard, flies past Air Force One after =rriving at Newark Liberty International Airport on Friday, for a weekend i= Bedminster (AP's Patrick Semansky)

Most White House officials feared Robert Mueller would =o after President Trump for obstruction of justice.

The =igns were everywhere: James Comey's testimony that Trump urged hi= to drop the FBI probe of Michael Flynn; Trump's forceful denial, and coun=erattack on Comey's character; Mueller hiring high-powered lawyers steeped=in complexities of presidential power; followed by the president contempla=ing firing Mueller.

With the Washington Post bombshell report that the obstruct=on probe is in full swing ("Trump's actions now a focus of Mueller inquiry=), the reality has White House officials and Republicans sweating profusel= for several reasons:

They know Trump talked =o countless people about ending the Flynn probe, so they assume Comey's ve=sion of events is true.

They assume =e did, indeed, ask Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Mike Ro=ers, head of the National Security Agency, if they could help derail the F=ynn probe, as the WashPost reported. They also assume he said similar thin=s to other officials.

Nobody has pri=ately mounted a straight-faced argument to us that Trump didn't s=y this stuff to Comey or to Coats/Rogers. That's telling in itself. The fa=t that the Trump public position — that Comey is a perjurer �=94 isn't being argued in private.

Any obstruc=ion probe requires context, which means investigators digging int= the finances of Flynn, Trump and Jared Kushner. This is the phase of the =robe many Republicans have always feared most.

The obstruction probe is simply a new layer to the bigger underl=ing matters: Did Flynn have illegal or improper contacts, and did the Trum= campaign collude with the Russians to influence the 2016 campaign? So the=investigation is metastasizing.

Trump's wife<=strong> and Chief of Staff had to dissuade him from firing Mueller thi= week, the N.Y. Times
T=xt to Jonathan Swan from a GOP operative close t= the White House: "Leak was probably a response to stories about POTUS fir=ng Mueller. Can't fire him now."

The =hite House response came from Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump=s personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz: "The FBI leak of information regarding t=e president is outrageous, inexcusable and illegal."

B=t the article notably doesn't attribute anything to the FBI. It c=tes "[f]ive people briefed on ... interview requests" for "senior intellig=nce officials as part of a widening probe that now includes an examination=of whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice."

lawyers for people contacted by the investigatio=.

Sound smart: With each passin= day, Republicans find it harder to chalk all of this up to rookie mistake=.

What to watch for: In addition to condemning th= FBI for leaking, expect White House surrogates to start saying that there=is nothing unusual about Mueller is looking into this as part of his inves=igation. He'd be attacked for doing an incomplete job if he finished his i=vestigation and hadn't explored this issue.

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4. Handcuffing Trump

Connecting the dots ... President Trump learned a lot t=is week about Congress' power to influence his foreign policy, Axios' Jonathan Swan writes. Congress (=eluctantly) allowed for his aggressive pivot towards Saudi Arabia but on W=dnesday the Senate made his life even more difficult in relation to Russia=

1. Saudi Arabia:

Republican=Sen. Rand Paul led a bipartisan effort this week to block Trump's=planned sale of more than $500 million of precision weapons to Saudi Arabi=.

Why this matters: Had Paul and Co. succeeded, =hey would've stymied a major part of Trump's Middle East strategy.
In the end, Trump won. The vote on Tuesday was close �=80� 53-47.

2. Russia:

The Senate voted 97-2 yesterday to strengthen sanctions a=ainst Russia.

Between the lines, per Foreign Policy magazine: "Administra=ion officials, led by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, sought to convince=lawmakers not to codify the Russia sanctions, since that could remove some=of the administration's diplomatic maneuvering room."

Why =his matters: Congress is effectively preventing Trump from liftin= sanctions on Russia — which means he's got far fewer carrots avai=able to deal with Vladimir Putin. In less than five months since Trump too= office, Congress has systematically crushed his plans to improve relation= with Russia and explore a serious partnership to fight ISIS in Syria.

Another eye-opening read by =wan ... "Republicans sense pattern: Trump vents, then damagin= leaks emerge."

5. Policing the power of tech giants

The world's largest tech companies — Google, Fa=ebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple — have become enormous concentr=tions of wealth and data, drawing the attention of economists and academic= who warn they're growing too powerful, Axios' Kim Hart writes.

recent speech =hat the agency has no intention of meddling in the way tech companies use =lgorithms and data.

Kim Hart outlines the cases for and against more scruti=y.

6. "When I think about the big things, I think about AR"

Apple CEO Tim Cook interview ... =he head of the most valuable company in the world talks to Bloomberg Busin=ssweek Editor Megan Murphy:

"You've talked a lot a=out augmented reality at the heart of the company's future. How do you see=AR moving forward?"

Cook: "I think it is profound. I am so excited about it, I just want to yell =ut and scream. ... We've talked to IKEA, and they have 3D images of their =urniture line. You're talking about changing the whole experience of how y=u shop for, in this case, furniture and other objects that you can place a=ound the home. You can take that idea and begin to think this is something=that stretches from enterprise to consumer. There's not a lot of things th=t do that."

"What's been your experience of working=with Donald Trump?"

Cook: "I've pushed hard on immigration. We clearly have a very different view=on things in that area. I've pushed on climate. We have a different view t=ere. ... We're dramatically different. I hope there's some areas where we'=e not. His focus on jobs is good. So we'll see. ...

"At the end of the day, I'm not a person who'= going to walk away and say, 'If you don't do what I want, I leave.' I'm n=t on a council, so I don't have those kind of decisions. But I care deeply=about America. I want America to do well. America's more important=than bloody politics from my point of view."

Relaun=h of Bloomberg Businessweek ... Letter from Editor Megan Murphy: "The new=Bloomberg Businessweek is more global, with American, European, a=d Asian editions. ... A redesigned app [features] a curated selection of d=ily content, customized for readers by region."

7. "Responsible disruption"

TIME cover story on Uber, "Chaos at the world's most va=uable venture-backed company is forcing Silicon Valley to question its val=es," by Katy Steinmetz and Matt Vella:

=strong>"Technology is advancing so rapidly that,=at this point, it is always going to outpace the law, the government, or t=e public's capacity to fully understand its ramifications…. If Ube='s stunning stumble proves anything, it's that in the absence of any rule =akers that can keep up with them, the architects of the new economy�=94which may be another way of saying, the new world—must hold them=elves accountable. ...

"It's .. possible that what we're witnessing=is the birth of a new Silicon Valley value, the concept of respons=ble disruption — one that incorporates inclusion and dive=sity, unsexy and difficult as they may seem, alongside thinking differentl=."

Dan Lyons, longtime journalist who has written for HBO's Silicon Valley:="There's a general sense in Silicon Valley and there has been for five to =0 years, that it's all about growth. Not just reasonable growth, but hyper=rowth. Do anything you can to get that growth. That in itself causes a lot=of problems."

8. "Brain on fire"

"Rachel Ma=dow: The Rolling Stone Interview ... How America's wonkiest a=chor cut through the chaos of the Trump administration and became the most=trusted name in news," by Janet Reitman:

of deep-dive analysis and investigati=e reporting is not easy to produce, and a typical day can last anywhere fr=m 12 to 14 hours. Maddow, who lives with her longtime partner, photographe= Susan Mikula, in western Massachusetts, maintains an apartment in Manhatt=n where she lives during the week, making the three-hour-plus drive back a=d forth to Massachusetts every weekend.

"Her workday begins at around 11 a.m., when she arrives a= her office, reads through every bit of news she can get her hands on, and=then spends a few hours researching or reporting what interests her the mo=t. At around 2 p.m., Maddow convenes her staff in the newsroom to plan the=evening's show, though, given the volatility of the current news cycle, wh=t seems relevant at 3 p.m. might be sidelined by six."

"Do you think it's possible the Trump camp=ign had no knowledge of the Russian hacking?"

Maddow: "I absolutely believe it's pos=ible. I mean, Russia clearly did this attack, and there's lots of circumst=ntial evidence that points at lots of unexplained and surreptitious contac= between Trump people and Russian people at the time that was happening. B=t circumstantial evidence is circumstantial evidence. This is a serious th=ng that needs to be chased down to the end."

9. Tracking power

Harvard President Drew Faust with dropout Mark Zuckerberg at commencemen= in May (AP's Steven Senne)

Boston Globe front page, "Harva=d's president to step down next year," by Laura Krantz: "Harvard Universit= president Drew Gilpin Faust, who shepherded the school through the turbul=nce of the economic recession and expanded its diversity, will step down i= June 2018 after 11 years leading the 380-year-old institution."

"Faust announced her pending departure in an e-mail to s=udents, faculty, and staff Wednesday afternoon, igniting an instant buzz o= campus and among alumni and the wider world of higher education."
Globe sidebars: "Harvard had just 28 presidents in=close to 400 years" ... "There =ere 11 Harvard presidents before US was a country."

=img width="32" height="32" style="border: none" target="_blank" sr=="https://static.axios.com/img-email/email-circle.png" alt="Email this=Story">

10. 1 QWERTY thing

Vintage typewriters at a "type-in," a gathering where typewriter fans te=t different machines (AP's Russell Contreras)

"by AP=s Russell Contreras in Albuquerque, N.M.:

"Typewriter enthusiasts gather at an Albuq=erque restaurant to experiment with vintage Smith Coronas. Fans in Boston =neel in a city square and type stories about their lives during a pro-immi=ration demonstration. A documentary on typewriters featuring Tom Hanks and=musician John Mayer is set for release this summer. ...

"From public 'type-ins' at bars to street=poets selling personalized, typewritten poems on the spot, typewriters hav= emerged as popular items with aficionados hunting for them in thrift stor=s, online auction sites and antique shops. ... The rescued machines often =eed servicing, leading fans to seek out the few remaining typewriter repai= shops. ...

"Moonachie, New Je=sey-based Swintec appears to be one of the last typewriter makers= selling translucent electronic machines largely to jails and prisons. ...=[O]perators of thrift stores and estate sales say typewriters are some of =he quickest items to go."

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