Subject: FW: Office of Vice President Biden Intelligence Briefing for Wednesday, March 6, 2019
From: "Kathy Chung" <[email-masked]>
To: "Ashley Blazer Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Jill Tracy Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Jimmy Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Valerie Biden Owens" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2019 09:00:25 -0500

Office of Vice President Biden Intelligence Briefing

*From:* Bulletin Intelligence <[email-masked]>
*Sent:* Wednesday, March 6, 2019 8:00 AM
*To:* [email-masked]
*Subject:* Office of Vice President Biden Intelligence Briefing for
Wednesday, March 6, 2019

*Click to access
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=000-7e7&t=c>
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[image: Image removed by sender. Office of Vice President Biden
Intelligence Briefing]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=001-983&t=c>

*To: Vice President Joe Biden*

*Wednesday, March 6, 2019 8:00 AM EST*
Today's Table of Contents

*Biden in the News* <#SECTION_1>

• 2020 Democratic Primary Poll: Biden 31%; Sanders 27%; Harris 11%. <#S1>

• Sen. Doug Jones On Biden: He’s “The Kind Of Leader That We Need.” <#S2>

• Democratic Voters In CNN Focus Group Say They Don’t Want Biden To Run For
President. <#S3>

• HuffPost’s Carter: Biden “Has Enthusiastically Championed Policies
Favored By Financial Elites.” <#S4>

• HuffPost: In 1974, Biden Said Roe V Wade Ruling “Went Too Far.” <#S5>

• VOA Analysis: Biden Bid Would Comes With Advantages, Drawbacks. <#S6>

• Ben Shapiro Decries Criticism Biden Received From The Left Over Pence
Remark. <#S7>

• Article Highlights Ages Of Biden, Some Other 2020 Contenders. <#S8>

• Bloomberg Opts Against 2020 Presidential Bid. <#S9>

• Sanders Signs DNC-Required Pledge To Run, Govern As Democrat. <#S10>

• Castro Focusing Heavily On Wooing Latino Voters. <#S11>

• Author Blasts Klobuchar Over Alleged Mistreatment Of Staff. <#S12>

• Inslee Says He Welcomes Support Of Super PAC Backing His 2020 Bid. <#S13>

• Most Top 2020 Democratic Contenders Support Legalizing Marijuana. <#S14>

• 2020 Democrats Embracing Ethanol. <#S15>

• Trump Disappointed Clinton Won’t Run In 2020. <#S16>

• WPost Analysis: Trump’s Numbers With Independents Are Problematic. <#S17>

*Leading the News* <#SECTION_2>

• Trump Criticizes Democrats’ “Overreach” And “Harassment” Amid New
Requests For Information. <#S18>

*Foreign Policy* <#SECTION_3>

• Bolton: US Will Consider Ramping Up Sanctions If North Korea Doesn’t
Denuclearize. <#S19>

• Trump Agrees “100 Percent” With Lawmakers That Some US Forces Should Stay
In Syria. <#S20>

• Bolton: US Looking At New Sanctions To Limit Maduro’s Power In Venezuela.
<#S21>

• General: Pentagon Has No Plan To Deter Russia From Deploying New Missiles.
<#S22>

• State Department Declines To Elaborate On Pompeo’s Remark On Taliban
“Terrorists.” <#S23>

• Bipartisan Group Of Senators Threatens Saudi Arabia Sanctions Over
Khashoggi Killing. <#S24>

• Pompeo To Visit Israel Three Weeks Before Netanyahu’s Reelection Bid.
<#S25>

*Domestic Policy* <#SECTION_4>

• Administration Urges GOP Senators To Support Border Emergency Declaration.
<#S26>

• White House Rejects House Democrats’ Document Request Regarding Security
Clearances. <#S27>

• Budget Deficit Widened 77% In First Four Months Of Fiscal Year. <#S28>

• Trump Signs Executive Order Targeting Suicide Among Veterans. <#S29>

• McConnell: Senate Will Vote On “Green New Deal” In Coming Weeks. <#S30>

• T-Mobile Discloses Spending At Trump’s Washington Hotel After Merger
Announcement. <#S31>

• Study: Broadcast News Ignores Positive Economic News Under Trump. <#S32>

*Cancer Research* <#SECTION_5>

• Potential Impact Of President’s $500M Childhood Cancer Commitment On
Local Family Highlighted. <#S33>

• Iowa Slow To Adopt Widespread HPV Vaccination, Data Show. <#S34>

*Editorials/Op-Eds* <#SECTION_6>

• New York Times. <#S35>

• Washington Post. <#S36>
Biden in the News
2020 Democratic Primary Poll: Biden 31%; Sanders 27%; Harris 11%.

The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=002-e75&t=c>
(3/5, Greenwood) reported that a Morning Consult poll
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=003-a19&t=c>
of 12,560 Democratic voters, taken Feb. 25-March 3, shows former Vice
President Joe Biden leading a hypothetical 2020 Democratic presidential
primary with 31%, followed By Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at 27%, Sen.
Kamala Harris (D-CA) at 11%, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) at 7%, ex-Rep.
Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) at 6%, and a raft of other announced and potential
contenders lagging further behind. The Daily Caller
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=004-e62&t=c>
(3/5, Stucky) reported that Biden’s 31% support in the poll “is two
percentage points higher than his standing last week, despite the fact that
he has yet to actually enter the race.” On its website, MSNBC
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=005-2a8&t=c>
(3/5) posted a video of political analyst Steve Kornacki discussing the
poll results.

        *Florida Poll Shows Trump “In Trouble,” Biden Up Big In Democratic
Race. *Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=006-4a2&t=c>
(3/6, Caputo) reports that a Bendixen & Amandi International (D) poll
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=007-e7b&t=c>
of 602 Florida voters, taken March 1-4, shows that President Trump “is in
trouble in Florida, a state that’s crucial to his reelection hopes.” In the
poll, 40% of respondents “said they believed the president should be
reelected,” compared with 53% who said he shouldn’t. Trump’s “approval
ratings were also poor, with 43 percent having a favorable impression of”
the President, “and 52 percent viewing him unfavorably – and 46 percent
very unfavorably.” The poll (300 Democratic voters) shows Biden leading a
hypothetical Democratic presidential primary with 26%, followed by Sanders
at 11%, Harris at 9%, and the other contenders lagging far behind; 46% were
undecided.
Sen. Doug Jones On Biden: He’s “The Kind Of Leader That We Need.”

On its website, Newsweek
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=008-bd9&t=c>
(3/5, Goodkind) provides a transcript of an interview with Sen. Doug Jones
(D-AL), who was asked during the sit-down, “Joe Biden is a good pal of
yours. What are you thinking about a potential 2020 run?” Jones replied,
“I’ve talked to Joe several times about the pros and cons of running. I’ve
always believed that of all of the politicians and public servants that
I’ve met in my life, Joe would make a great president. He’s got all of the
qualifications, he’s got the temperament and I think he’s got that appeal
that can reach across a broad section of the American public. I mean,
young, old, black, white, Hispanic, you name it – Joe can reach a lot of
different people and I think that’s the kind of leader that we need.”
Democratic Voters In CNN Focus Group Say They Don’t Want Biden To Run For
President.

In an online article, CNN
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=009-c43&t=c>
(3/5, Ryan) reported that six “voters who say they backed Hillary Clinton
in the 2016 presidential election say they are unexcited by the prospect of
former Vice President Joe Biden entering the 2020 field. ‘How many of you
would like to see Joe Biden get in? Show of hands,’ CNN’s Alisyn Camerota
asked the panel of six Democrats, selected from Ohio, New York, New Jersey
and Pennsylvania, on ‘New Day’ Tuesday morning. No one raised their hands.”
Video of the segment can be seen by accessing the above hyperlink.

        The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=00a-3bb&t=c>
(3/5, Concha) reported, “The focus group’s dismissal of Biden is notable
since” he “has been leading a number of public opinion polls and is seen as
the potential front-runner.” Asked about Biden, Carol Evans, a member of
the focus group, said, “His time is done.” Another member of the focus
group, Russel Banks, said, “I will be honest. He was riding the Obama wave
and I thought he was a person that would unite the party, but to be honest,
Sen. Biden really comes from kind of the good old boy politics of the
past.” A third member of the group added, “I don’t think Joe Biden
represents that new thing that we need. We need a new economy, we need new
politics and we need someone different.”

        The Daily Caller
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=00b-1b8&t=c>
(3/5) reported that the members of the focus group “had the same response
to the possibility of another Clinton run in 2020.” However, “nearly every
member of the focus group believed that former President Barack Obama
needed to join in the race and campaign in favor of whichever Democrat
survived the highly contentious party primary.” The Root
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=00c-d76&t=c>
(3/5, Crockett), Breitbart
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=00d-23c&t=c>
(3/5, Rodriguez), the Washington Free Beacon
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=00e-09e&t=c>
(3/5, Rowan), and Real Clear Politics
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=00f-3be&t=c>
(3/5, Schwartz) also highlight the comments from the CNN focus group.
HuffPost’s Carter: Biden “Has Enthusiastically Championed Policies Favored
By Financial Elites.”

In a piece for the Huffington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=010-a36&t=c>
(3/5), Zach Carter said that while former Vice President Joe Biden has been
casting himself as “Middle-Class Joe,” “there’s only one problem with this
carefully cultivated image: Joe Biden’s entire career. In more than four
decades of public service, Biden has enthusiastically championed policies
favored by financial elites, forging alliances with Wall Street and the
political right to notch legislative victories that ran counter to the
populist ideas that now animate his party.”

        In a report on the HuffPost article, Breitbart
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=011-1b3&t=c>
(3/5, Huston) said that Carter mentions “several examples of Biden’s work
in favor of big money. The article cites a 1979 fight between Biden and
Sen. Ted Kennedy where Biden supported big money corporations over
Kennedy’s hopes to limit the growth of corporations. And then there was
Biden’s effort to scuttle Democrat plans to alter anti-trust laws to make
it easier for consumers to sue big corporations. The article even dredged
up a Biden quote where he commented favorably about ‘voting conservative’”
in 1974.

        *Breitbart’s Nolte: CNN, HuffPost Trying “To Discourage” Biden From
Running. *Under the heading “Far-Left CNN, HuffPost Already Rigging The
Primary Against Joe Biden,” John Nolte wrote at Breitbart
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=012-6cc&t=c>
(3/5) that the HuffPost piece by Carter and the aforementioned CNN focus
group of Democratic voters were intended “to discourage this 77-year-old
white male from jumping into the primary.” Nolte added that “CNN rigged the
focus group so that no one would support Biden. HuffPost is gaming the
system out of the fear a more centrist Biden might win the nomination.”
HuffPost: In 1974, Biden Said Roe V Wade Ruling “Went Too Far.”

Under the headline “Biden In 1974: Women Don’t Have Sole Right To Say What
Should Happen To Their Bodies,” the Huffington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=013-c79&t=c>
(3/5, Hatch) reported that former Vice President Joe Biden, at the time a
senator, “said
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=014-d2e&t=c>
in a 1974 interview with Washingtonian that he believed the Supreme Court’s
Roe v. Wade ruling clearing the way for legal first-trimester abortions
‘went too far,’ and that he didn’t ‘think that a woman has the sole right
to say what should happen to her body.’” Biden is also quoted as saying in
the interview, “My wife said I was the most socially conservative man she
had ever known. When it comes to issues like abortion, amnesty, and acid,
I’m about as liberal as your grandmother.” HuffPost added, “A spokeswoman
for Biden told HuffPost in 2015 that Biden’s comments in Washingtonian were
taken out of context.”
VOA Analysis: Biden Bid Would Comes With Advantages, Drawbacks.

Writing for Voice of America
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=015-5ca&t=c>
(3/6), Jim Malone discusses a possible 2020 bid by former Vice President
Joe Biden, saying that while the 76-year-old Democrat “would become the
oldest person ever elected president,” he “does have some advantages. He
leads in the polls and is the nearest thing to a Democratic front-runner.”
However, he’d “also have to confront a fear that he may be past his prime
as a candidate and may not fit in with a Democratic Party that seems to be
veering to the left and driven by younger voters.” John Hudak of the
Brookings Institute said, “Obviously there are challenges that Vice
President Biden faces, including having run a couple of failed presidential
campaigns. But also having a record as a senator on criminal justice issues
that are very far out of step with mainstream Democratic values today. And
so, the 1994 version of Joe Biden may be the worst opponent for the 2020
version of Joe Biden.”
Ben Shapiro Decries Criticism Biden Received From The Left Over Pence
Remark.

Writing at National Review
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=016-121&t=c>
(3/5), Ben Shapiro discussed the criticism former Vice President Joe Biden
received from the left after he described Vice President Mike Pence as a
“decent guy.” Shapiro said, “We have large-scale disagreements in this
country. Very few of those disagreements are rooted in animus. By casting
all disagreement as hate-based – and by destroying those with whom we
disagree on a character level – we worsen both hate and politics. ... It’s
just fine for Joe Biden to think Mike Pence is a decent guy. And it’s
pretty indecent to disagree.”
Article Highlights Ages Of Biden, Some Other 2020 Contenders.

The Wilmington (DE) News Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=017-4d3&t=c>
(3/5, Bies) reports that if former Vice President Joe Biden, “currently
76,” won the 2020 race for the White House, “he’d be 78 years old by the
time he was sworn in, displacing Donald Trump as the oldest person elected
president of the United States. The debate is already raging: Is Biden too
old to run for president?” The article highlights the ages of some other
2020 hopefuls, including “Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, 69, and
Bernie Sanders of Vermont, 77, as well as Massachusetts’s governor,
73-year-old William Weld. President Donald Trump is 72.”
Bloomberg Opts Against 2020 Presidential Bid.

The CBS Evening News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=018-cd2&t=c>
(3/5, story 8, 0:20, Glor) reported, “The field of Democrats running for
president next year remains at 12, with two big names now opting out.
[Ex-New York City Mayor] Mike Bloomberg wrote
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=019-37f&t=c>
today he believes he would beat President Trump, but added, ‘I am
clear-eyed about the difficulty of winning the Democratic nomination in
such a crowded filed.’ Last night, the 2016 nominee, Hillary Clinton, ruled
out another run.” The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=01a-87f&t=c>
(3/6, Peoples) reports that rather than seek the White House, Bloomberg
“said he planned to focus his energy and considerable resources on outside
efforts aimed at” beating “Trump, as well as on combating climate change
and addressing gun violence.” The AP adds that “aides said internal polling
suggested Bloomberg’s path to the Democratic nomination was narrow,
particularly if Vice President Joe Biden – who shares some of Bloomberg’s
moderate positions – decides to run.”

        The New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=01b-ec7&t=c>
(3/5, Burns) reports that Bloomberg’s “decision appears to reflect a
recognition of the long odds he would have faced as a moderate newcomer in
an unapologetically liberal party, and his own unsentimental calculus about
the trade-offs involved in running. After conducting polling and other
research, Mr. Bloomberg’s advisers concluded he would have a real but
narrow path to the nomination – and that it could all but vanish
if...Biden” runs. The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=01c-29d&t=c>
(3/5, Scherer) reports, “Throughout the process” of exploring a run, the
possibility of a bid by Biden “loomed large, as Bloomberg’s advisers
concluded that he appealed to a similar set of primary voters.”

        Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=01d-c71&t=c>
(3/5, Oliphant) reports, “Any path to the nomination for Bloomberg would
have been complicated by the entry of...Biden, another moderate, into the
race. Biden has said he will decide soon whether to mount a run.” The Daily
Beast
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=01e-807&t=c>
(3/5, Resnick) reported that Bloomberg’s “absence in the contest leaves a
wider lane for a centrist candidate like...Biden, who could feel more of a
push to make a final decision in the coming weeks.” The Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=01f-cca&t=c>
(3/5, Epstein) also reports on the story.
Sanders Signs DNC-Required Pledge To Run, Govern As Democrat.

The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=020-a22&t=c>
(3/5, Wagner, Weigel) reports that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), “a longtime
independent, signed a pledge Tuesday saying he would seek the presidency as
a Democrat and govern as a Democrat if elected. The move comes in response
to a new rule from the” DNC requiring “all candidates for the party’s 2020
presidential nomination to sign such a pledge.” Sanders, “who caucuses with
Democrats in the Senate and has said he will support the Democratic
presidential nominee in 2020 no matter how the nominating contests go, has
frustrated some in the party by remaining politically independent.”

        Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=021-cba&t=c>
(3/5, Morin) reported that the new DNC rule requires “all the party’s
candidates to ‘run and serve as a member of the Democratic Party.’ The DNC
last year passed the rule, which angered a number of Sanders’ 2016 advisers
when it was first proposed.” The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=022-e80&t=c>
(3/5, Greenwood) reported that Sanders’ “supporters viewed the rule change
as directly focused on him after the self-described democratic socialist
sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 without formally
declaring himself a member of the party.” The Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=023-0d2&t=c>
(3/5, Morton) reports on Sanders’ move, saying, “America’s best-known
socialist is now officially a Democrat.” The Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=024-c78&t=c>
(3/5, Thomas) and USA Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=025-d4a&t=c>
(3/5, Hayes) also report on the story.

        *Lingering Clinton-Sanders Rivalry Heats Up Early In 2020 Race. *
Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=026-cda&t=c>
(3/5, Otterbein) reported that Sanders and Hillary Clinton “formally made
peace at a New Hampshire unity event in July 2016 where the two rivals
sought to put the acrimonious Democratic primary behind them. Clinton
staffers, however, weren’t party to that agreement. And now that Sanders is
embarking on a second run for president, they’re” detailing “what they see
as” his “flaws, imperfections and vulnerabilities – much as he once did to
their ex-boss during a primary that saw mud flying on both sides.”

        Similarly, the AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=027-462&t=c>
(3/5, Summers, Slodysko) reports, “The 2020 Democratic primary may be in
full swing, but the bruising 2016 contest between Sanders and Clinton never
ended for some. In the opening days of Sanders’ latest campaign, Clinton’s
supporters have warned that he will drag the party to the extreme left and
have threatened to reveal unsavory details about him. Sanders and some of
his backers have been strikingly dismissive of” Clinton. Now, “the entire
Democratic field risks getting bogged down in the last campaign instead of
positioning themselves to beat President Donald Trump.”

        *In Second Presidential Bid, Sanders Working To Improve His Appeal
Among Blacks. *The Huffington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=028-a40&t=c>
(3/5, Marans) reported that Sanders “made racial justice a central theme of
the first two rallies of his presidential campaign, a major shift from the
launch of his 2016 presidential run.” That “dramatic rhetorical shift is
part of a multi-pronged strategy Sanders is employing to address what he
and his advisers see as one of the biggest weaknesses of his 2016 run: a
lack of traction among non-millennial black voters and a perception that
his focus on class barriers reflects an insensitivity to racial bias. Since
announcing his presidential run in late February, Sanders has announced a
racially diverse roster of senior staff members and top surrogates, opened
up about his history of participation in the civil rights movement, and put
a greater emphasis on fighting racism as an evil in itself, rather than
indirectly through economic policies.”

        *Staff Convinced Sanders “To Get More Personal, And Be A Little
Less Gruff.” *Writing for The Atlantic
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=029-3a3&t=c>
(3/5), Edward-Isaac Dovere says, “Grumpy has always been...Sanders’s brand.
But now that he’s running for president to win, his advisers keep pushing
him to soften up.” Sanders “fought his staff for weeks as they pushed him
to get more personal, and be a little less gruff, as he launched his second
presidential campaign.” The staff, however, “finally convinced him that the
mission was going to fail if he didn’t. So he spent the weekend in Brooklyn
and Chicago launching his campaign with rallies meant to emphasize the
experiences that made him who he is – the son of a paint salesman who fled
from anti-Semitism in Poland, and the student at the University of Chicago
whose activism led him to get on a bus in 1963 and travel to hear the ‘I
Have a Dream’ speech in Washington, DC.”
Castro Focusing Heavily On Wooing Latino Voters.

The Los Angeles Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=02a-8ae&t=c>
(3/5, Finnegan) reported, “With more than a dozen Democrats now” mounting
2020 White House runs, ex-HUD Secretary Julian Castro “is charting a path
unlike any of the others, as his visit to California on Monday made clear.”
In Los Angeles, he fielded “questions from a Chicano studies class at
UCLA,” sat for “a television interview with Univision anchor León Krauze,”
and “led a roundtable of black and Latino neighborhood activists.” As “the
only Latino in the race at a time when many Democrats are appalled by
President Trump’s fight to block immigrants from entering the US from
Mexico,” Castro “has set his sights on scoring delegates in states with big
Latino populations, among them California, Nevada and Texas.”
Author Blasts Klobuchar Over Alleged Mistreatment Of Staff.

Writing for The Atlantic
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=02b-570&t=c>
(3/5), author Caitlin Flanagan says that Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) “has a
problem. ... Her problem is rage, easily uncorked, and directed not at the
various forces that might thwart the needs of her constituents, but at the
people – many of them young – who work for her.” Flanagan says “the recent
reporting of BuzzFeed News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=02c-bb0&t=c>,
HuffPost
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=02d-373&t=c>,
The New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=02e-84d&t=c>,
and others” has detailed current and former staff members’ allegations of
mistreatment at the hands of Klobuchar, who has sought “to frame the
behavior as part of the high expectations she has of herself and her
staff.” Flanagan adds, “It’s shameful to humiliate and mistreat employees,
no matter your gender. It’s unacceptable to be so unable to control your
emotions that you throw things toward co-workers, and despicable to do it
to subordinates who are afraid of you.”
Inslee Says He Welcomes Support Of Super PAC Backing His 2020 Bid.

The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=02f-9e8&t=c>
(3/5, Jaffe, Slodysko) reports that Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) on Tuesday said
“that he welcomed the support of a super PAC even as many fellow 2020
Democratic presidential candidates have rejected them, voicing concern that
they give the wealthy outsized political influence.” The super PAC “Act Now
on Climate was formed last month specifically to back Inslee’s eventual
presidential bid, a detail he glided past at an Iowa campaign stop as he
explained why he welcomed them.” Said Inslee, “They want to defeat climate
change, and this is something I’ve been very passionate about for decades.
So, no, I won’t be condemning any organization that’s trying to defeat
climate change.” His comments “come after the liberal group End Citizens
United called on Inslee to disavow the group.”
Most Top 2020 Democratic Contenders Support Legalizing Marijuana.

Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=030-22d&t=c>
(3/6, Whitesides) reports that Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) “has reintroduced
his U.S. Senate bill to legalize marijuana at the federal level”; ex-Rep.
Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) has “called for expunging the records of those
arrested for possession of the drug,” and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) has
“admitted she had smoked pot.” On the issue of “legalizing marijuana,” says
Reuters, a number “of the current and potential 2020 Democratic
presidential contenders are eager to show they are cool with cannabis.
Their embrace of the issue reflects a rapid shift in public opinion that
has brought what was once an extreme political position into the
mainstream.”

        Similarly, The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=031-c30&t=c>
(3/6, Wilson) reports, “Virtually every major” Democratic hopeful “running
for president has publicly supported a raft of proposals to legalize
marijuana, erase past convictions for minor possession and remove marijuana
from the federal Controlled Substances Act.” The Hill adds, “It is a sea
change of epic proportions, one that mirrors radical reversals in public
policy of the recent past like the expansion of multistate lottery games in
the 1980s and 1990s or the embrace of same-sex marriage laws in the 2000s
and 2010s. In all three cases, hesitant politicians who were once loath to
take a risky stand found themselves at odds with a more permissive public
that no longer found legalization outside the mainstream.”
2020 Democrats Embracing Ethanol.

Writing for Politico Magazine
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=032-113&t=c>
(3/5), Michael Grunwald said that while the Democratic Party has “lost most
of its support in farm country,” every “leading 2020 Democrat” running for
president “who has taken a position on ethanol is for it.” Grunwald said
the candidates “still seem to think they can revive their brand in farm
country by pledging allegiance to the government’s longstanding efforts to
prop up ethanol.” They are focusing on the issue, added Grunwald, partially
because “opposition to ethanol is far down the list of priorities for
environmental groups,” and because “Democrats have done so badly in the
economically depressed rural areas that helped Trump flip their state red
in 2016, they feel even greater political pressure to embrace ethanol in
2020.”
Trump Disappointed Clinton Won’t Run In 2020.

In a tweet
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=033-578&t=c>
Tuesday evening, President Trump reacted to news that Hillary Clinton has
decided not to enter the 2020 presidential race. Trump wrote, “‘(Crooked)
Hillary Clinton confirms she will not run in 2020, rules out a third bid
for White House.’ Aw-shucks, does that mean I won’t get to run against her
again? She will be sorely missed!” The Daily Caller
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=034-8d3&t=c>
(3/5, Athey) said Trump “reacted with disappointment” to news of Clinton’s
decision. Trump, the DC adds, “has repeatedly mocked Clinton for her loss
against him in 2016 and has even attempted to taunt her into joining the
2020 race.”

        The Washington Examiner
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=035-79f&t=c>
(3/5, Correll) reported Clinton told News 12 Westchester, “I’m not running,
but I’m going to keep on working and speaking and standing up for what I
believe. ... I want to be sure that people understand I’m going to keep
speaking out. ... I’m not going anywhere. What’s at stake in our country,
the kind of things that are happening right now are deeply troubling to me.
And I’m also thinking hard about how do we start talking and listening to
each other again? We’ve just gotten so polarized. We’ve gotten into really
opposing camps unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my adult life.” David Muir
said on ABC World News Tonight
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=036-494&t=c>
(3/5, story 9, 0:45, Muir) that Clinton responded to Trump with a tweet
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=037-21d&t=c>
of her own saying, “Why are you so obsessed with me?”
WPost Analysis: Trump’s Numbers With Independents Are Problematic.

In an analysis for the Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=038-861&t=c>
(3/5), Philip Bump cites an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll released over
the weekend in which “41 percent of respondents indicated that they will
definitely or probably vote for President Trump’s reelection,” while “48
percent say they definitely or probably will vote against him.” Bump says
this is “the worst margin on this question that any incumbent has seen at
the equivalent point in the last four presidential bids for reelection.”
Bump adds that Independents “are 18 percentage points more likely to say
they’ll vote against Trump than vote for him.” Meanwhile, “86 percent of
Republicans already plan to support Trump and 90 percent of Democrats plan
to oppose them,” which “suggest[s] that Trump’s standing with independents
is in problematic territory.”
Leading the News
Trump Criticizes Democrats’ “Overreach” And “Harassment” Amid New Requests
For Information.

ABC World News Tonight
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=039-9a2&t=c>
(3/5, story 6, 1:35, Muir) reported President Trump called Democrats
“stone-cold crazy” after House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler “made 81
new requests for information.” ABC’s Cecilia Vega: “The House Judiciary
Committee [is] demanding documents from 81 people and entities close to the
President, including his sons, Don Jr. and Eric., [Jared] Kushner, and
former aides like Hope Hicks and Steve Bannon. And they want to know about
everything, from the President’s one-on-one meetings with Vladimir Putin to
the now infamous Trump Tower meeting with that Russian lawyer and whether
President Trump and his family are profiting from the presidency. The White
House furious, but Democrats undaunted.” Nadler: “There has to be a check
on the executive. We have to protect the rule of law, and that’s what we’re
doing here.”

        President Trump tweeted
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=03a-d45&t=c>
at 5:14 a.m., “Now that they realize the only Collusion with Russia was
done by Crooked Hillary Clinton & the Democrats, Nadler, [House
Intelligence Chairman Adam] Schiff and the Dem heads of the Committees have
gone stone cold CRAZY. 81 letter sent to innocent people to harass them.
They won’t get ANYTHING done for our Country!” An hour later, he tweeted
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=03b-ae2&t=c>,
“The greatest overreach in the history of our Country. The Dems are
obstructing justice and will not get anything done. A big, fat, fishing
expedition desperately in search of a crime, when in fact the real crime is
what the Dems are doing, and have done!” He immediately followed by tweeting
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=03c-a27&t=c>,
“PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!”

        The President returned to the theme after 11:00 p.m., retweeting
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=03d-5da&t=c>
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders’ statement on the “fishing
expedition” and also retweeting
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=03e-bde&t=c>
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel writing, “While @realDonaldTrump was
successful in the private sector, career politicians enrich themselves by
spending decades in DC. Now they’re attacking his success through a fishing
expedition. They know there was no Russia collusion. These are
investigations in search of a crime.” At 11:27 p.m., the President tweeted
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=03f-f67&t=c>,
“Hans Von Spakovsky, ‘I haven’t seen any evidence of actual violations of
the law, which is usually a basis before you start an investigation. Adam
Schiff seems to be copying Joseph McCarthy in wanting to open up
investigations when they don’t have any evidence of wrongdoing.’”

        The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=040-43b&t=c>
(3/5, Wagner) reports, “At an afternoon event at the White House, Trump
told reporters that Democrats had hurt their chances of working with him on
policy issues.” The President said, “It’s too bad, because I’d rather see
them do legislation. Instead of doing infrastructure, instead of doing
health care, instead of doing so many things that they should be doing,
they want to play games.” The Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=041-6ef&t=c>
(3/5, Howell, Boyer) reports, “Democratic investigators claim they can walk
and chew gum at the same time, yet Mr. Trump says they decided to poke into
his administration, business contacts and family members to dent his
presidency, as the 2020 election looms.”

        The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=042-794&t=c>
(3/5, Lucey, Miller) says Trump’s “response points to his increasing
frustration with Congress and his intention to seize on the investigations
as evidence that he is under siege in Washington.” While he “is far from
the first president to bristle at Capitol Hill oversight, his enthusiastic
embrace of political victimhood is still novel – and stands to serve as a
key part of his re-election argument. Trump has made railing against the
so-called witch hunt against him a staple of his rallies and speeches.”

        Kaitlan Collins said on CNN’s The Lead[image: Image removed by
sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=043-0bb&t=c>
(3/5) that her sources in the White House think Democrats “went too broad.
... They think they went too wide, that it will get lost in the noise, that
the people that thought the President who was a criminal before won’t have
their minds changed, and the people who supported the President and don’t
care won’t have their minds changed by that either.” Axios
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=044-3ba&t=c>
(3/5, Rummler) reports, “64% of American voters believe President Trump
committed crimes before he became president, while just 24% believe he did
not, according to Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday.” But voters “are more
divided on the question of whether or not Trump committed crimes during his
presidency, with 45% responding yes and 43% no.”

        USA Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=045-fcb&t=c>
(3/5, Jackson, Fritze) reports that as Trump “attacked House Democrats on
Tuesday for launching various investigations against him, White House
lawyers set up the prospect of a subpoena fight by rejecting a request for
documents on security clearances. The House committee seeking the documents
‘has failed to point to any authority establishing a legitimate legislative
purpose’ for its ‘unprecedented and extraordinarily intrusive demands,’
said a letter from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.” The Wall Street
Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=046-745&t=c>
(3/5, Ballhaus) reports the requests cover nearly every aspect of the
President’s Administration, campaign, and business.

        The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=047-ceb&t=c>
(3/5, Fabian) reports the President “suggested he was unwilling to comply
with the House Judiciary Committee’s requests for documents related to 81
of his associates, citing what he said was former President Obama’s
handling of congressional probes during his time in office.” Trump said,
“They didn’t give one letter. They didn’t do anything. They didn’t give one
letter of the requests.” The New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=048-4d8&t=c>
(3/5, Qiu) reports in a “Fact Check” piece that Trump “wrongly suggested
that his predecessor didn’t turn over any documents to Congress.” While
President Obama “did invoke executive privilege in at least one instance,
Mr. Trump is wrong that his predecessor did not turn over any documents at
all.” The Daily Caller
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=049-269&t=c>
(3/5, Enjeti) briefly covers Trump’s assertion as well.

        Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) said on CNN’s Situation Room[image: Image
removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=04a-238&t=c>
(3/5), “There’s never been more questionable conduct by a presidential
campaign, a presidential inaugural committee, a presidential Administration
and his Cabinet, than this Trump team. This is a house of cards. ... It is
a plethora of opportunities for the House to look into because they have
violated so many areas of the rule of law and decorum in our society. We
were elected in large numbers to...provide oversight, which is something
that has been missing for two years.”

        Rep. Harley Rouda (D-CA) was asked on CNN’s Situation Room[image:
Image removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=04b-98b&t=c>
(3/5) how Democrats will respond if the White House refuses to turn over
requested documents. Rouda said, “I think the first thing is, subpoenas. If
we can’t get the dissemination of the documents we requested voluntarily,
we are left with no other alternative but to issue subpoenas for that
information. Then, we fully expect the White House and the Administration
to provide those documents.”

        The Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=04c-d1a&t=c>
(3/5) says in an editorial that many of the alleged offenses Nadler is
investigating, such as firing then-FBI Director James Comey, may have been
ill-advised, but are within the President’s constitutional purview and are
therefore not illegal nor grounds for impeachment.

        *Inaugural Committee Chair Barrack Will Cooperate With House
Judiciary Committee. *The Washington Examiner
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=04d-bb0&t=c>
(3/5, Halaschak) reports Tom Barrack, the chair of Trump’s inaugural
committee, “says he will cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee in a
probe whose subjects include potential foreign money sources for the
January 2017 festivities.” He “told CNBC that he would ‘fully cooperate
with the Committee’s important work as he has with all government
inquiries.’”

        *Schiff Hires Goldman As Director Of Investigations. *The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=04e-922&t=c>
(3/5) reports Schiff “announced Tuesday that he hired Daniel Goldman as
senior adviser and director of investigations. Goldman formerly worked in
the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern
District of New York.” Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=04f-95f&t=c>
(3/5, Layne, Hosenball) reports Goldman, “who until recently was a frequent
TV commentator on the special counsel’s Russia investigation, said he was
‘excited’ to join the committee’s probe.” He said in a statement, “Under
Chairman Schiff’s leadership, we intend to run a professional investigation
designed to uncover the facts and the truth.” The Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=050-b31&t=c>
(3/5, Scarborough) reports that Goldman “is a big proponent of the
discarded dossier about President Trump, tweeting as recently as Dec. 27
that ‘nothing has been undermined thus far.’”

        The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=051-e95&t=c>
(3/5, Demirjian) reports, “Schiff has long promised to focus the
committee’s efforts on questions of money laundering, financial leverage
foreign entities might have over Trump and his businesses, and whether
Trump sought to use his political and presidential contacts to improve his
own bottom line, during the campaign and since becoming president.”

        *House Democrats Expected To Seek 10 Years Of Trump’s Tax Returns. *The
Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=052-c99&t=c>
(3/5, Werner) reports House Democrats are “likely to request 10 years of
President Trump’s tax returns in coming weeks, tailoring their inquiry in a
way they hope will survive a court battle.” According to the Post, “The
exact parameters of the request are still in flux, including whether to
seek tax returns related to Trump’s many business enterprises in addition
to his personal returns.” The Post says House Ways and Means Chairman
Richard Neal and congressional attorneys “are in the advanced stages of
preparing the request.”

        Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=053-66b&t=c>
(3/5, Faler) reports, “A 1924 law allows the heads of Congress’ tax
committees to examine anyone’s confidential tax filings. Lawmakers can also
vote to make those returns publicly available, experts say.” The Washington
Examiner
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=054-b5e&t=c>
(3/5, Jativa) also has a brief item on the expected request.

        *New York Financial Regulator Subpoenas Trump Organization
Insurance Broker. *USA Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=055-28e&t=c>
(3/5, McCoy) reports the New York Department of Financial Services has
subpoenaed Aon, “a London-headquartered financial services company that is
one of the world’s largest insurance brokerages,” for documents. Aon serves
as insurance broker for the Trump Organization, and the Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=056-3f7&t=c>
(3/5, Fahrenthold) reports the subpoenaed came after Cohen told Congress
“that Trump exaggerated his wealth to insurance companies.” The Wall Street
Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=057-283&t=c>
(3/5, Ramey) reports that an Aon spokeswoman said the company had received
the subpoena, and added, “As is our policy, we intend to cooperate with all
regulatory bodies. We do not comment on specific client matters.”

        *NYTimes Analysis: Trump Wrote Checks To Cohen In Midst Of Official
Work. *The New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=058-826&t=c>
(3/5, Baker, Haberman) reports that the dates on “newly available checks”
that Trump wrote to then-attorney Michael Cohen “shed light on the parallel
lives Mr. Trump was living.” Trump “hosted a foreign leader in the Oval
Office, then wrote a check. He haggled over legislation, then wrote a
check. He traveled abroad, then wrote a check. On the same day he
reportedly pressured the F.B.I. director to drop an investigation into a
former aide, the president’s trust issued a check to Mr. Cohen in
furtherance of what federal prosecutors have called a criminal scheme to
violate campaign finance laws at the direction of Mr. Trump.”

        The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=059-c62&t=c>
(3/5, Zapotosky, Hamburger, Rucker), following up on a Wall Street Journal
report indicating that Cohen discussed a possible pardon with Trump
attorneys, writes that Cohen “has privately claimed that a pardon was
dangled to him by Trump’s representatives, people familiar with the matter
say – though he has been unspecific about the timing or substance of the
talks.”

        *Reuters Analysis: Barr Walking “Political And Legal Tightrope” On
Mueller Report. *Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=05a-870&t=c>
(3/5, Lynch) reports legal experts say Attorney General Barr “must walk a
political and legal tightrope in deciding how much of Special Counsel
Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s role in the 2016 election to disclose,
balancing competing demands” from Trump and congressional Democrats.
Reuters says the decision “presents Barr, a veteran Washington insider,
with his first major test” since returning to the DOJ last month.

        David Ignatius writes in his Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=05b-2d5&t=c>
(3/5) column that Mueller’s final report “should present Congress with a
clean choice: Either the facts warrant impeachment of President Trump or
they don’t. ... In a country with a healthy political system, Mueller’s
report would lead to such a consensus and resolution. But we don’t live in
that country. Instead, congressional Democrats seem to want it both ways,”
arguing that investigations “should continue (and even expand) after
Mueller finishes, but not necessarily through a formal, disciplined
impeachment process. ... The Republicans, meanwhile, are continuing their
ruinous campaign to investigate the investigators – further undermining
public confidence in the FBI and the intelligence community.”

        *Ex-Trump Lawyer Cobb Calls Mueller “An American Hero.” *ABC World
News Tonight
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=05c-004&t=c>
(3/5, story 7, 1:05, Muir) reported that Ty Cobb, a former attorney for the
President, “had praise for Mueller” in an interview with an ABC News
podcast. Cobb: “I think Bob Mueller’s an American hero. I don’t feel the
investigation is a witch hunt. I wish it had happened on a quicker
timetable, but it didn’t. And that’s, you know, that’s unfortunate. But at
the same time, it’s not – it’s not a real criticism of the special counsel
on the timing, because there were a lot of surprises.” The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=05d-1f7&t=c>
(3/5, Wagner) reports that Cobb “joined the White House shortly after
Mueller’s investigation began in 2017,” but “departed in May last year as
Trump and his surrogates took a more aggressive approach in trying to
discredit the investigation.”

        Aaron Blake writes in the Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=05e-a3a&t=c>
(3/5), “Elsewhere in the interview, Cobb rather gently alludes to the
discord in the White House and the many challenges of serving the 45th
president. One quote is particularly timely, given recent events.” Cobb
said of Trump, “You know, he is a very direct – forceful – presence. He
wants to get stuff done. He hates obstacles. And he reacts strongly in the
face of obstacles to try to move them out of the way, or find somebody who
will move them out of the way for him so he can do things.” Blake says
Cobb’s “comments come as a series of reports speak directly to his point:
Trump pushing for very questionable action with regard to the ‘obstacles’
he faces.”

        *Mueller Team Says Manafort Has Not Shown Remorse. *The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=05f-466&t=c>
(3/5, Tucker) reports Mueller’s team says ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul
Manafort “has not shown remorse or taken responsibility for his crimes.”
The Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=060-7c3&t=c>
(3/5, Mordock) reports prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo, “The
defendant blames everyone from the Special Counsel’s Office to his
Ukrainian clients for his own criminal choices.”

        The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=061-946&t=c>
(3/5, Wheeler) reports, “Manafort is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday
afternoon in his criminal case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia. The former Trump campaign chairman was convicted over
the summer of eight criminal charges, including five counts of filing false
tax returns, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to report
foreign bank accounts.”

        *Judge Says Stone Book May Violate Gag Order. *Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=062-134&t=c>
(3/5, Lynch) reports US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said
Tuesday that last month’s publication of a book by ex-Trump political
adviser Roger Stone “may violate a media gag order – a transgression that
could land the self-proclaimed ‘dirty trickster’ behind bars.” Jackson
“ordered Stone and his lawyers to provide her with a report by Monday
explaining how he plans to comply with the order, and also demanded that he
turn over certain records detailing everything he knew about the book’s
release.” The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=063-4c0&t=c>
(3/5, Hsu) reports the order “does not spell out consequences but bodes ill
for the longtime friend of President Trump and Republican operative.”

        *Graham Says He Told Trump To Follow Clinton’s Lead On Governing
Under Threat Of Impeachment. *Bloomberg
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=064-bdd&t=c>
(3/5, Flatley) reports Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a “Donald Trump ally,”
said the President “would do well to follow the model of former President
Bill Clinton in leading the country while under the cloud of investigation
and threat of impeachment.” Graham said he told the President Tuesday,
“Govern the country. That’s what Clinton did.”

        *Steyer Group’s Ads Target Jordan, Meadows On Trump Impeachment. *
Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=065-791&t=c>
(3/5, Barrón-López) reported billionaire Tom Steyer is taking aim at Reps.
Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Mark Meadows (R-NC) – “two of President Donald
Trump’s fiercest defenders in Congress.” Steyer’s Need to Impeach PAC “is
launching a week-long TV ad campaign in districts currently held by the two
GOP members of the House oversight committee. ... The ads are the first
from Need to Impeach aimed at specific Republican members on the issue and
will cost the group a modest $75,000 in the two districts.”
Foreign Policy
Bolton: US Will Consider Ramping Up Sanctions If North Korea Doesn’t
Denuclearize.

Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=066-62e&t=c>
(3/6, Alexander, Brunnstrom) reports National Security Adviser Bolton, in
an interview Tuesday with Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs Tonight[image: Image
removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=067-261&t=c>
(3/5), said the US will look at increasing economic sanctions on North
Korea if the regime doesn’t shutter its nuclear program. Said Bolton, “If
they’re not willing to do it, then I think President Trump has been very
clear ... they’re not going to get relief from the crushing economic
sanctions that have been imposed on them and we’ll look at ramping those
sanctions up in fact.”

        Bloomberg
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=068-4eb&t=c>
(3/6, Jacobs, Harney) quotes Bolton as saying, “We’re going to see a lot of
potential decisions coming out of North Korea, whether they’re serious
about the talks, whether they want to get back into them and fundamentally
whether they’re committed to giving up their nuclear weapons program and
everything associated with it.” He added, “The President’s ready to make a
deal, he’s ready to meet again. He’s pointed to that bright economic future
and if Kim Jong-un decides he wants to take advantage of it, the
President’s ready to talk to him.”

        *Satellite Imagery Shows North Korea Has Restored Part Of Key
Missile Launch Site. *Citing South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency and two US
think tanks, Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=069-427&t=c>
(3/5, Brunnstrom, Lambert) reports North Korea has restored part of its
Tongchang-ri missile launch site. South Korean lawmakers briefed by the
National Intelligence Service (NIS) said the work involved replacing a roof
and a door at the facility, and satellite imagery “showed that structures
on the launch pad had been rebuilt.” However, Yonhap quoted South Korean
lawmakers “as saying there had been no sign of reprocessing of plutonium
from the reactor and that tunnels at North Korea’s main nuclear test site
in Punggye-ri had remained shut down and unattended since their widely
publicized destruction in May.” Speaking with Reuters, “a U.S. government
source said the NIS was considered reliable on such issues, but added that
the work described did not seem particularly alarming.”

        The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=06a-0a0&t=c>
(3/5, Denyer) reports “the rebuilding work at the Sohae Satellite Launching
Station began sometime between Feb. 16 and March 2, according to satellite
imagery, meaning it began either just before or immediately after the
breakdown of” the summit meeting between Trump and Kim on February 28. The New
York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=06b-66a&t=c>
(3/5, Choe) reports NSI officials who spoke with South Korean lawmakers
Tuesday “indicated that North Korea had been rebuilding the Tongchang-ri
facilities even before the Hanoi summit meeting, South Korean news media
reported on Wednesday.” The North “may have wanted to rebuild them in order
to make their dismantling more dramatic if the Hanoi summit produced a deal
with the Americans, the intelligence officials were quoted as saying. Or it
may have wanted the option to resume rocket tests if the Hanoi talks broke
down, they said.”

        Meanwhile, Kristen Welker covered the White House’s reaction to
these revelations for NBC Nightly News[image: Image removed by sender.
Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=06c-567&t=c>
(3/5, story 2, 0:40, Holt), reporting that White House Press Secretary
Sarah Sanders said the White House “does not comment on intelligence.”

        *Paul Says “Discussion Is Good,” But Expresses Doubts About Kim’s
Willingness To Denuclearize. *Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was asked on CNN’s The
Lead
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=06d-b07&t=c>
(3/5) if he would recommend a third summit if Kim has not committed to a
step toward denuclearization. Paul said, “I think discussion and diplomacy
is always good. I think the President has been brave to have an opening to
a discussion when many said he shouldn’t talk to Kim at all. I have always
been a little bit wary and in disbelief that Kim would negotiate away his
nuclear weapons. That is the ultimate goal and I think discussion is good.
So, if it meant another summit, yes, I would continue to have talks. But, I
have my doubts as to whether or not Kim will give up his nuclear weapons.”

        *North Korean Hackers Targeted US Banks, Utilities During
Summit. *Brian
Todd on CNN’s Situation Room
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=06e-501&t=c>
(3/5, 5:51 p.m. EST) said a new report from security firm McAfee says
“North Korean hackers have tried to infiltrate nearly 80 government-related
organizations,” as well as American infrastructure, and that Kim’s “army of
hackers was continuing its campaign targeting American businesses even as
[Kim] was telling the world he wanted peace.” Likewise, Andrea Mitchell
reported on NBC Nightly News
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=06f-cb0&t=c>
(3/5, lead story, 1:35, Holt) that “cyber experts say North Korean hackers
kept attacking US banks and utilities even during the summit.”

        *Olsen: Canceling Joint Exercises With South Korea Gives North A
Free Bargaining Chip. *In an opinion piece, Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=070-080&t=c>
(3/5) columnist Henry Olsen says the Administration “apparently acceded to
a key North Korean demand without getting anything in return” when he opted
“to walk away from annual military exercises with our South Korean allies.”
Olsen says, “North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had specifically protested the
annual exercises in his New Year’s Day speech, reiterating a longtime
demand.” However, “Trump said he never discussed canceling the maneuvers
with Kim at the recently concluded Hanoi summit. Giving away a valuable
bargaining chip for nothing is usually not a good move.” Olsen warns the
Administration not to “compound” its “error by allowing North Korea or the
Chinese to think they can bargain away our alliance in exchange for vain
promises or a smaller trade deficit.”

        *O’Hanlon: Trump’s Approach To North Korea Has An Inherent Logic. *In
his Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=071-3e5&t=c>
(3/5) column, Brookings Institution senior fellow Michael O’Hanlon says
Trump’s approach to North Korea has an inherent logic and is similar, in
some ways, to the strategy employed by the Clinton Administration. However,
because Trump is dealing with Kim, not his father, he may garner better
results. O’Hanlon says Trump is making a smart offer to Kim by showing that
he’s willing to tolerate some parts of the regime’s nuclear arsenal in the
short term while lifting sanctions and encouraging foreign investment in
the regime. However, O’Hanlon asserts that economic pressure must be
maintained throughout future negotiations and advises Trump against
agreeing to a third summit without securing a real commitment from Kim to
denuclearize.
Trump Agrees “100 Percent” With Lawmakers That Some US Forces Should Stay
In Syria.

The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=072-fb0&t=c>
(3/5, Gearan, Demirjian) reports President Trump, “in a handwritten
notation to members of Congress who had written to Trump in concern over
his” plan to withdraw US troops from Syria, said “he agrees ‘100 percent’
that some US forces should remain,” which the Post calls “an about-face
from his insistence months ago that the American mission there was complete
and that all US troops would return home immediately.” The Post adds,
“Trump penned his response, in bold lettering that appeared to come from a
Sharpie marker, directly on a copy of the letter” written by a bipartisan
group of lawmakers “applaud[ing] the White House announcement on Feb. 21
that ‘a small peacekeeping group of about 200’ US troops will stay in Syria
beyond the planned withdrawal of most American forces this spring.”

        The Washington Examiner
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=073-b90&t=c>
(3/5, Correll) reports Trump “highlighted a paragraph emphasizing the
lawmakers’ goals for US involvement in Syria.” The paragraph read, “Like
you, we seek to ensure that all of the gains made in Syria are not lost,
that ISIS never returns, that Iran is not emboldened, and that we
consolidate our gains and ensure the best outcome in Geneva for American
interests. Those are all important objectives.”

        *Hundreds Of ISIS Fighters Surrender In Eastern Syria Enclave. *
Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=074-93f&t=c>
(3/5, Said, Francis) reports hundreds of ISIS fighters have surrendered
since Monday as they fled the group’s last enclave in Syria, according to
Mostafa Bali, head of the media office for the Syrian Democratic Forces.
The fighters were among the more than 6,500 people, most of whom were
civilians, to have evacuated so far this week. Reuters says, “It was not
possible to independently verify the number [of evacuees] and SDF officials
also said it was difficult to estimate how many people were left.”

        *ISIS’ Last Stronghold Crumbles Under Kurdish Assault, American
Airstrikes. *Richard Engel reported from Syria on NBC Nightly News[image:
Image removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=075-572&t=c>
(3/5, story 7, 1:30, Holt) that “ISIS’ last stronghold is crumbling” in the
face of an assault by US-backed Kurdish forces and American airstrikes.
Engel said ISIS is paying a “heavy price” for holding out, although “the
assault has paused repeatedly to allow trucks to leave, packed with
thousands of ISIS fighters and their families” seeking to surrender.
According to Engel, “The men were separated, searched, and handed over to
US special forces to collect intelligence,” while “women and children go to
camps.” Engel added that Kurdish commanders are “shocked at the number of
ISIS fighters and families they’re seeing, but are encouraged so many are
surrendering.”

        *US-Backed Forces In Syria Holding 2,000 Suspected ISIS
Fighters. *Citing
US defense officials, the Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=076-409&t=c>
(3/5, Youssef, Lubold) reports US-backed, Kurdish-led forces in Syria have
detained more than 2,000 people suspected of being fighters for the Islamic
State, at least twice the number suggested by previous estimates. The
Journal says the new estimate is likely an obstacle the Administration’s
plan to withdraw US troops from the region, as it further complicates the
challenge of returning captured ISIS fighters to their home countries and
makes it more difficult for the US-led Syrian Democratic Forces to wind
down their operations.
Bolton: US Looking At New Sanctions To Limit Maduro’s Power In Venezuela.

In an interview with Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs Tonight[image: Image removed
by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=077-1ac&t=c>
(3/5), National Security Adviser Bolton said the Administration is “looking
at new sanctions” against Venezuela to help “tighten our grip on Maduro’s
financial wherewithal, to deny his regime the money that they need to stay
in power.” Bolton added the US is going to continue its efforts to ensure
“a peaceful transfer of power to Juan Guaidó,” saying, “We’re going to
continue to press to get that done.”

        *Abrams: “Extremely Difficult” To See Role For Maduro In
Venezuela’s Future. *Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=078-2f8&t=c>
(3/5) reports the Administration’s “top envoy for Venezuela, Elliott
Abrams, said on Tuesday it was hard to see a role for Venezuelan President
Nicolas Maduro in the building of a ‘democratic Venezuela.’” Abrams told
reporters, “If he wanted to build a democratic Venezuela, he had the
opportunity to do so, but he did not.” He added, “It is extremely difficult
to see how he could play a positive role in a democratic election,” but
that the matter was ultimately for Venezuelans to decide. Abrams “also said
that imposing US secondary sanctions against non-US citizens or entities
tied to the Maduro government was ‘clearly a possibility,’ although he said
a decision had not been made on taking such a step.”

        *Guaidó Turns Focus To Venezuela’s Public Employees. *The Washington
Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=079-511&t=c>
(3/5, Sheridan, Krygier) reports interim Venezuelan President Juan Guaidó
on Tuesday “stepped up efforts...to remove President Nicolás Maduro,
meeting with public-sector unions and calling for rolling strikes in a bid
to weaken the authoritarian government.” Guaidó said “unions would hold
meetings with their members starting Wednesday to plan when and how to
launch work stoppages,” and “promised a new law to prevent the abuse of
public-sector workers.” However, while he “managed to draw about 100
leaders of state-employee unions to the session,” just “a few hundred
workers came, with many citing fears of government retaliation,” which the
Post calls “a dramatic sign of the challenge that Guaidó faces in
dislodging a radical leftist government that has resisted both
international pressure and street demonstrations.”

        The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=07a-894&t=c>
(3/6, Torchia) reports that while Guaidó “escalated his campaign to topple
Maduro with an appeal for support from state unions,” Maduro himself
“denounced his opponents in a speech Tuesday at a military ceremony but did
not refer” to Guaidó by name. “The dueling scenes, evidence of the rift in
a country in crisis, came as Venezuelans and the world awaited the next
moves of two adversaries maneuvering for an edge in what could be a
protracted struggle,” the AP says.

        *Palladino: Calling Guaidó “Opposition Leader” Feeds Into Maduro’s
Rhetoric. *The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=07b-757&t=c>
(3/5, Morello) reports State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino,
speaking “at the top of the intermittently-twice-a-week briefing” Tuesday,
told reporters that referring to Guaidó as the country’s “opposition
leader” or “self-proclaimed president” is inaccurate. Said Palladino, “To
refer to Juan Guaidó as anything other than the interim president falls
into the narrative of a dictator who has usurped the position of the
presidency and led Venezuela to the humanitarian and political and economic
crisis that exists today.”
General: Pentagon Has No Plan To Deter Russia From Deploying New Missiles.

The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=07c-75b&t=c>
(3/5, Sonne) reports that in an appearance before the Senate Armed Services
Committee, Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, head of the US European Command,
said the Pentagon “does not yet have a plan to prevent Russia from building
more nuclear-capable intermediate-range missiles once a treaty between
Washington and Moscow banning the rockets ends in five months,” and is
“still looking at options after the Trump administration withdrew from the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty on Feb. 1.” Scaparrotti is quoted
as saying, “We in fact have told our allies in NATO that we will do this
planning in collaboration with them. We have begun that. So, I don’t know
that we have a plan today. I know that we are working on what we think that
plan might be.”
State Department Declines To Elaborate On Pompeo’s Remark On Taliban
“Terrorists.”

Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=07d-46f&t=c>
(3/5, Wroughton) reports State Department spokesman Robert Palladino “on
Tuesday declined to elaborate on a comment” by Secretary of State Pompeo on
Monday “in which he called the Afghan Taliban terrorists.” Pompeo had told
a group of students in Iowa, “I have a team on the ground right now trying
to negotiate with the Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan.” Palladino told
reporters, “The secretary’s words speak for themselves and I am not going
to go beyond that.” Palladino also “said the peace talks in Doha are making
progress but more work needed to be done to reach an agreement.”

        Bloomberg
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=07e-ce6&t=c>
(3/5, Najafizada) reports that the “US and the insurgents resumed peace
talks on Saturday after a two-day break for internal deliberations, but
five rounds of discussions haven’t yielded a breakthrough on the timeline
for a withdrawal nor has it elicited a pledge from the Taliban to stop
terrorists from using the country as a base.” Former Taliban leaders Sayed
Akbar Agha and Maulavi Qalamuddin “say both sides may reach an agreement
this week,” although they added that the group “rejected a proposal that
would result in US forces being withdrawn from the war-torn nation in five
years, posing a serious setback to the efforts aimed at ending America’s
longest war through negotiations.” As for the sidelining of Afghan
President Ashraf Ghani in the talks, Agha stated: “Once they reach
agreement, the Taliban will announce ceasefire and start talking to the
Afghan government to discuss the future of a sharing government, the
freedom of Taliban prisoners and removal of their names from the United
Nations and US blacklists.”

        *NYTimes Analysis: Urban Afghans Fear Taliban’s Return To Power,
While Rural Afghans Want Peace. *The New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=07f-2e0&t=c>
(3/5, Mashal) reports that “as American diplomats push for a peace deal
with the Taliban to end the 18-year war, a strong voice of protest, largely
coming from urban centers, has been cautioning against a rushed deal that
could endanger some of the gains of past years,” including “women’s right
to work and education, as well as an independent news media.” However, the
Times says that, “on the other hand...is the nearly half of the country
that is caught between the two sides of the seesawing conflict.” According
to the Times, “The constant fighting has deprived these rural Afghans of
most of the improvements – schools and institutions – at the center of
concerns over peace negotiations. And the voices of those Afghans are
notably underrepresented in the debate.”
Bipartisan Group Of Senators Threatens Saudi Arabia Sanctions Over
Khashoggi Killing.

Bloomberg
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=080-82e&t=c>
(3/5, Wasson) reports a bipartisan group of senators is “threatening to
sanction Saudi Arabia” over the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal
Khashoggi “after a briefing by Trump administration officials failed to
quell their concerns.” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) called outright for new
sanctions, while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) took a more measured tone, saying
the Senate will “have to decide whether to impose its own sanctions.”
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch “didn’t call for sanctions, but
said lawmakers would be discussing what to do next.” Meanwhile, Sen.
Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the Senate will “find a way to push the system,”
and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said, “If the President is not going to act,
then should we as a Senate act.” Merkley added, “There is a whole spectrum
of possible actions, that could involve different types of sanctions,
changes in policy regarding support that has been provided.”

        *European Countries To Urge Saudi Arabia To Release Activists,
Cooperate With UN Probe. *Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=081-dd0&t=c>
(3/5, Nebehay) reports European countries, in a joint statement to be read
Thursday, “will urge Saudi Arabia...to release detained activists and
cooperate with a U.N.-led probe into the murder of journalist Jamal
Khashoggi, in the first rebuke of the kingdom at the Human Rights Council,
diplomats and campaigners said.” According to Reuters, the move “comes amid
growing concern about the fate of detainees, identified by watchdog groups
as women’s rights activists, after the public prosecutor was reported to be
preparing their trials.”

        *American Woman Who Divorced Saudi Husband Is Now Trapped In Saudi
Arabia. *The New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=082-1c7&t=c>
(3/5, Hubbard) reports Bethany Vierra, an American from Washington state,
“has been trapped” in Saudi Arabia since her marriage to a Saudi
businessman “went sour and she sought a divorce,” because “the kingdom’s
so-called guardianship laws” leave her “unable to use her bank account,
leave the country, travel with her daughter or seek legal help, according
to her cousin, Nicole Carroll.” According to Carroll, Vierra’s “ex-husband
let her residency expire, meaning she has lost access to her bank account
and cannot get authorization to leave the country.” In addition, “their
4-year-old daughter cannot travel without her father’s permission, meaning
that even if Ms. Vierra finds a way to leave the kingdom, her child may
have to stay behind.” The Times says an official with the State Department
“declined to comment on Ms. Vierra’s case, citing privacy rules.”

        *WPost Editorial Criticizes Google For Allowing Saudi Tracking App
To Remain In Store. *In an editorial, the Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=083-3d4&t=c>
(3/5) criticizes Google for its decision to end an investigation into the
Saudi “e-government service” app Absher, “a tool for enforcing the regime’s
guardianship system.” As Google is “satisfied that Absher does not violate
its terms of service, the company has decided to allow the app to remain in
its store.” However, the Post says, “no one asked Google whether Absher
violated the letter of its current rules. Instead they asked whether
Google, Apple or any other company would facilitate the sexist strictures
of a regime that not only oppresses women but also tortures and kills
journalists, activists and other critics.” The Post asserts, “The answer
should be no.”
Pompeo To Visit Israel Three Weeks Before Netanyahu’s Reelection Bid.

Axios
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=084-a7b&t=c>
(3/5, News) reports State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino on
Tuesday told reporters that Secretary of State Pompeo will visit Israel in
two weeks as part of a regional tour to include stops in Lebanon, Kuwait,
Greece, and Cyprus. Axios says Pompeo’s visit is “unusual” not only because
it comes three weeks before Israel’s election, but “also because Prime
Minister Netanyahu will visit Washington four days later and meet President
Trump at the White House.” The visit also comes “against the backdrop of
three indictments against Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of
trust.” Palladino “said in the press briefing today that Pompeo’s visit is
not a message of support for one of the political parties in Israel.” He
reiterated that “Israel is an ally,” and the US will not “get involved in
the domestic politics of another country.”
Domestic Policy
Administration Urges GOP Senators To Support Border Emergency Declaration.

The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=085-462&t=c>
(3/5, Werner) reports the Administration “privately appealed to Republican
senators on Tuesday to stand with President Trump on his controversial
wall, painting a picture of a U.S.-Mexico border crisis to persuade
undecided GOP lawmakers to back his emergency declaration in a highly
anticipated vote next week.” However, “many GOP senators weighing a vote on
nullifying Trump’s national emergency are being confronted with a difficult
choice: Buck their president and potentially draw the wrath of core
Republican voters, or support Trump’s controversial declaration for a wall
that remains unpopular with the broader public.”

        Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=086-d81&t=c>
(3/5, Cornwell) reports DHS Secretary Nielsen “warned” Senate Republicans
Tuesday “about record numbers of illegal crossings at the southern border
with Mexico as Congress appeared to be on the verge of terminating” Trump’s
“declaration of an emergency there.” Reuters says Nielsen met with Senate
Republicans as the White House “sought to discourage more Republican
defections on the measure rebuking the president.” According to Reuters,
“Emerging from a lunchtime meeting with Nielsen, some lawmakers said
[Nielsen] made a strong presentation about a crisis at the border, with
record numbers of immigrants showing up.” Breitbart
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=087-39f&t=c>
(3/5, Binder) reports that in a radio interview, Ann Coulter said
congressional Republicans who oppose Trump’s emergency declaration are not
“principled at all,” and “specifically, called out Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
who has announced that he, along with other Republicans in the Senate, will
oppose the national emergency at the southern border.”

        The Hill
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=088-867&t=c>
(3/5, Bolton) says opposition to the declaration “is snowballing in the
Senate, forcing” Senate Majority Leader McConnell “to scramble for a way to
avoid a major embarrassment for the president. ... Some senators and aides
say they think it could get as many as 15 Republican votes, which would put
it in striking distance of a veto-proof majority.” The Hill adds that
“possible defectors” include Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ron Johnson (R-WI),
Mike Lee (R-UT), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Mitt Romney (R-UT), and Todd Young
(R-IN), “who all have expressed constitutional concerns in recent days, say
colleagues.”

        Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=089-a38&t=c>
(3/5, Everett) reports Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the President told
him Tuesday that Republicans who are considering opposing the emergency
declaration are “playing with fire.” Graham said, “He says he thinks
Republicans are playing with fire here because most Republicans, anyway,
most people I hope, will see that the border is in a state of crisis.”
Graham “add[ed] that Trump believes GOP senators that defy him are likely
to face a political backlash.” Said Graham, “That’s his observation, but
he’s not out there calling people out or anything.”

        A New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=08a-180&t=c>
(3/5) editorial says Congress rejecting Trump’s emergency declaration
“would be healthy for the nation’s constitutional order” as it would
“demonstrate that the separation of powers still matters and that some
Republican lawmakers...are willing to stand up to a president with no
respect for constitutional boundaries.” The Time adds that “the need for
this legislative reprimand lays bare flaws in the National Emergencies
Act,” which “must be clarified to explain that being denied congressional
funds toward achieving a policy goal is not, in fact, grounds for declaring
an emergency.” Fixing the law “would erect a wall against any president,
not just Mr. Trump, who insists on creating emergencies where none exist.”

        *CEO Says His Company Could Build 234 Miles Of Border Wall For Just
$1.4B. *The Washington Examiner
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=08b-737&t=c>
(3/5, Giaritelli) reports Fisher Sand and Gravel Company’s President and
CEO Tommy Fisher is “offering to build 234 miles of President Trump’s
border wall for just $1.4 billion, a fraction of the $8 billion the Trump
administration is hoping to use for that project.” According to the
Examiner, Fisher “said that the roughly $1.4 billion is enough to build 20
miles of levee wall in the Rio Grande Valley, plus another 214 miles.”

        *Congress To Hold Four Simultaneous Hearings On Trump Immigration
Policy. *USA Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=08c-1ee&t=c>
(3/5, Gomez) reports Congress on Wednesday “will host four simultaneous
committee hearings – three in the Democrat-controlled House – that will
analyze a wide range of actions taken by President Donald Trump to crack
down on legal and illegal immigration.” The hearings will feature testimony
from DHS Secretary Nielsen, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, and the DHS
inspector general. They will “explore the origins and implementation of the
administration’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy that led to at least 2,800
separations of migrant families, conditions in Border Patrol facilities
that led to three deaths in three months, the decisions to terminate
temporary deportation protections for more than 1 million people, and other
controversial moves.”

        *Number Of People Apprehended At Border Rose 31% In February.
*The Washington
Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=08d-d8b&t=c>
(3/5, Miroff) reports US Customs and Border Protection figures released
Tuesday show “the number of people apprehended along the US-Mexico border
jumped an additional 31 percent last month as an unprecedented mass
migration of families from Central America pushes unauthorized crossings to
the highest levels in a decade.” Authorities detained “76,103 migrants, up
from 58,207 in January.” The Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=08e-d1b&t=c>
(3/5, Caldwell, Wang) says more families have been apprehended over the
past five months than in any previous 12-month period.

        Breitbart
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=08f-d1e&t=c>
(3/5, Price) reports that of the 76,103 migrants, “were family units and
unaccompanied minors. This presents both a border security and humanitarian
crisis at our southwest border,” CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said at a
Tuesday news conference. The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=090-761&t=c>
(3/5, Long) quotes McAleenan as saying that the system “is well beyond
capacity, and remains at the breaking point.” The Washington Examiner
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=091-bbe&t=c>
(3/5, Giaritelli) says senior DHS officials expect “the number of migrants
illegally entering the U.S. from Mexico to continue spiking due to a
continued surge of family and children arriving daily.”

        The Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=092-255&t=c>
(3/5, Dinan) says the spike in illegal border crossing “contradict[s]
claims of Democrats who say there is no border crisis and bolster[s]
President Trump’s case for an emergency,” while the New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=093-c1e&t=c>
(3/5, Dickerson) says the large number of families making the crossing
“suggest that President Trump’s policies aimed at deterring asylum seekers
are not having their intended effect.”

        *Judge Rules Administration Cannot Withhold Funds From Sanctuary
Cities. *The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=094-246&t=c>
(3/5, Barbash) reports US District Judge William Orrick III in San
Francisco on Monday became “at least the 10th judge” to rule against “a
renewed attempt by the Trump administration to make states and cities help
enforce federal immigration law.” Orrick ruled that without an act of
Congress the Justice Department cannot withhold federal law enforcement
assistance grants from “sanctuary cities.”
White House Rejects House Democrats’ Document Request Regarding Security
Clearances.

The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=095-ea8&t=c>
(3/5, Bade) reports the White House has “rebuffed House Democrats’ request
for documents pertaining to the security clearance process, a move that
drastically increases the chances of a subpoena from the House.” In a
letter to House Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings, White House
Counsel Pat Cipollone said the committee’s request was “without legal
support, clearly premature, and suggests a breach of the constitutionally
required accommodation process.” In response, Cummings “rejected the White
House lawyer’s assertion that Congress does not have jurisdiction over
security clearance matters,” writing in a statement, “The White House’s
argument defies the constitutional separation of powers, decades of
precedent before this committee, and just plain common-sense. The White
House security clearance system is broken, and it needs both congressional
oversight and legislative reform.”

        Politico
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=096-b26&t=c>
(3/5, Desiderio) reports the committee is seeking information about senior
adviser Jared Kushner’s security clearance after The New York Times
reported that the President ordered his former chief of staff to grant a
full security clearance “despite reservations from intelligence officials.”
Axios
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=097-251&t=c>
(3/5, Basu), among other outlets, also reports the story.

        Rep. Harley Rouda (D-CA) said on CNN’s Situation Room[image: Image
removed by sender. Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=098-53d&t=c>
(3/5), “We do need to investigate what’s going on with the security
clearances. Certainly, we don’t want to set a precedent for any President
to completely disregard the advice of the national defense and so on ... We
need to make sure that we’re not setting that precedent and that the
President of the United States is held accountable – whether it’s a
Democratic president or Republican president – held accountable to what the
advisers say.”

        *CNN: Trump Pressured Kelly, McGahn To Give Ivanka A Security
Clearance. *Senior White House correspondent Pamela Brown said on CNN’s
Anderson Cooper 360
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=099-f86&t=c>
(3/5), “President Trump pressured his then-chief of staff John Kelly and
White House Counsel Don McGahn to grant his daughter and senior adviser,
Ivanka Trump, a security clearance against their recommendations. This is
according to three people familiar with the matter.”
Budget Deficit Widened 77% In First Four Months Of Fiscal Year.

Bloomberg
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=09a-1c7&t=c>
(3/5, Dmitrieva) reports the US budget deficit “widened to $310 billion in
the first four months of the fiscal year, underscoring the revenue hit from
Republican tax cuts and an increase in government spending.” The budget gap
“widened 77 percent compared with the same October-January period a year
earlier, according to the Treasury monthly budget report released on
Tuesday, which was delayed by the government shutdown.” The report stated
“receipts fell by 2 percent to $1.1 trillion, while spending rose 9 percent
to $1.4 trillion.”

        The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=09b-6cc&t=c>
(3/5, Crutsinger) reports the higher deficit “reflected greater spending in
areas such as Social Security, defense and interest payments on the
national debt.” At the same time, the government “collected lower taxes
from individuals and corporations, reflecting the impact” of President
Trump’s “$1.5 trillion tax cut.” The Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=09c-efc&t=c>
(3/5, Davidson) reports Congressional Budget Office Director Keith Hall
said this week, “It’s hard to imagine this is sustainable.”

        Asked on Fox News Special Report[image: Image removed by sender.
Video]
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=09d-ed5&t=c>
(3/5) what the Administration is doing about the national debt and
deficits, NEC Director Kudlow said, “The key point here is the burden on
the economy, deficits as a share of GDP or debt as a share of GDP. That
number has inched up a bit. We just had a big tax cut, the biggest tax cut
in many decades. We are making an investment in America’s future. It’s
already beginning to pay off and if that means we incur some additional
debt in the short run, so be it. Our numbers show with economic growth of
three percent...as far as the eye can see, those ratios, deficits to GDP
will come back to about three or four percent. Debt to GDP, which is
hovering around 80 percent, will probably come back down to about 70 or 75
percent.”

        Under the headline “Tariff-Man Trump to Preside Over $100 Billion
Jump in Trade Gap,” Bloomberg
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=09e-b05&t=c>
(3/5, Donnan) reports that “if the trends of the past year and economists’
expectations hold true, trade data to be released Wednesday will show the
US’s deficit in good and services with the world topped $600 billion in
2018. That means Trump’s presidency will have seen the US trade shortfall –
the main metric by which he judges countries to be winning or losing – grow
by more than $100 billion.”
Trump Signs Executive Order Targeting Suicide Among Veterans.

The AP
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=09f-07b&t=c>
(3/5, Yen) reports President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday “aimed
at stemming a persistently high number of veteran suicides, urging expanded
outreach by awarding grants to community programs.” Trump’s order “creates
a Cabinet-level task force that will seek to develop a national roadmap for
suicide prevention, bringing in state and local organizations to raise
awareness among the high-risk group.” The order also “directs the task
force led by Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie to finalize a plan in
12 months.”

        USA Today
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0a0-73f&t=c>
(3/5, Slack) quotes Trump as saying, “Veteran suicide is a tragedy of
staggering proportions. Today, we can help end this crisis.” He added,
“We’re going to take care of our veterans – we’re working so hard on this.
We’re going to take care of them like never before,” calling them “our
single greatest national treasure. They kept us safe, and we’re going to
keep them safe.”

        The President touted the signing on Twitter
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0a1-dbf&t=c>
writing, “Just a few moments ago, I signed an EO addressing one of our
nation’s most heartbreaking tragedies: VETERANS SUICIDE. To every Veteran –
I want you to know that you have an entire nation of more than 300 million
people behind you. You will NEVER be forgotten.” The tweet also included a
video of his remarks at the signing ceremony.

        The Wall Street Journal
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0a2-e3b&t=c>
(3/5, Kesling) reports Wilkie said in a statement, “Veterans suicide is a
national public health issue that affects communities everywhere, and this
executive order is a national call to action.” The Washington Examiner
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0a3-795&t=c>
(3/5, Jativa) notes that VA officials “issued a report last year outlining
the growing concern over spikes in suicide rates among veterans, pointing
to research showing roughly 20 veterans commit suicide per day in the
United States.”
McConnell: Senate Will Vote On “Green New Deal” In Coming Weeks.

Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0a4-93f&t=c>
(3/5, Cornwell) reports Senate Majority Leader McConnell said Tuesday that
the Senate would vote “in the next couple of weeks” on the “Green New
Deal,” an “ambitious Democratic environmental proposal that has become a
lightning rod for Republican criticism.” McConnell said, “The Green New
Deal continues to be an interesting discussion for, particularly,
Republicans and we will, of course, give our Democratic friends who’ve been
advocating this proposal an opportunity to debate it and vote on it on the
Senate floor sometime in the next couple of weeks.”
T-Mobile Discloses Spending At Trump’s Washington Hotel After Merger
Announcement.

The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0a5-12d&t=c>
(3/5, O'Connell) reports that T-Mobile’s “patronage of President Trump’s
Washington hotel increased sharply after the announcement of its merger
with its Sprint last April, with executives spending about $195,000 at the
property since then.” According to the Post, “Before news of the megadeal
between rival companies broke on April 29, 2018, the company said, only two
top officials from T-Mobile had ever stayed at Trump’s hotel, with one
overnight stay each in August 2017.” Reuters
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0a6-234&t=c>
(3/5, Shepardson) reports that T-Mobile “disclosed the expenses in a
letter” after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)
“sent letters to leaders of the Trump Organization and T-Mobile last month
after reports that T-Mobile executives started regularly using the Trump
hotel.”
Study: Broadcast News Ignores Positive Economic News Under Trump.

The Washington Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0a7-c1d&t=c>
(3/5, Harper) reports the “big three networks – CBS, NBC and ABC – have
essentially ignored President Trump’s triumphs related to the economy and
job creation in the last 15 months,” according to a “pair of painstaking
studies conducted by the Media Research Center.” The study “examined the
content of 45 evening newscasts which covered Bureau of Labor statistics
updates from Dec. 8. 2017 to Feb. 1, 2019,” and “found that the good news
about Mr. Trump’s efforts was very scarce, appearing in just two reports.”
Analyst Julia Seymour, who “led the research for the conservative press
watchdog,” wrote, “In the past 15 months of their coverage of regular jobs
reports, the networks almost never gave Trump any credit for that economic
success. Stories sometimes mentioned that he was taking credit or
celebrating good jobs news. But out of 45 broadcasts the night of monthly
jobs reporting, there was just one network story about jobs that gave Trump
any credit at all – they refused to credit him nearly 98 percent of the
time.”
Cancer Research
Potential Impact Of President’s $500M Childhood Cancer Commitment On Local
Family Highlighted.

WXOW-TV
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0a8-662&t=c>
LaCrosse, WI (3/5, Lake) reports on the potential impact the President’s
$500 million commitment to researching pediatric cancer may have on a local
family in Wisconsin, where a 10-year-old boy is struggling with a tumor in
his kidney. The piece notes that “the National Cancer Institute said that
money would be used for data sharing.”
Iowa Slow To Adopt Widespread HPV Vaccination, Data Show.

The Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0a9-c11&t=c>
(3/5, Miller) reports a new analysis released by the University of
Iowa-based State Health Registry of Iowa indicates “Iowans have been slow
to adopt vaccination recommendations” for the human papillomavirus (HPV),
“sitting well below a national goal of vaccinating 80 percent of 13- to-
15-year-olds by 2020.” Data show that Iowa “tracked about 450 cases of
HPV-related cancer in men and women combined in 2015, the most recent data
available,” and that “just 38 percent of Iowa adolescents ages 13 to 15 had
the full recommended vaccine series in 2017.” Meanwhile, the national
average rate of vaccination is 49 percent.
Editorials/Op-Eds
New York Times.

*“Fix America’s National Emergencies Law. And Not Just Because Of Trump.”*
A New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0aa-328&t=c>
(3/5) editorial says Congress rejecting President Trump’s emergency
declaration “would be healthy for the nation’s constitutional order” as it
would “demonstrate that the separation of powers still matters and that
some Republican lawmakers...are willing to stand up to a president with no
respect for constitutional boundaries.” The Times adds that “the need for
this legislative reprimand lays bare flaws in the National Emergencies
Act,” which “must be clarified to explain that being denied congressional
funds toward achieving a policy goal is not, in fact, grounds for declaring
an emergency.” Fixing the law “would erect a wall against any president,
not just Mr. Trump, who insists on creating emergencies where none exist.”

        *“Oh, Trudeau.” *In an editorial, the New York Times
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0ab-f05&t=c>
(3/5) says that unless Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “can convince
the public – and do so soon – that he really did nothing wrong in trying to
head off the criminal prosecution of a big Montreal-based company, the
damage will only get more serious.” Moreover, “the degree of political
damage he sustains, and how the scandal affects the October elections,
depend on whether he can convince Canadians, in an open venue and in
detail, that he did no wrong.”
Washington Post.

*“China Believes Canada’s Huawei Case Is Political. Trump Does Nothing But
Confirm It.”* The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0ac-3f2&t=c>
(3/5) editorialize that China “could hardly make it more clear that two
Canadian citizens it has imprisoned in harsh conditions are political
hostages.” Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arrested “just days after
Canada detained Meng Wanzhou, a top executive of the Chinese tech firm
Huawei, on a US warrant.” The Post notes that “twice, including late last
month,” President Trump “has suggested that he might include Ms. Weng’s
case in a trade bargain he is trying to conclude with Chinese President Xi
Jinping.” The Post argues that “would be a gross violation of US legal
norms that we hope his new attorney general, William P. Barr, would resist.
But the damage is done: No doubt Mr. Trump confirmed the Chinese belief
that the case against Ms. Meng is political, and that hostage-taking is an
appropriate response.”

        *“Google And Apple Are Letting Men Surveil Women In Saudi Arabia.” *In
an editorial, the Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0ad-cd0&t=c>
(3/5) criticizes Google for its decision to end an investigation into the
Saudi “e-government service” app Absher, “a tool for enforcing the regime’s
guardianship system.” As Google is “satisfied that Absher does not violate
its terms of service, the company has decided to allow the app to remain in
its store.” However, the Post says, “no one asked Google whether Absher
violated the letter of its current rules. Instead they asked whether
Google, Apple or any other company would facilitate the sexist strictures
of a regime that not only oppresses women but also tortures and kills
journalists, activists and other critics.” The Post asserts, “The answer
should be no.”

        *“Neomi Rao’s Confirmation Saga Is A Sign That Partisanship Could
Get Even Worse.” *The Washington Post
<http://mailview.bulletinintelligence.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019030601biden&r=email-a673&l=0ae-fbd&t=c>
(3/5) editorializes, “Already poisoned by partisanship, the judicial
nomination process got an overdose of toxicity” when Senate Majority Leader
McConnell “refused to consider any Supreme Court nominee from President
Barack Obama in 2016.” But “bad as this level of partisanship is, it could
get worse.” The Post argues that “the issue of Ms. Rao’s nomination is, for
us, relatively straightforward. Presidents are entitled to deference in
staffing the judiciary as long as they pick well-qualified people within
the broad mainstream of judicial thought.”

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