| | | | Trump fumes at Mar-a-Lago | | President Donald Trump's irate mood followed him to Florida this weekend. In casual conversations at Mar-a-Lago, Trump complained that his well-received address to Congress last week was drowned by the continuing news stories about contacts between his associates and Russian officials, two people who have spoken with him told CNN's Kevin Liptak. In his conversations with friends and acquaintances at the club, Trump -- unprompted -- also angrily raised the unsubstantiated claims he'd made on Twitter that President Barack Obama wiretapped him.
What Trump told Chris Ruddy, his friend and the CEO of Newsmax, per Ruddy: "I haven't seen him this pissed off in a long time. When I mentioned Obama 'denials' about the wiretaps, he shot back: 'This will be investigated, it will all come out. I will be proven right.'"
Trump was upset before leaving town. CNN reported the President was extremely frustrated with his senior staff and communications team for allowing the firestorm surrounding Attorney General Jeff Sessions' meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to steal his thunder in the wake of his address to Congress, sources tell CNN. "Nobody has seen him that upset," one source said, adding the feeling was the communications team allowed the Sessions news, which the administration deemed a nonstory, to overtake the narrative.
Trump's unsubstantiated claims that Obama illegally wiretapped him will be front and center on Capitol Hill this week. More on that below.
What else we're watching this week:
-- A new Trump travel ban? Trump is expected to sign a new executive order as soon as Monday, with his old one still stymied by the courts. But there are questions: Will Iraq be dropped? Will the religious carve-outs be dropped? Is the old order being rescinded?
-- Obamacare repeal progress. House Republicans are aiming to finalize their bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, and two key committees could mark it up as soon as Wednesday. Expect to hear lots of GOP talk about "access" to health insurance -- as opposed to guaranteed affordable insurance.
-- Rod Rosenstein's Tuesday confirmation hearing for deputy attorney general got a lot more interesting when Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from anything related to Trump's campaign -- including the Russia investigation. Expect that to be a hot topic.
-- A different Russia posture? Per The Associated Press' Julie Pace: "Trump is telling advisers and allies that he may shelve, at least temporarily, his plan to pursue a deal with Moscow on the Islamic State group and other national security matters, according to administration officials and Western diplomats." | | "There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the President-elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign." -- Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, on NBC's "Meet the Press," directly disputing President Donald Trump's claims that President Barack Obama wiretapped him. | | | | Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- fresh off a week of Russia controversy -- got the "Saturday Night Live" treatment last night. Kate McKinnon portrayed Sessions as Forrest Gump. "I always say life is like a box of chocolates," McKinnon as Sessions said. "Sure are a lot of brown ones in there." | | Pelosi: Trump's Obama claims are 'authoritarian' moves | | House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi dropped the word "authoritarian" into her criticism this morning of President Donald Trump's claims Barack Obama wiretapped him. She said Trump was executing a well-worn playbook of making bogus, bombastic claims to distract from scandal -- in this case, Russia.
"You make up something and then you have the press write about it, and then you say, 'everybody's writing about this charge,'" Pelosi told Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union." "It's a tool of an authoritarian, to just have you always be talking about what you want to be talking about."
A sharp exchange on ABC's "This Week," where host Martha Raddatz became exasperated with White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders' comments about Trump's unsupported claims:
Sanders: "All we're saying is let's take a closer look. Let's look into this. If this happened, if this is accurate, this is the biggest overreach and the biggest scandal."
Raddatz: "The President of the United States is accusing the former president of wiretapping him."
Sanders: "I think that this is, again, something that if this happened, Martha --"
Raddatz: "If, if, if, if."
Meanwhile, former senior Obama aides and administration officials were saying on the record that what Trump was alleging flat-out did not happen.
This all comes as Congress decides what to do about Trump's claim. Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said his committee would look into whether the federal government was conducting wiretapping of campaign officials as part of the panel's investigation into Russian meddling in the US election. "One of the focus points of the House Intelligence Committee's investigation is the US government's response to actions taken by Russian intelligence agents during the presidential campaign," Nunes said in a statement Sunday. "As such, the committee will make inquiries into whether the government was conducting surveillance activities on any political party's campaign officials or surrogates, and we will continue to investigate this issue if the evidence warrants it." More on how Congress is responding. | | | Jake Tapper explored the prospect of Oprah Winfrey running for president in this week's "State of the Cartoonion." | | 3 things you might have missed this weekend | | Pelosi dodges on Richmond's crude remark: House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi wouldn't directly criticize Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-Louisiana, over his crude comments about Kellyanne Conway kneeling on an Oval Office couch. "Well, I wasn't at the dinner. I'm just finding out about this," she said before pivoting to discussing a 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape in which Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women.
Lindsey Graham vowed to "get to the bottom" of Trump's wiretapping claims at a town hall. The answer was a direct pledge to the Trump supporters there and also a wink-and-nod to Trump's critics, who believe the President is making this up and Graham's pledge was to expose it.
Vice President Mike Pence is battling with the AP over its publication of his wife's active email address -- obtained amid revelations Pence was using a private AOL account to conduct state business as Indiana governor. More from Politico's Eli Stokols. | | | Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Florida, toured possible US embassy sites in Jerusalem and said he is confident President Donald Trump will move the embassy there from Tel Aviv. ... Trump is relying on sketchy sources of information like Breitbart as the foundation of his claims that President Barack Obama wiretapped him. | | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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