The Note: In Mueller’s wake, ideology gets ahead of policy for Trump
The post-Mueller landscape, it turns out, is a target-rich environment for Dems.
The TAKE with Rick Klein
Grant, for a moment, that few minds have been or will be changed by anything related to Russia or Robert Mueller.
Could the same be said about the Trump administration’s new push to invalidate “Obamacare”? Of the -- already abandoned -- proposal to strip federal funding from the Special Olympics? Of a fight with Puerto Rico over disaster-recovery money?
President Donald Trump has the capacity and proclivity to take the 2020 campaign in wild new directions, as he demonstrated Thursday night in Michigan.
But his administration continues to take policy debates in directions that few even inside the administration are anxious to defend. The election won’t be won with Trump’s base alone, and even positive Mueller news early in the week didn’t keep damaging headlines out of social media feeds around the country.
The post-Mueller landscape, it turns out, is a target-rich environment for Democrats -- with Trump generating new targets with regularity.
The RUNDOWN with John Verhovek
The field of 2020 Democratic contenders may be far from set, but the fissures and divisions that will define what promises to be a raucous primary are already forming and a new slate of policy proposals provided a snapshot of how candidates intend to form successful coalitions.
Fresh polling this week indicates former Vice President Joe Biden, who still remains officially on the presidential sidelines, still leads the early field among moderate and conservative Democrats, but the battle for the party's more liberal wing remains unclear. Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a six-point lead among "very liberal" Democrats, as Biden and Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris all register double-digit support within the same cohort.
This week Warren, on the heels of a proposal to break up big tech companies, unveiled a new plan to do the same for agricultural behemoths like Tyson, Dow-DuPont and Bayer-Montsanto on the same day that Sanders penned an op-ed in Iowa's biggest newspaper decrying the control that "massive agribusiness" has over the state's farmers.
In more broad-based policy news, Harris this week proposed a massive increase in teacher salaries nationwide, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who has thus far struggled to break through with any major Democratic voting group, released a trillion-dollar infrastructure investment plan.
The TIP with Justin Gomez
A little over two weeks after announcing a run for president in 2020, Beto O’Rourke is bringing the campaign trail home to Texas this weekend, where the former congressman shot to stardom in his 2018 Senate run.
O’Rourke is labeling the sprint through the Lone Star State as the official kickoff to his grassroots campaign -- making stops in three cities in the span of just 12 hours.
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The home-state campaign blitz comes as O’Rourke hired Jen O’Malley Dillon, a veteran Democratic strategist who previously served as President Barack Obama’s deputy campaign manager during his re-election campaign in 2012, to anchor his 2020 bid. O’Malley Dillon’s experience brings a more traditional approach to the campaign style we saw from O’Rourke during his unsuccessful bid last year against incumbent GOP Sen. Ted Cruz.
THE PLAYLIST
ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast. Friday morning’s episode features ABC News Senior National correspondent Terry Moran, who brings us up to speed on the controversy surrounding Special Olympics funding. Then, ABC News’ Anne Flaherty explains why the Department of Housing and Urban Development is charging Facebook with housing discrimination. http://apple.co/2HPocUL
ABC News' "Powerhouse Politics" Podcast. This week on "Powerhouse Politics" Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl and Political Director Rick Klein discuss special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings with former Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano, who says she has “no reason to doubt” Mueller. She also talks about former Vice President Joe Biden’s recent expression of regret over Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings, during which Napolitano served on Anita Hill’s legal team. https://apple.co/21V9721
FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast: Can Statistics Solve Gerrymandering? The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering on Tuesday. The court is again considering whether lawmakers are allowed to draw district lines meant to dramatically benefit one party over another and -- if not --how the courts should judge when lawmakers go too far. In this episode of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, mathematician Moon Duchin explains a statistical method for determining when maps become too partisan. On Tuesday, the justices discussed her proposed method, but we’ll have to wait to see whether they were convinced that it’s a potential solution. https://apple.co/23r5y7w
Sunday on “This Week”: 2020 presidential candidate and Judiciary Committee member Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., comes to “This Week” on Sunday.
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The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the day's top stories in politics. Please check back tomorrow for the latest.
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