The Note: Trump preps for war with Comey
Comey will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee tomorrow.
— -- WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY
THE TAKE with ABC News' Rick Klein
President Trump knows whom he's wishing luck to -- or, at least, he thinks he does. As Trump prepares for war with James Comey, the president looks like he's going rogue – fuming at aides, clashing with his long-loyal attorney general, and tweeting statements that complicate foreign policy, his domestic agenda, and his administration's own legal efforts. Except it's always more complicated than that. The thing that unites Trump's actions – besides the near-universal desire inside his circle that he dial it back – is that he's talking to his base. And in the case of Comey, that base is inclined to like what it hears from the president: The new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that 70 percent of Republicans think Trump fired Comey "for the good of the country," rather than to protect himself. And 55 percent of Americans overall say they doubt Comey's word – damage from a year where Democrats hated him long before Trump turned on him. Among Trump's rawest political talents? Sizing up his opponents, and sensing their weaknesses.
COMEY PRE-GAME
If Comey's coming testimony Thursday is the Super Bowl of congressional hearings, then the pre-game starts today. Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will all appear before the Senate Intel committee today and face lawmakers hungry for answers about how the Russia investigations are proceeding. According to new reporting from the Washington Post, Coats told colleagues back in March that President Trump was frustrated with the FBI's Russia probe and asked him whether he would intervene and get the bureau to back off. Last time he testified, Coats said his conversations with the president were private, but a targeted and specific question today could be hard to dodge from the stand. Rosenstein will be tested about the timeline of events leading up to Comey's firing and whether the former FBI Director was really nixed without notice, ABC News' MaryAlice Parks writes.
A SOUTHERN BRAWL
Never before has so much of the national electoral narrative rested on the shoulders of two suburban candidates for one of 435 seats in the U.S. House. But when the former Georgia secretary of state who flopped in bids for the Senate in 2012 and governor in 2014 and a 30-year-old former Congressional staffer who makes documentaries came face-to-face on the debate stage on Tuesday night, it was clear that Republican Karen Handel and Democrat Jon Ossoff knew their race means so much more than just one seat on the floor of the U.S. House. The two clashed over foreign policy, health care, tax policy and everything in between. But perhaps the real winners in the Georgia 6th Congressional district race will be the residents of northern Atlanta, who have been bludgeoned by tens of millions of dollars in television ads and dozens of national political staffers for months and are just now beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, ABC News' Ryan Struyk notes. http://abcn.ws/2rTdfYP
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Jared has actually become much more famous than me -- I'm a little bit upset about that." - President Trump on son-in-law Jared Kushner
WHAT TO WATCH TODAY
Just a warm-up before Thursday. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers are supposed to testify in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
President Trump will give a speech in Cincinnati, Ohio today on his infrastructure initiative. Will Trump stay on topic?
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