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OVERHEARD -- BILLY TAUZIN, the former Louisiana Democratic congressman turned lobbyist, at Tosca, “Drain the swamp? I’m an alligator. I just go eat the fish at the bottom.”
SPOTTED at the bar at the Trump International Hotel last night: incoming Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist.
Good morning. It’s Friday. Congress is gone. Next week is Thanksgiving. Take a deep breath.
NANCY PELOSI has a challenger for her job as House minority leader. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio is running against her in the closed election after Thanksgiving. Everyone expects Pelosi (D-Calif.) to win. But Pelosi has set the bar high: “Without even asking anybody for a vote, I have over two-thirds of the caucus supporting me,” she has said. Her notoriously good whipping skills -- and her staying power -- will be put to a test. There are 194 Democrats. Will she get 129 votes -- two-thirds of the House Democratic Caucus? Remember: Heath Shuler, the former congressman from North Carolina, got 43 votes in 2010 when he tried to topple Pelosi. Anyone heard from him lately?
WE HEAR that Donald Trump’s meeting with Mitt Romney this weekend is more of a potential kumbaya moment than a job interview. Top allies of both Romney and Trump do not believe the former Massachusetts governor will be offered a slot in the new GOP administration. They have irreconcilable views on foreign policy, to put it mildly. And Romney, let’s recall, is the guy who said the president-elect’s promises “are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.”
WE ALSO HEAR that outgoing Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) -- who was defeated in a primary -- is unlikely to be Agriculture secretary. He has floated himself for the job. The three-term congressman -- who wrote his American University Ph.D. thesis on federal agriculture policy -- told reporters that he is an outsider.
BY THE WAY, what is an outsider these days? For example: Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) says he can’t wait to “drain the swamp” with Donald Trump -- but he’s been in Congress for nearly 14 years, worked for a senator before that and was the executive director of the NRSC.
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DEPT. OF SWAMP DRAINING -- NYT A19, “How Rudolph Giuliani, Possible Cabinet Pick, Made Millions as Ex-Mayor,” by Eric Lipton and Russ Buettner: “Mr. Giuliani stipulated that his remarks could not be recorded, nor could ‘general press or other media coverage’ of the remarks be allowed without his explicit permission. He also had some elaborate demands, including that if he traveled by private plane, it be a Gulfstream IV or bigger, a plane that costs about $40,000 for a one-day trip within the United States. ... In one month alone during 2006, he gave 20 speeches. From 2001 to 2008, the year he ran for president, he was on the road as much as 200 days a year.” http://nyti.ms/2f6uagG
KEEPING HIM HONEST -- “Trump just took credit for stopping Ford from moving a plant to Mexico. But it wasn’t planning to,” by WaPo’s Jim Tankersley: “President-elect Donald Trump claimed credit on Thursday for keeping a Ford plant in Kentucky from moving to Mexico. But the company never planned to move the entire plant, only one of its production lines.” ...
-- @realDonaldTrump: “Just got a call from my friend Bill Ford, Chairman of Ford, who advised me that he will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky - no Mexico … I worked hard with Bill Ford to keep the Lincoln plant in Kentucky. I owed it to the great State of Kentucky for their confidence in me!”
“Ford has never announced plans to move to Mexico either its Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, which produces the Lincoln Navigator, or the Louisville Assembly Plant, which produces the Lincoln MKC and the Ford Escape. In a statement on Thursday night, following Trump's tweet, the company said it had told Trump it would cancel a plan to shift production of a single model — the MKC — from Kentucky to Mexico. The company last year indicated it would be moving MKC production out of Louisville, though it did not announce where it was going. At the time, union leaders said the shift would not cost any jobs in Kentucky, because Escape production would replace lost MKC production. ‘Today, we confirmed with the President-elect that our small Lincoln utility vehicle made at the Louisville Assembly Plant will stay in Kentucky,’ the company said in a statement. ‘We are encouraged that President-elect Trump and the new Congress will pursue policies that will improve U.S. competitiveness and make it possible to keep production of this vehicle here in the United States.’” http://wapo.st/2gmCaPR
THE NEXT NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER -- LT. GEN. MICHAEL FLYNN -- “Trump’s pick for national security adviser brings experience and controversy,” by WaPo’s Greg Miller: “Flynn stunned former colleagues when he traveled to Moscow last year to appear alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin at a lavish gala for the Kremlin-run propaganda channel RT, a trip Flynn admitted he was paid to make and defended by saying he saw no distinction between RT and U.S. news channels such as CNN. Flynn said he used the trip to press Putin’s government to behave more responsibly in international affairs. Former U.S. officials said Flynn, seen dining next to Putin in photos published by Russian propaganda outlets, was used as a prop by the autocratic leader.” http://wapo.st/2fCaxRn ... Pic of Flynn sitting next to Putin http://bit.ly/2eMWiKt … Dana Priest’s Aug. 15 Q&A with Flynn on his Russia trip http://wapo.st/2fLd2yF
--“Michael Flynn’s son and chief of staff pushed conspiracy theories, obscene memes online,” by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Nathan McDermott: “Flynn’s son, Michael G. Flynn, shared stories alleging top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin had a connection to the Muslim Brotherhood, pushed a conspiracy theory that Sen. Marco Rubio was a closeted homosexual who abused cocaine, and repeatedly used expletives to attack Trump’s political opponents. ... The younger Flynn serves as his father’s chief of staff and top aide, attending events alongside his father and working for his father's consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group. ... After the 2012 election, Flynn tweeted that minorities only voted for President Barack Obama because of his skin color.” http://cnn.it/2faBniS
FLASHBACK – James Kitfield in Politico Magazine, Oct. 16, “How Mike Flynn Became America’s Angriest General: He was one of the most respected intelligence officers of his generation. Now he’s Donald Trump’s national security alter ego, goading a crowd to lock Hillary Clinton up. What happened?” http://politi.co/2fnaVQS
--Jon Favreau (@jonfavs): “Flynn has said that Islam is ‘cancer,’ and that fear of Muslims is ‘rational.’” ... @RyanLizza: “Trump’s incoming NSC adviser retweeted a Breitbart headline about how Obama hates Christians” … Michael Cohen (@speechboy71): “The next national security advisor RT’ing a tweet that calls Obama ‘Jihadi Obama’” http://bit.ly/2fCC994 … @georgelittledc, a former CIA and Pentagon spokesman: “So the new national security advisor blocked me on Twitter after challenging his views. I wonder how he’ll handle the WH Situation Room.”
ALL IN THE FAMILY -- “Ivanka Trump sits in on meeting with Japanese prime minister,” by Cristiano Lima: “President-elect Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka sat in on his first face-to-face meeting with a foreign leader, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to a photo of the impromptu Trump Tower summit released by the Japanese government.” http://politi.co/2gpG3Eb … Pic of Trump-Abe meeting with Ivanka looking on http://bit.ly/2g1VFJ2
--WSJ editorial: “Mr. Trump’s best option is to liquidate his stake in the company. … Millions of Americans have put their trust in Mr. Trump to succeed as President and improve their lives, not treat this as a four-year hiatus from his business. The presidential stakes are too high for Mr. Trump to let his family business become a daily political target.” http://on.wsj.com/2g3ZUFz
-- GREAT JARED KUSHNER PROFILE: “In Jared Kushner, Trump finds a kindred spirit: Trump’s son-in-law has a reputation for trusting his own judgment over expert advice, and believing he has a ‘golden touch,’” by Annie Karni: “Kushner has recently lost a noticeable amount of weight, as he has become subsumed in the frantic day-to-day. ... He is loyal to his family, and his view on Trump’s more extreme comments, like a Muslim ban, [a] friend said, is: ‘That’s not him. Relax, he’s just saying these things to get elected.’ ... At the New York Observer ... he objected to the paper’s books coverage in general, arguing ‘I don’t have time to read novels, and neither does anybody else.’” http://politi.co/2g2RWMA
-- NYT A1, “Donald Trump’s Son-in-Law, Jared Kushner, Tests Legal Path to White House Job,” by Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Maggie Haberman: “Mr. Trump is urging his son-in-law to join him in the White House ... Mr. Kushner has consulted with at least one lawyer and believes that by forgoing a salary and putting his investment fund, his real estate holdings and The New York Observer into a blind trust, he would not be bound by federal nepotism rules ... Ethics lawyers in both parties said that such an arrangement would violate a federal statute designed to prevent family ties from influencing the functioning of the United States government.” http://nyti.ms/2fCdgue
FIRST AMENDMENT UPDATE -- “Frustrated and on edge at Trump Tower: More than a week after the election, the media is still locked out,” by Hadas Gold and Peter Sterne in New York: “Just before 8 a.m. on Wednesday, a group of about 20 reporters and photographers started arriving in the lobby of Trump Tower at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, as they have been doing every day since the election. Here they would spend the next 12 hours, sitting on two metal benches in an area marked off from the rest of the publicly accessible lobby with red velvet ropes, directly across from a bank of elevators that whisks celebrities, campaign staff, Secret Service agents and possible Cabinet picks up to Trump’s office and back down to the lobby. All they can do is watch, trying to see who is entering and exiting the elevators, while shouting questions at them as they leave. Such is the fate of journalists in the early days of the Trump era.” http://politi.co/2g2PCFi
COMING ATTRACTIONS -- “David Brock gathering donors to ‘kick Donald Trump’s ass: The Clinton enforcer is launching Koch brothers-like donor network to rebuild liberal power,’” by Ken Vogel: “Hillary Clinton’s attack dog David Brock is launching his own Koch-brothers-like donor network to finance attacks on President-elect Donald Trump and to rebuild the political left after Trump’s stunning victory over Clinton last week. Brock on Thursday night emailed more than 200 of the biggest donors on the left — including finance titans George Soros, Tom Steyer and Donald Sussman — inviting them to a retreat in Palm Beach over inauguration weekend to assess what Democrats did wrong in 2016, figure out how to correct it and raise cash for those initiatives.
“‘This will be THE gathering for Democratic donors from across the country to hear from a broad and diverse group of leaders about the next steps for progressives under a Trump Administration,’ Brock wrote to the donors in an email obtained by POLITICO. The retreat, planned as the first in a series of regular gatherings, will feature appearances by an array of Democratic elected officials, operatives and liberal thinkers and group officials, Brock explained in an interview.” http://politi.co/2g1Ll3S
HILL UPDATE -- VERY IMPORTANT READ -- “GOP could nuke filibuster for Supreme Court nominees: Republicans warn that Democratic obstruction of Trump’s pick will come at a steep -- possibly historic -- price,” by Burgess Everett: “Top Senate Republicans are drawing a hard line on the Supreme Court, guaranteeing that no matter what tactics Democrats deploy, they will be forced to swallow Donald Trump’s imminent nominee to the high court. Republicans won’t come out and say it, but there’s an implicit threat in their confidence: If Democrats play things the wrong way, they might find themselves on the wrong end of a legacy-defining change to Senate rules that scraps the chamber’s 60-vote threshold to confirm Supreme Court nominees.
“‘We’re going to confirm the president’s nominee one way or the other. And there’s an easy way and there’s a hard way,’ said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas). ‘They just need to accept that reality.’ ‘The Democrats will not succeed in filibustering a Supreme Court nominee,’ said Sen. Ted Cruz, Cornyn’s Texas colleague. ‘We are going to confirm President Trump’s conservative Supreme Court justices.’” http://politi.co/2eMUGjG
DONALD TRUMP is leaving New York Friday afternoon to spend the weekend at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. -- where he did much of his debate prep during the campaign.
DAVID REMNICK in next week’s New Yorker, “Obama Reckons With a Trump Presidency: Inside a stunned White House, the President considers his legacy and America’s future”: “The morning after Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, Barack Obama summoned staff members to the Oval Office. Some were fairly junior and had never been in the room before. They were sombre, hollowed out, some fighting tears, humiliated by the defeat, fearful of autocracy’s moving vans pulling up to the door. ... ‘This is not the apocalypse,’ Obama said. ...
“A couple of days later, when I asked the President about that consolation, he offered this: ‘I don’t believe in apocalyptic—until the apocalypse comes. I think nothing is the end of the world until the end of the world.’ ... Obama said that he had accomplished ‘seventy or seventy-five per cent’ of what he set out to do, and ‘maybe fifteen per cent of that gets rolled back, twenty per cent, but there’s still a lot of stuff that sticks.’ ...
“Obama and [White House political director David] Simas talked almost obsessively [on Nov. 4 on the plane to Charlotte] about an article in BuzzFeed that described how the Macedonian town of Veles had experienced a ‘digital gold rush’ when a small group of young people there published more than a hundred pro-Trump Web sites, with hundreds of thousands of Facebook followers. ... The new media ecosystem ‘means everything is true and nothing is true,’ Obama told me later. ‘An explanation of climate change from a Nobel Prize-winning physicist looks exactly the same on your Facebook page as the denial of climate change by somebody on the Koch brothers’ payroll. And the capacity to disseminate misinformation, wild conspiracy theories, to paint the opposition in wildly negative light without any rebuttal—that has accelerated in ways that much more sharply polarize the electorate and make it very difficult to have a common conversation.’” http://bit.ly/2f6Kait … The BuzzFeed story Obama read http://bzfd.it/2f6Tt24
BUSINESS BURST -- “J.P. Morgan Settlement Lays Bare the Practice of Hiring ‘Princelings’: So-called Sons and Daughters program in Asia sought to hire well-connected offspring to win business,” by WSJ’s Aruna Viswanatha: “J.P. Morgan agreed to pay $264 million and admitted it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act—which bars U.S. firms from paying bribes to officials of foreign government in an effort to win business—through its hiring of so-called princelings. … The 75 pages of settlement documents released on Thursday lay bare how the bank had set up a formal structure—dubbed the Sons and Daughters program—to leverage internships and win hundreds of millions of dollars in deals.
“Between December 2010 and March 2011, one Asia-based employee maintained a spreadsheet that linked hires to specific clients, and tracked revenue attributable to those hires, the documents show. ‘Some have argued that employment of a child, friend or relative could not possibly induce a foreign official to take action. Today’s action demonstrates the falsity of that assertion,’ SEC enforcement director Andrew Ceresney told reporters. ‘The so-called Sons and Daughters Program was nothing more than bribery by another name,’ said Leslie Caldwell, the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division.” http://on.wsj.com/2eMZh5s
POLITICO MAGAZINE FRIDAY COVER -- MICHAEL KRUSE in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, “What Trump Voters Want Now: The blue-collar workers who put Donald Trump in the White House are ready for him to deliver. How much time will they give him?” http://politi.co/2g1UrxF
YAHOO’S MATT BAI -- “The Democrats’ 2016 mistake”: “[Hillary’s] campaign was effectively nothing but a giant turnout operation, crunching data on reliable Democratic voters while simultaneously keeping the candidate herself from saying anything remotely interesting. She ran on a database, rather than on an argument; the more Trump alienated and motivated her base, the less she felt the need to make any discernible case.” https://yhoo.it/2g1sCXU
POLITICO “PULSE CHECK” podcast — WHAT IT’S LIKE TO LOSE AN ELECTION: Doug Holtz-Eakin, the head of the American Action Forum and the policy director of the McCain 2008 campaign, tells POLITICO’s Dan Diamond that he understands the emotional ride that Clinton campaign staff are experiencing, because he went through it too. “It was the most empty feeling I’ve ever had in my life ... for six weeks, I drank and watched ‘Law and Order’ ... I literally had no idea to do with myself … This will happen with the Clinton folks: It was probably six months before I really shook it.” Listen to the podcast: http://bit.ly/2g1EJCz
PLAYBOOK INBOX – From contact@email.donaldtrump.com with the subject line, “Shop now”: “We only have limited quantities of our most popular items left: 5,125 Maga Hats, 475 #Bigleague T-Shirts, 670 Official #Bigleague Buttons -- Go to shop.donaldjtrump.com now and get your piece of history. Thank you, Alex, Store Manager”
POLITICO’s “WHAT WORKS”: How Burlington fired up an energy revolution: The newest installment of POLITICO Magazine’s “What Works” series explores how Burlington, Vermont — a former logging port on the shore of Lake Champlain -- has transformed itself into a global trendsetter in sustainable practices in power generation and food production. http://politi.co/2gpgPGi ... Photo gallery http://politi.co/2g4k2Ye
FOR YOUR RADAR – “Turkey’s Free Press Withers as Erdogan Jails 120 Journalists,” by NYT’s Rod Norland: “Turkey now has handily outstripped China as the world’s biggest jailer of journalists, according to figures compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists. ... More than 3,000 Turks have faced charges of insulting the president.” http://nyti.ms/2g2OYdh
-- “Here’s What The Trump Transition Team Thinks About Islam And Muslims,” by BuzzFeed’s Talal Ansari: http://bzfd.it/2fnbpqc
TOP-ED – JIM KESSLER and JON COWAN, “Wake up, Democrats: We’re in big trouble, and this is how to fix it” in WaPo: “The income disparity in the United States isn’t about the 1 percent versus the other 99. ... The truth is that one-third of adults are economically secure and getting wealthier year by year. ... The other two-thirds, however, are scared to death. ... They don’t want handouts. They want work that provides a living, a career path and a sense of purpose — this is the glue that holds our democracy in place. So while they wouldn’t mind the workplace being more fair (as Democrats mostly propose), what they really want is for good jobs to be more plentiful.” http://wapo.st/2faE0Bz
MEDIAWATCH -- “Mark Halperin And John Heilemann’s Bloomberg Politics Show To End,” by HuffPo’s Michael Calderone: “Halperin and Heilemann, who joined in May 2014 and served as co-managing editors of Bloomberg Politics, will continue to host [‘With All Due Respect’] daily until Dec. 2. ... The two journalists will cease day-to-day roles with the company, but ... are in discussions to ‘play a role at Bloomberg as contributors and columnists.’ ... Bloomberg announce[d] earlier Thursday that Washington bureau chief Megan Murphy would become editor of Bloomberg Businessweek as the magazine relaunches next year to increasingly focus on business and finance.” http://huff.to/2fnfyua
NEW BLOOMBERG WASHINGTON BUREAU leadership -- per Michael Calderone: “Marty Schenker, Bloomberg’s senior executive editor for government, announced that Wes Kosova will be the next Washington bureau chief. Bloomberg News managing editor Craig Gordon will become executive editor in Washington … and Michael Shepard, deputy managing editor at Bloomberg News, will move into Gordon’s old role.” http://huff.to/2fLqpi7
--“Washington Bureau Chief Sally Buzbee named AP executive editor” effective Jan. 1: “Buzbee, who joined AP in 1988 as a reporter, spent the last six years in Washington, D.C. as chief of bureau, where she has overseen AP’s coverage of the 2012 and 2016 U.S. presidential elections, the White House, Congress, the Pentagon and polling and investigative units.” http://bit.ly/2fCbf11
--Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone): “WSJ’s hired @shaneharris to cover national security, intelligence and foreign policy issues, per @GeraldFSeib memo”: http://bit.ly/2gmpLeu
--New Weekly Standard cover, “Trump Crossing the Potomac” with Steve Bannon on his right and Reince Priebus on his left http://bit.ly/2faOBfD
-- FAKE NEWS UPDATE, from the NYT’s John Markoff in San Francisco: “An automated army of pro-Donald J. Trump chatbots overwhelmed similar programs supporting Hillary Clinton five to one in the days leading up to the presidential election, according to a report published Thursday by researchers at Oxford University. The chatbots — basic software programs with a bit of artificial intelligence and rudimentary communication skills — would send messages on Twitter based on a topic, usually defined on the social network by a word preceded by a hashtag symbol, like #Clinton. Their purpose: to rant, confuse people on facts, or simply muddy discussions, said Philip N. Howard, a sociologist at the Oxford Internet Institute and one of the authors of the report.” http://nyti.ms/2f6Wcc0
OUT AND ABOUT in NYC -- President Bill Clinton was the surprise guest at the NYC movie premiere of Lion on Wednesday night. The film’s executive producer Harvey Weinstein got a standing ovation when he announced Clinton was in the room. Weinstein told the crowd: “Since last Tuesday, I’ve seen the hate crimes, the anti Semitism, the prejudice against women, LGBT, and the progress people made on climate control, all of that starting to be peeled away. But, as long as my friend is here with me, and with the American people, then I don’t think we’re gonna have to worry. We’re gonna have to fight, but at least we’ve got someone who is an inspiration.” Pic http://bit.ly/2gpj6kH ... Trailer http://bit.ly/2fCcehV
SPOTTED -- Michael Steele on an American Airlines flight yesterday morning from DCA to Phoenix. He was on his way to California … Donald Trump Jr. at the Trump hotel in D.C. last night
STATE VISIT: Tim Burger, in D.C. until Saturday for meetings and the latest Suspicious Package gig at Bayou tonight at 9 p.m.
OUT AND ABOUT -- Chris and Kathleen Matthews hosted a book party last night at their Chevy Chase home for Mark Shriver for his book “Pilgrimage: My Search for the Real Pope Francis Hardcover” (out Nov. 29). SPOTTED: Sen. Ed Markey, Greg Craig, Peter Franchot and his wife Anne, Tim Shriver and his wife Linda Potter, David Jacobson, Howard Gutman and his wife Michelle Loewinger, Agnes Williams, Gordon Peterson, and many members of the Catholic clergy. Pre-order -- $21 on Amazon http://amzn.to/2fnvSuT
ENGAGED – Julia Krieger, press secretary for Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, got engaged on Saturday to Evan Vanderveer, who manages Vanshap Capital in Rosslyn. On a trip to Paris, he surprised her with a dinner on the balcony of their hotel room, where he proposed. They met through a mutual friend and former roommate. Pic http://bit.ly/2fnvzQN
WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Chris Krueger of Cowen and Company emails friends and family: “Thrilled to announce that Clark Whitbeck Krueger was born [Wednesday] at 12:40 p.m. clocking in at 8 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches. Clark is his maternal grandmother’s maiden name and Whitbeck is his paternal great-grandmother’s maiden name. Caroline was amazing and is resting comfortably while big sister Clementine is over the moon.” Pics http://bit.ly/2gmOiAd ... http://bit.ly/2g4CCPO
NEW POLITICO HIRE – Marty Kady emails the staff: “Victoria Colliver, a nationally recognized health-care writer at the San Francisco Chronicle for 15 years, will be joining the D.C.-based health care team as we expand into the states. Vicky will be based in the Bay Area, and will also cover Sacramento, helping us track how the states pick up the pieces of Obamacare in a Donald Trump world.”
OUT AND ABOUT – SPOTTED last night at the National Lawyers Convention - Federalist Society Dinner at the Gaylord National: keynote speaker Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Samuel Alito, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch, RAGA chairman and Alabama AG Luther Strange, Michigan AG Bill Schuette, West VA AG Patrick Morrisey, SC AG Alan Wilson, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen, John Fund, Mark Brnovich, Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), Mike Lee, Chuck Cooper, Rachel Brand, Rob Porter, Brian Callanan, Will Levi, Matt Owen, James Burnham, Tobi Young, Sarah Isgur Flores, Katie Biber Chen, Ben Ginsberg, Scott Keller, Jonathan Bunch, Leonard Leo, Gene Meyer, Don Willett.
SUNDAY SO FAR – CBS’ “Face the Nation”: Reince Priebus, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.)
--NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Sen. Bernie Sanders ... Reince Priebus ... Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) ... panel: Robert Costa, Sara Fagen, Tom Friedman, Neera Tanden
--ABC’s “This Week”: Reince Priebus, Martha Raddatz interviews Sen. Chuck Schumer ... Panel: Matthew Dowd, LZ Granderson, Steve Inskeep, Jennifer Jacobs
--CNN’s “State of the Union”: Reince Priebus
--“Fox News Sunday”: Reince Priebus, Sen. Charles Schumer, Stephen Ayers, Architect of the Capitol ... Panel: Laura Ingraham, Bob Woodward, Lisa Boothe, Juan Williams
--CNN’s “Inside Politics,” hosted by John Berman subbing for John King: Maggie Haberman, Philip Bump, Errol Lewis, Caitlin Huey-Burns
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: NYT Mid-Atlantic bureau chief Sheryl Stolberg, the pride of Merrick, N.Y., celebrating with a dinner at home with her husband and older daughter. Read her Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2faUjOA
BIRTHDAYS: Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly is 46 … Politico cartoonist Matt Wuerker, our first Pulitzer Prize winner ... USA Today’s Heidi Przybyla, a Bloomberg alum and the pride of Dearborn Heights, Michigan ... Margaret Capehart, mom of Jonathan ... ABC News rising star Gregory Simmons ... Brian Forest, chief speechwriter for Senate Majority Leader McConnell, is 32 -- read a local Michigan newspaper profile of him from last year: http://bit.ly/1WYwk6k ... Carrie Matthews, director of operations and recruiting at Hamilton Place Strategies ... Dan Sadlosky, policy adviser to House Majority Whip Steve Scalise ... Politico’s Theo Meyer, Trisha Farr, and Brian Knapp ... Tom Namako, deputy news director at BuzzFeed and a WSJ and N.Y. Post alum ... Abby Tinsley, LA for Sen. Bill Nelson ... Andrea Stone, director of career services at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism and a HuffPost alum ...
… Cornyn comms. director Drew Brandewie is 32 ... Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) is 45 ... Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) is 49 ... former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) is 59 ... Rep.-elect Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) is 51 ... Nick Ragone, a Ketchum alum now chief comms. officer for Ascension, the nation’s leading Catholic healthcare system ... Nima Faz ... Democracy for America alum Arshad Hasan … Jon Kaplan … Erica DeVos … Meg Gage … Ace Smith (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) ... Waldo Tibbetts … makeup artist to the pundits Nicole Ianucci ... Gregory Kallenberg ... David Frank ... Noelia Rodriguez, a Laura Bush alum now managing director of comms and gov’t relations for the Port of Long Beach ... Hanna Skandera, a Bush 43 alum, now secretary of New Mexico Public Education Dept. ... Richard Maopolski ... Gregg Holman … author-poet Margaret Atwood is 77 … Owen Wilson is 48 ... Chloe Sevigny is 42 ... Damon Wayans Jr. is 34 (h/ts AP)