SUNDAY MORNING WITH YOUR PRESIDENT ELECT -- @realDonaldTrump, at 9:16 a.m. Sunday: “Wow, the @nytimes is losing thousands of subscribers because of their very poor and highly inaccurate coverage of the ‘Trump phenomena’”... at 9:43 a.m.: “The @nytimes sent a letter to their subscribers apologizing for their BAD coverage of me. I wonder if it will change - doubt it?” … at 9:45 a.m.: “Mitt Romney called to congratulate me on the win. Very nice!”
Good Sunday morning. 68 DAYS until Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States.
SNL's cold open from last night -- Rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" by Hillary Clinton (Kate McKinnon). http://bit.ly/2f5FScg
-- @Redistrict: "Donald Trump's share of the popular vote just fell to 47.1%, which puts him below Mitt Romney's 47.2% in '12" http://bit.ly/2eQhk64
CONGRESS COMES BACK into session tomorrow for the first time since Donald Trump’s election as president. Democrats -- especially in the House -- are at their lowest political point in a very long time. Democrats won just six seats in the House on Election Day. They’ve been in the minority for eight years and haven’t ever gotten close to cutting into the massive Republican majority that John Boehner built, and Paul Ryan has maintained.
BOTH PARTIES hold their leadership elections this week. Ryan is expected to win another term as speaker. And Nancy Pelosi has no challenger. Reminder: She has been the Democratic leader since Barack Obama was in the state house. While there is private grumbling in some circles (moderates, junior members), there will be no move to challenge her. Her vice grip on the caucus was on display earlier this week when Democratic women lawmakers signed a letter calling on Pelosi to stay on.
TRUMP WORLD says his chief of staff pick is “imminent.” Capitol Hill is watching this very closely, and, to put it mildly, they prefer Reince Priebus over Stephen Bannon. Or, really anyone other than Bannon.
KELLYANNE CONWAY spoke to reporters at Trump Tower Sunday morning, per a pool report by USA Today's David Jackson. She said Trump "can't go wrong" with any decision he makes about his chief of staff. And she confirmed that Trump had spoken with Jeb Bush, a call she called "productive" and "incredibly gracious."
ALSO -- Donald Trump keeps saying he wants a special session of Congress to repeal Obamacare. Here’s a quick reminder: he does not need one. Congress is in session all of next year. This isn’t like a state legislature, which might only remain in session for a few months each year. Congress is in session. All the time. And can focus on any issue Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell choose.
SUNDAY BEST -- JAKE TAPPER interviewed SPEAKER PAUL RYAN on “State of the Union.” TAPPER: “[T]here are millions of Americans out there as I’m sure you know who are frankly terrified of what this America under President Trump will mean for them. Is there anything that you, as speaker of the House, one of the leaders of the nation want to say to them?” RYAN: “Sure. Uh, first of all, I hate it that people feel this way, and second of all, they should not. I think that people should be-- rest assured: America is a pluralistic, inclusive country. It is and has been and will continue to be. So I really think that people should put their minds at ease. We're going to get to work on solving the big-- countries problems, getting our economy growing, fixing our national security, you know fixing our healthcare problems, getting our budget put together. You know, the things that we've been talking about, so I think that people should just really put their minds at ease, we are pluralistic, we’re inclusive. That’s the kind of country we want, that's the country we are and the country we're still going to have.” ...
-- ON OBAMACARE: TAPPER: “Obamacare also provides birth control to women at no cost, is that going to end or will that remain?” RYAN: “Look I’m not going to get into all the nitty gritty detail of these things.” TAPPER: “With all due respect, I don’t know that the average woman of childbearing years out there who relies upon contraception provided by health insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act, I don’t know that she would think that that’s just a nitty gritty detail.” RYAN: “You’re asking me details about legislation.” TAPPER: “Well, what do you think, is it important to you?” RYAN: “You’re asking me details about legislation that hasn’t been written yet.” TAPPER: “Right, but is it important to you? Would that be a principle of whatever replaces it because --” RYAN: “I’m not going to get into hypotheticals about legislation that hasn’t even been drafted yet.”
-- ON MASS DEPORTATIONS: TAPPER: “So Congress writes the laws and controls the purse strings. Is there going to be mass deportation or not? And this isn’t just a nitty gritty detail. You know, there are millions of people who are worried about this.” RYAN: “Sure, and I think we should put people’s minds at ease. That is not what our focus is. That is not what we’re focused on. Securing the border -- we think that’s first and foremost, before we get into any other immigration issue. We gotta know who’s coming and going in this country. We gotta secure the border. So we believe an enforcement bill, a border security enforcement bill is really the first priority, and that’s what we’re focused on.” TAPPER: “OK, so it’s not a top priority, mass deportation.” RYAN: “No, securing the border is our top priority.” TAPPER: “Right. But what about in year two, year three, year four?” RYAN: “That’s why I say we’re not focused on -- we are not planning on erecting a deportation force. Donald Trump’s not planning on that.”
AS HE SIGNED OFF, Tapper called Ryan the “pride of Janesville.”
THE “WHAT-THE-STAFF-PICKS-MEAN STORIES”
-- NYT: “Trump’s Hires Will Set Course of His Presidency,” by Mark Landler: “Rarely in the history of the American presidency has the exercise of choosing people to fill jobs had such a far-reaching impact on the nature and priorities of an incoming administration. Unlike most new presidents, Mr. Trump comes into office with no elective-office experience, no coherent political agenda and no bulging binder of policy proposals. And he has left a trail of inflammatory, often contradictory, statements on issues from immigration and race to terrorism and geopolitics … Mr. Trump is drawing mainly from a pool of trusted aides and supporters, according to people familiar with the campaign. On Friday, he named three of his grown children — Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric — as well as his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to his transition team, an arrangement that rang alarm bells in Washington because they will also manage his businesses. The Trump family, it is clear, will wield unusual power in the composition of an administration that is already shaping up as remarkable for its clannishness.” http://nyti.ms/2eQ3e4x
-- WaPo: “Can Trump broaden his government beyond loyalists — and does he want to?,” by Phil Rucker, Dana Priest and Karen DeYoung: “Nowhere did Donald Trump’s candidacy inspire more trepidation or alarm than in the national security community, inhabited by many Republicans who vehemently denounced their party’s nominee as dangerously unfit to be commander in chief. Now, as President-elect Trump begins assembling his government, scores of former senior national security officials, foreign policy specialists and career civil servants are wrestling with a dilemma: refuse government service or join the administration of the 45th president? Whether these seasoned experts step forward to help -- and whether Trump accepts them into his administration -- will send a powerful signal about the new president’s intentions and ability to broaden his sphere of influencers beyond the loyalists who helped steer him to an improbable triumph in the election.” http://wapo.st/2fo5gwA
HOW HE’LL LEAD -- “Can ‘CEO Trump’ offer clues on how ‘President Trump’ will act?,” by the Boston Globe’s Matt Viser: “When Donald Trump ran his own airline in the late 1980s, there were certain details he cared about. He wanted faux marble vanity tops in the lavatories, he wanted the flight attendants wearing pearls (even if they, too, were faux), and he weighed in on which photo of himself should grace the cover of the in-flight magazine. But when it came to most decisions regarding the 21-plane Trump Shuttle business, he empowered his executives and delegated day-to-day operations. ‘I would say 95 to 98 percent of the decisions we made ... it wasn’t necessary for him to be involved,’ Henry Harteveldt, the marketing director, said in an interview. ‘He didn’t care about every single thing we did, but he did care about the more strategic things.’ Trump’s executive experience offers some clues, perhaps, into how he will govern now. The real estate tycoon’s outsider, private-sector background was his big selling point for an electorate clamoring for change. But his lack of public service -- he is the first president-elect with no elected or military experience -- leaves big questions about how he will adapt to life inside the government bubble.” http://bit.ly/2g7vGUS
FLASHBACK -- MICHAEL KRUSE in the July/August POLITICO Magazine, “The Executive Mr. Trump: The surprising truth about Trump as a boss—from the people he’s hired, fired and micromanaged.” http://politi.co/2eu6uqY
DAVID CORN speaks to NEWT: @DavidCornDC: “.@newtgingrich just told me he is not going to be Secretary of State. Why? ‘Because I don’t want to be.’ … .@newtgingrich says he wants to be in charge of strategic planning. Working from the WH & investigating all government agencies.”
IF YOU READ ONE THING -- “President-elect Donald Trump is about to learn the nation’s ‘deep secrets,’” by Bob Woodward in the Washington Post: “One of the most important phases of the transition to power for President-elect Donald Trump includes briefings on U.S. intelligence capabilities and secret operations as well as separate descriptions of the extraordinary powers he will have over the military, especially contingency plans to use nuclear weapons, according to officials. In 2008, after then-President-elect Obama was given one sensitive intelligence briefing at a secure facility in Chicago, he joked, ‘It’s good that there are bars on the windows here because if there weren’t, I might be jumping out.’
“Though Trump has been given some intelligence briefings on threats and capabilities, there are a series of separate briefs scheduled for the president-elect into what Obama has called ‘our deep secrets.’ First is a detailed look at technical and human intelligence sources and methods that provide critical information on Special Access Programs — the most sensitive top-secret undertakings — for drone strikes and other intelligence operations. This would include the disclosure, if Trump wants the names, of the dozens of officials abroad paid by the CIA, to the tune of millions of dollars. Though entitled, presidents normally have not asked for names unless the secret relationship involves a particularly important CIA asset…
“Trump will learn that the president is considered ‘The First Customer’ by the intelligence community, which has a tradition of responding to any and every presidential request. A second briefing will be on the covert actions undertaken by the CIA that are designed to change events abroad without the hand of the United States being revealed publicly. There are currently about a dozen such ‘Findings’ -- intelligence orders signed by the president. Some are broad authorities to conduct lethal counterterrorism operations in dozens of countries. Others are narrow, such as support for clandestine efforts in a single country to stop genocide or payments to political opposition or rebels.” http://wapo.st/2ePVIqm
SPOTTED: Donald Trump at Trump Tower with Gerry Gunster, Nigel Farage and other Brexiters. http://bit.ly/2fOEA98
-- @ofirgendelman: “PM Netanyahu: President-elect Trump & I decided to meet soon in order to discuss all of the important issues on the agenda b/w the US&Israel”
THE DEMOCRATIC REBOOT -- “The man hoping to counter President Trump: Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, is gaining in support for Democratic National Committee chair,” by John Bresnahan and Daniel Strauss: http://politi.co/2fMTdGm
-- “Revenge of the rural voter: Rural voters turned out in a big way this presidential cycle — and they voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump,” by Helena Bottemiller Evich: “It was supposed to be the year of the Latino voter. Unfortunately for Hillary Clinton, white rural voters had an even bigger moment. Now Democrats are second-guessing the campaign’s decision to largely surrender the rural vote to the GOP. With their eyes turned anxiously to 2018, they’re urging a new strategy to reach out to rural voters to stave off another bloodbath when a slew of farm-state Democrats face tough reelection battles. ‘Hillary lost rural America 3 to 1,’ said one Democratic insider, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the campaign. ‘If she had lost rural America 2 to 1, it would have broken differently.’” http://politi.co/2fMTqcu
UNREST REMAINS -- “Anti-Trump protesters march by tens of thousands nationwide,” by AP’s Robert Jablon and William Mathis in New York: “ Donald Trump's presidential upset win sparked a fourth day of protests across the United States, with tens of thousands of protesters marching and railing against him. Saturday protests — held in big cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Chicago as well as smaller ones, such as Worcester, Massachusetts, and Iowa City, Iowa — were largely peaceful, although two police officers were slightly injured in protests in Indianapolis.” http://apne.ws/2fP6v6U … Pic from Nathaniel Haas of the giant protests in LA on Wilshire Blvd. http://bit.ly/2fJAHzD
-- “EU Ministers to Huddle Over Donald Trump Policy on Iran, Russia: Emergency meeting on Sunday called to discuss agreements set during Obama administration; Trump has suggested he could upend them,” by WSJ’s Laurence Norman and Julian E. Barnes in Brussels: “European foreign ministers, unnerved by the election of Donald Trump as president, plan to huddle on how to handle relations with the U.S. over key issues like Russia and Iran at an emergency dinner called for Sunday night. The European Union worked closely with the Obama administration to construct broad economic pressure against Russia over the Ukraine crisis and strike an agreement with Iran to scale back its nuclear program.
“During the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump suggested he could upend his predecessor’s policies on both issues. A Trump administration disengaged or withdrawn from Europe and focused on domestic issues, as some in the region fear, would also pose major difficulties for the region, which has struggled to develop a more-integrated security and defense bloc. However, Sunday evening’s meeting has proved contentious in the bloc. Over the weekend, several foreign ministers said they wouldn’t attend, among them, the U.K.’s Boris Johnson and Hungary’s Peter Szijjarto.” http://on.wsj.com/2eQ6nBl
THE NEXT FIRST LADY -- Haaretz: “Melania Trump Tells Sara Netanyahu She Expects ‘Wonderful Relations Between Our Countries’”: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reported in a post on his Facebook page that his wife Sara spoke on Saturday by phone to Melania Trump, the first lady-elect. Mrs. Trump said she is looking forward to visiting Israel ‘at the first opportunity and that there will be wonderful relations between our countries and our families.’ According to the post, the conversation was ‘heartfelt and warm.’ Among other things, Mrs. Netanyahu and the wife of President-elect Donald Trump discussed ‘the great challenge of raising children under the spotlight that accompanies their fathers who were elected as world leaders’ and the importance of family time ‘to enable their children to grow up in a normal way like all their friends.’” http://bit.ly/2fMYqhp
TOP OP-ED -- BEN SASSE in the Omaha World Herald, “Everyone’s duty is to hope for Trump, work for America”: “Americans sent an unmistakable message Tuesday: Washington is broken and needs disruption. I hear that and agree. In recent days, Nebraskans who voted for Donald Trump, or Hillary Clinton, or none of the above, have all asked me this question: ‘Now what? For over a year, you were concerned about Donald Trump’s character and about whether he recognizes the Constitution’s limits on presidential power. So are you going to oppose him now, or will you get on the Trump train?’ I get why folks are asking but, humbly, this shouldn’t be an either-or question. If you voted for our president-elect, you should not now become an uncritical follower. And if you voted against Mr. Trump, you should not now be a knee-jerk critic. (As has been reported, I voted for Mike Pence on my presidential ballot.)
“Now that the people have spoken, every American has two patriotic duties regarding our president-elect and the policy agenda he will outline: First, we root for him, and especially for his steady hand as commander in chief. We pray that God grants him wisdom and discernment in his new calling. (My family has prayed for him for weeks at our breakfast table and will do so every morning.) Second, even as we hope for his personal effectiveness and success, we should all still argue for principles we believe in. In the American system, the vast majority of policy is to be made by the people’s legislative representatives — not by the executive branch or by unelected judges. And thus the Congress needs to hear from the people on the issues.” http://bit.ly/2fJwXhB
--“France remembers the 130 killed in Paris attacks 1 year ago,” by AP’s Elaine Ganley: http://apne.ws/2fOG6YS
WEST COAST WATCH -- “Donald Trump won this one Beverly Hills neighborhood while Clinton took rest of liberal Westside,” by LA Times’ Alice Walton: “The Westside is one of America’s liberal strongholds, home to activist celebrities and Democratic donors willing to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for breakfast with the president. The region overwhelmingly backed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s election — except for one precinct in Beverly Hills … The neighborhood -- which runs roughly from the Beverly Hills Hotel to the Los Angeles Country Club -- voted for Trump 54% to 42%, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis. Trump owns a home in the area, though he’s told luxury magazines he often prefers to stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel when he’s in town (a house that he previously owned here is now on the market for $29.9 million).” http://lat.ms/2fOFHW4
MEDIAWATCH -- “Billy Bush courted by Breitbart for comeback gig,” by Page Six’s Ian Mohr: “Billy Bush could be going from radioactive to hot again after President-elect Donald Trump’s surprise upset on Election Day. A source tells Page Six that Breitbart News — the conservative Web site that’s headed by Trump’s top adviser Steve Bannon -- is interested in luring Bush for its coverage of Hollywood. ‘They are trying to recruit Billy Bush,’ said a media insider of Breitbart. ‘They want to expand covering Hollywood in a big way -- and think Billy would be perfect for the job.’” http://pge.sx/2etVr18
BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman:
--“Farewell, America,” by Neal Gabler on BillMoyers.com: “No matter how the rest of the world looked at us on Nov. 7, they will now look at us differently.” http://bit.ly/2fw0drK
--“President Trump: How America Got It So Wrong,” by Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi: “Journalists and politicians blew off the warning signs of a Trump presidency – now, we all must pay the price.” http://rol.st/2fLeodf
--“Unified theory of evolution,” by Michael Skinner in Aeon Magazine: “Darwin’s theory that natural selection drives evolution is incomplete without input from evolution’s anti-hero: Lamarck.” http://bit.ly/2fkLpP6 (h/t TheBrowser.com)
--“Why You Won’t Get Your Day in Court,” by Jed S. Rakoff in the N.Y. Review of Books: “[T]he function of the judiciary as a check on the power of the executive and legislative branches and as an independent forum for the resolution of legal disputes has substantially diminished—with the all-too-willing acquiescence of the judiciary itself.” http://bit.ly/2fJpxNO
--“How Game Theory Improves Dating Apps,” by Uri Bram in 1843 Magazine: “Too much unwanted attention turns female users off online dating. Economics provides a solution.” http://bit.ly/2epPToo
--“Tent Revival,” by Amy Woolard in VQR Online: “For three days, thousands of uninsured Americans converge on the Wise County Fairgrounds for the largest pop-up clinic in the country. Most are poor, many are in pain, but all have faith in a level of care that neither the government nor private industry can provide.” http://bit.ly/2fsv605
--“The closing of the liberal mind,” by John Gray in The New Statesman: “The folly of the masses has replaced the wisdom of crowds as the dominant theme of our politics.” http://bit.ly/2fZLmdB
--“Stop Calling the United States a Banana Republic,” by Patrick Blanchfield and Patrick Iber in The Baffler: “The cavalier use of the term, by everyone from Robby Mook to Vladimir Putin, is morally obtuse.” http://bit.ly/2eLBmP3
--“Haunted in Hazleton,” by Charles F. McElwee III in The Atlantic: “The artist James Moran preserved a small postindustrial Pennsylvania city’s history—and bygone prosperity—on canvas. In 2016, his paintings of an imagined past are particularly resonant.” http://theatln.tc/2fo78pc
BONUS WEEKEND LISTENS, curated by Jake Sherman:
-- Aaron Copeland’s “Quiet City,” conducted by Leonard Bernstein http://spoti.fi/2fMZCBn
--“Leonard Cohen: A Final Interview”: David Remnick for “The New Yorker Radio Hour”: http://bit.ly/2fL0fPq (h/t Longform.org)
SPOTTED: Libertarian VP nominee Bill Weld at the Hourly Oyster House in Cambridge, Massachusetts … At John Harwood’s traditional post-election dance party last night: Geoff Garin, Laura Meckler, Lisa Lerer, Phil Rucker, Ashley Parker and Michael Falcone Erik Smith, Jerry Seib, Kasie Hunt, Matt Rivera, Annie Linskey, Dan Balz.
WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- Megan Whittemore, Sen. David Perdue’s comms director and Adfero VP Gary Nuzzi, were married at the Arts Club of Washington over the weekend. The two are high school sweethearts and both went to George Washington University. Guests were adorned with bipartisan campaign buttons #NuzziWhittemore2016. Pics http://bit.ly/2fvWev8 ... http://bit.ly/2fP7ELv ... http://bit.ly/2f5ya1M
-- Eamon Walsh and Natalie Grandison got married on Saturday at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in SW DC and the reception was then held at the JW Marriott on Pennsylvania Avenue which included delicious Haitian cuisine. Eamon is director of gov’t affairs at Amtrak and an alum of Sen. Heidi Heitkamp’s office and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Natalie is director of external relations at University of Maryland College Park. Pool report: “The happy couple met at Union Pub, got engaged at Union Station, and is now off to Peru, including Machu Picchu, for their honeymoon.” Pics from the first dance http://bit.ly/2fvZpTz … http://bit.ly/2f5w9Cv
BIRTHDAYS: Peter Arnett ... Jimmy Kimmel ... Addie Whisenant, the pride of Atlanta and HUD press secretary (aka Marie Claire’s “Message Guru”) ... NPR alum Ken Rudin, the pride of Fort Lee, NJ … Politico’s video guru Michael Schwab … Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association ... Lindsay Drewel ... Harry Hurt III ... Politico alum Jonathan Topaz, now at Harvard Law School (h/t Ben Schreckinger) ... NRSC’s Zach Gillan ... Jared Goldberg-Leopold ... Jared Parks, director of advocacy and external affairs at the U.S. Chamber ... CNN’s Eric Bradner ... Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) ... Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) ...
… Jeff Blattner, president of Legal Policy Solutions (h/t Jon Haber) ... Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker ... Ruth Wattenberg … Nochi Dankner ... Kevin Pailet of Dallas ... Ari Morgenstern ... Dominique Mann ... Brad Clark, VP of partnerships at Gill Foundation and a Human Rights Campaign alum ... Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the First Lady of Texas Cecilia Abbott ... Kelly Hughes … Morgan Downey … David Alexander ... Sherine El-Nahas ... Robert Hastings, EVP at Bell Helicopter … Chuck Thies … Marion Steinfels … WashTimes’ Seth McLaughlin … Mark Cheadle ... Terry Adamson, VP of global law affairs at Boeing and a NatGeo alum … Ken Asby ... John Lapp … Martha McKenna … Tanya Brown (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)