THE PRESIDENT SPEAKS -- @realDonaldTrump at 6:26 a.m.: “The first meeting Jeff Sessions had with the Russian Amb was set up by the Obama Administration under education program for 100 Ambs......” at 6:35 a.m.: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” … at 6:42 a.m.: “Just out: The same Russian Ambassador that met Jeff Sessions visited the Obama White House 22 times, and 4 times last year alone.” … at 6:49 a.m.: “Is it legal for a sitting President to be ‘wire tapping’ a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!” ...
… at 6:52 a.m.: “I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!” … at 7:02 a.m.: “How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” … at 8:19 a.m.: “Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me.Sad end to great show”.
SOME THOUGHTS … Is Trump just riffing off this Breitbart report http://bit.ly/2mYkklm? Or did he learn something in a briefing? … Didn’t the president say a few days ago that the time for “trivial fights” is over? And then, this morning, he poked Schwarzenegger for leaving “The Apprentice.” … The president is making a pretty good case for a full-blown congressional investigation into Russia’s role in the election.
-- OBAMA’s OFFICE hasn’t responded yet. But Ben Rhodes (@brhodes), Obama’s former deputy national security adviser, tweeted at Trump: “No President can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you.”
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Good Saturday morning. The president is at Mar-a-Lago, where, by the end of this weekend, he will have spent 31 percent of his days in office, according to CBS's Mark Knoller. Trump is holding meetings and taking phone calls at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach and “might hit a few balls,” according to a pool report by WaPo’s Jenna Portnoy. He is having dinner with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross tonight. Ross also has a mansion in Palm Beach. A recent photo of the American flag at Mar-a-Lago. http://bit.ly/2mDyJr3
A FEW SCOOPS at the top of the program.
-- RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR SERGEY KISLYAK was scheduled to attend the Gridiron Dinner tonight at the Renaissance Hotel on 9th Street, but canceled yesterday, sources tell us. Hedrick Smith, who was Moscow bureau chief for the New York Times, is doing a Putin spoof at the dinner, partly in Russian. The Russian Embassy did not reply to a request to explain why Kislyak isn’t going to the dinner and who invited him. Vice President Mike Pence, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) are among the headliners at tonight’s dinner.
-- SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL met with a group of nursing home executives this week and said that the Senate would pass the House’s health-care replacement bill before the next recess, according to sources familiar. This dovetails with what he’s been saying publicly recently.
SPEAKING OF WHICH … MCCONNELL will sit down with us for the Playbook Interview Thursday morning at the Washington Court Hotel (525 New Jersey Avenue, NW). McConnell is the third congressional leader to sit down for the Playbook Interview in the first quarter of this year. Doors open at 8 a.m. This live Playbook Interview is sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. RSVP now, seats will go quickly. RSVP here http://bit.ly/2lIdmQm
IF YOU READ ONE THING -- “Trump Inherits a Secret Cyberwar Against North Korean Missiles,” by NYT’s David E. Sanger and William J. Broad: “Three years ago, President Barack Obama ordered Pentagon officials to step up their cyber and electronic strikes against North Korea’s missile program in hopes of sabotaging test launches in their opening seconds. Soon a large number of the North’s military rockets began to explode, veer off course, disintegrate in midair and plunge into the sea. Advocates of such efforts say they believe that targeted attacks have given American antimissile defenses a new edge and delayed by several years the day when North Korea will be able to threaten American cities with nuclear weapons launched atop intercontinental ballistic missiles. ...
“An examination of the Pentagon’s disruption effort, based on interviews with officials of the Obama and Trump administrations as well as a review of extensive but obscure public records, found that the United States still does not have the ability to effectively counter the North Korean nuclear and missile programs. Those threats are far more resilient than many experts thought ... and pose such a danger that Mr. Obama, as he left office, warned President Trump that they would likely be the most urgent problem he would confront. ...
“The decision to intensify the cyber and electronic strikes, in early 2014, came after Mr. Obama concluded that the $300 billion spent since the Eisenhower era on traditional antimissile systems, often compared to hitting ‘a bullet with a bullet,’ had failed the core purpose of protecting the continental United States. Flight tests of interceptors based in Alaska and California had an overall failure rate of 56 percent, under near-perfect conditions.” http://nyti.ms/2lK2UZh
SHOW ME THE MONEY -- “Trump pleads for cash at closed donor retreat,” by Darren Samuelsohn and Marc Caputo in Palm Beach, Florida: “President Donald Trump buttered up a room full of Republican donors Friday night by boasting of his upset 2016 election win and ticking through a list of his surprise swing state victories that even the party high rollers at the private dinner couldn't have imagined possible. But Trump also told them to focus on what he needs most: campaign cash to win 60 Republican-held seats in the U.S. Senate in 2018. ‘I need you guys to step up and overwhelm them,’ Trump said at the [RNC’s] spring retreat, according to one source who described portions of the president’s speech.”
-- GREAT KICKER in Darren and Marc’s story: “While Trump addressed the GOP donors in an upstairs ballroom, hotel guests and locals swarmed the president’s limousine -- nicknamed ‘The Beast’ -- for photographs in front of the five-star hotel. ‘No touching the car!’ an agent yelled as one woman posed for a picture. Moments later, ‘The Beast’ drove off to pick up the president from a side exit and whisk him away to Mar-a-Lago.” http://politi.co/2mQk88u
THIS IS WILD -- Damian Paletta’s WaPo story explaining the rift over the border-adjustment tax has quotes from a White House official and a Treasury official carrying different messages. The BAT, as it’s now being called, taxes imports instead of exports, and is the centerpiece of the House GOP tax plan.
-- The White House official is neutral on the BAT: “The president and his team are currently deliberating over what his preferred tax reform plan will look like. The most important thing to the president is that our tax system is fair and in the best interests of the American people.” The Treasury spokesman has a decidedly different tone: “While the administration is still in the deliberative stages of the overall tax reform discussion, there are both interesting aspects and concerns surrounding the border adjustment tax proposal.” These are two people from the same administration! Read the story http://wapo.st/2mmJJrK
WHAT HILLARYLAND IS READING -- “Pence turns over to state 13 boxes of emails amid controversy,” by the Indy Star’s Tony Cook: “Attorneys for Vice President Mike Pence delivered 13 boxes of state-related emails to the Indiana Statehouse on Thursday in an effort to make sure they are archived as required by law. The move came the same day IndyStar revealed that Pence used a personal AOL account to conduct public business as Indiana governor, raising questions about whether all of his emails regarding state matters were within public reach during his time in office.
“‘[Friday] we received a large delivery of paper documents,’ said Stephanie Wilson, a spokeswoman for Gov. Eric Holcomb, who succeeded Pence in January. ‘And we understand there is more to come.’ She said state officials have not fully reviewed the contents yet. ‘It’s been expressed to us that a lot of what’s in those boxes, if not everything, we already have,’ she said. ‘But we haven’t verified that.’ Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said the records contain emails to and from government accounts, as well as emails between Pence's AOL email account and other non-state government email accounts. He declined to characterize the emails beyond that.” http://indy.st/2lq0YcD
FOGGY BOTTOM WATCH -- JOSH ROGIN in WaPo, “Tillerson pushes back on White House’s proposed cuts to State Department and USAID”: “Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is pushing back against the White House’s proposal to drastically slash funding for diplomacy and development, a sign he intends to fight for his department’s mission inside the Trump administration. Tillerson’s formal appeal of the Office of Management and Budget’s initial budget proposal seeks to restore some of the huge cuts proposed by the White House for State Department and foreign assistance funding.” http://wapo.st/2m4f9RA
--“Officials: Tillerson eyes State Dept budget cut over 3 years,” by AP’s Matt Lee: “Tillerson has agreed in principle to a White House proposal to slash foreign aid and diplomatic spending by 37 percent, but wants to spread it out over three years rather than in one dramatic cut. … Tillerson likened his approach to that of landing an airplane safely: a gradual descent rather than a precipitous one-time drop that would have far-reaching consequences for policy as well as political and human costs.” http://apne.ws/2lpRiP4
-- @kylegriffin1: “Best video you’ll see today. @mitchellreports won’t stop grilling Tillerson in photo-op—gets escorted out while still asking questions.” http://bit.ly/2lphCZI
-- “U.S. State Department criticized over quiet release of human rights report,” by Reuters’ Yeganeh Torbati: “The U.S. State Department released its annual report on human rights around the world on Friday but the release was overshadowed by criticism that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gave the report little of the traditional attention or fanfare. Tillerson declined to unveil the report in person, breaking with precedent established during both Democratic and Republican administrations. A senior U.S. official answered reporters’ questions by phone on condition of anonymity rather than appearing on camera, also a break with precedent.” http://reut.rs/2lHuoxP
-- “Amid firestorm, Trump appears to waiver on Russia deal,” by AP’s Julie Pace: “Facing a new wave of questions about his ties to Russia, President Donald 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. ... [T]he reconsideration of a central tenet of the president’s foreign policy underscores the growing political risks in forging closer relations with Russia.” http://apne.ws/2mmswyD
POLL WATCH -- “Russia investigations a ‘witch hunt’? Not according to polls,” by Steven Shepard: “President Donald Trump insists questions about once-hidden contacts between his inner campaign circle and Russian officials are a ‘witch hunt.’ Public-opinion polls suggest Americans don’t agree. While the public still has considerable confusion about what, precisely, individuals connected to the Russian government did — and how they might have been connected to the Trump campaign — there is general consensus that whatever happened, it merits further independent investigation.
“Over the past few months, public opinion on Russia — its involvement in the election and possible connection to Trump — has begun to solidify. And while much of that hardening falls along partisan lines, there are hints that sentiment is tilting against the president. The public, by and large, doesn’t think Trump has done anything illegal. But they are less-than-comfortable with Trump’s coziness with Russia, and they want to know more about it.” http://politi.co/2lHRsfS
-- Follow POLITICO’s guide to Trump’s Russia ties http://politi.co/2m7Ff81
UPDATE -- “Officials: Man threatened Jewish centers to frame, harass ex,” by AP’s Colleen Long: “A former journalist fired for fabricating details in stories made at least eight of the scores of threats against Jewish institutions nationwide, including a bomb threat to the Anti-Defamation League, as part of a bizarre campaign to harass and frame his ex-girlfriend, federal officials said. Juan Thompson was arrested in St. Louis and appeared there in federal court Friday on a cyberstalking charge. He answered questions and told the judge he had enough money to hire a lawyer. A crowd of supporters who attended said Thompson had no criminal record. His lawyer didn’t comment. Federal officials have been investigating 122 bomb threats called in to Jewish organizations in three dozen states since Jan. 9 and a rash of vandalism at Jewish cemeteries.” http://apne.ws/2lKjpog
IMMIGRATION LATEST -- “Trump administration considering separating women, children at Mexico border,” by Reuters’ Julia Edwards Ainsley: “Women and children crossing together illegally into the United States could be separated by U.S. authorities under a proposal being considered by the Department of Homeland Security, according to three government officials. Part of the reason for the proposal is to deter mothers from migrating to the United States with their children.” http://reut.rs/2m71drM
NANCY PELOSI sat down with us for a Playbook Interview Friday. The House Minority Leader sounded off on Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ limited recusal. “This is just totally unacceptable, and the very idea that they’re making excuses and splitting hairs and this or that – we have not seen the end of this,” Pelosi said. “The recusal is an admission that something was wrong. The very idea that the top cop would go to his colleagues in the Senate and withhold the truth. This is not an unsophisticated person. This is a prosecutor himself. He knows what’s there. And it’s just a reflection of the weak moral authority of this administration if they support what he is doing.” The event was sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Louis Nelson’s story http://politi.co/2mYEdsz … Full Video http://politi.co/2mDBvN3
PELOSI HIGHLIGHTS:
-- ON THE DEBT CEILING: “[O]n the subject to the debt ceiling, this shouldn’t even be a question. This is in the Constitution. We take an oath to protect and defend it; that the credit of the America is not in question. [We] are making it clear to the administration that we want a clean lifting of the debt ceiling. And that doesn’t mean we’re going to have a debate about whether we’re going to lift it or not, because even the debate lowered our credit rating a few years ago when that debate took place. We can’t have that. So from the standpoint of that, we stand ready to work with the president to lift the debt ceiling; a clean debt ceiling. Not one that is bogged down in ideological who-knows-what, because I don’t know that anybody knows what is — so clean, just clean.”
-- ON OBAMACARE: “We’ll see what they have to offer. If it lowers costs, continues to lower cost, expand coverage, and—or let’s say it in another way: if it does nothing to harm the path of lowering costs, increasing coverage, and expanding access, we have something to talk about.”
-- TAX REFORM BY AUGUST UNLIKELY: “It’s very hard. Again, we all have -- we all think we should have that, but we haven’t seen any initiative to go the table.”
-- ON THE WALL: “The border wall is unwise, immoral, ineffective, enormously costly. How are they going to pay for it? How are they going to pay for it? You know the Mexicans are not paying for it. And so it has no—if we had some additional money to spend, technology, personnel and the rest is a better place to go. So I just don’t see that as—he talks about it like he’s building a wall, though. We’ll see what he has to say, but I don’t think you’d have too much support on the Democratic side, but the Republicans seem to be cheering away at it, as they were cheering away at the overturning of TPP, which nearly 200 of them voted for.”
-- NO SUPPORT FOR BORDER ADJUSTMENT TAX: “The border tax is a real regressive tax on working families in our country. And we have practically zero—maybe there’s somebody who supports it in our caucus, but they have not come forward yet. … Because it’s just not a place to go. And I don’t even know that it has any level of success on the Republican side.”
FOR THE PRESIDENT -- K-FILE – “Sebastian Gorka, now a fierce defender of Trump, once said he had ‘no depth’ and was ‘full of bluster,’”by CNN’s Christopher Massie, Nathan McDermott, and Andrew Kaczynski http://cnn.it/2lJT1Lq
HOT VIDEO – “Child Calls Out Nigel Farage Over His Immigration Stance On Live ... TV: ‘My mummy says you hate foreigners.’” http://huff.to/2lJHP1i
HEADLINE OF THE DAY -- CHICAGO TRIBUNE, PAGE 1: “Chance, Rauner don’t see eye to eye in rap session: Talk focuses on CPS funding woes” http://bit.ly/2lI75UA
COMING ATTRACTIONS -- NYT A12, “Trump to Undo Vehicle Rules That Curb Global Warming,” by Coral Davenport: “The Trump administration is expected to begin rolling back stringent federal regulations on vehicle pollution that contributes to global warming ... essentially marking a U-turn to efforts to force the American auto industry to produce more electric cars. The announcement -- which is expected as soon as Tuesday and will be made jointly by the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Scott Pruitt, and the transportation secretary, Elaine L. Chao -- will immediately start to undo one of former President Barack Obama’s most significant environmental legacies. During the same week, and possibly on the same day, Mr. Trump is expected to direct Mr. Pruitt to begin the more lengthy and legally complex process of dismantling the Clean Power Plan, Mr. Obama’s rules to cut planet-warming pollution from coal-fired power plants.” http://nyti.ms/2lHtnpQ
-- “White House proposes steep budget cut to leading climate science agency,” by WaPo’s Steven Mufson, Jason Samenow and Brady Dennis: “The Trump administration is seeking to slash the budget of one of the government’s premier climate science agencies by 17 percent, delivering steep cuts to research funding and satellite programs, according to a four-page budget memo obtained by The Washington Post. The proposed cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would also eliminate funding for a variety of smaller programs, including external research, coastal management, estuary reserves and ‘coastal resilience,’ which seeks to bolster the ability of coastal areas to withstand major storms and rising seas.” http://wapo.st/2lHz6fn
SCOOP -- “Trump White House Shopping For Technology to Plug Leaks,”by Foreign Policy’s Elias Groll: “White House IT officials met with at least one private firm selling a network security system that would give administration officials control over how staffers use computers and cellphones to transmit sensitive information, according to people familiar with the matter.” http://atfp.co/2mYrTIH
VALLEY TALK – NYT A1, “How Uber Deceives the Authorities Worldwide,” by Mike Isaac: “Uber has for years engaged in a worldwide program to deceive the authorities in markets where its low-cost ride-hailing service was resisted by law enforcement or, in some instances, had been banned. The program, involving a tool called Greyball, uses data collected from the Uber app and other techniques to identify and circumvent officials who were trying to clamp down on the ride-hailing service. Uber used these methods to evade the authorities in cities like Boston, Paris and Las Vegas, and in countries like Australia, China and South Korea.” http://nyti.ms/2lpDlkb
TIM ALBERTA in POLITICO MAGAZINE -- “The End of the Libertarian Dream?” http://politi.co/2lKffwD
HOLLYWOODLAND -- “President Trump is late-night TV’s muse and viewers are loving it,” by LA Times’ Stephen Battaglio: “While TV news pundits were still analyzing President Trump’s first address to Congress on Tuesday, Stephen Colbert was already milking it for late-night laughs. … After languishing in second place since he succeeded David Letterman on the CBS franchise in September 2015, Colbert has become the most-watched show in late-night TV since the week of Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. He has risen to 3 million viewers a night — enough to surpass longtime ratings leader ‘The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon’ on NBC for four consecutive weeks.
“Colbert and other late-night talk show hosts are being lifted by the wave of TV viewers turning to late-night comedy to cope with their angst over the new administration. Overtly political hosts who have designated Trump as the piñata-in-chief — HBO’s Bill Maher and John Oliver and TBS’ Samantha Bee — are also experiencing significant ratings increases during a post-election period when their audience levels typically ebb. Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show’ is on track to have its best quarterly ratings since Trevor Noah took over for Jon Stewart as host.” http://lat.ms/2lHOFnb
MEDIAWATCH – “A Matter of Facts: How Women of the Press Corps are Navigating Fake News and Alternative Facts,” by Julia Felsenthal, with photographs from Alex Majoli in Vogue. Cameos by April Ryan, Mara Liasson, Susan Page, Ashley Parker, Margaret Brennan, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Hallie Jackson and Kristen Welker, Julie Pace, Sara Murray and more http://bit.ly/2m4yS5q
-- NYT has announced its slate of programming for SXSW. Dean Baquet, Meredith Levien, Sebastian Tomich, Jim Rutenberg, Sam Dolnick, Glenn Thrush and more will all take part in their programming on Saturday, March 11. http://bit.ly/2lI3XsH
--“Mark Halperin Re-Joins NBC News, MSNBC as Analyst,” by TVNewser’s Chris Ariens: “Halperin is making his appearances on MSNBC and NBC News official, as he becomes the network’s senior political analyst, TVNewser has learned. ... For NBC, he’ll also appear regularly on the Today show.” http://bit.ly/2lErpX0
CLICKER -- “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker – 12 keepers http://politi.co/2lE9GPv
GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman:
--“The Marked Woman,” by “Lost City of Z” author David Grann, in a New Yorker excerpt from his new book, “Killers of the Flower Moon” (out April 18), per Longform’s description: “After oil was discovered on their Oklahoma reservation, the Osage Nation became the richest people per capita in the world. Then they began to be murdered off mysteriously. In 1924 the nascent FBI sent a team of undercover agents, including a Native American, to the Osage reservation.” http://bit.ly/2lHZ0Ap ... Pre-order -- $18.87 on Amazon http://amzn.to/2mBCRrw
--“Tyler Cowen’s ‘The Complacent Class,’” by Dan Wang: “How adventurous can suburban life be when one is surrounded by people of similar socioeconomic class, and where nearly every social activity is mediated by the car? Why do so few people share what they learn, from books, travel, and other experiences?” http://bit.ly/2mkoYNh ... $18.57 on Amazon http://amzn.to/2mOLhsq (h/t TheBrowser.com)
--“The State of Trump’s State Department,” by Julia Ioffe in The Atlantic: “With the State Department demonstratively shut out of meetings with foreign leaders, key State posts left unfilled, and the White House not soliciting many department staffers for their policy advice, there is little left to do. ‘If I left before 10 p.m., that was a good day,’ said the State staffer of the old days, which used to start at 6:30 in the morning. ‘Now, I come in at 9, 9:15, and leave by 5:30.’” http://theatln.tc/2m4InBD
--“CNN Chief Jeff Zucker Unveils Plan to Dominate Digital: New Shows, a $25M YouTuber and Donald Trump (Of Course),” by The Hollywood Reporter’s Marisa Guthrie: “Amid his feud with the president (‘We all know the truth’), Zucker is taking his battle for TV news dominance online with a monthly audience of 100 million and a strategy to beat Vice and BuzzFeed, move stars like Anthony Bourdain and W. Kamau Bell to the web, and launch Casey Neistat, the vlog star he hired on the advice of his teen son.” http://bit.ly/2mOX89R
--“The Case for Shyness,” by Megan Garber in The Atlantic: “Joe Moran’s book ‘Shrinking Violets’ is a sweeping history that doubles as a (quiet) defense of timidity.” http://theatln.tc/2mkaWv3 ... $16.48 on Amazon http://amzn.to/2lECqHM (h/t ALDaily.com)
--“Will Write for Food,” by Bryan Curtis in The Ringer: “Readers are hungrier than ever for restaurant reviews, profiles of celebrity chefs, and gustatory travel writing. But who’s going to pay for it?” http://bit.ly/2mVebX7(h/t Longreads.com)
--“End of a golden age,” by Marc Levinson in Aeon Magazine: “Unprecedented growth marked the era from 1948 to 1973. Economists might study it forever, but it can never be repeated. Why?” http://bit.ly/2lE2tza
--“I’m Renting a Dog?” by Patrick Clark in Bloomberg Businessweek: “Can purebreds on leases democratize credit? The Nevadan behind Wags Lending thinks so.” http://bloom.bg/2mkwAj8
--“Buried Alive: Stories From Inside Solitary Confinement,” by Nathaniel Penn in GQ: “It is brutal. It is torture by definition. It destroys the mind, body, and soul, making rehabilitation next to impossible. It is also outrageously expensive, and it doesn’t work. Yet at the end of the Obama era, and the dawn of Trump’s, isolation is as widely used as ever in the American penal system. And this is what it feels like.” http://bit.ly/2lEbjg5
--“Robert Mercer: the big data billionaire waging war on mainstream media,” by Carole Cadwalladr in The Guardian: “With links to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage, the rightwing US computer scientist is at the heart of a multimillion-dollar propaganda network.” http://bit.ly/2mkbssW
--“Financiers Fight Over the American Dream,” by Sheelah Kolhatkar in The New Yorker: “A hedge fund planned to make a fortune—and do good—by exposing how Herbalife preyed on the poor. What went wrong?” http://bit.ly/2mOOoR5
--“Peter Popoff, the Born-Again Scoundrel,” by Mark Oppenheimer in GQ: “Once, Peter Popoff was a magical, mystical man of God—a giant among ‘80s televangelists. And Lord, was he rich! But he was also an enormous fraud who was ruined in scandal. Ah, but here in America, time absolves all that. And if a fellow is clever enough, he can remake his kingdom and amass quite a fortune. For the Lord worketh in mysterious ways.” http://bit.ly/2m3WlC7
SPOTTED on Thursday afternoon in the Cannon House Office Building basement: former VP Dick Cheney and Kyle Gilster, a government affairs lawyer with Husch Blackwell. Cheney and Gilster had the same kindergarten teacher back in a Lincoln, Nebraska, albeit in different decades. Pic http://politi.co/2mn6E6E
TRANSITIONS -- Nathan Leamer, most recently outreach manager and senior fellow at the R Street Institute, starts on Monday as policy adviser to FCC chairman Ajit Pai. … Ruchi Bhowmik has joined PepsiCo as SVP of public policy and government affairs for North America. She was previously the director of strategic initiatives in the office of the global chairman at EY (formerly known as Ernst & Young). http://politi.co/2m5HQgP
BIRTHDAYS: Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the pride of Paint Creek, Texas, is 67 ... Cathy Russell, former ambassador for global women’s issues at State (h/t Jon Haber) ... NBC News President Deborah Turness … Mike “Something Lite” Haidet is 29 ... Sarah Scott (h/t Georgia Godfrey) ... Nick Ryan, founder of American Future Fund and president at Concordia Group … Shirley Henry ... Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) is 49 (h/t D.J. Jordan) ... Leigh Munsil, breaking news editor at CNN Politics and a Politico alum ... Emily Bazelon, staff writer for the NYT Magazine, co-host of the Slate Political Gabfest and Truman Capote Fellow at Yale Law ... Callista Gingrich is 51 … Obama alum Jesse Lewin, now director of field brand reputation at McDonald’s … Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) is 64 ... Abby Jagoda, director of public policy and best practices at the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), celebrating in Las Vegas for BOLD PAC (hubby tip: Jonathan) ... Sean Simons, deputy press secretary at Americans for Responsible Solutions, is 26 ... Sarah Millican ... Wayne Estes (h/t daughter Ana) ... Stephanie Gidigbi, Obama ’08 and DOT alum now at the NRSC ...
... CNN’s Kate Glassman Bennett, an IJR and Politico alum (h/t Tim Burger) ... Bush 43 DHS alums Doug Hoelscher, now director of the DC office for Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and the Chertoff Group’s James Norton (h/t Ed Cash) ... Christie alum Kevin Roberts, now director of regulatory affairs and comms at Logic Technology Development ... Allison Putala of Kaminsky Putala Public Relations ... Politico’s Mark McQuillan ... Stagwell Group’s Eric Jeng ... Angela Zirkelbach ... The New Yorker’s Melvin Backman is 26 ... Alice Rivlin, senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program at Brookings, first-ever CBO director, former Fed vice chair, and first-ever female director of OMB … Ben Rogers, big brother of Sam … N.Y. Daily News Albany chief Ken Lovett ... Politico alum Zack Abrahamson, now associate at the law firm Durie Tangri LLP in SF … Andie Coller … Gary Whidby, director of ACPAC at the Auto Care Association … Connie Fenner … Nora “Pelligrino” Di Martino, daughter of Kitty and David ... Sophie Saxondale ... WTOP’s Bruce Alan ... Alireza Latifi ... Ian Goldin ... Emma Sandoe, a CMS alum now a PhD candidate in health policy ... Steve Diminuco, senior conferences coordinator at State ... Emily Ward ... Jim Sulentic ... Margaret McMurray ... Helen Nelson ... Alissa McKinney ... Simone Ward (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) ... author James Ellroy is 69 (h/t AP)
THE SHOWS, by @MattMackowiak, filing from Austin:
-- NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) … Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) … James Clapper. Panel: Cornell Belcher, Tom Friedman, Danielle Pletka and Kim Strassel
-- CNN’s “State of the Union” (9 a.m.): Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) … House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Panel: Bakari Sellers, Dana Loesch, Mike Rogers and Jennifer Granholm
-- CBS’s “Face the Nation”: Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) … Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.) … Leon Panetta. Panel: Jamelle Bouie, Ramesh Ponnuru, Julie Pace and Ed O’Keefe
--“Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) … Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). Panel: Dana Perino, Peter Baker, Laura Ingraham and Bob Woodward … “Power Player of the Week” with Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens
-- ABC’s “This Week”: Guests to be announced.
-- CNN’s “Inside Politics” with John King (8 a.m.): Panel: Julie Pace, Jonathan Martin, Mary Katharine Ham and Perry Bacon, Jr.
-- CNN’s “Reliable Sources”: (11 a.m.): Bill Plante and Kathleen Hall Jamieson … Jason Miller … Mollie Hemingway, The Daily Caller’s Kaitlan Collins, The Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui, Charles Blow, and Katrina vanden Heuvel
-- Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” (10 a.m.): Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) … Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) … Newt Gingrich. Panel: Tony Sayegh, Stephen Sigmund and Lee Carter
-- Fox News’ “MediaBuzz” (SUN 11 a.m.): Erin McPike … Katie Pavlich … Michael Tomasky … Susan Ferrechio … Katrina Pierson … Jim Rutenberg … In Touch Weekly’s Kim Serafin
-- CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” (10 a.m.): Thomas Donilon and Stephen Hadley … Stanford University’s Michal Kosinski … former Canadian diplomat and Maclean’s columnist Scott Gilmore
-- Univision’s “Al Punto” (10 a.m.): Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) … White House director of policy and Interagency coordination Carlos Diaz-Rossilo … actress and DREAMer Astrid Silva … America’s Voice founder and executive director Frank Sharry and CHIRLA director of communications Jorge-Mario Cabrera … Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad’s Raúl Olmos
-- C-SPAN: “The Communicators” (6 p.m.): App Association executive director Morgan Reed, questioned by Politico’s Li Zhou … “Newsmakers” (SUN 10am ET): Alliance for Justice president Nan Aron, questioned by USA Today’s Richard Wolf and the Los Angeles Times’ Lisa Mascaro … “Q&A” (SUN 8pm & 11pm ET): Books & Books owner Michell Kaplan, with authors Les Standiford (“Water to the Angels”, “The Man Who Invented Christmas” and “Last Train to Paradise”) and author Ana Menendez (“In Cuba I Was a German Shepard”, “Loving Che” and “The Last War” and author and columnist Dave Barry
-- Washington Times’ “Mack on Politics” weekly politics podcast with Matt Mackowiak (download on iTunes or listen at MackOnPolitics.com): Susan Page, Blain Rethmeier, Ashley McGuire.