WILL THE SENATE BE IN SESSIONS? — There were several key primaries taking place all around the country last night — including in Alabama, where President Donald Trump’s former Attorney General Jeff Sessions finished well short of a majority in the state’s Senate primary. Now, Sessions will have to face a runoff on March 31 against former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville — but Trump may have just doomed Sessions’ chances for a congressional comeback.
While Trump stayed silent in the primary, he ripped Sessions on Twitter this morning, saying “this is what happens to someone who … doesn’t have the wisdom or courage to stare down & end the phony Russia Witch Hunt.” Trump’s intervention in the deep red state, where the president is immensely popular, could be enough to end Sessions’ comeback bid and political career, writes James Arkin. Much more on that and other Senate primaries: https://politi.co/32ZzcWZ.
In other Super Tuesday news … a pair of Texas incumbents fended off primary challenges from the left and right. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a centrist Democrat, defeated Justice Democrats-backed Jessica Cisneros. And Rep. Kay Granger, a senior appropriator and one of just 13 women in the House GOP, beat back a challenge from technology executive Chris Putnam, who was supported by the conservative Club for Growth. The Texas Tribune has a wrap-up of the two victories: http://bit.ly/2TAeaJX.
And in California, it looks like the special election to fill the remainder of former Rep. Katie Hill’s (D) term is headed to a runoff. There was a crowded field of candidates vying to replace Hill, including former Rep. Steve Knight (R-Calif.). Results are still trickling in, but Democratic California Assemblywoman Christy Smith and GOP former Navy fighter pilot Mike Garcia have shot to the top of the pack, though neither is poised to get 50 percent of the vote, meaning they will likely face off in May. The latest from The Ventura County Star’s Tom Kisken: http://bit.ly/2ToPaXs.
Related reads: “Pierce Bush is first Bush to lose Texas race in over 40 years,” via CBS News: https://cbsn.ws/39l7vdu; and “SC Democrats prepare to pitch earlier primary spot after 2020 success, Iowa failure,” by Jamie Lovegrove of the Post and Courier: http://bit.ly/2wo3beN.
CORONAVIRUS CASH — An emergency funding package to combat the coronavirus is being held up by a dispute over the cost of vaccines and hospital reimbursements. Negotiators are still insisting they’ll be able to reach a deal and vote on the legislation as early as today, but their initial timeline for releasing the bill has slipped. At issue: Democrats want to include language ensuring vaccines and other treatments are affordable, while Republicans are warning that price controls could actually make medications more difficult to obtain.
“It’s going back and forth. That’s where we are,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), a top appropriator. “There are no firm answers at the moment, but we’re moving toward getting this done and getting it done this week because the need is so critical.” And House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) indicated that if they can’t resolve the remaining sticking points, they can revisit the issue later, reflecting the desire among congressional leaders to put on a united front — and get emergency funding out the door before they leave town — amid growing fears of an outbreak. The story from Sarah, Heather and Sarah Owermohle: https://politi.co/2PJFVi6.
On tap today: the top four congressional leaders will sit down for a joint operational briefing about responding to the coronavirus on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. And Vice President Mike Pence will brief the House GOP on the latest coronavirus developments at 2 p.m., sources tell your Huddle host, while Democrats will receive a briefing from Pence at 2:30 p.m., per Heather. “Guests will include Vice President Mike Pence and additional Administration officials,” according to a notice sent to members.
Related: “Democrats Criticize Ad Targeting GOP Lawmakers Over Coronavirus,” from Natalie Andrews of the WSJ: https://on.wsj.com/2wxlMoD; and “Lawmakers looking for guidance on coronavirus,” by Roll Call’s Katherine Tully-McManus: http://bit.ly/2uVWhNy.
HAPPY HUMP DAY! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Wednesday, March 4, where your host wants to draft Symone Sanders to her fantasy football team next season after seeing her take down a protestor at a Biden campaign event last night. (Sanders’ response? “I broke a nail,” she tweeted.)
TUESDAY’S MOST CLICKED: Roll Call’s story on the status of coronavirus funding talks was the big winner.
FISA FIZZLES — Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Congress is struggling to finish something before a deadline. This time, it’s reauthorizing a set of expiring provisions in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The issue has created rifts in the Republican and Democratic parties alike, with progressives and libertarians demanding protections for civil liberties, while conservatives have railed against the law for being used to monitor Trump’s 2016 campaign and are pushing for reforms to ensure FISA can’t be abused.
GOP and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are having staff-level discussions in the hopes of reaching a bipartisan solution before the March 15 deadline, but it doesn’t look like a deal is imminent. “This shouldn’t be as hard as it feels like it is,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), one of the leading advocates for progressive-backed changes. Attorney General William Barr, meanwhile, had pitched the Senate GOP on just extending the surveillance authorities and offered to make desired reforms administratively.
But Trump told Republicans during a White House meeting yesterday that he won’t sign a clean extension, and encouraged lawmakers to strike a long-term agreement. “You all work out a bipartisan deal and come back to me and I’ll sign it,” Trump said, according to a source in the room. Now there’s talk of a 30-day extension to give lawmakers more time to reach a deal, but it’s unclear if that would even have enough support to pass. The dispatch from Marianne, Bres and Kyle: https://politi.co/32M8Vey.
Related read: “Lindsey Graham has started interviewing witnesses in FISA abuse investigation,” by The Washington Examiner’s Tim Pearce: https://washex.am/2x74vmB.
DISTURBING THE PEACE — GOP defense hawks are sounding the alarm over Trump’s new peace agreement with the Taliban — and some are even privately lobbying the White House to leave a small number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, report Lara Seligman and Daniel Lippman. The deets: “The backroom scramble comes as President Donald Trump spoke with a top-ranking Taliban official by phone on Tuesday — a first for a U.S. president and a sign of the extraordinary political risks he’s been willing to endure to engineer a campaign-season exit from America’s longest war.” More: https://politi.co/2PNzw5z.
The Trump administration has been working to build congressional support for the plan and made secret documents about the agreement available to lawmakers in a secure setting in the Capitol. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — who was standing next to Rep. Liz Cheney, a vocal GOP defense hawk, during their weekly leadership presser — encouraged lawmakers to read the documents before “someone makes an opinion about it.”
But later in the day, Cheney — who harshly criticized the agreement over the weekend — said she read the Taliban documents and still has the same concerns. “Those documents do not include in them the things that Secretary Pompeo said they would. So, my concerns still remain,” Cheney said at a hearing.
In other foreign policy news: “Lawmakers want the DNI to make public the intelligence community’s assessment of who’s responsible for killing Jamal Khashoggi,” via WaPo’s Ellen Nakashima: https://wapo.st/3avFLD7.
COLLINS’ CONUNDRUM — GOPSen. Susan Collins of Maine has declined to say whether she’s backing Trump’s reelection bid in 2020. “I already answered that question,” Collins told CNN, apparently referring to comments she made last Friday. In that interview, however, she didn’t directly address the topic: “I have voted by absentee ballot, just to make sure that I voted,” Collins told WCSH in Portland, Maine. “And I would note that it’s on the Democratic side that there are eight candidates, and my likely opponent as well as the governor and many other Democratic officials have not said who they are going to choose in what is a contested Democratic ballot. I’m focused on my job and also on my own campaign, and I’m just not going to get involved in presidential politics.”
Collins, who is one of the vulnerable GOP senators on the ballot this fall, is walking a tightrope as she gears up for reelection. While she wants to show her independence from Trump, she also can’t alienate his base too much either. That dynamic was on full display during the Senate impeachment trial, where Collins supported hauling in witnesses but ended up voting to acquit the president. The story from CNN’s Manu Raju and Alex Rogers: https://cnn.it/39m8JF7.
Related: “Ratcliffe nomination puts Susan Collins in tough spot,” per The Hill’s Alexander Bolton: http://bit.ly/2VLo2Do.
BIRTHDAY BASHES — Lawmakers threw a surprise 80th birthday party for Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights icon who has been battling cancer. A video of the surprise, via Rep. Mark Takano: http://bit.ly/2If4NdD. Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) celebrated his b-day in a far more unconventional way: a cake trolling one of his adversaries, Chinese President Xi Jinping. The pic and the backstory, from Business Insider’s David Choi: http://bit.ly/3aoaVw7.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD!— Burgess sends along this dispatch on the newest and tiniest member of the Congress team: “John Charles Everett was born March 2 at 3:30 pm. 8 pounds 13 oz. Everyone is healthy.”
TRANSITIONS
Emily Taylor is the new communications director for the Senate Commerce Committee.
TODAY IN CONGRESS
The House gavels in at 10 a.m., with first votes expected between 1:15 and 2:15 p.m. Today’s agenda: http://bit.ly/39tydRi.
The Senate meets at 10 a.m. to resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 2657 (116), the legislative vehicle for the Senate’s bipartisan energy package. Senators will vote on the motion at 10:30 a.m.
AROUND THE HILL
Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) hold a news conference on Congressional Progressive Caucus priorities and news of the day at 1 p.m. in HVC Studio B.
Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) holds a news conference to introduce the “Labor Certainty for Food Security Act” at 3 p.m. in HVC Studio B.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) holds a news conference with the local chapter of March For Our Lives at 4 p.m. on the House Triangle.
TRIVIA
TUESDAY’S WINNER: Ross A. Kapilian was the first person to guess that the modern-day “Super Tuesday” as we know it started in 1988 with about 20 states, per NPR.
TODAY’S QUESTION: From Ross: When was the last time the Democrats and the Republicans had a convention that lasted more than one ballot? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your best guess my way at mzanona@politico.com.
La Casa Blanca anunció el martes la renuncia del director de comunicaciones, Michael Dubke, en lo que se espera será el primero de una serie de cambios en el equipo de prensa de Donald Trump.
Dubke, de 47 años, ocupó este puesto, tan importante como de bajo perfil, durante tres turbulentos meses. “Puedo confirmar la renuncia de Dubke”, dijo un funcionario a la AFP.
No se ha anunciado una fecha para su salida, que ha estado en el tapete durante dos semanas.
Desde hace meses los rumores alrededor del ala oeste de la Casa Blanca apuntan a que Trump estaría inclinado a despedir en masa a su equipo de relaciones públicas.
Muchos vienen de la tradicional clase dirigente republicana y han sido aliados incómodos para el presidente.
Trump ha expresado, tanto de manera pública como privada, su profunda molestia por una serie de titulares adversos, y ha fustigado a los periodistas por publicar “noticias falsas”.
El fracaso del presidente a la hora de aprobar importantes leyes, objeciones legales a sus órdenes ejecutivas y un escándalo en la investigación de las relaciones de su equipo más cercano con Rusia, han minado su corta presidencia.
Todo esto ha hecho que el futuro de su secretario de prensa Sean Spicer y todo su equipo estén en duda.
Aunque el director de comunicaciones de la Casa Blanca es una figura mucho menos conocida que Spicer, ambos juegan un papel clave a la hora de definir estrategias de comunicación y darle forma a la agenda de los medios.
Durante la administración de Barack Obama, su asistente y confidente Dan Pfeiffer ocupó el puesto.
Though the transition has begun, President Trump remains largely holed up in the White House tweeting false accusations of a rigged election from behind a crumbling wall of lawsuits. No legal challenge, no recount, no audit has changed the outcome in any state. Mr. Trump’s claim that millions of votes were deleted or switched is denied by the official he chose to secure the nation’s election systems. Christopher Krebs called the 2020 vote “the most secure in American history” which promptly got him fired. Tonight, in his first interview since he was dismissed, Krebs tells us why he believes the vote was accurate and why saying otherwise puts the country in danger.
Chris Krebs: I have confidence in the security of this election because I know the work that we’ve done for four years in support of our state and local partners. I know the work that the intelligence community has done, the Department of Defense has done, that the FBI has done, that my team has done. I know that these systems are more secure. I know based on what we have seen that any attacks on the election were not successful.
Two years ago, President Trump put Christopher Krebs in charge of the new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Krebs, a lifelong Republican, was confirmed unanimously by the Senate.
Chris Krebs
His agency, known by its acronym, “CISA” helps secure computer systems anywhere that a security breach could be catastrophic, nuclear power plants for example, and the election hardware in all 50 states.
Scott Pelley: Why are you speaking to us?
Chris Krebs: I’m not a public servant anymore, but I feel I still got some public service left in me. And, you know, it’s hard once you take that oath to uphold and defend the constitution from threats foreign and domestic, it’s hard to walk away from that. And if I can reinforce or confirm for one person that the vote was secure, the election was secure, then I feel like I’ve done my job.
Krebs, who’s 43, worked on cybersecurity in the Bush administration, became director of cybersecurity policy at Microsoft and joined the Trump Department of Homeland Security in 2017. His priority was to stop anyone from repeating Russia’s 2016 election hacking and disinformation.
Chris Krebs: So we spent something on the order of three and a half years of gaming out every possible scenario for how a foreign actor could interfere with an election. Countless, countless scenarios.
Scott Pelley: So back in 2017, as you’re looking ahead to the election in 2018 and then ultimately the election in 2020, you have a to-do list. And the to-do list includes what?
Chris Krebs: Paper ballots. Paper ballots give you the ability to audit, to go back and check the tape and make sure that you got the count right. And that’s really one of the keys to success for a secure 2020 election. 95% of the ballots cast in the 2020 election had a paper record associated with it. Compared to 2016, about 82%.
Scott Pelley: And with a paper record, you can go back and verify what the machine is saying by physically counting the paper?
Chris Krebs: That gives you the ability to prove that there was no malicious algorithm or hacked software that adjusted the tally of the vote, and just look at what happened in Georgia. Georgia has machines that tabulate the vote. They then held a hand recount and the outcome was consistent with the machine vote.
Scott Pelley: And that tells you what?
Chris Krebs: That tells you that there was no manipulation of the vote on the machine count side. And so that pretty thoroughly, in my opinion, debunks some of these sensational claims out there– that I’ve called nonsense and a hoax, that there is some hacking of these election vendors and their software and their systems across the country. It’s– it’s just– it’s nonsense.
Before the election, as the president called mail-in ballots a fraud, Krebs’ team released a report highlighting the safeguards built into mail-in voting. His agency knocked down rumors and exposed an Iranian plot to intimidate voters. On Election Day, Krebs assembled a team in his command center to defend the vote.
Krebs in the Oval Office with President Trump. Mr. Trump put Krebs in charge of the agency handling election security two years ago.
Chris Krebs: We had the Department of Defense Cyber Command. We had the National Security Agency. We had the FBI. We had the Secret Service. We also had representatives from the Election Assistance Commission, which is the federal independent agency that supports the actual administration of elections. We had representatives from some of the– vendors, the election equipment vendors. And they’re critical because they’re the ones out there that know what’s going on on the ground if there’s any sort of issue with some of their systems. And we had representatives from state and local governments.
Scott Pelley: How did the day go?
Chris Krebs: It was quiet. And there was no indication or evidence that there was any sort of hacking or compromise of election systems on, before or after November 3rd.
And yet, this was the president, November 5.
President Trump on November 5: And this is a case where they’re trying to steal an election, they’re trying to rig an election.
Nine days after Election Day, Mr. Trump tweeted falsely that machines from Dominion Voting Systems deleted millions of votes. Krebs couldn’t remain silent. His agency and its election security partners answered with a public statement.
Scott Pelley: To quote from the November 12th statement that CISA and its partners put out, “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes or changed votes or was in any way compromised.”
Chris Krebs: Yeah, I stand by that.
Scott Pelley: The president tweeted after that statement, quote, “The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud.” Do you remember what the president said at the end of that tweet?
Chris Krebs: Oh, I was terminated? Is that– yes. I recall that.
Scott Pelley: Were you surprised?
Chris Krebs: I don’t know if I was necessarily surprised. It’s not how I wanted to go out. I think I– the thing that upsets me the most about that is I didn’t get a s– chance– to say goodbye to my team. And I’d worked with them for three and a half years, in the trenches. Building an agency, putting CISA on the national stage. And I love that team. And I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, so that’s what I’m most upset about.
Since he was fired, about a dozen Republican senators have vouched for Krebs’ work.
Scott Pelley: The president’s essentially saying in that tweet that you did a lousy job, that you and your team blew it, and allowed massive fraud, all across the country.
Chris Krebs: We did a good job. We did it right. I’d do it a thousand times over.
Still, the president’s lawyers have filed at least a dozen suits and spun conjecture without evidence.
Rudy Giuliani on November 19: And you should be more astounded by the fact that our votes are counted in Germany and in Spain…
Scott Pelley: As you watched Rudy Giuliani’s news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, what were you thinking?
Chris Krebs: It was upsetting because what I saw was a apparent attempt to undermine confidence in the election, to confuse people, to scare people. It’s not me, it’s not just CISA. It’s the tens of thousands of election workers out there that had been working nonstop, 18-hour days, for months. They’re getting death threats for trying to carry out one of our core democratic institutions, an election. And that was, again, to me, a press conference that I just– it didn’t make sense. What it was actively doing was undermining democracy. And that’s dangerous.
Scott Pelley: Let me ask for your reaction to some of the vote fraud that the president and his team have been alleging. Votes tabulated in foreign countries.
Chris Krebs: So all votes in the United States of America are counted in the United States of America. I don’t– I don’t understand this claim. All votes in the United States of America are counted in the United States of America. Period.
Scott Pelley: Voting machines corrupted by mysterious actors in Venezuela.
Chris Krebs: So again, there’s no evidence that any machine that I’m aware of has been manipulated by a foreign power. Period.
Scott Pelley: Communist money from China and Cuba used to influence the election.
Chris Krebs: Look, I think these– we can go on and on with all the farcical claims that– alleging– interference in the 2020 election, but the proof is in the ballots. The recounts are consistent with the initial count, and to me, that’s further evidence, that’s confirmation that the systems used in the 2020 election performed as expected, and the American people should have 100% confidence in their vote.
Scott Pelley: In a news conference a lawyer who was representing the president at the time, Sidney Powell, said specifically that the Dominion Company’s voting machines, quote…
Sidney Powell on November 19: It can set and run an algorithm that probably ran all over the country to take a certain percentage of votes from President Trump and flip them to President Biden.
Chris Krebs: Votes were cast in Georgia, for instance, again, on paper. They were counted by a machine. They were subsequently recounted by hand. The outcomes of that count were consistent. If there was an algorithm that was flipping votes or changing votes, it didn’t work. I think the more likely explanation, though, is that there is no algorithm, that the systems performed as intended. That the series of security controls before, during, and after an election protected those systems from any sort of misbehavior.
Most elections are run by each state’s secretary of state. But not one of them, Democrat or Republican has reported ballot rigging that would change the election. Some are paying a price for integrity.
Chris Krebs: And it’s, in my view, a travesty what’s happening right now with all these death threats to election officials, to secretaries of state. I want everybody to look at Secretary Boockvar in Pennsylvania, Secretary Benson in Michigan, Secretary Cegavske in Nevada, Secretary Hobbs in Arizona. All strong women that are standing up, that are under attack from all sides, and they’re defending democracy. They’re doin’ their jobs. Look at– look at Secretary Raffensperger in Georgia, lifelong Republican. He put country before party in his holding a free and fair election in that state. There are some real heroes out there. There are some real patriots.
At the Capitol, the stage is going up for Inauguration Day, January 20. Well before that, on December 14 the presidential electors will cast their ballots—which should settle the election. Christopher Krebs told us it’s ironic that the disruption and disinformation he feared from abroad came, instead, from Pennsylvania Avenue.
Scott Pelley: The president says you’re dead wrong about election security, and to him you say what?
Chris Krebs: There is no foreign power that is flipping votes. There’s no domestic actor flipping votes. I did it right. We did it right. This was a secure election.
Produced by Rachael Morehouse. Associate producers, Jacqueline Kalil and Cassidy McDonald. Broadcast associates, Ian Flickinger and Sheena Samu. Edited by Sean Kelly.
The period during which Esper was defense secretary was “an unprecedented time of civil unrest, public health crises, growing threats abroad, Pentagon transformation, and a White House seemingly bent on circumventing the Constitution,” the lawsuit said.
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