The Morning Briefing: Another Award Show, Guns, RUSSIA and Much, Much More

Good Monday morning.

Here’s what is on the President’s agenda today:

The President receives his daily intelligence briefing
President Trump meets with Prime Minister Netanyahu
The President participates in a working lunch with Prime Minister Netanyahu
President Trump meets with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley

There was an award show last night…

Here are a list of winners, if you care. I don’t and didn’t watch.

Related:

Remember, they all knew. Accusers of Harvey Weinstein present together at Oscars

Can’t wait to see the ratings. Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel makes anti-GOP jabs after first professing positivity

Here Are All The Attacks On Trump At The 90th Academy Awards [VIDEO]

We’re still talking about gun control

A hot topic on the Sunday spin shows was gun control because the media hates guns. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.VA), who is poorly-situated in his 2018 re-election campaign in a strong Trump state, made an appearance on CBS’s Face the nation to say, “It’s not gun control, it’s gun sense. I’m very hopeful. President Trump has said background checks [are] needed. This bill of ours, the Manchin-Toomey bill, should be the base bill they work off of.”

No, it is gun control.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also made an appearance on CBS to warn, “If we don’t take this up and Democrats don’t work with us, we’ll all suffer and we should.”

Ohio’s governor and failed presidential candidate John Kasich told CNN’s State of the Union, “What I hope is going to happen is, we will make some steps. And young people, the millennials, the Gen Xers are saying, ‘Look, we have heard enough. Deliver something. Deliver something. We don’t want all these excuses. Deliver something,’ ”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, never one to pass up an media opportunity, said this weekend, “As the New York City Police Department can attest: Most of New York City’s crime guns originate from states where individuals can evade a gun background check and purchase weapons with cash and no questions asked.” Neighboring states with lax gun laws like Connecticut and New Jersey?

On the other hand, crime at University of Kansas is down after 6 months of campus carry. Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei applauds the idea of guns being banned in the U.S. Two employees quit Dick’s Sporting Goods after the store announced its own gun ban.

Florida Senate rejects ban on assault weapons, votes to arm teachers

An Illinois gun show bans AR-15 sales, landing it at the center of a national gun-control debate

Gun debate: Here are the proposals that Congress is considering

RED SCARE investigation update

Vladimir Putin says RUSSIA will not extradite the RUSSIANS indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. “Never. Never. Russia does not extradite its citizens to anyone,” Putin said. The RUSSIANS ran a troll farm used to tweet and Facebook stupid ads and political statements that apparently had some sort of effect on voters. Eric Holder, who was the first attorney general in American history to be held in contempt of Congress, said that Mueller has already prepared obstruction charges against President Trump. “I’ve known Bob Mueller for 20, 30 years; my guess is he’s just trying to make the case as good as he possibly can. So, I think that we have to be patient in that regard,” Holder said.

Here’s a real chuckle from Holder: “The difference between me and Jeff Sessions is that I had a president I didn’t have to protect.” Holder was held in contempt specifically because he refused to turn over documents to protect Obama in the Fast and Furious scandal for Congressional oversight.

Meanwhile Mueller who is supposed to be investigating RUSSIA’S interference in the 2016 election, is busy investigating Trump satellites for whatever the hell he wants. And accusations are flying about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the RUSSIA front:

Denis McDonough said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was single-handedly responsible for downgrading the language in a letter “asking the states to work with us” to better secure election systems in light of intelligence indicating Russia was attempting to interfere in the election. McDonough complained that members of Congress have shown a “stunning lack of urgency about this question,” and he put the blame mostly on Republican leaders in Congress.

“The lack of urgency that we saw from the Republican leadership in 2016, we continue to see to this day today,” he said. “It’s beyond time for Congress to work with the administration, to work with the states, to ensure that our electoral systems are ready to go. This is not a game.”

Finally, in case you were wondering, former Director of the FBI James Comey will give the first interview about his new book to George Stephanopoulos. We can only hope the book is as good as his Twitter feed.

Trump’s tariffs

President Trump will move forward with tariffs on steel and aluminum imports despite “retaliation” from other countries and concern from GOP politicians.

“As soon as he starts exempting countries, he has to raise the tariff on everybody else,” White House trade officer Peter Navarro said in a combative interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “As soon as he exempts one country, his phone starts ringing from the heads of state of other countries.”

However, Navarro said there would be a process through which companies could ask for a particular steel or aluminum product to be exempted from tariffs if they cannot get it from a domestic producer.

“There will be an exemption procedure for particular cases, where we need to have exemptions, so that business can — can move forward. But, at this point in time, there will be no country exclusions,” Navarro said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Among the tariff detractors is — who else — Senator Lindsey Graham. “China is winning and we’re losing with this tariff regime. You are letting China off the hook. You’re punishing the American consumer and our allies. You’re making a huge mistake here. Go after China, not the rest of the world,” urged Graham.

And of course good old Politico weighs in on the policy by informing us that “President Donald Trump’s threatened trade war has opened a rift within the Republican Party that some lawmakers and strategists believe could undermine their effort to keep their majorities in Congress.”

Your daily WTF:

He thought it was a blister. Now his foot has been amputated.

Historical picture of the day:

Martha Stewart leaves Manhattan Federal Court after guilty verdicts in her federal stock fraud trial in New York, Friday March 5, 2004. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Other morsels:

Roger Bannister, first to run mile in under 4 minutes, dies

Oklahoma teachers might follow West Virginia in strike, walk outs

State Dept. hasn’t spent any of its $120M to counter foreign election interference: report

ISIS propaganda video shows U.S. soldiers under attack in Niger

Italian election: Exit polls show right-wing, populist parties ahead but no clear winner

Unidentified man shoots, kills self near White House: Secret Service

Michelle Obama: Running for president out, creating “thousands of mes” in

Maxine Waters: Stormy Daniels should give her interpretation of Trump’s mental health

ABC reporter pushes Dolly Parton to bash Trump for sexism — she immediately shuts him down

WUT? Democratic Congressman Confirms Relationship With Farrakhan, Unbothered By ‘The Jewish Question’

Trump still can’t get over Sessions’ betrayal: Priebus