Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report, and happy Monday! Our daily email gets you up to speed on the most important developments in politics…
Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report, and happy Monday! Our daily email gets you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch, co-created by Jonathan Easley and Alexis Simendinger. ( CLICK HERE to subscribe!)
Live tonight from Nationals Park in Washington, D. C.… Major League Baseball’s All Star week continues with the 2018 Home Run Derby… Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper is among the field of eight sluggers… The Morning Report’s Jonathan Easley, a lifelong fan of the World Champion Houston Astros, will be rooting for 24-year-old third baseman and first-time All Star Alex Bregman to take home the trophy.
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President Trump is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki at the moment. Trump’s comment to reporters early this morning: “We’ll do just fine.”
The president over the weekend sought to downplay the importance of today’s meeting, predicting it would be short and loose. But special counsel Robert Mueller raised the stakes on Friday when he dropped detailed and specific indictments on 12 Russian intelligence officers for a litany of election-related crimes, including the hacking of the Democratic National Committee in 2016.
The Wall Street Journal: Trump faces renewed pressure to confront Putin after Russian agents’ indictments.
The Associated Press: Trump reaches for big moment with Putin.
Trump and Putin conclude their get-together (including an initial session without aides present) with a joint press conference at 9:50 a.m. ET, where reporters will try to press the Russian president on his involvement with election interference in the United States and other nations.
“Putin is essentially an unindicted co-conspirator. And not just any co-conspirator, he’s the ringmaster of this conspiracy and he’s going to be sitting down at the table with Donald Trump. And Trump is basically saying that indictment is just a witch hunt. And that’s… a great gift for Vladimir Putin.” –— House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
U. S. lawmakers have been frustrated by what they view as a president who is more concerned with defending his 2016 election victory than punishing Russia for government-ordered and sanctioned interference.
Following Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ’s press conference announcing the indictments, the White House issued a statement highlighting Rosenstein’s remarks that no Americans had been charged in the conspiracy and that there was no evidence that vote totals had been compromised.
“I’ll be asking about it. But again, this was during the Obama administration. They were doing whatever it was during the Obama administration.” –— Trump on Saturday in an interview with CBS News.
The 2018 midterm elections are just over 100 days away. The Mueller indictments have renewed fears that Russians will once again be looking to sow discord in the process.
«We have an election coming up in November and if there is meddling in the election this November like we saw in 2016, we’re not going to have much of a relationship left.” –— U. S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman on «Fox News Sunday.”
Trump insists that he will confront Putin about the election interference, but he has also indicated that there is little he can do about it now and that he hopes he and Putin can have a friendly working relationship. There is no confidence among Republicans or Democrats on Capitol Hill that the president will be as forceful as he needs to be with Putin on the issue.
“I think it’s an embarrassment that this White House has not made election security a top priority and has not put the kind of attention and focus on it that we need. The truth is, I’m not sure we’re fully prepared.” –— Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner (D-Va.) on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The two leaders also plan to discuss a host of sticky international issues, from Russia’s annexation of Crimea and a potential new arms reduction treaty to NATO and Putin’s support for Syrian leader Bashar Assad, who has gassed his own people and is waging civil war to stay in power.
The Hill: Five things to watch from Trump-Putin summit.
The Associated Press: What Trump and Putin hope to achieve.
«I go in with low expectations. I’m not going with high expectations… I think it’s a good thing to meet. I do believe in meetings…. Nothing bad is going to come out of it, and maybe some good will come out.» –— Trump to CBS News.
David Ignatius: Putin must wonder what else America knows about Russia.
Jonathan Turley: Ignore the spin, still no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.
Fred Kaplan: Rosenstein’s indictments can’t be brushed aside.
Matthew Walther: Trump-Russia fever dreams reach parody status.
Mark Galeotti: The danger of a deal with Putin.
LEADING THE DAY
INTERNATIONAL: Trump’s big meeting in Finland is not the only global news we’re watching… ( The Washington Post offers a smart analysis today of the president’s international travels and techniques, a year and a half into his term.)
U. K. and Europe: The president left chaos in his wake last week ( The Hill)… What if the United States committed 4 percent of Gross Domestic Product to defense as a member of NATO, as Trump suggested while in Brussels? It would mean another $181 billion spent on defense in 2018 ( The Hill)… Trump tweets today that he left NATO “strong and rich,” with a successful gathering ( Reuters) .
> British Prime Minister Theresa May told the BBC that Trump offered her advice not to negotiate with the European Union (EU) on Brexit, but instead to sue the EU –— advice she opted not to heed.
> Trump described the EU as a “foe” during a Saturday interview with the CBS Evening News. That comment sparked a retort from European Council President Donald Tusk, who refuted the president’s comment via Twitter.
> Meanwhile in England, the deadly Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok was found in a small bottle in the home of a British woman, Dawn Sturgess, who died July 8 after becoming ill June 30. Her partner, also exposed to the poison, remains in critical condition ( ABC News)… Sturgess’s 19-year-old son asked Trump to raise the circumstances of his mother’s death with Putin today ( The Guardian).
North Korea: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says U. S. officials expect today to return to talks with Pyongyang about the return of U. S. military service members’ remains in that country, and other issues.
Iran: The fate of American captives held in Iran remains uncertain, The New York Times magazine reports. In addition to former FBI agent and private investigator Robert Levinson, who worked for the CIA and has been missing in Iran since 2007, Iran is known to be holding Baquer Namazi, 81, a former UNICEF diplomat; his son Siamak Namazi, 46, a business consultant; Karan Vafadari, 56, an art dealer; Morad Tahbaz, 62, an environmental activist; and Xiyue Wang, 37, a Princeton University graduate student ( The New York Times).
Africa: Former President Obama travels from Kenya to South Africa today. In Kenya, he speaks at the inauguration of the Sauti Kuu Foundation center for sports and vocational training for young people. In South Africa, where he’ll be traveling through July 19, Obama will meet with President Cyril Ramaphosa and deliver the 16th Nelson Mandela Foundation annual lecture in Johannesburg on July 17.
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SUPREME COURT: Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) announced her opposition to Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court on Friday. Trump narrowly (10,704 votes) captured Michigan in 2016, while Obama won the state twice.
Senate Democratic leaders are trying to corral their conference in an attempt to block Kavanaugh’s chances of getting 51 votes, a long shot considering the intense political pressure trained on 10 Senate Democratic incumbents running in states Trump won in 2016. (Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin last week announced her intention to vote against Kavanaugh in a state the president won by 22,748 votes.)
Stabenow, who opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination in 2006 to become an appeals court judge, and Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters on Friday announced their misgivings about the nominee’s potential impact on the court ( The Detroit News).
“Based on the large number of cases and opinions written throughout Judge Kavanaugh’s career, it is clear that he has chosen to side with the wealthiest special interests over the majority of Americans time after time.” – Stabenow
Before those objections last week, CNN offered its Senate whip tally .
Among Democratic senators representing states that supported Trump’s election is Doug Jones of Alabama. The Supreme Court battle pits Jones against the conservative leanings of his constituents, as the GOP eyes avenues to unseat him in 2020 ( The Hill).
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, up for reelection in November, is among those facing a choice of defying his party or joining Republican colleagues to support Kavanaugh. Frustrated with partisan pressure from Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D), Manchin pushed back last week against the New York liberal ( The Hill).
Democratic Party factions are airing the infighting, sparring publicly with one another over tactics to oppose Kavanaugh ( The Hill).
Meanwhile, suburban and independent voters say they’re not following the Supreme Court nomination battle in Washington all that closely ( The Associated Press).
In advance of Senate confirmation hearings weeks from now, Americans are learning more about the 53-year-old jurist’s background.
