OBAMA AGENDA: Thwarted on immigration?
Msnbc.com's Amanda Sakuma writes that when it comes to the president's immigration actions, "lawsuits and incremental blunders have stacked up to thwart implementation of an ambitious plan that was to be a cornerstone of Obama’s legacy."
"President Barack Obama says he has no alternate plan if the Supreme Court invalidates a key benefit of his health care law and he places the burden on the Republican-controlled Congress to fix the law if the high court wipes out insurance for millions of Americans," writes the AP. "Voicing confidence he will prevail before the court, Obama insisted Monday that the health care law is working and that the justices "will play it straight" and leave the law intact."
CONGRESS: Hastert’s arraignment
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert has hired a high-powered lawyer in advance of his arraignment today.
NBC's Alex Moe reports that Nancy Pelosi is in a tough spot when it comes to the president's push for fast-track trade authority.
From the New York Times: "John McCain has had many dreams. But among his greatest — second only to residing in the White House as commander in chief — was to clutch the chairman’s gavel at the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he would be empowered to advance his national security and domestic fiscal policy agendas."
OFF TO THE RACES: Euro Trip
BUSH: NBC's Leigh Ann Caldwell previews Jeb Bush's big European trip this week.
The Wall Street Journal looks at how Bush and the other GOP hopefuls are making Vladimir Putin a popular villain.
A week before his big announcement, he's reshuffling his team at the top, making operative Danny Diaz his campaign manager. From the New York Times: "That role had been widely expected to be filled by David Kochel, a Republican strategist from Iowa who had moved to Miami, where Mr. Bush’s operation is based, to oversee it earlier this year. But some of Mr. Bush’s longtime advisers concluded that Mr. Kochel, who made his name overseeing Mitt Romney’s Iowa organization in 2012, was too deliberative for the decisive management style that Mr. Bush has sought to project."
CLINTON: POLITICO writes that Wall Street is worried that Clinton will take a tougher stance on banks.
NBC's Perry Bacon: "An aggressive push for what's being billed as 'debt-free college' has galvanized progressive activists, putting Hillary Clinton in the position of either endorsing an idea that will be controversial or being criticized by liberals as too timid if she does not."
CHRISTIE: From Reuters: "New Jersey's Supreme Court will release its decision on Tuesday on whether Governor Chris Christie, a likely 2016 presidential candidate, violated public pensioners' contract rights when he slashed $1.6 billion from the state's contribution to the retirement system for this year."
CRUZ: National Journal describes the possible path to the White House that Ted Cruz laid out in an audition-like presentation for the Council for National Policy.
O'MALLEY: The Washington Post writes that one Democratic campaign is part Gary Hart reunion tour. "Some three decades later, more than a dozen Hart campaign veterans have latched onto another long-shot candidate. This time, it’s one of their own: Martin O’Malley, who joined Hart as a volunteer shortly before his 20th birthday and later ditched college for a semester to work for the Colorado Democrat’s campaign."
RUBIO: The big New York Times story: "Struggles With Finances Track Marco Rubio’s Career." MORE: "A review of the Rubio family’s finances — including many new documents — reveals a series of decisions over the past 15 years that experts called imprudent: significant debts; a penchant to spend heavily on luxury items like the boat and the lease of a $50,000 2015 Audi Q7; a strikingly low savings rate, even when Mr. Rubio was earning large sums; and inattentive accounting that led to years of unpaid local government fees."
A lengthy response from Team Rubio: "The New York Times today attacked Marco because he could not afford to pay for college, arrogantly describing his student loan debt as ‘a deep financial hole of his own making.’ The attack from The Times is just the latest in their continued hits against Marco and his family,” said Communications Director Alex Conant. “First The New York Times attacked Marco over traffic tickets, and now they think he doesn’t have enough money. Of course if he was worth millions, The Times would then attack him for being too rich, like they did to Mitt Romney
WALKER: Here's Scott Walker's statement on the one-year anniversary of Hillary Clinton's "dead broke" comment. "The fact that Clinton – with her massive earning potential and not one, but two multi-million dollar homes – could have ever considered herself “dead broke,” calls into question her basic perception of reality. A year later, Clinton is still as out of touch as ever. She’s stuck in a carefully choreographed campaign cocoon, not taking questions or talking to real Americans about the problems they face."
PROGRAMMING NOTES.
*** Tuesday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: Tamron Hall speaks with Brother of Walter Scott, Anthony Scott and the family attorney Chris Stewart about their reaction to former South Carolina officer Michael Slager indicted in death of Walter Scott, and Chicago Sun Times Washington Bureau Chief Lynn Sweet about the latest on Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert appearing in court today after he was indicted on federal charges for allegedly lying to the FBI about over unreported cash withdrawals.
*** Tuesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell will interview White House Communications Director Jen Psaki, Don Borrelli, Fmr. FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge/NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein, NAACP Legal Defense Fund Director Sherrilyn Ifill, NBCNews.com Asia America Editor Amna Nawaz and NBC’s Peter Alexander, John Yang and Gabe Gutierrez.