TRUMP AGENDA: States battle their own cities
From NBC’s Adam Edelman: “A growing number of proposed state laws designed to crack down on sanctuary cities are putting local leaders in those municipalities on the defensive, forcing many to fight off measures they say could cripple their crime-fighting abilities and threaten economic growth.”
The latest on sanctions against North Korea, from NBC’s Abigail Williams and Phil Helsel: “Imposing tough sanctions against North Korea shows that the world is united in condemning the regime's recent missile tests, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday. Tillerson made the comments during a trip to the Philippines, a day after the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved sanctions against the isolated regime. ‘The best signal that North Korea could give us that they’re prepared to talk would be to stop these missile launches," Tillerson told reporters in the Philippine capital of Manila. "We've not had an extended period of time where they have not taken some type of provocative action by launching ballistic missiles.’”
ICYMI: Mike Pence calls reports that he’s building a 2020 campaign “laughable and absurd.”
From Rod Rosenstein’s appearance on Fox News Sunday, via the Washington Post: “Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein said Sunday that the expanding investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is continuing apace, even as President Trump dismissed the probe as ‘a total fabrication.’ Rosenstein said special counsel Robert S. Mueller III can investigate any crimes that he might discover within the scope of his probe, but the deputy attorney general would not discuss which individuals are the subject of their inquiry. The interview comes days after Trump said he believes it would be inappropriate for Mueller to dig into Trump family finances.”
The Washington Post reports on how Republican governors are intensifying police patrols in high-crime urban areas.
Jane Timm reports on the controversy over potential voter purges.
The New York Times looks at how Trump is encouraging more coal mining on lands owned by the federal government.
POLITICO: “Republicans acknowledge that the aggressive timeline they have set up for overhauling the tax code this fall leaves them little room for error. There could be one problem with that: Obamacare isn’t going away.”
And the Wall Street Journal: “Congressional Republicans plan to use the next four weeks away from Washington making a public case for a sweeping rewrite of the tax code, an ambitious legislative undertaking they hope will heal divisions that opened when the party’s signature health-care bill collapsed. But at home in their districts, they face pressures that could make it hard to focus on taxes. Many of their constituents and party activists blame Congress, more than President Donald Trump, for the health-care stalemate and are pressing them to find a resolution. And before they can do anything, lawmakers face a load of time-sensitive fiscal business: hashing out a budget, funding the government and raising the federal debt limit.”
The New York Times looks at how Trump has taken the typical fabrications of American politics to a new level.
OFF TO THE RACES: How America’s politics have realigned in the last 20 years
Dante Chinni and Sally Bronston take a big look at the political realignment of the past 20 years.
POLITICO: “Fully half of the 18 members leaving the House next year jumped in order to run for governor in their states, looking to trade in legislative gridlock for executive orders — and the chance to play a dominating role in redrawing their colleagues’ districts in four years.”
AL-SEN: Can Luther Strange shake his ties to Robert Bentley?
AK-GOV: Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott say they will run together again in 2018.
FL-SEN: Abortion foes are targeting Bill Nelson, the Tampa Bay Times notes.
TN-GOV: “Craig Fitzhugh, the Democratic leader in the Tennessee House of Representatives, says he's running for governor of Tennessee in 2018, setting up a long-anticipated head-to-head race with former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean for the Democratic nomination.”