(cache) Trump's new campaign: stoke the base, sully the investigators - Axios
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Trump's new campaign: stoke the base, sully the investigators

Michael Snyder / AP

A milestone, on Day 148 of the Trump presidency: Amid all the bluster and bellyaching, President Trump is acknowledging for the first time — with both public and private actions — that he's fighting to save his presidency.

It's his next campaign — triggered by his own pique and carelessness, long before he would have to formally gear up for 2020. This is a big reason nearly every action — and reaction — is aimed at shoring up his base.

In moments of clarity amid his fits of rage, Trump knows he boxed himself in politically and legally by firing FBI Director Jim Comey, triggering what he though he could avoid: an all-consuming investigation focusing on him.

Pause for a moment to soak in that the President of United States confirmed on the record via Twitter that Mueller is gunning for him. And attacked his own deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein (who now might resign or recuse himself).

The arsenal: Facing special counsel Robert Mueller's still-growing team of 13 prosecutorial killers, Trump is building his own arsenal. The president's personal legal team added the intimidating John Dowd, who represented Sen. John McCain in the Keating Five banking scandal, and whose Dowd Report for Major League Baseball got Pete Rose banished for life for gambling.

Dowd, 76, joins longtime Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz; Jay Sekulow, the TV face of the team, who's doing a "full Ginsburg" blitz oftomorrow's Sunday shows; and Mark Corallo, a Justice Department alumnus who was Rep. Bob Livingston's press secretary during the Clinton impeachment.

Reuters reports: "Another well-known white-collar Washington lawyer will likely join the team shortly."

Be smart: Trump, notorious for his litigiousness in New York, is playing an inside-outside game: stockpiling talent to protect him legally, while publicly trying to discredit the investigators and whatever they might eventually say or do.

A problem for Trump: Those things are at odds. Everything Trump says now, Bob Mueller will use against him.

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How cats conquered the world

A new study outlines how cats went from pest-controllers to human companions and found that most cats come from one of two major lineages of felines from the Near East and Egypt.

How they did it: Scientists analyzed ancient and modern DNA from the remains of over 200 cats that lived during the past 9,000 years, including Egyptian cat mummies and modern wildcats from Bulgaria and East Africa.

  • Cat's cradle: Cats began living side-by-side with humans about 9,000 years ago when farmers in the Near East seem to have first tamed their wild ancestors.
  • Biggest contributors to today's domestic cat gene pool: A cat lineage that first appeared in the Near East and then spread into Europe beginning around 4400 BC and another of Egyptian cats that moved throughout the Mediterranean along trade routes and paths of war (potentially to help control rodents on ships) during the first millennium BC. They then mated with local cats - tame or wild.
  • It's not all appearance: The genetic variant responsible for the distinct markings of tabby cats weren't found at a high frequency until after the Middle Ages, suggesting cats were until relatively recently selected for their behavior not their looks.
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Meet Jay Sekulow, Trump's TV lawyer

Steve Helber / AP

Jay Sekulow, a member of President Trump's legal team, raised eyebrows Sunday as he hopped from network to network defending Trump against reports that he's under investigation for obstruction of justice, until he fumbled while being interrogated by Fox News' Chris Wallace, and admitted he doesn't know for sure what Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is investigating.

That misstep was not due to inexperience on TV — Sekulow regularly appears as a legal analyst on Fox News Channel, The 700 Club, and Sean Hannity's radio show. Sekulow has grown famous for his work with the religious-right, such as in his defense of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).

Expect to see a lot more of Sekulow, who has essentially stood in for members of the administration on the Sunday shows for two weeks running.

Guided by religion: Sekulow is a devout Christian whose work reflects his religious beliefs, as seen in the cases he's taken up with the ACLJ, including backing their stances against gay marriage and abortion.

Runs two multimillion nonprofits with his family, the Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism and the ACLJ. As Salon's Heather Digby Parton points out, Sekulow's wife, brother, sons and sister-in-law "dominate the boards of both organizations" in an arrangement not dissimilar from how Trump ran his business and, to a lesser extent, the White House.

Fervent Trump supporter: The Washington Post's Derek Hawkins writes, "Using language popular on the political far right, he has warned repeatedly of a 'deep state bureaucracy' out to sabotage the presidency and a 'shadow government' led by none other than former FBI director James B. Comey, fired last month by Trump. In May, Sekulow dismissed the Russia scandal as 'a fraud on the American people.'" Sekulow has also personally known Trump for years.

Why he's representing Trump: "If the president of the United States asks you for legal advice and you're a lawyer and you're serving your country and the Constitution, you do it," Sekulow said on his radio show earlier this month. "This was an opportunity that opened up and we wanted to take advantage of it in order to make sure the Constitution is fulfilled. This is an attack on the presidency. That's what this is."

Why he's on TV: As Axios' Jonathan Swan reported earlier this month, Trump's lead lawyer on the Russia probe, Marc Kasowitz, is not viewed as good media talent, and Trump thinks Sekulow does a good job defending him on TV.

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The key points from Megyn Kelly's Alex Jones interview

John Minchillo/ Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Despite backlash and controversy, right-wing personality and Infowars founder, Alex Jones, was interviewed on last night's Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly. Here's what you missed:

  • Kelly pushed Jones on his controversial response to the Manchester attack, which Jones defended arguing that the media clipped his response, and that he wasn't aware of who the victims were when he said it.
  • Jones wouldn't say how many times the President has called him, but called their relationship "friendly."
  • "I was going into devil's advocate," Jones in regards to his Sandy Hook conspiracy theory, and he continued to stand behind his statements.
  • Kelly addressed the real life implications from Infowars promoting fake stories from the Pizzagate scandal to the death threats parents of Sandy book victims have received.
Watch the full interview, here.
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Online mattress retailer Casper raises $170 million

Casper, a New York-based direct-to-consumer bedding products retailer, has raised $170 million in Series C funding. Target Corp. led the round, after reportedly having been in earlier talks to acquire Casper outright. Other investors include Tresalia Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, NEA, Irving Capital and individual angels like 50 Cent, Kevin Spacey, Carmelo Anthony and Andre Iguodala.

Why it matters: Because it's the latest example of the rapidly converging e-commerce and physical retail worlds, following last Friday's Amazon/Whole Foods and Walmart/Bonobos deals. For Casper, it's about gaining consumer visibility. For Target, it's about better understanding direct-to-consumer selling via digital.

Remember: Casper may sell via online channels, but it's still much more of a retail company than a tech company.

Top-line: Casper reports more than $200 million in revenue for 2016, compared to around $100 million for 2015.

Bottom line: "The reality that we face is that a vast majority of people don't know that we exist." ― Casper CEO Philip Krim to the NY Times.

Giphy

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Supreme Court to hear gerrymandering case

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will take up a case involving partisan redistricting in the state of Wisconsin.

  • Background, from the Washington Post: "The court accepted a case from Wisconsin, where a divided panel of three federal judges last year ruled last year that the state's Republican leadership in 2011 pushed through a plan so partisan that it violated the Constitution's First Amendment and equal rights protections."
  • Why it matters: "[T]he Supreme Court has never found a plan unconstitutional because of partisan gerrymandering. If it does, it would have a revolutionary impact on the reapportionment that comes after the 2020 election..."
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Russia threatens U.S. after Syrian jet shot down

Olga Balashova / AP

Russia's defense ministry said Monday that it will treat U.S.-led coalition planes west of the Euphrates in Syria as targets after the U.S. downed a Syrian jet over the weekend, bringing an end to the agreement between the U.S. and Moscow, reports FT.

The no-fly zone demanded by Russia: Key cities like Aleppo and Damascus would be out of bounds for coalition aircraft. Most Kurdish and ISIS territory would not. (Go deeper with this map by Axios' Lazaro Gamio.)

Why it matters: The incident is the first time the U.S.-led coalition has shot down a Syrian plane since the beginning of the country's civil war six years ago. Moscow denounced the action as a violation of international law and has reportedly suspended its incident-prevention hotline with the U.S. in Syria in retaliation, per AFP.

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North Korea, "the worst problem on Earth"

Wong Maye-E / AP

This Atlantic cover story (online soon) by Mark Bowden, author of "Black Hawk Down" and the new "Huế 1968," gives us some new baseline thoughts about the dilemma North Korea poses for the U.S.:

  • "Thirty minutes. That's how long it would take a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launched from North Korea to reach Los Angeles."
  • "Even failed tests move North Korea closer to its goal possessing nuclear weapons capable of hitting U.S. cities."
  • "Kim [Jong-un] may end up trapped in the circular logic of his strategy. He seeks to avoid destruction by building a weapon that, if used, assures his destruction."
  • "Every option the United State has for dealing with North Korea is bad."
  • "An American first strike would likely trigger one of the worst mass killings in human history."
  • "Would the U.S. sacrifice Los Angeles to save Seoul?"
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Death toll from London fire rises to 79

Matt Dunham / AP

London police said Monday that 79 people are now believed to be dead or are missing and presumed dead after the fire in the 24-story Grenfell Tower in London, reports The Telegraph. Police Commander Stuart Cundy said that so far only five of those people have been formally identified.
It has been "incredibly emotional working in there" said Cundy. "On Saturday I went in myself and went to the top floor, and it is incredibly hard to describe the devastation in some parts of that building."

Next steps: Cundy said authorities will continue to investigate whether the building's new exterior cladding was in violation of U.K. building regulations, as the paneling may be responsible for quickly spreading the flames. Meanwhile, the government will give those left homeless by the fire at least £5,500 from a £5 million emergency fund announced by Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday.

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The incredible shrinking Islamic State

This map shows the fading fortunes of the Islamic State as it has been beaten back on multiple fronts over the past two years. It's based on data collected by analysts at IHS Markit Conflict Monitor, a service that gathers open-source intelligence on the fighting in Syria and Iraq.

The big picture: The Islamic State is losing ground fast, and a final showdown appears to be on the horizon in Syria's Deir al-Zour region, where analysts at IHS Markit have noted a significant uptick in fighting.

Mosul: The Islamic State made headlines around the world after capturing Mosul — Iraq's second largest city — in June 2014. Since then, though, it has been beaten back into the city's historic center and seen its numbers dwindle after a months-long offensive. The Department of Defense tells Axios that 96 percent of the city has been reclaimed.

Raqqa: Once considered the capital of the self-proclaimed caliphate, this city is under siege by U.S.-backed forces. However, Human rights groups have raised alarms about the effects of heavy coalition bombing.

Deir al-Zour: With Mosul and Raqqa on the verge of falling, the Islamic State's leaders have withdrawn into this Syrian border region, where they could very likely make their last stand.

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Scoop: Jeff Holmstead expected to be #2 at EPA

Jeff Holmstead, a former top EPA official under President George W. Bush, is expected to be appointed as the No. 2 official at the EPA, according to two sources familiar with the decision-making process.

Holmstead, now a partner at law and lobbying firm Bracewell, is the last man standing for the deputy administrator post. EPA chief Scott Pruitt has met with him and likes him, and the White House recommended him so he's an easy pass from that end. No final decision has been made, but there is no other serious contender for the job at this moment. Other contenders, including coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler, have been cast aside, according to a source with direct knowledge.

Why it matters: If Holmstead is nominated, it would represent a moderating tilt inside the agency's leadership. Holmstead is a veteran Washington insider and considered a more moderate official compared to many elected Republicans today, and compared to some top advisers in EPA now.

The EPA had no comment, and an email to Holmstead seeking comment late Sunday wasn't immediately returned. An automatic reply indicated he's out of the office until June 25.

The other side: A source in the conservative environmental movement tells Axios that Holmstead's nomination could provoke open opposition from conservative groups. During the Bush administration, he pursued regulatory reforms some in conservative circles thought weren't big enough and since leaving he's worked on issues that run counter to certain issues important to right-leaning advocacy groups on climate change and ethanol.

Two more things to know:

  1. Until recently, Mr. Holmstead was a registered lobbyist on EPA and Energy Department issues, and his firm Bracewell lobbies for oil refineries urging EPA to change the types of companies that must comply with a federal ethanol mandate.
  2. Holmstead has said EPA shouldn't review a scientific finding the Obama EPA issued in 2009 that concluded carbon emissions endanger public health, arguing it wouldn't stand up in court. That finding is the legal underpinning of the Obama-era carbon regulations Pruitt is now working to undo. This will be one of the arguments put forth by conservative groups should Holmstead get the nod.