The Daily 202: Trump’s increasingly confrontational approach to Mueller enabled by congressional GOP timidity
-- Three Koch-backed organizations are encouraging Trump to accept the Democrats’ immigration deal, which would create a pathway to citizenship for “dreamers” in exchange for $25 billion in wall funding. (Politico)
- Education Department staffers say Secretary Betsy DeVos tried to hide her agency’s budget plan from Congress. The New York Times’s Erica L. Green reports: “The budget request calls for a 5 percent spending cut, eliminates dozens of programs and pitches a $1 billion school choice proposal. … Among the proposals outlined in the 56-page plan, obtained by The Times, was the consolidation of a number of administrative offices, cutting the number of regional offices in the Office for Civil Rights and acquiring several programs run by the Department of Labor. Department officials said they have since abandoned the civil rights proposals[.] … Details of the plan surfaced amid a bitter contract dispute between the DeVos administration and the union that represents the department’s 3,900 employees. Union leaders believe the contract gutted all protections that would allow its members to defend themselves in the department’s overhaul.”
CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA:
-- Britain’s Channel 4 News broadcast undercover footage of Cambridge Analytica chief executive Alexander Nix talking about using unethical methods — including “honey traps” involving prostitutes — to swing elections around the world. From Craig Timberg, Tony Romm and Karla Adam: “Nix appears to suggest the company could ‘send some girls around to the candidate’s house.’ He later added that he favored Ukranian women in particular: ‘They are very beautiful, I find that works very well.’ … [T]he chief executive appears to float the idea that they could entrap candidates with potential bribes, ‘instantly having video evidence of corruption, putting it on the internet.’ Nix later added, ‘Please don’t pay too much attention to what I’m saying because I’m just giving you examples of what can be done, and what has been done.’” The broadcast included no evidence that such methods were used on the Trump campaign, which paid $5.9 million to Cambridge Analytica in 2016.
-- At least two sitting GOP senators directly benefited from the firm's misuse of ill-gotten data:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) used Cambridge Analytica before the firm began working for the Trump campaign. The Dallas Morning News’s Todd J. Gillman and Katie Leslie report: “The Cruz presidential campaign touted its collaboration with Cambridge Analytica as a sign of a cutting edge run for the White House, allowing the Texan to carefully identify likely supporters. The firm shifted allegiance to Trump once the Texan dropped out of the GOP primaries. … Cruz continued work with Cambridge Analytica for six months after allegations surfaced in December 2015 that the firm was using Facebook data it had received illicitly.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and the state GOP paid $345,000 for Cambridge Analytica’s services in 2014. The Raleigh News & Observer’s Brian Murphy and Lynn Bonner report: “Cambridge Analytica put a page about Tillis’ race on its website, touting its work and listing the race as a case study. ‘Our telecanvassing program contacted 123,138 individuals, resulting in an increase in turnout of 12.57% among those called, which is equivalent to over 15,478 voters,’ Cambridge Analytica says. Tillis won by 48,511 votes. … Cambridge Analytica’s data told Tillis to highlight [Kay] Hagan’s absences on the Senate Armed Services Committee to reach a certain group of voters. Tillis hammered Hagan in ads and debates on her absences and the rise of ISIS and jumped on her acknowledgement that she skipped a national security meeting to attend a fundraiser. … Tillis declined to answer questions about Cambridge Analytica on Capitol Hill on Monday evening.”
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