NBC:
NBC News/WSJ poll: 2020 race will be uphill for Trump, but he has strong party loyalty
NBC News/WSJ poll finds President Trump facing headwinds on Russia investigation and border wall but bolstered by strong GOP support and a good economy.
Just four in 10 voters say they would re-elect him next year; 58 percent don’t think he’s been honest and truthful regarding the Russia probe; and 60 percent disapprove of his recent national emergency declaration to build a border wall.
But Democrats who want to defeat Trump have hurdles of their own. The president's job rating remains stable with nearly 90 percent of Republicans approving of his job. And a majority of Americans remain confident in the economy, believing that there won’t be a recession in the next year.
Add it up, and 2020 is shaping up to be yet another close presidential race, say the Democratic and Republican pollsters who conducted the NBC/WSJ survey…
“It’s a 45-55 against the president at this stage of the game,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart.
Folks would vote 41% Trump, 48% Democrat right now. But the election is not right now. He’s already losing with the best economy he is going to see. The base is not enough. And there is so much more to come.
WSJ:
Mr. Trump cumulatively leads a generic Democratic opponent, 46% to 40%, in four Midwestern states he carried in 2016—Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin—along with Pennsylvania, which borders the Midwest.
But he trails a generic Democrat, 50% to 39%, in five Sunbelt states Democrats aim to flip in 2020: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas.
Mr. Trump’s effort to declare a national emergency to fund a wall on parts of the border with Mexico is opposed by 60% of those polled, compared with 39% who approve.
That’s cumulative, not each individual state.
Here is what else they are saying:
Meanwhile the unpopular emergency powers thing isn’t going so well:
Bowling Green Daily News:
Sen. Paul vows to vote against giving Trump 'extra-Constitutional' power
“I can’t vote to give the president the power to spend money that hasn’t been appropriated by Congress,” Paul said just moments after drawing applause for his praise of some Trump policies and his ridicule of some congressional Democrats. “We may want more money for border security, but Congress didn’t authorize it. If we take away those checks and balances, it’s a dangerous thing.”
That would (big assumption that Paul actually votes this way) pass the measure.
Politico:
President Donald Trump delivered a scorched-earth speech to conservative activists on Saturday, calling the Russia investigation "bullshit," adopting a southern accent to mock his former attorney general, and asserting that some members of Congress "hate our country."
The rollicking two-hour-plus appearance at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland offered the president a brief respite from an otherwise miserable week in which his much-touted summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un ended in failure and his former personal lawyer delivered explosive testimony to Congress.
It was a bad week for Trump, so he retreated to the place he feels most comfortable: delusion and CPAC. But I repeat myself.
WaPo:
‘We’re not going to turn on our own’: Republicans rally around Trump as threats mount
“We’re not going to turn on our own and make the Democrats happy,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), who is up for reelection in 2020. “We don’t see any benefit in fracturing, but we do see a lot to lose.”
This is tribalism, not solid support. And make no mistake, the threats are mounting.
International section
Natan Sachs/Atlantic:
The End Is Nigh for Netanyahu
Israel’s prime minister faces possible indictment in three criminal cases—just in time for national elections.
The theatrics were meant to drive home Netanyahu’s popularity, and the renewed mandate he had received from the voters—even after the investigations and much of their content were publicly known (but before any announcement of indictments). With the reaffirmed faith of the Israeli people, Netanyahu would then turn to Mandelblit—his former cabinet secretary and handpicked attorney general—and ask, Will you really depose an elected and a reelected prime minister? Do you really want that responsibility? If, after the elections, the Trump administration revealed its long-awaited peace plan, the stakes would be even higher. The whole point of the play was to stave off an indictment.
Now not only does Netanyahu face the personal threat of indictment on serious felonies, but the political maneuver itself is in jeopardy. If Gantz was a real political competitor of Netanyahu’s before the attorney general’s announcement, his chances have now risen further. The first polls out following the announcement show a slim lead for the center-left camp. If these results hold, Netanyahu’s path back to the prime minister’s residence on Balfour Street in Jerusalem would be blocked.
It all comes down to crucial Waukesha county.
Bloomberg:
Hottest Joke in Venezuela: Shout ‘Maduro’ and Watch the Eruption
Signs emerge that people are losing their fear of a regime that they believe has its days numbered
At a bar, a mall, in a plaza, a stadium, someone will suddenly shout out “Maduro” at full throat. The response comes instantaneously and loudly: “C--- de tu m----.’’ Raucous laughter follows.
It’s a wildly inappropriate, albeit quintessentially Venezuelan, thing to say in a public setting. (The idiomatic translation would be roughly something like “Go f--- yourself.”) The inappropriateness, of course, is exactly the point, providing both the caller and the responders an opportunity to cathartically pour out their hatred for the autocrat Nicolas Maduro.
Guardian:
Brexit: Labour will whip MPs to back second referendum, says McDonnell
Shadow chancellor rules out giving free vote to Labour MPs in pro-Brexit constituencies
He said Labour would “never be forgiven in the future” if it allowed a Brexit deal or no-deal exit to damage people’s jobs and the long-term future of the economy.
A number of frontbenchers have publicly opposed a second referendum, including the shadow housing minister, Melanie Onn, and the shadow justice minister, Gloria De Piero.
That’s good, but Brexit sentiment within Labour is still too strong for comfort (which is why they need whipping. Insert your own joke.)
Let’s end today’s APR with some instant karma from Garrett M. Graff:
How Giuliani Might Take Down Trump
The parallels between the Mafia and the Trump Organization are striking, and Giuliani perfected the template for prosecuting organized crime.
The sheer number and breadth of the investigations into Mr. Trump’s orbit these days indicates how vulnerable the president’s family business would be to just this type of prosecution. In December, I counted 17, and since then, investigators have started an inquiry into undocumented workers at Mr. Trump’s New Jersey golf course, another crime that could be a RICO predicate; Mr. Cohen’s public testimony itself, where he certainly laid out enough evidence and bread crumbs for prosecutors to verify his allegations, mentioned enough criminal activity to build a racketeering case. Moreover, RICO allows prosecutors to wrap 10 years of racketeering activity into a single set of charges, which is to say, almost precisely the length of time — a decade — that Michael Cohen would have unparalleled insight into Mr. Trump’s operations. Similarly, many Mafia cases end up being built on wiretaps — just like, for instance, the perhaps 100 recordings Mr. Cohen says he made of people during his tenure working for Mr. Trump, recordings that federal investigators are surely poring over as part of the 290,000 documents and files they seized in their April raid last year.