Dems Don't Plan To Gerrymander, GOP Senators Slam Trump Admin For Killing DACA Deal, And Why The NRA Is So Powerful

February 16th, 2018 Top Stories --------------------------------------------------------------- [Don’t Expect Dems To Seek Redistricting Revenge Where They Get The Chance]( The Gist: In 2010, Republicans poured money and resources into key state legislatures in order to control the once-a-decade redistricting process that would follow. The GOP emerged with full control of numerous key states, allowing them to draw congressional and state legislative district lines to their advantage, and giving them a major edge in elections for the rest of the decade. In 2012, Democrats won 1.4 million more votes for the House than the GOP, but wound up with 33 fewer seats. With the next Census less than two years away, Democrats are mobilizing to try to prevent the same thing from happening again. But going further, by setting themselves up to carry out their own gerrymander, doesn’t appear to be on the agenda—at least for now. [Republican Senators Slam Trump Admin For Killing DACA Compromise]( The Gist: After three consecutive plans to address the DACA program went down in flames Thursday afternoon, Republicans who signed onto the bipartisan compromise bill that came closest to passage tore into the Trump administration for lobbying against it. [Pruitt Started Flying First Class To Avoid People Yelling Profanities At Him]( The Gist: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt began flying first class in May when his security team determined that it would help him avoid confrontations, Henry Barnet, the director of the EPA’s Office of Criminal Enforcement, told Politico on Thursday. From The Reporter's Notebook --------------------------------------------------------------- [TPM's Tierney Sneed reported]( a false claim made Wednesday by Vice President Pence that the "universal conclusion of our intelligence communities" was that "none" of Russia's 2016 election meddling "had any effect on the outcome of the 2016 election." The intelligence community, in its January 2017 assessment of Russia's interference, declined to make a judge about whether or not it affected the election's outcome. Pence's office never responded to TPM's inquiry seeking clarification for his remark, but it has since [also been disputed]( by former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. “I have great respect for Vice President Pence, but in this case, I must respectfully disagree with what he said,” Clapper said, while noting that the assessment said it had seen "no evidence of interference with voter tallies." He reiterated what the assessment said about not coming to a conclusion on Russia's more broad impacts on the election's outcome, a point Clapper said was discussed when he briefed President Trump and his team — including Pence — during the transition. Agree Or Disagree? --------------------------------------------------------------- Josh Marshall: "A major driver of gun massacres is not simply our failure to act on any one of the various proposed incremental reforms. It is our failure to act on any of them or all of them, ever, which validates and encourages a culture of massacre. I want to be clear precisely what I mean. Our inaction itself and the clear reasons for our collective inaction validate and inspire the culture of massacre. Directly. [By doing nothing we validate a simple point]( The total, maximal right to have any number of guns of any sort in any circumstance is not only more important but overwhelmingly more important than preventing school massacres. It is more important than anything. Nothing better captures the cultural supremacy of the gun than this. Nothing provides more fuel to the now hideously cliched ritual of the blaze of glory moment of total destruction." Say What?! --------------------------------------------------------------- "I do think that in some circles, it isn’t fair or right to create this impression that somehow this attack happened yesterday because there is some law out there that we could have passed to prevent it." - Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Thursday [hedging on]( any suggestion of gun control in the wake of the deadly Florida high school shooting. BUZZING: Today in the Hive --------------------------------------------------------------- From a TPM Prime member: "This is where the change will start...this generation is watching all of these shootings and wants it to stop, because they don't see a reason to own a gun in the first place. These kids will grow up, and social media will spread the message, and eventually the politicians will turn over whether they like it or not. It happened with gay marriage in the US, that was my generation and the first wave of millennials pushing for more equality, and it will happen as we go forward." Related: [FL Shooting Survivors Plead For Political Action: ‘You Guys Are The Adults’]( Have something to add? Become a [Prime]( member and join the discussion [here](. What We're Reading --------------------------------------------------------------- Why Is The NRA So Powerful? ([The Guardian]( Is Donald Trump A Traitor? ([The Intercept]( [unsubscribe from this list]( | [update subscription preferences]( | [view email in browser](