Trump meets with bipartisan group on guns a couple of weeks ago, in which he proposed exactly what he’s backing off of now

The Chaos Report: Trump Completely Backs Away From The Part Of His Gun Proposal The N.R.A. Opposed

That’s after accusing Republican Senators of being afraid of the N.R.A., and saying he isn’t

1. Arm teachers. Check.
2. Improve background checks. Check.
3. Focus more on mental health. Check.
4. Ban bump stocks. Check.
5. Raise minimum purchase age for semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. Nope.

That sums up White House recommendations released late Sunday to the shooting in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 people nearly a month ago. Isn’t it curious that the first 3 things on that list are things the N.R.A. approves of too, and the 4th thing isn’t?

And with that, the White House waters down Trump’s tough talk where he accused others of being afraid of the N.R.A. but not him. Just a few days ago, at a meeting with a bipartisan group of Senators, he said:

“Now, this is not a popular thing to say, in terms of the NRA. But I’m saying it anyway. I’m going to just have to say it. But you can’t buy — I mean, think of it. You can buy a handgun — you can’t buy one; you have to wait until you’re 21. But you can buy the kind of weapon used in the school shooting at 18.”

That sent the N.R.A.’s chief lobbyist rushing over to the Oval Office. Apparently he worked things out.

Now the state of Florida, long known for its loose policies, now has stricter gun laws than Trump is proposing at a federal level.

So don’t forget: the big “March for Our Lives” in Washington, led by the Parkland students is coming up on March 24th, with simultaneous events in many cities. Info. is here on timing and all the related events. This ain’t over, not by a longshot.

Meanwhile, Trump is also appointing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to head a special Commission on improving school safety.

Probably not the best timing for DeVos to give a characteristically inept 60 Minutes interview. Axios provides a clip:

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Tomorrow’s Special Election The “Real” Reason Trump Was In Pennsylvania

Politico aptly describes the President’s rally in Pennsylvania this weekend as “Trump endorses himself”. But really, that rally was ostensibly to endorse the candidacy of Republican Rick Saccone in a special House election. Even though Trump won the district South of Pittsburgh by 20-points, and before him, Romney by 17-points, it’s neck-and-neck. Partly because Democrats, who didn’t even bother fielding a candidate a lot of times in this district, found a particularly strong candidate in Connor Lamb, a former Marine and federal prosecutor. One positive sign for the Democrat: fivethirtyeight points to a poll showing his prospective voters much more excited about voting for him than his Republican opponent.

However, that poll was taken prior to Trump’s visit. The Trump folks seem to be hedging their bets though: a story in Axios late Sunday night asserts that Trump privately trashed Saccone, referring to him as a “terrible, weak candidate”.

There’s a lot of money pouring into this race from both sides, especially considering whomever wins will have to run again this November. So the actual stakes are relatively small, and that’ll be the line you’ll hear a lot of Republicans using if they lose the seat.

Rick Saccone (R) l, Connor Lamb (D) r

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Trump Increasingly Seems To Be Making Huge Decisions Impulsively, On His Own, Without Consultation

Case in point: the way Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was (or wasn’t) informed of Trump’s decision to open talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Now Tillerson said Trump’s decision was “not a surprise in any way”. Which of course means the abrupt announcement came as a total surprise to a Cabinet Secretary one would think the President would want to consult on a diplomatic initiative of this magnitude. Tillerson described the decision as one “the President took himself”, and admitted he did not talk about it with Trump until the following morning. “Very early”, he said with a smile. (We like Rex Tillerson)

Here’s a clip:

So maybe it doesn’t matter so much that a lot of Trump’s “best people” have left the White House, since he doesn’t seem to listen to most of them anyway.

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Two Briefs:

• Lawyer Emmet Flood, who advised Clinton during his impeachment proceedings is being considered for a position with the Trump legal team, that according to the New York Times. That elicited a series of angry, insulting Tweets from Trump about Maggie Haberman, who wrote the story (see above). The Washington Post’s Robert Costa Tweeted he might’ve been interviewing for Associate Attorney General instead.

• The Democratic National Committee approved a plan to reduce the influence of the much-reviled “Superdelegates” in time for the next Presidential race, says the Washington Post. In 2016, there were about 700 of them, about 30% of all delegates. “Superdelegates” are Members of Congress and other party officials whose votes were not bound to any primary result. The idea was originally introduced to prevent an unelectable candidate from getting nominated. Some argue they had exactly the opposite effect.

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