Week Ahead: California Wildfires, Election Recounts, Trump And The Attorney General

With Meghna Chakrabarti

A big week ahead in the news. Top reporters open their notebooks and share what they’re watching for in the week ahead.

Guests

Molly Ball, national political correspondent for Time. (@mollyesque)

Sahil Kapur, national political reporter for Bloomberg Politics. (@sahilkapur)

From The Reading List

Los Angeles Times: “Firefighters worry as Santa Ana winds threaten to feed Woolsey blaze in Ventura and L.A. counties” — “A forecast that includes several days of gusting Santa Ana winds has fire officials worried about the possible spread of the 83,000-acre Woolsey fire straddling Ventura and Los Angeles counties, officials said Sunday.

“The massive blaze, which has claimed two lives and forced more than 250,000 people to evacuate from Malibu to Thousand Oaks, was 10% contained as of Sunday morning.

“But expected wind gusts of 40 mph or stronger over the next several days have officials concerned the fire could spread in a quick and unprecedented fashion, and urged residents who were sheltering in place to evacuate immediately.”

CNBC: “Florida election recount underway, tensions rise” — “The first election workers are recounting ballots Sunday in Florida’s bitterly close races for the U.S. Senate and governor, ramping up their efforts after the secretary of state ordered a review of the two nationally watched contests.

“Miami-Dade County election officials began feeding ballots into scanning machines Saturday evening. The tedious work in that one South Florida county alone could take days, considering some 800,000 ballots were cast. Multiply that by 67 counties in the nation’s third-most populous state, and the scope of the task was beginning to sink in Sunday.

“In neighboring Broward County, its scheduled start of the recount was delayed Sunday because of a problem with one of the tabulation machines. The county has come under criticism from Republicans for its handling of the election. In Palm Beach County, the supervisor of elections said she doesn’t believe her department can meet the Thursday deadline.”

Washington Post: “Trump does know Matt Whitaker, Kellyanne Conway says” — “President Trump knows Matthew G. Whitaker, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Sunday, two days after the president sought to distance himself from his handpicked acting attorney general.

“‘The president does know Matt Whitaker, has gotten to know him over the course of the last year, since he has been the chief of staff to the attorney general,’ Conway said on ‘Fox News Sunday.’

“Trump last week forced Jeff Sessions to resign as attorney general and chose Whitaker, who was then Sessions’s chief of staff, to serve as his interim replacement. In the days since, Whitaker’s background and previous critical statements about the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III have come under intense scrutiny, with Democrats and some Republicans calling for him to recuse himself from oversight of the probe.” [Copyright 2018 NPR]