Newsletter: Essential Politics: Live from Washington, it’s two days of political drama

You see it all the time during playoff season: people sneaking peeks at live streams of games on their smartphone while they’re supposed to be working.

Expect the same kind of thing today and tomorrow, as all eyes turn toward a pair of congressional hearings that could provide a pivotal moment for President Trump.

Good morning from the state capital. I’m Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers, and we’ve got a busy few days in store here, too, with the deadline looming for a new state budget.

But let’s get to the high drama that will soon be underway on Capitol Hill.

THE WARMUP: ROSENSTEIN

The investigation into Russian election interference will no doubt loom large over Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

He kicks off what David S. Cloud calls “a high-stakes phase” of the investigation into last year’s election.

Rosenstein, the author of the memo cited in the ultimate firing of James Comey as FBI director, was asked to testify on the renewal of federal surveillance powers. He’s scheduled to testify alongside three other top officials, including the acting director of the FBI.

And speaking of Comey…

THE MAIN EVENT: COMEY ON TRUMP

On Thursday, the same senators will hear from the man who may have the answers to a significant number of questions about the president and any effort to block the investigation into Russian activities.

Comey’s testimony is sure to draw a national TV audience, since the veteran lawman will be speaking out for the first time since Trump fired him on May 9.

Just in time for the big show, we’ve got an online guide to the Comey hearing, which gets underway at 7 a.m. Thursday.

We’ll also have live coverage on our Essential Washington news feed of the dramatic events from both days.

TRUMP BOASTS OF HIS ROLE IN SAUDI DECISION ON QATAR

On the second day of a week that his administration had promised would be all about infrastructure, the president took the conversation in a different direction.

In other words, he tweeted.

His tweets appeared to take credit for spurring Saudi Arabia and four other Arab nations to break off diplomatic and economic ties with neighboring Qatar -- a development that creates complications for U.S. policy.

“So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off,” Trump boasted in a Tuesday morning tweet. “Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism.”

IT’S A ‘TRAVEL BAN,’ SAYS TRUMP

And then there were the tweets about his administration’s effort to impose new travel restrictions on those coming into the United States.

The president made it clear what he sees his policy as being, and used the London terror attacks as a new reason for the courts to step aside. Those tweets came after earlier missives criticizing the mayor of London in the wake of the attacks.

AND ABOUT HIS TWITTER USE…

But the president may not love everything about Twitter. In some cases, he blocks users from reading his tweets.

In a letter to the White House on Tuesday, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University called on the president to stop blocking users, arguing that the @realDonaldTrump handle with its nearly 32 million followers amounts to a “designated public forum” that all Americans should have access to — even opponents.

“This is a context in which the Constitution precludes the president from making up his own rules,” Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute’s executive director, said in a statement.

THE NEW CONGRESSMAN FROM LOS ANGELES

Voters in California’s 34th Congressional District elected Jimmy Gomez on Tuesday, with the two-term state Assembly member defeating attorney Robert Lee Ahn for the seat vacated earlier this year by current Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra.

From afar, the contest likely looked to be between two Democrats with very similar ideas on what to do upon arriving in Washington. But it was a hard-fought race that saw candidates flexing muscles in L.A.’s Latino and Korean American communities. And it began with a crowded field of contenders in April, leaving Ahn and Gomez in a two-way runoff.

Both men were campaigning up until the final hours, and our Times team found voters with very different opinions on which candidate was the right guy for the job.

See the full results here. And our data team crunched the numbers to determine how Gomez won. See how your neighbors voted here.

CAPITOL HILL CRUNCH TIME ON HEALTHCARE

The president summoned congressional leaders to the White House on Tuesday to talk about the legislative agenda that lies ahead, but the biggest hurdle is what’s still lingering from the past.

Lisa Mascaro and Noam Levey write that the stalled Senate efforts on repealing Obamacare threaten to derail efforts on tax reform and infrastructure. And senators meeting on efforts to revamp the healthcare law were not optimistic.

Consider the following as an entry for most spot-on quote of the week.

“The areas we have consensus on? Let’s see, Obamacare sucks,” said Sen. John Kennedy, a first-term Republican from Louisiana.

“We may be working on this for a while.”

CHINA’S XI SITS DOWN WITH GOV. JERRY BROWN

California’s governor hit the midway point of his week in China with something pretty unusual: an in-person meeting with the country’s president.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision to meet with Gov. Jerry Brown was perhaps the clearest signal so far of the state’s special status on all things climate change in the era of Trump.

Brown and Xi have a relationship that dates back to the Chinese leader’s father, who met with Brown during the Democrat’s first stint as governor four decades ago.

Be sure to check our Essential Politics news feed for more coverage of the governor’s trip to China, which is focused on the state’s efforts to combat climate change.

GOODBYE, CHINA

Brown’s high-profile visit stood in contrast on Tuesday to other big news: The acting U.S. ambassador in China resigned after saying he could not support Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.

David Rank, a highly regarded diplomat with nearly three decades of service at the State Department, resigned his post in what officials called a “personal” decision.

The man who signed the Paris pact, former President Barack Obama, expressed optimism about the plan’s future on Tuesday in a speech in Montreal, “even with the temporary absence of American leadership.”

WHEN BROWN RETURNS…

The governor is expected to be back in Sacramento next week for the final few days before lawmakers must send a state budget to his desk.

Members of both the state Assembly and Senate are meeting this week to come up with a unified plan, which then is subject to closed-door negotiations with the Brown administration.

Our quick glance at what to watch in this year’s budget debate begins with two key points: The debate over tax revenue estimates and a fight over how to spend tobacco tax proceeds.

The deadline for legislative action on a state budget is next Thursday.

JUSTICES WEIGH WHETHER TO NIX PROP 66

California voters approved a plan last fall to speed up executions of condemned inmates, but the law has been in legal limbo for months.

On Tuesday, the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments on whether to uphold or overturn Proposition 66. And the justices seemed divided on the issue -- most notably, on the ballot measure’s mandate for death penalty cases to be resolved in no more than five years.

“We are talking about systemic change” if the initiative is enforced, said Justice Goodwin Liu.

WHAT’S CALIFORNIA’S NEW TOP COP GOING TO DO ON POLICE?

California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra has major policing issues on his plate just a few months into his new job. He has to decide how to implement a 2015 law designed to prevent racial profiling and finish civil rights investigations in Kern County and Bakersfield after years of complaints about police shootings.

In contrast to his numerous statements against the Trump administration, Becerra has been relatively silent about what he’s going to do about policing. Both law enforcement groups and civil rights activists are hopeful and concerned about his tenure, Liam Dillon reports.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- In nearly five months in office and as he considers a troop surge, Trump has not yet met or spoke with his commanders in either Iraq or Afghanistan, W.J. Hennigan and Brian Bennett report.

-- A woman who worked as a records contractor for the federal government has been arrested on charges of turning over a secret document to a news organization, the first arrest of an alleged leaker by the Trump administration.

-- More than 200 volunteers will knock on doors in California this weekend, and while they aren’t representing a specific candidate, they do have a cause: keeping the Republican majority in the House.

-- Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar essentially compared fellow Democrats Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa to President Trump as he endorsed state Treasurer John Chiang in the 2018 governor’s race.

-- Kimberly Ellis, who narrowly lost the race to be the next leader of the California Democratic Party, on Monday said her campaign found evidence of hundreds of voting discrepancies, including mismatched voter signatures and “multiple” cases of delegates voting more than once.

-- White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer returned to the podium on Tuesday, with a little less confrontationand a few more demurrals.

-- California lawmakers may add oversight of immigrant detention centers to state budget negotiations.

LOGISTICS

Essential Politics is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

You can keep up with breaking news on our politics page throughout the day. And are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics?

Miss Monday’s newsletter? Here you go.

Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com.

Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox.