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Former President Obamas White House political director is informally providing strategic advice to leaders at the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

David Simas, who is now CEO of the Obama Foundation, is close with DNC Chairman Tom Perez and has been in regular contact with Sam Cornale, a top adviser to Perez.

A source who has been involved in the transition said Simas has provided strategic advice on hiring decisions.

The talks with one of Obamas most prominent political aides underscore the delicate line walked by the DNC as it charts a way forward after a divisive presidential primary battle last year.

Any conversations between Perez and political figures who are viewed as being part of the establishment can be greeted with suspicion by liberal Democrats, who want to see the DNC stocked with progressives after the organization tilted the scales in favor of Hillary ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonIs Trumps presidency the patriarchys last gasp? The Hill's 12:30 Report Christie: Ex-Trump aide deserves presumption of innocence on Russia MORE and against Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersClinton campaign plagued by bickering Republican wins Kansas special election, fending off upset Obama fingerprints at DNC? MORE (I-Vt.) last year during the presidential campaign.

Perez, Obamas Labor secretary, was seen as the former presidents favored candidate in the race for the chairmanship earlier this year. Progressives were disappointed when he defeated Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who ran with the support of Sanders.

A spokesperson for the DNC downplayed the conversations, saying Simas is not advising in any official capacity and that talks with Perez represent just a small part of the input the chairman is taking from Democrats across the country as he seeks a path forward for a party devastated by its loss of the White House in 2016.

Hundreds of people from across the country have given input, volunteered their time, or sat down with Tom and other DNC officers to help rebuild the party, DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement.

Some liberals also say theyre not concerned about the conversations as long as the DNC changes its operation.

Tom Perez can talk to whoever he wants, said progressive activist Jonathan Tasini. The more critical measure is looking at whether he will clear the decks and purge the party of the whole class of consultants and self-promoters, from the sleazy David Brocks to the various people pocketing big bucks who shake down campaign committees and super PACs, all of whom have failed miserably over a decade if you look at the party's woeful state at every level.

Others argued that it makes sense that Perez, a former Obama administration official who has no formal electoral experience of his own, would seek advice from seasoned political hands.

Theyd be smart to listen to folks who have experience with this sort of stuff, said a former DNC official.

But other liberals expressed concern that former Obama officials could have too much influence over the DNCs direction.

Hopefully its just Perez taking advice from as many sources as possible, but it also looks like the DNC did not learn any lessons from 2016 that the party needs to be rebuilt by grassroots liberals, not from the top down, one progressive told The Hill.

Perez, Ellison and the DNC have gone to great lengths to signal the party is coming together after last years divisive primaries.

Perez tapped Ellison, a progressive favorite and rival DNC chairman candidate, to be his deputy chairman. Perez and Ellison have already hit the road together for campaign-style events seeking to capitalize on liberal energy ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

Perez will venture out with Sanders later this month on a nine-state tour to push progressive policies that the former Democratic presidential candidate championed during his campaign.

Liberal groups have been happy to see Perez attend their resistance events, as he did last month when MoveOn rallied outside the White House against President Trumps ban on immigrants coming from Muslim-majority countries.

The Perez-Ellison team has been more real than I thought it would be, the former DNC official said. I think theyre serious about fully integrating the Democratic Party.

There have been stumbles along the way.

Last month, progressive groups aired their frustrations with the DNC after it announced a 30-member transition advisory committee, believing the roster needed more liberals.

But some Democrats believe the left was well-represented on a committee that included labor activist Ai-jen Poo, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), union activist Brian Weeks, Black Lives Matter figure DeRay McKesson, former American Federation of Teachers aide LaToia Jones, and former DNC chairmancandidates Pete Buttigieg, Sally Boynton Brown and Jehmu Greene.

That has frustrated some mainstream Democrats, who believe no amount of concessions to the left will ever be enough.

I think theres some groups where the advocacy is not a means to an end; its a means in perpetuity, one well-connected Democrat told The Hill. Theyre just contrarian, and nothing you can ever do will be enough.

Perez has since met personally with representatives from Progressive Change Campaign Committee, as well as several other liberal groups, like MoveOn and the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

The lines of communication are open and weve had initial conversations with chairman Perez about what a win-win partnership with grassroots liberals might look like, as opposed to top-down outreach, said Kait Sweeney, the spokesperson for PCCC.

He is committed to rebuilding our state parties and we hope that process respects the millions of liberal activists taking action in the Trump era, she continued. Theyre engaged now and they dont wake up thinking about the DNC. These people have to be brought into the party and we hope the DNC will genuinely engage with progressives groups that have experience mobilizing millions because that would be a win for everybody.

-- This story was updated at 11:31 a.m.

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Obama fingerprints at DNC? - The Hill

A former Trump campaign adviser says he was targeted by the Obama administration because he was a "dissident."

New York business consultant Carter Page told ABC News that he was "so happy" to learn that The Washington Post reported on Tuesday night that the FBI obtained a secret FISA warrant to monitor his communication last summer as part of its ongoing investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government because it confirms that he had been the victim of "human rights violations."

"There had been prior reports, but I was so happy to hear that further confirmation is now being revealed," Page said. "It shows how low the Clinton/Obama regime went to destroy our democracy and suppress dissidents who did not fully support their failed foreign policy. It will be interesting to see what comes out when the unjustified basis for those FISA requests are more fully disclosed over time, including potentially the Dodgy Dossier -- a document that clearly is false evidence, which could represent yet another potential crime."

The unverified dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele claimed that Page, who has long advocated for a closer relationship between the U.S. and Russia, had ties to the Kremlin.

According to the Post, the FBI and the Justice Department convinced a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was sufficient evidence suggesting that Page could be acting as a Russian agent to authorize electronic surveillance in the heat of the 2016 presidential race.

Page has repeatedly denied allegations that he colluded with the Russians, and the White House did not issue a response to the Post's report, though members of the Trump administration have recently tried to minimize Page's contributions to the campaign, characterizing his role as brief and informal.

The FBI and the Department of Justice also declined to comment.

Last week, ABC News reported that Page had been targeted for recruitment as an intelligence source in 2013 by Russian spies promising favors in return for business opportunities in Russia. Page acknowledged that he was the anonymous "Male-1" identified in an unsealed FBI complaint detailing the spies' attempts to gather "economic intelligence" from Page and others to send back to Moscow.

Page, who cooperated with the FBI's investigation of the spies (one of whom, Evgeny Buryakov, was arrested, imprisoned and recently deported) told ABC News that any information he passed to the Russians was "immaterial."

Any information I could give is, again, immaterial and all public information, he said during a break in a New York energy conference.

ABC News' Jack Date contributed to this report.

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Former Trump adviser Carter Page claims Obama targeted him as a 'dissident' - ABC News

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul took aim at the "one-sided" contract that airlines give its customers, responding to this week's United Airlines controversy in which a man was forcibly removed and bloodied after refusing to give up his seat on an overbooked plane.

"But it is [in] their 30,000 word contract so it must be ok," Paul said in the first of a pair of tweets Wednesday, mocking the airline. Paul was referencing an opinion piece from City Journal titled, "May I drag you from your seat?: Corporate cluelessness is leading to a decline in institutional confidence."

"We retain the right to take back the ticket you paid for, handcuff you, beat you about the head & bloody you," Paul continued his mock impression of a United Airlines contract in a follow-up tweet. He added: "This contract seems one sided."

The controversy started when video appeared online showing David Dao, a 69-year-old Vietnamese-American doctor, struggled with security guards and later, seemingly unconscious, being dragged off the overbooked United Airlines plane. The widespread backlash has prompted United CEO Oscar Munoz to apologize for the "horrific event" and said the company takes full responsibility and "will work to make it right."

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Rand Paul mocks United contract: We will 'bloody you' - Washington Examiner

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, addresses a crowd during a rally at the Western Republican Leadership Conference, in Sandy, Utah, April 25, 2014.(Photo: Associated Press)

U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, joined Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, in introducing a bill Tuesday that would require presidents to get congressional approval before taking military action over humanitarian concerns.

The bill comes on the heels of President Donald Trumps order last week to fire missiles at a Syrian air base in response to that governments use of chemical weapons in an earlier attack.

"Since the U.S. cruise missile strikes against the Shayrat Air Base in Syria last week, President Trump and several senior administration officials have indicated that the United States may be prompted to act again in retaliation to other attacks against civilians or for broader humanitarian purposes," Lee said in a written release. "We are all angered by the pictures and stories from Syria in recent years, and the desire to retaliate for these unfathomable attacks is understandable. However, over the past 200 years, the separate and distinct roles of the executive and the legislative branches to declare war, launch military attacks, and defend against or retaliate for an attack against the United States have become blurred."

The proposed legislation, the Military Humanitarian Operations Act, would require congressional approval before any military operations conducted to fulfill a humanitarian purpose where hostilities are anticipated.

"While such operations and interventions are well intentioned, recent history has shown they are often risky and may result in unintended consequences that are detrimental to our national security, Lee said.

Follow David DeMille on Twitter, @SpectrumDeMille, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SpectrumDeMille. Call him at 435-674-6261.

Read or Share this story: http://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2017/04/11/mike-lee-joins-rand-paul-bill-requiring-congressional-approval-syria-type-military-action/100328330/

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Mike Lee joins Rand Paul on bill requiring congressional approval ... - St. George Daily Spectrum

A shocking statistic from the Department of Homeland Security has appeared recently shown that cell phone searches of U.S. citizens reentering the country has gone from 5,000 in 2015 to 25,000 in 2016.

This is something Kentucky Senator Rand Paul finds obscene, or so he puts it when he was questioning DHS Secretary John Kelly during a hearing for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Weve gone from 5,000 people having their cell phones searched, to 25,000, said Paul. We are denying people entry who are citizens or green card holders who are coming back home, and your department is saying to them you cannot return to your home without giving us your fingerprint, and giving us all the data on your phone.

Paul made it clear that he understands the difference between a citizen, and a visitor, and that sometimes safety measures are warranted, sometimes in the form of denying someone entry into the country, however this does not need to apply to citizens.

I could travel abroad, and be told I cannot enter America unless I let you look at my phone. Thats obscene, said Paul.

Kelly maintained that the reported statistics were untrue, and that citizens were not being denied entry without giving up their phones. However, Paul maintains that the DHSs own numbers dont lie.

Watch the exchange below:

Due to this information, a bipartisan bill has been drawn up that would require border agents to have a warrant before they searched the phones of any American citizen, or green card holder. According to CNN, the legislation has been introduced in both the House, and Senate, by both Democrats, and Republicans.

Privacy hawks Sens. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, and Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, introduced it in the Senate, and Reps. Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado, and Blake Farenthold, a Republican from Texas, sponsored it in the House.

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Rand Paul: Citizens reentering US having their phones searched is 'obscene' - TheBlaze.com