Donald Trump got word from his security detail in Cedar Rapids on Monday that there could be someone in the audience with tomatoes — so Trump reportedly decided to go ahead and take precautions.

"If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them," Trump urged his supporters. Were anyone to feel concern about being prosecuted for assault in such a scenario, Trump reassured that, "I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees."

Watch below. Jeva Lange

Many Washington lobbyists are giddy to have discovered themselves with the good fortune of an incoming President Trump and a Republican Congress. While some are eyeing the Republican sweep as an opportunity to at last break through Congressional gridlock, others are looking at Trump and his team's relative inexperience on Capitol Hill as an in.

"There are going to be a lot of companies and people looking for guidance in how to deal with the legislative and executive branch," Trent Lott, a former senator and current lobbyist of Squire Patton Boggs, told The New York Times. Among his friends he counts Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has been discussed as a possible defense secretary for Trump, as well as Rick Dearborn, a senior policy adviser to Trump, and David Hoppe, the chief of staff to Paul Ryan. "I am looking forward to it," Lott went on. So are many others:

[Marc S.] Lampkin, a former Republican aide on Capitol Hill, had fielded so many phone calls on Wednesday from his clients that his voice had turned raspy with fatigue. "There is a lot of pent-up demand to break the gridlock in Washington," he said.

Prominent Washington lobbyists also said that Mr. Trump would arrive in the capital with a much smaller contingent of veteran policy advisers than Hillary Clinton would have brought — and they see that relative inexperience as an opening. So they are prepared to draft legislation and regulations to quietly pass to allies on Capitol Hill and in the White House. [The New York Times]

"Trump has pledged to change things in Washington — about draining the swamp,” Lott added. "He is going to need some people to help guide him through the swamp — how do you get in and how you get out? We are prepared to help do that." Jeva Lange

In a passionate speech Thursday to the AFL-CIO, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) vowed to lead the "new era" of the Democratic Party to "stand up to bigotry." Warren acknowledged "millions of people in this country are worried" and "they are right to be," but emphasized the importance of fighting back "against attacks on Latinos, African Americans, women, Muslims, immigrants, disabled Americans — on anyone."

Warren did not once mention Hillary Clinton, for whom she campaigned during the general election, instead attacking President-elect Donald Trump and his "toxic stew of hatred and fear." "As the loyal opposition we will fight harder, we will fight longer and we will fight more passionately than ever for the rights of every human being in this country to be treated with respect and dignity," she said.

However, Warren reiterated her promise Wednesday to work with Trump on economic issues. "When President-elect Trump wants to take on these issues, when his goal is to increase the economic security of middle class families, then count me in," the senator said. "I will put aside our differences and I will work with him to accomplish that goal." Becca Stanek

Leslie Knope, the fictional female champion of public service at the center of bygone NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, addressed America in a sweet and funny letter posted to Yahoo on Thursday.

Citing an amusing middle-school experience involving a tortoise, a jaguar, and a gassy T. Rex named Dr. Farts, Knope explained in the letter that she learned at a young age that "people are unpredictable and democracy is insane." She then explained that after large amounts of hot chocolate and crying, she had worked her way through all five stages of grief in the wake of Donald Trump's stunning Election Day victory over Hillary Clinton — except acceptance:

I acknowledge that Donald Trump is the president. I understand, intellectually, that he won the election. But I do not accept that our country has descended into the hatred-swirled slop pile that he lives in. I reject out of hand the notion that we have thrown up our hands and succumbed to racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and crypto-fascism. I do not accept that. ... I work hard and I form ideas and I meet and talk to other people who feel like me, and we sit down and drink hot chocolate (I have plenty) and we plan. We plan like mofos. [Leslie Knope, via Yahoo]

Knope also appealed directly to young girls to remain optimistic and engaged. "On behalf of the grown-ups of America who care about you and your futures, I am awfully sorry about how miserably we screwed this up," she wrote. "You are going to run this country, and this world, very soon. ... You will not be cowed or discouraged by [Trump's] stream of retroaggressive babble."

Read the full letter — which was actually penned by a member of the Parks and Recreation writing staff — here. Ricky Soberano

Donald Trump is a man who likes to sleep in his own bed and has even been known to fly great distances across the country rather than spend a night away from Trump Tower. So while a certain 132-room home on Pennsylvania Avenue might be the dream of many a politician, as Barbara Walters noted last November during a visit to Trump's Manhattan home, "For many the White House is a step up. I'm looking around this room; the White House might be a step down." Will Trump even deign to live in the White House now that he has been elected?

So far, Trump has said yes, going as far as to add that he will "rarely leave" it. "Yes, I would live in the White House because it's the appropriate thing to do," he said in June of last year. (If Melania Trump will join him there, on the other hand, is a little less clear).

But will Trump then miss the Versailles-like decor of Trump Tower once he's settled into the comparatively modest Georgian-style White House? "If I were elected I would probably look at the White House, and maybe touch it up a little bit," Trump once told People. “"But the White House is a special place, you don't want to do much touching."

Political historian Douglas Brinkley isn't so convinced the White House will make it out unscathed. "Trump is like a one-man Gilded Age, carrying opulence wherever he goes," he told The New York Times in March. "We've never had someone running for president who is a bling artist." Jeva Lange

Muslim ban? What Muslim ban? Donald Trump's campaign staff have apparently scrubbed the mention of the controversial proposal from his official website. "The proposal was previously detailed on a page titled, 'Donald J. Trump statement on Preventing Muslim Immigration.' That page now redirects to a new page where supporters can donate to the campaign," The Washington Post reports.

Trump has flip-flopped on his banned proposal in the past, both doubling down on it and walking it back or calling it a "suggestion." "The best way to prevent continued radicalization from developing inside America is to suspend temporarily immigration from regions that have been a major source for terrorists and their supporters coming to the U.S.," Trump's policy director Stephen Miller clarified as late as July.

The language might still allow for targeting countries with heavy Muslim populations and many critics remain nervous about Trump's changing policy. "I don't know that [Trump] knows himself [what his policy is] because it's a minute-by-minute thing based on who is asking the question," spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations Ibrahim Hooper told The Wall Street Journal.

As for the ban on visas from certain regions? That language has already made it to Trump's government transition page. Jeva Lange

Update 2:52 p.m. ET: Donald Trump's statement on preventing Muslim immigration is back on his website and may have only been removed temporarily due to a technical glitch.

Before Donald Trump won the White House, President Obama ravaged the president-elect on the campaign trail as he stumped for Hillary Clinton. Just the day before Election Day, Obama called Trump "temperamentally unfit" and "unqualified to be America's chief executive." And though Obama spoke graciously after Trump won the presidency Wednesday and claimed to have had an "excellent" conversation with Trump on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest admitted Thursday during a press briefing that Obama still has the same views he had just a few days ago. "The president's views haven't changed," Earnest said. "He stands by what he said on the campaign trail."

What has changed, Earnest said, is that the American people have now voted Trump into office. "He had an opportunity to make his argument. He made his argument vigorously," Earnest said of Obama. But now, the "election is over" and Obama must fulfill his duty to ensure a smooth transition of power. "Our goal is to make sure that the incoming president-elect can hit the ground running," Earnest said.

Watch Earnest talk about Obama reconciling his views with his official duties below. Becca Stanek

Former Republican Illinois congressman Aaron Schock, 35, is expected to be indicted by a federal grand jury, The Associated Press reports, following a spending scandal involving real estate deals, extensive travel, and remodeling his Capitol Hill office to look like a Downton Abbey set. Schock resigned in 2015 after the reports of improper spending and questionable reimbursements came to the surface.

"This indictment will look bad, but underneath it is just made-up allegations of criminal activity arising from unintentional administrative errors," Schock's attorney, George Terwilliger, said in a statement. "These charges are the culmination of an effort to find something, anything, to take down Aaron Schock."

Schock said in his own statement Thursday that "we might have made errors among a few of the thousands and thousands of financial transactions we conducted, but they were honest mistakes — no one intended to break any law."

The indictment will end a 19-month investigation into Schock's spending. Jeva Lange