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Presented by Amazon: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Ryan Lizza, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross | | | We highlighted some major takeaways from our latest POLITICO-Morning Consult poll this morning that made big news. ( RON KLAIN tweeted the headline finding that voters are more likely to support than oppose President JOE BIDEN’s plan to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court, natch.) By far, the most alarming responses in this new poll came when we asked questions related to POLITICO’s recent report about the Trump administration’s draft executive order telling the military to seize voting machines. We asked: “If, following a presidential election, voting machines in swing states were seized by the United States military for analysis, would you say this was … … an abuse of power?
— Yes: 55% (“definitely” was 31% and “probably” 24%)
— No: 29% (“probably not” was 16% and “definitely not” 13%) … an effort to undermine the election outcome?
— Yes: 51% (definitely 27% and probably 24%)
— No: 31% (probably not 18% and definitely not 13%) The fact that three in ten voters seem unperturbed by the prospect of the military interfering with an election is deeply worrying. Here are some other key takeaways: Biden job approval remains poor but steady:
— Approve: 43%
— Disapprove: 54% Top issues on voters’ minds:
— The economy (e.g. taxes, wages, jobs, unemployment and spending): 39%
— Security (e.g. terrorism, foreign policy and border security): 16%
— Health care (e.g. the ACA, Medicaid): 12%
— Seniors’ issues (e.g. Medicare and Social Security): 11%
— Women’s issues (e.g. birth control, abortion rights and equal pay): 6%
— Education (e.g. school standards, class sizes, school choice and student loans): 4%
— Energy (e.g. carbon emissions, cost of electricity/gasoline and renewables): 6%
— Other: 6% Republicans continue to do well on issues that Democrats have recently held an advantage on. We asked: “Who do you trust more to handle each of the following issues?” The economy:
— Democrats in Congress: 37%
— Republicans in Congress: 47% Jobs:
— Democrats in Congress: 39%
— Republicans in Congress: 45% Immigration:
— Democrats in Congress: 38%
— Republicans in Congress: 45% National security:
— Democrats in Congress: 34%
— Republicans in Congress: 48% Gun policy:
— Democrats in Congress: 40%
— Republicans in Congress: 43% Democrats get higher marks than the GOP on health care, climate change, the environment, energy, education, protecting Medicare and Social Security, coronavirus and voting rights. Finally, the poll also found that voters have mixed but slightly positive opinions of affirmative action. Asked about it broadly, 40% of voters say they have a favorable opinion, compared to 31% who are unfavorable. And by a 39% to 26% margin, they hope the next Supreme Court justice supports affirmative action. Asked specifically about race-based affirmative action in education, 36% of voters say the advantages for some are more important than the disadvantages for others; 32% say the reverse. Toplines … Crosstabs
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Learn more about Amazon’s commitment to their employees. | | | Good Wednesday afternoon. We’re in for six more weeks of winter, PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL predicted this morning, per TribLive’s Renatta Signorini. ZUCKER RESIGNS — CNN President JEFF ZUCKER announced he’s resigning today over his failure to disclose a consensual relationship with ALLISON GOLLUST, CNN’s EVP and chief marketing officer. The relationship came to light during the investigation into now-former CNN host CHRIS CUOMO, which originally stemmed from the allegations against and resignation of New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO. — Zucker’s statement: “As part of the investigation into Chris Cuomo’s tenure at CNN, I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I have worked with for more than 20 years,” Zucker wrote in a memo to CNN staffers, per the NYT . “I acknowledged the relationship evolved in recent years. I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong.” — Gollust’s statement: “Jeff and I have been close friends and professional partners for over 20 years. Recently, our relationship changed during COVID,” Gollust, who is remaining at CNN, said in a statement. “I regret that we didn’t disclose it at the right time.”. — How it’s landing at CNN: “News of Zucker’s resignation left staffers inside the network in shock,” CNN’s Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy report. CNN leadership said news on a succession plan will come soon. Zucker has steered CNN since 2013, reshaping the network and shepherding it toward the streaming era (its new streaming service, CNN+, is set to launch this spring). RUSSIA-UKRAINE LATEST — Three thousand U.S. troops will deploy to Eastern European NATO allies in the coming days amid ongoing Russia-Ukraine tensions, the administration announced today. The shifts “are temporary moves intended to reassure NATO allies,” WaPo’s Steve Hendrix, Rachel Pannett, Dan Lamothe and Ashley Parker report. About 1,000 troops currently in Germany will head to Romania, while another 2,000 or so at Fort Bragg, N.C., will go to Poland and Germany. — Breaking: “The White House is no longer using the word ‘imminent’ to describe a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine because it was sending an ‘unintended’ message, JEN PSAKI says,” per CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. — Pentagon press secretary JOHN KIRBY made the official deployment announcement this morning, saying more troop movements could follow if necessary. Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN has continued to amass troops at the Ukrainian border and shown no indications of deescalating, Kirby added, but the U.S. still doesn’t think Putin has made a final call on whether to invade. “It’s important that we send a strong signal to Mr. Putin and frankly to the world,” he said. — The prospect that Russia could turn to China for help is rattling the West as Putin and XI JINPING plan to meet Friday. Biden “administration officials said they are worried that at the summit meeting in Beijing, Mr. Xi would offer Mr. Putin reassurances of Chinese support if the United States imposes heavy economic penalties on Russia,” NYT’s Steven Lee Myers and Edward Wong report . Chinese state media has seemed excited about the conflict distracting the U.S. from competition with China and creating intra-NATO rifts. — The Tucker caucus: Sen. JOSH HAWLEY (R-Mo.) said the U.S. should drop its longtime support for Ukrainian membership in NATO, reports Axios’ Zachary Basu — a position “historically at odds with the mainstream GOP consensus still backed by his Senate colleagues.” — To wit: Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) tweeted that he fully backs Biden’s troop deployment. Psaki also pushed back hard on Hawley this afternoon: “If you are digesting Russian misinformation and parroting Russian talking points, you are not aligned with longstanding, bipartisan American values.”
| | | | DON’T MISS CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO’s new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. CHECK OUT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE. | | | | | CONGRESS NEW — Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER is going to the White House today to talk SCOTUS, per WaPo’s Seung Min Kim. CHINA BILL LATEST — Speaker NANCY PELOSI sounded confident today that House Dems can pass the COMPETES bill even amid Republican opposition, which she framed as a prioritization of politics over national security, per CNN’s Daniella Diaz. SHUTTING DOWN A SHUTDOWN — Congressional negotiators are meeting for the second day in a row today to work out a federal government funding deal before the Feb. 18 deadline to avert a shutdown. The timeline is tight, but members are feeling better as “the two sides have come to see mutual benefit in striking a longer-term resolution,” reports WaPo’s Tony Romm. THE LUJÁN IMPACT — With Democrats now short of 50 votes in an evenly divided Senate, a tranche of FCC and FTC nominees before the Commerce Committee will now be halted until Sen. BEN RAY LUJÁN (D-N.M.) returns from stroke recovery, per CNN’s Morgan Rimmer. ALL POLITICS REDISTRICTING ROUNDUP — DCCC Chair SEAN PATRICK MALONEY (D-N.Y.) tells Sarah Ferris and Ally Mutnick that he’s been pleasantly surprised to see Democrats avoid a potential redistricting bloodbath thus far, with his team seeing the landscape as “five to eight seats” better than they anticipated. Still, the party faces a major uphill battle to hold onto the House this fall. CASH DASH — STACEY ABRAMS has raised $9.2 million since jumping into the Georgia gubernatorial race in December, outpacing Gov. BRIAN KEMP, who raised $7.4 million in the latter half of 2021. But Kemp had the advantage in cash on hand heading into 2022, $12.7 million to $7.4 million. More from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution LINCOLN PROJECT FALLOUT — The Lincoln Project reached a $375,000 settlement with JENNIFER HORN in the aftermath of the sexual misconduct allegations against founder JOHN WEAVER, The Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross reports. JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH IS TRUMP’S PARDON IDEA ‘WITNESS TAMPERING’? — Jan. 6 committee member PETE AGUILAR (D-Calif.) said this morning on CNN that Trump is “absolutely” tampering with witnesses by publicly floating future pardons for defendants. THE NEXT DOCUMENTS FIGHT — The National Archives said today it will hand over VP MIKE PENCE’s records to the Jan. 6 committee in 30 days unless a court order stops it, per CNN’s Katelyn Polantz. Trump has tried to claim executive privilege on many of the documents. More from Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu on Biden’s rejection of Trump’s request BY THE NUMBERS — The committee now has 60,000 total pages of records, including more than 700 that Trump tried to shield, and has heard from over 475 witnesses, NBC’s Sahil Kapur reports.
| | | | A message from Amazon:   | | | BEYOND THE BELTWAY VOTING RIGHTS LANDSCAPE — Congress’ failure to pass federal voting rights legislation last month means advocates’ hopes for expanding ex-felon reenfranchisement are dependent on the states. And Zach Montellaro reports that they’ve had significant success of late, with recent victories in Florida, Washington state, New York, Connecticut and Iowa. Upcoming tests for the movement include New Mexico and Virginia. “But opposition to the automatic restoration of rights for people convicted of felonies is still prevalent among some conservatives.” THE LOOMING CLIFF — When the pandemic-era public health emergency expires, states will automatically have to audit their Medicaid rolls — and a whopping 15 million people could be kicked off the plans, a new Urban Institute study has found. State officials are worried they won’t be able to get everyone new coverage in time, driving up uninsured rates — with potential political ramifications in an election year, reports Megan Messerly . She writes that the audits, which could affect up to 6 million kids, will be “likely the biggest shift in the health insurance landscape since the Affordable Care Act passed more than a decade ago.” A LID FOR EVERY POT — NYT’s Nicholas Fandos and Dana Rubinstein delve into an interesting phenomenon: the diehard Cuomo stans. The small band of mostly women around the country are steadfastly supporting the former New York governor and still sending him donations — more than 230 people have given him $31,000 since he said he’d resign. Their merch includes T-shirts that say “allegedly.” THE PANDEMIC PUT TO THE TEST — When Biden announced he’d send Americans 500 million rapid tests, the administration had yet to procure any actual tests for the effort, prompting a scramble to find them, NYT’s Noah Weiland, Katie Thomas and Jessica Silver-Greenberg report . Now 60 million households — about half the country — have ordered tests, with the administration leaning on lesser-known manufacturers that weren’t already overwhelmed by demand. POLICY CORNER WHAT SCHUMER IS READING — Biden’s refusal to take major action on forgiving student debt is dividing his allies and driving up anger among some of his supporters, WSJ’s Andrew Restuccia and Gabriel Rubin report . “A lot of people are not going to vote again because they feel like they’re not being heard,” a Colorado 38-year-old who voted for Biden tells them. Complex legal questions on the matter have bedeviled the administration, with the prospect that the conservative Supreme Court could strike down any significant cancellation.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | VALLEY TALK TIKTOK ON THE CLOCK — The Commerce Department is moving ahead with a review of whether TikTok and other foreign-owned apps pose national security risks, WSJ’s John McKinnon and Alex Leary scoop. But critics like Sen. MARCO RUBIO (R-Fla.) say the administration is moving too slowly. “National-security officials say that TikTok would have no choice but to comply with a demand by China’s Communist government for data,” they report. BIDEN VS. TESLA — Amid the White House’s extensive championing of electric vehicles as the cars of the climate-friendly future, Tesla has been conspicuously absent (and ELON MUSK has noticed). Bloomberg’s Dana Hull and Jennifer Jacobs report that the snubs largely come down to the company’s anti-union stance, but they’ve been “a source of mild intrigue within the administration,” as some officials wish Biden would be more open to Tesla. TRUMP CARDS REMEMBER IMPEACHMENT? — Retired Army Lt. Col. ALEXANDER VINDMAN today sued DONALD TRUMP JR., RUDY GIULIANI, DAN SCAVINO and JULIA HAHN in federal court for taking part in what he calls an “intentional, concerted campaign of unlawful intimidation and harassment” over his testimony in Trump’s first impeachment case. More from the AP MEDIAWATCH THE GRAY LADY SINGS — The NYT has crossed the threshold of 10 million s, ushered to that milestone ahead of schedule by acquiring The Athletic, per NYT’s Marc Tracy . The fourth quarter of 2021 (pre-acquisition) saw the paper add 375,000 digital subscriptions, though the minority of those were for the main news product. Its new goal: 15 million by 2027. PLAYBOOKERS FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Felicia Schwartz is joining the Financial Times in March as U.S. foreign affairs correspondent. She most recently was a reporter at the WSJ, where she spent three years in Israel and was a State Department correspondent. TRANSITIONS — Max Becker is joining the Bockorny Group as a principal. He previously was coalitions coordinator for the House GOP Conference under then-Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), and is an NRCC alum. … Franco Ripple is now a VP at Direct Impact, the public affairs firm within BCW Global. He previously was strategic initiatives director for Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, and is a Biden campaign alum. … Cybersecurity strategist Danielle Jablanski is now a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative.
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