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Presented by PhRMA: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun | | | NEWSFLASH, via Alex Isenstadt: “Maryland Gov. LARRY HOGAN has informed senior Republican officials he will not be running for Senate in 2022, per person familiar with the talks.” A VERY ‘THIS TOWN’ SPOTTED — Speaker NANCY PELOSI and a host of Democratic members raising money for the DCCC on Monday night at Joe’s Seafood — right down the hall from another fundraiser, where Minority Leader KEVIN McCARTHY was working the crowds for cash in his bid to win the House — and her gavel. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Protect Our Future, a recently launched Democratic super PAC, is planning to back Rep. LUCY MCBATH (D-Ga.) to the tune of $2 million in her primary bid to represent Georgia’s 7th congressional district. That’s a huge amount of money for a Dem-on-Dem primary. McBath is running against fellow Rep. CAROLYN BOURDEAUX, a centrist, after Georgia redistricting smooshed their districts into one. It’s already shaping up to be one of the most-watched primaries of the season. Last week, the PAC released a poll that found McBath leading Bourdeaux by 9 points. ( The poll) Looking ahead: Protect Our Future is planning to pour $10 million in Democratic primaries, “focusing initially on candidates who take a long term view on policy planning, especially as it relates to pandemic preparedness and prevention.” It has already endorsed Rep. RITCHIE TORRES (D-N.Y.) and NIKKI BUDZINSKI , a Biden OMB alum who is running for Illinois’ 13th Congressional District, with more announcements expected soon. DESANTIS HEARTS TRUMP — Reporter after reporter has chronicled the rift between RON DESANTIS and former President DONALD TRUMP, but the Florida governor certainly doesn’t see it that way. “Donald Trump’s a friend of mine,” DeSantis said in a sitdown interview with Fox News’ Kelly Laco , calling the suggestion that there is bad blood between them a media-fueled narrative that is “total bunk.” Even so, “DeSantis wouldn’t say whether he would potentially take on Trump in 2024.” Asked later about the RNC’s censure of Reps. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) and ADAM KINZINGER (R-Ill.), DeSantis claimed he “wasn’t aware” of it, “but was quick to condemn Cheney, who he told Fox News Digital is not a true Republican and ‘just totally off the rails with her nonsense.’” And he had this to say about the GOP’s message and continued discussions about Jan. 6: “We want people that are going to fight the left, and that’s what we need to do in this country. That’s what we're doing in Florida, standing up for people’s freedoms. We’re opposing wokeness. We’re opposing all these things. To act like the main issue in this country is things that happened over a year ago, I can tell you in Florida, that’s not what Floridians are concerned about.” Good Tuesday afternoon.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: Washington is talking about price setting of medicines, but it won’t stop insurers from shifting costs to you. And it will risk access to medicines and future cures. Instead, let’s cap your out-of-pocket costs, stop middlemen from pocketing your discounts and make insurance work for you. Let’s protect patients. It’s the right choice. Learn more. | | | AMERICA AND THE WORLD HURRY UP AND WAIT — French President EMMANUEL MACRON said today that the current Russia-Ukraine conflict “could take months to resolve, but that his shuttle diplomacy this week … had raised hopes of stabilizing the situation,” per the NYT . “The Kremlin said on Tuesday that there were ‘seeds of reason’ in proposals Mr. Macron had put forward during the meeting with [Russian President VLADIMIR] PUTIN. But Mr. Putin’s spokesman, DMITRI S. PESKOV, rejected reports that the two leaders had reached any sort of agreement on de-escalating the crisis.” — TO WIT … NYT’s Anton Troianovski writes from Moscow : “The Ukraine crisis is here to stay. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is increasingly staking his legacy on reversing Ukraine’s pro-Western shift. Even if he does not order an invasion this winter, he is making clear that he will keep the pressure on, backed by the threat of force, for as long as it takes to get his way.” MEANWHILE, IN CANADA — Canadian officials on Monday pushed back against “high-profile U.S. Republicans who have voiced support for the self-described ‘Freedom Convoy,’ as the group continued to block traffic in downtown Ottawa in protest of vaccine rules for cross-border truckers,” WaPo’s Amy Cheng writes . “The Canadian convoy has attracted the attention of U.S. politicians debating their own country’s coronavirus protocols and drawn support from Republican figures including former president Donald Trump.” THE ECONOMY TRADE DEFICIT HITS NEW RECORD — “Continued strong consumer appetite for overseas goods pushed up the U.S. trade deficit in December, sending the full-year import-export gap to a record level in 2021,” report WSJ’s Yuka Hayashi and Anthony DeBarros. “The full-year trade deficit for 2021 increased 27% to $859.1 billion, larger than the previous record of $763.53 billion in 2006. Annual trade balance records date to 1960.”
| | | | HAPPENING THURSDAY – A LONG GAME CONVERSATION ON THE CLIMATE CRISIS : Join POLITICO for back-to-back conversations on climate and sustainability action, starting with a panel led by Global Insider author Ryan Heath focused on insights gleaned from our POLITICO/Morning Consult Global Sustainability Poll of citizens from 13 countries on five continents about how their governments should respond to climate change. Following the panel, join a discussion with POLITICO White House Correspondent Laura Barrón-López and Gina McCarthy, White House national climate advisor, about the Biden administration’s climate and sustainability agenda. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH THE WITNESS LIST — Prosecutors on Monday released their proposed witness list for one of the Jan. 6 cases before them, laying out their broad strategy in “the clearest detail yet, indicating they intend to call multiple Capitol Police officers, a former Senate aide, a member of the Three Percenters militia who was granted immunity and the Secret Service agent who helped supervise then-Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the Capitol that day,” Kyle Cheney writes. ( The list) ALL POLITICS WHAT REDISTRICTING HEARTBURN? — DCCC Chair SEAN PATRICK MALONEY (D-N.Y.) sounded a hopeful tone for the midterms in a private caucus meeting with House Dems this morning, hanging his hat on a recent string of redistricting wins that the party has had, Sarah Ferris reports for Congress Minutes . Pelosi spoke, too, hammering on the importance of message discipline: “If you don’t believe in the message … you can’t go sell it,” she said, per multiple sources in the room. “Part of the reason I'm running again is just to win this election.” POMPEO’S PICK IN PA — Former Secretary of State MIKE POMPEO has endorsed Pennsylvania GOP Senate hopeful DAVID MCCORMICK, Reuters’ Steve Holland writes , adding another MAGA feather in the former hedge fund executive’s cap as he vies to replace retiring Sen. PAT TOOMEY (R-Pa.). AOC VS. CUELLAR — After Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) said she would visit Texas to campaign for JESSICA CISNEROS, who is challenging embattled Rep. HENRY CUELLAR (D-Texas), the moderate Dem responded in a statement Monday: “The voters will decide this election, not far-left celebrities who stand for defunding the police, open borders, eliminating oil & gas jobs, and raising taxes on hard working Texans. … Members should take care of their own district before taking failed ideas to South Texas.” Context from KXAN POLICY CORNER WASHINGTON’S CRYPTO KINGMAKERS — The newest arena that crypto wants to shake up is on Capitol Hill. Executives behind FTX, a $32-million cryptocurrency startup, “are quietly emerging as crypto kingmakers in the nation’s capital as they spend millions to launch super PACs, bankroll congressional campaigns and recruit former government officials with an inside track on looming crypto regulations,” Sam Sutton writes.
| | | | 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. | | | | | BEYOND THE BELTWAY MEGATREND — The pandemic caused a drop in the number of babies born in the U.S. — but one less drastic than previously expected, according to new CDC data. “Starting in June 2021, monthly births began to show consistent gains over their year-earlier levels, which reflect pre-pandemic conceptions,” WSJ’s Janet Adamy and Anthony DeBarros write . Even so, “Americans continue to have babies at historically low rates. The number of babies born in the U.S. in 2020 was the lowest in four decades.” WHERE’S THE BEEF? — The Biden administration wants to scale up local and regional meat processing in an effort to boost competition and reduce prices. But that’s a tougher sell than it sounds, and would likely require training new workers — testing “whether it’s even possible to convince a significant number of American students — especially those seeking college-level training — to commit to manual labor that’s now overwhelmingly performed by immigrants,” Ximena Bustillo reports. OPIOID FILES — A government commission tasked with addressing the opioid crisis in the U.S. is “warning that spiraling overdose deaths threaten U.S. ‘national security and economic well-being’” in a report released today, Phelim Kine writes . The Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking called for a decisive shift in U.S. policy to reduce the rising numbers of synthetic opioid overdose deaths, and delivered “76 recommendations that provide the Biden administration a blueprint to reduce the supply of illicit synthetic opioids produced and exported by Mexican drug cartels using Chinese-manufactured raw materials.” ( The report) MEDIAWATCH PULLOUT FALLOUT — “A top editor at CBS News resigned last week after clashing with the network’s co-president over whether to rescue Afghan journalists and fixers from the chaos-ridden country last year,” NY Post’s Alexandra Steigrad reports. “London Bureau Chief ANDY CLARKE, a 38-year CBS veteran who was responsible for dispatching journalists around the world, stepped down last week after multiple disagreements with CBS News co-president NEERAJ KHEMLANI over budget cuts, according to sources close to the network. … A rep from CBS told The Post: ‘There have been no cuts to resources or requests denied out of Afghanistan.’ … The rep added: ‘These claims are patently false and made further ridiculous after we just delivered a live hour co-anchored from Ukraine on our streaming channel.’” PLAYBOOKERS ICYMI — WaPo’s TikToker-in-chief Dave Jorgenson took on Donald Trump’s, uh, unique paper shredding tendency in one of his posts Monday. MEDIA MOVES — Barbara Van Tine is joining POLITICO as a health care editor. She previously managed and directed editorial content for the University of California-Berkeley’s consumer health newsletter. Additionally, Daniel Payne is moving into a full-time role as a health care reporter and Erin Banco is moving into a new role as global health correspondent. … Tammy Audi is joining the NYT’s national desk as enterprise editor. She previously was deputy on the WSJ’s enterprise desk. Announcement TRANSITIONS — Joshua Bandoch is joining the Competitive Enterprise Institute as a research fellow in its Center for Advancing Capitalism. He’s a writer, comms expert and political scientist. … Jonathan Cannon is now a fellow for the R Street Institute’s technology and innovation policy team. He previously was attorney adviser in the FCC’s Office of Legislative Affairs. … Scott Bennett is joining Boehringer Ingelheim as senior associate director of government affairs and public policy for the animal health division. He previously was director of congressional relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Monica Alba, a White House correspondent for NBC News, and Dan Merica, a national political reporter for CNN, welcomed Denver Manuel Merica on Friday. He came in at 8 lbs, 1 oz and 21.5 inches. Denver is a family name on Dan’s maternal side, honoring his great-grandfather Denver Dickerson, and Manuel is Monica’s dad’s name. Pic BONUS BIRTHDAY: POLITICO’s Lindsey Forte
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