|
Presented by Facebook: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Ryan Lizza, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross | | | NEW — President JOE BIDEN will speak about the Ukraine/Russia situation at 3:30 p.m. today. It’s “a speech WH advisers have been weighing for weeks when and how to give,” NBC’s Mike Memoli reports . Biden’s remarks to county officials this afternoon were moved up from 2 p.m. to 1:15 p.m., and press secretary JEN PSAKI’s news conference has been pushed back to 4 p.m. FIRST BIG ELECTION OF 2022 IS TODAY — Voters in San Francisco go to the polls today to decide whether to recall three board of education commissioners who angered many parents over their handling of school issues during the pandemic. For a primer, read Friday’s Playbook and listen to our Deep Dive podcast. DEM MOD SQUAD SHRINKS — And then there were 30. Rep. KATHLEEN RICE (D-N.Y.) said that she won’t run for reelection, making her the 30th Democratic retirement this cycle, which the NRCC is touting as the highest for Dems since 1992. The announcement was a surprise, and the moderate Long Island lawmaker — who is a former federal prosecutor and district attorney and was a Republican until 2005 — did not say what’s next for her. Adding to the shock about her retirement is the fact that her seat was not considered especially vulnerable. She won her last race by 13 points, and New York’s new map has barely changed the district, which Biden carried by 12 points. But Sarah Ferris notes , “Rice was outraised by a GOP challenger, BILL STANIFORD, last quarter.” In a massive GOP wave year, who knows? Rice was first elected in 2014, and in her brief congressional career, she has been known for her battles against Speaker NANCY PELOSI, the Squad and Biden:
- She declined to support Pelosi for speaker after the 2016 and 2018 elections, when she actively campaigned against Pelosi’s leadership, though ultimately voted for her after the 2020 elections. By then, the progressives in the Squad had replaced Pelosi as the left-wing bogeymen for many Dem moderates.
- In 2020, Rice prevailed over her New York colleague ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ in a bitter moderates-versus-progressives fight for a prized seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
- Last year, she led a group of moderates who opposed Biden’s ambitious drug-pricing reform proposal, a key part of Build Back Better.
Rice’s timing was notable: Today is her birthday. Good Tuesday afternoon.
| | A message from Facebook: We’re making investments in safety and security—and seeing results
Facebook has invested $13 billion over the last 5 years to help keep you safe. Since July, we’ve taken action on:
•34.7M pieces of explicit adult content
•26.6M pieces of violent and graphic content
•9.8M pieces of terrorism-related content
See how we're working to help you connect safely. | | | CONGRESS BY A WHISKER — ROBERT CALIFF was confirmed as the next FDA commissioner in a narrow vote this afternoon, with the support of several Republicans making up for a handful of Democratic defections. TOOMEY GOES TO THE MAT AGAINST RASKIN — Senate Banking ranking member PAT TOOMEY (R-Pa.), attempting to derail SARAH BLOOM RASKIN’s Fed nomination, is seeking to marshal other Republicans to deny Democrats a quorum at this afternoon’s committee votes on Raskin and the other top Fed nominees, Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs, Saleha Mohsin and Steven Dennis scooped . A boycott could delay momentum for JEROME POWELL, LAEL BRAINARD and others, but Republicans are hoping Dems will just set aside Raskin’s nomination. — Sen. JERRY MORAN (R-Kan.) backed Toomey up , saying the committee’s Republicans will boycott all the nominations if Raskin is included today. — But Chair SHERROD BROWN (D-Ohio) didn’t back down, saying Dems would proceed with a hearing on all the nominees today. He told Burgess Everett he’s hoping one or two Republicans will show to provide a quorum. PAIN AT THE PUMP — White House aides and congressional Dems are debating whether to create a new federal gas tax policy to try to ease the squeeze of high prices, WaPo’s Jeff Stein reports . A slate of vulnerable Democratic senators have unveiled a bill to suspend the tax until January. Some congressional Dems are even thinking about trying to include it in the government funding omnibus. — The White House is open-minded, but a big question is “whether it would provide meaningful relief — or ultimately serve to benefit the producers of gas more than the consumers of it.” Some officials are also worried that unwinding the pause could prove politically perilous. ( LARRY SUMMERS, meanwhile, called the idea “terrible policy” in light of climate change.) — FWIW, Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) threw cold water on the idea, telling reporters, “Our trust funds are broke … want to break them more? … It doesn’t make sense.” ANOTHER ONE — The latest member of Congress to run afoul of the STOCK Act is Rep. KURT SCHRADER (D-Ore.), who narrowly missed the 45-day deadline to report up to $30,000 of stock trades he made in December, Insider’s Dave Levinthal reports. His office admitted the disclosure was late but said he wasn’t directly involved in the trades.
| | | | BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we’ve got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don’t miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now. | | | | | RUSSIA-UKRAINE LATEST ANOTHER STEP BACK FROM WAR? — Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN said today that “Moscow is ready for talks with the U.S. and NATO on limits for missile deployments and military transparency,” per AP’s Dasha Litvinova and Yuras Karmanau. It was Russia’s second de-escalatory signal of the day following a move to pull back some troops from the Ukrainian border. Diplomacy is “far from exhausted,” German Chancellor OLAF SCHOLZ said after meeting with Putin today. Still, the threat of invasion remains, and Putin said he won’t wait forever for the West to accede to his demands. NATO Secretary-General JENS STOLTENBERG said the alliance hadn’t yet seen movement on the ground to back up the Russian announcement. And Estonian PM KAJA KALLAS told CNN’s Jim Sciutto that “we haven’t seen any de-escalation yet.” Ukraine’s banking system was hit by cyberattacks today, per Bloomberg, though they were quickly resolved. DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS — One of the big questions as the U.S. plans potential sanctions on Russia is how much China would come to the Kremlin’s aid. WSJ’s Kate O’Keeffe and Ian Talley report that the current thinking inside the Biden administration is that China is “unlikely to interfere substantially with any U.S. restrictions because that could jeopardize Chinese companies’ access to the U.S.’s large domestic market, deep financial networks and critical technologies.” But China and Russia are growing closer, and Beijing has already proven willing to circumvent global sanctions on bad actors in the past. A DIFFERENT KIND OF RUSSIAN INVASION — U.S. intelligence officials told reporters that the conservative financial news site Zero Hedge has been spreading Russian propaganda, a charge the site denied, AP’s Nomaan Merchant reports. “The officials said Zero Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, published articles created by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by outlets and people unaware of their nexus to Russian intelligence.” The announcements were the latest instance of American officials trying to call out Russian disinformation campaigns preemptively, a new strategy aimed at warding off pretexts for an invasion. ON THE HORN — Biden had a call this morning with French President EMMANUEL MACRON, the White House said. Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN talked to Russian Foreign Minister SERGEY LAVROV, per CNN’s Kylie Atwood. BEYOND THE BELTWAY A LEGAL MILESTONE ON GUNS — For the first time ever, a gun-maker in America has been held liable for a mass shooting, as Remington settled liability claims from the Sandy Hook families by agreeing to pay them $73 million. The families will also be permitted to release documents they obtained from Remington, including how the company marketed the rifle used in the Newtown, Conn., school massacre. “The case was watched by gun control advocates, gun rights supporters and gun manufacturers across the country,” the Hartford Courant’s Dave Collins reports. — The Reload’s @StephenGutowski: “This is an out-of-court settlement, but it’s still a really bad development for the gun industry as a whole. Expect these sorts of lawsuits to ramp up after this.” GOP TARGETS COMPANIES DIVESTING FROM FOSSIL FUELS — Republicans in several state capitals are pushing bills that would penalize companies seeking to disentangle their business from fossil fuels. The “boycott bills,” which come as corporate America is increasingly weighing climate risk in financial investments, would prevent government officials from working with or awarding contracts to such companies. Some of them are “backed by groups tied to conservative climate skeptics like the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Heartland Institute,” Zack Colman and Jordan Wolman report. THE THREAT WITHIN — The Anti-Defamation League is out today with its 2021 data on extremist violence in America, which finds that 29 people died at the hands of extremists last year across 19 incidents (up from 23 deaths the year before). Right-wing extremists were responsible for more than 90% of the murders, with white supremacists the leading perpetrators, the ADL says. More from the AP … The full report SPEAKING OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE — A 21-year-old activist has been charged in the attempted shooting of Louisville, Ky., mayoral candidate CRAIG GREENBERG on Monday morning. Authorities said QUINTEZ BROWN shot at Greenberg in his campaign headquarters. The bullets narrowly missed striking him, and came close enough to hit his clothes. More from the Courier-Journal , where Brown had been an intern and editorial columnist
| | | | 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. | | | | | POLITICS ROUNDUP ENDORSEMENT WATCH — Secure Our Freedom Action Fund, a new super PAC led by former NRA operatives CHRIS COX and DAVID LEHMAN, is backing the Republican Senate bids of VICKY HARTZLER in Missouri and KATIE BRITT in Alabama. Alex Isenstadt reports that its support could provide a lift in the two competitive primaries, as Hartzler looks to build momentum off Sen. JOSH HAWLEY’s (R-Mo.) recent endorsement. (Many top Republicans are trying to ensure former Gov. ERIC GREITENS doesn’t win that nomination.) POLL OF THE DAY — Is Florida moving out of swing-state territory? A new gubernatorial poll this morning found Gov. RON DESANTIS with healthy leads, ranging from 8 to 16 points, over each of the three top Democratic contenders. More from Florida Politics INFLATION NATION FED UP — WSJ’s Nick Timiraos takes a thorough look at Powell’s difficult task ahead: trying to tamp down inflation without plunging the economy into recession. With the price spikes partly a problem of the Fed’s own creation, Powell now faces a challenge that could “determine the future path of the economy as well as the central bank’s credibility.” STAT OF THE DAY — The producer price index jumped 1% in January, double what economists expected, for a 9.7% increase year over year. The latter figure is almost a record in Labor Department data going back more than a decade, as inflationary pressures remain high for producers and across the economy. More from CNBC BETTING THE FARM — Farmers around the country are feeling the pain of inflation, which could translate to higher prices for groceries this year, WSJ’s Patrick Thomas reports. “I don’t think there is any reprieve for food prices to come down,” one economist tells him. POLICY CORNER WALKING A TIGHTROPE — The Biden administration’s pledge to center environmental justice is running into concerns that addressing race explicitly in policy could be struck down by conservative courts. So officials are “designing a system to help communities of color even without defining them as such,” NYT’s Lisa Friedman reports , a rhetorical two-step that aims to tackle disparate burdens while maintaining race-neutral criteria. Instead, the “Justice40” initiative will clean up areas based on factors like “household income, unemployment rates, air pollution levels and proximity to Superfund sites, incinerators and other hazards.” CLIMATE FILES — The Biden administration announced today it would target the industrial sector with new investments aimed at buying cleaner steel, aluminum, cement and other materials in federal projects. The initiative is intended to reduce carbon emissions, and it will create a “Buy Clean Task Force” to wield the government’s purchasing power to incentivize lower-carbon production of these industrial materials. More from MarketWatch TRUMP CARDS ACROSS THE POND — French presidential candidate ERIC ZEMMOUR’s campaign said he got political advice from DONALD TRUMP in a phone call Monday: “Never give in, hold on, be brave, it’s tenacity and endurance that end up paying at the end of a campaign.” POLITICO Europe’s Clea Caulcutt has the latest from Paris. MEDIAWATCH THE BEAT OF THE FUTURE — The AP is making a big new investment in climate journalism, creating a new desk to cover the area and planning to hire about 20 new reporters across Africa, Brazil, India and the U.S., the company announced. PLAYBOOKERS THE DATING GAME — Axios’ Sara Fischer has details on The Right Stuff, the new Peter Thiel-backed conservative dating app from John McEntee that’ll launch in D.C. this summer. TRANSITIONS — David Axelrod, founder and director of the UChicago Institute of Politics, will step back from his role as director next January. He’ll transition into a new role as senior fellow and chair of the board of advisers. Announcement … Chelsea Daley is joining the Joint Economic Committee majority as digital director. She most recently was director of digital strategy at DHS, and is a Biden campaign alum. … … MacKensie Kvalvik will be comms director for Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.). She currently is comms director for Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.). … Pat Pelletier is now government and regulatory affairs executive at IBM. He previously was chief of staff for Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.), and is a John Kline alum.
| | | | A message from Facebook:   | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |  |
