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Presented by Emergent: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross | Presented by Emergent | ‘PUTIN’S PRICE HIKE’ — After days of pushing back on growing bipartisan support for a Russian oil ban, President JOE BIDEN today unveiled the administration’s plan to block such imports. The president made clear that he’s been in contact with U.S. allies about this issue and acknowledged that while the U.S. produces its own oil and can thus afford to block Russian energy imports, most European nations are reliant on fossil fuel exports from Russia and won’t fully join the Biden administration in imposing similar sanctions. More importantly, Biden was clear-eyed about what this will mean for Americans: more pain at the pump. “I said I will level with the American people from the beginning. When I first spoke to this, I said defending freedom is going to cost. It is going to cost us as well in the United States,” he said, going on to say that gas prices will rise and vowing to do all in his power to mitigate that pain. The president sought to preliminarily deflect the blame for this looming increase, labeling it “Putin’s price hike.” (Catchy !) He also emphasized the bipartisan support for such a ban on Capitol Hill and elsewhere, wrapping himself in GOP support for this step. (More on Biden’s remarks in a second.) THE LATTER IS POLITICALLY WISE, particularly because Republicans are already hammering Biden for soaring gas prices and will certainly continue to do so despite their own support for a Russian oil ban that will increase prices further. Case in point: “A NEW RECORD,” Senate Republicans’ Twitter account blasted this morning. “The national average price of gas is $4.173/gallon.” Indeed, there was no lack of outrage by political commentators this morning at the GOP blasting Biden on gas prices while also demanding he take this step. But as we mentioned last week in our “policy-palooza” on this issue, Republicans were always going to do this. It’s just how Washington works, cynical as that sounds. SO WHAT DOES BIDEN’S ANNOUNCEMENT MEAN FOR HILL ACTION? At this point? Nothing. Speaker NANCY PELOSI announced in caucus this morning that the House bill banning oil will move forward as soon as today. The California Democrat released another “Dear Colleague” on these plans. (WSJ’s Natalie Andrews and Andrew Restuccia have more here.) This comes despite what appears to be a mini Hollywood drama that occurred over the past 48 hours or so, as the White House sought to get Democrats to shelve the vote so the president could look like he personally is leading on this issue instead of looking like he’s being led by his own party. (The latter, you smart Playbook readers know, is 100% true on this matter, not the former.) In fact, Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich, who scooped this behind-the-scenes drama, has a pretty incredible thread that everyone should read about how Biden personally got involved, including by calling Pelosi at one point. Two senior Democratic aides confirmed the White House’s last-minute scramble to halt this bill. One of our Democratic sources noted that such a vote could also give Biden additional political cover. By putting Republicans on the record on this issue, Democrats on the other end of GOP attack ads can point to the GOP lawmakers to say: Look, they also supported the ban that increased your gas prices. MORE FROM BIDEN’S SPEECH — Biden also sought to counter many Republican lines of attack on his energy and climate policies, insisting that he was not restricting domestic energy production. Instead, he argued, moving faster to clean energy sources would be best for the economy: “Loosening environmental regulations or pulling back clean energy investment won’t — let me explain: won’t, will not — lower energy prices for families.” MEANWHILE, IN OTHER OIL/GAS NEWS … — A Quinnipiac poll finds Americans support a ban, even if it raises gas prices, by a whopping 71%-22% margin. (Unlike some other recent polls, it also discovered barely any bump for Biden, as his favorable rating moved from 37% to just 38% from a week prior.) — Shell and BP are ending all Russian oil/gas purchases. — The EU is cutting back on Russian oil but won’t join the U.S. in a full ban, while the U.K. will phase it out by the end of the year. — “Rising Gas Prices Have Drivers Asking, ‘Is This for Real?’” by NYT’s Michael Corkery, Emma Goldberg and Erin Woo. (For awareness, House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY’s office is sending this story around to blast Biden.) JUST POSTED MUST-READ, from our Eugene Daniels, who interviewed Ukrainian refugees via Zoom about their upended lives with the Russian occupation: “In a matter of weeks, Vladimir Putin made them refugees: Three stories tell the tale of how, in a matter of weeks, the crisis in Ukraine has sparked the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe in a generation.”
| | | | A message from Emergent: Emerging threats never stop and neither do we. Our protections help defend against things we hope will never happen – so we are prepared, in case they ever do. Learn how we’ve become a leader in protecting people against public health threats at www.emergentbiosolutions.com. | | | OMNIBUS UPDATE — Democratic leaders are hoping a final deal can be struck in the next couple of hours. But per our Sarah Ferris, House leaders are already considering a contingency plan: Majority Leader STENY HOYER said Democrats might have to return from their retreat in Philly after Biden’s address to them Friday to keep the government open. TWO BITS OF FUNDRAISING NEWS: 1) FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: The NRSC will announce today that it raised $11.7 million from more than 236,000 donors last month, the most either party’s Senate campaign arm has raised in an election-year February. NRSC Chair RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) will also unveil that the committee has $41.6 million cash on hand right now, a massive war chest that they’re boasting is “the highest cash on hand total in the history of either the NRSC or the DSCC.” See the press release here before it goes out. 2) Meanwhile, the DCCC tells Playbook that “in the hours surrounding President Biden’s State Of The Union Address, DCCC raised more than $500,000 from grassroots donors online and via text.” “This is a great sign the grassroots are supportive of Democrats’ steady hand in Washington,” spokesman CHRIS TAYLOR told us. Good Tuesday afternoon. Wait, is it really only Tuesday? BREAKING — “Texas militia member convicted on all charges in first Jan. 6 trial,” by Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein ALL POLITICS ICYMI: SPOTLIGHT ON MEADOWS — An investigation from The New Yorker’s Charles Bethea over the weekend raised the prospect that former White House chief of staff MARK MEADOWS may have committed voter fraud by registering to vote at a North Carolina trailer home where it seems he may never have lived (or even visited). This morning, WaPo fact checker Glenn Kessler published an analysis of the situation that concludes: “Were Meadows and his wife actual residents of the state they were voting in? It does not look like it. … Meanwhile, DEBRA MEADOWS appears to have voted twice under suspicious circumstances.” Spokespeople for the Meadowses didn’t respond to requests for comment in either piece. AD WARS — The Republican Governors Association is pumping $31.4 million into Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin in its first big TV ad buys of the cycle, Elena Schneider scooped . Nearly one-third of the total is reserved for Arizona after the primary concludes in August. The others are all states where the GOP is hoping to flip executive mansions in November. 2022 WATCH — Former senior Trump NSC official ALEX GRAY jumped into the Oklahoma Senate GOP primary this morning, per Meridith McGraw. Meanwhile, GOP Rep. KEVIN HERN, who’s also considering a bid, was seen going into Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL’s office today, per Olivia Beavers. THE NEW GOP — WaPo’s Beth Reinhard and Rosalind Helderman profile Arizona state Sen. WENDY ROGERS, a new far-right darling who’s earned DONALD TRUMP’s praise and smashed fundraising records while building a national profile. She’s also way more extreme than even many of her compatriots: “Calling for jailing and executing her political opponents, identifying herself as a member of the Oath Keepers militia group, and attending a conference organized by a group linked to QAnon.” Plus pounding lies about voting fraud and speaking at a white nationalist conference, the latter of which landed her a 24-3 state Senate censure vote. ANNALS OF INFLUENCE — A new industry association launched today to advocate for the app-based economy. Flex will represent members including DoorDash, Gopuff, Grubhub, HopSkipDrive, Instacart, Lyft, Shipt and Uber. KRISTIN SHARP is CEO, after previously working as CEO of the Education Quality Outcomes Standards board and as a senior fellow and director of New America’s Initiative on Work, Workers, and Technology. Former Columbia, S.C., Mayor STEVE BENJAMIN is chair of the board. WSJ’s Brody Mullins and Ryan Tracy scooped that the group is focused on opposing Democratic moves to let gig workers unionize.
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO NATIONAL SECURITY DAILY : Keep up with the latest critical developments from Ukraine and across Europe in our daily newsletter, National Security Daily. The Russian invasion of Ukraine could disrupt the established world order and result in a refugee crisis, increased cyberattacks, rising energy costs and additional disruption to global supply chains. Go inside the top national security and foreign-policymaking shops for insight on the global threats faced by the U.S. and its allies and what actions world leaders are taking to address them. Subscribe today. | | | | | WAR IN UKRAINE LATEST ON THE GROUND … — At least one humanitarian corridor appeared to work temporarily today as dozens of buses successfully evacuated civilians from the city of Sumy, which had come under heavy Russian shelling, per NBC. But then a resumed Russian barrage forced the evacuations to halt. — And Ukrainian officials said Russians had attacked the evacuation route in Mariupol, per Agence France-Presse. — By the numbers: Two million refugees have now fled from Ukraine, per the U.N., and 474 people have now been confirmed killed. (The real total is likely way higher.) — Ukrainian forces holding strong: “The Ukrainian military claimed early Tuesday to have shot down three Russian fighter jets and a cruise missile, an assertion that was backed up by several loud explosions in the night sky over Kyiv — and a sign that its air defense systems and air force are still functioning nearly two weeks into the war,” NYT’s Andrew Kramer reports. The step back: Though it’s hard to verify many Ukrainian claims in the fog of war, “it is increasingly clear that Russia has sustained heavy losses,” NYT’s Marc Santora writes. — The NYT announced this morning that it would pull all its journalists out of Russia. — U.S. intelligence clocks Russian losses in the war at a staggering 2,000 to 4,000 dead already, officials told a congressional panel this morning. SHARING IS CARING — The White House has expanded the range of intelligence the U.S. is allowed to send to Ukraine, following bipartisan congressional pressure on the administration to share real-time targeting information, WSJ’s Warren Strobel and Michael Gordon report. “U.S. officials said the classified information now streaming across secure communications portals includes detailed, tactical data on Russian troop movements that is designed to help Ukraine formulate a military response.” DOUBLESPEAK ALERT — The U.N. has told its staff not to describe the conflict in Ukraine as a “war” or an “invasion” as part of its efforts to remain impartial and avoid “reputational risk,” The Irish Times’ Naomi O’Leary scooped. “Conflict” and “military offensive” are the U.N.’s preferred terms. “The language policy has fuelled concern that the organisation is going too far to avoid offending Russia,” O’Leary writes. — China instructed its state media not to post “anything unfavorable to Russia or pro-Western” on social media, Axios’ Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian reports. And it’s censoring accurate information from the internet, aiming to leave Chinese citizens with a similarly warped understanding of reality as Russians are being told. A PAIR OF READS about the American left on its heels over foreign policy: — Progressives’ dreams of cutting the defense budget haven’t come close to true — and many of them may end up voting for a big increase as part of a spending deal, Sarah Ferris and Connor O’Brien report . Part of the shift is due to Ukraine, but bipartisan legislation last year already called for $25 billion more for the Pentagon than Biden had proposed. “[T]he left lost the battle on Pentagon spending to a coalition of Republicans and Democrats, and instead focused on at least matching those increases on the social-programs side of the government ledger.” — And the Democratic Socialists of America’s stance on the war, which opposes the invasion but also blames the U.S. and criticizes NATO, has drawn significant rebuke from Democrats and other liberals, NYT’s Dana Rubinstein and Katie Glueck report. The controversy has been particularly high-profile in New York, where a Kosovar refugee is primarying DSA-backed Rep. JAMAAL BOWMAN and “[n]one of the nine New York City candidates the D.S.A. endorsed this year would consent to an interview on the topic.”
| | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S INAUGURAL HEALTH CARE SUMMIT ON 3/31: Join POLITICO for a discussion with health care providers, policymakers, federal regulators, patient representatives, and industry leaders to better understand the latest policy and industry solutions in place as we enter year three of the pandemic. Panelists will discuss the latest proposals to overcome long-standing health care challenges in the U.S., such as expanding access to care, affordability, and prescription drug prices. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | BEYOND THE BELTWAY CULTURE WAR FLASHPOINT — Florida Republicans’ controversial bill to bar teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity to kindergarteners through third graders passed the state Senate this morning. It now heads to the desk of Gov. RON DESANTIS, who’s expected to sign it into law. The bill, which also restricts teaching about those subjects for older kids to age-/developmentally appropriate instruction, is known as “Don’t Say Gay” to its detractors and “parental rights in education” to its supporters. More from the Miami Herald MEGATREND — The pandemic has worsened a literacy crisis, causing young children to fall way behind as new studies find about a third of the youngest grades not meeting reading benchmarks, NYT’s Dana Goldstein reports from Bridgeport, Conn. “Children in every demographic group have been affected, but Black and Hispanic children, as well as those from low-income families, those with disabilities and those who are not fluent in English, have fallen the furthest behind.” — Behind the byline: @DanaGoldstein: “I don’t use words like ’emergency’ lightly, but many educators and reading experts are convinced this is one.” PLAYBOOKERS MEDIA MOVES — Lara Korte is joining POLITICO to co-author California Playbook. She most recently was a state political reporter for The Sacramento Bee. … Sam Sanders will host a weekly culture podcast for New York magazine’s Vulture (as yet unnamed). He previously announced his departure from NPR. More from Bloomberg … … Katie Barlow has been named chief legal correspondent for FOX 5 DC. She previously was an associate at Clifford Chance and has covered Capitol Hill for WTOP and the Supreme Court for SCOTUSBlog. … Naomi Nix is joining WaPo to cover Meta and other social media companies. She previously covered social media companies at Bloomberg. TRANSITIONS — Former NYC mayoral candidate Maya Wiley has been named president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. More from WaPo … AECOM is adding Casey Street and Harrison Wadsworth IV as VPs on its government relations team. Street previously was director of federal government relations at Jacobs and specializes in national security-related policy areas. Wadsworth previously was senior director of government affairs at Siemens, leading digital and transportation policy. … … Matthew Tragesser is joining Rep. Andy Biggs’ (R-Ariz.) office as comms director. He previously was comms manager for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. … Rina Pal-Goetzen is joining the Semiconductor Industry Association as director of global policy. She most recently was general counsel of 3D printed microTEC. BONUS BIRTHDAYS: Maggie Moore of the Partnership for Public Service … Meredith Moore
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