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Presented by The American Beverage Association: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade and Eli Okun | | | CAWTHORN’S ‘ORGIES AND COKE’ ALLEGATIONS STIR GOP ANGER — During their weekly conference meeting this morning, House Republicans were fuming about Rep. MADISON CAWTHORN’s (R-N.C.) bizarre suggestion over the weekend that his fellow lawmakers have invited him to participate in orgies and used cocaine — which he likened to something out of “House of Cards.” Our Olivia Beavers has the download on the meeting, during which lawmakers stood up and voiced frustration and disbelief at Cawthorn’s remarks. — Put up or shut up: Olivia writes that “there’s a desire among fellow Republicans for Cawthorn to identify the colleagues involved to prove the truth of his comments, but that desire to name names could also cause new headaches for a conference that’s already faced an array of controversies this Congress.” — This excerpt is just LOL: “In one case, Rep. STEVE WOMACK (R-Ark.) stood up and addressed his colleagues, telling them that he rarely speaks during the closed-door weekly meetings but felt he must address the topic because he’s now getting questions about participants in Cawthorn’s alleged orgies and drug use. Womack remarked that many lawmakers go to bed at 9 p.m. and still use fax machines and flip phones, stating that it was inappropriate to paint them with a broad brush, as Cawthorn did.” House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY said he is planning to have a talk with Cawthorn. What’s more, many Republicans are privately calling Cawthorn a liar who’s trying to generate headlines — and we have to confess, having covered the Hill for about a decade, we have never heard these sort of wild stories. Meanwhile, Sen. RICHARD BURR (R-N.C.) says what nearly all Hill Republicans are privately thinking about Cawthorn’s reelection, per NBC’s Leigh Ann Caldwell: “Sen. Richard Burr on @RepCawthorn: it’s up to his constituents ‘but he’s been an embarrassment at times.’” Good Tuesday afternoon. We’re guessing you didn’t have “orgy” on your bingo card for reading Playbook today. If you did, you win!
| | | | A message from The American Beverage Association: At America’s beverage companies our plastic bottles are made to be remade. We’re carefully designing them to be 100% recyclable — so every bottle can become a new one. That means less plastic waste in our environment. Please help us get Every Bottle Back. EveryBottleBack.org | | | JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH 7-HOUR GAP IN TRUMP’S JAN. 6 PHONE LOGS — Jan. 6 phone logs for then-President DONALD TRUMP show a more than seven-hour gap during the riot at the Capitol, WaPo’s Bob Woodward and CBS’ Bob Costa scoop this morning. That’s a massive lacuna covering a critical period of time when insurrectionists fatally stormed the Capitol, presenting a major problem for the Jan. 6 committee, which is investigating the issue and trying to put together a complete timeline of what Trump was up to that day. It also just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. There’s been public reporting about multiple conversations Trump had that day in numerous Trump books. — The Plan B: “The House panel is now investigating whether Trump communicated that day through backchannels, phones of aides or personal disposable phones, known as ‘burner phones,’” Woodward and Costa report, as well as whether there was a “cover-up” of the phone record. “A Trump spokeswoman said that Trump had nothing to do with the records and had assumed any and all of his phone calls were recorded and preserved.” — As for the potential use of burner phones: “In a statement Monday night, Trump said, ‘I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term.’” THE INVESTIGATIONS — DOJ prosecutors and the Jan. 6 committee have both zeroed in on a Trump tweet from Dec. 19, 2020, in which he told his backers to come to D.C. on Jan. 6: “Be there, will be wild!” NYT’s Alan Feuer, Michael Schmidt and Luke Broadwater report that investigators “have increasingly shown how Mr. Trump’s post was a powerful catalyst, particularly for far-right militants” who almost instantly jumped into action in response. “Directly after Mr. Trump’s tweet was posted, the Capitol Police began to see a spike in right-wing threats against members of Congress.” — Congressional Democrats are increasing pressure on the Justice Department to take action on Jan. 6 and Trump: “The Justice Department has a responsibility to take this seriously,” House Democratic Caucus Chair HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-N.Y.) said today. “This was an attempted coup.” RETURN OF THE ‘I’ WORD — The left is agitating for impeachment proceedings for Justice CLARENCE THOMAS over his wife GINNI’s reported attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Just look at this quote from Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.): “What we know, if investigated further, could absolutely be grounds for potential impeachment.” Rep. ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.) is right there with her. But most progressives on the Hill aren’t going there yet, Kyle Cheney, Sarah Ferris and Nicholas Wu report . Instead, many are calling on Thomas to recuse himself from cases related to Jan. 6 or the 2020 election, and “they want more details about exactly what happened before settling on a potential punishment or remedy.” Some have called on him to resign, while others raised the prospect of censure. But for now, most House Dems are deferring to the Jan. 6 committee investigation. — In the Senate, the situation is prompting some Democrats to ramp up calls for a Supreme Court code of ethics. Senate Judiciary Chair DICK DURBIN (D-Ill.) said today that the committee may investigate the Thomas situation as a “matter of concern” after the Easter recess, per NBC’s Julie Tsirkin. — But Republicans aren’t on board: Senate Minority Whip JOHN THUNE (R-S.D.) said a bill to make a SCOTUS code of ethics “creates a lot of constraints on the Supreme Court that could be problematic long term,” per CNN’s Manu Raju.
| | | | 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 … — Progress on peace talks? Russian officials gave some stronger signals of concessions today, saying they would “drastically reduce” their operations near Kyiv and Chernihiv. The U.S. assessed a “major” strategy shift as Russia started to withdraw near Kyiv, CNN’s Jim Sciutto reports. As negotiators met in Turkey, Russia also dangled the process of moving up a meeting between Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN and Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY. Ukraine, meanwhile, signaled openness to discussions over disputed territories. It’s the most successful peace talks have yet been. Talks will now move to higher-level officials. More from CBS — Butnot everybody is convinced, as some experts warn that Russia could be bluffing. Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN said in Morocco that Russian actions needed to match its rhetoric for the rest of the world to take its negotiating comments seriously. More from Reuters — Must read: “Once the Children Got Hungry, ‘the Fire Was Gone From Their Eyes,’” by NYT’s Valerie Hopkins, Ben Hubbard and Gina Kolata: “Residents of Mariupol, Ukraine described how Russian forces use hunger as a weapon of war in a monthlong siege of the southern port. ‘No roof, no food and no water,’ survivors texted relatives who escaped.” REACTION IN THE WEST … — The U.S. is weighing another $500 million in aid to Ukraine, and has asked allies to pony up the same, Bloomberg’s Alberto Nardelli and Jennifer Jacobs scooped. — President JOE BIDEN held a phone call this morning with French President EMMANUEL MACRON, German Chancellor OLAF SCHOLZ, Italian PM MARIO DRAGHI and British PM BORIS JOHNSON. — Sen. RAND PAUL (R-Ky.) is the lone senator holding up a bill that would suspend normal trade relations with Russia, undercutting the GOP’s attempt to paint itself as tougher on Russia than Biden is, report Burgess Everett and Andrew Desiderio. Paul wants Congress to limit the president’s sanction powers. — New U.S. sanctions are taking aim at the places and people that help Russian oligarchs hide their assets, as well as the supply chains for Russia’s military, WSJ’s Paul Hannon reports. CONGRESS ANNALS OF INFLUENCE — As federal and state lawmakers consider gas tax holidays to ease pain at the pump, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other construction or business groups are urging them to hold off, WSJ’s Julie Bykowicz reports . The chamber said it would give higher ratings to lawmakers who oppose a gas tax suspension, as lobbyists warned of unintended consequences and the difficulty of reinstating such a tax in the future. ALL POLITICS REDISTRICTING ROUNDUP — Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS made good on his threat today and vetoed his fellow Republicans’ proposed congressional map for not going far enough to advantage the GOP. He called for a special session to work it out. More from WFTS — Chaos in Ohio: After Republicans pushed through a major gerrymander — again — that would give them at least 10 and as many as 13 of the state’s 15 House seats, the state Supreme Court said today that it won’t review the maps until after primary elections in May. The court has repeatedly rejected Republicans’ previous district boundaries. The Columbus Dispatch breaks it down 2024 WATCH — Maryland Gov. LARRY HOGAN is in Miami today, advocating for Biden not to ease oil sanctions on Venezuela and meeting with Venezuelan American community leaders, Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser scoops. THE WHITE HOUSE KNOWING THE INTERPRETERS — CBS’ Ed O’Keefe has an interesting video profile of the White House’s first-ever full-time team of American Sign Language interpreters, ELSIE STECKER and LINDSEY SNYDER. “This is a dream job of that combination of the political information and the interpreting,” Stecker told him. “It fits me very, very well.”
| | | | 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. | | | | | THE PANDEMIC GETTING A BOOST — The FDA today authorized a second booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for adults 50 and older as well as some immunocompromised people, reports Katherine Ellen Foley. Worth noting: Officials aren’t going so far as to recommend them explicitly. Health officials’ move to authorize this round of shots without first calling meetings of their outside advisory panels “will leave the administration open to criticism that it is skipping steps in the scientific and regulatory review process,” notes Stat’s Andrew Joseph. DISPARITY WATCH, PART I — Congress’ failure thus far to appropriate more Covid-19 response funding threatens to worsen the pandemic’s disparate racial/ethnic impacts, report Megan Messerly and Alice Miranda Ollstein. Equity advocates and experts are sounding the alarm that scaling back or suspending “programs that provide free testing, treatments and vaccinations will disproportionately affect the tens of millions of uninsured Americans — a majority of whom are people of color.” DISPARITY WATCH, PART II — A new report warns that long Covid will likely disproportionately harm Black Americans’ health for potentially years to come, and that “Black Americans have not been sufficiently included in long Covid trials, treatment programs and registries,” NYT’s Lola Fadulu reports. THE ECONOMY HISTORY LESSON — As the Fed seeks to tamp down inflation without damaging the economy, Ben White has a sobering look at the central bank’s record: Of the nine times since 1961 it’s tried to pull off this feat, only once — in 1994 — has the Fed not triggered a recession. And this time around, “worries are more pronounced than usual because of the extraordinary circumstances the U.S. is facing.” THE GREAT RESIGNATION — 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in February, slightly up from the previous months, while the number of openings continued to hover at 11.3 million, per new data released today. It’s the latest indication of “the ongoing mismatch between labor supply and demand that’s pushing up wages,” Bloomberg’s Reade Pickert writes. BEYOND THE BELTWAY BEHIND THE BILL — From Tallahassee, Andrew Atterbury and Gary Fineout have the backstory of what inspired Florida’s new law restricting classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity. The genesis was a Tallahassee 13-year-old who told their parents they might be non-binary two years ago, to the parents’ dismay — prompting the parents to sue county schools when staffers asked the teen which bathroom they preferred to use. JANUARY LITTLEJOHN and her husband argued “that school officials helped their child transition to a different gender without informing them,” and in a little-noticed connection, the firm that filed the lawsuit helped craft Florida’s new law. MEDIAWATCH STATE OF THE UNIONS — More than 500 Condé Nast staffers have unionized, asking management to recognize their representation from the NewsGuild of New York for magazines like Vanity Fair, Vogue and more. It would be “the largest new unit in recent NewsGuild history,” The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin reports. ISLANDS IN THE STREAM — CNN+ launched today, marking the cable behemoth’s splashy jump into streaming. WaPo’s Jeremy Barr has a good preview of the service, noting that “the stakes are serious for a network that — like its rivals Fox News and MSNBC — is concerned about the waning number of cable s and corporate advertisers that prop up the cable-news business model.” PLAYBOOKERS TOP-ED — The late Madeleine Albright has a new piece out in WaPo, excerpted from her most recent book, “Hell and Other Destinations: A 21st-Century Memoir” ($18.99): “Resilience of spirit, more than intellect, is the key to life” MEDIA MOVE — Former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has been named a CBS contributor. NEW NOMINEE — The White House announced Biden will nominate Dean Thompson as ambassador to Nepal. STAFFING UP — Vipin Narang is now principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense for space policy. He’s on leave from MIT, where he’s a professor of nuclear security. TRANSITION — JR Kane is now government and civic relations program manager for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, focusing on federal engagement. He most recently was a legislative assistant for Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and is an EPW Committee alum.
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