|
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 | | | |  A lot of House Republicans are still awaiting an official public response from Donald Trump before figuring out how to proceed with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. | AP | REPRIEVE FOR ‘MY KEVIN’? — At a moment when House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY’s shot at the speakership looked more in danger than ever , he may have saved himself Thursday night — at least for now. WaPo’s Jacqueline Alemany and Marianna Sotomayor, citing two sources, report that McCarthy talked with DONALD TRUMP on Thursday night and Trump “was not upset” about new audio that revealed McCarthy said Trump should resign after Jan. 6. Instead, the former president was pleased that McCarthy reneged and started backing him again, “which Trump saw as a sign of his continued grip on the Republican Party,” they report. Axios’ Jonathan Swan confirmed the WaPo take, tweeting: “Yep. Trump liked the original JMart/Burns story bc he felt like it made him look strong bc McCarthy and McConnell said all these terrible things about him around Jan 6 and now he sees McCarthy as a supplicant and McConnell said he’ll back him in 2024 if he’s the nominee.” Still, a lot of House Republicans know Trump can go hot and cold on people fast, forgiving one minute and furious the next. They’re still awaiting an official public response from Trump before figuring out how to proceed. The Trump-McCarthy call followed the explosive revelation from Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns’ new book, “This Will Not Pass,” that McCarthy and Senate GOP Leader MITCH MCCONNELL had privately called for Trump to go following the Capitol insurrection — which McCarthy denied, only for the reporters to offer audio proof. But not everyone in Trump world is mollified:
- On his show this morning, STEVE BANNON called it a “cardinal sin” for McCarthy to deny comments that were caught on tape.
- And BORIS EPSHTEYN warned that “Kevin McCarthy’s got a big problem” in his speakership bid now, per Nick Wu.
They won’t be the last. There are a lot of Trump allies who are not fans of McCarthy, so expect these types to try to stir the pot against him. But then again, McCarthy has also strategically — and smartly — hired a bunch of former Trump staffers, who could theoretically play peacemakers on his behalf. MEANWHILE … This morning, Martin and Burns presented more snippets of leaked audio of McCarthy in the days after Jan. 6, though some of its contents were previously reported, albeit without audio. Appearing on CNN, they had the tapes:
- McCarthy talking to House GOP leadership on Jan. 10, 2021: “I know this is not fun. I know this is not great. I know this is very tough. But what I want to do, especially through here, is I don’t want to rush things. I want everybody to have all the information needed. I’ve had it with this guy. What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that, and nobody should defend it.”
- Here’s McCarthy the next day, sounding much more conciliatory while talking to the full House GOP Conference: “Let me be very clear to all of you, and I am very clear to the president: He bears responsibilities for his words and actions, no [ifs], ands or buts. I asked him personally today: Does he hold responsibility for what happened? Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me he does have some responsibility for what happened. And he [needed] to acknowledge that.” CNN’s Melanie Zanona breaks it down … (But we already knew the gist of this one)
WHO’S THE LEAKER?: Per the WaPo story, Rep. LIZ CHENEY’s (R-Wyo.) spokesman said she didn’t leak the audio. House Minority Whip STEVE SCALISE’s (R-La.) spokesman said he didn’t leak it, nor did anyone on his team. Notably, our understanding is that staff for a lot of these top members were also on this call. So it could have been an aide. Martin, who’s having quite the book rollout, teased: “More tapes to come.” HE’S NOT THE ONLY ONE DANGLING BIG NEWS — Rep. JAMIE RASKIN (D-Md.) said the Jan. 6 committee hearings “will tell a story that will really blow the roof off the House,” per NBC’s Rebecca Shabad. Raskin also said those hearings will happen in June — we’d previously heard May, though the committee’s timeline has been squishy. Good Friday afternoon, and happy Earth Day.
| | | | A message from The American Beverage Association: At America’s beverage companies, we are committed to reducing our plastic footprint. That’s why we’re carefully designing our plastic bottles to be 100% recyclable, including the caps. Our goal is for every bottle to become a new one, so they don’t end up in our oceans, rivers and landfills. This Earth Week, visit EveryBottleBack.org and learn more about how our bottles are made to be remade. | | | CONGRESS EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE — President JOE BIDEN’s push for Congress to pass more aid to Ukraine next week looks set to collide with lawmakers’ other ongoing squabbles over Covid aid and the Title 42 border policy, Andrew Desiderio reports. Republicans bogged down negotiations over pandemic response funding weeks ago by linking them to criticism of Biden’s immigration moves. Now it’s Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER who could tie up Ukraine aid — even though it has bipartisan backing — by pushing to combine it with the Covid funding bill. Meanwhile, trips by several lawmakers to Eastern Europe during this recess will up the pressure to act fast on Ukraine. GOP RE-FINDS RELIGION ON TRADE — Now that Trump is out of office, Republican senators are seeking to reverse some China tariffs and setting up a battle with more protectionist Democrats, Gavin Bade reports. The site of the debate is the China competitiveness/semiconductor manufacturing bill that has passed both chambers in different forms, which now need to be reconciled. While the Senate GOP retains a few Trumpist holdouts who back the tariffs, like JOSH HAWLEY (Mo.), many of its members are threatening not to support the entire bill unless their trade language wins out — and they have the upper hand. — Related: Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN said today that rolling back Trump China tariffs is “worth considering.” TABLE-SETTER — As Congress comes back next week, WSJ’s Eliza Collins and Andrew Restuccia preview Democrats’ attempts to breathe life into an often moribund agenda. They also report that inside the White House, “Biden’s advisers are divided over” whether he should cancel some student loan debt en masse, “and the president hasn’t yet made a decision on how to proceed.” MTG LATEST — Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) is in court today to try to fend off a challenge that seeks to remove her from the ballot for her Jan. 6 role. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Tia Mitchell and Greg Bluestein report that Greene testified, “None of my words, never ever, mean anything for violence.” Her attorneys argued the case was just political. But the AJC doesn’t mince words: “Greene’s assertion during the legal hearing that she hasn’t condoned violence on social media runs counter to a background that includes racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic remarks and a past belief in the deranged QAnon conspiracy theory.” ALL POLITICS AN UNDER-THE-RADAR PRIMARY TO WATCH — Arkansas’ JOHN BOOZMAN is a reliable conservative in the Senate GOP Conference. But he’s scrambling to swat away a primary challenge from veteran and pro footballer JAKE BEQUETTE, who’s riding a wave of money from billionaire donor RICHARD UIHLEIN and trying to paint Boozman as insufficiently MAGA for saying, accurately, that the 2020 election was legitimate, Alex Isenstadt reports . Boozman is still the favorite, but if Bequette can push him into a runoff after next month’s primary, it could be a tough fight. “Uihlein’s involvement illustrates how a single free-spending billionaire can alter the contours of an election and put a once-safe incumbent on edge,” Alex writes. CASH DASH — The Pennsylvania Senate GOP primary pitting DAVID MCCORMICK against MEHMET OZ is drawing massive infusions of Wall Street cash on both sides, making for one of the country’s most expensive races this year, CNBC’s Brian Schwartz reports. They’re drawing on their respective hedge fund and entertainment connections to rake in the dough, with McCormick a particular business-world favorite: Almost 60 Goldman Sachs leaders have donated to him. Oz also has plenty of Wall Street supporters. And both men are close to Bridgewater’s RAY DALIO, who’s stayed neutral. AD WARS — Sen. THOM TILLIS isn’t letting up in his opposition to fellow North Carolina Republican Rep. MADISON CAWTHORN: A Tillis-aligned super PAC is putting up $310,000 to air an ad attacking Cawthorn, per Axios’ Lachlan Markay. “In perpetual pursuit of celebrity, Cawthorn will lie about anything,” it says. The ad CLIMATE FILES — Worried and disappointed climate activists are staging a series of “Fight for Our Future” rallies around the country, pegged to Earth Day, to push for government action to avert climate catastrophe, NYT’s Lisa Friedman reports.
| | | | INTRODUCING DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | JUDICIARY SQUARE SCOTUS WATCH — Biden may have his hands full dealing with the political fallout of reversing one Trump immigration policy, but he could soon face another: The Supreme Court on Tuesday is taking up the question of whether the Biden administration can end Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy, Bloomberg’s Greg Stohr and Jordan Fabian report. “A ruling against the administration would further complicate Biden’s handling of immigration,” and the conservative court has already refused to pause a lower-court ruling against Biden in the case. Notable context: The administration has been steadily increasing its use of the program lately. THE PANDEMIC PULLING BACK THE CURTAIN — The Biden administration appealed a judge’s ruling striking down the CDC’s transit mask mandate. But they didn’t immediately ask for a stay, indicating there might be more here than meets the eye, NYT’s Charlie Savage and Sharon LaFraniere suggest: “Legal specialists raised another possibility on Thursday: The administration may instead be buying time and thinking about trying to erase the ruling — a move that would allow it to protect the powers of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to respond to a future crisis — but without reviving a mask mandate.” AFTERNOON READ — For POLITICO Magazine, Kathy Gilsinan has a big feature looking at why Nebraska handled the pandemic so much better than many other states, emerging with little economic damage, barely any student learning loss and a low per-capita death toll. The takeaway: Beyond all the nation’s pitched political battles over Covid, GOP Gov. PETE RICKETTS and Nebraska’s other leaders got right down to “simple institutional competence,” Kathy writes. “With a combination of pre-existing medical infrastructure and efficient state government, Nebraska used its geographical head start to prepare better and then move faster than many other states to contain the pandemic and its economic fallout.” THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION MARK YOUR CALENDARS — VP KAMALA HARRIS will give the commencement address at Tennessee State University on May 7, CBS’ Tim Perry scooped. YELLEN SPEAKIN’ — Yellen said on CNBC that she thinks inflation may have peaked (we’ve heard that before!), though prices will likely stay high for a while. She also called the American economy “very resilient” so far and said she didn’t foresee a recession. More from Reuters BEYOND THE BELTWAY THE POWER OF PARTISANSHIP — Utah has long voted by mail. But in the wake of Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and voter fraud, the red state is seeing increased opposition from conservative voters and chaos for election workers, AP’s Sam Metz reports from Provo . As a result, lawmakers put new focus on voting restrictions: “They ultimately passed laws tightening voter ID, requiring 24-hour surveillance at ballot drop boxes and making it easier for people to opt out of mail voting, but rejected more drastic proposals, including one to end universal vote by mail altogether.” DO THE MATH — After Florida’s decision to reject dozens of math textbooks kicked up a political firestorm, NYT’s Dana Goldstein and Stephanie Saul went through 21 of them to investigate further. They find hardly anything about race (let alone critical race theory). But there is plenty of “social-emotional learning content,” a formerly uncontroversial method that has proven successful but has become a recent target for conservatives who call it a Trojan horse for social radicalism. “The textbooks that Florida rejected are filled with references to character traits like perseverance and cooperation.”
| | | | DON'T MISS ANYTHING FROM THE 2022 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is excited to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage and insights from the 25th annual Global Conference. This year's event, May 1-4, brings together more than 3,000 of the world’s most influential leaders, including 700+ speakers representing more than 80 countries. "Celebrating the Power of Connection" is this year's theme, setting the stage to connect influencers with the resources to change the world with leading experts and thinkers whose insight and creativity can implement that change. Whether you're attending in person or following along from somewhere else in the world, keep up with this year's conference with POLITICO’s special edition “Global Insider” so you don't miss a beat. Subscribe today. | | | | | WAR IN UKRAINE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS … — A top Russian commander said the country wants much more than just the Donbas, seeking to capture an entire swath of southern Ukraine that would constitute a bigger fight than the current focus in the east, per NYT’s Marc Santora. — An intense and grinding fight continued in the east, as Russia assaulted a series of small towns and villages that Ukraine sought to defend or recapture. The battles made it impossible to evacuate civilians today. Latest updates from CNN — Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN will go to Germany next week. — ICYMI: New evidence of possible mass graves near Mariupol shocked the world. More from the AP VALLEY TALK PREVIEW OF 2023? — House Judiciary Republicans put Twitter on notice, formally asking the company to preserve all records regarding ELON MUSK’s attempted takeover. YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH SOCIAL — If Musk succeeds, and changes Twitter’s rules in a way conservatives like, he could undercut the raison d’etre for Truth Social, NYT’s Matthew Goldsten, Ken Vogel and Ryan Mac report. A Musk-led Twitter could “further sap the appeal of Mr. Trump’s beleaguered start-up as it faces a regulatory investigation that could decide its future.” PLAYBOOKERS MEDIA MOVES — Shane Goldmacher is moving up to be national political correspondent at the NYT. Announcement … Bryan Lowry will return to The Kansas City Star as politics editor. He currently covers the White House and Congress for the Miami Herald and McClatchy. STAFFING UP — Marcia Wong will be deputy assistant USAID administrator for humanitarian affairs. She most recently had the top policy job at the International Committee of the Red Cross Washington office. … Kelsey Fitzpatrick is now special assistant to the administrator of the U.S. Digital Service. She most recently was press assistant and confidential assistant to Covid-19 response at the White House. TRANSITIONS — Brittney Dickerson is now comms director for Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.). She most recently was press secretary for Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.). … Brian Garcia is now press secretary for Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas). He most recently was comms director in Fairfax County Supervisor James Walkinshaw’s office. BONUS BIRTHDAY: Yasmina Vinci of the National Head Start Association
| | | | A message from The American Beverage Association:   Not all plastic is the same. At America’s beverage companies, we’re designing our bottles to be 100% recyclable – including the caps. And we’re making investments in communities across the country to help improve recycling infrastructure so we can get #EveryBottleBack. | | | | | | | 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 | | | | |  |
