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Presented by PhRMA: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross | | | REMINDER — White House press secretary JEN PSAKI is giving her final briefing at 1 p.m.
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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has so far declined to say whether he will comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee seeking his testimony. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo | SUBPOENA LATEST — House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY again declined to say whether he would comply with the Jan. 6 select committee’s subpoena seeking his testimony. But, our colleague Kyle Cheney reports that “McCarthy’s attorney has accepted service of the subpoena on the leader’s behalf, per a source. Stands in contrast to Reps. [SCOTT] PERRY and [JIM] JORDAN who say they haven’t seen the subpoenas yet and declined to say if they’ve been served.” McCarthy was spotted huddling with Perry and Rep. ANDY BIGGS (R-Ariz.) this morning. HEADS UP — Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN spoke with Russian Defense Minister SERGEI SHOIGU for the first time since Feb. 18, the Pentagon said in a statement. Austin “urged an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication.” The statement, via WSJ’s Vivian Salama WHAT BIDEN WANTS FROM ASEAN — As President JOE BIDEN meets with ASEAN leaders today, he is trying to “nudge southeast Asian leaders to be more outspoken about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” AP’s Aamer Madhani writes, “but the issue continues to be a delicate one for many members of the region’s 10-country alliance with deep ties to Moscow. … Some ASEAN members -- Vietnam, Myanmar, and Laos — for years have depended on Russia for military hardware. With the exception of Singapore -- the only member of the 10-member group to impose direct sanctions against Moscow -- the alliance has avoided criticizing President Vladimir Putin or Russia’s prosecution of the war.” DAILY CAWTHORN — The stories about how establishment Republicans are trying to torpedo Rep. MADISON CAWTHORN in his North Carolina primary are well-told by this point. But what happens if he wins? “In private discussions, GOP lawmakers are debating ways to keep Cawthorn on the sidelines should he prevail in his North Carolina reelection race, from relegating him to less favorable committees to warning the punishments could get even stiffer should his controversial antics continue, according to interviews with more than a dozen lawmakers from across the House Republican conference,” CNN’s Melanie Zanona, Manu Raju and Alex Rogers report. “One GOP lawmaker affiliated with the Trump wing of the party told CNN they bluntly warned Cawthorn that they would publicly call for him to be removed from the House GOP conference if he breaks the law again, furious that Cawthorn was cited twice for bringing a gun to the airport and was caught driving with a revoked license for the second time in 5 years in North Carolina. … Meanwhile, some members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, of which Cawthorn is a member, have sat him down and told the 26-year-old to get his act together, according to multiple GOP lawmakers familiar with the conversations.” Happy Friday afternoon.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: ICYMI: A majority of Americans reject so-called government “negotiation” once they learn it could restrict access and choice and chill the innovation of new treatments and cures. The survey also shows a majority find health care coverage costs unreasonable and a top priority health care issue for policymakers to address today. | | | ABORTION FALLOUT HOW IT’S PLAYING — “I am a Republican, but I still believe that it’s a woman’s right to choose.” That’s the sentiment from some Republican voters who spoke to NYT’s Maya King, Alexander Burns, Dan Simmons and Ryan Patrick Hooper about how the Supreme Court’s draft opinion that would strike down Roe v. Wade is landing among the electorate ahead of the midterms. “Moderate women who have tilted back toward the Republicans might now have second thoughts; young people who feel let down by Mr. Biden could well find motivation to vote Democratic out of a feeling of fear and indignation about the Supreme Court. “The urgency of the abortion issue could be particularly intense in Georgia, where state lawmakers in 2019 passed a ban on abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy, knowing at the time that existing Supreme Court precedent would forbid the law from going into effect. If that precedent is overturned, then Georgia voters could find themselves living under one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country.” POLICY CORNER THE LOAN LURCH — One way that officials have considered addressing the issue of student loan relief is by targeting the aid to segments of the population based on borrowers’ income. “But that approach is already angering progressives and could be a nightmare to implement before the November elections,” Michael Stratford reports . “The first hurdle is within Biden’s own administration, where Education Department officials have privately raised concerns about the complexity of adding an income test to student loan forgiveness. They’re warning the White House that the agency lacks the data to automatically cancel loans based on a borrower’s earnings, according to three people familiar with the discussions.”
| | | | DON'T MISS 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. | | | | | ALL POLITICS HMM — Former Trump Interior Secretary RYAN ZINKE is running for Congress in Montana, but “has long faced questions about whether he lives in the state or in California. Now, new tax records uncovered by POLITICO show that Zinke’s wife has designated the home she inherited years ago from her parents in Santa Barbara as her primary residence, as he wages a comeback campaign a thousand-plus miles north and east,” Ben Lefebvre and Daniel Lippman report . “When Zinke filed his candidacy papers with the Federal Election Commission, he listed his family house in Whitefish, Mont., as his place of residence. But he and his wife have used LOLA’S home in Santa Barbara as a mailing address for fundraising invitations, Lola’s own campaign contributions and a business contract his consulting firm filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.” — Flashback, Miranda Green in POLITICO Mag from October 2021: “Ryan Zinke is Running for Office Again in Montana. On Instagram, He’s Often in Santa Barbara” ELECTION INTEGRITY WATCH — In Coffee County, Ga., an election official “opened her offices to a businessman active in the election-denier movement to help investigate results she did not trust in the weeks after President Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat,” write WaPo’s Emma Brown and Amy Gardner. MISTY HAMPTON told WaPo “in interviews that she hoped the Georgia businessman who visited later, SCOTT HALL , and others who accompanied him could help identify vulnerabilities and prove ‘that this election was not done true and correct.’ “Hampton said she could not remember when the visit occurred or what Hall and the others did when they were there. She said they did not enter a room that housed the county’s touch-screen voting machines, but she said she did not know whether they entered the room housing the election management system server, the central computer used to tally election results. … Voting experts said that, whether they accessed sensitive areas or not, Hampton’s actions underscore a growing risk to election security. … “Questions about Hampton’s interactions with Hall surfaced only in recent months, in a long-running federal lawsuit filed by the Coalition for Good Governance and others against the Georgia secretary of state’s office. The plaintiffs argue that the state’s election system is so insecure that it violates the rights of voters.” THIS IS INTERESTING — It’s rare that a news organization’s editorial board endorsements rise to a level of interest worth noting, but this from the Philly Inquirer editorial board caught our eye: “We wanted to endorse in Republican primaries this year. We can’t.” In the piece, they write: “When we sent a survey to Republican candidates in the Senate race to ascertain their positions on a range of issues, we learned that nearly everyone in the field felt our questions were biased and unfair. In their view, among the most problematic queries that we asked was: Who won the 2020 presidential election? The only two options in the multiple-choice format were Joe Biden or Donald Trump. Only one candidate — JEFF BARTOS — agreed to acknowledge reality.” YOU’VE GOT MAIL. WE WANT TO SEE IT — As the midterms swing into full speed, POLITICO wants to see all the different mailers that campaigns deploy. In past elections, POLITICO uncovered mailers targeting Black voters in Virginia and Florida and urging them to vote for third-party candidates to siphon votes away from Democratic candidates, as well as Democratic mailers meddling in GOP primaries around the country. We’ve also reported on disgraced former Rep. DUNCAN HUNTER’s Islamophobic campaign mailers attacking his opponent for his deceased grandfather’s alleged ties to a 1972 terrorist attack. We learned of these mailers after readers sent them to us. That’s why we are asking you to send us photos of any and all mailers you receive about candidates for Senate, House and statewide offices. You can upload photos in the form here, or you can email them to mailers@politico.com. Read more on the effort from Erin Smith, Jan Byun and Scott Bland EVERYTHING IS POLITICS — NYT’s Liam Stack has the story on when the Tikvah Fund, a conservative Jewish organization, invited RON DESANTIS to speak at an event at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, which resulted in a back-and-forth about whether the Florida governor was an appropriate guest for a conference. “Politics have become increasingly challenging for Jewish institutions in recent years, as Americans become divided over issues like L.G.B.T.Q. policies and the results of the 2020 presidential election. New York City is no exception. Neighborhoods with a large population of Reform Jews voted decisively for President Biden in the 2020 election, while those with many ultra-Orthodox Jews overwhelmingly voted for Donald J. Trump. That has put institutions like the Museum of Jewish Heritage in a very difficult position.” THE ECONOMY FUEL TO THE FIRE — “An extended surge in diesel prices is challenging Wall Street bets that inflation is easing. A global shortfall of the fuel — the workhorse for much of the world economy — is straining industries from trucking to farming and adding to the pressure consumers face from higher energy prices. Europe, dependent on imports of Russian diesel that are expected to slump because of sanctions, is particularly vulnerable,” WSJ’s Joe Wallace 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. | | | | | WAR IN UKRAINE — “A day after Finland’s leaders declared unequivocally that the nation would join NATO, Sweden’s government signaled on Friday that it could soon follow suit, issuing a scathing report outlining how Russian aggression in Ukraine had fundamentally altered Europe’s security equation and saying that only NATO membership would offer the nation protection,” NYT’s Marc Santora reports. NYT’s Steven Erlanger has more on the historical context for Sweden’s decision The White House said Biden held a phone call with Finland President SAULI NIINISTÖ and Swedish PM MAGDALENA ANDERSSON this morning. — “A 21-year-old Russian soldier has been brought before a Kyiv court on Friday in the first war crimes trial of the conflict, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general. Now in custody, Vadim Shishimarin is accused of killing an unarmed 62-year-old civilian in the first week of the war,” WaPo reports. — “‘I Cannot Imagine My Life Without Parents.’ A Boy’s War Diary Tells of Grief in Ukraine,” by WSJ’s Isabel Coles MEDIAWATCH TICK TOCK — WSJ’s Lillian Rizzo has the backstory on the demise of CNN+. “CNN’s new owner, Warner Bros. Discovery, said on April 21 that it was shutting down the weeks-old streaming service CNN+, leaving several hundred employees to look for new jobs. A week later, several of those staffers received packages from CNN: boxes filled with network-branded gear, from pens to food containers, as well as items such as a popcorn maker and headphones, people who received the gifts said. Some came with welcome notes. “‘This is an incredible time to be part of CNN,’ one note said. ‘Build relationships and take time to connect with colleagues and learn so that you make the most of your time here.’ The ill-timed gifts, which CNN says were sent mistakenly, were another gut punch for staffers that had bet on CNN+ — drawn by the promise of growth in streaming — only to watch it collapse in epic fashion. … “Interviews with more than a dozen people involved in CNN+ describe a culture where excitement over what one top producer described as CNN’s ‘Apollo Mission’ — a reference to the program that successfully landed the first humans on the moon — gave way to the realization that failure was arriving swiftly and mercilessly.” C-SPAN GOES VIRAL — Meet JEREMY ART , the man behind C-SPAN’s social media, who is trying to keep the longtime Washington institution relevant. “The challenge for Art is that ‘being relevant,’ in social media terms, sometimes involves behaviors that are off-brand at his resolutely nonpartisan employer,” Michael Schaffer writes for POLITICO Magazine . “Twitter loves incendiary language, abject trolling and exhortations to watch as some political figure ABSOLUTELY EVISCERATES a hated rival. C-SPAN, on the other hand, does not. So instead, Art is limiting himself to baby steps. Like sometimes using adjectives.” FOR YOUR RADAR — “PBS NewsHour is preparing for a major transition in its broadcast, with plans for JUDY WOODRUFF to step down from the anchor chair and for AMNA NAWAZ and GEOFF BENNETT to succeed her. The change would take place after the midterm elections, according to a source familiar with the plans,” Deadline’s Ted Johnson writes. VALLEY TALK INTO THE METAVERSE — MARK ZUCKERBERG sat down with Protocol’s Janko Roettgers for “an exclusive conversation about the company’s investments in the metaverse, how it compares to Facebook’s transition to mobile a decade and a half ago, why Meta’s social VR world Horizon is a walled garden for the time being and how he eventually wants to open the doors to those platforms over time.” PLAYBOOKERS OUT AND ABOUT —SPOTTED at a party celebrating Ian Bremmer’s new book “The Power of Crisis” ($25.20 ) hosted by Wilson Center President Emerita and former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) on Thursday night: British Ambassador Karen Pierce, French Ambassador Philippe Étienne, New Zealand Ambassador Rosemary Banks, Georgian Ambassador David Zalkaliani, Italian Ambassador Mariangela Zappia, Serbian Ambassador Marko Djuric, Canadian Ambassador Kirsten Hillman, Molly Ball,Justin Smith, Jonathan Swan, Margaret Carlson, Anita and Tim McBride, Ashley Parker, Vali Nasr, Paula Dobriansky, John Emerson,Rafe Sagalyn, Alexsandra Sanford, and Virginia Coyne. Pic — SPOTTED at Applied Intuition's party opening its new Rosslyn office on Thursday evening: Borys Kremenetskyi, Vahur Valjamae, Krzysztof Nolbert, Krishnan Aiyer, Preston Dunlap, Ian Crone, Jarret Riddick, Katya Volkovska, Jeff Bozman, Travis Moore and Marianne Bellotti. TRANSITION — Keaghan Ames is joining the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as counselor and senior policy adviser to Commissioner Caroline Pham. He currently is director of government affairs at the Institute of International Bankers. BIRTHWEEK (was Wednesday): CyberScoop’s Tonya Riley
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