AOC VS. MALONEY — Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) is putting her endorsement where her mouth is. The progressive is endorsing state Sen. ALESSANDRA BIAGGI’s primary bid to unseat Rep. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY, escalating her frustration with the DCCC chair, NYT’s Shane Goldmacher reports. “The endorsement, which will include a fund-raising email on Tuesday, will add progressive credibility to Ms. Biaggi’s campaign and intensifies the threat at home to Mr. Maloney, who is overseeing the party’s strategy nationally as Democrats try to to maintain their tenuous hold on the House.” The context: After the release of the new New York congressional map, Maloney said he would run in the district home to fellow Democratic Rep. MONDAIRE JONES , which drew quick outrage from many within the party, with AOC being one of SPM’s fiercest critics. She even said Maloney should “step aside” from his DCCC chairmanship if the Maloney v. Mondaire race was going to occur. Eventually, Jones decided to run elsewhere (he’s currently in a very crowded open-seat primary featuring former NYC Mayor BILL DE BLASIO), but a lot of the damage was already done. The primary contest is set for Aug. 23. — Maloney: “Nothing but respect for A.O.C. — in fact I’m an original co-sponsor of the Green New Deal — but local voices are what matters in this race and they’re overwhelmingly supporting me. … They know best who delivers for the Hudson Valley.” — Biaggi: “Her endorsement is really an indication to everyone that this is an important fight for the party. … She really is the standard-bearer.” TRUMP’S GOING TO HATE THIS — As the Republican Party (and everyone else) waits on pins and needles to see when and whether DONALD TRUMP will officially declare for 2024, Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS continues to build momentum for a potential run, our Florida Man Matt Dixon reports . At the annual Western Conservative Summit, 71% in a straw poll said they want the governor to run for president, compared to 67% for the former president. (Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas) came in third with 28%.) “That straw poll comes on the heels of DeSantis also running neck-and-neck with Trump in a new University of Nevada, Reno survey asking voters in the state to rate potential 2024 candidates. DeSantis received the highest favorability score of any Republican with all voters — 48 percent compared to Trump’s 42 percent — but was bested by Trump, 73-69, when just Republicans were counted.” — Colorado GOP operative TYLER SANDBERG: “There is no real party standard-bearer at the moment, and DeSantis in many eyes is starting to define the post-Trump party … He fights more about policy and less on his Twitter account.” Good Tuesday afternoon. HEADS UP — MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, a native of Uvalde, Texas, will be joining press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE at today’s press briefing. JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH NEW DETAILS FROM JAN. 6 — “Shortly before pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Secret Service agents scrambled to try to secure a motorcade route so then-President Donald Trump could accompany his supporters as they marched on Congress to demand he stay in power, according to two people briefed on witnesses’ accounts to congressional investigators,” WaPo’s Carol Leonnig, Josh Dawsey, Peter Hermann and Jacqueline Alemany report . “The hectic events that day followed nearly two weeks of persistent pressure from Trump on the Secret Service to devise a plan for him to join his supporters on a march to the Capitol from the park near the White House where he was leading a massive rally that he predicted would be ‘wild.’ … “Witnesses have told the House Jan. 6 committee that, immediately after Trump [said ‘We’re going to walk down to the Capitol’], Secret Service agents contacted D.C. police about blocking intersections, according to the people briefed on the testimony. Police officials declined, as they were stretched thin due to their role monitoring numerous protests and later assisting with a growing mob at the Capitol, the people said.” THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION THIS IS CONCERNING — DHS released a new report today warning about a potential rise in domestic extremism this year tied to a series of upcoming events. “A looming Supreme Court decision on abortion, an increase of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and the midterm elections are potential triggers for extremist violence over the next six months, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday. The U.S. was in a ‘heightened threat environment’ already, and these factors may worsen the situation, DHS said in the latest National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin,” writes AP’s Ben Fox. “It’s the latest attempt by Homeland Security to draw attention to the threat posed by domestic violent extremism, a shift from alerts about international terrorism that were a hallmark of the agency following its creation after the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Indeed, the threats from overseas rate only passing mentions in this bulletin.” ALL POLITICS THE NEW DEM BUZZWORD — “Indivisible, a network of local progressive organizing groups that sprang up during the Trump administration, is spending $7 million in the 2022 midterms to help elect Democrats by emphasizing ‘MAGA extremism,’” scoops Elena Schneider. “Plans shared first with POLITICO outline how the group plans to mobilize its local chapters around ‘strategic conflict,’ which focuses activism and voter contact around Republican candidates’ comments and policy positions.” AD WARS — South Texas will go to the polls for a special election next week to replace former Democratic Rep. FILEMON VELA, who resigned earlier this year. And national Dems are jumping into the contest with a last-minute push to hold off Republicans who want to flip the reliably blue seat. “House Majority PAC released a new Spanish-language TV ad attacking MAYRA FLORES, the leading Republican candidate in the June 14 contest,” Ally Mutnick reports . “The $112,000 buy represents the first major outside spending on behalf of the Democratic candidate, DAN SANCHEZ, who has been underfunded and swamped by Republican money.” DEMS GO DARK IN IOWA — The Atlantic’s Elaine Godfrey has a dispatch from Dubuque, Iowa , where she spent time with the Simpsons — the “first family” of Democratic politics in the state. But what she found is that Iowa is starting to shade red: “After 60 years, voters in Dubuque County seem finished with Democrats. Nationwide, the trends are the same: Working-class voters without a college education are voting more in line with Republicans, while Democrats make inroads among more educated voters.” Said a retired John Deere employee and UAW member named Ronald: “The party ‘turned away from the working-class people, and [went] more to the upper-crust type — the college graduates and people in corporate offices,’ he said. He’ll probably keep voting for Democrats, but he knows many others who won’t. His wife, another longtime Democrat, is so fed up with what she sees as the party’s elitism that she told Ronald she’d consider voting for Trump in 2024.” WHAT DOES MASTERS BELIEVE — Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel uncovers a “series of short, polemical blog posts” written by Arizona GOP Senate candidate BLAKE MASTERS when he was an undergraduate at Stanford. In the posts, Masters “suggested that ‘illegal immigration is an ethical contradiction in terms,’ argued that ‘“unrestricted” immigration is the only choice,’ and commended U.S. service members who had participated in a drug trafficking ring along the southwestern border as ‘heroes,’ among other things.” Kassel writes: “The blog posts provide unique and seemingly unvarnished insight into the mind of an opinionated young political activist, once steeped in libertarian thought, who is now gaining traction in his first bid for public office while promoting a completely different message.” BIG IN BEANTOWN — “Massachusetts Democrats tired of Republican rule see Healey as their savior,” by Lisa Kashinsky and Madison Fernandez
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