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Presented by Meta: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Eli Okun | | | |  The House Jan. 6 committee reportedly met in a secure briefing room this morning, a rare move for the panel. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo | HAPPENING SHORTLY — All eyes in Washington are on the Jan. 6 committee’s surprise hearing at 1 p.m. What will CASSIDY HUTCHINSON reveal? And what new information has the panel just obtained? We don’t know much yet, but a few contextual morsels have trickled out: CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reports that Hutchinson has gotten personal security protection in recent days. And CNN’s Annie Grayer, Ryan Nobles, Morgan Rimmer and Lauren Koenig note that the panel met in a secure briefing room this morning in preparation, a rare move for the committee. Preview from Kyle Cheney, Betsy Woodruff Swan and Nick Wu PRIMARY COLORS — Today’s primary between Illinois Reps. RODNEY DAVIS and MARY MILLER will provide another clear test of where the GOP stands, NYT’s Catie Edmondson reports: Will Republican voters prefer an establishment conservative who’s worked across the aisle or a far-right freshman bolstered by DONALD TRUMP’s backing? The incumbent-on-incumbent battle has forced Davis to move to the right to ward off Miller’s attacks. Though he has the vast majority of local endorsements, Trump’s support for Miller is sufficient to sway many voters, Edmondson finds. But Miller keeps stepping in it on the trail — she had to tell a local radio station Monday, “I’m not a racist.” BIG NEWS IN FLINT — The Michigan Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the indictments against state officials in the Flint water crisis were unauthorized, which could “upend the second round of prosecutions” and erase criminal charges against former Gov. RICK SNYDER and other leaders, per The Detroit News’ Beth LeBlanc. The ruling is an “extraordinary decision” and “an astonishing defeat for Attorney General DANA NESSEL,” adds AP’s Ed White. Nessel is up for reelection in November. 2022 WATCH — Sign of the times: Democrats are sweating the Oregon gubernatorial election. NYT’s Reid Epstein has a fascinating breakdown of the race, in which Democrat TINA KOTEK remains the frontrunner, but where unhappiness with Dems has opened the door for former Democrat BETSY JOHNSON to mount a serious independent bid from the center. She’s the race’s leading fundraiser, and while Dems say she’ll take more votes from the GOP, “they are spending as if she is a real threat.” Meanwhile, Republicans have veered right, nominating pro-Trump CHRISTINE DRAZAN — but don’t count them out either. Drazan’s campaign thinks she could win with 40%, and “[s]ome Republicans in Washington, D.C., believe Drazan has a better shot of winning than their candidates in traditional battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania do,” per Epstein. TEACH ME HOW TO DOUG — Pivot to the center for the general election? DOUG MASTRIANO isn’t going there in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race, sticking insistently to his far-right playbook — and drawing the support of many GOP officials, the Philly Inquirer’s Andrew Seidman reports. It’s a trajectory we’ve seen before: Republican office-holders warn vehemently against a fringe upstart candidate until he wins the primary, and then embrace him. Mastriano is continuing his focus on false election fraud claims, even as other Republicans wish he’d play up inflation and crime more. One outstanding question: whether donors will get on board. FORTENBERRY AVOIDS PRISON — Former Rep. JEFF FORTENBERRY (R-Neb.) was sentenced today to two years’ probation, community service and a $25,000 fine after being convicted of lying to federal agents, as a Los Angeles judge spared him time behind bars. “Jeff Fortenberry won't be an inmate. Instead, he will rest in infamy,” writes the Omaha World-Herald’s Todd Cooper. PULLOUT FALLOUT — Amid the burgeoning humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan, the Biden administration is trying to work out a solution with the Taliban that would allow the country to access frozen central bank reserve funds for specifically addressing hunger, WaPo’s Jeff Stein reports . The goal is to “set up a system through which career central bankers and bureaucrats could manage the assets to stabilize the Afghan economy — while simultaneously erecting safeguards that would ensure the funds are not siphoned off for misuse by the Taliban.” A deal still remains far from assured. Good Tuesday afternoon.
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Learn how Meta is helping build the metaverse. | | | ALL POLITICS AD WARS — Former Sen. ALAN SIMPSON is backing Rep. LIZ CHENEY’s (R-Wyo.) reelection bid in a new ad, NBC’s Ben Kamisar reports. Simpson said in an interview that Trump is a “spoiled brat” who is “at the root” of a “Machiavellian distortion of whatever this country stands for,” and he would never again vote for him. STATE OF PLAY — In The New Republic, Ben Jacobs is up with a look at how Iowa moved right and shed its swing-state status: Working-class voters along the Mississippi River who abandoned the Democratic Party are key to the state’s shift, he finds. “Democrats are losing places like Dubuque across the country. The problem is there just aren’t enough urban areas in Iowa to offset the losses elsewhere, even as the cities grow while rural areas depopulate.” And as split-ticket voting becomes less common, Dems have little hope of a rebirth anytime soon. HISTORY LESSON — JOHN HINCKLEY JR. told CBS’ Major Garrett on TV this morning that “I have true remorse” for shooting then-President RONALD REAGAN and several others. “I know [the victims] probably can’t forgive me now, but I just want them to know that I am sorry for what I did.” Garrett and Arden Farhi write, “Hinckley, now 67, lives in Williamsburg, Va. He is a prayerful Christian, believes there are too many guns in America and says he’s worried about the future of the U.S.” AMERICA AND THE WORLD NATO LATEST — President JOE BIDEN will meet with Turkish President RECEP TAYYIP ERDOĞAN on Wednesday at the NATO summit in Spain, press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE told reporters this morning. And the U.S. also announced two new U.S. Navy destroyers getting sent to Spain as NATO beefs up its military presence on the continent. PAGING WILLIAM BURNS — Newly public documents reveal that even as the CIA funded the Colombian military for decades, the agency had evidence the Colombian armed forces were directing the killings of leftist activists, NYT’s Julie Turkewitz reports.
| | | | 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 LIKE A G-7 — As the G-7 summit wrapped up today in Germany, global leaders said they would explore the possibility of trying to cap Russian energy import prices. More from the FT — But, but, but: “[T]he gathering underlined the limits of using economic tools to punish Russia four months after its invasion of Ukraine,” WSJ’s Bojan Pancevski reports from Berlin. SANCTIONS WATCH — Treasury made it official today that the U.S. and other allies are banning imports of Russian gold. More from CNBC FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE — Not to be outdone, Russia announced new personal sanctions today on dozens of prominent Americans, including first lady JILL BIDEN, first daughter ASHLEY BIDEN, Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL, Sens. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa), KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-N.Y.), SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine), BEN SASSE (R-Neb.) and MARTIN HEINRICH (D-N.M.), and FRANCIS FUKUYAMA. LATEST ON THE GROUND — Ukrainian forces have been hampered by a simple but significant struggle: internal communications breakdowns, report NYT’s Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Natalia Yermak. Across all aspects of the war, “Russians jammed their radios constantly; they didn’t have enough communication gear; and they often had difficulty getting through to a commander to call for artillery support.” GUNS IN AMERICA SCOTUS FALLOUT — New York and New Jersey Democrats are working feverishly to try to push through new gun restrictions that could comply with last week’s blockbuster Supreme Court ruling, NYT’s Jonah Bromwich, Tracey Tully and Grace Ashford report. They know more people will buy guns now no matter what. But the ideas in New York include “placing a broad array of ‘sensitive places’ off limits, making the permitting process more arduous and raising the hurdle for permit renewals.”
| | | | A message from Meta:   | | | POLICY CORNER IT’S ELECTRIC — The White House has helped line up more than $700 million in private-sector investments to bolster electric vehicle charger manufacturing, the administration announced today. The money is mostly coming from Volkswagen and Siemens. It’ll bring the country’s production capacity for the chargers to more than 250,000 annually, and create at least 2,000 jobs. More from Reuters BEYOND THE BELTWAY BEHIND THE IDAHO ARRESTS — When dozens of white nationalist Patriot Front members were taken into custody in Idaho this month, the arrests followed nearly a year of tracking by local police and the FBI, Rolling Stone’s Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng report. TRUMP CARDS DAILY RUDY — Some colleges and universities have rescinded their honorary degrees to RUDY GIULIANI over his efforts to undermine the 2020 election, but at least five — including Georgetown, Syracuse and The Citadel — haven’t done so, Insider’s Hanna Kang reports. That has triggered vigorous debates on campus, as some students and faculty call for their administrations to take action while others see it as an overreaction. MEDIAWATCH BOOK CLUB — Simon & Schuster is giving away audiobook and e-book versions of AMANDA RIPLEY’s “High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out” and ANNA SALE’s “Let’s Talk About Hard Things: The Life-Changing Conversations That Connect Us” for free through the end of next month, in an effort to tackle the country’s political divides, WSJ’s Jeffrey Trachtenberg scooped. ABORTION FALLOUT PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — “Republicans Are Sending Abortion Back to the States. But D.C. Isn’t a State,” by Harry Jaffe in POLITICO Magazine: “The District of Columbia is a Democratic bastion. A GOP-led Congress could ban abortion there.”
| | | | INTRODUCING POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS MEDIA MOVES — Ben Fox is joining POLITICO as California politics editor. He most recently was a senior national security writer at the AP, where he’s worked for more than two decades. … Josh Sisco is joining POLITICO as an antitrust reporter. He most recently covered antitrust enforcement, policy and litigation at The Information. TRANSITION — Carianne Lee is now a policy adviser at Pioneer Public Affairs. She most recently was a senior legislative assistant in Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman’s (D-N.J.) office. WEEKEND WEDDING — Brian Morgenstern and Teresa Davis, co-owners of Win the Future Strategies and co-authors of “Vignettes & Vino: Dinner Table Stories from the Trump White House with Recipes and Cocktail Pairings,” got married Saturday at Dahlgren Chapel at Georgetown University, with a reception at the U.S. Institute of Peace. The couple, both Trump White House alums, met at the birthday party of Morgan Ortagus and Katie Pavlich in July 2018 at the urging of Tony Sayegh. Pic by Andrew Kelly and Ann-Sophie Fjello for Christian Oth Studio … Another pic … SPOTTED: Tony and Maria Sayegh, Katie Pavlich and Gavy Friedson, Morgan Ortagus and Jonathan Weinberger, Samantha Dravis, Neil and Damon Alpert, Charlie and Lisa Spies, and Geoffrey Okamoto. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Chris Bond, managing director at PLUS Communications and a Steve Scalise and NRSC alum, and Katie Bond, director of federal government affairs for Boehringer Ingelheim, on Monday morning welcomed Charles Arthur Bond, who came in at 6 lbs, 12 oz and 20.2 inches. Pic
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