Morning Consult Washington: Biden Expected to Introduce Vaccine Mandate for Federal Workers
 

Washington

Essential U.S. political news & intel to start your day.
July 28, 2021
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New Polling on Vaccine Messaging and Mandates

 

Our latest survey with Politico found just 1 in 5 Republican voters heard “a lot” about prominent Republican leaders calling on unvaccinated Americans to get COVID-19 shots – slightly less than the share (26 percent) who said the same of ​​former President Donald Trump’s call for Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine in March.

 

The surge of the delta variant has added urgency to calls to vaccinate Americans, with some localities and federal agencies moving to require them (more on that below). My colleague Gaby Galvin reports that 3 in 5 Americans support employer vaccine mandates, including 76 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of Republicans.

 

Top Stories

  • In a bid to boost the country’s flagging inoculation rate amid mounting COVID-19 cases, President Joe Biden is reportedly set to announce tomorrow a requirement that all federal employees and contractors be vaccinated or submit to regular testing. (CNN) News of the plan follows new guidance on masking from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is now recommending that vaccinated people resume wearing face coverings indoors in parts of the country where COVID-19 cases are high, and that K-12 schools adopt universal masking regardless of vaccination status. (The Wall Street Journal
  • The special House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, which heard dramatic accounts yesterday from police officers involved in defending the building, could bring subpoenas seeking testimony of Trump administration officials and some of his allies in Congress as soon as next week, according to a committee official. (Bloomberg) The Biden administration said it would not assert executive privilege to block the House panel from compelling testimony from former Trump administration officials. (Politico)
  • Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the panel’s top Republican, announced a bipartisan agreement on a $2.1 billion supplemental appropriations bill to shore up funding for the Capitol Police, pay bills associated with the Jan. 6 attack and provide humanitarian support for Afghan refugees. (NPR News)
  • Texas state Rep. Jake Ellzey (R) won a special election to replace Republican Rep. Ron Wright, defeating the late lawmaker’s widow, GOP activist Susan Wright, who had been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. (The Texas Tribune)
 

Chart Review

 
 

Events Calendar (All Times Local)

 

What Else You Need To Know

White House & Administration
 

Biden Proposes Broad Shift to Favor American-Made Products
Jenny Leonard, Bloomberg

The Biden administration is proposing sweeping changes to its government purchasing rule to increase the content of American-made goods, senior administration officials said.

 

50,000 migrants released; few report to ICE
Stef W. Kight, Axios

About 50,000 migrants who crossed the southern border illegally have now been released in the United States without a court date. Although they are told to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office instead, just 13% have shown up so far, Axios has learned.

 

Troops to stay put in Syria even as Biden seeks to end America’s ‘forever wars’
Lara Seligman, Politico

The Biden administration is pulling all American troops out of Afghanistan and formally transitioning to an advisory role in Iraq. But the U.S. military operation in Syria has seen no changes — and officials expect hundreds of troops to remain in the country for the foreseeable future.

 

Jill Biden’s chief of staff nominated for Spain ambassador
Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press

President Joe Biden on Tuesday nominated Julissa Reynoso, the chief of staff to first lady Jill Biden and a former ambassador, to serve as his ambassador to Spain and Andorra.

 

Biden mileage rule to exceed Obama climate goal
Tom Krisher and Hope Yen, The Associated Press

In a major step against climate change, President Joe Biden is proposing a return to aggressive Obama-era vehicle mileage standards over five years, according to industry and government officials briefed on the plan. He’s then aiming for even tougher anti-pollution rules after that to forcefully reduce greenhouse gas emissions and nudge 40% of U.S. drivers into electric vehicles by decade’s end.

 

Swastika found etched into State Department elevator
Hans Nichols and Jonathan Swan, Axios

A swastika was found on Monday etched into the wall of a State Department elevator near the office of its special envoy to monitor and combat anti-semitism, according to a person familiar with the discovery and a picture obtained by Axios.

 
Congress
 

Republicans voice opposition to Jan. 6 investigation as police officers call for accountability
Jacqueline Alemany et al., The Washington Post

House Republicans began Tuesday morning by calling the upcoming inaugural hearing of the chamber’s investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol a “sham” and a “political charade.” After it concluded in the early afternoon, they provided myriad reasons for why they did not tune in to the harrowing testimony provided by four police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol that day against a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters.

 

Sen. Rob Portman has asked ex-President Donald Trump to back the pending infrastructure deal
Sabrina Eaton, Cleveland.com

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio has asked former President Donald Trump to support the infrastructure deal he’s been negotiating for weeks with the Biden administration and a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators.

 

Tension over bipartisan infrastructure talks spills into party meetings
Marianne Levine and Burgess Everett, Politico

Both Republican and Democratic Senate lunches turned into venting sessions Tuesday afternoon, as rank-and-file senators used the parties’ private gatherings to complain about the bipartisan infrastructure negotiations, according to multiple sources familiar with the meetings.

 

‘Tiger of the House’ claws his way through infrastructure talks
Sarah Ferris and Heather Caygle, Politico

House Transportation Committee Chair Peter DeFazio is on the verge of getting rolled. And he’s not going quietly.

 

Democrats press Biden to extend eviction ban
Katy O’Donnell and Kellie Mejdrich, Politico

The White House is facing increasing pressure from Democrats in Congress to extend the federal eviction ban before it expires this weekend amid persistent bottlenecks in the distribution of rental aid.

 

Biden’s pick for ATF chief struggles to nail down support from all Democrats
Seung Min Kim and Paul Kane, The Washington Post

The White House and Senate Democrats are struggling to secure support in their own ranks to install David Chipman as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a position central to President Biden’s crime-fighting strategy but whose confirmation is getting snarled in gun politics.

 

House Republicans pull out of another key select committee in a sign of 1/6 panel fallout
Annie Grayer, CNN

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has pulled out all six Republicans designated to serve on a key select committee on the economy, three sources tell CNN, a sign of the fallout among House Republicans over being vetoed from the panel investigating the January 6 insurrection.

 

House Ethics Panel Forces Marjorie Taylor Greene To Pay $500 Mask Fine
Andrew Solender, Forbes

The House Ethics Committee on Tuesday rejected appeals by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) against $500 fines for repeatedly refusing to wear masks on the House floor in May.

 

DOJ ruling represents legal setback for Rep. Mo Brooks in lawsuit over Jan. 6 speech
Pete Williams and Dartunorro Clark, NBC News

The Justice Department handed Rep, Mo Brooks, R-Ala., a legal setback Tuesday when it notified a federal court that Brooks hadn’t been acting in his official capacity when he spoke at the pro-Trump rally on Jan. 6, the day of the U.S. Capitol riot.

 
General
 

England to Relax Quarantine for Vaccinated U.S., EU Visitors
Tim Ross, Bloomberg

The U.K. government is set to allow visitors from the U.S. and the European Union to travel to England without needing to quarantine on arrival if they have been fully vaccinated.

 

Twitter Permanently Suspended Eight Accounts That Had Been Promoting Pro-Trump “Audits” Of The 2020 Election
Sarah Mimms, BuzzFeed News

Twitter has permanently suspended eight accounts that spread former president Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and pushed for partisan “audits” to find evidence to support those falsehoods, the platform’s latest suspensions directed at the audits.

 

How a Respected N.Y.P.D. Officer Became the Accused Capitol Riot #EyeGouger
Michael Wilson, The New York Times

The F.B.I. agents showed Thomas Webster a wanted flier with a picture taken during the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. In the photograph, a middle-aged man is shouting angrily across a metal barricade with a pole in his raised right hand.

 

Daniel Hale, who leaked information on U.S. drone warfare, sentenced to 45 months in prison
Rachel Weiner, The Washington Post

In 2013, Daniel Hale was at a peace conference in D.C. when a man recounted how two family members had been killed in a U.S. drone strike. The Yemeni man, through tears, said his relatives had been trying to encourage young men to leave al-Qaeda.

 

Former President Barack Obama to join NBA Africa as strategic partner, minority owner
Marc J. Spears, ESPN

Former President Barack Obama has joined NBA Africa as a strategic partner and minority owner, the NBA announced Tuesday.

 

Longtime Democratic Donor Ed Buck Has Been Convicted In The Meth Overdose Deaths Of Two Black Men
Stephanie K. Baer, BuzzFeed News

A wealthy West Hollywood man who was accused of preying on vulnerable men with drugs was convicted Tuesday of multiple drug trafficking charges in connection with the deaths of two Black men who overdosed on methamphetamine at his apartment.

 
Campaigns
 

‘He’s a Great Guy’: Trump’s Favored Aide Has Troubled Past
Michael Kruse, Politico

Sources say Max Miller has a history of aggressive behavior that includes slapping his ex-girlfriend, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.

 

Hooked on Trump: How the G.O.P. Still Banks on His Brand for Cash
Shane Goldmacher, The New York Times

Even in defeat, nothing sells in the Republican Party quite like Donald J. Trump. The Republican National Committee has been dangling a “Trump Life Membership” to entice small contributors to give online.

 

‘America is not racist’ becomes a GOP 2024 mantra
David Siders, Politico

Democrats made structural racism a centerpiece of the 2020 presidential primary. Now the Republican rebuttal is emerging as an early plank of the 2024 GOP contest: America is not a racist country.

 

Polls show California recall gaining steam
Reid Wilson, The Hill

The share of California voters who say they will vote to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) from office is quietly growing about 10 weeks before they head to the polls, a troubling sign for an incumbent who faces quietly mounting crises across his state.

 
States
 

Georgia judge dismisses election suit against Fulton County but allows claim against individual officials
Amy B Wang, The Washington Post

A Georgia judge on Thursday dismissed claims against Fulton County in a lawsuit that alleges there were fraudulent mail-in ballots in the 2020 presidential election, saying the officials were entitled to sovereign immunity under state law.

 

Wisconsin GOP leader doesn’t want another election probe
Scott Bauer, The Associated Press

The highest ranking Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly said Tuesday that he didn’t know what a forensic audit of the state’s 2020 presidential election results would prove, saying two other ongoing investigations were sufficient while disagreeing publicly with a GOP colleague who called for yet another, broader probe.

 

DC Attorney General Moves Ahead With Trump Inauguration Suit
Jose Pagliery, The Daily Beast

The attorney general for the District of Columbia will continue investigating whether Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration committee misspent more than $1 million, after discussions to resolve the matter out of court stalled this month.

 

Gov. Gavin Newsom pulls his kids out of summer camp after maskless photos surface
Sophia Bollag, The Sacramento Bee

Gov. Gavin Newsom has pulled his children out of a summer camp after photos surfaced of his son sitting without a mask with other maskless children, a spokeswoman for his office said.

 
Advocacy
 

Biden’s talk of vaccine mandates sends labor into disarray
Rebecca Rainey and Natasha Korecki, Politico

As the Biden White House weighs vaccine mandates for businesses and the federal workforce, some of its firmest outside allies are bristling at the idea. A steep divide has emerged among labor unions — as well as between members and leaders — over whether to require workers to be vaccinated.

 

China’s New U.S. Ambassador Pioneered The Foreign Ministry’s Brash Tone
Emily Feng and John Ruwitch, NPR News

As a spokesperson, he delivered excoriating one-liners and helped pioneer a brash, more sharply confident communication style from the Chinese foreign ministry’s pulpit.

 
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
 

I’m on the Jan. 6 Committee. Here Are the Questions I Want Answered.
Adam Kinzinger, The New York Times

On Jan. 6, hundreds of our fellow citizens stormed the U.S. Capitol, armed and ready for battle. For hours, broadcast live on television and streamed on social media, rioters attacked law enforcement and eventually breached the halls of Congress in an effort to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

 

Foreign Policy Returns to Normal, for Both Better and Worse
John Bolton, The Wall Street Journal

The politics of American foreign policy are reverting to their modern norms, illustrated by two recent Biden administration decisions and the attendant reactions. Donald Trump’s idiosyncrasies and the Democratic opposition produced some aberrations in the traditional positions of the two major parties, confounding allies and adversaries alike.

 

How might political polarization and gridlock end?
Stuart Rothenberg, Roll Call

There is widespread agreement that those who voted for Donald Trump remain supportive and enthusiastic about the former president. At the same time, anti-Trump voters are equally locked into their view that he and his allies remain a threat to democracy.

 
Morning Consult