Washington

Essential U.S. political news & intel to start your day.
April 26, 2021
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Top Stories

  • President Joe Biden is facing pressure from Democrats to include improvements to the health care system in his forthcoming American Family Plan, raising the possibility of a sticking point over his sweeping proposal that is already expected to include provisions involving education, child care and climate change. Seventeen Democratic senators sent Biden a letter asking him to back changes to the Medicare system, including raising the eligibility age, capping out-of-pocket expenses, negotiating drug prices and expanding benefits to include hearing, dental and vision care. (CNN)
  • Biden is close to nominating Mark Gitenstein to be U.S. ambassador to the European Union and Julie Smith to represent America for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, according to sources. The announcement will reportedly come ahead of Biden’s first foreign trip in June, when he’s set to visit the United Kingdom and Brussels. (Axios)
  • Gen. Austin Miller, the top American military official in Afghanistan, said the United States has begun closing down operations in the country ahead of the start of the withdrawal of U.S. forces on May 1. Miller told reporters it “does not make sense” to return to peace talks with the Taliban hours before a top negotiator for the organization appeared to indicate a breakthrough in negotiations. (The Associated Press)
  • Louisiana state Sen. Troy Carter won a special election to replace Cedric Richmond in the House, defeating state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, a former state Democratic chair who was supported by the party’s progressive wing. When Carter is seated, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) will have a 219-seat majority ahead of three more Democratic vacancies to be filled by special elections this year. (The Washington Post)
 

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What Else You Need To Know

White House & Administration
 

Biden’s first 100 days: Where he stands on key promises
Alexandra Jaffe et al., The Associated Press

As he rounds out his first 100 days in office, President Joe Biden’s focus on reining in the coronavirus during the early months of his administration seems to have paid off: He can check off nearly all his campaign promises centered on the pandemic.

 

White House’s new $1.8 trillion ‘families plan’ reflects ambitions — and limits — of Biden presidency
Jeff Stein, The Washington Post

The White House is preparing to unveil a roughly $1.8 trillion spending and tax plan this coming week that includes many of President Biden’s campaign promises but also reflects the daunting challenges facing the administration as it tries to transform the U.S. economy.

 

U.S. to Send Virus-Ravaged India Materials for Vaccines
Katie Rogers and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times

The Biden administration, under increasing pressure to address a devastating surge of the coronavirus in India, said on Sunday that it had partially lifted a ban on the export of raw materials for vaccines and would also supply India with therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators and personal protective gear.

 

Federal Aid to Renters Moves Slowly, Leaving Many at Risk
Jason DeParle, The New York Times

Four months after Congress approved tens of billions of dollars in emergency rental aid, only a small portion has reached landlords and tenants, and in many places it is impossible even to file an application.

 

Kamala Harris, nearly 100 days in, has been visible as vice president. But is she influential?
Noah Bierman, Los Angeles Times

When President Biden delivered a rare nationally televised address last week, he shared the platform with Vice President Kamala Harris, who helped him make the case that former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd created an urgency to change policing laws.

 

Kremlin says date and location of Putin-Biden summit not yet decided
Reuters

The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia and the United States had not yet agreed on a date and place for a summit meeting of President Joe Biden and President Vladimir Putin and that many factors still needed to be looked at before it is finalised.

 

Turkey says it will respond in time to ‘outrageous’ U.S. genocide statement
Dominic Evans and Orhan Coskun, Reuters

U.S. President Joe Biden’s declaration that massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide is “simply outrageous” and Turkey will respond over coming months, Turkey’s presidential spokesman said on Sunday.

 
Congress
 

House GOP retreat to Florida fraught with peril
Melanie Zanona, Politico

For House Republicans, it’s less about how they can win back the majority and more about: How do they avoid messing things up?

 

Kevin McCarthy, Four Months After Jan. 6, Still on Defensive Over Trump
Mark Leibovich, The New York Times

Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, was in an uncharacteristically dark place.

 

Centrist Senators Signal Progress on Infrastructure Talks
Alex Leary, The Wall Street Journal

Two centrist senators key to negotiations over infrastructure spending signaled progress in talks but made clear they don’t support President Biden’s expansive $2.3 trillion proposal.

 

As Manchin hogs limelight, West Virginia’s other senator seizes her moment
Burgess Everett, Politico

Everyone in politics studies Joe Manchin’s every utterance these days. They should also start tuning into the other senator from West Virginia.

 

Lawmakers spar in Supreme Court case on nonprofit donor disclosure
Todd Ruger, Roll Call

The Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in a pair of cases that members of Congress say could influence political discourse in the United States, warning that the justices either could stymie debates on controversial policies or bolster the influence of big money anonymous donors.

 

They’re coming in hot: The best quotes from our interviews with Congress’ most diverse freshman class
Brooke Minters et al., Politico

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that the 117th Congress would be the most diverse ever. The past six congresses have increasingly bested the last by including more and more non-white lawmakers.

 

This millennial GOP congressman voted to impeach Trump. Now he’s trying to save his party from going off a cliff.
Adam Wren, Insider

The GOP freshman congressman who purchased a flak jacket following his “aye” vote for President Donald Trump’s impeachment walked into what was once Grand Rapids’ largest funeral home on a crystalline, blue-sky West Michigan day earlier this month — unnoticed and unaccosted.

 
General
 

E.U. Set to Let Vaccinated U.S. Tourists Visit This Summer
Matina Stevis-Gridneff, The New York Times

American tourists who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to visit the European Union over the summer, the head of the bloc’s executive body said in an interview with The New York Times on Sunday, more than a year after shutting down nonessential travel from most countries to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

 

Millions Are Skipping Their Second Doses of Covid Vaccines
Rebecca Robbins, The New York Times

Millions of Americans are not getting the second doses of their Covid-19 vaccines, and their ranks are growing.

 

CEO of vaccine maker sold $10 million in stock before company ruined Johnson & Johnson doses
Jon Swaine, The Washington Post

The stock price of government contractor Emergent BioSolutions has fallen sharply since the disclosure at the end of March that production problems at the firm’s plant in Baltimore had ruined 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine. Since then, AstraZeneca moved production of its own vaccine out of the facility, and Emergent temporarily halted new production there altogether.

 

Iran’s Foreign Minister, in Leaked Tape, Says Revolutionary Guards Set Policies
Farnaz Fassihi, The New York Times

In a leaked audiotape that offers a glimpse into the behind-the scenes power struggles of Iranian leaders, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the Revolutionary Guards Corps call the shots, overruling many government decisions and ignoring advice.

 

Breaking Point: How Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook Became Foes
Mike Isaac and Jack Nicas, The New York Times

At a confab for tech and media moguls in Sun Valley, Idaho, in July 2019, Timothy D. Cook of Apple and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook sat down to repair their fraying relationship.

 

Once-A-Decade Census Numbers to Redraw U.S. Political Landscape
Gregory Korte, Bloomberg

The once-a-decade battle to redraw the U.S. political map promises to be one of the most contentious ever when it kicks off this week, shadowed by the coronavirus pandemic and hindered by partisan divisions stoked during Donald Trump’s presidency.

 

Minutes before Trump left office, millions of the Pentagon’s dormant IP addresses sprang to life
Craig Timberg and Paul Sonne, The Washington Post

While the world was distracted with President Donald Trump leaving office on Jan. 20, an obscure Florida company discreetly announced to the world’s computer networks a startling development: It now was managing a huge unused swath of the Internet that, for several decades, had been owned by the U.S. military.

 

60 Minutes interviews the prosecutors of Derek Chauvin
Scott Pelley, CBS News

Derek Chauvin is in solitary confinement tonight awaiting sentencing for the murder of George Floyd. The former Minneapolis police officer was convicted this past Tuesday.

 
Campaigns
 

Joe Cunningham confirms plans to run for SC governor; announcement set for April 26
Thomas Novelly, The Post and Courier

Former U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham confirmed to The Post and Courier that he will announce his 2022 campaign for governor of South Carolina on April 26.

 

Trump’s Vendetta Against Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey
Sam Brodey and Asawin Suebsaeng, The Daily Beast

Donald Trump has told associates he’s so angry about Doug Ducey not overturning the Arizona election results that he’d campaign for the Democrat if Ducey ran for Senate.

 

Peter Thiel makes $10M bet on associate in Arizona Senate race
Alex Isenstadt, Politico

Libertarian tech titan Peter Thiel is spending $10 million to boost one of his closest allies in next year’s Arizona Senate race, a contest crucial to the fight for the majority.

 

Why California’s 2021 recall isn’t the same as the 2003 version
Carla Marinucci and Jeremy B. White, Politico

Caitlyn Jenner is not Arnold Schwarzenegger.

 
States
 

GOP-backed recount of Maricopa County ballots appears on track to move forward after initial pause ordered by Arizona judge
Rosalind S. Helderman, The Washington Post

An extensive effort to recount ballots from the November election moved forward in Phoenix on Friday as a private vendor hired by Republicans in the Arizona Senate began reviewing nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in the state’s largest county.

 

Republicans Target Voter Access in Texas Cities, but Not Rural Areas
Nick Corasaniti, The New York Times

Voting in the 2020 election presented Zoe Douglas with a difficult choice: As a therapist meeting with patients over Zoom late into the evening, she just wasn’t able to wrap up before polls closed during early voting.

 

The political revival of Ralph Northam: How an ostracized governor became a progressive champion
Dan Merica, CNN

When Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam looks back at his tenure, the inflection point between being a run-of-the-mill executive and the progressive leader he has become is a painful one.

 

Washington state passes new capital gains tax
Mychael Schnell, The Hill

The Washington state Senate passed a new capital gains tax on the sale of high-profit stocks, bonds and other assets on Sunday, sending the bill to the desk Gov. Jay Inslee (D).

 
Advocacy
 

How US chemical industry lobbying and cash defeated regulation in Trump era
Tom Perkins, The Guardian

The nation’s top PFAS manufacturers executed a lobbying and campaign donation blitz in recent years as the federal government attempted to regulate the toxic compounds.

 
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
 

Biden Must Call For Democracy Reform During Joint Address to Congress
Lisa Gilbert (Public Citizen), Morning Consult

President Joe Biden’s upcoming speech on April 28 in front of a joint session of Congress will capture the zeitgeist shift of a post-Trump America.

 

Joe Biden’s First 100 Days Reshaped America
Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

During the first hundred days of Joe Biden’s presidency, it has dawned on Republicans that the man their standard-bearer once mocked as “Sleepy Joe” is a formidable adversary.

 

The Dumbest Tax Increase
The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal

If you need more evidence that ideology more than common sense is driving the Biden Presidency, look no further than its trial balloon to raise the top tax rate on capital gains to 43.4%. It’s the dumbest way to raise taxes for many reasons, not least because it will cost the government revenue.

 
Morning Consult