| | | | |  | | By Eli Okun | | | THE GROUNDHOG SEES ITS SHADOW — The CDC is planning to extend the national mask mandate on public transit for two more weeks, from April 18 to May 3, amid a slight uptick in cases, per CNN. The pause will give the administration more time to study the BA.2 Omicron subvariant. An announcement could come as soon as today. TRUMP SETS DOWN A MARKER — DONALD TRUMP has continued to raise gobs of money since leaving office, but he's never opened up the coffers to support another candidate in a significant way — until now. Alex Isenstadt scoops that Save America PAC has pumped $500,000 into a bid to take down Georgia Gov. BRIAN KEMP in his heated primary against DAVID PERDUE. "The move underscores the importance — and urgency — of Georgia in Trump's eyes," Alex writes, as Kemp leads in the race despite Trump's branding of him as insufficiently loyal. SURVEY SAYS — Progressives have been pushing JOE BIDEN since before he got into office to turn the pandemic student loan repayment pause into an outright mass cancellation of debt. But the administration has resisted going there so far. We have new data from our POLITICO/Morning Consult poll that breaks down where the voting public stands on the issue: — By a 2-to-1 margin, voters support federal forgiveness of at least some student loan debt: Just 29% oppose the idea. But supporters are split over how much and for whom. Only 19% want all debt wiped out for all borrowers, while similar proportions would limit the amount of debt forgiven, the scope of borrowers included or both. — Fifty-three percent of voters back Biden's move to extend the payment suspension through the end of August, compared to 36% who oppose it. — The issue's salience: Voters are roughly evenly split over how high a priority student loan debt relief should be for Congress. Forty-seven percent rate it as a top or important priority, while 46% are less enthused or oppose it outright. And it's not top of mind for the midterms: Just 5% of voters list "education" issues — which of course extend far beyond student loan debt — as the main driver of their vote this year. (Economic issues are No. 1 by far.) Notable context: Four-fifths of poll respondents say they have no student loan debt. Only 4% have $50,000 or more in debt. Toplines … Crosstabs
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| Though Biden hasn't yet been willing to bow to progressives' wishes by canceling $50,000 of student loan debt per borrower, his administration is taking steps to expand and accelerate the process of loan forgiveness for people defrauded by schools, WSJ's Gabriel Rubin reports . The Education Department is "[streamlining] the process and [working] through a backlog of more than 150,000 claims for debt relief under the program, many of which have sat unaddressed for several years," as well as "updating the borrower defense regulation." The change has led some for-profit colleges to worry that the regulations could damage them. Good Wednesday afternoon.
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Learn about our efforts | | | ALL POLITICS VOTER FRAUD WATCH — In the latest twist of the did-MARK-MEADOWS -commit-voter-fraud story, a North Carolina county removed him from its voter rolls as the state investigation into the former White House chief of staff proceeds, reports the Asheville Citizen Times' Joel Burgess. The county elections head made the change after finding Meadows was also registered in Virginia. It's fairly standard practice. FOLLOWING THE MONEY — The Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger digs intoHERSCHEL WALKER's business record and finds "a parallel record of demonstrably false claims, many of which appear to bear no resemblance to reality whatsoever." In particular, his repeated claims that he started and owned an upholstery business don't stand up to scrutiny, as no such company exists under his ownership. Sollenberger has many more details on Walker's history of exaggerated or false claims about his business record, to which the Walker campaign either did not respond or criticized the reporting. TO RESPOND OR NOT TO RESPOND? — As allegations that Democrats and/or queer people are "groomers" or pedophiles gain currency on the far right, the party is largely ignoring the matter, Vice's Cameron Joseph reports. Democratic members of Congress tell him that responding directly risks giving more attention to the outlandish, often homophobic conspiracy theories — and they would rather focus more on kitchen-table issues heading into the midterms. "But claims made in bad faith can still pay political dividends, making even bonkers attacks risky to ignore," Joseph writes, citing a recent poll that finds almost a third of the country thinks "it's definitely or probably true that 'top Democrats are involved in elite child sex-trafficking rings.'" 2024 WATCH — A group backing Maryland Gov. LARRY HOGAN is going up with a new national digital ad touting his achievements in office and contrasting them with dysfunction in Washington, Fox News' Paul Steinhauser scoops. It's just "a modest ad buy," but it indicates "some of the themes that a potential Hogan 2024 White House campaign might offer." NO-DRAMA OBAMA — BARACK OBAMA sat down with Al Roker on the "Today" show to tout his new documentary series about national parks. He said of post-White House life, "There's nothing that compares to the privilege and honor of serving the American people than the highest office of the land. There are times when I miss the work. I don't miss the hoopla, though."
| | | | INTRODUCING 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. | | | | | POLICY CORNER WHAT MERRICK GARLAND IS UP TO — The DOJ has reached a deal for the Springfield, Mass., police to enter into a consent decree to reform their practices — the first such decree since the Trump administration all but banned them, WaPo's David Nakamura reports. A.G. Garland lifted that policy last year. Investigators had flagged a pattern of excessive force by Springfield's narcotics department. GOING NUCLEAR — The Biden administration is moving to defund the SLCM-N nuclear-tipped sea-launched cruise missile, one of the few areas where liberal wishes to rein in defense spending and the nuclear arsenal have borne fruit. But now it looks set to become a major point of contention in Congress' annual defense policy bills, as Republicans fight to get it back, Connor O'Brien reports . Senior military leaders have endorsed the program, so "GOP lawmakers are capitalizing on the split with military brass, arguing the administration isn't taking the advice of its top commanders when it comes to nuclear weapons." MUCK READ — NYT's Chris Hamby, Walt Bogdanich, Michael Forsythe and Jennifer Valentino-DeVries are out with a new investigation into pharma conflicts of interests at McKinsey, where internal records "call into question the consulting firm's firewall between its work for private companies and for the authorities that oversee them." McKinsey consultants were allowed to — and touted for being able to — advise both pharmaceutical companies and the FDA regulators that supervised them at the same time. House Oversight released a related investigation on the issue today. — The New Yorker's Patrick Radden Keefe: "If you've read EMPIRE OF PAIN or followed the Purdue/Sackler story you probably wondered: how could the FDA let this happen? This NYT scoop provides one shocking answer: The FDA was being advised by McKinsey consultants who *also worked for Purdue*." TRUMP CARDS IMPEACHMENT REDUX — The people involved with the events that led to Trump's first impeachment say it has direct links to the current war in Ukraine — and many questions from 2019 remain unanswered, report Kyle Cheney and Andrew Desiderio . The Trump administration's move to hold up military aid to Ukraine for domestic political purposes "became an existential crisis for Ukraine." And many top "high-ranking budget, State Department and White House officials," including RUSSELL VOUGHT, "have still never revealed key accounts at the heart of the controversy."
| | | |   | | | WAR IN UKRAINE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS … — Biden just spoke with Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, the latter tweeted. — Paging the Senate Intel GOP: The U.S. is starting to provide much more intelligence to Ukraine "so they can target Moscow's military units in Russian-occupied Donbas and Crimea and potentially take back territory," WSJ's Michael Gordon, Warren Strobel and Vivian Salama report. — New satellite images today from Maxar Technologies showed hundreds of Russian military vehicles moving in or near eastern Ukraine, "further evidence that Russia is amassing forces for a new offensive to seize control," writes NYT's Cora Engelbrecht. — Russia claimed the surrender of more than 1,000 Ukrainian marines in Mariupol, per Reuters. That could bring Russia closer to full control of the city. — The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe declared that Russia had committed war crimes and broken international law in Mariupol and elsewhere in Ukraine in a new report out today. It includes staggering reports of atrocities, including a Ukrainian claim that 500,000 people were forcibly deported to Russia. More from WaPo — What's behind Ukraine's surprising military success? WSJ's Daniel Michaels reports that several years of low-profile NATO training made a big difference, having "transformed Ukraine's military up and down the ranks, from foot soldiers to the defense ministry to overseers in parliament." People involved say the effort was more successful than in Afghanistan or Iraq because of Ukraine's more cohesive central government and clear common enemy. — Russia has failed to staunch the flow of Western arms into Ukraine, a significant factor in its struggles in the war thus far, AP's Robert Burns reports. VALLEY TALK ANTITRUST THE PROCESS — Progressives working to break up Big Tech companies want anti-censorship conservatives to join their cause — but in at least one case, such alliances are raising questions about which partners liberal activists will accept. Emily Birnbaum reports that behind closed doors, the conservative American Principles Project is working together with progressive groups to advance the cause, even though it's a prominent anti-transgender group. "While those are messages that some left-leaning antitrust advocates call discriminatory and hateful, others insist that working with people you disagree with — even on fundamental social issues — is worth the compromise."
| | | | DON'T MISS ANYTHING FROM THE 2022 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is excited to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage and insights from the 25th annual Global Conference. This year's event, May 1-4, brings together more than 3,000 of the world's most influential leaders, including 700+ speakers representing more than 80 countries. "Celebrating the Power of Connection" is this year's theme, setting the stage to connect influencers with the resources to change the world with leading experts and thinkers whose insight and creativity can implement that change. Whether you're attending in person or following along from somewhere else in the world, keep up with this year's conference with POLITICO's special edition "Global Insider" so you don't miss a beat. Subscribe today. | | | | | BEYOND THE BELTWAY INFRASTRUCTURE YEAR — Initial chunks of change to expand broadband access around the country are reaching municipalities now, but it won't all be smooth sailing, report AP's Wilson Ring and Mark Gillispie: "some say supply chain issues, labor shortages and geographic constraints will slow the rollout." Just to get the necessary fiber optic cable can take more than a year. THE REAL STORY — The murder arrest — and subsequent dismissal of charges — of a 26-year-old South Texas woman for an alleged self-induced abortion sparked national news coverage. But WaPo's Caroline Kitchener, Beth Reinhard and Alice Crites dug into what happened, and they report that it seems "this was not part of a broader antiabortion strategy, but instead a hasty error by a first-term Democratic district attorney." There are also conflict-of-interest questions in the DA's office. JUDICIARY SQUARE NEW NOMINEES — The White House today announced five new judicial nominees, two for federal circuit courts and three for district courts, bringing his total in office thus far to 90. The picks would continue to add diversity to the bench in "one part of Biden's agenda that is still moving forward quickly and successfully," notes NBC's Sahil Kapur. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION ABBOTT'S BORDER PLOY — A bus carrying dozens of undocumented immigrants arrived in D.C. this morning from Texas, making good on Gov. GREG ABBOTT's promise to bring the problems of the border right to the Biden administration's doorstep in protest of its immigration policies, per The Dallas Morning News. Critics have dismissed the move as a stunt. The drop-off location "also happens to be next to a building that houses the operations of several television outlets, including Fox News. The network aired footage showing migrants leaving the bus one at a time, clutching manila envelopes and wearing hospital-style bracelets on their wrists." MEDIAWATCH SUBSTACK GROWS UP — After the initial flash of its debut, Substack is now grappling with several issues, NYT's Tiffany Hsu reports : increased competition, the departure of some big names, unhappiness with its content moderation policy and readers' newsletter fatigue. The company is still growing, though, and setting its sights on "a multimedia community" beyond just newsletters. "Depending on whom you talk to, those challenges are either standard start-up growing pains or threats to the company's future." THE PANDEMIC AWFUL MILESTONE — The U.S. is expected to cross the threshold in the coming weeks of 1 million deaths from Covid-19. There are a pair of sensitive stories worth your time today: — AP's Adam Geller, Carla Johnson and Heather Hollingsworth on the virus' "merciless chronology of loss -- one by one by one" and the "million empty spaces" it has left behind. — The Atlantic's Ed Yong on the "community of grievers larger than the population of all but 11 states" that Covid has wrought, and the enduring pain infecting many of their lives. PLAYBOOKERS OUT AND ABOUT — Olivia Troye and Joe Walsh hosted a private screening of the new documentary "Navalny" at the Regal Gallery Place on Tuesday evening, with a cocktail reception afterward at Clyde's. Organizers and attendees talked about the importance of the film, which profiles the titular Russian dissident, amid the war in Ukraine and threats to democracy in the U.S. and around the world. SPOTTED: Bill Kristol, Jim Acosta, Brian Karem and U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn. TRANSITION — MaryAsa England is now comms adviser and digital comms manager for Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). She previously was a research assistant on the Senate Commerce Committee.
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