| | | | |  | | By Brakkton Booker | With help from Rishika Dugyala, Jesse Naranjo, Marissa Martinez, Ella Creamer and Charlie Mahtesian
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POLITICO illustration/Photo by Ben Crump Law via AP | What up, Recast family! The political world descends on New York: Truth-challenged GOP Rep. George Santos announces he will seek reelection next year and, later, we’ll unpack the racial subtext in Monday’s House Judiciary field hearing in Manhattan. But we start today focusing on the shooting of a Black teenager in Kansas City, Mo. It took four days. But the octogenarian accused of shooting Ralph Yarl is now facing criminal charges. They include armed criminal action and first-degree assault, a class A felony which carries a penalty of no less than 10 years and up to 30 years or life imprisonment, if convicted. For Andrew D. Lester, the alleged shooter, that’s essentially a death sentence. It would also mark a stark turn of events for the white man who, immediately after the shooting on Thursday, was taken into custody but promptly released after about an hour. Lester surrendered Tuesday and is back in custody. He told police he was “scared to death,” citing the teenager’s size. Fearing that he could not defend himself, Lester discharged his weapon, striking Yarl in the head and in the arm. The incident has triggered another round of all-too-familiar outrage and horror, and ignited fresh scrutiny over our nation's gun laws — in particular, Missouri’s “stand your ground” law, which protects people in some cases who use potentially lethal force if a proportionate threat is encountered.
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The perceived threat in this case: Yarl, a Black teenager who was sent to pick up his younger twin siblings, mistakenly arriving at the wrong door.
This case has all the ingredients to revive the national debate over “stand your ground” laws, which over much of the last decade have been central in trials for civilians accused in fatal shootings of Black teens and young men, including Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis in 2012.(Davis’s mother is Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), a prominent gun control advocate.)
|  A woman and her daughter sit outside the house where 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot several days earlier, Monday, April 17, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. | Charlie Riedel/AP Photo | Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, argued during court proceedings that he was suspicious of the teen, who was visiting relatives in a gated community in Florida. Zimmerman then pursued Martin, got into a physical altercation with him, shot him and was acquitted. In Davis’ case, Michael David Dunn got into an argument over loud rap music at a gas station, then shot into a vehicle carrying Davis and his friends, killing Davis. Dunn was convicted of first-degree murder. “It’s been my goal from the very beginning to get justice for the child involved in the case,” Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson told reporters Monday afternoon after charges had been announced. “I can tell you there was a racial component in this case,” he added, without giving further details. |  Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson announces charges against Andrew Lester, Monday, April 17, 2023, in Liberty, Mo. | Charlie Riedel/AP Photo | The split-screen politics here are hard to miss. Politicians and celebrities alike have weighed in, including Vice President Kamala Harris, who tweeted: “Let’s be clear: No child should ever live in fear of being shot for ringing the wrong doorbell. Every child deserves to be safe. That’s the America we are fighting for.” President Joe Biden spoke to Yarl and shared his hope for a swift recovery, the White House announced Monday evening. Yet as demonstrators rallied through the weekend in Kansas City calling for justice for Yarl — ensuring national media didn’t turn its focus elsewhere and ramping up pressure on the law enforcement investigation — some 500 miles east in Indianapolis, the National Rifle Association held its annual convention. It was attended by a handful of potential 2024 GOP hopefuls, including former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence, and the Kansas City incident was not mentioned. However, other recent shootings were evoked — including mass shootings in Nashville last month and another in Louisville just over a week ago — to argue before the reported 70,000 attendees that more guns are needed. As the criminal case involving Lester works its way through the Missouri legal system, discrepancies between some of the details that led to the shooting will be addressed. |  Dried egg is seen on a house, Monday, April 17, 2023, where Ralph Yarl was shot Thursday after he went to the wrong address to pick up his younger brothers. | Charlie Riedel/AP Photo | For instance, Lester told police he shot after he saw Yarl pulling on an exterior storm door, thinking he was trying to break in, while Yarl told police he waited outside after he rang the doorbell and did not pull on the door, The Kansas City Star reported. Those details could be the crux of whether Lester walks free. But the reason we are talking about this at all seems to be clear, according to a joint statement from Democratic state lawmakers in Missouri: Reps. Ashley Aune, Jamie Johnson, Maggie Nurrenbern and Eric Woods. “While we may want to think that race did not play a factor, it is naive to assume that a white teenager in the same situation would face the same violence,” the group wrote on Monday. “This is a time when we must be willing to have hard conversations about racism in this country and, sadly, in our communities.” As always, we’ll keep tabs on how this plays out both legally and politically. All the best,
The Recast Team
| | | HOUSE JUDICIARY BLOODIES ALVIN BRAGG
|  House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) speaks alongside Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) at a field hearing, Monday, April 17, 2023, in New York. | John Minchillo/AP Photo | The Javits Center — Manhattan’s famed venue which hosted the nation’s last concession speech by a presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and was transformed into America’s largest hospital during the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak by then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — was again a top gathering spot for politicians on Monday. For four hours, the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee held a field hearing dubbed “Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan,” where the aim was to portray Alvin Bragg, Manhattan's first Black district attorney, as driven by “pro-crime, anti-victim policies” which have led to violent crime and inescapable danger for residents of the city. “Here in Manhattan, the scales of justice are weighed down by politics,” Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said during opening remarks. “For the district attorney, justice isn’t blind. It’s about opportunities to advance a political agenda.” First came the dizzying array of crime statistics offered by both sides — Republicans contend violent crime is up in the nation’s largest city due to Bragg’s incompetence and Democrats argue that violent crime is actually down, especially when compared to its 1990s peak — and then the witnesses took center stage. The GOP’s star witness was Madeline Brame, who is Black and the mother of an Afghanistan War veteran who was stabbed to death in Harlem in 2018. She told the committee that after years of the case working its way through the judicial system, Bragg fumbled it after being elected DA.
|  Witnesses Jose Alba, Jennifer Harrison and Madeline Brame are sworn in during the field hearing Monday. | John Minchillo/AP Photo | “He was handed a strong murder case. As soon as he took office, the case began to unravel,” Brame said. “If he’s receiving one penny of federal dollars, you need to pull that funding until he starts doing his job and prosecuting crimes.” Bragg’s office last year downgraded charges for two of the four people involved in her son’s murder. Two are serving 20 years to life in prison, while another is serving seven years and a fourth was released after 14 months she already served at Rikers Island. At one point during the hearing, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) — while characterizing the hearing as a “charade” being led by Republicans to cover up an abuse of power — was cut off by Brame. “Don’t insult my intelligence!” she clapped back. “You're trying to insult me like I’m not aware of what’s going on here. I’m fully aware of what's going on here.” She added one final shot before she allowed Jordan, the committee chair, to restore order. “That’s why I walked away from the plantation of the Democratic Party,” she said, drawing a smattering of applause from some of those in attendance.
|  Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) speaks at the field hearing while an aide displays a photo from outside the event earlier in the day. | John Minchillo/AP Photo | The hearing is the latest escalation in the ongoing war between congressional Republicans and a local prosecutor who brought 34 felony criminal counts against the former president for an alleged hush money scheme to silence an adult film star. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Bragg sued House GOP members, arguing their attempts to solicit testimony from his former lieutenant Mark Pomerantz amounted to a “brazen and unconstitutional attack” and was tantamount to harassment and retaliation of an independent prosecutor. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), one of Trump’s staunchest supporters in the House, last week introduced the ALVIN Act, which stands for “Accountability for Lawless Violence In Our Neighborhoods Act.”
| | | SHOW ME THE MONEY
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Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) led fundraising among incumbents of color in the first quarter. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo | | This past weekend’s deadline for candidates to file their first-quarter fundraising hauls provided a snapshot of who is filling their coffers ahead of their 2024 reelection bids, even though for many, their primary contests may be a year or more in the future. Still, nothing indicates electability quite like big money. POLITICO’s Marissa Martinez takes a look at some incumbents of color in competitive districts and has this report. Coming out on top was Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.), who reported having $1.02 million in the bank after raising almost $667,000 in the first quarter. Fellow California Republican Young Kim reported almost $903,000 cash on hand after raising nearly $811,000 so far. Both survived close general election contests in 2022. Freshman Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz) was the top Latino earner from a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee target district. He reported having $957,000 cash on hand, and raised under $800,000 this quarter — a good chunk of which came from maxed-out donors. Ciscomani certainly raised his profile nationally after delivering the Spanish-language response to Biden’s State of the Union address earlier this year. Other DCCC targets fared well, including Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas), who raised $412,000 to bring her coffers to over $475,000; and Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.), who raised $465,000 for a total of $474,000 cash on hand. Overall, Latino Republicans in these targeted seats have slightly more cash in the bank as a collective compared to Dems — mirroring the overall GOP’s stronger fundraising numbers this cycle. Ciscomani, De La Cruz, Chavez-Deremer along with Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) were nominees on The Recast Power List this year for helping to harness the steady shift among some Latino voters to the GOP. The top earner for a National Republican Congressional Committee target: Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), who raised over $818,000 to end with $661,000 cash on hand, with hundreds of donors giving under $1,000. OTHER BIG EARNERS: Among the four Black conservative House members, freshman Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) had a massive quarter, raising nearly $1 million to bring his coffers to $1.85 million. The next-highest earner was Florida Republican Byron Donalds, who brought in just $272,873 this quarter for a total of $773,000 cash on hand. On the other side of the aisle, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries reported raising $2.59 million in the first quarter since taking over the top leadership position from Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), bringing his cash-on-hand totals to $4.17 million.
| | | THE RECAST RECOMMENDS Han Kang’s tender new novel, “Greek Lessons,” is a sparkling testament to human connection. It’s in bookstores today. Larissa FastHorse will become the first Native American woman to bring a play to Broadway this week. She discusses her ballet background, Lakota heritage and “The Thanksgiving Play” here. “Suzume” sets out on a mission to save Japan from the apocalypse in Makoto Shinkai’s latest anime masterpiece.
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| Bad Bunny and Grupo Frontera join forces to release “un x100to,” on which they sing about using a dying phone battery to call an ex: “I have only 1% left, and I’ll use it to say I’m so sorry.” Modern love or simps… you be the judge. Season 2 of “Changing Planet” premieres Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on PBS. M. Sanjayan, Ella Al-Shamahi and Ade Adepitan look at conservation projects focused on the world’s most vulnerable ecosystems. “King of Afrobeats” Davido is back with a banger, “UNAVAILABLE,” and a high-energy dance video to brighten the rest of your day.
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| TikTok of the Day: Terrifying
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