| | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross and Eli Okun | | | KETANJI BROWN JACKSON will be nominated to succeed retiring Supreme Court Justice STEPHEN BREYER. If confirmed, she will be the first Black woman to sit on the high court. - In a message posted on Twitter, President JOE BIDEN called Jackson "one of our nation's brightest legal minds" and he said she "will be an exceptional Justice," per Josh Gerstein.
- CNN's Jake Tapper and Ariane de Vogue were first up with the news: "She received and accepted Biden's offer in a call Thursday night."
- Biden met with Jackson "earlier this month — more than a week ago, a senior administration official says, in a meeting that the White House managed to keep entirely under the radar," per CNN's Jeff Zeleny.
- Jackson "is expected to have her courtesy meetings with senators next week," CNN's Manu Raju reports.
- The date of today's announcement is significant. Eugene notes: "It is two years to the day that then-candidate Biden announced on the South Carolina debate stage that he was going to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court."
- BTW: She goes by "Judge Jackson," not "Judge Brown Jackson," per NBC's Frank Thorp.
HEADS UP — The White House noticed that Biden will deliver remarks on Jackson's nomination at 2 p.m. today, where Jackson is also expected to speak with VP KAMALA HARRIS also in attendance, and press secretary JEN PSAKI will now brief at 3 p.m. KNOWING THE NOM: — The quick bio, via WSJ's Ken Thomas, Tarini Parti and Jacob Gershman : "Judge Jackson, 51 years old, serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, one of the nation's most influential courts and often a stepping stone for Supreme Court justices. She joined that court last June after eight years as a federal trial judge in the nation's capital, where she wrote more than 550 opinions, including one from 2019 in which she ruled former White House counsel DON MCGAHN didn't have absolute immunity from having to testify in a congressional investigation of then-President DONALD TRUMP ." — Her pre-judicial background, via AP's Colleen Long, Michael Balsamo and Zeke Miller: "Jackson … once worked as one of Breyer's law clerks early in her legal career. She attended Harvard as an undergraduate and for law school, and served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the agency that develops federal sentencing policy, before becoming a federal judge in 2013." — How Breyer views her, via NYT's Katie Rogers: "During her confirmation hearing to be a Federal District Court judge in Washington in 2012, ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON , the District of Columbia's House delegate, recounted that Justice Breyer had two words when asked about her eligibility for the post: 'Hire her.' When Judge Jackson was sworn in for the job in 2013, Justice Breyer did the honors. 'She sees things from different points of view, and she sees somebody else's point of view and understands it,' he said at the time." — Jackson's vision for herself as a high school senior, uncovered by CNN's Ariane de Vogue: "I want to go into law and eventually have a judicial appointment." N.Y. Mag's Nia Prater has more on her high school and college years (including her membership in an improv troupe). — On the path that brought Jackson to today, WaPo's Marc Fisher, Ann Marimow and Lori Rozsa have a smart read : "Ketanji Brown Jackson … was a 'child of the '70s,' as she puts it. Raised with an African name, dressed in early childhood in a mini-dashiki, she was expected to reap the fruit of the boycotts and sit-ins of the 1960s, taking advantage of the opportunities and equality her parents' generation had demanded. But … her path was neither smooth nor straight. The generational pivot her parents and other civil rights activists sought turned out to be not so simple. … Jackson found her way with a different approach than the confrontational activism of her parents' generation — by deploying her smarts, good cheer and a root assumption that, whatever the obstacles, she belonged." — On the timing, NYT's Michael Shear notes : "The White House decided to go ahead with the announcement — which the president had promised by the end of the month — even though news of the war raging in Ukraine is dominating cable television and internet news sites. Officials hope that the historic nature of the step, nominating the first Black woman to the court, will allow the news to break through and attract attention this weekend, though they acknowledge the importance of the war coverage as well. Announcing his choice now allows Mr. Biden to highlight her nomination during his State of the Union Address on Tuesday." THE REACTIONS … Former President BARACK OBAMA tweeted : "I want to congratulate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on her nomination to the Supreme Court. Judge Jackson has already inspired young Black women like my daughters to set their sights higher, and her confirmation will help them believe they can be anything they want to be." Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL sounds like he's a likely no. He called Jackson "the favored choice of far-left dark-money groups that have spent years attacking the legitimacy and structure of the court itself." But, he continued: "I congratulate Judge Jackson on her nomination. I look forward to meeting with her in person and studying her record, legal views, and judicial philosophy." ( His full statement) Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) sure sounds like a no, too: "[T]he radical Left has won President Biden over yet again. The attacks by the Left on Judge [J. MICHELLE CHILDS] from South Carolina apparently worked. … The Harvard-Yale train to the Supreme Court continues to run unabated." — Graham, however, had no issue voting to confirm her to the D.C. Circuit. Last June, he joined all Dems and GOP Sens. SUSAN COLLINS (Maine) and LISA MURKOWSKI (Alaska) to appoint her to the appeals court. Anthony Adragna has more on Jackson's history in the Senate for Congress Minutes. — Related reading: How GOP senators are responding to the KBJ nomination, via Anthony Adragna Former Speaker PAUL RYAN tweeted : "Janna and I are incredibly happy for Ketanji and her entire family. Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji's intellect, for her character, and for her integrity, is unequivocal." ( NBC's Sahil Kapur notes: "These two have a family connection: Jackson's husband's twin brother is married to Ryan's sister.") Happy Friday afternoon.
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PPI estimates that Amazon invested $34 billion in American infrastructure in 2020. Every Amazon job comes with a starting wage of $15 an hour and comprehensive benefits for regular, full-time employees. | | | RUSSIA-UKRAINE LATEST SCOOP, via Daniel Lippman — In a memo sent to State Department and numerous other government employees this morning, the State Department directed departments and agencies "to cancel, until further notice, all official, government-to-government contacts with Russian government representatives which would not compromise major U.S. national interests." The U.S. will, however, "continue to engage with Russia in multilateral fora," including the UN, G-20 and WTO, among others. Excerpts from the memo: Photo 1, Photo 2 The latest: — "In the fog of war, it was unclear how much of Ukraine remains under Ukrainian control and how much or little Russian forces have seized," reports the AP . "The Kremlin accepted Kyiv's offer to hold talks, but it appeared to be an effort to squeeze concessions out of Ukraine's embattled president [VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY] instead of a gesture toward a diplomatic solution." — Russian forces have "'opened a new route of advance towards Kyiv having failed to capture Chernihiv,' according to an intelligence update posted by the British Ministry of Defence," reports Cristina Gallardo. — A Defense Department official said today that "Russian forces have lost momentum in the invasion of Ukraine and are not advancing as quickly as U.S. intelligence had estimated they would, based on their assessment of how fast Moscow believed its troops would move," NYT's Helene Cooper writes. — Zelenskyy reportedly told a call of EU leaders on Thursday night: "This might be the last time you see me alive," per @BarakRavid. WSJ's James Marson writes that the past 48 hours have completed Zelenskyy's transformation "into wartime leader." — Former Ukraine President PETRO POROSHENKO spoke to CNN on video in the streets of Kyiv — fully kitted with a rifle. —FT's Moscow bureau chief @maxseddon : "Ukraine claims it's killed almost 3,000 Russian soldiers in the first 36 hours of the invasion. As ever, you have to take these things with a grain of salt, but anything even remotely close to that number would be stunning – the US lost 4,431 in two decades in Iraq." — On Ukraine's Snake Island, a rocky, desolate island, soldiers made a defiant last stand, WaPo's Dan Lamothe and Paul Sonne write : "'I am a Russian warship,' a voice from the invaders said, according to a recording of the communications. 'I ask you to lay down your arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary deaths. Otherwise, you will be bombed.' The Ukrainians responded boldly. 'Russian warship,' came the reply, 'go f--- yourself.' The Russians opened fire, eventually killing the 13 border guards." — The Russian foreign ministry warned that if Finland or Sweden joins NATO , they would face "serious military and political consequences," per BBC News. — EU leaders are planning to "freeze assets of Russian President [VLADIMIR] PUTIN and his foreign minister, SERGEY LAVROV, according to people familiar with the talks," WaPo's Emily Rauhala, Quentin Ariès and Michael Birnbaum report in Brussels. "Neither would be banned from travel in the E.U., the sources said. The move, which comes as the bloc puts final touches on its second round of sanctions and starts working on a third, is expected to be approved Friday afternoon." — "POPE FRANCIS visited the Russian Embassy on Friday to personally 'express his concern about the war' in Ukraine, in an extraordinary, hands-on papal gesture that has no recent precedent," AP's Nicole Winfield reports in Rome. More headlines: AP: "'I don't want to die': Ukrainians fear as invasion closes in" … AP: "Ukrainians flee war, seeking safety across western borders" … WSJ: "Russia's Ukraine Invasion Chokes Food Exports From Global Breadbasket"… WSJ: "Ukraine War Means Another Supply Shock to Global Economy, the Last Thing It Needs" … ESPN: "Champions League final moved from Saint Petersburg to Paris, UEFA announce" DYING DIPLOMACY — Despite Chinese President XI JINPING's call with Putin this morning, the Biden administration over the course of three months leading up to Russia's invasion "held half a dozen urgent meetings with top Chinese officials in which the Americans presented intelligence showing Russia's troop buildup around Ukraine and beseeched the Chinese to tell Russia not to invade," NYT's Edward Wong reports . "Each time, the Chinese officials, including the foreign minister and the ambassador to the United States, rebuffed the Americans, saying they did not think an invasion was in the works. … If any world leader could make Mr. Putin think twice about invading Ukraine, it was Mr. Xi, went the thinking of some U.S. officials." ON THE GROUND — Ukrainian journalist Veronika Melkozerova writes a personal essay for NYT: "I'm in Kyiv, and It Is Terrifying" AN EXPERT'S TAKE — MICHAEL KIMMAGE, a professor of Cold War history at Catholic University who from 2014 to 2016 served on the policy planning staff at the State Department, where he held the Russia/Ukraine portfolio, writes a word of warning in an op-ed for POLITICO Magazine: "This Will Not Be a Cold War" He continues: "The conflict between Russia and the West that began this week is terrifying precisely because it does not resemble the Cold War. In fact, it is crucial to work through the distinctions between this evolving conflict and the Cold War in order to address the policy challenges coming to the United States and its allies. If we don't, we could fail to understand the true dangers Russia currently poses to its neighbors, to the West and to the rest of the world. "These distinctions crystallize around four sets of ideas — the Iron Curtain, the competition of the nuclear era, the nature of diplomacy, and the rise of social media and cyber warfare. Careful consideration of these four issues describes the acutely uncertain terrain of European security and of U.S.-Russian relations in the winter of 2022." The AP has a roundup of disinformation that has been buzzing around social media in the past few days.
| | | | BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we've got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don't miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now. | | | | | CONGRESS A NEW HOUSE TRUMP INVESTIGATION — House Oversight Chair CAROLYN MALONEY (D-N.Y.) will request more information from the National Archives "about top Trump advisers' discussions about preserving and storing White House records — amid growing evidence that they repeatedly ran afoul of record-keeping requirements for documents and social media accounts," our Nicholas Wu and Kyle Cheney report. SIREN — "More than three decades after it was first introduced, a House bill that would create a commission to study reparations for Black Americans has the votes to pass, its key champions say," WaPo's Emmanuel Felton reports. BUT, BUT, BUT: "While supporters are confident they have the votes to gain approval in the Democratic-controlled House, they are less optimistic about the bill's fate in the Senate. Instead, they intend to push President Biden to sign an executive order that would create the commission. The bill, H.R. 40, call for a months-long study of reparations so supporters say they need Biden to act now so his administration could implement the commission's recommendations before the end of his term." THE PANDEMIC MASKS OFF — The CDC is expected to "significantly loosen federal mask-wearing guidelines to protect against COVID-19 transmission on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter, meaning most Americans will no longer be advised to wear masks in indoor public settings," AP's Zeke Miller reports.
| | | | A message from Amazon:   | | | ALL POLITICS THAT WAS FAST — With the news Thursday that Sen. JIM INHOFE (R-Okla.) will retire, a member of his staff is already jumping into the race — with a key backer behind him. LUKE HOLLAND, Inhofe's chief of staff, has launched a campaign to replace his boss and is already up with an official website touting Inhofe's endorsement. "Inhofe's support will surely be helpful, but don't expect it to clear the field," Anthony Adragna writes for Congress Minutes. "Open Senate seats are rare commodities in Oklahoma (Inhofe has held his since 1994). Oklahoma Gov. KEVIN STITT, Lt. Gov. MATT PINNELL, former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. SHANNON, several of the state's Republican House members and others are all thought to be mulling bids." ( Holland's website) THE ECONOMY INFLATION WATCH — A key measure of inflation saw another spike in January, and experts warn that the situation in Ukraine could make things worse. "The Personal Consumption Expenditures index, which the Fed targets as it aims for 2 percent annual inflation on average over time, rose 6.1 percent over the past year. Prices climbed 0.6 percent in January from December, up from 0.4 percent the prior month," NYT's Jeanna Smialek writes . "The fresh reminder that inflation remains stubbornly high comes at a tense moment, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine sends oil and other commodity prices higher and promises to continue to boost inflation."
| | | | 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. | | | | | PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION DANGER IN THE DISTRICT —"3 in 10 District residents do not feel safe in their neighborhoods, Post poll finds," by WaPo's Peter Hermann, Emily Davies, Scott Clement and Emily Guskin PLAYBOOKERS OUT AND ABOUT — Danielle and David Frum hosted a party Thursday night for Jimmy Soni's new book, "The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley" ($30). Former Polish defense minister Radek Sikorski and Anne Applebaum told the crowd their thoughts on the Russian invasion of Ukraine: Sikorski said the war could last a decade and be like Afghanistan in the 1980s, and said that even though Poland is much more reliant on Russian energy, they would rather "eat grass" than bend to Russia's wishes. SPOTTED: George Conway, Ken Weinstein, Juleanna Glover, Jim Acosta, Liz Landers, Tina Nguyen, Molly Jong-Fast, Samantha Dravis, Andrea Coronado, Windsor Mann, John McConnell, and Zach Graves and Rebecca Bernbach Graves. MEDIA MOVE — Krista Mahr is joining POLITICO as a health care reporter focusing on public health and co-author of POLITICO Pulse. She previously was a senior editor at Time Magazine and is an NPR, LA Times, WaPo and Reuters alum. TRANSITIONS — Cecilia Martinez is now principal adviser for resilience and communities at the Bezos Earth Fund. She previously was the White House's inaugural environmental justice official. … Graeme Crews is now press secretary for the House coronavirus crisis select subcommittee. He previously was a senior media strategist for the Southern Poverty Law Center. … Jerome Labrousse is joining Kramer Levin as a partner in its tax practice. He previously was a partner at French law firm De Gaulle Fleurance. … … Alexandra Hernandez is now a senior publicist at GCP Balance, Hachette Book Group. She previously was an associate VP at Squared Communications. … Seth Hertlein is now VP and global head of policy at Ledger. He previously was at Stellar Development Foundation. … Andres Castrillon is now director of government affairs at Qualcomm. He most recently worked on federal government relations at Stellantis. WEEKEND WEDDING — Morgan Hitzig, who works on operations and growth strategy at Peregrine and is a Dataminr and NYPD alum, and Jack Wilson, an Army officer, got married Feb. 18 at Staten Island Borough Hall in the presence of their immediate families. The couple met on a military transport plane to Afghanistan last summer (she's a Navy reservist). They worked closely as friends and colleagues, mutually supporting each other during the fall of Kabul and subsequent evacuation, and then started dating shortly after they returned home. Pic … Another pic BONUS BIRTHDAY: Former Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-Fla.)
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