| | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade and Garrett Ross | | | COUNTING VOTES FOR JACKSON — It's official. Judge KETANJI BROWN JACKSON will receive bipartisan confirmation to the Supreme Court now that Sen. SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine) announced she's a "yes." Collins said in a Wednesday morning statement that Jackson has "sterling academic and professional credentials," and "possesses the experience, qualifications, and integrity to serve as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court." "I have no doubt that, if Judge Jackson is confirmed, I will not agree with every vote that she casts as a Justice," Collins said, a nod to her philosophy of giving the president leeway where possible to select their own judges. "That alone, however, is not disqualifying… In my view, the role the Constitution clearly assigns to the Senate is to examine the experience, qualifications, and integrity of the nominee. It is not to assess whether a nominee reflects the ideology of an individual Senator or would rule exactly as an individual Senator would want." The full statement … Marianne LeVine has more here Our colleague Anthony Adragna notes for Congress Minutes that Collins' announcement follows her general trend of Biden's judicial appointments: Collins has backed two-thirds of Biden's circuit court nominees (10/15). COULD THERE BE OTHER REPUBLICANS WHO VOTE YES? Maybe. We're still waiting on word from Sens. MITT ROMNEY (R-Utah) and LISA MURKOWSKI (R-Alaska), the most likely Republicans to join Collins. Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) — who, like Collins and Murkowski, also voted to confirm Jackson to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last year — has been sending signals that he's out for a while now. And another 'No' vote … — Sen. THOM TILLIS (R-N.C.) said today that he is a "no" on Jackson's nomination. That essentially guarantees that Jackson's vote "will be tied in the Senate Judiciary Committee," Burgess Everett notes, likely requiring Dems to make a motion to discharge "probably next Monday." *EYES EMOJI* — @Olivia_Beavers : "Rep. MADISON CAWTHORN just left [KEVIN] MCCARTHY's office. He met with the GOP leader and Minority Whip STEVE SCALISE (R-La.) for roughly 30 minutes. Cawthorn didn't respond to my questions about the meeting as he was leaving." HAPPENING SOON — President JOE BIDEN is set to receive his second Covid-19 booster shot after his scheduled remarks on the pandemic at 1:30 p.m. Good Wednesday afternoon.
| | | | A message from The American Beverage Association: At America's beverage companies our plastic bottles are made to be remade. We're carefully designing them to be 100% recyclable — so every bottle can become a new one. That means less plastic waste in our environment. Please help us get Every Bottle Back. EveryBottleBack.org | | | TOP TALKER WHAT EVERYONE DOWNTOWN IS READING — Facebook enlisted the help of a top GOP firm to try to take down one of its biggest rivals: TikTok. "The campaign includes placing op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook, and pushing to draw political reporters and local politicians into helping take down its biggest competitor," WaPo's Taylor Lorenz and Drew Harwell report. "Employees with the firm, Targeted Victory, worked to undermine TikTok through a nationwide media and lobbying campaign portraying the fast-growing app, owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance, as a danger to American children and society, according to internal emails shared with The Washington Post. "Targeted Victory needs to 'get the message out that while Meta is the current punching bag, TikTok is the real threat especially as a foreign owned app that is #1 in sharing data that young teens are using,' a director for the firm wrote in a February email. Campaign operatives were also encouraged to use TikTok's prominence as a way to deflect from Meta's own privacy and antitrust concerns. 'Bonus point if we can fit this into a broader message that the current bills/proposals aren't where [state attorneys general] or members of Congress should be focused,' a Targeted Victory staffer wrote." THE WHITE HOUSE ON THE HUNTER BEAT — WaPo's Matt Viser, Tom Hamburger and Craig Timberg have a big read up today on HUNTER BIDEN's dealings with a Chinese energy company. "While many aspects of Hunter Biden's financial arrangement with CEFC China Energy have been previously reported and were included in a Republican-led Senate report from 2020, a Washington Post review confirmed many of the key details and found additional documents showing Biden family interactions with Chinese executives. "Over the course of 14 months, the Chinese energy conglomerate and its executives paid $4.8 million to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and his uncle, according to government records, court documents and newly disclosed bank statements, as well as emails contained on a copy of a laptop hard drive that purportedly once belonged to Hunter Biden. "The Post did not find evidence that Joe Biden personally benefited from or knew details about the transactions with CEFC, which took place after he had left the vice presidency and before he announced his intentions to run for the White House in 2020. "But the new documents — which include a signed copy of a $1 million legal retainer, emails related to the wire transfers, and $3.8 million in consulting fees that are confirmed in new bank records and agreements signed by Hunter Biden — illustrate the ways in which his family profited from relationships built over Joe Biden's decades in public service." — Companion reading: "Here's how The Post analyzed Hunter Biden's laptop": "Thousands of emails purportedly from the laptop computer of Hunter Biden, President Biden's son, are authentic communications that can be verified through cryptographic signatures from Google and other technology companies, say two security experts who examined the data at the request of The Washington Post."
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO NATIONAL SECURITY DAILY : Keep up with the latest critical developments from Ukraine and across Europe in our daily newsletter, National Security Daily. The Russian invasion of Ukraine could disrupt the established world order and result in a refugee crisis, increased cyberattacks, rising energy costs and additional disruption to global supply chains. Go inside the top national security and foreign-policymaking shops for insight on the global threats faced by the U.S. and its allies and what actions world leaders are taking to address them. Subscribe today. | | | | | WAR IN UKRAINE — Biden spoke with Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY by phone this morning. Zelenskyy's readout, translated on Twitter : "Just finished an hour-long conversation with @POTUS. He shared an assessment of the situation on the battlefield and at the negotiating table. They talked about specific defense support, a new package of enhanced sanctions, macro-financial and humanitarian assistance." Here's the readout from the White House: "The leaders discussed how the United States is working around the clock to fulfill the main security assistance requests by Ukraine, the critical effects those weapons have had on the conflict, and continued efforts by the United States with allies and partners to identify additional capabilities to help the Ukrainian military defend its country. In addition, President Biden informed President Zelenskyy that the United States intends to provide the Ukrainian government with $500 million in direct budgetary aid." — U.S. officials believe that Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN is "being 'misinformed' by his advisers about how badly the Russian military is performing in Ukraine and the impact of sanctions on Russia's economy," CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports. "The official added that the US has information indicating that Putin has become aware of the misinformation, leading to a rift between Putin and his top defense officials." — "European countries aiming to tighten sanctions on Russia are considering targeting more banks, broadening the net to additional family members of oligarchs and strengthening curbs on the use of cryptocurrencies to evade financial restrictions in coming days," WSJ's Laurence Norman writes. FYI — "Which countries have expelled Russian diplomats?" WaPo QUITE THE HEADLINE — "U.S. and Russian Astronauts Land on Earth Together Amid War in Ukraine," by NYT's Kenneth Chang THE PANDEMIC VAX POPULI — Moderna says that it's gathered sufficient evidence that its Covid vaccine is safe for young children. But regulators aren't on board yet. "Public health officials, pediatricians and infectious disease experts are split over whether the company's trial results are sufficient for the Food and Drug Administration and its independent advisers, or whether they will want to see data on a third dose as they did with Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine for children under 5," Katherine Ellen Foley reports. CONGRESS PROGRESSIVES HEADING TO THE W.H. — Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are heading to the White House later today for a meeting on their priorities for the remainder of the year, including executive action and a new version of Democrats' social spending bill, Sarah Ferris and Anthony Adragna report for Congress Minutes. It's "one of several meetings President Joe Biden is holding with various congressional caucuses. He's also set to meet with the centrist New Democrats this evening, and he met with the Hill's Asian Pacific American and Black Caucuses earlier this month." FOR YOUR RADAR — A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is bringing the CEOs of Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Devon Energy and Pioneer Natural Resources to the Hill on April 6 for a hearing on rising gas prices, Anthony writes.
| | | | DON'T MISS POLITICO'S INAUGURAL HEALTH CARE SUMMIT ON 3/31: Join POLITICO for a discussion with health care providers, policymakers, federal regulators, patient representatives, and industry leaders to better understand the latest policy and industry solutions in place as we enter year three of the pandemic. Panelists will discuss the latest proposals to overcome long-standing health care challenges in the U.S., such as expanding access to care, affordability, and prescription drug prices. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | ALL POLITICS DEMS' DILEMMA — House Majority PAC is spending a lot of money on the upcoming midterms. How much? Something like $102 million "in 50 media markets, from Bangor, Maine, to San Diego, Calif.," NYT's Jonathan Weisman writes. — The problem for Dems? Much of that spending is in areas where they're playing defense. "The breadth of the congressional map reveals the scope of Democrats' worries about holding seats in midterm elections. Areas once considered safe, like South Texas, greater Pittsburgh and Seattle will see Democratic advertising. … The spending comes even as redistricting has shriveled the number of districts considered competitive based on election results in 2020." — And ICYMI, here's some mood music from within the party: "AOC's Warning for Democrats: 'We're in Trouble,'" by Errol Louis for N.Y. Mag THE TRUMP EFFECT — Remember way back this morning when we wrote that Trump looms large over Republicans' hopes of flipping control in Congress? Well, WaPo's Meagan Flynn writes about that dynamic as the Virginia GOP attempts to pick off Democratic Rep. ELAINE LURIA. The two Republicans to watch are state Sen. JEN KIGGANS and JAROME BELL. "Kiggans … is widely seen as the easy favorite heading into the June 21 primary. She has backing from House Republican leadership through its super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, and leads the Republican field in fundraising. "Bell, meanwhile, is seeking to siphon away enough of the 'Make America Great Again' vote to pose a threat to Kiggans. … But whether Bell can realistically emerge as a threat to Kiggans is highly questionable in the purple, military-heavy district, which has not traditionally elected far-right figures to Congress." CRYPTO CASH DASH — "Crypto interests are raising money for a super PAC that aims to spend $20 million promoting candidates friendly toward the sector. Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based crypto exchange, hosted a previously unreported fundraiser for Senate Majority Leader CHARLES E. SCHUMER (D-N.Y.) over a Zoom call last week," WaPo's Tory Newmyer reports. "Executives are organizing events for insiders to contribute to candidates in cryptocurrency. And they are backing some upstart pols, including elementary school teacher AARIKA RHODES, who has launched a primary challenge to Rep. BRAD SHERMAN (D-Calif.), one of the industry's most outspoken critics." VALLEY TALK INTO THE METAVERSE — Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, "has made more than half a dozen content policy revisions since Russia invaded Ukraine last month. … The result has been internal confusion, especially among the content moderators who patrol Facebook and Instagram for text and images with gore, hate speech and incitements to violence. Meta has sometimes shifted its rules on a daily basis, causing whiplash, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly," NYT's Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac and Sheera Frenkel report. "The bewilderment over the content guidelines is just one way that Meta has been roiled by the war in Ukraine. The company has also contended with pressure from Russian and Ukrainian authorities over the information battle about the conflict. And internally, it has dealt with discontent about its decisions, including from Russian employees concerned for their safety and Ukrainian workers who want the company to be tougher on Kremlin-affiliated organizations online, three people said." — Meanwhile, AP's Amanda Seitz, Eric Tucker and Mike Catalini have the details on how China is using social platforms to spread its messaging. "As China continues to assert its economic might, it is using the global social media ecosystem to expand its already formidable influence. The country has quietly built a network of social media personalities who parrot the government's perspective in posts seen by hundreds of thousands of people, operating in virtual lockstep as they promote China's virtues, deflect international criticism of its human rights abuses and advance Beijing's talking points on world affairs like Russia's war against Ukraine." CUTTING SOME SLACK — The Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger has the receipts on internal Slack messages from employees at Salesforce who are unhappy with the company's work with the RNC. "Salesforce's relationship with the RNC made news last year after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but very little has come out since then. … But the Slacks indicate that even some employees in leadership positions — including at the executive level — hadn't been up to speed about Salesforce's relationship with the RNC." PLAYBOOKERS SPOTTED dining together at Cafe Milano on Tuesday night: Reese Witherspoon and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). SPOTTED: Bono speaking to Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) at the Capitol this morning. (h/t Paul Kane) (The iconic U2 frontman appears to be on the Hill to discuss Covid funding, per our colleague Nicholas Wu.) SPOTTED at the Wizards-Bucks game Tuesday night: Gloria Dittus, Jon Kott and Steve Clemons … Carl Hulse and Luke Russert … Manu Raju … Melanie Zanona.
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