Chris Cuomo admitted the viewership of his NewsNation primetime show has been “kind of embarrassing,” the Daily Beast reports.
The Ron DeSantis Constitution
Tina Nguyen: “A little arcane constitutional dog-whistling has provided DeSantis with a clever way of courting an insurrectionary segment of the MAGAverse while playing inside the confines of a party practically begging for an insurrection-free presidency.”
FBI Searched University of Delaware for Biden Docs
“The FBI has conducted two searches at the University of Delaware in connection with the investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents,” CNN reports.
“The previously undisclosed searches were conducted in recent weeks, with the consent and cooperation of the president’s legal team.”
Biden’s Medicare Advantage
“Republicans really wish President Biden would stop claiming they’re trying to cut Medicare and Social Security. They aren’t pushing a bill that would do anything of the sort, many have noted. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy continues to make it clear that, in terms of debt ceiling negotiations, those two programs are ‘off the table.’ Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the same,” Politico reports.
“But Biden is not about to stop.”
“The line of attack, which is still rippling through the news cycle a week after Biden’s State of the Union address, is expected to figure prominently in his likely reelection campaign.”
Trump Parts with TV Ad Maker
“Donald Trump’s campaign has split with its longtime TV ad maker, Jamestown Associates,” Politico reports.
“One of the firm’s partners has decided to work with a Trump rival in 2024: Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations who launched her presidential bid on Wednesday. The former president’s campaign, in turn, has decided that it would not renew its relationship with Jamestown, which crafted commercials for Trump during the 2016 and 2020 elections. Trump’s team also used the firm after he left the White House.”
Top Democrat Seeks Info on Kushner’s Saudi Money
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, “renewed a request to Jared Kushner for documents outlining how the former White House official received $2 billion from a Saudi investment fund, writing that Kushner had failed to respond to an earlier inquiry and raising new questions about whether he had ‘improperly traded’ on his government work to benefit his financial interests,” the Washington Post reports.
“Raskin’s letter also requested that Kushner identify all foreign investors in his company.”
For members: The Most Blatant Corruption in Recent U.S. History
Trump Says He’s ‘Glad’ Nikki Haley Is Running
Donald Trump told Fox News that he is “glad” Nikki Haley is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
Said Trump: “I’m glad she’s running. I want her to follow her heart — even though she made a commitment that she would never run against who she called the greatest president of her lifetime.”
He added: “She should do what she wants to do and not be bound by the fact that she said she would never do it.”
Striking Number Believe News Intentionally Misinforms
Associated Press: “Half of Americans in a recent survey indicated they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.”
“The survey, released Wednesday by Gallup and the Knight Foundation, goes beyond others that have shown a low level of trust in the media to the startling point where many believe there is an intent to deceive.”
How Deadly Was China’s Covid Wave?
New York Times: “Two months after China ended ‘zero Covid,’ rough estimates suggest that between 1 and 1.5 million people died — far more than the official count.”
U.S. to Add $19 Trillion in New Debt Over 10 Years
“The United States is on track to add nearly $19 trillion to its national debt over the next decade, $3 trillion more than previously forecast, as a result of rising costs for interest payments, veterans’ health care, retiree benefits and the military,” the New York Times reports.
“The new forecasts, released Wednesday afternoon, project a $1.4 trillion gap this year between what the government spends and what it takes in from tax revenues.”
U.S. Could Default as Soon as July
“The U.S. could become unable to pay all of its bills on time sometime between July and September, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated, giving lawmakers several months to reach an agreement on lifting the debt limit and avoiding a default,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The Treasury Department ran up against the roughly $31.4 trillion debt limit in January. It is now deploying a series of special accounting maneuvers to keep paying the government’s obligations to bondholders, Social Security recipients and others.”
George Santos Weighs Re-Election Bid
“Embattled Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is contemplating a nightmare scenario for House Republicans: Trying to stick it out in Congress, even if he is indicted on criminal charges,” CNN reports.
“After previously signaling to Republicans he wouldn’t seek reelection, Santos has recently been telling people he is considering running for a second term and privately insists he will ultimately be cleared of all wrong-doing and that his treasurer will face scrutiny over his finances.”
Trump Changes Tune on Mail-in Voting
Wall Street Journal: “The 2024 presidential candidate remains critical of various forms of early voting, advisers say, but his campaign is nonetheless mounting an effort to pursue such votes after Democrats excelled at doing so in recent elections.”
“His team is studying state laws governing absentee and mail-in voting as well as ballot collection, called ‘ballot harvesting’ by critics, in which third parties gather and turn in votes, people familiar with the effort said.”
Election Deniers Face Nationwide Wave of Pushback
Washington Post: “These actions and others reflect a growing effort among state election officials, lawmakers and private-sector advocates — most of them Democrats — to push back against the wave of misinformation and mistrust of elections that sprang from former president Donald Trump’s false claim that his 2020 defeat was rigged.”
“Since that vote more than two years ago, election administrators have regularly found themselves fending off false accusations, baseless lawsuits and violent threats. They have fielded demands that go beyond their official powers — to stop using electronic voting equipment, to hand-count all ballots, to end mail voting or to refuse to certify results. Hundreds have resigned or retired as a result of the pressure and abuse, with some states, including Colorado, reporting that a majority of their county election clerks have turned over since 2018.”
“Election administrators and their advocates say they are motivated to take action because election denialism does not appear to be going away, even as the evidence has grown — in public polling as well as in the midterm election results — that most Americans have grown tired of it.”
Trump’s DNA Proposal in Rape Suit Rejected by Judge
“Donald Trump’s offer to provide a DNA sample to a New York writer who claims he raped her in the 1990s was rejected by a judge as too late and with too many strings attached,” Bloomberg reports.
“After balking at the request for years, the former president last week offered the DNA sample to his accuser, E. Jean Carroll. In exchange, he wanted her to turn over pages he says are missing from a forensic report on the dress she says she wore during the alleged attack.”
Retail Sales Smash Expectations Despite Inflation
“Advance retail sales for the month increased 3%, compared with expectations for a rise of 1.9%, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday,” CNBC reports.
Prosecutors Won’t Charge Gaetz in Sex Trafficking Probe
“The Justice Department has informed lawyers for at least one witness that it will not bring charges against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) after a years-long federal sex-trafficking investigation,” CNN reports.
“Senior officials reached out to lawyers for at least one witness on Wednesday to inform them of the decision not to prosecute Gaetz. The final decision was made by Department of Justice leadership after investigators recommended against charges last year.”
White House Mulls Austan Goolsbee for Fed Vice Chair
“The White House is considering nominating Austan Goolsbee, who became president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago last month, to serve as vice chair of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
