Former President Donald Trump will speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference event in Dallas in July, Fox News reports.
Democrats Start to Get Tax Hike Anxiety
Politico: “There’s a small but growing list of Democratic lawmakers who’ve expressed reservations. And it’s not just moderates desperately trying to cling to their seats next year who are going public — it’s also committee chairs and senior lawmakers in no real electoral danger.”
“Perhaps the biggest issue for Democrats is that once they are more fully engaged on tax increases, they’ll find they have almost zero margin in Congress with which to pass this latest vision of big government. All this has left progressives increasingly impatient with any Democrats worried about the political implications of big tax hikes.”
Biden Mulls Cyberattacks Against Russian Hackers
“The Biden administration is moving to treat ransomware attacks as a national security threat, using intelligence agencies to spy on foreign criminals and contemplating offensive cyber operations against hackers inside Russia,” NBC News reports.
“Although using the military to take action against criminals wouldn’t be without precedent, it’s controversial in legal circles, and any American cyber action against targets in Russia would risk retaliation. But officials say criminal ransomware attacks from abroad, once a nuisance, have become a major source of economic damage, as the disruption of gasoline and meat supplies in recent weeks has illustrated.”
Biden’s Concession on Corporate Taxes Not Enough
Playbook: “If you thought President Joe Biden’s offer to keep the corporate tax rate at 21% might yield a breakthrough on infrastructure … not so much. Biden told Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) this week he’d be open to imposing a 15% minimum tax instead. But ahead of another Biden-Capito meeting today (this one not in person), plenty of reporting suggests the GOP is bearish on this alternative.”
Washington Times: “Senate Republican negotiators are poised to reject President Biden’s proposal. They view the compromise offered by Mr. Biden as merely substituting one tax hike for another, said a congressional aide with knowledge of the negotiations. … The rejection of Mr. Biden’s compromise proposal signaled the negotiations, which were already at an impasse, are in jeopardy of collapse ahead of the administration’s self-imposed Monday deadline for a deal.”
House Democrats Finally Talk to Don McGhan
Washington Post: “The appearance is Democrats’ way of demonstrating that congressional subpoenas must be obeyed — an argument they offered throughout a lengthy legal battle that seemed destined to reach the Supreme Court before a deal with the Biden administration ended the fight in what may prove to be a political win, but at best is a constitutional draw.”
Harry Litman: Whatever Trump’s White House counsel finally testifies to, it won’t be enough.
Trump’s Traffic Flop
“The blog from former President Trump — originally touted as his own social media ‘platform’ — generated engagement roughly on par with the top posts from mid-market local newspapers,” Axios reports.
“Trump’s attention monopoly has steadily waned since late January, as he lost both the power of his office and of his social media megaphones.”
Biden Gives More On Infrastructure Than GOP
New York Times: “The president has now cut more than $1 trillion from his initial $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal, while Republicans have added less than $100 billion in new spending to their first offer, which contained about $200 billion in new spending by many estimates. Mr. Biden said this week that for now he would exclude several of his proposed tax increases, including raising the corporate income tax rate to 28 percent.”
Coronavirus Lab-Leak Theory Gets Another Look
Washington Post: “The silencing of scientists, the blanket denials, the careful guarding of raw data and biological samples — these elements have been emblematic of the approach by Chinese authorities at every stage of the coronavirus outbreak. And they continue to obstruct the world’s ability to get answers.”
Politico: “Republicans finally found a commission they can get behind.”
Facebook to End Exception Made for Politicians
“Facebook plans to announce Friday that it will no longer automatically give politicians a pass when they break the company’s hate speech rules, a major reversal after years of criticism that it was too deferential to powerful figures during the Trump presidency,” the Washington Post reports.
“Since the 2016 election, the company has applied a test to political speech that weighs the newsworthiness of the content against its propensity to cause harm. Now the company will throw out the first part of the test and will no longer consider newsworthiness as a factor.”
Ron Johnson ‘Undecided’ On Running Again
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said that he is still “undecided” on whether he’ll run for reelection, even though he promised to serve just two terms, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
Said Johnson: “When I made that pledge, I meant that pledge. I ran in 2010 because I was panicked for this nation. I’m more panicked today.”
Manchin Still Won’t Support Budget Reconciliation
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) told NBC News that he doesn’t yet support Democrats trying to go-it-alone to pass an infrastructure package, even as a growing number of his colleagues are running out of patience.
Said Manchin: “I don’t think, right now, basically, we need to be bipartisan.”
Pence Says He and Trump Don’t Agree on Insurrection
“In his second public address since leaving office, former Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday put a little space between himself and his ex-boss, saying he and former President Donald Trump might never ‘see eye to eye’ on the Jan. 6 insurrection,” Politico reports.
Said Pence: “And that same day, we reconvened the Congress and did our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States. You know, President Trump and I have spoken many times since we left office. And I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye to eye on that day, but I will always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years.”
Activists Land a Third Seat on ExxonMobil Board
“An activist investor is likely to pick up a third seat on the board of ExxonMobil, giving it additional leverage to press the oil giant to address investor concerns about climate change,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Exxon said Wednesday that an updated vote count showed shareholders backed a third nominee of Engine No. 1, an upstart hedge fund that had already won two board seats at Exxon’s annual shareholder meeting last week.”
Green That Life: A fossil fuel industry under fire. Will it last?
Prosecutors Want Rioters to Pay for Damages
Washington Post: “U.S. prosecutors this week put a price tag on damage to the U.S. Capitol from the Jan. 6 breach — $1.5 million so far — and for the first time are asking defendants to cover some of the bill in plea offers.”
The Case for Voting In Under 30 Minutes
Jennifer Rubin: “I have argued that Democrats put H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, first.”
“However, there is a separate measure not included in either bill that could go far to improve ballot access: Requiring that no voter has to wait in line to vote for more than 30 minutes.”
“Reduction of wait times should theoretically be agreeable to both parties and all voters. It has nothing to do with ‘voter security,’ and everything to do with eliminating barriers to voting.”
Boehner Criticizes GOP Push to Restrict Voting
Former Speaker John Boehner (R) criticized his party for recently enacting strict voting rules in states around the country, saying the “very partisan way” it’s happening will only undermine people’s confidence in the electoral process, CNN reports.
Later in the interview, however, Boehner argued that the changes are “rather inconsequential.”
The Difference Between the Rioters and Mainstream GOP
Adam Serwer: “The rioters were outliers in the sense that they employed political violence and intimidation in an attempt to overturn the election. But the rioters fell squarely within the Republican mainstream in sharing Trump’s belief that his defeat meant the election was inherently illegitimate. The main ideological cleavage within the GOP is not whether election laws should be changed to better ensure Republican victory, but whether political violence is necessary to achieve that objective.”
“Most elected Republicans have repudiated the violence of the Capitol riot, but they share the belief of the rank and file that the rioters’ hearts were in the right place.”
Janet Mills Tops Paul LePage In Possible Maine Race
A new SurveyUSA poll in Maine shows Gov. Janet Mills (D) leading former Gov. Paul LePage (R) in a possible 2022 race, 45% to 38%.
