“Two Democratic senators of Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage confronted a senior White House official Monday night over the absence of AAPI representation in President Biden’s Cabinet,” Axios reports.
“Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), backed up by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI), leveled the complaint to deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon during a Zoom call between the White House and the Senate Democratic Caucus.”
Washington Post: “We looked at data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection to see whether there’s a ‘crisis’ — or even a ‘surge,’ as many news outlets have characterized it. We analyzed monthly CBP data from 2012 to now and found no crisis or surge that can be attributed to Biden administration policies.”
“Rather, the current increase in apprehensions fits a predictable pattern of seasonal changes in undocumented immigration combined with a backlog of demand because of 2020’s coronavirus border closure.”
“Senate Republicans are split on whether to embrace or reject the return of earmarks as the caucus leans into deficit concerns under the Biden administration,” The Hill reports.
“There are sharp lines of division about the path forward, with conservatives pledging to fight any decision by leadership to return to earmarks and top appropriators signaling a willingness to reengage.”
Playbook: “As we reported recently, chief of staff Ron Klain has told Democrats that the Biden jobs agenda should be split up into multiple bills. There’s only one more opportunity to use reconciliation this year, so by definition ‘multiple bills’ means that the White House will need a 60-vote strategy for any pieces that move through the Senate outside of reconciliation.”
“That strategy raises an obvious question: Can Biden get 10 Republican senators to cooperate on ‘concrete and steel’ when they know the tax and social welfare stuff they oppose is coming next via reconciliation?”
Washington Post: “Postmaster General Louis DeJoy will unveil the largest rollback of consumer mail services in a generation as part of his 10-year plan for the U.S. Postal Service… including longer first-class delivery windows, reduced post office hours and higher postage prices.”
Washington Post: “The city of Boulder, Colorado barred assault weapons in 2018, as a way to prevent mass shootings like the one that killed 17 at a high school in Parkland, Florida earlier that year.”
“But 10 days after that ban was blocked in court, the city was rocked by its own tragedy: Ten people, including a Boulder police officer, were killed at a supermarket in the city’s south end on Monday after a gunman opened fire, law enforcement officials said.”
John McCormack: “In all likelihood, a three-week debate over any of the Democrats’ top legislative priorities would not end in Republicans caving because such a debate would probably make the legislation less popular…”
“For Senate Democrats who oppose the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for legislation, the talking filibuster makes sense only if it is a stepping stone toward majority rule. … But if that the pressure fails to persuade Manchin, Sinema, and other holdouts to abandon the 60-vote rule, then their Democratic colleagues would be the ones feeling the most pain.”
Politico: Killing the filibuster becomes new “litmus test” for Democratic candidates.
“I would be surprised if there’s anyone in any of these competitive states… that would support maintaining the filibuster. Getting rid of the filibuster is as close to a litmus test for our party as I can describe.”
— Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D), quoted by Politico, about how Senate candidates are campaigning on the filibuster.
Margaret Sullivan: “The first news conference of a new administration is always a high-stakes affair for the White House.”
“How will the new president do under the glare of direct questioning from a crowd of correspondents? Will he utter a cringe-inducing gaffe? Will he actually make any real news?”
“But when President Biden steps to the lectern Thursday, the pressure will also be on the White House press corps themselves, as reporters recalibrate after the tumultuous, misinformation-filled Trump years to a president who is far less showy and, to date, much more truthful.”
“Facing more than $1.3 billion in liabilities over her post-election conspiracy theories, lawyer Sidney Powell told a judge that the defamation lawsuit Dominion Voting Systems filed against her earlier this year should be dismissed because ‘no reasonable person’ would believe that her well-publicized comments about an international plot against former President Donald Trump were ‘statements of fact,'” according to Law & Crime.
First Read: “Greitens’ Senate candidacy is risky business for a Republican Party that’s seeking to win back the Senate with a challenging map and — so far — five announced Senate GOP retirements.”
“If he’s the nominee, Republicans will have decide whether to embrace someone with this kind of record.”
“We remember when Roy Moore lost a Senate seat in Alabama (a state Trump won by 25 points in 2020), and when Kris Kobach lost the gubernatorial race in Kansas (a state Trump won by 15 points). Candidates matter.”
Gallup: “Americans’ satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S. continued to improve in March, as 32% say they are satisfied with the direction of the country. This is the second monthly increase Gallup has recorded after the measure fell to its lowest point in nearly a decade in January.”
This looks really good: Rock Me on the Water: 1974-The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics by Ron Brownstein.
“At a time when Richard Nixon won two presidential elections with a message of backlash against the social changes unleashed by the sixties, popular culture was ahead of politics in predicting what America would become. The early 1970s in Los Angeles was the time and the place where conservatives definitively lost the battle to control popular culture.”
“For the last year, New York City has been running in the shadow of a deadly pandemic, with many city and private sector employees forced to work from home, stripping New York of its lifeblood and devastating its economy,” the New York Times reports.
“But with virus cases seeming to stabilize and vaccinations becoming more widespread, city officials intend to send a message that New York is close to returning to normal: On May 3, the city will compel its municipal office employees to begin to report to work in person… Workers will return in phases over several weeks.”
Kim Janey achieved two historic milestones in one night: becoming the first Black person and first woman to be installed as Boston’s mayor, the Boston Globe reports.
Janey, the Boston City Council president, stepped into the acting role immediately after outgoing Mayor Marty Walsh submitted his resignation to become Labor Secretary.
Axios: “The data shows an average of just 13% of nearly 13,000 family members attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border were returned to Mexico between March 14 and March 21 using the public health order, which essentially says the U.S. can close the border to nonessential travel because of the coronavirus.”
“It’s a sign of how the administration is struggling to keep up with a migration surge, and has been recently hamstrung by Mexico’s inability to take in more families the U.S. otherwise would expel.”
ABC News: Biden administration releases video from inside crowded migrant detention facilities.
Washington Post : “The Evanston City Council approved the first phase of reparations to acknowledge the harm caused by discriminatory housing policies, practices and inaction going back more than a century. The 8-1 vote will make $400,000 available in $25,000 homeownership and improvement grants, as well as in mortgage assistance for Black residents who can show they are direct descendants of individuals who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969.”
Politico: “Senior House Democrats say the Senate will need to make a decision soon on which pieces of the party’s agenda they’ll move first — and then whether to pursue a bipartisan compromise or move toward a reckoning on the filibuster. Some House Democrats, particularly on the left, are starting to get impatient.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.