Politico: “From margaritas-to-go to marijuana deliveries to virtual doctor visits, the pandemic prompted states to ease rules to make life at home more bearable. But the looming end of emergency orders has teed up a lobbying frenzy in state capitals to make these Covid-era conveniences permanent fixtures in American life.”
DeSantis and Cruise Lines Square Off
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is on a collision course with one of the state’s biggest industries over a law he signed banning businesses from asking customers whether they’ve been vaccinated against Covid-19,” NBC News reports.
“Cruise ship operators, who sail out of Florida’s large southern ports, say the order will make it make it harder for them to safely return to the seas, possibly imperiling a major economic driver in the state.”
Third Wave of Covid Underway In U.K.
“Scientists have warned ministers that a third wave of coronavirus may have already begun in Britain, casting doubt on plans in England to lift all lockdown restrictions in three weeks’ time,” The Guardian reports.
Vietnam Variant Threatens to Disrupt Supply Chains
“Vietnam is bracing for disruptions its tech manufacturing sector, the country’s economic engine and a vital cog in global supply chains, after authorities detected a new variant of COVID-19 with characteristics of both Indian and U.K. strains,” Nikkei Asia reports.
“The government has called for nationwide efforts to protect factories as two northern provinces home to industrial parks struggle to control outbreaks.”
Ex-GOP Lawmaker Says Few Would Search for Trump
Former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) told NBC News that “If Donald Trump disappeared tomorrow, I don’t think you’d have many Republicans in the search party.”
She added: “Maybe a few prosecutors. But not Republicans.”
Texas Democrats Block Passage of Voting Bill
“The sweeping overhaul of Texas elections and voter access was poised from the beginning of the session to pass into law. It had the backing of Republican leaders in both chambers of the Legislature. It had support from the governor,” the Texas Tribune reports.
“Democrats who opposed the bill, chiding it as a naked attempt of voter suppression, were simply outnumbered.”
“But on Sunday night, with an hour left for the Legislature to give final approval to the bill, Democrats staged a walkout, preventing a vote on the legislation before a fatal deadline.”
The Austin American Statesman reports Gov. Greg Abbott (R) vowed to bring lawmakers back in a special session.
China Announces New Three-Child Policy
China’s government announced Monday it is relaxing strict family planning restrictions and allowing couples to have three children each, Axios reports.
Michael Flynn Calls for Coup In the U.S.
Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who served briefly as former President Trump’s national security adviser, called for a Myanmar-like military coup in America at a QAnon conference in Dallas.
The HuffPost notes Flynn also insisted that he’s “not a conspiracy theorist,” but then declared: “Trump won! He won! He won the popular vote, and he won the Electoral College vote.”
Ex-Trump Aides Seek to Take Out ‘Fake’ Republicans
A handful of Donald Trump campaign alumni have formed a new group to try to unseat the 10 Republican House members who crossed party lines to vote to impeach the former president earlier this year, Axios reports.
America Strong PAC officially formed early this month. The super PAC’s website pledges to “remove the ten pretenders,” and features a 30-second ad-style video going after Rep. Liz Cheney.
Questions That May Never Be Answered About Jan. 6
New York Times: “The public may never know precisely what Mr. Trump and members of his administration did or said as a throng of his supporters stormed the Capitol while Congress met to formalize President Biden’s victory, threatening the lives of lawmakers and the vice president. The full story may never be revealed of why security officials were so unprepared for the breach of the building, supposedly one of the most secure in the nation, despite ample warnings of potential violence.”
“The extent of the role of Republican lawmakers closely allied with Mr. Trump in planning the Jan. 6 ‘Stop the Steal’ rally that spiraled into a brutal onslaught may remain unexplored.”
Meanwhile, lawyers for at least three defendants charged in connection with the violent siege tell the Associated Press that they will blame election misinformation and conspiracy theories, much of it pushed by Trump, for misleading their clients.
Democrats Roll Republicans In Illinois
Chicago Tribune: “Illinois Democrats are turning the spring session into a partisan tour de force. … For Republicans who looked at the January departure of Michael Madigan — the embattled state Democratic Party chair and the nation’s longest-serving House speaker — as an opportunity for a fresh start, the session has been a rude awakening.”
“With the General Assembly scheduled to adjourn Monday, top Democratic priorities are steadily advancing. On Friday, lawmakers sent Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker legislation to redraw Illinois’ legislative districts to the party’s favor for the next decade and redo state Supreme Court boundaries for the first time in nearly 60 years to try to keep their majority. … Meanwhile, Republicans largely have been shut out of negotiations over a new state budget and how to spend federal pandemic relief funds. They also have been unsuccessful in pushing stronger ethics proposals.”
Why the Lab-Leak Theory Matters
Ross Douthat: “Because the lab leak theory was associated early on with Republican China hawks … and eventually picked up by the Trump administration, there was self-reinforcing pressure — among journalists who covered the story and Twitter experts who opined on it — to put the possibility in the QAnon box and leave it there.”
“I will leave it to the reader to consider how a similar pressure might manifest itself in other areas, from the 2020-21 murder spike to the recent rise in anti-Semitic violence, where journalists might wish to avoid making concessions to conservative interpretations of reality.”
Buttigieg Sets Deadline for Infrastructure Talks
“The Biden administration said Sunday that talks over a $1.7 trillion infrastructure package would need to show a ‘clear direction’ toward agreement by the time Congress returns from recess in early June, signaling that Democrats might be preparing to go it alone on a broad plan to rebuild roads and bridges, expand broadband service and create programs to help care for the elderly and disabled Americans,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said President Biden and members of his team would continue negotiating privately this week and said the talks with Republican lawmakers were encouraging. But he identified the return of Congress on June 7 as when the talks would need to indicate an endpoint.”
Said Buttigieg: “I think we are getting pretty close to a fish-or-cut-bait moment.”
Playbook: “It certainly sounds like Republicans want to make a deal on infrastructure. At least, that’s the clear takeaway from the Washington Post’s look into White House negotiations with Senate Republicans, who were eager to lay the compliments on thick when talking about President Joe Biden.”
Israel Moves Toward Coalition Sidelining Netanyahu
“The longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history, Benjamin Netanyahu, faced the most potent threat yet to his grip on power Sunday after an ultranationalist power-broker, Naftali Bennett, said his party would work with opposition leaders to build an alternative government to force Mr. Netanyahu from office,” the New York Times reports.
“If the maneuvering leads to a formal coalition agreement, it would be an uneasy alliance between eight relatively small parties with a diffuse range of ideologies. The prime minister’s post would rotate between two unlikely partners: Mr. Bennett, a former settler leader who rejects the concept of a sovereign Palestinian state and champions the religious right — and Yair Lapid, a former television host who is considered a voice of secular centrists.”
The Washington Post reports Netanyahu called the plan “the fraud of the century.”
Brazilians Protest Against Bolsonaro
Tens of thousands of people rallied in over 200 cities and towns across Brazil Saturday to protest President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed some 460,000 people in the country, The Guardian reports.
Schumer Ready to Test Democrats on Filibuster
NBC News: “Democrats have the power to change those rules but lack the unanimity it’d require of the 50-member caucus. And when the Senate returns from a weeklong Memorial Day recess, Schumer appears ready to test his members.”
“He promised votes on the Paycheck Fairness Act and a bill to protect voting rights — both have viable paths to a majority vote but not 60 to defeat a filibuster. He said LGBTQ rights and gun legislation may also come up.”
Biden Leaves GOP Senators Unsure How Far He’ll Go
“At one point during the Oval Office negotiating session, it seemed President Biden and a half-dozen GOP senators chasing an infrastructure deal had landed on a workable figure: $1 trillion,” the Washington Post reports.
“That number was dramatically scaled back from the White House’s initial $2.3 trillion vision for rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, yet still far higher than the Senate Republicans’ opening bid. Some of the GOP senators in the room were unsure how they would reach the $1 trillion mark.”
“Then Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) asked Biden: Would it matter if that spending were spread out over five years, or eight? The president indicated to the senators that it wouldn’t.”
“The Republicans — some of whom had taken chocolate chip cookies, wrapped in a presidential seal, for the road — left the Oval Office believing that Biden would be satisfied with a framework that would spend $1 trillion over eight years and that it could include existing spending plans.”
Bannon Has His MAGA Megaphone Back
“Steve Bannon has a new MAGA megaphone, and Republicans eager to shine in a party still tethered to former President Donald Trump know it,” NBC News reports.
“Bannon, the former Breitbart News executive and one of the architects of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, has increasingly leveraged his “War Room: Pandemic” podcast into a kind of proxy primary. Ambitious Republicans are flocking there for the chance to demonstrate loyalty to Bannon’s former boss and pitch themselves to Trump’s voters — and, more indirectly, to Trump himself.”
