Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had fired two top Ukrainian security officials whom he accused of being “traitors,” Insider reports.
DeSantis Backs Stripping Disney of Self-Governing Status
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “signaled support for stripping Disney of its 55-year-old special status that allows the entertainment company to operate as an independent government around its Orlando-area theme park,” CNN reports.
“It’s the latest fallout in the feud between DeSantis, a Republican widely seen as a potential 2024 presidential contender, and Disney (DIS), Florida’s largest private employer, over a measure that bans schools from teaching young children about sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Oliver Darcy: “Right now Fox News, conservative talk radio, and a constellation of right-wing websites and influencers are all training their firepower on the entertainment giant.”
Biden Embraces Oil as War Overwhelms Climate Agenda
“President Joe Biden delivered his strongest endorsement of oil on Thursday, ordering an unprecedented release of emergency U.S. crude in a move that gambled his climate-saving credentials on lowering gasoline prices in an election year,” Bloomberg reports.
“If the strategy works, Biden may help stave off both a recession and crushing defeats for his party in midterm elections, while drawing the ire of climate activists and potentially derailing his green goals. If it fails — and it very well might — he risks looking like Jimmy Carter, snubbed by oil-rich Mideast nations and powerless to rein in prices at the pump.”
“It’s a remarkable shift for a president who campaigned on promises to combat climate change, accelerate renewable fuels and block drilling permits on public lands and waters. In the space of a week, he’s instead ordered the emergency release of 180 million barrels of crude from U.S. stockpiles and presided over a plan to boost exports of American natural gas to Europe.”
New York Times: As gas prices soar, Biden’s climate ambitions sputter.
AP: “The president said it was not known how much gasoline prices could decline as a result of his move, but he suggested it might be ‘anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon.’”
Russia’s War Lacks Battlefield Commander
“Russia is running its military campaign against Ukraine out of Moscow, with no central war commander on the ground to call the shots, according to American officials who have studied the five-week-old war,” the New York Times reports.
“That centralized approach may go a long way to explain why the Russian war effort has struggled in the face of stiffer-than-expected Ukrainian resistance.”
“The lack of a unifying military leader in Ukraine has meant that Russian air, ground and sea units are not in sync. Their disjointed battlefield campaigns have been plagued by poor logistics, flagging morale and between 7,000 and 15,000 military deaths.”
Biden’s Next Headache
Axios: “Immigration is about to roar back as a major crisis for President Biden: Republicans are already testing harsh new border messages for the coming midterm ad war.”
Judge Strikes Down New York Maps
“A New York judge on Thursday struck down the state’s new congressional and legislative maps as defying a voter-backed constitutional amendment that aimed to end partisan gerrymandering, dealing a blow to Democrats hoping to hold onto their fragile majority in the House this November,” the Washington Post reports.
“New York Democrats drew a new congressional map with boundaries that could gain their party as many as three new seats, a crucial advantage at a time when the House majority will come down to just a handful of wins.”
Rubio Fundraises at NBA Game Despite Criticism
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) held a fundraising event at a basketball game in Washington, D.C, on Wednesday night despite his recent criticism of the National Basketball Association for doing business with the Chinese government, the American Independent reports.
Youth Turnout Could Decide Midterms for Democrats
Ron Brownstein: “Soaring turnout and big margins among young voters were central to the Democratic victories in the 2018 congressional and 2020 presidential elections. But with many young people expressing disenchantment with President Joe Biden’s performance, preserving those advantages looms as one of the biggest challenges facing Democrats in the 2022 midterms.”
“There’s widespread concern among Democrats that turnout for young people this November could fall back from its gains in 2018 toward the meager levels that contributed to the party’s crushing losses in the 2014 and 2010 midterm elections.”
Said Democratic pollster Ben Tulchin: “If you accept the status quo with young people, it’s not going to go great. Turnout is not going to be good.”
Americans Not Buying ‘Putin Price Hike’
Aaron Blake: “Evidence now suggests the narrative is coming up well short. Domestic pricing concerns are far outpacing Ukraine on Americans’ list of priorities, and Biden’s poll numbers on his handling of the economy continue to hit new lows. Whatever stomach Americans had for higher prices to support the war in Ukraine, it doesn’t appear particularly strong.”
Madison Cawthorn Remains Defiant
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), under fire from fellow Republicans for saying that some of them engage in orgies and use cocaine, put out a new ad blaming the “the entire left-wing establishment” for trying to “take him down.”
Senate Closes in on $10 Billion in Covid Relief
“Key senators are nearing a deal on a roughly $10 billion package of coronavirus relief, setting Congress on a path to deliver funding Democrats had hoped to pass weeks ago,” Politico reports.
“But some in the majority party are deeply unhappy with the compromise being negotiated with Republicans, warning that leaving out global aid will have consequences. That spells possible trouble for the package’s fate in the House.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“We survived the War of 1812, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War. But now today we face the greatest danger we’ve ever faced. The militant left wing in our country has become the enemy within.”
— Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), quoted by the HuffPost.
Fetuses Found at Home of Anti-Abortion Activist
Five fetuses were found by authorities on Thursday in the Washington, D.C. home of an anti-abortion activist, WUSA reports.
How Trump Stole His Photographer’s Idea for a Book
“As President Donald Trump’s tenure came to an end, the chief White House photographer, who had traveled the world with him and spent countless hours inside the White House snapping pictures, notified Mr. Trump’s aides that she intended to publish a book collecting some of her most memorable images,” the New York Times reports.
“This was hardly a radical idea: Official photographers from every White House since President Ronald Reagan’s have published their own books… But like so much else involving Mr. Trump, the plan by his chief photographer, Shealah Craighead, did not follow this bipartisan norm.”
“First, aides to Mr. Trump asked her for a cut of her book advance payment, in exchange for his writing a foreword and helping promote the book.”
“Then Mr. Trump’s team asked Ms. Craighead to hold off on her book project to allow the former president to take Ms. Craighead’s photos and those of other White House staff photographers and publish his own book, which is now selling for as much as $230 a copy.”
Another Democrat Has ‘Concerns’ Over Garcetti
“Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) says he has ‘concerns’ about the sexual harassment allegations surrounding Eric Garcetti, publicly raising the possibility he could oppose President Biden’s nominee for ambassador to India,” Axios reports.
Florida Voting Restrictions Are Unconstitutional
“A federal judge ruled that multiple parts of a voting law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last year are unconstitutional, striking down various provisions and prohibiting the Legislature from passing future forms of voter laws without first getting approval from a court,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.
“In a sweeping 288-page order declaring the right to vote ‘under siege’ based on the Legislature’s record on voting laws, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker on Thursday forbade lawmakers from passing future laws involving drop boxes, third-party voter registration or efforts to limit ‘line warming’ activities at polling sites without the court’s approval for the next 10 years.”
Facebook Bug Amplified Harmful Content
“A group of Facebook engineers identified a ‘massive ranking failure’ that exposed as much as half of all News Feed views to ‘integrity risks’ over the past six months,” The Verge reports.
“The engineers first noticed the issue last October, when a sudden surge of misinformation began flowing through the News Feed… Instead of suppressing dubious posts reviewed by the company’s network of outside fact-checkers, the News Feed was instead giving the posts distribution, spiking views by as much as 30 percent globally.”
Pennsylvania Senate Race Is Wide Open
A new Emerson College/The Hill poll in Pennsylvania finds the Republican U.S. Senate primary wide open: 51% of voters are undecided and David McCormick (R) and Mehmet Oz (R) receive 14% respectively. No other candidate reaches double digits.
On the Democratic side, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) leads with 33%, followed by Rep. Conor Lamb (D) with 10%. No other candidate reaches double digits and 37% are undecided.
