Politico: “Hugging Trump has become priority number one for most House Republicans, with feting the former president in Mar-a-Lago becoming a rite of passage among their leaders. GOP senators, by contrast, are trying to chart a different path forward — one built on policy rather than Trump’s personality — figuring that will make their party’s brand more effective than attaching itself to one man. Don’t expect Mitch McConnell to show up in Florida any time soon.”
Biden’s Cabinet Still Half Empty
Associated Press: “President Joe Biden’s Cabinet is taking shape at the slowest pace of any in modern history, with fewer than a dozen nominees for top posts confirmed more than a month into his tenure.”
“Among Biden’s 23 nominees with Cabinet rank, just 12 have been confirmed by the Senate, or about half. And among the 15 core nominees to lead federal agencies, 10 have been confirmed, or about two thirds. According to the Center for Presidential Transition, about a month into their first terms, the previous four presidents had 84% of their core Cabinet picks confirmed.”
Did Bernie Sanders Kill Neera Tanden’s Nomination?
Playbook: “There was a flurry of intrigue about Bernie on Tuesday night when Tanden’s nomination was pulled. It’s no secret that Sanders and Tanden have a fraught history. His staunchest supporters have long been her fiercest detractors, and Tanden’s meanest tweets have been barbs directed at Sanders going back to the bitter 2016 Democratic primary, when Tanden was a top aide to Hillary Clinton.”
“Three White House sources said that Sanders would have been a yes vote on Tanden if the White House had been able to find a Republican vote to replace Joe Manchin, the Democrat from West Virginia who started all of this by publicly opposing her Feb. 19.”
“But Bernie’s mittens are not clean. By withholding his support Sanders left Tanden twisting, fostered an atmosphere of a nominee in trouble and made it unlikely for any Republican to step forward in support. Why would a GOP senator break with her leadership unless she was certain she was providing the decisive vote?”
Cuomo’s Approval Plummets
A new Emerson College poll in New York finds that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) currently has a 38% approval rating from registered voters.
In April, Emerson found Cuomo at a sky-high 71% approval.
Murkowski Never Said She Would Oppose Tanden
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said Tuesday evening she never told the White House she would vote against Neera Tanden, President Biden’s former nominee for White House budget director, and appeared surprised by the news that the nomination had been withdrawn, The Hill reports.
Said Murkowski: “I never did, they never asked.”
Watchdog Issues Scathing Report on Ronny Jackson
“The Department of Defense inspector general has issued a scathing review of Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) during his time serving as the top White House physician, concluding that he made ‘sexual and denigrating’ comments about a female subordinate, violated the policy for drinking alcohol while on a presidential trip and took prescription-strength sleeping medication that prompted concerns from his colleagues about his ability to provide proper care,” CNN reports.
“Jackson claimed the report was politically motivated in a statement to CNN on Tuesday, saying the inspector general ‘resurrected’ old allegations against him because he refused to ‘turn my back on President Trump,'”
Ex-Trump Aide Won’t Run for Congress
Former Trump aide Katrina Pierson announced she will not run for an open House seat in Texas after she laid the groundwork for a bid.
New York City Bar Joins Fight to Disbar Giuliani
CNN: “The New York City Bar Association added its name to the list of groups urging the state court committee that recommends whether to disbar attorneys to investigate complaints against Rudy Giuliani.”
Fake Cory Booker
An embarrassing correction from the BBC:
“In our Newshour radio programme on Friday, a man claiming to be Senator Cory Booker was interviewed in what appears to be a deliberate hoax. We have apologised to Senator Booker and are looking into what went wrong to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
White House Will Pull Neera Tanden’s Nomination
The White House plans to withdraw the nomination of Neera Tanden as director of the Office of Management and Budget as early as Tuesday evening, the Washington Post reports.
Wall Street Journal: “White House chief of staff Ron Klain said last month that the administration hoped to find a position for Ms. Tanden that didn’t require Senate confirmation if she were unable to win enough support.”
South Carolina Moves to Bring Back Firing Squad
South Carolina senators voted to bring back the firing squad as a method of execution, the Columbia State reports.
“A bipartisan group of lawmakers voted in favor of the measure, which was proposed as an amendment to an execution bill that would make the electric chair the default method of execution.”
The Bernie-Biden Relationship Remains Strong
“With Democrats navigating battles over labor rights and wage policy, the two have back-channeled, applauded each other, and crafted carefully worded statements designed to project peace and the aura of collaboration,” Politico reports.
“It is, in part, a recognition that each side needs the other in order to be successful. It’s also driven by a desire to avoid the problems of the past.”
Long-Shot GOP Candidates Pay Huge Sums to Go Viral
The Washington Post has an eye-opening look at the big cuts fundraising firms take to help new candidates running for office go viral — many of who are running in deep-blue districts with little chance of winning.
An example: “By the end of Kim Klacik’s campaign, she would raise a staggering $8.3 million and pay nearly $3.7 million of it to Olympic Media… Klacik, now a frequent Fox News and Newsmax commentator, lost to Mfume in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District by more than 40 percentage points.”
Florida’s Democratic Party Is in Shambles
NPR: “Manny Diaz is the person charged with picking up the pieces and rebuilding the state party as the new party chairman. The 66-year-old says when he campaigned for the job, he didn’t know how bad things were, especially with the party’s finances. After the election, Florida’s Democratic Party was in debt and couldn’t pay its bills. Employees found out their health insurance had been canceled. Diaz says that was his first challenge.”
Said Diaz: “It was like survival. And I’m talking about the kind of survival where you’re involved in counting paperclips.”
Biden Expects Enough Vaccine by End of May
President Joe Biden said he expects the United States will have enough Covid-19 vaccine for every adult Americans by end of May — two months earlier than anticipated, the Washington Post reports.
Biden also wants all states to vaccinate, with at least one shot, all teachers, childcare workers and school staff by the end of this month.
Why Republicans Can Oppose Biden’s Popular Relief Bill
Perry Bacon Jr.: “Voters may like a president’s policies in the abstract but still think he isn’t doing a good job or that his policies aren’t that effective if those policies aren’t bipartisan. Think of this as the Mitch McConnell theory.”
“Put another way: The opposition party can guarantee a lack of bipartisan support — and then criticize the president for lacking bipartisan support.”
Cuomo Angered Biden’s Campaign with Convention Speech
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) angered Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020 over his speech at the Democratic National Convention, “which aides considered to be self-aggrandizing,” The Hill reports.
According to Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency, Cuomo “did not deliver his recording of his speech until the day he was set to appear and used much of his remarks to tout his response to the coronavirus pandemic rather than praise Biden.”
Said one Biden aide: “They put his speech on our doorstep, lit it on fire, rang the doorbell, and then ran away.”
Texas Ends All Pandemic Restrictions
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot (R) announced that he will end his state’s coronavirus restrictions next week with an upcoming executive order.
