| | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | | DEVELOPING — “Cori Bush says DOJ investigating her campaign spending on security,” by Nicholas Wu and Daniella Diaz: “The Missouri Democrat married one of her former security guards, and her campaign paid him $42,500 in the first three quarters of last year.” BREAKING — “New U.S.-made longer-range bomb expected to arrive as soon Wednesday in Ukraine,” by Lee Hudson, Lara Seligman and Paul McLeary: “The new bomb, which can travel about 90 miles, is expected to be ‘a significant capability for Ukraine,’ said the U.S. official.” DEPRESSING — “Wall Street Journal plans layoffs, restructuring in D.C.,” by Axios’ Sara Fischer: “The changes will include a small number of layoffs as well as some new roles, the sources said. The reorganization will also move some Washington-based economics coverage to New York.”
|  House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, are railing against the proposed border deal. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | RED DEAD REDEMPTION — House Republicans have declared the Senate-proposed border deal dead on arrival in the chamber — but the deal just hasn’t arrived yet. “I just heard Speaker [MIKE] JOHNSON saying it’s absolutely dead, which is what I wanted to hear,” Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) told CNN’s Manu Raju as she left the GOP conference meeting this morning. “As a matter of fact, he said so clear, ‘I don’t know why people keep asking me about it,’ because as it stands right now, there’s no way forward.” And indeed, Johnson is continuing to indicate that the deal has no path forward in the House, skewering the proposal as insufficient to address the situation at the border in remarks this morning, our colleague Anthony Adragna writes. “It seems the authority to shut down the border would kick in only after as many as 5,000 illegal crossings happen a day. Why? Why would we do that?” Johnson asked during a press conference. “That would be surrender. The goal should be zero illegal crossings a day.” Asked whether the House Republican opposition to the legislation is a result of former President DONALD TRUMP’s campaign against it, Johnson demurred: “That's absurd,” he said. “We're trying to use every ounce of leverage that we have to make sure this issue is addressed.” Johnson has now rescheduled a floor speech on the border for tomorrow, per CNN’s Melanie Zanona. How it’s playing: President JOE BIDEN’s statement over the weekend that he would shut down the border if the Senate deal comes to his desk is roiling some in the administration: “Current and former officials at the Department of Homeland Security are expressing concern over President Joe Biden’s assertion this weekend that he wants the authority to ‘shut down’ the border,” NBC’s Julia Ainsley, Julie Tsirkin, Frank Thorp V and Carol Lee report. The 30,000-foot view: “How the Border Crisis Shattered Biden’s Immigration Hopes,” by NYT’s Michael Shear, Hamed Aleaziz and Zolan Kanno-Youngs: “An examination of Mr. Biden’s record over the last three years by The New York Times, based on interviews with more than 35 current and former officials and others, shows that the president has failed to overcome those obstacles. The result is a growing humanitarian crisis at the border and in major cities around the country. Many voters now say immigration is their top concern, and they do not have confidence that Mr. Biden is addressing it.” ALSO OUT OF THE GOP CONFERENCE — The bipartisan tax deal may be on the verge of collapsing after an unlikely coalition of House Republicans aired last-minute concerns this morning, Benjamin Guggenheim reports. “According to members who attended the meeting, Republican leaders are staring down a messy litany of complaints from both incumbents in vulnerable districts demanding state and local tax relief and conservative Freedom Caucus members who are intent on bringing border politics into the tax debate. Then there are the lawmakers with a third type of complaint: anger that Johnson is relying on Democratic votes to pass a major piece of tax legislation in an election year.” “It’s a problem that we continue to do things under suspension of the rules,” said House Freedom Caucus Chair BOB GOOD (R-Va.) — echoing a line of criticism Playbook previewed last week. Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at gross@politico.com.
| | | | A message from Instagram: Parents should be able to decide which apps are right for their teens.
Giving parents a say in which apps are right for their teens helps them support their teens in having a positive experience online.
That’s why Instagram wants to work with Congress to require parental approval wherever teens under 16 download apps.
Learn more. | | | | | 7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | |  President Joe Biden delivered his first public remarks following a deadly drone strike that killed three Americans over the weekend. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo | 1. BIDEN HIS TIME: Biden briefly addressed the escalating situation in the Middle East for the first time publicly as he departed the White House for his trip to Florida. Biden indicated to reporters that the administration has decided how it will retaliate for the drone strike in Jordan that killed three American soldiers — though he did not offer specifics on what has been decided or when it might take place. “I do hold them responsible in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it,” Biden said, referring to Iran. “I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That’s not what I’m looking for.” More from Adam Cancryn Meanwhile, DNI AVRIL HAINES and CIA Director WILLIAM BURNS are set to brief members of Congress on “a variety of foreign affairs matters,” including the drone attack, later today, Jordain Carney reports. “The person who confirmed the briefing said that House Intelligence Committee members in both parties would attend, though further briefings are likely to follow in the coming days as Congress presses for more details about the drone attack.” 2. POMPEO AND CIRCUMSTANCE: The otherwise predictable style and substance of the LEON PANETTA-MIKE POMPEO duet at the House Select Committee on China hearing this morning spiced up significantly when Rep. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS (D-Mass.) tried — and failed — to get Pompeo to state that Biden was elected in a free and fair election in 2020, our colleague Phelim Kine writes in to Playbook. Pompeo, clearly put off by that line of questioning, called it a “diatribe” and a “tirade” before pivoting to a comment about how he wishes “Secretary [HILLARY] CLINTON would be so clear about her election as well.” Chair MIKE GALLAGHER (R-Wis.) intervened after a back-and-forth between Pompeo and Auchincloss to give Pompeo time to answer his question. “We did have a peaceful transition of power from the Trump administration to the Biden administration and I was present for that and I saw my State Department working diligently to deliver the information that Secretary [ANTONY] BLINKEN desperately needed to get started on the right foot and I have been proud to work alongside Secretary Blinken,” Pompeo said. “Let's see a show of hands who here thinks it was peaceful on Jan. 6, 2021,” Auchincloss responded, prompting another retort from Gallagher: “What are you doing?” Watch the exchange
| | | | A message from Instagram:   | | | 3. BIDEN BLITZ BEGINS: Future Forward, the primary super PAC backing Biden, this week is laying the groundwork for an eye-popping $250 million advertising campaign across battleground states ahead of November’s general election, “a blitz that it says is the largest single purchase of political advertising by a super PAC in the nation’s history,” NYT’s Reid Epstein and Shane Goldmacher report. “The ads, which are to be split between $140 million on television and $110 million on digital and streaming platforms, will start the day after the Democratic National Convention concludes in August and will run through Election Day, the super PAC said. The ad reservation covers seven states that are seen as the main presidential battlegrounds: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.” 4. DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS: Chinese President XI JINPING assured Biden that China “would not interfere in the 2024 U.S. presidential election when the two men met in November — an assurance reiterated by the Chinese foreign minister to Biden’s national security adviser this past weekend,” CNN’s Sean Lyngaas and MJ Lee report. “The previously unreported exchange between Xi and Biden took place during a high-stakes, hourslong meeting in California that was aimed at easing historically high military and economic tensions between the two superpowers. It was Biden who raised the issue, according to one of the sources, who described the exchange as brief.” Related read: “Tired of hostile Washington, China courts Indiana and Minnesota,” by WaPo’s Lily Kuo and Cate Cadell 5. HALEY’S COMMITS: Polls are spelling doom for NIKKI HALEY’s campaign to knock Trump off his frontrunner perch in the GOP presidential primary, but she is still bringing in enough cash to keep her bid alive ahead of a spate of critical primaries where she will mount her last stand. WSJ’s John McCormick writes that Haley has seen a “burst in online fundraising — more than $4 million” since the New Hampshire primary, and that there are “signs that her large-dollar donors, many of whom have harbored a distaste for Trump, are remaining supportive of the last major candidate standing in his way.”
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE GOLDEN STATE POLITICAL ARENA: POLITICO’s California Playbook newsletter provides a front row seat to the most important political news percolating in the state’s power centers, from Sacramento and Los Angeles to Silicon Valley. Authors Lara Korte and Dustin Gardiner deliver exclusive news, buzzy scoops and behind-the-scenes details that you simply will not get anywhere else. Subscribe today and stay ahead of the game! | | | | | 6. McCONNELL’S MONEY MACHINE: Two groups aligned with Senate Minority Leader MITCH McCONNELL are firing up their fundraising fitness heading into the general election season when Republican leadership will be spending big to reclaim control of the chamber. “Senate Leadership Fund, which is the top super PAC backing Senate Republican incumbents and candidates, and the affiliated non-profit public advocacy group One Nation, raised a combined $94,789,049 last year,” Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser reports. “Last year's haul is roughly $400,000 more than One Nation and Senate Leadership raised in total in 2021 and the two groups say their combined 2023 fundraising is a record for an off-election year. 7. FED UP: The Federal Reserve is set to meet tomorrow, when the central bank is expected to leave interest rates untouched for the time being — though many watchers will be looking for signs about when those rates might start coming down. “The expected rate cuts raise a big question: Why would central bankers lower borrowing costs when the economy is experiencing surprisingly strong growth?” NYT’s Jeanna Smialek writes. Overall, the U.S. economy grew last year, consumers have been spending and the unemployment rate is low. “The data suggest that even though the Fed has raised interest rates to a range of 5.25 to 5.5 percent, the highest level in more than two decades, the increase has not been enough to slam the brakes on the economy. In fact, growth remains faster than the pace that many forecasters think is sustainable in the longer run.”
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