| | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade | | | | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | Supreme Court confirmation hearings typically blot out everything else going on in Washington. This time, not so much. With war raging in Ukraine and President JOE BIDEN headed to Brussels on Wednesday for an emergency NATO summit (more on both of these topics below), Judge KETANJI BROWN JACKSON's four-day hearing marathon, which starts today at 11 a.m., may well be below-the-fold news. It's not just outside events dampening the suspense: With her confirmation all but assured and the balance of the court not in play, the likelihood of major surprises is pretty low. While that bodes well for Jackson's prospects, it's not necessarily good for the administration politically. The near-certainty of seating the first Black woman on the high court would normally be the closest thing to a slam-dunk, attention-grabbing victory the White House could ask for. No red flags have been raised about Jackson's record that would jeopardize her prospects, and a new WSJ poll shows a majority of Americans think she is qualified for the high court. But these aren't normal times. The White House is on course to notch the win, but the media's gaze is largely elsewhere: If you watched the Sunday shows, questions about Jackson's upcoming hearings were slipped in at the tail end of interviews or toward the end of programming. WHAT'S IN STORE FOR JACKSON: Though her confirmation appears to be a fait accompli, Republicans have every intention of attempting to leverage the hearings for their own political advantage. As WaPo's Seung Min Kim said on CNN's "Inside Politics" on Sunday, the GOP's aim is to neutralize any boon for Democrats and essentially make the entire confirmation fight a political "wash."
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See how we're working to help you connect safely. | | | Here are four key dynamics to watch as the hearings get underway: 1. Republicans seek a midterms advantage with a blast from the past. "Soft on crime": For years it was one of the GOP's favorite ways to undermine Democrats among swing voters. Then criminal justice reform and ending mandatory minimums gained steam with both parties, and the GOP attack lost some potency. Look for Republicans to return to the well this week. They've been signaling that they intend to go after Jackson's record as a public defender as well as singling out rulings they say were too lenient. That will include questions about her work defending Guantánamo Bay detainees and on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. It's an attack they think could land not only on Jackson, but also on Biden — particularly amid voter concerns about rising crime. Last week, Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL said that "amidst the national crime wave … [Biden] is deliberately working to make the whole federal judiciary soft on crime." 2. Pay attention to the parade of 2024 hopefuls. High-profile hearings like these have long been considered a primo opportunity for presidential hopefuls to go viral. Enter GOP Sens. JOSH HAWLEY (Mo.), TED CRUZ (Texas) and TOM COTTON (Ark.), all sharp questioners with Ivy League law degrees and White House ambitions. Hawley has already thrown down with tweets suggesting that Jackson has a "pattern" of being soft on people accused of child porn — an accusation that caused fact checkers to take exception and the White House and Senate Democrats to spring to her defense. Our colleagues Josh Gerstein and Marianne LeVine note in a curtain raiser this morning that "of nine defendants Jackson sentenced on such charges, she went below the government's recommendation in seven." But they also note that that federal prosecutors themselves recommended the lower sentences and that her pattern of ruling on this type of issue "mirrors … a majority of federal judges — some of whom have complained for more than a decade that standards in such cases are outdated and poorly suited to the range of conduct that leads to such convictions." Which leads us to … 3. Some uncomfortable questions. Republicans have been saying they'll be fair to Jackson and won't engage in "character assassination" — drawing a contrast with what they argue was Democrats' mistreatment of BRETT KAVANAUGH. But Republicans, we're told, won't give Jackson a pass either on matters they say are fair game because they're part of her record — so expect them to question Jackson about the child predator matter and other sensitive topics. One wild card to watch:How does the GOP handle racially charged areas of inquiry? As WaPo's Amber Phillips wrote over the weekend in a list of possible GOP questions, Republicans in the past have asked whether race has influenced Jackson's rulings and could press her to recuse herself from a Harvard affirmative action case coming before the court (Jackson sits on one of the university's governing boards.) Privately, even some Republicans caution that these lines of inquiry could backfire and they need to tread carefully. 4. Other GOP lines of inquiry. Republicans have indicated that they'll probe Jackson on whether she has applied the law evenly in her career. In one ruling against the Trump administration for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation, Jackson famously opined that "presidents are not kings." But Republicans will seek to highlight times she's determined that Obama officials don't have to comply with certain types of questioning. Also, don't forget one of McConnell's favorite topics: court packing. The GOP leader has said repeatedly how disappointed he was that Jackson refused to state her position when he asked her about it privately. He often notes that RUTH BADER GINSBURG and STEPHEN BREYER opposed it. HOW IT WILL GO DOWN: Today we'll hear opening statements from Jackson and all 22 members of the Judiciary Committee. Senators will have time to question Jackson on Tuesday and Wednesday for up to 50 minutes each. Thursday's hearing includes outside witnesses speaking to her qualifications. RELATED READS — "How Ketanji Brown Jackson's path to the Supreme Court differs from the current justices," WaPo … "At Harvard, Ketanji Brown Jackson Fought Injustices but Kept a Steely Academic Focus," NYT … "On Eve of Confirmation Hearings, G.O.P. Steps Up Attacks on Jackson," by NYT's Carl Hulse… "McConnell says he hasn't made his mind up on Jackson Supreme Court confirmation vote," CNBC ICYMI: "Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas admitted to hospital with infection," USA Today Grab your coffee and stock up on Red Bull. It's going to be a crazy week in politics. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade , Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | |   | | | BIDEN'S MONDAY: — 9:30 a.m.: The president will receive the President's Daily Brief. — 11 a.m.: Biden will participate in a Ukraine/Russia call with French President EMMANUEL MACRON, German Chancellor OLAF SCHOLZ, Italian PM MARIO DRAGHI and British PM BORIS JOHNSON. — 6 p.m.: Biden will participate in Business Roundtable's CEO Quarterly Meeting. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — VP KAMALA HARRIS is headed to Sunset, La., today (a trip that's been rescheduled multiple times) to spotlight rural broadband in the state. Harris has been leading the administration's rollout of $65 billion in spending for high-speed internet after the passage of the infrastructure law last year. An administration official said Harris will be meeting with community members and highlighting a roughly $30 million grant to provide internet in the Acadiana region of the state. Senior Biden adviser CEDRIC RICHMOND and Deputy Commerce Secretary DON GRAVES will also be with Harris on the trip. Press secretary JEN PSAKI will brief at 2:30 p.m. with deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology ANNE NEUBERGER. THE SENATE will meet at 3 p.m. to take up the motion to proceed to the America COMPETES Act, with a cloture vote at 5:30 p.m. THE HOUSE is out. BIDEN'S WEEK AHEAD: — Wednesday: The president will travel to Brussels. — Thursday: Biden will attend a NATO summit, a G-7 meeting and a European Council Summit on Russia's war in Ukraine. — Friday: Biden will travel to Warsaw, Poland. — Saturday: Biden will participate in a bilateral meeting with Polish President ANDRZEJ DUDA and return to D.C.
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In Lviv, Ukraine, on Sunday, a mother embraces her son who escaped the hard-hit city of Mariupol. | Bernat Armangue/AP Photo | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | LATEST IN UKRAINE ABOUT BIDEN'S POLAND STOP — The White House announced late Sunday night that Biden will travel to Warsaw after his visit to the EU for the NATO summit and G-7 huddle. He'll meet with Duda on Saturday. Some context, per this Reuters story from late last week: "Poland will formally submit a proposal for a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine at the next NATO summit, Prime Minister MATEUSZ MORAWIECKI said on Friday." JUST POSTED, also via Reuters: "Ukraine defied a Russian demand that its forces lay down arms before dawn on Monday in Mariupol, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have been trapped in a city under siege and already laid to waste by Russian bombardment. Russia's military had ordered Ukrainians inside the besieged southeastern city to surrender by 5 a.m., saying that those who do so would be permitted to leave through safe corridors." TOP-ED — In his latest column , NYT's Tom Friedman considers Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN's potential Plans C and D: an attack on NATO member Poland and/or "launching either chemical weapons or the first nuclear bomb since Nagasaki. That is a hard sentence to write, and an even worse one to contemplate. But to ignore it as a possibility would be naïve in the extreme." ALL POLITICS POLITICO has three good reads on the midterms up this morning you won't want to miss: 1. THE 'ENDANGERED SPECIES' OF DEMOCRATS — With all but four states finished with redistricting, Ally Mutnick has an incisive look at the latest on the House election landscape. The upshot: "[A] new House battleground that will force Democrats to protect at least five incumbents in districts [DONALD] TRUMP carried last election — the most politically hazardous place to be for the midterms. Adding to their burden, another five Democratic members abandoned Trump-won seats and left them open rather than seek reelection there." Reminder: The GOP needs to pick up just five seats. Here's Ally on how likely that is: "When Democrats won control of the House in 2006, ten of the 18 Republicans lost reelection in districts carried by JOHN KERRY in 2004. When the GOP wrested back the gavel in 2010, 36 of the 48 Democrats in JOHN MCCAIN -won seats were defeated. And four years ago, victorious House Democrats captured all but three of the 25 Republican districts HILLARY CLINTON carried. "That gives the Trump-district Democrats the look of an endangered species heading into November 2022. The list of those running consists of: Reps. TOM O'HALLERAN of Arizona, JARED GOLDEN of Maine, CINDY AXNE of Iowa, MARCY KAPTUR of Ohio and MATT CARTWRIGHT of Pennsylvania." 2. CONOR LAMB'S LAST STAND? — Just days after our deep dive on Rep. STEPHANIE MURPHY (D-Fla.), another House moderate's star appears to be fading fast. Holly Otterbein scoops this morning that Penn Progress, a super PAC backing Lamb's Pennsylvania Senate bid, "is warning prospective donors that he is trailing frontrunner JOHN FETTERMAN by 30 percentage points in the Democratic primary — and that the public's perception of his opponent's ideology must change for him to have a shot." Lamb's allies, however, aren't giving up without a fight. While the Keystone State's Democratic primary there has been pretty tame compared to the food fight on the GOP side, Holly writes that "the nine-page slide deck disseminated by Penn Progress after a recent fundraising call with donors suggests that could soon change." Here's the attack: "The document highlights the testing of aggressive negative messaging against Fetterman, who is Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor, including that he is a 'dangerous radical who proudly calls himself a socialist,' 'supports far-left policies like a $34 trillion-dollar government takeover of healthcare,' and has 'spoken at Defund the Police rallies and wants to release convicted felons back onto our streets.'" 3. Sabrina Rodríguez reveals how Democrats are "beginning to take seriously the gains Republicans are making among Latino voters" — in part by pouring in hundreds of thousands on Spanish TV and radio ads in Nevada and Arizona. NUMBER OF THE DAY — $110 MILLION. That's about how much Trump has in cash on hand in his leadership PAC Save America, according to a filing covering its February fundraising. For context: That's more than the DNC ($52.9 million) and RNC ($45.5 million) have on hand combined in their main accounts. (h/t Zach Montellaro)
| | | |   | | | CONGRESS A BUSY WEEK IN THE SENATE — And we're not just talking about the SCOTUS hearings. The chamber is in the middle of a six-week work period, one of the longest we can remember. This week, Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER will try to move almost a dozen nominees and tee up the China competition bill for a bicameral conference to iron out competing House and Senate versions. That's not all: Schumer will also try to move a House-passed bill to end permanent normal trade relations for Russia and Belarus. Senate Democrats are also expected to work with Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) on his concern about a House-passed Russian oil ban so they can get that to Biden's desk as well. MEDIAWATCH ABOUT ASHLEY BIDEN'S DIARY — NYT's Michael Schmidt and Adam Goldman break down how Project Veritas acquired Ashley Biden's diary ahead of the 2020 election. The president's daughter received a phone call from someone who offered to help her retrieve it, the pair reports. But the caller actually worked for Project Veritas, and was looking to confirm the diary was hers: "From a conference room at the group's headquarters in Westchester County, N.Y., surrounded by other top members of the group, the caller was seeking to trick Ms. Biden into confirming the authenticity of the diary, which Project Veritas was about to purchase from two intermediaries for $40,000. "The caller did not identify himself as being affiliated with Project Veritas. By the end of the call, several of the group's operatives who had either listened in, heard recordings of the call or been told of it believed that Ms. Biden had said more than enough to confirm that it was hers. … The new information adds further texture to what is known about an episode that has led to a criminal investigation of Project Veritas by federal prosecutors who have suggested they have evidence that the group was complicit in stealing Ms. Biden's property and in transporting stolen goods across state lines." The response: "Project Veritas — which is suing The New York Times for defamation in an unrelated case — has denied any wrongdoing or knowledge that the belongings had been stolen. It has portrayed itself as a media organization that is being unfairly investigated for simply doing journalism and has assailed the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for their handling of the case." REUTERS' RUSSIA TIES — Employees at Reuters "are privately fuming over their company's ongoing partnership with a Russian state-controlled media organization that has published unverified information about the war in Ukraine," sources tell our Max Tani. "Staff are frustrated and embarrassed by the company's continued partnership with Tass, the wire service owned by the Russian government. "The relationship dates back to 2020, when the news wire first announced a partnership to distribute content from the state-owned news organization. That move raised some eyebrows among staff at Reuters at the time. But it passed largely unnoticed by people outside the company. In the wake of the Ukraine invasion, more scrutiny is being placed on the arrangement, including from Reuters' employees.
| | | | DON'T MISS POLITICO'S INAUGURAL HEALTH CARE SUMMIT ON 3/31: Join POLITICO for a discussion with health care providers, policymakers, federal regulators, patient representatives, and industry leaders to better understand the latest policy and industry solutions in place as we enter year three of the pandemic. Panelists will discuss the latest proposals to overcome long-standing health care challenges in the U.S., such as expanding access to care, affordability, and prescription drug prices. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Chuck Grassley enjoyed some DQ before the SCOTUS hearings get underway. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at progressive activist Adam Green's sunset rooftop party Saturday evening: Dan RuBoss, Alex Sarabia, Afton Cissell, Arianna Jones, Madeline Kracov, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, Michael George, Jen Howard, Amirah Sequeira, Leah Greenberg, Ben Beachy, Shadi Hamid, Dominique Warren, Lacy Crawford, Adam Ruben, Rachel Quierolo, Kia Hamadanchy, Tyler Pager, John Hudson, Josh Dawsey, Siobhan Hughes, Elaine Godfrey, Laura Kelly, Amanda Becker, Mica Soellner, Byron Tau, Robert Draper, Kirsten Powers, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Alex Thompson, Juleanna Glover, Liz Glover and Pascal Confavreux. — The Congressional Management Foundation hosted its "Oscars for Congress" Democracy Awards event Friday, honoring Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.), Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), French Hill (R-Ark.), Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), Anthony Brown (D-Md.), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Mike Burgess (R-Texas) and Mark Takano (D-Calif.) with awards. Kathie Green and Joe Novotny were also honored with lifetime achievement awards. Also SPOTTED: Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and House Clerk Cheryl Johnson. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Benjamin Haas is now principal senior adviser in the Office of the National Cyber Director at the White House. He most recently was senior adviser in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the State Department. STAFFING UP — Elizabeth Lopez-Sandoval is now comms adviser for USAID. She most recently was comms and special projects director for Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), and is a House Democrats, Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton alum. TRANSITIONS — Grassley announced senior staff for his reelect: Matt Dailer as campaign manager (most recently at Numinar Analytics), Michaela Sundermann as comms director (most recently at Pinkston) and Troy Bishop as organizational director (an Iowa campaign veteran). … Andrea Porwoll is now comms director for the House Administration GOP. She most recently was comms director for Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.), and is a Trump DHS, Jim Banks and Heritage Action alum. … Meghan DiMuzio is now senior director of corporate reputation in Anheuser-Busch's D.C. office. She previously was SVP at Forbes Tate Partners and executive director of the Coalition for App Fairness. ENGAGED — G. Michael Brown, who works in international affairs at the Department of Energy, recently proposed to Kristin Repass, operations coordinator at Orbis Operations and a DOE alum, at the Trevi Fountain in Rome, where they had flown in for her dad's birthday. The couple met at a birthday party for a DOE colleague at a karaoke bar in Chinatown. Pic … Another pic WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Shannon Mattingly Nathanson, director of media partnerships for Meta, and Jon Nathanson, founder and chief investment officer at Taste Capital, on Wednesday welcomed Nash Miles Nathanson. Pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: The Dispatch's Jonah Goldberg … CNN's John Berman (5-0) … WaPo's Amy Joyce … PCCC's Adam Green … The Young Turks' Cenk Uygur … POLITICO's Beatrice Jin, Danny Clasen and Yesi Chappell … Melissa Mattoon … Mike Collins … Sayeh Tavangar … Alex Spillius … BCW Global's Brian Ellner … Narrative Strategies DC's Ken Spain … Dan Wilson of Mercury … Andrew Bleeker of Bully Pulpit Interactive … FocusDC's Matt Gerson … Scott Raab … Alex Wilkes … Ross Kyle of Van Scoyoc Associates … Dana Martin … Andrew Brown … Morgan Lewis' Fred Fielding … Lynn Hidalgo … Elizabeth Hines … Sharon Castillo … Katie Vicars … Peter Wish Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Mike Zapler, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Allie Bice, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross.
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