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February 25, 2022
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 PRESENTED BY BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN  THE TOP Happy Friday morning. President Joe Biden has decided on his nominee for the Supreme Court to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, according to a source familiar with the situation. CNN was first to report this. The White House wants to announce the nominee today, but would hold off if the situation in Ukraine intervenes. It makes strategic sense for the Biden administration to make this announcement today. He wouldn’t get much bounce over the weekend. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are both in town today — Harris canceled a trip to Louisiana. It would give Biden some good news in an otherwise gloomy week. It could theoretically help ensure a few days of decent press for the administration. Biden has interviewed Ketanji Brown Jackson, who serves on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; J. Michelle Childs, a federal judge in South Carolina backed strongly by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn; and Leandra Kruger, who sits on the California Supreme Court, among others. Biden has promised to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court for the first time in U.S. history. Ukrainian soldiers take up defensive positions in Kyiv ABC News’ Patrick Reevell reports this morning:  Reevell also reports gunfire is audible in Kyiv. The government of Ukraine reported that Russian special forces have entered Kyiv. Government officials told residents to stay in their homes and make Molotov cocktails to use against the Russians. Polina Ivanova, an FT reporter, described “Shooting in the centre, Russian troops entering Kyiv from the north.” Neil Hauer, another reporter, said “Russian special forces have penetrated the Ukrainian capital, in central Kyiv now.” There are numerous reports of fighting in the government sector of Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has become the symbol of Ukrainian resistance, continued to lobby foreign leaders for more help from Kyiv, where he has vowed to remain. The Russians have barred British aircraft from overflying their airspace, which is a huge deal for international travel. This would most likely require aircraft to travel west, which could necessitate a stop in Anchorage. The Champions League – the major European soccer championship – will no longer play its final in St. Petersburg, and instead is relocating to Paris. The White House, meanwhile, is continuing its frantic round of multilateral consultations and discussions over the Ukraine crisis. Biden will meet with “fellow NATO Heads of State and Government in an extraordinary virtual summit to discuss the security situation in and around Ukraine,” the White House announced. That session will take place at 9 a.m. Vice President Kamala Harris will take part in an 8 a.m. meeting of the “Bucharest Nine” members of NATO’s eastern flank. This session will include leaders from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, as well as the European Union. Menendez’s presses for more Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is driving a ton of conversation over policies he believes the Biden administration should adopt when it comes to Ukraine. Menendez has some sway as the top Democrat on the most important foreign policy committee in Congress. → Menendez said Thursday night that the Biden administration should grant Temporary Protective Status to Ukrainian immigrants, allowing them to remain in the United States rather than being forced to return to their war-torn country. → After Biden announced a new sanctions package earlier Thursday, the New Jersey Democrat signaled it wasn’t enough. Menendez said he believed the United States should sanction the Russian Central Bank, sanction Putin personally and then pushed to remove Russia from the SWIFT financial system. On sanctions, Menendez is increasingly in line with his top Republican counterpart, Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho). They weren’t able to overcome White House opposition to a broad sanctions package before the Russian invasion, but it all may be different now. Biden has had a bit of a reprieve this week, able to conduct foreign policy with Congress out of town. Five-hundred-thirty-five pundits – err, lawmakers – will be back in town next week and they’ll be popping off on everything the president does, with reporters eager to lap up every word. 👀 Check your inboxes on Sunday: We’ll be hitting you on Sunday afternoon with The Sunday Edition, a special edition with bonus coverage ahead of a busy week in Washington. See you Sunday! PRESENTED BY PHRMA Washington is talking about price setting of medicines, but it won’t stop insurers from shifting costs to patients. And it will risk access to medicines and future cures. Instead, let’s cap patient out-of-pocket costs, stop middlemen from pocketing discounts and make insurance work for you. Let’s protect patients. It’s the right choice. FRONTS   STRATEGY MEMO Biden’s polling firm: Declare a win over Covid and move on Here’s a memo that has been making the rounds among House and Senate Democratic campaigns and consultants for the last week or so. And the reason this memo caught our eye is that it’s from Impact Research, a well-known Democratic firm that also happens to be where President Joe Biden’s pollster works. John Anzalone is the founder of Impact Research, as well as being pollster for Biden’s victorious 2020 presidential campaign. We’ll note right now that the memo isn’t his, and it’s not the White House’s position. But Molly Murphy and Bryan Stryker, who wrote the Feb. 15 memo – we’ve been sitting on it for a few days because of the Ukraine crisis, sorry – certainly have tapped into the mood of Democratic campaign pros, who see disaster in November unless the party figures out a better message on Covid. Here’s the opening paragraph of their memo:
And here are the bullet points:
Biden administration sources have told us they plan to talk about turning a corner on Covid during the State of the Union, so clearly they share some of these thoughts. This debate in Democratic campaign circles comes as blue state governors are relaxing Covid restrictions. The CDC is preparing to ease indoor mask guidelines today, according to the AP. PRESENTED BY PHRMA  Government price setting threatens patient access to medicines and innovation. Instead, let’s cap out-of-pocket costs and stop middlemen from pocketing discounts. NEWS Congressional union hearing next week The House Administration Committee will hold a hearing on congressional aides unionizing next Wednesday at 2 p.m., sources tell us. This will mark the first public effort in the House to allow aides to organize and collectively bargain. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the committee’s chair, recently asked the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to determine whether there needs to be further clarification of a 1996 regulation that allowed collective bargaining on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, OCWR wrote back and said: “The Board has conducted a thorough review and now unanimously endorses the regulations adopted by the 1996 Board and urges Congress to approve these regulations.”
The House would have to pass a resolution allowing aides to organize. Since Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed the effort, we have to imagine this will come in the coming weeks. MOMENTS 8 a.m.: Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with the leaders of the Bucharest Nine: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and the EU. 9 a.m.: President Joe Biden will meet with NATO heads of state. 11:30 a.m.: Biden will receive his daily intelligence briefing. 2 p.m.: Jen Psaki will brief. CLIP FILE NYT → “U.S. Officials Repeatedly Urged China to Help Avert War in Ukraine,” by Edward Wong → News Analysis: “Beyond Ukraine, the Target Is What Putin Calls America’s ‘Empire of Lies,’” by Roger Cohen in Paris → “Cable News Covers Ukraine With On-the-Ground Reporting and In-Studio Rhetoric,” by Michael Grynbaum and Katie Rogers → “The White House is mulling a pandemic strategy for ‘the next normal,’” by Sheryl Gay Stolberg WaPo → “Rockets strike Kyiv amid invasion, Ukraine says; U.S. fears capital could soon fall,” by Amy Cheng, Dan Lamothe, Andrew Jeong, David L. Stern and Chico Harlan → “At the moment he’s prepared for his whole career, Biden faces the limits of his power,” by Matt Viser WSJ → “U.S. Banks Are Prepared for Russia Sanctions, but Concerns Grow About Potential Hacks,” by Menggi Sun and Richard Vanderford Bloomberg → “‘The Sky’s the Limit’: Food Inflation to Worsen on Ukraine,” by Elizabeth Elkin and Allison Nicole Smith AP → “Putin waves nuclear sword in confrontation with the West,” by John Daniszewski in Warsaw, Poland Politico → “Congress wants to go further for Ukraine. It may be too late.” by Andrew Desiderio, Connor O’Brien and Jennifer Scholtes USA Today → “Over 5 million children have lost a parent or caregiver to COVID, study finds,” by Jeanine Santucci and Celina Tebor LA Times → “Ukraine’s Jews seek refuge in synagogues as Russia invades,” by Leila Miller PRESENTED BY PHRMA Washington is talking about price setting of medicines, but it won’t stop insurers from shifting costs to patients. And it will risk access to medicines and future cures. Instead, let’s cap patient out-of-pocket costs, stop middlemen from pocketing discounts and make insurance work for you. Let’s protect patients. It’s the right choice.  Enjoying Punchbowl News AM?  Subscribe 10 friends with your unique link (below) and get a Punchbowl News hat! Your referral link is: Or share via You currently have: 0 referrals Editorial photos provided by Getty Images     |
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