The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

Sneak in a trip to Europe with this one weird trick

Behind the scenes of the Netanyahu speech

A tale from the trail in SoCal

To nuke or not to nuke — the filibuster edition

THE TOP

Welcome to The Readback, our new weekend digest featuring the best of Punchbowl News — a quick roundup of all our scoops, analysis and Capitol Hill insight you won’t find anywhere else. We’re also sharing the articles, long reads, music, shows and podcasts that captured our attention this week.

Every Saturday morning, we’ll take you beyond the bylines with reporters detailing firsthand how a story came together and why. Our reporters will open their notebooks, giving you the story behind the story, including quotes and anecdotes that didn’t make it into our original copy.

For our inaugural edition, Brendan gives us a unique peek into what it’s really like to travel overseas with a top administration official. Max sends us a SoCal debrief from his West Coast reporting on the battle for the House. Jake delves into the politics behind Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s expected speech to Congress. And Andrew takes us into the effort to save the filibuster.

You can find The Readback in your inbox every Saturday at 10 a.m. And don’t hesitate to reach out to readback@punchbowl.news with feedback. If this isn’t for you, you can unsubscribe from The Readback at the bottom of this newsletter.

Enjoy The Readback.

— Heather Caygle

Sneak in a trip to Europe with this one weird trick

I’m just back from jaunting around Europe with the Treasury Department. It wasn’t a vacation — although I’ll admit the amount of sauerkraut, pasta and gelato I consumed would suggest otherwise.

Why I did it: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen split her time last week between Germany and Italy for a series of meetings with European bankers and other international counterparts. That travel was pegged to this year’s G7 Finance meeting.

And as far as Congress is concerned, this G7 meeting was a big one. Yellen’s top priority was pitching our allies on a plan to “harness” frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine. Congress gave U.S. authorities the power to seize and effectively liquidate those assets with the REPO Act, but European leaders would prefer something less dramatic.

Before covering the Hill, I used to be a financial regulatory reporter. Still, this trip was a good reminder that even when legislating is tough, what follows is often a lot tougher. For Yellen, that meant a lot of speeches, closed-door meetings and “bilat” photo sessions with fellow finance ministers.

In the case of the REPO Act, getting international buy-in from allies is kind of the whole ball game as long as the European financial system holds the majority of Russia’s frozen sovereign assets. So the stakes of these meetings were huge.

One last thing: Working on the Hill — with nearly unfettered access to lawmakers — means sometimes forgetting how hard it can be to find and interview other top officials across the government. The Treasury Department is no exception.

But being along for the G7 trip provided a lot of facetime with Yellen, other senior Treasury officials and, of course, the wickedly talented Treasury press corps. I got to write stories and even a couple of scoops I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. Plus, the burrata didn’t hurt.

What I’m reading: On our flight back from Italy, I greatly enjoyed this long read from the Wall Street Journal via Christopher Matthews — a dive into how the Rockefeller family has used its fortune and philanthropy to try forcing climate-friendly changes at Exxon Mobile.

Also, I have to shout out this piece from Politico’s Victoria Guida about why the White House doesn’t really prioritize management capabilities when it comes to regulatory nominations and the personnel vetting process. There aren’t a lot of regulatory features out there that blow my hair back, but this was one.

— Brendan Pedersen

Behind the scenes of the Netanyahu speech

Like most Republican politicians, Speaker Mike Johnson has sought to keep a close relationship with the Israeli government in Jerusalem — and specifically Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

At the beginning of his term, the government invited Johnson to visit Israel. This is a trip he hasn’t been able to make due to the war and the security protocols Johnson needs in place to pay a visit to the Jewish State.

So it was no surprise that Johnson invited Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress. But there were plenty of people around Washington — both in the Capitol and in the diplomatic community — who were surprised that Bibi accepted the invitation.

There are lots of theories why Netanyahu should take a pass for now, and we’ve heard them all. By speaking to Congress amid disagreements with the Biden administration, Netanyahu risks inflaming the White House. He’s done that before, back in 2015 when he railed against the Iran nuclear deal that then-President Barack Obama was trying to cut. Furthermore, it’s a bit risky to leave Israel during the war for a 12-hour flight to Washington, some say.

But Johnson and Netanyahu have struck up a friendship of sorts. Sources close to both men say that they speak on the phone as if they are long-time friends.

We caught up with Johnson this week. The stated purpose of the call was to hear Johnson’s views on budget reconciliation should Republicans take full control of Washington in 2025. But at the end, we snuck in a question about the Netanyahu visit.

Johnson seemed more than happy to tell us that he had delivered dates to Netanyahu for a possible speech and expected the address before the August recess. We previewed this in previous reporting based on sources close to the planning.

By the way: When Netanyahu eventually comes to D.C., it will be his fourth speech to Congress. His first was in 1996 under President Bill Clinton. The second was in 2011, when Nancy Pelosi was speaker. The third was in 2015, the aforementioned speech when Obama was president.

What I’m listening to: I’m listening a lot to the Connecticut-based jam band Goose. Three of the members of the group have an acoustic band called Orebolo. Their new album comes out June 7 and I love their version of “Rockdale.”

— Jake Sherman

A tale from the trail in SoCal

I’ve spent the past week swinging through Southern California, talking to as many candidates running in competitive House races as I can. While on the surface, California’s heavy Democratic lean doesn’t make it the obvious contender to be a political battleground, the Golden State is going to be crucial in the fight for control of the House.

There are five House Republicans in California who are among the most vulnerable in the country because they represent seats that President Joe Biden won in 2020. In an era of declining split-ticket voting, these Biden-House GOP districts are fascinating to me.

Here is a behind-the-scenes bonus dispatch from my campaign reporting that I wanted to share with you, the valuable Readback community. Enjoy!

Bashing Biden: One of my stories this week focused on how the endangered Republicans are tying themselves closely to former President Donald Trump. Even though these GOP members are in Biden seats, they’re making the bet that the politically weakened incumbent is bleeding votes in their districts.

A great example of this dynamic came when I attended a Memorial Day service in Santa Clarita, Calif., where Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) addressed the crowd. Garcia, a retired Navy pilot, represents a seat Biden won by 12 points in 2020. But Garcia told us he’s not worried at all.

“The real challenge Democrats have is that there’s not a new Biden supporter anywhere,” Garcia said. “Find me one person that supports Biden now that didn’t support him in 2020.”

In his Memorial Day address, Garcia leaned into a national security message and slammed isolationism.

“Evil relies upon the population to become appeasers who snake-charm and delude themselves into thinking that appeasement will somehow achieve peace,” Garcia said.

This jumped out to me. Given the raging debate on the Hill between establishment Republicans who support Ukraine and the MAGA wing, I prepared for Garcia to hit his own party. But I was wrong.

“I would submit that our current president is an appeaser and we are weaker because of that,” Garcia said.

What I’m reading: I love reading about internal newsroom dynamics. So when the Washington Post divulged that it had the Justice Samuel Alito flag story back in 2021 — but passed — I was hooked.

— Max Cohen

To nuke or not to nuke — the filibuster edition

You might have thought the debate over scrapping the Senate’s filibuster was effectively over when Democrats couldn’t muster the votes a few years ago to kill it. Plus, Republicans voted en bloc to prevent Democrats from going nuclear.

But it’s very much a live issue. Two of Democrats’ most ardent filibuster defenders are retiring at the end of this Congress. Plus, Republicans are favored to take control of the chamber and could be under a ton of pressure from former President Donald Trump to scrap the 60-vote threshold.

So we posed the question to top Republicans: Can you guarantee that a GOP Senate majority won’t move to gut the filibuster, even if doing so would help advance their — and Trump’s — agenda?

Clip and save: The overwhelming response we got was that Republicans would hold the line regardless of the inevitable pressure from Trump. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) even said he’d resign from the Senate if his party gets rid of the filibuster.

But several Democrats we spoke with — themselves vehemently opposed to the filibuster — suspect that Republicans would move to gut the 60-vote threshold the moment it benefits them. A GOP trifecta — control of the House, Senate and White House — could be the impetus for such a move, they argue.

We asked Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) for his thoughts as well. Manchin is one of the aforementioned filibuster defenders who’s retiring. Republicans heaped praise on Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) for voting to preserve it.

Manchin very strongly hinted to us that he’d trust Republicans more than Democrats when it comes to keeping the filibuster intact: “They did that before — they held strong. So I have more faith that they would.”

What I’m reading: A recess week means lawmakers are heading overseas on CODELs. A bipartisan group of House lawmakers — and a separate cross-party group of senators — traveled to Taiwan this week to show support for the island nation after a new president was inaugurated. Our friends over at NBC, Ryan Nobles and Frank Thorp, traveled to Taipei and filed a good dispatch.

— Andrew Desiderio