The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

Behind the scenes: The Netanyahu interview

Why McConnell is musing about the future

Up close and personal with the NY-16 ad wars

Dimon’s tough act to follow

THE TOP

Behind the scenes: The Netanyahu interview

Welcome to The Readback, our weekend digest featuring the best of Punchbowl News this week — a quick roundup of all our scoops, analysis and Capitol Hill insight you won’t find anywhere else. We’ve also included a few of our favorite outside reads from the week.

Now for the biggest story this week: As a journalist, we typically get to travel to very interesting places — most of them in the United States. But one foreign locale that I’ve traveled to frequently is Jerusalem.

Congressional leaders — especially members of the House Republican Conference — seek to have close relationships with Israeli prime ministers, most notably Benjamin Netanyahu.

I’ve been covering Congress for nearly 15 years and have traveled here multiple times. I came with former Speaker John Boehner in 2015, just months after Boehner hosted Netanyahu at the Capitol to rally against the Iran nuclear deal. I came here in May 2023 with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy when he became just the second member of Congress in two decades to address the Knesset.

For the last six or so months, I have been trying to interview Netanyahu. Netanyahu is a central figure in the story of the modern-day Congress. And I wanted to sit down with him to discuss the issues of the day and what he plans to tell Congress on July 24, when he comes to D.C.

But after the Oct. 7 massacre and the war in Gaza, Netanyahu has been difficult to find time with.

I was in Israel for other purposes. And at midnight on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, I was working in my hotel room in Tel Aviv when I got a phone call saying that Netanyahu would see me at 1 p.m. the following day in Jerusalem.

I took a cab the next day from Tel Aviv — roughly an hour’s drive. The cab driver, an Israeli, had been to 49 U.S. states, which is way more than most Americans. He did not know that I was going to meet Netanyahu but told me that the Israeli premier was roughly in the ideological middle of the country. This is a hotly debated topic, and I am not vouching for his view.

When I got to Netanyahu’s office, I was dripping sweat. The sport coat I was wearing was not appropriate garb for the 95-degree heat. If you think Capitol security is bad, come to the prime minister’s office in Israel. They kept my backpack and taped up my cell phone cameras when I went to see the prime minister.

But still, the recorder worked. And I was able to spend plenty of time with Netanyahu, possibly the most controversial foreign leader to ever address Congress.

Read my interview here and here. And read the full transcript here.

– Jake Sherman

You can find The Readback in your inbox every Saturday at 8 a.m. And don’t hesitate to reach out to readback@punchbowl.news with feedback. Enjoy The Readback.

Why McConnell is musing about the future

The Senate GOP leadership race is still five months away, so you might assume it’s not necessarily top of mind for Republican senators — especially for Mitch McConnell.

But during Republicans’ closed-door lunch on Tuesday, McConnell caught GOP senators by surprise when he spoke at length about his desire to preserve the power of the conference’s top job, pleading with his colleagues to not use the election replacing him as a vehicle to weaken the post.

This was the top of our AM edition on Wednesday.

We spoke with several Republicans after the private meeting who were surprised — and a bit confused — at the timing of McConnell’s plea.

McConnell gave some insight into his thinking on this, according to our sources in the room.

The longtime GOP leader set up his remarks by saying that several Republicans have come to him privately to ask for his thoughts on the various ideas being floated by his potential successors.

McConnell then went on to note that with the Senate only being in session for a few more weeks before September, there were few opportunities remaining for him to address the conference as a whole.

As we wrote, McConnell’s pitch boiled down to this: Weakening the power of the Senate GOP leader will bring the dysfunction of the House to the Senate, and imposing term limits on the top job will have a negative long-term impact on fundraising.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) spoke up in support of McConnell, but nobody else offered remarks. This is sure to heat up as we get closer to the leadership elections, especially with the candidates advocating for varying degrees of structural changes to the conference McConnell has led for nearly 20 years.

What I’m reading/watching: There was a really heartwarming story this week that I wanted to highlight. Yes, there’s a Phillies nexus here. But I thought it was so cool that Phillies pitcher Ranger Suárez’s family finally got to see him play in person. Suárez has been playing professional baseball in the United States since 2015, but his wife and kids back home in Venezuela have only ever been able to watch him on TV.

Hopefully, they’ll be able to make the trip to the All-Star Game next month to watch the hottest pitcher in baseball on a totally different stage!

— Andrew Desiderio

Up close and personal with the NY-16 ad wars

I love campaign reporting, and I’m lucky enough that Punchbowl News can send me to some of the most interesting districts in the country for on-the-ground insights!

After spending a couple of reporting days in Southern California in May, this week brought me to glorious Westchester County, N.Y., to cover the closely watched Democratic primary between Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and George Latimer.

As we’ve written extensively, this race is now the most expensive House primary of all time. It’s due to the massive influx of spending from AIPAC’s super PAC, which alone has dumped $14 million into the race.

When I settled into my hotel room for the Tuesday night debate between Bowman and Latimer, I had some idea that the ad situation was out of the ordinary. But what I saw during the debate’s lone commercial break truly drove home the point.

Half an hour into the Bowman-Latimer showdown, PIX11 went to break and had time for four ads. The first came from Fairshake, a pro-crypto PAC, that slammed Bowman for allegedly sharing conspiracy theories and praising antisemites.

Immediately following that spot, an ad from the AIPAC super PAC attacked the incumbent for voting against Biden’s debt-limit deal and refusing to compromise.

Bowman’s campaign then ran an ad linking Latimer to MAGA donors and framing the race as “the many versus the money.”

Then, Latimer’s campaign was up with a spot praising the Westchester County executive for protecting abortion rights and delivering “real progressive results.”

And then we were back to the debate.

The pro-Latimer edge was staggering. For voters in the district, this is what they have been seeing on their airwaves for a number of weeks now. And to experience it firsthand, even for a brief moment, hit home at the challenges Bowman is facing.

As we’ve written, Bowman may be the first member of the Squad to fall victim to a more moderate primary challenger. It’s in large part due to the AIPAC PAC spending, sure. But the group wouldn’t have parachuted in with so much cash if Bowman was already uniquely vulnerable due to his incendiary comments following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel.

Plus, Bowman pulled a fire alarm before a House vote last year, voted against two crucial bipartisan bills backed by the administration in recent years and has lost the support of even progressive Jewish group J Street.

It’ll be fascinating to see if the Tuesday primary aligns with polling that places Latimer in the lead.

What I’m watching: I’m loving the latest season of Netflix’s Tour de France documentary. I love cycling, and this behind-the-scenes look at the biggest race in the world shines a light on the drama and danger in the peloton. A must-watch!

— Max Cohen

Dimon’s tough act to follow

This week, I wrote about a race unlike most we cover in Congress or otherwise — the one to succeed JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon as the next face of banking in Washington.

It was a fun one to write! And it was another story inspired by the wild musings of Punchbowl News policy editor Dave Clarke. When I spoke to lobbyists, industry folks, staff and lawmakers for this item, several said the question hadn’t occurred to them — and then proceeded to opine at length.

More than anything, I think that reaction is just another testament to Dimon’s outsized role in the nation’s capital.

There aren’t a lot of executives who command any level of bipartisan admiration, and bank executives in particular have been a punching bag for decades. Whenever Dimon’s testifying on the Hill, he tends to receive more plaudits than grillings. (It’s just that we usually remember the grillings.)

And look, we know that Dimon could be years away from stepping down. A lot can happen to the financial system and economy in that time.

But the best bankers understand their business is a long game. Would-be successors to Dimon’s unique role in Washington have their work cut out for them, and the work should probably start sooner rather than later.

There are two points I didn’t have room to make in my original story.

First: Maybe banks don’t need another Dimon.

It’s not that the industry hasn’t benefited from his role and influence in Washington. But it’s also clear Dimon has inspired bankers to think more aggressively about D.C. in general.

Rather than one banker speaking with one voice for the industry, the next generation of leadership could take on the form of an ensemble cast. That seems to be the hope of lawmakers ranging from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.).

Second: The next voice of finance in Washington may not be a banker.

By market share and otherwise, the banking sector isn’t what it used to be. Nonbank finance firms have been creeping into banks’ core business models for decades. Nonbank lenders like Rocket Mortgage have been beating banks’ mortgage originations for years, actually, though the trend has reversed a bit in the current interest rate environment.

So! The next face of banking may not be a banker. It could be an asset manager, like BlackRock’s Larry Fink or Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman.

Will bankers like that? Probably not. There’s plenty of policy priority overlap across the financial sector. But the particulars of bank regulation mean that the sector sometimes feels at a competitive disadvantage to more nimble competitors.

That’s a story Dimon has told awfully well. It’ll be a tough act to follow.

— Brendan Pedersen