The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

It’s debate night. What does that mean for the rest of the ticket?

Turmoil roils the House Freedom Caucus

Top Republicans clash over data privacy bill as committee markup looms

McCaul seeks waiver for another term atop Foreign Affairs

THE TOP

It’s debate night. What does that mean for the rest of the ticket?

Happy Thursday morning.

The sprint for the White House kicks off tonight in Atlanta as President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump face off for their first debate. Check out CNN’s Phil Mattingly explaining how this debate will work.

It’s also the start of a new phase in the 2024 presidential contest that will help shape the down-ballot races for key Senate and House seats.

Candidates and incumbents running in competitive races will look at tonight’s Biden-Trump debate as a stage-setting exercise for their own elections.

After all, that was the message Senate GOP leaders delivered to Trump when he met with them earlier this month. For Republicans, the decision has been made — they’ll be joined at the hip with Trump. This could help them flip Senate seats in Montana and Ohio but may be a liability elsewhere.

For Democrats, the showdown in Atlanta will help begin to decide whether Biden will be a benefit or a drag on their own campaigns. Biden has been stuck in the low 40s in approval ratings — or even lower — for most of his presidency, and he’s trailing Trump in swing-state polls.

But the president has lots of money, some key legislative accomplishments and a huge campaign infrastructure, all of which benefits Democrats nationally. Check out this new Biden ad in Wisconsin, which says Trump “failed us” and Biden reopened the country after Covid.

“Trump talks and talks, Joe Biden gets sh*t done,” the ad says

The Republican strategy carries some major risks too. Trump is nothing if not unpredictable. He’s practically guaranteed to say something that blows up the party’s messaging on key issues. If it doesn’t happen tonight, it’ll happen sometime over the next 130 days.

Trump’s legal problems will also have a big impact on the fall campaign. The Supreme Court is poised to rule on whether Trump is immune from prosecution over his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Trump faces sentencing in the New York City hush-money case on July 11.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune’s advice for Trump tonight — “Don’t take the bait” — is worth highlighting here, especially in the context of the Senate races the GOP is trying to win this year. Senate Republicans in particular have seen their prospects undermined by Trump in recent cycles, so they want to avoid a repeat of that in November.

“In many ways, you kind of want to give President Biden as much rope as possible. Because I don’t think that probably is going to play well for him,” Thune said. “If [Trump] shows strength and leadership but maintains a calm demeanor and lets Biden go — I think it’ll go well for him.”

Among Trump’s top GOP allies on the Hill, there’s an effort to lower expectations for the former president heading into the debate.

“President Trump has basically said, you know, he expects Biden to do a good job,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) told us. “I anticipate [Biden’s] going to come in ready to go. But at the end of the day, the agenda sucks.”

Democrats are banking on Biden’s experience in high-pressure situations to carry him tonight. Biden has been spending all week doing debate prep at Camp David.

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), the No. 3 House Democrat, noted that Biden has “been on the debate stage longer than I’ve been alive.”

“[Biden] knows what he’s doing and he’ll accurately call Donald Trump an extremist,” Aguilar added.

On the ground in ATL: This won’t be your typical presidential TV debate. It’s being held months earlier than in previous White House races; Biden and Trump aren’t even their parties’ formal nominees yet. It also features a rematch between a former president and the incumbent who defeated him. That hasn’t occurred in more than 130 years.

There’s no live audience for the debate, which will be held at CNN’s Atlanta studios. That means much of the fanfare surrounding the event will take place off-site.

Former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, are hosting a fundraiser and watch party tonight. According to the invitation, the event will feature “post-debate remarks” from Trump, but it’s unclear if he’ll attend in person. RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and Co-Chair Lara Trump are named as co-hosts.

The “special guests” listed on the invitation are a who’s-who of potential Trump running mates, including Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) and Donalds, as well as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Other surrogates like Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), who has emerged as a key Trump ally and participated in a debate prep session with the former president, will be in Atlanta too.

The Biden campaign has set up hundreds of debate watch parties, and the president and First Lady Jill Biden will drop by one in Atlanta afterward. The Bidens then head to North Carolina for a post-debate rally on Friday.

Sucking up the oxygen: Tens of millions of Americans will watch the debate tonight. But none of the House and Senate congressional campaign committees told us they had any special fundraising plans for debate night.

— Andrew Desiderio and Max Cohen

Join us today! Today at 9 a.m. ET, we’re discussing news of the day and bipartisanship in the 118th Congress with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.). There’s still time to RSVP and join us on the livestream.

INSIDE THE HOUSE GOP

Turmoil roils the House Freedom Caucus

News: House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-Va.) has pushed aside the executive director of the hardline group’s political apparatus, according to multiple sources familiar with the move.

Good has ousted Ray Yonkura from running the House Freedom Fund and House Freedom Action. Yonkura is a longtime ally of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus and its former chair.

HFF and House Freedom Action, its related group, have raised just $6.7 million this cycle. Last cycle, the groups raised $18 million. In 2020, the pair of groups raised roughly $20 million.

This is yet another data point showing the tumult in the HFC.

During an HFC meeting Tuesday night, lawmakers took turns beating up on Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) for endorsing Good’s primary opponent. Davidson posted a series of tweets on X defending his decision, noting former President Donald Trump backed Good’s GOP primary opponent, Virginia state Sen. John McGuire.

Jordan also griped about the state of the group’s political apparatus. Jordan questioned how the HFC’s political arm would protect Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), its former chair, with such a paltry fundraising operation.

Several sources say that Good has put the brakes on using Jordan’s name to raise money. Jordan is one of the best fundraisers in Congress, with $9.9 million in his own reelection account. Good raised $1.1 million this cycle.

Good also warned members about constant leaks to the press regarding the group’s internal affairs. During the closed-door session, Good talked extensively about the state of his primary race against McGuire.

As of now, McGuire is leading by 375 votes and has claimed victory. Good is planning to request a recount.

After the meeting, Good didn’t want to discuss any of the problems in the HFC.

“I don’t have any comment about that,” Good said while walking away with Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.).

When asked about not raising enough money, Biggs responded, “We’re not going to talk about that.”

— Jake Sherman and Mica Soellner

THE AGENDA

Top Republicans clash over data privacy bill as committee markup looms

A heated and highly unusual turf war has broken out between the House Republican leadership and Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) over her bipartisan data privacy bill, which is scheduled for a markup today.

Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise held a call with Energy and Commerce Republicans over the American Privacy Rights Act Wednesday night. CMR wasn’t part of that call. This is an extraordinary step to take place the night before a committee markup.

The data privacy package — a bipartisan agreement with Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) that CMR considers a signature piece of legislation during her final year in Congress — is facing some serious headwinds. Members of her committee are wary of the bill. While privacy advocates and conservatives like the proposal, GOP leaders are very skeptical that it can pass either in committee or on the House floor.

The Republican leadership, Scalise in particular, had been skirmishing privately with CMR for days over the issue, but now the feud is out in the open.

Scalise told committee members Wednesday night that his office had offered to work with CMR for months but the offer was refused. Scalise said his problem wasn’t with passing data privacy legislation, but rather it’s with this bill. Business groups and tech companies have expressed strong opposition to the proposal.

On Tuesday, GOP leaders told CMR to work on solving some of the open issues in the privacy bill before she scheduled a markup. Just hours after that, CMR announced the markup would take place Thursday morning.

This came after CMR held her own meeting with Energy and Commerce Republicans. During that session, CMR said the markup was only “the next step in the legislative process,” according to a source close to the situation. CMR believes it’s the right time to move forward on the high-profile issue.

APRA would create new federal privacy standards, including on how information is collected, used and retained by tech companies, as well as the amount of control consumers’ control can have over that data. There’s a private right of action that lets individuals sue “covered entities” that misuse their personal data without consent.

Energy and Commerce is also scheduled to mark up the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bipartisan proposal to establish new regulations for protecting children online.

— John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

McCaul seeks waiver for another term atop Foreign Affairs

News: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) is seeking a waiver to serve another two years as the top Republican on the panel.

As we reported last week, a cadre of Foreign Affairs Republicans are jockeying to take control of the committee next Congress. But McCaul told us this week that he doesn’t plan on going anywhere.

The Texas Republican has played an influential role as chair this Congress in shepherding the massive foreign aid supplemental through the House. And McCaul has sparred with the far-right of the conference on whether to provide assistance to Ukraine.

“I’ve built up experience and the relationships with foreign leaders, so different from other committees, and I think with the world on fire, it’s not the right time to change horses,” McCaul said.

McCaul added that he would be “a strong ally” for former President Donald Trump if he wins in November.

McCaul has an interesting argument for a waiver that may not hold water among the Steering Committee. “It’s my third term, but two years as ranking member doesn’t really equate to chairman,” McCaul said.

This has not been a persuasive argument for the Steering Committee in the past. House GOP rules say explicitly that “[n]o individual shall serve more than three consecutive terms as chair or Ranking Member.” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who’s enjoyed an extended stint atop the House Education and Workforce Committee, is an exception to this. Foxx, though, is giving up the post after this year.

In any event, McCaul’s announcement isn’t ideal news for Reps. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Brian Mast (R-Fla.) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), all of whom could be directly impacted by the move.

— Max Cohen

ABOUT LAST NIGHT…

Stefanik’s big birthday. Plus, the press rolls to 9-4 win in congressional softball game

Stefanik’s 40th. House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik had her 40th birthday Wednesday night at Pearl Street Warehouse. In attendance for the fundraiser: husband Matt Manda and son Sam, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) and 130 other lawmakers. Trump-world figures Kellyanne Conway, Boris Epshteyn, Matt and Mercedes Schlapp and Cara Mason. Plus, former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino and CLF President Dan Conston.

Stefanik’s birthday is actually July 2, but with the House out next week, the big party came early.

The game. The press team won the 2024 Congressional Women’s Softball Game 9-4 over the lawmakers Wednesday evening.

The media squad, affectionately dubbed the Bad News Babes, surged to a 9-0 lead. Despite a late rally from the Congress team and a four-run sixth inning, the press team held on for the victory.

Top lawmakers, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi all were in attendance.

The charity event raised more than $600,000 for the Young Survival Coalition, which supports survivors of breast cancer.

Thanks to an increased U.S. Capitol Police presence, there were no on-field protests on Wednesday.

— Max Cohen

MOMENTS

CLIPS