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PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

THE TOP

Since we left you on Friday, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) seem to have abandoned their plans to create an America First Caucus after we reported that the literature describing the group used strikingly nativist language. Greene said that we took “#AngloSaxon out of context to mean racist.” We published the entire document.

This highlights a few dynamics worth considering: 

→ How does the House Republican leadership confront something like this? This isn’t misbehavior that can be reprimanded. These are alarming foundational principles that shocked people in both parties.

→ This is a useful preview of what it could look like with Republicans in the majority — where they hope to be in 2023.

→ At the same time, House Republicans have begun to try to capitalize on Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) saying in Minnesota that protestors “need to be more confrontational” if there’s an acquittal in the Derek Chauvin murder trial. Greene — who lost her committee assignments over her own previous use of violence rhetoric — said she’ll introduce a resolution to expel Waters from Congress. On Sunday evening, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) declared he’d “bring action” this week against Waters. If we had to guess, McCarthy will back a resolution to censure Waters.

This is hardly the first time that Waters, 82, has gotten in trouble over her rhetoric. She and Rep. Jim Jordan got into it last week as the Ohio Republican jousted with Dr. Anthony Fauci during a hearing. “You need to respect the chair and shut your mouth!” Waters yelled at Jordan. During the Donald Trump years, Waters became “Auntie Maxine” for a whole generation of younger Democrats due her willingness to go after the former president. In June 2018, Waters urged Democrats to harass Trump administration officials wherever they saw them. Trump responded by calling her an “extraordinarily low IQ person.” Waters also made headlines in the 1990s battling with Republicans on the floor and in committee.

An expulsion resolution will not pass the House, and Republicans would need to flip three Democrats to censure Waters — and that seems very unlikely. It wouldn’t surprise us one iota if some Democrats are interested in censuring Greene after the America First Caucus incident. Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) has been pushing a resolution to expel Greene for a couple months, and dozens of Democrats have signed on, although that’s far, far short of two-thirds of the House that would be needed to boot her from Congress.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

What to expect this week

These members are going to the White House today to meet with President Joe Biden on his infrastructure plan:

→ House: Reps. Kay Granger (R-Texas), Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) and Norma Torres (D-Calif.).

→ Senate: Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Angus King (I-Maine), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.)

Know the participants: Granger is the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee. All five senators are former governors, as is Crist. Cleaver, Torres and Gimenez are former mayors.

This is all part of the process — these meetings, et cetera — but this shouldn’t paper over the fact that the vast majority of Republicans won’t vote to raise corporate taxes. 

In the Senate this week: The Senate leadership anticipates that they will finish the Covid-19 Hate Crimes bill. Monday: The Senate will vote to cut off debate on Lisa Monaco’s nomination to be No. 2 at DOJ. Tuesday: Monaco will be confirmed, and the Senate will vote on Gary Gensler to be an SEC commissioner for six years. The Biden administration will also brief senators about Afghanistan (Senate Foreign Relations Committee gets briefed today, the full Senate on Tuesday.)

WHAT DO THEY WANT?

What’s next for Karen Bass?

This is our second installment in a series that we’ve dubbed “What do they want?” Today, we’re focusing on Democratic Rep. Karen Bass of California. 

The 67-year-old Bass, now in her sixth term in the House, has been mentioned for just about every job we can think of during the past year: vice president, Cabinet, senator and speaker of the House among them.

President Joe Biden did not tap Bass for VP, nor was she nominated to a Cabinet post. She wasn’t chosen to replace Kamala Harris in the Senate either, although that possibility still remains if Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein doesn’t finish her term. In the House, Bass is one of a handful of Democrats who could rise to the speaker’s chair if and when it comes open.

Bass is playing a lead role in trying to push police reform legislation through Congress. It’s a difficult role she took on last year following George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police. And it’s grown even more sensitive as former Officer Derek Chauvin — charged with killing Floyd — is on trial. Bass has been talking informally to Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and other GOP lawmakers about the police reform package as the Chauvin trial unfolds, although she’s very concerned that a “not guilty” verdict could ignite another round of angry protests. Bass will be in Minneapolis today as closing arguments begin.

Yet despite her increased visibility during the last year, Bass says little about her own future. The one-time community organizer, physician’s assistant and statehouse speaker in Sacramento downplays any speculation about what’s next, but she doesn’t shut the door on any options either.

“I want the ‘George Floyd Justice in Policing’ bill to pass,” Bass said in an interview last week. “I want the key pieces of legislation that I’ve been working on regarding women in the criminal justice system and the child welfare system. I want to do that from wherever it is possible to do that from. That is my goal.”

Bass added: “In the last year, I have been proposed for everything under the sun. I am honored by all of that. And I am willing to step up and serve the best way that will allow me to get the policies finished. The jobs and all of that stuff — it’s not my primary focus.” (For what it’s worth, every ambitious pol says this.)

The two big issues for House Democrats are whether they’ll still be in the majority in 2023, and what happens to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), although not necessarily in that order. Pelosi has signaled this is her last term, but she hasn’t made it official yet, and no one is really doing anything until she does. 

If Pelosi does leave and Democrats are still in the majority, then the next question is what happens to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.). Like Pelosi, both Hoyer and Clyburn are in their 80s, and it’s not clear they could succeed her. And don’t bother asking, because they’ll just shut you down (we did.)

If you rule out Hoyer and Clyburn, then you get down to the next tier of House Democrats who could get the job. This includes Bass, Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.),  Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Pete Aguilar (Calif.), and Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), among others. As a white male, Schiff would realistically face a difficult time being tapped to lead a caucus that’s more than half women and minority lawmakers. The others face their own individual challenges getting there, although Bass has shown in the past she can win a leadership race.

Bass’ friends and colleagues believe she could be speaker, senator or anything else she wants, although in interviews with more than a dozen House Democrats, none has ever heard her talk about those ambitions. “She is tough as nails but she is so sweet in her presentation of the nails, before they know it, they’re nailed up someplace,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) joked of Bass, a close friend. 

“Karen Bass could be speaker of any house, she’s very skillful,” added Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.). “She communicates very effectively. She uses what I call ‘plain English.’ She knows when to fight and when to compromise.”

The California Democrat serves on the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees, where she chairs the subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights. A former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Bass is a legislator’s legislator. Watch her work a roomful of lawmakers from both parties — especially Republicans — and you’ll see it. Bass was the first Black woman to serve as speaker of any state legislature when she became speaker of the California state assembly in 2008. Talk to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other Republicans about Bass, and you’ll hear nothing but praise.

As her House profile has risen, Bass’ fundraising has also increased dramatically. Part of this is Democrats being in the majority, but it’s also because Bass’ star is rising too. For instance, Bass’ reelection campaign raised slightly more than $882,000 in the 2017-18 cycle, according to Open Secrets. In 2019-20, that total soared to $2.2 million. Bass’ leadership PAC raised another $650,000-plus. 

“I’m not running for Senate. I’m not running for speaker,” Bass said. “I just want to do my job and get the legislation across the finish job, and that’s the honest truth.”

MOMENTS

9:25 a.m.: VP Kamala Harris will travel to North Carolina.

9:50 a.m.: President Joe Biden will receive his daily intelligence briefing.

10:30 a.m.: The Covid-19 response team will brief reporters.

11:50 a.m.: Harris will speak about the American Jobs Plan at Guilford Technical Community College.

12:15 p.m.: Jen Psaki will brief reporters.

1:15 p.m.: Biden will host members of Congress to talk about the American Jobs Plan.

2:30 p.m.: Harris will tour Thomas Built Buses — an electronic bus manufacturer.

5:05 p.m.: Harris will fly back to D.C.

CLIP FILE

AP

→ AP/Moscow: “Jailed Kremlin critic Navalny to be moved to a hospital”: “The Russian state penitentiary service said Monday a decision has been made to transfer imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in the third week of a hunger strike, to a hospital.

“The announcement comes two days after Navalny’s physician said his health was deteriorating rapidly and the 44-year-old Kremlin critic could be on the verge of death.

"The state prison service, FSIN, said in a statement that Navalny would be transferred to a hospital for convicts located in another penal colony in Vladimir, a city 180 kilometers (110 miles) east of Moscow. According to the statement, Navalny’s condition is deemed “satisfactory” and he has agreed to take vitamin supplements.”

→ “Attorneys at Chauvin trial in Floyd death make final pitch,” by Amy Forliti and Tammy Webber in Minneapolis

→ “Half of US adults have received at least one COVID-19 shot,” by Hope Yen and Jonathan Mattise

NYT

→ “Ray McGuire Wants to Show He’s Not Just the Wall Street Candidate,” by Jeffery Mays: “On Sunday, Representative Gregory W. Meeks, the chairman of the Queens Democratic Party, endorsed Mr. McGuire, in what some of his campaign aides are calling their ‘Clyburn moment,’ a reference to an endorsement given by Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina to Joseph R. Biden; the endorsement is widely considered to have helped save Mr. Biden’s presidential campaign after his poor performances in two early primaries.

→ “Russia Expels 20 Czech Diplomats as Tensions Escalate,” by Michael Schwirtz

→ “In Indianapolis Shooting, a Red Flag That Never Flew,” by Campbell Robertson, Ali Watkins and Andrés R. Martínez in Indianapolis

WaPo

→ “On infrastructure, lofty ideas are colliding with congressional reality,” by Seung Min Kim, Marianna Sotomayor, Jeff Stein and Tony Romm

→ “Congress faces renewed pressure on gun control after Indiana’s red-flag law fails to thwart FedEx shooter,” by Paulina Firozi, Lisa Rein and Hannah Knowles

→ “‘Ripe for fraud’: Coronavirus vaccination cards support burgeoning scams,” by Dan Diamond

→ “The union’s defeat at Amazon is shaking up the labor movement and exposing a rift between organizers,” by Eli Rosenberg and Jay Greene

WSJ

→ “South by Southwest Stake Is Sold to Owner of Rolling Stone in Effort to Keep Festival Alive,” by Lukas I. Alpert

→ “Ohio Politics Is Changing Rapidly Beneath a Stable Surface,” by Dante Chinni 

JOB MOVES

→ Joe Novotny, the longtime reading clerk in the House, is joining Husch Blackwell Strategies as a principal. Novotny is a longtime Hill figure — he’s been working in the House for 30 years. If you’ve watched Congress at all over the last decade, you know Joe.

Here’s Novotny reading the impeachment articles.

BTW: Check out Speaker Nancy Pelosi honoring Novotny on the floor. 

→ Russ Anello will take over as Democratic staff director on the House Oversight and Reform Committee under Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). He replaces Dave Rapallo, who has taken a position with Georgetown University Law Center. Anello is currently the deputy staff director and chief counsel for House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn’s (D-S.C.) Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. Anello was previously chief oversight counsel on the Oversight panel, and he served in the White House Counsel’s office during the Obama administration.

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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images