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PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

THE TOP

Today is an historic day for House Republicans. 

Yes, we get it: Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) is being booted from her post as House Republican Conference chair, a position whose portfolio is so amorphous that some argue it shouldn’t even exist. 

Yes, we get it: Her unceremonious ouster will have little real impact on public policy, since House Republicans are in the minority.

Yes, we get it: The nation is recovering from a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, and there are far more important things than Cheney’s political future.

But a major political party is replacing one of its leaders today because she has too frequently expressed outrage at the direction of her party and insufficient fealty to former President Donald Trump. For that, she no longer has the confidence of House Republicans. 

The truth is there are Republicans who agree with Cheney that the party has lost its moral compass and is dangerously adrift, but they’re too scared to say it publicly. Confronting these obvious problems head on doesn’t serve their short-term political interest (avoiding a Trump-backed primary) or long-term political interest (winning back the House). 

So Cheney will lose today. She knows it, her operation knows it. They aren’t working at all to keep her leadership post.

You may think it’s a humiliating episode for Cheney — and it is, to a degree. This is the woman who shocked House GOP insiders when she pushed Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) out of the leadership. Cheney then passed up a sure-fire bid for senator to stay in the rough-and-tumble House. There were those in the leadership who thought she had her sights set on replacing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy or Minority Whip Steve Scalise.

But we did a lot of reporting on this over the last day, and here is what’s going through Cheney’s mind: 

→ Cheney expects today’s proceedings to go quickly. There will be little debate about her ouster, little back and forth about the merits of the dispute. There may not even be a roll call vote. It’s unclear as of now. If a member does call for a recorded vote, Cheney’s support may be pretty tepid — 20 to 30 votes.

→ Cheney thinks Republicans are abandoning the rule of law and slipping into authoritarianism. She said this on the House floor Monday night. She’s watching Trump undermine the core tenets of democracy and is dismayed that Republicans are following him down this path. 

→ She has drifted so far away from McCarthy and Scalise that her relationship with them is irreparable. She has choice words for McCarthy, who she believes is an irresponsible leader who rehabilitated Trump after Jan. 6, and is now coddling the former president. Cheney is shocked by Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who was once considered an ideological compatriot to the Wyoming Republican. Expect Cheney to be much more public in her criticism of the leadership — if that’s at all possible.

→ At this point, Cheney plans to serve out the rest of her term, and she plans to run for re-election.

→ Most importantly, Cheney isn’t going to shut up. She’s going to continue to speak out against Trump and what the Republican Party has become. 

And, frankly, this could be more damaging to the GOP. Now Cheney will owe McCarthy and Scalise nothing. You know what they say: Better to have someone pissing in the tent than out of the tent. Cheney is officially out.

Here’s the video of Cheney on the House floor last night.

One last point: This is about as bad as it can get for Republicans. The GOP is trying to keep the focus on Joe Biden to help boost their chances of winning back the majority.

But they have a messy week of intra-party fighting, a small wing of the party trying to thwart the election of their next member of leadership and another clutch of the party led by Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) eager to criticize Trump and the GOP leadership. 

How can they get back on track?

THE NEXT EPISODE

Stefanik’s ascent could come this week — with heartburn

After Rep. Liz Cheney loses today, the next task is for Republicans to pick a replacement. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik is running unopposed. 

But there is unrest. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) and the Freedom Caucus are causing problems for House Minority Leader ​Kevin McCarthy, Stefanik and the House GOP leadership. They think the leadership is moving too fast in choosing Stefanik as Cheney’s replacement in the leadership. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) circulated a blistering memo Monday on Stefanik asking why House Republicans were “rushing to coronate a spokesperson whose voting record embodies much of what led to the 2018 ass-kicking we received by Democrats.”

Johnson wasn’t eager to weigh in on Stefanik, but said he wanted a “deliberative effort” in considering Stefanik’s candidacy. Johnson is the GOP Conference vice chair, and he has higher leadership ambitions. Having Stefanik vault over him in the leadership has clearly been a big problem for Johnson.

The Freedom Caucus and hardline conservatives don’t have enough votes to derail Stefanik — that seems clear. Key figures including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who co-founded the Freedom Caucus, are backing Stefanik. 

Remember: Stefanik needs a majority of the 212 members of the House Republican Conference — 107 votes if everyone shows up — to win. Those close to Stefanik say she’s already met that threshold. 

Furthermore, remember this: Someone may try to offer a resolution or other business during the meeting this morning. McCarthy and Scalise have the votes to block pretty much anything they don’t like. 

The House Republican leadership is considering holding a candidate forum Thursday to question Stefanik or anyone else interested in the post, and then they will move to an election later this week. There was some talk about kicking it until next week, but that chatter seems to have died down.

Speed would benefit Stefanik. The longer McCarthy and Scalise let this fester, the worse the discontent could become for the New York Republican.

ICYMI: The newest edition of The Canvass is coming soon — we are in the field as we speak! Calling all chiefs, LDs, communications directors, staff directors and press secretaries to participate in the anonymous survey that is getting at the pulse of what’s happening on Capitol Hill. Haven’t gotten into the mix yet? Sign up today! 

FROM 30,000 FEET

Everyone is fighting with everyone over Jan. 6

On top of the Liz Cheney crisis for House Republicans, there were three other “situations” on Tuesday that demonstrated again how toxic the atmosphere is on Capitol Hill (and we’re not even counting the Senate Rules Committee markup of S.1, the “For The People Act”). 

And, of course, somehow all of it comes back to Jan. 6, and Donald Trump.

→ First, House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) gave her leadership a rundown of the outlook for the $2.1 billion security supplemental package on Monday, and it wasn’t good. 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) want to schedule a floor vote on the bill — designed to “harden” the Capitol complex following the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol by Trump supporters — for next week. This assumes they could cut a deal with House Republicans and the Senate on the package.

DeLauro told her colleagues that the Senate Democrats want to include a study for a new Senate office building — which clearly has nothing to do with Jan. 6. Republicans want to divert money to the Pentagon for Covid expenses. So the prospects for a deal at this moment? Not great.

We asked Rep. Kay Granger (Texas), the top Republican on Appropriations, how far apart the two sides are. “Not as far as they were,” Granger said. But not that close? “Not very.”

DeLauro didn’t say much either when we talked to her during Monday’s House vote. “You’ll know when you know,” DeLauro said.

Sometimes the yelling is loudest right before there’s a deal. And sometimes the yelling means there won’t be a deal. Hard to say here, but, to quote DeLauro, you’ll know when we know.

→ Secondly, there was an ugly spat on the House floor over H.R. 1629, the Fairness in Orphan Drug Exclusivity Act, Trump and Jan. 6. We’ll explain.

This bill, sponsored by Reps. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) and Marc Veasey (D-Texas), deals with marketing rights given to drug makers for therapies to treat rare diseases. The Dean-Veasey bill closes a loophole for drugs used to treat opioid use disorder.

The problem is that this legislation was bipartisan in the 116th Congress. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) was an original co-sponsor at that time. But Carter voted to object to Pennsylvania’s Electoral College result on Jan. 6. This didn’t sit well with Dean, who refused to have Carter as a co-sponsor on the legislation this Congress.

That led to a floor fight on Tuesday as the House voted. That dispute pulled in leaders from both sides. Basically, it came down to this: since Carter wasn’t going to be a co-sponsor on the bill, he urged Republicans to vote against it. The legislation was being considered under suspension, which meant it needed to get two-thirds of the House, 290 votes. It only got 250, so it failed.

Basically, a fight over Jan. 6 led to the defeat of a bill — at least for now — designed to help opioid users. 

Here’s a good Twitter thread on the incident by our friend Olivia Beavers of Politico, who broke this story. The highlight is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) telling House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) “I’m not going to screw over my members.”

This is Dean’s statement on what happened: “I value my partnerships, and was clear with Rep. Buddy Carter (GA-01) that I was not comfortable co-leading legislation with him after he decided to vote to object to the certification of Pennsylvania’s electoral college — a vote that took place immediately after Jan. 6th’s deadly insurrection.”

Dean added: “My team and I offered Rep. Carter to be a co-sponsor on this legislation numerous times. He agreed, but changed his mind last minute, instead deciding to oppose the legislation he had voted for in 2020, and rallying [R]epublican colleagues in a protest vote.

Here’s Carter: “I won’t sit silent as Washington Democrats attempt to bring cancel culture to the House. Tonight they chose partisan political games and their Trump Derangement Syndrome over advancing what should have been bipartisan legislation in a bipartisan way. I refuse to apologize for standing up for my values and I’ll never stop fighting to make sure hardworking Georgians are heard on the floor of the House.”

Hoyer said late Tuesday he’d bring the bill up again for a straight up-or-down vote, and it seems certain to pass.

→ And finally, three Republicans on the House Administration Committee — Reps. Rodney Davis (Ill.), Bryan Steil (Wis.) and Barry Loudermilk (Ga.) — filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee against Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) and more than 30 other House Democrats. 

The GOP trio want the Ethics panel to look into a letter sent by Sherrill and the Democrats to House security officials and the U.S. Capitol Police a week after the insurrection regarding “unsubstantiated claims that Members of Congress led ‘suspicious’ groups through the Capitol Complex on January 5, 2021, on a reconnaissance mission in preparation for the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.”

The Republicans said Sherrill, in particular, used her official Facebook account on Jan. 12 to tell her followers “those Members of Congress who had groups coming though the Capitol that I saw on January 5th for reconnaissance for the next day — those Members who incited the violent crowd, those Members of Congress that attempted to help our president undermine our democracy — I’m going to see those Members held accountable.”

The three Republicans, however, asserted, “The problem is that no Republican Member of Congress led any kind of ‘reconnaissance’ tours though the Capitol on any date, including January 5, 2021. Security footage captured by the U.S. Capitol Police easily confirms this fact.” They want Sherrill and her Democratic colleagues investigated for “making false, spurious and unsubstantiated claims against other Members,” among other alleged violations.

The Ethics Committee is very, very unlikely to either investigate Sherrill and the other Democrats, and it certainly won’t sanction them if it does. They may urge all their colleagues to behave better. Everyone in America would probably agree.

THE OTHER BIG EVENT TODAY

The Big Four heads to the White House

The Big Four congressional leaders will head to the White House today for a session with President Joe Biden that will focus on finding common ground on legislative items including the American Jobs Plan and American Family Plan.

Here’s what’s at stake for everyone involved:

→ Speaker Nancy Pelosi: She wants a big infrastructure bill, and she wants to do it fast. Pelosi has publicly declared that she hopes to get a legislative package through the House by July 4, a very ambitious timetable considering the pace the Senate and White House are moving. In addition to the White House meeting, Pelosi will hold a news conference on Wednesday with House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and other Democrats on “transformational investments in our nation’s roads, bridges, public transit, and rail.”

→ Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer: Schumer is dancing on the head of a pin. He has incentive to go quickly, because he has a caucus with progressives, but he also has the imperative to slow down, because of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the shadow Democratic leader of the Senate, another moderates. Manchin wants a deal with Republicans, and he might not vote for an infrastructure deal that doesn’t have GOP support. The calculus here is extraordinarily tricky for Schumer thanks to the 50-50 Senate split.

→ House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy: Have you heard? Biden doesn’t return McCarthy’s phone calls or letters. The California Republican has written to Biden a bunch and tried to schedule a meeting with him, to no avail. Let’s be honest: McCarthy’s House GOP is never going to be interested in working with Biden. So McCarthy will show up, get a few lines in and when he leaves, he’ll say it was a good conversation but Biden wants to spend too much money and raise taxes.

→ Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: McConnell has said that he would spend up to $800 billion on infrastructure, although not all Senate Republicans may agree. McConnell’s red lines are no tax increases, and he will want to keep Biden under $1 trillion. In this meeting, McConnell will be McConnell: quiet and non committal. Why? He wants to keep the door open for Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who is coming in to meet with Biden Thursday. McConnell has no decisions to make at the moment — he just has to listen, and reiterate his case. Which he’d do anyway.

→ President Joe Biden: It’s time for the president of the United States to make clear what he wants here. The White House keeps saying that its red line is inaction, and no new taxes for Americans who make less than $400,000. 

Yet Biden faces tough choices. Does the president want a bipartisan deal so badly that he’s willing to support a bill that doesn’t touch the corporate tax rate? Republicans are a hard no on raising taxes. Will Biden support increased user fees? Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) Tuesday made clear that Republicans aren’t interested in a debt-financed infrastructure bill. 

Biden clearly has the most at stake here. There isn’t some epiphany about to happen for Republicans. They are where they are, and it’s time for Biden to make a decision how he’d like to proceed. Remember: his party controls all of Congress.

Also: NYT’s Carl Hulse’s News Analysis: “Once Deal Makers, Biden and McConnell Are Miles Apart”

MOMENTS

9 a.m.: House Republicans will meet to consider the ouster of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as conference chair.

9:30 a.m.: President Joe Biden will get his intelligence briefing.

11 a.m.: Biden and VP Kamala Harris will meet with the Big Four: Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

11:30 a.m.: House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) will have their weekly news conference.

Noon: W.H. Press Secretary Jen Psaki will brief.

1 p.m.: Pelosi and House Transportation Chair Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) hold a news conference about infrastructure at the House Triangle. 

3:30 p.m.: Biden will speak about the Covid-19 response and vaccinations.

CLIP FILE

NYT

→ “House Democrats and White House Reach Deal Over Testimony by Ex-Trump Aide," by Charlie Savage

→ “Pentagon Chief Feared ‘Coup’ Accusations if He Deployed Troops to Capitol Riot,” by Luke Broadwater and Katie Benner: “Christopher C. Miller, who was the acting defense secretary when rioters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, plans to testify before Congress on Wednesday that he worried that sending troops to the complex would contribute to perceptions of a “military coup” under President Donald J. Trump.

“He will also blame Mr. Trump for encouraging the violent mob that overran the Capitol Police, according to written testimony submitted to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

“Mr. Miller’s comments, part of the lengthy defense of the Pentagon’s actions before and during the mob violence, are the first he will make in sworn testimony as various committees investigate the largest attack on the Capitol since the War of 1812. He is set to testify during an hourslong hearing before the committee at 10 a.m. ‘I personally believe his comments encouraged the protesters that day,’ Mr. Miller plans to say about Mr. Trump.”

WaPo

→ “Violence between Israelis and Palestinians escalates toward all-out war,” by Steve Hendrix and Shira Rubin in Jerusalem

WSJ

→ “U.S. Stock Futures Edge Down Ahead of Inflation Data”

AP

→  “Number of children traveling alone at border eases in April,” by Elliot Spagat in San Diego

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