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PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN
WITH MAX COHEN AND CHRISTIAN HALL

THE TOP

Here’s something interesting we’ve noticed: With the Covid pandemic slowly receding, President Joe Biden has been traveling to Democratic swing and Republican-held districts. That trend will continue today when Biden visits Crystal Lake, Ill., represented by Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood, a constant target of the NRCC and the Congressional Leadership Fund, the House GOP super PAC. In fact, Crystal Lake is, as the Chicago Sun Times puts it, “one of the redder parts of one of the bluest states in the nation.”

This visit to Illinois isn’t the only example.

→ Over the weekend, Biden visited Central Lake, Mich., which is represented by Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.). 

→ On June 29, he visited La Crosse, Wis., which is represented by longtime Democratic Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), who is one of the most politically vulnerable Democrats in America.

This is a marked change from former President Donald Trump, who mostly reveled in visiting deep red districts. The Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet wrote this morning that Illinois Democrats — including those aligned with Underwood — were surprised at Biden’s visit at this point in the political cycle. 

We’ll be very interested to see how involved the president is in the midterm elections. Biden has traditionally been a sought-after surrogate in tough districts — especially during his time in the White House and early in the Trump administration. But he’s the president now and carries the load of the entirety of the Democratic agenda. The midterms are basically a referendum on him. Barack Obama wasn’t a regular presence in swing districts after 2010.

More: AP’s Alexandra Jaffe: “In Illinois, Biden to push money for families and child care”

Another note on what to expect from Biden today, from the White House: “In Crystal Lake, the President will make the case for generational investments in human infrastructure and other critical priorities like clean energy that form the second half of his economic agenda, the Build Back Better plan – a combination of policies from the American Jobs Plan that aren’t included in the bipartisan infrastructure framework, and then the American Families Plan.” In other words, they are trying to move away from process and toward the actual meat of the agenda.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Texas Rep. Chip Roy says he wants gridlock so Republicans can win

We normally don’t jump on the Twitter outrage bandwagon, but these comments from Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) are worth paying attention to no matter which party you’re in. 

A Democratic activist, Lauren Windsor, filmed Roy — a former staffer turned member — at a June 29 event. Roy was bashing Democrats over infrastructure while also pointing out that very little is going to make it out of the Senate unless it has broad bipartisan support. Pretty standard GOP fare.

But then Roy said this: “I mean honestly right now, for the next 18 months, our job is to do everything that we can to slow all of that down to get to December of 2022, and then get in here and lead.”

There was a huge Twitter backlash, of course. Keith Olbermann, the former sports announcer turned progressive commentator, called Roy “an obstructionist slob.” To which Roy responded: “Yes. But to be clear, there is nothing sloppy about my obstruction of leftists, ‘I am an exceptional’ obstructionist… (H/T Hans Gruber.)” 

Let’s discuss a couple things here. First, Hans Gruber is a homicidal criminal who gets killed at the end of “Die Hard.” So yeah.

We can also confirm that Roy is a thorn in the side of the leadership for both parties in the House. He and some of his colleagues have refused to allow quick votes on non-controversial bills, including GOP-drafted legislation. This forced Democrats to change the floor procedure on these bills.

Also, we get it. Roy is in the House minority. The House minority’s job in modern congressional politics is to vote against everything. It’s the easiest gig in D.C.

Yet at some point, lawmakers should be able to support something, especially as the country is still emerging from the biggest public-health crisis in a century. We’re sympathetic with Roy’s argument that the minority should be allowed to offer more amendments and get some votes, he’s right. Yet a nihilistic approach to public policy won’t help either.

We’re also pretty certain that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and NRCC Chair Tom Emmer (Minn.) won’t enjoy seeing this clip looped endlessly over the next few weeks or months. 

Here’s the clip for your perusal. Roy’s office didn’t reply to a request for comment.

THE POLITICAL WINDS

On crime, and what it means politically

We got a few phone calls from Democrats Tuesday telling us to not overreact to the tough-on-crime Eric Adams’ victory in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor. 

But Adams’ primary win also came as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s declared that there’s a gun violence emergency in the Empire State.

When people tell us not to overthink things, we automatically overthink them. So it’s clear to us that Democrats are worried about the rising tide of violence across the country and how to respond to it politically. Republicans used the “Defund the police” line to hit Democrats very effectively last cycle. Recent polls show that the Americans are growing more concerned about crime. Yet the public doesn’t have a knee-jerk response to just hire more police to solve the crisis either. The issue is complicated, it brings in discussions about race and police reform, which are, of course, huge topics on their own.

It’s also worth noting that Alvin Bragg, a former state and federal prosecutor, won the Democratic primary to become Manhattan DA, one of the most high-profile jobs in the country. Bragg would be the first Black DA in New York City history, and he’s already promised not to charge alleged offenders in low-level cases like fare jumping or marijuana possession. So it isn’t like New Yorkers had some huge rightward shift.

Police reform talks in Congress are ongoing, and both sides still believe a deal may happen this month. Although the negotiators keep missing their deadlines here, we remain skeptical. If that were to happen, however, it could shift the entire national debate on this issue. 

But there’s no deal on gun control, including expanding background checks on gun sales, despite the surge in gun violence during the pandemic and now into 2021. And none is going to happen in this Congress as far as we can tell.

Conservative media outlets will play up the rise in crime and violence to score points against President Joe Biden and the Democrats. Pair this with the “crisis at the southern border,” and you may have an effective one-two punch in trying to show Biden is weak and his policies are backfiring. Repeat it roughly 1 billion times over the next 18 months, and we’ll see how the issue plays.

Yet there’s no question Democrats from the White House on down are concerned about rising crime and the public’s view on their response to it, especially on gun violence. We’ll note that Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Hakeem Jeffries endorsed Maya Wiley. Who endorsed Adams? Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. That’s the guy overseeing House races for Democrats this cycle.

Also, check out the front pages of the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune this morning: lots about crime and violence. 

STATE OF THE ART

What Pompeo says about Rubio

How’s this for a fundraising ploy. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo writes that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is the “ONE RACE standing between Trump’s legacy and its destruction.” 

NEW GIG ALERT

T.J. Ducklo lands with Risa Heller

You’ll remember this: T.J. Ducklo resigned under pressure as White House deputy press secretary in February after suggesting he’d “destroy” Politico reporter Tara Palmeri if she reported on his relationship with a member of the press corps. Ducklo is now working at Risa Heller Communications, a top boutique public relations firm in New York.

Ducklo was a longtime trusted aide to Joe Biden, and his departure came during the opening months of the Biden administration. The episode called into question broader issues about how the administration dealt with inappropriate staff behavior. His partner, Alexi McCammond, has recently returned to Axios after being pushed out of a job at Teen Vogue. Ducklo has stage-four lung cancer.

Here is the background of the Ducklo-Palmeri episode, via Vanity Fair.

Our paths have crossed with every person in this story. We know Heller well, worked at Politico with Palmeri and consider her a friend, preceded Palmeri in writing Playbook and have known Ducklo for quite some time. 

Heller is a former communications director for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and she’s has long been a sought-after public relations hand for politicians, corporate chieftains and executives throughout New York. She was, for many years, close with former Rep. Anthony Weiner, and in the early days of the Trump administration, Heller worked for Ivanka Trump. 

“I’ve known TJ for years,” Heller told us. “He’s immensely talented, hardworking and a great colleague. He played a key role on the campaign to make Joe Biden president, and he did it while battling stage four lung cancer. Like all of us, he’s made mistakes, paid the consequences, and learned from it. We’re incredibly excited to have him on our team where he’s already leading high-profile crisis and issues engagements in NY, LA, and globally, and becoming a trusted advisor to corporate leaders.”

MOMENTS

9:30 a.m.: President Joe Biden will convene people from across the government to discuss ransomware. Vice President Kamala Harris will attend.

10:30 a.m.: Biden will leave the White House for Andrews, where he’ll fly to Chicago. He’ll arrive at O’Hare at 12:35 p.m. Jen Psaki will gaggle on Air Force One. 

1 p.m.: Biden will leave O’Hare for Crystal Lake, Ill. 

2:20 p.m.: Biden will tour McHenry County College “to see how his Build Back Better agenda will help students and educators.”

3:05 p.m.: Biden will deliver remarks. 

4:50 p.m.: Biden will leave Crystal Lake, Ill., for Chicago and will head back to D.C. 

7:15 p.m.: Biden will arrive back at the White House.

A TRIO OF OBSTACLES FOR BIDEN

Hacking, vaccine hesitancy and rising gas prices

NYT’s front page, laying out some hurdles for President Joe Biden.

WaPo’s front page doesn’t have a single story on the president of the United States.

WSJ’s front is silent on Biden as well. 

CLIP FILE

NYT

→ “Biden Makes New Push for Vaccinations, but Experts Say More Is Needed,” by Michael Shear and Noah Weiland: “As president, he can mandate that members of the military get the vaccine — a step that his administration has declined to take, in part because the drugs are still considered experimental under the emergency authorizations that the Food and Drug Administration granted last year.

“The Biden administration considered and rejected calls to require a federal vaccine passport, a move that some experts said would help contain the spread of the virus by allowing people to prove that they had been inoculated. And the administration last month issued guidance to federal agencies saying they should not require employees to be vaccinated.”

→ “Attempted Hack of R.N.C. and Russian Ransomware Attack Test Biden,” by Nicole Perlroth and David Sanger: “Russian hackers are accused of breaching a contractor for the Republican National Committee last week, around the same time that Russian cybercriminals launched the single largest global ransomware attack on record, incidents that are testing the red lines set by President Biden during his high-stakes summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia last month.

“The R.N.C. said in a statement on Tuesday that one of its technology providers, Synnex, had been hacked. While the extent of the attempted breach remained unclear, the committee said none of its data had been accessed.

“Early indications were that the culprit was Russia’s S.V.R. intelligence agency, according to investigators in the case. The S.V.R. is the group that initially hacked the Democratic National Committee six years ago and more recently conducted the SolarWinds attack that penetrated more than a half-dozen government agencies and many of the largest U.S. corporations.”

→ “States and Cities Scramble to Spend $350 Billion Windfall,” by Glenn Thrush and Alan Rappeport

→ “Unlikely Coalition of Veterans Backs Biden on Ending Afghan War,” by Jennifer Steinhauer

WaPo

→ “Vaccines door-to-door: Immunization push goes granular as delta variant looms,” by Cleve Wootson Jr. and Tyler Pager

→ “A rate rise in the U.S. might trigger big problems in the developing world,” by David Lynch

→ “As migrants arrive from more nations, their paths to U.S. border diverge, new data show,” by Nick Miroff

Yellow Hammer News (Ala.)

→ “Katie Britt shatters fundraising records in first bid for office, raising $2.24 million in 23 days,” by Tim Howe: “If receiving contributions from Alabama voters shows a candidate’s strength in a race, then Katie Britt’s bid to become the state’s next U.S. Senator has harnessed never-before-seen horsepower.

“Britt, a first-time candidate for public office, raised a whopping $2.24 million during the most recent fundraising period, according to her campaign. More than 90% of her contributions came from within the Yellowhammer State. This is the largest quarterly fundraising total ever posted by a Republican candidate for federal office in Alabama history.”

The Guardian

→ “Trump told chief of staff Hitler ‘did a lot of good things’, book says,” by Martin Pengelly: “On a visit to Europe to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the first world war, Donald Trump insisted to his then chief of staff, John Kelly: ‘Well, Hitler did a lot of good things.’ The remark from the former US president on the 2018 trip, which reportedly ‘stunned’ Kelly, a retired US Marine Corps general, is reported in a new book by Michael Bender of the Wall Street Journal. … 

“He reports that Trump denied making the remark about Hitler. But Bender says unnamed sources reported that Kelly ‘told the president that he was wrong, but Trump was undeterred’, emphasizing German economic recovery under Hitler during the 1930s.”

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