With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross
TRAIL WEEK AHEAD — We might still be 17 months away from the 2024 election — and a full half-year from the first GOP primary — but the campaign trail is going to be hopping this week as candidates raise money, take their cases to television and — for the Republicans, anyway — try to steal some attention from former President DONALD TRUMP.
Today: President JOE BIDEN travels to California to raise money for his re-elect alongside Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM, while Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS also travels to the Golden State for events. Former Gov. NIKKI HALEY hosts a town hall in her home state of South Carolina at 1:30 p.m. And at 6 p.m., former President DONALD TRUMP sits down with Fox News’s BRET BAIER for his first interview since his arraignment.
Tomorrow: In Myrtle Beach, S.C., Sen. TIM SCOTT joins Sean Hannity for a pre-taped Fox News town hall that airs at 9 p.m. … Thursday: The Faith and Freedom Coalition will kickstart its three-day conference on social conservative values, which will feature speeches from Trump, DeSantis, Haley and Scott as well as former Arkansas Gov. ASA HUTCHINSON, former Vice President MIKE PENCE and former New Jersey Gov. CHRIS CHRISTIE.
BUT FIRST … the big headline of the morning is focused on events occurring half a world away: Chinese President XI JINPING met briefly with Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN, a high-profile huddle that was not guaranteed to happen amid Blinken’s temperature-lowering mission to Beijing. The carefully scripted face-to-face followed hours of meetings between Blinken and lower-level Chinese officials.
So can we call it a reset? Unlikely. WaPo’s John Hudson and Meaghan Tobin report from Beijing that both sides left “unresolved their most bitterly contested issues” — even as the 35-minute meeting between the two “may at least stop the downward spiral in bilateral relations.”
Notably, “China refused to resume military to military communications, a U.S. priority,” AP’s Matthew Lee reports, adding that Blinken told reporters he raised the issue “repeatedly.” And, Lee noted, “there was little indication that either [nation] is prepared to bend from its positions on issues including trade, Taiwan, human rights conditions in China and Hong Kong, Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea, and Russia’s war in Ukraine.”
The meeting almost didn’t happen: “It has been customary in the past for the Chinese leader to meet with visiting U.S. secretaries of state, but Monday’s meeting wasn’t confirmed until 45 minutes before the two men shook hands — a sign of how carefully orchestrated this trip has been,” Hudson and Tobin write.
The readouts, per WaPo: “Xi told Blinken that China ‘respects the interests of the United States and will not challenge or replace the United States,’ and that Washington ‘must also respect China and not harm China’s legitimate rights and interests,’ according to a readout released by the official state broadcaster CCTV…
“The two had a ‘candid and productive discussion,’ with Blinken underscoring ‘the importance of responsibly managing the competition between the United States and [China] through open channels of communication to ensure competition does not veer into conflict,’ State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.”
Coming attraction: The battle of the superpowers will come into further focus later this week when Indian PM NARENDRA MODI arrives for his first state visit to the White House Thursday, complete with arrival ceremony and state dinner, as well as a midday address to a joint meeting of Congress.
Modi’s multi-day U.S. visit is already generating plenty of commentary about America’s increasing willingness to look past his erosion of democratic norms and spotty human rights record to build a stronger relationship with a key bulwark against Chinese dominance in Asia.
‘YOU COULDN’T USE THE T WORD’ — A just-posted Washington Post investigation suggests that Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND and deputy attorney general LISA MONACO slow-walked a federal investigation into Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, delaying a formal probe for more than a year. The piece by Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis teases out tensions at the Justice Department between higher-ups wary of appearing partisan and eager to restore public trust in the institution and lower-level prosecutors who “chafed” at superiors “shying away from looking at evidence of potential crimes by Trump and those close to him.”
More from the story: “Whether a decision about Trump’s culpability for Jan. 6 could have come any earlier is unclear. The delays in examining that question began before Garland was even confirmed. [Former acting U.S. Attorney MICHAEL] SHERWIN, senior Justice Department officials and PAUL ABBATE, the top deputy to FBI Director CHRISTOPHER A. WRAY, quashed a plan by prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office to directly investigate Trump associates for any links to the riot, deeming it premature, according to five individuals familiar with the decision. Instead, they insisted on a methodical approach — focusing first on rioters and going up the ladder.
“The strategy was embraced by Garland, Monaco and Wray. They remained committed to it even as evidence emerged of an organized, weeks-long effort by Trump and his advisers before Jan. 6 to pressure state leaders, Justice officials and Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of Biden’s victory. …
“Inside Justice, however, some have complained that the attorney general’s determination to steer clear of any claims of political motive has chilled efforts to investigate the former president. ‘You couldn’t use the T word,’ said one former Justice official briefed on prosecutors’ discussions.”
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9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR
1. CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH: Both President Biden and Floridia Governor RON DeSANTIS are headed to the Golden State this week to hoover up money for their presidential campaigns.
Biden’s swing: The president’s reelection effort has four big fundraisers in the San Francisco Bay Area this week, AP’s Josh Boak reports. “The flurry of engagements comes ahead of the end of the fundraising quarter at the end of the month — and Biden’s campaign finance report in July will provide the first test of Democratic donor enthusiasm for his reelection effort.”
In Atherton, venture capitalist and former state controller STEVE WESTLY ANITA YU are hosting a $6,600-a-plate dinner for Biden. In Los Gatos, Biden will attend an event hosted by LinkedIn founder REID HOFFMAN and Microsoft CTO KEVIN SCOTT and SHANNON HUNT-SCOTT, per the S.F. Chronicle. More events follow on Tuesday.
DeSantis’ swing: After a fundraising brunch in Sacramento, the Florida governor heads to a fundraiser in Woodside, where he’ll be just a couple of miles from Biden at roughly the same time, notes Mercury News’ Julia Prodis Sulek.
2. THE TAX MAN COMETH: “2024’s hidden prize: The upper hand in tax ‘Armageddon’,” by Burgess Everett and Sarah Ferris: “Much of the GOP’s sweeping Trump-era tax breaks are set to expire in 2025, which will almost certainly push Congress to act on their future. So the 2024 campaign will determine whether Republicans can keep the cuts, Democrats can rewrite them — or, if neither party gets a clean sweep, whether a split government prompts a massive fiscal collision. … [B]oth Democrats and Republicans are actively strategizing over how to handle the very real consequences of the tax cliff. First, though, one party has to try to win it all.”
3. A LOOK AHEAD: “Speaker McCarthy’s Next Trick: Averting a Government Shutdown,” by WSJ’s By Natalie Andrews and Siobhan Hughes: “Previous House Republican speakers have dealt with the tug of war from the right, but none had to manage with such a small majority, currently at 222 to 212. Conservatives have made clear that they won’t let up the pressure on party leaders, with Rep. MATT GAETZ (R., Fla.) referring to [House Speaker KEVIN] MCCARTHY’S relationship with him and other dissidents as a “power sharing” arrangement.”
4. HOUSING IN CRISIS: Counts of homeless people trended up in U.S. cities this year, WSJ’s Jon Kamp and Shannon Najmabadi report in a deep dive analysis: “More than 100 places reported increases in early 2023 counts compared with 2022, and collectively, their numbers indicate the U.S. may see a sharper climb than in recent years. Most major urban areas reporting data so far have seen increases, including Chicago, Miami, Boston and Phoenix. … The increases underscore what advocates for the homeless say is growing pressure from high housing costs and the end of temporary pandemic-era protections, such as eviction moratoriums.”
5. DISINFORMATION DIGEST: GOP lawmakers are taking aim at colleges, private companies and think tanks that study the spread of misinformation, accusing them of censoring conservative media online, NYT’s Steven Lee Myers and Sheera Frenkel report. Among the subpoena targets for House Judiciary Committee Republicans: “Stanford, Clemson and New York Universities and the University of Washington; the Atlantic Council, the German Marshall Fund and the National Conference on Citizenship, all nonpartisan, nongovernmental organizations in Washington; the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco; and Graphika, a company that researches disinformation online.”
6. KNOWING SEAN O’BRIEN: WaPo’s Nick Tabor is up with an in depth profile of International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ president SEAN O’BRIEN as the union eyes a possible UPS union strike amid hopes of unionizing Amazon’s one-million-plus workers: “[T]he Teamsters have been launching their own efforts to organize Amazon workers in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Canada; last month they negotiated a contract for California drivers and dispatchers employed by a third-party Amazon contractor. And yes, O’Brien realizes that winning a strong new contract with UPS would make a fabulous advertisement for the Teamsters as they woo potential members.”
7. DEM VIBE CHECK: The unexpectedly strong polling of ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. underscores Joe Biden’s shortcomings on the campaign trail as the president works to win over cautious Democratic voters ahead of 2024, NYT’s Reid Epstein reports: “[S]ome of Mr. Biden’s allies say they worry that the president’s still-nascent campaign does not fully grasp the depth of its problems with Democratic voters, who have consistently told pollsters they would prefer that Mr. Biden not seek re-election. …The place Mr. Kennedy might prove the biggest nuisance is New Hampshire, where the president has alienated core supporters by shuffling the Democratic presidential nominating calendar to put South Carolina’s primary first, ahead of the Granite State.”
8. SEX AND THE CITY HALL: A newly released internal report found that JOHN FALCICCHIO, Mayor MURIEL BOWSER’s former chief of staff and a deputy mayor, sexually harassed a female staffer twice, sending her “unwanted” explicit messages, “including a graphic video,” WaPo’s Paul Schwartzman reports: “The findings focus on one of two D.C. government employees who have filed complaints against Falcicchio, 44, a confidant and trusted operative of Bowser’s since the early 2000s. His March 17 resignation stunned the city’s political and business establishment because of his power and close ties to Bowser.”
9. 20 YEARS NOW, WHERE’D THEY GO: Two decades after the United States initially invaded Iraq, thousands of Iraqis are still wading through a variety of delays and administrative blocades in an effort to immigrate to America, AP’s Rebecca Santana reports: “U.S. officials cite multiple reasons for the delays, including an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, a hack of a refugee database, the COVID-19 pandemic and cuts to the refugee program under then-President Donald Trump. Sometimes the process is slowed as applicants struggle to prove their ties to the U.S. … Multiple administrations have considered making the programs more efficient without compromising security.”
John Boehner enjoyed the perfect Father’s Day — golf, gardening and grass. (No, not that kind of grass.)
IN MEMORIAM — “Longtime AP State Department reporter George Gedda dies at 82” by AP’s Matthew Lee: “During his time in Washington, Gedda covered every secretary of state from Dean Rusk to Condoleezza Rice, carving out a niche for himself as an expert on Latin America and Cuba. … Gedda made 31 trips to Cuba, most of which were reporting visits for the AP beginning in 1974. He was instrumental in the agency’s creation of its first bureau in Havana since the 1960s in 1999, and used those experiences as the basis for his 2011 book ‘Cuba: The Audacious Revolution.’”
TRANSITIONS — Amanda Want is now on Alaska Airlines’ government affairs team managing the PAC and lobbying. She most recently has been a political adviser to the Walton family at Walton Enterprises, and is a Hill GOP alum. … T.J. Crawford is now chief comms officer at Bausch + Lomb. He previously was head of external affairs at CVS Health.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) and Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) … Reuters’ Jeff Mason … Jennifer Hazelton … Anne Gearan … Alex Kisling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies … POLITICO’s Alex Isenstadt, Melissa Cooke and Laura Maggi … Jonathan Custodio … Zeina Mohammed … WaPo’s Tim Starks … David Di Martino … Lara Spencer … Patrick Rooney … Cragg Hines … CBS’ Christina Ruffini … Ben Castagnetti of Sen. Maria Cantwell’s (D-Wash.) office … Geri M. Joseph … Hodan Omaar … Mary Dalrymple of Eagle Hill Consulting … Mike Naple … Michelle Ringuette … Michael Akin … Aimee Strudwick Gilroy … former Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) … Marcus Brauchli … former SEC Chair Mary Schapiro … Michael Robbins of the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International … Zac Rutherford of Rep. Diana Harshbarger’s (R-Tenn.) office … Actum’s Alexander Rauda
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