Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 — 🚨 House GOP leaders openly turn on Liz Cheney

Incoming: Wedding save-the-dates | Wednesday, May 05, 2021

Open in app View in browser   Presented By Facebook   Axios AM By Mike Allen ·May 05, 2021 ⚖️ Please join Sara Fischer and me for an Axios event tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET: We'll interview two members of the Facebook Oversight Board about their verdict — out this morning — on whether to restore access for Donald Trump. Sign up here.     🚨 1 big thing: House GOP leaders turn on Liz Cheney Cheney watches as Scalise speaks at a press conference last month. Photo: Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images   Bulletin ... House Republican leaders openly turn on House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney: The top two leaders, Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, are working behind the scenes to boost Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York to replace Cheney, Punchbowl News reports. Scalise, who as whip is the No. 2 leader, this morning released a statement to Axios backing Stefanik for conference chair: "House Republicans need to be solely focused on taking back the House in 2022 and fighting against Speaker Pelosi and President Biden's radical socialist agenda, and Elise Stefanik is strongly committed to doing that." McCarthy, the House minority leader, was caught on a hot mic yesterday saying he's "lost confidence" in Cheney and "has had it with" her, as Axios' Kadia Goba scooped. 🎧 Hear the audio. Top Republicans told Axios' Alayna Treene they want to replace Cheney with a woman. What to watch: Members expect the process to oust Cheney to begin a week from today, when the House GOP conference meets next. (The House is out this week.) It would take up to a two-thirds vote of the 212 caucus members to replace her — a relatively high bar if a secret ballot is held, and one that Cheney cleared in a previous vote to remove her in February. Share this story.     2. U.S. could fill "vaccine diplomacy" void Illustration: Rae Cook/Axios   The U.S. is the last major power to enter the race for global vaccine diplomacy, but it can still win, Axios World editor Dave Lawler writes. China has given or sold doses to around 90 countries, and 70 nations expect to receive Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, the Economist Intelligence Unit reports. That includes nearly every country in Latin America. But both have struggled to deliver on their promises — as have the other major players, India and the EU. That leaves the U.S. With its enormous production capacity and dwindling domestic demand, the U.S. could soon pivot to churning out highly effective vaccines for the rest of the world. Share this story.     3. Poll: Mask use drops after CDC relaxes guidelines Data: Axios/Ipsos Poll (3.3% margin of error). Chart: Sara Wise/Axios Vaccinated Americans are easing up on wearing masks — but so are unvaccinated Americans, Axios managing editor David Nather writes from a new Ipsos poll. Overall, 57% of the respondents said they still wear a mask at all times when leaving the house. 47% of unvaccinated Americans say that. Share this story.     A message from Facebook The internet has changed a lot since 1996 - internet regulations should too     It's been 25 years since comprehensive internet regulations passed. See why we support updated regulations on key issues, including: Protecting people's privacy Enabling safe and easy data portability between platforms Preventing election interference Reforming Section 230     4. Forgotten anti-slavery history of Cinco de Mayo Aracely Saucillo (left) and Marylin Castillo perform with Mexica Ballet Folclorico during Cinco de Mayo festivities in downtown L.A. in 2011. Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images   Cinco de Mayo was long marketed in the U.S. as a fun holiday for getting drunk and eating tacos, Axios race and justice reporter Russell Contreras writes. But its origins are linked to California Latinos who saw a battle in Mexico in 1862 as a victory for abolition during the Civil War. Why it matters: Protests after the death of George Floyd, which brought Latino and Black advocates together over the past year, have prompted a re-examination of this lesser-known piece of U.S. history. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Battle of Puebla and the victory of Mexico's ragtag army, made up largely of Indigenous soldiers, against the better-equipped and trained French forces of Napoleon III. Don't forget: Cinco de Mayo isn't Mexican Independence Day. That's Sept. 16. Share this story.     5. How Jeff Bezos outflanked the National Enquirer Courtesy Bloomberg Businessweek Jeff Bezos caused a sensation in 2019 when he posted on Medium that he had been having an affair — and that he was writing about it because the National Enquirer had photos and was trying to blackmail him. But there was far more to the story, as Bloomberg News editor Brad Stone — author of "The Everything Store" — details in a new book, "Amazon Unbound," out next Tuesday. Ina Fried has this account of an excerpt published today by Bloomberg BusinessWeek: While the Medium post was a master stroke in setting the narrative, Bezos used a personal appeal to Amazon executives to convince his team that he remained firmly in control. Stone details how Bezos explained the whole affair to Amazon executives during a lengthy Feb. 14, 2019, meeting that ran so long it cut into executives' Valentine's Day plans. Bezos' Medium post accused the Enquirer of trying to extort him — and linked the tabloid to political figures hostile to him, including Saudi leaders upset with how The Washington Post, which Bezos owns, covered the murder of its reporter Jamal Khashoggi. "All of this is very distracting, so thank you for being focused on the business," Bezos told the executives, as he turned from explaining his personal life to managing the corporate headcount. Read the excerpt.     6. Trump's media spell is broken Data: NewsWhip. Chart: Axios Visuals Social-media interactions about Donald Trump have fallen 91% since January, Axios' Neal Rothschild writes from exclusive NewsWhip data. Why it matters: When Trump lost his social media accounts, he lost his once-immense power to make himself the center of attention. Clicks on Trump stories fell 81% from January to February, another 56% from February to March, and 40% from March to April, according to exclusive data from SocialFlow. "Trump's social media superpower was never his ability to tweet — it was his ability to get the media to cover what he tweeted," SocialFlow CEO Jim Anderson tells Axios. Share this story.     7. Scoop: Jared Kushner founds Abraham Accords Institute Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at President Trump's departure on Inauguration Day. Photo: Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images   Jared Kushner is founding the Abraham Accords Institute for Peace to deepen normalization agreements he helped strike between Israel and Arab countries, Axios from Tel Aviv author Barak Ravid reports. The Abraham Accords, signed in September, were arguably Trump's biggest foreign policy achievement — and the biggest breakthrough for relations between Israel and the Arab world for 25 years. Kushner is founding the institute with former White House aide Avi Berkowitz; Israeli-American businessman and Democratic donor Haim Saban; and three heavy hitters from the region — the Emirati and Bahraini ambassadors to Washington, Yousef Al Otaiba and Abdullah R. Al-Khalifa, and Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi. Share this story.     8. 60 years ago today: "Light this candle" On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard sits in his capsule at Cape Canaveral. Photo: AP On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard's 15-minute Mercury flight made him the first American in space. The 37-year-old astronaut and Navy test pilot cut a slick sci-fi figure in his silver spacesuit in the predawn darkness at Cape Canaveral as he looked up at his Redstone rocket, AP's Marcia Dunn writes. Impatient with delays, including another hold in the countdown just minutes before launch, he growled into his mic: "Why don't you fix your little problem and light this candle?"     9. First look: White House launches AI website Photo: White House Office of Science and Technology Policy The White House today launched a website, AI.gov, to make artificial intelligence research more accessible, Axios' Sarah Mucha has learned. Why it matters: The U.S. once led significantly in the global AI race, but now risks being overtaken by China. So the White House is trying to drum up excitement. The target audience is the general public — including teachers, and students interested in science. Visit the site.     10. 💍 Incoming: Wedding save-the-dates A bride-to-be views herself in a mirror in Rotterdam. Photo: Robin Utrecht/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images   Get on your dancing shoes: 2021 will be a bumper year for weddings. Why it matters: The pandemic brought the industry to a near standstill. Now it's bouncing back, providing a much-needed boost to local small businesses as their calendars fill up into 2022, Katie Peralta Soloff writes in Axios Charlotte. It's shaping up to be the busiest year ever for Diane and Vinny Esposito, who run a DJ service in Charlotte, Split Second Sound. In a typical year, Split Second Sound does about 600 weddings. Last year, the firm did 270. This year, Split Second Sound already has over 600 weddings on the books. It was "like the floodgates opened," Vinny says.     A message from Facebook Why Facebook supports updated internet regulations     2021 is the 25th anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the last major update to internet regulation. It's time for an update to set clear rules for addressing today's toughest challenges. See how we're taking action on key issues and why we support updated internet regulations.   📬 Please invite your friends, family, colleagues to sign up here for Axios AM and Axios PM.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. 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