| | | | | | | Presented By Facebook | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen ·Oct 22, 2021 | | Happy Friday! Smart Brevity™ count: 1,461 words ... 5½ minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Trump, your 2024 GOP nominee |  | | | Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios | | | | Former President Trump is telling most anyone who'll listen he will run again in 2024 — and poll after poll shows the vast majority of Republicans would gladly cheer him on and vote for him. - Why it matters: Trump is the heart, soul and undisputed leader of the Republican Party and will easily win the nomination if he wants it, the polls make unmistakably clear.
It's not just idle chatter. Trump is spending much of his time thinking about politics, holding calls with his political team and surveying polling. - Trump is keeping close tabs on his would-be rivals for the nomination — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former V.P. Mike Pence and former SecState Mike Pompeo in particular.
What we're watching: Trump has been endorsing loyalists who back his fraud claims in secretary of state races around the country — a sign he's thinking ahead about political levers and remains obsessed with the "Big Lie," Axios managing editor Margaret Talev points out. What we're hearing: Trump's most likely opponent is Pence, who — I'm told — has no plans to defer to his former boss. Reality check: The idea someone could challenge Trump as an anti-Trump candidate seems ludicrous. The market is minimalist inside the new GOP. - That means someone would need to out-Trump Trump when the latest Quinnipiac Poll shows 8 in 10 Republicans want him to run.
- Almost every top Republican we talk to said it would take a severe illness, death — or criminal charges sticking — to stop Trump from walking away with the race before it even begins.
Pompeo has been the most obvious about his presidential ambitions — starting a PAC and doing all the obvious travel. - Trump aides have commented on how much weight Pompeo has lost — another sign, they interpret, of his ambitions.
- But Trump's advisers cannot imagine Pompeo or DeSantis would dare run against him.
Trumpworld is more uncertain about Pence, who has been quiet about his intentions but maintains a strong and loyal team around him. - Nikki Haley — the former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor, who's often talked of as a potential 2024 candidate — has explicitly said she wouldn't challenge Trump.
Pence has notably not made any such declaration. - And you know who's noticed? Donald J. Trump.
Share this story. |     | | | | | | 2. Rapid round on Biden town hall | | President Biden greets attendees during a commercial break in Baltimore last night. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images What matters from President Biden's town hall with CNN's Anderson Cooper at Baltimore Center Stage last night, via Axios night owl Hans Nichols: - The biggest headline: Biden is jettisoning the corporate tax increases that White House officials have insisted, for the past 10 months, are wildly popular across the country. He admitted he doesn't have the votes.
- State of play for social-spending package: Expanding Medicare for dental and vision benefits, a priority for Sen. Bernie Sanders, is a "reach," Biden said, because "Manchin is opposed" ... Twelve weeks of paid family leave — whittled to four weeks ... Two years of free community college is now more Pell Grants: "I guarantee you, we're going to get free community college in the next several years."
- Filibuster: Biden signaled openness to ending the Senate filibuster rule for voting rights legislation "and maybe more" issues.
- Gas prices: "My guess is you'll start to see gas prices come down ... in 2022. I don't see anything that's going to happen in the meantime that's going to significantly reduce gas prices."
- Taiwan: Biden punctured strategic ambiguity on coming to Taiwan's defense if China attacked: "Yes, we have a commitment to do that." A White House spokesperson told me: "The President was not announcing any change in our policy and there is no change in our policy." But Beijing will assume that's the real policy.
Go deeper: Biden on filibuster ... Biden on taxes ... Transcript. | | | | | | | | 3. How smartphones became the best cameras |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | This year's high-end smartphones capture images that would be tough or impossible even with a high-end digital camera, Axios' Ina Fried writes in her weekly column, "Signal Boost." - Traditional cameras have bigger sensors and better lenses. But smartphone cameras — with some models topping out at $1,000+ — are rivaling or surpassing them by tapping computational power.
The iPhone 13 Pro, released last month, has extra zoom and macro capabilities + better overall image capture. (Here are some examples.) Google's Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro promise their own jaw-dropping tricks, including the ability to capture long exposures without a tripod, and to add motion to an otherwise dull scene. - An editing feature, "smart eraser," even lets you remove the person or backpack that got in the way of that otherwise gorgeous photo.
- Like Snapchat, Google has also been working to undo the racist legacy of photography by tuning the camera to better capture a wide range of skin tones.
What's happening: By passing data from multiple lenses and multiple exposures through high-end processors, today's phones can create stunning portraits, freeze fast-moving action, make sunsets and fireworks a snap — and even change the focus after a portrait is taken. - Low-light capture has gotten so good that smartphones can make night seem like day, or illuminate an almost dark room.
- There are still things that a smartphone camera can't do that well. Zooming in on a distant subject is one.
Ina writes that if she really wants to capture a moment, she brings both the latest smartphone and her Canon DSLR. At the Tokyo Olympics this summer, the phone was great at capturing wide shots. The Canon and a big zoom lens were key for getting in close on the action. - The same goes for Harvey's soccer games — although neither the smartphone nor the Canon seems to be able to help his team's offense.
Share this column. | | | | | | | | A message from Facebook | | Why Facebook supports updated internet regulations | | |  | | | | Jack is one of 40,000 people working on safety and security issues at Facebook. Hear more from Jack on why Facebook supports updating regulations on the internet's most pressing challenges, including content moderation. | | | | | | 4. Portrait of power | | Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell joined Justice Clarence Thomas at the Heritage Foundation last night to mark the 30th anniversary of the justice's confirmation to the high court on Oct. 15, 1991. 🎻 A funny story ... Thomas spoke of his friendship with the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who shared a love of classical music, Reuters reports. - "He invited me to go to the Kennedy Center," Thomas recalled. "He said: 'Clarence, you like classical music.' I said: 'Oh, I sure do. ... [B]ut I don't like people who like classical music.'"
| | | | | | | | 5. Facing scandals, Fed adds guardrails | | With the Fed seal on his mask, Chairman Jerome Powell leaves a Capitol Hill meeting Oct. 6. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images Following trading scandals, Federal Reserve officials and senior staff will be banned from owning individual stocks and bonds, Axios Closer author Courtenay Brown writes for AM. - Why it matters: The historic rule puts guardrails around powerful officials reaping financial gains from economic policy they help set.
Catch up quick: Two (now former) regional Fed presidents owned assets sensitive to monetary policy last year when the Fed stepped in with unprecedented action, financial disclosures showed. - That didn't just spark an uproar in Washington. The Fed, which has underpinned the stock boom, has seeped into the mainstream.
- "Money printer go brrr" — a reference to trillions of dollars the Fed "printed" and pumped into the economy — is a mantra among day-traders on Reddit, where chair Jerome Powell is known as "JPow."
What to watch: Critics say the new rules don't do enough. | | | | | | | | 6. Nine Rs risk it all with Bannon vote |  | | | Graphic: MSNBC | | | | Nine House Republicans defied the party whip to vote to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress, opening the door to potential primary challengers and public attacks from former President Trump. - Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), a surprise "yes" who didn't vote for impeachment or the Jan. 6 commission, told reporters she wanted to protect Congress' subpoena power to investigate the Biden administration in case Republicans win the House next year.
Keep reading. | | | | | | | | 7. 🎥 Tragedy on the set |  | | | Aerial video shows Santa Fe County Sheriff's officers responding to a movie set at Bonanza Creek near Santa Fe, N.M., yesterday. Photo: KOAT 7 News via AP | | | | Alec Baldwin — while producing and starring in a Western that was filming in the desert outside Santa Fe, N.M. — discharged a prop firearm that killed the cinematographer and wounded the director. - Baldwin, 63, was seen outside sheriff's HQ distraught and in tears while on the phone, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports.
- A spokesperson for Baldwin told AP there was an accident on the set involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks.
Santa Fe County Sheriff's officials said Halyna Hutchins, cinematographer on the movie "Rust," and director Joel Souza were shot on the rustic set for the film, which is set in 1880s Kansas. - Hutchins, 42, was airlifted to University of New Mexico Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
- Souza, 48, was taken by ambulance to another hospital, where he's being treated.
Read the full story. | | | | | | | | 8. 📷 Parting shot | | Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images During the Miami Heat season opener, P.J. Tucker flips over the bench as he attempts to save a loose ball on the way to an easy 137-95 victory over the NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks in Miami last night. | | | | | | | | A message from Facebook | | Facebook's industry-leading investments are stopping bad actors | | |  | | | | We've invested $13 billion in teams and technology over the last 5 years to enhance safety. It's working: In just the past few months, we took down 1.7 billion fake accounts to stop bad actors from doing harm. But there's more to do. Learn more about how we're working to help you connect safely. | | | | 📬 Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here for your own copy of Axios AM and Axios PM. |  | | It'll help you deliver employee communications more effectively. | | | |
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