| | | | | | | Presented By Facebook | | | | Axios Sneak Peek | | By the Axios Politics team · Apr 20, 2022 | | Welcome back to Sneak. ⚡Situational awareness: "Capitol briefly evacuated after 'aircraft intrusion,'" Axios' Andrew Solender wrote tonight. Smart Brevity™ count: 998 words ... 4 minutes. Edited by Glen Johnson. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Ukraine's Western wake-up call |  | | | Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) hosts Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu on Monday. Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Pool/AFP via Getty Images | | | | The war in Ukraine has awakened the U.S. and EU to the reality that engagement with former Soviet and Eastern Bloc states can't continue at the "snail's speed" of the past three decades, Moldova's Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu tells Axios' Zachary Basu. Why it matters: Russia's invasion has triggered a flood of refugees throughout Eastern Europe. Many former Soviet states like Moldova have trended westward and bent toward democracy — but also been left dangling over the prospect of EU membership and NATO protection. - In the case of Moldova, a tiny landlocked country wedged between Ukraine and Romania, already an EU and NATO member, it's become home to about 100,000 of the 400,000 refugees who've fled Ukraine.
- Those refugees now account for 3.5% of Moldova's population, and 10% of its youth.
- That affects "every single little piece of the functioning of Moldova's state and society," Popescu says.
But, but, but: Russian troops already occupy Transnistria, an unrecognized breakaway state internationally recognized as part of Moldova. - Moldova also is 100% reliant on Russian gas.
- Those additional factors help make it the "single-most fragile neighbor of Ukraine," Popescu said Tuesday during a roundtable organized by the German Marshall Fund.
Between the lines: Moldova-EU engagement on future membership was virtually nonexistent before the war. - States up and down the nearby Balkan Peninsula have been in a similar limbo.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and, now, Ukraine, have formally expressed their NATO membership aspirations.
- A week after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Moldova also formally applied to join the EU.
Keep reading. |     | | | | | | 2. Herschel Walker is a unicorn |  | | | Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios | | | | Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump haven't talked since December 2020. But Herschel Walker — the former football star with a troubled past who's the Republican front-runner in Georgia's Senate race — talks weekly with both. Why it matters: Walker is one of two non-incumbent candidates nationwide endorsed by both the Senate minority leader and the former president. (The other is Adam Laxalt in Nevada.) Walker's path offers an attractive-but-elusive model for Republican candidates navigating midterm campaigns under Trump's long shadow, write Emma Hurt, the co-author of Axios Atlanta, and Axios' Alayna Treene. Driving the news: "I don't dance and sing for nobody," Walker told Axios during an interview Monday on the campaign trail in LaGrange, Georgia. He also said: "I'm here to get elected, to worry about the people and not about President Trump, not about Mitch McConnell." - Walker, who's Black, stumped to a mostly white audience in LaGrange.
- The majority-minority city of 30,000 people is about an hour southwest of Atlanta.
What we're hearing: Republicans say having McConnell's backing — as well as Trump's — gives Walker the strongest setup in a general election, if he advances to challenge Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock. - Other Trump-backed GOP Senate candidates, including Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Rep. Ted Budd in North Carolina, have yet to receive McConnell's support.
- A few Republican Senate primary candidates courting Trump's favor, including Mo Brooks in Alabama, Eric Greitens in Missouri and Kelly Tshibaka in Alaska, have even pledged to oust McConnell from his leadership role if they're elected.
- Though Walker said he speaks weekly with both Trump and McConnell, he also dismissed the notion those dynamics were impacting his strategy.
Keep reading. 🎯 Go Local! You can subscribe to Axios Atlanta or any of our growing stable of Axios Local sites through this link. | | | | | | | | 3. By the numbers: Dems take battleground leads in Q1 fundraising |  Data: ProPublica FEC Itemizer; Chart: Simran Parwani/Axios Both incumbent and non-incumbent Democratic candidates are outraising their Republican counterparts in battleground Senate races, according to new campaign finance reports for the first quarter reviewed by Axios' Sarah Mucha. Why it matters: Democrats face a difficult midterm season in November. The new filings indicate their best hope: an electorate that's energized — even if on both sides — by the high stakes of races that will decide control of Congress. Details: Senate Democratic incumbents continue to post record-breaking hauls. - Sens. Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Mark Kelly of Arizona had the highest tallies among the group.
- While raising far less cash than their two fellow Democrats, Sens. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada were significantly ahead of their Republican opponents.
Between the lines: Many of the Republican candidates are self-funded — significantly. - While Mehmet Oz, a Republican candidate in Pennsylvania who recently received President Trump's endorsement, raised $7.8 million in Q1, some $5.85 million was his own money.
- The same for Dave McCormick, Oz's primary opponent. Of the $11.3 million he raised, nearly $7 million came from his own contributions.
Keep reading. | | | | | | | | A message from Facebook | | Facebook has invested $16 billion to keep you safe on our platform | | |  | | | | Facebook invested $16B in safety and security over 6 years. The impact? - Quadrupled safety and security teams.
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Learn what's next. | | | | | | 4. Worthy of your time |  | | | Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee talks to reporters after U.S. Secret Service officers shot and killed a person who had trespassed at the Peruvian Embassy. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | | | | 🍽️ President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will attend the White House Correspondents' Dinner this year, the WHCA announced — the first time a president will have attended the annual event since the Obama administration. It's set for April 30, Andrew also wrote in tonight's Sneak roundup. 📄 A memo being circulated by Faiz Shakir, an adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), tells allies the 80-year-old senator "has not ruled out" a third bid for the presidency if Biden, age 79, chooses not to run again, according to the Washington Post. 💵 A GOP-aligned nonprofit group is steering half a million dollars to its new super PAC as part of a plan to use "substantial" amounts of undisclosed funding to go after Democrats in key midterm races, Axios' Lachlan Markay reports. 💨 Donald Trump walked out of an interview with Piers Morgan after Morgan said he hasn't produced "hard evidence" for his claims the 2020 election was stolen. That prompted Trump to demand the production crew "turn the cameras off" and label Morgan "very dishonest," before storming off. 🍁 Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a U.S. Senate candidate and staunch advocate for marijuana legalization, encouraged supporters to sign up for his campaign texts by tweeting, "Text WEED to 30200 for a 4/20 special 👀" | | | | | | | | 5. Pic du jour |  | | | Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images | | | | President Biden met with the nation's senior military members, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and combatant commanders in the Cabinet Room. - The president discussed Ukraine and other hotspots, before hosting the group and their spouses for dinner.
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