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| Presented By Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen · Aug 03, 2022 |
| 🐪 Happy Wednesday. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,487 words ... 5½ mins. Edited by Noah Bressner. |
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| 1 big thing — Scoop: '24 GOP hopefuls embrace Trump's purge plan |
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| Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios |
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| Several possible 2024 Republican presidential candidates tell Axios they support former President Trump's plan to make it easier for the president to purge federal workers, Axios' Alayna Treene reports. - Why it matters: Trump's plan to reimpose the executive order known as Schedule F, detailed in an Axios series by Jonathan Swan, could be carried out by the next GOP president — even if Trump doesn't run or win. It's a huge sign of how much he's changed the party.
What's happening: Democrats are sounding the alarm about the power — and willingness — of a Republican president to reshape government by replacing thousands of civil servants with White House loyalists. - Six Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), introduced legislation yesterday to "secure the civil service" and protect career officials against future efforts to reimpose the controversial Trump order, which was rescinded by President Biden at the start of his term.
- Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who chairs the subcommittee overseeing the civil service, last week published an op-ed in The Washington Post calling on Congress to act. He has sought to amend this year's defense bill to prevent a future president from resurrecting Schedule F.
🖼️ The big picture: The moves follow publication last month of Swan's series detailing how allies of the former president are already plotting the return of Schedule F in 2025 if Trump is re-elected. - The Schedule F impact could go well beyond typical conservative targets — the EPA and IRS — and also touch the Justice Department, FBI, State Department and Pentagon.
🔭 Zoom in: Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told Axios they support using a measure like Schedule F to reform the federal bureaucracy. - Pompeo said: "Schedule F was a step in the right direction: We need to do more to hold the D.C. bureaucracy accountable. Great employees need to be rewarded and underperformers shown the door."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wouldn't comment on Schedule F specifically. But they showed openness to the approach, and told Axios they think more needs to be done to hold career officials accountable. - Former Vice President Mike Pence, former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) declined to comment.
A dissenting voice: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who has openly opposed another Trump term. - "This is another unneeded distraction ahead of a critically important election," Hogan told Axios. "While Americans are hurting, Republicans should be talking about reducing the cost of living, ... not harkening back to the dark days of the end of 2020."
Share this story ... Swan's "Inside Trump '25" series: Part 1 ... Part 2 ... Schedule F explainer. |
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| 2. Kanas overwhelmingly backs abortion rights |
| A primary watch party in Overland Park, Kan., as the measure goes down. Photo: Tammy Ljungblad/The Kansas City Star via AP Voters in Kansas, one of the nation's most conservative states, voted resoundingly to protect abortion rights. They rejected an amendment that would have stripped abortion protections from the state's constitution, Axios' Oriana Gonzalez reports. - Why it matters: It's the first time since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade that U.S. voters have cast ballots on abortion.
Between the lines: The decisive margin — 18 points (59% to 41%) — came as a surprise, the N.Y. Times notes, and reflects voter backlash to the ruling. - "What was striking ... was the degree to which the picture was similar everywhere," The Times writes. "From the bluest counties to the reddest ones, abortion rights performed better than Mr. Biden, and opposition to abortion performed worse than Mr. Trump."
The heavy turnout in the August primary approached what's typical for a fall election for governor. 💭 President Biden said in a statement that the "vote makes clear what we know: the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion." |
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| 3. 🗳️ Trump's ballot revenge |
| Blake Masters celebrates with his wife, Catherine, at an election-night party in Chandler, Ariz. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images Republican voters in five states largely sided with former President Trump in yesterday's primary races. - Why it matters: The backing of Trump's picks — over Republican lawmakers who challenged him — signals GOP voters' continued allegiance to the former president.
In Michigan, first-term Rep. Peter Meijer lost to John Gibbs, a Trump-endorsed political newcomer. - Meijer was one of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach Trump after Jan. 6, and acknowledged it may have been "political suicide."
- The race was one of several in which Democrats meddled on behalf of far-right candidates, believing Gibbs to be a more beatable opponent in November.
Trump's picks in Arizona also won: - Blake Masters, another political newcomer backed by Trump, won the Republican primary for Senate.
- Trump-endorsed Mark Finchem, an unrelenting supporter of 2020 election conspiracy theories, will be the Republican nominee for secretary of state, Arizona's top election official.
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers lost the Republican primary for an open state Senate seat to a Trump-endorsed opponent. - He rose to prominence after testifying in front of the Jan. 6 committee about Trump's attempts to pressure him into overturning his state's vote for President Biden.
In Arizona's gubernatorial race, Trump-backed Kari Lake took a slight lead over Karrin Taylor Robson, who was endorsed by former Vice President Pence. The race remains too close to call. In Missouri, attorney general Eric Schmitt won the state's GOP Senate primary, edging out a 21-candidate field that included former Gov. Eric Greitens. - Trump endorsed "Eric" in a primary field that includes three candidates named "Eric." Both Schmitt and Greitens claimed his backing.
Axios' Margaret Talev, Josh Kraushaar, Andrew Solender and Noah Bressner contributed reporting. |
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| A message from Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids |
| FDA ignoring the law? The latest on synthetic nicotine |
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| Congress set a July 13 deadline for the FDA to protect kids from synthetic nicotine e-cigs. The FDA again failed to act. Flavored, nicotine-loaded products continue to put kids at risk. The takeaway: The FDA must enforce the law and clear the market of these unauthorized products NOW. Read more. |
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| 4. 🇹🇼 Pelosi: U.S. won't abandon Taiwan |
| Speaker Pelosi speaks during a meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen (right) in Taipei today. Photo: Taiwan Presidential Office via AP House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen in Taipei today: "Now more than ever, America's solidarity with Taiwan is crucial." - Pelosi, a longtime China hawk, said the U.S. has made "a bedrock promise to always stand with Taiwan."
Why it matters: The meeting will further infuriate Beijing, which claims Taiwan and rejects any suggestion that the self-governing island as its own country, Axios World author Dave Lawler writes. ⚡ Breaking: This morning ET, Pelosi and five other House members left Taiwan and headed to South Korea — the next stop on an Asia tour that also includes Singapore, Malaysia and Japan. Beijing responded to Pelosi's visit by warning airlines to avoid airspace near Taiwan ahead of live-fire military drills this week — causing officials in Taipei and Tokyo to express alarm. - A Taiwanese official said the planned exercises amounted to "a sea and air blockade."
Pelosi told Tsai: "We are so proud of your leadership — a woman president in one of the freest societies in the world." 🎥 Between the lines: It's significant that video of the Pelosi-Tsai meeting is being published around the world. |
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| 5. First look: Former Treasury secretaries push Manchin bill |
| Sen. Joe Manchin speaks to reporters outside his office in the Hart Senate Office Building yesterday. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Five former Treasury secretaries — including Hank Paulson, who served under President George W. Bush — signed a statement strongly backing the "Inflation Reduction Act" brokered by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). - The others who signed on are Robert Rubin and Larry Summers (President Clinton), Tim Geithner and Jacob Lew (President Obama).
Why it matters: The bipartisan support will help the White House and Democrats push back against the Republican contention that millions of Americans who make under $400,000 a year would see their taxes rise. - Senate votes are expected to begin later this week on the health, climate and tax plan.
Read the statement. |
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| 6. ⚠️ Credit card balances rise at record rate |
 Data: Federal Reserve Bank of New York/Equifax. Chart: Kavya Beheraj/Axios Early in the pandemic, consumers — flush with cash from various COVID stimulus programs — rapidly paid down credit card debt. Now balances are rising quickly, but remain below the all-time high of $930 billion, hit at the end of 2019, Axios' Courtenay Brown writes. - Why it matters: Balances are growing at the quickest pace in decades, reflecting higher prices and more open accounts than ever before.
Keep reading. |
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| 7. 🌐 World's 10 biggest companies |
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| Cover: Fortune |
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| Out this morning ... The Fortune Global 500 — the world's largest corporations, ranked by total revenue for fiscal 2021: - Walmart (U.S. ... No. 1 for ninth straight year)
- Amazon (U.S.)
- State Grid (China)
- China National Petroleum (China)
- Sinopec (China)
- Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia)
- Apple (U.S.)
- Volkswagen (Germany)
- China State Construction Engineering (China)
- CVS Health (U.S.)
🛢️ Saudi Aramco (No. 6) was the world's most profitable company, with $105 billion in earnings. 🇨🇳 For the first time, revenues from Global 500 companies from China (including Taiwan) exceeded revenues from U.S. companies, accounting for 31% of the total, Fortune reports. - China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) has the most companies on the list — 145 — followed by the U.S., with 124. Japan (47) is third.
Explore the list. |
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| 8. 🧅 Not The Onion |
| Zawahiri's militant path surprised neighbors in Cairo suburb - CAIRO (Reuters) — Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, seemed harmless to neighbors when he was a young man growing up in a leafy Cairo suburb.
Keep reading. |
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| A message from Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids |
| FDA leaves kids at risk with synthetic nicotine e-cigs |
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| Congress set a July 13 deadline for the FDA to protect kids from synthetic nicotine e-cigs. But the FDA missed another deadline. Every day these flavored, nicotine-loaded products are sold, our kids stay at risk. FDA: Enforce the law. Clear the market of unauthorized synthetic nicotine products. |
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