| | | | |  | | By Elana Schor | With additional reporting from Ari Hawkins
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President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) share a laugh at the annual Friends of Ireland Luncheon on St. Patrick's Day. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images | REALITY BITES — Get two people alone together, away from all the pressures and distractions of the outside world, and you can make a lasting breakthrough. That, in a nutshell, is the pleasant theory behind the hit Netflix show “Love is Blind.” It also happens to be the core assumption behind many a high-stakes congressional negotiation. Consider the blunt request that Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently sent President Joe Biden, pushing “to set a date for” a sit down to discuss the looming debt limit crisis. A cynic might say that McCarthy’s request for a meeting was just political theater – but it reflected the subconscious conditioning of Hill leaders and presidents, chiefly those from opposing parties, to view a face-to-face encounter as deeply valuable to progress. Much like in “Love is Blind,” where couples treat every one of their dates in their intimate “pods” as momentous beyond measure. The reality, though, is far more complicated than the anticipation and drama of an Oval Office meeting or a barrier-separated date. Recall that Biden and McCarthy’s first meeting on the need to raise the nation’s borrowing ceiling ended with sanitized declarations from both sides about a “frank and straightforward dialogue” that “we would continue.” Not exactly the sort of progress that a “Love is Blind” couple would gush about after leaving their one-on-one dates. Of course, not every Congress-White House pod date is a one-on-one – and not all of them are as placid as February’s first Biden-McCarthy sitdown. Insults and walkouts ended three separate White House meetings that former President Donald Trump convened with congressional Democratic leaders after Nancy Pelosi regained the House speaker’s gavel in 2018. Former President Barack Obama and then-GOP Speaker John Boehner held their own series of high-stakes meetings that ran the friendly-to-frosty gamut on issues from gun investigations to fiscal policy. But the same flawed logic that drives “Love is Blind” — making the show so chaotic and compelling to watch — also underpins most White House-Congress talks that happen from opposite sides of the aisle. The journey out of the pods and into their ostensibly regular routines puts enormous stress on the show’s contestants, whose romantic bubbles are frequently burst by skeptical family and friends. Even the handful of couples whose relationships have survived the reality-show whirlwind openly acknowledge that the rosiness of the first meetings faded somewhat thanks to the pressures of the outside world. And so it will go with the debt limit this year. Whatever Biden and McCarthy may be able to agree on to avoid a disastrous default on the nation’s debt — should the two meet again face to face — is unlikely to survive the snake-pit fractiousness of a House Republican conference where finger-pointing is now consuming the upper ranks. McCarthy is currently in an intractable situation, still unable to craft a fiscal blueprint or suggested cuts for Biden that might unite his party, and the president has no reason to give him a pass. So the two leaders might as well skip the White House pod date, because the next phase of the reality show has officially begun. Let’s call this episode the political equivalent of raising doubts before they reach the altar of a floor vote. (Or two, or three … the House might have to try and fail at a few debt limit solutions before summer). Too bad the president and the speaker won’t get a “Love is Blind”-esque Mexican beach trip. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at eschor@politico.com or on Twitter at @eschor.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | | — Texas judge halts FDA approval of abortion pill: A Texas federal judge ruled today to suspend the FDA’s approval of mifepristone — one of two drugs used together to cause an abortion — virtually banning the sale of the pills across the country. The decision, however, gives the Biden administration a week to appeal. — Justice Clarence Thomas defends ‘family trips’ with GOP donor: Thomas today defended the “family trips” he accepted from a Republican megadonor but did not include in financial disclosures. “Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable,” Thomas said in his first statement since ProPublica published a report Thursday detailing the years of luxury vacations he went on. “I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.” — Appeals court ruling puts hundreds of Jan. 6 felony cases in limbo: Hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants facing obstruction charges — one of the most commonly charged felonies against those who breached the building or confronted police that day — are suddenly in limbo, following a divided appeals court ruling today. The three-judge panel spared the Justice Department an immediate disaster by agreeing to permit three challenged Jan. 6 obstruction cases to continue. But the judges — one liberal and two conservatives — all raised serious questions about whether other Jan. 6 obstruction cases might face legitimate challenges.
| | THREE QUESTIONS WITH… Celinda Lake, a veteran Democratic strategist and pollster for the Biden campaign in 2020, who founded Lake Research Partners which supports left-leaning candidates and causes. What is the single most important factor, or issue, or force that will determine the fate of Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign? The direction of the economy. Not even the absolute level but whether people think it is improving or not for them at their kitchen tables. And then the negatives of the Republican nominee. Recent elections have shown that Biden and the Democrats are very able to frame these as a choice rather than a referendum. The same will apply in 2024. Do you expect issues of crime and police funding will play a central role in the 2024 presidential campaign? What other issues will be the most important? Republicans will try to use crime and police funding as a wedge issue. However, economy, abortion, effectiveness, and divisiveness will be far bigger issues. Democrats have been facing the crime and police attack and handling it well. Look at Biden in 2020 and the Democratic Attorneys General in 2022. Voters are eager to talk about a broader crime message that includes guns, violence intervention, and dealing with the root causes of crime. Voters want to go beyond scare tactics to solutions and safety. Which Republican candidate would be easiest — and most difficult — for Biden to run against in the 2024 race? Trump is the easiest to beat and Biden did it already. Haley is the hardest to beat but she doesn’t have a prayer of getting the nomination. Look to 2028 to a Harris/Haley contest and we finally get our first woman president!
| | BLACK SEA BLOCKADE — Poland will temporarily stop all imports of grain from Ukraine, the two countries’ governments announced earlier today, writes Bartosz Brzezinski. The measure comes after a meeting earlier in the day between Poland’s new Agriculture Minister Robert Telus, who took office Thursday, with his Ukrainian counterpart Mykola Solskyi at a border crossing between the two countries. Following Russia’s invasion, Ukraine was forced to divert around half of its exports from the blocked Black Sea ports into Poland, Hungary, Romania and other border countries. The move, facilitated by the European Commission and EU countries, was meant to throw an economic lifeline to Ukraine, one of the world’s largest agricultural producers, and ensure its exports could reach global markets. But, instead of leaving the EU’s eastern member countries, much of the produce has instead flooded local markets. Earlier this week, Telus’ predecessor, Henryk Kowalczyk, resigned amid mass farmers’ protests over the issue. Romania and Bulgaria have seen similar waves of unrest, with farmers staging demonstrations in the capitals and blocking border crossings.
|  Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is escorted by officers from the Lefortovsky court to a bus in Moscow, Russia. | Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo | FORMALLY CHARGED — Jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been charged with espionage in Russia and has entered a formal denial, two Russian news agencies reported earlier today. The state news agency Tass and the Interfax news agency said a law enforcement source informed them that Russia’s Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, had officially charged the American journalist. In the Russian legal system, the filing of charges and a response from the accused represent the formal start of a criminal probe, initiating what could be a long and secretive Russian judicial process.
| | | | GO INSIDE THE 2023 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is proud to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage, insider nuggets and unparalleled insights from the 2023 Global Conference, which will convene leaders in health, finance, politics, philanthropy and entertainment from April 30-May 3. This year’s theme, Advancing a Thriving World, will challenge and inspire attendees to lean into building an optimistic coalition capable of tackling the issues and inequities we collectively face. Don’t miss a thing — subscribe today for a front row seat. | | | | | | | | | | 236,000 The number of jobs the U.S. added in March, reflecting a resilient labor market and suggesting that the Federal Reserve may see the need to keep raising interest rates in the coming months. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent, not far above the 53-year low of 3.4 percent set in January. | | | | A NEW KIND OF TRASH BIN — Compost bins are popping up in cities around the country, as local governments think more holistically about how to deal with food waste. But where does all of that compost go, and how have waste management employees had to adapt to deal with this new kind of trash? In New York City, one-third of all residential trash — around 4,000 tons daily — is food or yard waste that could end up away from landfills and go right back into the earth. Today, only a small fraction of that waste actually ends up composted. But it’s changing quickly. Clio Chang reports for Curbed, complete with evocative photos of growing compost piles.
| | |  Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) speaks during a news conference to support TikTok. | Alex Wong/Getty Images | TIKTOK’S DEFENDERS — As Congress debates whether TikTok should be banned, restricted or sold to an American company, a growing number of lawmakers are working to protect the popular short form video app from the cutting room floor. The push to save TikTok was kicked off by Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) who said calls for a flat-out ban were fueled by anti-China “hysteria” and defended the app as a tool to reach the younger generation — TikTok has 150 million users in the U.S., many of whom are under age 25. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), the only member of Congress from Gen-Z, also said he does not support “unilaterally” banning the app. And Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) called the line of questioning toward TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew during last month’s hearing “cringeworthy,” arguing his colleagues showed their ignorance of social media and technology. Today, more than two dozen Congressional Democrats are active on TikTok, and even Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) recently blocked a bid to fast track a ban in the Senate, citing concerns over free speech. Still, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed serious reservations over the app’s potential risks to national security and mental health. President Biden said TikTok may face a ban if not sold to an American company amid concerns the app, which is owned by China-headquartered ByteDance, may be compelled to deliver sensitive user information to the Chinese government. To learn more about how TikTok is dividing Congress, Nightly’s Ari Hawkins spoke to Pocan, an early defender of the app in the House, who serves Wisconsin’s second district. This interview has been edited. Is there a dissonance between what you hear on the Hill and constituents you talk to about the role of TikTok? Absolutely. I think almost the only calls and contacts we get are from people who are saying “don’t ban TikTok” because, people use it in various ways for entertainment, and we’re not seeing, you know, Chinese Communist propaganda pushed on us or anything else because, we [don’t] think that occurs. The average person is just looking at [TikTok] for what it is, and I think the average member of Congress, not only doesn’t know what TikTok is, but doesn’t have an especially strong grasp on technology in general. And because of it, you can see some of the cringeworthy moments that Congress had when there was a hearing on the platform. What should the Biden administration do — if anything — to regulate TikTok? What’s an appropriate response that acknowledges concerns over mental health and national security? Yeah, I mean, if there actually is a national security issue, let us know. And let’s address that. I think TikTok itself is trying to figure out a way to provide some extra confidence through how American data is held, and, you know, we should be doing everything we can to make sure that can move forward, to help provide extra assurances. But simply banning an entire platform because of the country it’s based in, without actual evidence, tells me maybe we shouldn’t be doing anything super directly, other than looking at this issue holistically. And let’s protect everyone’s data, no matter what social media platform they’re on. I would love to see the administration and Congress do much more around that. Do you believe that TikTok presents a threat to national security? No one’s given us any reason to believe that yet. I think I read that one of the states that was looking at banning TikTok asked for any evidence that, you know, the Chinese government is misusing the data, and they weren’t given anything, and we haven’t had a briefing on it like we normally would if there’s a national security threat. I think a lot of this is just reading very broadly into Chinese law and Chinese companies. But you could just as easily read that same interpretation into any cloud based companies based in China, [and] the fact that our phones and computers are largely made in China. There could be a lot of other concerns if we were really being consistent. So it does seem easier to say [this] foreign owned social media platform is the problem. I think it’s harder for people to accept the big issue, which is it’s not just a single platform that’s the problem. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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