News: How Mike Johnson’s cash haul stacks up

Thursday, April 11, 2024

How Mike Johnson’s cash haul stacks up

Apr 11, 2024

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THE CATCH-UP

AWKWARD MOMENT — In the L.A. Times’ obituary for O.J. SIMPSON, a paragraph toward the end of the story inadvertently replaced Simpson’s name with DONALD TRUMP’s. See the slip-up

House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol.

Speaker Mike Johnson announced his first quarter fundraising figures — a closely watched number given the success of his predecessor. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

CASH DASH — Speaker MIKE JOHNSON brought in more than $20 million in fundraising during the first quarter of 2024, our colleague Olivia Beavers scooped.

“The Louisiana Republican has worked aggressively to meet high expectations of him on the fundraising circuit, and his high intake during his first full quarter in the job indicates success breaking through with high-dollars donors his party needs to hang onto the House majority this fall. So far, Johnson has traveled to more than 20 states for fundraising and campaigning with GOP candidates since he won the gavel in October, according to his office.”

For context: Johnson’s intake might have been high, but former Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY’s was higher: McCarthy brought in $35 million in Q1 of 2023 and $31.5 million in Q1 of 2022, per Fox News.

Johnson, new to the big leagues, obviously had some ramping up to do, but the new numbers would seem to validate concerns that he’d be hard-pressed to match his predecessor’s formidable fundraising abilities.

THE 702 4-1-1 — As Johnson searches for a path forward on a procedural vote teeing up a reauthorization of controversial spy powers, Rep. JIM HIMES (D-Conn.) may be offering a glimmer of hope.

Himes said that the idea of Democrats helping Republicans bring the so-called Section 702 legislation to the floor came up “in a casual way” with Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES yesterday, our colleague Nicholas Wu reports. But Himes added: “If the Republicans want help on the rule, they need to go to talk to Hakeem and Hakeem is a ‘get it done’ kind of guy, so I know he’ll listen.”

“Not all in the party agree, with lawmakers debating their course of action on the bill itself in a closed-door leadership meeting Thursday morning,” Nick writes. “Another option for Johnson would be to pass the bill under suspension, bypassing the rule with a two-thirds majority vote, but it's not clear if enough Democrats would support the bill itself to do so.

“‘It’s the majority’s job to pass rules,’ said JERRY NADLER (D-N.Y.), the top Judiciary Democrat. ‘And I don’t like the bill as is anyway.’”

SMART ONE — “Republicans remade the judiciary. It’s haunting Donald Trump,” by Megan Messerly: “The former president is reckoning with high court rulings in Alabama, Florida and, most recently, Arizona, which have kept abortion and reproductive health care in the spotlight when he and much of the GOP would rather be talking about inflation or the border. Taken together, they underscore the difficulty Trump and his campaign have in controlling a narrative that at any minute can be redefined by any judge in America.”

Good Thursday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at gross@politico.com.

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6 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

President Joe Biden attends a reception celebrating Greek Independence Day in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, April 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Joe Biden's standing with Black voters is a major focus of the 2024 race. | Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo

1. DEMO DIVE: There has been no shortage of coverage about President JOE BIDEN’s slipping support among Black voters, who were a critical bloc for his victory in 2020 and promise to be equally as important this year. Recent polling from WSJ offers the latest warning sign: “More Black men said they plan to back Donald Trump this fall, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll of seven swing states,” report WSJ’s Cameron McWhirter in Atlanta, Joe Barrett in Milwaukee and Joshua Jamerson in Washington.

The details: “While most Black men said they intend to support Biden, some 30% of them in the poll said they were either definitely or probably going to vote for the former Republican president. There isn’t comparable WSJ swing-state polling from 2020, but Trump received votes from 12% of Black men nationwide that year, as recorded by AP VoteCast, a large poll of the electorate. In the WSJ poll, 11% of Black women said they were either definitely or probably going to vote for Trump. In 2020, the AP poll found, 6% of Black women nationwide backed Trump.”

2. THE ECONOMIC EQUATION: Toward the end of 2023, the state of the economy looked poised for a “fairy-tale ending” with cooling inflation and moderate growth in connection with the Fed’s interest rate hikes, NYT’s Jeanna Smialek writes. But now? Not so much: “Instead of the ‘soft landing’ that many economists thought was underway — a situation in which inflation slows as growth gently calms without a painful recession — analysts are increasingly wary that America's economy is not landing at all. Rather than settling down, the economy appears to be booming as prices continue to climb more quickly than usual.

“A ‘no landing’ outcome might feel pretty good to the typical American household. Inflation is nowhere near as high as it was at its peak in 2022, wages are climbing and jobs are plentiful. But it would cause problems for the Federal Reserve, which has been determined to wrestle price increases back to their 2 percent target, a slow and steady pace that the Fed thinks is consistent with price stability.”

The view from Biden world: While inflation has settled as the most nagging issue for the president and his reelection effort, “for now, officials said, Biden and his senior aides aren’t planning any major policy or rhetorical shifts,” WSJ’s Andrew Restuccia and Sam Goldfarb report. “They plan to continue talking about the president’s proposals to lower the cost of housing and prescription drugs, while slashing student-loan debt and eliminating surcharges tacked on to everything from concert tickets to banking services.”

3. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: USAID Administrator SAMANTHA POWER “said that a famine is underway in northern Gaza, which has been devastated by six months of Israeli military operations and is the part of the territory most cut off from aid,” NYT’s Liam Stack reports, noting that Power becomes “the first senior American official to say publicly that famine has begun in the Gaza Strip, where aid agencies and global experts have warned for months that nearly all 2.2 million Palestinians would soon face extreme hunger.”

On the ground: “More trucks are getting into Gaza, but delays at border are hindering distribution,” by Erin Banco and Alexander Ward: “Since Sunday, about 400 assistance-carrying trucks a day have entered the enclave from Egypt, the largest number since Israel began its counteroffensive against Hamas in October, according to Israeli government figures. But aid groups are still having difficulty accessing that aid, which is pooled in a restricted area on the Gazan side of the border overseen by Israel for vetting.”

The stark human toll: “Hamas May Not Have Enough Living Hostages for Cease-Fire Deal,” by WSJ’s Summer Said, Nancy Youssef and Jared Malsin: “A Hamas official said the group wouldn’t commit to releasing 40 living hostages but could commit to 40 hostages total, which could mean dead or alive.”

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4. ALL THE (FUTURE?) PRESIDENT’S MEN: With a return to the White House for Trump looking all the more possible, diplomats from Europe are now “frantically working to set up meetings with allies” of the former president, CNN’s Kylie Atwood reports. “At face-to-face sit-downs in private DC clubs, hotels, embassies and think tanks around town, diplomats are asking questions about Trump’s policy intentions and his possible personnel choices, and sending notes back to their European capitals where officials are hungry for any insights as they work to set up guard rails for NATO and try to ensure lasting support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.”

The names to know: “As ambassadors and diplomatic staffers jostle to make contact with those who might know what Trump is planning, informal lists of some former high-ranking Trump officials are floating around embassies, including former Director of National Intelligence JOHN RATCLIFFE, Secretary of State MIKE POMPEO, National Security Adviser ROBERT O’BRIEN, and KEITH KELLOGG, former Vice President MIKE PENCE’s top national security adviser.”

5. THE JAN. 6 BABIES: House candidates like HARRY DUNN and YEVGENY VINDMAN are testing the limits of the lasting impact of the “save democracy” messaging among Democrats after playing prominent roles in and after the Trump years, NYT’s Jonathan Weisman reports. “The celebrity-candidate factor has allowed the ‘save democracy’ candidates to raise so much money nationally that these less-experienced Democrats will dominate the airwaves. But with issues like abortion, guns, inflation and immigration competing for attention, their victories are not guaranteed — even in Democratic primaries where a threat to democracy will be a key issue in a year with Mr. Trump on the ballot.”

6. IMMIGRATION FILES: “24 Hours at a Makeshift Refuge for Migrants in the California Wilderness,” by NYT’s Emily Baumgaertner: “At this site and others along the border, migrants have waited for hours or sometimes days to be taken into custody, and a Federal District Court judge ruled last week that the Border Patrol must move ‘expeditiously’ to get children into safe and sanitary shelters. But unlike outdoor waiting areas that had arisen in more populated areas, [22-year-old PETER] FINK’s site had no aid tents or medical volunteers, no dumpsters or port-a-potties — just a hole that he had dug as a communal toilet, and Mr. Fink himself.”

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PLAYBOOKERS

Alexei Navalny has a posthumous memoir on the way.

Jill Biden’s state dinner dress was a “slight pivot in her sartorial strategy,” WaPo’s fashion writer notes.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson was on the Hill today to meet with Chuck Schumer.

OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at Blue Star Families’ “Do Your Part” reception at the Willard Hotel: Kathy Roth-Douquet, Craig Newmark, Gwen Bingham, Tanya Bradsher, Brian Whiting, Kevin Cirilli, Steve Clemons, Meagan Whalen, Holly Page, Catherine Valentine, Elise Labott, Ameshia Cross, Julia Manchester, Christine Baratta, Roger Fisk and Tom Reed.

— SPOTTED last night at Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s (D-Texas) birthday celebration near Capitol Hill at the UPS Townhouse: Reps. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), Don Davis (D-N.C.), Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.), Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), Emilia Sykes (D-Ohio), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.), Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Rob Menendez (D-N.J.), Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Shontel Brown (D-Ohio), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.), Stacey Plaskett (D-V.I.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Marc Veasey (D-Texas), Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), Jennifer Stewart and Kamau Marshall. Pic

— The Congressional Financial Literacy and Wealth Creation Caucus, Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, Electronics Transactions Association and Visa Inc. hosted a reception on empowering communities through financial literacy yesterday evening, where FLWC Caucus co-chairs Reps. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) and Young Kim (R-Calif.) both delivered remarks. SPOTTED: Jodie Kelley, Scott Talbot, John Monsif, Worku Gachou, Ida Rademacher, Sierra DeSousa, Alex Cisneros and Will May.

— SPOTTED at a party last night for former Rep. Jody Hice’s (R-Ga.) new book “Sacred Trust: Election Integrity and the Will of the People” ($25.62) at the Family Research Council: Reps. Bob Good (R-Va.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Michael Cloud (R-Texas) and Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), Jenn Pellegrino, Blake Ruppe, Tim Reitz, Sarah Selip, AJ Swinson, Miranda Dabney, Bradley Jaye, Andrew Shirley and Josh Brecheen.

— SPOTTED this morning at the Chamber of Mothers power breakfast at the Library of Congress discussing the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act: Reps. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), Judee Ann Williams, Sunlen Serfaty, Erin Erenberg, Lauren Smith Brody and Samantha Vinograd.

— SPOTTED last night at the D.C. offices of Arnold Ventures for rooftop cocktails for a Second Chance Month celebration to promote common sense criminal justice reform solutions: Reps Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), Laurel Lee (R-Fla.), Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) and Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), Kevin Ring, Sam Mar, Julie James, Jennifer Doleac, James Williams, Ja’Ron Smith, Timothy Head, Patrick Purtill, Daniel Landsman, John Malcolm, Grover Norquist, Holly Harris, Carrie Glenn, Cortland Broyles, Douglas Heye, Shanti Stanton, Tim Hannegan, Gracey Roskam and Jon Reinish.

— SPOTTED at reception yesterday hosted by Forward Global for the Texas Association of Business and the North Texas Commission during their annual fly-in: Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), Glenn Hamer, Massey Villarreal, Chris Wallace, John Rogers and Keith Graff.

WEEKEND WEDDING — Gabriella Bucci, VP of comms at AxAdvocacy, and Zach Imel, director of external data at the RNC, got married this weekend at St. Mary’s Church in Pittsburgh, followed by a reception at Oakmont Country Club. They met in 2021 while both working at the RNC. Pic

BONUS BIRTHDAY: Emily Kassner-Marks of Rep. Robert Garcia’s (D-Calif.) office

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