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MORNING REPORT

Monday, April 10

by Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch

© Associated Press / George Walker IV | Former Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones, State Rep. Gloria Johnson and former State Rep. Justin Pearson, all Democrats, outside in Nashville on Thursday. Jones and Pearson were expelled from the legislature last week.

This looks like a challenging week for the GOP

President Biden has for months told Americans that "ultra MAGA" Republicans want to end or curb rights when it comes to abortion, gun safety, racial and gender equity, and public education.

Conservatives, unfazed, have affirmed that image during recent events while majorities of voters suggest Republicans may be overreaching with the party's legal and cultural battles.

Tennessee state Republicans last week expelled two Black male Democrats from the legislature because they demonstrated with bullhorns against guns and mass shootings. Meanwhile, a federal judge in Texas wants to end access to an abortion drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration and used by women for more than two decades. Former President Trump, now a criminal defendant while campaigning for the GOP nomination, has made no discernable effort to expand his base despite his party's pursuit in 2024 of independent and suburban female voters.

Axios: GOP's stormy 2024 outlook.
Politico Playbook: The GOP's week of woes.

Today in Tennessee, the Metropolitan Council of Davidson County in Nashville will hold a special meeting to figure out how to fill the seat held by former state Rep. Justin Jones (D), ousted from the state House last week along with former state Rep. Justin Pearson (D) (NewsChannel5 Nashville).

Pearson said he hopes to "get reappointed to serve in the state legislature." Referring to the Shelby County commissioners in Tennessee who have the power to do that, he added, "A lot of them, I know, are upset about the anti-democratic behavior of this White supremacist-led state legislature."

Jones could be returning to the legislature, too. Nashville Mayor John Cooper (D) has expressed his support for him and tweeted that he believes the council will send Jones "right back to continue serving his constituents." Jones told CNN he has "no regrets. I will continue to stand up for my constituents."

CNN: What's next after the expulsions of former legislators Jones and Pearson?
The Hill: Why the ousted Tennessee lawmakers could be back in the statehouse soon.

Vice President Harris, speaking in Nashville after the lawmakers' ouster, complained that democracy and fundamental rights had been upended by conservatives in Tennessee's legislature. Trump trounced Biden in the state in 2020 and the last time Democrats controlled the governorship, House and Senate in Tennessee was 2004.

Democracy says you don't silence the people. You don't stifle the people. You don't turn off their microphones when they are speaking," Harris said. "What is that? That is not a democracy!" (CNN video).

The Hill: Tennessee underscores the role of state legislatures as political battlegrounds.
Vox: A 2022 academic study graded Tennessee at the bottom among 50 states on the health of its democracy.
NBC News: Black Tennessee residents in the districts formerly represented by Jones and Pearson say they're frustrated.

"He's Black, he has our interests at heart, and he gets removed for protesting. That is racial," Angelo Tate, 31, who identifies as a Democrat, told NBC on Friday about Jones's removal from the legislature. "It makes us feel like our choice and our voice is not valued and we seem to be moving backwards politically."

Meanwhile, state battles over legislation to restrict abortion took another turn as a federal judge in Texas moved to block mifepristone, the abortion drug long approved by the FDA, while a federal judge in Washington state, also on Friday, ruled that the FDA must keep medication abortion drugs available in more than a dozen Democratic-led states (The New York Times).

More than half of pregnancies terminated in the U.S. are the result of a combination of pills deemed safe since 2000, not clinical procedures.

The two court decisions mark the most significant abortion-related rulings since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year and already are mobilizing grassroots conservatives and progressives ahead of the high-stakes 2024 elections.

The Justice Department, the FDA and Danco, mifepristone's manufacturer, have appealed the Texas ruling. The clash over the safety of the drug and the federal process that approved mifepristone may work its way to the high court and its conservative majority.

On Sunday, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told CNN that an appeal is underway in the 5th Circuit, adding it is possible the federal government could opt to ignore the judge's ban, as suggested by some Democrats. "Every option is on the table," he said (The Hill).

The Washington Post: The abortion pill's 1992 Supreme Court battle and the woman who started it.
The Hill: Wisconsin Supreme Court race cements abortion as galvanizing issue for Democrats.

The Associated Press: Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey (D) announced Monday he will seek a fourth term in 2024. His decision gives Democrats a boost ahead of a difficult political map. Next year they must defend Senate incumbents in red states such as Montana, Ohio and West Virginia, and in multiple swing states.
The Hill: Senate GOP wants Trump to stay away from 2024 races as his legal woes mount.
The Hill: Former Attorney General William Barr says the U.S. potentially has "very good evidence" Trump obstructed justice in the classified documents case.
The Washington Post: "Not going to be bullied": Why Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis went after Trump, and then retreated.
The Hill: DeSantis to make his 1st public appearance in South Carolina.

Leading the Day

➤ ADMINISTRATION

A cache of dozens of leaked intelligence documents, which appear to have come at least in part from the Pentagon and are marked as highly classified, sent U.S. officials and their foreign allies scrambling this weekend to understand how they ended up on the internet — and stunned at the extraordinary level of detail the files exposed. The Washington Post reports that many of the documents seem to have been prepared over the winter for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and other senior military officials, but made available to other personnel.

The documents detail, among other topics, tactical information about the war in Ukraine — including Kyiv's combat capabilities — and analysis from U.S. intelligence agencies about Russia and several other countries, both allies and adversaries. Further, they include information about where the CIA has recruited human agents who witness closed-door conversations of world leaders and satellite imagery the United States uses to track Russian forces, including a closely-guarded advanced technology called LAPIS (The Washington Post). Analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained, and U.S. officials said the scale of the leak, along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging (The New York Times).

U.S. officials first discovered the leaked information on Twitter, Telegram and 4chan, while the first batch of documents appeared to have been posted in early March on Discord, a social media chat platform popular with video gamers. The Justice Department last week opened an investigation in coordination with the Defense Department while the Pentagon continues to search for those responsible for the leaks (The Hill). U.S. allies, meanwhile, are doing damage assessments, scrambling to determine whether any of their own sources and methods have been compromised by the leak (CNN).

"We expect the US to share a damage assessment with us in the coming days, but we cannot wait for their assessment. Right now we are doing our own," an official from a country that is part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement with the U.S., which includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, told CNN. "We are poring over these documents to figure out if any of the intelligence originated from our collection."

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. pushes to assess damage from leak of purported files on war in Ukraine.
The Hill: Ukraine suggests Russia altered leaked U.S. intelligence documents for disinformation purposes.
The Washington Post: Russia nearly shot down British spy plane near Ukraine, leaked document says.
The Hill: Leaked documents detail dire assessments of Ukrainian army: reports.

➤ CONGRESS

Republicans in Montana are trying to change the rules for next year's Senate primary to make it easier to defeat Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and win back the Senate majority, The Hill's Al Weaver reports. But state Democrats believe the bill, which passed the state Senate earlier in the week and is expected to be approved by the Montana House, is nothing more than a desperate and last-gasp attempt and the brainchild of Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The new legislation would change the structure of the election from the usual primary system to a jungle primary in an attempt to exclude libertarians from being on the November ballot and give Republicans a leg up against the three-term Senate Democrat.

"It seems like a Hail Mary throw. Throw it deep and see if they can get a catch," said Jayson O'Neill, who served as an aide to former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D). "This has all the feels of the D.C. apparatus coming in and saying, 'Pass this legislation.' ... Surely [the Montana legislature] didn't come up with this on their own."

A bipartisan bill that aims to give the administration the power to ban apps linked to foreign adversaries, including TikTok, is raising concerns from critics that argue the proposal is overly broad about what companies it would target and who would be on the receiving end of enforcement. As The Hill's Rebecca Klar reports, the Restrict Act, led by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.), is touted by supporters as a way for the administration to review and potentially ban apps without solely targeting the controversial video app, the way other GOP-backed bills do. Although the broader scope may evade issues of targeting one company, digital rights groups, industry officials and privacy experts are sounding the alarm that the broad proposal instead poses concerns that it could limit Americans' freedom online.

"There's a risk of unintended targets," said Darrell West, a senior fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings Institution. "There could be consequences for businesses or individuals that inadvertently get swept up in this."

TikTok, meanwhile, is gaining support on Capitol Hill from progressive lawmakers, The Hill's Mychael Schnell reports. A handful of left-leaning lawmakers — including members of the so-called "Squad" — have voiced support for TikTok and opposition to banning the platform, taking on a vocal coalition of bipartisan members who believe the app should be prohibited in the U.S.

NBC News explainer: What happens to TikTok? Six ways the fight to ban it could play out.
CNN: Hong Kong has been without TikTok since 2020, offering one view of America's potential future.

On the heels of the second and third biggest bank failures the country has seen, the banking system is showing signs of stabilizing. But, as The Hill's Aris Folley reports, there are concerns about how a looming battle in Washington over how to stave off a national default could complicate that rebound. While experts have been cautiously optimistic about the path to recovery in the weeks since the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, some are worried over how a brewing fight over the nation's debt limit could impact the ongoing crisis in the months ahead.

"We don't just have to worry about the drop dead date," Dan Beeton, international communications director at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said. "We have to worry about getting close to that and creating fears because obviously people are fearful for the security in the banking system."

Yahoo Finance: What to know this week about inflation and bank earnings.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), 77, suffered a broken femur on Saturday that required surgical treatment on Sunday, he tweeted. At a victory parade for the University of Connecticut men's basketball team in Hartford, Conn. on Saturday, a fellow parade goer tripped and fell on him (The Hill). "What can I say, I love a parade!" he tweeted. Blumenthal said Sunday on Twitter that he expects to be back at the Capitol for votes next week.

In Focus / Sharp Takes

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Russia is pressing attacks in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, focusing on two cities with air strikes and artillery barrages, and the commander of Ukraine's ground forces said Moscow was destroying buildings and positions in besieged Bakhmut in what he called "scorched earth" tactics (Reuters). In occupied parts of the Kherson region, Russian security forces were raiding homes and checking local residents' phones for prohibited photos and videos (The Wall Street Journal). But per the cache of leaked documents that roiled Washington last week, if Ukraine's air defenses collapse or are significantly reduced, its ground forces, in particular its artillery, will be under immediate threat, giving Russian forces an opportunity to make significant gains on the battlefield (The New York Times).

Pope Francis on Sunday appeared to ask Russians to seek the truth about their country's invasion of Ukraine in his Easter message. Since the February invasion, Francis has at least twice a week referred to Ukraine and its people as being "martyred" and has used words such as aggression and atrocities to describe Russia's actions. On Sunday, he spoke of "the darkness and the gloom in which, all too often, our world finds itself enveloped," and prayed for peace (The Guardian).

"Help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace, and shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia," he said.

Meanwhile, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said Sunday the best way to stop Chinese leader Xi Jinping from attacking Taiwan will be if Russia fails in its invasion of Ukraine. McCaul told NBC's Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press" that "what's happening in Ukraine will determine what happens in Taiwan and the Pacific."

"I believe the best deterrence to Chairman Xi is a failure for Putin in Ukraine," he added.

Europe should resist pressure to become "America's followers," French President Emmanuel Macron said during an interview with Politico and two French journalists that stirred immediate commentary in various capitals. "The great risk" Europe faces is that it "gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy," he said while flying from Beijing to Guangzhou, in southern China, aboard COTAM Unité, France's Air Force One (Politico Europe and Reuters). The Wall Street Journal, in a Sunday opinion piece, accused Macron of weakening deterrence against Chinese aggression and undermining U.S. support for Europe.

Macron staked out an independent European position during his talks with Xi and repeatedly lauded a "multipolar world," thinly disguised code for one that is not American dominated. The French president's embrace of a Chinese partnership suggested that the battle underway to preserve the liberal institutions of the postwar order against an assault from Beijing and Moscow will be complex and nuanced. Not all of America's allies look at it in the same way, The New York Times's Roger Cohen, who was on the trip with Macron, explained.

The New York Times: The Russians took their children. These mothers want them back.
The Washington Post: As spring offensive nears, Ukraine is drafting reinforcements.
The New York Times: Europe has pledged a million shells for Ukraine in a year. Can it deliver? Probably not, experts say, given the shrunken state of its military industrial sector.

Israeli police raids on Jerusalem's holiest mosque, army operations against West Bank militants and anti-Palestinian comments by officials have drawn condemnation from Arab leaders — and put a pause on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to deepen ties with his country's neighbors. When Netanyahu returned to office, he said establishing diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia was a priority after Israel in 2020 normalized ties with the United Arab Emirates and three other Muslim-majority nations in deals known as the Abraham Accords (The Wall Street Journal).

But his government — the most right-wing and religiously conservative in the country's history — has prompted mass protests in Israeli cities, surging violence in the occupied West Bank, and growing anger across the region as it accelerates the erosion of a decades-long status quo for worshipers at Islamic and Jewish holy sites. On Sunday, Israel conducted strikes on Syria, targeting a military compound and radar and artillery posts after six rockets were launched from the country toward Israeli territory. The attacks coincided with celebrations of both the Jewish holiday of Passover and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan (The Washington Post and The Associated Press).

Bloomberg News: The U.S. Navy challenges Beijing in the South China Sea amid Taiwan drills.
The Wall Street Journal: China warns Taiwan, with an eye on the rest of the world.
The Wall Street Journal: Saudi Arabia, Houthis advance toward long-term cease-fire in Yemen.
The Associated Press: Once everywhere in Iraq, Saddam Hussein's image is being scrubbed from Baghdad.
The New York Times: Ireland readies a warm welcome for Biden, "the most Irish" president since JFK.

Opinion

The ruling that threatens libraries, by Adam Serwer, staff writer, The Atlantic. https://bit.ly/40VquWO
How to make Trump go away, by Frank Luntz, guest essayist, The New York Times. https://nyti.ms/3GvW4SJ

Where and When

📲 Ask The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist's insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will hold a pro forma session at 2 p.m. Lawmakers will return to the Capitol beginning April 17.

The Senate meets at 11:30 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The president and first lady Jill Biden will join the annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House at 10:15 a.m. Biden will receive the President's Daily Brief (PDB) at 1:45 p.m.

The vice president and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will attend the Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn. Harris will join the president this afternoon for the PDB in the Oval Office. She will convene a press call at 3:30 p.m. to discuss federal efforts to improve access to capital and financial services in underserved communities. She will be joined by Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo for the call.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet at 1:30 p.m. with Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abdul Momen.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 2 p.m.

Elsewhere

➤ STATE WATCH

In Washington state, cannabis regulators halted operations at several outdoor pot farms and processing facilities last week on a stretch of former fruit orchards in north-central Washington state after testing found high levels of chemicals related to a dangerous pesticide used decades ago. The sweeping action announced by the state Liquor and Cannabis Board on Thursday renewed concerns about pesticides in marijuana and put dozens of people at least temporarily out of work just as they were preparing for spring planting (Fox News).

In Maryland, a 108-page bill that would launch the legal sale of recreational cannabis this summer is soon expected to be signed by Gov. Wes Moore (D). It would create a framework for medical cannabis businesses to initially set up the recreational cannabis market; set a sales tax at 9 percent, similar to the rate charged for alcohol, and focus most of the state's resulting cannabis profits to communities most harmed by the war on drugs (The Washington Post).

The Hill: A train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, put a national spotlight on the impact of toxic chemicals. But communities exposed on a more routine basis to such chemicals are waiting for the same level of scrutiny from their leaders.

In Virginia, Buckingham County's entire election staff of four people quit last month after a feud between local Republicans and the general registrar about baseless voter fraud allegations, NBC News reports. Years after Trump began pushing falsehoods and fictions about stolen elections, communities such as Buckingham County face the aftershocks: What happens when election denialism drives out the people needed to keep local democracy running?

➤ HEALTH & WELLBEING

🍷 The common claim that drinking a glass of red wine every night to boost longevity might not be true as researchers continue to debate the age-old question. While previous studies have shown that light-to-moderate consumption of alcohol is associated with a lower heart disease risk compared to those who abstained from alcohol, the benefits were diminished or completely negated when adjusted for certain lifestyle factors (VeryWell).

"We saw that those who consumed light-to-moderate amounts of alcohol also exhibited other favorable lifestyle variables," said Krishna Aragam, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. "For example, they consumed more vegetables, were more physically active, and had lower BMI compared to abstainers."

As the first openly gay person to lead the American Medical Association, anesthesiologist Jesse Ehrenfeld is taking the post at a fractious time for U.S. health care. Transgender patients and those seeking abortion care face restrictions in many places, state laws are overriding the medical judgment of physicians, disinformation is rampant — and the nation isn't finished with COVID-19.

"I've experienced the health care system as a gay person, as a gay parent, as in many ways wonderful positive experiences and other ways, some deeply harmful experiences," Ehrenfeld told The Associated Press. "And I know that we can do better as a nation. We can do better as a system that can lift up health."

Politico: COVID-19 battle lines are moving from the emergency room to the courtroom.
The Washington Post: WHO declares two more nations, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, malaria-free.
The Hill: Iowa attorney general halts state coverage of abortions, emergency contraceptives for rape victims.

The Closer

And finally … 🥚 For 12 "rolling" hours beginning at 7 a.m., the South Lawn of the White House will become an Easter Egg playground today for approximately 30,000 youngsters and adults who nabbed free tickets for an elaborate tradition that got its start in 1878.

"EGGucation" is first lady Jill Biden's theme again this year, with plans for school activities and learning, reading, crafts, music and games (i.e. "physical fitness"), plus celebrities.

Easter bunnies make for entertaining photos waving alongside presidents and first ladies (former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer gained notoriety in a rabbit suit while serving in the administration of former President George W. Bush).

Some presidents blow whistles to get the egg rolling contest underway, while others — that would be former President Obama — showed off for young basketball stars while shooting hoops on an outdoor court (YouTube).

Traditions include spoon-wielding tykes who roll colorfully dyed eggs across the South Lawn, souvenir egg collecting (a tradition started in 1981 by former President Reagan and former first lady Nancy Reagan), and photos with the Easter Bunny, People reported in 2022.

"The big lesson learned is — be the first person," Spicer recently confided to CNN. "Early is key. Doesn't matter what the temperature is — the suit gets hot and gross, quick."