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MORNING REPORT

Wednesday, February 15

by Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch

Feinstein to retire; Haley launches 2024 bid

Across the partisan divide in politics on Tuesday, one pathbreaking female senator from the largest blue state announced she will retire while another ambitious woman, who once challenged racism as a conservative governor in the South, launched a campaign for the White House.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who will be 90 in June and who encouraged many Democratic women in elective politics, announced that her term, which ends in January 2025, will be her last.

I will not run for reelection in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends," she said in a statement.

Democratic California Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter previously announced Senate campaigns with anticipation that Feinstein, the oldest senator, would retire at the end of her term (The Hill). Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) reportedly plans this month to announce a campaign, which would make her the first Black candidate in the competitive Senate contest (The Washington Post).

In South Carolina, Republican Nikki Haley, 51, launched a bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 in competition with former President Trump, who was her boss when she shifted in 2017 from serving as her state's governor to U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Haley's video and Twitter announcement Tuesday, which emphasized her gender and upbringing as a daughter of immigrants from India, will be followed today with a campaign event in Charleston, S.C. (The Hill).

The Hill's Niall Stanage in his Memo writes, "Haley is in, but can she win?
The Hill's Al Weaver reports that some analysts are watching the GOP presidential race, wondering if it will be like 2016.
Politico: Haley enters the fray, a female candidate against a man known for mocking them.

Feinstein's announcement was met with respectful acknowledgements of an era in liberal politics only dimly remembered by younger lawmakers in the House and Senate. Feinstein's health and mental sharpness have been topics of speculation and commentary for several years.

The Los Angeles Times: Feinstein retires: Looking back on tragedy, triumph and her contentious perseverance.

President Biden, who served with Feinstein on the Senate Judiciary Committee and hailed her as "one of the very best" to be elected to the upper chamber, said that "she led the fight to get the assault weapons ban passed" and praised her defense of civil rights, the rule of law after 9/11 and her focus on climate change.

Meanwhile, another potential GOP presidential contender, former Vice President Mike Pence, says he'll mount a legal challenge against efforts by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith to obtain his testimony under subpoena regarding events on Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results (The Hill). The former vice president is also embroiled in a public controversy over retention of classified documents at his Indiana residence.

The New York Times: The Justice Department will brief congressional leaders later this month on classified documents mishandled by Trump, Biden and Pence.
The New York Times: Federal prosecutors overseeing the investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents seek to pierce assertions of attorney-client privilege and compel one of his lawyers to answer more questions before a grand jury.
The Hill: Pence plots unusual legal strategy in fight against a special counsel subpoena. He could define the powers of the vice presidency with his resistance and could hobble Smith's efforts to investigate Trump.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a conservative who is weighing a GOP presidential campaign with plenty of attention from the national media, is seen as having more staying power than other former Republican governors who faded during past primary cycles. The Hill's Max Greenwood and Amie Parnes offer a handful of reasons DeSantis is seen as a heavier hitter in 2024 than past GOP governors, including Wisconsin's Scott Walker and Florida's Jeb Bush.

Jezebel: Pence said "we need to" ban abortion pills, which he called "really dangerous," during comments at a book signing event Monday in Houston. Audio of the exchange was obtained by Jezebel.
The Hill: Parties face hurdles in retaining young talent for campaigns.
Houston Chronicle: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) will seek reelection next year.

Leading the Day

➤ CONGRESS & ADMINISTRATION

By the time a Chinese spy balloon crossed into American airspace late last month, U.S. military and intelligence agencies had been tracking it for nearly a week, The Washington Post reports, an earlier sighting of the balloon than has been previously known. U.S. officials watched as the balloon took off from China and settled into a flight path that would appear to have taken it over Guam, but the craft took an unexpected northern turn. Analysts are now examining the possibility that China didn't intend to penetrate the contiguous United States with the surveillance device.

This new information suggests that the resulting international crisis — which has ramped up tensions between Washington and Beijing — may have been at least partly the result of a mistake (The New York Times). Meanwhile, White House officials on Tuesday said they don't have an indication that three objects shot down by the U.S. military days after a suspected spy balloon were tied to China.

"While we can't definitively say, again without analyzing the debris, what these objects were, thus far — and I caveat that by saying thus far — we haven't seen any indication or anything that points specifically to the idea that these three objects were part of the [China's] spy balloon program, or that they were definitively involved in external intelligence collection efforts," national security spokesman John Kirby said.

But officials have not been able to analyze the debris because locating and retrieving what remains is challenging at remote sites in winter (The Hill). Senators from both parties said the spate of unidentified floating objects shot down by U.S. jets in recent days do not pose an immediate threat to Americans, after a classified briefing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, but many urged the Biden administration to share more information with the public (NPR).

"I have a better understanding, but the American people deserve and need to know more," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). "I am not in any way afraid that we are under a threat of attack or physical harm to our homeland. That's my personal feeling. But the American people need to be reassured with more facts."

Senior administration officials scrambled to quell frustrations expressed by lawmakers about a lack of timely information, offering an update on the three aerial objects shot down Friday afternoon and last weekend. The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports that senators did not get answers to several questions, including who launched the objects, whether they were military or commercial vehicles and their purpose.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said after the briefing that Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) will lead an investigation into why the balloons weren't detected earlier.

"We still have questions about why they didn't discover these balloons sooner, these objects sooner," Schumer told reporters after the weekly Democratic caucus meeting. "Sen. Tester is going to lead our caucus in investigating this. It's a good question. We need to answer it."

The Atlantic: Why is the U.S. shooting down more unidentified objects? American air defense has been looking harder and reacting faster.
Axios: Senators after receiving a classified briefing about the aerial objects demand Biden speak to the public.
The New York Times: China tries to depict furor over spy balloon as a sign of U.S. decline.
USA Today: Unidentified flying objects might have been research or commercial balloons, White House says.
Politico: The truth is out there: UFO fever grips Congress.

Republican leaders vowing to protect Social Security and Medicare benefits as part of the coming budget battles are running into an early obstacle: A lack of trust across the aisle. As The Hill's Mike Lillis reports, despite Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) promise that entitlement cuts are "off the table" in the debt-ceiling debate, House Democrats simply don't believe that the same Republican Party that fought for decades to slash those programs has reversed course so drastically. "I don't trust them on that," said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.). "Since the 1930s, these folks have been gunning for Social Security."

The comments come as a warning to GOP leaders, who want to balance the federal budget within a decade — a feat that's virtually impossible without touching the entitlements, the Pentagon and taxes. And they also put pressure on Biden — who's vowing to oppose any entitlement cuts — to make good on that promise as he enters the high-stakes budget negotiations with McCarthy. Liberals were up in arms more than a decade ago when former President Obama proposed entitlement cuts as part of an unsuccessful "grand bargain" with then-Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to rein in deficit spending and would be equally infuriated if Biden sought something similar.

The Hill: Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) undergoes surgery for prostate cancer.

➤ ECONOMY

Consumer prices rose 0.5 percent in January and 6.4 percent annually, according to the Labor Department's consumer price index, a jump in inflation that could encourage the Federal Reserve to further raise interest rates. Earlier this month, the Fed rolled out its smallest rate hike since March 2022 as inflation appeared to ease, but that strategy could change if prices don't fall fast enough.

Prices continued to increase rapidly on a monthly basis as a broad array of goods and services, including apparel, groceries, hotel rooms and rent, became more expensive. That was true even after stripping out volatile food and fuel costs. Meanwhile, sticky inflation and a stubbornly tight labor market have led some economists to expect that the U.S. central bank could continue hiking rates through summer (The Hill and Reuters).

"Inflation is easing but the path to lower inflation will not likely be smooth," said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial in Charlotte, N.C. "The Fed will not make decisions based on just one report but clearly the risks are rising that inflation will not cool fast enough for the Fed's liking."

CNBC: Inflation rose 0.5 percent in January, more than expected and up 6.4 percent from a year ago.
The New York Times: Consumer price index inflation has been slowing compared with a year ago, but evidence is mounting that it could be a long road back to normal.
Bloomberg News: Fed officials float even higher rates after brisk inflation data.
Politico: Four of Congress's farmers weigh in on how to solve high food prices.
Financial Times: Biden names Fed's Lael Brainard as top economic adviser.

In Focus / Sharp Takes

➤ STATE WATCH

Biden on Tuesday reacted to a Michigan State University mass shooting Monday night that killed three students, offering a public reminder that it has been five years since a mass shooting killed 17 people at a Florida high school in Parkland. "It's happening far too often in this country," the president said during a speech to county officials gathered in Washington.

"We have to do something to stop gun violence ripping apart our communities," he said while renewing his entreaty to Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition. "There is no rationale for assault rifles and magazines that hold 50 or 70 [rounds]," he said to applause.

Civil rights advocates say dress codes enforced by local school systems discriminate against girls, especially Black and Hispanic girls. The Government Accountability Office released a 2022 report that concluded that traditional dress codes are sexist, racist and demeaning. Three-fifths of dress codes involve measuring students' bodies and clothing, the GAO found, "which may involve adults touching students." There is no documented research supporting direct benefits to safety or learning from dress codes, which are a separate issue from private school uniforms (The Hill).

Ohio: East Palestine residents are trying to recover from a train derailment that resulted in the controlled release of harmful chemicals to avert an explosion in their community. The Hill's Saul Elbein reports on five lingering questions. Residents will get a chance to ask their own questions this evening at a town hall meeting with officials.

💰 California: Edwin Castro won the $2.04 billion November Powerball jackpot, lottery officials announced on Tuesday. The jackpot ticket was sold at Joe's Service Center in Altadena, an unincorporated foothill community northeast of Los Angeles. For selling the winning ticket, the business owner received a bonus of $1 million. Castro did not appear at the announcement but in a statement described himself as "shocked and ecstatic" (ABC News).

🏈 Missouri: Along Grand Boulevard, the Kansas City Chiefs, now Super Bowl champs, plan to celebrate with a parade in their honor beginning today at noon in Kansas City (KSHB).

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Western officials said Russia was tightening its noose around the contested city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine as NATO warned the start of a major new Russian offensive was now underway. Defense ministers of the alliance's member states met Tuesday to discuss the provision of further support for Ukraine, including ramping up production in NATO countries of ammunition and other military aid, as Russia's invasion nears its one-year mark (The Wall Street Journal).

Russia planned to topple Moldova's pro-West government by fomenting violence through foreign actors and internal criminal groups, Moldova's president, Maia Sandu, said Monday. She added the attempted plot would have placed the nation at the disposal of the Kremlin for use in its invasion of Ukraine, and prevented its integration into the European Union. Moldovan authorities confirmed the disclosure by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Brussels last week that his intelligence forces had intercepted documents showing "who, when and through what actions" Russia would use to "break the democratic order" of Moldova (The Washington Post).

The Atlantic: How Russian invaders unleashed violence on small-town residents.
The Wall Street Journal: Suspected Iranian weapons seized by the U.S. Navy may go to Ukraine.
The Washington Post: What is Transnistria, and will Russia destabilize Moldova?
CNN: NATO allies worry about dwindling ammunition stockpiles as they try to keep Ukraine's troops firing.
NBC News: Thousands of Ukrainian children forced into vast Russian network of Russian camps, study finds.

Miraculous rescues are serving as rare bright spots in one of the bleakest periods in memory for Turkey, what President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday could reasonably be called the "disaster of the century." He reported a new death toll for Turkey, 35,418, and the United Nations said that more than 5,500 Syrians had died as a result of last week's earthquakes, bringing the total death toll to more than 41,000. Millions more people in both countries have been displaced, with many afraid to return to damaged buildings and struggling to survive in makeshift shelters and extreme cold.

Relief organizations typically scramble to find survivors in the first 72 hours after a natural disaster, as the passing of time exponentially diminishes hope for finding signs of life. In the past week, more than 35,000 Turkish search and rescue teams joined thousands of international workers to dig through the rubble (The New York Times).

The Guardian: Seven more people rescued in Turkey eight days after earthquake.
Vox: Better buildings could have saved lives in Turkey's earthquakes. Are contractors really to blame?

Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish government and a powerful figure in the drive for Scottish independence, is expected to resign after more than eight years in the role, news outlets report. The announcement, which was unexpected, is to come at a news conference later today (BBC and The New York Times).

The New York Times: The U.S. arrests three Americans in the assassination of Haiti's president.
Reuters: India, soon to be the world's most populous nation, doesn't know how many people it has.

Opinion

The junk economics of "junk-fee" politics, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board. https://on.wsj.com/3jXjTL4
Who is actually weak on China? The GOP, by Minxin Pei, columnist, Bloomberg Opinion. https://bloom.bg/3I03Rbm
Taxpayer swindle: More states should not seek school vouchers, by David DeMatthews and David S. Knight, opinion contributors, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3jW5qz1

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 convene for a pro forma session at 10 a.m. on Friday.

The Senate meets at 10 a.m.

The president and Vice President Harris will receive the President's Daily Brief at 10:15 a.m. in the Oval Office. Biden will travel to an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall in Lanham, Md., to speak at 2:30 p.m. about U.S. economic progress and deficit reduction (The Washington Post). He will return to the White House this afternoon.

The vice president leaves tonight for Germany to participate in the Munich Security Conference.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host a dinner at the State Department at 6:30 p.m. in honor of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Elsewhere

➤ TECH

The Supreme Court next week will hear arguments in two cases involving Section 230, a controversial liability shield for online publishers in which Twitter, Google and Facebook are at the center. The Hill's Zach Schonfeld reports that the dispute may have broader impacts for diplomats and international organizations.

The cases were brought by two families of terrorist attack victims for pro-ISIS content posted to social media platforms, and the tech companies argue they don't need Section 230 protections because they were not liable under federal anti-terrorism laws. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and the families' other supporters argue taking Big Tech's position would let terrorism sympathizers off the hook, while other foreign policy legal observers contend that holding the companies liable would lead foreign countries to reciprocate in their courts against the United States.

CNN: "Broken promises." The tech industry's real estate pullback leaves communities reeling.
The Verge: These are Microsoft's Bing AI secret rules and why it says it's named Sydney.
TechCrunch: Meta is reportedly planning a fresh round of layoffs.
Reuters: Tesla will open its U.S. charging network to rivals in a $7.5 billion federal program, the White House announced.

➤ HEALTH & PANDEMIC

New lab results showed that a new "on-demand" male birth control drug can temporarily prevent sperm from maturing and swimming in mice. The lab results show promise for a new birth control method made specifically for men, who presently only have two effective methods to prevent pregnancy: vasectomies and condoms. Responsibility for preventing pregnancy largely falls on women.

"This innovative, on-demand, non-hormonal strategy represents a previously untested concept in contraception, which has the potential to provide equity between the sexes and, like the advent of oral birth control for women, revolutionize family planning," the study, published Tuesday in Nature Communications, said. Even though the lab results in mice show promise for a male birth control pill, the study is still likely years away from conducting human trials (The Hill).

The deadly Marburg virus has surfaced this week for the first time in Equatorial Guinea, causing at least nine deaths, according to the World Health Organization. A handful of Marburg cases were identified in Ghana late last year. Although it remains "a very rare disease in people," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "when it occurs, it has the potential to spread" and can be fatal (The Washington Post).

The New York Times: Binge drinking may be curbed with a pill. A recent study suggested the use of a decades-old medicine taken before imbibing could reduce the amount of alcohol consumed.
CNN: Risk of developing diabetes after COVID-19 continued in Omicron period, study says.

Information about the availability of COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots can be found at Vaccines.gov.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,115,018. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 3,171 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

The Closer

© Associated Press / NASA/ESA/K. Meech, J. Kleyna - University of Hawaii/O. Hainaut - European Southern Observatory | In 2019, the asteroid known as Gault was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope as it gradually self-destructed.

And finally … ☄️When it comes to asteroids and earthlings, it's all about the near misses. Tonight, a hunk of rock about half a mile wide known as "199145" or "2005 YY128" will make its closest pass near Earth in more than 400 years — and likely keep on going without an orbital meetup (EarthSky).

💫 ICYM, an asteroid burned up this week with a flashy show over France and England (The Washington Post).

On this date in 2013, a 150-foot-long asteroid passed within 18,000 miles of Earth, and at the same time that day, a small meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, leaving behind much confusion, injuries and some dramatic dash cam video HERE.

Tonight's asteroid, first discovered in 2005, can be viewed by amateur and expert astronomers as it passes Earth at about 12 times the moon's distance from the planet.

Stats for the starry-eyed: near-earth asteroids as of February 2023 (NASA).