White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday that the threat of a Russian military invasion of Ukraine is “high” and stressed that the U.S. and its European allies are prepared for “any contingency.”

Sullivan described talks involving the U.S., NATO and Russia over the past week as “frank and direct” but said that there has not been an agreement between U.S. and Russian officials for more meetings or discussions. He said that the U.S. would consult with allies before determining the next steps.

“We will now reflect and consult with allies and partners on how to proceed,” Sullivan said. “We’re prepared to continue with diplomacy to advance security and stability in the Euro Atlantic. We are equally prepared if Russia chooses a different path.”

The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked President Joe Biden’s vaccine and testing requirement aimed at large businesses, but it allowed a vaccine mandate for certain health care workers to go into effect nationwide.

The decision is a huge hit to Biden’s attempts to use the power of the federal government to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

The President has emphasized the necessity of getting vaccinated against the virus for months and eventually decided to use the mandate on large employers as his main vehicle for convincing hesitant Americans to get their shots.

In freezing a lower court opinion that allowed the regulation to go into effect nationwide, the majority sent a clear message the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, charged with protecting workplace safety, overstepped its authority. In contrast, the justices said that a separate agency could issue a rule to protect the health and safety of Medicare and Medicaid patients.

C.J. Diegel, a self-described former Republican/Independent working with the grassroots political organization Stand Up Republic joined a virtual meeting with Arizona voters Thursday to urge Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a key moderate Democrat, to pass the Freedom to Vote Act.

The Freedom to Vote act is a bill from a group of Democrats, including Sens. Joe Manchin and Amy Klobuchar, that has broad changes to election and campaign-finance laws. The goal is to set baseline rules that all states must follow in administering federal elections, according to CNN reporting.

Diegel spoke about how the acrimonious atmosphere prior to Election Day as well as the post-election audit in Arizona that triggered a significant amount of controversy in Sinema’s home state.

“There were elements trying to undercut Arizona voters, (and) the Arizona election even prior to a vote being cast … that led to the shenanigans post-election that were truly embarrassing for the state of Arizonia,” Diegel said during a virtual Thursday meeting on Senate rules reform with Common Cause.

Common Cause describes itself as “a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy.”

President Biden will meet with Senate Democrats Thursday as the party’s high-stakes push to change the filibuster and pass voting legislation is on the brink of defeat.

Biden’s trip to Capitol Hill marks the first time he has met face-to-face with the Senate Democratic Caucus since July and comes two days after he traveled to Georgia to publicly push for his party to pass voting rights legislation even if they must do so without GOP votes.

But Democrats don’t yet have a path to accomplishing that and, absent a shift by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), are poised to fall short.

Senators acknowledge that while Biden wants to show that he’s committed to passing election legislation, there’s little expectation that Democrats will emerge from the meeting with a deal that unites all 50 members of the caucus.

“The president is not only demonstrating the United States Democratic senators but to the American people that he is all-in on this,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). “But there is certainly no expectation that he is going to win tomorrow.”

With Roe v. Wade facing its strongest threat in decades, a new poll finds Democrats increasingly view protecting abortion rights as a high priority for the government.

Thirteen percent of Democrats mentioned abortion or reproductive rights as one of the issues they want the federal government to address in 2022, according to a December poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s up from less than 1% of Democrats who named it as a priority for 2021 and 3% who listed it in 2020.

Some other issues like the economy, COVID-19, health care and gun control ranked as higher priorities for Democrats in the poll, which allowed respondents to name up to five top issues. But the exponential rise in the percentage citing reproductive rights as a key concern suggests the issue is resonating with Democrats as the Supreme Court considers cases that could lead to dramatic restrictions on abortion access.

ADVE

President Joe Biden is yet again sticking his neck out on Capitol Hill to save his agenda with slim prospects for success.

Just as he tried to resolve myriad disputes on his domestic spending plans late last year, Biden is wading directly into a protracted battle within his own party over weakening the Senate filibuster. After edging from defender to critic of the chamber’s 60-vote requirement to pass most bills — which has been a roadblock to many of his top priorities — Biden will visit Senate Democrats on Thursday to emphatically argue for changing the Senate rules to pass a party-line election reform bill.

But it appears unlikely the president can move two of his party’s most ardent filibuster defenders, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) or Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), off their defense of the Senate’s supermajority requirement. And Biden’s appearance before the caucus comes less than a month after Manchin rejected his entreaties on his $1.7 trillion climate and social spending bill, sending Democrats’ legislative agenda into a nosedive.

Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer responded to that setback by reorienting their agenda toward federal election standards and beefing up the Voting Rights Act — only to see Manchin get in the way again, along with Sinema. Both support their party’s bills but oppose unilaterally weakening the filibuster to achieve them. When asked Wednesday what Biden could say to change his mind, Manchin only shrugged.