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Politico, Ally Mutnick – February 8, 2022
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and strategists from the top House Republican super PAC spent two elections trying to lure John James, an Army veteran and highly sought-after GOP recruit, to run for a Detroit-area congressional seat.
Last week, they finally landed him after pitching James, a two-time Senate candidate, with three rounds of promising polling and stressing how the House launched the careers of GOP stars like South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Vice President Mike Pence. It was a years-in-the-making recruitment that put an exclamation point on a slate of Republican House candidates who could both flip the majority and change the composition of the GOP in the coming years.
House Republicans have laser-focused their recruitment efforts on candidates like James, a Black West Point graduate-turned-businessman, who can transform the makeup of a party pilloried for its overwhelming roster of white men. Every Republican who flipped a Democratic House district in 2020 was a woman or person of color, and party leaders want to replicate that success on a larger scale.
CNN – February 8, 2022 (06:33)
CNN, Veronica Stracqualursi – February 8, 2022
The top two Republican leaders in Congress were at odds Tuesday over the Republican National Committee’s recent resolution that formally censured GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for serving on the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.
ABC News – February 8, 2022 (03:12)
Vox, February 8, 2022 – 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm (ET)
https://www.vox.com/22916773/russia-ukraine-sanctions-putin
CNN, February 8, 2022 – 3:00 pm to 3:30 pm (ET)
Spotlight
CNN, Veronica Stracqualursi – February 8, 2022
The top two Republican leaders in Congress were at odds Tuesday over the Republican National Committee’s recent resolution that formally censured GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for serving on the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.
Vox, Jen Kirby – February 8, 2022
The United States has threatened to sanction Russia if it invades Ukraine.
But, what, exactly those sanctions might look like — and how punishing they might be — will depend not just on what Russia does, but on the costs the United States and its allies, especially in Europe, are prepared to withstand.
This is the dilemma facing the United States, which has ruled out deploying forces to Ukraine. The most aggressive sanctions, like making it extraordinarily difficult for Russian financial institutions and state-owned banks to trade in US dollars, could inflict a lot of hurt on Russia, and very likely, its people, if the sanctions sparked inflation or other economic crises. Other dramatic options exist, like blocking Russia’s biggest exports, oil and gas.
But the more far-reaching and destructive to the Kremlin, the more potent the potential reverberations in the West. The most severe sanctions, like cutting off Russia from all or parts of the global financial system, may hurt other economies intertwined with it. The US and Europe are not exempt. Russia may take counter or retaliatory measures, too. The most feared scenario would be Russia cutting off natural gas supplies to Europe, in the middle of winter, when gas prices are already spiking.
CNN – February 8, 2022 (08:01)
Associated Press, SYLVIE CORBET et al. – February 8, 2022
French President Emmanuel Macron brought his diplomatic effort to defuse the crisis over Ukraine to its capital of Kyiv on Tuesday, a day after hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin yielded no apparent breakthrough.
Macron met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as fears of a possible Russian invasion mount. Moscow has massed over 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, but insists it has no plans to attack.
The Kremlin wants guarantees from the West that NATO will not accept Ukraine and other former Soviet nations as members, that it halt weapon deployments there and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe — demands the U.S. and NATO reject as nonstarters.
CNN, Ariane de Vogue – February 7, 2022
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, allowed a congressional map drawn by Alabama Republicans to remain in place Monday, freezing a lower court ruling that said the map likely violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting the political power of Black voters.
A dispute targeted at how courts apply the Voting Rights Act cases in redistricting
Articles
Politico, Ally Mutnick – February 8, 2022
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and strategists from the top House Republican super PAC spent two elections trying to lure John James, an Army veteran and highly sought-after GOP recruit, to run for a Detroit-area congressional seat.
Last week, they finally landed him after pitching James, a two-time Senate candidate, with three rounds of promising polling and stressing how the House launched the careers of GOP stars like South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Vice President Mike Pence. It was a years-in-the-making recruitment that put an exclamation point on a slate of Republican House candidates who could both flip the majority and change the composition of the GOP in the coming years.
House Republicans have laser-focused their recruitment efforts on candidates like James, a Black West Point graduate-turned-businessman, who can transform the makeup of a party pilloried for its overwhelming roster of white men. Every Republican who flipped a Democratic House district in 2020 was a woman or person of color, and party leaders want to replicate that success on a larger scale.
CNN, Veronica Stracqualursi – February 8, 2022
The top two Republican leaders in Congress were at odds Tuesday over the Republican National Committee’s recent resolution that formally censured GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for serving on the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.
Politico, Betsy Woodruff Swan – February 8, 2022
A top congressional watchdog is considering calling for the House sergeant at arms to launch a program aimed at identifying and deterring internal threats, including through “behavioral monitoring,” according to a draft document reviewed by POLITICO.
The draft recommendations from the House’s inspector general come as the Capitol undergoes a campuswide push to shore up its security in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack last year. The chamber’s current top security official Sergeant at Arms William Walker said in a statement, however, that he does not plan to roll out any new program involving surveillance and monitoring.
The document shows the extent to which congressional security has become a priority since the riot led by then-President Donald Trump’s supporters and the muscular threat-detection tactics that are now under consideration for the Hill. The monitoring recommendations in particular also will face significant pushback because of privacy concerns.
Associated Press, SYLVIE CORBET et al. – February 8, 2022
French President Emmanuel Macron brought his diplomatic effort to defuse the crisis over Ukraine to its capital of Kyiv on Tuesday, a day after hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin yielded no apparent breakthrough.
Macron met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as fears of a possible Russian invasion mount. Moscow has massed over 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, but insists it has no plans to attack.
The Kremlin wants guarantees from the West that NATO will not accept Ukraine and other former Soviet nations as members, that it halt weapon deployments there and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe — demands the U.S. and NATO reject as nonstarters.
CNN, Ariane de Vogue – February 7, 2022
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, allowed a congressional map drawn by Alabama Republicans to remain in place Monday, freezing a lower court ruling that said the map likely violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting the political power of Black voters.
A dispute targeted at how courts apply the Voting Rights Act cases in redistricting
Videos
CNN – February 8, 2022 (06:33)
ABC News – February 8, 2022 (03:12)
CNN – February 8, 2022 (08:01)
Livestreams
Vox, February 8, 2022 – 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm (ET)
https://www.vox.com/22916773/russia-ukraine-sanctions-putin
CNN, February 8, 2022 – 3:00 pm to 3:30 pm (ET)
Politico, February 8, 2022 – 11:00 am to 1:30 pm (ET)
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/08/house-watchdog-behavioral-monitoring-internal-security-threats-00006447
Vox, February 8, 2022 – 10:00 am to 12:15 pm (ET)
https://www.vox.com/22922329/ahmaud-arbery-hate-crimes-federal-trial
Associated Press, February 8, 2022 – 10:00 am to 10:15 am (ET)
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-russia-diplomacy-emmanuel-macron-europe-9dd7eb560d26a81306604dcb1c81bddb
Commentary
Vox, Jen Kirby – February 8, 2022
The United States has threatened to sanction Russia if it invades Ukraine.
But, what, exactly those sanctions might look like — and how punishing they might be — will depend not just on what Russia does, but on the costs the United States and its allies, especially in Europe, are prepared to withstand.
This is the dilemma facing the United States, which has ruled out deploying forces to Ukraine. The most aggressive sanctions, like making it extraordinarily difficult for Russian financial institutions and state-owned banks to trade in US dollars, could inflict a lot of hurt on Russia, and very likely, its people, if the sanctions sparked inflation or other economic crises. Other dramatic options exist, like blocking Russia’s biggest exports, oil and gas.
But the more far-reaching and destructive to the Kremlin, the more potent the potential reverberations in the West. The most severe sanctions, like cutting off Russia from all or parts of the global financial system, may hurt other economies intertwined with it. The US and Europe are not exempt. Russia may take counter or retaliatory measures, too. The most feared scenario would be Russia cutting off natural gas supplies to Europe, in the middle of winter, when gas prices are already spiking.
Vox, Jamil Smith – February 8, 2022
Twenty-five-year-old Ahmaud Arbery was Black, unarmed, and out for a run in a Georgia neighborhood near where he lived when three white men chased him down, and accosted, assaulted, and shot him dead nearly two years ago. Whether that all happened because the victim was Black, well, that’s something a lot of people feel they already know.
The effects of racism are often more visible than racist intent. Perhaps that is one reason the prosecutors dodged the topic of racial motives almost entirely in the state murder trial of Travis McMichael, now 36; his father, Gregory, 66; and William “Roddie” Bryan, 52 — the men who carried out what has been labeled a modern-day lynching in broad daylight. Each was convicted in November of an array of charges related to Arbery’s fatal shooting that day, including malice murder, felony murder, and false imprisonment. In January, all received life sentences in Georgia state prison, with the McMichaels having no chance at parole.
Racist intent is what the US government will now attempt to prove in federal court in a separate, second trial against the men that begins Monday with jury selection; this time, the three defendants will face federal charges alleging hate crimes, attempted kidnapping, and two firearms offenses.
