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With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross
Tuesday night’s primaries brought some major news:
Former President DONALD TRUMP suffered embarrassing defeats in Georgia (A must-read from Alex Isenstadt:“‘We’re going to go f—ing scorched-earth’: How Brian Kemp crushed Trump in Georgia”) … Rep. MO BROOKS mounted a successful comeback and is now headed to the Alabama Senate runoff despite losing Trump’s endorsement … And Rep. HENRY CUELLAR’s narrow lead over JESSICA CISNEROS means she could request a recount in the Democrats’ most-watched House primary, though Cuellar declared victory Tuesday night. … Five key takeaways from Tuesday night, by David Siders, Adam Wren and Ally Mutnick
More on all of that below, but first, we turn to the tragedy in Texas …
WILL THIS TIME BE ANY DIFFERENT? — At least 19 elementary school-aged children and two adults are dead at the hands of an 18-year-old gunman in Texas. And once again, the nation is mourning the loss of precious lives. These little ones were set to go on summer break on Thursday. Now they will never laugh or play again.
But in Washington, there is a serious question of not just whether lawmakers will do anything about gun safety following the latest mass shooting — but whether they will even try.
Democrats, it seems, are jaded from years of GOP resistance that has blocked even modest gun restrictions. And despite their outrage and finger-pointing at their Republican colleagues, they’ve spent little time discussing the issue despite controlling all of Washington for more than a year.
— Case in point: Last week, after a gunman murdered 10 Black Americans in a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store, few on Capitol Hill — even Democrats — spoke about trying to restart bipartisan talks on gun restrictions. Notably, House-passed background-check bills have been sitting untouched in the Senate since March 2021, with even the legislation’s most vocal advocates having questioned the point of holding gun-related show votes that are doomed to fail.
Will that change now that the victims are children? It’s too soon to know. Late Tuesday night, Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER took procedural steps allowing him to bring the House-passed bills up for a vote. But will that actually spark a bipartisan conversation on finding a compromise that can clear the filibuster? That’s another matter entirely. With the midterms approaching — and a battery of other important issues vying for attention — the odds that real talks will relaunch are slim at best.
SPEAKING FROM THE WHITE HOUSE, President JOE BIDEN issued an emotional call to action Tuesday night, railing against assault weapons and politicians who are afraid of the gun lobby. “When, in God’s name, will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?” he asked. “It’s time to act … We can do so much more. We have to do more.”
But is Biden willing to spend his political capital to try to get things moving? Read more: “‘Why are we willing to live with this carnage?’: Biden demands action on guns after Texas school shooting,” by Christopher Cadelago and Laura Barrón-López
ON CAPITOL HILL, one Democrat in particular vowed to restart bipartisan talks — or at least try: Sen. CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.) gave an impassioned speech imploring his GOP colleagues to come to the bargaining table, as he has after similar tragedies many times before.
“I’m here on this floor to beg — to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues,” he said. “Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.” Murphy also indicated that he plans to reach out to his colleagues privately to see where a new effort could lead. Read Burgess Everett and Katherine Tully-McManus on Murphy’s yearslong campaign on guns, and the uphill battle these talks face
ON THE GOP’S SIDE OF THINGS — Let’s say that Democrats do put serious time and energy into trying to find a gun control compromise. Would it bear fruit? The conventional wisdom for a while now has been that if the murder of 20 young children and a half-dozen teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary a decade ago didn’t meaningfully move GOP lawmakers to back stricter gun laws, nothing will.
On Tuesday, Sen. SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine) told reporters that she thinks there’s a conversation to be had on tightening “red-flag” laws aimed at preventing violent criminals or mentally unstable individuals from purchasing guns. Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.), who was part of a failed negotiation for a bipartisan red-flag law in 2019, tweeted that the chamber should “debate and vote.” And Sen. THOM TILLIS (R-N.C.), who’s also dabbled in such talks before, said he’s willing to re-engage — though only “as long as it doesn’t deny any rights for law-abiding citizens.”
But already, many Republicans have signaled a refusal to budge.
- Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas): “Inevitably, when there’s a murderer of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,” he told CNN’s Jessica Dean. “That doesn’t work. … It doesn’t prevent crime.”
- On Newsmax, Texas A.G. KEN PAXTON talked about arming teachers to prevent shootings.
- And at HERSCHEL WALKER’s victory party in Georgia on Tuesday night, the crowd booed during a broadcast of Biden’s speech when the president asked when the nation would stand up to the gun lobby, according to CNN’s Manu Raju.
Meanwhile, Texas Gov. GREG ABBOTT and Trump are set to speak at the annual NRA convention this weekend in Houston.
The resistance from the GOP comes despite polling that shows Americans do favor stricter gun measures. A new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll out today — taken after the Buffalo massacre but before the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas — asked voters “how important, if at all, it is for elected leaders to … pass stricter gun control laws.”
A plurality of voters — 41% — said “very important,” 18% said “somewhat important,” 13% said “not too important,” 19% said “not important at all,” and 9% had no opinion. Toplines … Crosstabs
That suggests that the public is ready for action on gun violence. But so far, Washington has not been — and despite Tuesday’s horrid bloodshed, there’s little sign so far that they will start now.
MORE HEADLINES — WaPo: “After Uvalde, angry Democrats assail GOP over resistance to gun laws” … Texas Tribune: “21 killed at Uvalde elementary in Texas’ deadliest school shooting ever” … Texas Monthly: “The ‘Incomprehensible’ School Shooting in Uvalde” … KSAT: “Remembering the victims of the Uvalde elementary school shooting”
Good Wednesday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
ABOUT LAST NIGHT — If you weren’t up late watching the polls come in, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered on major takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries:
1) TRUMP LOSES BIGLY IN GEORGIA: A few days ago, former Sen. DAVID PERDUE poured cold water on polls suggesting that BRIAN KEMP was trouncing him in Georgia’s gubernatorial race. “I can damn guarantee you that we are not down 30 points,” he said.
Bless his heart. On Tuesday night, Kemp totally annihilated Trump’s preferred candidate, beating Perdue by a whopping 52 points as of 6 a.m.
Perhaps worse for Trump, Secretary of State BRAD RAFFENSPERGER — who refused Trump’s order to “find” him more than 11,000 votes to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory in Georgia — crushed his own primary challenger, defeating the Trump-endorsed Rep. JODY HICE by nearly 20 points. Raffensperger’s win is a major repudiation of Trump’s plan to install election deniers in positions of power.
As our colleague David Siders wrote in our Election Night live chat, Kemp “looks like a case study in how to survive in the Trump era — try not to criticize Trump, pass lots of conservative policy and use the power of incumbency to keep local power-brokers on your side.”
Related read: “Donald Trump’s revenge tour is derailed in Georgia,” by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein
2) IN ALABAMA, ANOTHER TRUMP EMBARRASSMENT: Two months after Trump un-endorsed Brooks as his Senate campaign flailed in the polls — an astounding rebuke of one of his strongest former allies in the House — the congressman found a way to hold on: He, along with former RICHARD SHELBY aide KATIE BRITT, appears to be headed to a runoff, with Britt garnering nearly 45% of the vote and Brooks at 29% with about 91% of the vote counted.
“Two months ago, the experts declared our campaign dead in the water. Today? Call me Lazarus!” Brooks said, gloating about how Trump left him for dead but he found a way to survive, per AL.com’s Sarah Whites-Koditschek, Paul Gattis and Howard Koplowitz. Republican MIKE DURANT, who had led Brooks in polling for a long stretch of the campaign but suffered from attacks at the hands of Britt’s campaign and came in third in the primary, has signaled he may back Brooks, creating a possible problem for Britt — unless she gets a boost from Trump.
3) A WARNING FOR DEMS EAGER TO RUN ON ABORTION POLITICS: In Texas’ 28th District, conservative Democratic incumbent HENRY CUELLAR is running neck-and-neck with progressive challenger JESSICA CISNEROS, his former staffer, in one of the most scrutinized Democratic primaries of the night. As of shortly after midnight, Cuellar — one of the only Democrats in Congress who opposes abortion rights — led by fewer than 200 votes.
The fact that the left couldn’t easily dislodge Cuellar following news about the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade in a state filled with Republicans eager to end abortion access could signal a problem for Democrats: Many are eager to run on abortion rights and fears about overturning Roe, but it’s unclear whether their own base is sufficiently motivated by this issue.
An important caveat here: the demographics of the TX-28 don’t make it the perfect test case on how abortion might play out in the midterms. One thing that some Democratic operatives are worried about is the party figuring out a message that makes the issue a priority for their voters this fall across the country.
Meanwhile, progressives are pissed, to say the least. On Tuesday night, Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.), who campaigned for Cisneros, chided Democratic leaders for standing with Cuellar. “On the day of a mass shooting and weeks after news of Roe, Democratic Party leadership rallied for a pro-NRA, anti-choice incumbent under investigation in a close primary. Robocalls, fundraisers, all of it,” she tweeted. “Accountability isn’t partisan. This was an utter failure of leadership.” Note: Speaker NANCY PELOSI did robocalls for Cuellar this past weekend, per our colleague Sarah Ferris.
4) WHO TOOK THE (BLUE) DOGS OUT? — While Cuellar hangs on by a thread, another centrist member of the Blue Dog Coalition, Rep. CAROLYN BOURDEAUX, fell to Rep. LUCY MCBATHin a member-on-member Georgia primary. That comes as Rep. KURT SCHRADER, another member of the once-powerful group, appears to have lost last week’s Oregon primary to a progressive challenger, though the race has yet to be officially called.
WaPo’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer had a good takeout on the fading influence of the Blue Dogs that posted Tuesday morning and is worth revisiting. With all the group’s retirements and losses, their membership is poised to shrink by about half by 2023, as Amy Walter noted on Twitter.
5) EARLY VOTING SOARS IN GEORGIA — Despite Democrats’ warnings that recent GOP voting laws would have a devastating effect on turnout, early voting in the state hit a record high, per our colleague Brittany Gibson, who tracked this issue from the POLITICO live chat Tuesday night. How high exactly? “Higher than even the 2020 presidential primaries!” Gibson wrote. “The state is on track to surpass past primary elections on both the GOP and Dem side, despite there not being competitive top ticket primaries for the Dems.”
Republicans are already holding this up as proof that Democrats’ warnings about a new Jim Crow era of voting restrictions were overblown. (Look no further than Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL’s floor speech Tuesday.) But Axios has an explainer about why that’s not necessarily the case: “Democrats contend the high early turnout is the result of energized efforts to educate voters and say the biggest changes from the law were related to absentee ballot access and rules — not early voting. … Rejection rates for provisional ballots won’t be available until after the election, so the complete picture won’t be clear for weeks.”
See the full results for each state: Alabama statewide … Alabama congressional districts … Arkansas statewide … Arkansas congressional districts … Georgia statewide … Georgia congressional districts … Minnesota special election … Texas statewide runoffs … Texas congressional district runoffs
BIDEN’S WEDNESDAY:
— 1:30 p.m.: The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief.
— 4 p.m.: Biden will sign an executive order on police reform. He and VP KAMALA HARRIS will deliver remarks.
THE SENATE is in. Testifying before Appropriations subcommittees today: FBI Director CHRISTOPHER WRAY at 2 p.m., USAID Administrator SAMANTHA POWER at 2:30 p.m. and U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. THOMAS MANGER at 3:45 p.m.
THE HOUSE is out. FDA Commissioner ROBERT CALIFF will testify on the infant formula shortage before an Energy and Commerce subcommittee at 11 a.m. FEMA Administrator DEANNE CRISWELL will testify before an Appropriations subcommittee at 11 a.m. Secret Service Director JAMES MURRAY will testify before an Appropriations subcommittee at 2 p.m.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
THE WHITE HOUSE
REFORM ROLLOUT — Biden is expected to sign an executive order today intended to provide significant police reform on the second anniversary of GEORGE FLOYD’s murder at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
— What the order would do: “Mr. Biden will direct federal law enforcement agencies to revise their use-of-force policies and to restrict tactics like chokeholds and no-knock warrants, while using grant incentives to encourage state and local agencies to adopt the same standards. His order will also create a national registry of officers fired for misconduct and restrict the transfer of most military equipment to police,” NYT’s Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Charlie Savage report.
BIDEN’S BLUNDERS —WaPo’s Ashley Parker and Tyler Pager write in an analysis piece about the White House’s frequent need to clean up Biden’s off-the-cuff remarks, as happened again this week with remarks on Taiwan — with some even wondering if Biden and the administration would be better served by leaving his unpolished comments without official follow-ups.
— Interesting nugget: “In an ironic twist, when then-President GEORGE W. BUSH made almost identical comments about Taiwan in 2001, it was Sen. Joe Biden — then the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee — who excoriated him in a Washington Post op-ed titled ‘Not So Deft On Taiwan.’ ‘Words matter,’ Biden chided Bush.”
ALL POLITICS
KEYSTONE STATE UPDATE — “The national and [Pennsylvania] Republican parties vowed Tuesday to oppose GOP Senate candidate DAVID MCCORMICK in his lawsuit seeking to have potentially hundreds of contested mail ballots counted in his neck-and-neck primary race against MEHMET OZ,” the Philly Inquirer’s Jeremy Roebuck, Jonathan Lai and Julia Terruso report. “But with a state-mandated recount looming, an undeterred McCormick pushed the state’s highest court to take up his case — even if that meant standing at odds with his party.”
— And as Lt. Gov. JOHN FETTERMAN recovers from his recent stroke, he is still sidelined from any campaign activities. His wife, GISELE, told WaPo “that her husband has no set timeline, noting that he has a follow-up appointment with his doctor later this week.” The uncertainty is something of a concern, but “privately, Democrats said that although they do not know how long Fetterman will be sidelined, they feel they are not yet at any disadvantage because the GOP primary has been left unresolved,” Colby Itkowitz, Paul Kane and Ariana Eunjung Cha write.
THE ECONOMY
FORMULA LATEST — One of the leading infant formula companies said Tuesday that it would release roughly “300,000 cans of a specialty infant formula for children in urgent medical need, while U.S. health regulators cleared the import of about 2 million cans of formula from the U.K. to try to mitigate a shortage,” WSJ’s Peter Loftus writes.
THE PANDEMIC
MEET THE NEW VARIANT — The latest variation of the Omicron coronavirus variant — called BA.2.12.1 — is now the dominant version of the virus in the U.S., NYT’s Adeel Hassan reports. “BA.2.12.1 made up about 58 percent of all new U.S. cases, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the week ending May 21.”
Herschel Walker claimed that he’s “never heard” Donald Trumpsay that the 2020 election was stolen from him. (Maybe he hasn’t watched TV since 2020?)
Rick Scott, speaking about Patty Murray at an event in New Hampshire: “I was at a donor retreat the other day with a bunch of people from D.C. I said, ‘Have any of you ever invited her to dinner?’ No! Nobody would! She’s not nice to anybody.”
Poppy Harlow graduated from her Yale Law master’s program.
Ruben Gallegotore intoKyrsten Sinema for her continued support of the filibuster, which has effectively blocked gun control legislation.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old crypto billionaire behind FTX, said that he expects to donate somewhere between $100 million and $1 billion in the next presidential election — “with his spending likely to be on the higher end if former President Donald Trump runs again,” per NBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald.
Gordon Ramsey has an all-you-can-eat, pizza-by-the-slice restaurant coming to Penn Quarter in downtown Washington. (Just what D.C. was missing: British pizza.)
A wild turkey joined a funeral procession at Arlington National Cemetery.
Clickbait for Joe Biden: Amtrak has pictures of its new Acela train redesign, rolling out in fall 2023.
BOOK CLUB — April Ryan will publish “Black Women Will Save the World: An Anthem,” billed as a reflection on 2020 “and African-American women’s unprecedented role in upholding democracy,” on Oct. 18 via Amistad.
OUT AND ABOUT — APAICS hosted its 28th annual awards gala, keynoted by VP Kamala Harris and co-chaired by Reps. Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.) and Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii) at the Renaissance D.C. Hotel on Tuesday evening. Honorees included Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), California Assemblymember Evan Low, PBS NewsHour’s Amna Nawaz, Steve Aoki and the Waianae Community Health Center. The gala also honored the late Norman Mineta, a co-founder of the organization, and his family Deni Mineta and David Mineta. Aoki headlined the afterparty at Dock5. SPOTTED: Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su, Deputy DHS Secretary John Tien, Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, Mike Honda, Erika Moritsugu, Madalene Xuan-Trang Mielke, Susan Jin Davis, Tariq Khan, Emma Broyles, Leihua Stewart, Juliet K. Choi, Priya Purandare, John K. Kim, Sonali Desai, Jenny R. Yang, Kiran Ahuja, Michael Coen Jr., Krystal Ka’ai, Brad Jenkins, Linda Shim and Richard Lui.
— SPOTTED at a dinner Tuesday night at Mikko to celebrate NPR’s Tim Mak’s return from Ukraine and WSJ’s Byron Tau visiting D.C. from the Albany area as he writes a book on data and national security: Lachlan Markay, Betsy Woodruff Swan, Matt Fuller, David Pasch, Daniel Lippman, Connor Ryan, Hayley Alexander and Matt Fuller.Pic
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Dentons Global Advisors-Albright Stonebridge Group is adding Christina Hawk as VP with the health practice and welcoming the return of Mark Feierstein as senior adviser with the Americas practice. Hawk most recently was associate executive director at Sunrise Senior Living. Feierstein most recently was acting deputy USAID administrator.
TRANSITIONS — Josh Wilsusen is joining Binance.US as chief policy officer. He previously was managing director for public policy and government affairs at Ally Bank, and is a Morgan Stanley and House Financial Services alum. … Alex Heil is joining the Conference Board as senior economist for energy, environment and infrastructure. He previously was VP for research at Citizens Budget Commission. … Brigitte Schmidt Gwyn is now SVP for North America public policy and government affairs at PepsiCo. She most recently was president and CEO of MPA – The Association of Magazine Media.
… Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s (R-Pa.) office has added Hannah Pope as press secretary and Clare Dentner as a staff assistant. Pope previously was an account coordinator at Levick. … Libby Schroeder is now director of comms for Nebraska Cattlemen. She most recently was a comms director for Rep. Van Taylor (R-Texas).
WEEKEND WEDDING —Wendy Hamilton, outreach and member services adviser for Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), and Marvin Foster, member services adviser at CareJourney in Chicago, got married Saturday at Celeste in Chicago. Pic … Another pic
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Ally Kehoe, comms director for Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), and Chad Kehoe, digital director at ESB Advertising, on May 18 welcomed Nora Lane Kehoe, who came in at 7 lbs, 13 oz. Pic … Another pic
— Jon Adams, founder and CEO of TAG Strategies and a Targeted Victory and NRSC alum, and Michael McCollum Adams, managing partner at TAG and a Paul Ryan and RNC alum, on Monday welcomed Harrison Elizabeth Adams, their fourth child. Pic … Pic of all four kids
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) … Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan … David Martosko of Zenger News and Daily Mail TV … Greg Bluestein of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution … Laurie Rubiner … Megan Van Etten of PhRMA … Savannah Haeger of FedEx … Kate Ackley Zeller of CQ Roll Call … CBS’ Stefan Becket … POLITICO’s Catherine Kim and Diana Hernandez … Savanna Peterson of Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-Md.) office … Anna Palmer … Annie Clark of Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-Maine) office … Interior’s Alexandra Sanchez … Edelman’s Amy Fox … AFL-CIO’s Carolyn Bobb … former Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) … Sean Rushton … DIA’s Margaret Dobrydnio Motes … Matt Lakin … Mark Shields … former Reps. Steve Russell (R-Okla.) and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) … Ron Nessen … Courtney Joline … Mark Lutter
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Correction: Tuesday’s Playbook misstated Claudia Flores’ former job title. She previously was an associate director for policy and strategy at the Center for American Progress.
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