It’s Wednesday. My social media feeds are flooded with the clip of *NSYNC’s reunion last night to present Taylor Swift with an award at the VMAs. Swift totally fangirled over them. Maybe that says something about my social media algorithms, but I’m not complaining. 😘 Anyway, here are some highlights today:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is hosting tech titans — including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla’s Elon Musk — on Capitol Hill today for a forum on artificial intelligence. A new COVID-19 vaccine is available as early as today (!)
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) had a comical reaction to Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) endorsement of a President Biden impeachment inquiry. The clip has more than 4.4 million views so far.
I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Send tips, commentary, feedback and cookie recipes to cmartel@digital-staging.thehill.com. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here.
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OK, but are we sure it’s *actually* Zuckerberg and Musk, not AI robots?: |
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🎵 Cue the Westworld opening credits 🎵 Though I must be honest with you, the opening credits were the best part of that show. 🤷️ I know you will all tell me if you disagree.
Top tech CEOs are on Capitol Hill today for a closed-door forum on artificial intelligence (AI), hosted by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Who’s attending?: Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg; Tesla and X, formerly Twitter, CEO Elon Musk; former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates; and Google’s Sundar Pichai will be there. Here’s a list of attendees from Reuters
Who else is there?: All 100 senators were invited to the forum, but the public and press are not, according to The Associated Press. |
➤ IT’S UNSURPRISINGLY A MEDIA CIRCUS OUTSIDE THE ROOM: |
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Another new COVID-19 shot on deck: |
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) endorsed new COVID-19 shots from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech for all Americans over 6 months old.
What’s different about this shot?: This vaccine was developed to target a variant that had become dominant. While that variant has largely subsided, these new vaccines do protect against other strains of the COVID-19 virus. Some people may have to pay for this shot, though: The public health emergency expired in May, so the federal government isn’t paying to distribute this vaccine. The payment and distribution will be similar to the flu shot. Wow, 2020 me is cheering this stat: 95 percent of the U.S. population has some COVID-19 immunity from either vaccination or infection. The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel answers more questions you may have about the shot. |
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The finale of this season’s Prison Break:
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The convicted murderer who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison was captured this morning after two weeks on the run. (CBS News)
Video of his capture: From CBS Philadelphia
If you haven’t been following this story: Convicted killer Danelo Cavalcante scaled a wall to escape from prison. The video went viral — watch |
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Mark Meadows did not get the outcome he wanted: |
A judge rejected former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’s motion for a stay in his battle to move his charges out of state.
Back story: “Meadows faces two counts in District Attorney Fani Willis’s (D) sprawling racketeering indictment, which charged former President Trump and 18 other individuals for their efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. Meadows and the other co-defendants all pleaded not guilty.” (The Hill)
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Moderate House Republicans are starting to back Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) decision to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
Why?: Opening an official investigation gives the committees more power in their probes. Centrist Republicans argue it doesn’t necessarily mean it will lead to impeachment articles.
Yes, but the politics get tricky: Launching an official probe will almost certainly set the stage for a future vote on impeachment articles. That vote would put moderate Republicans in a tough spot, especially those who are running in purple districts.
It’s worth mentioning that not all moderate Republicans are on board: Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) expressed disapproval of McCarthy’s move. “I think there’s corruption there, but to do an inquiry you should have some kind of direct evidence towards the president,” said Bacon. “I think that we’re close, so I’m not opposed to never doing it, but I just think we should set a high bar.” What House Republicans allege Biden did: They argue that Biden improperly benefited from his son Hunter’s business dealings. The Hill’s Mychael Schnell and Caroline Vakil have a helpful read on the situation. (The Hill) |
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➤ HOW THE WHITE HOUSE IS REACTING: |
The White House sent a memo to news outlets, urging them to ramp up their scrutiny over Republicans’ impeachment inquiry.
Excerpt: “When even House Republican members are admitting that there is simply no evidence that Joe Biden did anything wrong, much less impeachable, that should set off alarm bells for news organizations.” (The Hill) |
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➤ TIDBIT — TBH, I WISH MORE SENATORS GAVE QUOTES LIKE THIS:
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NBC News’s Liz Brown-Kaiser posted a video of Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) reacting to the news yesterday that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) supports an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The clip has more than 4.4 million views already. Watch — it’s pretty funny
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➤ THIS MORNING AT UNION STATION:
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Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman posted: “PSA: The entire front side of Union Station is shut. Police tape up. Cops directing people away from the building. If you’re trying to get to the Capitol, add some extra time to your trip.” Video outside Union Station |
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This will raise some eyebrows: |
The New York Times’s Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman and Alyce McFadden report that former President Trump has been asking GOP lawmakers to impeach President Biden.
Excerpt: “Over the past several months, Mr. Trump has kept a close watch on House Republicans’ momentum toward impeaching Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump has talked regularly by phone with members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and other congressional Republicans who pushed for impeachment, according to a person close to Mr. Trump.” Also: “[Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)], who has introduced articles of impeachment against Mr. Biden, said she told Mr. Trump that she wanted the impeachment inquiry to be ‘long and excruciatingly painful for Joe Biden.’” The full reporting is worth reading. (The New York Times) |
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The House and Senate are in. President Biden is in Washington, D.C., and Vice President Harris is in Chicago, Ill., this afternoon. |
12:55 p.m.: Harris swears in the President’s Committee on the Arts & and the Humanities.
1 p.m.: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby and Council of Economic Advisers chairman Jared Bernstein brief. 📺 Livestream
1:30 p.m.: First House votes of the day. Last votes are expected at 5:30 p.m. 🗓️ Today’s agenda
2:30 p.m.: Biden and first lady Jill Biden hold a meeting with the Cancer Cabinet.
5 p.m.: First lady Jill Biden hosts the 2023 International Medal of Arts Ceremony. 📺 Livestream 6 p.m.: Harris delivers remarks at a campaign event in Chicago.
6:40 p.m.: Biden participates in a campaign reception in McLean, Va.
9 p.m.: GOP presidential candidate Mike Pence participates in a NewsNation town hall. 📺 Livestream
All Times Eastern |
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✂️Ramaswamy wants to cut 1 million government jobs: GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told Axios that he wants to cut jobs in agencies such as the Education Department, the Commerce Department, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the IRS. (Axios)
🚫 Interesting op-ed in The Washington Post: “President Biden should not run again in 2024,” columnist David Ignatius writes. (The Washington Post) |
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🥜 Celebrate: Today is National Peanut Day!
🧣The talk of social media: All five members of the 1990s boy band *NSYNC reunited last night at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) to present the award for best pop video to Taylor Swift. She got starstruck and told *NSYNC, “I had your dolls.” (People) |
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👗 Getting traction: Glamour’s cover story is titled, “The Bridesmaid Burnout.” Excerpt: “It’s unclear when the job of being a bridesmaid went from being mildly annoying to being precipitously, obscenely, recklessly off the rails. We’re tired, hungover, broke, and itchy (see: chiffon).” Read
🪩 Imagine having your title be ‘Taylor Swift reporter?’: USA Today is hiring a “Taylor Swift reporter.” Here’s the job listing |
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View past issues of 12:30 Report here and check out other newsletters from The Hill here. See you next time! |
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