The public radio program and podcast Our Body Politic is pausing production.
The program is “at a crossroads with its current level of production and service to stations and listeners,” Katie Kemple, the show’s national program representative, wrote in an email to stations Friday. “They are implementing a six-month production hiatus. For radio, this means an end to the weekly Content Depot distribution.”
Stations that air the program can continue broadcasting previous episodes through February, Kemple wrote. The final episode will be released Feb. 23.
“As of January 26, 2024, Our Body Politic made the tough decision to pause production, putting the show on temporary hiatus,” co-EP Shanta Covington said in an automated email response.
Farai Chideya, the show’s founder, host and co-EP, did not respond to a request for comment.
The weekly show launched in 2020 with startup support from KQED in San Francisco, KCRW in Santa Monica, Calif., and KPCC in Los Angeles. The show was airing in 93 markets as of October 2022.
The show centered women of color in the political landscape, with episodes focusing on topics such as the economy, health, education and the environment. The most recent episode focused on Black maternal health. Earlier this month, the program released an audio documentary interviewing investigators of color on the congressional January 6th Committee.
“While we are proud of our success, the reality is radio and podcast production work is grueling,” a post on the show’s website said. “… We appreciate your patience and grace as we regroup and recast the vision for the next chapter in Our Body Politic’s journey.”
LONDON (AP) — Northern Ireland’s largest British unionist party agreed Tuesday to end a boycott that left the region’s people without a power-sharing administration for two years and rattled the foundations of the 25-year-old peace. The breakthrough could see the shuttered Belfast government restored within days — with Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein holding the post of first minister for the first time.
After a marathon late-night meeting, Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said the party’s executive had backed proposals to return to the government. He said agreements reached with the U.K. government in London “provide a basis for our party to nominate members to the Northern Ireland Executive, thus seeing the restoration of the locally elected institutions.”
The breakthrough after months of inconclusive negotiations came after the U.K. government last week gave Northern Ireland politicians until Feb. 8 to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly and the local government or face new elections.
“All the conditions are in place for the Assembly to return,” Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said. He said he would publish details of the U.K. government’s new proposals on Wednesday, after briefing Northern Ireland’s main political parties.
The DUP walked out in February 2022 in a dispute over post-Brexit trade rules. Ever since, it has refused to return to the government with the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein. Under power-sharing rules established as part of Northern Ireland’s peace process, the administration must include both British unionists and Irish nationalists.
The walkout left Northern Ireland’s 1.9 million people without a functioning administration to make key decisions as the cost of living soared and backlogs strained the creaking public health system. Amid mounting public frustration, teachers, nurses and other public sector workers staged a 24-hour strike this month calling on politicians to return to the government and give them a long-delayed pay raise.
The British government has agreed to give Northern Ireland more than 3 billion pounds ($3.8 billion) for its public services, but only if the executive in Belfast gets back up and running.
Katy Hayward, professor of political sociology at Queen’s University Belfast, said the DUP leader had concluded the party’s boycott had reached “the end of the road.”
“Jeffrey Donaldson thought that the time was running out,” she said. “This was his opportunity, he had to jump.”
Northern Ireland’s political deadlock stems from the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union and its borderless trading bloc after decades of membership. The DUP quit the government in opposition to new trade rules put in place after the U.K. left the EU in 2020 that imposed customs checks and other hurdles on goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.
The checks were established to maintain an open border between the north and its EU neighbor, the Republic of Ireland — a key pillar of the peace process that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland. The DUP, though, says the new east-west customs border undermines Northern Ireland’s place in the U.K.
In February 2023, the U.K. and the EU agreed on a deal to ease customs checks and other hurdles for goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. But it was not enough for the DUP, which continued its government boycott.
Donaldson said further measures agreed by the British government will mean “zero checks, zero customs paperwork” on Northern Ireland-bound goods.
The DUP’s change of heart faces opposition from some hard-line unionists, who fiercely guard Northern Ireland’s place in the U.K. and say even light-touch post-Brexit checks create a de facto internal trade barrier. Dozens of protesters gathered outside the DUP meeting venue outside Belfast late Monday, waving placards saying, “Stop DUP sellout.”
Details of the supposedly private five-hour DUP meeting were live-tweeted by Jamie Bryson, editor of the Unionist Voice newsletter, who is opposed to Donaldson’s attempts at compromise.
Donaldson said last week that he had received threats over his attempts to negotiate a return to the government.
“I think my party has displayed far more courage than those who threaten or try to bully or try to misrepresent us,” he said Tuesday. “We are determined to take our place in taking Northern Ireland forward.”
The situation has been complicated by Northern Ireland’s changing political landscape. Unionists were the largest force in the Northern Ireland Assembly from its establishment in 1998 until 2022, when Sinn Fein won the most seats in an election.
That gives the nationalist party, which aims to take Northern Ireland out of the U.K. and unite it with the republic, the right to hold the post of first minister in the restored government. The DUP will fill the post of deputy — a bitter pill for many unionists to swallow.
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said the appointment of Northern Ireland’s first nationalist leader would be “a moment of great significance” that will bring a united Ireland closer.
Hayward agreed it was “hugely significant in symbolic terms, if not in practical terms, because it’s a joint position” with the deputy role.
“International headlines about that — the first time you have a Sinn Fein first minister — are the kind of headlines that that the DUP have been dreading,” she said.
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January 30, 2024 at 11:50PM
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Northern Ireland's largest political party ends 2-year boycott that left people with dysfunctional government - PBS NewsHour
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Rise of techno-optimism: Silicon Valley backed new political force in America - Axios
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House Speaker Mike Johnson is overseeing one of the smallest House majorities in history as Congress confronts upcoming battles over government funding and contentious fights over immigration and impeachment.
Republicans currently control just 219 seats while Democrats control 213 after Ohio GOP Rep. Bill Johnson resigned from Congress earlier this month to take a job as president of Youngstown State University.
The razor-thin majority presents an enormous challenge for the speaker, leaving him with almost no room for error as he navigates demands from competing wings of his party.
There are currently three vacancies in the House following Johnson’s departure, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s resignation from Congress at the end of last year and the expulsion of former GOP Rep. George Santos of New York.
Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins of New York has also announced plans to leave Congress, and will be stepping down on February 2, his office told CNN.
A special election to fill the seat previously held by Santos will take place on February 13. The race is expected to be competitive and is a potential pickup opportunity for Democrats.
In addition to the tight margin, there is always the possibility that absences can further impact the vote math.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s office has said that he will work remotely until returning to Washington in February as he recovers from a stem cell transplant.
Republican Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky was hospitalized following a car accident earlier this month. His office subsequently announced that he had progressed to physical rehabilitation to assist in his recovery.
The tight vote margin means that any individual member has the potential to exert outsized influence and Johnson has frequently felt pressure from his right flank.
Hardline conservatives have already shown that they can hold major sway in the chamber with such a narrow majority – most notably when a group of hardliners moved to oust McCarthy from the speakership in a historic and unprecedented vote last year.
The exact size and scope of the far right of the House Republican Conference can vary from issue to issue. A contingent of roughly a dozen hardliners staged a rebellion on the House floor earlier this month, taking down a procedural vote to show opposition to a spending deal Johnson had reached with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The ever-shrinking margin has forced Johnson to put bills directly onto the floor under a procedural move known as suspension of the rules in certain instances as his right flank has increasingly taken to tanking rule votes on the floor in a show of protest, a dynamic that will likely continue and may intensify.
But that strategy compels the need for a two-thirds majority to pass bills, requiring significant Democratic support, and further alienating Johnson and the right wing of his conference.
In one recent example, the House passed a short-term funding extension to avert a shutdown under suspension of the rules earlier this month. House Republicans were nearly evenly divided in the vote, a sign of the deep rift within the conference. One hundred and seven Republicans voted for the bill, while 106 voted against it. Far more Democrats than Republicans voted for the measure with 207 Democrats in favor and just two opposed.
In addition to facing pressure from conservatives, Johnson must also balance the interests of more moderate members from battleground districts who are on the frontlines of the majority and who will be under intense scrutiny during the 2024 election year.
There were 18 Republicans in House districts that President Joe Biden won in 2020 – a number that is now down to 17 after the expulsion of Santos. The fate of these politically vulnerable members will be key to whether the GOP can hold onto its majority.
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January 29, 2024 at 07:00PM
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Speaker Mike Johnson’s historically narrow majority has shrunk even further - CNN
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More than previous generations, they are concerned about their mental health and educational prospects, new surveys show.
Although it has never been easy to be a teenager, the current generation of young Americans feels particularly apprehensive, new polling shows — anxious about their lives, disillusioned about the direction of the country and pessimistic about their futures.
Just one-third of respondents ages 12 to 17 said things were going well for children and teenagers today, in a survey published Monday by Common Sense Media, a children’s advocacy group. Less than half said they thought they would be better off than their parents when they grew up — a downbeat view shared among teenagers in many rich countries, other data shows.
It’s not just about teenage angst. A different survey, by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation, the latest installment of which was also released Monday, has asked questions of young people over time and looked at how their answers have changed. Members of Gen Z, ages 12 to 27, are significantly less likely to rate their current and future lives highly than millennials were when they were the same age, it found.
Among those 18 to 26, just 15 percent said their mental health was excellent. That is a large decline from both 2013 and 2003, when just over half said so.
Together, the surveys offer an unusually detailed look at the perspectives of teenagers, who are rarely surveyed in high-quality polls.
“The data is pretty stark: Our kids are not all right,” said James P. Steyer, founder and chief executive of Common Sense Media.
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Today's Teenagers: Anxious About Their Futures and Disillusioned by Politicians - The New York Times
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House Republicans have released two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
Republicans have vowed to push forward with efforts to oust the Cabinet member over what they say is his failure to manage the U.S-Mexico border
Democrats and the department said the articles unveiled Sunday are a politically motivated stunt that fails to reach the mark for impeachment
The Republican-controlled House Homeland Security Committee is set to vote Tuesday on the articles of impeachment, aiming to send them to the full House for consideration
Speaker Mike Johnson has said the House will move forward as soon as possible with a vote after that
Republicans contend Mayorkas is guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors” that amount to a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” on immigration and a “breach of the public trust.” Impeachment, they say, is “Congress's only viable option.”
“Alejandro N. Mayorkas willfully and systemically refused to comply with the immigration laws, failed to control the border to the detriment of national security, compromised public safety, and violated the rule of law and separation of powers in the Constitution, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States," the impeachment resolution says.
Ever since taking control of the House in 2023, Republicans have pushed to impeach Mayorkas. Sunday’s announcement comes as their other impeachment drive — to impeach Democratic President Joe Biden in relation to his son Hunter's business dealings — has struggled to advance.
But Republicans have moved with rapid speed against Mayorkas after a series of hearings in recent weeks. It all comes at a time when border security and immigration are key issues in the 2024 campaign and as Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, is promising to launch the “largest deportation operation” in U.S. history if he returns to the White House.
The GOP push also comes at a curious time for Mayorkas.
Even as the House is taking steps to try remove him from office, Mayorkas has been engaged in arduous negotiations with senators seeking to reach a bipartisan deal on border policy. He has won praise from senators for his engagement in the process.
The Republican-controlled House Homeland Security Committee is set to vote Tuesday on the articles of impeachment, aiming to send them to the full House for consideration. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said the House will move forward as soon as possible with a vote after that.
Passage requires only a House majority. The Senate would hold a trial, and a two-thirds vote is required for conviction, an exceedingly unlikely outcome in the Democratic-run Senate.
Democrats say Republicans have held a sham of an impeachment process against Mayorkas and lack the constitutional grounds to impeach the secretary. They also say Republicans are part of the problems at the border, with Republicans attacking Mayorkas even as they have failed to give his department the tools it needs to manage the situation.
“They don’t want to fix the problem; they want to campaign on it. That’s why they have undermined efforts to achieve bipartisan solutions and ignored the facts, legal scholars and experts, and even the Constitution itself in their quest to baselessly impeach Secretary Mayorkas,” the department said in a statement Sunday.
The two articles mark the culmination of a roughly yearlong examination by Republicans of the secretary's handling of the border and what they describe as a crisis of the administration's own making. Republicans contend that the administration and Mayorkas specifically either got rid of policies in place under Trump that had controlled migration or enacted policies of their own that encouraged migrants from around the world to come to the U.S. illegally via the southern border.
In the articles, Republicans argue that Mayorkas is deliberately violating immigration laws passed by Congress, such as those requiring detention of migrants, and that through his policies, a crisis has arisen at the border. They accuse him of releasing migrants without effective ways to make sure they show up for court or are removed from the country. They cited an Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo written by Mayorkas that sets priorities for whom the agency should target for enforcement proceedings as proof that he is letting people stay in the country who don't have the right to do so.
They also attacked the administration’s use of the humanitarian parole authority, which allows the DHS secretary to admit certain migrants into the country. Republicans said the Biden administration has essentially created a mass parole program that bypasses Congress. They cited cities such as New York that have struggled with high numbers of migrants, taxing housing and education systems, as proof of the financial costs immigration is taking.
Democrats say Republicans simply disagree with the administration’s policies and that policy differences aren’t grounds for impeachment. They have lambasted the proceedings, calling them a waste of time when lawmakers should be working together to solve the problems.
Democrats, as well as Mayorkas, have argued that it’s not the administration’s policies that are causing people to attempt to migrate to America but that the movement is part of a global mass migration of people fleeing wars, economic instability and political repression. They have argued that Mayorkas is doing the best he can to manage border security but with a system that hasn’t been updated in decades and is chronically underfunded.
The department on Sunday cited high numbers of people being removed from the country, especially over roughly the last six months and its efforts to tackle fentanyl smuggling as proof that DHS is not shirking its border duties. And, they said, no administration has been able to detain every person who crosses the border illegally, citing space capacities. Instead, they focus on those who pose security threats.
“A standard requiring 100% detention would mean that Congress should have impeached every DHS Secretary since the Department was founded,” the agency said in the statement.
The last Cabinet secretary to be impeached was William Belknap, the war secretary under President Ulysses Grant, over corruption issues.
The House voted unanimously March 2, 1876, to impeach Belknap on five articles of impeachment that he’d criminally disregarded his Cabinet duties and used his office for private gain. Belknap had resigned earlier that same day. After a trial in the Senate, a majority of senators vote to convict him but they didn’t have enough votes to hit the the necessary two-thirds majority and Belknap was acquitted.
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House GOP unveil articles of impeachment for Homeland Security chief - Spectrum News NY1
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CNN's Michael Smerconish asks, Is Trump's move to block the bipartisan border deal being ironed out because he thinks the deal is bad -- or to thwart Joe Biden having a win on the issue before the election?
With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
DRIVING THE DAY
BAD NEWS, GOOD NEWS? —“Felonies, Old Age Heavily Count Against Candidates,” by Gallup’s Lydia Saad: “Less than a third of Americans say they would be willing to vote for someone nominated by their party who is over the age of 80 or has been charged with a felony or convicted of a felony by a jury. … These results are based on a Gallup poll conducted Jan. 2-22.”
And yet … “An analysis of the responses of those answering both of these questions suggests that a slight majority of Americans (52%) would be unperturbed by the choice between [JOE] BIDEN and [DONALD] TRUMP.”
BIDEN’S BORDER SURPRISE — There still isn’t any actual text of a bipartisan border deal to look at, but that hasn’t stopped the political posturing around the Senate talks to play out all week long.
It started with Trump and his allies upping the pressure on congressional Republicans to kill the talks. Then Senate Minority Leader MITCHMcCONNELL acknowledged those MAGA headwinds in private comments Wednesday before — amid an uproar — making clear Thursday he was still behind a deal.
Yesterday, Speaker MIKE JOHNSON sent a Dear Colleague letter all but declaring the deal “dead on arrival in the House” as the Senate negotiators move this weekend to finalize and finally release a proposal.
And then it was Biden’s turn.
In a Friday evening statement, he endorsed the deal no one has yet seen, calling it “the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country” and a “win for America.” He added, “If you’re serious about the border crisis, pass a bipartisan bill and I will sign it.”
OK, sure, sounds good.
But then there was this: “It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”
As Myah Ward and Burgess Everett report,that statement represents “a ramping up in rhetoric for the administration, placing the president philosophically in the camp arguing that the border may hit a point where closure is needed.”
It also amounts to a perfect way to infuriate forces on both the left and the right who have been working to kill a deal.
As for the right, the reaction was pretty straightforward: Biden already has the authority he needs to clamp down on the border, so just use it already. (Never mind that Trump sought similar additional authorities from Congress when he was president.)
As for the left, well, let’s just say that immigration advocates who had been pleasantly surprised by the Biden administration’s approach after four years of Trump are not pleased. At all.
"President Biden is finally admitting that he’s given up on his campaign promise to enact more humane immigration policies than Trump,” a former Biden immigration official texted Playbook last night. “He would rather adopt Trump’s border rhetoric than continue the work he started as Vice President to fix the border by addressing the root causes of migration.”
The person, who also worked under former President BARACK OBAMA, added: “Even worse, he’s making a promise he will not be able to keep. He is about to lose all credibility on the global stage to tell other democracies to treat migrants at the border fairly and humanely.”
Las Americas Executive Director MARISA LIMON GARZA, who has met with Biden officials for years, called the statement “the most uninformed, short-sighted idea of a solution as could be” and a break from the administration’s prior policy commitments.
“As a person of faith who went to Catholic schools and taught in Catholic schools, it feels like he's lost his way a little bit, which we all do,” she said. “I know that he cares. I believe him when he says that he values family [but] I think it's gotten clouded because it hasn't been convenient.”
So what’s really going on here?
Asked about the blowback, a White House official we spoke with this morning noted that Biden promised to “secure the border” in a fact sheet accompanying his first proposed bill. (Though, we’d point out, that’s a far cry from endorsing a full border shutdown.)
And politically, the imperative is clear: A recent CBS News poll found 63 percent of Americans said the administration should be tougher on immigrants crossing at the border, which is in line with other recent polling showing growing public concern with the issue.
Another veteran immigration advocate Playbook spoke to last night saw things this way: Biden’s statement was “crass and gross,” the person said, but it also signaled that the White House sees passage of a deal slipping away (Trump weighed in again this morning) and that it’s time to start convincing voters who is really responsible for the mess at the border.
“It’s bait designed to get a bunch of liberal advocates to say, ‘Oh my God, the president is terrible.’ And then it's also designed to get the far right to freak out. And they think that … they're going to be seen as like the people down the middle,” the veteran advocate said. “There's just a lot of bullshitting going on right now, because, at the end of the day, it turns out there's not a policy that, like, Johnson and Joe Biden and CHUCK SCHUMER are going to sign off on.”
THE $83.3 MILLION QUESTION — Will this be the legal development that finally moves the needle on the public’s opinion of Trump?
OK, almost certainly not, but yesterday’s blockbuster judgment — $18.3 million in compensation plus $65 million in punitive damages — in the New York defamation case brought by former newspaper columnist E. JEAN CARROLL was still an eye-opening reminder of the very serious legal peril Trump faces.
Trump had left the courtroom before the number was read, but according to the NYT, his “lawyers slumped in their seats as the dollar figures were read aloud.” Carroll, meanwhile, “walked out of the courthouse arm in arm with her legal team, beaming for the cameras” as Trump lawyer ALINA HABBA railed against the verdict. More details from POLITICO’s Erica Orden.
Said Trump in a Truth Social statement, “I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party. Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!”
Any notion that the judgment — not to mention the underlying account of rape — might derail Trump’s march to the GOP nomination seemed to evaporate when his last credible challenger, NIKKIHALEY, released a statement that didn’t address the substance of the case, only highlighting it as a distraction.
“Donald Trump wants to be the presumptive Republican nominee and we’re talking about $83 million in damages. We’re not talking about fixing the border. We’re not talking about tackling inflation. America can do better than Donald Trump and Joe Biden,” she said in an online post.
WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY
At the White House
Biden will travel to Columbia, South Carolina, where he is scheduled to deliver remarks at the First in the Nation Dinner in the evening.
VP KAMALA HARRIS and second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF will travel to Las Vegas, where Harris will deliver remarks on small businesses and attend a campaign event in the afternoon. Harris and Emhoff will return to Los Angeles in the evening.
PLAYBOOK READS
9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US
1. HALEY’S TOUGH MATH PROBLEM: NIKKI HALEY insists that there is still a path forward for her to emerge as the GOP presidential nominee. And while she is correct on paper, the calculus is enough to make your head spin, our colleague Steve Shepard writes this morning.
The road ahead: “The relative lull over the next four weeks before the South Carolina primary is followed by a sprint: Within four weeks after Haley faces former President Donald Trump in her home state, more than 70 percent of the delegates to the Republican convention in July will have been awarded.”
The challenge: “It’s a structural problem, in addition to Haley’s political one: trying to turn out the moderates and independents who boosted her in New Hampshire in states where they are in shorter supply. The door is still technically open for her to dethrone the former president despite his victories in the first two states, but it’s going to close very quickly.”
2. TRUMPED UP: With Trump on a glide path to the GOP nomination, Democratic operatives and candidates in tough House races are licking their chops at another chance to tie Republicans to the former president for a boost with voters at the ballots. “New York in particular will serve as a test case for how far the anti-Trump message will carry as Democrats seek to flip five House seats across the state,” all of which are represented by first-term GOP lawmakers whose districts Biden carried in 2020, Nick Reisman writes. The first litmus for this effort’s potency will come next month in the special election for ousted Rep. GEORGE SANTOS’ seat.
But New York Dems are also trying to paint House GOP Conference Chair ELISE STEFANIK as a deterrent for voters — an effort that Stefanik dismissed, pointing to her own success in a largely rural northern New York district. “I think they’re frosty and upset because I flipped a district that went for Obama,” Stefanik said in an interview. “We put it away year after year.”
3. BIDEN’S MUSLIM PROBLEM: As Biden searches for connections to every possible voter in his reelection bid, he is still facing an uphill battle with Arab American and Muslim voters. “Many Arab Americans and Muslim voters who have spoken to CNN say they will not support Biden’s reelection efforts due to his unwavering support of Israel and failure to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” CNN’s Camila DeChalus writes. “But the problems go beyond that – Democratic strategists who spoke to CNN are warning that the president may struggle to find surrogates willing to take on the task of speaking to key voter groups such as Muslims, Arab Americans and angered progressives.”
4. A MORE PERFECT UNION: Teamsters President SEAN O’BRIEN is planning to meet with Trump for a second time this month, a move that has “rankled some of the union’s leaders and members,” as the two candidates duke it out for the influential union’s endorsement ahead of November, WaPo’s Lauren Kaori Gurley reports. Biden was also invited for a meeting with the group, but left-leaning members are pushing back on the Trump confab given his history with unions and after O’Brien met privately with the former president at Mar-a-Lago a few weeks ago. The Teamsters endorsed Biden in 2020.
5. WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN: The White House is trying to give Biden an economic boost as the general election looms, and is planning “to award billions of dollars in subsidies to Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, and other top semiconductor companies in coming weeks to help build new factories,” WSJ’s Yuka Hayashi reports. “The grants are part of the $53 billion Chips Act, intended to reshore production of advanced microchips and fend off China, which is fast developing its own chip industry.” Industry executives told WSJ they expect some of the announcements to be set before the State of the Union address in March.
6. TRUCES WILD: Rep. SUSAN WILD (D-Pa.) is one of the most vulnerable Democrats on the ballot this November. Which is all the more reason that she doesn’t want to see Speaker Mike Johnson ousted by a band of conservative House Republicans. “I really am not inclined to help a member of the Republican Conference who wants to oust the speaker over something like either Ukraine aid or a funding deal with the Democrats,” she told NBC’s Scott Wong. “It’s been a very difficult year, and it’s been a very difficult year for the American people to watch the Congress be incredibly dysfunctional.”
7. WAR IN UKRAINE: After a languishing year for the Ukrainian forces in their counteroffensive against Russia, U.S. officials are mapping out a “new strategy that will de-emphasize winning back territory and focus instead on helping Ukraine fend off new Russian advances while moving toward a long-term goal of strengthening its fighting force and economy,” WaPo’s Karen DeYoung, Michael Birnbaum, Isabelle Khurshudyan and Emily Rauhala report. “The emerging plan is a sharp change from last year, when the U.S. and allied militaries rushed training and sophisticated equipment to Kyiv in hopes that it could quickly push back Russian forces occupying eastern and southern Ukraine.”
8. THAT’S A MOUTHFUL:“The online roots of the conservative ‘ZYNsurrection,’” by Semafor’s David Weigel: “Democrats, who generally try to avoid conservative media influencers, might not have known how popular ZYN had become in that space. There, it’s seen not as a vice, but as a work-enhancer — addictive, but well worth the trade-off. It fits in with a broader class of medically questionable supplements, dietary fads, and brain-boosters that have become tightly associated with right-wing and wellness podcasts in recent years.”
9. MEDIAWATCH:“Los Angeles Times Owner Clashed With Top Editor Over Unpublished Article,” by NYT’s Ryan Mac, Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson: LAT owner PATRICK SOON-SHIONG and former executive editor KEVIN MERIDA’s “relationship was strained in part by an incident in December when Dr. Soon-Shiong tried to dissuade Mr. Merida from pursuing a story about a wealthy California doctor and his dog, three people with knowledge of the interactions said. The doctor was an acquaintance of Dr. Soon-Shiong’s, the people said.”
CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 16 funnies
—“Is Kim Jong Un Preparing for War?” by Robert L. Carlin and Siegfried S. Hecker for 38 North: “The situation on the Korean Peninsula is more dangerous than it has been at any time since early June 1950.”
—“Under the Shadow of the Extreme Case,” by Bolts’ Piper French: “On his first day in office, Los Angeles DA George Gascón rolled out a suite of blanket bans against some severe punishments. The ensuing years have been a crash course in the politics of reforming prosecution.”
—“When Journalism Dies,” by Sebastian Junger for National Review: “Journalism is important because reality is important, and reality is something that many generals and politicians have a complicated relationship with.”
—“The Woman Who Spent Five Hundred Days in a Cave,” by The New Yorker’s D. T. Max: “Beatriz Flamini liked to be alone so much that she decided to live underground—and pursue a world record. The experience was gruelling and surreal.”
MUST BE ALFALFA WEEKEND ... SPOTTED:Warren Buffett, Mitch McConnell, Condoleezza Rice and Jim Mattis coming out of Bourbon Steak's private dining room last night.
OUT AND ABOUT —SPOTTED at an Capitol Hill AI happy hour hosted by EqualAI and Washington AI Network at Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar last night: Miriam Vogel, Tammy Haddad, Liz Johnson, Max Katz, Megan Smith, Maryam Mujica, Caroline Edwards, Elham Tabassi, Kevin Cirilli, Elizabeth Kelly, Oma Seddiq, Jen Howard, Ollie Stephenson, Robby Burke, Johanna Thomas, Tina Huang and Virginia Coyne.
— NobleReach Foundation hosted a book launch party celebrating the release of the “Venture Meets Mission” ($30), co-authored by Arun Gupta, Thomas Fewer and Gerard George, at its headquarters in Tyson’s on Thursday night. SPOTTED: Terry McAuliffe, Aneesh Chopra, Lisa Disbrow, retired Lt. Gen. Leslie C. Smith, Simon Davidson, Pat Tamburrino Jr., Glenn Gaffney, Linda Bixby, Rebeca Lamadrid, Alex Gallo and Victoria Virasingh.
MEDIA MOVES — Olivia Olander will be a senior reporter covering state government at the Chicago Tribune. She most recently has been a labor and employment reporter at POLITICO. … Mike Siconolfi is retiring after a 40-year career at WSJ. More from Talking Biz News
TRANSITIONS — Hayley Edmonds is joining Frontline Strategies as digital director. She previously was deputy director of operations for Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign. … Aleis Stokes is joining the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board as chief external relations officer. She previously was SVP of comms for the Independent Community Bankers of America.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Chief Justice John Roberts … Meredith Kelly of Declaration Media … C-SPAN’s Howard Mortman … Jessica Fink … Kitty Di Martino … Circle’s Jared Favole … Erin Lindsay … Emily Skor of Growth Energy … The Paley Center’s Kayla Ermanni … Jamal Ware … Nomiki Konst … White House’s Matt Lee-Ashley … DLCC’s Will Rusche … Connie Partoyan of Targeted Victory … Ben Owens … Heather Nauert … Lisa Kaplan of Alethea … Akin Gump’s Josh Teitelbaum … Morry Cater … WaPo’s Holly Bailey … former Reps. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), Zack Space (D-Ohio), John Mica (R-Fla.) and Dick Ottinger (D-N.Y.) (95) … Kevin Downey … American Conservation Coalition’s Michael Esposito … World Relief’s Chelsea Sobolik … Rachel Dumke of Sen. Steve Daines’ (R-Mont.) office … Global Counsel’s Florence Chalker … Scott Backer
ABC“This Week”: Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) … California Gov. Gavin Newsom … Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown. Panel: Rick Klein, Donna Brazile, Ramesh Ponnuru and Juana Summers.
CBS“Face the Nation”: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) … Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) … Amos Hochstein … Shawn Fain … Janti Soeripto.
FOX“Fox News Sunday”: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) … Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) … Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) … NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Panel: Francesca Chambers, Julia Manchester, Kevin Roberts and Juan Williams.
CNN“State of the Union”: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) … South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. Panel: Bakari Sellers, Scott Jennings, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and David Polyansky.
NBC“Meet the Press”: Nikki Haley … Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Panel: Cornell Belcher and Matt Gorman.
Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.
TGIF, Illinois. Get comfy, because today’s newsletter is extra newsy.
TOP TALKER
STAR POWER: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen hit Chicago Thursday to give a national policy speech that had a crowd of finance chiefs leaning in to her every word.
Call her the Taylor Swift of number crunchers. State Treasurer Michael Frerichs, state Comptroller Susana Mendoza and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Austan Goolsbee were all on hand.
Yellen didn’t disappoint. She said inflation is falling and the economy is booming — and she credited the wins to President Joe Biden’s strategy to help the middle class.
The big message: “This story of the middle class is not separate from the state of the economy. It’s at the heart of it,” Yellen said. “By middle class, I don’t mean a narrow or fixed group. I mean workers across industries and occupations— from firefighters to nurses to factory workers.”
It was music to the ears to many at the luncheon at the Fairmont Hotel sponsored by the Economic Club of Chicago.
Sing it, sister: “I just hope the room full of executives left the lunch more confident with the state of the economy,” said Mendoza, who praised Yellen for reminding that consumer confidence is up and unemployment is down. “As a (political) party, we don’t do enough to really highlight how the economy has turned around.”
The Trump factor: “As someone who is investing in infrastructure here in Illinois through our FIRST Fund and spent four long years watching Donald Trump do nothing, it’s great to see President Biden’s administration highlight what he’s been able to achieve on infrastructure,” Frerichs told Playbook.
Nods from the business set: “She presented some very compelling statistics,” SomerCor CEO Manny Flores said after the speech. “I appreciated that she was very candid in saying that we still have a ways to go, that people are still hurting but that there is some optimism… that there’s improvement in the overall economy.”
“Enlightening,” is how Bob Wislow, chair of Parkside Realty, described Yellen’s speech. “It allowed me to see what the thought processes are behind the programs and policies.”
Also in the crowd: Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, City Clerk Anna Valencia, the Illinois State Board of Investment’s Koula Berlin, Sheriff Tom Dart, Ventas CEO Debra Cafaro, Chicago Community Trust CEO Andrea Sáenz, developer Fred Latsko, attorney Graham Grady, Russel Reynolds’ Alison Ranney, businessman Andrew Shure, Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot and Big Shoulders Fund’s Josh Hale.
SIDE NOTE
Breakfast talk: Yellen had breakfast with Gov. JB Pritzker Thursday morning. The conversation focused on Pritzker’s economic strategy and “how Biden’s initiatives are impacting Illinois. We talked a good deal about the infrastructure bill and his own initiatives,” Yellen said. Sounds like heavy talk for breakfast, we told Yellen. She smiled. “The food was great” and there was “nice conversation… about mutual interests,” she said. What a tease!
CEASE-FIRE VOTE: The Chicago City Council is on track to vote Wednesday on a resolution that calls for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
It’s a position Ald. Debra Silverstein, the only Jewish member of the council, firmly opposes.
In a letter obtained by Playbook, Silverstein has asked council members to work “collaboratively,” saying it’s important that the resolution’s language doesn’t put Chicago at odds with President Joe Biden’s administration, especially given the Democratic National Convention is coming to town this summer.
Kid-gloves treatment: “It is imperative that we handle it with utmost care and precision, ensuring that our actions do not conflict with the initiatives of President Biden,” she said in her letter.
Silverstein also referred to the outbursts at this week’s City Council meeting by pro-Palestinian protesters who booed her when she spoke about the Holocaust and its survivors. “We must do all we can to prevent [Wednesday’s] ugliness from becoming the norm,” she said.
A key point, said Silverstein, is making sure the City Council's resolution doesn’t validate or adopt the United Nations Resolution 377, which was used recently to bring a vote on a ceasefire resolution to the U.N General Assembly after the United States vetoed the resolution in the Security Council.
Silverstein’s concern: She doesn’t want the Chicago resolution to put the city “on the record as supporting 377 [and] undermining the interests of the United States and hence the authority, power and influence of President Biden and every U.S. president since Harry Truman.”
Here’s a copy of the council’s resolutionwith Silverstein’s recommended amendments, including calling for the release of hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 and calling for an end to attacks by Hamas and to the harm against Palestinians.
Ald. Rossana Rodríguez-Sánchez, a sponsor of the non-binding cease-fire resolution, didn't immediately respond for comment.
Watch for a close vote: Though 28 alderpersons signed a letter requesting the vote be delayed to next week, it doesn’t mean 28 will oppose it. The mayor also announced Wednesday that he favors a cease-fire.
SEPARATE LETTER ON MIGRANTS |Aldermen sign letter urging Mayor Brandon Johnson to scrap 60-day migrant shelter policy: “Johnson allies such as Aldermen Daniel La Spata and Byron Sigcho-Lopez are among the 16 aldermen who joined migrant response mutual aid groups in signing the letter to the mayor, along with more moderate council members such as Ald. Matt O’Shea,” by the Tribune’s Alice Yin, Jake Sheridan and A.D. Quig.
NEW POLL. OUCH! |Mayor Brandon Johnson’s job performance gets poor marks: “70 percent rated his performance as fair or poor” in a survey conducted by Democratic pollster Tulchin Research. Johnson’s political team called the poll “skewed." "This is the same kind of poll that showed Brandon Johnson wouldn’t be mayor. They were wrong then. They are wrong now,” said Johnson campaign spokesman Bill Neidhart, the Sun-Times’ Fran Spielman reports.
If you are Tom Dart, Playbook would like to hear from you. Email[email protected]
WHERE'S JB
No official public events.
WHERE's BRANDON
At Malcolm X College at 10:30 a.m. for the CTA hiring fair.
Where's Toni
No official public events.
Have a tip, suggestion, birthday, new job or (gasp!) a complaint? Email [email protected]
CONVENTION ZONE
— PLAYBOOK IN PERSON: Christy George, the executive director of the Democratic National Convention’s host committee, will sit down with your Playbook host at the Hideout on Feb. 1. Details here
2024 WATCH
—Ethnicity, experience take center stage in first faceoff of Illinois Supreme Court candidates: Illinois Supreme Court Justice Joy Cunningham said race has been wrongly “injected” into the Democratic primary contest for a seat on the high court. State Appellate Judge Jesse Reyes argues ethnicity matters because no Latino has ever sat on the state’s highest court, reports the Tribune’s Dan Petrella.
— BIG AD: Darren Bailey has placed a $15,000 ad to run during the Super Bowl on Feb 11. Bailey is running for Congress in the IL-12 District against fellow incumbent Republican Mike Bost.
— The Bring Chicago Home referendum has been endorsed by the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, which represents Environmental Protection Agency workers at the Chicago EPA Region 5 headquarters.
— Personal PAC has released its first round of endorsements. Read ‘em here
— HIGH JINKS: Big names came out to honor state Sen. Kimberly Lightford for her 25 years in the Illinois General Assembly: Gov. JB Pritzker, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, Atty Gen. Kwame Raoul, state Rep. Kam Buckner, Mayor Brandon Johnson, Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson, former Senate President John Cullerton, political consultant Becky Carroll, lobbying adviser Mary Kay Minaghan, tax and budget expert Ralph Martire and former state Sen. Toi Hutchinson.
The big laugh: Hutchinson introduced Pritzker and praised him as the “best governor in America.” When he took the stage, Pritzker asked, “Is anyone here high?” It was a play on Hutchinson previously serving as the cannabis czar for Illinois, and the crowd at Red Door Meeting Place in Broadview roared.
Reader Digest
We asked about the biggest fine you’ve ever received:
David Robinson: “I got a ticket for an open container at the 1997 St. Paddy's parade. Lots of other folks in line had to pay that Monday. But the pros working the window at City Hall took care of us quickly. Best team in America!”
NEXT QUESTION:Who’s an elected official who eventually won you over?
— Mario Moreno Zepeda will be chief of staff for the office of the provost at the University of Chicago. He was chief of staff for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
— Wilson Baldwin is now Democratic communications director for the House China Select Committee. He continues as deputy chief of staff and comms director for Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08).
— Ellie Leonard will join Ameren as a comms executive for its legislative and regulatory divisions. Today’s her last day as comms director for the Illinois Senate Republican Caucus.
EVENTS
— Late tonight (1 a.m. Saturday): Jonathan Eig, author of the “King, A Life,” sits down with Hermene Hartman on NBC 5 Chicago Late Night. Rebroadcasts on Channel 25 in Chicago on Monday at 8 p.m., Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. and next Saturday at 11 a.m.
TRIVIA
THURSDAY’s ANSWER: The week of June 7-10, 1916, saw the Republican convention held at the Chicago Coliseum and the Progressive convention held at the Auditorium Building.
TODAY's QUESTION:Who was Decatur’s first city plumber?Email[email protected]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Today: Retired Judge Sheldon “Shelly” Harris, MyOwnDoctor telehealth CEO Cheryle Jackson, LIFT Management President Robin Loewenberg Tebbe and Wells Fargo strategy exec Jon Tomashoff.
Saturday: Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison, City Treasurer Chief of Staff Matt McGrath, 22nd Ward Workforce Committee Chief of Staff Carlos Gamboa and University of Chicago Graham School Dean Seth Green.
Sunday: Former Illinois House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Lorraine Murphy, Culloton + Bauer Luce VP Eleni Demertzis, Cor Strategies’ Collin Corbett, political consultant Tom Stapka and retired teacher Georgette Kapos.
And belated greetings to Elianne Bahena, the 22nd Ward district office chief of staff, who celebrated Thursday.
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