| | |  | BY ELANA SCHOR | | SOMEDAY, WE'LL FIND IT — In a memorable Slate column, Dahlia Lithwick proposed that all of us fall into one of two categories: Chaos Muppet (“out-of-control, emotional, volatile,” think Cookie Monster) or Order Muppet (“highly regimented, averse to surprises,” think Bert). It’s a useful taxonomy that also explains a lot about today’s Republican Party — particularly Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell. The former president — the nation’s leading Chaos Muppet — is exerting his familiar pull on the Republican Party this summer. He’s retroactively lionizing his supporters who laid violent siege to the Capitol on Jan. 6, thrashing the Senate Republicans who helped hammer out a shaky bipartisan infrastructure deal and sending mixed messages about a vaccination push that some of his high-profile allies are trying to undercut as government overreach. But who should Order Muppet Republicans turn to as their party’s leading counterpart to Trump? Who’s prepared to yank back his anarchic influence for the benefit of Republican candidates who need to broaden their appeal beyond his base in order to take back Congress next year?
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell answers questions from reporters as he arrives at the U.S. Capitol. | Win McNamee/Getty Images | Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is trying. Her platform on the House’s Jan. 6 select committee will give her a chance to rebut Trump on that front. Her confrontational approach to the ex-president has alienated too many colleagues, though, for them to rally behind her, despite her sterling conservative credentials. The real Order to Trump’s Chaos, no matter how much Democrats despise him, is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell’s guiding motivation has always been keeping and consolidating power in Congress, a lodestar that infuriates his political opponents but also animates his willingness to get in Trump’s way when necessary. He told our Burgess Everett five months ago that he’s prepared to cross the former president in 2022 GOP primaries: “The only thing I care about is electability.” McConnell is also attempting to model an Order-Muppet alternative to Trumpism for Republicans. While Trump used his latest Fox News appearance to laud the Capitol rioters, McConnell has repeatedly touted his faith in vaccines as a polio survivor — a message he’s been consistent on for years. He may eventually oppose the bipartisan infrastructure deal that five of his members negotiated, but he’s been careful not to criticize it or them directly so far. Maybe that’s because McConnell, the nation’s most powerful Order Muppet, senses that outright obstruction of an infrastructure bill pushed by his onetime deal-making partner President Joe Biden won’t help his party at the polls next fall. Trump won’t be on another ballot until 2024 at the earliest, so he has less to lose and every impetus to remain a volatile Chaos Muppet on the sidelines of Congress and all of American politics this year. What remains to be seen is what, if anything, might force McConnell into more open conflict with Trump as the two men vie indirectly for control of the Republican Party’s identity heading into 2022. Cheney could force that inflection point by resurfacing ugly truths of Jan. 6, perhaps with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy under oath in front of her testifying before the select committee. The less theatrical and more likely outcome, however, is Chaos and Order running their Muppet Shows on separate GOP channels. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Seeing a lot of cheugy Olivia Rodrigo tweets out there today. We hope you have a nice time looking up the meaning of cheugy! Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author directly at eschor@politico.com or @eschor.
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A message from AstraZeneca: Through COVAX, we are working with partners GAVI (the Vaccine Alliance), WHO (World Health Organization), CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) and SII (Serum Institute of India) to ensure people around the world have access to safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines, wherever they live and regardless of income level. Learn more here. | | | | | — Texas Dems urge voting rights action in D.C. amid threats of arrest for skipping town: Texas Democrats who fled the state to block a Republican elections bill pleaded with Congress to act on voting rights today , with the escapees hammering one message at the U.S Capitol: Time is running short on their delay tactics. Scores of Democratic state legislators fled Texas on Monday, denying Republicans a quorum in the state House and preventing them from passing new legislation that would bar certain voting practices used in heavily Democratic counties in 2020 and tighten the rules for mail voting, among other changes. — “Unfolding assault”: Biden decries attacks on voting rights, calls for action: In a speech at the National Constitution Center, Biden said preserving voting rights was the “test of our time” and said he would launch a new initiative to inform voters of changing election rules before the 2022 midterms.
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| — Russian gang blamed for global ransomware attack vanishes from web: The ransomware hacker gang REvil’s websites are offline, about a week and a half after the group’s cyberattack on IT software vendor Kaseya allowed the criminals to breach hundreds of companies around the world. As of this morning, the group’s public website, the dark-web portal that facilitated its ransom negotiations with victims, and the site that victims used to pay those ransoms were offline. — Biden picks former West Virginia health official as drug czar: The Biden administration is tapping Rahul Gupta as its top drug policy official, charging the former West Virginia public health commissioner with leading federal efforts to combat a spiraling addiction crisis. Gupta, if confirmed by the Senate, would take on the drug czar post amid record levels of deadly drug overdoses, spurred by surging use of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl and methamphetamine. The social isolation and economic hardships brought on by the coronavirus pandemic have exacerbated the problem, public health officials say. — Jill Biden to lead U.S. delegation to Olympic opening ceremonies: “We will have a delegation from the United States as we have historically had,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “but we will continue to also convey the public health guidelines and guidance that we’ve been delivering out there about only essential travel.” Tokyo entered its fourth Covid-19 state of emergency last week, imposing limitations that will last through the entire Olympics before expiring on Aug. 22. The new Covid sanctions include shutting down businesses that serve alcohol and barring in-person spectators for most of the games. Plus: Covid testing at the Olympics will be akin to drug testing, Anita DeFrantz, the IOC first vice president, told POLITICO’s Ryan Heath today: “It’s like missing a dope test. You’re considered guilty until proven innocent,” and “if you’re positive, then you must go into immediate isolation.”
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| | SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. The Recast is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | | | DREADING SUMMERS SCHOOL — There is a new fear circulating inside the West Wing of the White House: Maybe Larry Summers was right. The former Treasury secretary has been warning since February that Biden’s big-spending agenda was creating the risk of an inflation spike this year, potentially cutting into the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. For the moment at least, Summers is looking prescient, chief economic correspondent Ben White writes. The government said today the consumer price index rose 5.4 percent in June from the same month last year, the biggest jump since 2008, as costs for everything from used cars and trucks to restaurant meals and hotel stays continued to soar. It marked the second straight month of sharply higher prices. June prices also unexpectedly rose 0.9 percent from May, undercutting the argument that the price increases only look bad in comparison to last year, when the pandemic was raging. Tuesday’s number beat Wall Street expectations and sparked fears that the Federal Reserve might have to act faster than anticipated to pump the brakes on the economy to prevent a runaway rise in prices.
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| | | | | MAYORKAS TO CUBANS, HAITIANS: DON’T COME TO U.S. — Cuban-born Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas delivered a clear message today to the Cuban and Haitian people amid upheaval in both Caribbean nations: Do not come to the United States. “The time is never right to attempt migration by sea,” Mayorkas said in a press conference at the U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters. “To those who risk their lives doing so, this risk is not worth taking.” “Allow me to be clear: If you take to the sea, you will not come to the United States.” Mayorkas’ message comes amid continued protests in Cuba calling for the end of the 62-year-old dictatorship and the recent assassination of the president of Haiti. FLAKE TO SEARCH FOR TURKISH DELIGHT ON MOONLIT NIGHT — Biden nominated former Sen. Jeff Flake to serve as ambassador to Turkey today, extending a high-profile diplomatic post to the anti-Trump Republican. Flake praised the Biden administration’s “strong, experienced and capable team representing U.S. interests abroad,” and nodded to the significance of selecting him for such a strategically important post. Biden met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey in June as part of his diplomatic swing through Europe and has sought to smooth out the tensions between the two countries in recent years, though Biden infuriated Turkey earlier this year by formally recognizing the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire over a century ago.
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| | SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. The Recast is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | | | | |
| | | THE BRITS CONFRONT SOCCER RACISM — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet tech company bosses at No. 10 Downing Street to discuss clamping down on hate speech as the country’s government finds itself drawn deeper into a row over racist abuse suffered by the England soccer team. Three England players who missed penalty kicks in Sunday’s Euro 2020 tournament final have been on the receiving end of racist comments on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram since the match, prompting a show of support from their teammates, Esther Webber writes. Tyrone Mings, a member of the England squad who was instrumental in instituting the practice of taking the knee in protest against racism before games, launched an extraordinary intervention on Monday to accuse the government of playing a role in the abuse. Responding to a tweet by Home Secretary Priti Patel, Mings wrote: “You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ & then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against happens.” Patel had previously referred to taking the knee as “gesture politics” and described the impact of Black Lives Matter protests in the U.K. as “devastating.” Asked whether it was acceptable for the crowd to boo players taking the knee, she said it was “up to them frankly.” The main opposition Labour Party also criticized ministers, with deputy leader Angela Rayner writing: “Priti Patel and Boris Johnson gave license to the racists who have abused our England players by taking their side against the England players when they were being booed. When you blow the dog whistle, then you're to blame for the dogs barking.”
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A message from AstraZeneca: The COVAX initiative is an unprecedented effort to ensure fair and equitable global COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Through COVAX, many more shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine, including our own product, are planned over the coming weeks and months to low- and middle-income countries as the fight against the virus continues.
We have always understood vaccination as a global, no-profit, equity-focused undertaking and were the first pharmaceutical company to join COVAX in June 2020. Through COVAX and other global initiatives, we have supplied more than half a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to 170 countries; 300 million of which have gone to low-income regions. Learn more here. | | | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. | |
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