POLITICO NIGHTLY: The Hopkins doc vs. the vaccine consensus

 

BY MYAH WARD Presented by Charter Communications With help from Tyler Weyant A child is held by relatives as he gets a Covid vaccine in Ferguson, Mo. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images VIRAL UNBOXING — It’s easy to put a person in a box, to write someone off as an anti-vaxxer. But it isn’t always that simple. Take Marty Makary, a professor of surgery and health policy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has made a name for himself during the pandemic, partly through his appearances on Fox News shows like Tucker Carlson’s. But while he’s certainly a contrarian pandemic pundit, he isn’t a fringe voice, nor a political one. He writes op-eds for places like The Washington Post and The New York Times. He told Nightly, unprompted, that he wasn’t a partisan, during an interview this morning. He had another piece published on the website for Fox News this morning, calling for new leadership at the FDA. He also told me I could call him any time if I wanted to hear a perspective on Covid policy that was different from the “standard party line.” Some on the left have said Makary is spreading misinformation, while some Republicans have accused him of being an alarmist. He’s argued against masks for children. He’s criticized the CDC for not conducting its own research on boosters. He’s pro-vaccine, but he opposes blanket vaccine mandates unless they’re for health care workers. Lately Makary has been questioning whether children, especially boys, need two doses of a Covid vaccine. Once again, he falls outside the consensus of his fellow public health experts with his views. Makary is particularly concerned about a condition known as myocarditis, inflammation of the heart, and its potential as a risk factor for young men after receiving the second dose of an mRNA vaccine. He’s proposed a one-dose regimen for young men, to lower their chances of developing the condition. So, no, Makary is not an anti-vaxxer, though you might be tempted to sort him into that box. But he also isn’t sold on the recommendation that a 12-year-old boy should be receiving two shots. “It may be that vaccines are a game changer for children, but that the dose is not quite perfected,” Makary told Nightly. The latest study out of Israel Makary points to, published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine, found the incidence of myocarditis was highest among males 16 to 29, with about 11 out of every 100,000 developing the condition after receiving the second dose. While the figure is higher than previous estimates, the risk is still small and the condition is usually mild and temporary. A CDC panel in May unanimously voted to recommend Pfizer’s vaccine for kids 12 to 15, saying the benefits outweigh the risks. CDC research has estimated that among every million fully vaccinated boys, ages 12 to 17, the shots might cause a maximum of 70 cases of myocarditis, but would prevent 5,700 infections, more than 215 hospitalizations and two deaths. Other studies have shown the risk of heart problems after getting Covid is higher than the risk after vaccination. The risk of myocarditis was among the reasons the FDA called for more children in vaccine trials this summer. The condition will likely be a hot topic during the agency’s Oct. 26 meeting about vaccines for children 5 to 11. Makary doesn’t disagree that myocarditis is rare, though he countered that the rate of severe disease or death in children is also rare. And the absence of a statistical breakdown of the roughly 650 childhood Covid deaths in the U.S. by comorbid condition doesn’t sit well with him. Makary wants the vaccine recommendations to factor in the nuances when it comes to kids. He questions whether a 13-year-old girl should receive the same dose regimen as a 55-year-old man. (Pfizer used a smaller dose of its Covid vaccine when conducting trials for children under 12.) He isn’t entirely alone in his thinking. Health officials in Hong Kong, Britain, Norway and other countries have recommended a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children 12 and older. Health officials in these countries have become increasingly worried about new data suggesting myocarditis may be more common among this group than they originally had thought. But other U.S. public health experts, like Mark R. Schleiss, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, told Nightly today that the vaccine is still the lowest-risk option. Schleiss recommends getting your kids vaccinated with both doses as soon as you can. Follow the blanket recommendations. Protect your child before it’s too late. “I stand by what I have been saying for months: the best Covid vaccine to get is the one you can get RIGHT NOW (today!),” Schleiss said in an email to Nightly. “Definitely less myocarditis after just one dose of an mRNA vaccine. But ‘less’...relative term...SO RARE to begin with!” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at mward@politico.com or on Twitter at @MyahWard. A message from Charter Communications: We’re proud to announce that Spectrum Internet ranks No. 1 in the U.S. News & World Report 2021-22 “Best Rural Internet Service Providers” rankings. This recognition underscores our ongoing commitment to connecting more communities from coast to coast, including rural areas. And we’re just getting started.   WHAT'D I MISS? — White House huddles with oil industry as gas prices climb: The White House has been consulting with the oil industry to seek a remedy for rising gasoline prices as surging inflation threatens to tarnish the economic recovery , according to three people familiar with the discussions. The latest outreach to the oil industry is an awkward shift for the Biden administration, which has pledged to move the country away from fossil fuels and has drawn criticism from the industry and Republicans for pausing lease sales of federal land for oil and gas development. — Rosen, former acting AG under Trump, appears before Jan. 6 committee: The acting attorney general during the final days of the Trump administration fielded questions from the Jan. 6 select committee today, according to two sources. Jeff Rosen, who led the Justice Department during former President Donald Trump’s chaotic last weeks in office, is the second known former top DOJ official to have a scheduled interview with the panel. His deputy took questions from House investigators last week. — Garland set to appear before House Judiciary next week: Attorney General Merrick Garland is scheduled to appear at the House Judiciary Committee next week, three sources familiar with the plans told POLITICO . The hearing on oversight of the Justice Department is set for Oct. 21. Garland’s first appearance before the committee may turn contentious. Panel Democrats have urged Garland to do more to combat Texas’s restrictive abortion law, including calling for DOJ to prosecute “would-be vigilantes.” They’ll also likely press Garland on voting rights, gun violence, immigration and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. — Tim Scott rakes in $8.3M for reelection, possible 2024 bid: South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott took in nearly $8.3 million during the third fundraising quarter, a major sum that highlights the massive finance network Scott is building ahead of a prospective 2024 presidential bid. Scott has emerged as a fundraising powerhouse over the past year, winning over small- and large-dollar GOP donors alike. The senator, who is a heavy favorite to win reelection in 2022, raised nearly $20 million over the course of the year and got support from over 82,000 donors during the third quarter, according to a person familiar with the figures. — White House scrambles to address looming Christmas crisis: Biden is rushing to relieve congestion across the nation’s complex shipping supply chain as it threatens to disrupt the holiday season for millions of Americans. With just more than 10 weeks until Christmas, the White House is leaning heavily on port operators, transportation companies and labor unions to work around the clock unloading ships and hauling cargo to warehouses around the country. Biden met virtually today with industry leaders before delivering a speech on the administration’s efforts to address the bottlenecks. — NIH study: Moderna, Pfizer shots are most effective Covid boosters: Covid-19 booster shots from Moderna or Pfizer showed signs they are more effective at protecting vaccinated adults than a second dose of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine , according to preliminary results from a government-funded study. All of the participants in the National Institutes of Health study saw an antibody boost after receiving additional doses of the three vaccines. But people who originally received J&J benefited significantly more from a messenger RNA booster than from a second J&J dose, according to the study. The increase in binding antibodies — one signal of an immune response — was greatest for those who initially were immunized with J&J’s shot but received one of the mRNA boosters.   THE MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE 2021 IS HERE: POLITICO is excited to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider” newsletter featuring exclusive coverage and insights from one of the largest and most influential gatherings of experts reinventing finance, health, technology, philanthropy, industry and media. Don’t miss a thing from the 24th annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, from Oct. 17 to 20. Can't make it? We've got you covered. Planning to attend? Enhance your #MIGlobal experience and subscribe today.     AROUND THE WORLD FAREWELL EUROPE’S CENTER-RIGHT? In an unlucky span of 13 days, Europe’s predominant political family — the European People’s Party — saw its most seasoned leader, Angela Merkel, walk into the sunset and its brightest new star, Sebastian Kurz of Austria, crash to Earth, David M. Herszenhorn and Maïa de la Baume write. With Merkel not running for another term, her Christian Democratic Union fell to a defeat in the Sept. 26 federal election — the latest in a string of setbacks — that means the European alliance of center-right and conservative parties will almost certainly soon lose control of its biggest prize, the German government. The party of EU founding fathers such as Schuman, De Gasperi and Adenauer — and more recently of Berlusconi, Sarkozy and Van Rompuy — has now entered what some party leaders are calling its worst spell in the political desert that any of them can remember. The EPP, which has dominated EU politics for decades, remains the largest faction in the European Parliament and Ursula von der Leyen, a disciple of Merkel’s, still holds the European Commission presidency. But the EPP currently claims just nine of the 27 seats for heads of state and government around the European Council table. Perhaps even more shockingly, if a new Social Democrat-led government forms in Berlin, as is widely expected, the westernmost European capital with a conservative leader will be Ljubljana. PUTIN TO EUROPE: ALL GAS, NO BREAKS — Russian President Vladimir Putin today promised that his country is ready to boost natural gas shipments to Europe at a time when the Continent is battling the political and economic impacts of soaring energy prices, Jan Cienski and Aitor Hernandez Morales write. Russia is the largest gas supplier to the EU, and Putin insisted it was “flawlessly” fulfilling its contracts with European customers, adding, “we are ready to ... even increase” sales. “We will increase by as much as our partners ask us. There is no refusal, none,” he said. Although Russia hasn’t broken any contracts, its European storage facilities have less gas than usual, contributing to market turmoil. Putin’s comments at the Russia Energy Week Conference in Moscow came on the same day that the European Commission came out with a series of measures aimed at calming member countries’ outrage over soaring gas and power prices.       NIGHTLY NUMBER 3,000 mg per day The voluntary sodium limits, reduced from 3,400 mg per day, for more than 160 categories of processed foods the FDA released today, long-delayed reduction targets for food makers to voluntarily cut back their use of salt.   “A FOREIGN POLICY BUILT FOR WOMEN” – JOIN US THURSDAY FOR A WOMEN RULE CONVERSATION: Building a foreign policy agenda with women at the center has shown that it can advance broader social, economic and political goals. It also requires having women in influential decision-making positions. Join POLITICO Magazine senior editor Usha Sahay for a joint conversation with Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the State Department’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, and Ambassador Bonnie Denise Jenkins, undersecretary for arms control and international security, focused on the roadblocks preventing more women from rising through the ranks of diplomacy and why closing the foreign policy gender gap matters. REGISTER HERE.     PARTING WORDS Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets during a preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center in Los Angeles. | Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images PLAYING HARDBALL — Nightly’s Tyler Weyant writes: Fans who watch NBA games when the regular season starts next week won’t see one of the league’s superstars: Kyrie Irving, who is on the bench for the Brooklyn Nets until he complies with the New York vaccine mandate for indoor gyms. Irving is not the first celebrity to make headlines for an anti-vaccine stance. So, like we did when Nicki Minaj’s tweets caused a swell of reactions , we reached out to Melanie Kornides, an epidemiologist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing who has done research on influencers and vaccine misinformation. Kornides noted that Irving is famous not just for refusing vaccination and for playing basketball, though he is the 7th most popular NBA player right now, according to a recent YouGov America poll. He’s also made headlines for charitable donations to food banks and HBCU students. (And, Nightly must add, for apologizing to science teachers for saying the Earth is flat.) “Check out his tweet from October 9: ‘I am protected by God and so are my people. We stand together.’ He aligns himself with this religious perspective,” Kornides said in an email. It is hard to determine how much impact Irving’s actions may have, Kornides said. “Ideally, we would like to have pro-vaccine influencers to counteract voices like Nicki’s and Kyrie’s that are trusted by different groups of people,” she said. “One person may not be able to influence everyone. The most important thing is that the influencer needs to be separate from the political process.” A message from Charter Communications: Access for all means opportunity for everyone. That’s why we’re investing billions to extend our network to reach those who need it most. Over the next several years, Charter will build more than 100,000 miles of new U.S. broadband infrastructure that will deliver reliable, high-speed internet access to even more communities from coast to coast. That’s an extension long enough to circle the equator four times. This $5 billion initiative will connect an FCC-estimated one million currently unserved, mostly rural families and small businesses to reliable internet service with speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second.   Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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RSN: FOCUS: How So-Called 'Moderate' Democrats Derailed Police Reform

 

 

25 September 21

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FOCUS: How So-Called 'Moderate' Democrats Derailed Police Reform
Akela Lacy, The Intercept
Lacy writes: "Bipartisan negotiations on police reform fell apart once and for all this week, four months after Congress missed its symbolic deadline to pass a package designed to raise standards for accountability and transparency in law enforcement."

Centrists demanded a police reform bill that didn’t go too far. Now they don’t get one at all.

Bipartisan negotiations on police reform fell apart once and for all this week, four months after Congress missed its symbolic deadline to pass a package designed to raise standards for accountability and transparency in law enforcement. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., blamed his counterpart in leading negotiations on the bill, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., for walking away from talks this week after Republicans rejected Democrats’ final offer.

Booker told reporters that Republicans would not get on board with measures that even the Fraternal Order of Police had agreed to compromise on or standards for law enforcement accreditation that were in place under former President Donald Trump. One major sticking point had emerged over efforts to change some parts of qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that protects police officers from civil suits.

“The effort from the very beginning was to get police reform that would raise professional standards, police reform that would create a lot more transparency, and then police reform that would create more accountability,” Booker told reporters on September 22 after leaving a meeting with Scott. “We were not able to come to agreements on those three big areas.”

Negotiators failed to agree on measures to collect data on use of force, police killing, or bias within police departments. Criminal justice reform advocates had long criticized the bill for taking a piecemeal approach that wouldn’t fundamentally change policing because it did not drastically cut public investment in law enforcement.

“Even though we could get the FOP, the Fraternal Order of Police, to agree to changing a national use of force standard, [and] we could get them to agree to changing, in effect, qualified immunity, we could not get there with our Republican negotiators,” Booker said.

Despite Booker’s comments, it’s unclear what compromise, if any, the FOP had accepted. The union opposed changes to qualified immunity and standards for prosecuting use of force. And Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., told Fox News on Wednesday that the Los Angeles police union “actually was supporting the reform process, but some of the national organizations disagreed, and Senator Scott would never get to yes.”

Booker doubled down on Democrats’ attempts to compromise by using a Trump executive order, which conditioned Department of Justice grants to state and local law enforcement on proof of certain training standards, as a starting point. “When it comes to creating accreditation standards in alignment with what Donald Trump put in an executive order,” Booker said, “we couldn’t get that when it comes to raising professional standards.”

In response to Booker’s comments, a spokesperson for Scott said that he “agreed with the language in the Trump executive order; however, the provision they attached that would diminish police resources was a bridge too far.” The provision in question conditioned grants to law enforcement on having proper accreditation, as was the case in Trump’s order.

Moderate Democrats who were not directly part of negotiations also played a major role in derailing talks. Several centrists openly criticized the push from groups on the left to reallocate funding for law enforcement toward community infrastructure and social services, and they blamed their slim margins in last year’s midterm elections on calls to “defund the police.” Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., one of the largest recipients of police funding in Congress as of June 2020, said during an infamous caucus call about election results that he had been forced to “walk the plank” on qualified immunity. New Jersey’s largest police union withdrew its endorsement of Pascrell last summer after he voted for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a House bill that Democrats tried to advance as a basis for the package and that reformed, but did not fully end, qualified immunity. Pascrell won reelection with 65.8 percent of the vote.

In late April, Scott had proposed a compromise on qualified immunity that would shift liability from individual officers to their departments or municipalities. In a May 2 interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Scott said he was finding Democratic support for his proposal and wanted to “make sure that the bad apples are punished.” Scott praised the 2017 conviction of the officer who shot and killed Walter Scott in 2015 in his home state of South Carolina, as well as the April conviction of Derek Chauvin for killing George Floyd. Axios reported that after Chauvin’s conviction, congressional aides felt less pressure to pass a major police reform package. And Scott’s tone would soon change.

One comment from a moderate appears to have pushed the course of negotiations south. On May 9, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., told CNN that Democrats should be open to passing a bill that didn’t touch qualified immunity. In an interview two days later, Scott’s office declined to comment on the record but denied that Scott was against eliminating qualified immunity, and said he was still pushing his compromise proposal. The next day, in response to comments from Bass that the package needed to eliminate qualified immunity, Scott said he was “on the exact opposite side.” A June draft of the legislation included a proposal similar to Scott’s.

“Between this and Haiti, Black people naturally are wondering what they are getting for their vote,” one senior Democratic staffer told The Intercept. “Clyburn’s comment hindered negotiations, and the fact that it came from the highest-ranking African American in Congress gives cover for the number of moderates that had no intention of honoring the commitment they made as they marched or tweeted Black Lives Matter last summer.”

Scott denied reports that talks started to break down after Clyburn’s remarks, and he expressed optimism in the early months of summer that negotiators would reach a deal soon. But by August, Politico reported that proposed changes to qualified immunity were taken off the table.

In a statement Wednesday, Bass said that Democrats’ counterparts were “unwilling to come to a compromise” and that negotiators had “no other option than to explore further avenues to stop police brutality in this country. I will not ask our community to wait another 200 days.” She called on President Joe Biden and the White House to ”use the full extent of their constitutionally-mandated power to bring about meaningful police reform” in the form of an executive order.

Later that day, Bass told Fox News that there was no single sticking point that led to the breakdown in negotiations. Things collapsed because Booker couldn’t get Scott to agree on compromises, she added. “It was not over qualified immunity. It really wasn’t.”

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: Here come the vaccine imposters

BY MYAH WARD Presented by The helicopter carrying New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo departs New York City after he announced his resignation. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images THE CUOMO RESIGNATION LATEST — Three-term Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced plans this morning to resign. He faced growing pressure to leave or face impeachment over allegations that he sexually harassed nearly a dozen women. Here’s the latest reporting from POLITICO: — The next governor: From Marie French and Bill Mahoney: New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul spent the afternoon of Aug. 11, 2020, welcoming the Toronto Blue Jays to play in Buffalo where they were stranded by the pandemic. A year later, she’s poised to become New York’s first female governor. … Hochul will soon become the second recent lieutenant governor to assume the state’s top post after accusations of an incumbent's sexual misdeeds. (Eliot Spitzer quit in 2008 after reports that he was a client of a prostitution ring.) Hochul will hold the position for the remainder of Cuomo’s third term, which expires at the end of next year. — Cuomo’s fall from grace: From Shannon Young and Michelle Bocanegra: It’s a Shakespearean fall from grace for “America’s governor,” a man who had been widely discussed as a possible attorney general, vice presidential — or even presidential — contender. He drew widespread acclaim for his fireside chat-style pandemic briefings, which earned him an Emmy, a book deal and comparisons to a previous occupant of his Albany office: President Franklin D. Roosevelt. — ‘Hell of a job’: Biden awkwardly praised Cuomo today when asked to assess the New York governor’s time in office just hours after Cuomo’s announcement. “He’s done a hell of a job,” Biden told reporters after taking a victory lap on the Senate’s passage of its $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill. “I mean, both on everything from access to voting to infrastructure to the whole range of things. That's why it’s so sad.” — ‘The tragedy of the Cuomos’: Kevin Baker writes in POLITICO Magazine: New York has had plenty of political dynasties in the past, going all the way back to the start of the Republic, and even before. The Livingstons, the o.g. Clintons (George and De Witt), the Hamiltons, Van Burens, Wagners, Roosevelts — and yes, even the Kennedys, through the transplanted Bobby. Almost always, these families were intent on grabbing for the big prize, down in Washington. As often as not, they did just that. Not so much the Cuomos, late of Hollis, Queens, who found their blue heaven not on the Potomac but the Hudson, in a sagging old river town. When the modern world broke in on that sanctuary — when the toxic privileges of ensconced power could be exposed to real public scrutiny — the family was done. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at mward@politico.com and on Twitter at @MyahWard.   A message from AT&T: Accessible, affordable broadband helps communities reach their American Dream. That’s why AT&T is making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment toward helping close the digital divide, so more low-income families have the ability to succeed. Find out how.   AROUND THE NATION THE NEXT COLLEGE CHEATING SCANDAL — I did a quick internet search on the Tor Browser the other morning to see how easy it would be to buy a fake vaccine card. In less than five minutes, I found a seller on Etsy. For $22.49, I could digitally download a blank Covid vaccination card. Sellers can be found on eBay and Amazon, too. The companies have tried to crack down in recent weeks, removing the fake listings. The counterfeit cards are popping up as businesses and governments begin to require proof of vaccination . New York City residents need a vaccine card to get into restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues. Workplaces are setting vaccine mandates for a return to the office. I have to submit a photo of my (real) vaccine card to POLITICO in the next couple of weeks to get into our newsroom. You may need proof of vaccination to travel or take a cruise. Filling out a fake card is illegal, yet clearly some have decided the risk is worth it to avoid the jab. And there’s one obvious population that is already well-known for knowing how to get fake IDs — and its members need to prove their vaccination status asap: College students. Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Photo Perhaps for that reason, my alma mater, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is not asking students to flash a vaccine card before they move into dorms later this week, despite outcries from professors who are calling for a university-wide vaccine mandate. Instead, students must self-report their vaccination status (this is how it works for federal workers, too). If a student decides not to disclose vaccination status or says they are unvaccinated, they’ll be subject to weekly Covid testing. College social life is a breeding ground for the Delta variant. UNC’s reopening with 30,000 students will be a test for whether voluntary self-reporting, along with standard Covid mitigation measures like masking and distancing, are sufficient for ensuring campus safety at a large university. If college-age students across the country were a state, they would rank in the middle of the pack for vaccinations: Just 44.9 percent of Americans 18-24 have had both shots, according to the CDC. Yet UNC students are self-reporting a much higher number, one that’s hard to believe is accurate: Of the 25,000 UNC students who have attested their vaccination status, 94 percent say they’ve received the shots. Benjamin Mason Meier, a professor of global health policy at UNC, has held office hours for students and parents to ask him Covid questions since the pandemic began. When he asked his students about the high percentage, “They laughed nervously,” Meier said. “They know that a number of these vaccine declarations are fraudulent. These students know how to purchase fake vaccine cards, and they know students who have submitted these fake vaccine cards to the university,” Meier said. “This is not a problem that’s unique to UNC, right? It’s going to cut across all American universities.” The fake vax card problem is anticipated to be big enough that another UNC global health professor, Kurt Ribisl, is studying it. He and his fellow researchers are also looking at several “quack cures” and vaccines for sale on the dark web, as well as payment methods like cryptocurrencies. Ribisl said the team will submit its findings to a journal in September. In Chapel Hill, at least, students are likely to save their $23. They can fill out the university’s vaccine certification form, and enter the date of inoculation and the vaccine they received. A photo of a vaccine card is optional. “Why have we created a system that allows students to submit fraudulent information, and has no consequences, or even an attestation that what they’re submitting is true?” Meier said. “If any student isn’t telling the truth, that puts the entire campus at risk.” The university threatened “disciplinary action” this week as reports of the fake cards circulated, saying it would audit the attestations on a “regular basis.” Meier called it a “vague threat,” and worries it’s just a statement without action. The problems for implementing a verification system begin at the federal level, trickling down to state and university governance, Meier said. “Unlike most countries that have electronic reporting systems and medical records, the United States is relying on these flimsy CDC cards with handwritten notes on them, to indicate vaccination at the state level. … And those state databases aren’t being shared with those who can confirm vaccination,” Meier said.   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.     ON THE HILL THE POWER OF 10 — Moments before he blessed their bipartisan infrastructure agreement, Biden made a critical promise to five GOP senators he’d gathered in the Oval Office. On that sunny June afternoon, sitting with the five Republicans and their five Democratic negotiating partners, Biden assured them that he wouldn’t endorse their deal and then later attach new physical infrastructure they didn’t agree onto another bill. Referring to the legislative brute force his party wields thanks to its full control of Washington, the president told the GOP senators in the room: “I won’t add something back in reconciliation that you guys didn’t do.” Without Biden’s pledge not to pull a fast one, said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), “we probably would be dead in the water.” “We would not have gotten the support of our colleagues, including Mitch McConnell,” Romney said. “If we had the extensive negotiations and agreed on a number, and then he just came back and doubled the number? … It would have made the whole process irrelevant.” Biden’s promise will be tested in the weeks ahead as Democrats negotiate that larger spending bill: It’s set to include money for transportation and infrastructure that the party could, in theory, use to build on the bipartisan group’s work, Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine write. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said Biden had pledged not to “double dip” on the group’s working, so he’ll be watching Democrats closely to see whether they violate their agreement. The president’s vow proved a steady rail for the tumultuous negotiations that went on for months and appeared hopelessly stalled at least a half-dozen times — all the way up until the last minute. The bill passed the Senate today after taking more than a month to journey from bullet points to legislation, an achievement both for Biden and the bipartisan gang of 10 senators who took the lead on investing $550 billion in new spending into roads, bridges, broadband and ports.   A message from AT&T:     WHAT'D I MISS? — Broward County defies DeSantis: Schools in Florida’s second largest district will require all students to wear masks when classes begin next week in what is the boldest move a local board has taken yet against Gov. Ron DeSantis’ opposition to face covering policies. Broward’s school board voted 8-1 today to keep its student mask mandate in place — one day after the state education commissioner threatened to dock the pay of local superintendents and board members who refuse to make face coverings optional. — Dominion lodges suits against OAN, Newsmax, ex-Overstock CEO: Dominion Voting Systems opened up another front this week in its battle against right-wing attacks on its name and the integrity of its technology, filing suits against two conservative media outlets and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne . In the suits, Dominion accused Byrne, Newsmax and One America News Network of making defamatory claims against the company and spreading baseless allegations that its machines were used to rig the election for now-President Biden. — Kind won’t seek reelection in Wisconsin: Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), a senior Democrat in one of the most competitive swing seats, will not seek reelection — a gutting blow to House Democrats in their uphill battle to hang onto their majority next November. — Trump asked his AG about legal strategy to overturn election, Rosen tells senators: Donald Trump asked the country’s top legal official in late December about a conspiratorial draft complaint aimed at overturning the 2020 election results, according to a previously unreported account of Trump’s phone call with former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. Rosen persuaded Trump the lawsuit wasn’t a good idea, he told Senate investigators last weekend, two sources familiar with his testimony said. The previously unreported details underscore how hard DOJ lawyers worked to shoot down the increasingly harebrained legal strategies that reached the president’s desk. — GOP megadonors flock to Tim Scott, building 2024 buzz: The South Carolina senator has quietly become a powerhouse fundraiser and a major force within the Republican Party . Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, has seen his profile rise since delivering the party’s response to Biden’s joint address to Congress in April and is developing a network of small- and large-dollar donors that spans his party’s ideological spectrum, helping him far outraise Senate colleagues this year.   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.     AROUND THE WORLD MEDIA LAW SPURS CRISIS IN POLAND — Poland’s ruling nationalist coalition collapsed today after Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki fired the leader of a smaller partner party over disagreements on tax policy and a controversial media law that’s set off a fight with the United States. The fracturing comes a day ahead of a key parliamentary vote on a law that would bar companies from beyond the European Economic Area from owning a majority stake in Polish media companies. Critics say this is largely aimed at the popular TVN broadcaster, owned by Discovery of the U.S., which irritates the government with its independent news coverage. Thousands of protesters took to the streets this evening to demonstrate against the bill, complaining it endangers press freedom. The White House has made clear its displeasure at the legislation, which would undermine one of the largest U.S. investments in Poland as well as attack media freedom at a time when Biden is trying to consolidate democratic countries to face off against threats from Russia and China. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators issued a warning last week. “Any decision to implement these laws could have negative implications for defense, business and trade relations,” said their joint statement. “We urge the Polish government to pause before acting on any measure that would impact our longstanding relationship.” NIGHTLY NUMBER 319 The number of senior government executives Biden hired in his first 3 months in office, more than twice as many as Trump hired in the same time frame. The Biden administration is racing to rebuild senior agency roles depleted by the previous president, hiring at the fastest rate in decades, a POLITICO analysis found. PARTING WORDS AUSTIN POWERS — A Nightly preview of Renuka Rayasam’s profile of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, coming Wednesday in POLITICO Magazine: In a state with no lack of lively, crowd-winning politicians, Abbott, 63, has all but cleared the field for an election that doesn’t happen until November 2022. Without the national profile of his other red-state counterparts like Florida’s Ron DeSantis, without a distinct policy platform and with near-constant pressure from Texas’ conservative base to shift further right, Abbott — who has never lost an election — seems like a shoo-in for a third term. He has raised $55 million, the largest sum ever for a statewide candidate in Texas, and he has earned Trump’s endorsement — all before officially announcing he’s running. At the moment, no competitive Democratic challenger has emerged — though the sheer amount of chatter parsing actor Matthew McConaughey’s mixed signals about a gubernatorial run indicate there’s an appetite for someone, anyone, to stir things up. What explains Abbott’s grip on power in the country’s biggest red state? In conversations with dozens of current and former aides, political operatives, lobbyists and pundits over recent months, the answer that emerged was less about the sober-mannered version of Abbott that most Texans know from his TV appearances during hurricanes, winter storms or the pandemic, which has emerged yet again as a political flashpoint. Instead, it was about the version of Abbott these sources see behind the scenes: a former Texas Supreme Court justice and attorney general who has learned to adapt to Texas’ changing Republican electorate and anticipate potential political threats. In a state that has a history of larger-than-life political characters, the two-term Texas governor is a ruthless backstage operator, taking no uncalculated risks, figuring out how to keep donors happy and lawmakers in line, deflecting blame for crises, maintaining a massive field operation and maneuvering among the state’s disparate GOP factions. “He’s not charismatic to the same heights as Perry and Bush were,” Republican pollster Derek Ryan says of Abbott. “I think that has been part of his success.”   A message from AT&T: Susana Chávez became valedictorian of International High School at Langley Park while juggling numerous jobs throughout school. But what kept her powering through it all was her American Dream. With the help of accessible and affordable broadband, she was able to focus on her studies, get assistance from teachers and stay in touch with her mother back home. And thanks to Access from AT&T, we can connect low-income households like Susana’s, and more communities in areas we serve with their American Dream. Find out how.   Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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