Principals

☞ White House: One day, two very different meetings: Biden will sit down with the prime minister of the Netherlands today before hosting a celebration for the Golden State Warriors to recognize their victory in the NBA championship last season.

☞ Chuck Schumer: The Senate majority leader is aiming to speed up confirmation for Biden’s pick to lead the FAA after a major computer failure last week. The nominee, Phil Washington, was put forward in July but has yet to sit for a confirmation hearing.

☞ Mitch McConnell: Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. emerged as a major dealmaker last Congress, often on bipartisan bills McConnell supported. Now he’s moving up to the leadership team.

☞ Kevin McCarthy: The House speaker told reporters on Capitol Hill he “always had a few questions” about Rep. George Santos’ resume, much of which appears to have been fabricated.

☞ Hakeem Jeffries: The minority leader will sit with Schumer today for their first one-on-one since Jeffries officially became the House Democratic leader. The two will meet in their hometown of Brooklyn.

Biden became the first sitting president in history to deliver a Sunday sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Atlanta congregation of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. where Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. currently serves as senior pastor. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. spoke at an annual MLK Day event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and attended the National Action Network event to commemorate the holiday in Harlem. Also in Manhattan, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange Friday evening accompanied by parents and teachers of a New York City’s Success Academy charter school.

Indiana GOP Rep. Jim Banks announced this morning that will run for the Senate seat that will be vacated by Mike Braun, who is planning to run for governor in 2024. A lengthy video announcing his campaign highlights his military service, his anti-China stance, and his efforts to restrict transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. The video also features photos of him alongside former President Trump.

One of George Santos’ big donors, Andrew Intrater, is the cousin of a Russian oligarch and Santos claimed on a 2020 Zoom call that Intrater’s company was one of his clients, the Washington Post reported over the long weekend, suggesting a deeper relationship between the two men.

— Morgan Chalfant and Kadia Goba

Punchbowl News: Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., who served as the Democrats’ counsel for Trump’s first impeachment, offers a preview of his plans to rebut Republican investigations into Biden.

Playbook: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew a team from Carbone, the popular and famously pricey New York-based Italian chain, into Tallahassee to cater a dinner for his high-dollar donors, then went to each table to greet attendees, in what Politico terms an effort to address his “likeability” problem.

Axios: There are no guest logs at Biden’s Wilmington home, but Republicans are likely to ask for information about individuals who have been screened to see the president.

America’s Next Top Moderate

The House Freedom Caucus captured the world’s attention by holding Kevin McCarthy’s speakership hostage, but in a divided government any five members can team up to block Republican leaders’ plans.

That’s why it’s worth keeping an eye on the relative moderates who are making rumblings of their own. They have the power to stall legislation or to try and get bipartisan bills to the floor through procedural workarounds — if they have the guts.

The more centrist wing has its own rolling group chat of policy ideas, messaging strategy, and even some spicy memes on secret text chains.

One 55-member chat group on Signal consists of mostly Main Street Caucus members — a group of pragmatic Republicans revived by Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb. last Congress. Members say it’s not unusual to see about 100 messages a day. Then there are the smaller looser threads, where representatives try to keep their sanity. Sample meme: “We never had this kind of chaos when I was speaker. – George Santos.”

Some are clearly relishing the attention, with early warnings to leadership, and especially their conservative colleagues, that their votes should not be taken for granted.

Here are five outspoken members who’ve taken on the role of quasi-spokespeople for the Mod Squad.

Don Bacon, R-Neb.

Bacon, a former U.S. Air Force Brigadier General, was the first person to threaten a collaboration with Democrats if McCarthy holdouts got their way and has repeatedly warned against allowing them to drag the party to the right. He publicly admonished the group of 20 members calling them “terrorists” and “the Taliban.”

Over the weekend, Bacon urged Democrats to negotiate over spending cuts tied to the debt ceiling vote, but warned his side to keep their expectations in check.

“We have to realize we control the House with a four-seat majority, the Senate is run by the Democrats with a one-seat majority, and the president [is] obviously from the Democrat Party,” he said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “So, we can’t get everything we want either.”

Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.

The Bucks County Republican co-chairs the Problem Solvers Caucus with Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J. Last year, the two were influential in getting bipartisan support for President Bident’s infrastructure bill over strong opposition from McCarthy. Now he tells Semafor they’re discussing a discharge petition — a procedural maneuver that would allow the minority to force a vote on a bill — to increase the U.S. debt limit if conservatives threaten default. “We cannot allow ourselves to default,” he said.

Tony Gonzales, R-Texas

“If you do a little research on what a retired master chief is, it’ll be crystal clear why I’m going to be a pain in the ass,” Gonzales, a sophomore from Texas, told reporters. He was the sole Republican to vote against the new rules package, arguing concessions meant to appease HFC holdouts gave the right flank too much power and could impact military spending. Gonzales, whose massive border district is majority-Hispanic, has also warned the caucus against pursuing “anti-immigrant” legislation.

Nancy Mace, R-S.C.

Mace rose to prominence after January 6th with her cable news condemnations of the party’s most MAGA members and has frequently called out Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (“batshit crazy” via emojis), Lauren Boebert (her “racist tropes” against Ilhan Omar were “disgusting”) and Matt Gaetz (“fraud”) in unusually personal terms.

A rape survivor who talks openly about her experience, she’s also made headlines by warning Republicans not to overreach on abortion by imposing bans without exceptions for rape or incest.

Mace’s critics have questioned her willingness to follow through. She threatened to break with the party on the rules package this month over “backroom deals,” but ultimately voted yes, and went on MSNBC to criticize an early series of votes on abortion, even as she voted for them. Mace has said her critique is less about individual bills, than emphasis: She wants leaders to focus on legislation that can actually pass the Senate.

Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.

Lawler has been less outspoken than the rest, but the freshman has emphasized his eagerness to work with Democrats.

“Obviously, in this split government, we’re looking to get things done,” Lawler told Semafor in an interview.

Lawler bested former DCCC former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney to clinch a seat in Central New York, giving him one of the most Democratic-leaning seats in the majority — and a target for Democrats to pressure on key votes. His seat on the House Financial Services Committee could make him a key go-between with Wall Street as the debt ceiling fight heats up.

The latest on Biden’s classified document troubles

While much of America was busy enjoying playoff football or contemplating Boston’s, um, creative new MLK monument, the controversy over Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents took a few new turns this weekend. Here’s the latest to catch you up.

More classified documents found

The White House acknowledged on Saturday that five additional pages marked classified were found at Biden’s house in Wilmington. Its explanation? Lawyer Richard Sauber said Biden’s personal attorneys, who conducted the initial search, do not currently have security clearances and therefore stopped searching the “room adjacent” to Biden’s garage once one classified document was found last Wednesday. Sauber said he and DOJ officials turned up the additional pages on Thursday.

Republicans cry foul

Republicans are demanding further investigation. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky. sent his third letter in less than a week to the administration about the documents, demanding Biden’s chief of staff Ron Klain produce visitor logs for Biden’s Delaware home, which the White House says don’t exist. Both Comer and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested that the FBI treated former President Trump — who is accused of taking much more classified material and not cooperating with authorities — more harshly than Biden.

White House punches back

The White House attempted to go on offense with a statement to Fox News in which it attacked “hypocritical” Republicans for attempting to turn the president’s recent document troubles into a scandal after downplaying Trump’s mishandling of classified papers. On the issue of visitor logs: White House spokesman Ian Sams noted to Semafor that Biden brought back the norm of publishing them for the White House after the Trump administration stopped, and that presidents don’t typically keep records of who stops by their private homes. “Like every President across decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” he said.

The view from Mar-a-Lago

Trump echoed other rightwing commentary about newly-tapped special counsel Robert Hur, claiming he is “very friendly with Democrats and RINOS alike” (Trump nominated Hur as the U.S. attorney in Maryland).

— Morgan Chalfant

Semafor is in Davos at the World Economic Forum this week (sign up for our daily newsletter). Here’s the latest from our editor Ben Smith:

Holding the transatlantic line on Ukraine is the top priority for many of the American officials in Davos, where Rep. Mikie Sherrill D-NJ offered this startling observation to Semafor’s Steve Clemons at our event there:

“The time of peace in the world was quite bad for democracy.”

Sherrill, who cited the rise of authoritarianism around the world, shared a stage with Rep. Seth Moulton D-Mass, who said something many other American officials won’t: “We’re essentially in a proxy war with Russia.”

But even here, many of the questions are about whether House Republicans will vote to raise the debt ceiling. Castro said he thought a bipartisan discharge petition is a plausible option — with some implicit backing from Republican leaders eager to get the issue off their plate. “It would essentially be with a wink and a nod by Kevin McCarthy,” he said.

Oh, and of course George Santos came up. “The man’s a fugitive in Brazil. Why wouldn’t he just sell secrets to Brazil?” Moulton asked. Castro predicted that Santos will be indicted if he stays in the House.

Meanwhile Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is in town, but a low-profile presence has a useful function, another top Republican in town noted. It’s a signal to Republican donors that he’s a man they can do business with.

One Good Text ... with José Andrés

Stories that are being shared less widely across left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, according to data from our partners at Ground News.

WHAT THE LEFT ISN’T READING: The top prosecutor in Loudoun County, Va. said her office would stop prosecuting some misdemeanor offenses like reckless driving and public drunkenness and would instead focus on violent crime.

WHAT THE RIGHT ISN’T READING: A judge in Florida refused a request from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to dismiss a case brought against him for flying migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

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— Steve Clemons