![](https://img.semafor.com/3a8b8334d5449a2d371e9173bd15ea7385a48c45-1065x498.png?w=1140&h=533&q=95&auto=format) Beltway NewslettersPunchbowl News: Democrats are ready to go on offense on the economy with prices declining and GDP on the rise. “The challenge of being president is, you own the bad stuff whether you caused them or not,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. “You gotta own the good stuff as well.” Playbook: Mark Penn thinks Donald Trump should choose Nikki Haley as his running mate. “She would get that women’s Republican vote in the suburbs overwhelmingly. And that would be the end of the election,” he said. Axios: President Biden’s team is increasingly worried the Israel-Hamas conflict will impact his chances for reelection in November, particularly among young voters. White House- President Biden plans to host Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for an official visit — complete with a state dinner — on April 10.
- White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Thailand today and tomorrow. The two are expected to talk about the Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
- Biden’s top Africa adviser, Judd Devermont, will leave his White House job by mid-February to join an Africa-focused private equity firm, Semafor’s Yinka Adegoke reported.
- Biden visited Wisconsin on Thursday to talk about infrastructure investments — and grabbed a beer with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) / XCongress- Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. announced that his wife, Bobbi, passed away following a battle with cancer. She was 70 years old.
- Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, brought up the idea of protecting Speaker Mike Johnson if conservatives try to remove him from power during a private meeting at the White House last week. — NBC
- Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. told colleagues that his effort to topple former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was in fact retribution for an ethics inquiry into the Florida congressman, according to messages viewed by the Daily Beast, which would basically confirm what McCarthy himself said multiple times in public.
- Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. said Thursday that he supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but on the condition that Hamas be “fully destroyed” first. (Earlier this week he declined to sign onto a Democratic measure reaffirming U.S. support for the two-state solution.)
- Members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet will hold a field hearing on IP issues next Friday in L.A. and some will stay to attend the Grammy Awards in the evening.
Outside the Beltway- Republicans across the country are backing up Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott in his dispute with the federal government over the border. — Texas Tribune.
- Alabama became the first state to execute a prisoner using nitrogen gas on Thursday night. Reporters on the scene said the condemned convict, 58-year-old Kenneth Smith, appeared to suffer a physically violent reaction to the gas, even though lawyers for the state had suggested it would lead to “unconsciousness in seconds.” — New York Times
- Florida’s House of Representatives approved legislation that would restrict social media access for children under the age of 16.
Courts- Donald Trump’s lawyers signed onto a push to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the Georgia election subversion case, alleging a conflict of interest in her hiring of Nathan Wade and also claiming she “stoked racial animus” by saying racism was motivating the effort to oust her.
- Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro received a four-month jail sentence for evading a congressional subpoena in the House investigation of Jan. 6.
On the Trail- A super PAC supporting Montana GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy deployed an online survey that lists three genders participants can choose from: “male,” “working woman,” and “homemaker.” — The 19th
- Rep. Garret Graves, R-La. got the short end of the stick with Louisiana’s new congressional map, which forces him to run in a race he would lose, challenge a colleague, or bow out of Congress. He insisted the map would be struck down in court and says he’s not going to be running against fellow GOP Rep. Julia Letlow. — Politico
Foreign Policy- The U.S. shared intelligence with Iran that the Islamic State was preparing a terrorist attack that ultimately killed scores of people at a memorial for the late Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani. — WSJ
- CIA Director Bill Burns will travel to Europe to help land a deal between Israel and Hamas, which would see the terror group release the remaining hostages in exchange for a ceasefire. — Washington Post
- A Russian court extended Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s detention by two months.
- Global deaths from war are surging to levels unseen since the 1980’s and Vox’s Joshua Keating plays whodunit on a list of potential culprits, from U.S. disengagement, to fading norms against interstate conflict, to weaponized drones becoming cheap and widely accessible.
TechnologyThe Federal Trade Commission is scrutinizing investments that leading tech companies Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have made in two artificial intelligence startups. Big ReadDaniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life, digs into one of the most striking trends in recent polling: The massive gender gap in Gen Z’s politics. In survey data and follow-up interviews, he finds women rapidly trending left, with the 2017 #MeToo movement popping out as the biggest catalyst. Men, by contrast, are less happy, more unsure of their place in society, and interested in right-leaning role models offering guidance. They also seem less sure how to translate these feelings into a concrete national agenda, Cox writes: “As women’s political priorities have solidified, young men’s priorities have melted into mush. Surveys consistently show that young men are far less likely than women to say any particular issue is personally important to them.” BlindspotStories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, according to data from our partners at Ground News. What the Left isn’t reading: The Department of Education launched an investigation into Northwestern’s handling of antisemitism allegations on campus. What the Right isn’t reading: A record half of U.S. renters are struggling to pay housing costs, according to a new study. Principals TeamEditors: Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann, Morgan Chalfant Editor-at-Large: Steve Clemons Reporters: Kadia Goba, Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel |