Principals

1. Michigan’s ‘uncommitted’ vote
2. Shutdown odds fall
3. Biden data privacy order
4. Tax bill momentum
5. New York redraws the map
6. ABC News prez takes on Trump

PDB: Google CEO Pichai weighs in on ‘unacceptable’ Gemini controversy

House investigators to interview Hunter Biden … Navalny funeral set for Friday in Moscow … WSJ: 70 is the new 50 for today’s world leaders

— edited by Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann and Morgan Chalfant

Biden and Trump win Michigan — now the spin war

Joe Biden and Donald Trump easily won Michigan’s primaries last night, but protest campaigns drove the news. The Listen to Michigan campaign, which urged Democrats to vote “uncommitted” as a protest of Biden’s Gaza policy, was on track to win around 13% of the vote and at least one delegate in Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s district, which includes much of the state’s Arab American population. Democrats debated the meaning — “uncommitted” won 11% in President Obama’s 2012 primary, but the raw vote count was much higher this time, with higher turnout overall. “Every person who voted ‘uncommitted’ today was personally compelled to use their voice to speak out against President Biden’s support of Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people,” Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud told Semafor in a statement, as his city voted overwhelmingly for “uncommitted.” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who visited the state before the primary, told Semafor the results were “a wake-up call” for Democrats to “break from the status quo on Gaza policy” and push for permanent ceasefire talks. On the Republican side, Trump beat Nikki Haley by more than 40 points, but the race was closer in the suburbs that have trended Democratic since 2016 — “a flashing warning sign for Trump in November,” according to Haley’s campaign. On Tuesday night, as live cable news coverage focused on the “uncommitted” vote, some Democrats grumbled that the press was ignoring a Republican anti-Trump vote three times its size. The Biden campaign’s victory statement did not mention the “uncommitted” vote.

— David Weigel

We might avoid this shutdown after all

The odds of a government shutdown seemed to drop after Tuesday’s meeting between the Big Four congressional leaders and President Biden at the White House. Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the discussion that he was “very optimistic” lawmakers would be able to reach a deal keeping the lights on in Washington, while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said negotiators were making “good progress.” With funding for some agencies set to lapse Friday, a senior aide to House GOP leadership confirmed to Semafor’s Kadia Goba that lawmakers were closing in on a deal to keep them funded for the rest of the fiscal year, though talks are still “very fluid.” As for the confab’s other big topic, aid to Ukraine? Schumer described the discussion about it as “one of the most intense I’ve ever encountered in my many meetings in the Oval Office.” But Johnson showed no signs of movement on the issue publicly. “We will address that in a timely manner,” he said at his press chat. “But again, our first priority of the country is our border and making sure it’s secure.” It’s a line Johnson has been using for months, even as he and House Republicans rejected a compromise border bill. It’s no clearer what, if anything, would now lead him to put a Ukraine bill on the floor and risk retaliation from his right.

Biden restricts China, Russia from buying up sensitive U.S. data

The Biden administration is looking to keep foreign rivals from buying large troves of sensitive data on Americans through third parties. President Biden will sign an executive order later today empowering the Justice Department to block transactions involving certain types of bulk data — like genomic data, personal health information, and geolocation data — to foreign “countries of concern,” officials said, citing risks to U.S. national security. “These countries are leveraging their access to Americans’ bulk sensitive personal data and government-related data to engage in a variety of nefarious activities, including malicious cyber-enabled activities, espionage, and blackmail,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters, singling out China and Russia. The executive order will also restrict data transfers to North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela, a senior DOJ official said. There will be carve-outs to prevent disruptions to commerce — such as for processing financial transactions — and the executive order triggers a lengthy rulemaking process, meaning it won’t go into effect for several months.

— Morgan Chalfant

Senate Republicans may be warming to Congress’s $78 billion tax bill

Fissures are forming among Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee over Congress’s $78 billion tax bill, writes Semafor’s Joseph Zeballos-Roig. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the panel’s ranking member, remains dug-in against the legislation over one of its reforms to the Child Tax Credit, which would let parents claim larger benefits using a previous year’s income. But other GOP committee members appear to be dropping their early skepticism of the legislation. “I want to get a bill passed,” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont. told Semafor. “It’s very important for global competitiveness.” Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. said he was “less concerned about having a perfect process and more concerned about getting this thing done.” That was a rejoinder to Republican colleagues who’ve been demanding a formal chance to tweak the House-passed bill in a committee markup, despite concerns that any changes could sink it. The fate of the package is still murky, but it might have at least one key advantage: Conservative tax activist Grover Norquist tells Semafor that people in Donald Trump’s campaign he’s spoken with so far don’t sound opposed to the bill.

New York closes in on modest map change

New York Democrats seized control of the redistricting process after a multiyear legal battle and… made some minor tweaks. A new proposed map by state lawmakers builds off a bipartisan commission’s approach that they rejected this week and leaves “24 of the state’s 26 districts largely intact” in their partisan makeup, the New York Times reports. It would put Republican Rep. Brandon Williams at slightly greater risk, shore up newly returned Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, and veto the bipartisan plan’s proposal to tilt Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro’s swing seat toward the right. Some national Democrats were disappointed, hoping that the final plan would be their answer to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who vetoed a map by the state’s GOP-controlled legislature in order to maximize Republican gains in 2022. “Barring a change of course by the legislature or a veto by [Gov. Kathy Hochul], these hopes will be dashed,” wrote Stephen Wolf, an elections analyst at the progressive site Daily Kos.

ABC News president: Trump’s pitch to Black voters was ‘as racist as they come’

The president of ABC News told staff that Donald Trump’s latest pitch to Black voters was “as racist as they come.” The email from Kimberly Godwin, obtained by Semafor’s Max Tani, criticized Trump’s recent comments boasting that Black voters relate to his mugshot and indictments. A spokesperson said it was “part of a larger editorial conversation” about how to cover the remarks. As Tani writes, newsrooms have long debated when to declare Trump’s rhetoric racist in headlines and news copy — as opposed to quoting others doing so, or using euphemisms like “racially charged,” a favorite of the Trump era. ABC’s own coverage has not been as direct as Godwin in this case, using language like “widely criticized as racist” on air and “controversial” in a digital headline. Expect these conversations to get louder as Trump returns to the general election spotlight.

Today, we’ve opened registration for The 2024 World Economy Summit — our boldest venture in live journalism yet and the only major media event to be held against the background of the IMF and World Bank meetings, taking place in Washington, D.C. on April 17-18. Legends of industry, Penny Pritzker and David Rubenstein will serve as our co-chairs, and today we’re thrilled to unveil our speaker line-up of global leaders on the record. Speakers, Sessions & Registration here. 

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Speaker Mike Johnson has offered to shift current government funding deadlines from March 1 and March 8 to March 8 and March 22 — i.e., pass a stopgap funding measure — but only if congressional leaders reach an agreement on bills for agencies whose funding will lapse on March 1 plus two more. If not, he’s threatening a shutdown.

Playbook: President Biden’s campaign thinks the “uncommitted” voters in Michigan will eventually vote for the president come November. “We also know that nearly all of the folks voting uncommitted do not support the extremism, the xenophobia, and incompetence of Donald Trump,” a campaign insider said. “They want a president who listens and delivers. That’s Joe Biden. We will earn their votes between now and November.”

The Early 202: Michigan’s primary results should be a warning sign for Biden, Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, each for different reasons.

Axios: White House chief of staff Jeff Zients manages the West Wing in a much different way than his predecessor, Ron Klain. Zients tries to be more impartial, making aides feel more empowered but also leaving some missing Klain’s ability to accelerate decision making. Some Democrats also fret over Zients’ lack of political experience.

White House

• President Biden is slated to meet with leaders and members of the Teamsters union next month.
• “There will be no U.S. troops on the ground in a combat role there in Ukraine,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said, after French President Emmanuel Macron left the door open to sending Western troops to fight in Ukraine.
• Vice President Harris will visit Selma, Ala. for the anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” this coming weekend.

Congress

• The House returns today with votes scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
• House investigators will depose Hunter Biden today at 10 a.m. behind closed doors as part of Republicans’ impeachment inquiry.

• Senate Democrats will try to pass their bill to protect IVF access via unanimous consent on Wednesday. It only takes one member to block a vote and some Republicans sound skeptical of a federal law, even as they insist they are not trying to restrict fertility treatments. — Politico
• The leaders of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees subpoenaed the Justice Department for documents related to special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation of President Biden’s handling of classified documents.
• Speaker Mike Johnson will hold a swearing-in ceremony for incoming Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., this evening, who’ll be accompanied by his wife, children, and 100 people from New York’s 3rd congressional district.
• House Democrats are hiring. Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif. announced the caucus will hold a secret ballot on March 20 at 9 a.m. to fill the assistant Democratic leader position being vacated by Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.
• The Senate HELP Committee (again) advanced Julie Su’s nomination to be Labor Secretary.
• Senators from both parties were not particularly satisfied by a classified briefing with the Pentagon on its 30-day review of the secrecy surrounding Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospital stay earlier this year. “I have very strong, severe questions remaining for the Pentagon as to how this seeming concealment was handled, and I think there ought to be some public accountability,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. — Politico

Outside the Beltway

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he would like police and immigration authorities to quickly deport migrants from the city who are suspected of committing serious crimes, which would be a change from New York’s sanctuary city laws.

Economy

• Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon expressed some doubts about a soft landing.
• JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon is a fan of Texas.

Courts

• A divorce lawyer who defense attorneys said was a key witness in their quest to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the election subversion case involving Donald Trump and his allies in Georgia testified that he did not know when the relationship between Willis and one of her prosecutors on the case, Nathan Wade, began.
• The Justice Department is conducting an antitrust probe of UnitedHealth. — WSJ
• A federal judge in Texas ruled that the House’s pandemic use of proxy voting may have illegally violated quorum rules. The Supreme Court previously rejected a lawsuit by House Republicans challenging proxy voting.

On the Trail

• A super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says it has enough signatures to get the candidate on the ballot in Arizona and Georgia.
• Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass. was in New York City and New Jersey to fundraise with Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J. and Rob Menendez, D-N.J.
• Republican J.R. Majewski, who’s on his second attempt to oust Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, might, again, called it quits just three weeks before the primary. In an interview with Politico, Majewski “acknowledged that his recent controversy over disparaging comments about the Special Olympics had changed the dynamic of the race.”

Technology

• Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed the company’s Gemini controversy Tuesday evening, calling the AI app’s problematic responses around race unacceptable and vowing to make structural changes to fix the problem, Semafor’s Reed Albergotti reported. The comments came a week after Google suspended its Gemini image creation tool after it generated inaccurate — and at times embarrassing and offensive — results. “I know that some of its responses have offended our users and shown bias — to be clear, that’s completely unacceptable and we got it wrong,” Pichai said in a memo.
• The Commerce Department today put out its first request for applications for grants for research and development in advanced packaging, a key part of the Biden administration’s push to rebuild the domestic semiconductor industry.

Foreign Policy

• Hamas said no breakthrough has been reached in hostage negotiations while Qatar seemed to temper expectations following President Biden’s comments that a ceasefire agreement could be reached by next week. — NYT
• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen offered her strongest-yet endorsement of using seized Russian assets to pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction. “It is necessary and urgent for our coalition to find a way to unlock the value of these immobilized assets to support Ukraine’s continued resistance and long-term reconstruction,” she said at a press conference, pointing to a “strong international law, economic, and moral case for moving forward.”
• The U.S. imposed a new wave of sanctions on Iranian commanders and shipping vessels.
• Russia would use nuclear bombs on the battlefield despite not being attacked with them, leaked documents suggest.

Big Read

Washington needs to wake up to the meteoric rise of China’s BYD and its popular, ultra-cheap electric vehicles before it crashes into the U.S., environmental writer Robinson Meyer warns in The New York Times. While America’s “Big Three” are still struggling to transition into the EV business, the Chinese company is rapidly expanding into foreign markets with America on deck, and threatens to take over before Detroit can get costs down and products streamlined. Inflation Reduction Act subsidies help a bit, Meyer writes, but other policies like aggressive tariffs may be needed to buy American automakers more time to compete.

Blindspot

Stories 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: Former CNN anchor Don Lemon will reportedly be paid $24.5 million by the network after being let go last year.

What the Right isn’t reading: Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that Donald Trump acts like a “12-year-old boy” around Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann, Morgan Chalfant

Editor-at-Large: Steve Clemons

Reporters: Kadia Goba, Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Debbie Dingell is a Democratic congresswoman from Michigan.

• Capitol Hill dysfunction threatens US-Pacific pacts.
• Sudan’s forgotten war is expanding.
• Thousands of Ugandans may sue over U.S. security work in Iraq, Afghanistan.