Principals

1. Lonely TikTok faces ban vote
2. Members ditch GOP retreat
3. Ken Buck’s surprise exit
4. Dueling discharge petitions
5. Hur testifies
6. Bulgaria’s mob rule

PDB: Poll: LGBTQ identification among adults rises to 7.6%

Biden campaigns in Milwaukee … Playbook: No State of the Union poll bounce for Biden … FT: The Fed’s “last mile” inflation challenge

— edited by Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann and Morgan Chalfant

Oracle stays on sidelines as TikTok faces House vote

The House is expected to vote to ban the Chinese-owned video app TikTok today as the company’s last-ditch lobbying spree fizzles. TikTok lobbyists have complained in private meetings that they’re missing a crucial ally: The well-connected tech giant Oracle, whose lobbyists are sitting out the battle over the House bill, Semafor’s Kadia Goba and Joseph Zeballos-Roig report. Oracle hosts TikTok’s videos and is responsible for ensuring American citizens’ data, a contract reportedly worth $1 billion. The company still has cards to play: Elon Musk came out against the bill Tuesday, and some Senators are concerned about the House bill targeting a single company. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has yet to schedule a vote. But even most Silicon Valley investors in TikTok parent ByteDance are sitting this one out. TikTok has few friends in Washington.

Low turnout for GOP retreat

The House GOP’s West Virginia retreat already has the feel of a dysfunctional family vacation. Less than half of the chamber’s Republicans are planning to attend their annual issues conference, which begins today at the 110-year-old Greenbrier resort. They’ll hear from speakers including the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen while discussing legislation, the 2025 agenda, and holding the majority. But the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament — and its attendant PAC fundraisers — is being held in D.C. this year and seems to be keeping some members away. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who attended last year’s retreat, is sitting this one out and heading back to her district. Rep. Carlos Giménez, R-Fla. told me he’d already bought the material to clean his boat this week. Others want to use the extra two and a half days in their districts campaigning. And some are just sick of the infighting that has hobbled the 118th Congress. “This isn’t real Congress,” Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, told reporters Monday. “This is a dress rehearsal.”

— Kadia Goba

Ken Buck ditches Congress early

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo. one-upped the Republicans skipping the retreat by leaving Congress entirely. The Tea Party-era conservative announced he would step down early on March 22, telling reporters that “this place keeps going downhill.” The announcement surprised Speaker Mike Johnson, who will soon face an even narrower 218-213 majority that can only lose two members on votes. “That sucks, dot, dot, dot,” House Intel Chair Mike Turner told Semafor’s Kadia Goba (yes, out loud). “Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse.” Actually, it could: The House GOP may not get reinforcements until a May 21 special election to replace former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, depending on whether frontrunner Vince Fong, a Republican state assembly member, cracks 50% in next week’s special election primary. And even worse: Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who planned to run in Buck’s redder district, would have to resign her seat to participate in the June 25 special election to replace him, opening another seat. The dilemma prompted the AP’s Nick Riccardi to speculate that Buck’s exit might be “a baroque effort” to keep her from inheriting his seat.

The Ukraine discharge petitions might already be in trouble

Rival efforts to force a House vote on Ukraine and Israel aid officially went live on Tuesday — but it’s still unclear if either can gather the 218 backers necessary to succeed. First, there was the discharge petition by Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. that would bring the Senate’s foreign aid package to the floor. It quickly won the endorsement of Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who encouraged “all Democrats” to support it. But it’s not clear Republicans or progressives will get on board. “I’m not going to sign a discharge petition with Israel aid,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told Axios. Later came the discharge petition from Problem Solvers Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., which would trigger a vote on a slimmed down, bipartisan foreign aid and border bill. It had six GOP names as of Tuesday night, enough to prevail only in the unlikely event that nearly every Democrat joins. Over in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell all but pleaded with Speaker Mike Johnson to bring his chamber’s bill to a vote. “Let the House speak,” he said.

Special counsel on defense

It was everybody’s turn to light into Robert Hur at the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday, as the former special counsel testified about his decision not to indict President Biden over his handling of classified documents. Democrats accused Hur, a former Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, of conducting a partisan hit job by describing Biden as an “elderly gentleman with a poor memory” in his post-investigation report. “You were not born yesterday,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. “You understood exactly what you were doing.” Republicans whacked away at the attorney for choosing not to charge the president, calling him “part of the Praetorian Guard that guards the swamp.” Meanwhile, reporters finally got a peek at Hur’s interview transcripts with Biden. The consensus take? The president definitely had trouble with some dates, but was “less absentminded” than Hur’s report let on, as the Washington Post’s Matt Viser wrote.

Global Election Hub: Bulgaria’s moderate mobster

Bulgaria’s friendly new party leader is Vasil “the Skull” Bozhkov, once labeled Bulgaria’s “most infamous” mobster. Don’t worry, he claims he’s a centrist. Though its leader is currently under house arrest, Bozhkov’s new “Centre” party aims to attract a patriotic “silent majority” of voters with concerns about the geopolitical impact of players such as the U.S., Russia, and Turkey. Bulgaria’s political situation is as fragile as ever, with rivals forced into coalition with one another after years of successive elections.

— Brad Glasser

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: The House effort to impeach President Biden is foundering: Republican leaders “admit there’s still no conclusive evidence of an impeachable offense”and “no one in the House GOP leadership has a clear vision for how this all ends.”

Playbook: Nikki Haley won more than 77,000 votes in Georgia’s Republican primary — after dropping out, a warning sign for Donald Trump.

Axios: Americans lost nearly $1.3 billion to scammers pretending to be from the government or tech support — a sevenfold increase since 2019.

White House

• President Biden mourned Itay Chen after the Israeli military announced that the dual Israeli-American citizen had been killed by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack. He was previously thought to have been taken into Gaza alive as a hostage.
• White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters the White House does not digitally alter presidential family photographs after being asked about the practice in the wake of a royal photo editing scandal.

Congress

• House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries convened their new bipartisan AI task force for the first time. Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif. is pushing the group to produce a report by the end of the year.
• Voters in New York’s 14th district will choose between Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. and her new primary challenger “Martin W. Dolan, 66, who spent 30 years working for Jefferies Financial Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and other financial firms,” Bloomberg reports.
• Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., the body’s leading crypto advocate, boasted that her 5 Bitcoins are now worth $72,000 each. — Business Insider
• Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y. and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas are forming a “Democrats for Border Security” task force. — NBC News

Outside the Beltway

Don’t ask questions, just watch South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s five-minute video about the cosmetic dental practice she patronizes in Texas.

Polls

LGBTQ identification among adults rose to 7.6% in Gallup’s annual survey, up from 7.2% last year and 3.5% in 2012. The upward trend has been powered by members of Gen Z, about one in five of whom identify as LGBTQ. While LGBTQ identification is up across the board, the rise in bisexual identity — especially among women — is the biggest driver of recent growth: More than 20% of Gen Z women identify as bisexual, versus 9% of Millennial women, 2.8% of Gen X women, and just 0.4% of Baby Boomer women.

On the Trail

• President Biden clinched the Democratic nomination with Tuesday’s primaries. In a statement, he asked voters to help him stop Trump’s “campaign of resentment, revenge, and retribution that threatens the very idea of America.”
• Donald Trump also clinched the Republican nomination. The former president wrote on Truth Social that it is his “great honor” to represent the GOP, saying the party is “UNITED and STRONG”: “Fear not, we will not fail, we will take back our once great Country,” he wrote.
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has approached unvaccinated quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former third party Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura to gauge their interest in becoming his running mate. —New York Times
• The push for pro-Gaza ceasefire voters to select “uncommitted” in primaries continues, Semafor’s David Weigel reports. Democrats are taking a gentle approach with its supporters, hoping to keep frustrated Biden voters engaged with politics and open to voting for him in November.

Foreign Policy

• Leonid Volkov, former chief of staff to the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, was attacked with a hammer outside his home in Lithuania. — CNN
• Haitian leaders met to discuss the formation of a transitional government following Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s resignation.
• A Spanish ship carrying 200 tons of humanitarian aid for Palestinians was due in Gaza after it set sail from Cyprus along a newly opened maritime corridor.

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: House Republicans subpoenaed 15 years’ worth of Hunter Biden’s phone records from AT&T, congressional Democrats disclosed in a memo.

What the Right isn’t reading: Under Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Arkansas rolled back its gender-neutral “X” option on state driver’s licenses.

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann, Morgan Chalfant

Editor-at-Large: Steve Clemons

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

Yvette Clarke is a Democratic congresswoman from New York and co-chair of the Haiti Caucus.

• How Africans have become the solution to the UK’s elderly care crisis.
• What a rise in US inflation rates will mean for the elections and interest rates.
• A former CNN chief has found himself in an escalating personal battle with a bombastic Tory grandee over control of a British newspaper.