Principals

1. Growth in liberal views
2. Far-right surge in Europe
3. Biden jabs Trump
4. Gantz leaves Israeli war cabinet
5. Fox tweaked a Trump interview
6. Biden’s battleground bump

PDB: Trump backs Sam Brown after Las Vegas rally

Hunter Biden trial enters second week … Blinken in Egypt … NYT: US asks UN for Gaza ceasefire vote

— edited by Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann and Morgan Chalfant

Democrats are becoming more liberal

Democrats have become significantly more liberal over the last quarter century, according to new figures from Gallup. The latest data shows 32% of Americans identify as conservative; 32% identify as moderate; and 33% identify as liberal on social issues specifically. The share of voters who say they are socially liberal has increased substantially since 1999, a trend driven exclusively by the rise in Democrats branding themselves this way. There has been a similar shift toward more liberal economic views, though a plurality — 39% — of Americans still say they hold conservative views on the economy. While Democrats have become more liberal, Republicans have become more conservative on both social and economic issues and independents’ “ideological perspectives are nearly exactly what they were in 2004 and 2014,” according to Gallup.

What does a far-right surge in Europe mean for the US?

The far right surged in the European Parliament elections. Germany’s Olaf Scholz and France’s Emmanuel Macron were the big losers, and the latter decided to dissolve France’s National Assembly and hold snap elections beginning June 30. “I can’t pretend that nothing’s happened,” Macron said, warning against “the rise of nationalists and demagogues.” It’s a risky move for Macron, who could end up with a prime minister from another party if his Renaissance party suffers big losses. The developments may have big implications for Europe as well as global challenges, from the Ukraine war to climate change. “Kiss goodbye to the European Green Deal,” one analyst told the Financial Times. Sunday’s results may also be a forecast of sorts for the November US election, The Washington Post writes, just as the Brexit referendum preceded Donald Trump’s election in 2016.

Biden’s France trip was for a domestic audience

President Biden’s tour de France was a not-so-subtle jab against Donald Trump. Following a state visit, Biden on Sunday visited the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Belleau and warned against the tide of isolationism, insisting that America must not “break” with its allies. He didn’t mention Trump, but the choice of location pointed directly at the former president, who canceled a planned trip to the cemetery in 2018 and reportedly called the servicemen buried there “suckers” and “losers.” “This moment was to lay out the stakes,” one administration and campaign official told Politico of the trip, which also included a speech about democracy. The coverage made its way to Trump, who blasted the story about 2018 as “disinformation” and said he hoped “the military revolts at the voting booth” during a rally in Las Vegas.

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Netanyahu’s coalition gets wobbly

Benny Gantz announced plans to leave Israel’s emergency war cabinet, dealing a blow to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he rebuffed Gantz’s demand for a postwar plan. “Gantz’s move is not going to directly put an end to this coalition, but the coalition is beginning to collapse in on itself,” one analyst told The Washington Post. The White House is keeping up the pressure on Hamas to agree to a ceasefire proposal following the Israeli raid that freed four hostages from Gaza, which the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said killed over 270 Palestinians. “What we would much prefer to see is a ceasefire where the hostages come out peacefully,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN, acknowledging that the US provided intelligence to support the operation but did not send US troops to help with it.

Fox News massaged Trump interview

Fox News edited a June 2 interview with Donald Trump where he appeared to backpedal on a promise to declassify federal files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Semafor’s Max Trani writes. Trump was asked on Fox and Friends, if elected again, if he would declassify files on Epstein, as well as 9/11 and the JFK assassination. “Yeah, I would,” Trump said, as the segment ended. However, his full answer appeared on Will Cain’s Fox News Radio show, as “Yeah, yeah, I would… I guess I would. I think that less so because, you don’t know, you don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there, because it’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world.” He added it would be “interesting” to see what occurred surrounding Epstein’s 2019 death in a federal jail.

CBS/YouGov: Biden gets a battleground bump

President Biden is effectively tied with Donald Trump among likely voters, according to a new CBS/YouGov poll. The survey finds the race at 50-49 in favor of Trump nationally, but 50-49 in favor of Biden among voters who live in battleground states. Trump’s guilty verdict ranks low as a voter concern compared to other issues, with just 28% naming it as a major factor in their vote. But there are signs anti-Trump sentiment is helping Biden consolidate support, especially with independents: The majority of his voters now name opposition to Trump as their top motivation, a significant bump from their March polling.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: House Republicans are getting ready to vote on a resolution holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over audiotapes of former special counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Biden in his classified documents investigation. Republicans believe they have the votes to pass it.

Playbook: Vice President Harris weighed in on Donald Trump’s VP search. “What we know is that Donald Trump wants an enabler. He doesn’t want a governing partner. He doesn’t want another Mike Pence, and I think that is clear,” she said. “The litmus test is, are they going to be absolutely loyal to Trump over country or their oath of office, or, frankly, the American people?”

WaPo: The Biden campaign is pouring resources into a massive field operation in Wisconsin in an effort to win over white voters without a college degree — a critical demographic in the battleground state. It’s got Republicans worried: “The Trump campaign, the state and national Republicans need to step up and find a way to not just open up more offices, but particularly get more boots on the ground to knock on more doors and make more calls,” said ex-governor Scott Walker.

Axios: The US is having a “summer of never-before,” with Donald Trump expected to become the first-ever felon to accept the nomination of a major party and the oldest person to accept the nomination of a major party. That will be after he becomes the first president to be sentenced for a criminal conviction.

White House

• President Biden, who returned from France yesterday, is hosting a Juneteenth concert at the White House this evening.
• Biden told reporters that he and French President Emmanuel Macron reached a deal on how to use the profits from frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine.
• Statues around the White House were vandalized during protests against the Gaza war over the weekend.
• The White House is considering a proposal to protect undocumented spouses of American citizens from deportation and to allow them to work in the US legally. — NYT

Congress

• The House and Senate return on Tuesday.
• Some Democrats are angling to oust Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., from Congress, viewing him as too cozy with Silicon Valley and an impediment to President Biden’s antitrust agenda. — NOTUS
• Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee.
• Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., said one of his aides was robbed at gunpoint in Washington.
• Vulnerable Republicans are taking credit for local infusions of infrastructure funds despite voting against the bipartisan bill that generated them. — Politico
• The House Ethics Committee has launched a preliminary inquiry into whether Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., abused a program that members of Congress use to get reimbursed for lodging and other expenses while in Washington. — NYT
• New footage of the congressional response to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol shows then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressing frustration about the lack of response from the National Guard. — Politico
• Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., discussed how she is coping and working after she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Parkinson’s disease. — CNN

Outside the Beltway

The US Postal Service’s $40 billion modernization drive is off to a rough start, tripped up by staffing and other operational issues. — WSJ

Economy

The cost of owning a home in the US has soared 26% since the COVID-19 pandemic. — Bloomberg

Courts

• Hunter Biden’s trial resumes in Wilmington today, after prosecutors rested their case last week. His lawyers are expected to quickly wrap up their arguments and Hunter is unlikely to testify. — NYT
• Donald Trump’s probation interview is set for today ahead of his sentencing for his hush money conviction. Trump is expected to appear virtually. — NBC
• The Supreme Court still has two major abortion-related cases to rule on this term.

Polls

President Biden is making some inroads against Donald Trump on the economy, according to a new Financial Times survey that found that Trump only has a four-point lead over Biden when voters were asked who they trust more to handle the economy.

On the Trail

• Donald Trump endorsed Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sam Brown following his Las Vegas rally yesterday. “Sam has already proven his Love for our Country, being horrifically wounded, and making the Comeback of a Lifetime. Sam Brown has my Complete and Total Endorsement,” he wrote on Truth Social.
• Trump proposed eliminating taxes on tips — which would require an act of Congress — during his Las Vegas rally, in a bid to court service industry voters. He also dismissed President Biden’s executive order to curb illegal immigration.

• South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem encouraged Trump to select a woman as his running mate.
• Trump has told people that North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum “has the ‘central casting’ look he favors in public figures.” (He’s especially taken with Burgum’s thick head of hair). — NYT
• During a campaign stop in Detroit, Vice President Harris said Trump’s conviction should be “disqualifying.”
• A group of Biden supporters launched a new super PAC aimed at shoring up the president’s support among young voters. — Politico
• Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and his Republican challenger Tim Sheehy debated one another for the first time on Sunday.

Foreign Policy

• The US is honing in on a defense treaty with Saudi Arabia that the Biden administration hopes will be part of a broader Israel-Saudi Arabia normalization agreement. — WSJ
• At the G7 in Italy later this week, the leaders will warn Chinese banks to stop helping Russia evade sanctions. — Reuters
• Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador to Japan, argued the US should lean on Japan to help solve its defense industry challenges (including a ship maintenance backlog). — WSJ
• The Russian government is forcing migrants and foreign students to fight with its soldiers in Ukraine, including by threatening to not extend visas of African students there unless they join the military, according to a European assessment. — Bloomberg
• Iran has approved six candidates to run in the country’s June 28 presidential election to replace President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash last month.

Technology

Apple’s developers’ conference today will show whether it can become a big player in artificial intelligence. — Bloomberg

Big Read

Israel’s rescue of four hostages in Gaza on Saturday was months in the planning, according to The Washington Post. Since Oct. 7, Israeli military intelligence, with help from American counterparts, worked to locate the woman and three men in two nearby buildings. Amid tightly guarded planning, mock-ups of the buildings were built for Israeli soldiers to rehearse in. The plan was approved Thursday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior security officials. Noa Argamani was rescued without her guards being alerted, while a firefight began with those holding the male hostages. Air support was called in, and rockets struck the narrow streets, reportedly killing at least 274. It wasn’t clear how many were combatants. The three men and a mortally wounded Israeli counterterrorism officer were airlifted out of the area.

Blindspot

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, curated with help from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: President Biden hasn’t met Hunter Biden’s five-year-old daughter with Lunden Roberts, according to an interview Roberts did with Piers Morgan.

What the Right isn’t reading: Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake recently gave a speech in front of a Confederate flag.

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann, Morgan Chalfant

Editor-at-Large: Steve Clemons

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

Arturo Sarukhan served as Mexico’s ambassador to the US from 2007 to 2013.

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