- A Republican strategist says GOP voting reform bills are about ‘providing cotton candy’ to the Trump-obsessed wing of the party (Business Insider) – “These 20 some voter reform laws being proposed in all of these states are all about providing cotton candy to the far-right base that believed the Donald Trump big lie about the election being fraudulent,” Cardenas, the leader of the American Conservative Union from 2011 to 2014, said.
- Georgia Republicans made two big mistakes when they attacked voting rights (CNN) – By attacking voting rights Georgia Republicans have abandoned a GOP political strategy that helped them win close elections. And they have angered a powerful bloc of Black voters in Georgia who have already mobilized against them.
- Biden says he’s optimistic about passing gun control through divided Senate (New York Post) – The impetus for more gun control was raised in the last few weeks as two separate mass shootings took place at Atlanta-area spas and a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.
- Fauci says he and Birx had ‘bad cop,’ ‘good cop’ roles on Trump coronavirus task force (The Hill) – “I was the bad cop,” Fauci responded. “She was the good cop.”
- The Biden do-over: Democrats get a chance to try again on Obama defeats (Washington Post) – During his first formal news conference Thursday, Biden repeatedly returned to a theme of getting things done, approaching the office almost like a general contractor on a construction project.
- Biden to unveil major new spending plans as Democrats eye bigger role for government (Washington Post) – The president is set to tout key components of an infrastructure overhaul and the early contours of his 2022 budget.
- How 2 Legislative Tacticians Scored Big Wins on Child Poverty in the Stimulus (New York Times) – After working for decades on the issue, Senator Patty Murray and Representative Rosa DeLauro teamed up to ensure that the stimulus law included a lifeline to the nation’s poorest families.
- N.Y. congressman: Border crisis due to decades of bad U.S. behavior (Politico) – “We have disrupted the political, social, and economic systems in Central America for over a century,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman said.
- Buttigieg charms Washington with his accessibility (The Hill) – As the only millennial serving in Biden’s Cabinet, Buttigieg has continued to be the young, reliable and sharp advocate for the administration.
