The Hill’s Morning Report — Biden enters 2024 race; Carlson exits Fox

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 04/25/23 6:37 AM ET

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President Biden’s announcement this morning that he’s running for a second term has been previewed since late last year, teased for months and made official with a video today that begins with the word “freedom” accompanied by grainy images of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. “This is not a time to be complacent,” the president says head-on into the camera. “That’s why I’m running for reelection.”

Fox News’s divorce from host Tucker Carlson produced shock and awe beyond the news business on Monday in part because he has wielded power, advised conservative politicians and according to evidence gathered in a lawsuit Fox settled a week ago, was a shapeshifter on and off the air.

Before Fox News settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million in a defamation lawsuit stemming from false claims about the 2020 election, Dominion blamed Carlson for stoking false voter fraud narratives while privately mocking them — and at the same time criticizing his bosses (The New York Times). The “Tucker Carlson Tonight” show was the most-watched show in prime-time cable news, averaging 3.25 million viewers in the first quarter of the year.

Carlson and Fox News did not respond to requests from reporters for comments as of this morning. The company’s stock initially sank on the Monday news (The Hill).

The first questions journalists tried to answer was why Fox cut Carlson and his top producer loose, and why now? And what to make of Fox’s future? The broadcasting giant faces uncertainties about whether it can keep its prime-time audience sans the network’s best known ratings magnet, The Hill’s Dominick Mastrangelo reports.

▪ The Hill, by Niall Stanage: Five possible reasons Carlson and Fox News are parting company.

▪ The Los Angeles Times: The decision to fire Carlson came from Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch with input from board members and other Fox Corp. executives. The decision is related to Carlson’s coverage of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and to a discrimination lawsuit filed by Abby Grossberg, a former Carlson producer fired by the network last month, who alleges lying, bullying and being subjected to antisemitic remarks, which Fox has denied.

And what are Carlson’s career options elsewhere? There was instantaneous conjecture he could start his own streaming platform. The Wall Street Journal reported that his $20 million a year contract, renewed in 2021, will be paid out in its entirety. Carlson found out he was being let go about 10 minutes before the network announced his departure, the Journal reported.

“This is a weed with deep roots — just because you take away something on top of the soil, that doesn’t mean it’s not going to pop up elsewhere,” Howard Polskin, who compiles TheRighting, a daily newsletter that tracks conservative news outlets, told the Times. “There are so many voices on the right. They’re proliferating, and they’re a lot of the time getting louder and more passionate.”

Many Republicans who savored Carlson’s audience size and his sway reacted with incredulity on Monday (The Hill). Donald Trump Jr. slammed the network for what he called a “mind-boggling” decision, explaining on “The Charlie Kirk Show” that Carlson, in his view, was a “thought leader in conservatism,” adding his departure “changes things permanently. … We can’t lose that kind of talent on our side.”

The Republican Party, and those trying to be at its helm, is splintered into factions, facing a 2024 GOP presidential primary that is likely to expand by summer, offering voters divergent interpretations of not only events and facts, but principles, views of the party’s future and the array of politicians seen as best qualified to lead.

Former President Trump told Newsmax Monday night that he was “shocked” about Fox’s personnel decision. “He’s been terrific to me,” he added of Carlson, who previously offered the former president private advice and friendly exchanges on his show, but also, it turned out, voiced behind-the-scenes criticism of Trump, according to evidence revealed as part of Dominion’s lawsuit against the company.

The Associated Press: Defamation suit produced trove of Carlson messages.

Trump was quick to pounce on CNN anchor Don Lemon, a frequent critic from the left who announced on Twitter that he was fired on Monday after months of turmoil on the cable network’s new morning show.

“What took them so long?” Trump asked on the Truth Social platform.

▪ CBS News: Lemon came under fire in February after he said women in their 50s could not be in their “prime,” following a segment about 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

▪ Vanity Fair: Inside CNN’s defenestration of Don Lemon.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: CNBC anchor alleged that NBC Universal CEO Jeff Shell sexually harassed her, prompting his exit.

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: GOP presidential candidate says Carlson would be a “good addition” to the 2024 field.

▪ The Hill: Five takeaways from the Carlson-Fox divorce.

▪ Rolling Stone: 13 terrible things Carlson said that didn’t get him fired.

▪ Variety: “Fox & Friends” anchor Brian Kilmeade fills Carlson’s Fox News slot in first show after shocking exit: “I wish Tucker the best.”

▪ The Wrap: “It’s very hard,” Fox’s Sean Hannity said at the start of his radio show, “The Sean Hannity Show,” regarding Carlson’s departure. “My phone has been blowing up all day. The hard part for me is I don’t have a clue… I have no idea. Was it Tucker’s decision? Was it Fox’s? Was it a mutual agreement that they had? I don’t know.”

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

The presidential rematch many Americans say they don’t want to see is here.

Biden is now a candidate again and running against Trump. Biden kicked off his reelection bid this morning with a low-key three minute video, urging voters to let him “finish this job” and setting up a rematch with Trump. Biden is widely expected to be the Democratic nominee in 2024. But The Hill’s Brett Samuels reports that while Trump faces a tougher road to winning the GOP nomination, he is the clear front-runner among Republicans a few months out from the first scheduled debate.

Anticipated ahead: a replay of one of the most negative and divisive elections in American history, which culminated in Trump’s refusal to concede and the Jan. 6 riot of his supporters at the Capitol that forced the evacuation of Congress. Experts and strategists believe there are several factors contributing to the public’s lack of desire to see Trump and Biden face each other for a second time.

“Often, when you ask people, ‘Would you like someone else,’ it’s easy to conjure a hypothetical alternative candidate,” David Hopkins, an author and political science professor at Boston College, told The Hill. “But when you ask people about flesh and blood alternatives, they tend to be less popular.”

▪ The New York Times: Biden plans an election bid that will be more complicated the second time around.

▪ NBC News: Only 5 percent of Americans want Biden and Trump to run again in 2024.

▪ CNN: Why 2024 could be the most boring presidential primary season ever.

2024 Watch: Biden on Monday told reporters his reelection announcement is coming “real soon” (The Hill). …Texas pastor and CEO Ryan Binkley on Monday announced he will compete in the GOP presidential primary (The Hill). … How Biden has avoided a competitive primary challenger (The Hill).

▪ The Hill: Republican attacks on corporate America are creating divides within the party as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) tests the limits of Republicans’ appetite for government crackdowns on private industry.

▪ The Washington Post: DeSantis meets with Japanese prime minister on first stop of international trip.

Jury selection begins today in Trump’s civil trial over writer E. Jean Carroll’s claims that the former president raped her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s. Carroll, who went public with her accusations during Trump’s presidency, has since filed two lawsuits against him, reports The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld. Trump denies her claims. The second suit heads to trial this week, when Carroll will attempt to prove that Trump committed sexual battery and defamed her in an October 2022 Truth Social post.

Politico: Your guide to the trial: Carroll v. Trump.

➤ CONGRESS

Republican leaders are racing this week to secure GOP support for legislation combining steep spending cuts with a debt ceiling hike — marking their official opening bid in the high-stakes standoff with Biden over how to prevent a government default this summer. The Hill’s Aris Folley and Mike Lillis report that the vote is the first real test of Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) Speakership after winning the gavel in January on promises to conservatives that he’d fight tooth and nail to curb government spending. He’s now under intense pressure from his right flank to hold that line, even at risk of an economy-shaking default.

Republican leaders were whipping votes for the bill through the weekend, and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) told Politico Monday that leaders were not making changes to the bill. McCarthy is vowing to stage the vote this week, while voicing confidence that he’ll find the support to send it to the Senate.

“We will hold a vote this week, and we will pass it,” McCarthy said in an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program. He stopped short, however, of saying the support is there already.

▪ NBC News: McCarthy faces his first big test as speaker: Defusing a debt ceiling time bomb.

▪ Bloomberg News: McCarthy refuses to change debt limit bill despite Republican skeptics.

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are trying to maintain solidarity with McCarthy, but they are not thrilled with his choice to extend the debt ceiling for only a year. As The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports, the proposal could set up another standoff that could rattle the stock markets a few months before Election Day. While GOP senators think they have a good chance of winning back the upper chamber, another high stakes standoff with the president over the economy right before the 2024 election could prove politically risky.

“My complaint is that we delay these things all the time. Can we get out of moving from crisis to crisis?” one Republican senator told The Hill. “I’m for striking a deal and changing the spending, but can we not do it every year?”

Roll Call: Senate Democrats press on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s ethics concerns.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Warring military factions in Sudan have begun a halting three-day, nationwide ceasefire, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday, after intensive fighting throughout the capital Khartoum has killed hundreds of people and wounded thousands. In a statement, Blinken said the U.S. urges the Sudanese Army and Rapid Support Forces to “immediately and fully uphold the cease-fire,” following more than a week of fighting where other attempts to halt hostilities have failed to take hold (The Hill and Reuters).

Over the weekend, foreign governments airlifted hundreds of their diplomats and other citizens to safety out of the country, while locals on Monday desperately sought ways to escape the chaos — fearing the country’s two rival generals will escalate their all-out battle for power once evacuations are completed. Convoys of foreign nationals have been evacuated from the capital, often in dramatic air or land operations, but for many Sudanese, the moves present a terrifying sign that international powers only expect a worsening of the fighting that has already pushed the population into disaster.

Civilians fleeing Sudan — a country of 45 million — have streamed into neighboring countries, raising concerns about a humanitarian crisis spreading to nations already grappling with their conflicts, hunger and dire economic straits. Just the past few years have seen a civil war in Ethiopia; hunger, flooding and ethnic fighting in South Sudan; and a coup in Chad (The Associated Press and The New York Times).

“The humanitarian impact of this crisis is going to be almost unimaginable,” Faith Kasina, the regional spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency, told the Times. “The worst-case scenario is unfolding right before our eyes.”

▪ USA Today: A visual guide to how elite U.S. military forces evacuated the U.S. Embassy in Sudan.

▪ The Washington Post: Diplomats are evacuated from Sudan (see photos).

▪ The Hill: White House: The situation in Sudan is “not conducive” for a large-scale military evacuation.

▪ Reuters: U.N. warns of a “catastrophic conflagration” in Sudan as foreign exodus accelerates.

▪ The Associated Press: Blackout-beset South Africa may delay closing coal stations.

In February, with the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine just days away, officials in Kyiv were busy making plans to attack Moscow, according to leaked documents obtained by The Washington Post. But in Washington, officials were secretly monitoring the plans, worried that attacks inside Russia could provoke an aggressive response from the Kremlin, and soon, Kyiv agreed “at Washington’s request” to postpone the strikes.

It’s not clear who made the final decision to scrap the plans, but the incident offers an example of a broader tension that has characterized much of the war. While Ukraine is eager to bring the fight to Russia’s home turf, it is sometimes restrained by the United States — which has tried to avoid escalating the conflict into a direct fight between U.S. and Russian forces.

Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, chaired a Security Council meeting on Monday at the United Nations, where he faced rebuke from Western members and the U.N.’s top official over his country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia assumed the rotating chair of the council this month, to international critique (The New York Times).

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in violation of the United Nations Charter and international law, is causing massive suffering and devastation to the country and its people, and adding to the global economic dislocation triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said.

▪ The Associated Press: Drones attack Sevastopol, crashed drone found near Moscow.

▪ Reuters: Ukraine stages raids across Dnipro River as counteroffensive looms.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: The grim life and brutal death of a Wagner Group recruit.

▪ Politico EU: The European Union schemes up sweeteners to woo countries away from Russia and China.

➤ ADMINISTRATION

Biden will use this week’s state visit by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to underscore that the U.S. is ready to step up its efforts to deter a North Korean nuclear attack, according to the White House.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the president will announce specific new nuclear deterrence efforts as well as a new cyber security initiative, economic investments and an educational partnership. White House officials say Biden hopes to put a particular emphasis on the United States’ “ironclad” commitment to deterring nuclear action by North Korea as Pyongyang has stepped up ballistic missile tests, including flight-testing a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time earlier this month (The Hill and Reuters).

📺 NBC “Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt will interview President Yoon tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET.

West Wing turnstile: White House director of domestic policy Susan Rice will leave her post May 26. Rice, who also served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, helped the Biden administration with expanding the Affordable Care Act (Politico).

As the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program hangs in the balance, borrowers have two dates to keep in their calendars. After a years-long pause, payments are set to begin either 60 days after the Supreme Court rules on the program or 60 days after June 30, whichever comes first. As The Hill’s Lexi Lonas reports, with the grace period that let people who graduated college during the coronavirus pandemic avoid paying back their federal loans is about to end, millions of young people are about to take a serious financial hit.

The New York Times: Why the personal finance company called SoFi is suing to end the student loan payment pause.

OPINION

■ How state legislatures went off the rails, by Karen Tumulty, deputy opinion editor and columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3Vkbhg5

■ I’m about to graduate from law school. Will AI steal my job? by Alexander Loznak, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3ApQs97

WHERE AND WHEN

📲 Ask The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will convene at 2 p.m.

The Senate meets Tuesday at 3 p.m. to resume consideration of the nomination of Joshua Jacobs to be under secretary for benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The president will deliver remarks at the North American Building Trade Unions Legislative Conference held at the Washington Hilton at 12:30 p.m. He will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 3:15 p.m. in the Oval Office. Biden and first lady Jill Biden will tour the Korean War Memorial in Washington with visiting South Korean President Yoon and Mrs. Kim Keon Hee, first lady, at 7:20 p.m. and return to the White House 25 minutes later.

Vice President Harris and South Korean President Yoonat 3:05 p.m.will tour NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and speak to the press. The vice president will speak at 6:45 p.m. at Howard University in Washington during a political event focused on reproductive rights.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken participates at 9 a.m. in meetings with members of the Foreign Affairs Policy Board at the State Department. The secretary will have lunch with board members at 12:30 p.m.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen at 9:30 a.m. will deliver remarks about the economy at the Sacramento Metro Chamber’s 51st Annual Capitol-to-Capitol program, hosted by Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel.

Economic indicator: The Conference Board at 10 a.m. will report on U.S. consumer confidence in April.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 2 p.m.

ELSEWHERE

➤ SHOOTINGS & LAW

One week in April saw four young, unarmed Americans shot over simple mistakes — ringing the wrong doorbell, pulling into the wrong driveway or getting into the wrong car. As PBS NewsHour reports, these four cases have reignited the national debate over self-defense and what justifies the use of deadly force.

“Stand your ground” laws exist in 28 states and Puerto Rico, and they began to appear in states after a bill was introduced in Florida in 2005 that featured the language “has the right to stand his or her ground.” Most of these laws permit an individual to protect themselves with the use of reasonable force, including deadly force, to prevent death or great bodily harm (BBC and The New York Times).

While no precise figures are available, these kinds of shootings are relatively uncommon in a country with nearly 49,000 gun deaths in a year. But gun-control advocates say they are a stark illustration of how quickly America reaches for guns — and how severe the results can be. “It’s ‘shoot first, ask questions later,’” Justin Diepenbrock, who lives in Polk County, Fla. — where authorities said a father and son searching for who they thought was a burglar last year opened fire on a woman parking her car after working an overnight shift — told the Times.

The enforcement of “stand your ground” laws often highlight racial disparities. The Urban Institute found that when white Americans in a “stand your ground” state fatally shoot a Black person and claim self-defense, the shooting is ruled a justifiable homicide 34 percent of the time. But when it’s a Black shooter and a white victim, the data show, that rate plummets, and only 3 percent of those deaths are deemed justifiable (MSNBC).

Still, the legislation is complicated, experts say, and because “castle doctrine” and “stand your ground” laws vary across states, it can be difficult to define what may be protected (NBC News).

▪ The Associated Press and NPR: An investigation was launched in Florida after two Instacart delivery workers were shot at but not injured at the wrong house.

▪ CNN: In New Mexico, attorneys for a slain homeowner’s family and police who went to the wrong address and shot him give dueling accounts.

▪ The Kansas City Star: A man shot three people after a food order was delivered to the wrong house, Michigan officials said.

➤ COURTS

A federal jury in Washington, D.C., began to hear closing arguments on Monday in the government’s lengthy seditious conspiracy prosecution of former Proud Boys national chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and four lieutenants.

Tarrio, who was not in Washington at the time, is accused of orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress prepared to certify Biden’s election victory over Trump. Defense attorneys say there’s no evidence of a conspiracy or a plan for Proud Boys to attack the Capitol (The Associated Press). A conviction of Tarrio would mark a milestone in the Justice Department’s investigation, making him the first person not at the scene to be found guilty of conspiracy at trial.

“Make no mistake … we did this,” Tarrio texted afterward from Baltimore, where he decamped after being arrested Jan. 4 and expelled from D.C., pending trial (The Washington Post).

Supreme Court: Justices on Monday declined a request by oil companies to transfer a series of state lawsuits to federal court, where the energy companies hoped for more favorable legal terrain (The Hill). … The high court said Monday it will consider whether the First Amendment protects social media users from being blocked from commenting on the personal pages that government officials use to communicate actions related to their duties (CNN).

THE CLOSER

And finally … 🌌 The Northern lights moved south. Say what?

Last week, a blast from the sun of highly ionized gas known as plasma spewed toward Earth at nearly 2 million mph, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This planet felt the brunt on Sunday as the ghostly lights known as auroras appeared across parts of Europe and Asia. It was scientist and astronomer Galileo Galilei who named the phenomenon aurora borealis, after the Roman goddess of dawn and Boreas, Greek for the north wind.

Skygazers early Monday took in the rare sights from Wisconsin, Washington state, Colorado, California, New Mexico and even Arizona — mostly seeing a reddish glow rather than sweeps of shimmering green (The Associated Press).

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