The Hill’s Morning Report — Deja vu: Crowded GOP field helps Trump — again

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 06/05/23 6:20 AM ET

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The 2024 Republican presidential contest is officially kicking into high gear and is set to gain at least one more candidate this week.

In 2020, then-Vice President Mike Pence spoke outside Baltimore at the Republican National Convention and declared: “America needs four more years of President Donald Trump in the White House,” but when he officially announces he is running for the Republican ticket on Wednesday, Pence will make the case that he, not Trump, is deserving of four more years in office.

As The Hill’s Brett Samuels reports, the former vice president is set to enter an expanding field of contenders seeking the Republican nomination, setting up an historic rarity in which two former running mates become rivals. Though Pence’s allies see an affable candidate with a consistent conservative record who can carry on the Trump administration’s policies without the drama, he has for months polled well behind Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Skeptics of the former vice president’s chances question whether there is a lane for him with GOP primary voters, who have become increasingly focused on culture wars and personality over policy and traditional conservatism.

“Overall, there’s not an appetite for Mike Pence in a Republican primary,” Gunner Ramer, political director at the Republican Accountability PAC, a group run by Republicans pushing the party to move on from Trump that has conducted focus groups with GOP voters, told The Hill.

▪ CNN: Pence to announce 2024 presidential campaign on June 7 before CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa.

▪ The New Republic: An ugly Republican primary? It’s about time!

Over the weekend, Pence was one of eight potential and declared GOP 2024 rivals who showed up at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. They made their cases at Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst’s annual “Roast and Ride” event, delivering mini-stump speeches to try to win over their party’s first-in-the-nation caucus-goers.

Pence was the only hopeful to participate in the “ride” portion of the event, decked out in a black leather vest as he entered on a motorcycle alongside Ernst and hundreds of riders gathered to raise money for the veterans’ charity Freedom Foundation of Cedar Rapids.

Conspicuously absent from the festivities? Trump himself, who was invited but has had little appetite for sharing the spotlight with his primary rivals (The Washington Post and CNN).

With Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gearing up to enter the GOP race — and as Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin takes a serious second look at getting in — the anti-Trump field is crowded, which worries GOP lawmakers who want to move past Trump but fear a sprawling lineup advantages the former president. The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports that while DeSantis is now on the offensive against Trump, his weak performance in recent head-to-head polls against the de facto head of the Republican Party opened the floodgates to White House wannabes.

Worried about a second Trump term, some Senate Republicans are now calling for candidates to drop out of the race quickly if they don’t gain traction with voters.

“A replay of 2016? Yeah,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told The Hill when asked about concerns he shares with some Republican colleagues.

Meanwhile, DeSantis is facing a test of his hard-right political brand in New Hampshire, writes The Hill’s Max Greenwood, one that requires him to strike a more moderate tone on some of the cultural issues that have come to define his rise to prominence. Since launching his presidential bid, DeSantis has leaned into his credentials as a conservative culture warrior, hoping to outflank Trump from the right. But that strategy carries significant risks in the Granite State, where libertarian-leaning Republicans and a sizable cohort of independent voters play an outsized role in determining the winner of the critical first-in-the-nation GOP primary.

“Candidates here really need to think through their strategy,” Jim Merrill, a veteran Republican consultant in New Hampshire, told The Hill. “Not only appealing to base Republican activists, but also that undeclared vote and what may draw them in.”

Former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley made a pitch for her presidential campaign during a Sunday CNN town hall in Des Moines, stressing she has both domestic and foreign policy experience — and is much younger than Trump and Biden (USA Today).

“It is time for a new generational leader,” the 51-year-old said. “It is time for us to leave the baggage of the past.”

▪ CNN: Fact checking Haley’s town hall.

▪ The Associated Press: Haley says U.S. forces “need to align” with countries including Russia; her campaign says she misspoke.

▪ The New York Times: DeSantis relied heavily on big donors in his initial money haul.

As the GOP field expands, The Hill’s Niall Stanage writes in The Memo that getting attention is the name of the game for any candidate not named Trump.

More on 2024: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is expected to enter the Republican presidential race on Wednesday with a speech in his hometown of Fargo (The Associated Press). … Businessman Perry Johnson, a longshot candidate who entered the GOP field in March, got some press attention in Iowa over the weekend (WMUR). … Longshot Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — known for his COVID-19 vaccine skepticism — will appear in a Twitter spaces event with CEO Elon Musk this week (Fox News) and at 11 a.m. ET today on SiriusXM P.O.T.U.S. channel with host Michael Smerconish (on YouTube HERE). … President Biden, at age 80, faces the complicated reality of being America’s oldest president (The New York Times). … Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) sidestepped questions repeatedly about whether he would consider a third-party presidential run, saying in a Fox News interview Sunday that he’s “not ruling anything in, not ruling anything out” (The Hill).

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: Dual revelations about Jack Smith’s probe into the mishandling of records at Mar-a-Lago suggest the special counsel’s probe Trump is advancing in several fronts, bolstering the case against the former president.

▪ The Atlantic: DeSantis’s joyless ride. The ultimate performative politician doesn’t seem to enjoy the in-person performance of politics.

▪ Politico: Biden is looking at big re-election fundraisers for the end of June.

▪ NBC News and The Hill: NBC’s co-chief White House correspondent Kristen Welker will succeed Chuck Todd as host and moderator of “Meet the Press” in September. Todd, who became the 12th moderator of the Sunday show in 2014, will become chief political analyst, a new role at the network.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ CONGRESS

The FBI today will show House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) an internal document Comer subpoenaed as part of Republicans’ Biden investigation and provide a briefing (CNN). Comer has vowed to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt if the committee did not obtain the document. Democrats say Republicans’ assertions about illegality tied to the president are without evidence or merit. The two lawmakers will review an FD-1023 form behind closed doors in a secure SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility) at the Capitol rather than venture to FBI headquarters, as the bureau had initially offered. The form contains allegations made by an unnamed whistleblower but the FBI and prosecutors who previously reviewed the information were unable to corroborate the claims.

Members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus and their allies who opposed the debt ceiling deal spearheaded by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are mulling how to make their leader pay for what some see as ideological betrayal. The question is whether the Speaker and his deputies can repair damaged relations (The Hill). Republicans in the Senate, on the other hand, believe McCarthy bolstered trust within the Republican Party by helping to conclude the default drama he and House firebrands initiated as a wedge to curb federal spending, reports The Hill’s Al Weaver.

The Washington Post: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) beat colon cancer and recently lymphoma. Now he turns to his political future.

👟The Hill’s Mychael Schnell has a lighthearted video series focused on Capitol Hill titled “Welcome to My Office,” which takes readers behind the scenes to the workplaces in which lawmakers, federal officials and their staff members toil when in Washington. Putting his best foot forward to start the week is Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), proud owner of 150 pairs of Air Jordans and co-founder of the Congressional Sneaker Caucus. “I’m a sneakerhead,” he enthused during an interview, stating the obvious.

➤ ADMINISTRATION

Biden believes the United States and Beijing must improve communications and transparency at the highest levels to manage conflict and play up peaceful competition. China on Saturday chilled relations when a Chinese Navy ship came within 150 yards of a U.S. missile destroyer in the Taiwan Strait (CBS News), navigating with an “unsafe” maneuver that cut across the destroyer’s path, according to video evidence released by the U.S.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin officially protested (The Associated Press), while China defended its ship’s maneuver, arguing the U.S. was the provocateur (The Associated Press).

The Hill: White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN on Sunday that Biden will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping “at some point,” adding, “We believe there is nothing inevitable about some kind of conflict or cold war between the U.S. and China.”

Austin, speaking in Singapore at an annual forum of top defense officials, diplomats and leaders, vowed the U.S. would not tolerate “coercion and bullying” by China of the U.S., its allies and partners, while assuring Beijing that the United States remains committed to maintaining the status quo when it comes to Taiwan and would prefer dialogue over conflict.

Austin sought support for the Biden administration’s vision of a “free, open, and secure Indo-Pacific within a world of rules and rights” as the best course to counter increasing Chinese assertiveness in the region. The U.S. has been expanding its own activities around the Indo-Pacific to counter sweeping territorial claims from China, including regularly sailing through and flying over the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea.

▪ South China Morning Post: Australia pushes China for a “strategic explanation” of its military buildup.

▪ The Washington Post analysis: The U.S. and China lock horns at Asia’s top security forum.

▪ Kyodo News: Japan, U.S., Australia, Philippines vow to boost defense cooperation.

▪ South China Morning Post analysis: From “decouple” to “de-risk” — is there any difference in the U.S.’s China policy?

▪ Bloomberg News: Hiding an army at the top of the world: Russia, China and the U.S. are competing for dominance in the Arctic, which has commercial and military allure because of warming from climate change.

Domestic closeup: It’s Pride Month and The Hill’s Alex Gangitano explains how Biden is navigating LGBTQ issues as the nation’s second Catholic president and a candidate for reelection.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a new interview that Kyiv is ready for its much-anticipated counteroffensive against Russian forces, which officials have indicated in recent weeks that they are nearing the launch of.

“I don’t know how long it will take,” Zelensky told The Wall Street Journal. “To be honest, it can go a variety of ways, completely different. But we are going to do it, and we are ready.”

Zelensky also said Ukraine wants more weapons from Western allies, “but we can’t wait for months,” hinting at the potential timeline for what would be the high-stakes counteroffensive campaign. He acknowledged Moscow’s air power and predicted it’s possible “a large number of soldiers will die” in the counteroffensive, adding his ground forces are “stronger and more motivated” than Russia’s (The Hill). The United States has so far provided more military aid overall to Ukraine than any other country by a wide margin. The U.K., the second-largest provider of military assistance, has committed $4.6 billion to Ukraine. Washington has committed $38 billion since Russia invaded. Britain sees itself as having pressed other countries early on to send Ukraine weapons and munitions to try to defeat Russia (NBC News).

Meanwhile, Ukrainian war refugees who began arriving in the U.S. over a year ago are completing their first taste of the U.S. education system with the conclusion of the academic year, The Hill’s Lexi Lonas reports. More than 270,000 Ukrainians, many of them children, have been admitted into the country since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022, with many finding seats in American classrooms.

▪ The Washington Post: NATO-trained units will serve as the tip of the spear in Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

▪ The Associated Press: Russia claims it thwarted Ukrainian attacks in provinces annexed by Moscow.

▪ The Washington Post: The use of NATO arms for an attack in Russia raises doubts about Kyiv’s controls. Russian fighters last week used at least four tactical vehicles originally given to Ukraine by the United States and Poland, U.S. officials said.

▪ Reuters: Ukrainian minister in “disbelief” at closed Kyiv bomb shelters.

▪ Politico EU: Ukraine doubles down on joining NATO “very, very” soon after the war ends.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said there was no breakthrough over the weekend in talks about Sweden’s membership with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. NATO wants to bring Sweden into the fold by the time Biden and other allied leaders meet in Lithuania on July 11-12, but Turkey and Hungary have yet to endorse the move, which all 31 member countries must ratify (The Associated Press).

▪ Politico EU: How Austria became Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alpine fortress.

▪ The Associated Press: North Korean leader’s sister vows a second attempt to launch a spy satellite.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Saudi Arabia cuts its oil output after OPEC members clash over quotas.

▪ The New York Times: No shame. No sorrow. Divorce means it’s party time in Mauritania.

Less than 48 hours after the devastating crash in India, which left at least 280 dead and more than 1,000 injured, officials were rushing to resume rail services, with scores of workers toiling away in heat over 95 degrees Fahrenheit to get the tracks back online. Authorities investigating the crash — one of the deadliest in the country’s history — were examining whether a signal failure led to the disaster as rescue workers finished their search for survivors and overturned train cars were cleared from the tracks (CNN).

Biden on Saturday offered his condolences, saying in a statement, “Jill and I are heartbroken by the tragic news of the deadly train crash in India. Our prayers go out to those who have lost loved ones and the many who suffered injuries in this terrible incident” (The Hill).

▪ The Wall Street Journal: India train crash survivors recount crushed railcars, dying cries for help.

▪ The New York Times analysis: Money for show horses, not work horses, on India’s railroads. Train travel in the country has gotten much safer, Friday’s disaster notwithstanding, but the government still puts high-profile projects ahead of basic safety improvements, analysts say.

OPINION

■ What happened to Hong Kong? The tale of China’s squeeze, told in five pictures, by The Washington Post editorial board.

■ States are silencing the will of millions of voters, by The New York Times editorial board.

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 meet at noon.

The Senate will meet on Tuesday at 3 p.m. to resume consideration of the nomination of David Crane to be under secretary of Energy.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10 a.m. Biden will welcome Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark to the White House for a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office at 1:30 p.m. The president will welcome the Kansas City Chiefs to the South Lawn at 4:30 p.m. to celebrate their 2023 Super Bowl LVII victory.

Vice President Harris is in Washington and has no public events.

Secretary of State Blinken at 9 a.m. will deliver remarks at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy summit in Washington, D.C. (The Times of Israel). He will participate in a working lunch at 11:45 a.m. with the International Security Advisory Board at the Department of State. Blinken will attend an event at 7:30 p.m. in New York City to honor former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who celebrated his 100th birthday on May 27.

Health and Human Service Secretary Xavier Becerra will visit Noyes Elementary School in Northeast Washington, D.C., at 1 p.m. to tour its on-site Vision Learn mobile clinic and a “Glasses Ceremony,” where elementary school students try on their new eyeglasses made available by Vision To Learn, an organization that helps children in 15 states and the nation’s capital. After the ceremony, the secretary will speak to the press.

First Lady Jill Biden will be in Morocco where she will visit Ibn Al Arif Middle School in the afternoon to show support for education through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) program. She will fly to Portugal this afternoon to mark the 60th anniversary of the Art in Embassies program promoted by the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon at 5 p.m. local time, then return to the United States.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff at 10 a.m. will address the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio, about countering antisemitism. He will participate in a roundtable at 11 a.m. on that topic.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1:45 p.m.

ELSEWHERE

➤ STATE WATCH

A Trump-appointed judge ruled Friday Tennessee’s ban on drag shows in public or places where children could view them is unconstitutional, finding that it violates freedom of speech protections. U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker said in his ruling that the law, which Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed in March, is both “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad.” The Tennessee law was the first in the country to directly target drag shows. First-time violators of the law could have faced a $2,500 fine and up to a year in prison (The Hill).

▪ The Washington Post: Target gets caught in cultural crossfire over Pride Month items.

▪ The Hill: The Pentagon bans drag shows on military bases after GOP pressure.

In New York state, the fledgling marijuana market doesn’t have enough licensed retailers to sell the 300,000 pounds of cannabis grown by farmers, leaving farmers in a financial bind. While state leaders had planned to gear up the market in stages, giving a chance for a diverse set of participants to get a shot at jumping in, the process for licensing new dispensaries has moved at a far slower pace than expected (ABC News).

“We are really under the gun here. We’re all losing money,” grower Seth Jacobs said at his farm near the Vermont border. “Even the most entrepreneurial and ambitious amongst us just can’t move much product in this environment.”

Meta, the parent company behind Facebook, is inching closer to a face-off with California as the tech giant uses a familiar playbook to try and thwart a state proposal that aims to require dominant platforms to pay news outlets to distribute their content. As The Hill’s Rebecca Klar reports, Meta’s threat to pull news content from California if the state’s Journalism Preservation Act, which advanced out of the state Assembly on Thursday, is passed follows the tactic the company used in opposition to similar federal proposals in the U.S. and other countries.

On Friday, Meta ramped up its threat in response to a similar Canadian bill, the Online News Act. In a blog post, Meta said it will begin tests on Facebook and Instagram to limit some users and publishers from viewing or sharing some news content in Canada.

Meanwhile, Arizona is facing a severe water shortage that is threatening growth in the Phoenix area — a development that could serve as a harbinger for the region, writes The Hill’s Zack Burdyk. Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) and other state officials late Thursday said overuse of water and the drought mean that some 4.9 million acre-feet of water will not be available to meet demand, meaning all new construction that requires the use of groundwater will be halted in the affected region.

▪ Ars Technica: No groundwater, no new homes, as Arizona severely restricts new housing.

▪ ABC 15 Arizona: Economists weigh in on Arizona’s groundwater pause.

THE CLOSER

And finally … 🚼 “The Gerber baby” is synonymous with adorable tykes (and successful marketing). If you have a cute baby, now’s the time to whip up some marketing to compete for a top prize of $25,000 in the Gerber photo contest, which ends Saturday.

The baby food giant, owned by Nestlé, says its judges this year are looking for baby photos of both parent and child — along with a narrative that’s unique, catchy, heart-tugging or, of course, true (WCNC).

The company asks parents to submit one of their own childhood photos (up to age 10) and a photo of their baby or toddler (up to 4 years old). Potential winners will get an email from Gerber in late June, with the winner announced sometime in July.

To mark the contest’s 13th year in search of an annual “spokesbaby,” Gerber said it will also make a $25,000 donation to March of Dimes’ infant and maternal health programs.

USA Today: Think your child could be the next Gerber baby?

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