The Hill’s Morning Report – Judge Jackson now Justice Jackson; Pelosi has COVID

by Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver - 04/08/22 6:32 AM ET

Thursday was promotion day for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the Senate confirmed her to the Supreme Court, where she will become the first Black female justice in the court’s history.

Senators confirmed her to the bench, 53-47, with three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitt Romney (Utah) — joining with all Democrats to hand President Biden a historic victory (The Hill).

The president and the newly minted justice celebrated together in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, with the pair taking a selfie shortly after as television screens showed the upper chamber’s tally in the background. The two will continue the celebration today with an event on the South Lawn of the White House (The Hill).

“Judge Jackson’s confirmation was a historic moment for our nation. We’ve taken another step toward making our highest court reflect the diversity of America. She will be an incredible Justice, and I was honored to share this moment with her,” Biden tweeted, including a photo of them together (The Hill).

Thursday’s vote also capped a relatively drama-free confirmation process that was completed in less than six weeks, ending exactly when Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had planned. Schumer recalled that he told White House chief of staff Ron Klain that Jackson would be the best choice to move swiftly through the upper chamber given the precarious 50-50 nature of the Senate.

“We called [Biden] early on and said, ‘We’ve got to get a nominee quickly, the longer we wait, the tougher it’s going to be,’” Schumer told Politico in an interview.

The confirmation battle also hands Biden a major win at a key time as he continues to face economic headwinds from rising inflation and high gas prices, the ongoing fighting between Ukraine and Russia, and continued trouble in getting his agenda through Congress. As The Hill’s Alexander Bolton writes, Democrats are praying it also helps swing the political pendulum in their direction ahead of what is expected to be a troublesome midterm election cycle.

“The polling that I’ve seen in Illinois suggests that our traditional base of support needs motivation. This will provide some motivation to many African-American voters who have been loyal to the party and expect us to produce and do things that are relevant. I think this is going to top the list,” Durbin said. “Together with the other judicial nominations, it’s certainly one of the highlights of this Congress.”

Robert Barnes, The Washington Post: With Jackson, a new version of the Supreme Court takes shape.

The New York Times analysis: A transformative justice whose impact may be limited.

Morgan Chalfant and Amie Parnes, The Hill: Democrats plan to seize on GOP opposition to Jackson.

The Hill: Senators to restart bipartisan immigration reform talks.

➤ CORONAVIRUS: The Speaker, the president’s sister, two senators, a House member and the mayor of the nation’s capital contracted COVID-19, according to test results disclosed on Thursday. If living with COVID-19 means lots of positive test results, Washington is Exhibit A amid frequent testing of elected officials.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — who this week was in close proximity sans mask to Biden and former President Obama during White House events (and had planned next week to lead a House trip to Asia) — announced Thursday through her office that she tested positive for COVID-19 and is now in quarantine with no symptoms. The 82-year-old Speaker is vaccinated and boosted.

“After testing negative this week, Speaker Pelosi received a positive test result for COVID-19 and is currently asymptomatic. The Speaker … encourages everyone to get vaccinated, boosted and test regularly,” her office said (The Hill).

Sen. Collins, who wore a mask while casting her vote to confirm Jackson on Thursday, and Sen. Ralph Warnock (D-Ga.) also tested positive for COVID-19, as did Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) (The Hill). Collins and DeFazio are experiencing mild symptoms and Warnock said he had been unaware of his infection until he received the results of a “routine” test for COVID-19.

Although Vice President Harris was in close proximity this week to her communications director before he tested positive for COVID-19, her office said she tested negative on Thursday. Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, tested positive last month but the VP did not contract the virus (CNN).

Biden’s sister Valerie Biden Owens, with whom the president is close and who has served as her brother’s political sounding board for decades, also turned up with a positive COVID-19 test on Wednesday after exhibiting mild symptoms. She had not been in recent close proximity to her brother or first lady Jill Biden, her publishing company said on Thursday (The Hill).

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) also tested positive for the coronavirus, saying on Thursday that she is experiencing “allergy-like” symptoms and is working from home (The Hill).

➤ Frankenstein subvariant: Heard about the XE version of COVID-19? First identified in the United Kingdom, it is considered intensely infectious and could already be spreading in the United States. Omicron’s BA.1 and BA.2 cousins combined along the way to create a third subvariant, XE, which is a “recombinant” virus (a product of two viruses interacting “Frankenstein”-style in a single host) (Daily Beast).

➤ Courts: A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld Biden’s requirement that federal workers be vaccinated against COVID-19 (The Associated Press).

➤ Dashboard: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that U.S. fatalities from COVID-19 have gradually fallen to an average of 496 a day. The total number of U.S. coronavirus fatalities as of this morning is 984,571, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. … The Hill’s Joseph Choi reports on the five states with the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19.

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LEADING THE DAY

UKRAINE CRISIS: It has never been clear that Russia valued its inclusion as a member of international institutions, but on Thursday, there was an unmistakable message from the West: Russia, you are unwelcome.

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday voted to suspend Russia from its Human Rights Council, although dozens of countries abstained (CNN and The Hill). The European Union approved a ban on Russian coal, and Congress voted to strip Moscow of its preferential trade status and to ban the sale of its fossil fuels in the United States (The New York Times).

Isolation, expulsion, economic disintegration.

The picture for Russia because of President Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine is a rapid peeling away of the nation’s status as a peer, its access to capital, its opportunities for trade in a globalized world, according to the White House and Congress, the EU, NATO and the United Nations. Nevertheless, Moscow is finding ways to prop up its damaged economy. Russian coal and oil paid for in yuan is about to start flowing into China as the two countries try to maintain their energy trade, Bloomberg News reports.

“Putin’s war has made Russia an international pariah,” Biden repeated on Thursday in a statement commending the U.N. for removing the country from its Human Rights Council because of civilian killings and atrocities reported in the suburb of Bucha near Kyiv and elsewhere. Russia says it did nothing wrong, but Biden responded, “Russia’s lies are no match for the undeniable evidence of what is happening in Ukraine.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in his first interview with Western media, told Sky News that Russia has sustained “significant losses of troops,” which he called “a huge tragedy for us.” He denied that Russian forces committed wartime atrocities in Bucha.

Hinting that the Kremlin is looking for a way to end the war one way or another, he said: “Our military are doing their best to bring an end to that operation. And we do hope that in coming days, in the foreseeable future, this operation will reach its goals or will finish it by the negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegation.”

In the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk today, Russian forces struck a train station serving as an evacuation point for thousands of civilians, leaving dozens of people dead and injured, according to Ukrainian reports and photographs (The New York Times).

The Washington Post: Russian forces in eastern Ukraine are using “scorched earth” techniques to raze towns to try to consolidate control in the Donbas region.

The Associated Press: The barbarism witnessed in Bucha and reported up close is a turning point for the news media and viewers. Retreating Russian forces have left behind obliterated homes and apartment buildings, corpses of children and the elderly, and unspeakable terror in regions they failed to seize.

Ukraine continued to seek Western help on Thursday while girding for escalated Russian attacks in the disputed regions in the east along Russia’s border. Russian forces have completed their withdrawal from northern Ukraine and retreated into Belarus, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update on Twitter. Some Russian troops will be redeployed to the east, which will take at least a week because many require “significant replenishment,” according to the U.K.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, speaking virtually to the parliament of Cyprus, asked members to revoke the passports of Russians and to seize the yachts of Russian oligarchs docking in its marinas (France 24). Australia today announced it is responding to Zelensky’s pleas for weaponry by agreeing to send a total of 20 armored vehicles.

In Brussels, NATO foreign ministers, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, met Thursday to discuss expanding military aid to Ukraine in anticipation of an intensified Russian onslaught in the east.

Japan and the EU announced new sanctions on Russia. Japan, which says it will reduce its coal imports from Russia, is also expelling eight Russian diplomats.

In Washington, the Senate voted unanimously on Thursday to ban oil imports from Russia and to limit trade. Senators reauthorized Magnitsky Act sanctions enacted in 2012 that target human rights violations and corruption with penalties such as bans on visas and blocked assets (The Hill). There was no such unanimity in the House, where a small minority of Republicans balk at holding Moscow accountable for attacking Ukraine (The Hill).

👉 INVITATION APRIL 12: Join The Hill’s virtual “The Future of Jobs Summit” on Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET for a discussion moderated by Steve Scully about the future of America’s workforce with guests Reps. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) and David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), Upwork CEO Hayden Brown, Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker, American Nurses Association President Ernest Grant and more. RSVP HERE. Two years after COVID-19 sparked a work revolution, employers and workers ponder which sectors of the economy will experience the most growth, how companies will stay ahead of the curve and what’s ahead for transitioning workers into in-demand jobs.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

POLITICS: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has made no bones about being no fan of former President Trump. But that is not standing in the way of the possibility that he could support him if he is once again the Republican presidential nominee come 2024.

McConnell on Thursday opened the door to backing Trump in 2024 despite the antipathy between the two GOP leading figures. Fourteen months ago, during Trump’s second impeachment, McConnel said the ex-president was “morally responsible” for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

“I think I have an obligation to support the nominee of my party. … I don’t pick the Republican nominee for president,” McConnell told Axios’s Jonathan Swan this week.

McConnell also touched on other topics. He offered a defense of Justice Clarence Thomas, saying that Supreme Court justices should be able to decide when to recuse themselves from cases, and laid out part of the 2023 GOP agenda if the minority party retakes the Senate. However, McConnell declined to say what he would do in 2023 if a Supreme Court vacancy emerged.

“I choose not to answer the question,” McConnell responded.

The Hill: David McCormick, Mehmet Oz running neck and neck in Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary amid push for Trump endorsement.

The New York Times: Judge finds man not guilty in first Jan. 6 acquittal.

➤ New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday formally asked a judge to hold Trump in “contempt of court” and fine him $10,000 per day for his failure to comply with the order of a state judge to turn over evidence in a probe of the Trump Organization’s alleged bank fraud.

According to James’s office, the evidence was due on March 3, and Trump received an extension he asked for to the end of March. But as of April 7, investigators were still waiting.

“This court’s order was not an opening bid for a negotiation or an invitation for a new round of challenges to the subpoena,” Andrew Amer, the New York attorney general’s assistant wrote in the filing on Thursday. “The ship has long since sailed on Mr. Trump’s ability to raise any such objections” (Daily Beast).

➤ State watch: For cities, the 2020 Census unlocks essential federal funding, and now some municipalities are formally challenging the population tallies because they believe undercounts could cost them millions of dollars in funding over the next decade. Demographers say cities that claim they are shortchanged in population tallies are not wrong. The Hill’s Reid Wilson reports that for the first time, respected scholars are questioning Census Bureau errors in 2020 — and their important ramifications.

Niall Stanage: The Memo: Jen Psaki’s rumored MSNBC move prompts controversy.

OPINION

Justice Jackson and the power of originalism, by James Hohmann, columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3LKGFhC

Four-day workweeks can burn you out, by Sarah Green Carmichael, editor, Bloomberg Opinion. https://bloom.bg/3ulgJ6v

WHERE AND WHEN

The House meets for a pro forma session on Monday at 10:30 a.m. and votes are not scheduled until after the House recess April 26.

The Senate convenes for a pro forma session on Monday at 11:30 a.m. Senators are in recess for two weeks and return to the Capitol on April 25.

The president receives the President’s Daily Brief at 9:45 a.m. Biden, Harris and Jackson at 12:15 p.m. will speak during a South Lawn event to mark Jackson’s historic confirmation as the first Black female Supreme Court associate justice.

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

📺 Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features news and interviews at http://digital-stage.thehill.com/hilltv, on YouTube and on Facebook at 10:30 a.m. ET. Also, check out the “Rising” podcast here.

ELSEWHERE

➤ INTERNATIONAL: French voters go to the polls on Sunday for a first round of voting that will ultimately decide if President Emmanuel Macron is to be reelected. Amid the NATO effort to stop Russia’s war with Ukraine, the election result is especially important to the European alliance and global investors. Macron’s far-right French challenger Marine Le Pen has pulled within the margin of error in opinion polls, which indicate she is 3 percent to 7 percent ahead of third-place leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, meaning she is likely to qualify for the all-important runoff on April 24. Macron leads in polls, but barely, and has shifted his focus on international events to domestic economic challenges in France, promising voters this week he will increase pensions as French households struggle with surging prices amid the fallout from the war (France 24).

➤ MASTERFUL: Tiger Woods made a triumphant return to competitive golf on Thursday, shooting a 71 (-1) in the first round of The Masters at Augusta National Golf Club less than 15 months after a horrific car crash resulted in a number of broken bones and almost necessitated the amputation of a limb. Woods’s round included three birdies and two bogeys, putting the 5-time Masters champion in striking distance. After 18 holes, Sungjae Im, 24, is the leader in the clubhouse, having shot a 67 (-5) on Thursday.

© Associated Press / Robert F. Bukaty | Tiger Woods at The Masters on Thursday.

THE CLOSER

And finally … ⚾ It’s that time of the week! An extended Friday hurrah for all of our esteemed Morning Report Quiz winners and the trivia ninjas out there who were ready in all ways for baseball’s opening day and the start of the 2022 season.

Here are all of those who went 4/4 on Thursday: Ki Harvey, Jan W. Jones, Robert Bradley, Michael Fessenden, Harry Strulovici, Pam Manges, Patrick Kavanagh, Mary Anne McEnery, Lou Tisler, Peter Sprofera, Len Jones, Michael Fessenden, Steve James, Randall S. Patrick, Jack Barshay and John Donato.

They knew that the universal designated hitter finally takes effect on a full-time basis this season, having been implemented for the 2020 season before reverting to the original rule for last season.

Freddie Freeman, Max Scherzer and Carlos Correa all start the 2022 season on new teams, meaning the answer was all of the above.

Baseball fans endured a rough-and-tumble 99-day lockout during the offseason (even though it felt like 99 years).

Finally, future Hall of Famer and current Detroit Tiger Miguel Cabrera owns the highest batting average of any active player (.310).