It’s Thursday. Happy February, my valentines! 💝 Here’s what’s happening today:

• President Biden and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sat together at the National Prayer Breakfast this morning. Also, Andrea Bocelli performed.
• The media world is consumed with the news that digital media startup The Messenger abruptly shut down Wednesday, less than a year after it launched. It’s leaving a lot of journalists without jobs.
• Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) showed up to a congressional dinner last night wearing a hoodie sweatshirt that looked like a tuxedo. Claaaaassic John.
• A new poll suggests that former President Trump could have trouble in key swing states if he is convicted of a crime.

I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Send tips, commentary, feedback and cookie recipes to cmartel@digital-stage.thehill.com.  Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here.  

©  AP

President Biden attended the National Prayer Breakfast this morning at the U.S. Capitol.

What’s worth noting: AP’s Seung Min Kim pointed out that today’s breakfast is the first time Biden and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have been seen together since Johnson became speaker.

📸 Biden and Johnson shaking hands (per The New York Times’s Doug Mills)

📹 Andrea Bocelli performed / Another video of Bocelli’s performance

The Hill’s Alex Gangitano noticed that “Biden [pulled] out a tissue and [wiped] his eye while Bocelli [sang] Amazing Grace.” 📹 Watch

^ And so did Speaker Johnson, per Mills. 📸 Photo

When Biden arrived at the Capitol: He was asked if the border deal will get done. “We’ll see, I will try,” Biden said, according to Gangitano.

“ President Biden and Senate Democrats are facing an unlikely source of resistance as they race to secure a hard-fought deal linking Ukraine aid with tougher border security: their Democratic allies in the House.”

Why this is surprising: “Until now, it appeared that the greatest threat to the emerging national security package would be House Republicans, who are vowing to quash the legislation in no uncertain terms.”

The left and the right have different reasons: Conservatives think the deal is too soft, but House progressives are now arguing the policy charges are too hard. 

What House progressives are frustrated by: They’ve been cut out of the negotiations, and the emerging legislation doesn’t include “protections for asylum-seekers and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country, particularly a group of young people known as Dreamers.”

What this new pushback means for a border bill, The Hill’s Mike Lillis reports.

The House passed a $78 billion bipartisan tax bill Wednesday that would increase the child tax credit and reinstate business deductions.

Now what?: It heads to the Senate.

💡 Why this is a big deal: Congress hasn’t been passing much. “It is … one of the few instances this session when a nonessential bill — legislation that is not required to keep the government running — has a chance of being enacted.” (The Hill)

The Hill’s Emily Brooks reports that a group of moderate New York Republicans threatened to tank a procedural vote over one of their top priorities this week, borrowing a strategy from the hard-line House Republicans. (The Hill)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has moved to force a vote to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) over a disputed translation of comments, accusing her of being a “foreign agent.”

Reaction from Omar: “I have nothing to say about the insanity of that woman.” (The Hill)

Digital media startup The Messenger abruptly shut down Wednesday, less than a year after it launched.

Why?: Financial issues. Here’s the email that Jimmy Finkelstein, who previously owned The Hill, sent to employees (per The Washington Post’s Will Sommer).

Did this come out of nowhere?: The company laid off roughly two dozen employees in early January “amid [a] hunt for cash.”

The numbers for context: The venture promised to hire hundreds of journalists and generate $50 million this year, according to The New York Times. “Near the end of last year, the company had generated only $3 million and had just $1.8 million in cash on hand. The Messenger lost about $38 million — the majority of its initial $50 million funding round — and was spending more than $8 million on offices in Florida, Washington, D.C., and New York.” ( The New York Times)

How many people learned the news: From The New York Times — Read the story

Reaction from one journalist who worked for The Messenger: “I just got laid off. One would expect to learn this news from their employer but instead, [The Messenger] employees learned of it via [The New York Times and Semafor,]” James LaPorta posted. “[T]here is no severance. Healthcare will cease. I have to go clean out my desk from the DC office.”

And within a few hours: The website and its contents have been replaced with a white background and large black text that reads “TheMessenger.”  Here’s what the website looks like now

The Hill’s Dominick Mastrangelo wrote a helpful explainer on the saga. Read

More than 500 journalists were laid off in January 2024, according to Politico’s Kierra Frazier.

And more than 3,000 people in media have lost their jobs in the past year, according to Bloomberg’s Christopher Palmeri and Alexandre Tanzi.

“The fight over Medicare drug price negotiation picked back up this week with oral arguments in AstraZeneca’s lawsuit and the federal government sending out its first offers for a maximum fair price to manufacturers,” reports The Hill’s Joseph Choi.

What’s the AstraZeneca case?: “Like other companies and pharmaceutical entities, [AstraZeneca] has alleged a host of constitutional violations resulting from the Medicare drug price negotiation program established by the Inflation Reduction Act.”

What to expect from these legal battles

Fifty-three percent of voters in key swing states would not vote for former President Trump if he were convicted of a criminal offense, according to a new Bloomberg and Morning Consult poll. Fifty-five percent of voters say they wouldn’t vote for him if he were sentenced to prison.

Why this matters: The Hill’s Niall Stanage points out that given how close the 2016 and 2020 elections were, that could potentially decide the election.

What key swing states were polled: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Tidbit: “Interestingly, the poll suggested 20 percent of voters from those states who had voted for Trump in 2020 would be either ‘somewhat unwilling’ or ‘very unwilling’ to vote for him again if he were convicted.”

Read more — ‘Poll points to deep trouble for Trump if he gets convicted’

Lawmakers and journalists gathered for the Washington Press Club Foundation’s annual Congressional Dinner on Wednesday evening. Here are a few highlights:

Ouch, Tina!: Sen.  Tina Smith (D-Minn.) delivered video remarks, explaining that she was sick and couldn’t attend in-person. “I would feel terrible if I showed up and got everybody sick. The only way it would have worked would have been if everybody agreed to leave the room when I got up and started talking. You know, kind of like a Dean Phillips rally,” Smith said, referring to Rep. Dean Phillips’s (D-Minn.) longshot challenge against  President Biden. Brutal.

That wasn’t all Smith said about Phillips: “Poor Dean, he took a real beating in New Hampshire. But he’s staying on the ballot in South Carolina, because you can’t spell ‘Phillips’ with only one ‘L.’”

And there was a crack at former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.): House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) referred to Santos, who was recently ousted from Congress as “the only gay astronaut ever elected to the United States Congress.” ( The Hill)

Check out the cover of the dinner’s program: 📸 Photo from The Hill’s Judy Kurtz

💻  C-SPAN video of the dinner

🍫 Celebrate: Today is National Dark Chocolate Day and National Baked Alaska Day!

👔Classic John: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) showed up at Wednesday night’s congressional dinner wearing a hoodie sweatshirt that looks like a tuxedo. 📸 Photo

📱Interesting read: The New York Times’s Jon Caramanica asks, “Have We Reached the End of TikTok’s Infinite Scroll?” The gist: “The app once offered seemingly endless chances to be charmed by music, dances, personalities and products. But in only a few short years, its promise of kismet is evaporating.” (The New York Times)

The House and Senate meet today. President Biden is in Michigan today. Vice President Harris is in Washington, D.C., with no public events. (all times Eastern)

• 1:45 p.m.: A Senate confirmation vote. 🗓️ Today’s agenda
• 3:45 p.m.: Biden participates in a political event in the Detroit area.
• 9:20 p.m.: Biden arrives in Delaware.

Because this made me laugh out loud, watch this cat figure out how a printer works.