Morning Report — Senators, parents seek online shields for exploited children  

A heated Senate committee grilling Wednesday triggered a public apology to families from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and vows of bipartisan support from senators to back legislation to protect children online (The Hill). 

But missing during the four hours were specific next steps, either from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee or a lineup of tech titans accused of doing too little to safeguard children from being sexually exploited, enticed online into using illegal drugs and hounded or hazed on social media platforms until some take their own lives. 

PARENTS ARGUE that tech companies are aware of the problems children encounter and have the power and tech tools to do more. It’s hard to sue social media platforms because of a federal law called Section 230, which says tech companies cannot be held liable for the content that users post to their platforms. 

“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through,” Zuckerberg said, standing to address family members who attended the hearing. “No one should go through the things that your families have suffered.” 

Evan Spiegel, chief executive of Snap, apologized to parents whose children have died from fentanyl overdoses after purchasing drugs on Snapchat. “I’m so sorry that we have not been able to prevent these tragedies,” he said. 

“They’re responsible for many of the dangers our children face online,” committee Chair and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said as he addressed the CEOs of Meta, X, TikTok and Discord. “Their design choices, their failures to adequately invest in trust and safety, their constant pursuit of engagement and profit over basic safety have all put our kids and grandkids at risk.” 

Many platforms are quick to mention the First Amendment and free speech as shields. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), the top Republican on the panel, vowed to collaborate with Democrats on proposed legislation that might impose requirements rather than recommendations for self-policing. 

“After years of working on this issue with you and others, I’ve come to conclude the following — social media companies as they’re currently designed and operate are dangerous products,” Graham said, adding it’s time to deal with “the dark side.” 

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said his company, the massively popular video-sharing platform already in Washington’s crosshairs because of its China-based parent, enforces its policy that bar children under 13 from using the app. CEO Linda Yaccarino said Elon Musk’s renamed company X, formerly Twitter, doesn’t cater to children. 

Following the hearing, Yaccarino posted that parents had her “personal commitment” that the company “will be a partner in making the internet safer.” She linked to company policies tied to child sexual exploitation. “Our commitment is real. It’s time to ACT,” she wrote. 

The Hill: Four takeaways from a heated hearing with tech CEOs.  

The House on Wednesday approved a $78 billion measure that would renew some Trump-era tax cuts for businesses and expand the child tax credit. The bipartisan vote was 357 to 70. The big hurdle will be in the Senate, where Republican opponents threaten to scuttle it over a provision that would allow some people with no taxable income to collect the child tax credit, among other concerns. 

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, there are a host of intraparty skirmishes this week, including conservative pressure in the Senate to block compromise legislation that would tackle immigration while also supporting more U.S. assistance to Ukraine, The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports. Feeling the pain: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is squeezed between opposing voices in his conference. Upshot: Senate advocates say odds of an accord are headed in the wrong direction. 

Democrats are not of like mind, either, reports The Hill’s Mike Lillis, who unpacks why the White House and Senate Democrats are getting pushback from House Democrats about a potential accord that would leverage border security restrictions with more aid for Ukraine.    

MINNESOTA THROWDOWN: Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) on Wednesday called for an ethics probe over a disputed translation of remarks by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) last weekend. He called on Omar, the first Somali American to serve in Congress, to resign.  

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‘This story isn’t over’: It’s been a year since a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in the town of East Palestine, Ohio. Residents say state and local authorities have not answered questions about ongoing threats while major railroad safety legislation remains stalled in the state Senate. … The White House says Biden will visit East Palestine this month, and has reviewed federal responses. 

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LEADING THE DAY 

POLITICS 

Biden will head to Michigan today as he looks to make inroads with key voters in a pivotal state ahead of November’s general election. Michigan is a critical battleground in 2024 and has become a state where the president has had something of a mixed reception. He received a pivotal endorsement from the United Auto Workers, based in Detroit, just last week, but he also has been met with protesters across the country over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war.  

“It’s a competitive state, and the Arab American issue is one that’s got to be taken seriously,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) told The Hill in an interview. “We have to talk to them and we’re gonna. Those issues are very serious ones.” 

Michigan, with its large Arab American and Muslim American population, helped propel Biden to the White House in 2020. Now, he is on shaky ground with the community, write The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Brett Samuels. Recent polling in several battleground states has shown a close hypothetical match-up between Biden and former President Trump in 2024.  

Biden has trailed Trump 48 percent support to 42 percent cumulatively across all of the swing states in a hypothetical match-up, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday. In Michigan, that poll found Biden trailed Trump 47 percent support to 42 percent. 

Meanwhile, The Hill’s Niall Stanage notes in The Memo that the latest Bloomberg News poll shows that more than half of swing state voters would not vote for Trump if he were convicted of a criminal offense — suggesting such an outcome may be one bar he cannot clear and raising the stakes for his legal team’s efforts to delay any trials past November. 

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ZOOM IN 

INTERNATIONAL  

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday that Tehran was “not looking for war,” appearing to signal that the country would not escalate tensions with the U.S., but he also warned that Iran was prepared to respond if attacked. The comments came after Biden said Tuesday he had decided on a U.S. response to the weekend drone attack that killed three American soldiers and injured more than 40 others at a remote military outpost in Jordan. Washington has said that one or more Iranian-backed militias operating in Iraq was behind the attack (The New York Times). 

“We hear threatening words from American officials,” said Gen. Hossein Salami, the chief commander of the powerful military organization, according to Iranian state media. “You have tested us and we know each other — we will not leave any threat unanswered.” 

As The Hill’s Brad Dress and Ellen Mitchell report, America’s mounting proxy battle with Iran over the past three months is spurring questions about whether the countries are at war — and whether the U.S. can continue to battle Iranian-backed militia groups in this way without seeking congressional authorization. The Biden administration argues it has successfully contained Israel’s war against Hamas to Gaza and that there is no wider war, but the sheer number of attacks on U.S. forces points to a larger conflict spinning out of control.  

THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY ISRAEL’S AERIAL OFFENSIVE in Gaza has been well documented. But ground forces have also carried out a wave of controlled explosions that has drastically changed the enclave’s landscape in recent months. At least 33 controlled demolitions have destroyed hundreds of buildings — including mosques, schools and entire sections of residential neighborhoods — since November, The New York Times reports. 

Judges at the the International Court of Justice on Wednesday found that Russia violated elements of a U.N. anti-terrorism treaty, but declined to rule on allegations brought by Kyiv that Moscow was responsible for the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 (Reuters). 

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ELSEWHERE 

ECONOMY 

Four more months? “That’s where we are, as a committee. We need to see more evidence that sort of confirms what we think we’re seeing,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told reporters Wednesday following a two-day central bank meeting. He waved off markets’ anticipation of lower benchmark Fed rates in March but declined to estimate a timeline. 

Future cuts — which investors seek and mortgage borrowers yearn to experience — require “confirmation that inflation is, in fact, coming down sustainably to 2 percent.” The chair said most members of the Federal Open Market Committee favor lowering rates this year, but the timing has yet to be decided. “We’re wanting to see, you know, more data,” he said, adding his reassurance that “this is a good economy.”   

The Wall Street Journal: The Fed signals cuts are possible but not imminent as it holds rates steady in a range between 5.25 percent and 5.5 percent.  

Many analysts, who had predicted the Fed would stand pat this month, now expect the central bank to wait, perhaps until May, to feel assured that inflation has indeed been throttled.  

Looking ahead to March, Powell said, “I don’t think it’s likely that the committee will reach a level of confidence” on inflation that would warrant a rate reduction at that meeting, “but that’s to be seen.” 

The chair said core inflation on a 12-month basis remains higher than the Fed’s objective and that declaring a “soft landing” would be premature now. “We think we have a ways to go,” he added. “The economy is broadly normalizing and so is the labor market,” but it will probably take time, Powell said, describing a “healthy process” of “rebalancing” following the pandemic.  

“We’re not rushing.” 

The Fed’s Wednesday statement is HERE. A transcript of Powell’s remarks is HERE. 

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TRUMP WORLD 

The verdict in the New York attorney general’s sprawling civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his family company won’t come until on or around Feb. 5. New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who oversaw the three-month bench trial, had previously said he aimed to issue his verdict in the case by the end of January (Business Insider).  

Trump in a social media post criticized a New York judge as “Trump hating” and said he’s interviewing new lawyers to challenge the more than $83 million in damages he’s been ordered to pay writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her in 2019. 

Politico: As judges mull presidential immunity, Trump reaps the benefits of the delay. 

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OPINION 

■ Running for president is not a hobby, by Gail Collins, columnist, The New York Times. 

■ Will the Supreme Court bend to political will in the Trump ballot case? by former Rep. David Skaggs (D-Colo.), opinion contributor, The Hill. 

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THE CLOSER 

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