últimas notícias

WILL THE SENATE BE IN SESSIONS? — There were several key primaries taking place all around the country last night — including in Alabama, where President Donald Trump’s former Attorney General Jeff Sessions finished well short of a majority in the state’s Senate primary. Now, Sessions will have to face a runoff on March 31 against former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville — but Trump may have just doomed Sessions’ chances for a congressional comeback.

While Trump stayed silent in the primary, he ripped Sessions on Twitter this morning, saying “this is what happens to someone who … doesn’t have the wisdom or courage to stare down & end the phony Russia Witch Hunt.” Trump’s intervention in the deep red state, where the president is immensely popular, could be enough to end Sessions’ comeback bid and political career, writes James Arkin. Much more on that and other Senate primaries: https://politi.co/32ZzcWZ.

In other Super Tuesday news … a pair of Texas incumbents fended off primary challenges from the left and right. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a centrist Democrat, defeated Justice Democrats-backed Jessica Cisneros. And Rep. Kay Granger, a senior appropriator and one of just 13 women in the House GOP, beat back a challenge from technology executive Chris Putnam, who was supported by the conservative Club for Growth. The Texas Tribune has a wrap-up of the two victories: http://bit.ly/2TAeaJX.

And in California, it looks like the special election to fill the remainder of former Rep. Katie Hill’s (D) term is headed to a runoff. There was a crowded field of candidates vying to replace Hill, including former Rep. Steve Knight (R-Calif.). Results are still trickling in, but Democratic California Assemblywoman Christy Smith and GOP former Navy fighter pilot Mike Garcia have shot to the top of the pack, though neither is poised to get 50 percent of the vote, meaning they will likely face off in May. The latest from The Ventura County Star’s Tom Kisken: http://bit.ly/2ToPaXs.

Related reads: “Pierce Bush is first Bush to lose Texas race in over 40 years,” via CBS News: https://cbsn.ws/39l7vdu; and “SC Democrats prepare to pitch earlier primary spot after 2020 success, Iowa failure,” by Jamie Lovegrove of the Post and Courier: http://bit.ly/2wo3beN.

CORONAVIRUS CASH — An emergency funding package to combat the coronavirus is being held up by a dispute over the cost of vaccines and hospital reimbursements. Negotiators are still insisting they’ll be able to reach a deal and vote on the legislation as early as today, but their initial timeline for releasing the bill has slipped. At issue: Democrats want to include language ensuring vaccines and other treatments are affordable, while Republicans are warning that price controls could actually make medications more difficult to obtain.

“It’s going back and forth. That’s where we are,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), a top appropriator. “There are no firm answers at the moment, but we’re moving toward getting this done and getting it done this week because the need is so critical.” And House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) indicated that if they can’t resolve the remaining sticking points, they can revisit the issue later, reflecting the desire among congressional leaders to put on a united front — and get emergency funding out the door before they leave town — amid growing fears of an outbreak. The story from Sarah, Heather and Sarah Owermohle: https://politi.co/2PJFVi6.

On tap today: the top four congressional leaders will sit down for a joint operational briefing about responding to the coronavirus on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. And Vice President Mike Pence will brief the House GOP on the latest coronavirus developments at 2 p.m., sources tell your Huddle host, while Democrats will receive a briefing from Pence at 2:30 p.m., per Heather. “Guests will include Vice President Mike Pence and additional Administration officials,” according to a notice sent to members.

Related: “Democrats Criticize Ad Targeting GOP Lawmakers Over Coronavirus,” from Natalie Andrews of the WSJ: https://on.wsj.com/2wxlMoD; and “Lawmakers looking for guidance on coronavirus,” by Roll Call’s Katherine Tully-McManus: http://bit.ly/2uVWhNy.

HAPPY HUMP DAY! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Wednesday, March 4, where your host wants to draft Symone Sanders to her fantasy football team next season after seeing her take down a protestor at a Biden campaign event last night. (Sanders’ response? “I broke a nail,” she tweeted.)

TUESDAY’S MOST CLICKED: Roll Call’s story on the status of coronavirus funding talks was the big winner.

FISA FIZZLES — Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Congress is struggling to finish something before a deadline. This time, it’s reauthorizing a set of expiring provisions in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The issue has created rifts in the Republican and Democratic parties alike, with progressives and libertarians demanding protections for civil liberties, while conservatives have railed against the law for being used to monitor Trump’s 2016 campaign and are pushing for reforms to ensure FISA can’t be abused.

GOP and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are having staff-level discussions in the hopes of reaching a bipartisan solution before the March 15 deadline, but it doesn’t look like a deal is imminent. “This shouldn’t be as hard as it feels like it is,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), one of the leading advocates for progressive-backed changes. Attorney General William Barr, meanwhile, had pitched the Senate GOP on just extending the surveillance authorities and offered to make desired reforms administratively.

But Trump told Republicans during a White House meeting yesterday that he won’t sign a clean extension, and encouraged lawmakers to strike a long-term agreement. “You all work out a bipartisan deal and come back to me and I’ll sign it,” Trump said, according to a source in the room. Now there’s talk of a 30-day extension to give lawmakers more time to reach a deal, but it’s unclear if that would even have enough support to pass. The dispatch from Marianne, Bres and Kyle: https://politi.co/32M8Vey.

Related read: “Lindsey Graham has started interviewing witnesses in FISA abuse investigation,” by The Washington Examiner’s Tim Pearce: https://washex.am/2x74vmB.

DISTURBING THE PEACE — GOP defense hawks are sounding the alarm over Trump’s new peace agreement with the Taliban — and some are even privately lobbying the White House to leave a small number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, report Lara Seligman and Daniel Lippman. The deets: “The backroom scramble comes as President Donald Trump spoke with a top-ranking Taliban official by phone on Tuesday — a first for a U.S. president and a sign of the extraordinary political risks he’s been willing to endure to engineer a campaign-season exit from America’s longest war.” More: https://politi.co/2PNzw5z.

The Trump administration has been working to build congressional support for the plan and made secret documents about the agreement available to lawmakers in a secure setting in the Capitol. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — who was standing next to Rep. Liz Cheney, a vocal GOP defense hawk, during their weekly leadership presser — encouraged lawmakers to read the documents before “someone makes an opinion about it.”

But later in the day, Cheney — who harshly criticized the agreement over the weekend — said she read the Taliban documents and still has the same concerns. “Those documents do not include in them the things that Secretary Pompeo said they would. So, my concerns still remain,” Cheney said at a hearing.

In other foreign policy news: “Lawmakers want the DNI to make public the intelligence community’s assessment of who’s responsible for killing Jamal Khashoggi,” via WaPo’s Ellen Nakashima: https://wapo.st/3avFLD7.

COLLINS’ CONUNDRUM — GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has declined to say whether she’s backing Trump’s reelection bid in 2020. “I already answered that question,” Collins told CNN, apparently referring to comments she made last Friday. In that interview, however, she didn’t directly address the topic: “I have voted by absentee ballot, just to make sure that I voted,” Collins told WCSH in Portland, Maine. “And I would note that it’s on the Democratic side that there are eight candidates, and my likely opponent as well as the governor and many other Democratic officials have not said who they are going to choose in what is a contested Democratic ballot. I’m focused on my job and also on my own campaign, and I’m just not going to get involved in presidential politics.”

Collins, who is one of the vulnerable GOP senators on the ballot this fall, is walking a tightrope as she gears up for reelection. While she wants to show her independence from Trump, she also can’t alienate his base too much either. That dynamic was on full display during the Senate impeachment trial, where Collins supported hauling in witnesses but ended up voting to acquit the president. The story from CNN’s Manu Raju and Alex Rogers: https://cnn.it/39m8JF7.

Related: “Ratcliffe nomination puts Susan Collins in tough spot,” per The Hill’s Alexander Bolton: http://bit.ly/2VLo2Do.

BIRTHDAY BASHES — Lawmakers threw a surprise 80th birthday party for Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights icon who has been battling cancer. A video of the surprise, via Rep. Mark Takano: http://bit.ly/2If4NdD. Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) celebrated his b-day in a far more unconventional way: a cake trolling one of his adversaries, Chinese President Xi Jinping. The pic and the backstory, from Business Insider’s David Choi: http://bit.ly/3aoaVw7.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD! — Burgess sends along this dispatch on the newest and tiniest member of the Congress team: “John Charles Everett was born March 2 at 3:30 pm. 8 pounds 13 oz. Everyone is healthy.”

The House gavels in at 10 a.m., with first votes expected between 1:15 and 2:15 p.m. Today’s agenda: http://bit.ly/39tydRi.

The Senate meets at 10 a.m. to resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 2657 (116), the legislative vehicle for the Senate’s bipartisan energy package. Senators will vote on the motion at 10:30 a.m.

TODAY’S QUESTION: From Ross: When was the last time the Democrats and the Republicans had a convention that lasted more than one ballot? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your best guess my way at mzanona@politico.com.

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• Melanie Zanona @MZanona

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