| | |  | BY JOANNE KENEN | | With help from Myah Ward BREAKING — After weeks of publicly calling on former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to cooperate with the investigation, the Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed him this evening for a deposition scheduled for July 6. During her testimony on Tuesday, White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described an explosive account in which Cipollone warned of legal culpability if Donald Trump followed his supporters on a march to the White House. Hutchinson has also testified to the committee that Cipollone repeatedly expressed legal misgivings about Trump’s efforts to send false presidential electors to Congress and various other aspects of his bid to stay in power on Jan. 6, when Congress met to count electoral votes, write Betsy Woodruff Swan, Nicholas Wu and Kyle Cheney.
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An abortion rights protester wears earrings made out of birth control pills at the Federal Courthouse on Friday, June 24, 2022, in Houston. | Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via AP | SLIPPERY SLOPE — Abortion, not contraception, is the red-hot political issue. Abortion motivates people to vote. Cervical caps do not. But birth control is going to be more and more important as abortion becomes more difficult — and for many, impossible — to access. And given Justice Clarence Thomas’ call to reconsider the right to contraception, at least some forms of family planning may be the next legal and political battleground. Even now, contraception isn’t always easy to access, particularly for people who are young, low-income or uninsured. Clinics are underfunded, and in some parts of the country, not easily accessible — particularly in states rushing to ban abortion. And while banning forms of contraception may seem like a reach, some of the groups who successfully battled for the end of Roe also regard certain forms of contraception as methods of early abortion — even though mainstream medical and public health groups say that is not the case. That includes IUDs, or intrauterine devices, and emergency contraceptives, sometimes called the “morning after pill.” People often confuse emergency contraceptive pills, which can be obtained in a pharmacy to prevent a pregnancy after unprotected sex, with the abortion pill, which is prescribed to terminate a pregnancy during the first 10 weeks. But they are not the same. No contraception is 100 percent effective, and this is one of the slippery undercurrents in the abortion debate — a belief in some circles that unplanned pregnancies occur when people are irresponsible or careless. But sometimes birth control fails. Even sterilization, on rare occasions, fails. IUDs occasionally don’t work. (Sometimes they really don’t work — a couple I know got their twins that way.) The CDC publishes the failure rate of all the major forms of family planning. Sometimes people have bad luck. Sometimes they don’t use their birth control perfectly. There are still obstacles to getting contraception, and that’s where the policy tension may play out in multiple states. The Affordable Care Act required health plans to cover birth control at no cost — but not everyone is insured, so that benefit doesn’t reach them. Among the uninsured are low-income women in 12 states, including Texas and Florida, that have refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA. Title X family planning clinics, which are federally funded, can fill the gaps. But Congress hasn’t appropriated as much money as the Biden administration has requested. In fact, the gap is wide; family planning groups say federal spending is not even half of what’s needed. So not everyone who needs contraception can get it easily and affordably. Not everyone lives near a Title X clinic. (I visited one such clinic in Texas this spring, part of a POLITICO Magazine story I did with my colleague Alice Miranda Ollstein. It was not clear that it could remain open. Recently I clicked on another region of southwest Texas on a map and searched for the nearest Title X clinic. It was 95 miles away). This week the Biden administration — though limited in what it can do to address the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling — took two steps to boost contraception. First, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh met with 14 insurers and health payers to make sure the contraceptive coverage mandate was being followed. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen then joined them in a follow-up letter to health insurers reminding them that it’s not an option. It’s the law. “Any violation of this requirement will not be tolerated,” Becerra told them. “We are calling on your organizations to remove barriers and ensure individuals in your plans have access to the contraceptive coverage they need, as required by law.” A day later, Becerra unveiled a new government website, in English and Spanish, called ReproductiveRights.gov to help people find Title X and community health clinics. It’s a useful tool. It’s also a reminder that for too many people, contraception is not just around the corner. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s on Twitter at @JoanneKenen.
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Learn how Meta is helping build the metaverse. | | | | | — Secret Service says Jan. 6 committee didn’t reach out before Hutchinson’s explosive Trump testimony: Anthony Guglielmi, the service’s chief of communications, told POLITICO that select committee investigators did not ask Secret Service personnel to reappear or answer questions in writing in the 10 days before asking Hutchinson at the hearing about an alleged physical altercation between Trump and his security detail on the day of the riot. “[W]e were not asked to reappear before the Committee in response to yesterday’s new information and we plan on formally responding on the record,” he wrote in an email. “We have and will continue to make any member of the Secret Service available.” — Breyer will retire Thursday: The retirement paves the way for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, confirmed in April to fill Breyer’s forthcoming vacancy, to join Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan on the court’s left-leaning bloc. Jackson, the court’s first Black female justice, faced contentious confirmation hearings before being confirmed with a 53-47 vote by the Senate. Jackson will be sworn in at noon immediately after Breyer’s official retirement.
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Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer listens during a forum. | Steven Senne, File/AP Photo | — Abortion pill maker plans multistate legal action to preserve drug access: Ken Parsigian of Latham & Watkins wouldn’t disclose where GenBioPro plans to file lawsuits but told POLITICO that an FDA drug approval should trump any state moves to limit access to mifepristone. The company is currently challenging a Mississippi law that effectively banned telehealth abortions by making patients see doctors in person to obtain the medication, even though the FDA ended its requirement that the pill be personally doled out in 2021. Related: Searches for abortion medications have soared. — Giuliani’s former Ukraine fixer gets 20 months in prison: Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani who was a figure in Trump’s first impeachment investigation, was sentenced today to a year and eight months in prison for fraud and campaign finance crimes. The judge also ordered Parnas to pay $2.3 million in restitution. — New turmoil rocks crypto as court orders hedge fund to liquidate: A British Virgin Islands court has ordered the crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital to liquidate its assets, another blow to digital asset markets that are already cratering amid the collapse of once-high-flying startups. The unwinding of Three Arrows, which had been one of the industry’s top investment firms, will likely spell big trouble for lending platforms and digital asset businesses whose finances are tied to the beleaguered hedge fund’s balance sheet.
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| | DON'T MISS DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | WHY COLORADO MATTERS ON ABORTION POLITICS — Colorado might be a reliably blue state on the national level, but both parties are zeroing in on control of the state Legislature in a test of whether abortion politics will matter come November, writes Nightly’s Myah Ward. The fate of abortion rights in the state will come down to which party holds the power in both chambers. Holding the Democratic majority is one of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee’s top priorities this cycle, Jessica Post, president of the group, which is charged with helping elect Democrats to state legislatures, told Nightly a couple of weeks ago. And its counterpart, the Republican State Leadership Committee, has named Colorado one of its targets for a potential GOP flip. The fall of Roe v. Wade added another layer to this fight. After a 24-hour Republican-led filibuster, Colorado Democrats passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act this year, enshrining the right to an abortion in law and making the state an abortion safe haven in the region. All Republicans, in both chambers, voted against the bill. Now, with abortion rights on the line in November, Democrats are pushing the narrative that the issue will carry voters all the way to the polls this fall — especially in states like Colorado, where the party is at risk of losing power and the abortion protection laws that come along with statehouse control. “Republicans just elevated an issue that deeply angers and motivates the Democratic base and repels swing voters,” Post said. “So heading into a tough election cycle, that really matters.” State Republicans, on the other hand, are figuring out exactly how to talk about abortion — and whether or not to talk about it at all. Some Senate Republicans, though it’s easy to dig up their past anti-abortion comments, have avoided responding to Friday’s Supreme Court ruling altogether. Sens. Dennis Hisey and Rob Woodward, two Republicans who ran uncontested Tuesday night, haven’t released statements. “I tell the candidates I’m working with, ‘Look, if you’re talking about abortion, you’re talking about what the Democrats want you talking about, which is keeping you from talking about the stuff they don’t want you talking about, which is the cost of living here,’” Greg Brophy, a GOP strategist and former Colorado state legislator, told Nightly. Shana Black, who won last night’s primary for Colorado House District 18 against anti-abortion candidate Summer Groubert, shared the Dobbs decision on her campaign Facebook page on Friday, writing, “It’s official, a 6-3 decision!” Black later deleted the post, according to a screenshot of her Facebook page from the DLCC. As Republicans shift to campaigning for November against Democrats, it’s likely they’ll zero in on issues like inflation and crime. Even the RSLC has stayed quiet on the Dobbs decision — aside from a fundraising email to supporters — until today, when the group published a poll, highlighting the idea that abortion trails behind inflation, the economy and facrime when it comes to top issues for voters — another indicator of GOP strategy heading into the post-Roe midterms for Colorado’s Legislature and statehouses across the country. “I don’t think [the Supreme Court ruling] will have a negative impact, a significant negative impact on Republicans flipping the Colorado Senate,” Brophy said. “Or maybe even flipping the House, as long as the candidates stay on message.”
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2 The remaining number of Supreme Court opinions this term, scheduled to be announced on Thursday. We’re awaiting contentious decisions on the Environmental Protection climate authority case and Biden’s “remain in Mexico” policy appeal. |
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| PUTIN GETS ‘NATOIZATION’ OF EUROPE — The U.S. will send more destroyers, air defense systems and redeploy troops further east in the coming months, President Joe Biden announced today at NATO’s annual summit in Madrid. “I said Putin’s looking for the Finlandization of Europe,” Biden said. “He’s going to get the NATOization of Europe. And that is exactly what he didn’t want, but exactly what needs to be done to guarantee security for Europe. And I think it’s necessary.” The moves will add significant firepower to the continent and signal a deepened American commitment to NATO’s eastern front countries, which are worried Russia could continue its march westward if they’re successful in Ukraine, writes Paul McLeary. PARIS TERRORIST JAILED FOR LIFE — Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the group that carried out the November 2015 Paris terror attacks, was found guilty of murder today and sentenced to life in prison without parole — France’s harshest penalty, write Luanna Muniz and Julie Tomiche. Nineteen others were also convicted — six in absentia — for the roles they played in what was the worst terrorist attack during peacetime on French soil and the worst in Europe since the Madrid train bombings of 2004. Some 130 people were killed and hundreds more injured in the carnage that was unleashed via suicide bombs and shootings across Paris — at the Bataclan concert hall, around the Stade de France sports stadium and on bar terraces. The verdicts bring to a close one of the longest criminal trials in France since World War II, lasting some 10 months and involving 2,500 plaintiffs — nearly 400 of whom took the stand to testify. Abdeslam’s sentence of life imprisonment without parole was also rare, only handed down in modern France four times before.
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| | Industry Leaders at One-Day Tech Event on July 21: The American dream is a MerITocracy – powered by policy and technology as they relate to education and workforce, global competitiveness, security and privacy, and citizen services. On July 21, join tech industry visionaries from Dell, Google Cloud, DocuSign, and Consumer Technology Association, in addition to Hill and Biden Administration leaders as they discuss the future of tech innovation, regulation, and outcomes for America at MeriTalk’s MerITocracy 2022: American Innovation Forum. Sign up here. | | | | | | | IMMIGRATION’S ‘UVALDE MOMENT’ — Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he has restarted his immigration reform talks with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) while the senators have been traveling together throughout Europe this week, writes Andrew Desiderio from Madrid. Those talks were put on hold while Tillis negotiated with Democrats on the gun safety legislation that the Senate and House passed last week, but Durbin, the Senate Judiciary chair, told POLITICO at the NATO Summit in Madrid that it’s now top of mind for him. “We’ve been talking the last couple days about reviving that effort,” Durbin said in an interview. “And I think what happened at the border with finding 51 dead migrants in that tractor trailer is what I would call a ‘Uvalde moment.’ I hope it sparks an interest in finding a bipartisan approach to dealing with immigration.” Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
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