POLITICO NIGHTLY: What Obama’s second term could teach Biden and the Dems

BY ELANA SCHOR Presented by With help from Peter S. Canellos and Tyler Weyant FORGET 2009 — It’s become fashionable in politics to compare 2021 to 2009, another year when an incoming Democratic president faced serious economic and public health challenges and struggled with how long to let bipartisan talks play out on his top domestic priority. But the more relevant year when it comes to President Joe Biden’s agenda is actually 2013. Let’s journey back in time to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s 2013 decision to squash the filibuster for all executive-branch nominees except the Supreme Court. That monumental step set the stage for Mitch McConnell, Reid’s GOP successor as Senate leader, to end filibusters of Supreme Court nominees in 2017. Now progressives are pressuring current Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to deliver the final blow to the Senate’s 60-vote threshold by eliminating it for legislation. But Reid made his move against the filibuster in the chill of November — and only after laying months upon months of groundwork. On July 16, 2013, dozens of senators in both parties spoke at a “highly unusual” confab “in the ornate old Senate chamber — where deals like the Missouri Compromise were struck nearly two centuries ago,” per our story in the POLITICO archives. Even then, Reid waited four more months to act. The three judicial nominees whose confirmations the GOP blocked, in what proved the last straw before Reid went nuclear, weren’t even tapped until the first week of June 2013. Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid waits for the Senate subway after a vote in December 2013 on Capitol Hill. | Getty Images Aspiring Senate prognosticators can take a few lessons from 2013: on timing, on stakes and on behavior. First, if Schumer wants to follow Reid down the road to a rules change while commanding a majority five votes smaller than the Nevadan he once called a “foxhole buddy,” he’s going to have to wait longer to get enough buy-in. Reid acted about halfway through a 2013-2014 Congress that ended up seeing what was, at the time, the highest number of votes on cloture (a.k.a. filibuster cutoff) in the maneuver’s history: 218, surpassed only by the 298 such votes in the 2019-2020 session. The current Congress, by contrast, has seen only 43 cloture votes. When it came to stakes, Reid also worked hard to build a case before putting his cuffs on the filibuster. He could point to multiple nominations that would have sailed through if not for GOP blockades. Schumer’s Democrats, on the other hand, have yet to win over their own colleague Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) for their big-ticket elections measure, much less the Republicans. This year’s Democratic caucus has similar problems maintaining unity on other liberal legislation, from policing to labor organizing. Which leaves the most important lesson that this year’s filibuster reformers can take from 2013 as they push Biden to take risks: Behavior matters when it comes to cajoling 50 Democratic caucus members to ditch a century-old tradition. Before Reid did his thing, which was also made possible by a strong 2012 campaign after which Democrats picked up two Senate seats, then-President Barack Obama used his bully pulpit to excoriate Republicans for throttling his priorities. Lately, though, you’ve heard Biden speak more sharply toward Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) than he does toward GOP senators. And while White House allies have talked about their interest in learning lessons from Biden’s time in the Obama administration by not letting talks with the GOP drag on for too long, the president doesn’t seem eager to let go of bipartisan infrastructure talks just yet. Until we see a White House acting like it’s prepared to take drastic steps to curb the filibuster, Schumer has no room to act like a majority leader ready to go that far. So until you see both Biden and Schumer acting a lot more like Obama and Reid did in 2013, on messaging as well as execution of raw political power, the legislative filibuster will remain alive and well – with more fans than just Manchin and Sinema, though they’re the only two Senate Democrats willing to say so out loud. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at eschor@politico.com, or on Twitter at @eschor. A message from AARP: Congress: It’s time to let Medicare negotiate for lower drug prices. The President, Congress, and the American people agree: we need to lower prescription drug prices. Americans can’t afford to pay the highest prices in the world for their prescription drugs. Giving Medicare the power to negotiate will save hundreds of billions of dollars and reduce prescription drug costs for all Americans. aarp.org/FairRxPrices   WHAT'D I MISS? — White House: ‘No substitute for face-to-face’ Putin summit despite doubts: The White House today defended Biden’s upcoming summit with President Vladimir Putin of Russia — arguing it was important for the two leaders to meet face to face despite an apparent lack of deliverable policy objectives, broad doubts about Moscow’s trustworthiness and concerns from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. — U.S. seizes most of Colonial Pipeline’s $4.4M ransom payment: Federal investigators were able to recover more than half of the $4.4 million ransom payment that Colonial Pipeline made to the hackers who froze its computers and forced the shutdown of its massive fuel distribution system, the Biden administration announced today. By tracing the payment across the cryptocurrency ecosystem, the government was able to locate and seize $2.27 million from a virtual currency account used by the hackers. — No. 2 Capitol Police official resigns: Chad Thomas, the No. 2 Capitol Police official overseeing most of its uniformed officers, resigned from his position today as the department attempts to chart a path forward after the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to congressional and Capitol Police sources. His departure comes as watchdogs urge the department to shift its posture from that of a police force to more of an intelligence-gathering and protective agency for members of Congress and as rank-and-file officers express frustration with current leadership. — 3 justices suggest male-only draft is unconstitutional: Three members of the Supreme Court indicated today that the law requiring only men to register for the draft may be unconstitutional and outdated, but the high court balked at formally addressing the issue — for now. The court denied review to a case brought by the National Coalition for Men, challenging the registration requirement reintroduced in 1980 by former President Jimmy Carter. — Poll: 51 percent of Americans support Trump’s 2-year Facebook ban: While the majority of Americans have heard about former President Donald Trump’s Facebook suspension, just over half support the platform’s two-year ban, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll released today. 71 percent of voters have heard “a lot” or “some” about Trump’s suspension from the social media platform, while 51 percent of Americans strongly or somewhat support Facebook’s move.   DON'T MISS THE MILKEN INSTITUTE FUTURE OF HEALTH SUMMIT: POLITICO will feature a special edition of our Future Pulse newsletter at the 2021 Milken Institute Future of Health Summit. The newsletter takes readers inside one of the most influential gatherings of global health industry leaders and innovators who are turning lessons learned from the past year into a healthier, more resilient and more equitable future. Covid-19 threatened our health and well-being, while simultaneously leading to extraordinary coordination to improve pandemic preparedness, disease prevention, diversity in clinical trials, mental health resources, food access and more. SUBSCRIBE TODAY to receive exclusive coverage from June 22-23.     AROUND THE WORLD ‘DO NOT COME’ — Vice President Kamala Harris today sought to deter migrants from trying to cross into the U.S., issuing a warning during a bilateral meeting with President Alejandro Giammattei in Guatemala. “Do not come. Do not come,” Harris said during her first major address abroad, which she delivered in English. “The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border.” The vice president’s message was in line with what other officials throughout the Biden administration have tried to convey for months in the face of an influx of people trying to enter the country along the southern border. The issue has largely persisted, however, and the situation has been one of Republicans’ go-to criticisms of Biden during his first five months in office. It’s also one of several thorny political problems Harris has been tasked with as she seeks to carve out an influential role for herself within the White House. “There are legal methods by which migration can and should occur,” Harris said in Guatemala City. “And I believe if you come to our border, you will be turned back. So let’s discourage our friends, our neighbors, our family members from embarking on what is otherwise an extremely dangerous journey.” AROUND THE NATION AT LEAST TRAE YOUNG CAN’T MESS THIS UP — Eight candidates. A handful of scandals. And a new, complicated way of tallying votes. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch, New York reporter Erin Durkin breaks down everything you need to know about the messy, confusing race to become mayor of America’s biggest city. Listen to the latest POLITICO Dispatch podcast       FROM THE SPORTS DESK IN THE ROUGH — Nightly’s Tyler Weyant emails: On May 26, as a part of Ohio’s first-in-the-nation vaccine lottery, Abbey Bugenske from Silverton won $1 million. On June 5, just an hour-plus drive away in Muirfield Village, Ohio, a positive Covid case likely cost golfer Jon Rahm $1,674,000. The scene played out live on national television Saturday afternoon. Rahm was informed by medical personnel when he finished his third round that he had tested positive and would have to withdraw from the Memorial Tournament he was leading by six strokes. A PGA Tour release after the withdrawal indicated Rahm was informed on May 31 he was in close contact with someone who was Covid positive, and was tested daily after deciding he would play in the tournament. Andy Levinson, the PGA Tour’s senior vice president of tournament administration, told reporters the tour is slightly above 50 percent vaccinated, and has had only four positive tests, including Rahm’s, since the PGA Tour returned in June of last year. Levinson would not confirm Rahm’s vaccination status, but the safety standards for the tour indicate that vaccinated players are no longer subject to weekly testing. We’ve seen other public incidents in sports as fans return to fields and arenas, including the New York Yankees outbreak in May. The questions this event yields are numerous: What was the risk to other golfers and fans? Is there any way Rahm could have finished the tournament, while masking and distancing? Should Rahm have been pulled off the golf course earlier? Regardless, athletes should take one big lesson from this weekend: Getting vaccinated seems to be a bit cheaper than the alternative.   JOIN TUESDAY FOR A CONVERSATION ON THE PATH TO A LOW-CARBON FUTURE: Reducing waste and conserving scarce natural resources are key goals of the movement to a circular economy. As the nation considers opportunities to reduce waste and improve recyclability, how can these efforts align with other measures to combat climate change? Join POLITICO for a high-level conversation on what it will take to build both a circular economy and a low-carbon future. REGISTER HERE.     NIGHTLY NUMBER Less than one-quarter The proportion of Black Americans who have received their first Covid-19 shot as of June 7, based on available federal data. PARTING WORDS JUSTICE FOR JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN — Managing editor for enterprise Peter S. Canellos emails Nightly: Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan, who served from 1877 to 1911, was known as the Great Dissenter for his scorching rebuttals of court decisions that took away the rights of African Americans and prevented the government from addressing issues of economic inequality. In almost all of his major dissents, he was vindicated by history. He was a hero to generations of progressives, from Frederick Douglass to William Jennings Bryan to Thurgood Marshall. Today, he is also viewed as a hero by Mitch McConnell, Neil Gorsuch, John Roberts and many other leading conservatives. Liberals see him as a justice with an innate sense of how Supreme Court decisions could hurt average people; he often warned of human suffering that would result from callous rulings. Today’s conservatives see him as a principled adherent to the original intent and plain meaning of the Constitution. “Justice Harlan got the original meaning of the Equal Protection Clause right the first time, and the Court recognized that belatedly,” Gorsuch said at his 2017 confirmation hearing. “It is one of the great stains on the Supreme Court’s history that it took it so long to get to that decision.” Could today’s often polarized justices and their followers find common ground in their appreciation for Harlan? The mutual attraction to a man who stood alone against the most powerful forces of his time on economic protections as well as racial equality speaks well for the future of the court. But why isn’t more known about Harlan? And what gave him the strength and conviction to stake out such lonely stances, only to be vindicated in time? Those are some of the themes of my book, “The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America’s Judicial Hero,” coming out Tuesday from Simon & Schuster. Harlan’s confidence came from many sources — from a strong Presbyterian religious faith to having witnessed the devastation of a Civil War brought on, he came to believe, by the country’s refusal to enforce equality under the law. He also had direct contact with African Americans — especially the civil rights leader Robert Harlan , who grew up in slavery and was rumored to be his half-brother. Today’s justices can be forgiven for lacking that kind of real-world credential. Still, Harlan’s message to them would be to look beyond the confines of their conference room — a room that now happens to be adorned with a portrait of the elderly Harlan, furrowed of brow and gazing toward the future. A message from AARP: Congress: Act now to lower prescription drug prices. Every year, Medicare spends more than $129 billion on prescription drugs. Yet, it's prohibited by law from using its buying power to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices. This must change. Americans are sick and tired of paying three times what people in other countries pay for the same medicine, forcing many to choose between buying the prescription drugs they need and paying for food and rent. aarp.org/FairRxPrices   Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA

RSN: FOCUS: Facebook Extends Trump Ban Until 2023

06 June 21

---

Disaster Fundraising: Is That All That Works?

It’s nearly impossible at this point to run a normal fundraiser. Unless things get seriously dire, we get no support. That is one bad formula.

We need fewer donations now than we have ever needed before. That should be easier, not harder.

If you are going to be a part of this, be a part of it.

Let’s get urgent on the June fundraiser NOW.

Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

---

Update My Monthly Donation

---

If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts, CA 95611

 

05 June 21

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

PLEASE DON’T WAIT FOR “CONDITION DIRE.” The single biggest factor extending the length of these fundraising drives: waiting until the situation is dire to chip in. If you can afford a donation, put it in the hat early. Sincere thanks to all. / Marc Ash • Founder, Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

---

FOCUS: Facebook Extends Trump Ban Until 2023

Benjamin Hart, New York Magazine
Hart writes: "Facebook announced on Friday that former President Trump's ban from the website, put into place in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riot, would last through at least January 7, 2023 - making it two years at the minimum."

In a lengthy statement, Nick Clegg, the company’s vice-president of global affairs, explained Facebook’s reasoning and what will happen when that two-year mark rolls around:

Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols.

At the end of this period, we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded. We will evaluate external factors, including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest. If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded.

In May, Facebook’s oversight board upheld Trump’s suspension but said that it should not be indefinite and urged the company to clarify its policies around suspending and banning public figures. Thursday’s statement introduced new guidelines to objectionable material from politicians, illustrated via a handy graphic. Evidently, helping to stir up a riot earns the company’s maximum punishment in this category.

Trump was, unsurprisingly, not happy with the decision. In a statement (which, of course, he could not post to Facebook), he said that the site’s ruling “is an insult to the record-setting 75M people, plus many others, who voted for us in the 2020 Rigged Presidential Election. They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win.” In a followup statement, he threatened to withhold a dinner invite to Mark Zuckerberg (while implying he would be president again one day).

READ MORE

---

Contribute to RSN

Update My Monthly Donation

Trump makes PATHETIC threat over Facebook ban

Today's Top Stories:

Trump responds to two-year Facebook ban by with press release about what he'll do when he's back in the White House
The ex-president responded to news of Facebook's extended ban in predictable fashion, saying he would not invite Mark Zuckerberg to dinner the "next time I’m in the White House." Ok, sure.

---

VIDEO OF THE DAY: Oregon state rep caught on video telling rioters how to breach state Capitol, step by step, with his assistance
This was a Republican coup, plotted from the inside.

Take Action: Tell Democrats to create a select committee to investigate Trump's insurrection!

---

Republican congressman flees into the woods to escape reporter's questions
Eugene DePasquale: After helping incite Trump's insurrection, Rep. Scott Perry is terrified to answer for his record — and he should be. He represents a purple district with a top Democratic challenger.

---

Bush-appointed federal judge strikes down California's assault rifle ban, compares AR-15 to Swiss Army knife
Judge Robert Benitez struck down the decades-old ban and declared that, "like the Swiss Army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination" of home and homeland defense.

Take Action: Demand funding for zero emission transit and busses immediately!

---

Don McGahn, former Trump White House attorney, "was clearly distressed" by ex-president's behavior, top Democrat says after congressional testimony
McGahn finally testified before the House — behind closed doors — after two years of stonewalling under the premise of "executive privilege."

---

Criminal probe into Trump hits new milestone
Jeff McConney, who serves as a senior vice president and controller for the Trump Organization, is the first employee of the ex-president's company called to testify, and his testimony is a sign that prosecutors have burrowed deep into the company's finances.

---

Biden rebuffs GOP infrastructure offer, citing broader goals
President Biden dismissed the latest Republican infrastructure proposal that offered only modestly more spending, because, as White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted, "the current offer did not meet his objectives to grow the economy, tackle the climate crisis, and create new jobs."

Take Action: Pass the Equality Act for PRIDE Month!

---

Republicans take DANGEROUS step for 2024
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen: This is a 5-alarm fire.

---

Alleged US Capitol rioter who harassed police for "protecting pedophiles'" served jail time for statutory rape of 14-year-old girl
A convicted pedophile stormed the US Capitol on behalf of Donald Trump and berated the police for supposedly protecting pedophile lawmakers inside. Got it.

---

JPMorgan freezes donations to Republicans who contested 2020 election
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

---

Texas GOP chair Allen West resigns less than a year into post
West, a one-term Florida congressman and fervent Trump backer, was elected Texas GOP chair last year, but reportedly has his sights set on statewide office, including a possible challenge to current governor Greg Abbott.

---

Ohio American Legion Post officer resigns after cutting vet’s Memorial Day speech on Black history
James Garrison resigned days after muting Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter's mic during his public speech about Black enslaved people and their role in the creation of the Memorial Day holiday.

---

---

Seriously?

Kayleigh McEnany whines about not getting her own Annie Leibovitz photo shoot

Nigeria announces Twitter ban... on Twitter

GOP billionaires bankrolling Democratic mayoral candidates in NYC

Rudy Giuliani hawking MyPillow on YouTube show about UFOs

Yes. Seriously.

Zombie fires burning in the Arctic are environmental time bombs

Bargain hunters pounce as Trump condo prices hit decade lows

Trump's 2020 4th of July fireworks caused $42k in damages to National Mall

CDC director 'deeply concerned' over rise in hospitalized teens

Hope...

FDA approves obesity drug with promising results

7-year-old boy swims an hour to rescue his dad, little sister

Veteran donates land for 36-acre retreat for vets struggling with addiction 

POLITICO NIGHTLY: Here come the pandemic memoirs

BY MYAH WARD With help from Tyler Weyant Scott Gottlieb | Getty Images WHAT WENT WRONG — The Trump book boom is about to enter its next phase: the pandemic memoir. And a big name looks to be first to print. Scott Gottlieb, FDA commissioner under the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019, tweeted this week that his book, “Uncontrolled Spread: Why Covid-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic,” slated for publication on Sept. 21, is open for pre-orders. Nightly called Gottlieb to talk about the current state of the pandemic, where we went wrong in 2020 and what new details his book may reveal. This conversation has been edited. What are you most worried about right now? We’ve seen how difficult it is to deploy the vaccine here in the U.S. and in parts of Europe where there’s hesitancy about taking it. That’s going to be equivalent, if not deeper, in a lot of parts of the world where there might be concerns around taking a Western vaccine. So I think we’re going to have real challenges deploying vaccines well beyond supply. We’re focusing, frankly, on the wrong challenge. There’s going to be ample supply. What would you say we got the most wrong in 2020? The near-term thing we got wrong is that we applied a flu model to a coronavirus. We used the tools that we had developed to try to mitigate a pandemic flu and then we made assumptions about how this virus was spread and how it would behave that were predicated on our assumptions about flu, without recognizing how the coronavirus would behave differently. We wrongly assumed that asymptomatic spread wouldn’t be a significant contributor to the epidemic. We wrongly assumed that it was spread primarily through droplet transmission. We wrongly assumed that diagnostic testing wouldn’t be that important to containing the epidemic because we thought the incubation period was short, like flu, and patients were only contagious once they became symptomatic and early testing wouldn’t be that important to containing spread. Could we have done anything to investigate the lab-leak theory sooner? Well, not if China wasn’t cooperative. But I think the critical piece of information that we could have identified earlier, with more certainty, was the scope of the asymptomatic spread — if we had been on the ground in China, if we had been able to investigate and work side by side with the Chinese CDC. Is there something you didn’t fully understand about the pandemic until you sat down to write? What this reinforced for me is the CDC is a largely academic type of institution that has a lot of independent silos that don’t necessarily collaborate, and isn’t really capable of mounting a large and rapid response to any kind of event of this scale. It’s much more focused on doing investigations of early outbreaks and things that are contained. And we really lacked that operational capacity. There’s no agency overseeing the different components that would be relevant. Are we going to learn any lessons from the pandemic? I think we’ll definitely be doing things differently. The question is whether we derive the right lesson. That’s what the book is really about. We need to look at capacity building. We need to look at public health preparedness through the lens of national security. That means our foreign intelligence services. We need to be doing better proactive surveillance for risks. The old notion was that this was a mission that was handled by public health agencies, and that we would get the information we needed to protect ourselves through multilateral engagement like the International Health Regulations, then WHO. But we’ve seen that those conventions fail, and fail repeatedly, and we can’t rely on them solely anymore. And this clearly wasn’t a bioterrorist weapon. But rogue regimes and terrorist groups, now looking at how this hurt us more than it hurt a lot of other nations — I think we need to reassess the calculus of how we guard against biological threats. Are you still wearing a mask? I’m not wearing a mask outdoors. But I wear a mask in certain indoor settings where there are crowds. And it’s not necessarily because I feel vulnerable. I’m fully vaccinated. I feel like it’s etiquette. When I go into a pharmacy or grocery store, there’s enough people wearing masks, that I feel like by wearing the mask, I make other people feel less uncomfortable. That’s why I’ve been wearing a mask. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at mward@politico.com, or on Twitter at @MyahWard.   SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. The Recast is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel.     WHAT'D I MISS? — Trump will remain off Facebook for at least two years: Facebook announced today that former President Donald Trump’s account will remain suspended for at least two years , setting a timetable for his potential return after its oversight board criticized the company’s indefinite ban over his posts during the deadly Capitol riot. “Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols,” Facebook's vice president of global affairs Nick Clegg said in a blog post. — Modest job gains leave lingering doubts about recovery: The U.S. economy added 559,000 jobs in May, well below Wall Street expectations, stirring up further questions about what is holding back a stronger recovery from the Covid-19 epidemic. The figure marked a bounce back from a disappointing April number, but it won’t erase concerns about whether generous federal benefits are keeping Americans from rejoining the labor force or whether the Biden administration and Congress need to do more to light a fire under the economy. — FBI’s Wray reveals scope of ransomware investigations: FBI Director Christopher Wray compared the national security threat posed by ransomware to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as the U.S. government and the private sector continue to grapple with a series of debilitating cyberattacks. “There are a lot of parallels, there’s a lot of importance, and a lot of focus by us on disruption and prevention,” Wray told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. ”There’s a shared responsibility, not just across government agencies but across the private sector and even the average American.” AROUND THE WORLD ‘ONE MILLIMETER AWAY’ — Members of the G-7 group say they are close — “one millimeter away” — from a deal on a global corporate tax after a meeting of the group's finance ministers today. But they still haven’t found agreement on the main bones of contention. After a first day of negotiations, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said G-7 countries are still discussing which companies should fall under a new taxation mechanism for large businesses partially based on sales. Countries also still have to find an agreement on the other “pillar” of the reform, a global minimum tax rate. The new system “must catch all the important digital companies. That’s one point which is currently being discussed,” Le Maire told the BBC, while noting that negotiations are still ongoing on the minimum rate. A proposed minimum tax rate of 15 percent was “only a starting point,” he said. “I think that if the negotiation is still underway, that’s because we are still working on these really tricky points of the rate,” he said, noting that “it is better to have a higher level of rate than 15 percent” to make the reform more “credible.”   SUBSCRIBE TO WEST WING PLAYBOOK: Add West Wing Playbook to keep up with the power players, latest policy developments and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing and across the highest levels of the Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.     AROUND THE NATION SHOWDOWN AT THE STOCKYARDS — Fort Worth is one of the few major cities run by the GOP. But that could change this weekend. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch, Maya King reports on a mayoral race that has Republicans on the edge of their seats. Listen to the latest POLITICO Dispatch podcast NIGHTLY NUMBER At least one-third The decrease in prices for some condos and hotel rooms in Trump-branded buildings in Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas and New York, according to an Associated Press review of more than 4,000 transactions over the past 15 years. PARTING WORDS First lady Jill Biden waves as she rides her bike with President Joe Biden in Rehoboth Beach, Del. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo FIRST STATE SUMMER — Nightly’s Tyler Weyant, a Mid-Atlantic lifer, emails: I’ve been to Delaware once or twice in my life. I’ve bought peach cakes and fresh produce from Willey’s up in New Castle County’s Townsend. I’ve driven through the scenic marshes of Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, watching red-winged blackbirds perch upon reeds. I’ve eaten a Grotto Pizza menu item that was basically just a giant tray of all their appetizers and lived to tell the tale. It’s a pretty nice place. Nice enough for the Bidens to celebrate the first lady’s 70th birthday there this week. Yet the good folks at Air Mail, the online magazine run by former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, are less impressed. “Democratic aides accustomed to Hawaii and Martha’s Vineyard are in for a surprise when they decamp to Biden’s summer home in Delaware,” Air Mail decreed in a piece titled “Rehoboth What?” that left me bluer than a hen. “Joe Biden’s summer home, a three-story Cape Cod-style mini-mansion in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, promises decidedly less glamour” than the vacation getaways favored by the Kennedys, Obamas and Trumps, journalist Alex Thomas writes, as if that were a bad thing. The Bidens bought their home for a measly $2.7 million in 2017, Thomas says, in a part of the state “spotted with Trump signs” and smelling of fertilizer. “The handful of art galleries” along the Rehoboth boardwalk, Thomas frets, “sell unremarkable oil-on-canvas seascapes and are outnumbered by stores selling bedazzled iPhone cases and trashy T-shirts marketed to teenagers.” A subhed mourns, “More Jersey Shore than North Shore.” Thomas spent three summers as a lifeguard in Rehoboth, and he seems to have affection for “the nation’s summer capital” of low-rent millionaires. And I am very aware that reporters don’t write headlines and subheds. But he definitely seems to wish they were just a little bit more fashionable, more sophisticated, the kind of people who would eat at Graydon Carter’s Waverly Inn instead of Fins Fish House & Raw Bar, whose diners are gauche enough to mob the Bidens on their way to a table. I don’t know Rehoboth as well as Thomas does. But I also am not embarrassed in the slightest to vacation in a place where Michelin tires on go-kart tracks are more common than Michelin stars on restaurants. I’ll be in Delaware at some point this summer, likely eating at one of my favorite breakfast spots in Fenwick, or visiting friends in Bethany, or talking loud enough at a bar about Joe Flacco that someone jumps in to share a thought about the Eagles’ chances this fall. If Alex Thomas is around, first Dogfish Head is on me. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA