POLITICO Nightly: The long shadow of Israel’s hostage crisis

 

BY CALDER MCHUGH A man walks past an Israeli police station in Sderot after it was damaged during battles to dislodge Hamas militants who were stationed inside on Sunday. | Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images AGONIZING DILEMMA — Israel is now in its fourth day of carrying out sweeping airstrikes in Gaza, in retaliation for a massive surprise attack Saturday by Palestinian militants. As the government considers the scale and scope of its next response, Israel confronts an agonizing dilemma: how to deal with a hostage crisis that is inextricably linked to any prospect of a ground invasion. Over 150 Israelis — according to initial assessments from a senior Israeli military official — have been taken captive by Hamas. And while right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to reduce parts of Gaza “into rubble” on Sunday, urging those living there to leave, any wide scale military operation could put those hostages at risk. Hamas has already promised to kill an Israeli hostage every time Israel bombs a Palestinian home without warning. Israeli leadership now has to calculate the impact of potential execution videos on the nation’s resolve, and to what lengths they’ll go to get the captive civilians — many of whom are women and children — back. Further complicating the situation, President Joe Biden confirmed today that there are American citizens among those captured by Hamas, and said, “As president I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world.” Italian, Thai and Austrian citizens — some of whom had dual citizenship with Israel — have also reportedly been taken captive . Since the bloody attacks began, death tolls have only mounted — at last count , in Israel more than 1,000 are dead and 2,600 others are wounded, while in Gaza at least 900 are dead and another 4,600 are wounded after Israeli air strikes. An ill considered response could result in those numbers skyrocketing. To better understand how the situation might unfold and what’s going on in Israeli war rooms right now, POLITICO Nightly spoke with Christopher Costa, a former U.S. Army intelligence officer who spent 25 years involved in counterintelligence and served as special assistant to the President and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council from early 2017 to early 2018, focused in part on hostage response. Costa traveled to Israel many times in his career, meeting with the head of Mossad and Israel’s national security adviser, as well as with the President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What do planning meetings about how to deal with the hostage crisis look like right now?  What’s likely happening right now is Israel is trying to develop intelligence to identify the locations of where hostages are being held. So at the highest levels of the Israeli government, they’re laying out their intelligence and asking: Do we have anything that’s predictable, continuous and thorough on where the hostages are being held? There is no plan for a rescue until you can identify where the hostages are. And I will say that this problem that the Israelis are dealing with is not like the Iranians holding Americans in one location in 1979. In that case, the United States was able to put together a rescue because all the hostages were held in one place. My conjecture is that’s not what Hamas would do — they would not consolidate hostages in one location. They would put them all over Gaza in different locations, probably underground. How might threats to kill hostages affect the Israeli government’s decision-making?  When you start showing videos, hypothetically, of Israelis being killed as a reprisal for an Israeli strike that didn’t meet some kind of criteria: that Hamas was unaware of the strike or they were unable to move people (regardless, they’re not going to be honest brokers), then there’s going to be more pressure on the government. In a similar way, there was pressure on the United States to act when ISIS started beheading Americans in orange jumpsuits. It’s an emotional issue and passions are going to be unleashed on all sides of this fight by Israelis, and as well as Palestinians. Unbridled passion. I should say that there are gonna be some in the world that will celebrate Hamas as freedom fighters, and anybody that studies intelligence knows that that’s nonsensical. Hamas is a terrorist organization, by any definition. They have targeted and killed civilians. That is terrorism: targeting non combatants, civilians, children, women; they took hostages, they killed civilians. And Hamas has to be held accountable like a terrorist organization. So I don’t know how this is going to end. But I do know that it poses the ultimate strategic dilemma for Israel. I will say, there is hope that there are brokers in the region that can start to have communications with Hamas, like the Qatari government — they have a relationship, they can start talking to Hamas. Those aren’t going to be direct Israeli talks. But they certainly have a track record of de-escalating problems in the region, and they brokered with Afghanistan. So there is some diplomatic outreach that could play out, but the Israelis have to consider diplomatic, intelligence, military rescue responses, and they have to worry about the long term and the calculus of Iran as well. All of that has to be factored into the decision making. How long will it take the government to get a better count of the hostages? It’s hard to say, it’s hard for me to even conjecture. I think Israel is doing the math. And that might sound insensitive. But they’re doing the math based on witnesses that survived and identifying the bodies and interviewing witnesses. So I would say, in the next couple weeks, if not quicker than that, there will be a better accounting. Do you have the sense of what the coming days and weeks and months will look like on the ground? I want to see the West Bank stay stable. I want to see the Palestinian Authority step up. I want to caution Israeli settlers in the West Bank to remain calm. Terrorists want to cause an overreaction. Passions have come unleashed. So what I want to see is a proportional response, that destroys Hamas leadership and rank and file to the extent they can, just like the U.S. went after al Qaeda. And yet, I want to see a limited response so that civilians, to the extent that they can be protected, can be protected. The problem is, Hamas will hide among civilians. The worst case scenario is Iran and Syria get involved more directly, or Hezbollah in the north. That’s what I’m very concerned with. But I think there are possibilities in the next 30, 60, 90 days, where this can be de-escalated. A lot depends on what Iran does. A lot depends on what happens in the north. I think this is likely going to be a protracted conflict over months, not weeks. That’s only my calculus. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s authors at cmchugh@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @calder_mchugh .   GROWING IN THE GOLDEN STATE : POLITICO California is growing, reinforcing our role as the indispensable insider source for reporting on politics, policy and power. From the corridors of power in Sacramento and Los Angeles to the players and innovation hubs in Silicon Valley, we're your go-to for navigating the political landscape across the state. Exclusive scoops, essential daily newsletters, unmatched policy reporting and insights — POLITICO California is your key to unlocking Golden State politics. LEARN MORE .     WHAT'D I MISS? — Biden condemns ‘sheer evil’ of Hamas attack, urges Congress on aid for Israel: President Joe Biden today decried the brutal Hamas attack that killed hundreds of Israeli civilians as an act of “sheer evil,” and confirmed American hostages were among those taken in the assault. In a nod to the lengthy conflict ahead, he also appealed to Congress to support aid for the U.S. ally. The White House address marked the president’s second public response amid the eruption of violence in Israel, and came shortly after Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the administration’s support for the nation. — Georgia prosecutors: Trump elector strategy was political — not legal — advice: Georgia prosecutors say a key Trump campaign legal adviser’s memos — which guided efforts to subvert the 2020 election despite former President Donald Trump’s defeat — cannot be shielded by attorney-client privilege because they were about politics, not law . Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis argued today that the memos by Ken Chesebro, one of 18 defendants charged alongside Trump in a sprawling racketeering conspiracy related to the 2020 election, were not about a litigation strategy or legal advice, which would typically be protected by confidentiality rules. Rather, she contended, Chesebro had developed a strategy to derail the transfer of power from Trump to President Joe Biden by advocating efforts aimed at Congress, not the courts. — Dems file lawsuit challenging just-enacted North Carolina voting law: Two top Democratic organizations filed a lawsuit today challenging a Republican-backed North Carolina election law moments after it went into effect. The lawsuit, filed by Democratic National Committee and North Carolina Democratic Party, tackles multiple aspects of Senate Bill 747. But the plaintiffs are specifically seeking preliminary relief on the bill’s provisions on same-day registration, which require additional photo ID and address verification requirements. Under those provisions, if voters opt to do same-day registration but do not have their submitted information verified on time, the ballot could be withdrawn under the new laws. NIGHTLY ROAD TO 2024 NO MORE PULLED PUNCHES — Since the start of his presidential campaign, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has pulled his punches during speeches to voters, choosing not to attack the man leading him by 40 points in many national Republican primary polls. But, the New York Times reports, in recent stump speeches in California, South Carolina, Florida and Iowa, DeSantis has started attacking former President Donald J. Trump more directly , drawing laughter and applause from his audiences. Previously, DeSantis had talked about Trump, who helped secure his political rise, only when prompted by questions from voters or during interviews with the news media. No longer. STOP-TRUMP DONOR SUMMIT — The influential network of donors who joined forces to boost the 2012 presidential bid of Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul D. Ryan, are meeting in Park City, Utah today, where they will hear from four of the GOP presidential candidates who are trying to prove to donors that they are best positioned to defeat Donald Trump , reports the Washington Post. Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Mike Pence and Doug Burgum will all address those potential backers in closed-door sessions at the policy gathering known as the E2 Summit, which was launched by Romney before he became a U.S. senator from Utah and then helmed by Ryan, the former House Speaker, beginning in 2019. REINING IN IRAN — Gov. Ron DeSantis today pushed new proposals in Florida to rein in Iran , reaffirming his commitment to Israel just days after Hamas terrorists launched one of the worst attacks on the Jewish homeland in decades, reports POLITICO. The Florida governor, during a press conference in south Florida, called Iran a “clearinghouse for terrorist funding in the region” and asked the GOP-led Legislature for new Florida sanctions against Iran. He also asked lawmakers to block a broad array of other state or local investments in Iranian businesses in Florida, whether it be financial, construction, manufacturing and other sectors. AROUND THE WORLD Supporters of Niger's ruling junta gather at the start of a protest to push back against foreign interference in Niamey, Niger in August. The junta took power after a July coup against Niger’s democratically elected government. | Sam Mednick/AP Photo FORMAL OUSTING — The United States formally declared the ousting of Niger’s democratically elected president a coup d’etat today, more than two months after mutinous soldiers seized power, reports the Associated Press. Senior administration officials told reporters that the U.S. was taking action after exhausting all avenues to preserve constitutional order in the West African nation, including urging the military leaders to restore civilian rule within four months in compliance with the constitution. The coup designation comes with the suspension of counterterrorism assistance and military training as well as the pausing of certain foreign assistance programs worth hundreds of millions of dollars. “As time has passed it’s become clear that the (junta) officials that we’ve been dealing with did not want to abide by these constitutional guidelines and in fact they’ve told us that they’ve chosen to repeal that constitution and are in the process of creating a new draft with an uncertain timeline,” said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues. U.S. Ambassador to Niger Kathleen FitzGibbon remains in the country and has been in contact with the military junta, called the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, or CNSP, to address U.S. staff protection and logistical needs. Any resumption of suspended assistance will require action by the CNSP to usher in democratic rule in a quick and credible timeframe and the release of ousted President Mohamed Bazoum who’s been under house arrest with his wife and son since July, the administration officials said.   DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO APP: Stay in the know with the POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS  – DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID .     NIGHTLY NUMBER 25 The number of witnesses in Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C., criminal case — including a family member of the former president — who withheld information from special counsel Jack Smith’s team by citing attorney-client privilege , the special counsel revealed today. In a 14-page filing, Smith’s team indicated that those witnesses described maintaining legal confidences with Trump or his campaign that barred them from sharing certain testimony or documents. But Smith’s team says Trump himself may end up invalidating many of those claims if he chooses to argue during trial that his actions in 2020 were based on the advice of his lawyers. RADAR SWEEP MY TRADEMARK COLOR — Can you own a color? It turns out, you can, or at least a shade . In 2014, the artist Anish Kapoor bought exclusive rights to Vantablack, which at the time was the world’s blackest version of black, used by a company called Surrey NanoSystems. He’s not the only one — other artists Yves Klein and Elsa Schiaparelli have trademarked their own colors as well. Not everyone is happy with this ability, though, and the question of trademarking a color — as well as its fair use — has gone to court multiple times. Maia Mindel explains for the Substack Some Unpleasant Arithmetic how the legal fights have gone and why it’s such a controversial issue. PARTING IMAGE On this date in 1964: Japanese torchbearers of the Olympic flame relay team run through the rain on their way to the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. The Olympic Flame was lit by Yoshinori Sakai who was born in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the day a nuclear weapon destroyed the city. He symbolized the rebirth of Japan after the Second World War. | AP Photo Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   FOLLOW US

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POLITICO Nightly: Those stubborn recession fears

BY VICTORIA GUIDA Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at the Thomas Laubach Research Conference on May 19. | Win McNamee/Getty Images ‘AREAS OF PRECARITY’ — Optimism is blossoming on Wall Street and among CEOs that the economy won’t dip into a downturn, at least for the next couple of years. But those recession fears you keep hearing? They’re not going to go away entirely, no matter how good the data looks. (Sorry, Mr. President.) Before we get into why, let’s talk about just how well things have gone over the past year. Annual inflation has dropped from over 9 percent last July to 3 percent in June, as measured by the consumer price index. The national average gas price peaked at $5.01 in June 2022, and was $3.71 this month, according to AAA. Growth of GDP, which measures the size of the economy, actually accelerated in the second quarter of the year to a pace that, if sustained for a year, would clock in at 2.4 percent. That would be faster than growth in 2019, when the economy was pretty healthy. Meanwhile, unemployment is at 3.6 percent, which is exactly where it was when the Federal Reserve started its aggressive interest rate hike campaign. And wage growth is elevated but has been slowly decelerating, which is exactly the kind of thing that makes the Fed less worried about a resurgence in inflation. “Talking to our customers, they have been very worried about a downturn and over-hiring into a downturn,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. “Yet what we’ve often found is they’ve decided to be lean and conservative and then so many customers have come through the door that they’ve had to revise that plan.” “The economy is just stronger than management and leadership anticipated,” she added. So, all of this data makes some people ask, why do news outlets keep writing about a recession that never comes? The answer really comes down to the Fed. Even if economic trends are positive, central bank officials are determined to bring inflation back to their 2 percent target over the next couple of years. So they might hike rates further, if inflation doesn’t keep slowing, and even holding rates at current punishing levels will extract more and more pain over time. Take the corporate sector. A lot of businesses locked in low rates during the pandemic, but a lot of that debt is going to be coming due over the next couple of years, and they’ll suddenly be paying a lot more to borrow. That’s money that can’t go into investing in new equipment or facilities, or hiring new people. The same goes for consumers who had built up tidy savings buffers thanks to stimulus checks, breaks on student loan payments and other aid. As those savings dwindle, higher borrowing costs will bite more and more. “Look at the demand side effects of rate hikes, whether it’s higher mortgage rates cooling housing demand, stronger dollar cooling [foreign] demand [for U.S. goods], lower [stock] prices cooling consumer demand, you know, all those things have kind of either stabilized in the case of mortgage rates, or reversed in the case of the dollar and equities,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase. “But on the supply side, i.e. the cost channel, those effects probably build over time, rather than diminishing,” he added. Another prominent fear: something could break in the financial sector. Already multiple midsize banks failed earlier this year. And Pollak pointed out that banks aren’t the only firms holding assets that have declined in value, thanks to rising rates: insurance companies hold them, too. “Everything will be fine if they don’t have huge weather-related losses and need to pay these astronomical replacement costs for cars and houses that have become more expensive,” she said. Otherwise, property damage means those companies will have to sell assets at a loss to pay out claims, which could spell trouble. That doesn’t even get to a host of other threats, like how geopolitical events might affect food and energy prices. The upshot: “There are a whole lot of areas of precarity where everything will be okay if we’re lucky, and things could get pretty ugly if we’re not.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at vguida@politico.com or on Twitter at @vtg2 .   YOUR TICKET INSIDE THE GOLDEN STATE POLITICAL ARENA: California Playbook delivers the latest intel, buzzy scoops and exclusive coverage from Sacramento and Los Angeles to Silicon Valley and across the state. Don't miss out on the daily must-read for political aficionados and professionals with an outsized interest in California politics, policy and power. Subscribe today.     WHAT'D I MISS? — Georgia judge skewers Trump’s bid to derail potential charges: A state judge in Georgia has rejected Donald Trump’s bid to derail his potential prosecution for attempting to subvert the 2020 election results. In a nine-page ruling, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said it’s simply too soon for Trump or his allies to seek to prohibit Georgia prosecutors from continuing to investigate him — in large part because he hasn’t been indicted yet. — Massachusetts DA calls on DOJ to probe Florida migrant flights: The Massachusetts district attorney who represents the wealthy enclave where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew 49 migrants last September is now calling on the federal Justice Department to investigate the transport . Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland today asking DOJ to investigate allegations that the migrants were misled into getting on the planes that took them from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. — Biden reverses Trump, keeps Space Command in Colorado: President Joe Biden has determined that Colorado Springs will be the permanent headquarters of U.S. Space Command , reversing a Trump administration decision to move it to Alabama, according to two people with knowledge of the ruling. The decision will only intensify a bitter parochial battle on Capitol Hill, as members of the Colorado and Alabama delegations have spent months accusing each other of playing politics on the future of the four-star command. NIGHTLY ROAD TO 2024 RFK JR.’S HAUL — A super PAC supporting the presidential ambitions of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raised $6.47 million in July from a mix of major donors from both parties , according to a press release from American Values 2024 today. About $5 million of that haul came during his testimony in front of the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, POLITICO reports. DESANTIS ROLLS OUT ECON PLAN — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a new economic plan today as part of his 2024 presidential bid that includes a goal of easing the path for student loans to be discharged through bankruptcy, reports POLITICO. DeSantis’ “declaration of economic independence” includes 10 pillars that he says will “reverse the decline of our nation’s struggling economy and fight for the middle class.” The economic plan is the third major policy announcement DeSantis has made since launching his campaign — following his plan to secure the border and a plan for a “mission first military” — and comes as he continues to lag in polls. ALL COMES DOWN TO TURNOUT — Democrats are worried about a potential drop next year in turnout among Black voters, the party’s most loyal constituency, who played a consequential role in delivering the White House to President Biden in 2020 and will be crucial in his bid for reelection. Their concern stems from a 10 percentage-point decline in Black voter turnout in last year’s midterms compared with 2018, a bigger drop than among any other racial or ethnic group, according to a Washington Post analysis of the Census Bureau’s turnout survey . In key states like Georgia, the center of Democrats’ plans to mobilize Black voters in large margins for Biden in 2024, turnout in last year’s midterms was much lower among younger and male Black voters, according to internal party analysis. DESANTIS TAKES A HIT — A top anti-abortion group today called DeSantis’ failure to support federal abortion restrictions “unacceptable” — a blow for the Florida Republican, who has passed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, POLITICO writes. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America was responding to DeSantis’ recent interview with conservative commentator Megyn Kelly, in which the governor said abortion policy would be best decided by the states. “I’ve been a pro-life governor,” said DeSantis, who signed into law a controversial six-week ban on the procedure in Florida. “I’ll be a pro-life president and I’ll come down on the side of life.” DeSantis told Kelly he would “be a leader with the bully pulpit to help local communities and states advance the cause of life,” but that he lacked confidence that Congress would do “anything meaningful” on the issue. In response, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, criticized the governor, saying that calling for abortion restrictions despite obstacles in Congress “is where presidential leadership matters most.” AROUND THE WORLD Supporters of the Nigerien defense and security forces attack the headquarters of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism in Niamey on July 27, 2023. | AFP via Getty Images DON’T CALL IT A COUP — The Biden administration is refusing to call the military-backed ouster of Niger’s president a “coup,” knowing that doing so could trigger an end to U.S. security aid to a country that’s key to battling terrorism and curbing Russian influence in Africa, write Nahal Toosi and Lara Seligman . The reluctance is the latest example of President Joe Biden’s struggle to balance a stated reverence for democracy with the harsh reality of geopolitics, especially when it comes to partner nations tackling challenges such as extremism. Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, just recently transitioned to democracy in a region where coups have become frequent. Pressed on the hesitation to use the label for Niger, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller insisted today that the situation is “fluid” and still an “attempt” at removing Niger’s president, Mohamed Bazoum. “We are watching and monitoring the situation and trying to prevent President Bazoum from being removed from office,” Miller said. Over the weekend, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that the U.S. “economic and security partnership with Niger, which is significant, hundreds of millions of dollars” was in “clear jeopardy.” Reports from Niamey, Niger’s capital, show that Bazoum was taken captive by his bodyguards last week. The country’s military then endorsed the ouster, and Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, who oversees the presidential guards, declared he was leading a transitional government. The exact reasons for the coup are unclear, but Tchiani has spoken vaguely of the need to stop the country’s “demise.” But labeling the events “coup” — a legal determination, not simply a matter of using a word — could spur an end to U.S. military equipment and training, and potentially economic aid. Traditionally speaking, a coup d’etat is defined as an illegal seizure of power, often by a country’s military. KINGPIN ARRESTED — The leader of the European division of the Mexican Los Zetas drug cartel was arrested by Spanish authorities in Madrid today, writes Laura Hülsemann . The accused, who goes by the name of “Said,” is Moroccan and 54 years old, El Mundo reported. Four more cartel members were also apprehended. “A total of five people have been arrested in addition to the seizure of 400kg of narcotic substances and 220,000 euro in cash,” the Spanish National Police wrote. The cartel had been trying to establish a base in Spain and posting agents across Europe, especially the Netherlands, according to local media. The Spanish authorities collaborated with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the Colombian National Police in what constitutes the second biggest blow against the Zetas in Spain. In 2016, the Spanish police arrested Said’s predecessor, Juan Manuel Muñoz Luévano over money laundering and drug trafficking, El Pais reported.   HITTING YOUR INBOX AUGUST 14—CALIFORNIA CLIMATE: Climate change isn’t just about the weather. It's also about how we do business and create new policies, especially in California. So we have something cool for you: A brand-new California Climate newsletter. It's not just climate or science chat, it's your daily cheat sheet to understanding how the legislative landscape around climate change is shaking up industries across the Golden State. Cut through the jargon and get the latest developments in California as lawmakers and industry leaders adapt to the changing climate. Subscribe now to California Climate to keep up with the changes.     NIGHTLY NUMBER 60 percent The percentage of Americans who expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the American military according to a new Gallup poll , the lowest percentage in over two decades. That’s down from 64 percent who said the same last year. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, military confidence shot up and remained high at mostly above 70 percent for two decades before dipping to 69 percent in 2021. The confidence level has further declined since then — potentially linked to the U.S.’s rocky exit from Afghanistan. RADAR SWEEP POUR IT UP — Just because you have to be 21 to legally drink alcohol in the United States, that doesn’t mean you have to be that age to serve it to customers. Some states allow for 18-year-olds to serve. Now, though, across the countries there are new regulations being considered to lower that age even further . In Wisconsin, they’re talking about allowing 14-year-olds to work behind the bar. It’s a funny idea, a 14-year-old pouring someone a beer. But it’s also sparked a debate over both decades-old child labor regulations and the value of having a job as an adolescent. Wilfred Chan reports on the phenomenon for The Guardian. PARTING IMAGE On this date in 1969: Sen. Edward Kennedy walks into the Senate, his first time back at the Capitol since the accident on July 18, 1969 in Massachusetts on Chappaquiddick Island. Senator Kennedy was driving a car which went off a bridge, killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. | Henry Burroughs/AP Photo Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh Katherine Long @katherinealong   FOLLOW US

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