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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 2022
WEEK AHEAD GUIDANCE FOR THE WEEK OF MAY 23, 2022 – MAY 27, 2022
Monday, May 23, 2022
Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds his breath and his poker face.
Privately, the Chinese, Mitch McConnell, and most Democratic Senators attribute President Biden’s Taiwan remarks to the same thing.
Richard Haass and Ian Bremmer dissect the relative merits of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity the way I discuss the relative merits of Pizzeria Mozza versus Pizzeria Bianco.
2pm ET: Jonathan Swan of Axios interviews Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from Davos.
Mike Pence campaigns with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (and, thus, against Donald J. Trump). (Essential reading: 1) The Washington Post on the Republican Establishment defending its incumbent governors against Mr. Trump -- note the on-the-record Chris Christie quotes; 2) The New York Times with all this!:
In a statement ahead of Mr. Pence’s visit to Georgia, Mr. Trump belittled his vice president through a spokesman.
“Mike Pence was set to lose a governor’s race in 2016 before he was plucked up and his political career was salvaged,” said Taylor Budowich, the spokesman. “Now, desperate to chase his lost relevance, Pence is parachuting into races, hoping someone is paying attention. The reality is, President Trump is already 82-3 with his endorsements, and there’s nothing stopping him from saving America in 2022 and beyond….”
[Florida Governor] DeSantis, though, is hardly beloved among his fellow Republican governors, a group that’s unlikely to rally around him in the same fashion they did George W. Bush, then the Texas governor, in 2000.
“I know there’s a lot of talk on Fox News and stuff like that on the national level or in Florida but there’s really not talk about him here in New Hampshire,” Mr. Sununu said of Mr. DeSantis.
More vote counting in the Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary, after election workers mostly took the weekend off.
John Fetterman, out of the hospital, rests at home.
Mick’s assertion that Harry Styles doesn’t move like Jagger continues to roil several continents.
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
The President will participate in the second in-person Quad Leaders’ Summit at the Kantei Palace in Tokyo, Japan.
The President will participate in a working lunch with other Quad Leaders at the Kantei Palace in Tokyo, Japan.
The President will participate in a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India.
The President will participate in a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister-Designate Anthony Albanese of Australia.
The President will greet with staff of U.S. Embassy Tokyo at the Okura Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan.
The President will return to Washington, DC, to find this:
The Democratic majorities on Capitol Hill could scarcely be narrower. The party in power almost always loses in a president’s first midterm election — even absent the current overlapping national crises, some of which are beyond Mr. Biden’s control.
Gasoline prices just hit their highest level ever nationwide over the weekend. The president’s approval rating plunged in an Associated Press poll to a new low of 39 percent. The stock market dropped for the seventh consecutive week. Violent crime rates have spiked. A baby formula shortage has alarmed parents. And inflation remains high.
“The problem is not messaging — the problem is reality,” said Representative Ritchie Torres, Democrat of New York, citing inflation as the “greatest obstacle to retaining the majority….”
In Washington, much of the Biden agenda is frozen in a congressional morass. The party’s left wing and centrists are busily blaming each other for the state of affairs and clashing over what to do next, with student loan forgiveness emerging as one divisive flashpoint.
Inside the White House, whose political operation has been a subject of quiet griping in some corners for months, a furious effort is afoot to reframe the 2022 elections as a choice between the two parties, rather than a referendum on Democratic rule. Anita Dunn, an aggressive operator and longtime Biden adviser, has rejoined the administration to sharpen its messaging.
“The Democratic base is quite demoralized at this moment,” Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, one of the party’s leading progressive voices, put it bluntly. (New York Times)
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Mr. Biden and his advisers are already grappling with inflation trending near a four-decade high, wavering consumer confidence and headwinds posed by Russia’s war in Ukraine….
The White House faces two hurdles. Economic concerns rate highly among voters, so messages about the strength of the economy risk falling flat. And changing the direction of the economy is only partly within the administration’s control, with the strongest levers held by the Fed. The central bank is mounting an aggressive effort to tame inflation without substantially slowing the labor market and the broader economy, a feat some economists say may be difficult to accomplish. (Wall Street Journal)
Primaries in Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Minnesota, and Arkansas.
Kellyanne Conway’s book is officially released. (Essential reading: The Washington Post write-up, with the cleverly crafted Jared Kushner sections highlighted.)
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Some in the media declare Donald Trump’s political influence greatly diminished in the wake of the election results in Georgia.
8pm ET: Paul McCartney plays Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, FL.
Thursday, May 26, 2022
The illegal invasion of Ukraine, the pandemic, the crossings over the Mexican border, and inflation all continue.
Friday, May 27, 2022
Unofficial start of summer; last day of school for some.
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