What to Know in Washington: Haley Suffers Nevada Primary Loss

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Nikki Haley suffered an embarrassing loss in yesterday’s largely symbolic Republican Nevada presidential primary, coming in second place to the “none of these candidates” option on the ballot.

No delegates were at stake and Haley didn’t campaign in Nevada, contending the dynamics gave former President Donald Trump an advantage.

Trump didn’t contest the Republican primary as he will partake in the party’s caucus tomorrow, where he is the only major candidate running and is slated to receive all of the state’s delegates.

Haley’s next contest with Trump occurs on Feb. 24 in South Carolina, where she was once the governor. Polls have put him far out in front.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden secured an easy victory in Nevada just three days after he delivered a commanding win in South Carolina’s primary, the first official contest of the Democratic process — securing over 96% of the vote there.

Biden’s longshot challenger for the nomination, Rep. Dean Phillips (Minn.), who finished third in South Carolina, did not appear on the Nevada ballot.

The president held a rally in Las Vegas’ west side on Sunday in a historically Black neighborhood, focusing his attention on Trump ahead of an expected rematch. Biden touted his economic agenda and the gains he says Black and Latino voters have enjoyed under his administration, noting those advances are threatened if Trump returned to the White House.

In the 2020 general election, Biden won Nevada aided by support among Hispanic voters — the state’s largest non-White voting group — and 80% of the Black vote. A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll released last week, however, found Biden trailing Trump in the state by 48% to 40% in a hypothetical rematch. Hadriana Lowenkron and Lauren Dezenski have more from the campaign trail.

BIDEN’S AGENDA

The president will attend three campaign receptions in New York City between 2 and 7 p.m.

CONGRESS’ SCHEDULE

The House is back at 9 a.m. to vote on limiting measurements for medical treatments that place different values on patients’ lives.
The Senate meets at noon and will likely reject a bipartisan border security package on a procedural vote to advance the legislative vehicle.
For the full agenda read BGOV’s Congress Tracker.

Israel Aid, Mayorkas Impeachment Both Fail In House

SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON (R-La.) suffered a stunning defeat yesterday evening when Republicans narrowly failed to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It took just three GOP lawmakers to break from party leaders, arguing that discontent with the secretary didn’t meet the constitutional threshold for removal from office.

Johnson spokesperson Raj Shah said on social media that Republicans “fully intend to bring Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas back to the floor when we have the votes for passage.” That vote could come within days. Read more.
Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) delivered the dramatic tie vote that prevented the impeachment, entering the House chamber in a wheelchair just as it looked like Johnson had barely enough votes to get the articles approved. Green had been recovering from emergency surgery and returned to the hospital after voting, where he spoke to Billy House.

MOMENTS LATER, Johnson lost a second vote on Israel war aid, underscoring the tentative grasp he holds on the speakership of a small and fractious majority. In all, 166 Democrats and 14 Republicans voted against the measure.

Biden had threatened to veto the measure because it didn’t include funds for Ukraine, leading most Democrats to oppose it. Many progressives also assailed the bill because it didn’t include humanitarian aid for Palestinians. Republican fiscal conservatives also opposed the legislation because its $17.6 billion price tag was not offset by cuts elsewhere in the federal budget.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Mike McCaul (R-Texas) said that the next step may be for the Senate to try to pass a Ukraine and Israel aid package without border provisions. That would shift the problem again to the House, where ultra-conservatives staunchly oppose Ukraine funding. Read more.

Also Happening on the Hill

DEFENSE SECRETARY LLOYD AUSTIN agreed to testify before the House Armed Services Committee about his decision to keep secret his recent hospitalization from Biden and other national security officials, according to a panel spokesperson. Read more.

SENATORS criticized top executives at McKinsey & Co. and the Boston Consulting Group for not fully cooperating with an investigation into the merger of the PGA Tour with Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf. Read more.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY’S fast-track attempt to strengthen legal protections for victims of online child sexual abuse failed yesterday, less than a week after Hawley (R-Mo.) and other senators aggressively accused major social media platforms of facilitating online child exploitation. Read more.

SENATE REPUBLICANS said there was no hurry to move a tax bill before an upcoming two-week recess, maintaining a call for the Senate Finance Committee to consider the bill in a markup during which lawmakers vote on amendments. Read more.

THE HOUSE will vote as soon as today to prohibit Medicaid and other federal health programs from using certain cost-effectiveness metrics. Read more.

TAX CREDITS now helping underwrite many electric vehicle purchases are top targets if Republicans win the White House or strengthen their grip on Capitol Hill in November.

While it’s unlikely Republicans would mount a wholesale congressional attack on Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, a GOP president could easily rewrite Treasury Department rules to make the law’s tax credits harder to claim. Read more.

People, Power, and Politics

TRUMP is targeting the European Union for a potential slew of punitive trade measures designed to address long-standing grievances should he retake office, according to people familiar with his team’s nascent economic-platform discussions. Read more.

BIDEN will attend a trio of fundraisers today hosted in New York by Willett Advisors CEO Steve Rattner; former Goldman Sachs managing director Lawrence Linden, along with his wife, Dana Linden, a journalist and philanthropist who works on Israeli issues; and Ramon Tallaj, a doctor on New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s Covid-19 recovery task force who is chair of the nonprofit SOMOS Community Care. The event will be co-hosted by his wife, Ines Hernández Tallaj, according to information about the fundraisers obtained by Bloomberg. Read more.

THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT won’t file charges against Biden over his handling of classified documents found in his private home and office, but an investigative report will be critical of his actions, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday. Read more.

GOP NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIR Ronna McDaniel is in discussions with party leadership to step down by the end of this month after facing pressure from Trump, according to people familiar with the plans. Read more.

What Else We’re Watching

FOUR BOLTS that should have prevented a panel from flying off an Alaska Airlines jet at 16,000 feet were apparently missing, investigators said, fueling more scrutiny about manufacturer Boeing’s ability to ensure the safety of its planes. Read more.

QATAR says HAMAS has delivered a positive response to a proposal to halt fighting in Gaza in exchange for the release of some Israeli hostages, but a deal may still be far off.

Biden said the Palestinian militant group’s response was “a little over the top” and emphasized that negotiations haven’t finished.
Hamas wants a 135-day truce that can be rolled out in three stages, Alarabiya TV reported. The first stage would involved the release of Israeli civilian hostages, the delivery of more aid to Gaza, and Israeli forces withdrawing from civilian areas in Gaza. The second would include the release of the remaining hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners and withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza, Alarabiya said. The final stage is for another 45 days of cease-fire and the exchange of corpses between Israel and Hamas.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he won’t accept a complete stop to the war or a full military withdrawal from Gaza. Read more.

VETERANS and others seeking compensation from the government for harmful exposure to toxic water at Camp Lejeune won’t have their cases heard by a jury, a panel of federal judges said. Read more.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kayla Sharpe at ksharpe@bloombergindustry.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giuseppe Macri at gmacri@bgov.com; Jeannie Baumann at jbaumann@bloombergindustry.com

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