Obama’s return to the White House after a 5-year absence - The Washington Post

Today, former president Barack Obama returns to the White House for the first time since moving out in early 2017 to make way for the arrival of Donald Trump. Obama’s appearance, steeped in political theater, comes as Democrats are looking for a spark heading into the midterm elections. But there’s also some substance here: Obama will join President Biden in the East Room for an announcement expanding access to coverage under the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature health-care law signed in 2010.

Welcome to Post Politics Now, a new live experience from The Washington Post that puts the day’s political headlines into context. Each weekday, we’ll guide you through the news from the White House, Capitol Hill and campaign trail with assists from some of the best political reporters in the business providing insights and analysis.

Your daily dashboard

• 10:30 a.m. Eastern: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spoke at a conference of North America’s Building Trades Unions. Watch here.
• 1:30 p.m. Eastern: Biden and Obama deliver remarks on fixing the “family glitch” in the Affordable Care Act. Watch live coverage here.
• 3:30 p.m. Eastern: White House press secretary Jen Psaki provides a briefing. Watch live coverage here.
• 8 p.m. Pacific: Polls close in the special election to replace Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who left the House to lead Trump’s social media enterprise.

Got a question about politics? Submit it here. At 1:30 p.m. weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers.

Noted: Trump’s Truth Social network isn’t winning

Things aren’t going very well for Truth Social, the social network of former president Donald Trump.

The Post’s Drew Harwell and Josh Dawsey detail the woeful rollout of the app, which has been hamstrung by multiple technical issues, noting that Trump has been fuming about the situation. Drew and Josh write:

The app — a Twitter look-alike where posts are called “truths” — has seen its downloads plunge so low that it has fallen off the App Store charts. The company is losing investors, executives and attention. And though his adult sons just joined, Trump himself hasn’t posted there in weeks.

The company is being run by Devin Nunes, the former congressman from California who gave up the seat to guide Trump’s venture. Coincidentally, his seat is on the ballot in a special election Tuesday.

You can read the full story here.

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Bullet Key update

This just in: Upton, a Republican who has often crossed the aisle, is exiting U.S. House

Rep. Fred Upton (Mich.), a pragmatic Republican who has often crossed the aisle to work with Democrats, on Tuesday announced his plans to exit the House.

The Post’s Amy B Wang reports that Upton, who was one of 10 Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach President Donald Trump, announced his decision to retire on the House floor Tuesday morning and in an email to supporters. Amy writes:

Upton, who has served since 1987, also backed the bipartisan infrastructure bill and received death threats afterward for helping Biden get a legislative win.

“Even the best stories has a last chapter. This is it for me,” Upton said on the House floor. “Thanks, again, to the people of my district who placed their faith and confidence in me all these great years.”

You can read Amy’s full story here.

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Take a look: In new ad, Senate candidate J.D. Vance asks, ‘Are you a racist?’

“Are you a racist? Do you hate Mexicans?”

That’s how Ohio Republican J.D. Vance, who’s running for the U.S. Senate, opens a new campaign ad. The conservative commentator, previously best known for his book “Hillbilly Elegy,” quickly pivots to say the media calls “us” racists for wanting to build former president Donald Trump’s border wall. Vance then blames Biden for “more illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country.”

The ad is the latest attempt in a competitive GOP field to appeal to Trump voters. Trump himself has not endorsed a candidate in the race.

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On our radar: An election for a congressional seat in California that soon won’t exist

Polls will close Tuesday night in the first special congressional election of 2022 — for a seat that won’t exist when the year is over.

The Post’s David Weigel has all the details on the contest in California’s Central Valley, where six candidates are running to replace former congressman Devin Nunes (R). Dave writes:

California’s 22nd Congressional District, which stretches from eastern Fresno into some of the state’s biggest farming communities, became vacant in January when Nunes resigned to take over the Trump Media & Technology Group. As the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Nunes became a national figure in his party, and a target for Democrats, raising $12.7 million for his 2018 reelection and $26.8 million ahead of his 2020 win.

The candidates running to replace Nunes, in both parties, have raised a fraction of that, and both Republican and Democratic committees have largely ignored the race. While the district shifted left during Trump’s presidency, giving the ex-president just 52 percent of the vote in 2020 and 2016, it was pulled apart by the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission, whose adjusted borders will take effect in regular June primaries and the November election.

You can read Dave’s full story here.

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Bullet Key update

Noted: McCarthy’s record fundraising haul fuels GOP optimism

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced a first-quarter fundraising total of $31.5 million, believed to be the largest take by a House Republican. He has raised $104 million for the two-year cycle.

McCarthy’s fundraising prowess further fuels Republican optimism that the party will take control of the House in this year’s midterms. The first midterm election for a sitting president tends to be challenging for congressional members of his party.

McCarthy, who is angling to replace House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said in a statement touting his haul, “the energy and enthusiasm for Republicans to take back the House has never been stronger.”

His totals don’t include money raised when he appears at events for other Republican candidates or on behalf of a House GOP leadership-aligned super PAC.

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8:54 a.m.

Analysis: The role anger over Jan. 6 could play in the midterms

The House select committee probing the Jan. 6, 2001, insurrection by a pro-Trump mob has generated no shortage of headlines in recent months and its investigation is about to go public, with a series of open hearings planned. So this question looms large: How will this all resonate with voters?

The Post’s Jacqueline Alemany and Theodoric Meyer explore that question in The Early 202 with the help of transcripts from a series of focus groups via Zoom with people across the country paid for by progressive groups. Jacqueline and Theodoric write:

The sessions showed participants expressing a strong desire for accountability for attack and negative reactions to Republican lawmakers and candidates who downplayed its significance or seemed sympathetic to people who stormed the Capitol. Further, some of them said they viewed the issue as a reason to get out and vote against a candidate.

Still, it’s unclear whether anger about Jan. 6 like that expressed in the focus groups will play a big role in the midterms. You can read the full analysis here.

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8:15 a.m.

Annie Linskey, National reporter covering the White House.

Analysis: Did Ginni Thomas advocate for an insurrection?

Much has been said about Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in the wake of revelations that she repeatedly pressed then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows through text messages to pursue efforts to support President Donald Trump’s claims that he lost the 2020 election through fraud.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has accused Ginni Thomas of “advocating for an insurrection,” while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called her “an admitted and proud contributor to a coup.”

Writing in the Fact Checker, The Post’s Glenn Kessler notes that:

There is no question that the texts — 29 were supplied by Meadows to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack — show that Thomas believed in and touted a series of Four Pinocchio claims about alleged election fraud.

But are Klobuchar and Pelosi overstating the case? You can read Glenn’s full fact-check here and see what conclusion he reaches.

Bullet Key update

This just in: With Obama looking on, Biden to announce sought-after tweak to ACA rules

Obama’s return to the White House on Tuesday will have obvious political overtones, but there’s also substance to the event: Biden plans to announce a tweak to federal rules long sought by advocates that would allow millions of additional families to buy health plans through the insurance marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act.

The Post’s Amy Goldstein reports that tweak involves what is known in health-policy circles as the ACA’s “family glitch.” Amy explains:

It involves who is eligible to buy health plans with federal subsidies through HealthCare.gov, the federal ACA insurance marketplace that opened in 2014, or similar marketplaces in states that operate their own.

For the most part, those marketplaces are open to U.S. residents who do not have access to health benefits through a job. However, the law also contains a provision that lets people buy ACA health plans even if they have a job that offers health benefits. They can do that if monthly premiums would require them to spend roughly 10 percent or more of their household income on that coverage.

The wrinkle has been that, in calculating how big a bite an employers’ health plan would take out of a worker’s income, the amount has taken into account only the premiums for an individual insurance policy — not a policy that covers a workers’ spouse or children, too.

You can read Amy’s full story here.

Bullet Key update

The latest: Pelosi voices support for Senate deal on covid funding

In a statement late Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) expressed support for a bipartisan deal reached in the Senate for $10 billion in additional funding for the U.S. coronavirus response.

Her announcement, which landed in our inboxes shortly before midnight, sets up an interesting dynamic in the House, where many Democrats are already complaining about the lack of new funding for the global response to the pandemic, which Biden officials have said is critical to protect Americans from the emergence of new, potentially dangerous variants in other parts of the world.

“With the bipartisan agreement reached today in the Senate, the Congress moves closer to delivering urgently needed funding for President Biden’s pandemic response,” Pelosi said in her statement. “The House looks forward to considering this urgent package upon its passage in the Senate and sending it to the President’s desk for signature.”

Pelosi also noted her disappointment about the lack of global funding but suggested pursuing that in separate legislation. “No one is safe until everyone is safe — and House Democrats will continue fighting for more funding to vaccinate the world,” she wrote.

The Post’s Dan Diamond has details about what’s in the Senate package:

It would enable U.S. officials to purchase more therapeutics, tests, vaccines and other supplies, after the White House repeatedly warned that it needed more funding for those priorities. The legislation also calls on federal officials to invest at least $5 billion to develop and procure therapeutics, and at least $750 million in efforts to fight future variants and to build vaccine manufacturing capacity.

You can read Dan’s full story here.

Noted: To Rep. Greene, GOP supporters of Jackson are ‘pro-pedophile’

Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitt Romney (Utah) have broken with fellow Republicans to support the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. That is not sitting well with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who in her short time in Congress has established herself as a rabble-rousing promoter of conspiracy theories and misinformation.

Greene went on Twitter on Monday night, following a procedural vote on Jackson’s nomination, to declare that the trio of Republican senators are “pro-pedophile.”

“At this point, the line is clearly drawn when it comes to voting to confirm #KJB or not,” Greene opined. “You are either a Senator that supports child rapists, child pornography, and the most vile child predators. Or you are a Senator who protects children and votes NO to KJB!”

Greene’s tweets referred to a GOP line of attack that Jackson, as a federal trial court judge, had been too lenient in sentencing in child pornography cases. During Jackson’s confirmation hearing, representatives of the American Bar Association testified that the judge was actually very much in the mainstream when it came to handing out such sentences.

Romney has been particularly outspoken in his pushback against the Republican line of attack. He said last week that GOP senators’ aggressive questions on that subject were “off course” and that there was “no ‘there’ there.”

Bullet Key update

On our radar: Jackson on track for confirmation with some bipartisan support

Democrats have been eager to put a bipartisan stamp of approval on a Supreme Court nominee whom many Republicans have eagerly painted as soft on crime.

On Monday, Democrats got what they wanted, as the number of Republicans voicing support for the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson grew to three. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitt Romney (Utah) become the second and third Republicans to announce support for Jackson, joining Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), who publicly backed the judge last month.

The Post’s Mike DeBonis and Seung Min Kim recount the latest steps in the historic nomination of Jackson, who would be the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court in its 233-year history:

All 50 members of the Democratic caucus also backed Jackson in a 53-to-47 procedural vote Monday evening, but the late-breaking support of the two GOP senators represented a minor triumph for President Biden and congressional Democrats.

You can read Mike and Seung Min’s full story here.

Noted: How Trump’s grievances are roiling Michigan’s GOP

Former president Donald Trump put on a show of force last week in a Detroit suburb, drawing an adoring throng of 5,000 supporters who cheered his familiar — but false — claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen.”

The scene, however, belied a state of conflict and disorder roiling the Republican Party in Michigan, The Post’s Matthew Brown writes. In fact, Trump’s support of a growing list of local and statewide candidates pushing his election falsehoods has frustrated many Republican leaders. Matthew reports:

While party strategists and donors in the state mobilize for a competitive fight over control of the Michigan legislature, Trump’s preferred candidates have struggled to raise funds while Democratic rivals amass cash advantages. Moreover, some Republican leaders say, the spread of election conspiracies is alienating swing voters and undermining public trust of elections.

You can read Matthew’s full story here.