Post Politics Now: Ronna McDaniel seeks to hang on as RNC chair

President Biden had no public appearances Friday, while Vice President Harris hosted the first White House Lead Pipes Summit, in which she discussed efforts to replace lead pipes across the country. On Friday evening, the president will head to Camp David. Here’s what we’ll be watching this weekend:

The night of Jan. 6, 2021, Brian D. Sicknick texted his brother, exhausted but in good spirits after an hours-long battle defending the U.S. Capitol: “I smell like BO, weed, OC spray and CS gas.”

A day later, Kenneth Sicknick learned from another text message that his youngest brother, a U.S. Capitol Police officer, had died at age 42.

On Friday, a man who attacked Brian D. Sicknick with chemical spray at the Capitol was sentenced to 80 months — nearly seven years — behind bars. Julian Khater, 32, pleaded guilty in March to assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon.

We now have the graphic footage of Paul Pelosi’s assault. And its release should conclusively quash the conspiracy theories lodged not just by random internet users but also by prominent GOP lawmakers and conservative pundits.

The Pelosi episode has offered a case study in how, even in the aftermath of a life-threatening attack, falsehoods and innuendo spread. (The New York Times quite literally used it as such.)

As Aaron Blake writes, many of these theories were lodged after publicly available evidence undermined them. Some were seeded by errant initial reporting and confusion, but were still promoted even after the record had been corrected. When they didn’t contradict the available evidence, they were often extraordinarily speculative. When they weren’t stated as fact, they were extremely suggestive.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff’s 2024 campaign for Senate has raised $1.6 million since the California Democrat announced his bid Thursday.

According to Schiff for Senate, the total came from more than 47,000 individual contributors, with the average gift amounting to $33.79.

Schiff, 62, joined a growing field of Democrats who are seeking to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has not said whether she will seek reelection.

In a statement, Schiff said he is “humbled by the overwhelming support from thousands of Californians who joined Team Schiff on Day One.”

Spotted at the RNC: Sarah Palin, supporting a resolution against ranked-choice voting. The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee lost a House race last year as the state uses ranked-choice voting.

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has been reelected, quelling a revolt within the fractured party.

McDaniel will serve a fourth two-year term as party chair as the RNC opted not to punish her for the GOP’s recent string of electoral defeats.

As Isaac Arnsdorf, Dylan Wells and Josh Dawsey report, McDaniel fended off a challenge from Harmeet Dhillon, a California lawyer who has represented former president Donald Trump and the unsuccessful Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. Dhillon seized on grass-roots furor demanding new leadership. McDaniel positioned herself as a steady hand who can hold together the party’s factions and continue building out the RNC’s financial and field resources. She prevailed on the first ballot, 111 to 51.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made brief remarks Friday hours after police body-camera footage was released showing the attack on her husband, Paul, in their San Francisco home.

“As you know today, there was release of some information,” she said. “I have not heard the 911 call. I have not heard the confession. I have not seen the break-in and I have absolutely no intention of seeing the deadly assault on my husband’s life.”

She thanked the people who have offered their prayers for her husband, and said he is making progress in his recovery “but it will take more time.”

Reporter on the breaking political news team

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) will join the House Judiciary Committee. Schiff’s appointment to the panel comes days after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) angered Democrats for refusing to sit Schiff on the House Intelligence Committee, a panel Schiff chaired for years.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Friday formally appointed Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee despite a vow by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to seek to remove her from the panel.

McCarthy has said he wants to remove Omar from the committee because of “repeated antisemitic and anti-American remarks,” a reference to her using an antisemitic trope, for which she apologized, and comparing actions by the United States to those of terrorists groups, which she later clarified.

The vote for RNC chairman is a secret ballot, on folded pieces of paper.

Lenar Whitney of Louisiana nominates Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow and Trump ally, for RNC chairman. “A warning: We appear to many of our faithful constituents, the Republican activists, as out of touch with their wants and their needs. There is a deep concern among our strongest and most loyal supporters that we no longer listen to them,” Whitney says. Lindell is second only to former president Donald Trump in standing up to the “corrupt Democrat apparatus that demands fealty to the machines.”

“We as a party have to be in the strongest position to win elections … Harmeet will put us in a position to win,” Robin Armstrong says. “We have the opportunity to elect a chair of the RNC who has the approval and the excitement of almost all of our grass roots activists back at home.” Laura Nakanelua of Hawaii seconds the nomination.