Updated April 11, 2022 at 8:31 p.m. EDT|Published
April 11, 2022 at 7:38 a.m. EDT
Today, President Biden waded back into the politically fraught politics of gun control, announcing steps to crack down on “ghost guns,” which he said have become “weapons of choice for many criminals.” During a Rose Garden event, Biden acknowledged the executive actions stemmed from an inability to get such measures through Congress and pushed back against the gun lobby’s contention that what he is doing is “extreme.” He repeated calls for Congress to pass an assault-rifle ban and other stalled measures.
Biden also formally announced the nomination of Steve Dettelbach, a former U.S. attorney in Ohio, to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The bureau has been without a Senate-confirmed leader since 2015. Biden’s announcements come in a midterm election year in which Republicans are eager to brand his party as soft on crime and Democrats are seeking to push back. Biden repeated his opposition to the “defund the police” movement, saying he favors additional investments.
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 with assists from some of the best political reporters in the business providing insights and analysis.
Your daily dashboard
- 11 a.m. Eastern: Biden met virtually with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. Watch coverage here.
- 1 p.m. Eastern: White House press secretary Jen Psaki briefed the news media. Watch coverage here.
- 2:15 p.m. Eastern: Biden announced action by his administration to fight gun crime. Watch coverage here.
- 4:15 p.m. Eastern: Vice President Harris announced actions on medical debt. Watch coverage here.
Got a question about politics? Submit it here. At 3 p.m. weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers.
On our radar: Biden to visit Iowa; Okla. governor expected to sign restrictive abortion bill
And that’s a wrap on Monday, which brought new updates on the Biden administration’s fight for gun-control measures. Congress is on recess — and will be for the next two weeks — but that doesn’t mean national politics remain stagnant. Here are some of the developments we will keep an eye out for on Tuesday, all of which take us a few steps beyond the Beltway:
- Biden will visit central Iowa to talk oil prices. The president is traveling to Iowa on Tuesday, where he will visit an ethanol processing plant and deliver remarks on his administration’s actions to reduce the impact of gas prices. The president also will talk about the bipartisan infrastructure deal and its impact in rural communities.
- Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) is expected to sign a sweeping abortion ban. Under the bill, performing an abortion in the state would become a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The measure, which would ban most abortions in Oklahoma, makes no exceptions for rape or incest. The ban would take effect this summer and is likely to face legal challenges.
- Former vice president Mike Pence will speak at the University of Virginia. He will appear at an event hosted by the conservative Young America’s Foundation at 7 p.m. Eastern.
The latest: DeSantis again flexes his power in Florida
In a rare move, the Republican-led Florida legislature will not redraw the state’s congressional map and instead will hand those powers to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
The decision, finalized by state Senate President Wilton Simpson and state House Speaker Chris Sprowls, is the latest sign of the governor’s hold on state politics.
DeSantis has long called for more power in redrawing his state’s congressional map, shocking his Republican colleagues in January when he published his own version that was far more favorable to Republicans than the bipartisan one drawn by the legislature. Among the most drastic changes in that redraw was DeSantis’s erasure of a district that runs along the northern border and is represented by a Black Democrat, Rep. Al Lawson.
When the state legislature didn’t approve his plan, he vetoed the maps that lawmakers sent him and called on the legislature to host a special session to work on new maps.
DeSantis’s moves make the unusual decision by Republican lawmakers to hand him redistricting powers nothing short of a concession of defeat.
As our colleagues Colby Itkowitz and Lori Rozsa report, there is little the Democrats can do to fight the decision because neither the Florida House nor Senate needs Democrats to form a quorum.
As Mac Stipanovich, a longtime Republican strategist in the state, put it to Colby and Lori:
“The legislature has abdicated its responsibility, the leaders in the Republican Party in the legislature have abandoned all principle. It’s just all about maintaining and acquiring power and holding on to office. What we’re witnessing is a mile marker on the road to one-man rule in Florida, at least for the time being.”
7:00 p.m.
White House expects ‘extraordinarily elevated’ inflation figure — The White House is girding for bad economic news Tuesday when fresh inflation numbers come out.White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued a warning in Monday’s briefing that “we expect March CPI headline inflation to be extraordinarily elevated” and blamed the anticipated increase on the energy crunch in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Psaki added that the White House expects a large difference between “core” and “headline” inflation figures, noting that core inflation does not include the prices of energy and food — two sectors in which prices have risen significantly.The monthly consumer price index report will be issued Tuesday morning. February’s report showed costs were rising at a 7.5 percent annual rate — the fastest pace in 40 years.Inflation is perhaps the biggest political threat to Democrats in the November midterm elections and to Biden’s presidency. Biden plans to discuss rising costs in Iowa on Tuesday, but he has spent most of this year focused on the war in Europe and little time making a case that he has a plan to deal with inflation.Biden’s team initially shrugged off the significance of rising costs, saying over the summer that inflation would not last long. Since then, they’ve changed tune and are trying to make a case that Democratic policies will ultimately bring down costs.Republicans are not buying it — and see the high costs at the pump and in grocery stores as a potent line of attack.
Annie Linskey
,
National reporter covering the White House.
Take a look: Meet Willow Biden, the White House’s most adorable resident
First lady Jill Biden introduced Willow, the first cat, in a video published in collaboration with the Dodo, an outlet that shares images and news about animals.
Take a look:
Willow Biden is the first cat in the White House since President George W. Bush’s cat, India, who arrived in 2009. Willow is a 2-year-old gray-and-white short-haired tabby named after the first lady’s hometown of Willow Grove, Pa. Jill Biden and Willow first met when the kitten wandered into one of her campaign stops at a western Pennsylvania farm in 2020.
Analysis: Gun-control activists struggle to remain optimistic about reform
correction
A previous version of this post said that the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., happened in 2016. The shooting took place in 2018. This post has been corrected.
Though they joined Biden at the White House on Monday morning to support the administration’s new measures targeting ghost guns, gun-control activists remain skeptical that meaningful gun reform can be achieved in the near term.
In a statement released Monday, March for Our Lives, the organization formed in the aftermath of the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., said that, while its membership applauded Biden’s actions, the activists remain “clear-eyed that in many ways today’s announcement simply brings us to square one.”
The group noted that Biden’s nomination of Steven Dettelbach to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives comes much later than expected — about seven months after his first nominee was pulled from consideration after bipartisan Senate pushback.
“It remains to be seen whether the White House will mount a serious advocacy campaign in the Senate to usher in only the second ATF Director in fifteen years,” the group said. “We’ve yet to see any significant changes to the President’s lobbying strategy on t
his or any other gun violence prevention proposal that would indicate success.”
David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland shooting and a co-founder of March for Our Lives, was in attendance at the White House event Monday.
The activists celebrated Biden’s action to stop the proliferation of ghost guns through the Justice Department, and noted that the move shows that more can be done to address gun violence without going through partisan fights in Congress. For starters, the activists said, Biden could name a “cabinet-level Director of Gun Violence Prevention … without the need for congressional approval.”
Your questions, answered: What’s the point of the U.N. if it does nothing but talk as Russia continues attacking Ukraine?
What’s the point of the United Nations if they do nothing but talk as Russia continues attacking Ukraine? asks our reader Robert T., from Virginia.
The United Nations’ main function is to preserve international peace and security through its Security Council. The council has several ways of securing peace, including mediation, negotiation, arbitration or the International Court of Justice.
But the power of the Security Council is finite, and Russia’s invasion proved that.
One of the main issues is that Russia is one of the Security Council’s five permanent members, giving it power to veto the council’s “procedural matters.” A negative vote by any of the five members prevents the adoption of resolutions by the whole council.
Russia has blocked a resolution condemning its invasion.
Per U.N. rules, if a measure fails to pass the Security Council, the General Assembly has the power to hold an emergency special session and adopt a resolution through a vote of the larger membership — and it did so, on March 1, when it adopted a resolution that condemned “the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine.”
But General Assembly resolutions are not binding, and Russia isn’t forced to implement them.
Because of this, the General Assembly last Thursday voted to suspend Russia from its human rights council, a rare move.
So you could say that the point of the United Nations is to mark how wrong — by multiple international standards — Russia’s invasion is. But it is limited in what it can do to punish Russia.
The latest: Durbin praises ATF nominee while anticipating Senate opposition
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has gone seven years without a Senate-confirmed leader.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Monday that Biden’s nominee, former U.S. attorney Steve Dettelbach, is an excellent choice while acknowledging the upcoming fight over the nomination.
“Confirming a qualified nominee to lead ATF should be a unifying priority in the Senate, yet the problem is the same one that has foiled ATF confirmations since 2015: the gun lobby,” Durbin said in a statement. “Mr. Dettelbach … is well-equipped to lead this agency and enforce the laws on the books to help reduce illicit gun trafficking and straw purchases.”
Biden’s first nominee, David Chipman, faced bipartisan pushback despite being a career ATF agent because he worked for a gun-control group after leaving the agency.
Though Dettelbach has no experience working for ATF, he noted in remarks at the White House that throughout his career he has had the opportunity to collaborate with its agents, in cases that included the deadliest home arson in Cleveland history and the prosecution of a “bigot who drove from Indiana to outside Toledo to torch the largest mosque in Ohio.”
He has also partnered with ATF for decades, Dettelbach added, “in its crucial fight against gun violence.”
“Americans still face fear and isolation, not because of a virus, but because of an epidemic of firearms violence,” he said.
The latest: Biden, holding a ghost gun, announces new crackdowns on the weapons
President Biden held a half-built ghost gun at a table near the lectern on the White House lawn Monday as he announced new measures to stop the proliferation of the untraceable weapons.
The president has made gun regulation a centerpiece of his administration, and has specifically drawn attention to the spread of ghost guns — weapons that can be obtained by anyone, can be built at home and have no tracking number, making them invisible to the criminal justice system.
According to the White House, the new Justice Department rule bans the business of manufacturing the most accessible ghost guns, including “buy build shoot” kits that anyone can buy online or at a store without a background check.
The president on Monday demonstrated how these kits work, holding the disassembled ghost gun before the crowd and noting they “are weapons of choice for many criminals” because of how easily they can be obtained and hidden.
“Not hard to put together,” Biden noted. “ … A felon, a terrorist, [a] domestic abuser [can] go from a gun kit to a gun in as little as 30 minutes.”
The president said he had “trouble” passing such legislation through Congress, and accused the gun lobby of trying to slow these measures, saying the National Rifle Association described the rule as “extreme.”
“Let me ask you, is it extreme to protect police officers and protect our children?” Biden asked. “[Is it] extreme to keep guns out of the hands of people who couldn’t even pass a background check?”
The latest: White House confirms Russian oil imports was part of Biden’s agenda with Modi
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, India has picked up the pace of its purchase of Russian crude oil. India has bought at least 13 million barrels of Russian oil since the country invaded Ukraine in late February, according to a Reuters report. That compares with about 16 million barrels for the entirety of last year.
Not surprisingly, that issue came up during Biden’s virtual meeting Monday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Post’s Felicia Sonmez reports:
Biden told Modi that it is not in India’s interests to increase Russian energy imports, the White House said Monday after a virtual meeting between the two leaders.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the meeting between Biden and Modi was “productive” and not “adversarial.” At the same time, she said Biden “made clear that we would be happy to help them in diversifying” their energy imports. India imports about 1 to 2 percent of its energy from Russia and about 10 percent from the United States, Psaki said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki added that India is not in violation of any international sanctions against Russia by continuing with Russian energy imports.
You can read Felicia’s full account here in The Post’s live update file devoted to the war in Ukraine.
Noted: Pelosi tests negative for coronavirus, will leave isolation Tuesday
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who last week tested positive for the coronavirus, said Monday that she has “happily” tested negative.
In a tweet, Pelosi said she’ll be leaving isolation Tuesday “at the direction of the Capitol’s Attending Physician and consistent with [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines for asymptomatic individuals.”
In her tweet, Pelosi thanked “everyone for their good wishes, chocolates and chicken soup.”
Pelosi did not attend the Gridiron Club dinner, held Saturday, April 2, after which more than a dozen guests — including two Cabinet members, three members of Congress and a top aide to Harris — tested positive for the virus.
Pelosi’s positive coronavirus test raised alarms in Washington, given that it came right after she was photographed next to Biden at two White House events. White House officials, however, dismissed the possibility that Biden could’ve been exposed to the virus by arguing that the two vaccinated politicians were close to each other maskless for under 15 minutes which, under CDC guidelines, means the risk of exposure was low.
Biden, who according to press secretary Jen Psaki is tested on a regular basis, tested negative for the virus.
1:21 p.m.
A dramatic shift in Los Angeles — A new poll shows the Los Angeles mayoral race shifting dramatically over the past few weeks, with Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) falling from a clear lead into a tie with billionaire business executive Rick Caruso.The UC Berkeley IGS/Los Angeles Times poll in February found Bass supported by 32 percent of registered voters, with no other candidate in the crowded, nonpartisan race breaking into double digits. That was before Caruso, a developer of high-end shopping malls, loaned his campaign $10 million. That funded digital and TV ads about his plans to hire more police officers, declare a “state of emergency” and clear homeless encampments while no other candidate was on the air.The spending has pushed Caruso from 8 percent support in February to 24 percent in the new poll, conducted March 29 to Tuesday, while Bass’s support declined to 23 percent. Over the same period, Caruso picked up the support of the LAPD’s police union, while Bass got an endorsement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Ten other candidates qualified for the June 7 ballot; none were polling higher than 6 percent.Los Angeles has not elected a Republican mayor since 1997; Caruso, a former Republican who has donated to both major parties, became a Democrat just days before launching his campaign.The top two finishers in the June 7 primary will face off again in November, with the winner replacing term-limited Mayor Eric Garcetti, a Democrat whose nomination for ambassador to India has foundered in the U.S. Senate.
David Weigel
,
National reporter covering politics
Noted: Walker says he got an offer he could refuse
Former Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) is running for the state’s open Senate seat and is giving some fellow party members a headache by doing so.
Walker on Monday revealed that he had received several “deals” to drop out of the Senate race and endorse one of his top primary opponents, current Rep. Ted Budd (R) — who has received former president Donald Trump’s endorsement. In exchange for his exit, Walker was told he’d get the chance to appear as a “surprise guest” at a rally Trump held in North Carolina on Saturday.
If he had cooperated, Walker said, he would have been “‘praised by a couple of the speakers for being a ‘great conservative.’”
“I didn’t play this game in DC and I won’t do it now,” Walker said in a statement. “I refused their offer.”
The North Carolina GOP primary to nominate a candidate for the seat held by retiring Sen. Richard Burr (R) has been quite the contentious fight, because some of the state’s top Republicans jumped into the race. In addition to Walker and Budd, former governor Pat McCrory is also running.
Some Republicans want Walker out of the race because his exit would make things less complicated for Budd, who is at the top of the polls, with McCrory behind him. Winners in North Carolina primary contests must win by at least 30 percent of the vote, plus one. If no candidate reaches this threshold, the second-highest vote-getter can request a runoff, a likely possibility considering the candidates in the GOP primary.
Biden embarking on tour to highlight investments in rural America
As Democrats continue an effort to spread word of their accomplishments ahead of the midterm elections, the White House announced Monday that Biden administration officials are embarking on a “Rural Infrastructure Tour” to talk to Americans in small towns about what his administration has achieved thus far.
The Post’s Eugene Scott has details:
“I am proud today that my Administration is launching a rural infrastructure tour to double down on our unwavering commitment to building a better America where rural communities thrive,” Biden said. “In the coming weeks and beyond, Cabinet members and senior administration officials will crisscross the country to meet with, listen to, and deliver infrastructure investments to rural communities.”
While Republicans tend to dominate in rural areas, Democrats have long argued they can make inroads by emphasizing the economic benefits of their legislative initiatives.
In addition to the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last fall, Biden officials are also expected to tout benefits to rural communities of earlier coronavirus relief efforts.
The White House said the tour would hit dozens of rural communities in coming weeks. More than a half-dozen Cabinet officials plan to participate.
On our radar: Russia issue on the table as Biden meets virtually with India’s Modi
At the outset of a virtual meeting with Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday stressed his country’s interest in peace between Russia and Ukraine, said reports of Russian troops killing civilians were “very worrying” and stressed the humanitarian assistance his country has provided to Ukraine.
The news media was permitted only to witness introductory comments by both leaders, but it seemed likely that the Ukraine war would loom large in their closed discussions. India has remained neutral in the war and has been purchasing Russian crude oil at a greater clip than last year.
Last week, India also abstained when the U.N. General Assembly voted to suspend Russia from its seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council. That move followed allegations that Russian soldiers had engaged in war crimes in Ukraine.
In his opening remarks Monday, Biden said the United States and India would “continue our close consultation on how to manage the destabilizing effects of this Russian war.”
Taking his turn, Modi said he has spoken recently to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and suggested that the two hold direct talks aimed at peace.
“We have also emphasized the importance of the security of civilians in Ukraine and the unhindered supply of humanitarian assistance to them,” Modi said, adding that India would soon provide more humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
10:46 a.m.
The Biden administration on Monday is set to roll out new regulations on “ghost guns” — kits that allow buyers to assemble firearms without a serial number. What the administration is promoting isn’t wholly new: It released the proposed restrictions in May. But that proposal had to go through the federal rulemaking process — with members of the public allowed to submit comments — and the final version is what Biden and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco are talking about Monday.What the new rule does is a bit technical, but, put simply, it will require retailers to run background checks before selling the kits and to affix a serial number to a firearm’s “frame or receiver,” which helps authorities trace it if it’s used in a crime. It also requires federally licensed firearms dealers to retain key records until they shut down their business; previously, they were allowed to destroy such records after 20 years.Biden and the Justice Department have repeatedly touted their efforts to crack down on ghost guns, which the administration says are increasingly being used in crimes. Last year, according to an administration fact sheet, about 20,000 suspected ghost guns were reported to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as being recovered in criminal investigations, a tenfold increase from 2016. Officials are promoting the rule Monday in conjunction with the announcement of their latest nominee to run ATF: Steve Dettelbach, a former U.S. attorney in Ohio.
Matt Zapotosky
,
National security reporter covering the Justice Department
9:00 a.m.
Biden gets out of Washington this week — President Biden makes good on a promise to Democratic leaders made in the Map Room of the White House to start paying closer heed to the party’s political needs this week. He’s making two trips this week to politically important places, revving up Air Force One for more-than-typical travel.First comes a stop in Iowa on Tuesday. One can be forgiven for wondering why Biden would go to the Hawkeye state. He finished a dismal fourth in the caucuses there in his bid to become the Democratic presidential nominee and then he lost the state by more than eight percentage points to former president Donald Trump.But over the weekend the White House released Biden’s plans: A speech on his efforts to combat inflation and tout his infrastructure law in Menlo, Iowa, which happens to be in the middle of the congressional district of Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa). Democrats are hoping to hold that competitive seat in the midterm elections.Then on Thursday, Biden heads to North Carolina, where Democrats believe they have a chance of picking up a Senate seat that will be left open by Republican Richard Burr’s retirement. Biden is slated to talk economic policy in the Tar Heel State.
Annie Linskey
,
National reporter covering the White House.