The Hill’s Morning Report — UK’s Johnson out, other world leaders down

In the United States, United Kingdom and in other European capitals, presidents and prime ministers are scrambling to recalculate how to win and maintain support amid stumbles and economic troubles.

Boldness without scandal and self-dealing? British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tested the limits of Conservative Party loyalty and trust before he resigned on Thursday (more on that, below).

Two years ago, many U.S. voters said they were fed up with the combative, truth-challenged former President Trump, who was impeached and acquitted twice, struggled to manage a pandemic and hated to lose. They voted for a conciliatory empathizer in President Biden, now cast, even within his own party, as more milquetoast than mighty fighter (The New York Times).

“The economy seems to be running out of control. Fundamental rights are being stripped away. And the White House just isn’t coming with anything,” Bill Neidhardt, a former spokesman for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), told The Times.

Do they favor social-media savvy and T-shirt-clad leaders, as embodied by President Volodymyr Zelensky, the telegenic wartime underdog?

Or are voters less focused on peace than their purses? President Emmanuel Macron — known for his swagger at international summits and his phone negotiations with the immovable President Vladimir Putin of Russia — is at the moment trying to hold onto a coalition government, wielding new measures aimed at sheltering French households from the shock of surging inflation (Bloomberg News).

Around the globe, it’s a summer of testing.

**** BREAKING **** In Japan, a nation where gun violence is almost unheard of and handguns are banned, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, 67, was shot in the neck at a campaign event in Nara, Japan, and died Friday at a hospital. He was the longest serving prime minister and resigned in 2020. “This attack is an act of brutality that happened during the elections -— the very foundation of our democracy — and is absolutely unforgivable,” said a shaken Prime Minister Fumio Kishida before Abe’s death was announced (The Associated Press, The Guardian, NHK, NBC News). Police arrested a 41-year-old male suspect at the scene in Nara. NHK video of the shooting scene HERE.

Related Articles

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Macron seeks to step up France’s inflation fight.

▪ Bloomberg News: Chancellor Olaf Scholz promises Germans more support to cushion inflation’s blow.

▪ Reuters: UK economy gripped by uncertainty as Johnson resigns.

▪ CNN analysis: Why Johnson fell but Trump remains his party’s de facto leader … for now.

▪ Politico: Why a blowout jobs number this morning would be bad for Biden.

▪ The Washington Times: Not running until they’re running: Dems prep to replace Biden in 2024 race.

LEADING THE DAY 

➤ POLITICS & CONGRESS

Pssst … Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) plans a private fundraiser with big donors in Utah the week of July 18, ostensibly to raise funds for his reelection during a period in which supporters are urging him to run for president in 2024 (CNBC). The event is expected to attract large-dollar Republican donors from around the country who may be sizing up conservative alternatives to Trump.

An assault weapons ban supported by Democrats remains an evergreen item on the party’s political and policy agenda — and a politically explosive goal that divides Congress and the country.

Passage is all but ruled out in the narrowly divided Senate, but nonetheless, Judiciary Committee member Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and other leaders in her party would like to see a floor vote this year, reports The Hill’s Alexander Bolton. Klobuchar has pushed for years to ban the sale of such weapons. House Democratic leaders promised to consider legislation this summer (The Hill).

▪ Mark Leibovich, The Atlantic: The most pathetic men in America: why Lindsey Graham, Kevin McCarthy, and so many other cowards in Congress are still doing Trump’s bidding.

▪ The Hill: Gavin Newsom punches GOP to democratic applause.

The Hill’s Max Greenwood presents an early-July update describing six promising midterm contests for Democrats in what the party worries will be an overall gloomy midterm year. On the list: Senate races in Georgia and Pennsylvania, governors’ contests in Michigan and Pennsylvania and two California House races.

And speaking of Michigan … four leading GOP primary candidates who want to be governor debated this week and pledged loyalty to Trump ahead of an Aug. 2 primary election (NBC News). Candidate and real estate broker Ryan Kelley, who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and rocketed to the top of polls after his arrest by the FBI last month on misdemeanor charges related to the riot, on Thursday pleaded not guilty in a virtual federal court hearing. His defense: free speech.

“We were there protesting the government because we don’t like the results of the 2020 election, the process of how it happened, and we have that First Amendment right,” he said. “And that’s what 99 percent of the people were there for that day” (The Hill).

➤ INVESTIGATIONS

Lawmakers want an investigation into whether top former FBI officials had been illegally targeted for audits by the IRS under a Trump appointee (The Hill and The New York Times). The IRS controversy involves audits of former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who were fired by Trump and publicly assailed by the former president as left-leaning enemies.

Today, the House Jan. 6 committee will hear closed-door testimony under subpoena from former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who spoke with the panel off the record in the spring. The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch reports on five key questions committee members would like him to answer under oath.

Business Insider: Using his Truth Social platform, Trump on Wednesday said it is “so bad” for the country and the future of the presidency that one of his former White House counsels is cooperating with the congressional probe.

The Jan. 6 committee will hold public hearings on Tuesday morning and Thursday in prime time after lawmakers return to Washington. The committee is expected to probe alleged evidence of connections between Trump and his allies and the assembly and mobilization of the mob that attacked the Capitol (The Guardian).

On Thursday, New York Judge Arthur Engoron began imposing a daily $10,000 fine against real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield for contempt of court for refusing to comply with subpoenas for information related to its business relationship with the Trump Organization.

The company has refused to comply with subpoenas for information related to its appraisals of three Trump-owned properties in Manhattan, Los Angeles and Westchester, N.Y., as well as information about Cushman’s larger business relationship with the Trump Organization, according to court documents (ABC News).

The New York attorney general’s office issued the subpoenas as part of its civil investigation into how Trump and his family business valued their holdings, including in loan documents and tax filings.

Cushman & Wakefield plans to appeal the contempt ruling, according to a company spokesman. “We have gone to great expense and effort to quickly identify, collect, review and produce the massive set of documents requested by the OAG, and we have now produced over hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and over 650 appraisals since the last subpoena was issued in February 2022,” the firm said in a statement.

The Hill: Trump this weekend will hold events in Nevada and Alaska while stumping for GOP midterm candidates.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ UKRAINE & RUSSIA

WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday pleaded guilty in a Russian courtroom during her trial on charges of possession in February of vape cartridges containing cannabis oil while traveling in Moscow. She told the court that she had no intention of committing a crime. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Russian news reports quoted Griner as saying through an interpreter that she had acted unintentionally because she was packing in haste (The Associated Press). Elizabeth Rood, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, told reporters after the hearing that she spoke to Griner in the courtroom and shared a letter from Biden. The U.S. government has not made public its strategy in the case and the United States may have little leverage with Moscow amid the war in Ukraine.

The State Department has designated Griner as wrongfully detained, which put her case under the supervision of a special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the government’s chief hostage negotiator. Top Russian officials have bristled at the U.S. designation. “Attempts by the American side to make noise in public … don’t help the practical settlement of issues,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

During a Thursday interview with CNN, Zelensky said Ukraine is unwilling to cede any of its land to Russia, insisting that a concession of territory won’t be part of any diplomatic negotiations with Russia to end the war. “Ukrainians are not ready to give away their land, to accept that these territories belong to Russia. This is our land,” Zelensky said. “We always talk about that, and we are intending to prove it,” he added.

In Kyiv, Ukraine, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) met with Zelensky on Thursday and heard another pitch for U.S. air defense systems for use by Ukrainian forces against Russia. “Bicameral and bipartisan support is really important for Ukraine. We feel it, we feel this unity,” Zelensky said, according to a readout from his office (Politico).

Putin, during a meeting in Moscow on Thursday, warned Ukraine and its allies, “The West wants to fight us until the last Ukrainian. … It’s a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it looks like it’s heading in that direction. … Everybody should know that largely speaking, we haven’t even yet started anything in earnest.” After seizing territory in the eastern separatist provinces in Ukraine, Moscow is expected eventually to try to cut its neighbor off from its Black Sea coast all the way to the Romanian border. If successful, it would deal a crushing blow to the Ukrainian economy and also create a corridor to Moldova’s separatist region of Transnistria, where Russia maintains a military base (The Associated Press).

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OPINION

▪ The rise and fall of Boris Johnson, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board. https://on.wsj.com/3P4kQvi

▪ Liberals should welcome Ron DeSantis’s rise, by Rich Lowry, opinion contributing editor, Politico Magazine. https://politi.co/3anNJna

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will meet at 2:30 p.m. on Monday.

The Senate convenes at 3 p.m. on Monday to resume consideration of the nomination of Ashish Vazirani to be a deputy under secretary of Defense.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9:30 a.m. Biden will be joined by Vice President Harris at 11:30 a.m. to speak from the Roosevelt Room about protecting access to reproductive health services following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. He will visit the CIA in Northern Virginia to commemorate 75 years since the agency’s founding, arriving at 2:15 p.m. and speaking at 3:40 p.m. The president will depart the White House this evening to spend the weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Del.

The vice president at 4 p.m. will join state legislative leaders from Indiana, Florida, South Dakota, Nebraska and Montana in her ceremonial office to discuss their efforts to protect reproductive rights.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken today participates in the Group of 20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia. He is scheduled today to meet with counterparts from France, Germany, U.K., Indonesia, India, Japan and Argentina. His G20 schedule is to include his first meeting with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi since October, but no meeting is expected with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (Reuters).

Economic indicator: The Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. will report on jobs created in June. ​​Analysts anticipate a report of approximately 250,000 to 275,000 new jobs last month, down from the 390,000 reported in May (U.S. News).

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is in Los Angeles today where he will join leaders at 12:30 p.m. PST with the city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis (D) and LA Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) for a news conference to herald a new light rail line through communities to the Los Angeles International Airport, not yet opened.

The White House press briefing is scheduled at noon.

🖥 Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features news and interviews at http://thehill.com/hilltv, on YouTube and on Facebook at 10:30 a.m. ET. Also, check out the “Rising” podcast here.

ELSEWHERE

➤ INTERNATIONAL

The resignation of the U.K.’s Johnson shifted international attention to candidates in the Conservative Party who might rise from a behind-the-scenes selection process to replace him — and soon. “The process of choosing that new leader should begin now,” the embattled prime minister conceded, albeit with a timetable in mind that would stretch for months.

Johnson, speaking at a podium outside No. 10 Downing Street Thursday with his wife and baby daughter nearby, announced he would step down from what he called “the best job in the world.” His resignation, an abrupt surrender he had resisted for days, followed a dramatic Cabinet rebellion, a wave of government resignations and loss of party support over his handling of a recent sex-and-bullying scandal in his party and what his detractors called scandal-plagued and chaotic leadership (The New York Times).

Johnson said he planned to stay on in his post as a caretaker until his party chooses a new leader. That process may be accelerated by those who believe Johnson’s word is not to be trusted and worry that a long search before naming a successor would be unsustainable (Bloomberg News). The timetable for Johnson’s departure and the selection of the next prime minister will be set on Monday by a committee of senior Conservative lawmakers.

“It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader,” Johnson said just three years after leading his party to a landslide general election victory on a promise to “Get Brexit Done.”

Observers noted that Johnson said he was sorry to step aside but offered no public apology for his mistakes. “Them’s the breaks,” he said.

Selecting Johnson’s replacement could take some time because there is no obvious successor in the wings. The Conservative Party is said to be searching for a Brexiteer who can deliver stability, honesty and gravitas (and political savvy). Names in a swirl of potential party successors (thought to be a short list of about 10 people), include former health minister Sajid Javid; former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and his replacement Nadhim Zahawi; trade minister Penny Mordaunt; foreign secretary Liz Truss and defense minister Ben Wallace (CNN).

➤ PANDEMIC & POX

On Monday, the administration will begin shipping to states and jurisdictions an additional 144,000 doses of a monkeypox vaccine called JYNNEOS, the Health and Human Services Department said on Thursday. Monkeypox is spreading worldwide and is under renewed scientific examination at the World Health Organization to determine if it’s moving toward a pandemic designation.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,020,261. Current average U.S. COVID-19 daily deaths are 273, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

➤ WIMBLEDON

🎾 A torn abdominal muscle forced tennis great Rafael Nadal to pull out of his Wimbledon semifinal match against Nick Kyrgios scheduled today. Kyrgios will face either top-seeded Novak Djokovic or No. 9 Cameron Norrie in Sunday’s championship match. Nadal, who won the Australian Open and French Open early this year and hoped Wimbledon might be his career-capping calendar Grand Slam, has a 7-millimeter tear in one of his abdominal muscles, Spanish newspaper Marca reported (ESPN).

On Saturday, Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and Elena Rybakina, a Moscow-born Kazakh, will play for the Wimbledon women’s title in London (Yahoo Sports).

“It’s a dream coming true from years and years of work and sacrifice,” said Jabeur of her first major semifinal. “I’m really happy it’s paying off. I continue for one more match now.”

➤ BUSINESS

Elon Musk’s $44 billion bid to buy Twitter is in peril, reports The Washington Post. Talks with investors have cooled in recent weeks and Musk’s camp believes it can’t confirm Twitter’s claims about spam accounts. If Musk pulls out of the deal, it will potentially trigger a massive legal battle.

How’s the U.S. airline industry doing? Ask the groom whose canceled American Airlines flight made him late to his wedding over the Fourth of July weekend (CBS News NY). Staffing shortages and other root causes of flight disruptions remain evident amid huge demand for summer travel. Carriers canceled roughly 1,400 domestic flights between Friday and Monday, according to FlightAware, or 1.5 percent of flights.

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Bravo to winners of this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Our trivia puzzle focused on recent headlines dealing with things that fell.

Here’s who guessed or Googled — and triumphed: John van Santen, J.A. Ramos, Candi Cee, André Leblanc, Michael Jarvis, Tim Burrack, Patrick Kavanagh, Don Swanson, Sandy Walters, Lori Benso, Edward Williams, Lou Tisler, Dan Mattoon, John Donato, Jaina Mehta and Steve James.  =

They knew that in Britain, the prime minister’s dramatic political plunge this week followed a cascade of ministers who resigned and urged him to step down.

U.S. analysts said gasoline pump prices are falling slightly as recession fears, lower summer demand and rising oil stockpiles affected benchmark crude prices (Business Insider).

The water level in Lake Mead has fallen so low that a long-hidden World War II “Higgins boat” recently came into view from the drying lake bottom (KTLA).

Over the weekend, the box office haul for the movie “Lightyear,” released by Disney and Pixar, fell below that of “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” according to news reports (CNBC).

Stay Engaged: We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver. Follow us on Twitter (@alweaver22 & @asimendinger) and suggest this newsletter to friends!

We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver. Follow us on Twitter (@alweaver22 & @asimendinger) and suggest this newsletter to friends!

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