THE SHOW NOTES: Biden's Latest Gaffe, Republicans' Mayorkas Problems, & Super Bowl Ticket Prices

Welcome! Ronna McDaniel is stepping down as RNC chair.

BIG MONEY: The median Super Bowl ticket price is $8,599.

HEADLINE: Worse than you can imagine: Haley loses to ‘none of these candidates’ in Nevada - Politico

NEW: ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery to launch joint sports streaming platform this year - CNBC

BREAKING: Democrats Lose Ground With Black and Hispanic Adults - Gallup

PROBLEM: Democrats have a problem with men. - Twitter

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Mayorkas

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives failed to pass an impeachment proceeding against Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas over his handling of the US-Mexico border.

Details: The final vote was 214-216 with three Republicans siding with the Democrats. While the House will likely pick back up the issue at a later date, the matter is largely symbolic. Even if the House voted to impeach, the likelihood of two-thirds of the Democrat-controlled Senate voting to convict a fellow Democrat ahead of a presidential election is exceedingly unlikely.

The Middle East

Israel is preparing to send ground troops to fight Hamas in the Egyptian border town of Rafah as more than 100 hostages remain at large. The unprecedented move risks escalating tensions with Egypt which threatened to suspend their decades-long peace agreement with Israel if the IDF forced Palestinian refugees into Egypt through the Sinai Peninsula.

The problem: As the war in Gaza has consumed much of the narrow strip, nearly half of the two million Palestinians located there have fled to Rafah.

🚨 The proposal: Hamas just released a detailed ceasefire proposal that would exchange the remaining Israeli hostages for imprisoned Palestinian fighters over the next four and a half months. However, the deal would essentially leave Hamas in control of Gaza and emboldened to rebuild its military. Even President Biden called the deal “a little over the top.”

The tunnels: The Wall Street Journal took a tour of Hamas’s tunnel network with the Israeli military. What they found was a sprawling tunnel network greater than 350 miles long equipped with bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms where senior Hamas leadership resided along with Israeli hostages.

Iran: Walter Russell Mead’s opinion piece The Wall Street Journal on how Iran plays Biden is worth a read. Here’s the piece that matters:

What’s clear in the Middle East these days is that Iran has the weather gage. Iran can spark a crisis whenever and wherever it wants and can also de-escalate at will. From Iraq to Lebanon and Gaza to the Red Sea, Iran and its proxies can create an instant crisis anywhere, forcing the U.S. to respond on Iran’s timetable. Even when, as over this weekend, Team Biden responded to Iranian attacks with force, Tehran was essentially in control. Rather than thinking about how to deliver an unmistakable message that will restore deterrence across the Middle East, the administration struggled to find a Goldilocks retaliation strategy: strong enough so centrists don’t call it weak at home, weak enough so that Iran won’t escalate in return.

If the U.S. can’t seize the political and military initiative from Team Tehran, Iran will continue playing the Middle East like a piano, and President Biden will keep dancing to Tehran’s tune for the rest of his time in office.

Why Biden Can’t Do A Super Bowl Interview

KJP Can’t Answer Why Democrats Didn’t Fix Immigration

NYT: Trump Leads Biden in Number of Small Donors

Former President Donald J. Trump was trailing President Biden in overall campaign cash on hand at the end of 2023, but he dominated fund-raising last year by at least one critical measure: his number of small donors. An analysis of Federal Election Commission data by The New York Times shows that about 668,000 donors gave less than $200 to Mr. Trump, compared with 564,000 for Mr. Biden.

Full story at The New York Times (paywall).

For First Time in Two Decades, U.S. Buys More From Mexico Than China

New data released on Wednesday showed that Mexico outpaced China to become America’s top source of official imports for the first time in 20 years — a significant shift that highlights how increased tensions between Washington and Beijing are altering trade flows.

The United States’ trade deficit with China narrowed significantly last year, with goods imports from the country dropping 20 percent to $427.2 billion, the data shows. American consumers and businesses turned to Mexico, Europe, South Korea, India, Canada and Vietnam for auto parts, shoes, toys and raw materials.

Trending news:

• Biden sets tighter standards for deadly soot pollution from tailpipes, smokestacks - AP

• Chip Roy knocks Trump over border claim: ‘That didn’t happen’ - The Hill

• Chuck Schumer to push stripped-down Israel and Ukraine aid package after GOP blocks Senate border bill - NBC

• ‘Literally off his rocker’: Why Trump is fixated on Indiana - Politico

• Behind the border mess: Open GOP rebellion against McConnell - Politico

• Snap shares drop 30% after company’s revenue miss and weak guidance - CNBC

• Loneliness declared health emergency in California's San Mateo County - MSN

• Four Russian Military Aircraft Detected in Alaskan Airspace - Newsweek

• Not a single student can do math at grade level in 53 Illinois schools. - Twitter

• Ransomware hackers raked in a record $1 billion from victims last year - NBC

• Chinese Ships Get Cheaper Insurance to Navigate Red Sea - Bloomberg (paywall)

• A Look Inside Hamas’s Well-Equipped Tunnels Shows How Its Leaders Evade Capture, Conceal Hostages - WSJ (paywall)

• IRS: Fund us, and we’ll collect hundreds of billions from tax cheaters - Washington Post (paywall)

Market snapshot: