THE SHOW NOTES: Tim Scott's Surge, Biden’s Water Heater Overhaul, & Turning A Blind Eye To Genocide
Welcome! Kamala Harris is lying about Florida’s slavery curriculum.
TAX DOLLARS: Biden Admin Gives Soros-Backed Group Millions To Teach Young Puerto Ricans About 'Toxic Masculinities' - WFB
BOX OFFICE: Barbie hit $162 million vs Oppenheimer’s $82 million in dueling weekend box office debuts.
OOPS: Moviegoers have spotted a blooper in ‘Oppenheimer’ - CNN
TRUMP PROBE: Jack Smith’s multiple probes into Donald Trump are expected to cost upwards of $25 million per year.
MUST READ: Business Is Caught in a Diversity Trap - WSJ (paywall)
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Tim Scott
Tim Scott and his Super PAC spent more on advertising in the past month than any other presidential candidate and it’s beginning to show up in the polling. The South Carolina Senator jumped firmly into third place in Iowa and is within striking distance of Ron DeSantis.
Why this matters: Politico reports that the Haley and DeSantis campaigns have taken notice and are “beefing up their oppo files on the senator.” Despite the incoming attacks, much of Scott’s success has been attributed to a sky-high favorability rating of 89% which leads the GOP field.
Unknown: While everyone reading this newsletter knows who Tim Scott is, almost half of Americans do not. 47% of Americans are unfamiliar with Tim Scott while only 12% say the same about DeSantis and 2% of Trump.
DeSantis: The positive news cycle for Tim Scott comes as Ron DeSantis is taking heat from both sides for ordering Florida’s State Board of Administration to investigate Bud Light’s partnership with Dylan Mulvaney. DeSantis alleges that Anheuser Busch broke its fiduciary obligation to shareholders by engaging in a partnership that sparked a conservative backlash.
Why none of this matter: Despite the favorable news for Scott, Trump sits 30 points ahead of DeSantis in Iowa and 22 points ahead in New Hampshire according to RCP averages. Any candidate aiming to challenge Trump has nothing but hurdles ahead.
The Biden plan: Biden is doubling down on his basement strategy with a reelection apparatus that is one-eighth the size of President Obama’s. His campaign manager has just three staffers and has outsourced the bulk of the campaign to the DNC. While Biden's advisors claim this is a strategic decision that funnels donors to give uncapped checks to the national party, the consensus remains that Biden is staying out of the way in hopes of a rematch against Donald Trump.
Biden’s Water Heater Overhaul
The Biden administration is set to overhaul water heater regulations in the name of fighting climate change. The administration claims the new regulations would lower consumer heating bills but failed to address the increased costs of the new machines or the issues surrounding repairing old machines.
Bad to worse: Rinnai - one of the nation’s leading tankless water heater companies - said the standards are "technologically impossible" and would reduce consumer choice.
Turning A Blind Eye To Genocide
The Biden administration is discussing lifting sanctions on a Chinese police forensics institute suspected of participating in human-rights abuses, people familiar with the matter said, in a bid to secure Beijing’s renewed cooperation in fighting the fentanyl crisis.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken during meetings in Beijing last month proposed setting up a new working group with China to try to resuscitate stalled talks on combating fentanyl. Chinese officials, however, stuck to their long-held position that the U.S. must first remove the sanctions on the police institute as a precondition for restarting joint counternarcotics work, the people familiar said.
Full story at WSJ (paywall)
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