| Welcome to The Daily 202 newsletter! Tell your friends to sign up here. If you happen to be in Normandy as we head into the long Memorial Day weekend, don't miss the stained glass of the church in Sainte-Mère-Église. There's an homage to the 82nd Airborne. Congressional Republicans and Democrats agree on precious little these days, but there's growing bipartisan fervor — you could even call it impatience — related to President Biden's business-as-usual approach to the 2022 Winter Olympics in China. Biden faces pressure from both sides of the aisle to use the Games, which open in early February 2022, as a launchpad for criticism of China over what his administration agrees is "genocide" targeting the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority. Today, a pair of lawmakers — Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) and Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) — are reportedly introducing legislation aimed at punishing corporations that sponsor the Games by barring them from federal contracts. "They're either going to do business with the federal government or continue to sponsor these Games. But we're going to make them choose," Waltz told Bloomberg. "Hitting their bottom lines seems to be the only thing that will ultimately get their attention." Normally, a bill sponsored by a couple of representatives — even if Malinowski served as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, under President Barack Obama — would warrant spare attention. But they're hardly the only people in Congress weighing in on what Biden should do, while his administration sends confusing and contradictory signals about whether Beijing should pay an Olympic price for its treatment of the Uyghurs. Biden hasn't noticeably softened former president Donald Trump's approach to China — the trade tariffs are still up, there are plans for military modernization with Beijing in mind, and "genocide" is still the word for what is happening to the Uyghur minority. Nobody thinks empty seats at the Winter Olympics will radically alter policy in Beijing. The U.S. boycott of the 1980 Games in the Soviet Union didn't lead Moscow to pull its forces from recently invaded Afghanistan.  What President Biden opts to do on the 2022 Winter Olympics in China would send a signal about how his administration will curate a difficult but important relationship. (Evan Vucci/AP) | But the president faces pressure, including from inside his own party, to deny Chinese President Xi Jinping the prestige that comes from playing host to world leaders at one of the biggest sporting events in the world. The White House has largely ceded leadership on the issue to Congress, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) has embraced a proposal from Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) for American diplomats to shun the Games. Romney, widely regarded as the savior of the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, said in a New York Times essay in mid-March that American athletes should compete in China but American spectators, diplomats, and executives "should stay at home." "Limiting spectators, selectively shaping our respective delegations and refraining from broadcasting Chinese propaganda would prevent China from reaping many of the rewards it expects from the Olympics," Romney wrote. Senators debating a sweeping bill to help American business compete with China added mandatory language enforcing Romney's diplomatic boycott to the legislation, which could head to Biden's desk soon, though it has been delayed. (Romney explained American athletes should still go to Beijing in order not to squander what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but diplomats should stay home, and corporations should sunder ties with the Games.) Senators were also on track to adopt language from Romney and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) saying the International Olympic Committee "should never entertain a proposal to host the Olympic Games from a nation that engages in genocide, crimes against humanity, or serious violations of internationally recognized human rights." Pelosi, a longtime hawk when it comes of China's alleged human rights abuses, embraced Romney's suggestion earlier this month. "Let's have a diplomatic boycott, if in fact, this Olympics takes place. Silence on this issue is unacceptable. It enables China's abuses," she said. "For heads of state to go to China in wake of a genocide that is ongoing while you're sitting there in your seats really begs the question: What moral authority do you have to speak again about human rights any place in the world if you're willing to pay your respects to the Chinese government as they commit genocide?" she said. Pelosi also had harsh words for "corporate sponsors [who] look the other way on China's abuses of out of concern for their bottom line." On the Olympics, the administration's message has been muddled. On April 6, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was "engaging with partners, with allies to coordinate … closely on decisions and approaches to the government in Beijing," including the 2022 Games. "Part of our review of those Olympics and our thinking will involve close consultations with partners and allies around the world," he said. "The Beijing Olympics is an area that we will continue to discuss." A day later, White House press secretary Jen Psaki flatly repudiated his comments. "We have not discussed and are not discussing any joint boycott with allies and partners," she told reporters. "There's no discussion underway of a change in our plans regarding the Beijing Olympics from the United States' point of view." Administration officials and lawmakers of both parties say there is greater eagerness than ever, on both sides of the aisle, to confront China. What Biden opts to do on the Olympics would send a signal about how his administration will curate the difficult, and important, relationship. In 2008, Pelosi had urged President George W. Bush to skip the Opening Ceremonies of that year's Summer Games in Beijing to signal American opposition to China's crackdown in Tibet. "I think boycotting the opening ceremony, which really gives respect to the Chinese government, is something that should be kept on the table," Pelosi told ABC's "Good Morning America." Bush attended the ceremonies, along with scores of other world leaders. | | | What's happening now "Prices were up by 3.6 percent in April compared to a year ago, continuing a trend of rising inflation, although economic policymakers say the increases aren't here to stay," Rachel Siegel and Andrew Van Dam report. "Data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Friday showed that prices rose 0.6 percent in the past month. However, consumer spending fell 0.1 percent in April compared to March, after adjusting for inflation, as stimulus running through the economy began to slow down." To start your day with a full political briefing, sign up for our Power Up newsletter. | | | Lunchtime reads from The Post - "At home, tiki bars and beer caves shielded them from life's troubles. They were killed at work," by Faiz Siddiqui, Silvia Foster-Frau and Marc Fisher: "They made the trains run on time, got their neighbors to work and, during long shifts and in friendships that deepened over decades, they took care of one another. Nine of them died Wednesday, victims of a mass shooting at the hands of one of their own. Relatives and co-workers of the victims of the latest mass shooting to shock a community and dull the senses of the nation said the cliche about workmates being a family was really true this time. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers at the San Jose rail yard on West Younger Avenue felt a bond born of odd hours and difficult jobs, a bond now transformed by grief, anger and outrage. They were drivers and repairmen, expert engineers and office supervisors. They made a decent living and they made things work."
- "Huawei calls on an old friend, Russia, as U.S. sanctions bite down," by Eva Dou, Pei Lin Wu and Isabelle Khurshudyan: "Huawei's presence in the West has plummeted since a U.S. trade ban, but in Russia, it's expanding. The company urgently needs to replace U.S. technologies in its supply chain — and it has willing research partners in Russia. One result of the partnerships will launch June 2: a replacement for Google's Android operating system for smartphones. Huawei's HarmonyOS was built with help from the company's Russia research teams. ... Huawei's Russian push comes as Beijing and Moscow are drawing closer under U.S. pressure."
- "Germany acknowledges colonial genocide in Namibia and promises development projects," by Luisa Beck, Max Bearak and Shinovene Immanuel: "The announcement from Germany's foreign ministry comes after more than five years of negotiations between Berlin and Windhoek, the Namibian capital, where the news was received cautiously as a 'first step in the right direction,' according to the president's spokesman. Germany refused direct reparations that victims' descendants had lobbied for, and said development projects would be carried out over the next 30 years."
| | | … and beyond - " 'Friends' Reunion: The one where they get censored in China," by the New York Times's Paul Mozur: "Appearances by Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and the K-pop group BTS were dropped from different versions of the much-anticipated special when they streamed on Thursday on three Chinese video platforms. Each missing cameo involved a star or group that had been a past target of Beijing's ire, and fans suspected the show was stuck in censorship gear."
- "Russia appears to carry out hack through system used by U.S. Aid agency," by the Times's David Sanger and Nicole Perlroth: "Hackers linked to Russia's main intelligence agency surreptitiously seized an email system used by the State Department's international aid agency to burrow into the computer networks of human rights groups and other organizations of the sort that have been critical of President Vladimir V. Putin, Microsoft Corporation disclosed on Thursday. Discovery of the breach comes only three weeks before President Biden is scheduled to meet Mr. Putin in Geneva, and at a moment of increased tension between the two nations."
| | | The Biden agenda Biden is traveling to Virginia today to tout the state's progress in the fight against the virus. - The visit comes on the same day the White House will officially propose a $6 trillion budget plan for 2022, John Wagner reports.
- Biden will be joined at the event by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D). They will visit a business in Alexandria, Va., and then Biden will head to Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, Va., where he will deliver remarks ahead of the Memorial Day weekend.
- Some noted online that Biden's appearance with Northam contradicts the president's 2019 condemnation of the governor, who back then was under fire for a racist yearbook photo.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Central America as relations with the Northern Triangle fray. - "Blinken will attend a meeting in Costa Rica of the Central American Integration System, or SICA, a regional organization including seven Central American countries plus the Dominican Republic," Karen DeYoung reports. "But while a senior State Department official said Thursday that Blinken would meet with top Costa Rican officials, she declined to specify whether any other bilateral meetings had been confirmed."
- "The administration has been at odds with the governments of the three Northern Triangle states — El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. ... Those countries are the targeted recipients of President Biden's four-year, $4 billion commitment to help address the 'root causes' of migration. The program's budget and programming are 'still being worked out,' Julie J. Chung, the acting assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, told reporters."
Vice President Harris will deliver the Naval Academy's commencement address, becoming the first woman to do so. - "Harris is scheduled to deliver a morning address at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md., where graduates will appear in person but attendance will be restricted," Wagner reports. "Her address will touch on 'modern threats,' according to excerpts released by her office."
| | | The future of the GOP The timing of a Senate vote on the Jan. 6 commission remains unclear. - "Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) indicated that the body would first resume consideration of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, a large-scale package aimed at confronting China's rise, that has stalled amid GOP efforts to amend the legislation," Wagner reports. "With senators looking to leave town for the Memorial Day weekend, consideration of that legislation could consume several more hours at least."
- " 'We have every intention of sticking it out until the job is done, and that's what we're going to do,' Schumer said during remarks on the Senate floor. 'I look forward to passing this historic and extremely bipartisan bill later today.' He made no mention of the Jan. 6 commission bill in his brief opening remarks."
- Senate Republicans are poised to mount their first legislative filibuster today against the bill, notes our colleague Jackie Alemany in today's Power Up.
Not even a last-minute lobbying effort by the family of Brian Sicknick, the Capitol Police officer who died during the Jan. 6 attack, changed Republicans' opposition to the commission. - "The day of meetings and calls by Gladys Sicknick and Sandra Garza, the late officer's companion of 11 years, with 16 senators and their staffs appeared unlikely to change hearts and minds in the GOP," Felicia Sonmez, Karoun Demirjian and Peter Hermann report.
- "Gladys Sicknick said Thursday morning that it has angered her to see Republican senators oppose the commission. 'That's why I'm here today,' she told reporters. 'You know, usually I stay in the background, and I just couldn't — I couldn't stay quiet anymore.' Garza said it was 'very disturbing' that some members of Congress seem uninterested in finding answers to the still-lingering questions around the attack. 'I mean, why would they not want to get to the bottom of such horrific violence?' Garza said."
- "Two officers — D.C. police's Michael Fanone and the U.S. Capitol Police's Harry Dunn — who responded that day and protected members of Congress joined Sicknick and Garza in trying to persuade Republicans. ... [The four met first] with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who supports the commission. By day's end, the group had met in person with more than a dozen Republican senators. ... Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), meanwhile, said he continues to oppose the commission even after meeting with the group. 'Although we respectfully disagreed on the added value of the proposed commission, I did commit to doing everything I could to ensure all their questions will be answered,' Johnson said."
| | | Quote of the day "Police officers were getting attacked, fire extinguishers were being thrown at them, they were being attacked by flagpoles. Officer Dunn here, Officer Fanone — they can basically tell you right now what they experienced, and it wasn't a tourist day. It wasn't tourists just passing and walking by," said Sandra Garza, Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick's partner. | Meanwhile, the tally of people charged in connection to the riot keeps growing: |  | | | A group of former Homeland Security secretaries are calling on the Senate to "put politics aside" and create the commission. - The secretaries served in both Republican and Democratic administrations. "The statement, released by former Homeland Security Secretaries Michael Chertoff, Tom Ridge, Janet Napolitano and Jeh Johnson, went on to say that 'we must understand how the violent insurrection at the Capitol came together to ensure the peaceful transfer of power in our country is never so threatened again,' " CNN reports.
Facebook is resuming political contributions, but not to lawmakers who voted against certifying the election. - "In an internal announcement, Brian Rice, a public policy director at Facebook, said that the decision came after the Jan. 6 insurrection and a review of the company's contribution policies. Five days after the storming of the Capitol, Facebook said it would pause all political donations for at least three months," BuzzFeed News's Ryan Mac and Sarah Mimms report.
| | | The pandemic A renewed focus on the Wuhan lab theory is scrambling the politics of the pandemic. - "Senate Democrats lined up alongside Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.), one of their least-favorite Republicans, to support a measure urging the Biden administration to declassify intelligence on whether the novel coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab. A Democratic-led House subcommittee is pledging an investigation into the virus's origins, including the lab's safety record," Annie Linskey, Shane Harris and David Willman report. "And Biden, in an unusual public statement, directed U.S. intelligence agencies to 'redouble their efforts' to determine the cause of the pandemic, suggesting that while the virus could have jumped from animals to humans, it also could have escaped from the lab."
- "The rapid developments mark a new effort by Democrats to show they are pushing to figure out how the pandemic started and, in the process, considering a theory that some initially attributed to conspiracy theorists: that the pandemic that has cost about 3.5 million lives worldwide stemmed from human error at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That thesis is far from conclusive; no significant new evidence has emerged to support it, and the pandemic's origins may never be definitively known. ... But some scientists who dismissed the theory early on have begun reassessing their views, and new evaluations have been aired in a recent piece in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists."
- "The shifting terrain highlights how much of the early debate on the virus's origins was colored by America's tribal politics, as Trump and his supporters insisted on China's responsibility and many Democrats dismissed the idea out of hand — when the origins of the virus were in fact wrapped in uncertainty."
Idaho's lieutenant governor signed a ban on mask mandates while the governor was out of state. - "Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin issued an executive order on Thursday banning mask mandates while Gov. Brad Little was unaware and out of town," CNN's Caroline Kelly reports. "'The lieutenant governor did not make Gov. Little aware of her executive order ahead of time,' Marissa Morrison Hyer, Little's press secretary, [said]. ... When asked whether Little supported the order and would let it stand, she pointed to a statement from the office noting that 'the Governor's Office is reviewing the Lt. Governor's executive order. Governor Little has never put in place a statewide mask mandate.'"
| | | Hot on the left Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors will step down as executive director of the movement's foundation. Cullors is stepping down "following what she has called a smear campaign from a far-right group and recent criticism from other Black organizers," the AP reports. "Cullors, who has been at the helm of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation for nearly six years, said she is leaving to focus on other projects, including the upcoming release of her second book and a multi-year TV development deal with Warner Bros. ... The resignation also comes on the heels of controversy over the foundation's finances and over Cullors' personal wealth. The 37-year-old activist said her resignation has been in the works for more than a year and has nothing to do with the personal attacks she has faced from far-right groups or any dissension within the movement. 'Those were right-wing attacks that tried to discredit my character, and I don't operate off of what the right thinks about me,' Cullors said." | | | Hot on the right Paul Ryan criticized Trump's hold on the GOP, but not by name. "Ryan offered a veiled criticism of Trump in a speech Thursday night in which he urged the Republican Party not to rely on the 'appeal of one personality,' " Colby Itkowitz reports. "But Ryan… did not explicitly name Trump in his critique. When Ryan did name Trump, it was to praise him for advancing 'practical conservative policy.' ... 'Once again, we conservatives find ourselves at a crossroads. And here's one reality we have to face: If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or on second-rate imitations, then we're not going anywhere,' Ryan said." | | | How a cicada goes from a park to a museum, visualized Floyd Shockley, entomology collections manager at the National Museum of Natural History, is gathering specimens of Brood X cicadas for the Smithsonian collection and for dozens of museums across the country. Here's his process. | | | Today in Washington The president delivered remarks in Alexandria, Va., this morning at 10:45 a.m. and will head to Hampton, Va., today at 11:45 a.m. He and first lady Jill Biden will deliver remarks in Hampton at 1:20 p.m. before heading to Wilmington, Del., where they will spend the weekend. | | | In closing | Stephen Colbert took another look at the Wuhan lab leak theory:  | | | | | | |
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