| Welcome to The Daily 202 newsletter! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1989, Chinese soldiers and tanks begin the deadly crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. Almost five months in office, President Biden has disappointed Democrats who hoped he would throw open some of Donald Trump's closed books on issues like diplomacy with Russia, his tax returns and Justice Department deliberations. Biden has given his congressional allies what they want on a lot of big-ticket items: Major reversals from his predecessor's approach to economic investment, racial equity, climate policy, immigration, the Iran nuclear deal and so on. But on a range of matters related to transparency and accountability, the new administration hasn't been as reliable a partner for those in Biden's party who seek evidence Trump successfully shrouded improper or even illegal behavior using executive power. In some cases, Biden's hands are arguably tied by law or precedent. In others, his administration has chosen to act with the effect, if not the intent, of protecting the former president.  President Biden delivers remarks on the U.S. economy last month from the East Room of the White House. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) | The administration said in February it could not release Trump-era visitor logs tracking who came to the White House and with whom they met, saying those records are now in the hands of the National Archives and beyond their reach. "Under the Presidential Records Act, all Trump White House visitor logs are under the control and legal custody of the National Archives and Records Administration, and cannot be unilaterally released by the Biden White House," a White House spokesperson told Politico at the time. And there has been no sign the Biden White House will move to share what it knows about Trump's summits with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2019, my colleague Greg Miller wrote how Trump went "to extraordinary lengths to conceal details" of the two leaders' conversations, shutting out senior aides and denying them even summaries of those encounters. Of particular interest to Democrats is a two-hour summit in Helsinki, which comprised just the two leaders and their interpreters, after which Trump repudiated U.S. intelligence findings Moscow interfered in the 2016 election. Asked in mid-March whether the White House had tried to find out what was said, White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied: "It's a great question. Obviously there's intelligence reports that may reflect that, but I'm not aware of any specific deep dive into that. I'm happy to check if there's more on it." There have been no updates. Democrats have settled for frustratingly partial victories. Last week, the Justice Department disclosed portions of a memo former attorney general William P. Barr invoked in 2019 to justify not charging Trump with obstructing the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has ordered the entire document be made public. The Biden Justice Department is fighting that ruling, arguing it must protect internal deliberations, and has asked that the document remain secret as the legal process plays out. On Friday, Democrats will get another partial victory as former Trump White House counsel Donald McGahn faces House members' questions behind closed doors as part of a compromise to end a years-long lawsuit to compel his testimony. My colleague Karoun Demirjian reports: "McGahn, considered a star witness in former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, flouted a congressional subpoena for two years and is not expected to offer any bombshell revelations about former president Donald Trump — beyond those he already provided to Mueller — when he meets with the House Judiciary Committee behind closed doors." In an essay last weekend in The Washington Post, Claire O. Finkelstein and Richard W. Painter noted the Biden administration's approach is rooted in the traditions of presidential power — then sharply criticized those practices as dangerous executive overreach. "When the White House changes hands, preservation of presidential privilege continues because of implicit understandings between presidents, even of opposite political parties, that each successive president will prioritize the power and secrecy of the office. … The Biden Justice Department has elected to compromise efforts to hold the former president accountable for potentially grave misdeeds simply for the sake of defending a contentious legal claim whose primary purpose is to protect the ability of the executive branch to defend its power." There have been other disappointments for Democrats. On Friday, my colleague Spencer Hsu reported the Justice Department urged a federal judge to dismiss lawsuits against Trump and Barr over the use of police and the military to forcibly clear Lafayette Square before the president walked across the space for a photo op at St John's church. Their arguments, Spencer reported, were that "Trump and other U.S. officials are immune from civil lawsuits over police actions taken to protect a president and to secure his movements" and "last November's presidential election made future violations unlikely." And then there are Trump's tax returns, which he refused to make public when he ran in 2016, breaking long-standing bipartisan practice. House Democrats sued in 2019, seeking six years of returns. In late April, the Hill reported, "Biden administration officials have not yet said whether they plan to provide the Ways and Means Committee with the requested documents." Last week, the two sides asked for more time to negotiate. One area in which the Biden administration has thrown open the books: It has been notifying reporters whose email and phone records the Trump administration secretly seized as part of leak investigations. | | | What's happening now To start your day with a full political briefing, sign up for our Power Up newsletter. | | | Lunchtime reads from The Post - "Texas bill to ban teaching of critical race theory puts teachers on front lines of culture war over how history is taught," by Arelis Hernández and Griff Witte: "Under the culture war rallying cry of combating 'critical race theory' — an academic framework centered on the idea that racism is systemic, not just a collection of individual prejudices — lawmakers have endorsed an extraordinary intervention in classrooms across Texas. Their plans would impose restrictions on how teachers discuss current events, bar students from receiving course credit for civic engagement and, in the words of advocates, restore the role of 'traditional history' to its rightful place of primacy by emphasizing the nation's noble ideals, rather than its centuries-long record of failing to live up to them."
- "Florida man accused of killing iguana uses 'stand your ground' defense to try to get charge dropped," by Marisa Iati: "PJ Nilaja Patterson, 43, was charged with animal cruelty for allegedly kicking, throwing and stepping on the animal until it was near death. He later employed an unusual argument in his defense: The iguana started it. Patterson, who stands 6-foot-3, argued that the three-foot iguana had 'viciously attacked' him and that he was immune from prosecution under Florida's 'stand your ground' law, which allows a person to use force against someone who poses an imminent threat. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Dana Gillen on Friday rejected Patterson's argument."
| | | … and beyond - "Can U.S. chocolate companies be liable for child-labor abuses in the global cocoa supply chain?" by the Counter's Simran Sethi: "The epicenter of this reality is West Africa, where 70 percent of the world's cocoa is grown and child laborers as young as 5 years old work in conditions that are deemed hazardous and, in some instances, tantamount to enslavement. But this ongoing and well-documented concern may finally have reached an inflection point. Within the next few weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on a pair of consolidated cases known as Nestlé USA, Inc. v. John Doe and Cargill, Inc. v. John Doe. Nestlé is one of the world's biggest chocolate manufacturers and Cargill, the world's largest cocoa bean processor."
- "Behind drug distributors' efforts to derail WV opioid reporting," by Mountain State Spotlight's Lucas Manfield: "In 2015, with opioid-related overdose deaths at a record high in West Virginia, the trade group for the country's largest drug distributors hatched a plan to 'turn the tide.' The plan was not to reverse that trend, which for years had been allegedly driven by a flood of prescription painkillers shipped to the state by the trade group's members. Instead, they wanted reporters to stop writing about it. The plan was detailed in a memo, sent to a senior executive at that trade group, the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, that bemoaned 'imbalanced' coverage by reporters at local papers, including the Charleston Gazette, and offered strategies to 'inoculate the industry' by shifting the blame to pharmacists, doctors and their patients."
| | | The Biden agenda FIRST IN WAPO: Biden offered a major change to his tax proposal in an effort to secure an infrastructure deal with Republicans. - "Biden signaled at a private meeting on Wednesday that he would support major revisions to his tax proposal to win Republican backing on a broader infrastructure package, outlining a plan for about $1 trillion in new spending financed through tax changes that do not appear to raise the top corporate rate," Seung Min Kim and Tony Romm report. "Biden's new offer amounted to a major concession after Republicans said his earlier proposal to lift the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent — a move that would unwind the tax cuts the GOP adopted in 2017 — amounted to a nonstarter."
- "Instead, Biden on Wednesday recommended a new, minimum corporate tax of 15 percent, seeking to take aim at dozens of profitable U.S. corporations that pay little to nothing to the federal government annually, according to a person familiar with the talks."
- "Biden presented his new proposal, a revision of his total $2.2 trillion American Jobs Plan, during a meeting Wednesday with the GOP's chief negotiator on infrastructure, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). But the source maintained that Biden has not strayed in his overall belief in raising rates on both corporations and wealthy individual earners."
- Biden and Capito will continue infrastructure talks tomorrow, our colleague Jackie Alemany writes in today's Power Up.
Sen. Joe Manchin, crucial to Biden's legislative agenda, is holding back-to-back events with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, a key Cabinet member. - "Granholm is scheduled to appear alongside Manchin on both Thursday and Friday to tout federal investments in West Virginia. Thursday's event will focus on the offshore wind industry, while Friday's event will focus on 'new funding from the Department of Energy for West Virginia-based projects,' according to Manchin's office," John Wagner reports.
- "While the focus is on energy, it's likely Granholm will get in a few words with Manchin about the White House's pending infrastructure package. Democrats are considering an effort to pass it without Republican votes if negotiations with the Senate GOP do not show more progress soon."
The White House denies that Biden criticized Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) during remarks. - "While warning against what he called the 'truly unprecedented assault on our democracy' currently taking place in the political battle over voting rights, Biden took a chance to respond to criticism he says he's seen on TV that he's failed to move legislation — and swiped at the moderate senators, although he didn't single them out by name," ABC News reports.
- Psaki "was asked Wednesday to explain where those comments came from and why the president 'felt the need to call out members of his own party.' ... Psaki went on to argue Biden was simply commenting on the lack of complexity surrounding TV analysis — and that the president knows 'it's not a straight line to victory or success' and that 'sometimes ... it takes more time.' "
| | | Quote of the day "It would be better if we did this as a unified Congress, as a unified country," Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), who represents a swing district in northern New Jersey, said in a CNN interview about an infrastructure deal. "But the bottom line is, one way or another, we have to do it. We have to deliver." The White House is considering sending states' unused vaccine doses abroad before they expire. - "States have built up stores of unused Covid-19 vaccine doses in recent weeks as the number of people signing up for vaccinations has decreased. Some of those spare doses — including tens of thousands of Johnson & Johnson shots — are set to expire at the end of this month," Politico's Erin Banco, Adam Cancryn and Rachel Roubein report. "Senior Biden officials helping to plan how to share U.S. vaccines with other countries are deliberating shipping the surplus doses out before their expiration date, those same two officials said. Another senior administration official said the Biden team is also considering a plan to send abroad doses that will be delivered to states in the coming months but may go unused."
In an open letter, the White House urged private companies to better protect themselves from ransomware attacks. - "The White House is urging private companies to take 'immediate steps' to better protect themselves against ransomware attacks following a pair of high-profile episodes in which hackers allegedly located in Russia targeted a major oil pipeline company and a meat supplier with operations in the United States," John Wagner reports. "In an open letter to 'corporate executives and business leaders,' the National Security Council's top cyber official said strengthening the nation's resistance to cyberattacks is a top priority for Biden. But she also stressed that 'the private sector has a distinct and key responsibility.'"
Biden will meet with Queen Elizabeth II when he travels to Britain later this month. - "The Queen will meet the President of the United States of America and First Lady Jill Biden at Windsor Castle on Sunday, 13th June 2021," the royal family said in a tweet. Biden is heading to Britain for a Group of Seven summit of world leaders that begins June 11 in Cornwall, Wagner reports. It's his first overseas trip as president.
- Biden will also meet with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on June 10 before attending the G7. He will travel to Brussels, Belgium, after his trip to the U.K., where he will participate in the NATO Summit on June 14. Biden will also meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and will later meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 16.
| | | The future of the GOP Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) is avoiding a lawsuit that seeks to hold him accountable for the Jan. 6 insurrection. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) hired a private investigator to find him. - "The detail comes in a court filing Wednesday in which Swalwell's attorneys describe difficulty in serving Brooks with the lawsuit," CNN reports. "Federal Judge Amit Mehta, after learning of Swalwell's inability to serve Brooks with the lawsuit, gave the Democrat's legal team another 60 days to get to Brooks with their formal notification. The judge, however, won't allow the US Marshals to deliver the lawsuit to the Republican congressman 'due to separation of powers concerns,' Mehta wrote, after Swalwell asked for the US Marshals Service's help."
Federal prosecutors are looking into whether Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) obstructed justice during a call he had with a witness in the sex-crimes investigation of him. - "The witness in question was one of a handful of women who entered Gaetz's orbit via his one-time 'wingman,' former Seminole County, Fla., tax collector Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty last month to a host of crimes, including sex-trafficking a 17-year-old in 2017," Politico's Marc Caputo reports. "The obstruction inquiry stems from a phone call the witness had with Gaetz's ex-girlfriend. At some point during the conversation, the ex-girlfriend patched Gaetz into the call, sources said. While it's unknown exactly what was said, the discussion on that call is central to whether prosecutors can charge Gaetz with obstructing justice."
Former vice president Mike Pence is headlining a Republican fundraising dinner tonight in New Hampshire. - "The visit, Granite State Republicans say, is the first by a potential GOP White House contender since last year's election," Wagner reports. "Pence is scheduled to give the keynote address at the Hillsborough County GOP's annual Lincoln Reagan awards and fundraising dinner on Thursday in Manchester."
| | | Hot on the left Trump, infuriated by a measly readership and by those mocking him, closed his blog after 29 days. "Trump's blog, celebrated by advisers as a 'beacon of freedom' that would keep him relevant in an online world he once dominated, is dead. It was 29 days old," Drew Harwell and Josh Dawsey report. "Upset by reports from The Post and other outlets highlighting its measly readership and concerns that it could detract from a social media platform he wants to launch later this year, Trump ordered his team Tuesday to put the blog out of its misery, advisers said. ... Trump still wants to launch some other platform — timing not yet determined — and didn't like that this first attempt was being mocked as a loser, according to a Trump adviser." | | | Hot on the right George P. Bush launched his campaign for Texas attorney general — and he's seeking Trump's endorsement. The son of former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) announced yesterday that he is making a GOP bid for Texas attorney general, seeking to knock off the embattled incumbent, Ken Paxton (R), Wagner reports. He told reporters he's seeking Trump's endorsement, even though the former president has insulted and criticized members of the Bush family multiple times. The younger Bush's campaign swag raised some eyebrows: | | | Voting restrictions passed by GOP lawmakers, visualized Republican state legislators have introduced hundreds of bills that would tighten access to voting around the country, many of them echoing Trump's false claims that loose election laws allowed fraud to taint the 2020 White House race. Here's where GOP lawmakers have passed new voting restrictions around the country. | | | Today in Washington Biden will spend the day at his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., with first lady Jill Biden, who is celebrating her birthday. Harris will today at 11:30 a.m. deliver remarks on the importance of investing in broadband, a key component of the infrastructure package. | | | In closing | Jimmy Kimmel joked that Amazon's plans to no longer drug test their workers is bad news for the crew, because that's the only bathroom break they got:  | | | | | | |
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