Principals

1. Republicans vow to oppose Scalise
2. Israel’s Gaza mission
3. Rescuing Americans
4. FTC looks to ban hidden fees
5. GOP push to expel Santos

PDB: Inside Nancy Mace’s transformation into McCarthy foe

Biden to meet with CEOs… New inflation stats expected this morning …. Fox Poll: 7 in 10 U.S. voters side with Israelis

— edited by Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann and Morgan Chalfant

Scalise already has a math problem

Steve Scalise didn’t get long to savor his victory. On Wednesday, the House majority leader narrowly beat out Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio for the GOP’s speaker nomination. But within minutes of the news, one Republican lawmaker after another began to announce that they had no plans to support him on the House floor. By day’s end, at least a dozen had voiced their opposition, with more undecided — leaving Scalise well short of the 217 backers he’d need to cinch his victory when the whole chamber votes, and the Republican conference still mired in infighting.

Scalise faces opposition from some hard-right members who’ve promised to continue supporting Jordan. Many are reportedly angry that Scalise fought and killed a proposal by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, that would have required 217 votes to win the nomination. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. added that the Louisianan needed to focus on his cancer recovery, mentioning she’d lost her father to the disease (“I like him so much that I’d like him to put his full efforts into that,” she told CNN).

Some relative moderates, such as House Intelligence Chair Mike Turner, have said they’re undecided on Scalise in part because of concerns that he can’t unite the conference. Meanwhile, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C. threw her own curveball into the mix by bringing up Scalise’s past racism scandals, which Republicans rarely mention. “I personally cannot, in good conscience, support someone who attended a white supremacist conference and compared himself to David Duke,” she told Jake Tapper.

The good news for Scalise? Jordan is ready to back him and reportedly even offered to give his nominating speech on the House floor. We’ll see how many holdouts that wins over.

Israel wants to destroy Hamas. It’s not clear they can.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Wednesday that “every member of Hamas is a dead man” while defense minister Yoav Gallant said that Hamas “will not continue to exist.” But while Israel is widely expected to launch a ground offensive in Gaza to take on the terrorist group, its short-term plan and long-term goals are still a huge question mark. “Urban combat, even for professional forces as you saw in Fallujah, is incredibly difficult,” David Schenker, former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs under the Trump administration, told Semafor’s Morgan Chalfant. The mission would be further complicated by large numbers of hostages as well as international pressure to avoid civilian casualties, including from Arab states like Saudi Arabia with which Israel hopes to normalize relations.

But the biggest issue is what would come next: While taking out Hamas leaders that Israel has identified as targets is an immediate goal, actually destroying Hamas would mean dismantling its government in Gaza with no clear replacement. Re-occupying the area outright with already strained Israeli forces seems unlikely: “The last thing Israeli politicians would want would be a steady drip-drip of casualties from Gaza, where every week there’s more Israeli death,” Georgetown University professor Daniel Byman told The Economist. And preserving security gains will be a struggle — several commentators likened the risks to Israel’s costly 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which was also launched to deny militants a staging ground. “The lesson of the past four decades is also that every attempt to wipe out Palestinian armed groups has only produced more extreme iterations and worse conundrums,” Kim Ghattas wrote in FT.

Biden admin weighs options for bringing Americans home

As Israel’s new unity government prepares for an offensive against Hamas, U.S. officials are scrambling to get American citizens out of the country and rescue American hostages. With major U.S. airlines largely suspending flights to and from Israel, lawmakers have suggested charter flights and even a military airlift to bring Americans home. Other countries have already organized special flights. Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J. told Semafor’s Morgan Chalfant that he has constituents who went to Israel for the holiday and are now stuck in the country and that he’s raised the issue “a number of times” in conversations with Biden administration officials. President Biden suggested on Wednesday his administration is doing more than they’re letting on to free hostages. “If I told you, I wouldn’t be able to get them home,” Biden said at a roundtable with Jewish community leaders. “The idea that I’m going to stand here before you and tell you what I’m doing is bizarre.”

The Biden administration is also talking to Israel and Egypt about creating a safe passage for Palestinian civilians out of Gaza, officials say, where local authorities say airstrikes have already killed over 1,100 people. While Biden has emphasized his support for Israel’s mission, he said Wednesday that he told Netanyahu Israel must “operate by the rules of war” and look to minimize any loss of innocent life.

Biden’s war on junk fees continues

You might have missed it, what with the crisis in Israel and chaos enveloping Congress. But the Biden administration took a major step in its battle against junk fees on Wednesday, as the Federal Trade Commission proposed a new regulation meant to stop companies from surprising customers with hidden charges on purchases like concert tickets or hotels. The rule, now open for public comment, would require businesses to “clearly and conspicuously” display the total price of the goods or services they sell, including all extra costs. The president, who has made the crusade against junk fees one of his marquee consumer protection issues, took some time to announce the new initiative in the Rose Garden. “These junk fees may not matter to the wealthy, but they sure matter to working folks in homes like the one I grew up in,” he said.

‘A stain on the institution’: Santos critics want him out

Legally challenged Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y. announced Wednesday night that he was for “ANYONE but Scalise and come hell or high water I won’t change my mind.” He may have some unique issues at play: A group of New York Republicans announced earlier that they would introduce a resolution to expel him from the House. “After the latest indictment, I think it’s clear that he’s not fit to serve in the House of Representatives,” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., told reporters Wednesday. “He’s a stain on the institution.” The band of New Yorkers tried to expel Santos in May but the vote, void of the requisite two-thirds majority needed to oust a member, was ultimately redirected to the House Ethics Committee. Santos spoke to a small group of reporters Wednesday morning, where he continued to deny recent allegations of identity theft and credit card fraud and said he anticipated a renewed push to remove him from office, which came hours later. “They’re gonna make the lives of whoever gets elected speaker miserable for the first, you know, couple of days trying to raise that as an issue but, who am I?” he asked.

— Kadia Goba

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Top Democrats aren’t yet having serious conversations about a “specific list of demands” they would take to a Republican to lend them the votes to elect a speaker if the current paralysis continues, but they would be interested in things like raising the motion to vacate threshold, a pledge to put aid for Ukraine and Israel to a floor vote, and a plan to fund the government.

Playbook: Rep. Steve Scalise isn’t getting help building support from GOP leadership members “who boast considerable influence and relationships with lawmakers,” nor is Donald Trump expected to help him rally support in the speaker’s race.

The Early 202: Opposing the rule change that would have increased the necessary vote threshold to win the GOP’s speaker nomination may have been Scalise’s “fatal mistake” on the path to winning a vote for speaker in the full House.

Axios: A wave of disinformation and misinformation about the conflict between Israel and Hamas is exacerbating tensions and complicating world leaders’ responses to the crisis.

White House

• President Biden is meeting with CEOs this afternoon to talk about the economy and “Bidenomics.”
• In a speech to Jewish leaders Wednesday, Biden said he took each of his children to the site of the Dachau concentration camp in southern Germany when they turned 14. “I wanted them to see that you could not not know what was going on, walking through those gates,” he said.
• Under pressure from a growing number of vulnerable Senate Democrats, the Biden administration is leaving the door open to refreezing the $6 billion made available to Iran in a prisoner swap agreement due to Tehran’s support for Hamas, Bloomberg reports. Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis. became the latest senators to call on Biden to freeze the funds on Wednesday.
• The Biden administration announced another security assistance package for Ukraine, valued at $200 million.

Congress

• Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah told a group of Republican donors and influencers that he has (unsuccessfully) urged Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J. and Mark Warner, D-Va. to run against President Biden. — Deseret News
• Forty-four members of Congress wrote to President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urging the administration to expand temporary protected status for Nicaraguans.
• A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by the chair of the House select committee on China, Rep. Mike Gallagher, wrote to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration urging a tougher crackdown on China’s illegal fishing practices.
• Whether it’s Steve Scalise or Jim Jordan, there’s a good chance the next House Speaker will be a former head of the Republican Study Committee, writes Joseph Zeballos Roig. The conservative policy group is known for writing balanced budget proposals that slash Medicare and Social Security, and Democrats already see attack ad fodder.

Outside the Beltway

A district judge in Oklahoma is facing possible removal from the bench after an investigation found she exchanged over 500 texts with her bailiff during a murder trial.

World

One wartime leader to another: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is hoping to visit Israel as a show of support and sent a formal request to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. — Axios

Polls

A new poll commissioned by the Republican Main Street Partnership finds that Nevada GOP primary voters have mixed feelings about Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as House speaker and two-thirds of them think his removal will have an impact on the House GOP’s ability to govern. The results, shared early with Semafor, also show that more than three-quarters of those surveyed said they want Republicans and Democrats to work together to solve big issues facing the U.S.

2024

• During a speech last night in Florida, former President Donald Trump called Hezbollah “very smart,” criticized Israeli intelligence for failing to anticipate the Hamas attack, and said he wouldn’t forget that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “let us down” on the operation to kill Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Ron DeSantis took a shot at Trump over the comments.
• Cenk Uygur, a progressive pundit and founder of The Young Turks, plans to challenge President Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination, Semafor’s David Weigel reports. He was born in Istanbul and immigrated to the U.S., but predicted a “slam dunk” in the Supreme Court if he argued the Constitution’s “natural-born citizen” clause shouldn’t bar him from becoming president.

Big Read

The New York Times’ Jonathan Weisman tried to answer the question uniting political observers of all stripes: “What is Nancy Mace’s deal?” His answer homes in on the changing district lines in South Carolina, which moved the congresswoman from a swingy Charleston-centered seat to a Trumpier red district, where her new turn as an chaotic antagonist for House leadership is playing well with voters. “Ms. Mace still calls herself an iconoclast, but her transformation from denouncing the likes of Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, to joining him in the first overthrow of a sitting speaker underscores a truism: Voters lead their politicians; politicians don’t lead their voters,” Weisman writes.

Blindspot

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, according to data from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: President Biden said during a speech yesterday that he had witnessed “confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children” in Israel, but the White House later clarified that he was referring to claims from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and media reports.

What the Right isn’t reading: A transgender boy’s family sued to block North Carolina’s new gender-affirming care restrictions.

Ruben Gallego is a Democratic congressman from Arizona. He is also challenging Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz. for her Senate seat in 2024.