Biden proposes tectonic change to party’s presidential nominating calendar

In today’s edition …  Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Mendenez wants Biden to take a harder line supporting Chinese protesters … Hutchinson moves closer to 2024 campaign … Scenes from the state dinner … but first …

Biden proposes tectonic change to party’s presidential nominating calendar

🚨: President Biden has proposed shaking up which states play the lead role in selecting the Democratic presidential nominee, delighting the states that will win more distinguished roles in the method and angering those that will lose clout.

Biden is pushing the Democratic National Committee to make South Carolina the first-in-the-nation primary state in 2024, replacing the Iowa caucuses and upending a long time of tradition, our colleagues Michael Scherer and Tyler Pager scooped. Primaries in Latest Hampshire and Nevada would occur per week later, followed by primaries in Georgia and Michigan. 

The Rules and Bylaws Committee will meet today and Saturday to debate the matter. In the event that they determine to ratify Biden’s nominating plan, it’ll be as much as the DNC to approve it in February. 

The choice to remake the nominating calendar has drawn fire from Democrats within the two states that traditionally led the lineup, who argue that the fight to be first isn’t over, and one other that lobbied to be first:

• “That is merely a advice,” Scott Brennan, Iowa’s representative on the Rules and Bylaws Committee, said. “We’re going to rise up for Iowa’s place in the method.”

• “The DNC didn’t give Latest Hampshire the first-in-the-nation primary and it isn’t theirs to remove,” Latest Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley said in a press release. “This news is clearly disappointing, but we can be holding our primary first. We’ve survived past attempts over the a long time and we are going to survive this.”

• “We strongly consider the primary presidential nominating contest ought to be held in a competitive, pro-labor state that supports voting access and reflects all of America’s diversity — in other words, a state that really aligns with the DNC’s own priorities for
  updating the calendar,” Nevada Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen said. “This proposed recent order for the early states disregards the broad coalition of national organizations and leaders calling for Nevada to go first, and as an alternative elevates a state that doesn’t meet the standards to begin off this process.”

Inside Biden’s decision: “By breaking with a long time of tradition, Biden’s move is supposed to signal his party’s commitment to elevating more variety — demographic, geographic and economic — within the early nominating process,” Michael and Tyler write. “Iowa, a largely White state that historically held the nation’s first Democratic caucus and experienced embarrassing problems tabulating ends in 2020, would haven’t any early role within the Biden plan.”

• “We must make sure that voters of color have a voice in selecting our nominee much earlier in the method and throughout all the early window,” Biden wrote in a letter to members of the Rules and Bylaws Committee delivered Thursday evening. “As I said in February 2020, you can not be the Democratic nominee and win a general election unless you’ve got overwhelming support from voters of color — and that features Black, Brown and Asian American & Pacific Islander voters.”
• “For a long time, Black voters particularly have been the backbone of the Democratic Party but have been pushed to the back of the early primary process,” he continued. “It’s time to stop taking these voters as a right, and time to present them a louder and earlier voice in the method.”

Menendez wants Biden to take a harder line supporting Chinese protesters

Six questions for … Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.): We spoke with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s chairman about why he’d wish to see President Biden speak out more forcefully in defense of Chinese protesters — and why he thinks Republican criticisms of Biden’s approach to China are “pure political hogwash.” This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

The Early: It’s been nearly per week since large-scale protests erupted in China in response to the federal government’s covid policies. What do you make of the situation there at once?

Menendez: [It’s] the results of an intergenerational sense of frustration over China’s Orwellian system of mass surveillance, of authoritarian censorship, of brutal punishment of dissent and a complete disregard for human rights and civil society. So I view this beyond the query of [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping]’s covid policy — I feel they’re questioning the legitimacy of his leadership. And I feel their bravery in a spot just like the [People’s Republic of China] is extraordinary.

The Early: The White House has taken a comparatively restrained line on the protests. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said President Biden supports the precise to protest peacefully but has avoided China’s leadership. Do you’re thinking that that is the precise approach?

Menendez: Well, there’s at all times the calibration between [speaking out in a way that risks the United States] being seen because the instigator of those protests and the will to align ourselves with residents who’ve the precise to peaceful protest, regardless of where they live. My concern is that within the means of trying to find out the calibration — I get the priority that we’re too reticent.

Why is peaceful protest in China any different than peaceful protest in Tunisia or peaceful protest in another a part of the world? We regularly stand up and speak forcefully concerning the rights of those that are protesting and call upon their governments to not brutally attack the protesters. I just don’t think that the China issue is one which ought to be treated in another way.

The Early: Do you’re thinking that the administration is being too reticent?

Menendez: Well, look, they’ve made clear that they support the precise of peaceful protest, that they don’t support the zero-covid policies of Xi Jinping. And I’d expect that they are sending a really clear message to Beijing privately to induce restraint. But when we’re the beacon of democracy, you possibly can’t pick and select — since it undermines the character and the strength of your advocacy. I’d wish to see us be slightly bit more forward-leaning, each here and in Iran, for that matter.

The Early: You’ve also seen Republicans criticize Biden’s decisions to not denounce the Chinese government more forcefully. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) called it “nothing in need of cowardly.” What do you make of those criticisms?

Menendez: Comments like which might be nothing but pure political hogwash. It’s easy to be reckless whenever you haven’t got the responsibility for the nation. It’s rather more difficult to be calibrated, and to rise up for human rights and democracy, but do it in a way that ultimately doesn’t undermine the very explanation for the people who find themselves promoting it. The last item I feel that Joe Biden is about is accommodating Xi Jinping.

The Early: On the opposite side, Ryan Hass, who served as National Security Council director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia within the Obama administration, tweeted this week, “Loud denunciations would have made it easier for Beijing to push its preferred narrative that hostile foreign forces are fomenting unrest inside China.” Do you’re thinking that there’s a risk that if the administration took a harder line it could backfire?

Menendez: That is consistently the challenge inside China or anyplace else. What’s the precise calibration? How much do you support those that are peacefully protesting for change of their country or protesting the policies of their country? And the way do you do it so that you simply’re supporting them and never undercutting them by allowing regardless of the regime — on this case, Xi Jinping — to say that is all of the West and the US? 

Having said that, I do think that giving echo to the protesters isn’t similar to loud criticism. Using our surrogate broadcasting circumvention efforts that we’re engaging in in totalitarian countries throughout the world — those things have to be used robustly. Because then it’s not the condemnation of the US — it’s the condemnation of the Chinese people of its own regime.

The Early: What do you’re thinking that the protests mean for the long run of Xi’s rule only a month after he secured one other term as China’s president?

Menendez: He isn’t omnipotent. Whenever you affect your residents in a way that’s so pejorative, so negative and, in lots of cases, so violent, there can be responses to it. You are not so omnipotent that you simply cannot take heed to the desire of the people. If he’s honest with himself, he’s gotta look and say, “Whoa, let me recalibrate.”

Hutchinson moves closer to 2024 campaign

Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas’s Republican governor, plans to satisfy with a team of advisers on Sunday evening within the governor’s mansion as he mulls whether to run for president in 2024, in line with an individual conversant in the matter. Those advisers include Jon Gilmore, who ran his campaigns for governor; Rob Engstrom, a former U.S. Chamber of Commerce political director; John Eddy, who runs Hutchinson’s nonprofit, American Strong and Free; J.R. Davis; Alex Benton; Tracy Eddy; and Celina Engstrom.

He’s eyeing an announcement early next yr if he decides to run, in line with the person conversant in the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to explain the private deliberations.

Hutchinson was term-limited and can be succeeded next month by Gov.-elect Sarah Sanders. He spoke Wednesday night on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute as a part of a speaker series that has drawn potential Republican presidential candidates including Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, former Latest Jersey governor Chris Christie, former vice chairman Mike Pence, Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley, the previous U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

In his remarks, Hutchinson said Americans “rejected extreme candidates and voted for democracy” within the midterms. And he implicitly criticized former president Donald Trump’s recent dinner with the White nationalist Nick Fuentes.

“I won’t ever understand why a frontrunner would give credibility to such hate-filled extremists by breaking bread with them,” he said.

Speaking of potential 2024 presidential candidates, Latest Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R) told Leigh Ann yesterday that the Republican Party is “just moving on” from former president Donald Trump. 

For the reason that red wave didn’t materialize within the midterms, Sununu, who just won reelection by 15 points in Latest Hampshire, has been on a media tour warning against extreme candidates that may’t win general elections, saying “I do not think it’s the precise brand for America.” He puts Trump in that category.

“I do not think he can win in November of ’24.  He didn’t win in 2020,” Sununu said. “Why would we expect he can win again?” 

Is Sununu enthusiastic about a presidential run? “Not likely,” he said. We’ll see. 

Scenes from a state dinner

🥂: “On Thursday night, the youngest-ever French president and the oldest-ever American president toasted one another throughout the White House’s first state dinner in greater than three years, since before the pandemic swept away tens of millions of lives and froze Washington’s fancy rituals,” our colleagues Dan Zak, Roxanne Roberts, Jada Yuan and Jura Koncius write. It was “the fizzy climax of this week’s state visit, during which [Biden, 80, and Emmanuel Macron, three weeks from turning 45,] grasped for brand spanking new ways to explain their mutual affection and vilify their common foe, Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

About last night: “The dinner was a nostalgic mingling of boldfaced names from politics, business, Hollywood and fashion,” our colleagues write. “Singer John Legend and Chrissy Teigen were seated with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hugged Vogue editor Anna Wintour.”

• “Guests were ferried by heated tour-bus trolley from the White House to the pavilion, where 33 rectangular dining tables were dappled with the nations’ shared colours: blue delphiniums, white irises and American Beauty roses. The gold-thatched plateware was rented (can’t risk the great china with a tipsy Cabinet). The tablecloths were navy. The chandeliers above, flickering with artificial candles, were medieval of their circularity. The visual vibe was ‘Beauty and the Beast’ meets ‘Game of Thrones.’”
• “The calotte of beef was served with shallot marmalade. The butter potatoes were triple-cooked. There was ravioli with squash from the White House garden and caviar from white California sturgeon. Dessert was orange chiffon cake with tangerine mousse, roasted pears and creme fraiche ice cream. The wines and cheeses were American: cheddar from Sheboygan, Wis., and chardonnay and cabernet from the valleys of Napa and Knights … The Maine lobsters were flown in, alive and scuttling, Tuesday morning. They were poached in butter, and controversy.”

• Jill Biden’s twinkling state-dinner dress revived a primary lady tradition. By The Post’s Ashley Fetters Maloy.
• Biden and Macron: A bond built on a birthday wish, ice cream and 30 phone calls. By the Latest York Times’s Katie Rogers.

Will someone please leak the seating chart?

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