If it’s FRIDAY… Former VP Mike Pence testifies before grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s role on Jan. 6… President Biden and VP Harris attend DNC fundraiser at 6:45 pm ET… Trump, in New Hampshire, blasts Biden (and Gov. Chris Sununu and former Gov. Chris Christie)… Abortion bans get defeated in Nebraska and South Carolina… and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announces WV-SEN bid.
But FIRST... Ron DeSantis’ continued fight with Disney has revealed plenty about the Florida governor and his expected presidential bid.
One, he didn’t know how to quit when he was already ahead.
After signing legislation into law stripping Disney of its self-governing status and after Disney made a legal end-run around that law, DeSantis and his allies STILL went after the entertainment giant — which resulted in Disney suing the state in federal court.
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., who has endorsed Donald Trump, said on “Meet the Press NOW” that while he supported DeSantis taking his original action against Disney, “I would have moved on.”
Two, DeSantis allowed his potential adversaries to take the high (economic) ground.
Trump attacked DeSantis over the spat with Disney. So did former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, saying: “Hey @Disney, my home state will happily accept your 70,000+ jobs if you want to leave Florida.”
(Even neutral Republicans like House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have criticized DeSantis over the conflict.)
And three, the entire episode took what had been a perceived DeSantis strength (that he was tough) and turned it into a weakness (that he was a bully — and maybe a weak one at that).
“DeSantis essentially picked the fight,” GOP strategist Doug Heye told the Washington Post. “So when you pick the fight and then you lose it, it’s very easy to see real problems.”
That lesson — picking a fight that either goes too far or is one that you can’t win — reminds us of another former GOP governor with presidential ambitions who had just won re-election in a blowout.
Chris Christie and the entire Bridgegate ordeal.
Headline of the day
Data Download: The number of the day is … 53%
That’s the portion of Americans who support affirmative action programs and agree with a statement that “affirmative action programs are still needed to counteract the effects of discrimination against minorities,” according to the latest national NBC News poll.
Forty percent of those polled oppose affirmative action programs and agree with the statement that “affirmative action programs have gone too far in favoring minorities, and should be ended.”
White Americans were essentially split on the issue, while African Americans and Latinos favored the use of affirmative action programs. The new polling comes as the Supreme Court is set to rule on the use of these programs later this year.
Read more on the Meet the Press Blog.
Other numbers to know
1.1%: The annualized increase in GDP over the first quarter, raising concerns the economy is slowing.
37%: President Joe Biden’s approval rating in the latest Gallup poll — the president’s all-time low in the survey.
12: The number of people killed in Ukraine early Friday as Russia launched new large-scale airstrikes into the country for the first time in two months.
12,000: The number of Cuban, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan students who have enrolled in Miami-Dade County Public Schools between August and February, as the district looks for more funding to handle the influx of immigrant students.
Nearly 3 million: The number of people who have access to U.S. classified documents, per the Washington Post.
At least 9: The number of states with laws restricting the use of bathrooms based on one’s gender identity, after Kansas legislators overrode Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of such a measure.
79: The age of the late Jerry Springer, the daytime television host and politician who died Thursday.
Eyes on 2024: Trump’s highs and lows
Thursday proved to be a strong display of the highs — and the lows — of former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential bid.
We saw the highs in New Hampshire, where Trump arrived the clear frontrunner in the GOP presidential primary and set his sights on President Joe Biden, largely ignoring his GOP rivals as he seeks to portray himself as the inevitable Republican nominee, per NBC News’ Jonathan Allen.
And we saw the lows in a courtroom and grand jury proceeding hundreds of miles away, where former Vice President Mike Pence testified in front of a Washington D.C. grand jury looking into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. And also in New York, where writer E. Jean Carroll reiterated on the witness stand her accusation that Trump raped her.
The vast majority of Republicans — 68% in the latest NBC News poll — say all the investigations into Trump are politically motivated and that the party should rally around him. That’s why he is so far ahead in the GOP primary polling right now. But winning the primary is only half the battle, and general election voters likely won’t be as forgiving.
In other campaign news…
A date set in granite: President Joe Biden may be the far-and-away favorite for the Democratic nomination, but as NBC News’ Alex Seitz-Wald reports, he may have to forfeit the New Hampshire primary if it brushes aside Democratic Party rules and still tries to hold its primary first.
We’re doing it again, Joe: Biden has been looking to elevate Vice President Kamala Harris’ work as the Democratic ticket embarks on their re-election bid, NBC News’ Yamiche Alcindor reports.
The biblical holy land and Florida’s holy land: DeSantis signed anti-hate crime legislation Thursday in Israel, while he brushed aside Disney’s lawsuit against him and other state officials. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is out with a long read on “DeSantis’s Miscalculation” with Disney.
Pot call the kettle?: CNN reports that Trump wrote in a 2000 book that Social Security was a “huge Ponzi scheme,” said he was open to raising the age of benefits and privatizing it, despite attacking DeSantis for similar proposals in his political past.
Tim’s timeline: Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who launched an exploratory committee for president, said he hopes to decide whether to officially jump into the race by the end of May, per the Post and Courier.
Senate battle: National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines believes Trump can help the GOP take back the Senate, Daines tells NBC News’ Allan Smith.
Justice of West Virginia: Term-limited GOP Gov. Jim Justice officially jumped into the West Virginia Senate race on Thursday. He’s a top recruit for Republicans, but he’ll still face a potentially divisive and expensive primary race.
Kentucky fried primary: The Associated Press explores the hotly contested GOP primary for governor in Kentucky.
New York state of mind: Politico reports that former Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y. is planning to run for his old House seat, likely setting up a primary clash between Jones and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s sister, Liz Whitmer Gereghty.
ICYMI: What ELSE is happening in the world:
The Biden administration is opening migrant processing centers in Central and South American countries to let migrants apply for legal status outside of America.
Federal prosecutors want to keep the Air National guardsman accused of leaking classified information in jail because he could still have access to classified information and could be a “flight risk.”
The U.S. government is sanctioning Russian and Iranian agencies for their countries detaining Americans.
