1 big thing: Scoop — Inside Trump's debate prep

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2. What to expect from the debates

3. What's next: Democracy in crisis

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4. Legal fight brewing over Trump's executive actions

5. Sneak Peek diary

Welcome to Sneak Peek, our weekly look ahead from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, plus our best scoops.

Today's newsletter is 1,492 words, a 6-minute read.

National

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Take a look at both ends of Penn Ave — and our best scoops

Axios Sneak Peek

1 big thing: Trump offered FBI director job to Kelly, asked for loyalty

2. Leaked memo on Jared Kushner's security clearance

3. Team Biden eyes a trillion-dollar January stimulus

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4. Team Trump's era of good feelings

6. First look: A former Trump aide's apocalyptic new book

Book cover of The Stakes by Michael Anton. 

🎬 Next on "Axios on HBO": At Eli Lilly HQ in Indianapolis, CEO David Ricks shares what he thinks of pressure from President Trump to rush coronavirus treatments and cures. See a clip.

Catch the full interview Monday at 11pm ET/PT on all HBO platforms.

Today's newsletter is 1,828 words, a 7-minute read.

Axios Sneak Peek: Leaked memos on Kushner security clearance

1 big thing: GOP convention is a Trumpian production

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2. How Trump's convention differs from the DNC ... and one similarity

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3. Scoop: The Trump-Navarro mind meld on the FDA

Navarro speaking at a press conference with Trump looking on.

4. Quote du jour

6. First look: Carter Page's new book

Photo of the cover of Carter Page's forthcoming book

Today's newsletter is 1,845 words, a 7-minute read.

Axios Sneak Peek: Previewing the RNC — Scoop: The Trump-Navarro mind meld on the FDA

1 big thing: Trump eyes new unproven virus "cure"

Illustration of a medicine bottle tipped on its side with oleander flowers spilling out.

2. Inside the oleandrin campaign

3. No plane for Biden campaign

4. Sheldon Adelson makes nice with Trump

5. What's next: Inside Dem Convention week

6. The other side: Inside Trump's DNC counterprogramming

7. Sneak Peek diary

🎫 For the next two weeks, Axios is your floor pass to the conventions! Check out Axios 2020 Conventions coverage on the app (Apple | Android) or online for can’t-miss coverage and daily virtual events with the biggest newsmakers.

🎥 In the next episode of "Axios on HBO," Mike Allen interviews the acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf. See a clip, then tune in for the full interview on Monday at 11 pm ET/PT on all HBO platforms.

1 big thing ... Scoop ... McCarthy warns Trump's war on mail could screw GOP

Illustration of a mailbox covered in "I Voted" stickers.  

2. Republicans' internal conflict over diversity

Rep. Kevin McCarthy flanked by GOP members, mostly white men.

3. Trump hunts for foreign policy wins

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4. Republicans to vote on skinny bill 

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5. Sneak Peek diary 

My colleague Alayna Treene, an Axios White House reporter, is filling in for me today.

Happy Labor Day weekend. We are 58 days away from Election Day. 

Situational awareness: North Carolina started mailing ballots on Friday. Several other states will also begin sending out ballots in the coming days.

Today's newsletter is 1,879 words, a 7-minute read.

Axios Sneak Peek — Scoop: McCarthy warns Trump's war on mail could screw GOP — Conflict over diversity

The Biden administration is preparing Monday to notify several Afghans currently waiting at a U.S. Army base in Kosovo that they'll be denied entry to the United States, two administration officials told Axios.

Why it matters: Such formal determinations may ultimately affect as many as 16 refugees at Camp Bondsteel in eastern Kosovo. It is the first time the Biden administration has rejected Afghans who've been housed there for additional vetting before being granted entry to the U.S.

The determinations stem from security concerns, or the identification of possible ties to the Taliban or terrorist organizations.

The State Department is considering two options for the Afghans being denied entry, according to sources with direct knowledge of the plans.

One, work with the Taliban to facilitate their return to Afghanistan.

Two, persuade other countries to take them in.

What they're saying: A National Security Council spokesman told Axios all Afghans who fled amid the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Kabul last August "must first undergo a multi-layered, rigorous screening and vetting process."

That process begins overseas, and is conducted by intelligence, law enforcement and counterterrorism professionals from the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC); and additional Intelligence Community partners, the spokesman said.

He added: "While the vast majority of Afghan evacuees have been cleared through this process, the small number of individuals who have been denied are examples of the system working exactly as it should.”

Yes, but: "Everyone here is waiting for clearance," Mohammad Arif Sarwari, who worked with the CIA to dislodge the Taliban, and then served as the chief of Afghan intelligence, told Axios by phone from Camp Bondsteel on Sunday.

"We thought maybe three months or six months — but not nine months," he said. "The vetting team has interviewed us, maybe five or six times," he said. "We are not free; we can't go outside."

Some Afghans have complained of poor health and cramped conditions at the camp, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The big picture: As Kabul was falling last year, more than 100,000 Afghans — including many who worked for the U.S. government and fought the Taliban — fled their home country.

About 76,000 were granted entry to the U.S. through Operation Allies Welcome. The State Department is working on giving many of them long-term immigration status.

Some "hard cases" who fled — including Afghans with possible ties to terrorist organizations — were sent, along with their family members, to Camp Bondsteel. It now houses about 100.

The U.S. arranged with the government of Kosovo to house them for 365 days, so they could be screened. Under that agreement, some of the Afghans who've been denied entry to the U.S. will have to leave Kosovo by September.

Driving the news: The State Department plans to inform the Kosovo government of its final determination on Monday.

It also will inform the Afghans who've been denied entry of their new status.

An estimated 16 of Camp Bondsteel's hard cases were slated to be denied entry to the U.S., one source with direct knowledge of the plans told Axios. A second said the number of finalized denials was in the high single digits.

Not every Afghan refugee at Bondsteel will be informed of their status on Monday, giving those who don't get immediate word some hope they may yet be cleared for entry into the U.S.

Flashback: In February, the U.S. deported its first Afghan back to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

That movement came as a result of a criminal record discovered after the refugee arrived in the U.S.

Scoop: U.S. to deny entry to some Afghans in Kosovo

The determinations stem from security concerns, or the identification of potential ties to the Taliban or terrorist organizations.

A U.S Air Force carrying Afghan refugees at Pristina International Airport last August.

A U.S. Air Force plane at Pristina International Airport in Kosovo on Aug. 29, 2021. Photo: Armend Nimani/AFP via Getty Images

Afghanistan

Politics & Policy

President Trump's attorney general Bill Barr is in active discussions with the Jan. 6th investigative committee to appear for a formal transcribed interview, according to two sources with direct knowledge.

Driving the news: Barr is likely to cooperate with the committee, according to a source familiar with his thinking. 

Tim Mulvey, a spokesman for the Jan. 6 committee, declined to comment.

What we're hearing: No firm decision has been made by the committee on whether to invite Barr to appear in the public hearings that begin in June.

As Axios previously reported, Trump berated Barr repeatedly to get the Justice Department to declare the 2020 election stolen. Barr refused.

Barr told Trump in a meeting on December 1, 2020 that his theories about a stolen election were "bullshit."

Barr also called Trump's new legal team at the time "clownish."

"I'm a pretty informed legal observer and I can't fucking figure out what the theory is here," Barr added. "It's just scattershot. It's all over the hill and gone."

Scoop: Bill Barr in discussions to cooperate with Jan. 6 committee

Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images

Bill Barr

President Trump&#x27;s attorney general Bill Barr is in active discussions with the Jan. 6th investigative committee to appear for a formal transcribed interview, according to two sources with direct knowledge.Driving the news: Barr is likely to cooperate with the committee, according to a source familiar with his thinking.

Volodymyr Zelensky is no longer so eager to meet with Vladimir Putin.

Why it matters: In our interview tonight — our third in the past 18 months but first since the invasion — the Ukrainian president seemed less hopeful about diplomacy with the Russian president than I've heard from him previously.

Zelensky had repeatedly said that he wants to meet with Putin.

But in his video call into Ukraine House Davos, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, he told me it's becoming "more and more difficult" to entertain high-level meetings with Russia as the war drags on and Putin commits more atrocities.

What they're saying: "It is difficult because there is the line that can hardly be crossed, after Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol and other towns and cities," Zelensky said, referring to Russian massacres of Ukrainian civilians.

"We cannot avoid this meeting with the president of the Russian Federation, but after the atrocities that they committed, I cannot be too excited about such a meeting or meetings with the intermediaries."

Between the lines: Top officials in Zelensky's administration and military have recently sounded more aggressive and less willing to concede anything to Russia in negotiations. Their confidence has grown as Ukraine's forces achieve battlefield victories.

Zelensky's senior negotiator, Mykhailo Podolyak, told Reuters on Saturday that Ukraine must not make any concessions to Russia: "The (Russian) forces must leave the country and after that, the resumption of the peace process will be possible," he said.

Zelensky's military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, has gone even further, telling The Wall Street Journal: "Russia will lose in the end, and Ukraine will recover all its temporarily lost territories. It will do so by force, exclusively by force, because no other way exists." 

That even applies to Crimea — a move that many U.S. and European officials consider unrealistic and potentially dangerous, as a desperate Putin might resort to even more extreme measures.

Those declarations are more strident and uncompromising than anything Zelensky has been saying. I pressed Zelensky on this, asking whether he agrees with Budanov's statement that Ukraine will recover all its territories "exclusively by force."

Zelensky seems not to agree. In a remarkable exchange, he tried dodging the question several times, praising Budanov's "spirit" and "confidence" as a military leader. But he eventually acknowledged that the approach could incur "hundreds of thousands" of casualties: "The price matters. Everything has its price."

Politico recently reported that the leaders of Germany, France and Italy are worried about the implications of a total defeat of Russia — a humiliation that could destabilize an unpredictable regime with nuclear weapons.

Zelensky has said the West should not base its decisions to defend Ukraine on a fear of Russia's aggression; but he was also unwilling to say that he would try to take back Crimea by force.

The bottom line: Zelensky suggested to a group of Russian journalists in a March interview that he was willing to offer neutrality and give up on NATO membership in exchange for strong security guarantees. He also suggested that if Russian troops return to the pre-Feb. 24 lines, it would be possible to negotiate over the Donbas and Crimea. Those seemed to be the basic contours of a possible deal.

But Zelensky cannot strike a peace deal on his own. He needs Putin — and political support in Ukraine, where members of parliament are unlikely to ratify a treaty offering territorial concessions.

The longer the war drags on and the more atrocities the Russians commit, the more hardened many Ukrainian people may become to the prospect of giving over any land to Putin.

Zelensky still seems inclined towards negotiating. "Diplomacy leads to peace, and peace is desirable for every human being" from those fighting on the front lines to the "couch potato," he said, his comedian past shining through. But his no-punchline message was that this path narrows the more time passes. And every day, the body bags are piling up.

Why Zelensky doubts he can deal with Putin

New insights from Jonathan Swan's interview with Ukraine's president.

Jonathan Swan's interview with Zelensky at Davos. Photo: Ukraine House Davos

Volodymyr Zelensky

Volodymyr Zelensky is no longer so eager to meet with Vladimir Putin.Why it matters: In our interview tonight — our third in the past 18 months but first since the invasion — the Ukrainian president seemed less hopeful about diplomacy with the Russian president than I&#x27;ve heard from him previously.

China is becoming the most formidable rival America has faced, and the risk of confrontation with Russia, North Korea or Iran still looms. Authoritarians are rising, the chaotic Afghanistan exit revealed the limits of U.S. power, and the pandemic, climate change and other critical challenges continue to pose grave threats.

World

Influential Republicans in Washington and among the nationwide party elite are having a belated "oh s--t" moment over the previously unimaginable prospect that Kathy Barnette could win their party's nomination for the open Senate seat in Pennsylvania.

Why it matters: In Barnette, who's been soaring in the polls ahead of Tuesday's primary, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would be dealing with a general election candidate who'd be an opposition researcher's dream — potentially endangering the GOP effort to take back the Senate.

McConnell has been fixated on ensuring the 2022 midterms are not a repeat of the 2012 or 2010 cycles.

The Kentuckian said Republicans missed good chances to win the majority in those years because they nominated candidates who talked about things like "legitimate rape" or had to publicly assure voters they weren't witches.

Barnette’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Barnette has surged after releasing a powerful video — "It wasn't a choice. It was a life." — in which she movingly talks about how her mother was raped when she was 11 and yet Barnette is the living, breathing byproduct of that horrific circumstance.

The video's hit a nerve with primary voters in Pennsylvania, a source close to one of Barnette's rivals told Axios, and gained resonance following the leak of a draft Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade.

Barnette is also the uncommon Black Republican candidate.

At the same time, a cursory review of her Twitter account, @Kathy4Truth, turned up tweets like this one: "Just confronted a Muslim today."

She joins Missouri Senate candidate Eric Greitens — whose alleged misdeeds are numerous and graphic — on a list of potential Republican Senate nominees giving heartburn to GOP leadership.

They not only create the potential of blowing winnable seats but being unmanageable for McConnell should he return as Senate majority leader next year.

Between the lines: The past few days have brought a wild scramble to destroy Barnette. Republican operatives were late to awaken to her political chances.

Most had pegged Pennsylvania's Senate race as a two-man battle between celebrity TV doctor Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO and Army veteran David McCormick.

Oz and McCormick — and their outside operations — have spent millions nuking each other with vicious commercials saturating Pennsylvania television.

Oz has attacked McCormick as soft on China, and McCormick has hit Oz for his past comments that are supportive of abortion and gun control.

That two-man ad war has hurt both candidates and provided a rare opportunity for Barnette to sneak up, ignored and untouched.

Neither rival nor their backers have put serious money on TV to promote her history of comments that would ordinarily disqualify a candidate in a general election, if not a Republican primary.

As Oz and McCormick blitzed each other — and as former President Trump endorsed Oz and blasted McCormick — Barnette has glided through the carnage.

She's had virtually no money but gotten traction with the GOP base by relentlessly hyping Trump's false claims of a stolen 2020 election.

Trump ally Steve Bannon described Barnette as an "audience favorite" for his "War Room" podcast, which is popular among the MAGA base.

He's praised her for having never stopped talking about decertifying the 2020 Biden election and for refusing to concede her own loss in a 2020 House race.

"The reason she has struck a chord is she NEVER conceded her House race loss," Bannon told Axios in a text message. "Pennsylvania is MAGA v. ULTRA MAGA."

Barnette's also close to the pillow entrepreneur and "Stop the Steal" leader Mike Lindell. And she's effectively running on a ticket with the leading Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate, state Sen. Doug Mastriano.

He went to the Capitol on Jan. 6 and has been subpoenaed by the investigative committee. (Mastriano says he left before the building was breached.)

A Barnette nomination next week would present a lose-lose for Republican leadership.

Worst case: She proves to be as big a liability as many fear and hands a competitive seat to the Democrats.

Best case: She's elected and ends up a thorn in the side of Senate leadership. She's already signaled hesitancy about backing McConnell as the Republican leader.

That potentially aligns her with candidates such as Greitens, who's said he won't back McConnell. The Greitens campaign says its internal polling has him leading his primary contest, despite potentially catastrophic general-election baggage.

What's next: Prominent Republicans are belatedly trying to kill Barnette's momentum.

Ric Grenell, a Trump ally who's also endorsed Oz, has been spreading around a video of Barnette's past comments about "white racism."

GOP operatives have been passing around negative articles about her from Breitbart and the Washington Examiner.

Pat Toomey, the Republican senator vacating the Pennsylvania seat, told Axios: "There's a lot ... voters don't know about her. A lot."

On Wednesday, one Republican operative aligned with a rival campaign reached out to Axios to flag Barnette's comments regarding systemic racism in the U.S. and the country's complicated history of racial discrimination and slavery.

The calculation, the operative conceded, is to damage Barnette among Republican base voters presumed to be hostile to ostensibly progressive views about racial justice issues.

The person also flagged an online petition Barnette created to build a statue in Washington, D.C., honoring Barack Obama and his family.

Nonetheless, it's awfully late in the game for Republicans to destroy Barnette.

Some heavy hitters also appear to be staying on the sidelines.

One group with a massive bank account and the potential to affect GOP races — the McConnell-allied Senate Leadership Fund — has no plans to engage in the Pennsylvania primary, a source with direct knowledge of the group's plans told Axios on Wednesday.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, asked if the establishment is putting its thumb on the scale in the Pennsylvania Senate race, told Axios, "In this case, no, we're not. ... We're going to let the voters vote their will" — although he added he hasn't been paying close attention to the race.

Barnette has built up impressive momentum in recent weeks.

She's surged in the polls from mid-single digits as recently as April to around 20% now.

Multiple attendees of a Trump-Oz rally last weekend said they're backing Barnette.

At the same time, a cavalry of sorts is finally coming to Barnette's aid.

The well-funded conservative group, the Club for Growth, shocked Barnette's competitors when it booked $2 million worth of TV ads on Tuesday in support of her.

The New York Times reported that Club for Growth expenditure is more than 10 times the total Barnette's campaign itself had spent on TV to date.

The powerful anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, the Republicans' answer to the pro-choice group Emily's List and a powerful player in GOP primaries, endorsed Barnette, as well.

GOP panics over ‘ultra-MAGA’ Pennsylvania Senate wild card

Mitch McConnell has been fixated on ensuring the 2022 midterms are not a repeat of the 2012 or 2010 cycles.

Senate Republicans

Kathy Barnette speaks at the Pennsylvania State Capitol. 

Influential Republicans in Washington and among the nationwide party elite are having a belated &quot;oh s--t&quot; moment over the previously unimaginable prospect that Kathy Barnette could win their party&#x27;s nomination for the open Senate seat in Pennsylvania.Why it matters: In Barnette, who&#x27;s been soaring in the polls ahead of Tuesday&#x27;s primary, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would be dealing with a general election candidate who&#x27;d be an opposition researcher&#x27;s dream — potentially endangering the GOP effort to take back the Senate.

Former President Trump is leaning strongly toward endorsing highly controversial Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano for governor, according to three sources familiar with his private deliberations.

Why it matters: Mastriano — who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 — has gone beyond trying to help Trump overturn the 2020 election. He's proposed defying Pennsylvania's popular vote outcome and spoke at an event last month that promoted QAnon conspiracies.

What we're watching: Democrats are salivating because they see him as beatable in a general election even in a political environment that's extremely favorable to Republicans. Leading Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro even ran an ad highlighting Mastriano in the primary contest.

With time running out before Tuesday's primaries, Republicans are panicking about the prospect of such a polarizing candidate with limited appeal leading the ticket and are mounting a last-ditch effort to stop him, as Politico first reported.

Others in the Republican gubernatorial contest include former Rep. Lou Barletta, former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain and businessman Dave White. 

Flashback: In the 2016 primary, then-candidate Trump won Pennsylvania after his more traditional Republican opponents split the remainder of the GOP vote. 

Between the lines: Trump is worried about his endorsed Senate candidate Dr. Oz losing, according to two sources familiar with the situation, so his endorsement of Mastriano could be a way of hedging his bets on Tuesday.

Republicans are also belatedly panicking over the previously unimaginable prospect that Kathy Barnette could win their party's nomination for the open Senate seat in Pennsylvania, as Axios reported.

Scoop: Trump leans toward endorsing Doug Mastriano for Pa. governor

According to three sources familiar with his private deliberations.

Photo: Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

2022 elections

Former President Trump is leaning strongly toward endorsing highly controversial Pennsylvania state Sen. <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Doug Mastriano for governor" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/local/philadelphia/2022/05/10/primary-election-guide-pennsylvania-governor-race" data-vars-content-id="f907a2ef-be34-4ef5-a1a2-3677a9b9d706" data-vars-headline="Scoop: Trump leans toward endorsing Doug Mastriano for Pa. governor" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/local/philadelphia/2022/05/10/primary-election-guide-pennsylvania-governor-race" target="_self">Doug Mastriano for governor</a>, according to three sources familiar with his private deliberations.Why it matters: Mastriano — who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 — has gone beyond trying to help Trump overturn the 2020 election. He&#x27;s proposed defying Pennsylvania&#x27;s popular vote outcome and spoke at an event last month that <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="promoted QAnon conspiracies" data-vars-click-url="https://www.penncapital-star.com/blog/pa-gop-governor-hopeful-mastriano-campaigned-at-event-promoting-qanon/" data-vars-content-id="f907a2ef-be34-4ef5-a1a2-3677a9b9d706" data-vars-headline="Scoop: Trump leans toward endorsing Doug Mastriano for Pa. governor" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.penncapital-star.com/blog/pa-gop-governor-hopeful-mastriano-campaigned-at-event-promoting-qanon/" target="_blank">promoted QAnon conspiracies</a>.

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