Secretary of State Tony Blinken told me during an "Axios on HBO" interview that President Biden is meeting with Vladimir Putin nine days from now "not in spite of" the cyberattacks that disrupted U.S. meat and gas supplies: "It's because of them."

• Biden will tell Putin "directly and clearly what he can expect from the United States if aggressive, reckless actions toward us continue," Blinken told me in the grand Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room.

Blinken said the U.S. "would prefer a more stable relationship" with Russia.

• "I can't tell you whether I'm optimistic or not about the results," he added. "I don't think we're going to know after one meeting, but we'll have some indications ... We're prepared either way."

Blinken sees his Job 1 as reconnecting with allies, and he said he's found a real thirst for U.S. engagement.

• "Our partners see the same thing that we do," he said. "If you're looking at all of the really big problems that we're trying to solve — ... like the pandemic, like climate change, like emerging technologies ... — no one country can do it alone."
• Blinken added that when the U.S. isn't leading, China and others fill the vacuum, "and maybe not in a way that advances our interests or values": "We've certainly seen China ... try to fill voids where we've been relatively disengaged."

On the Israel-Gaza conflict, I asked Blinken what'll happen if Israel produces no smoking-gun evidence that Hamas was occupying the building, housing AP and Al-Jazeera, that Israel bombed after a warning.

• "President Biden's been very clear: Israel has the right to defend itself, and it was on the receiving end of indiscriminate rocket attacks," Blinken began.
• "However, having said that: Israel, as a democracy, I think has an added burden to make sure it is doing everything possible to avoid civilian casualties. ... I think one of the things that we found ourselves, speaking only for the United States, is that the more transparency you can provide, the more legitimacy you're going to have."

Watch a clip: Blinken vows to hold China accountable on Wuhan.

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Conservatives are starting to pressure lawmakers with financial ties to Big Tech, Axios' Kim Hart scoops in her "Tech Agenda" column.

• The American Principles Project, a conservative advocacy group founded by Princeton's Robert George, will send a letter today warning Republican lawmakers and staffers to be wary of Big Tech attempts to "influence public policy on the Right" through think-tank funding.

Why it matters: Third-party influence is a key lobbying strategy for major companies in Washington, and has in the past been very effective for Silicon Valley.

The big picture: There's growing suspicion of Big Tech by both parties, but for different reasons.

• Democrats are angry that the platforms have allowed misinformation to proliferate. Republicans are concerned that the platforms' content moderators have censored conservative views.

There's also rising suspicion of any person or group tied to the companies financially, regardless of how they lean politically.

• The letter stops short of warning GOP lawmakers to halt all meetings with tech allies, but cautions to "carefully consider your interactions with Big-Tech funded groups."

The other side: As we've reported, Democrats and a few left-leaning groups are also pulling away from some Big Tech donations.

What to watch: Expect Republicans to be less willing to work with Democrats on tech legislation as they focus on winning back the House in 2022.

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After 13 years without owning a car, Amy Harder writes in her "Harder Line" column, she finally got one. This is the story of her personal car-buying journey.

I had three goals. The car had to be:

1. Efficient: As clean and efficient as possible.
2. Affordable: I don’t want to spend any more money than necessary.
3. Versatile: I don’t want to depend on multiple cars. Most electric-car owners almost always own multiple cars.

I wrote off a fully electric car — for now.

• My Seattle apartment building doesn’t have charging. Although I probably will have access to it when I commute to an office again, I want the guarantee of home charging.
• My family lives 300 miles away in a rural part of Washington state where charging en route — and charging again once I get there — would be difficult.
• I want a car with all-wheel drive because of snow. The only electric cars available with this are Teslas. The most affordable option costs well north of $40,000.

Keep reading to find out what she bought.

• Amy Harder, an Axios alumnus, is vice president of publishing at Breakthrough Energy,, where she's launching a journalism initiative.

Vice President Kamala Harris lands yesterday in Guatemala City as she begins a Latin American swing that's her first foreign trip as V.P.

• Next, she stops in Mexico.

Senior administration officials, briefing pool reporters on the trip, said the Biden administration will announce new measures today to fight smuggling and trafficking. Go deeper.

Polling from our Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index, which started in March 2020, shows that respondents who reported never wearing masks were twice as likely to test positive for COVID as those who said they wore masks all the time, Axios managing editor David Nather writes.

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President Obama, who plans to remain in the public eye ahead of the Obama Presidential Center groundbreaking later this year on the South Side of Chicago, names two top staffers for his personal office:

• Hannah Hankins, President Obama's new communications director, served for 5+ years in the Obama White House Communications Department, including as communications director and senior policy adviser for the Domestic Policy Council. After the administration, she helped with Michelle Obama’s "Becoming" book tour, was deputy chief of staff for Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and was communications director for Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff during the campaign and transition. 
• Crystal Carson, Mrs. Obama's communications director, was a managing director at Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote Initiative, and worked as a media consultant for President Obama’s personal office. She has also worked for the Obama Foundation, on rapid response for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, and as chief of staff for the communications director in the Obama White House.  

Eric Schultz continues his consultant role (via The Schultz Group) as outside senior advisor.

We are witnessing the greatest election fraud in the history of the country — in my opinion, in the history of any democracy.

A leader of the global vaccination effort tells "Axios on HBO" that leaders of rich countries who "ignore the rest of the world" during pandemics are failing at their jobs.

• "It's a natural thing ... to try to protect one's own family," Dr. Seth Berkley — CEO of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance — told Jonathan Swan in Geneva.
• "But if you do that and the virus is continuing to spread in other places and mutates, then you all — not just your children but the parents themselves — can be at risk of further outbreaks."

Watch a clip.

• 🎞️ Swan's Geneva twin bill: New WTO boss opens up about "impossible job." Watch a clip.

Amateur internet sleuths have launched a massive online manhunt for Capitol rioters, Bloomberg's David Yaffe-Bellany reports:

• A "growing community of self-proclaimed sedition hunters — a motley assortment of internet sleuths ... have spent hundreds of hours analyzing the reams of footage that emerged."

Roblox CEO David Baszucki told Ina Fried on "Axios on HBO" that he sees education and even workplace applications in his platform's future:

• "We internally call it a metaverse app, as opposed to a game store or streaming game store."

Roblox is getting company in the metaverse: Facebook said Friday that it's buying Unit 2 Games, the studio behind Crayta —a Roblox-like platform — which Facebook plans to integrate into its own gaming.

• Watch a clip.