Axios Sneak Peek

May 02, 2024
Welcome back to Sneak. Tonight's edition is 768 words, a 3-minute read.
🚨 Situational awareness:
- The Arizona Senate voted to repeal the state's pre-Roe ban on nearly all abortions, Axios Phoenix co-authors Jeremy Duda and Jessica Boehm report.
- Democrats bailed out House Speaker Mike Johnson again to help pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act, a bill to empower the Department of Education to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses.
1 big thing: '24 split screen
Vice President Kamala Harris slammed the "Trump abortion ban" during a speech today in Florida, while former President Trump focused his fire in Wisconsin on President Biden's handling of the economy.
Why it matters: The dueling speeches underscore the split screen that's likely to play out over the next six months.
In Jacksonville, Florida, Harris invoked Trump's name over 20 times during her speech, CNN reports.
- Florida's ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy went into effect today.
- "Across our nation, we witness a full-on assault, state by state, on reproductive freedom," Harris said. "And understand who is to blame: former President Donald Trump did this."
- Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for the repeal of Roe v. Wade, and told TIME it's up to the states to decide to monitor women's pregnancies to know if they've received an abortion.
In Waukesha, Wisconsin, Trump sought to capitalize on the polling showing voters trust him more on the economy.
- "With me in the White House, we will protect the Trump tax cuts for working families, we will make our middle class stronger, bigger, better, stronger, wealthier and more prosperous than ever before," Trump said.
- "We're now in a Biden stagflation," Trump said, "which spells the death of the American dream."
Reality check: "I don't see the stag- or the -flation," Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said during a press conference earlier today.
2. RFK's "spoiler" fight

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a novel new argument, claiming it's President Biden who is the real spoiler in 2024.
- Kennedy challenged Biden to a bizarre "no spoiler pledge," saying whichever of the two men performs weaker in a head-to-head 50-state poll in mid-October with former President Trump should agree to drop out.
Reality check: This won't happen.
- DNC spokesperson Matt Corridoni, who is leading Democrats' efforts to counter third-party bids, wrote on X that Kennedy is "a spoiler — recruited by the MAGA GOP and propped up by Trump's largest donor."
The big picture: Kennedy has qualified for the 2024 presidential ballot in four states, and the campaign says he has passed the signature threshold in at least half a dozen others, including a couple of swing states.
- Kennedy's long-shot independent bid has built a robust plan to try to get on the ballot in all 50 states.
3. Headache for Senate leaders
Reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration has become a headache for Senate leadership, with a deadline coming next week.
Why it matters: This will be one of the last must-pass bills for the Senate before November's elections, and one leadership aide described it as the last train leaving the station.
- Senators are lining up to push for their amendments, with requests already in the double digits. Some are relevant to the aviation bill at hand, and others not at all.
Zoom in: The most controversial part of the underlying bill would add five new flight slots to the D.C.-area Ronald Reagan National Airport.
- Local Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) filed an amendment to strip out the added flights, a Democratic aide told Axios.
Zoom out: Senate leadership is divided over whether to allow amendments that do not pertain to the bill, fearing they'd complicate speedy passage through the House.
- Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is threatening to hold up the process if he doesn't get a vote on his legislation to compensate victims of nuclear waste exposure.
- Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) want to include their Kids Online Safety Act.
- There has also been a push to include crypto legislation that would regulate stablecoins.
The bottom line: "There are lots of people who have different amendments not relevant to the FAA that want to get them on," Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters today.
- "I'm one of those, but we have to get this done in a bipartisan way."
- Schumer wanted to tack on a bill that would give legal marijuana businesses more access to financial institutions — which he has said was blocked by Republicans.
4. Pic du jour: Anti-Johnson caucus presser
At a press conference this morning, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) promised to move forward on her motion to vacate against Speaker Mike Johnson.
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