Axios

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will convene a special session of the state legislature this week to consider legislation to combat COVID-19 vaccine mandates, his office outlined.

Driving the news: The special session will consider four pieces of legislation requiring employers to allow exceptions to the mandate for certain workers, increasing penalties for employers who fire workers for being unvaccinated, among other provisions.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision to take up the National Defense Authorization Act this week likely will push Senate consideration of President Biden's Build Back Better social spending plan into December, piling more anxiety onto progressives.

Why it matters: Liberal Democrats already were worried that House moderates' commitment to vote on the BBB (estimated at $1.75 trillion) was less than ironclad after the passage of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which Biden is to sign Monday.

Monday's signing event for the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill should also be a victory lap for Vice President Kamala Harris, but so far voters haven't given her credit for largely under-the-radar efforts.

The big picture: Since the spring, Harris held more than 30 public events — and about 150 calls, meetings and other engagements with members of Congress — to tout elements of the infrastructure plan as well as President Biden's larger Build Back Better social spending plan.

While the partisan divide in the U.S. keeps intensifying, new polling from the Pew Research Center also reveals how several distinct subsets of political views are emerging across the two major parties.

Why it matters: This polling highlights just why it will be so difficult for many candidates in next year's midterms to keep support from the most partisan and involved candidates within their party while also winning over the more moderate and undecided.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told "Axios on HBO" that the Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol was also an attack on the core values of the world's biggest military alliance.

Driving the news: "I regard that as an attack on the core democratic institutions of the United States and therefore also on core values of NATO," Stoltenberg said in an interview recorded last Monday at NATO's headquarters in Brussels.

On "Axios on HBO," former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took a tough opening shot at potential 2024 candidates who plan to decide whether to run based on what former President Trump does:

• "Those people who say that they will defer to Donald Trump have disqualified themselves from being president," Christie told me during a wide-ranging interview in New Jersey. "Because if you're not willing to stand up to someone, ... how can you ... be standing up for everyone when you're president?"

Why it matters: Christie, who's gaming out a possible run in 2024, is signaling he has no fear of tangling with Trump, a friend of 20 years from whom he has been estranged since 1/6. And he's painting more cautious Republicans as cowardly.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged the Biden administration on Sunday to tap into the nation's emergency petroleum reserves in order to curb soaring gas prices, Reuters reported.

Why it matters: U.S. gas prices have hit seven-year highs and complicated the Biden administration's push for a clean energy transition.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on "Fox News Sunday" struggled to address the contradictory nature of his stance on COVID-related mandates.

Driving the news: Texas filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration last month over its vaccine mandate for federal contractors, calling it "a dramatic infringement upon individual liberties."

President Biden will announce new steps on Monday to improve public safety and justice for Native Americans, as well as better protection of private lands, treaty rights and sacred places, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during a briefing Friday.

Why it matters: The announcements will take place during the first Tribal Nations summit since 2016, which did not take place under the previous administration. It is also the first time the summit is being hosted by the White House.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), during an interview on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, declined to criticize former President Trump's apparent defense of Jan. 6 rioters who threatened to "hang" former Vice President Mike Pence.

Driving the news: The Wyoming Republican's remarks come after the former president, in a taped interview with ABC News' Jonathan Karl that was shared with Axios, said it was "common sense" for his supporters to threaten the vice president.

Republicans — reshaped, controlled and defined by Donald Trump since 2015 — are slowly but surely charting a post-Trump ideology and platform.

Why it matters: Other than conservative courts, toughness on immigration and hostility toward modern liberalism, it's been impossible to specify the core and connective ideology of Republicans under Trump.  

Ohio Rep. Anthony Gonzalez told CNN's "State of the Union" in an interview that aired Sunday that former President Trump may try to steal the 2024 election if he decides to run and loses.

Why it matters: The Republican lawmaker warned that Trump's second attempt may be more dangerous, since he'll have had time to examine why he failed to overturn the 2020 election, and to calibrate a better strategy the second time around.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday that indicting former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was the right decision, adding that the move may "influence other witnesses" to cooperate.

Why it matters: The California Democrat's remarks on NBC's "Meet the Press" came after a federal grand jury on Friday indicted Bannon for failing to comply with a subpoena issued by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection of which Schiff is a member.

As President Biden hits a new approval low in the Washington Post-ABC News poll, Republicans enjoy their largest midterm lead over Democrats in the 40-year history of the poll.

Why it matters: Sinking sentiments among Democrats and independents are behind the falling numbers, which come despite a majority of Americans supporting the key pieces of Biden's agenda — the bipartisan infrastructure package and $2 trillion social spending bill.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this week is expected to debate whether President Biden's support for abortion rights should disqualify him from receiving communion.

Driving the news: At the organization's annual general assembly in Baltimore, the bishops are slated to vote on a document, which clarifies the meaning of "Holy Communion," Reuters writes.

Hackers accessed the Federal Bureau of Investigation's external email system and sent spam to thousands of people Saturday, according to the Spamhaus Project, an email spam watchdog group.

Why it matters: The cybersecurity debacle highlights the vulnerabilities of email communication, the Washington Post writes. While online entities often claim to be official sources, a hacker compromising a government server is "highly unusual."

A reckoning is hitting news organizations for years-old coverage of the 2017 Steele dossier, after the document's primary source was charged with lying to the FBI.

Why it matters: It's one of the most egregious journalistic errors in modern history, and the media's response to its own mistakes has so far been tepid.