Axios

Former Interior Secretary and House member Ryan Zinke on Thursday won the Republican nomination in a newly drawn, GOP-leaning House seat in Montana, according to the Associated Press.

Why it matters: The win marks something of a political comeback for Zinke, who resigned from the Department of the Interior in 2018 under a cloud of scandal and multiple ethics probes.

This week's Summit of the Americas was never going to be exhibit A for international cooperation. Even if the region was a top priority for President Biden (it isn't), he doesn't have all that many natural partners to work with.

Driving the news: Much of the focus this week has been on who's not in Los Angeles for the first regional summit since 2018, and the first in the U.S. since 1994.

Jan. 6 Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) will say at the panel's public hearing on Thursday that "the conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over," according to excerpts of his remarks released by the committee.

Why it matters: One common line of attack from Republicans against the panel has been that it has strayed from its "legitimate legislative purpose" in its wide-reaching probe of the attack and the events leading up to it.

The Jan. 6 committee's biggest breakthrough since its creation was a gripping hearing last July in which four law enforcement officers recounted their grisly experiences responding to the Capitol attack, according to Google Trends data.

Why it matters: The upcoming hearings — beginning Thursday night in prime time — are slated to be even bigger. Some members have promised to "blow the roof off the House," with new bombshells about former President Trump's role in the Jan. 6 riot expected to be revealed.

As the Jan. 6 committee gears up for its blockbuster public hearings, vulnerable House Democrats tell Axios the topic hasn't broken through as a major issue in their districts — but that the hearings have the potential to change that.

Why it matters: The committee has been building its case for the better part of a year that Republicans were at best complicit and at worst instigators in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.

Democrats are leaning on this week's Jan. 6 committee hearings and the broader investigation into the Capitol attack to juice small-dollar donor enthusiasm, records show.

Why it matters: Thursday's hearing has set off debate in Washington about whether the probe will move votes for Democrats in November. The more apparent upside, though, is a boost to the the party's grassroots fundraising program.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is privately frustrated at the bubbling speculation that she’s angling to replace Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary after the midterm elections, according to Commerce officials.

Driving the news: With Democrats bracing for big losses in November, some lawmakers and party operatives are anticipating a potential post-election Cabinet shakeup. The depths of the losses will determine the extent of the shakeup.

A gunman opened fire inside a private business in Smithsburg, Maryland, killing at least three people and leaving one person with critical injuries, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

The latest: Authorities said at a news briefing that all four shooting victims at the Columbia Machine warehouse and the suspect were Columbia Manufacturing employees.

A Michigan prosecutor on Thursday filed a second-degree murder charge against Christopher Schurr, a police officer who shot and killed Patrick Lyoya, a Black man.

Driving the news: Kent County prosecutor Chris Becker said in a news briefing he made the decision to charge Schurr based on an internal investigation from the Michigan state police, adding that there is sufficient basis to proceed on a single count of second-degree murder.

Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos spoke about her decision to resign from the Trump administration after the Capitol riots in an interview with USA Today, saying the events of Jan. 6 made it "obvious" to her she couldn't continue in her role.

Driving the news: DeVos, one of the longest-serving members of Trump's Cabinet, confirmed to USA Today she spoke with Pence about invoking the 25th Amendment.

Five Marines were killed during a training mission Wednesday near Glamis, California, after the MV-22B Osprey they were flying crashed, the U.S. Marine Corps announced Thursday.

Driving the news: It's currently unknown what caused the crash, but an investigation is underway, according to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.

The Justice Department said Thursday that it opened a civil rights investigation into the Louisiana State Police amid reports that the department has unfairly targeted Black residents.

Driving the news: "This civil investigation will assess whether LSP uses excessive force and whether it engages in racially discriminatory policing," the Justice Department said.

U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal's push for gun safety legislation is rooted in childhood tragedy: his sister killed herself with a revolver, and he was the one to find her.

Why it matters: Carbajal, a Democrat from California, is one of several members of Congress whose lives have been shaped by gun violence — and who are demanding action after the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Biden administration is committing $331 million to fight food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean, with more efforts still to be announced this week at the Summit of the Americas.

Why it matters: The U.N.'s World Food Programme reports the number of severely food insecure people increased by over half a million from December 2021 to March 2022 in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced in a notice Thursday that it upgraded its investigation into Tesla vehicles striking stopped emergency vehicles while using the company's Autopilot feature.

Why it matters: NHTSA's preliminary probe that it opened in August will now be expanded to an engineering analysis, which is a required step before the regulator decides to issue a recall of the vehicles or the software behind the advanced driver assistance system.

The Jan. 6 committee’s prime-time public hearing debut will feature never-before-seen recordings and documentation from closed-door depositions with key Trump officials and members of the former president’s family, committee aides tell reporters.

The big picture: Tonight's televised 90-minute hearing, and sessions next week, will show that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol "was a result of a coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and stop the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden," one committee aide said.

The FBI arrested Ryan Kelley, a Republican candidate for Michigan governor, on Thursday after serving out a search warrant on his home in Allendale, an FBI spokesperson confirmed to Axios.

Why it matters: Kelley was arrested on misdemeanor charges stemming from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Bill Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, said in a statement Thursday.

The Biden administration on Thursday outlined its strategy for making COVID-19 vaccines available to children under the age of 5.

Driving the news: Pending approval by the FDA and CDC, the White House said last week it hopes COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest children could be available starting June 21.

Members of a group of House Democrats known as the Gallery Group — after they were trapped together in the House gallery during the Capitol riot — will attend Thursday's prime-time, Watergate-style hearing as a group, Axios has confirmed.

Driving the news: The impromptu support group of about 20 members formed via text chain in the aftermath of Jan. 6 and has pushed various initiatives and legislation in the wake of the insurrection.

CEOs of more than 220 U.S. companies on Thursday will release a letter calling on the Senate to "take immediate action" to reduce gun violence, Axios has learned exclusively.

Why it matters: This is the latest example of corporate America delving into a hot-button issue where solutions often break down along partisan lines.

The House Jan. 6 committee has extensively investigated the "ripple effect" of President Trump's tweets in egging on Capitol rioters.

Why it matters: The committee is keenly interested in how Trump's tweets shaped extremist groups' actions before and on Jan. 6. Some committee members argue that Trump's tweets provide indirect connective tissue establishing his culpability.

National interest in firearms surged in nearly every congressional district in the U.S. after the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, new Google Trends data shows.

• The deep orange spots on the map above show where search interest was highest.

President Biden formally opened the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles on Wednesday by announcing a new regional economic partnership plan and declaring democracy a "hallmark of our region."

What he's saying: "As we meet again today, in a moment when democracy is under assault around the world, let us unite again and renew our conviction that democracy is not only the defining feature of American histories, but the essential ingredient to Americas' futures," Biden said during his speech.

President Biden outlined to ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" why he hasn't taken sweeping executive action on gun control while discussing a string of recent mass shootings in the U.S. during an interview airing Wednesday night.

Driving the news: Show host Jimmy Kimmel pressed Biden on the matter, saying former President Trump passed executive orders out "like Halloween candy." Biden responded that he has issued executive orders "within the power of the presidency."

Georgia election officials Brad Raffensperger and Gabriel Sterling are in talks to testify at one of the House Jan. 6 committee's public hearings, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Raffensperger and Sterling were thrust into the center of former President Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, after Trump asked Raffensperger to "find" the votes needed to undo President Biden's win in Georgia.

President Biden said Wednesday that voters made clear in this week's primaries that Republicans and Democrats must "step up" and tackle crime and gun violence.

Why it matters: Crime emerged as a major issue among voters in liberal California on Tuesday, where a progressive San Francisco prosecutor was recalled and Los Angeles-based Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) and billionaire developer Rick Caruso headed to a November runoff.

The bipartisan Jan. 6 commission may have died in the Senate, but the House vote on it has proved consequential in Republican primaries a year later.

Driving the news: Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) finished second in his primary on Tuesday, behind a conservative challenger who attacked him for being one of the 35 Republicans that voted to create the commission.

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), who was appointed to serve on the Jan. 6 committee before Republican leadership withdrew in protest, pulled no punches in an interview with Axios about the upcoming Jan. 6 committee hearings.

What they're saying: "They're going to find probably the worst couple minutes they can find on people being assaulted here, law enforcement being assaulted. They're going to get the sobbing police officer or sobbing Democrat or somebody that said how terrible this was and now they're suffering from PTSD. ... They're going to put on a show for the American people."

House Republicans, eager to get ahead of the barrage of revelations the Jan. 6 committee has planned for its prime-time hearing tomorrow night, launched their counter-programming blitz in earnest this morning.

Driving the news: House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), one of former President Trump's top Jan. 6 surrogates, accused Democrats of "scrambling to change the headlines, praying that the nation will focus on their partisan witch hunt instead of our pocketbooks."