Axios

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy is telling U.S. Chamber of Commerce board members and state leaders the organization must undertake a complete leadership change and replace current president and CEO Suzanne Clark, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: McCarthy’s direct conversations make clear he will not work with Clark and her leadership team if Republicans win control and he becomes House speaker.

Capitol Police were not monitoring the camera feed of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco home when her husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked, the department said in a statement Wednesday.

Driving the news: The Democratic leader was with her security detail in Washington, D.C., and as such, the cameras at her residence were not actively being watched when an assailant broke in and attacked Paul Pelosi early Friday, leaving him hospitalized.

President Biden on Wednesday evening is set to deliver a speech at Union Station in the Capitol Hill neighborhood on democracy, where he will make clear what's at stake in the midterm elections.

Driving the news: “You can expect to hear from him this evening … there is a lot at stake including democracy and that everyone has a role in that," said White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President Jen O’Malley Dillon during an Axios News Shapers event on Wednesday.

Paramount Global and former CBS chief Leslie Moonves agreed to make additional payments to settle an investigation by the New York Attorney General's Office over sexual assault allegations.

Driving the news: A report on the investigation released Wednesday revealed that CBS, now under Paramount, and its senior leadership knew about allegations of sexual assault against Moonves and "intentionally concealed" them from regulators, shareholders and the public, per a news release from the AG.

Despite the populist turns in both parties, incumbents and sitting federal officeholders are raking in PAC money at a far faster clip than their challengers, records show.

Why it matters: Main Street still values stability above uncertainty. There's been lots of speculation about a corporate political realignment. But the current giving patterns don't show a rush to angle or line up with change.

Google searches about antisemitism skyrocketed last week after the outcry around offensive remarks by Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, according to data for Axios' Midterms Dashboard.

Why it matters: Days before the Nov. 8 midterms, the volume of nationwide searches on the topic outnumbered those related to top non-economic issues driving the election.

The gunman responsible for the 2018 massacre that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday was formally sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Driving the news: Nikolas Cruz, 24, shackled and wearing a red jail jumpsuit, watch as Judge Elizabeth Scherer sentenced him to 17 life terms and an additional 17 for the attempted murders of those he wounded, per AP.

Former President Donald Trump and a group of protesters who filed a lawsuit alleging they were assaulted by his security guards in 2015 on Wednesday reached a settlement, according to a joint statement shared with Axios.

Driving the news: "The parties all agree that the plaintiffs in the action, and all people, have a right to engage in peaceful protest on public sidewalks," the statement reads.

Emails that emerged Wednesday underscore the extent to which former President Trump's top legal advisers zeroed in on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as "being key" in their bid to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Driving the news: "We want to frame things so that Thomas could be the one to issue some sort of stay or other circuit justice opinion saying Georgia is in legitimate doubt," Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro wrote in an email on Dec. 31, 2020, to John Eastman and other members of Trump's legal team.

The Biden administration is on pace to dump millions of barrels of crude oil on the market, shrinking the nation's oil reserve to its low level since 1984.

Why it matters: Biden's decision to tap into the reserve may have helped lower gasoline prices from their $5 highs in June.

White House Senior Adviser and Assistant to the President Anita Dunn criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fl.) as a "divider" during an Axios News Shapers event Wednesday.

Why it matters: DeSantis is viewed as a contender for the Republican nomination in 2024 — and Dunn drew a sharp contrast between Biden and the rising conservative leader during Wednesday's Axios event.

Former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R-N.J.) said during an Axios News Shapers event Wednesday that a part of her hopes "all the crazies do win" during next week's midterm elections so that Americans realize the consequences before the next presidential election.

Driving the news: "But then I realize no, I don't want to live in that world and I don't want to leave it for my grandkids either, the damage they can do."

In the final days before the midterms, the Georgia campaign trail has been marked by the absence of former President Trump.

Why it matters: Trump's candidacy and endorsements dominated Georgia politics over the last few cycles, but his name is now hardly mentioned by the top four candidates making their final pitches to voters.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr and Ted Ullyot — an early Facebook executive, and veteran of other top government and corporate posts — tell Axios they plan to launch a new boutique law and consulting firm at the end of the year.

Driving the news: The firm will offer strategic advice to help clients navigate legal, regulatory, policy, commercial and public affairs issues.

With less than a week left to go before the midterms, just about everything is breaking in Republicans' favor.

The big picture: Just a few weeks ago, Republicans seemed to be on the ropes thanks to a slate of polarizing, MAGA-aligned candidates with seemingly strong Democratic opponents, and a relentless Democratic focus on abortion.

North Korea's military fired a missile Wednesday that crossed the disputed maritime border with South Korea for the first time since the countries' division in 1948, officials in Seoul said.

The big picture: The short-range ballistic missile, one of at least 10 that Pyongyang fired, landed some 37 miles from the South Korean city of Sokcho — causing air-raid sirens to sound on Ulleungdo island and Seoul's military to respond by firing three missiles, per the BBC.

A federal judge in Arizona issued a temporary restraining order against activists who have been gathering around outdoor drop boxes for mail-in ballots and monitoring voters in the state.

Why it matters: The activists claim they're trying to prevent purported voter fraud, but there have been complaints of voter intimidation by these self-appointed poll watchers since early voting for the midterm elections officially began on Oct. 12.

Rapper Takeoff, one-third of the Grammy-nominated group Migos, was shot and killed in Houston early Tuesday. He was 28.

Driving the news: Houston police identified Takeoff as the fatal victim of a downtown shooting outside 810 Billiards and Bowling.

The FBI arrested a suspected member of far-right extremist group the Boogaloo Bois Tuesday after he allegedly posted about killing police, government officials and expressing a desire to "blow up the IRS" and Facebook's headquarters.

Driving the news: Aron McKillips, 29, is accused of stockpiling bomb-making materials, an "AR-15 type rifle" and a grenade launcher, which he later allegedly said he traded for some "primo cocaine," according to a complaint unsealed Tuesday in Toledo federal court and first obtained by The Daily Beast.

The Architect of the Capitol is being accused by a federal watchdog of abusing his authority, misusing government property and wasting taxpayer money, according to a new report from the Office of the Inspector General.

Driving the news: Family members of J. Brett Blanton, who was appointed by former President Trump, offered private tours of the Capitol in September 2020 when the building was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the report.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) said at a town hall Tuesday that he thinks late-term abortions are a tragedy and he doesn’t think they should happen “unless it is a medical emergency.”

Driving the news: Ryan said the U.S. ought to return to Roe v. Wade, incorrectly stating that the 1973 Supreme Court decision only allowed a pregnant person to get an abortion during the third term in cases of medical emergencies.

Democratic and Republican voters are less likely than they were just four years ago to favor stronger regulation of large financial and pharmaceutical companies, data show. At the same time, both parties are more likely to favor stricter regulation of big technology firms.

Why it matters: Elected officials of both parties have taken a populist turn in recent years. But survey data from the Public Affairs Council suggest voters' views of heavier government regulation vary widely by industry.

With a week to go before the midterm elections, some Democratic operatives working on House races are already beginning to assign blame in the event their party loses winnable seats: The culprit, they say, is blue-state governors dragging down the rest of the ballot.

Driving the news: Cook Political Report shifted its ratings in favor of Republicans today in ten House districts — all in states President Biden won by 15 points or more in 2020.