Axios

Former White House adviser David Gergen said President Biden's handling of classified documents may create an unexpected political fallout for the administration.

Driving the news: Gergen said to host Anderson Cooper on CNN’s AC360 Friday that the situation is a "very, very big deal," perhaps "not legally but politically."

The wife of a northwestern Iowa county supervisor has been charged with 52 counts of voter fraud for her actions during her husband’s failed bid to run for Congress in 2020, the Department of Justice said Thursday.

Driving the news: Kim Phuong Taylor, of Sioux City, Iowa, allegedly filled out and forced others to submit dozens of voter registrations, ballot request forms and absentee ballots that had false information as her husband sought the Republican nomination for the state’s 4th U.S. Congressional District, the DOJ said.

A Florida judge on Friday refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over his bid to transport migrants, per the Miami Herald.

Driving the news: Leon County Circuit Court Judge John C. Cooper set a Jan. 30 trial date to hear the case brought on by Florida state Sen. Jason Pizzo (D), who accused the governor of unlawfully using taxpayer money to fly nearly 50 undocumented migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard last September.

Most Republicans support Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) recent election to lead the House, according to a new Economist-YouGov poll released Thursday.

The big picture: The support for McCarthy stands in stark contrast to the dramatic speakership vote earlier in January, which took 15 ballots to elect McCarthy to the position.

President Biden's personal attorneys discovered an additional five pages of classified material at his home in Delaware this week, the White House said in a statement released Saturday.

The big picture: The discovery of the additional pages comes after the White House confirmed a second batch of classified documents were discovered in Biden's Wilmington, Del. garage on Thursday.

A federal judge ruled Friday that a Jan. 6 defendant who made it to the Senate chamber during the Capitol riot in order to "plead the blood of Jesus" could not be convicted of obstructing a joint session of Congress, per Politico.

Why it matters: Joshua Black is the first defendant who reached the Senate floor to be acquitted of obstruction of justice, a felony charge.

Any U.S. military veteran in "acute suicidal crisis" will be able to access emergency health care at any facility for free starting next week, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced Friday.

The big picture: Veterans must be enrolled in the VA system to be eligible for most medical benefits, but that requirement won't apply to emergency suicide care under the new policy. The move grants access to care to up to nine million veterans who are not currently enrolled, according to the VA.

The U.S. government will reach its debt limit on Jan. 19 and initiate so-called "extraordinary measures" to avoid default, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a letter Friday.

Why it matters: House Republicans are interested in using debt ceiling negotiations to cut spending, but Yellen said Treasury's extraordinary measures could last until the summer.

The school district in Virginia where a first-grader shot his teacher will become one of the rare spots in the U.S. to have permanent metal detectors at elementary schools.

Driving the news: Newport News School Board Chair Lisa Surles-Law said this week detectors would go into every school, starting at Richneck Elementary School, the site of the shooting, AP reports.

The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee is launching an investigation related to President Biden's handling of classified documents, the committee's Chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote in a letter Friday to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The big picture: While the special counsel probe into Biden's handling of docs is still early, House Republicans vowed to use their investigative powers to target Biden and his administration — and the latest document revelations only give them more fodder.

A federal judge on Friday tossed out former President Trump's motion to dismiss writer E. Jean Carroll's sexual assault lawsuit against him.

The big picture: Carroll brought the lawsuit, which alleges that Trump raped her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s, after New York enacted the Adult Survivors Act (ASA) last year. The new law allows adult survivors of sexual violence to sue over attacks that occurred decades ago.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Friday that David Kessler, the chief science officer overseeing the U.S.'s COVID response, is set to retire after serving as a key adviser to President Biden.

Why it matters: Kessler served as head of Operation Warp Speed, the federal program aimed at developing and distributing COVID vaccines and treatments, and facilitated efforts to expand the number of vaccination sites across the U.S.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Friday invited President Biden — who promptly accepted — to deliver his annual State of the Union address on Feb. 7.

What he’s saying: “It is my solemn obligation to invite you to speak before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, February 7, 2023, so that you may fulfill your duty under the Constitution to report on the state of the union,” McCarthy wrote in a letter posted to Twitter.

Former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) blasted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a new interview this week, calling the California lawmaker a "piece of sh*t" who will "say whatever he needs to say to stay in power."

The big picture: Kinzinger became a GOP foe during his last term in office as a fierce Trump critic who was one of two Republican members of the House Jan. 6 committee. His remarks came a week after McCarthy took the speakership following a historically prolonged vote and only after he made concessions to his far-right flank.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told CNN Friday morning that President Biden has properly handled the discovery of classified documents at his home and private office.

Driving the news: “I think President Biden has handled this correctly,” he told CNN. “He’s fully cooperated with the prosecutors. When the documents were found, he notified the Archives."

President Biden has found recent support from border Democrats for what they view as a new public strategy on immigration.

Zoom in: The administration deployed a White House address and a visit to El Paso, all while House Republicans readied for investigations into the administration's handling of the border.

Florida swing voters were supportive of House Republicans' plans to investigate the FBI and Justice Department as well as the Biden administration's handling of the immigration crisis, in the latest Axios Engagious/Schlesinger focus groups.

Why it matters: The new GOP majority risks overreach if it pursues too broad of a political investigative agenda.

The Justice Department has a fairly high standard for prosecuting those who mishandle highly sensitive government documents.

Why it matters: Though special counsel Robert Hur has been appointed to investigate President Biden's handling of classified documents after the Obama administration, DOJ's previous prosecutions have generally involved cases that go beyond the commonplace and unintentional mixing of government files.

Unprecedented in U.S. history: Two special counsels are now investigating two presidents who ran against each other in the last election — with a high likelihood they will do so again in 2024.

Why it matters: Look no further than the last half-decade at the Justice Department for a snapshot of America's polarized politics.