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National

Hill Leaders

Axios Hill Leaders

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to visit China this week, the next step in the Biden administration’s efforts to improve relations between the world’s two biggest economies.

Why it matters: Yellen's trip, initially announced in January, was put on hold after President Biden ordered the military to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon after it flew across the U.S. in February.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to China earlier this month to meet with his counterpart as well as President Xi Jinping for what Blinken called a “robust conversation."

Driving the news: Yellen will visit Beijing July 6-9 and meet with senior officials in China, where she plans to give a face-to-face version of her speech in April that laid out the three principles guiding America’s economic relationship with Beijing.

She isn't scheduled to sit down with Xi, a senior treasury official said.

Yellen does plan to raise concerns about Beijing's economic coercion  while also explaining the Biden administration's expected executive order in outbound investment, the official said.

"My hope in traveling to China is to reestablish contact," she said in an MSNBC interview last week, before the trip was announced. "There are a new group of leaders, we need to get to know one another."

Between the lines: Yellen has used previous meetings with Chinese officials to get a real-time readout of China's economy and discuss ways both countries can cooperate on shared challenges such as climate change and global growth.

Zoom out: After two difficult years in the U.S.-China relationship at the start of his presidency, Biden sought a new path at the G20 summit in Bali last November. But plans to improve the relationship were essentially frozen after the balloon incident.

Blinken had constructive meetings in Beijing, but the two sides didn't agree to re-establish military-to-military contact. The relationship hit another bump last week when Biden called Xi a "dictator" at a fundraiser in California.

The Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., issued a strong protest, but Biden dismissed the significance of his remarks, telling reporters: "I don’t think it’s had any real consequence."

He said he will meet with Xi "in the near term."

Zoom in: The Biden administration has taken an aggressive approach in protecting critical technologies from Chinese companies, and in October imposed export controls on semiconductors.

Officials are putting the finishing touches to an executive order to restrict outdoing investment into China's chip, quantum computing and artificial intelligence industries.

The bottom line: Officials don't expect Yellen's trip to resolve — or even address — all the thorny issues dividing the two countries. 

But administration officials want to improve the lines of communication on economic issues.

Yellen to visit China this week

The treasury secretary will aim to improve communication on economic issues.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen at the Elysee Palace during a New Global Financial Pact Summit event last week in Paris. Photo: Antoine Gyori-Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

Janet Yellen

China

Joe Biden

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

Conflicts, policies and powers are intersecting and shaping the world. Breaking news and analysis of national security, foreign policy and global crises.

World

A mass shooting at a Baltimore block party early Sunday left two people dead and at least 28 others with gunshot wounds, police and city officials said.

The latest: The ages of those shot ranged from 13 to 32 years old and some 15 of the injured victims hurt were younger than 18, the Baltimore Police Department said.

No arrests have been made. Acting Police Commissioner Richard Worley, who just took the helm in June, said it isn't clear if the victims were targeted.

Killed were 18-year-old Aaliyah Gonzales, a female, and 20-year-old Kylis Fagbemi, a male.

Those who survived were identified as two 13-year-olds, one 14-year-old, three 15-year-olds, five 16-year-olds, four 17-year-olds, five 18-year-olds, three 19-year-olds, and one each who were 20, 22, 23, 31 and 32.

Police were still searching for the suspects and "we know for sure there are more than one," but officers were still trying to determine how many, Worley added.

Driving the news: Police said they started receiving 911 calls at 12:30am and arrived to find an 18-year-old woman dead at the scene.

Nine people were transported from the scene to hospitals. 20 people walked into nearby hospitals. Three of the victims are in critical condition, according to police.

A 20-year-old man, who was taken to the hospital, was later pronounced dead.

Police did not immediately disclose a motive for the shooting.

The big picture: There have been more mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year than days, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

As of Sunday morning, there had been three mass shootings in July in Baltimore; Wichita, Kansas; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Details: Mayor Brandon Scott told CNN the shooting occurred during the annual block party in Baltimore's Brooklyn neighborhood.

Scott described it as "a working-class neighborhood filled with immense pride."

"It is a neighborhood that has had its troubles, but a neighborhood that has seen some folks in that community really determined to see it be successful and see things turn around," Scott said.

What they're saying: "This was a reckless, cowardly act that happened here that has permanently altered many lives," Scott said.

"I hope every single breath that you take, that you think about the lives that you took, and you think about the lives that you impacted here tonight," the mayor added.

Of note: Scott said the shooting "highlights the impacts and the need to deal with the over-proliferation of illegal guns on our streets and the ability for those who should not have them to get their hands on them."

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more details on the shooting, including the ages of those shot.

2 dead, 28 injured in shooting at Baltimore block party

Police have "no information on suspects or a motive at this time."

Mass shooting scene in the 800 block of Gretna Court in Baltimore Sunday. Photo: Kyle Mazza/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Gun control

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was criticized Sunday by two rival Republican presidential candidates and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for a video taking aim at former President Trump's previous support for the LGBTQ community.

Driving the news: The DeSantis War Room Twitter account released a video  marking the end of Pride Month Friday featuring footage of Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention pledging to protect LGBTQ citizens in the wake of the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

The video that's been denounced by a prominent LGBTQ Republican group as "homophobic" features support expressed by Trump, who's pledged to roll back transgender rights if elected in 2024, for trans Americans. 

It then moves on to headlines underscoring LGBTQ rights restrictions DeSantis signed into law, spliced with images of the governor and shirtless muscular men.

What they're saying: Buttigieg, the first openly gay man to be confirmed as a Cabinet member, addressed the video during an appearance on CNN Sunday. 

"I'm going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled-up, shirtless bodybuilders," he said. 

"And just get to the bigger issue that is on my mind whenever I see this stuff in the policy space, which is, again: Who are you trying to help? Who are you trying to make better off? And what public policy problems do you get up in the morning thinking about how to solve?"

Buttigieg added that he doesn't understand "the mentality of somebody who gets up in the morning thinking that he's going to prove his worth by competing over who can make life hardest for a hard-hit community that is already so vulnerable in America."

Meanwhile, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said he's "not comfortable" with the video nor the way his Republican presidential rivals DeSantis and Trump "are moving our debate in this country."

"This type of video does nothing to address those issues. And it is a teenage ... food fight between Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump. And I don't think that’s what leaders should be doing," said Christie, a former Trump ally, on CNN Sunday.

"They’re trying to divide us further. And it’s wrong. It’s absolutely wrong."

Separately, former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), who joined the Republican presidential primary race last month, told CNN Sunday he wished candidates "would focus their attacks on war criminals like Vladimir Putin, not my friends in the LGBTQ community," adding: "It is 2023. We should be talking about how do we embrace our differences."

The other side: Representatives for DeSantis did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment, but his aide Christina Pushaw denied in a tweet that opposing the federal recognition of Pride Month is homophobic. 

"We wouldn't support a month to celebrate straight people for sexual orientation, either... It's unnecessary, divisive, pandering," she added.

DeSantis administration expands "Don't Say Gay" law

LGBTQ+ Floridians using GoFundMe to flee the state, citing new laws

16 AGs condemn DeSantis' request for info on transgender care from colleges

DeSantis asks medical board to ban transgender health care

GOP 2024 rivals and Buttigieg slam DeSantis video targeting LGBTQ rights

Chris Christie said DeSantis and Trump are "trying to divide us further."

Republican presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a campaign rally on June 26, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas. 

Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during a campaign rally in Eagle Pass, Texas, on June 28, 2023. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Ron DeSantis

The pivotal political battleground of Pennsylvania is demonstrating that there's still a critical mass of Trump-supporting swing voters that will back the right type of Democrat under certain circumstances.

Why it matters: The party that wins over the Pennsylvania voter that backed President Obama in 2012, President Trump in 2016 and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) in 2022 will have the inside track toward winning the presidency in 2024.

It's a larger persuadable voting bloc than you'd expect, given the intense partisanship and polarization across the country. Fetterman, in particular, exceeded expectations in rural Trump-friendly counties with large recent increases in GOP registration.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, a moderate Democrat elected by 16 points in 2022, is showcasing a pragmatic playbook designed to win over these swing voters in his first months in office.

Zoom in: New polling and conversations with top Pennsylvania political operatives underscore the emergence of this critical voting bloc.

Shapiro's approval rating is an enviable 57%, according to a new Quinnipiac poll, with his political standing boosted by the speedy rebuilding of the I-95 corridor badly damaged by a June trucking accident.

Shapiro is winning the approval of about one-third of Trump voters, even as the poll finds Trump is statistically tied with President Biden in a 2024 matchup. Biden's approval rating in the statewide survey is a lowly 39%.

A new analysis published by the American Enterprise Institute concludes there's a "chunk of rural white working-class voters [that] will indeed support a Democrat with the right aesthetic and messaging."

The big picture: Shapiro, whose name increasingly comes up as a future presidential prospect, is emerging as a case study on how Democrats can win over deep-seated skeptics of his party.

His governorship has been defined by three key attributes:

Competence: After early projections hinted that rebuilding the broken highway would take months, Shapiro bragged that the highway was rebuilt in just two weeks. "Let this serve as an example of how Pennsylvania can do big things,” Shapiro said at the I-95 reopening.

Working-class empathy: Shapiro's first executive order as governor was ending the requirement that workers needed college degrees to serve in most state government jobs. The move earned him the praise of both traditional Democratic allies and the Wall Street Journal editorial board. (His popularity with white working-class voters in the Quinnipiac poll: a robust 52%/29% rating.)

Bipartisanship: Dealing with a divided legislature, Shapiro has been seeking compromise on a top GOP educational priority. He's been a rare Democrat supportive of private school vouchers for students in poorly performing public schools — as he negotiates a budget deal with a GOP-controlled state Senate and Democratic-controlled state House. His efforts are being furiously opposed by teachers’ unions.

Reality check: One of the only red flags from recent Pennsylvania results is declining non-white support and turnout for Democratic candidates. The party's effective playbook has been centered on maximizing their advantage in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh suburbs, while peeling off a slice of rural working-class whites.

But in doing so, the party has lost some momentum among Black and Hispanic voters. Biden's dominant 89-point advantage with Black voters in 2020 wasn't matched by Fetterman, who only won by a 77-point advantage, according to the AEI analysis.

Biden's 30-point advantage with Hispanics turned into a narrower 14-point edge for Fetterman two years later — with sharply declining turnout levels.

The bottom line: If Democrats can hold even a fraction of their blue-collar Trump-Fetterman-Shapiro voters into 2024, it would bode well for Biden's chances of winning a second term.

And if Democrats can re-create that coalition in Pennsylvania, it would also bode well for winning Wisconsin and Michigan — the blue wall of states where a sweep would all but guarantee a presidential victory.

Pennsylvania's playbook for Democrats

There's still a critical mass of Trump-supporting swing voters that will back a certain type of Democrat.

Photo: Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images

Pennsylvania

The Supreme Court is falling off the pedestal it built for itself, down into the muck of normal politics.

Why it matters: That's increasingly how the public sees it. That's how the rest of the political system treats it. And it's getting harder and harder to believe the justices aren't interested in wielding that power.

The big picture: The justices tried very hard, for a very long time, to cultivate a perception that they existed on an elevated, erudite plane far above the petty concerns that occupy elected politicians.

They said the court's work was wholly separate from considerations like public opinion. Even when they had to take up a case with political implications, they approached it only as a question of legal scholarship, not sullied by ideology or policy preferences.

When history looks back on the term that just ended, what stands out the most may not be any particular ruling, but rather its place in the trend — long-simmering, but quickly accelerating — toward seeing the court for what it is: the single most powerful weapon in U.S. politics.

Driving the news: At every turn, the court looks more like run-of-the-mill, outcomes-driven, raw-power politics.

The unprecedented leak of a draft opinion in last year's abortion case was very much the type of leak that has historically only happened in other parts of the government.

For that matter, so were the leaks about Chief Justice John Roberts switching his vote to save Obamacare in 2012.

ProPublica uncovered ethics issues this year that would be a real controversy for anyone who had to get reelected to their powerful job: Wealthy GOP donors with interests before the court paid for luxury vacations for Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, who didn't disclose those gifts, ProPublica reported. Thomas also reportedly sold a family home to GOP donor Harlan Crow.

The justices' reactions to controversy haven't helped. 

Alito, borrowing a page from any decent political operative's playbook, tried to get ahead of the story, pre-butting ProPublica's investigation with a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Alito is probably the most willing of all the justices to speak his mind in public. He delivered a speech in 2021 dismissing criticism of the court's "shadow docket" as "rank nonsense," and has used public speeches to criticize COVID restrictions and the broad cultural acceptance of same-sex marriage.

Confirmation hearings are a circus. Start the clock on that trend wherever you want — Robert Bork, Merrick Garland, take your pick. But we've ended up in a place where the Senate treats the process like the prize fight it is — not neutral intellectual pursuit, as it was once framed.

The Supreme Court falls to Earth

The justices tried for a very long time to cultivate a perception that they existed on an elevated plane above elected politicians.

Axios

Sunday's top stories

Yellen to visit China this week

2 dead, 28 injured in shooting at Baltimore block party

GOP 2024 rivals and Buttigieg slam DeSantis video targeting LGBTQ rights

Pennsylvania's playbook for Democrats

The Supreme Court falls to Earth

Karl Rove's blunt take on the 2024 GOP presidential field

Scoop: Hunter Biden's lawyer roasts IRS whistleblowers in message to GOP chair

Trump's basement campaign