The longest short week

For a four-day work week, a lot happened on the Hill…and didn't. Once again, voting rights legislation failed to pass in the Senate. But all is not lost. There is still an opportunity for Republicans to work in good faith to securely increase voting in America. Voting itself has become polarized, but it shouldn’t be. ‘More voting’ vs. ‘secure voting’ is a false choice. Principled Republicans, Democrats, and independents know that no one wins when our democracy is weakened. It’s long past time for bipartisan work to enhance, simplify, and encourage voting. —Miles Taylor, Executive Director, Renew America Movement

• Booster shots in U.S. have strongly protected against severe disease from Omicron variant, CDC studies show —The Washington Post

• Biden Covid vaccine rules: Judge blocks mandate for federal workers —CNBC

• Nation’s largest abortion protest could be last under Roe —NBC News

• Democrats start to sketch out revived Build Back Better package —The Wall Street Journal

• More than 60 killed, including children, in airstrikes in Yemen —The Washington Post

Two men, one tough week

President Biden gave the longest presidential press conference in history on Wednesday—nearly two full hours—seemingly to counter ongoing questions about his mental acuity and press complaints about inaccessibility. The president stood in the East Room and answered roughly 187 questions, covering a lot of good ground. But it wasn't without its problems. The White House was forced to clarify two of Biden’s comments, one about penalties for a potential “minor incursion” by Russia into Ukraine, and another about the 2022 elections possibly being illegitimate if voting rights bills are not passed. Ugh.

Meanwhile, his predecessor had a miserable week. Since our last edition, Donald Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Boris Epshteyn have been subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol; phone records for his son Eric and his future daughter-in-law, Kimberly Guilfoyle, have been subpoenaed; the panel has requested a voluntary interview with his daughter Ivanka; the New York State attorney general said Trump’s company misled banks and tax officials; and the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney has asked to convene a special grand jury in her election probe. Got all that? —The Hill

• The House has the docs. Perhaps most significantly, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the select committee could obtain the White House documents Trump fought so hard to shield via executive privilege. One of those docs is a draft executive order that would have directed the Defense secretary to seize U.S. voting machines. The executive order—which also would have appointed a special counsel to probe the 2020 election—was never issued. —Politico

• “This is a crime. This is election fraud.” Committee investigators are also taking a deeper look at efforts by state-level Republicans to send Congress “alternative” slates of 2020 presidential electors—and any involvement the Trump White House or campaign may have had in those operations. In five states won by Biden—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin—these fake “electors” signed certificates falsely claiming they were “duly elected and qualified” to represent their states. —Politico

• “The Trump campaign asked us to do that.” For example, Michigan Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock said at a conservative event last week that Trump's campaign directly encouraged an effort in Michigan to submit a document saying the state’s Electoral College votes should go to Trump. Maddock was one of the 16 Republicans who signed the document in December 2020. "We fought to seat the electors,” she said. For the record, Biden won the state of Michigan and was duly certified as the victor by state officials. —CBS News

MORE: How Jan. 6 gave the 14th Amendment new life —The New York Times

Fishman & Miller: Time for Biden to play ball with Putin

“[O]nce Russian tanks are rolling, it will be too late for sanctions to deter the Kremlin. At this moment of maximum leverage, the U.S. should signal clearly that if Putin orders an invasion, it will quickly impose massive, immediate costs on the Russian economy as a whole, not just a few limited targets. It’s up to the Biden Administration to show it’s prepared to absorb some economic and political damage to prevent Putin from choosing war.” —Edward Fishman & Chris Miller in Politico

Edward Fishman is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, an adjunct fellow at the Center for a New American Security, and a former member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff. Chris Miller is an assistant professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

MORE: Slotkin calls for U.S. to support Ukraine —WLNS

What’s next for voting rights?

The Democrats failed this week to pass any voting rights measures or to reform the Senate filibuster rule in order to pass voting legislation with a simple majority. So where does that leave us? With a bipartisan group of senators working on a scaled-back law that would focus solely on safeguarding election results and protecting election officials from harassment. The group, led by Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, are meeting virtually today to discuss reform of the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which allows members of Congress to dispute presidential election results. Manchin has indicated that he also wants threatening or accosting an election official to be declared a federal crime. Collins says her aim is “an election reform bill that is truly bipartisan, that would address many of the problems that arose on Jan. 6, and that would help restore confidence in our elections.” Stay tuned. —Reuters

MORE: U.S. charges Texas man for threatening Georgia election officials —Reuters

Rauch & Wehner: America’s left and right problem

“Surveys show that 62% of Americans and 68% of college students are reluctant to share their true political views for fear of negative social consequences. A Cato Institute study found that nearly a third of Americans—across the political spectrum, not just on the right—say they’re worried about losing a job or job opportunities if they express their true political views. Another study suggested that the level of self-censorship in America may be three times what it was during the McCarthy era.” —Jonathan Rauch & Peter Wehner in The New York Times

Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of “The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth.” Peter Wehner is a former speechwriter for three U.S. presidents, a vice president and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and the author of “The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump.”

MORE: Jonathan Zimmerman: Is free speech being limited by bullies on the left and right? —USA Today

Focus on voting and elections 

The new state laws passed throughout the country in 2021 to limit voting or make it more difficult are having real effects. Election officials in rural Lincoln County, Georgia, for example, are weighing plans to close all but one polling place ahead of this year's elections. Lincoln is one of six counties in the battleground state that have seen major changes since the Georgia General Assembly passed its election overhaul bill last March. Some have disbanded their local election boards. Others have reconfigured them to include no Democrats. One board eliminated Sunday voting during municipal elections—an option popular among Black churchgoers. —CNN

• Georgia. It gets weirder. Former Sen. David Perdue, who lost his seat to Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia’s runoff election last January, has made election falsehoods a central argument in his bid to unseat Gov. Brian Kemp in the state’s gubernatorial primary. Perdue released a plan yesterday that would create “an Election Law Enforcement Division” that would “be charged with enforcing election laws, investigating election crimes and fraud, and arresting those who commit these offenses.” The plan also called for “election results to be independently audited before certification.” —CNN

• Florida. Perdue didn’t have to look too far for the idea. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis introduced a plan last week that would establish a special police force to oversee elections in the Sunshine State. The proposed Office of Election Crimes and Security would be part of the Department of State, which answers directly to the governor. DeSantis is asking the legislature to allocate nearly $6 million to hire 52 people to “investigate, detect, apprehend, and arrest anyone for an alleged violation” of election laws, acting on tips from “government officials or any other person.” Oh yeah, nothing bad can happen from that. —The Washington Post

• Ohio…and everywhere. Remember when we reported last week that Ohio’s Supreme Court threw out the state’s latest gerrymandered congressional and legislative maps? It’s not just a Buckeye State problem. A nationwide study from the Brennan Center for Justice suggests that about half of U.S. states have submitted maps that partisans in control of the process have designed to protect their political advantages. States with independent commissions have produced maps with far less bias, according to the Brennan Center, and Congress ought to consider codifying such reforms. —Ohio Capital Journal

MORE: Alaska Supreme Court upholds ranked-choice voting and top-four primary —Alaska Public Media

McCoy & Press: Reforms that reduce polarization can save our democracy

“Systemic interventions can help reduce polarization before polarization imperils democracy. Whether through institutional reform, voter education, or sounding the alarm about the dangers to democracy, policymakers, activists, and civic leaders should urgently prioritize systemic efforts that will change the incentives undergirding the dangerous binary logic of pernicious polarization. Such reforms should aim to lower the high stakes of elections and give voters more voice and more choice.” —Jennifer McCoy & Benjamin Press on Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Jennifer McCoy is a nonresident scholar in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she focuses on political polarization and democratic resilience. Benjamin Press is a research assistant in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program.

MORE: Democracy needs votes of support from every American —Chicago Sun-Times

Russian escalation of the conflict in Ukraine is being too often phrased in the West as Russian objection to NATO’s expansion. The shoe is on the wrong foot. The central question is: why do so many of Russia’s European neighbors seek to join NATO in the first place? NATO doesn’t force them to join. All former Warsaw Pact members but Russia joined NATO at the first opportunity. Could the answer have something to do with despotic Russian rule over its own people, its suppression of any discussion of state criminality in its own history, its legal classification of dissident organizations as foreign agents? Shouldn’t this narrative be circulated in the West as much as in Russian social media? —Stephen J., Pennsylvania

Did you hear Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s State of the State address last night? He reminded me of a Salt Lake Valley crystal clear, blue-skied day in the middle of a prolonged January thermal inversion. It was BEAUTIFUL! My soul SOARED!

Like those clear days, he reminded me that behind the putrid dreck and fumes pervading our society, there is still a blue sky, fresh air, and hope that if we can just blow out the smoke and stench, we ALL can breathe freely, live purposefully side by side, and fulfill the lives God has given ALL His children to live.

Listen here. It’s only 23 minutes long, as he asked to hold the applause until the end. He didn’t focus on what Spencer Cox had done or would do. He shined the spotlight on everyone but himself. And in doing so, he shined all the brighter. 

Thank you, Gov. Spencer Cox! —Lee B., Utah

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff, the Renew America Movement, or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.