10 Things in Politics: Capitol riot probe races against midterm clock

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Here's what we're talking about:

• Inside the House panel that's racing the midterm clock to pursue Trump and reveal truths about the Capitol attack
• Democrats have reached a 'breaking point' on the debt-ceiling debate
• Inside Laurene Powell Jobs' rise as a $16 billion power player

With Phil Rosen.

​​1. ON CAPITOL HILL: Lawmakers are blazing ahead in their investigation of the Capitol riot. The hard-charging approach is, in part, politically pragmatic as the investigation, led by House Democrats, could easily be torpedoed if Republicans retake control. Former Vice President Mike Pence's comment that the riot was being used to "try and demean the character and intentions" of former President Donald Trump's voters only further illustrates this divide.

Here's where things stand and what's still being determined:

Trump's White House and his inner circle are under scrutiny: The committee has already subpoenaed Mark Meadows, a former White House chief of staff, and Steve Bannon, a former advisor, for documents and testimony. A recent round of subpoenas demanded testimony and records from 11 people who helped organize events that immediately preceded the violence on January 6.

• Biden's White House seems to be on board: President Joe Biden has said he will waive executive privilege - on a case-by-case basis - for Trump-era records and information. Trump has threatened to challenge those waivers but has yet to initiate a court fight over it. In the meantime, key officials like Jeff Rosen, the former acting attorney general, have already testified.
• A big decision is looming: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is a central figure to what happened that day because of his well-documented call with Trump. Thus far, lawmakers have avoided the extraordinary step of subpoenaing one of their colleagues. It remains to be seen whether they will.

Unlike the Department of Justice, lawmakers aren't looking for criminal cases: Instead, their goal is to examine the insurrection and its causes, namely misinformation that primed Trump supporters to deny the results of the 2020 election.

• Key quote: "Ultimately, we want to produce a report that people can read and that can guide a broader understanding of what went into the events of January 5 and 6 - who helped in those efforts, how it was funded, was there any coordination with other governmental officials, and who and what was the response and how could it have been different?" Rep. Pete Aguilar, a top House Democrat who is on the committee, told my colleague.

Read more about where the Capitol riot investigations stand.

2. Biden says "it's a real possibility" that Democrats will override the filibuster to avoid a debt default: Biden opened the door to a one-time exception to the Senate procedural requirement of 60 votes for passing most legislation as a stalemate takes hold over raising the debt ceiling. All 50 Senate Democrats would need to be on board, which is no guarantee. In the meantime, a Senate Democratic aide said many party members had reached a "breaking point" and were getting impatient with their party.

3. Zuckerberg responds to Facebook whistleblower: CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a lengthy post that Frances Haugen's claims that the social network had a negative effect on society "don't make any sense," The Verge reports. More from Zuckerberg, who had been noticeably silent on the whistleblower's complaints.

• Haugen testified before Congress on Tuesday: "The buck stops with Mark," Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, told lawmakers. "There is no one currently holding Mark accountable but himself." Here are the four actions she says she'd take if she were at the helm of the social-media platform.

Video from Haugen's testimony:

4. Inside Laurene Powell Jobs' rise as a $16 billion power player: To those inside or close to the royal-court-like coterie of luminaries and specialists on her payroll, two things have become clear in the past 10 years: The era of Powell Jobs' influence is still in its infancy, and the kinder, gentler version of Steve Jobs is not what anyone expected. Read more about how she's making her imprint on politics and media mostly from behind the scenes.

5. Biden is ready to trim his $3.5 trillion plan: Biden told groups of House Democrats that he's expecting the final version of the party's social-spending bill to end up between $1.9 trillion and $2.3 trillion, the Associated Press reports of the private virtual meetings. The concession would confirm he's ready to cut a deal with centrist lawmakers like Sen. Joe Manchin by reducing the size of the signature piece of his domestic agenda. It's still unclear what would be axed from the bill to lower its cost.

6. Fiona Hill says Trump's fragile ego made him a national security risk: Hill, who served as Trump's top Russia advisor on the National Security Council, told The Daily Beast that Trump while president was "a counterintelligence and national security risk because he was so vulnerable to manipulation based on the fragility of his ego." Trump, Hill added, also had "autocrat envy." More of the explosive claims from Hill's new book.

7. Investigators say the response to the California oil spill raises questions: The company responsible for the pipeline waited more than three hours to shut it down after an alarm went off signaling a rupture could be imminent, the AP reports. Officials also waited another three hours to notify the Coast Guard office in charge of responding to oil spills, further delaying the response to what became a major disaster. More on what we're learning about what happened as tens of thousands of gallons of crude poured into the Pacific Ocean.

8. Johnson & Johnson's shot recipients are closer to a booster: J&J says it has submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration and asked the agency to authorize COVID-19 booster shots for emergency use. It will be up to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA to evaluate that request, authorize the shots, and determine who should get them. More on what's ahead for the 14.9 million Americans who received the J&J shot.

9. Trump drops off of Forbes' list of the wealthiest Americans: The former president's net worth was estimated at $2.5 billion - just about $400 million shy of making the list this year, according to Forbes. This is the first time in 25 years in which Trump will not be on the list.

10. Gen Z and millennials are reviving an "old money" aesthetic: WASP culture has made a comeback through fashion, decor, and hobbies like golfing and boating. The trend is both aspirational and nostalgic, marking a reversal of 2010 new-money trends. This is the latest example of how the economy has evolved in a short span of time.

Today's trivia question: Today marks the anniversary of the first time a pope visited the White House. Which pope was it? Email your answer and a suggested question to me at [email protected].

• Yesterday's answer: Behind Lincoln's head on Mount Rushmore is the Hall of Records. Gutzon Borglum's original vision of a place to enshrine some of the nation's most important documents was quickly nixed. But in the late 1990s, a much scaled-down version of the hall was completed.