The Hill’s 12:30 Report — Key witness’s inside the White House on Jan. 6

To view past editions of The Hill’s 12:30 Report, click here: https://bit.ly/30ARS1U 

To receive The Hill’s 12:30 Report in your inbox, please sign up here: https://bit.ly/3qmIoS9

–> A midday take on what’s happening in politics and how to have a sense of humor about it.* 

*Ha. Haha. Hahah. Sniff. Haha. Sniff. Ha–breaks down crying hysterically.

HAPPENING SOON 

The *surprise* episode of the Jan. 6 hearings is about to start:
 

The House committee investigating Jan. 6, 2021, on Monday announced a last-minute hearing for today featuring key testimony. 

Who is the witness?: The committee kept that information secret, but Punchbowl News reported last night that Cassidy Hutchinson will testify.

Who is Cassidy Hutchinson?: A former aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Hutchinson has already helped the committee extensively, including a taped deposition, but will now testify in-person. She would be the first White House employee to publicly testify. What to know about Hutchinson 

Keep in mind — Hutchinson recently changed lawyers: “Hutchinson replaced her attorney earlier this month as the select committee’s hearings began; her former attorney was the Trump White House’s chief ethics lawyer, and her new attorney is a longtime ally of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.” More from Politico’s Nicholas Wu, Kyle Cheney and Ryan Lizza

Tidbit: CNN’s Kaitlan Collins tweeted, “I’m told Cassidy Hutchinson has obtained security in recent days amid concerns about her safety ahead of her public hearing on Capitol Hill.”

➤HOW TO WATCH: 

Here’s the livestream: It begins at 1 p.m. EDT.

Live blog of updates: With some helpful context to follow as you watch. 

➤A FEW KEY TIDBITS HUTCHINSON HAS PROVIDED THE COMMITTEE: 

Meadows had been warned about the potential for a riot: Hutchinson told the committee that Meadows had been warned about the potential for violence on Jan. 6.

Trump was indifferent to the ‘Hang Mike Pence’ chats: When Capitol rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” former President Trump was indifferent to the chants, according to Hutchinson’s testimony. She said that Trump suggested the supporters “have the right idea.”

Pardons: Hutchinson told the committee which Republicans asked Trump to be pardoned. 

IT’S TUESDAY. I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here. 

🩺 The abortion fight 

Pelosi’s plan to fight back:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that House Democrats are considering several legislative proposals to protect access to abortion. 

The first proposal: Codify Roe into law. 

The next proposal: “[Another proposal] would make clear that women are free to travel across the country for any reason — an effort to preempt any attempts by states to prohibit cross-state travel in pursuit of legal abortion services.”  

The third plan: To “protect reproductive health data, such as that stored on apps, from being collected and distributed to third parties.”  

Pelosi is also worried about access to contraception and gay marriage rights: Pelosi said her party is trying to preemptively protect those rights before the Supreme Court weighs them. 

^ Keep in mind about all these proposals: Republican support would be needed to overcome a filibuster. It’s unlikely any of these proposals would have enough GOP support. 

How this could play out, via The Hill’s Mike Lillis.

➤THE LEFT IS EXTREMELY UNHAPPY WITH BIDEN’S ‘LACKLUSTER AND VAGUE’ RESPONSE:  

For example — from prominent progressive Nina Turner: “This is a 911 moment. It doesn’t get any more 911 than this … The last time I checked, the Democrats control the White House, the Senate and the House … and right now they’re playing tiddlywinks. This Congress and this president are not bold enough for this moment.” 

Read Niall Stanage’s column in The Hill

➤ ‘DEMOCRATS PRESS THE WHITE HOUSE FOR A MORE ASSERTIVE RESPONSE TO ROE’S FALL’:
Via The New York Times’s Shane Goldmacher 

➤EXPECT ABORTION TO BE A MAJOR COMPONENT OF VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS’S MIDERM PITCH: 
Via The Hill’s Amie Parnes and Morgan Chalfant 

The laser-focus is on each state: 

“[T]he ruling will affect people in drastically different ways, depending on where they live. Because the high court did not ban the procedure outright, all abortion-related policies will be left to the individual states, creating a motley regional legal system running a range from full access to all-out bans with few, if any, exceptions.” 

How the activism on both sides has immediately shifted to states, via The Hill’s Mike Lillis and Mychael Schnell 

➤WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE STATES: 
“Lawsuits have been filed to halt or delay abortion bans, with judges in Louisiana and Utah temporarily blocking laws.” From The New York Times’s Shawn Hubler and Mitch Smith 

➤NEW POLL — THE BREAKDOWN BY GENDER IS EYE-CATCHING 

The Independent’s Eric Michael Garcia pointed out: “A [CBS News/YouGov] poll found that 49 percent of men approve of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade and 51 percent disapprove of overturning it. By comparison, 33 percent of women approve and 67 per cent disapprove.” More from the poll
 

Getting traction — Oh? Well, if Lauren Boebert is tired of separation of church and state … :

Via The Washington Post’s Adela Suliman, “Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who faces a primary election Tuesday, says she is ‘tired’ of the U.S. separation of church and state, a long-standing concept stemming only from a ‘stinking letter’ penned by one of the Founding Fathers.”  

Boebert said at a religious service over the weekend: “The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it … I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk that’s not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does.” The full story 

Watch the clip, pulled by The Post

🦠 Latest with COVID 

➤ BY THE NUMBERS 

Cases to date: 86.8 million 

Death toll: 1,011,232 

Current hospitalizations: 15,350 

Shots administered: 593 million 

Fully vaccinated: 66.9 percent of Americans 

CDC data here. 

🐥Notable tweets 

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that she did not like being asked about this report: 

Media Matters’ Kat Abu tweeted a clip of Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on Fox News. Fox’s Brett Baier asked Lake about her outspoken criticism about drag queens after a Washington Post report cited a drag queen who claimed she and Lake were friends. Watch Lake’s angered response to Baier 

Oh… great. ‘Q’ is back:  

CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan reports that QAnon leader “Q” has returned after an 18-month hiatus. 3-minute CNN clip explaining the return — and why this matters 

⏱On tap 

The House and Senate are out. President Biden is in Spain. Vice President Harris is in Washington, D.C., with no public events scheduled. 

• 4 a.m.: Biden met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the margins of the Group of Seven (G7). 
• 4:30 a.m.: Biden delivers remarks at the final session of the G7 Summit. 
• 6:05 a.m.: Biden left for Madrid, Spain. 
• 10 a.m.: Biden held a bilateral meeting with Spanish President Pedro Sánchez to discuss Ukraine. 
• 11:30 a.m.: Biden met with King Felipe VI of Spain. 
• 2:05 p.m.: Biden and first lady Jill Biden attend a dinner for heads of state and heads of international organizations who are invited to the official NATO Summit. 

All times Eastern. 

📺What to watch 

• 1 p.m.: The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol is holding a newly scheduled hearing. Livestream 
• 6:30 p.m.: NBC’s Lester Holt will interview Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on NBC’s “Nightly News.”  

🍨 In lighter news 

Today is National Tapioca Day. 

Eeeeek — here’s the trailer for ‘Hocus Pocus 2’: 

Disney released the first trailer for “Hocus Pocus 2,” which will premiere on Disney+ on September 30 (!) Watch the 80-second trailer 

And to brighten your afternoon, here’s a new mom trying to play with her puppies.