The Hill’s 12:30 Report — Biden downplays high inflation numbers

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–> 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.

NEWS THIS MORNING 

Stoppppppp: 

Consumer prices have continued to rise at an alarming rate, with inflation surging to 9.1 percent in the past 12 months. 

What was primarily responsible for June’s inflation?: Rising oil prices 

Some context to the recent inflation: “While inflation has been rising steadily for more than a year, the war in Ukraine’s impact on global food, energy and commodity supplies has ramped up pressure on prices since the start of 2022. Much of the June increase in inflation came from a 11.2 percent rise in gasoline costs and a 1 percent increase in food prices over the past month, according to Labor Department data.”  

Some good news about gasoline prices: “Gasoline prices nationwide rose above $5 per gallon on average at the peak of June’s price climb, but have already fallen off substantially in July.”  

What this means for the economy, via The Hill’s Sylvan Lane 

➤ HOW BIDEN REACTED TO THE INFLATION ANNOUNCEMENT: 
President Biden downplayed the data as “out-of-date.” 

Biden said in a statement: “While today’s headline inflation reading is unacceptably high, it is also out-of-date. Energy alone comprised nearly half of the monthly increase in inflation. Today’s data does not reflect the full impact of nearly 30 days of decreases in gas prices, that have reduced the price at the pump by about 40 cents since mid-June.”

IT’S WEDNESDAY. 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.

🔎 Jan. 6 

The biggest news Tuesday came at the very end of the hearing:

Tuesday’s Jan. 6 hearing ended with some major news: Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said that former President Trump tried to call a witness who is expected to testify in a future hearing.  

In Cheney’s words: “That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump’s call and instead alerted their lawyer to the call. Their lawyer alerted us, and this committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice … We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously.”  

Any idea who the witness is?: Nope, the committee has kept the identities of future witnesses quiet for their safety. 

➤ OTHER HEARING TAKEAWAYS:
1. Trump’s Dec. 18, 2020, tweet activated extremist groups. 

2. New details of a December 2020 clash in the Oval Office over the “Stop the Steal” effort. 

3. ”Those outside the White House knew of Trump’s plans to march to rally.” 

4. “Trump’s campaign manager credited him with inciting the riot.”  

Details for each from The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch and Mike Lillis 

➤ SIGHTS AND SOUNDS FROM TUESDAY’S HEARING: 

Check out this text exchange: Between Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale and former campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson. Screenshot of the texts, from Axios’s Alayna Treene 

An aide took a photo of Giuliani being escorted out of the White House: The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona tweeted: “Cassidy Hutchinson took a photo of Mark Meadows escorting Rudy Giuliani out of the White House after the Dec. 18 meeting ‘to make sure he did not wander back into the mansion.’” CNN screenshot 

Tidbit from The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman: “The committee just made an interesting decision: they showed Ivanka Trump denying she’d said she wanted to attend the Ellipse speech with her father to try to calm him down, and then cut to video of her former chief-of-staff affirming exactly that.”  

Meanwhile outside the hearing: Journalist Matt Laslo tweeted, “Across the street from the Jan. 6 hearing – a dude in Revolutionary War garb playing the piano…” Watch 

➤ ‘TRUMP HID PLAN FOR CAPITOL MARCH ON DAY HE MARKED AS “WILD”, PANEL SAYS’:
Via The Washington Post’s Isaac Stanley-Becker and Jacqueline Alemany 

➤ HOW THE HEARINGS ARE BEING RECEIVED: 
Bad for former President Trump, but neutral for Democrats and President Biden. 

Read Niall Stanage’s column in The Hill

⚡️ In Washington, D.C. 

Last night was WILD: 

Strong thunderstorms hovered over the Washington, D.C.-area on Tuesday, causing some spectacular lightning. 

Check out this lightning during sunset: Video from @reebswolf 

This video almost looks fake: From @_squillliam 

The sky looked like it was on fire: Photo from @BGeorgianni 

Another photo of the crazy lightning: Via @rebekahclare

🤝 In the Middle East 

Welp, that didn’t last long:

Via The New York Times’s Peter Baker, “President Biden avoided shaking hands upon landing in Israel on Wednesday, just as aides hinted he would, citing the rapidly spreading new coronavirus subvariant, and fist-bumped local leaders instead. But only minutes later, he evidently forgot and shook hands with two former prime ministers anyway.”  

Why this is getting attention: “Outsized attention was focused on what Mr. Biden would do, because his staff appeared to be laying the ground to make it possible for him to avoid a much more politically unhealthy handshake later in his trip with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. Because of Covid, aides suggested, he might refrain from all handshakes during the four-day swing through the region, sparing him a photo that he would prefer to avoid.” The full back story 

➤ WHAT TO EXPECT DURING BIDEN’S MIDDLE EAST TRIP:
Via The Hill’s Alex Gangitano

🦠 Latest with COVID 

We need to talk about the naming of the variants. But yes, we are discussing BA.5 now:

Via The Hill’s Peter Sullivan, “Concerns are rising over a new omicron subvariant that is even more highly transmissible, called BA.5.  The new subvariant has risen to be a majority of COVID-19 cases in the United States and is sparking concern about an increase in hospitalizations.” 

The bad news: “BA.5 causes concern because of its increased contagiousness and because of its greater ability to evade the protection from vaccines and prior infection.”

The good news — if you’re vaccinated, you’re likely protected against severe illness: “Importantly, though, the vaccines still provide crucial protection against severe disease and death, especially for people who have received their booster shots.”  What we know about the new variant

➤ ‘THE MOST INFECTIOUS AND TRANSMISSIBLE VARIANT YET HAS ARRIVED.’: 
Via CNN’s Eliza Mackintosh 

➤ THE LATEST COVID-19 NUMBERS: 

Cases to date: 88.5 million 

Death toll: 1,016,561 

Current hospitalizations: 31,009 

Shots administered: 597 million 

Fully vaccinated: 67 percent of Americans 

CDC data here.

🐥Notable tweets 

I will take one of everything, please: 

Here’s the menu from Tuesday’s congressional picnic at the White House. Photo of the menu, from The Associated Press’s Seung Min Kim

⏱On tap 

The House and Senate are in. President Biden is in Israel. Vice President Harris is in Washington, D.C.

• 8:20 a.m.: Biden landed in Tel Aviv, Israel.Photo of Air Force One landing in Israel, via C-SPAN’s Howard Mortman 
• 9:50 a.m.: Biden left Tel Aviv and traveled to Jerusalem. 
• 10:35 a.m.: Biden participated in a wreath laying ceremony in Jerusalem. 
• 11:30 a.m.: Two Senate votes. Today’s Senate agenda 
• 11:30 a.m.: First House votes. Today’s House agenda 
• 2:30 p.m.: Two more Senate votes. 
• 7 p.m.: Last votes in the House. 
• July 19: The Hill is hosting an event, “America’s Unfinished Business: The Hill’s Future of Health Care 2022.” Featured speakers: Anthony Fauci, CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, AMA president Jack Resneck and Mark McClellan. Details and RSVPs 

All times Eastern.

📺What to watch

• 8:30 a.m.: Biden delivered remarks when he arrived in Tel Aviv. Video 
• 9:20 a.m.: Biden received a briefing on the Iron Dome and Iron Beam Air Defense Systems at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Video 
• 11 a.m.: Harris hosted the White House Summit on the American Rescue Plan and Workforce. Video 
• 1 p.m.: The Hill is hosting an event, “Securing America’s Retirement.” Featured speakers: Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), BPC chief economist Jason Fichtner and Ohio School Employees Retirement System’s Farouki Majeed. Details and livestream

🍟 In lighter news 

Today is National French Fry Day! 

And to leave you on an entertaining note, here’s a day in the life of having a pet duck.