| Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1962, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points as the Philadelphia Warriors defeated the New York Knicks, setting a record for most points scored by a single player that still stands today. | | |  | The big idea | | Biden skipped Afghanistan withdrawal and nuclear threats in his address |  Biden delivers his State of the Union address. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | | President Biden used his State of the Union address Tuesday night to highlight his leadership of the muscular global response to Russia's war in Ukraine — but didn't mention nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran, or the Afghanistan withdrawal he labeled an "extraordinary success" just months ago. Those were three of the notable omissions from a speech otherwise packed with celebrations of Democratic successes like passing the American Rescue Plan pandemic stimulus; policy announcements like closing U.S. airspace to Russian planes; and calls for bipartisan action on issues like immigration reform and defeating cancer. Biden's State of the Union probably commanded the largest audience any American politician will get this year. It amounted to an ordering of Democratic priorities and shaping of the party's communications ahead of what are expected to be punishing midterm elections for his party. Polls show the GOP is favored to recapture at least one chamber of Congress. Here's a rundown of some of what Biden said – and notably didn't say – during last night's address. | Judges, Ukraine, voting, etc | | While Biden made the case for his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, he left out one of the signature successes of his first year in office. By the end of 2021, he was getting federal judges confirmed at a record-breaking pace. | | On Ukraine, he didn't speak in support of establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine despite that country's request — an omission that should put to rest loose talk of embracing a policy that would put NATO on a collision course with Russia that has the potential to trigger World War III. In the past, Biden denounced Republican efforts around the country to roll back voting practices they blame for former president Donald Trump's defeat in 2020 in apocalyptic tones — "un-American," "Jim Crow on steroids." And he has called on the Senate to get rid of the filibuster rule that requires 60 votes to pass voting rights legislation in the face of GOP opposition. Tuesday night, he attacked new laws meant to "suppress the vote" or "subvert the entire election" — but did not explicitly blame Republicans. He renewed his call to pass voting rights laws but did not explicitly urge an end to the filibuster, which doesn't have enough Democratic votes to happen. | | Not even two months ago, Biden denounced the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as an attack on democracy itself and accused Trump of spinning a "web of lies" about the 2020 election to radicalize the insurrectionists and vault him back into power. "He's done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interest as more important than his country's interests and America's interest, and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution," Biden thundered on Jan. 6. On Tuesday night, the president twice referred to "the previous administration," but did not mention his predecessor by name. He called the Capitol "this sacred space, a citadel of democracy" but did not mention the violence of Jan. 6. | | Biden mentioned Afghanistan three times in the speech, all in connection to his efforts to get medical care for U.S. troops exposed to "burn pits" used there and in Iraq to dispose of all manner of waste. They've been tied to a range of chronic and deadly illnesses, and Biden blames them for the cancer death of his son Beau. He did not, however, mention the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. | | In the past, Biden has mourned the deaths of 13 service members killed in a terrorist attack at the Kabul airport during an often chaotic departure that was perhaps a fitting capstone to 20 years of a war that showed no signs of ending. But the president, who made it clear during the 2020 campaign the U.S. would leave if he won, has defiantly defended his decision, calling it an "extraordinary success." Aides have trumpeted the successful extraction of more than 120,000 people, though an uncertain number of Americans and Afghans who helped the two-decade war effort remained behind. | | Biden touched on immigration reform, gun violence, access to abortion (but he didn't say the word "abortion"), transgender rights, and the need to keep schools open and fund them properly. But issues sometimes lumped into the "culture war" rubric were far from central to his speech. He did not, for instance, hit back at Republicans in several states who have sought to police what topics can be broached in the classroom and what books can be borrowed from the library. (One of his bipartisan standing ovations came in response to his plea to "fund the police," a rejection of the "defund the police" slogan he has never embraced.) | | One final omission — and it's a truly dorky one that caught my ear. In the Ukraine-focused section of the speech, Biden zeroed in on Russian oligarchs, the targets of recent U.S. and European sanctions because they are thought to have Putin's ear. "The United States Department of Justice is assembling a dedicated task force to go after the crimes of the Russian oligarchs. We're joining with European allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets," he said. Will that include any assets in the United States, recently revealed as a secretive tax haven? | | |  | What's happening now | | Russian troops advance inside key Ukrainian port, mayor says it's still in Ukrainian hands | | "Russian state media, citing Russian defense officials, said its troops controlled Kherson, a vital port in southern Ukraine where the Dnieper River meets the Black Sea. While Kherson's mayor confirmed that Russian tanks and troops were in the city, he said it was still in Ukrainian hands as he issued a public appeal for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the wounded and the dead," Kareem Fahim, Karla Adam and David L. Stern report. Why Kherson?: "The Russian assault on Kherson is part of an effort to set the stage for an advance toward Odessa, a major prize on Ukraine's Black Sea coast." Live updates on the Russian invasion of Ukraine are available here | Biden says Russia is deliberately targeting civilian areas in Ukraine | | "In an exchange with reporters outside the White House on Wednesday morning, President Biden was asked whether Russia is deliberately targeting civilian areas in Ukraine. 'They are,' Biden replied," Felicia Sonmez and John Wagner report. | Fed chief: Russia invasion has 'highly uncertain' implications for U.S. economy | | "The near-term effects on the U.S. economy of the invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing war, the sanctions, and of events to come, remain highly uncertain," according to Powell's prepared remarks before the House Financial Services Committee, Rachel Siegel reports. | U.S. prepares to expand financial attack on Russian oligarchs | | "America's sanctions are expected to be more complicated than those imposed by the E.U., targeting not just the individuals but also their family members and companies they own, according to a White House official," Jeff Stein and Yeganeh Torbati report. | Russia's Lavrov: A third World War would be nuclear and destructive | | "Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that if a third World War were to take place, it would involve nuclear weapons and be destructive," Reuters reports. | U.S. moving to harden economic policy toward China | | |  | Lunchtime reads from The Post | | Still bearing emotional scars, jury to hear testimony in first Jan. 6 Capitol attack trial |  This artist sketch depicts Judge Dabney Friedrich looking out from the bench during jury selection for Guy Wesley Reffitt, joined by his lawyer William Welch, top right, in federal court, in Washington on Monday. (Dana Verkouteren via AP) | | | "Powerful emotions, political ties and personal relationships colored two days of jury selection at a federal court in Washington, where a panel has been seated to hear the first trial of an alleged participant in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Openings statements began Wednesday morning," Spencer S. Hsu, Rachel Weiner and Tom Jackman report. The defendant: "Guy Reffitt, 49, is accused of traveling from Texas to D.C. with firearms, breaching Capitol grounds while armed with a semiautomatic pistol, impeding police and disrupting Congress's certification of President Biden's election, before threatening to kill family members if they turned him in to law enforcement." Jury selection challenges: "Few prospective jurors said they recognized Reffitt or knew anything about his case. But many expressed dismay at what happened that day." | A refresher on what Paul Manafort and Rudy Giuliani were doing in Ukraine | | "Though Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is just days old, Russia has been working for years to influence and undermine the independence of its smaller neighbor. As it happens, some Americans have played a role in that effort," ProPublica's Ilya Marritz reports. Two of those players: Former President Donald Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump's then-lawyer Rudy Giuliani Manafort: | - In 2004, he was hired by oligarchs supporting a pro-Russian party in Ukraine. The task: Rebrand the Party of Regions. (One of his key aides in Ukraine was allegedly a Russian spy.)
- "Manafort met [the alleged spy] twice in person while working on the Trump campaign, messaged with him electronically and shared 'sensitive campaign polling data' with him."
- Where he is now: Manafort was convicted of financial fraud and then pardoned by Trump.
| - In 2018, Giuliani worked with a pair of business partners to "make contacts in Ukraine with corrupt and questionable prosecutors, in an effort to turn up 'dirt' on Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden."
- Where he is now: Giuliani is "reportedly under criminal investigation over his dealings in Ukraine."
| Fallout from judges failing to recuse themselves over financial conflicts is spreading | | "These violations are having real-world implications for people and companies who resolve disputes in court. The appeals courts now have to decide whether the conflicts were enough to warrant wiping out the rulings by the conflicted judges," the WSJ's James V. Grimaldi, Joe Palazzolo and Coulter Jones report. The scale: "Overall, at least 55 cases overseen by judges with recusal violations have been appealed, reconsidered or reassigned to new judges." | | |  | The Biden agenda | | White House unveils new covid plan, says shutdowns, school closures no longer necessary |  President Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. (Saul Loeb/Reuters) | | | The White House released a new wide-ranging strategy for the next phase of the pandemic on Wednesday, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Lena H. Sun and Dan Diamond report. What it is: "The pandemic road map focuses on four goals: protecting against and treating covid, including a 'test to treat' initiative that would give people antiviral pills on the spot if they test positive at a pharmacy; preparing for a potentially dangerous new variant; preventing economic and educational shutdowns; and expanding vaccinations worldwide." What it isn't: A victory proclamation. "Biden and his administration said they are 'clear-eyed that new variants might arise,' but that they have prepared for such a scenario by amassing vaccine doses, antivirals, masks and tests." | Biden administration launches new task force targeting Russian oligarchs | | "The group of interagency law enforcement officers from the FBI, Marshals Service, IRS, Postal Inspection, Homeland Security Investigations as well as agents from the Secret Service will investigate and prosecute sanctions violations in connection with Russia's ongoing assault in Ukraine," CNBC's Amanda Macias reports. | Did you miss the State of the Union? Or just want to relive it? | | The Post's video team has you covered. Here's Biden's first SOTU address in full. | | |  | State of the Union speech times, visualized | | | "The State of the Union address lasted about an hour and two minutes, slightly shorter than the joint address to Congress that Biden delivered last April. It was briefer than former president Donald Trump's typical State of the Union speech, which averaged an hour and 20 minutes, according to the American Presidency Project." Here's 4 takeaways from the speech. | | |  | Hot on the left | | John Bolton: Trump 'barely knew where Ukraine was' | | Former national security adviser John Bolton criticized former President Donald Trump Monday night on Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight," When the host said the Trump administration was "pretty tough on Russia, in a lot of ways," Bolton disagreed, Business Insider's Jake Lahut and John Haltiwanger report. What Bolton had to say: | - "We didn't sanction Nord Stream 2," he said. "We should have. We should have brought the project to an end."
- "In almost every case, the sanctions were imposed with Trump complaining about it and saying we were being too hard," Bolton said. "The fact is that he barely knew where Ukraine was. He once asked John Kelly, his second chief of staff, if Finland were a part of Russia. It's just not accurate to say that Trump's behavior somehow deterred the Russians."
| | |  | Hot on the right | | Marco Rubio wants you to know that he isn't tweeting classified information | | The Senate intelligence committee's top Republican has been tweeting up a storm about Russia. | - What he's posting: "On Tuesday alone, the Republican tweeted three times with maps breaking down his observations of Russian military movements. And he volunteered last week that he wished he could say more about Vladimir Putin's mental state, suggesting he was aware of non-public U.S. assessments of the Russian leader's health."
| | Is this normal?: "It's a highly unusual display of transparency from a senior senator on the Intelligence Committee who gets regular, bipartisan briefings on high-level U.S. assessments," Politico's Andrew Desiderio reports. But Rubio is comfortable parsing Russia's war in public, saying he isn't revealing anything classified or sensitive, even as critics slam his tweets as irresponsible and unverified. He says he's using any tools he can to convince Americans to care about the violence in Ukraine." | | |  | Today in Washington | | | At 3:15 p.m., the Bidens will speak on the bipartisan infrastructure law and the new "Building a Better America" agenda at Yellowjacket Union at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. The Bidens will leave Duluth at 5:10 p.m., arriving back at the White House at 7:40 p.m. | | |  | In closing | | A go get 'em/him tweet roundup: | | Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow. | | |
