| Gooood Wednesday morning. You know what to do: earlytips@washpost.com. Thanks for waking up with us – see you tomorrow. 🚨: "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, the RIA news agency reported," per Reuters. "Lavrov has said that Russia, which launched what it calls a special military operation against Ukraine last week, would face a 'real danger' if Kyiv acquired nuclear weapons." While you were sleeping: "As Russia faced stiff resistance from Ukrainian military and civilian defenders throughout the country, the capital, Kyiv, endured overnight attacks, according to military analysts," The Washington Post's Steve Hendrix and Rachel Pannett report. "The long column of Russian troops and tanks north of Kyiv is 'days, not hours' behind schedule, but Russia is shifting its tactics, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Wednesday morning," per our Karla Adam. "He also added that the lack of progress is prompting a shift in Russian tactics, and he warned that Russia would carpet-bomb urban areas." Looking ahead: "Senior Biden administration officials are preparing to dramatically expand the number of Russian oligarchs subject to U.S. sanctions, aiming to punish the financial elite close to President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine, according to three people briefed on internal administration deliberations," our colleague Jeff Stein reports. | | |  | On the Hill | | Biden doubles down on Russian sanctions, domestic agenda in State of the Union address |  US President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 1, 2022. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) | | | President Biden delivered what felt like two State of the Union addresses on Tuesday. He devoted the opening minutes to rallying support for Ukraine and warning Russian oligarchs that the U.S would "seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets" — to bipartisan applause. | | Then Biden delivered the speech he might have given if Russia hasn't invaded Ukraine last week, in which he tried to sell a wide-ranging domestic agenda that didn't inspire much Republican clapping. He spent nearly seven minutes touting policies included in his moribund health care, child care and climate bill — even mentioning that it had been endorsed by 17 Nobel laureates — without ever mentioning the legislation by name. (He left it to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who gave the Republican rebuttal, to utter the words "Build Back Better Act.") The White House is hoping the speech will reignite enthusiasm for passing a version of the bill, which Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) scuttled in December when he declared that he couldn't vote for it. "The strength of the president's message tonight, the power of the agenda he laid out, hopefully will give us some new momentum," White House chief of staff Ron Klain told progressives in a post-speech question-and-answers session. But Manchin didn't seem moved. Unlike other Democrats, he didn't stand to applaud "when Biden called for passing the child tax credit or when he spoke at length about his remedies for inflation," as our colleagues Matt Viser and Marianna Sotomayor, who was in the chamber for the speech, report. "Nothing's changed," he told reporters after the speech. | | Biden spent much of the speech making the case for a range of domestic priorities not included in the Build Back Better Act, including legislation to bolster American manufacturing, making it easier to get antiviral pills to treat covid and increasing funding for police departments. He debuted a "unity agenda" of initiatives that could attract bipartisan support — only to be heckled by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) while pressing for Congress to do more to help veterans sickened by exposure to toxic "burn pits" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Biden believes burn pits might have contributed to the death of his son, Beau Biden, from brain cancer at age 46. "Democrats began booing and one shouted, 'Kick her out!'" Matt and Marianna report. |  Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) scream "Build the Wall" during Biden's SOTU (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein) | | Blue and yellow inside the House chamber | | Biden spent most of the speech talking about domestic issues rather than foreign ones. He mentioned China only twice, both times to make the case for reinvigorating American manufacturing. | | But the State of the Union still "at times had the feel of the State of Ukraine," as Matt and Marianna put it. "The House chamber was filled with blue and yellow hues, with women in dresses and scarfs and with men wearing bright ties and ribbons on their lapels, honoring the colors of the Ukrainian flag and providing an evocative image of the type of American support that President Biden highlighted in his remarks." "The House chaplain wore a Ukrainian-blue blouse. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who worked in Kyiv as an FBI agent, handed out Ukrainian flags while Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), whose district has a strong Ukrainian American community, distributed blue and yellow ribbons." First Lady Jill Biden, who donned a satin sheath Sally LaPointe dress in the color blue of Ukraine's flag, had an embroidered sunflower — the national flower of Ukraine — added to the right sleeve of her dress. "Jill Biden was far from alone in signaling her support of Ukrainians via sartorial choices seen at the State of the Union," the Hollywood Reporter's Laurie Brookins writes. "Among the women in attendance Tuesday, many wore one or both of the Ukraine flag's shades of blue and yellow, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar [D-Minn.], Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz [R-Ind.], and Michigan Rep. Brenda Lawrence [D-Mich.]." |  FLOTUS applauds her guest, Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova, in the first lady's box as President Joe Biden welcomes Markarova during his State of the Union address. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein) | | Not all Democrats were happy with Biden's address | | Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) delivered remarks after Biden's speech to call out Republicans and "'just enough corporate-backed obstructionists' in the Democratic Party to tank the efforts to pass [Build Back Better] last year," the Hill's Hanna Trudo writes. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) chimed in on Twitter: | | More SOTU reactions: "There's a war in Europe and economic angst at home, but Biden's State of the Union brought Democrats closer to the backdrop they've craved ever since he was elected: normalcy," Politico's Sarah Ferris and Burgess Everett write. On Putin's war and Biden's crisis: "Biden sounded on Tuesday night like a man who had decided that history gave him no other choice," the New York Times's David E. Sanger writes. "Biden is one of the few remaining architects of the post-Soviet order still in power in Washington, and to him, the borders of NATO are more than lines on a map. They are a living testament to what happens when free people can pick their own allies." All the president's women: "They made history last year as the first time two women who sat behind the president during a joint session in the House Chamber, but Vice President Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once again made history, marking the first time two women sat behind the president during the State of the Union," USA Today's Jordan Mendoza reports. Happening today: The House Administration Committee will hold a hearing on congressional staff unionization, weeks after Hill staffers came forward with their intent to organize the personal and committee offices of Congress. John D. Uelmen, general counsel for the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights, and Mark Strand, president of the Congressional Institute, are expected to testify. | - Uelmen is expected to answer several questions around unionizing, including how to activate collective bargaining rights and how personal and committee offices can organize, according to a pre-written statement.
- Strand, who believes that "steps to unionize would ultimately harm Congress and inhibit the work of elected representatives and threaten their independence," will offer "better ways to deal with the problems facing staff in the Congress than unionization."
| | |  | The campaign | | Greg Abbott, Beto O'Rourke win nominations for Texas governor in first midterm contests | | Coming soon to a ballot near you: "Gov. Greg Abbott won his Republican primary outright Tuesday, capping a year during which he faced vocal challengers from his right," the Texas Tribune's Patrick Svitek reports. "While largely expected, the decisive victory allows Abbott to fully focus on the general election, where he will face Democrat Beto O'Rourke." | - "Abbott celebrated his victory by tweeting a criticism of Biden and the border policies he discussed in the State of the Union address, a possible nod to speculation that he might seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024," our colleagues David Weigel and Michael Scherer report.
- "It's too little, too late," Abbott wrote. "In Texas, we'll continue securing the border & doing the fed gov't's job."
- "O'Rourke used the occasion of his primary victory to rally Democrats for the November fight."
- "We've got to get past the incompetence, the corruption and the cruelty of Greg Abbott," O'Rourke told a crowd of supporters in Fort Worth after the polls closed. "Are you with me on this?"
| | 🗳️More election results: | | Attorney General: "Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is headed toward a primary runoff against Land Commissioner George P. Bush," the Texas Tribune's James Barragán and Kate Mcgee report. "Paxton, the two-term incumbent, boasted the largest campaign war chest and the support of Trump. But in a field of four candidates, he was unable to secure more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff election, setting the embattled attorney general on the defensive in the biggest fight of his political life." | | 28th Congressional District: "In a closely watched Democratic primary in the 28th Congressional District along the southern border, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D) was forced into a runoff with his more liberal 2020 challenger, Jessica Cisneros, in the most expensive Democratic congressional fight of the cycle," Weigel and Scherer write. | | |  | On K Street | | SKDK executive communications head to advise Ukraine's U.N. ambassador | | First in The Early: Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations, is getting some help from a onetime speechwriter for former president Barack Obama. Stephen Krupin, a longtime Democratic speechwriter who's now head of executive communications at SKDKnickerbocker, has registered as a foreign agent on behalf of Ukraine's government, according to Justice Department disclosures obtained by The Early. He'll provide "speech writing support in connection with the foreign principal's remarks to the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly," according one of the disclosures. The arrangement is pro bono. Kyslytsya made an emotional appeal to the Security Council during an emergency meeting last week held as Russian forces started attacking Ukraine. He warned in a speech to the General Assembly on Monday that "If Ukraine does not survive, we cannot be surprised if democracy fails next." SKDK is a prominent Democratic consulting firm. One of its partners, Anita Dunn, served as a senior advisor to Biden in his first months in the White House before returning to the firm last year. But Krupin is the only staffer who's registered to work for Ukraine. SKDK declined to comment. The firm agreed to advise Ukraine as many U.S. law and lobbying firms have rushed to drop Russian clients facing sanctions, including several Russian banks and the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, which Germany said last week it would scrap. | | |  | The Media | | | |  | Viral | | | Viral moments from Biden's State of the Union The real start of the show: |  | | | | | A monochromatic moment: |  | | | | | Bonus: Will someone check on Patty? |  | | | | | | AM/PM | | Looking for more analysis in the afternoon? | | | | Weekday newsletter, PM |  | | | | | | |
