| Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1917, the United States entered World War I. | | |  | The big idea | | Top general warns the Ukraine conflict may last years |  Graves are seen in Bucha, Ukraine nearby a mass grave in the backyard of a church on Tuesday. (Photo by Heidi Levine for The Washington Post). | | | Other than President Biden suddenly calling for President Vladimir Putin to be put on trial for war crimes, don't expect newly uncovered Russian atrocities in Ukraine to force a significant change in the U.S. strategy there, senior U.S. officials are signaling. In particular, don't expect Biden to endorse the goal of "regime change" in Moscow or to abandon his deep-seated view that the United States cannot and will not be drawn into a direct war with Putin's forces — a red line of his since the five-week-old conflict began. "We are not calling for regime change and that has not been our policy and continues not to be our policy," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. Psaki was also asked why the horrors found in the Bucha suburb of Kyiv — bodies in civilian clothes arrayed in the streets, shot execution-style, some with their hands bound behind them with white cloth — did not warrant direct military action against Russia. | - "The president's objective is, and his responsibility is, to make decisions that are in the interest of the United States, and the national security of the United States, and the American people — and that is not to go to war with Russia," she said.
| | The United States will "do everything in our power to hold them [the Russians] accountable," and continue to provide military and economic aid to Ukraine, she said. | | A senior defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be more candid, told the Daily 202 there would be no specific changes to military policy based on the findings in Bucha. "We will continue to work as fast as we can and as much as we can to help Ukraine defend itself," the official said. "The horrific atrocities committed by Russian forces in Bucha only underscore the importance of doing precisely that." | | Biden's response to Bucha is of a piece with his broader approach to the horrors of the war in Ukraine: He gets emotional on a personal level, in one memorable instance giving free rein to what he called his "moral outrage" toward Putin. But that emotion doesn't guide U.S. policy. "There's nothing normal, there's nothing acceptable, there's nothing that shouldn't shake people to their core about the photos they're seeing" out of Ukraine, Psaki said. "We have all, though, also already seen evidence of war crimes before these photos. And a lot of the measures that we're putting in place … are in response to the atrocities and the horrors we're seeing on the ground," she said. The United States will unveil a new sanctions package today that will include a ban on all new investment in Russia, measures targeting Russian banks and state-run enterprises, as well as Russian officials and their relatives. Europe plans to ban Russian coal. Asked whether there could be additional steps taken in response to Bucha, Psaki replied: "Correct. We are continuing to assess and make decisions about additional consequences and steps we can put in place." It remains to be seen how long Biden can stick with his steady-as-she-goes approach, which is broadly popular with a U.S. public that sometimes reflexively says "do more" but also insists "stay out of war with Russia." Just look at the polling on creating a "no-fly zone" over Ukraine. | | That question arises in part because top U.S. officials are bracing the public for a conflict they estimate could last years. | | "I do think this is a very protracted conflict. And I think it's at least measured in years, I don't know about [a] decade, but at least years, for sure," General Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee Tuesday. | - "This is a very extended conflict that Russia has initiated," the general testified. "And I think that NATO, the United States, Ukraine, and all of the allies and partners that are supporting Ukraine are going to be involved in this for quite some time."
| | Milley's comments came a day after Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters to expect a conflict that "may very well be protracted." "What I'm saying when I say 'protracted' is that it may not be just a matter of a few more weeks before all is said and done. That first 'phase' of the conflict, of — the Russians put it, was measured in weeks," said Sullivan. "This next phase could be measured in months or longer." | | |  | What's happening now | | Biden extends federal student loan payment pause through Aug. 31 |  President Biden bumps fists with former president Barack Obama while signing an executive order intended to strengthen the Affordable Care Act, after delivering remarks in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) | | | "In a widely anticipated move, President Biden on Wednesday extended the suspension of federal student loan payments through Aug. 31, marking the sixth extension in the two years since the moratorium began in the wake of the pandemic," Danielle Douglas-Gabriel and Andrew Van Dam report. | Garland: DOJ assisting international war crimes investigations in Ukraine | | "Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday revealed that the Justice Department is contributing to international investigations into alleged war crimes in Ukraine, escalating the United States' involvement in efforts to hold Russia legally accountable for atrocities committed during its invasion," Politico's Quint Forgey reports. | U.S. toughens sanctions as evidence of atrocities mounts | Trump White House lawyer expected to appear before Jan. 6 committee | GOP Rep. Bob Gibbs to retire at end of current term | | |  | Lunchtime reads (and listens) from The Post | | As Ukraine war drags on, Pentagon makes long-term plans for Europe |  A U.S. Army soldier walks toward an air base near Arlamow, Poland, on Tuesday. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters) | | | "The open-ended war in Ukraine has thrown the Pentagon's long-term planning into question, with senior U.S. defense officials expected to revamp how they deploy military forces in Eastern Europe and the Baltics amid deepening anxiety over Russia's broader ambitions," Dan Lamothe reports. | Broken Doors: A Washington Post podcast investigating no-knock warrants | Mark Kelly is breaking with Biden — and drawing ire from progressives in the process |  Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) speaks to members of the media at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg News) | | | "He helped sink one of Joe Biden's labor nominees, pushed the president to open new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and hammered the administration over lifting pandemic-era restrictions on the southern border," Politico's Burgess Everett reports. "No, it's not a Republican. It's Mark Kelly." "The Arizona Democratic senator is breaking palpably with the president as he pursues a full six-year term this fall in a once-reliable red state that's recently become fertile territory for Democrats. Though Kelly has at times sought distance from the president on the border and economic issues during his 16 months in Congress, his recent run of schisms with the White House demonstrates that it's not just Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) calling her own shots in the Copper State." | What one editor learned as Trump tried to correct the record | | Julian E. Zelizer is the editor of a forthcoming book: "The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment." One day last summer, he found himself on a Zoom call with the former president. Changing the narrative: "For someone who claimed indifference about how people in our world viewed him, Trump was spending an inordinate amount of time—more than any other ex-president that we know of—trying to influence the narratives being written about him," Zelizer writes for the Atlantic. "According to Axios, Trump conducted conversations with more than 22 authors, primarily journalists, who were working on books chronicling his presidency." What came of the conversation: "Our conversation with the former president underscored common criticisms: that he construed the presidency as a forum to prove his dealmaking prowess; that he sought flattery and believed too much of his own spin; that he dismissed substantive criticism as misinformed, politically motivated, ethically compromised, or otherwise cynical." | | |  | The Biden agenda | | The Biden administration is now allowing prosecutors to dismiss certain deportation cases |  Vice President Harris, President Biden, and former president Barack Obama arrive to deliver remarks on the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) | | | "The Biden administration issued a memo to ICE prosecutors on Monday authorizing them to consider dismissing certain cases involving immigrants who did not cross the border recently and are not public safety threats," Hamed Aleaziz reports for BuzzFeed News. | Biden announces long covid strategy as experts push for more | | "Under a memorandum issued by Biden, the Department of Health and Human Services will coordinate a government-wide action plan to address long covid, which is estimated to afflict anywhere from 7.7 million to 23 million Americans, according to a recent federal watchdog report," Dan Diamond and Frances Stead Sellers report. | Covid deal hampered by GOP opposition to Biden immigration policy | | "Just a day after Republican Sen. Mitt Romney and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a deal on billions for therapeutics, vaccines and testing, GOP senators threw in a wrench that could mean Congress will break with nothing. Senate Republicans say they want a vote on an amendment that would keep in place the Title 42 border restrictions, which allows limits on immigration due to the pandemic. Without one, they say the bill can't proceed," Politico's Burgess Everett and Marianna Levine report. | EPA plots asbestos ban in landmark rule | | "EPA is taking steps to ban the most common type of asbestos with a first-of-its-kind proposal after years of pressure from advocates, who have long said the agency's inaction on the carcinogen is a failure of U.S. chemicals policy," E.A. Crunden reports for E&E News. | Biden nominates first woman to lead U.S. military branch | | "President Biden has nominated Admiral Linda Fagan to be the next commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, the Coast Guard announced in a press release Tuesday," Axios's Ivana Saric reports. "If confirmed, Fagan will become the first woman to lead a U.S. military branch." | Obama's return marks a lighter moment for the Biden administration | | "Democrats have been weighed down of late by the heavy themes of war in Europe, a persistent global pandemic, rising gas costs and plummeting approval numbers … But on Tuesday, Obama's reemergence brought moments of levity — as well as, perhaps, good memories, when the party had catapulted the country's first Black president to the White House, an inspirational figure who enacted a universal health-care law," Annie Linskey reports. | | |  | Omicron BA.2, visualized | | | Globally, omicron's BA.2 variant is now the world's most dominant form of the coronavirus, though it still accounts for less than half of U.S. cases, our colleagues report. As the United States increasingly relaxes safety protocols, some experts say a new wave of the virus could hit, similar to the delta wave last summer. | | |  | Hot on the left | | Conservatives are smearing 'Don't Say Gay' opponents as pedophile 'groomers' | | Social conservatives are repurposing an old tactic to vilify their opponents: "They claim that anyone who mentions LGBTQ issues in the classroom is sexually 'grooming' children, conflating a term that's long been used to describe pedophiles training kids to accept their sexual assault to smear their opponents as sexual predators," Cameron Joseph reports for Vice News. Pointing fingers: "The bill that liberals inaccurately call 'Don't Say Gay' would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill," [Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's] Press Secretary Christina Pushaw tweeted in March. "If you're against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don't denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children." | | |  | Hot on the right | | U.S. conservative conference with Hungary's hardline leader reflects Republican divide | | "America's most prominent conservative gathering, founded on ideals of personal liberty and limited government, convenes in Budapest next month to celebrate a European leader accused of undermining democracy and individual rights," Reuters's Peter Eisler, Alexandra Ulmer, Anita Komuves and Andrew R.c. Marshall report. The keynote speaker: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban "The Hungary meeting reflects a years-long push by CPAC's organizers, the American Conservative Union (ACU), to promote Trump's divisive brand of nationalist populism to foreign audiences … The Hungary gathering spotlights an emerging split among Republicans. While some have grown more tolerant of Putin and other foreign leaders with authoritarian tendencies, others are alarmed at the association." | | |  | Today in Washington | | | Biden will address the North America's Building Trades Unions Legislative Conference at 12:45 p.m. at the Washington Hilton. At 4:15 p.m., Biden will sign the Postal Service reform bill in the State Dining Room. | | |  | In closing | | The remarkable brain of a carpet cleaner who speaks 24 languages |  Vaughn Smith poses for portrait photographs in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 17. (Astrid Riecken/The Washington Post) | | | You won't want to miss this stunning read by Jessica Contrera. Meet 46-year-old Vaughn Smith, a hyperpolyglot who spends his days scrubbing rugs for less than $20 an hour. "In a city where diplomats and embassies abound, where interpreters can command six-figure salaries at the State Department or the International Monetary Fund, where language proficiency is résumé rocket fuel, Vaughn was a savant with a secret." | | Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow. | | |
