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A little-noticed casualty of the culture wars in the Lone Star State has been the training students receive to participate in American democracy

The defining experience of Jordan Zamora-Garcias high school career a hands-on group project in civics class that spurred a new city ordinance in his Austin suburb would now violate Texas law.

Since state legislators in 2021 passed a ban on lessons teaching that any one group is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, one unprecedented provision tucked into the bill has triggered a massive fallout for civics education statewide.

A brief clause on Page 8 of the legislation outlawed all assignments involving direct communication between students and their federal, state or local officials. Educators could no longer ask students to get involved in the political process, even if they let youth decide for themselves what side of an issue to advocate for short-circuiting the training young Texans receive to participate in democracy itself.

Zamora-Garcias 2017 project to add student advisors to the City Council, and others like it involving research and meetings with elected representatives, would stand in direct violation.

Since 2021, 18 states have passed laws restricting teachings on race and gender. But Texas is the only one nationwide to suppress students interactions with elected officials in class projects, according to researchers at the free expression advocacy group PEN America.

Practically overnight, a growing movement to engage Texas students in real-world civics lessons evaporated. Teachers canceled time-honored assignments, districts reversed expansion plans with a celebrated civics education provider and a bill promoting student civics projects that received bipartisan support in 2019 was suddenly dead in the water.

By the time we got to 2021, civics was the latest weapon in the culture wars, state Rep. James Talarico, sponsor of that now-defunct bill, told The 74.

Texas does require high schoolers to take a semester of government and a semester of economics, and is one of 38 states nationwide that mandates at least a semester of civics. But students told The 74 the courses typically rely on book learning and memorization.

Talarico, a former middle school teacher and the Texas legislatures youngest member, came into office during a statewide surge in momentum to deepen civics education. A 2018 study out of the University of Texas highlighted dismal levels of political participation the state was 44th in voter registration and 47th in voter turnout and Democrats and Republicans alike were motivated to reverse the trend. Meanwhile, academic research found lessons directly involving students in government could activate future civic engagement.

So when the freshman legislator proposed that all high schoolers in the state learn civics with a project-based component addressing an issue that is relevant to the students, colleagues on both sides of the aisle stamped their approval as the bill sailed through the House. Although the legislation then stalled in the Senate, Talarico said he came away very optimistic the policy would become law next session.

But in the two years before the next legislative session, he watched as the political tides turned. Flashpoint issues like George Floyds murder and the Jan. 6 insurrection brought on a disagreement over democracy itself, he said. And when his conservative colleagues passed a 2021 bill limiting school lessons on race and gender, he mourned as a few brief clauses dashed all his hopes for project-based civics.

Students are now banned from advocating for something like a stop sign in front of their school, Talarico said.

The sections of the 2021 law limiting civic engagement pull directly from model legislation authored by the conservative scholar Stanley Kurtz, whose extensive writings seek to link an approach called action civics what he calls woke civics with leftist activism and critical race theory. Critical race theory is a scholarly framework examining how racism is embedded in Americas legal and social institutions, but became a right-wing catch-all term for teachings on race in early 2021.

Kurtz argues the practice is a form of political indoctrination under the deceptively soothing heading of civics, a cause long celebrated on both the right and the left.

The action civics model was popularized by the nonprofit Generation Citizen and is used in over a thousand classrooms across at least eight states. It teaches students about government by having them pick a local issue, research it and present their findings to officials.

The central philosophy is that students learn civics best by doing civics, Generation Citizen Policy Director Andrew Wilkes said.

Generation Citizens method has been studied by several academic researchers who found participants experienced boosted civic knowledge and improvements in related academic areas like history and English.

Kurtz, however, contends the projects tilt overwhelmingly to the left.

Political protest and lobbying ought to be done by students outside of school hours, independently of any class projects or grades, he said in an email to The 74.

Civics experts, however, argued otherwise.

The notion that its activism happening in classrooms thats just so far from the truth, said Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University in Boston.

Rep. Steve Toth and Sen. Bryan Hughes, the GOP lawmakers who sponsored the 2021 anti-CRT legislation, did not respond to requests for comment.

The 74 reviewed over three dozen action civics projects in Texas from before the 2021 legislation and found that the vast majority dealt with hyperlocal, nonpartisan issues.

Students most often took up causes like bullying, youth vaping, movie nights in the park or bringing back student newspapers. A handful in Austin and nearby Elgin could be considered progressive, including projects dealing with gun control or school admissions prioritizing diversity, topics educators said students selected based on their own interests.

Under the 2021 law, all of those projects now must avoid contact with elected officials. The restrictions have resulted in initiatives more contained to schools themselves like advocacy for less-crowded hallways or longer lunch periods, educators said.

This particular legislation ties [students] hands as to how involved they can get while in high school, said Armando Ordua, the Houston executive director of Latinos for Education.

His own political awakening, he said, came three decades ago growing up in Texas when a teacher assigned him 10 hours of volunteering on a political campaign of his choice. He opted to work on the 1991 Houston mayoral campaign of Sylvester Turner, then a young state representative who lost his bid that year but went on to become the citys mayor in 2016.

Back then, the attitude was how to fight teenage apathy regarding politics and now its quite the other way around, Ordua said. Now politicians are working to tamp down the next generation of leaders.

Young progressives have become a considerable force in American politics, fueling recent electoral wins in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the Chicago mayoral race and a base-rousing standoff in the Tennessee legislature. In the eyes of some members of the GOP, their activism is seen as a threat.

Though some project-based civics lessons in Texas continue with a pared-down scope, others have disappeared altogether.

One school district north of Dallas decided out of an abundance of caution to reverse years of precedent and stop offering course credit to students involved in a well-regarded national civic engagement program, The Texas Tribune first reported.

And Generation Citizen, too, has seen its footprint in Texas dwindle.

After a 2017 launch in the state, the organization underwent several years of steady growth, with more than a half dozen districts using its programming or curricula. At the time, districts in San Antonio, north Texas, the Rio Grande Valley and several rural regions had expressed interest in beginning programming, former regional director Meredith Stefos Norris said. She spent most of her days criss-crossing the sprawling state meeting with interested school leaders. Austin schools expanded their contract with the nonprofit to $58,000, according to records The 74 obtained from the district through a Freedom of Information request. And Dallas said it wanted to bring Generation Citizen programming to every high schooler in its 153,000-student district, Norris said.

It felt at the time that we were just going to keep going and keep growing and there was no reason that we werent going to be a statewide organization, the former Texas director said.

Then came the 2021 legislative session and everything got turned upside down, said Megan Brandon, Generation Citizens current Texas program director. It zapped their efforts and districts backed out of partnerships.

The organization now primarily works with just three Texas districts, including an updated contract with Austin schools for $3,000 a tiny sliver of the sum from a few years prior. The other two are Bastrop Independent School District and Elgin Independent School District.

Meanwhile, across the states northern border in Oklahoma, where Generation Citizen also operates, lawmakers passed a classroom censorship bill around issues of race and gender, but one that did not limit students contact with elected officials. The organization has been able to maintain all its programs while following the letter of the law, Oklahoma director Amy Curran said.

This isnt organizing about big culture wars, national stuff, she said. This is, literally, the sidewalks are unsafe around our school.

Brandon, a former social studies teacher herself, grieves not just for the Texas branch of her organization, where the nature of the projects are similar, but for the youth in her state. Her former students in Bastrop ISD outside Austin, most of whom did not have parents who attended college, never had access to civic engagement opportunities before her class, she said.

Students in Texas need civics more than students in many other states, she said. It feels like were going backwards in time.

Zamora-Garcia remembers striding to the dais of the Bastrop City Council in 2017 with seven of his peers the boys clad in too-big blazers and bow ties, the girls in dresses and laced-up heels. For a project they began in Brandons civics class, the team sought to boost youth voices in their local government. After meeting with officials, researching models and drawing up bylaws, the students eventually made history by passing a city ordinance in the Austin suburb to add student advisors to the City Council.

It made me feel more important and more involved, actually being able to have a voice that can make a change, said Zamora-Garcia, now a junior at Texas State University studying business.

The course activated his potential in class and in the community, he said. Before the experience, school had felt more like being a cog in a machine, he said.

Mabel Zhu, who took the same class two years later, said the experience was life-changing, igniting her passion for civic engagement for years to come.

After the class, she began working with a local nonprofit, then organized a youth summit bringing awareness to the issues of mental health and substance abuse. She eventually joined the Youth Advisory Council that Zamora-Garcia and his classmates helped launch and worked with the Cultural Arts Board to put up a new mural that will define her citys downtown space for years to come. A waving flag on the painting proclaims, The future is ours!

Without [the class], I wouldnt have been able to make such an impact within my community, Zhu said.

The loss of such opportunities are what Rep. Talarico calls the unseen opportunity cost of the culture wars.

What are we missing out on that we could be doing if we werent playing political games with our students education? the Democratic lawmaker asked.

Many students in Texas either learn how to engage with the political system in school or not at all, teachers said. Kyle Olson, an educator at an East Austin high school that serves predominantly immigrant families, taught his students that, as constituents, they could write letters to their elected representatives.

They didnt know that that was even something that was possible, he said.

Neutering those lessons flies in the face of American democracy itself, argues Alexander Pope, who leads the Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Marylands Salisbury University.

Part of the job that schools have in this country is to help prepare people for democracy, he said. The idea that, in a representative democracy, youre going to literally ban people from writing their elected representatives is just backward.

The risk, believes Tuftss Kawashima-Ginsberg, is that a generation of Texans may grow up with a stunted sense of citizenship.

Its going to really damage their idea of what democracy is, she said.

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How Texas Lawmakers Gutted Civics The 74 - The 74

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) When Oklahomas newly elected Republican head of public schools campaigned for the job last fall, he ran on a platform of fighting woke ideology in public schools, banning certain books from school libraries, empowering parents with school choice and getting rid of radical leftists he claims were indoctrinating children in classrooms across the state.

While the political strategy was successful and Ryan Walters won the race for superintendent of public instruction by nearly 15 percentage points, many expected him to pivot toward more substantive education policy: working with lawmakers to improve education outcomes and overseeing the states largest and most-funded agency.

Instead, Walters, a former public school teacher from McAlester, has doubled down on his political rhetoric, focusing his energy on culture-war issues like targeting transgender athletes in schools, banning books and fighting what he calls Joe Bidens radical agenda.

In doing so, the 37-year-old political newcomer has frustrated even his fellow Republicans in the Legislature, who have publicly voiced concern about whether Walters can effectively improve public education in Oklahoma, which consistently scores below the national average on most standardized testing and where average scores have declined in recent years.

State Rep. Mark McBride, a veteran Republican lawmaker who heads a key education budget committee in the House, said hes disappointed Walters has continued to engage in inflammatory commentary and take advice from his campaign consultant instead of working with lawmakers on policy.

If he would come over here and talk to us instead of a political hack, I think it would move the state forward and move education forward, said McBride, who said Walters recent refusal of an invitation to address a committee hearing was the first time in his 11 years in the House that an agency head had done so.

Even Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, who said he considers Walters a friend, said hes turned off by Walters fiery rhetoric.

I wish we could get down into the details of trying to deliver on school choice and a real teacher pay raise, Treat said.

In an editorial, the states largest newspaper, The Oklahoman, called on Walters to end the divisive rhetoric or resign from office.

Walters is a strong supporter of a voucher-style plan that would allow parents to use taxpayer money to homeschool their children or send them to private schools, even religious ones. The issue is a major one the Republican-controlled Legislature is considering this year amid bipartisan opposition. But several lawmakers working on the proposal say Walters has had little, if any, input.

For his part, Walters said hes got great support in the House and Senate and that hes continuing to work with lawmakers to get some kind of voucher proposal, which he calls school choice, to the governors desk.

Im going to continue to fight for that in both the Senate and the House, and were working closely to get this done, he said.

He also proposed a new teacher recruitment pilot program that includes a $50,000 sign-on bonus for new teachers in certain instructional areas who spend at least five years in the classroom.

While many public school teachers and administrators fiercely oppose the idea of sending public money to private schools, several who spoke to The Associated Press say theyre more concerned about Walters talking points and his threats to punish teachers.

I would say fear is the most poignant emotion that is felt, said Jaime Lee, a ninth-grade U.S. government and history teacher in the Tulsa suburb of Bixby.

She said many teachers are afraid of violating a state law approved two years ago that prohibits the teaching of certain concepts of race and racism, commonly referred to as an anti-critical race theory law, which Walters vowed to strongly enforce. Critical race theory, a way of thinking about Americas history through the lens of racism that is generally taught at the university level, recently morphed across the country from an obscure academic discussion point on the left into a political rallying cry on the right.

Its frustrating as a teacher, Lee said.

Those fears were heightened earlier this year when Walters threatened to revoke a Norman teachers teaching certificate because she provided her high school students with a QR code that linked to the Brooklyn Public Librarys section of banned books.

Walters also has not shied away from his support of private Christian schools. He even encouraged a state board to approve what would be the nations first religious charter school, despite an explicit prohibition in the state constitution and the states Republican attorney generals warnings.

After a parent and some ministers raised concerns to the board, Walters dismissed them as radical leftists who hate the Catholic church.

(Walters) just could not help himself but interject with very inflammatory, partisan language, said Erika Wright, a mother of two children in public school and the leader of the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition who spoke to the board. Im a Republican. Im not a radical leftist.

Walters also has faced criticism for his previous work as Republican Gov. Kevin Stitts secretary of education, when he had oversight of a program to distribute federal coronavirus relief funds intended for education. A scathing federal audit of the program recommended the state return nearly $653,000 it said families had spent on items like Xbox gaming systems, grills and televisions.

Some of Walters other actions have been seen as petty digs toward educators, like when just a month into the job, he removed portraits of members of the Educators Hall of Fame that had been hanging for decades in the Department of Education building. He replaced them with artwork from students.

He also faced criticism for a tweet in December that showed his family posing with a white Santa Claus and said: No woke Santa this year :). Many interpreted the message as a thinly veiled racist response to news stories at the time about a Black Oklahoman who dressed as Santa, although Walters rejected any suggestion the tweet was racist.

Despite the controversy, Stitt, who is serving his second term as governor, said he continues to have confidence in Walters.

I think hes easy to target, maybe, and I think he has some social media stuff, Stitt said. I know his heart, and his heart is to improve education in Oklahoma and to empower parents.

___

Follow Sean Murphy on Twitter: @apseanmurphy

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Oklahoma's top education official embraces culture wars - The Associated Press

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The National Trust must transcend the culture wars - Financial Times

Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake called on Republicans to focus on more than just fighting the "culture war."

"Social issues are incredibly important. We must fight and win the culture war," Lake wrote in a tweet on Friday afternoon. "But the 2024 election will be all about fixing our economy and preventing World War 3. @realDonaldTrump is the ONLY man for that job."

The comments by Lake come amid ongoing fights over culture issues in the U.S. such as the controversy surrounding Bud Light and its partnership with transgender influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney, as well as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' fight with Disney and the "woke" community.

This month, Mulvaney posted a video on Instagram showcasing her partnership with Bud Light in an effort to promote her transition to a woman. The partnership led to widespread criticism against Bud Light and calls for people to boycott the brand. Many right-wing voices, such as Lake and Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, called for supporters to avoid buying Bud Light.

On April 5, Lake posted a tweet saying that while at a rally with supporters in Iowa, many refused to drink Bud Light because of its partnership.

"I have to share something hilarious with you guys. I'm in Iowa with hundreds of voters tonight for a rally. There was an open bar that RAN OUT of beer...Except for one brand... @BudLight Go woke, go BROKE. Sad!" Lake said in a tweet.

Lake also recently responded to reports that two Bud Light marketing executives took a leave of absence amid the ongoing controversy.

"When Conservatives fight the culture war we win. They call us the "silent majority" for a reason," Lake wrote. "But we can no longer afford to be silent. There's too much at stake."

As Lake told Republicans to look at other issues the nation is facing, DeSantis was also recently criticized for focusing "too much time on the culture wars."

While speaking with Fox Business host Larry Kudlow last week, former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said that DeSantis "spends way too much time on the culture wars, and that begins with Disney and includes many other things."

"Woke is important, but you can't have that as a replacement for a bold, growth-centric economic plan," Conway added.

DeSantis previously filed legislation seeking to remove Disney's self-governing status after the company criticized the Florida governor's so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill.

Newsweek reached out to Lake's press office via email for further comment.

See the article here:
Kari Lake Wants Republicans to Focus on More Than 'Culture War' - Newsweek

Welcome to POLITICOs West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration.

Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren

Presidential campaigns often are waged on whether or not the country is ready to turn the page. President JOE BIDEN wants his reelection bid to hinge on whether or not there are pages to turn.

The presidents team has made the issue of book banning a surprisingly central element of his campaigns opening salvos. He referred to GOP efforts to restrict curriculum TONI MORRISONs The Bluest Eye was the third most banned title in America last year in his first two campaign videos. He presents himself in each video as the defender of the countrys core values, a bulwark against an extreme Republican Party rolling back Americas freedoms.

The campaigns first TV ad, a 90-second spot running in seven states over the next two weeks as part of a seven-figure buy, warns Republicans seek to overturn elections, ban books and eliminate a womans right to choose. Biden followed up with a tweet hitting MAGA extremists telling you what books should be in your kids schools. That followed the explicit reference to book bans in Bidens launch announcement video Tuesday.

The early focus on book banning is part of the campaigns attempt to reinforce a broader message, said one Democratic adviser involved in the effort: Biden is the only one standing between the American people and a Republican Party determined to roll back rights and limit freedoms.

People just dont understand why we should ban books from libraries, said the adviser, who spoke with candor about the campaigns strategy on the condition of anonymity. So its a measure of extremism and another thing [Republicans] are trying to take away.

Bidens message is based on mounds of research by Democratic pollsters over the last several months, as the presidents advisers and the Democratic National Committee have expanded the constellation of pollsters and data analysts tracking voter attitudes and the effectiveness of certain messages.

The potency of book bans, along with issues like abortion and gun safety, is quite clear, according to multiple people familiar with the campaigns data.

Book banning tests off the charts, said CELINDA LAKE, one of the Democratic pollsters who tested the issue for Democrats. People are adamantly opposed to it and, unlike some other issues that are newer, voters already have an adopted schema around book banning. They associate it with really authoritarian regimes, Nazi Germany.

The campaigns private research aligns with public polling on the issue. A CBS News/YouGov poll in February found that more than 8 in 10 Americans opposed GOP efforts to ban books that focus on slavery, the civil rights movement and an unsanitized version of American history. And a Fox News survey this week found that 60 percent of Americans including 48 percent of Republicans find book bans problematic.

Republicans led by Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS, who appears likely to run for president, have leaned into the culture wars by leading efforts to bar those books, and others about LGBTQ topics. Theyve framed the push as an effort to protect social indoctrination via school curriculum. Lake sees it as a political gift to Biden.

Youll see Democrats up and down the ticket running on this, she said.

You can read the full story here.

MESSAGE US Are you LEVAR BURTON? We want to hear from you. And well keep you anonymous! Email us at [emailprotected]

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This one is from reader JAMES DUFFY. Which first lady saved GEORGE WASHINGTONs portrait?

(Answer at bottom.)

WHATS JOE WATCHING? The president isnt a religious viewer of any one show, but he regularly catches MSNBCs Morning Joe from the White House residence. And hell keep an eye on CNN throughout the day in the Oval Office thanks to a small, gold-framed television designed to blend in with all the family photos arranged atop the credenza behind the Resolute Desk. Eli wrote about this and other aspects of the presidents media diet for POLITICO Magazines media issue ahead of Bidens appearance at Saturdays White House Correspondents Dinner.

EIGHT-YEAR-OLDS, DUDE: The kiddos (a range of ages, actually) of White House staff took over the campus Thursday as part of Bring Your Kid to Work Day. President Biden spent 24 minutes in the south driveway, taking questions ranging from his favorite color (blue) and biggest inspiration (his parents) to his favorite color rose (white), ice cream (chocolate chip) and todays breakfast (egg, bacon and cheese on a croissant). He couldnt quite recall where all of his grandchildren live or the country hed traveled to last until a child reminded him by shouting out, Ireland. Biden, whose trip just two weeks ago drew international press coverage, marveled at the response. Howd you know that? he joked.

That was preceded by an on-the-record morning briefing, where the children of some White House correspondents asked press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE several questions. She was able to reveal that Biden likes spaghetti but said she would have to look at the data to answer what his longest motorcade had been. Its a good question. You actually stumped me.

[Sam here: Look, I dont wanna be too harsh. But these kids couldnt have come up with a follow up to the favorite ice cream question? Also, President Biden: What are you, in college? Who eats that type of breakfast?]

HE DROVE HIS CHEVY TO THE LEVEE At Wednesday nights state dinner, South Korean President YOON SUK YEOL surprised the crowd by singing DON MCLEANs 1971 hit American Pie. Bloombergs JORDAN FABIAN notes that Biden said, I had no damn idea you could sing. Heres a video of the rendition, courtesy of C-SPANs HOWARD MORTMAN. Biden also tweeted the performance and his presentation afterward of a guitar signed by McLean as a gift to Yoon.

PASSION FOR (NOT DISCLOSING) FASHION: Speaking of Wednesday nights affair, first lady JILL BIDEN didnt disclose what she was wearing to it, overtly rejecting that tradition, especially given how clearly her staff thought through every aspect of the state dinner, NYTs VANESSA FRIEDMAN reports. In that context, not to include the details of her dress who made it, its color or design or material seems a deliberate decision. Its the statement of no statement. (Alternate theory: why announce details that KATE BENNETT will just tweet out?)

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: If youre going to read about Bidens reelection bid in the context of his questions over his age, theyd probably point you to this report by the WSJs KEN THOMAS and CATHERINE LUCEY, Why Joe Biden Decided to Run Again. It offers the rationale for his candidacy from some of his closest friends and advisers.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESNT WANT YOU TO READ: RUY TEIXEIRAs reasons why the president could lose reelection in Thursdays edition of The Liberal Patriot newsletter. Teixeira writes that Biden is an extraordinarily weak candidate, and goes into detail about how Trump may be a stronger opponent than Democrats expect.

IT COULD BE WORSE: Sure, Biden is an older president, and his age is a concern for voters, but POLITICO Europes WILHELMINE PREUSSEN and NICOLAS CAMUT have a roundup of other world leaders who worked into their octogenarian years.

DOUG FIGHTS BACK: Former Alabama senator and longtime Biden ally DOUG JONES called out Republican presidential candidate NIKKI HALEY after she said in a Fox News interview that Biden will likely die within five years. The remarks are more than disrespectful, they are disgusting, appalling and unbefitting a candidate for the highest office in the land, Jones said.

PERSONNEL MOVES: RACHEL WALLACE, the chief of staff to White House budget director SHALANDA YOUNG, is leaving her post, and Capitol Hill alum KAREN DE LOS SANTOS will be her replacement starting Monday, CAITLIN EMMA and DANIEL LIPPMAN report for Pro subscribers.

In a rare on-the-record statement, STEVE RICHETTI praised Wallace, an alum of Bidens campaign and transition: When you look at her track record leading Women for Biden, being essential to this administration making history with a staff that looks like America, and then managing the team that is the nerve center of the Federal government it speaks to her loyalty to this President and his agenda, her commitment to public service, and her ability to get the job done.

KLAIN SPEAKS: Former White House chief of staff RON KLAIN spoke about the criticism Vice President KAMALA HARRIS has received on an episode of the podcast, On With Kara Swisher. Sexism and racism are part of the problem. I think she was not as well known in national politics before she became vice president. And I think that she hasnt gotten the credit for all that shes done, he said. Our KIERRA FRAZIER has more.

WHOOPSIE: Fed Chair JEROME POWELL spoke on the phone early this year with someone posing as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Fed confirmed an embarrassing episode for the central bank chief, our VICTORIA GUIDA reports. A Fed spokesperson said in a statement that Powell had a conversation in January with someone who misrepresented himself as the Ukrainian president. It was a friendly conversation and took place in a context of our standing in support of the Ukrainian people in this challenging time. No sensitive or confidential information was discussed.

[Sam here again: Eli, try this trick on Biden]

HANDLING THIS ELSEWHERE: Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN and Homeland Security Secretary ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS on Thursday unveiled plans to establish immigration processing centers throughout Latin America to help slow down the number of migrants coming to the U.S., our MYAH WARD reports. Processing centers in Guatemala and Colombia should be up and running in the next few weeks, and additional details are yet to come about centers in other countries as negotiations remain underway.

TANK ANGST: Senators on both sides of the aisle are calling on the Pentagon to hurry the sending of U.S. tanks to Ukraine, saying Kyiv needs the capability now, our CONNOR OBRIEN reports. Lawmakers expressed their frustration to top defense officials in a Senate Armed Service committee hearing Thursday. Sen. ANGUS KING (I-Maine) said that if the tanks dont get there until August or September, it may well be too late.

Why Biden may have to forfeit the first contest in his re-election bid to Marianne Williamson or RFK Jr. (NBCs Alex Seitz-Wald)

U.S.-China Ties Are Spiraling. The Cabinets Stuck in a Turf War. (Bob Davis for Politico Magazine)

The dirty little secret of White House news conferences (WaPos Paul Farhi)

During the burning of Washington, D.C. on Aug. 24, 1814, DOLLEY MADISON sought to save GEORGE WASHINGTONs portrait from the fire, according to the Mount Vernon website.

She wrote in a letter Aug. 23, 1814 that she didnt want to flee the scene until the large picture of Gen. Washington is secured, and it requires to be unscrewed from the wall. This process was found to be too tedious for these perilous moments; I have ordered the frame to be broken, and the canvas taken out it is done, and the precious portrait placed in the hands of two gentlemen of New York for safe keeping.

A CALL OUT Thanks to James for this question! Do you think you have a harder one? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it.

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.

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The culture war Biden's eager to fight - POLITICO