Good morning! Sunday afternoon is the biggest sporting event of the year. We’re of course talking about the annual Puppy Bowl. Patrick Mabones and Team Fluff will take on Corndog’s Team Ruff at 2:00 PM Eastern on Animal Planet.

 WHITE HOUSE 

👴 An “elderly man with a poor memory”

Special Counsel Robert Hur completed his investigation of President Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified document and said “no criminal charges are warranted.”

Who? Robert Hur was appointed to a Justice Department job by then-President Trump in 2018. He, like many political appointees, left when President Biden took office in 2021. Last year, Hur was hired by current Attorney General Merrick Garland (Biden’s guy) to run the investigation as “special counsel.”

The what? A special counsel is an attorney hired by the government (the Justice Department) to investigate sensitive cases to avoid possible conflicts of interest. Like, say, when the president allegedly committs a crime. That’s what’s happening here.

What’s the case? A year ago, officials found huge boxes of classified documents at President Biden’s house. They came from when he was vice president. The presence of those files might mean he committed a crime by putting them there. So…special counsel.

What’s the report say? You can read the entire thing here (all 388 pages). It’s…not great. While Hur said Biden shouldn’t be charged, his reasoning here is what should worry Democrats. Hur interviewed the president for about five hours in October as part of his investigation.

Based on that, Hur called Biden “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and said a jury probably wouldn’t convict him despite evidence of wrongdoing. He said Biden, on two occasions, couldn’t remember when he was VP or when his son Beau tragically passed away.

Response: President Biden responded to the report last night with disgust that Hur would bring up his son and emphasized the lack of charges. He said, “I am well-meaning. And I’m an elderly man. And I know what the hell I’m doing.” The White House noted that he was interviewed in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and had been busy dealing with that.

To sum it up: Biden probably mishandled classified documents. But he won’t be charged because the attorney thinks he’s too old and has bad memory. That’s not a great story to have to deal with in the middle of a reelection campaign.

Fun fact: Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are older than both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Currently.

 SUPREME COURT 

⚖️ Justices skeptical of push to boot Trump

The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday on whether a state could kick former President Trump off the ballot using the Constitution’s so-called “insurrection clause.” Colorado brought the case based on Trump’s actions after his 2020 election loss and the events of Jan. 6.

At stake here is the wording of the 14th Amendment that was passed after the Civil War. It says, in part, that someone who took an oath to the Constitution as a —(list of offices) — then committed insurrection, can’t serve as — (another list of offices).

So what happened? Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson (appointed by President Biden) drilled Colorado’s attorney on one specific point: that the office of president isn’t on that list.

Justice Kagan and Chief Justice Roberts said this probably wasn’t something a single state should be deciding. Eight of the nine justices seemed ready to reject Colorado’s argument — and keep Trump on the ballot.

Will it work? Probably not. The Supreme Court hates getting involved in elections. Letting states kick a likely presidential nominee off the ballot would further harm the court’s already-delicate reputation.

What’s next? The court typically takes months to issue decisions. But, with the presidential nomination process well underway, they’ll likely expedite this thing. Court watchers expect a decision within a month.

 SPORTS 

🏈 A politics-free weekend

In a break with (a somewhat recent) tradition, President Biden will not give a pre-game interview ahead of Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday. Then-President Obama started the practice of giving a long interview to the network broadcasting the game that year. It’s an easy (and free!) way to reach tens of millions of people — in an election year, no less. President Biden played along back in 2021 and 2022 but skipped it last year, too.

In true Trump fashion, the former president (who skipped it in 2018) volunteered to fill in for Biden ahead of the big game, posting “I WOULD BE HAPPY TO REPLACE HIM – would be ‘RATINGS GOLD!’”. CBS declined that offer.

 POLITICS 

🔴 At the Nevada Republican presidential caucus last night, former President Donald Trump stomped some random guy from Texas, Ryan Binkley. He scored Nevada’s 26 delegates to the Republican convention this summer. Trump’s up to 63 now — he needs 1,215 to clinch the nomination. He also won 4 delegates over in the U.S. Virgin Islands last night.

🔵 Weird crystal lady Longshot Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson dropped out of the race after getting less than 3% of the vote in Tuesday’s Nevada primary. Turns out love and good vibes weren’t quite enough to win. Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips is now President Biden’s only remaining primary challenger. History’s not on ole Deano’s side, though. No incumbent president has lost even a single state in the primary since 1980.

🔴 Ronna Romney McDaniel might soon resign as chair of the Republican Party. Party chairs don't have any political power. But they do head up fundraising efforts and work to build up state-level parties. McDaniel was handpicked by Trump in 2017 and has remained loyal to him ever since (despite her uncle Mitt being Trump's sworn enemy). If she does quit, the 168 members of the Republican National Committee would elect a replacement.

🔵 Tennessee state Rep. Gloria Johnson is running for two offices simultaneously — state representative and U.S. senator. She represents a Democratic area in a very Republican state. So she's almost certain to win reelection to the state House while getting stomped in the U.S. Senate race. A lot of states allow this, though you can't actually hold federal and state office at the same time. In 2008, then-Sen. Joe Biden won reelection to the Senate on the same ballot that elected him VP. In 2012, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan lost the VP race while winning reelection to Congress.

🔴 House Speaker Mike Johnson endorsed Rep. Matt Rosendale’s bid for Senate in Montana. Hours later, he un-endorsed the guy after getting pushback from…basically everyone. Rosendale is a bit of a loose cannon who lost this exact race back in 2018. Now he’s looking for a rematch against three-term Democrat Sen. Jon Tester. The entire Republican Senate campaign arm is pushing former Navy SEAL (and rich guy) Tim Sheehy over Rosendale (if you’re a Democrat, you’re pulling for Rosendale here).

 TRIVIA 

In honor of the Puppy Super Bowl, here are a few Qs on the game so you can impress your friends on Sunday:

1. In what year was the first Super Bowl played?

2. Who played in the first Super Bowl?

3. What’s the Super Bowl trophy called?

4. Which team has the most Super Bowl wins?

5. Which team has the most Super Bowl losses?

 WORLD 

🇵🇰 Pakistan: The opposition leader (and former prime minister) was thrown in prison. Terrorists attacked (multiple times). Cell service was shut down. But Pakistan did, finally, hold its parliamentary elections yesterday. No prime minister in Pakistan’s history has ever completed a full five-year term. Will this time be any different? Al-Jazeera has the results after a significant delay.

🇺🇦 Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelensky fired his top general yesterday. Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny had led Ukrainian forces since before the war began. But relations between the two men crumbled in recent months as the war, in the general’s words, became a “stalemate.” Unpopular (but aggressive) Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky is the new man in charge.

🇷🇺 Russia: Former Fox News (and CNN, PBS, and MSNBC, actually) host Tucker Carlson traveled to Moscow and interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the 2+ hour sit-down, Putin called Ukraine an "artificial state" and said the U.S. controls European media. This was Putin’s first interview with Western media since his war in Ukraine began two years ago. The full video is available on Carlson’s site. The opposing view here is that the entire thing is scripted and Carlson is an unwitting tool in Putin’s propaganda machine.

 BRIEFS 

• For the first time in decades, the U.S. imports more from Mexico than China

• Uber made a profit last year for the first time ever

• Google rebranded its free Bard AI service as Gemini yesterday and added a paid tier

• AI image generator Midjourney is considering banning the creation of images involving either Trump or Biden ahead of the election

• The U.K.’s Labour Party dials back its green energy funding plan as it dominates Conservatives in polling by 20+ points

• The S&P 500 momentarily broke 5,000 yesterday, setting stock market record

• French President Emmanuel Macron continues his government shakeup, axes education minister

• The European Union adopted new anti-migration rules in victory for political right

• Five U.S. Marines died in a California crash of the military’s largest helicopter

 QUOTE 

 SNACKS 

🟨 SpongeBob: If you’re not into football but don’t want to miss out on a big cultural moment, SpongeBob has your back. The crew from Bikini Bottom will call the game live over on Nickelodeon.

🍿 Disney: It’s a big week for Disney. The company announced Moana 2 will come out in November, the Eras Tour will head to Disney+, they’re investing $1.5 billion in a digital universe, and ESPN will join forces with Warner Bros. and Fox for a mega sports streamer.

🐸 Commercials: Take a trip through the greatest Super Bowl commercials of all time. After all, who’s watching the game for the game?

 FEEDBACK 

 ANSWER 

1. Super Bowl I was played in 1967 (for the ‘66 season)

2. The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs

3. The Vince Lombardi Trophy is named for the legendary Packers head coach, who led them to wins in the first two Super Bowls

4. The New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers both lead the pack with 6 wins each

5. Oddly enough, the New England Patriots also tie the Denver Broncos for the most losses, with 5