The TAKE with Rick Klein
Over the next 48 hours, there’s a version of political reality set to play out at a county fairgrounds in Ohio and in a convention center in Michigan.
There’s another reality entirely driving events in a courtroom in Georgia and hearing rooms in Washington over the coming days and weeks. And then there’s the private and public conversations House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is going to face with audio released Thursday night revealing that he did tell colleagues he would recommend that former President Donald Trump resign after all.
Friday brings a notable scene: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., will testify in person at a hearing scheduled to determine whether she’s eligible to run for Congress. It marks the first time a member of Congress accused of being involved with the riot at the Capitol will speak under oath about the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
That comes amid news that the House Jan. 6 committee is set to speak with Donald Trump Jr. in the coming days as that panel moves toward wrapping up its interviews in advance of public hearings later this spring. That work got more interesting when New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns released audio of McCarthy late Thursday that blows up his previous denials.
Former President Donald Trump himself, meanwhile, will headline a rally Saturday in advance of the May 3 Ohio primaries. Trump will hype his new choice for the Senate race there -- though, notably, several other major candidates also falsely claim that the election was stolen.
That figures to be a theme of the Michigan Republican Convention this weekend. State GOP delegates will choose nominees for attorney general and secretary of state from a field that includes several who supported overturning the last election -- and who might be in a position to actually do what Trump wanted done in 2024 or beyond.
Those candidates will be selected at the DeVos Place convention center in Grand Rapids -- a building named for the husband of a Trump Cabinet secretary who resigned because of how Trump handled Jan. 6. It’s also happening in a state where Sen. Mitt Romney’s father was considered an iconic Republican governor.
The Republican Party has moved quite a bit since the days of either Romney -- and even from where it looked like it was going last Jan. 6. But other events continue to make it impossible to ignore the multi-layered legacy of the attacks at the Capitol.
The RUNDOWN with Alisa Wiersema
Florida’s lengthy and contentious redistricting process crossed its final hurdle on Thursday with the state legislature’s passage of a Republican-favoring map backed by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis.
As ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd and Hannah Demissie report, DeSantis’ map would wipe out any gains by Democrats made during the national redistricting process by adding four Republican-leaning seats and eliminating three highly competitive seats from the previous map. Those changes would leave the state with 18 Republican-leaning and eight Democrat-leaning seats, thereby threatening the already thin majority Democrats hold on the House of Representatives. The map also splits up Black voters by slashing the number of Black-majority districts in half from four to two and overhauls Florida's 5th District, which is represented by Rep. Al Lawson, a Black Democrat.
Although DeSantis may be able to claim a political victory for now, the celebration may be short-lived. Already, grassroots and voting rights advocates are making plans to organize against the using the new map, and any upcoming legal challenges could prevent it from being implemented this year.
"Given the extent to which the new congressional map in Florida is likely to diminish the voices in government of communities of color, and the blatant disregard the governor and state legislature have shown for creating equal representation for communities of color, it is vital that we hold them accountable and prevent these maps from taking effect," said Jack Genberg, senior staff attorney for voting rights with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.
Even so, the Florida governor's political maneuverings are setting him up for a high-profile presence on the national conservative stage. DeSantis -- who is thought to be a possible 2024 presidential contender -- appears to be flexing his partisan muscle by hitting the road to stump for Nevada GOP Senate hopeful Adam Laxalt next week. Laxalt has already been endorsed by another influential Republican -- former President Donald Trump.
The TIP with Hannah Demissie
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene R-Ga. will be under a political microscope Friday morning when she testifies in Atlanta, Georgia, about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Greene is one of several elected officials whose reelection is being challenged by voters under the disqualification clause of the 14th Amendment. Other elected officials facing similar challenges include Reps. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., Paul Gosar, R-Ariz. and Andy Biggs R-Ariz.
Enacted shortly after the Civil War, the disqualification clause bars any person from holding federal office who has previously taken an oath to protect the Constitution -- including a member of Congress -- and has "engaged in insurrection" against the United States or "given aid or comfort" to its "enemies."
The hearing has grabbed the attention of many, including Trump, who released a statement falsely accusing Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of working with Democrats to keep Greene off the ballot.
Greene maintains her innocence, telling ABC News affiliate WTVC earlier this week that she is also a “victim” of the Capitol riot.
"I was evacuated along with all the members of Congress who were in the House chamber because we were working. We were doing the electoral count, which is our job; that's nothing illegal."
NUMBER OF THE DAY, powered by FiveThirtyEight
18. That’s the number of Republican-leaning seats on Florida’s soon-to-be congressional map, according to FiveThirtyEight’s partisan lean metric. It marks a gain of four Republican-leaning seats from the old map and, as FiveThirtyEight’s Nathaniel Rakich writes, it’s one of the most biased maps we’ve seen passed this redistricting cycle.
THE PLAYLIST
ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast. "Start Here" begins Friday morning in Ukraine with ABC's James Longman breaking down the latest from the port city of Mariupol -- Ukrainian forces are holding on, while Putin orders Russian troops not to storm the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the city. Then, ABC’s Steve Osunsami joins to talk about the legal effort to remove Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from the ballot and its chances of success. And, for Earth Day, ABC's Ginger Zee shares the experience of her 2,100-mile road trip in an electric vehicle, telling us why EVs are becoming more popular and what impact they have on climate change. http://apple.co/2HPocUL
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The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the day's top stories in politics. Please check back Monday for the latest.