Today’s edition of quick hits:
* A good move: “The Biden administration will make 400 million N95 masks available for free at thousands of locations across the country, a White House official said Wednesday, as health experts stress the importance of high-quality face coverings to protect against the omicron variant of the coronavirus.”
* On a related note: “The White House official said Wednesday that the distribution of 400 million masks would be the largest deployment of personal protective equipment in U.S. history.”
* The Russia/Ukraine crisis: “Fearing that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could be imminent, the United States launched a fresh effort Wednesday to resolve the standoff even as Moscow continued to mass troops on its neighbor’s doorstep. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a hastily arranged diplomatic mission that signaled the urgency of the crisis.”
* SCOTUS: “A majority of Supreme Court justices on Wednesday cast doubt on a federal restriction involving candidates who loan large amounts of money to their own political campaigns. After 90 minutes of courtroom argument, it appeared that the court was inclined to rule in favor of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who challenged the law after his last re-election victory.”
* Among Democrats, Manchin and Sinema will stand alone: “Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly announced Wednesday he supports a limited change of the U.S. Senate’s filibuster rule in order to pass voting-rights legislation that he has co-sponsored.” * Keep an eye on this one: “The National Archives on Wednesday plans to hand over a small batch of documents from the Trump White House to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton said in a court filing Tuesday night that unless there’s an ‘intervening court order, the archivist intends to release records’ to the committee at 6 p.m. ET Wednesday.” * Utah’s Stuart Adams, the Republicans’ state Senate president, reportedly tested positive for Covid-19 twice, but he nevertheless went to the state capitol and “opened the 2022 session unmasked, conducting business as normal.” He also told his colleagues he’d tested negative, despite reality. See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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