Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press conference in Jerusalem and report on a GOP governors’ initiative to commemorate Jewish American Heritage Month. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Avi Hasson, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Norm Brownstein.
In today’s penultimate installment of “Who Killed Kesher’s Rabbi?,” Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch describes the last night of Rabbi Philip Rabinowitz’s life — and the clues it gave detectives when they began to investigate his 1984 murder.
High-ranking police officialspromised the rabbi’s family members and congregants that they would find the culprit who killed the rabbi in his Washington home. They even identified a suspect. So why has no one been arrested to date? Read more below, and catch up on the rest of the series here.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis teased a potential 2024 presidential run at a conference in Jerusalem earlier this morning, JI’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports. “If there’s any announcements on this, they will come at the appropriate time,” the Florida Republican said at a press conference following his appearance at the Celebrate the Faces of Israel event, a project of The Jerusalem Post and the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem. Read more here.
The Florida governor also ceremonially signed into law new hate crimes legislation that passed through the state legislature earlier this week.
Addressing the Israeli government’s proposal for judicial reforms, DeSantis said America must respect Israel’s right to make its own decisions about its own governance. “We must be a strong ally and not butt into Israel’s internal affairs,” he said. “It seems to me, that it’s healthy to flush this stuff out… you’re a smart country, you’ll figure it out, it shouldn’t be for us to butt into these important issues.”
DeSantis also downplayed a report from NBC News last night that he is expected to announce a presidential bid as soon as mid-May.
DeSantis noted that he and his wife, Casey, gathered holy water from the Sea of Galilee to baptize their three children, drawing applause from the audience, which also included Museum of Tolerance Chairman Larry Mizel, prominent Denver attorney and super-lobbyist Norm Brownstein, philanthropists Miriam Adelson and Sylvan Adams, venture capitalists Yitz Applbaum, Michael Granoff and Max Fink, RJC’s Matt Brooks and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
DeSantis also met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog today.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides also stopped by the conference, albeit not for DeSantis’ speech. Nides and Friedman jointly addressed the conference, where they shared highlights from their recent March of the Living trip.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, is expected to announce a Senate run this afternoon against Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) today, sources tell JI. Justice’s entrance in the race lands Senate Republicans a marquee recruit in a must-win contest. Justice will still have to get past Club for Growth-backed Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) in a GOP primary. All eyes are now on Manchin to see if he seeks a third term or steps aside.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee will hold a fundraiser next month in Midtown Manhattan that is set to include six U.S. senators, according to Eric Levine, a board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition, who told JI’s Matthew Kassel that he is hosting the event.
The fundraiser on May 23, he said, will be attended by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Thune (R-SD), Susan Collins (R-ME), Todd Young (R-IN), Ted Budd (R-NC) and Steve Daines (R-MT), the chairman of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm.
“I’m sure we’re going to discuss retaking the Senate and what hurdles there are,” Levine, who is hoping to raise “a couple of hundred thousand dollars,” said in an interview on Wednesday. “It should be one of the biggest NRSC events in the city this year.”
The House passed a bill yesterday to raise the debt ceiling and enact deep spending cuts across many areas of the federal budget. The bill represents an opening salvo for Republicans in negotiations with the White House to stave off a U.S. debt default. With four Republicans voting against the bill, the final, deciding vote was cast by Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who had previously said he would oppose the bill.
ON THE HILL
House Foreign Affairs passes MAHSA Act, with promises to continue negotiations

The House Foreign Affairs Committee advanced the MAHSA Act, a bill aiming to increase sanctions on Iranian leadership, on Wednesday by a unanimous voice vote, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said they intend to continue negotiations on the bill, which had been the subject of intensive talks and controversy leading up to yesterday’s vote.
Background: Ahead of the markup, HFAC Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) introduced an amendment that would have altered language in the original bill stating that the president “shall… impose” sanctions listed within the bill to instead state that the president “shall… pursue” the sanctions. The proposed change prompted backlash from some Republican lawmakers and Iranian diaspora activists who had been rallying support for the bill.
Backpedaling: Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) said he had negotiated with McCaul to introduce a compromise amendment that partially restored the original language — applying the “impose” language to congressionally approved statutory sanctions and the “pursue” language to sanctions imposed by presidential executive order. The Florida congressman explained that there had been “constitutional concerns” around the “impose” language in the original bill, relating to questions about whether Congress can mandate the president enact sanctions issued under executive orders.
Continued concerns: HFAC Ranking Member Greg Meeks (D-NY) indicated, however, that he had reservations. Lawmakers said that they had been negotiating to attempt to find an acceptable solution until 3 a.m. Wednesday. Meeks said that he had thought “we had an agreement” with McCaul on the legislation “but… my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have sought to change the deal that we had negotiated.” He argued the Mills amendment “adds unnecessary rigidity to the text” and “will add confusion in its implementation.”
More to come: Meeks explained that he planned to vote for the bill “to allow it to continue to progress to a conference [committee] with the Senate,” but emphasized that he wanted to continue negotiations. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who stood in for McCaul as HFAC chairman during debate over the MAHSA Act, promised that negotiations to address Meeks’ concerns would continue even after the committee approved the bill. “I, for one, will pledge to the ranking member that we will — regardless of what we depart today with in the way of a base bill — that obviously we want to reach the language that was being worked on. I believe we’re close,” he said.