President Joe Biden's conservative critics — from Fox News to Capitol Hill Republicans — have slammed the administration for exempting Russian oil from the raft of financial sanctions aimed at the Kremlin. 

They’ve argued two main things:

1. With Russia’s economy so reliant on the energy sector, the U.S. should target that nation’s energy exports in order to be effective.

2. Biden should simultaneously green-light domestic energy production to offset any oil shortages — a policy the GOP has been pushing for years and that is, in many ways, antithetical to the administration’s climate goals. 

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Here were the three key takeaways and revealing moments that stuck with Team Playbook from President Joe Biden's first State of the Union speech.

1. Biden's cost-free confrontation with Russia — On the surface, events in Ukraine clearly upended the State of the Union speech. Biden spent the first 12 minutes of his address focused on the events there...

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At 9 p.m., President Joe Biden will deliver the type of State of the Union address he never wanted to give. Biden and his advisers had hoped to use this moment to reboot his stalled domestic agenda. Instead, the situation in Ukraine has forced the West Wing to rewrite significant partitions of his speech. 

Biden is expected to use his address to respond to criticism that he didn’t act quickly enough to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin. He’ll emphasize his work to build an international coalition to counter Russia, as well as imposing crippling sanctions. 

It won’t all be a lesson in international relations, however. Administration officials say Biden will spotlight improvements in the economy while sympathizing with the plight of struggling Americans. He’ll highlight GDP growth and historic low unemployment — but also stress that more must be done to bring costs down.

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Foreign policy crises have a way of reshuffling the priorities of a president. Joe Biden's standoff with Putin happened to come along just when Biden had lost some urgency in confronting his three big domestic threats.

The pandemic is becoming endemic. There’s not much Biden can actually do about inflation. And the key senator standing in the way of Biden’s domestic agenda remains immovable.

While the war in Ukraine is just five days old, administration officials and Biden allies are starting to grapple with the ways in which Biden’s presidency may be fundamentally altered.

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In a private meeting at Mar-a-Lago a few days ago, Donald Trump made a personal pitch to Senate Republican campaign chief Rick Scott. “You should run for Senate majority leader,” he told the NRSC chairman, according to someone familiar with the exchange.

It wasn’t the first time, either: Trump has repeatedly told Scott he’d be great at the job and should challenge Mitch McConnell, multiple people familiar with the interactions told Playbook. The Florida Republican didn’t tell the former president “no” that day — though he’s told reporters that he supports McConnell for leader. Instead, he quickly pivoted to the reason for his meeting.

“We have to focus on winning” the Senate, Scott told Trump. “My only focus is on winning.”

Listen to Playbook Deep Dive: Putin’s new war, inside and out

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Just before 6 a.m. Moscow time, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in a televised speech that his forces were entering Ukraine. Within moments, distant explosions were heard by reporters stationed in Kyiv and cities throughout the country. 

President Joe Biden, in a statement, called it “an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces.”

A U.S. official said “full-scale” sanctions against Russia would be announced today. POLITICO national security reporter Alex Ward shares what he expects to hear. 

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The Russian sanctions announced by President Joe Biden on Tuesday made clear the White House is still grappling with the same question he mused about at his Jan. 19 news conference: What is the appropriate Western response to “something significantly short of a significant invasion — or not even significant, just major military forces coming across”? 

Tuesday’s sanctions were more of an amuse-bouche than the full menu that’s been hinted at for weeks. 

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It happened. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops — er, “peacekeepers,” as Moscow’s propaganda machine is calling them — into separatist regions of Ukraine. The move came less than a day after Putin and President Joe Biden agreed “in principle” to make a last-ditch effort at diplomacy with a face-to-face meeting. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to iron out those details in a meeting with his Kremlin counterpart Thursday. But with the Russian military rolling across Ukraine’s borders, there are questions about whether that can happen.

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy officially backed Harriet Hageman, the primary challenger to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Olivia Beavers reports. While tensions have simmered between McCarthy and Cheney for over a year, it’s highly unusual for party leadership to back a challenge to a sitting member of their conference.

Listen to Playbook Deep Dive: The untold story of the former judge who beat Trump on Jan. 6 

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Former President Donald Trump met with Alabama GOP Senate candidate Katie Britt at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, two sources familiar told Playbook. The former president has been having buyer’s remorse after endorsing Rep. Mo Brooks for Senate, watching with frustration as Brooks has failed to catch fire with the MAGA base. 

And for months, many Republican operatives across the political spectrum — from MAGA world and the RNC to the NRSC and Team Mitch — have privately whispered agreement on one thing when it comes to Missouri’s crowded Senate GOP primary: They’d welcome any nominee except Eric Greitens.

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