Happy Thursday and welcome back to The Best & the Brightest. I cannot believe we’re at a point in Washington where a powerful member of Congress has confirmed that she called a colleague—an ideological ally in her own party, mind you—a “little bitch.” But that’s the dog-eat-dog nature of MAGA, where the only thing worse than being a sellout is being a fake ideologue. Plus some news today on the ongoing Tucker-Fox News legal fallout. But first…

By Abby Livingston

• Slick Rick: Senator Rick Scott, the wealthy and ambitious former hospital magnate and DeSantis predecessor, is said to be “considering” a late entry into the already crowded 2024 Republican presidential field, per the Times, as my colleague Tara Palmeri presciently reported back in January. Scott quickly shot the story down, but the conversations appear to have become more substantive in recent weeks.

  A Scott campaign would of course be a boon to the consultants at OnMessage, who have been encouraging him to run; Scott, who made a veritable fortune at the nation’s largest for-profit healthcare company, has a lively history of spending exorbitantly on his political ambitions. He spent $5 million of his own money to campaign against Obamacare, and another $64 million of his cash on his 2018 Senate bid. A late bid, or even an openly Hamletesque contemplation of a bid, would further cement Florida’s place as the epicenter of G.O.P. politics, as Trump, DeSantis, and even Miami mayor Francis Suarez have all declared their presidential runs.

  But despite serving as a key figure in the Republican consolidation of Florida in the 2010s, during his two terms as governor, Scott is not a beloved figure in his own party. He was frequently accused of putting his own interests ahead of the N.R.S.C., and has been at near-constant political war with Mitch McConnell, who continues to wield enormous sway over Republican senators and donors, all of whom can quietly and indirectly help or hinder a colleague’s presidential aspirations. (Scott, of course, futilely ran against McConnell to be the party leader after the G.O.P. fell short of winning back the majority.) Politico has called the feud “the Senate beef that won’t die.”

• Meanwhile, in Other 2024 News…: Will Hurd, a retired Republican pragmatist who served three terms in the House, officially announced his presidential campaign on Thursday. Logically, it’s hard to understand his path to the nomination. Based on his messaging, it sounds like he will be sharing the anti-Trump oxygen with Chris Christie.

  But Hurd, whose campaigns I have closely covered over the years, is indefatigable. In 2014, he ran as an underfunded and ignored Republican House candidate who took down a Democratic incumbent in a surprise win. Once in office, he was a relentless road warrior, retail-politicking around his sprawling southwest Texas district and eventually emerging as one of the House G.O.P.’s best fundraisers. It’s hard to predict where this goes with Hurd (although a multi-book deal, a cable sinecure, and maybe even a Dancing with the Stars cameo are in the quantum of possibilities…) but I would advise against underestimating him.

• Biden’s Modi Operandi: The White House pulled out all the stops on Thursday to welcome Narendra Modi to Washington, giving the Indian prime minister the warmest diplomatic gesture available: a formal state dinner featuring a vegetarian menu and Virginia wine. Oh, and Joe Biden is setting him up with a bunch of fighter jet engines and drones, too.

  The invitation list was also one to behold. Perhaps the most attention-grabbing boldface name was Hunter Biden, fresh off his plea deal with federal prosecutors. But the rest of the invitees are equally notable: Among them, former Clinton aide Huma Abedin; OpenAI’s Sam Altman; Rep. Ami Bera; Apple’s Tim Cook; GE’s Larry Culp; columnists Tom Friedman, Anand Giridharadas, and David Ignatius; brother-of-R.F.K. Jr. Maxwell Taylor Kennedy; and Fox media scion James Murdoch. There’s also Ro Khanna, Billie Jean King, Martin Luther King III, Amy Klobuchar, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Joe Manchin, Kevin McCarthy, Gregory Meeks, Bob Menendez, Nancy and Paul Pelosi, Steve Scalise, Chuck Schumer, M. Night Shyamalan, Neera Tanden and Mark Warner, among others. The Associated Press reported that Dr. Jill Biden wore a green dress from the designer label of another attendee, Ralph Lauren.

  The guest list had been a source of some curiosity, especially amid increasing concern in Washington circles over Modi’s autocratic drift and Biden’s realpolitik response. But India has a history of friendliness with Moscow and is critical to Biden’s diplomatic dance surrounding the war in Ukraine and U.S. efforts to contain China. While a group of 70 or so Democrats led by Chris Van Hollen and Pramila Jayapal quietly pushed the president to raise human rights concerns ahead of the meeting, the White House seems to have mostly defused tensions: Jayapal, notably, was included on the White House invitation list as well.

And now for the main event…

Of course, the food fight is more than just made-for-Twitter sideshow: Their cold war has turned into an actual policy fight, with both women publicly feuding over who gets credit for filing articles of impeachment against Joe Biden. This all seems stupid, because it is, but there will be real consequences for Kevin McCarthy’s speakership, for the G.O.P. agenda, and possibly the 2024 race, too. On Thursday, the House voted along party lines to send Boebert’s resolution to committee, essentially punting the issue. For now, at least.

Republican hardliners have long been hellbent on securing McCarthy’s commitment to considering impeachment proceedings. It’s been a leitmotif of their negotiations throughout his protracted speakership election and the debt ceiling hostage crisis. So far, the easiest Biden administration targets have appeared to be Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, whom the so-called Taliban 20 blame for the southern border crisis, and Christopher Wray, the head of the F.B.I., who they believe politicized the bureau in an attempt to remove Trump from office. A.G. Merrick Garland also looms large as a sacred cow. But Biden—or the “Biden crime family,” as Republicans often put it—has always been the ultimate prize.

Anyway, apparently it’s not enough to have a common enemy. Greene, who immediately filed articles of impeachment on her very first day in Congress, has nevertheless become something of an outlier in MAGA politics for her vocal support of McCarthy. Generally, it’s anathema for anyone else in her category—grassroots, QAnon-dabbling online personalities with zero political experience, all good qualities to base voters—to support any sort of establishmentarian politician. Laura Loomer, the far-right nationalist and internet personality, now in Trump’s orbit, recently declared that Greene is McCarthy’s “lap dog” and is only using impeachment as a “fundraising grift.”

Boebert, on the other hand, has drifted even further to the right despite barely holding on to her congressional seat by 564 votes. Her impeachment push may be a viable survival strategy, of sorts, in an era when over-the-top attention-seeking brattiness can generate meaningful campaign revenue. “It’s not like there’s going to be a giant cavalcade of PAC checks rolling in to fund her re-elect anytime soon,” noted one source connected to the House hardliner group. “And so she needs to continue to maintain a very robust small-dollar operation. Otherwise, she has no way to fund a campaign which will no doubt be slightly more expensive next go around, because it’s going to be a target for the Dems to take back the majority.”

Dhillon, I’m told, was on Carlson’s team from Day One, having been involved in his initial contract negotiations with Fox. But her presence on Tucker’s team is not just limited to being his counsel. Last week, Dhillon announced on Twitter that she too would no longer be appearing on Fox News, after several years as an occasional guest, and urged other conservative figures to boycott the network as well. “[A]ll the members of Congress, culture warriors, ‘influencers,’ @GOP officials—do you really want to air your views on a network that spits on its viewers, leaks oppo on its own talent, and even threatens former talent for speaking, for free, on @Twitter?!” she posted last week. “You have free will!”