LVMH Tea Leaves, McCarthy’s Snake Pit, DeSantis Fatigue

Happy Friday and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon dispatch featuring the latest reporting from Puck.

Today, we lead with Tina Nguyen and Abby Livingston’s composite portrait of Kevin McCarthy’s pressing House headaches: Freedom Caucus infighting, a looming shutdown showdown, and a snowballing mass-impeachment fantasy.

Plus, below the fold: Lauren Sherman reads the fashion industry smoke signals following the Delphine Arnault-Alessandro Michele meetup. And on The Powers That Be, Julia Ioffe joins Peter Hamby to connect the dots between Prigozhin’s exile, a vanished Russian general, and Moscow’s uneasy calm. Then Ben Landy and Teddy Schleifer consider Trump’s latest campaign haul and a new DeSantis dilemma.

TINA NGUYEN & ABBY LIVINGSTON

Notes on McCarthy’s dilemma as the Capitol returns from recess: Freedom Caucus infighting, a new shutdown showdown, the Greene-Boebert spat, the impeachment vote count, and the swing members to watch.

LAUREN SHERMAN

LVMH is in the business of hoovering up all the land’s top design talent, which would put the industry’s biggest free agent right in their crosshairs. And perhaps their infrastructure is just what he needs in his next act?

PETER HAMBY, JULIA IOFFE, BEN LANDY, and TEDDY SCHLEIFER

Julia Ioffe joins Peter to connect the dots between Prigozhin’s exile, the false calm in Moscow, and a missing Russian general. Then Teddy Schleifer swings by to decipher Trump’s latest campaign haul and a new DeSantis dilemma.

JULIA IOFFE

Despite Western media assertions that the half-coup heard round the world was a sign of instability, my sources around Moscow and the Kremlin tell me that Putin is once again in full control. But questions linger about a future purge and missed warning signs.