House votes on bill to ban TikTok, and a Biden vs. Trump rematch: Morning Rundown

Joe Biden and Donald Trump will face each other again in the 2024 presidential election. A bill that could result in TikTok’s U.S. ban is poised to pass in the House. And “Dateline” correspondent Keith Morrison reflects on his stepson Matthew Perry’s death.

Here’s what to know today.

Trump and Biden clinch nominations, setting up a 2024 rematch

Former President Donald Trump was all but the presumptive Republican presidential nominee yesterday heading into primary races in Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi and Washington. By the end of the night, he secured enough delegates to seal the nomination, setting up a 2024 rematch with President Joe Biden, who also secured enough delegates for the Democratic nomination yesterday.

Trump steamrolled through a Republican primary field that included former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence and others. All were unable to break Trump’s hold on the Republican Party — despite four criminal indictments against him and his refusal to engage in Republican debates. Read more about Trump’s road to the nomination.

Hours before Trump secured the Republican nomination, Biden clinched the Democratic presidential nomination — an outcome that hadn’t been much in doubt as leaders such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer opted to sit out of the presidential race.

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Going into the general election, Biden is an underdog against Trump. His State of the Union speech last week may have quelled some voters’ concerns about his age, but he’ll also have to sway Democratic and independent voters who largely don’t credit him for the strong economy and a string of bipartisan bills he ushered through Congress. Read more about Biden’s road to the nomination and the rematch that awaits him.

More 2024 election coverage:

• See full results for the primary elections in Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi and Washington.

• Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is considering New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura as possible running mates.

• Abortion is a top concern for Trump as he considers his potential running mates.

House expected to pass bill targeting TikTok

The House is poised to pass legislation today that could ban TikTok in the United States as Republicans and Democrats alike sound the alarm that the popular video-sharing app is a national security threat. It’s unclear whether the bill will pass in the Senate (the chamber is still evaluating it), but if it does, Biden said he would sign it.

What exactly does the legislation call for? The bill, dubbed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, would create a process for the president, through the FBI and intelligence agencies, to designate certain social media applications under the control of foreign adversaries as national security threats. Once an app is deemed a risk, it will have 180 days to sever ties with entities under the control of foreign adversaries or it will be banned.

In TikTok’s case, a ban could come quickly if Biden were to sign the bill. FBI Director Christopher Wray has already testified that the app poses a risk to national security, meaning its parent company ByteDance would have to act quickly to divest the app.

Read the full story here.

More on the proposed legislation:

• Congress’ swift action aiming to ban TikTok in the U.S. clearly has to do with concerns about China, NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd writes, but the legislation will likely still allow Americans’ data to be available for manipulation and used for algorithms with little public insight. Read the full analysis here.

• Trump now opposes a TikTok ban despite issuing an executive order when he was president that sought to ban the app. Some of his GOP allies have no problem calling him out.

• Who is Jeff Yass? What to know about the billionaire GOP donor with stakes in TikTok’s parent company.

Alaska Airlines plane was scheduled for maintenance the day door panel flew off

The Alaska Airlines plane that had a door panel fall off midair in January had been scheduled to undergo maintenance later that night, the airline has confirmed. The New York Times reported yesterday that the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft had been scheduled for a safety check after some engineers and technicians became concerned, including about a light indicating problems with the plane’s pressurization system. However, the plane was kept in service with some restrictions. Within minutes of Flight 1282 departing Portland on Jan. 5, the door plug blew out, and the plane returned to the airport.

Alaska Airlines said in a statement that it is “confident in our maintenance and safety actions leading up to the incident.”

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, officials said that a former Boeing quality inspector who filed a whistleblower complaint over potentially “catastrophic” safety failings was found dead.

Where laid-off tech workers are ending up

Ash Yao, a former DocuSign account executive, said she always wanted to be an entrepreneur. When she was laid off during the e-signature firm’s 10% workforce reduction last year, she chose to see her misfortune as a “sign from the universe” to follow her dreams. Now, her line of ready-to-drink teas, Kace, is distributed nationwide.

But for thousands of tech employees laid off in the last year, the bounce back hasn’t necessarily been as seamless as Yao’s, and it certainly hasn’t looked the same for everyone. Some people have returned to the companies that laid them off, some are starting their own ventures and some have left the industry. Others remain unemployed.

What’s clear, said Ayomi Samaraweera, who was laid off from her tech job in December 2022, is that the days of tech being a “safe and secure” industry seems to be a thing of the past. About 34,000 people were laid off in the tech industry in January, the most in a single month since January 2023, when almost 90,000 people were let go. Business and data correspondent Brian Cheung looked at what happened after tech workers lost their jobs.

Keith Morrison says stepson Matthew Perry was deprived of ‘his third act’

Keith Morrison, the veteran “Dateline” correspondent widely known for his wry, baritone voice, said he and his stepson, the late actor Matthew Perry, were “as they say, chalk and cheese.” Perry “had that kind of very fiery personality,” he said, “and mine is not like that, as you can imagine.”

In opening up about Perry’s unexpected death on an episode of “TODAY” show co-host Hoda Kotb’s “Making Spaces” podcast, Morrison said his grief is still raw and he can still feel “the echo” of Perry’s presence in his day-to-day life. Perry, who died in October at the age of 54, “didn’t get to have his third act, and that’s not fair,” Morrison said. Here’s what else Morrison had to say.

Politics in Brief

Ukraine aid: The White House will provide $300 million in additional weapons to Ukraine as more funding is held up in Congress.

Trump trials: A federal judge approved Trump’s $91.63 million bond in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, insulating him from any effort to collect the judgment while he appeals the verdict.

Supreme Court: A small city in Oregon could shape how major U.S. cities handle homelessness, with the Supreme Court set to hear arguments next month over rules meant to limit encampments.

GOP’s shrinking majority: Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, who already announced he would not seek re-election, said he will resign from Congress at the end of next week.

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Staff Pick: The enduring power of J.Lo

Whether you enjoyed Jennifer Lopez’s latest artistic endeavor “This Is Me… Now” or rolled your eyes at it, it doesn’t really matter. The debate over her latest album and movie shows why J.Lo has remained in the American pop culture zeitgeist for almost three decades. As a Latina millennial who grew up witnessing Jenny from the Block’s rise to superstardom, her new project has made me think about the ways Lopez marked my life then and now. — Nicole Acevedo, NBC Latino reporter

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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com