Author: launchkits

McDaniel Out

UPDATE -- Recently replaced Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was sacked Tuesday by NBC News after vociferous objections about her hiring by erstwhile NBC News and MSNBC colleagues. Yes, both NBC News and MSNBC have hired former Republican, as well as former Democratic, operatives as on-air pundits, but McDaniel's years of criticizing real news outlets as "fake news" and of facilitating Donald J. Trump's election denials did not go over well with critics inside and outside the network.

Tuesday evening, NBC Universal Group Chairman Cesar Conde emailed the following to staff members: "There is no doubt that the last several days have been difficult for the News Group. After listening to the legitimate concerns of many of you, I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor."

Question: Will Fox News now pick up McDaniel (for, we surmise, a discount fee) or will she be relegated to the likes of One America News Network?

•••

On McDaniel's Landing at NBC News

NBC News is taking serious hits for hiring former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel as a paid commentator last week. After years of carrying the water for Republican Party head Donald J. Trump, McDaniel conceded on Sunday’s Meet the Press that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election “fair and square,” The Bulwark reports. Chuck Todd, former moderator of Meet the Press asked on the Sunday morning show, “Who’s paying for her?” according to USA Today.

McDaniel was replaced in the RNC by Trump’s hand-picked chairman Michael Whatley and co-chair Lara Trump, wife of Eric Trump.

•••

Scroll Down … with the trackbar on the far right to read RJ Caster’s conservative commentary on President Biden’s State of the Union address, “SOTU Meets Low Expectations.” Scroll down further to read Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary from the right, “Beautiful Bloviation.”

Further down the page on this side, you can read about Nikki Haley’s anti-climactic withdrawal from the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

Join the conversation: Leave a comment on this page, if you lean right, or in the left-column page if you lean left. Or, email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate in the subject line whether you lean right or left – no matter whether you consider yourself “moderate” or pro-MAGA or pro-gressive.

_____

Menendez Won’t Run as Democrat

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) says he will not run for re-election this November as a Democrat, The New York Times reports. Menendez, indicted on federal charges as a central figure in an international bribery scheme, has until early June to decide whether he will run as an independent. Until then, Menendez can continue to raise money to pay for legal services for his wife, who is also charged in the scheme, and himself.

"I am hopeful that my exoneration will take place this summer and allow me to pursue my candidacy as an independent Democrat in the general election," he said. Democrats running for the nomination include Rep. Andy Kim and Tammy Murphy, wife of Gov. Philip Murphy (D).

•••

[NOTE to readers of Vortex Books & Comics newsletter: Welcome! Please come back often (we update weekdays), and comment on political issues and news of interest, whether you lean left or right. Scroll down to read how you can safely join our civil political discourse.]

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has no primary challengers in his bid for a fourth term this November. But there are three Republicans vying for the nomination in Tuesday’s Ohio primary, and a Democratic Party-aligned group, Duty and Country, is pulling for the most MAGA among them, according to The New York Times.

Duty and Country has put about $2.7 million into an Ohio ad campaign calling businessman Bernie Moreno “ultraconservative” and aligned with Donald J. Trump (see “Trump’s Latest Rally” in the center column) in the hopes the new Republican core will nominate him Tuesday, only to be set up for a loss against Brown in November. It has worked before.

Moreno also has the backing of Ohio’s junior senator, Republican J.D. Vance, although another of the three, Ohio Secretary of State Franklin LaRose, also is “aligned” with Trump. Ohio state Sen. Matt Dolan is considered a more “traditional” Republican, a moderate that could work with both sides of the aisle, as Brown often has done.

In addition to Ohio, primaries will be held in Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Kansas Tuesday.

•••

Help us promote The Hustings as a safe, civil, no-echo chamber news site where left and right can disagree politely. Voice your opinion in the COMMENT section in this column or the column on the right, appropriate for your political leanings. Or you can email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you consider yourself “red”/conservative, or “blue”/liberal, in the subject line so we post your comments in the appropriate column.

_____

IPO, meanwhile…

HOLD STEADY FED: The Federal Reserve will cut its interest rate, but not yet. Chairman Jerome Powell indicated there will be three cuts later this year. “Inflation is still too high,” Powell said Wednesday. “Ongoing progress on bringing it down is not assured, and the path forward is still uncertain.” For now, the Federal Open Market Committee “will keep the interest rate unchanged and continue to reduce our security holdings,” Powell said.

Terrorist Attack on Moscow -- Two to five gunmen attacked a concert hall outside Russia's capitol late Friday, with at least 40 dead and more than 100 injured, NPR reports. Fire has broken out in the hall with some attending a concert by the group Piknik trapped in the building. Kyiv is denying claims by some Russian officials of any complicity. "Ukraine certainly had nothing to do with the shooting in Crocus City Hall," an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement. "It make no sense whatsoever." Kyiv Post has photos and video here.

•••

Sacrificial Speaker? -- After the House passed the 1,012-page, $1.2-trillion omnibus spending bill, 286-134 Friday afternoon, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). At least he got as far as funding the federal government through September 30, though there is still no future aid for Ukraine's defense against Russia.

"This will be the fall of Mike Johnson for allowing this bill to happen and not fighting for and defending our southern border," MTG said Friday on Steve Bannon's War Room show (per CQ Roll Call).

In passage of the omnibus, 101 Republicans and all but 22 House Democrats voted for the bill, Roll Call reports, leaving the Senate scrambling to hold its vote before that part of the budget expires at midnight.

Majority minus one more: Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) announced he will resign from Congress on April 19, says Roll Call, leaving the GOP with just 217 House members, a one-seat margin over Democrats. The four-term congressman, who as chair of the Select Committee on China co-sponsored the bipartisan bill calling on ByteDance to sell or close down TikTok in the U.S., made his announcement on Rep. Ken Block's (R-CO) last day. While California and Ohio will hold special elections to replace their early House retirements later this year, and New York next month will hold a special election to replace ousted Republican Rep. George Santos (the GOP is expected to lose the seat), Wisconsin law leaves Gallagher's seat unfilled until the November 5 election.

•••

UPDATE -- Shareholders of a shell corporation have agreed to buy Donald J. Trump's Truth Social, The Guardian reports. Now it's up to Trump to work a deal to free $454 million to pay his fine in the New York civil fraud case, by Monday.

Trump Payday Friday? – Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp. will vote Friday on whether the shell company should acquire Donald J. Trump’s Truth Social and launch an initial public offering as early as next week and raise sufficient cash for the former president to pay his $454 million fine for his New York civil fraud case, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Though apparently inspired by Reddit’s IPO this week, the “backdoor listing,” a much different sort of public offering. It would bring in an estimated $3 billion for Trump, who would be required to hold on to his share of more than 50% for at least six months. The stock listing would be “DJT.” Trump could potentially make a “side deal” to loosen enough cash to pay his fine by Monday, and we’ll go out on a limb here and say that you can count on that.

Truth Social earned just $3 million in the first nine months of 2023, according to the report, and lost nearly $50 million. 

•••

Cease-fire Efforts – The U.S. is expected to introduce a resolution before the United Nations late Friday calling for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israeli-Hamas war, The New York Times reports, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to Tel Aviv to urge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from invading Rafah. Meanwhile, CIA Director William J. Burns met with mediators in Qatar in an endeavor to broker that elusive ceasefire.

•••

‘Round Midnight – Here’s what must happen to a $1.24 trillion spending package before midnight Friday if a partial government shutdown is to be avoided, according to The Washington Post: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) must try to suspend House rules requiring two-thirds vote to pass the omnibus package there and avoid blockage from the MAGA Freedom Caucus. If Johnson can pull that off early Friday, he’ll need “substantial” support from House Democrats. Then, the Senate must “hastily engineer” a full vote before midnight and schlep the bill to the White House, where President Biden will surely sign it. 

If Congress can’t meet the midnight deadline but can manage to pull themselves together before Monday, effects of a partial shutdown could be “minimal,” according to WaPo.

--TL

___________________________________________

THURSDAY 3/21/24

Plugging In – The Environmental Protection Agency called for 30% to 56% of new cars and light trucks to be battery-electric vehicles by model years 2030-32, in its final ruling on new emissions standards issued Wednesday. While this is by far the strictest clampdown on greenhouse gas emissions ever by the federal government, subject to a quick reversal if Donald J. Trump wins the November election, it is an easing of the Biden EPA’s initial proposal issued last April. 

That standard would have mandated about two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the U.S. be BEVs by 2032. This adjusted standard, which becomes law when it is published in the Federal Register allows automakers to tackle the “zero-emissions” mandate with a combination of BEVs, which they have coming in bigger numbers by the end of the decade anyway, and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which have become more popular as EV demand has leveled a bit. The ramp-up between model years 2027 and 2030 also is not as steep. Easing of the standard without giving in to Big Oil has the support of automakers and of the United Auto Workers, whose president, Shawn Fain, endorsed President Biden in January.

--TL

________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 3/20/24

Restrict Aid to Israel? – As Israeli troops prepare to invade Rafah in an effort to root out four Hamas battalions, some House Democrats is considering restricting military aid to Israel if it fails to protect Palestinian civilians in the offensive.

“We have existing restrictions and laws that say those to whom we give financial support must use them in accordance with international law,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), a close ally of President Biden, told NPR’s Steve Inskeep Wednesday on Morning Edition. 

Israeli military officials were on their way to the Pentagon Wednesday to meet with U.S. officials. Coons said that Israel has the right and responsibility to protect and defend its citizens against Hamas, which still has four battalions in Rafah, but “we have to balance that need with the obligation to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid going into Gaza.”

•••

DeLuxe Tuesday – Trump-endorsed businessman Bernie Moreno won Ohio’s Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate Tuesday, beating Frank LaRose and moderate Matt Dolan, who was endorsed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, after “some Democrat meddling” by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), per Semafor. Brown is himself a moderate who would rather run for re-election against the Maga-iest of GOP challengers. This is considered the biggest race for November 5 aside from Trump v. Biden.

President Biden won Tuesday’s five primary states with at least 83% of the vote and Donald J. Trump had at least 75% of the vote, according to The New York Times.

Arizona: Though out of the race, Nikki Haley grabbed 18.7%, her best showing Tuesday. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got 1.6% in the GOP presidential race, leaving Trump with 77.9%. 

Ohio: Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who has dropped out of the Democratic race for president and has since endorsed Biden, got 13% of the vote here (NYT).

Kansas: More than 10% of Democratic primary voters chose “none of the names.”

Meanwhile, in California: No candidate reached the 50% threshold for an overall win to take former Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s seat Tuesday, though Republican state Assemblyman Vince Fong notches the primary win. The race for second was too close to call Wednesday morning. Fong will face either Republican Tulane County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux or teacher and Democrat Marisa Wood (NYT) November 5.

•••

Texas Law Blocked Again – Some five hours after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed temporary application of Texas SB 4 while it makes its way through the judicial system, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth District blocked it, The Washington Post reports. SB 4 would give Texas officials the authority to deport immigrants caught crossing the border. The Mexican government has said it would not accept anyone sent back by Texas. Critics of SB 4 say it would encourage separation of families and spur racial profiling.

•••

I’ve Got an Omnibus Bill and I Want Funding Now – Lawmakers want the six-bill omnibus agreed upon by House and Senate leaders in both parties to come to the floor by Wednesday, but it is not likely to happen until Thursday, Punchbowl News. That means a partial government shutdown as Congress puts in some hours this weekend.

--TL

____________________________________________

TUESDAY 3/19/24

We Have a FY24 Budget – Almost. White House officials and the four congressional leaders reached a deal on Homeland Security funding Monday to finish off the budget for the current fiscal year. An omnibus bill to make its way through Congress and on to President Biden’s desk includes the remaining spending bills, for Defense, Labor-HHS, the Legislative Branch, Financial Services-General Government, and State Department-Foreign Operations, according to Punchbowl News. 

So the federal government will be funded right on up to September 30, when kick-the-can begins all over again. Except … CQ Roll Call notes that the voting process on these spending bills could go into the weekend, after their Friday deadline, and create a short shutdown before Biden can apply his John Hancock. 

•••

What’s That Golden Escalator Worth? – A court filling Monday by Donald J. Trump’s attorneys says the former president was unable to secure an appeal bond to cover his $454 million judgment in a civil fraud case, after “diligent efforts” to approach about 30 bond companies, The New York Times reports. As of Tuesday, Trump has six days to raise the cash before the New York attorney general could seize his New York properties and freeze his bank accounts. 

Trump will still have Mar-a-Lago. He assured the court during the civil trial he has the liquidity to pay the fine, but that statement now appears to be as questionable as the valuation of his New York properties over the years, which is what got him into this pickle in the first place. Perhaps a second production run of golden tennis shoes?

Trump did manage to post $91.6 million for E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case this month at “the eleventh hour,” with the money coming from a large insurance company, the NYT says.

‘Out of his control’… “He is really angry right now,” former Trump personal attorney/fixer Michael Cohen told CNN’s Kaitlyn Collins on The Source. “That’s what happens when Donald gets frustrated; he gets angry. When there’s a situation that is completely out of his control. And we do know that it is out of his control.”

While Trump appears to have the upper hand delaying his criminal cases, including Mar-a-Lagogate, the federal January 6thinsurrection case and the Fulton County election interference case, this civil case -- which could break up the former president’s real estate holdings -- arguably is his greatest fear.

Speaking of, uh, banks…Donald J. Trump is considering hiring his 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort, for a role in this year’s campaign – possibly in charge of fundraising, The Washington Post reports. During his administration, Trump pardoned Manafort for bank and tax fraud convictions, so at least he has some experience in this area. Manafort was also accused of hiding millions of dollars he made consulting for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians.

•••

Censuring Socials? – A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared to back the Biden administration’s argument that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals went too far in blocking the White House, FBI, CDC and other federal agencies from asking social media outlets from removing certain content -- including “erroneous information” about COVID-19, foreign interference into elections or such election information as where to find a polling place -- for violating the First Amendment, NPR’s Nina Totenberg reported on All Things Considered. 

“I’ve experienced government press people throughout the federal government who regularly call up the media and berate them,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, said. 

“Like Justice Kavanaugh, I’ve had some experience encouraging press to suppress their own speech,” said Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee. “’You just wrote a story that’s filled with factual errors. Here are the 10 reasons you shouldn’t do that again.’ This happens literally thousands of times per day in the federal government.”

A government official contacting social media companies even to encourage suppression amounts to unconstitutional pressure, Louisiana Solicitor Gen. Benjamin Aguinaga countered. 

“Just plain vanilla encouragement, or does it have to be significant encouragement?” Justice Amy Coney Barrett said in response to Aguinaga. “Because encouragement would sweep in an awful lot.”

Aguinaga had no clear response for this, Totenberg reported.

--TL

____________________________________________

MONDAY 3/18/24

Putin 'Wins' Again -- Vladimir Putin grabbed another six-year term for president of Russia with 87.3% of the vote, Politico reports, though not without protests urged by the late dissident leader Alexei Navalny. 

Long lines of Russians formed Sunday, the third and final day of voting, in such cities as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Tomsk and Novosibirsk, to vote against the dictator, in support of Navalny’s call for “Noon Against Putin” demonstrations, The Washington Post reports. 

Navalny died in prison last month. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, wrote in her late husband’s name on her ballot at the Russian embassy in Berlin, where she voted, according to the BBC. 

Putin’s campaign included promises of new homes and cars for Russians who voted for him (per NPR’s All Things Considered Weekend). As of late Sunday, 50% of the vote had been counted. Putin had three challengers, none of whom criticized him (which means they probably are still alive and not in jail).

•••

Trump’s Latest Rally – It was in Vandalia, Ohio, where Donald J. Trump, who on Super Tuesday clinched the GOP presidential nomination for a third time, repeated demonstrably scary language about what will happen if he does not “win” the November election.

“Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,” Trump (who again claimed he defeated Barrack Obama in 2016) said, per The Guardian,

Many news outlets note that Trump was referring to the domestic auto industry, which has several factories in Ohio and which the former president said he would protect with a 100% tariff on import vehicles, according to NPR. Domestic auto factories and their workers would suffer the “bloodbath,” according to this excuse. Both Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on NBC’s Meet the Press and ex-Vice President Mike Pence on CBS’ Face the Nation gave Trump that “gimme” Sunday.

Trump also said this, according to The Guardian’s report: “I don’t think you’re going to have another election in this country, if we don’t win this election … Certainly not an election that’s meaningful.”

Biden spokesman James Singer said, “He wants another January 6th, but the American people are going to give him another election defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge.”

In Ohio, Trump repeated his claim that foreign countries are “emptying” prisons and mental institutions into the U.S. and called some immigrants “animals.”

“I don’t know if you call them ‘people.’ They’re not ‘people’, in my opinion. But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left say that’s a terrible thing to say.”

Clearly, at his own rallies at least, Trump has been given permission to say such things.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Pence Won’t Back Trump

[NOTE to readers of Vortex Books & Comics newsletter: Welcome! Please come back often (we update weekdays), and comment on political issues and news of interest, whether you lean right or left. Scroll down to read how you can safely join our civil political discourse.]

Former Vice President Mike Pence does not back Donald J. Trump’s third campaign for the presidency. 

“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence told Martha McCallum on Fox News’ The Story last Friday. He said he will not vote for President Biden, either, but will keep his choice this November between himself and his secret ballot. 

“Look, I’m incredibly proud of the record of our administration. It was a conservative record that made America more prosperous, more secure and saw conservatives appointed to our court in a more peaceful world,” he said. 

Pence told McCallum his differences go beyond Trump’s belief that his vice president should not have confirmed the Electoral College vote for Biden on January 6th, 2021. Pence’s disagreements include Trump’s latest positions on the national debt, the “sanctity of human life” and getting tough on China (see HR 7521, the House bill to force ByteDance to sell TikTok).

When McCallum asked whether Pence, who ran for the GOP presidential nomination at the beginning of primary season, whether he might run as a third-party candidate, Pence replied; “I’m a Republican.”

•••

Help us promote The Hustings as a safe, civil, no-echo chamber news site where right and left can disagree politely. Voice your opinion in the COMMENT section in this column or the column on the left, appropriate for your political leanings. Or you can email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you consider yourself “red”/conservative, or “blue”/liberal, in the subject line so we post your comments in the appropriate column.

_____

More on SOTU

This week RJ Caster voices his opinion on President Biden’s State of the Union address, in the right column.

The scrollbars to the immediate right of each column will get you to the bottom of each of those columns, individually. The scrollbar on the far right of the page scrolls down to previous days’ posts. 

Use the far-right scrollbar (which in this case, has nothing to do with position on the political horseshoe) to read last week’s comments on Biden’s SOTU address. 

A thorough, detailed column on President Biden's State of the Union address, by left-column contributing pundit Ken Zino, may be found in The Gray Area.

Pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay’s “Beautiful Bloviation” is in the right column. Zino’s “Biden’s Call to Arms” is in the left column.

We welcome your comments on the State of the Union address or any other political news and issues we’ve covered recently (and some which we may not have covered). Email editors@thehustings.news and please a.) keep it civil and b.) use the email subject line to indicate whether you consider yourself “right” or “left” politically, so we can run your comments in the appropriate column.

_____

Trump Legal Scorecard

[CPI at 3.2% -- As some economists (and the Biden campaign) eagerly anticipate an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve sometime this year, the Consumer Price Index has ticked up to 3.2% in February, from an annual rate of 3.1% in January, the Labor Department reports. That’s the wrong direction from the Fed’s target 2% rate. The month-over-month increase was 0.4%, with shelter and gas accounting for 60% of the increase. Energy was up 2.3%, while food, and food at home, was unchanged.]

IDES OF MARCH 2024

Fulton County, Georgia – Atlanta Judge Scott McAfee ruled Friday morning that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can remain on the election interference case against Donald J. Trump, but only if her former romantic partner, Nathan Wade, withdraws from the case …

Mar-a-Lagogate – U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon appears to have handed prosecutors in the confidential documents case against Trump a win by ruling against the ex-president’s attorneys’ motion that the Espionage Act behind the indictments are “unconstitutionally vague.” However, Newsweek notes that Trump appointee Cannon instructed his attorneys in the ruling that they should bring up the “unconstitutionally vague” argument in “connection with the jury instruction briefing” …

Hush Money Case – New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg says his office is willing to delay Trump’s hush money case after receiving late evidence from the U.S. attorney’s office, to give defense attorneys sufficient time for review. The trial was scheduled to begin March 25, and may now be delayed by 30 days.

--TL

•••

The Schumer-Netanyahu Split – After Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called for new Israeli elections on π day Thursday in frustration over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intransigence on a ceasefire in Gaza, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the Senate floor to “remind” Schumer that Israel is not an American colony, calling his remarks “grotesque” and “unprecedented” (per Punchbowl News).

But just as Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition continues to consider Palestinians and their Hamas “leadership” in Gaza one and the same, so too do the staunchest U.S. supporters of Netanyahu refuse to distinguish between the Israeli government and the Jewish people. This despite the fact that even before the vicious, horrible Hamas attack October 7, Netanyahu was long-resistant to a two-state solution with Palestinians in Gaza.

Meanwhile ...

Gaza's health ministry has accused Israel's military of firing on Palestinians awaiting aid in Gaza, killing 20 and injuring 150, The Guardian reports. The Israeli military denies the reports.

Influencing our November election

In trying to save his own power, Netanyahu has helped to throw the November U.S. presidential election to Donald J. Trump, and he knows it. Biden has ceded substantial votes to “uncommitted” in the Michigan and Minnesota Democratic primaries as he tries to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza in vain. 

While Biden has known Netanyahu for a very long time, going back to his time in the Senate, Trump and Netanyahu had a closer relationship during the Trump administration – until Netanyahu congratulated Biden for his victory in 2020, which of course led Trump to criticize the Israeli prime minister for his “disloyalty.”

If Netanyahu continues to reject ceasefire in Gaza (it is necessary to note that Hamas has done very little to help, either) the Israeli prime minister might very well be able to make it up to Trump by congratulating him this November.

--Analysis by Todd Lassa

____________________________________________

THURSDAY π Day 2024

Schumer Calls for Israeli Elections -- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), wants Israel to hold new elections, saying its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has "lost his way" (per The Hill). "As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7," Schumer continued. "The world has changed -- radically -- since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past."

•••

VP to Abortion Clinic -- Vice President Kamala Harris visits a Twin Cities, Minnesota abortion clinic Thursday, Axios reports, a first-ever such appearance by a sitting veep according to the White House. 

•••

Meanwhile, in Ft. Pierce, Florida – Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon holds a hearing Thursday morning on two of the ex-president’s requests to dismiss his 40-count federal indictment in Mar-a-Lagogate. Donald J. Trump’s attorneys claim the section of the Espionage Act accusing him of mishandling classified documents and obstructing federal officials’ attempts to get them back to the National Archives Washington is “unconstitutionally vague as applied to President Trump,” The Washington Post reports. 

Meanwhile, in Fulton County, Georgia: Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee Wednesday dismissed three of 13 counts against Trump in the election interference case (per WaPo). Prosecutors may refile the charges, however.

•••

Schumer's Watch is Slow – The Senate may take its time in taking up the House bill passed Wednesday, 352-65, that would force ByteDance to sell its U.S. interest in TikTok, or face some sort of blockage or shutdown in the country. 

“The Senate will review the legislation when it comes over from the House,” CQ Roll Call quotes Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). 

This, despite obvious House urgency for the bill sponsored by Select China committee chair Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL). 

Not on Warner's watch: From its interview with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Semafor has a much different take on the upper-chamber's timing on the TikTok bill. "We're going into a 24-hour election cycle, where literally millions of Americans get a lot of their news from this site," said the chairman of the Senate Select committee. "And if that can be manipulated against American interests -- I don't care whether you're Democrat or Republican, that is not in America's interests."

The Trump factor: Politico reports of worry that billionaire Jeff Yass, who has a 15% stake in TikTok, has influenced Trump’s flip-flop on the issue, as he has since objected to removing the social media platform from the nation. Former Trump administration Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway has signed on with Club for Growth to counter the push to ban TikTok on national security concerns. 

Our take: Two things. A.) It’s a notable shift if the Senate, and not the House, takes up Trump’s cause. But after all, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is now a solid Trump backer. B.) If ByteDance is forced to sell TikTok to an American entity or face shutdown, wouldn’t Yass be in the catbird seat to buy up the 85% he doesn’t already own?

--TL

____________________________________________

Tick...Tick...Tick...

WEDNESDAY 3/13/24

Rrrrring -- The House passed HR 7521 Wednesday morning, 352-65, (per The Hill) that would force ByteDance to divest U.S. interest in TikTok within 165 days. That clock doesn't start ticking until the Senate passes the bill. President Biden, whose re-election campaign has used the social media platform to reach young voters, is in favor of the bill and presumably will sign it.

How to Stop a Clock – The House is expected to pass HR 7521 Wednesday, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would force China’s ByteDance to divest its U.S. interest in TikTok within 165 days over national security concerns, or face shut-down here. This, even though the House needs two-thirds majority to fast-track suspension of rules procedures that the Republican leadership plans to use, Punchbowl News reports, and even though the leader of the GOP, Donald J. Trump, has reversed his position calling for the social media phenomenon’s removal.

TikTok flip-flop: Much has been speculated about Trump’s reversal on TikTok. He proposed a ban in 2020, but more recently said that its shut-down here will give more power to Facebook, which a 2022 “documentary” blames for Trump’s 2020 re-election loss. One theory that sticks out more than most is that billionaire Jeff Yass, who has a “huge financial stake” in ByteDance according to Axios, has invited Trump to a retreat by Club for Growth, a conservative group that also opposes the ban. Yass has previously contributed $4.9 million to Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign.

Bonus social media gossip: Trump last summer asked The World’s Second-Richest Man Elon Musk whether he wanted to buy Truth Social, The Washington Post scoops Wednesday morning, citing two people “with knowledge” of the matter. Musk apparently demurred, but the conversation indicates an even closer relationship between the 91-times indicted ex-president and the owner of X than previously known.

•••

It’s … Trump v. Biden – In sports terms, the 2020 race would be Biden v. Trump, but however you put it, November’s presidential election is a rerun of the last. Ex-President Trump and President Biden both clinched their parties’ nominations Tuesday, winning primaries in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington. In addition, Donald J. Trump took the Hawaii Republican primary (Biden earlier won the state). 

Georgia on my mind: Pundits point to Georgia, the state where Trump begged for 11,780 extra votes in ’20. While Biden took 95.2% of the Democratic vote (Marianne Williamson, 3%, Rep. Dean Phillips, 1.8%) Trump took 84.2% of the Republican vote, with 13.2% going to Nikki Haley and 1.3% to Ron DeSantis. 

Democrats shouldn’t get too excited, though: Republican voter turnout in Georgia was more than twice that for the Democratic Party.

History: November will mark the seventh time in U.S. history that the two major party candidates will be the same as in the previous election. For those of you who are about to be contestants on Jeopardy! here are the previous six, according to Pew Research:

1952 and 1956: Dwight D. Eisenhower v. Adlai Stevenson.

1896 and 1900: William McKinley v. William Jennings Bryan.

1888 and 1892: Grover Cleveland v. Benjamin Harrison.

1836 and 1840: Martin Van Buren v. William Henry Harrison.

1824 and 1828: John Quincy Adams v. Andrew Jackson.

1796 and 1800: John Adams v. Thomas Jefferson.

•••

Not With Hur --  Perhaps it’s a sign of how well Robert K. Hur, special counsel on President Biden’s documents case, did his job that both Democrats and Republicans took shots at him in a congressional hearing Tuesday. Hur argued that he did not “exonerate” Biden in his report, and he defended his questioning of Biden’s memory, according to The Washington Post.

“I did not exonerate him. The word does not appear in the report, congresswoman,” he told Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).

Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) called him “part of the Praetorian Guard” preserving the Washington “swamp.”

Responding to a question by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) on the federal documents case against Donald J. Trump; “Sir, I’m not here to express any opinion with respect to a pending case against another defendant.”

You can read Hur's full report for the U.S. Department of Justice here.

--TL

____________________________________________

TUESDAY 3/12/24

Buck Out -- Rep. Ken Buck (D-CO) said last year he would not run for rr-election this November. On Tuesday, he told reporters he can't wait that long to leave.

"This place just keeps going down, and I don't want to spend my time here," Buck said (per The Hill). The 65-year-old congressman often breaks from his party on various issues, and has criticized Trumpian election denial. With his unexpected early departure, the GOP now has 218 members to 213 House Democrats.

•••

Tuesday’s Primaries – Georgia is the big one for both Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald J. Trump. There are also primaries in Mississippi, Washington and the Northern Mariana Islands, with Hawaii holding GOP caucuses, per U.S. News & World Report. The organization Democrats Abroad also hosts a primary.

•••

Biden Budget v. House GOP – The Biden administration proposes a $7.3 trillion budget for fiscal year 2025, up 4.7% from this year, but with tax raises on corporations and the wealthiest Americans to cut the deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade (per USA Today). The proposal would restore the child tax credit from the American Rescue Plan, launch a program for affordable, high-quality childcare available from birth to kindergarten and provide new mortgage relief for home buyers. 

The White House’s budget is a wish list that will get lots of attention by both the Biden campaign and the Trump campaign between now and November (as Congress likely extends this fiscal year’s budget past its September 30 end), as will an alternate proposal just passed by the GOP-led House Budget Committee, according to the Huffpost. That “budget blueprint” for 2025 would shrink the deficit by $14 trillion over the next decade while extending the Trump tax cuts, which expire next year. HuffPost says “vulnerable” congressional Republicans are balking at taking a full House vote on what would be the first such Republican alt-budget to hit the floor since 2014.

--TL

____________________________________________

MONDAY 3/11/24

Orban Explains All -- Fresh back in Budapest from his visit to Mar-a-Lago, Hungary's authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, explained how Donald J. Trump will end the war in Ukraine if he is returned to the White House.

"He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russian war," Orban told Hungary's M1 TV channel, according to the BBC. "That is why the war will end. ... If the Americans don't give money and weapons, along with the Europeans, then this war is over. And if the Americans don't give money, the Europeans alone are unable to finance this war. And then the war is over."

We have been warned.

•••

Sweden became NATO's 31st member nation Monday morning, NPR reports, after decades resisting joining the Western military alliance. Sweden and Finland applied for membership in May 2022. Finland joined last year, but Sweden had faced opposition from Turkey and Hungary.

•••

Trump Mocks Biden’s Stutter – After generally favorable reviews of his State of the Union address last Thursday for its display of the president’s energy if nothing else, Joe Biden’s stutter has become the subject of Donald J. Trump’s ridicule beginning with a rally in Georgia Sunday. Trump infamously mocked a New York Times reporter for his upper-body disability back in 2015, but this is his first such attack on Biden’s lifelong speech impediment. 

What stands out about this to John Hendrickson, himself a stutterer, writes in The Atlantic is, “the sound of Trump’s supporters laughing right along with him. This is a building block of Trumpism. The man at the top gives his followers to be the worst version of themselves.”

•••

Oscar Speech – Mystyslav Chernov, one of three filmmakers of 20 Days in Mariupol to win the Academy Award for Documentary Feature Film Sunday night said in his acceptance speech he wishes he could exchange his Oscar statue for “Russia never Invading Ukraine.” At last year’s Academy Award ceremony Navalny took home the Oscar for the same category. Its subject, Aleksei Navalny, who died under suspicious circumstances at a Russian prison last month, led the Oscar broadcast “death reel.”

Pope chimes in on Ukraine: Pope Francis "sparked anger" last weekend after he said Ukraine should have the "courage of the white flag" and negotiate the end of the war with Russia, CNN reports. On X, Business Ukraine magazine responded with the post that the Pope "might want to consider the famous words of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu on, "neutrality"; "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."

•••

ICYMI – After all the hand wringing and folderol about the current fiscal year budget, its can having been kicked by continuing resolutions several times since last October, the Senate passed a $460 billion bill, 75-22 last Friday to avert a partial government shutdown (per The New York Times). Congress now has to March 22 to pass the other half of the federal budget. On Monday, President Biden unveiled his federal budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, which begins October 1.

•••

Up on the Hill – Both the full House and the full Senate are in session Monday through Wednesday. The Senate only is in session Thursday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

SOTU Meets Low Expectations

By RJ Caster

To play on Michael Gerson’s turn of phrase President Biden seems to be assisted by the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” This plays into his favor so long as he is able to string together more than a half dozen polysyllabic words during a speech. As a result the X-verse (formerly Twitter-verse) was alive with a buzz from the “progressive but not that progressive coalition trying to carry President Biden through the convention and onto the general election.” One Democratic operative celebrated on X, “The danger they had in setting expectations so low for President Biden’s #SOTU is that he’s not only exceeding all expectations, he’s giving the best speech I’ve heard from him in 20 years.” I always joke that I set the bar low for myself, because then I can only succeed from there. That joke becomes a little more tragic when we’re using it to reference the leader of the free world… 

Truth be told, this was not a typical policy-laden State of The Union. There were head nods to policy advancements and policy goals. The Democratic Party of old tried to poke through with his tip of the hard-hat to America’s workers and unions; but that came about halfway into his speech. The majority of last week’s State of the Union wasn’t an update to Congress or Americans as a whole. This was President Biden’s convention speech, because there is a lingering worry in Biden-world that he may not get one in August. 

'My predecessor'
President Biden laid the groundwork for the general election rematch between himself and former-President Trump; referring to Trump over a dozen times as “my predecessor” without saying his name. The speech started out with Democracy being under assault, which is a top polling issue for core Democratic supporters. He then was sure to hit on abortion and the Dobbs decision, an issue the Democrats have successfully tied to the IVF ruling out of Alabama. After mocking the Supreme Court justices to their face over the Dobbs ruling (moments after decrying the assault on Democracy’s institutions, ironically), only then did President Biden pivot to the issue of jobs and the economy. 

President Biden worked down the checklist of issues that were important to Democrats, and in that order. But polling from Echelon Insights shows the huge disconnect between Biden’s staunch supporters, versus what is essentially everyone else -- including people who tepidly support Biden. Even CNN has found that people have come out of President Biden’s State of the Union addresses with less and less positive outlook year-over-year, with this year being the lowest positive rating yet. 

In the end President Biden was successful in making the people who already supported him breathe a sigh of relief that he didn’t embarrass himself, and them by extension. He gave his convention speech as though he was auditioning to give the convention in August. And speaking of conventions in Chicago… if the Israeli/Gaza situation doesn’t work towards a solution, the Democrats might be able to look forward to reliving 1968 if last night’s protests in the streets of DC are any indication.

Caster is CEO of Jacksonville, Florida-based Techne Media.

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news