…meanwhile…

(President Biden pushes an aid package for Israel and Ukraine in an address to the nation, 8 p.m. Thursday, as House Republicans continue their struggle to elect a new speaker. Details below.)

THURSDAY 10/19/23

SPEAKER UPDATE II -- The plan to extend the powers of the temporary House speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) is on ice following a heated GOP meeting Thursday (per The Washington Post). Rep. Jim Jordan (R-CA) now says he will attempt a third try, though timing remains uncertain.

SPEAKER UPDATE -- The full House will not take up a third ballot Thursday on Rep. Jim Jordan's bid to become speaker, but he is not giving up, NPR reports. The Ohio Republican is expected to push the vote off until January, indicating that House Republicans will move to extend interim Speaker Patrick McHenry's (R-NC) tenure and responsibilities.

•••

Powell Pleads Guilty in Plea Deal -- Trump-aligned attorney Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts in the Georgia presidential election interference case Thursday, The Hill reports. Powell, perhaps the most fervid supporter of the ex-president's 'Big Lie' entered her plea before Fulton County Superior Court Scott McAfee. Her trial was scheduled to begin next week.

•••

Prime Time Biden Thursday – President Biden will speak to the nation 8 p.m. Eastern Thursday to discuss the war between Israel and Hamas, and to call on Congress for an aid package for both Israel and Ukraine, NPR reports. Biden has just returned from Tel Aviv, where he negotiated for Israel to allow Egypt to deliver limited humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, (per AP).

“Not many people thought I could get this done. And not many people want to be associated with failure,” he said upon his return (per NPR’s Morning Edition).

Protests over a massive explosion at Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital spread across the Middle East as Biden arrived for his visit. In Tel Aviv, Biden said evidence presented by Israel on the hospital blast pointed to “the other side,” possibly a rocket misfire.

In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said that Israel “will not thwart” deliveries of food, water and medicine from Egypt as long as it is delivered to civilians in the south of Gaza and not Hamas militants. There was no mention of the fuel Gaza needs for hospital generators, AP reports.

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 10/18/23

UPDATE: Jordan Loses Support on Second Vote -- Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan netted a loss of one vote on his second shot at House speaker, with 22 fellow Republicans voting for other candidates. Jordan fell 20 votes short in the first round, and this regression does not bode well for him in an expected third vote. Of 433 House votes cast Wednesday, all 212 Democrats voted for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), 199 Republicans voted for Jordan, seven for Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and five for former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Former Speaker John Boehner and former Republican Rep. Candice Miller, from Michigan, also earned votes (per video coverage by The Washington Post).

Jordan Down – The second House floor ballot for Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) quixotic attempt to become speaker was scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday and while he whittled down GOP opposition from 55 in the party’s private poll last week to 20 on Tuesday, he apparently has reached an abyss. Jordan had cancelled a second ballot scheduled for late Tuesday after the first round, when he clinched 200 of the 217 votes he needs to grab the gavel, and Punchbowl News reports it has spoken to “dozens of members and aides” and “it doesn’t look to us that the Ohio Republican has any path to victory.”

At least 20 House Republicans doubt Jordan can reach a compromise with House Democrats to pass the 12 spending bills necessary to avoid a government shutdown by November 17 – never mind his close ties to Donald J. Trump and his January 6, 2021, vote against Electoral College certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.

Stopgap relief: There is growing interest from moderate House Republicans to extend the tenure of interim Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-NC), NPR’s Morning Edition reports, with the help of the 212 House Democrats.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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TUESDAY 10/17/23

Another Round Coming Up for Jordan -- Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) fell 17 votes short of the 217 he needed to win the House speaker's gavel Tuesday afternoon, and says he will go for another round (The Hill). And why not? It took Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) 15 rounds to chip away at his Republican opposition to win the gavel early this year. Fifty-five Republicans voted against Jordan in a closed, private GOP straw poll last week, so with 20 voting against him on the House floor, support is going in the right direction for the Judiciary Committee chairman. All 212 House Democrats voted for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in Tuesday's first round.

•••

Biden to Israel, Jordan – President Biden travels to Israel Wednesday “to demonstrate his steadfast support for Israel in the face of Hamas’ brutal terrorist attack and to consult on next steps,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. Biden will meet with Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and call on Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

Then Biden will travel to Amman, Jordan to meet with King Abdullah and with Egyptian President Sisi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and “reiterate that Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination and discuss the humanitarian needs of civilians in Gaza,” according to Jean-Pierre.

•••

Jordan’s Shot at Speaker – Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) bid to become speaker goes to the full floor Tuesday, where the Democrats will vote for their minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Jordan won a secret House GOP ballot last week, though 55 Republicans voted against him; NPR’s Morning Edition reports that some Republican opponents to his ascendance have since flipped. Still, he can afford to lose no more than four Republicans on the way to the 217 votes necessary.

House GOP insiders have suggested to Punchbowl News that Jordan is 20 votes short of that 217. We are in for a multi-ballot House floor vote. Meanwhile, The Hill reports Jordan is gaining votes as Republican members become more concerned about the leadership vacuum in the House. We are in for a Speaker McCarthy election redux.

--TL

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MONDAY 10/16/23

Hezbollah Claims to Target Northern Israel – Israel is evacuating citizens within 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of its northern border with Lebanon as the Lebanese Shia political party and militant group Hezbollah has targeted the area (The Guardian). Hamas says it has fired missiles at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, as the Israeli Defense Force intensifies strikes against Gaza (from Reuters reports).

•••

Democracy Wins Poland – The left-center Civic Coalition led by Donald Tusk leads Poland’s parliamentary elections held Sunday, according to multiple sources quoting exit polls. The Law and Justice party have a plurality of votes at 36%, though its coalition partner lacks the votes to rival the left-center coaltion (NPR’s Morning Edition.) Poland’s election turnout reached 73%, with some voters standing in line as late as 3 a.m. Monday.

“Nobody can cheat us anymore,” Tusk, a former prime minister of Poland and former head of the European Council said Sunday evening. “We won back democracy. We won freedom and we have won back our beloved Poland.”

Acknowledging the right-wing coalition’s loss, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Law and Justice party said; “Whether we are in power or in the opposition, we will continue implementing our project and will not allow Poland to be betrayed.” (Per The Washington Post.)

Since Kaczynski and Law and Justice took power in 2015, they have been moving Poland toward the populist model of Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orban, taking control of the nation’s media and the judiciary while attacking LGBTQ+ rights. In 2020, Poland outlawed abortion.

The political schism in Poland looks familiar, with large, liberal cities and conservative, Catholic rural areas.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____

GOP Rep Threatened for No Vote on Jordan

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) said Wednesday she received “credible death threats” after voting against Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) in his bid for House speaker, Forbes reports. Miller-Meeks, who reported the threats to authorities, was not among the 20 House Republicans who voted against Jordan in the first round Tuesday, but she was one of 22 who voted against Jordan as he lost some GOP support in Wednesday’s floor vote.

Jordan needed 217 votes. He got 200 in the first round Tuesday and 199 in the second round Wednesday. After Tuesday’s vote, Fox News’ Sean Hannity published a list of the 20 House Republicans who voted against Jordan. Those Republicans received a “barrage” of calls and text messages, many of them threatening, according to The Guardian.

Up on the Hill: Meanwhile, mainstream Republicans “are launching a revolution,” over the House speaker struggle, The Hillreports. The 22 Republican members who voted against Jordan Wednesday include “swing districts and safe ones … “new members and longtime veterans.”

The mainstream Republicans are looking for a House speaker “not just capable of moving bills that we would prefer to move,” but also “have the skill sets to work with the opposing party, particularly in the Senate,” said Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

____________________________________________

Lesko to Retire from House

Trump ally Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) announced she will not run for a fourth full term, citing congressional gridlock and her desire to spend more time with her family, CQ Roll Call reports.

"Right now, Washington, D.C. is broken; it's hard to get anything done," Lesko wrote on X-Twitter. She won a special election in 2018 and was appointed to the House Judiciary Committee during the Trump administration. Lesko, 64, currently serves on the Energy & Commerce Committee.

•••

Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news.

_____

Spoiler Alert

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is dropping his bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination in exchange for an independent shot.

"I am here to declare myself an independent candidate for president of the United States," he announced at a campaign rally near Philadelphia, per Politico. "We declare independence from the cynical elites who betray our hope and who amplify our division. And finally, we declare independence from the two political parties."

Democrats -- except for Kennedy's siblings, who released a statement that "Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgement" -- have avoided comment. But Republicans are, because RFK Jr., an environmental lawyer turned anti-vaxxer would more likely take votes from ex-President Trump than from President Biden next year.

•••

Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you consider yourself “liberal” or “left” or “conservative” or “right” in the subject line.

_____

…meanwhile…

(The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% in September, the Labor Department reported Thursday, maintaining an annual rate of 3.7%. Details below.)

FRIDAY 10/13/23

Scalise Takes Himself Out – Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan, John Boehner and Kevin McCarthy were all stripped of their House speaker’s gavel by hardcore Republican forces. Now Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) has removed himself from the race to replace McCarthy, a day after he got just 113 votes (per NPR) in a private GOP House vote.

The next speaker will have to get at least 217 House votes to grab the gavel.

“Our conference still has to come together and it’s not there,” Scalise said after a private Republican meeting in which he announced his withdrawl, per Punchbowl News. “There are still some people that have their own agendas. And I was very clear – we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs. This country is counting on us to come back together. This House of Representatives needs a speaker and we need to open up the House again. But clearly, not everybody is there. And there’s still schisms that have to get resolved.”

Scalise told reporters he will stay on as majority leader. “I have a job I love,” he said. And apparently no one is trying to remove him from it.

But what about: Support for Israel following Hamas’ surprise invasion and attack. And the federal budget, which expired September 30 but was extended by continuing resolution, to November 17. None of this gets done without a House speaker.

Who’s left?: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is still in the running, we think, and in case that doesn’t work out for the GOP, there’s always the wacky scenario about how McCarthy gathers a sufficient number of increasingly panicked Democrats to vote for him with whatever number of Republicans still count themselves as moderates.

--TL

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THURSDAY 10/12/23

New Charges for Menendez -- The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office issued additional charges to Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), his wife, Nadine and New Jersey businessman Wael Hawa Thursday. Prosecutors allege the three used Menendez's position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to benefit the government of Egypt, while failing to register as foreign agents (Politico).

•••

Inflation Rate is 3.7% -- The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% in September, the Labor Department reported Thursday, for an annual inflation rate of 3.7%. That's still above the Federal Reserve's 2% target, of course, so do not expect interest rate relief soon. The CPI index for shelter accounted for more than half the increase, while the energy index was up 1.5%, food was up 0.2% and food away from home was up, for the third-straight month, by 0.3%. Used cars and trucks, and apparel were down for the month to partially offset the increases.

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WEDNESDAY 10/11/23

UPDATE -- House Republicans have nominated Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise over Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan. But Scalise now needs 218 votes on the House floor, or support from all but three Republicans or a combination of Republicans and Democrats.

Speaker Madness -- House Republicans scheduled 10 a.m. Wednesday to meet and choose the next speaker. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) is floating a proposal to raise the threshold to bring a candidate to the floor for a roll call vote, Punchbowl News reports. It would benefit Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who is in favor and not Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), who is not. Meanwhile, Kevin McCarthy appears to be on the sidelines with the hope that neither top candidate will gather enough Republican votes, leaving Democrats to decide the former speaker is their least-worst choice.

--TL

Israel and Ukraine

TUESDAY 10/10/23

Zelenskyy Equates Hamas Attacks with Russia – Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared solidarity with Israel Tuesday, equating Hamas’ attacks with Russia’s invasion of his own country, in posts on X-Twitter (per The Hill), saying “everyone who values life must stand in solidarity.”

“We in Ukraine have a special feeling about what has happened. Thousands of rockets in the Israeli sky… People killed just on the streets… Civilian cars shot through… Detainees being humiliated…Our position is crystal clear: anyone who causes terror and death anywhere on the planet must be held accountable. Today’s terrorist attack on Israel was well-planned, and the entire world knows which sponsors of terrorism could have endorsed and enabled its organization.”

Iran denies: Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei denied his country’s involvement in the Hamas attacks, according to NPR. Khamenei added, “We kiss the hands of those who planned the attack on the Zionist regime.”

Casualties: The Israeli military said it found “hundreds and hundreds” of bodies of Hamas militants who died fighting inside the country, as an indication of the size of the attack, NPR reports. There are no longer infiltrators coming over the Gaza border. More than 900 Israelis have been killed by Hamas attacks and rocket fire, Israel says. Palestinian officials say at least 680 people were killed in Gaza and by Israeli strikes.

--TL

____________________________________________

War and Terrorism

MONDAY 10/9/23

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu immediately declared war after the Iranian-backed militant group Hamas launched terrorist attacks against his country, Saturday. Over the weekend, Hamas had pounded Israel with more than 4,000 missiles, according to CNN. By Monday morning Eastern time, Hamas had killed more than 1,000 Israelis, BBC reports, including 260 youth at a dance festival. Hamas had taken “dozens” of hostages, kidnapping men, women and children from the southern portion of the country into Gaza (NPR). Israel has shut off electricity, fuel and food to Gaza. About 500 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict (BBC).

The U.S. Navy is sending a carrier strike group to the region, not as a symbolic move, but to show it’s “quite important” to keep Hamas from opening a second front, Jon Finer, White House deputy advisor to the White House told Morning Edition.

Senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and former Vice President Dick Cheney’s national security advisor, John Hannah, told The New York Times’ Peter Baker it seems “highly probable to me” that Saturday’s attack had origins in Iran and Hezbollah’s home base of Lebanon with the goal of “derailing the momentum toward peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” a key Biden administration diplomatic initiative to reach a deal “akin” to the Abraham Accords.

President Biden quickly expressed U.S. support for Israel, but that did not stop accusations from the right that the recent White House hostage deal with Iran had prompted the attacks.

“Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden administration,” Trump said in a formal statement.

No American taxpayer dollars were paid to Iran in the hostage deal, Baker writes. “The Biden administration signed off on the release of $6 billion of Iranian oil revenue frozen in South Korea and decreed that it be kept in a bank in Qatar available only for humanitarian proposes,” Baker reports, adding that officials said last Saturday that none of the money has been spent.

This war comes 50 years after an attack by an Arab coalition launched the Yom Kippur War and led to the end of Prime Minister Golda Meir’s leadership. Now questions are being raised over why Israel’s elite intelligence force were caught off-guard by the attacks, and what effect it will have on the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has been a hardliner on the issue of a Palestinian homeland.

The war between Israel and Hamas also comes after circulation of a video from an Iranian subway station of another young woman apparently being attacked by authorities for wearing “improper” clothing, and days after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

McCarthy is Open to Act II

(House Republicans were to take a secret vote for speaker Tuesday, with a full chamber vote on Wednesday. Reps. Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, above, all are in the running.)

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said in an interview on Hugh Hewitt's syndicated radio show he is willing to resume his House speakership if enough Republicans who voted to boot him last week vote to reinstate him this week, The Washington Post reports. McCarthy repeated his interest in the job again, at a press conference largely centered on the Israel-Hamas war.

The whole damn process to choose a new speaker is expected to commence Tuesday. Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Steve Scalise (R-LA) are lead candidates.

•••

Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you consider yourself “conservative” or “right” or “liberal” or “left” in the subject line.

_____

Biden to Expand Wall

(Laphonza Butler became the newest member of the U.S. Senate when California Gov. Gavin Newsom named her to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Scroll down for more.)

The Biden administration will expand by about 17 miles former President Trump’s wall on the Mexican border and begin to deport thousands of illegal Venezuelan immigrants, heretofore considered political and economic refugees, the White House announced Thursday (per The New York Times). Fueled by the likes of Fox News and other right-wing media outlets, President Biden has been under pressure to staunch an ever-growing surge of migrants at the border.

Hard-line Republicans tied a border crackdown to funding for Ukraine’s war effort when the House passed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government to November 15. Passage of the CR ultimately led to Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) removal as speaker.

While Biden had denounced Trump’s border wall initiative during the 2020 presidential campaign, his administration announced it was waiving more than 20 federal laws and regulations to make way for construction of physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexican border in South Texas.

The White House claims the administration’s hands are tied in the border wall issue, because Congress appropriated funds for its expansion in 2019.

“The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate, to redirect that money,” Biden said in a press conference Thursday. “They didn’t. They wouldn’t.”Asked whether he thought such walls work to stem illegal immigration, Biden replied, “no.”

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Newsom Names Feinstein's Replacement

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has chosen EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler (above) to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) just two days after Feinstein died, Politico reports. The governor had promised to appoint a Black woman to fill the seat, after he appointed Alex Padilla to complete the Senate term of Kamala Harris when she became vice president in 2021, but the pledge has become a conundrum for Newsom and the Democratic Party.

The replacement was not supposed to run for re-election next November, but according to the Politico item, Butler is to take the seat with no pre-conditions. Vice President Harris was expected to swear Butler in on Wednesday.

Just one of the three Democratic candidates who announced she would run for the seat after Feinstein earlier this year said this would be her last term, Rep. Barbara Lee, is a Black woman. The other two Democratic candidates for the party’s nomination, Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Katie Porter, are leading in a September poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, according to the poll’s co-sponsor, the Los Angeles Times.

Schiff has 20% and Porter has 17%, to Lee’s 7%.

If Butler does indeed enter the ’24 race, Newsom’s choice will get him in even more hot water with the Democratic Party as he prepares a 2028 run for the White House.

On the Republican side, businessman James Bradley has 7% to attorney Eric Earley’s 5%. Retired Los Angeles Dodger and San Diego Padre Steve Garvey also is considering a run for the Senate.

•••

Should Laphonza Butler run for Senate in 2024? Email us at editors@thehustings.news.

_____

…meanwhile…

Surprising Employment Gains – The U.S. economy added 336,000 jobs in September, the Labor Department reports, which is about twice the level economic analysts had predicted. The unemployment level remained unchanged at 3.8%. Gains were reported in the usual places; leisure and hospitality, government, health care, professional, scientific and technical services, and social assistance.

-- Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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Conservative and Conservativer – House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) (above), co-founder of the Freedom Caucus, are lead candidates to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker of the House, expected to come up for vote next Wednesday.

Scalise is ostensibly slightly the more moderate of the two, a well-liked, good-humored lawmaker who was severely wounded at a congressional softball game a few years ago. He is currently undergoing chemotherapy for blood cancer. Though the number-two Republican under McCarthy, Scalise is not the former speaker’s choice.

A rift between the two goes back to 2018, when Scalise expressed interest in stepping over McCarthy to replace Paul Ryan (R-WI) as speaker before that year’s midterms turned the House over to the Democrats and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Semafor scoops that McCarthy aides have been calling lawmakers on behalf of Jim Jordan, who in his role as chairman of the Judiciary Committee is in charge of the impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

“It’s unclear if McCarthy himself has sanctioned their work,” Semafor’s Kadia Goba reports, describing the former speaker’s aides as “consulting and providing guidance” to Jordan.

Meanwhile, many Republicans are pushing to remove the “motion to vacate” rule that did McCarthy in.

“That needs to go,” said Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), one of more than 70 members of the Main Street Caucus. He calls it a “chokehold on this body,” (per Semafor). Lawler’s district voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

Ukraine v. Mexican border: Jordan says he opposes any additional financial aid to Ukraine in its defense against Russia, while the Pentagon says that aid will soon run out, NPR reports. President Biden soon will address the nation to present his case for the need for an additional $24 billion the White House says is crucial to Ukraine’s continuing offensive against Russian forces.

Just asking: Is Jordan’s opposition to continuing aid to Ukraine simply good old-fashioned conservatism, or does it have anything to do with former President Trump’s admiration for, and connections to, dictator Vladimir Putin?

It must be noted that a majority of House and Senate Republicans favor continued support for Ukraine. On this particular matter, Jordan's ascendance to speaker would further the chamber's minority rule.

Meanwhile, in Spain: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Spain Thursday for a summit of European leaders at Alhamnbra Palace to plead for continued support of Ukraine’s defense.

--TL

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Speaker Blown Out

TUESDAY 10/3/23

The New York Times called it a “far-right revolt.” The Washington Post referred to the removal of Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) Tuesday afternoon as a “vote led by hard-right Republicans,” and The Wall Street Journal called the Rep. Matt Gaetz-led (R-FL) group “party dissidents.”

CQ Roll Call simply called them a “Republican bloc,” but along with Democrats who had no trust in McCarthy nor interest in saving him – as they might have – they made up the 216 votes necessary to make him the first House speaker, ever, to be removed from office, with 210 congress members voting “nay.” The Capitol Hill newsletter helpfully added that “(t)he only previous vote to oust a speaker using a ‘motion to vacate’ came in 1910, when Republican Speaker Joseph G. Cannon of Illinois easily survived.”

What now? That was a question shouted out by one of the House members after the roll call vote revealed McCarthy’s stunning six-vote loss, NPR’s All Things Considered reported. For now, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) will preside over the election of a new speaker, and House Democrats have about 44 days to enjoy the GOP’s disarray, before the continuing resolution extending the fiscal 2023 budget expires, again. Perhaps it's time for McCarthy to pull a John Boehner?

--TL

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...meanwhile...

TUESDAY 10/2/23

Gaetz Goes After McCarthy – MAGA Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida introduced a resolution late Monday evening to strip Speaker Kevin McCarthy of his gavel. A vote to depose McCarthy is likely within 48 hours, according to The Washington Post. Gaetz has criticized McCarthy for working with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling earlier this year and for reaching a deal to avert a government shutdown late last Saturday. He says he and his House cohorts want less government spending and a return to the budget process.

Asked who he would like to see replace McCarthy, Gaetz pointed to “our number two, Steve Scalise,” Republican from Louisiana.

In an earlier presser before his motion to remove, however, Gaetz reminded the press that one does not have to be a member of Congress to serve as speaker of the House. Voila! Donald J. Trump returns to Capitol Hill.

Trump Towering Inferno … Except … a couple of hours earlier than that, ex-President Trump turned up at the first day of New York Attorney Gen. Letitia James’ civil trial accusing Trump, the Trump Organization and Eric and Don Jr. of a yearslong pattern of financial fraud.

Trump, who did not have to appear in court for this civil case turned it into a campaign stop, CNN notes, saying he showed up “because I wanted to watch the witch hunt myself.” He called Justice Arthur Engoron “deranged” and accused him of being a Democratic operative. Engoron last week found Trump, his organization and his sons liable in the case last week but commenced with the trial to establish damages.

AG James wants to see a $250 million fine and a five-year ban on Trump & org and sons from doing business in New York State. Licenses have already been revoked for such flagship properties as Trump Tower and Trump International Hotel.

--TL

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Shutdown Averted

Monday 10/2/23

Donald J. Trump and his MAGA-band minority of House Republicans were defeated hours before the fiscal year’s pressing deadline Saturday night when the Senate cleared a House bill keeping the lights on for another 46 days. The House bill did not have the $6 billion for Ukraine included in the Senate bill.

“Democrats and Republicans have come to an agreement the government will remain open,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced before the 88-9 vote. “We will have avoided a shutdown.”

Prior to the vote, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said his caucus would avoid cloture to let the vote go through.

“We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted,” President Biden said in a statement Saturday night, CQ Roll Call reports. “I fully expect the Speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment.”

And the Republican minority’s provision for strict border control provisions also went missing, first in the House’s 335-91 vote for the bill that went to the Senate.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said he “made very clear that I wouldn’t support any short-term funding bill that didn’t include serious border measurements to help put an end to the Biden Border crisis,” per The Hill.

The other eight senators who voted against the bill Saturday were Republicans Marsha Blacburn (TN), Mike Braun (IN), Ted Cruz (TX), Bill Hagerty (TN), Mike Lee (UT), Roger Marshall (KS), Rand Paul (KY), Eric Scmitt (MO) and J.D. Vance (OH).

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Trump Endorses Jordan

Quelle Surprise – Former President Trump called Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, a “star” on Truth Social, Semafor reports, and endorsed him to be the next speaker. This gives Jordan a distinct edge over Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), who was the number-two House GOP leader before Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was removed as speaker last Tuesday.

Jordan, a key ally of the former president, told CNN that Trump remains the GOP’s leader, will be its presidential nominee next year, and expects he will become the 47^th president.

Meanwhile: Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee and at 39, youngest of the three, is a third, dark horse candidate for House speaker after Jordan and Scalise but has received very scant media attention.

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The Anti-McCarthy Eight

Minority Rule -- The eight House Republicans who joined all the House Democrats to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker are ...

•Matt Gaetz, Florida

•Andy Biggs, Arizona

•Ken Buck, Colorado

•Tim Burchett, Tennessee

•Eli Crane, Arizona

•Bob Good, Virginia

•Nancy Mace, South Carolina

•Matt Rosendale, Montana

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MAGA-right Republicans in the House were – still are – ready to shut down the federal government at any cost because that’s what Donald J. Trump wants. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) figured that out in time to pass a bipartisan bill extending the current fiscal year’s spending to mid-November despite threat of a motion to vacate if he dared work with Democrats. There was no way for McCarthy to pass a spending bill -- even a short-term one -- without this threat.

Those MAGA House Republicans are led by Rep. Max Gaetz (R-FL), who said McCarthy’s speakership is now on “tenuous ground” (per The New York Times). A motion to vacate means a single House member may challenge McCarthy’s position. It’s a threat that has been held over his head since it took 15 rounds for Republicans to elect him speaker earlier this year.

After Saturday night’s vote, McCarthy said (per Punchbowl News); “If someone wants to bring a motion against me, bring it. There has to be an adult in the room.”

Before the Saturday vote, one pundit on MSNBC’s The 11^th Hour Friday said that Trump wants the government to shut down because he (mistakenly) thinks it will halt Justice Department cases against him for alleged involvement in the January 6^th Capitol insurrection and for classified documents found in his possession after leaving office.

That’s too obvious. Forever the pro-chaos politician, Trump wants to shut down the federal government as an extension of his Big Lie, the January 6^th attack and his ongoing assault on American democracy.

•••

Agree? Disagree? Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news.

_____

Menendez Won’t Go

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) won’t let bribery charges drive him from office. Federal agents allegedly have found $480,000 in cash stuffed in envelops and hidden in clothing, plus two 1-kilogram gold bars and nine 1-ounce gold bars in a June 20 search of his home.

“The allegations leveled against me are just that: Allegations,” he said Monday in a Capitol Hill press conference, The Hill reports. Menendez claims he keeps cash like that at home for “emergencies,” and said he expect to be found not guilty of the allegations and will remain New Jersey’s senior U.S. senator through it all.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who is Menendez’s first colleague to call for him to step down, retorted: “We have an extra flashlight for any home emergencies.”

Fetterman’s 2022 Senate campaign received $5,000 in donations from Menendez, but his spokesperson said he would return the money via envelops stuffed with $100 bills, Forbes reports.

•••

Scroll down with the far-right trackbar to read about a bill introduced in the Pennsylvania state senate to ban book bans in schools and public libraries.

Also, read about how Washington Post columnist David Ignatius shook D.C. by callin on President Biden to step down after one term.

Comment in this column or email editors@thehustings.news and identify yourself as leaning left or right in the subject line.

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…meanwhile…

WEDNESDAY 9/25/23

Trump Organization Committed Fraud -- New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that Donald J. Trump and his Trump Organization committed fraud by inflating his net worth in business transactions, and has ordered cancellation of Trump business certificates, making the burden of proof much easier for the state's attorney general in a $250 million civil lawsuit (The Washington Post). The ruling also imposes sanctions on attorneys representing Trump, two of his adult children, two other company executives and the business for repeating failed arguments the judge called "borderline frivolous."

•••

Is Trump Winning the Shutdown Showdown?

Republican hard-liners almost certainly will shut down the federal government after midnight Friday because Donald J. Trump called for it on his Truth Social media network last week. Can Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) coalesce a sufficient number of moderate Republicans and Democrats to pass a continuing resolution kicking the can down to December before he loses his gavel to a motion to vacate?

That mouthful seems unlikely, with all the inter-party in-fighting going on. New York magazine’s Intelligencer chalks this up to Trump’s taste for chaos – political and otherwise – and his identifying with those five or 10 hardliners who remain upset by McCarthy’s debt-limit deal with President Biden earlier this year. But really, the impetus for the coming shutdown is far greater than Trump’s taste for chaos or “empathy” with his loyal hardliners.

To justify his call for a shutdown, Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press a week ago; “We have $35 trillion in debt. We have to save our country.”

Trump was rounding up from $32.99 trillion, $7 trillion of which was added during his administration (according to these numbers, reported by Newsweek the Biden administration has contributed about $6- to $6.1 trillion of that, so far).

This is the latest chapter in Trump’s ongoing coup attempt. Biden will blame the shutdown and the short-term chaos it causes when certain checks do not get mailed. But the longer the government remains closed the deeper the economic chaos goes into the 2024 presidential campaign, and as we all know, the current president ultimately owns the state of the U.S. economy.

According to Intelligencer the “vast majority” of House Republicans want deep budget cuts, “draconian” immigration rules and to cut off assistance to Ukraine, all “decisively unacceptable” to most Democratic senators and some Republican senators. Most Republican senators and at least a significant number of Republicans in the House also support continuing aid to Ukraine.

“I think all of you know I’m not a fan of government shutdowns,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters last week (per USA Today). "I’ve seen a few of them over the years, they never have produced a policy change and they’ve always been a loser for Republicans, politically,” he told reporters.

But McConnell has never seen a government shutdown led by a four-times indicted former president.

•••

Up on the Hill -- Monday is Yom Kippur. Both the House and Senate are scheduled to be in session Tuesday through Friday, but you can bet on them putting in long hours on Saturday.

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

They Debate, You Decide

Seven single-digit polling GOP candidates converge on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, for the second presidential debate 9 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday on Fox Business Network, while frontrunner Donald J. Trump meets with striking United Auto Workers at a non-union facility in Michigan. On the debate stage are Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, business entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Vice President Mike Pence. UAW leaders have told their rank-and-file not to attend Trump's rally, a day after Joe Biden became the first sitting president to walk with members on a Michigan picket line.

If you watch the GOP debate, we want to hear from you. Email us at editors@thehustings.news.

•••

Alleged future Democratic presidential candidate and California Gov. Gavin Newsom will debate “anti-woke” Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Fox News’ show Hannity November 30. The cable network announced the event, which will be broadcast live, not from Florida nor from California, but from apparently neutral ground in Georgia, under the New York Post-style headline; “Govs are Off.”

Moderator Sean Hannity said; “I’m looking forward to providing viewers with an informative debate about the everyday issues and governing philosophies that impact the lives of every American.”

•••

Scroll down with the far-right trackbar to read about a Moms for Liberty plan to ban books in Seminole County, Florida, schools was foiled.

Also, in this column, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) says he won’t run for a second term in 2024.

Comment in this column or email editors@thehustings.news and identify yourself as leaning right or left in the subject line.

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Bill Proposes Banning Book Bans in PA

A bill to prevent public schools and state-funded libraries in Pennsylvania from banning books was introduced by state Sen. Amanda Cappelletti (D-Montgomery

County) last Monday. Her legislation would require every library in the state seeking state funding, including public school libraries, to write a statement that no books or other media will be banned “because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval,”LNP/Lancaster Online reports.

Cappelletti called it unconstitutional to ban any book from a library.

“If you do not want a child or your child to read a certain book, they don’t have to read it,” she said. “But that should not stop my child from being able to access that book in a library.”

Read "How Efforts to Ban 'Bad Books' Reached a Record High in 2022," by Stacker for The Hustings; June 12, 2023 here: https://thehustings.news/same-fears-new-tactics-how-efforts-to-ban-bad-books-reached-a-record-high-in-2022/

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•Should President Biden step aside from the 2024 race? Influential Washington Post columnist David Ignatius thinks so.

•Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has launched a legal campaign to remove Donald J. Trump from as many states’ ballots for the 2024 presidential election as possible. It began earlier this month in Colorado, where a “handful” of voters are petitioners and Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold is respondent.

Scroll down the page using the trackbar on the far right to read more.

Do you have something to say about recent political news or issues covered here? Did we miss something you would like to discuss?

Click on the headline in this column, or in the “What’s Right” column if you lean right and enter your thoughts in the Commentsection, or email editors@thehustings.news and use the subject line to tell us whether you lean left or right, so we can include your (civil) comments in the appropriate column.

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…meanwhile…

(Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits the White House, Congress and Pentagon Thursday. On Wednesday, he called on the UN to remove Russia from its Security Council. --UN Photo/Mark Garten)

THURSDAY 9/21/23

Zelenskyy Fights for Aid – After telling the United Nations Wednesday it is not supporting Ukraine sufficiently in its fight against Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Washington Thursday amid growing criticism from a minority of Republicans on the hard-right. Republican leaders are demanding strict accountability of U.S. aid to Ukraine, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has moved to block an additional $24 billion proposed by the White House in the Senate’s spending bill.

Zelenskyy made his case on NPR’s Morning Edition, telling host Steve Inskeep; “Yes, of course we have the same values. Freedom and democracy. That is why we are fighting against Russia.”

The Ukrainian president reiterated that there cannot be any sort of peace plan that does not include Russia’s complete withdrawal. Zelenskyy told Inskeep that Ukraine is “absolutely ready” for elections scheduled for 2024, but he cannot be definite they will take place, depending on conditions of the war.

NOTE: Despite expectations there would be an encounter between the two, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov avoided Zelenskyy's speech before the UN Security Council Wednesday (see Wednesday's ...meanwhile...).

•••

Succession – Rupert Murdoch, 92, has announced he is retiring as chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp. effective mid-November, Axios reports. His son, Lachlan, becomes chairman of both companies, and he becomes chairman emeritus.

•••

Tuberville Can’t Block Brown – After Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) separated the president’s nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from about 300 military officers, the Senate approved Air Force Gen. Charles Brown Jr. for the Pentagon’s top position, by 83-11 vote (The Washington Post). Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has been blocking assignments over his opposition to a military provision that helps troops travel to a state different from their post for abortion services.

Brown, who becomes the second Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after Gen. Colin Powell replaces the retiring chairman, Gen. Mark Milley, who has served in the post since 2019.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 9/20/23

Lavrov to Face Zelenskyy – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Wednesday in a special United Nations Security Council session. Russian state media reported Lavrov’s attendance, The Washington Post reports, “setting up a potentially dramatic encounter” 19 months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At the General Assembly: Speaking before the UN’s General Assembly Tuesday, Zelenskyy reiterated Ukraine’s position that it will not accept any peace plan that does not include Russia’s full withdrawal – including from the Crimean region it invaded in 2014.

•••

House Judiciary to Grill Garland – Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland appears before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday to take questions about the Justice Department’s investigations of Hunter Biden and former President Trump. Hard-right House Republicans have criticized the department for what they say is favorable treatment of the current president’s son compared with the department’s treatment of the former president, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

In Garland’s prepared statement to the Judiciary Committee, he says; "As the president himself has said, and I reaffirm here today: I am not the president's lawyer. I will also add that I am not Congress' prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people. Our job is to follow the facts and the law, wherever they lead. And that is what we do."

--TL

Biden Urges Unity for Ukraine

TUESDAY 9/19/23

UPDATE -- President Biden called for world unity in aiding Ukraine's fight for sovereignty in his Tuesday morning address to the United Nations General Assembly. He also took the opportunity to urge all nations to intensify efforts to reverse climate change.

"The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people, because we know our future is bound up with yours," Biden said. "And no nation can meet the challenges of today alone."

Citing record-breaking heatwaves, wildfires, drought and flooding in various regions around the globe, the president said "these snapshots tell an urgent story of what awaits us if we fail to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and begin to climate-proof our world."

With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy looking on from the audience, Biden said; "Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence. But I ask you this: If we abandon the core principles of the UN Charter to appease an aggressor, can any member state feel confident that we are protected? If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?

"The answer is 'no.' We must stand up to this naked aggression today to deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow."

Biden to UN – President Biden tells the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday the U.S. is reversing the Trump administration’s isolationist policies with “more American engagement, more American investment, more American presence” across “all continents, all corners of the world,” White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan says (per NPR’s Morning Edition). This includes enduring support for Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s invasion, of course. The White House has asked Congress for another $24 billion in aid to Ukraine in the face of MAGA-Republican pushback in the federal budget showdown playing out on Capitol Hill.

Zelenskyy attends: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also speaks before the General Assembly in New York, where he will try to win over countries – many in Africa and Latin America -- that have refused to condemn Russia’s invasion, The Globe and Mail reports. Zelenskyy and Biden are scheduled to meet at the White House after their UN appearances in New York. Later, Zelenskyy flies off to Ottawa to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and rally support against the Russian invasion, sources told The Globe and Mail.

C5+1: Biden also is scheduled to meet with leaders of the C5 nations Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, in an effort to release them from the influence of the superpowers that surround them; Russia and China.

Absent: Russia and China, as well as France and the United Kingdom are not attending this year’s UN General Assembly. Prior to leaving Kyiv, Zelenskyy questioned why Russia still has a place in the UN.

•••

Trudeau; ‘Credible Intel’ of Killing by India – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons Monday that Canada has “credible intelligence” that the government of India was behind the killing of a Sikh leader in British Columbia (The Globe and Mail). The leader, Hardeep Sign Nijov, was designated a “terrorist” by New Delhi. Trudeau’s charges have deepened a growing crisis between the two countries, with India expelling a Canadian diplomat after Canada ordered an Indian diplomat to leave Ottawa.

•••

CR is DOA – Senate Democrats have “no interest” in House Republicans’ 30-day Continuing Resolution introduced Sunday night, that would keep the lights on in the federal government through the end of October, Roll Call Daily reports. But even a $279-billion, three-bill fiscal 2024 spending package put forth by the Senate’s Democratic majority may be quashed by some Republicans’ procedural objections. The Senate is considering suspending the germaneness rule in order to cut off objections by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and others. Their procedural objections would require 67 votes.

Upshot: With such disarray in the Senate as well as Republican infighting in the House, a government shutdown after the end of the fiscal year September 30 is likely.

Pushing the speaker?: Aides and allies to Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are convinced that conservative House Republicans – you know, the more conservative, MAGA and MAGA-esque ones – are trying to provoke a shutdown in order to push him out as speaker, Punchbowl News reports. Evan after the House Freedom Caucus forced McCarthy to cut $100 billion in spending bills from a deal he made with President Biden earlier this year, Republican leaders remain unable to pass 2024 appropriations bills on the floor because of the continued GOP infighting.

•••

Today is … Talk Like a Pirate Day. Yet we’ve refrained from doing so, until now. Arrrrrrg, matey.

--TL

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...meanwhile...

MONDAY 9/18/23

U.S., Iran Swap Prisoners -- Five American citizens held in Iran are to fly to the United States, with a brief stop in Qatar, in exchange for five Iranians held by the U.S., plus the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian oil funds held in South Korea. The agreement reached overnight is described by The Washington Post as a "high-stakes" prisoner swap indicating a thaw in relations between Iran and the U.S.

•••

House GOP Whips Up Deal to Avert Shutdown – The Main Street Caucus and the House Freedom Caucus, both consisting of House Republicans, reached a short-term spending deal they plan to bring to the floor as a continuing resolution (CR), this week, The Hill reported late Sunday night, saying it would have “slim odds” of passing the Senate and of being signed by the White House. In fact, the GOP’s majority may be too slim to get it off the House floor.

The federal government's fiscal year ends September 30.

Discretionary spending cuts: The deal would keep Department of Defense, and Veterans Affairs spending at the current level, but would cut all discretionary spending by 8%.

And, a border crackdown: The deal also would include the House GOP’s H.R. 2 Border Crackdown Bill, minus its provision to require E-verify.

It leaves out… disaster relief funds and a request for supplemental funding for Ukraine that the White House requested in August to be added to the CR.

•••

Preventing WWIII – People in Ukraine are dying every day to prevent World War III, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CBS News’ 60 Minutes. When Scott Pelley asked about recent drone strikes on the Kremlin, Zelenskyy said that foreign drones supplied by NATO nations were not used but added this warning to Russia and Vladimir Putin; “your sky is not as well protected as you think.”

Zelenskyy, President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu are scheduled to speak to the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York.

•••

Trump’s Art of the Peace – Former President Trump declined to give details on how he would end the war in Ukraine Sunday on NBC News’ Meet the Press, telling moderator Kristen Welker, “if I tell you exactly, I lose all my bargaining chips.”

Welker later asked Trump for his reaction to a recent Putin statement that, “We surely hear that Mr. Trump says he will resolve all the burning issues within several days, including the Ukrainian crisis. We cannot help but feel happy about it.”

“Well, I like that he said that,” Trump told Welker. “Because that means what I’m saying is right. I would get him into a room. I’d get Zelenskyy into a room. Then I’d bring them together. And I’d have a deal worked out. It would have been a lot easier before it started.”

Up on the Hill – Both the House of Representatives and the Senate are in session Monday through Thursday. The Senate only is in session Friday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Moms for Liberty Attempts FL Book Ban

Moms for Liberty tried to get books banned from Seminole County, Florida public school libraries by reading passages the conservative group describes as “porn,” the Orlando Sentinel reports. The group’s Seminole chapter urged members to read “potty” words and “the worst of the worst” with hope the school board would cut them off.

In May, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new state law that says if a school board prevents parents from reading books they have objected to, those books must be removed from school library shelves.

“Just make sure that you get shut down, that’s the goal,” Seminole chapter chairwoman Jessica Tillman posted on Instagram last Monday.

The Seminole school board allowed the Moms for Liberty readings to proceed uninterrupted, according to the Sentinel.

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•Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who was the GOP’s presidential candidate in 2012 and since at least 2015 has been among the most vocal critics in his party, of Donald J. Trump, has announced he will not run for a second Senate term. Romney’s current term ends in 2025, and he is taking advantage of his new lame-duck status to tell all in a biography, Romney: The Reckoning, written by The Atlantic staff writer McKay Coppins and scheduled to be published October 24.

•More details are emerging from pro-MAGA Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) ejection from a Denver theater during a road-show performance of Beetlejuice, and it’s not pretty. Read about how she and a male companion were bounced for taking photos, vaping and talking loudly in this column.

Scroll down the page using the trackbar on the far right to read more.

What’s your opinion of the budget deal being offered by two Republican House caucuses? What do you think about Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s appearance on 60 Minutes or Donald J. Trump’s on Meet the Press?

Click on the headline in this column, or in the “What’s Left” column if you lean left and enter your thoughts in the Commentsection, or email editors@thehustings.news and use the subject line to tell us whether you lean right or left, so we can include your (civil) comments in the appropriate column.

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‘Don’t Run Again, Joe’

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius shook Washington, D.C., to the core this week with a column calling on President Biden to step down after one term. Ignatius led off with a long list of Joe Biden’s accomplishments, including governing “from the center out.”

“But I don’t think Biden and Vice President Harris should run for reelection,” Ignatius continues. “It’s painful to say that, given my admiration for much of what they have accomplished. But if he and Harris campaign together in 2024, I think Biden risks undoing his greatest achievement – which was stopping Trump.”

You can read all of Ignatius’ column here (subscription required): https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/12/biden-trump-election-step-aside/

Counterpoint: Biden has announced several times over he is running for re-election. Even Ignatius’ column will not make him reconsider.

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Comments on the Left

As always, we welcome your comments on news and issues discussed in these pages. We also welcome comments on political issues we’ve missed that you think are worthy of civil discussion.

You also are welcome to write about your thoughts or memories of the September 11 attacks.

If you lean left, please click on the headline above to go to the Comments section of this page. Or email editors@thehustings.news and tell us whether you consider yourself “liberal” or “conservative” in the subject line.

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