More good news (maybe) for the Biden campaign; the economy added a healthy 353,000 jobs in January, with gains in professional and business services, health care, retail trade and social assistance. GOP talking points: there were fewer jobs in mining, quarrying and gas and oil extraction. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7%. [SOURCE: U.S. Department of Labor, FRIDAY 2/2/24.]
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THURSDAY 2/1/24
EU Passes Aid to Ukraine – The European Union got Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to go along with a 50-billion euro fund (about $54 billion) for Ukraine Thursday, 27-0, at their summit in Brussels, The New York Times reports. As leader for the EU’s standout authoritarian country, Orban is considered a close ally of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, so his necessary concession for a unanimous vote is significant.
“All 27 leaders agreed on an additional 50-billion euro support package for Ukraine within the European Union budget,” European Council President Charles Michel said on social media. “This is steadfast, long-term, predictable funding. EU is taking leadership & responsibility in support for Ukraine; we know what is at stake.”
Note: This maybe takes a slight bit of pressure off U.S. Congress, where the House Freedom Caucus is trying to block a border bill tied to roughly $61 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine (as well as aid for Israel and Taiwan) in order to keep the border issue in Donald J. Trump’s corner.
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House Passes $78b Tax Bill – With opposition from the Freedom Caucus, some progressive Democrats and a few moderate New York Republicans, the House passed a $78 billion tax bill Wednesday that boosts the child tax credit through 2025 and reinstates three business deductions cut from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, The Hill reports. GOP leadership suspended rules that would have required a three-quarters vote, but that proved unnecessary as it passed 357-70.
Bipartisan, indeed.
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Zucked Up – It took Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) to get Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook and Instagram) to stand up and turn to parents of children who were victims of sexual abuse and exploitation on social media, in the Senate Judiciary Committee audience, and apologize.
“I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through,” Zuckerberg said (per USA Today).
Like the House tax bill (above), this Senate hearing proved refreshingly bipartisan in committee members’ criticism of social media effects on children.
Social media apps have “given predators powerful new tools to exploit Children,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said.
“You have blood on your hands,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Zuckerberg was grilled along with X’s (Twitter’s) Linda Yaccarino, TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew, Snap’s Evan Spiegel and Discord’s Jason Citron, according to NPR’s All Things Considered.
Five federal bills have been introduced to counter social media exploitation. Prior to the hearing, only Snap announced support for one of the bills, the Kids Online Safety Act.
Another bipartisan bill, The Platform Accountability and Transparency Act, is co-sponsored by Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE).
“Is there any of you willing to say now that you support this bill?” Coons asked the five social media CEOs (per ATC). “Mr. Chairman, let the record reflect a yawning silence from the leaders of the social media platforms.”
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WEDNESDAY 1/31/24
Mayorkas Faces Impeachment – The House Homeland Security Committee voted 18-15 along party lines early Wednesday to send two articles of impeachment against Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing him of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and breach of public trust, The Washington Post reports.
But the Democrats… repeatedly countered during the committee hearing that Republicans have no basis to impeach Mayorkas, President Biden’s Homeland Security secretary. They say that in two previous hearings Republican congressmembers have struggled to show evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors. Mayorkas will surely be acquitted by the Senate if the impeachment gets that far.
Meanwhile: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is pumping the brakes on the Senate’s border security bill in order to keep the issue for ex-President Trump’s campaign.
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Trump’s Next Penalty – Judge Arthur Engoran is expected to issue his decision as early as Wednesday on the size and scale of the penalty in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud case against the Trump Organization, according to Newsweek. This would come hot on the heels of a jury’s $83.3 million award ordering Donald J. Trump – the ex-president, not the organization – to pay E. Jean Carroll for defamation. In the New York civil fraud case, James wants the Trump Organization to lose its license to do business in New York.
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TUESDAY 1/30/24
Senate GOP v. House GOP – Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is betting that if the Senate’s yet-to-be-revealed border bill passes with heavy Republican support House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will be “pressed” to put it up for a vote, according to The Hill. Johnson last week called the bill “dead on arrival,” shortly after McConnell revealed to Punchbowl News his caucus was getting pressure from Donald J. Trump directly to sink the bill and assure it remains his campaign’s major talking point going into the November presidential elections.
The bill also is tied to aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Johnson knows, however, that if he does advance the bill to the floor he could face potential removal from the speakership by the House Freedom Caucus.
Conservative Republicans have called on President Biden to shut down the border by executive action, as Trump did during his administration. Over the last weekend, The Hill notes, Biden pledged to do just that if given the power by the bipartisan Senate legislation in question.
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Bowling for Biden? — Super Bowl LVIII could be “rigged” to boost the profile of pop music singer/songwriter Taylor Swift ahead of her plans to endorse President Biden’s re-election, former GOP presidential candidate and Trump cabinet member-in-waiting Vivek Ramaswamy posited Monday, according to the New York Daily News. Ramaswamy floated a conspiracy theory that “some unseen hand” wants the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the San Francisco 49ers because Swift is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
On Vivek’s X feed: “I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month. And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall.”
If any of the above words stand out to you, they should be “boost the profile” of Swift, who has boosted the profile of the Chiefs, Kelce and the entire NFL.
The Daily News notes that Swift endorsed Biden in 2020 and quoted an article in The New York Times that White House aides are “apparently brainstorming” how to get the immensely popular superstar to endorse him again ahead of the November election.
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MONDAY 1/29/24
Mayorkas Faces Impeachment – House Republicans released two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas early Monday, NPR’s Morning Edition reports, as Senate negotiators were set to possibly release text of a bipartisan border bill as early as this week, according to Semafor. This comes as ex-President Trump continues to command Republicans to reject any compromise bill so he could make it the centerpiece of his 2024 campaign against President Biden.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said the bill is “dead on arrival” if “certain rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true.” Last Thursday, Punchbowl News scooped Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s genuflection for Trump, saying Republicans in the chamber are likely to reject the bill because the “Politics have changed.” … “We don’t want to do anything to undermine him.”
Although McConnell split with Trump after January 6, 2021, the minority leader does want the GOP to win enough Senate race toss-ups in November to return him to the majority leader’s position.
Johnson under fire: But there are sufficient numbers of Senate Republicans who want to see a bipartisan bill connected with resumed funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and the House needs all Democrats and a few Republicans to pass it, if they can get the speaker to bring it to the floor, a move that almost certainly would trigger an attempt by MAGA congress members to take back Johnson’s gavel. Passing the bill would not only potentially hurt Trump and Republican congressional candidates this fall; it would force Fox News and other right-wing media to change their attack strategy.
Nothing-to-lose lame-duck Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) told reporters late last week that Trump “doesn’t want to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said, “The only purpose for taking this up is giving Democrats political cover to say ‘Gosh, we want to secure the border.’”
Trump sez: “I noticed a lot of senators, a lot of the senators are trying to say – respectfully (! -ed) they’re blaming it on me. That’s OK. Please blame it on me. Please. Because they were getting ready to pass a very bad bill. I’d rather have no bill than a bad bill.”
Border bill negotiator Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), responded with, “I’m looking forward to President Trump getting the opportunity to be able to read it, like everybody else is.” (Quotes per Bloomberg News.)
Which circles back to Semafor’s reporting the bill could be released as early as this week. Is there any chance Trump and Fox News et. al. will say anything nice about it?
ICYMI: Speaking of the $61-billion Ukraine aid package being held up over the border bill, the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the UK’s Channel 4 News earlier in January about Trump’s claims he would negotiate an end to the war with Russia in one day; “Donald Trump, I invite you to Kyiv. If you can stop the war during 24 hours, I think it will be enough to come.”
It’s not the economy, stupid: All this comes as President Biden’s re-election campaign hopes to ramp up its cheerleading for the surging economy – Real GDP up 4.9% in the fourth quarter, inflation easing and an historically low unemployment, with no apparent recession in sight – as he campaigned in South Carolina over the weekend. Instead, Biden has the grim task of responding to a drone strike apparently by Iranian-backed militias on a U.S. military facility in northeast Jordan, near the Syrian border. Three U.S. soldiers were killed and dozens more were injured.
“We had a tough day last night in the Middle East,” Biden said (AP). “We lost three brave souls in an attack on one of our bases. … and we will respond.”
After this attack, the Israel-Hamas war is almost certain to become a larger, regional conflict.
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Haley’s Future – Nikki Haley Sunday on NBC News’ Meet the Press on how long she may continue challenging Donald J. Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, said “As long as I keep growing per state, I am in this race. I have every intention of going to Super Tuesday, through Super Tuesday. We’re going to keep going and see where this gets us. That’s what we know we’re going to do right now. I take it one state at a time. I don’t think too far ahead.”
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa