FRI 11/12/21
•The White House has confirmed that President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a virtual summit Monday.
•The UN Climate Conference is scheduled to conclude today, although it could be extended if COP26 doesn’t produce a deal among participants (which do not include China and Russia) to end fossil fuel and coal use by a date certain (WaPo).
•Was January 6 a ‘dress rehearsal’? Is ex-President Trump planning a coup for 2024? Read the issues by scrolling down to the next item, and join the conversation by emailing your comments to editors@thehustings.news.
Trump Wins Delay on 1/6 Documents – Donald J. Trump’s biggest success as a businessman, beside his 15 seasons as host of The Apprentice was perhaps his ability to file lawsuits and delay those for which he was being sued. That lawsuit success streak continued Thursday when a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the National Archives from turning over call logs, draft speeches and other documents related to the January 6 Capitol insurrection, to the House select committee investigating the riot (NPR’s Morning Edition).
The court has set a date of November 30 to hear arguments in former President Trump’s lawsuit to block their release, under the guise of “executive privilege.”
Note: This turned into the Washington image of a suspense novel yesterday, as the 1/6 committee seeking the documents were waiting out a Saturday deadline for the National Archives to turn them over. Most pundits say that while the case is likely to keep the documents out of the committee’s hands until the end of this year, it could extend into 2022, with the Supreme Court possibly being called upon to make the final rule. We’d say that a delay to next year, when primaries for the midterms begin, seems inevitable.
But don’t take any extra meaning beyond this: “The purpose of the administrative injunction is to protect the court’s jurisdiction to address [Trump’s] claims of executive privilege and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits,” the judges said in its brief, per The Hill.
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Putting the ‘Bi’ in ‘Bipartisan’ – Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was one of 19 Senate Republicans who voted for President Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill – the BIF – way back in September, and now he’s defending the 13 Republicans who helped push it over the top in the House of Representatives’ 228-206 vote one week ago. In a Kentucky radio show interview McConnell called the BIF “good for the country,” Newsweek reports, even after House Republicans also in-favor have received death threats, apparently from those who don’t like to see the party hand Biden any legislative victories.
To the MAGA crowd, complete gridlock is good.
McConnell’s comity only goes so far. He has no plans to attend Monday’s Oval Office signing ceremony. “I’ve got other things I’ve got to do,” he said. Presumably, McConnell might have found the time for a Trump signing ceremony had any of the ex-president’s Infrastructure Weeks produced anything.
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Florida Men – Speaking of the de facto leader of the GOP, Donald J. Trump is complaining to guests and members of Mar-a-Lago that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hasn’t joined the club of 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls in saying he won’t run for president if the former president chooses to run again for a second term, according to scoopage from Politico. Trump also suggested DeSantis shouldn’t underestimate his 2022 Democratic challenger for Florida governor, Charlie Crist, the former independent, and former Republican before that.
[No mention by Trump of “Little Marco” Rubio’s prospects for re-election to the U.S. Senate in Florida next year, where Democratic Rep. Val Demings outraised the incumbent in the third quarter, $8.3 million to $6 million.]
Meanwhile, in the House, Politico reports that Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s, R-CA, expected ascension to House Speaker after next November’s midterms will be tougher for having to deal with his caucus’ conservatives and “wild cards.”
Note: Bottom line is that if Trump’s support is indeed crumbling among Republican senators, he still has the House. Question is whether that support will hold as Republican Senators attempt to move on.
This Just In: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, a moderate, announced Friday morning she will run for re-election. She faces Trump’s primary challenger, Kelly Tshibaka, the former commissioner for the state’s Department of Administration. Murkowski, who has served in the Senate since 2002, when her father appointed her to finish his term, was one of seven Republicans to vote to convict Trump in the trial of his second impeachment, earlier this year.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods