Omar Removed from House Foreign Affairs

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee along party lines, 218-211, Thursday afternoon for comments she made mostly on social media sites three years ago, Roll Call reports. As a freshman in 2019, Omar appeared in social media and in public repeating an antisemitic trope equating influence in U.S. politics with money from “wealthy Jewish Americans.”

Democrats, in control of the House moved on after Omar apologized, but Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in anticipation of becoming House speaker this year, promised in 2021 to remove her if his party reclaimed the majority this year, calling her past remarks “appalling, wrong and disqualifying.”

Before the vote, at his weekly press conference Thursday morning, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-CA) said the Democratic caucus condemned Omar’s comments three years ago and added that the vote would be about “political revenge.” 

That’s “revenge” for the House’s Democratic majority in the 117th Congress having removed Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) from their committee assignments two years ago over apparent endorsement of violence against Democratic lawmakers. 

Prior to her removal, Omar said; “My leadership and voice will not be diminished if I’m not on this committee for one term. My voice will get louder and stronger, and my leadership will be celebrated around the world as it has been.”

Omar Removed from House Foreign Affairs

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee along party lines, 218-211, Thursday afternoon for comments she made mostly on social media sites three years ago, Roll Call reports. As a freshman in 2019, Omar appeared in social media and in public repeating an antisemitic trope equating influence in U.S. politics with money from “wealthy Jewish Americans.”

Democrats, in control of the House moved on after Omar apologized, but Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in anticipation of becoming House speaker this year, promised in 2021 to remove her if his party reclaimed the majority this year, calling her past remarks “appalling, wrong and disqualifying.”

Before the vote, at his weekly press conference Thursday morning, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-CA) said the Democratic caucus condemned Omar’s comments three years ago and added that the vote would be about “political revenge.” 

That’s “revenge” for the House’s Democratic majority in the 117th Congress having removed Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) from their committee assignments two years ago over apparent endorsement of violence against Democratic lawmakers. 

Prior to her removal, Omar said; “My leadership and voice will not be diminished if I’m not on this committee for one term. My voice will get louder and stronger, and my leadership will be celebrated around the world as it has been.”

Go to the Comment section below or in the right column (if that’s how you lean) or email editors@thehustings.news with “for the left column” or “for the right column” in the subject line.

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SOTU is Tuesday

MONDAY 2/6/23

(Strong new jobs numbers certainly will be a key subject in President Biden's State of the Union address Tuesday. Scroll down to read about last month's job growth numbers and 3.4% unemployment rate.)

President Biden gives his State of the Union address Tuesday, February 7 at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Look for the president to tout last week’s surprise jobs numbers, and the big spending programs Republicans want to diminish in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. 

Biden has been touring East Coast cities in recent weeks to promote bridge and tunnel rehab projects that will be funded by last year’s bipartisan infrastructure bill.

China’s Spy Balloon … certainly will come up. U.S. military shot it down at 2:39 Eastern time off the coast of South Carolina, immediately drawing the ire of China despite Beijing describing it as a “civilian” balloon that went off course. Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), already considered a potential presidential candidate for 2024 had criticized the White House for failing to drop the balloon from the sky the moment it entered U.S. airspace. 

The Politics: Biden is expected to announce his run for a second term soon. Much of Tuesday’s SOTU will be about his agenda, and his campaign arguments.

White House Links: The Biden administration offers this handy link on how to watch the annual State of the Union address Tuesday: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/blog/2023/02/04/how-to-watch-president-bidens-2023-state-of-the-union-address/

--TL

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...meanwhile...

SAT-SUN 2/4-5/23

New Early DNC Primary Schedule -- The Democratic National Committee has knocked the Iowa caucus out of the pole position for its 2024 early primary schedule, The Hill reports. DNC committee members moved South Carolina, the state that saved Joe Biden’s candidacy in 2020, to the lead for next year, at its winter meeting in Philadelphia. 

The early schedule, per Ballotpedia:

February 3, 2024: South Carolina

February 6: New Hampshire and Nevada

February 13: Georgia

February 27: Michigan

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...meanwhile...

FRIDAY 2/3/23

Huge Job Gains in January – The U.S. economy added 517,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department reports Friday, and the unemployment rate slid slightly to 3.4%, lowest since 1969. Despite a wave of high-profile layoffs at tech companies, there was widespread job growth across many industries, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics says, though it highlights the usual suspects; Leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and health care. There were also job gains in government, the BLS notes, reflecting workers returning from a strike.

•••

Spy Balloon Over Montana – Beijing is looking into reports of a Chinese spy balloon spotted over U.S. airspace, including three nuclear silo fields at Malstrom Air Force Base in Montana, NPR reports. Spokesperson Mao Ning said she has no information on whether U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit China next week, as planned. Blinken would be the highest-ranking Biden administration official to visit the country. 

The U.S. has not shot down the Chinese surveillance balloon, which is flying well above commercial airspace, for fears of the potential danger of falling debris.

The report comes a day after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signed an agreement in Manila to open four additional U.S. military bases in The Philippines in support of America’s allies in the region. 

This Just In: Beijing has “expressed regret” for the Chinese surveillance balloon spotted flying over the U.S. (The New York Times) and says it’s for “civilian research” and drifted off-course. Meanwhile: Blinken has postponed his trip to China in light of the balloon, The Washington Post reports.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Up for Discussion

Will President Biden use Friday’s surprisingly strong jobs report as an argument against House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to raise the federal debt ceiling without budget cuts? You can bet on it. 

Remember, from the get-go Biden has argued for his big spending programs as a sort of reversal of trickle-down Reaganomics, which itself was a reversal of FDR’s New Deal, a philosophy dear not as much to the Red Hats as to mainstream, traditional conservative Republicans. 

Also Up for Discussion: After the House of Representatives removed Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the Foreign Relations Committee Thursday (see left column), Speaker Kevin McCarthy was asked whether he thought a Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt, who was trying to break into the speaker’s office (then Rep. Nancy Pelosi) on January 6th, was doing his job. McCarthy responded; “I think he was doing his job.” Context is that ex-President Trump posted a lengthy screed on his site, Truth Social, strongly disagreeing with McCarthy and accusing police of “murdering” the pro-MAGA rioter (per MSNBC’s Morning Joe). 

Scroll down for …

•The House Judiciary Committee, under its new chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has begun investigating Biden’s “border crisis.” (Right column.)

•New hope for revival of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act? (Left column.)

•Nikki Haley, former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor is planning to announce a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. (Right column.)

•Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wants to be running mate for the only Republican who has announced his candidacy, so far, Donald J. Trump.

Go to the Comment section below or in the left column (if that’s how you lean) or email editors@thehustings.news with “for the right column” or “for the left column” in the subject line.

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Hope for George Floyd Policing Bill?

Vice President Kamala Harris and Rowvaughn Wells, mother of Tyre Nichols, called for passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act Wednesday at Nichols’ funeral in Memphis, and now Black congressional leaders are talking about “jumpstarting” negotiations over the bill on Capitol Hill. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus told theGrio he met with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) Monday to discuss police reform and that he plans to reach out to other Republican leaders on the issue.

The House passed the bill after President Biden made it a priority last year, but it stalled in the Senate where 10 Republicans were needed to break a filibuster. Better GOP support will be needed because of the new Republican majority in the House. 

What do you think? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the right column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the left column” or “for the right column” in the subject line.

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…meanwhile…

(Defense Secretaries Lloyd Austin (U.S.) and Carlito Galvez (The Philippines) sign agreement in Manila Thursday.)

THURSDAY 2/2/23

New U.S. Military Bases in The Philippines – The United States has reached agreement with The Philippines to add four new military bases there, where American troops will be allowed to build facilities and “preposition defense assets” nearly nine years after the two nations signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), Rappler reports. 

This is “a really big deal,” U.S. Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin said from Manila, where the agreement was signed Thursday (per NPR). The agreement gives the U.S. access to a total of nine bases in The Philippines. 

Definition: “Preposition defense assets” are military arms and equipment that “reduce deployment time,” according to Tactical Defense media. 

Context: The deal is meant to check Chinese military presence in the region, especially in support of Taiwan. The EDCA was signed in 2014 between the Obama administration and the Aquino administration, but Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte pivoted the country toward Beijing when he took over in 2016. 

Thursday’s agreement was signed under the administration of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. – son of the late dictator Ferdinand Sr. and famous shoe-collector Imelda – who was elected president of The Philippines last year. 

•••

Record Profits for Oil’s Big Three – The oil industry’s “three big majors” posted $134 billion in record profits for 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic’s global hibernation caused skyrocketing prices at the pump in the U.S. and elsewhere. Shell was the latest to post its record profit Wednesday, of $41.6 billion, up from its previous record of $31.4 billion in 2021, The Wall Street Journal reports. The other two of the “big three” are …

•ExxonMobil: $55.7 billion.

•Chevron: $36.5 billion.

For Comparison Purposes: General Motors and Tesla both have posted record net income for 2022; $14.5 billion for GM and $13.7 billion for Tesla, Autoweek reports.

•••

Powell on the Rate Hike – Chairman Jerome Powell said this about the Federal Reserve’s eighth consecutive interest rate hike Wednesday: “We can now say I think for the first time that the disinflationary process has started.” (Per Fortune.)

What This Means: The Fed is satisfied with improvements in the Consumer Price Index and after raising its interest rate from near-zero to more than 4% over the last year, passed an 0.25% increase Wednesday (to the 4.5% to 4.75% range). Though Powell warned of further increases this year, Wall Street took his comments as indication the hikes are over, with the tech-heavy NASDAQ up 2.2% and the New York Stock Exchange composite up 0.53% Wednesday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

‘Biden Border Crisis’ Investigation Begins

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) kicked off “The Biden Border Crisis – Part 1” Wednesday, arguably the GOP’s biggest issue in talking points against the second half of the current Biden administration. Jordan blamed Biden for a record number of migrant apprehension at the border over the past two years, NPR’s Morning Edition says, and took testimony from Brandon Dunn, whose 15-year-old son died last year from fentanyl poisoning. 

“It is open. The border is dangerous,” committee member Andy Biggs (R-AZ) said. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) countered that the investigation amounts to “political theater.”

What do you think? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the left column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the right column” or “for the left column” in the subject line.

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Senate vs. House in Debt Ceiling Showdown

Congress has four months to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a potential global depression. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) believes his party’s arguments can turn House Republicans on the matter.

“The plan is to get our Republican colleagues in the House to understand they’re flirting with disaster and hurting the American people,” Schumer said (per The Hill). “And to let the American people to understand that as well. And I think we’ll win.”

Senate Republicans appear to be on Schumer’s side, as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is giving no support to his party’s House majority, so far. 

Who’s Not on Board?: Wall Street is not backing the White House’s urgency to raise the limit. “They’re banking on the Treasury department’s ability to prioritize payments so that bondholders keep getting paid with the limited cash available,” Politico reports.

•••

Interested in discussing political news in a safe, civil media environment? What are your thoughts on these and other recent political stories and issues? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the right column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the left column” or “for the right column” in the subject line.

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…meanwhile…

(Funeral for Tyre Nichols is Wednesday, with eulogy by National Action Network founder Rev. Al Sharpton and a call to action by Ben Crump, national civil rights attorney representing the Nichols family. (AP) About 2,500 are expected to attend.)

WEDNESDAY 2/1/23

UPDATE ON REHOBOTH – No classified documents were found in the FBI’s search of the president’s vacation home in Rehoboth, Delaware, Biden’s attorney said (AP). Federal agents did take some handwritten notes and other materials related to Biden’s time as vice president, however. 

•••

UPDATE ON THE FED – The Federal Reserve boosted its interest rate by 0.25% Wednesday afternoon, as expected, but warned that ongoing increases are warranted (per The New York Times).

•••

FBI Searches Biden’s Beach Home – The FBI began a search of President Biden’s beach home in Rehoboth, Delaware, for possible classified documents Wednesday morning, weeks after discovering classified documents in Biden’s former Washington, D.C. office and his primary home in Wilmington, Delaware, The Hill reports. Unlike his longtime home in Wilmington, Biden purchased the Rehoboth home after he left office as vice president in 2017.

•••

Debt Ceiling Confab – President Biden is scheduled to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) over raising the debt ceiling and avoid U.S. government default this June. House Republicans want to make cuts in the federal budget already passed, though McCarthy has said Medicare and Social Security cuts some House Republicans have favored are “off the table,” The Hillsays.

•••

The Fed’s Next Move – The Federal Reserve is expected to announce its eighth consecutive interest rate hike Wednesday. Last year’s increases were at a steep 0.75% as the Consumer Price Index peaked at 9.1% in June, except for December’s hike of 0.5%, when the CPI eased to 6.5%. An 0.25% hike is expected for Wednesday, The Washington Post says, which would put the prime rate at 4.5%-4.75%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell holds a news conference at 2:30 p.m.

--TL

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...meanwhile...

TUESDAY 1/31/23

(Two more Memphis police officers were disciplined and three emergency responders were fired, officials said late Monday, over the death of Tyre Nichols –AP. See “Will Nichols’ Death Force Policing Change?” below.)

“Distracting” Santos Steps Down from Committees – Rep. George Santos (R-NY) told House Republicans he will step down temporarily from his assignments on the Small Business, and Science, Space & Technology committees “because he’s a distraction,” an unnamed Republican colleague tells The Washington Post. Santos, who faces “multiple investigations” into his 2022 campaign finances and has lied about key aspects of his education, employment and religious history, met privately with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Monday.

•••

Criminal Charges for Trump? – Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Briggs (D) is showing a grand jury evidence that about $130,000 in hush money paid by Donald J. Trump to adult film star Stormy Daniels just prior to the 2016 presidential election, a “clear sign” the D.A. is nearing a decision on whether to bring criminal charges against the former president. According to The New York Times, the charges could hinge on whether prosecutors can show that Trump and his company falsified records to hide the hush money payment from voters. 

--TL

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Will Nichols' Death Force Policing Change?

MONDAY 1/30/23

After a weekend of peaceful protests in Memphis, Washington, D.C. and other cities following the late-Friday release of video depicting the brutal beating and pepper-spraying by police of Tyre Nichols (above), debate on the danger young Black men face from local police departments seems to be shifting to the need for systemic change. 

Nichols is the 29-year-old Black man who died three days after Memphis police pulled him over for erratic driving and dragged him out of his car and according to body camera and remote footage, chased him down and beat him as he called out for his mother. Five officers involved in the beating first were fired, then were charged last week with murder, and their special unit, Scorpion – Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods – was disbanded, all within three weeks of Nichols’ traffic stop. Charges against other officers may be forthcoming.

All Scorpion officers who attacked Nichols according to the four videos released last week are Black. As The New York Timesnoted over the weekend, “It took 13 months and an order from a judge for the authorities in Chicago to relase videos showing a police officer firing 16 bullets into Laquan McDonald, a Black teenager on a busy roadway in 2014.” Until the swift actions taken by Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis, a Black woman in the job since 2021, it was typical for local police departments to delay for months or even refuse to take action against white officers involved in such cases. 

But Ben Crump, attorney for the Daniels family in the Memphis case says these cases are about intstutionalized racism in police departments, no matter the racial makeup of police officers involved.

“We have to talk about this institutionalized police culture that has the unwritten law, you can engage in the excessive use of force against Black and brown people,” Crump told ABC News’ This Week.

•••

This Week On the Hill – The Senate and the House are in session Monday through Thursday. The Senate only is in session Friday.

President Biden is scheduled to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) at the White House Wednesday to discuss the debt ceiling, MSNBC’s Morning Joe reports.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Report Says Haley to Announce This Month

Former UN ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is expected to announce her candidacy for president in Charleston Wednesday, February 15. Haley would become the second candidate for next year’s GOP nomination after former President Trump, whom she served as UN ambassador. The story was first reported by The Post and Courier of Charlotte, which cites an “invitation going out soon to her backers…”. 

Haley said in 2021 she would not run in 2024 if Trump does, Politico notes, but she “telegraphed” her change-of-mind in a January Fox News interview. Since at least the November midterms, Gov. Ron DeSantis has consistently led Trump in polls of potential Republican presidential hopefuls – often by a large margin -- though the Florida governor has yet to announce himself. By announcing this early, Haley would likely gather support from more moderate Republicans, and potentially bring some longtime never-Trumpers back into the fold.

--TL

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Moving On From Trump?

TUESDAY 1/31/23

How large is Donald J. Trump’s loud and faithful base? A poll published Tuesday by The Bulwark/North Star Opinion Research puts it at 28% to 30% of Republicans potentially voting in the 2024 GOP primaries, which seems about right considering Trump’s approval ratings while president. 

The poll offers three scenarios; 

*One-on-one versus Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – who has led Trump in various polls for months – with a 52% to 30% lead.

•DeSantis vs. Trump vs. a “generic” third candidate.

•A 10-candidate ballot, including DeSantis, Trump, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley and Liz Cheney.

We’ll leave it to The Bulwark (thebulwark.com -- subscription required) to earn your readership with the poll’s details, but you should know that a warning comes with the poll, comparing results for Trump to his take of the early presidential primaries in 2016. 

--TL

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House Committees Begin Investigations

MONDAY 1/30/23

With their thin majority in the 118th Congress resulting from last year’s midterm elecitons, Republicans leading the House Oversight and Judiciary committees begin investigations this week into pandemic relief spending under the Biden administration. 

“There’s been reports of lots of waste, fraud and abuse with respect to the stimulus funds, the PPP loan funds unemployment and all of that,” Oversight chair James Comer (R-KY) said, per NPR’s Morning Edition. Comer’s committee also will investigate Hunter Biden’s laptop, a MAGA-right issue since before the 2020 presidential election.

Meanwhile, the Judiciary Committee under Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) will investigate “Biden’s border crisis,” according to NPR.

•••

Interested in discussing political news in a safe, civil media environment? What are your thoughts on these and other recent political stories and issues? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the left column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the right column” or “for the left column” in the subject line.

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Report: Omar May Have Votes for Panel

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) may not have the votes to keep Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) off the House Foreign Affairs Committee, The Hill reports. The new speaker wants to block her from the committee because of her criticism of the Israeli government and its human rights record, which some Republicans say has crossed the line into antisemitism. With Reps. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) ready to vote in favor of Omar’s appointment to the committee, and Rep. Gregory Stube (R-FL) out after falling from a ladder on his property, McCarthy may be short of a majority of the full House to block her appointment.

McCarthy’s gambit to block Democrats off key committees after negotiating deals with certain Republican members to procure enough votes to become speaker began Tuesday when he blocked Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swallwell (both D-CA) from the House Intelligence Committee.

•••

Interested in discussing political news in a safe, civil media environment? What are your thoughts on these and other recent political stories and issues? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the right column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the left column” or “for the right column” in the subject line.

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…meanwhile…

FRIDAY 1/27/23

(GDP rose 2.9% for the fourth quarter of 2022. Scroll down to read the story.)

McDaniel Wins 4th Term as RNC Chair – After a fierce challenge by a fellow Friend of Donald J. Trump, Ronna McDaniel, niece of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney has snagged her fourth term as chairwoman of the Republican National Committee. McDaniel, who was first nominated to head the GOP’s election campaigns by then-President Trump in 2017, received 111 votes Friday at the RNC’s convention in Dana Point, California, to California GOP member Harmeet Dhillon’s 51 votes, according to The New York Times. “MyPillow Guy” Mike Lindell earned four votes, and Lee Zeldin, who unsuccessfully ran against incumbent New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) as the GOP nominee last year earned one vote. 

McDaniel was considered unusually vulnerable in what is normally a “quiet” election after poor showings by the GOP in the 2018 and 2022 midterms, as well as the 2020 elections. 

The NYT quoted Kansas Republican Party chairman Mike Kuckelman as responding, “We need continuity at this point in time.”

Note: Apparently “continuity” means not quite letting go of Donald J. Trump just in case he’s the guy in ’24?

--TL

MEANWHILE

THURSDAY 1/26/23

Real GDP +2.9% in Q4 – Real gross domestic product rose 2.9% in the fourth quarter of 2022, after a third-quarter increase of 3.2%, the Commerce Department reports. Real GDP fell for the first and second quarters last year. 

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis says last quarter’s real GDP was boosted by inventory investment and consumer spending, partially offset by a decrease in housing investment. Last quarter’s results beat expectations, including those from the Congressional Budget Office, according to CNBC.

•••

Missile Strikes in Ukraine – After the U.S. committed 31 M1 Abrams tanks and Germany agreed to send 14 of its Leopard 2A6s tanks to Ukraine, a Russian missile strike killed at least one person in Kyiv overnight, The Guardian reports. Ukraine says it shot down 47 of 55 Russian missiles in the attack.

You’ve Been Warned – ICYMI, former President Trump has been allowed back on Facebook and Instagram, after a two-year ban connected to the January 6th Capitol insurrection in support of his Big Lie.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

MTG for DJT’s Veep?

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has cozied up to new Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) since at least the midterms wants to be Donald J. Trump’s running mate for president in 2024, NBC News reports.

“This is no shrinking violet. She’s ambitious – she’s not shy about that, nor should she be,” said former Trump aide Steve Bannon, host of the Bannon’s War Room podcast, reports NBC News’ Jonathan Allen. 

•••

Interested in discussing political news in a safe, civil media environment? What are your thoughts on these and other recent political stories and issues? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the left column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the right column” or “for the left column” in the subject line.

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Editorial Slams Pompeo on Khashoggi

The Washington Post’s editorial board tackles Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s book, Never Give an Inch in “Mike Pompeo’s revolting embrace of MBS after the Khashoggi murder,” published Wednesday. The editorial lays out how Pompeo, who aspires to run for president in 2024, embraces the sort of authoritarian foreign government Donald J. Trump cozied up to during his presidency. It quotes Pompeo’s book (which it never names by title) as describing Saudi Arabian Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) as “leading the greatest cultural reform in the kingdom’s history.”

Khashoggi’s WaPo columns pushed for a freer Arab world and a more open, tolerant Saudi Arabia, the op-ed says, before he was brutally tortured and then murdered by MBS’s strongmen at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. Khashoggi’s body never was found.

The revolting embrace? Trump sent Pompeo to Saudi Arabia after his administration refused to impose penalties or sanctions. The ex-secretary of state “smeared” Khashoggi as an “activist” and not a journalist. 

“Hey Mike, go and have a good time,” Trump told Pompeo, according to the book. “Tell him he owes us.” 

•••

What do you want to discuss? What are your thoughts on these and other recent political stories and issues? Go to the Commentssection in this column, or the one in the right column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and write “for the left column” or “for the right column” in the subject line.

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…meanwhile…

WEDNESDAY 1/25/23

Tanks to Ukraine – Germany will now deliver a supply of its Leopard 2 tanks (above) to Ukraine to support its effort to push back Russian forces. The NATO country initially had resisted sending its own tanks in favor of Poland delivering its German-made Leopard 2s, but an apparent reversal by the Biden administration on sending American-made M1 Abrams tanks prompted Germany’s decision, The Recount says.

Strategy: The Leopard 2 tanks are considered more crucial to Ukraine’s defense against Russia in that they’re much easier to train on and better-suited for Ukrainian terrain. 

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy Tackles Corruption: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has removed “nearly a dozen” top officials to contain a number of corruption scandals as the West continues to send military and humanitarian aid. The Wall Street Journal notes that corruption under Zelenskyy’s administration is “small compared with the previous Ukrainian governments – some accused of stealing billions of dollars in public funds…” 

U.S. Aid Last Year: The White House approved about $48 billion in aid to Ukraine in 2022, the Council on Foreign Relations says https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts

Republican Resistance: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has said his caucus is not interested in writing a “blank check” to Ukraine, which seems as much a nod to sympathy among MAGA-right Republicans for Russian President Vladimir Putin as it is more traditional GOP fiscal conservatism.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Different Kind of Slob?

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (above) called out President Biden for having stored classified documents in his Wilmington, Delaware home from his time as vice president and senator, on Fox News Tuesday (per Twitter). Graham apparently was not referring to discovery of classified documents uncovered at ex-Vice President Mike Pence’s Carmel, Indiana, home when he said; “If you come to my home, you’ll find Chick-fil-A bags all over the floor, but you’re not going to find any classified information.

•••

What do you want to discuss? What are your thoughts on these and other recent political stories and issues? Go to the Commentssection in this column, or the one in the left column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and write “for the right column” or “for the left column” in the subject line.

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