WED 12/1/21

•The Supreme Court hears arguments today in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization over Mississippi’s restrictive abortion law, a case that ultimately could lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Clark Contempt; Former Chief of Staff Agrees to Cooperate – The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection will vote to seek contempt of Congress charges against Trump administration Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark, the Associated Press reports. Clark testified before a closed-door session of the committee November 5 but invoked executive privilege and “several other privileges” over his role in Donald J. Trump’s attempt to push the Justice Department to investigate false allegations of widespread fraud in the November 2020 presidential election.

In case you missed it, Trump lost.

The select committee has subpoenaed 40 associates of former President Trump so far. The Justice Department has issued contempt of Congress charges against former advisor Stephen K. Bannon, who is using his outlaw image to fuel MAGA outrage on his iHeart Radio show, Bannon’s War Room. 

On Tuesday Trump’s final chief of staff, Mark Meadows, agreed to cooperate with the committee on a “limited basis,” according to the AP. Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger, said his client was looking for a potential accommodation that would not require Meadows to waive Trump’s claims of executive privilege in testifying.

Note: Meadows’ testimony under the potential restrictions could be of questionable value to the House panel. It appears the pro-Trump crowd’s attempt to drag out the committee’s investigation to next year’s midterms, and probable dissolution of the committee if the GOP wins a House majority is working quite well.

•••

Fed May Accelerate Bond Buyback Over Inflation – As the omicron variant of COVID-19 threatens more inflationary pressure, the Federal Reserve is looking to accelerate its bond buyback program, Chairman Jerome Powell told a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday. 

“Generally, the higher prices we’re seeing are related to the supply and demand imbalances that can be traced directly to the pandemic and the reopening of the economy,” Powell said, Roll Call reports. “But it’s also the case that price increases have spread much more broadly in the recent few months across the economy. I think the risk of higher inflation has increased.”

Translation: This gives moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III (WV) and Krysten Sinema (AZ) even more cover for placing the Biden Build Back Better program on the backburner, as Republicans push the case that the $1.75-trillion program will only fuel high inflation. 

•••  

Not Big on Books, But. . . -- Winning Team Publishing, a brand-new publisher headed by Sergio Gor, former Trump campaign aide, and Donald Trump, Jr., is publishing Our Journey Together, a book of photographs that will chronicle Donald Trump’s time in the White House, Politico reports. The ex-president announced the coffee table-style book last week and the book ($74.99 standard; $229.99 signed) obtained 70,000 pre-orders in its first week, according to Gor.

Note: As is well known, Donald Trump is not big on reading, so a picture book isn’t particularly surprising. 

Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) has been established. According to recent reporting in Forbes, TMTG is valued at $10 billion, largely due to the creation of a SPAC that is to merge with it.

Of course, Trump’s social media efforts after he was removed from existing channels has done so incredibly well. . . .

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

_____________________________________

TUE 11/30/21

•The Senate and House are scheduled to go on holiday recess after next week, but it’s clear the two chambers will have to stick around through Christmas as Democrats try to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government open, raise the debt ceiling, move President Biden’s Build Back Better social safety net forward, and even fund the military by the end of the year. Republicans are happy to prevent most of this from getting done.

•Get something done: All adults should get a COVID-19 booster because of omicron, the CDC says (WaPo).

•The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization over the Mississippi law that bans nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy (SCOTUSblog).

Coronavirus Shutdown, Meet Government Shutdown – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) seems almost proud of the GOP’s reputation as the party whose raison d’etre seems to be to put a dead stop on getting anything done. Whatever you’re for, I’m against it, Groucho Marx sang in Horse Feathers. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) seems to be his party’s weakest link as all he can do is shake in frustration over McConnell, who almost seems to be working as part of a comedy team with notorious swing vote Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-WV). 

•On Monday, McConnell rallied his caucus to resist Schumer’s efforts to shut down debate on the National Defense Authorization Act, the $700-some-billion (the exact amount is part of the debate) annual defense budget that the majority leader had hoped to get passed early this week to move on to more contentious issues, Politico reports. Republicans’ excuse? They say they want more time to take up amendments. 

•The current stopgap federal funding bill expires Friday. Democrats have another kick-the-can stopgap spending bill on the table that would keep the lights on through late January, but the Senate Appropriations Committee’s ranking Republican, Richard Shelby, of Alabama is balking, Politico says. “I’d like February. March would suit me. April. May … I think it gives us more time to seriously sit down.” 

•Last, but not least, Manchin told reporters yesterday that McConnell wants Democrats to use reconciliation by itself in order to raise the debt ceiling by itself, which Politico says would be okay with him. It would also extend Trump-era policy still on the books into Biden’s second year as president, as we head toward those November mid-terms.

Note: What have we learned from all this? McConnell might famously be on the outs with the GOP’s leader, possible House speaker candidate and likely future presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump, but he’s doing what he can (and that’s a lot) to keep the ex-president’s rule in place. All Biden can do is wait to see how this plays out with a new coronavirus strain threatening to shut down the global economy again. 

And isn’t it odd that the Republicans are putting the U.S. military in a bad place and showing levels of irresponsibility when it comes to paying bills? Maybe we’re thinking of the previous version of the Republican Party.

•••

Federal District Court Judge Blocks Vax Mandate in 10 States: Matthew T. Schelp, a federal judge in Missouri, has blocked the Biden administration’s requirement that health-care workers in facilities that receive funding from Medicare and Medicaid to be vaccinated, Axios reports. This covers 10 states -- Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming—which had brought a lawsuit against the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Note: In his ruling, Schelp, a Trump appointee, described the vaccination requirement as a “politically and economically vast, federalism-altering, and boundary-pushing mandate.”

The reference to “federalism” is interesting. It generally refers to the Constitution’s division of powers between the national government and the states. The funding for Medicare comes from the Social Security Administration, which is squarely in the federal category. Funding for Medicaid is a national-state proposition, with the federal government sending money to the states to fund it. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, “the federal share (FMAP) varies by state from a floor of 50% to a high of 78% for FY 2022.” In Missouri, where Schelp works, the federal government kicks in at least 60%. In Arkansas, another of the state involved in the lawsuit, the percentage is at least 70%.

Somehow it seems that when there is that kind of money involved, the federal government ought to have at least the right that stores and restaurants do in posting signs saying, “No shirts, no shoes, no service.”

•••

They Don’t Make Up This Sort of Thing About Schumer – Just how much more effective and powerful is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) next to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)? The far-right propaganda machine only is concerned about the Speaker.

Consider this: An obviously false report that Pelosi had closed on a $25-million Jupiter, Florida “retirement” mansion just 25 miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago spread across social media and the edges of more legitimate right-wing outlets, including the Washington Examiner. Jim Swift’s debunking in the anti-Trump conservative news site The Bulwark can be found here: https://www.thebulwark.com/conservative-media-makes-up-a-fake-florida-mansion-for-nancy-pelosi/

Odds are Schumer doesn’t mind.

–Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

_____________________________________

MON 11/29/21

•Congress returns this week (the Senate today; the House Tusesday) with an end-of-the-year agenda of “must-pass” legislation. An extension of the spending bill to avoid a federal government shutdown expires Friday. Congress also must pass a bill to raise the federal debt limit, which the government is expected to reach by paying for funding already approved, within a couple of weeks into December.

•We’re back from Thanksgiving recess with new worries about the omicron variant of COVID-19, first detected in Botswana. The U.S. has banned travel from eight countries and southern Africa, NPR reports. South Africa announced a surge in cases last week, and omnicron[GV1]  has been reported in Britain, Germany and Italy, NYT reports, while two cases were found in Canada Sunday evening.

Israel Stops Entry to Noncitizens — For the next two weeks (as it stands now, things could change) Israel is not allowing non-citizens to enter the country in an effort from stopping the omicron variant of the coronavirus from expanding in the country, The Washington Post reports. What’s more, cellphones of those people confirmed to have been infected by the virus are being monitored by Shin Bet, the country’s internal security service. Any gathering of over 50 people will have to acquire a “Green Pass,” indicating the participants have been vaccinated or recovered from the coronavirus.

Israelis who have been to any country that is defined as being “red” — in Africa, only Morocco and Egypt aren’t among them — will (1) have to take a PCR test after landing, (2) enter quarantine at a hotel setup for handling coronavirus cases and (3) even if they pass the PCR test must quarantine at home for seven days, at the end of which a PCR test is taken.

Those Israeli citizens who are fully vaccinated and not coming back from a “red” country must take a PCR test, quarantine at home for three days and then pass a PCR test.

Note: It is clear that the Israeli government is taking the omicron variant as seriously as the omicron variant should be. Meanwhile, back in the U.S., there are people like Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi (R), who, following the warnings of the potential of omicron by Dr. Anthony Fauci made in the previous segment of Meet the Press, said he is against mandating vaccinations because he believes “in individual liberties, and I believe in freedoms, and I believe individuals can make their own decision, what’s best for them, after they talk to their physician.” Reeves had previously said, “We have 1.6 million Mississippians that have been vaccinated. That’s not enough.” But he won’t make it happen. Meanwhile, in Israel, there is a clear understanding that this is a dire disease.

•••

Congress Members Go To Taiwan; China Unhappy: U. S. Representatives Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Nancy Mace (R-SC), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Mark Takano (D-CA), and Colin Allred (D-TX) traveled to Taiwan last week to discuss the supply chain shortage; the Chinese Embassy had asked them not to go, Fox News reports.

"That individual U.S. politicians want to only challenge the one-China principle and embolden the 'Taiwan independence' forces has aroused the strong indignation of 1.4 billion Chinese people," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, according to the outlet.

Note: In explaining why she took the trip, Slotkin had tweeted that the auto industry is dependent on microchips. It so happens that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the largest producer of semiconductors in the world. (Yes, bigger than Intel, Samsung and other names you’re probably more familiar with.)

Presumably the U.S. officials realize that it is important to the well-being of all of those who are dependent on digital devices for TSMC to continue to produce as many chips as is possible. Which pretty much means that TSMC is important to everyone.

--Edited by Gary S. Vasilash and Todd Lassa

---

_____
Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

Daily News & Notes returns Wednesday, December 1. Send your comments on news and politics, and on our three-column debates to editors@thehustings.news.

FRI 11/19/21

•The Hustings joins the Senate and House of Representatives in taking Thanksgiving recess. The Senate returns Monday, November 29, the House returns Tuesday, November 30 and The Hustings returns Wednesday, December 1. Happy Thanksgiving.

Build Back Better Passes House, 220-213 – Since when does the House filibuster? They call it the “Magic Minute” and House leaders may use it to speak for as long as they want. Then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, used it to delay a vote on a Trump administration immigration bill in 2018. 

Current Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s, R-CA, Magic Minute came to eight hours, 32 minutes, by the time he finished at 4:46 a.m. EST Friday, The Hill reports, on his getting a COVID-19 booster, inflation, the Gettysburg Address, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, President Washington crossing the Delaware, and U.S. policy toward China. 

This was McCarthy’s Magic Minute to try and delay President Biden’s $1.75-trillion Build Back Better social infrastructure bill. On that, the minority leader said this: “You are spending so much money. Never before!”

McCarthy’s warning on the level of spending surely will echo on the Senate floor when that chamber takes up the bill next month, or more likely, next year. 

Keep in mind the $1.75-trillion BBB covers 10 years of spending. Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office turned in its report scoring the BBB, with the estimate it will add $367 billion to the federal budget deficit over those next 10 years. HR 3576’s Democratic proponents argue the CBO score does not count an additional $207 billion in revenue it has estimated the BBB would bring in by providing more money for IRS enforcement, according to The Hill’s report.

The math v. McCarthy:

•BBB deficit spending minus the estimated increase in tax revenues from the added IRS enforcement comes to $160 billion over 10 years, or an average of $16 billion per year, per the CBO report.

•The CBO projected the contentious Trump administration’s 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act would add $1.9 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, which averages out to $190 billion per year.

•Senators have proposed nearly 1,000 amendments to the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which reached the Senate floor Thursday (Politico). One of these is by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, a lead proponent of BBB, who wants to slash 10% from military spending. The White House has requested $715 billion – that’s for 2022 – but the Senate Armed Services Committee has requested $740 billion, or $25 billion more. For one year. 

Republicans can legitimately protest a big social safety net spending bill coming during the pandemic and 6.2% annual inflation. They cannot legitimately claim it is anywhere near the biggest spending bill, ever.

The House passed HR 5376 just before 10 a.m. Friday, by 220-213 vote. Rep. Jared Golden, D-ME, was the only congress member to vote against his party on the bill, which now proceeds to the Senate.

“This bill is monumental,” Speaker Pelosi said in a press conference after the vote. “It’s historic, it’s bigger than anything we’ve ever done.”

•••

Navarro Subpoenaed by House COVID Committee -- Peter Navarro, failed politician (he ran for office in San Diego five times and secured victory zero times) and economist of dubious repute (he is a big proponent of tariffs, which even Adam Smith knew didn’t work out well for those on the receiving end), the man who served in the Trump administration as director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy (a position created for him that ceased to exist post-Trump presidency, which gives you an indication of its value: Do created positions in government ever go away unless they are completely dubious?), has been issued a subpoena by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, according to Politico.

Note: When Politico contacted Navarro regarding the congressional investigation, he responded, “I will be delivering a case of my new book In Trump Time to members of the committee which explains why this is indeed a witch hunt.”

What do we see here?

•The completely mercenary approach of people who were in the Trump administration (“my new book”). One of Navarro’s roles was to secure medical supplies and drugs. Apparently, there were contracts let to companies without open bidding to, Politico reports, “companies with close ties to the administration.” Remember the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE)? That was in Navarro’s remit. 

•The continued nonsensical claims (“witch hunt”). Navarro, when leading efforts to respond to the pandemic, a man with no background in science, no background in medicine, pushed hydroxychloroquine. Even though the FDA had revoked emergency use authorization for the drug, Navarro still promoted it.

All the best people.

•••

Keep Your Kids Away from the Computer Screen for This – In the scrum following QAnon shaman Jacob Chansley’s sentencing to 41 months in federal prison for obstructing an official proceeding by participating in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, one reporter asked the defendant’s attorney what he considered “appropriate accountability” for ex-President Trump Mediaite reports.

“If you’re asking my opinion, my opinion is meaningless,” Chansley’s attorney, Albert Watkins, replied. “I will say that I would probably be far more effective over a beer with former President Trump, even if he didn’t have a beer, because I understand he doesn’t drink beer, but I’d have a beer. And I’d tell him, ‘you know what? You’ve got a few fucking things to do. Including clearing this fucking mess up and taking care of a lot of the jackasses that you fucked up because of January 6.” (Note that Chansley pleaded guilty to his charges.) Watkins continued, “In the meantime, I might talk to him about some other things that I agree with him on. But my opinion doesn’t mean shit.”

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

____________________________________

THU 11/18/21

•President Biden will host the first “Three Amigos” summit since 2016 at the White House today, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

•Biden has called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether retail gas and natural gas prices are being manipulated by Big Oil. ‘Unfinished’ gas costs are decreasing while gasoline prices at the pump are up 60% from a year ago (Marketplace).

•Not political, thankfully, but worth noting: The longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years may be viewed anywhere in North America, beginning 1:02 a.m. EST Friday/10:02 PST tonight and runs three hours, 28 minutes and 24 seconds.

House Censures Gosar – That Rep. Paul Gosar, R-AZ, was censured by the House of Representatives 223 for and 207 against (with one being “present”) should come as no surprise. As there were only two Republican members — Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — who joined the Democrats in punishing Gosar for posting a video showing an anime video of him killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and threatening the president is also not surprising.

What is surprising is how the GOP — once the party that was arguably the “grown-up” party, standing for things like morality and responsibility -- has become the Party Without Shame.

Here’s a simple metric: remember the book that came out some years ago titled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Let’s apply author Robert Fulghum’s metric to the behavior of the Republicans in this instance.

First, there is Gosar. Unrepentant for that video. Is this behavior that should be supported in children: “Here’s a picture of me killing Johnny: Whaddaya think, Mom?”

There is the claim that his staff posted it and he didn’t. Where is the taking of responsibility? “I didn’t make Sally do, it, Dad, she just did it herself. Yes, I gave her some money. But I didn’t do it.”

There is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy vowing revenge. “You just wait, Billy. I’m gonna get you real bad.” How is that laudable?

Being a grown-up is hard.

Clearly the Republicans are no longer interested in doing hard things. Like taking responsibility and holding a higher moral standard.

It has become the party that would flunk kindergarten.

•••

Meanwhile, Democrats Fail Math – Latest on President Biden’s Build Back Better social infrastructure program is that the House could take up a vote as early as today or Friday (believe it when you see it). “If there’s any chance of preserving their majority,” Punchbowl News says, referring to the midterms now less than a year away, “House Democrats will have to get BBB passed and on to the Senate. They will deal with whatever is sent back their way.”

Note: Remember when progressive House Democrats, backed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, held bipartisan infrastructure hostage, saying they wouldn’t vote for the bill until BBB was passed along with it, which of course requires backing from Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, and Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, and, oh by the way, we should double that to $6 trillion? If the House had passed bipartisan infrastructure in September, the progs would have had these last two months, and potentially some goodwill from bipartisan infrastructure, to sort out the social programs bill.

Prediction: “Whatever is sent back” will be a reduction from $1.75 trillion to Manchin’s ceiling of $1.5 trillion, if it’s sent back to the House at all.

•••

January 6 Tourist Sentenced to 41 Months – Jacob Hensley, the spear-carrying January 6 Capitol insurrectionist seen all over cable news with a horned fur hat, bare chest and face paint, was sentenced to 41 months in prison Wednesday after pleading “guilty” to felony charges of obstructing an official proceeding, the AP reports. Hensley, of Arizona, was one of the first to enter the Capitol and has received the longest sentence so far among 38 rioters prosecuted. 

“I have no excuse, no excuse whatsoever,” Hensley told the judge. “My behavior is indefensible.” (So was his attire on January 6.) His attorney had tried to get Hensley credit for the 10 months he has spent in jail over the case.

Note: Meanwhile, former Trump campaign advisor Steve Bannon has pleaded not guilty to criminal contempt of Congress charges and is free (though he had to give up his passport to federal authorities) to continue posting his fiery pro-MAGA podcasts (CNN).

•••

One More from the House of Kindergarten – Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, “would probably make a good congressional intern,” Rep. Max Gaetz, R-FL, told Newsmax Wednesday, according to The Washington Post, which has apparently found a reporter willing to stomach the pro-Trump cable “news” outlet. Yes, that Kyle Rittenhouse, who faces potential life in prison if he’s found guilty of homicide in the fatal shooting of two people in last year’s Kenosha, Wisconsin, protests. Of course, upon his arrest (when he was still 17), Rittenhouse quickly became a hero on extremist outlets. The jury in his trial began their third day of deliberations today.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

_____________________________________

WED 11/17/21

•President Biden promotes the bipartisan infrastructure program today at General Motors’ electric vehicle assembly plant in Hamtramck, Michigan (NPR). Meanwhile, House Democrats are considering removal of a tax credit for union-built EVs (like those to be built in Hamtramck) from Biden’s $1.75-trillion Build Back Better plan in order to promote passage by the Senate(Roll Call).

•Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, wants a vote on the Build Back Better bill by Christmas, though Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, is pushing to waive it off until next year (NBC News). The House is scheduled to vote on it (very) late this week.

•The U.S. plans to buy 10 million Pfizer and Merck COVID-19 pills, which officials believe could be a pandemic game-changer (WaPo).

•The prosecution wrapped yesterday, and now defense presents its case in the Georgia trial of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, as the Wisconsin jury in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse enters its second day of deliberations.

House to Vote on Censuring Gosar – Rep. Paul Gosar, R-AZ, the former dentist whose two brothers and a sister (out of nine siblings) have called for his resignation, is up for House censure in a vote today, according to Politico, over an animated video posted online depicting Gosar fatally stabbing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, in the neck. Gosar also is shown about to attack President Biden in the cartoon video reportedly posted by the congressman’s staff. Along with the censure, the House will vote on removing Gosar from his committee assignments, a la Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA, who lost her assignments way back in February for pro-QAnon postings prior to running for Congress. 

MTG, meanwhile, is pushing Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, to strip 13 House Republican “traitors” who voted for Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill of their committee assignments.

Note: Pundit chatter points to this dichotomy as evidence the GOP is as much in disarray as the Democratic Party, though of a disarray particular to Republicans. McCarthy was once a relatively moderate Republican himself – he’s from California, after all – but now he must consider giving in to MTG’s (and thus Donald J. Trump’s) wishes, as the House Democratic majority votes to censure and strop Gosar, anyway. 

Meanwhile, cable news stations and other outlets that are not Fox News report on House Republicans who voted against bipartisan infrastructure but are touting bridge repairs and the like they are bringing home to constituents. 

Bottom Line: No matter what McCarthy does to stifle the increasingly loud arguments between his party’s factions, no pundits are backing off the presumption that a GOP massacre in next November’s House midterms will shift power to Republicans. The guarantee of a GOP House is not a guarantee of McCarthy as House speaker, however – if a majority of a Republican House majority are pro-Trumpers, there remains a real chance the former president, and not McCarthy, would replace Nancy Pelosi.

•••

Rep. Speier Announces Retirement – Rep. Jackie Speier, D-CA, announced she will not seek re-election in next year’s midterms, per Roll Call. Speier, 71, ran for the House of Representatives after she was shot by members of the Peoples Temple cult at Jonestown in Guyana in 1978. Her boss, Rep. Leo J. Ryan, was killed at the airport there following the massacre of 37 cult members. Speier currently holds senior positions on the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, and chairs subcommittees on both. 

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

_____________________________________

TUE 11/16/21

•Retail sales rose 1.7% in October, the Commerce Department reports, a stronger showing than expected and compared with an 0.8% increase for September. The latest numbers provide much-needed good economic news for the White House.

•Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was released Monday after turning himself in to the FBI in Washington, D.C., over Contempt of Congress charges. He faces up to $200,000 in fines and two years in jail if convicted, NPR reports, and was required to turn in his passport.

•Jury deliberations have begun in the Kyle Rittenhouse case in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

•In a Washington Post-ABC News poll, 65% said the Supreme Court should overturn Texas’ abortion law restricting the procedure after the sixth week of pregnancy, and 60% believe Roe v. Wade should be upheld. SCOTUS will consider December 1 a Mississippi law restricting abortions after 15 weeks.

Social Infrastructure Vote Saturday? – The House vote on the Build Back Better plan, President Biden’s $1.75-trillion social infrastructure bill, could slip to Saturday, The Hill reports, citing a “senior Democrat source.” Considering how the House dragged out the bipartisan infrastructure vote, Saturday seems pretty optimistic, though the Thanksgiving break looms. 

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office promises its price tag on the bill by end of the day Friday. What’s the over-under on a Sunday vote?

Note: Forget the comparisons with FDR and LBJ over Build Back Better. Thanks largely to the 6.2% U.S. inflation rate, Biden is now being compared with Jimmy Carter.

•••

Pep Rally for Biden’s BIF Signature – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, was busy, as promised, with other matters. But Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, who is gearing up for a Trump-picked primary challenger in next year’s midterms, and Sen. Rob Portman, R-OH, who already has announced he will not run for re-election, both attended President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill-signing ceremony Monday afternoon. 

House Republicans Don Young, of Alaska (who is not seeking re-election) and Tom Reed, of New York (who is) also attended.

Biden has chosen former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu to be his infrastructure czar. He and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will administer the $1.75-trillion infrastructure budget, $550 billion of which is new spending. 

At the ceremony, Portman had this to say about attacks against the 13 Republican representatives and 19 Republican senators who voted for the bill, which Donald J. Trump has criticized though he had proposed a similar $1 trillion package during his many “Infrastructure Weeks” as president: “Finding common ground to advance the interests of the American people should be rewarded, not attacked.” (Per NPR’s All Things Considered.)

Portman said bipartisan infrastructure will help create jobs and reduce inflation, which might be enough of a win for Biden no matter how his social infrastructure bill goes down.

•••

Wonder Where the Flat Screen Was Made – The virtual summit between President Biden from the Oval Office, a big flat screen to his left broadcasting the video call, and Chinese President Xi Jingping from Beijing went on for more than three hours Monday night. The two discussed Afghanistan, North Korea, Iran, human rights, climate change and Taiwan but did not produce any major resolutions, according to White House officials (from The Wall Street Journal’s report).

Biden told Xi he remains committed to the “One China” policy, according to White House officials, though he added the U.S. “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

•••

On Christie’s Republican Rescue Effort – Though former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie has yet to announce a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, he is making the rounds of non-Fox News media outlets in a tour for his new book, Republican Rescue. Though this Republican comeback kid, a sort of GOP counterpart to former perennial presidential candidate Joe Biden, wrote the book to pick a fight and distance himself from former President Trump, the punditocracy isn’t very sympathetic. Christie was one of the earliest mainstream Republicans to support Trump’s 2016 run and was an advisor early in the administration.

The big question though is whether Christie’s re-emergence as a never-in-2024-Trumper is any indication that the GOP is backing away – however slowly – from the former president. On MSNBC’s The 11^th Hour Monday, Christie cited the Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll showing that 61% of self-identified Republicans say they have more allegiance to the GOP than to Donald Trump (26%). 

Note: Though The 11^th Hour host Brian Williams pressed Christie on his fervid loyalty to Trump through most of the administration, Williams didn’t ask him about the polls over the past 10 months – countering the latest Iowa poll -- that show a vast majority of the nation’s Republicans believe Donald J. Trump’s Big Lie.

•••

Alex Jones Found Liable in Sandy Hook Case – Infowars host Alex Jones must pay eight families who filed a lawsuit against him for defamation over the Sandy Hook school shooting, The Washington Post reports. Jones had made up stories that families of the 26 killed at the Newton, Connecticut elementary school were paid actors who “faked” the shooting. The judge in the case found for the plaintiffs after Jones refused to turn over documents related to the case.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics

____________________________________

MON 11/15/21

•Big Monday for President Biden, who signs the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill at 3 p.m. and holds a virtual meeting this evening with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

•Stephen K. Bannon turned himself in to the FBI’s Washington field office Monday after the Justice Department indicted the former Trump adviser with two counts of contempt of Congress, for failing to respond to a subpoena from the 1/6 House select committee (NPR).

Build Back Better This Week? – Democrats in the House of Representatives expect to pass President Biden’s $1.75 trillion social safety net Build Back Better bill this week, but “this week” could mean “by the weekend” or even “early next week.” Whether even “this year” is realistic, Congress members’ desire to take their Thanksgiving week break adds extra pressure, according to Punchbowl News. Progressives and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, want a vote this week, and moderates led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ, “see no reason for a delay” on the vote, according to the Punchbowl News report. 

And Then There’s the CBO: However, the Congressional Budget Office is expected to update today its timetable for the scoring of the BBB. Moderate Democrats, including Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, want to see that the program is fully funded. The CBO probably won’t release anything until Thursday. 

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, says the Senate cannot complete its “Byrd Bath” until it receives the CBO report, anyway. So the bill potentially could sit in the Senate between Thanksgiving and New Year’s 2022.

The ‘Byrd Bath’ is – Late-Sen. Robert Byrd’s, D-WV, rule that prevents extraneous provisions tacked on to a budget reconciliation bill, and thus potentially be approved without filibuster challenges. Byrd sponsored the rule, which the Senate adopted in 1985-86, according to Congressional Research Service.

Fun Fact: Upon Byrd’s death in 2010, then-Gov. Joe Manchin, D, of West Virginia, named Carte Goodwin to fill out the rest of his term. When Goodwin chose not to run for re-election in November 2010, Manchin ran for the Senate seat himself. The rest is Democratic Party history.

•••

There Will be Oil – At what price? Gasoline and diesel, and home heating oil prices are at the forefront of inflation fears that continue to dog President Biden’s agenda. Opposition to his Build Back Better program, now set at $1.9 trillion, is tied to the 6.2% annual inflation rate the Commerce Department reported last week. 

Republicans and other opponents of the Build Back Better program say they worry this part of Biden’s agenda, in particular, will only fuel the high inflation rate. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin says inflation will come down as supply chains open up next year. In other words, the beginning, or the middle, or worst-case scenario for the Democrats, near the end of the midterm elections.

But oil prices tend to be controlled by Big Oil. There are no signs yet of delivery problems to the pump. AAA, by the way, says the national average price of regular gas is $3.415/gallon as of Monday, up from $2.126/gal November 15, 2020. Diesel averages $3.646/gal, versus $2.386/gal a year ago.

United Nations Climate Change Summit, Blah, Blah, Blah: Big Oil has been in a constant fight for years to slow the advance of the renewable energy industry. Oil price spikes come at the convergence of a restart of world economies after the pandemic shutdown and of the fairly ineffective COP26 United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland. The nations did not meet summit goals of a plan to reduce global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius per year.

According to The Washington Post, the COP26 summit ended last weekend with nearly 200 countries agreeing to ramp up carbon-cutting commitments, phase out some fossil fuels and increase aid to poorer countries to help them convert to renewable energy sources. But language to “phase out” coal was watered down to “phase down” coal after a last-minute request by the world’s two most populous countries, China and India.

•••

Washington Real Estate News – The Trump Organization is selling its lease for its hotel in Washington, D.C.’s Old Post Office for $375 million, The Wall Street Journal scooped over the weekend. Subject of House committee investigations and hearings on conflicts of interest and the emoluments clause involving former President Trump, the hotel’s lease was sold to CGI Merchant Group, a Miami-based investment firm. The federal government still owns the building.

Elsewhere within the District, friend-of-Trump Peter Thiel has been identified by Politico as the purchaser of Wilbur and Hilary Geary Ross’ 10,000-square-foot house in the Woodland-Normanstone neighborhood for $13 million. Wilbur Ross was Trump’s Commerce secretary. Thiel is the German co-founder of PayPal, who secretly funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker.com, putting the media outlet out of business, and was known for his speech praising Trump at the 2016 GOP Convention. He has made separate $10 million donations to super PACs supporting the 2022 House candidacies of J.D. Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona, according to Politico.

Note: The soon-to-be ex-Trump Hotel (no recounts, please) may go from being a meeting place for Republican power brokers to a meeting place for Democratic and Republican power brokers. The former Ross residence? Not so much.

•••

Leahy to Retire – Vermont’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Patrick Leahy, 84, has announced he will not run for re-election in 2022, NPR reports. Leahy is serving his eighth term in the Senate.

•••

O’Rourke Shoots for Texas Gubernatorial Race – Will his third campaign be a charm? Former El Paso congressman Beto O’Rourke has announced he will run for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Gov. Gregg Abbott’s re-election next year, The Texas Tribune reports. O’Rourke conducted a high-profile challenge to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, R, in 2018, and entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination last year.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

_____
Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

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.

•••

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.

•••

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

_____
Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

By Todd Lassa

There is a pervasive notion that the January 6 pro-Trump Capitol insurrection was not a one-off. Given the ongoing commitment among some in the Republican Party to what is now known -- but not by them -- as "The Big Lie," that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen," there is concern that coups tend to fail before they succeed and in 2024 if the election results do not have a Republican presidential victory, there may be another insurrection.

Last Friday, one of the current congress members who has chosen not to run for re-election and face one of Donald J. Trump’s hand-picked primary challengers, Rep. Tony Gonzalez, R-OH, spoke on CNN to warn that January 6 was a “dress rehersal” and that a much better-organized Trump campaign will try again when he runs in 2024.

“January 6 was an unconstitutional attempt led by the President of the United States to overturn an American election and reinstall himself in power illegitimately,” Gonzalez said. “That’s fallen nation territory. That’s third world country territory. My family left Cuba to avoid that fate.

“I will not let it happen here,” Gonzalez continued. “I think it’s all pushing towards one of two outcomes: He either wins legitimately, which he may do, or he loses again, you just try to steal it.”

Gonzalez, a sophomore representative serving for Ohio’s 16^th Congressional District was one of 10 Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote for Trump’s second impeachment, over the January 6 insurrection. He announced in September he would not run for a third term.

In a statement released by Trump’s Save America PAC, Gonzalez’s September retirement announcement prompted the ex-president to say, “1 down, 9 to go!” (per Mediaite.)

President Biden and other Democratic leaders have tried to push federal legislation that would restore portions of the 1964 Voting Rights Act that would prevent such state legislation from taking effect, though there is no chance any of the proposed bills would pass the Senate without suspension of the legislative filibuster. 

The question on the table is this: Should Rep. Gonzalez’s warnings be taken seriously? If so, what steps should Congress take – if any – to assure a fair 2024 presidential election?

_____