(Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits the White House, Congress and Pentagon Thursday. On Wednesday, he called on the UN to remove Russia from its Security Council. --UN Photo/Mark Garten)
THURSDAY 9/21/23
Zelenskyy Fights for Aid – After telling the United Nations Wednesday it is not supporting Ukraine sufficiently in its fight against Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Washington Thursday amid growing criticism from a minority of Republicans on the hard-right. Republican leaders are demanding strict accountability of U.S. aid to Ukraine, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has moved to block an additional $24 billion proposed by the White House in the Senate’s spending bill.
Zelenskyy made his case on NPR’s Morning Edition, telling host Steve Inskeep; “Yes, of course we have the same values. Freedom and democracy. That is why we are fighting against Russia.”
The Ukrainian president reiterated that there cannot be any sort of peace plan that does not include Russia’s complete withdrawal. Zelenskyy told Inskeep that Ukraine is “absolutely ready” for elections scheduled for 2024, but he cannot be definite they will take place, depending on conditions of the war.
NOTE: Despite expectations there would be an encounter between the two, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov avoided Zelenskyy's speech before the UN Security Council Wednesday (see Wednesday's ...meanwhile...).
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Succession – Rupert Murdoch, 92, has announced he is retiring as chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp. effective mid-November, Axios reports. His son, Lachlan, becomes chairman of both companies, and he becomes chairman emeritus.
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Tuberville Can’t Block Brown – After Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) separated the president’s nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from about 300 military officers, the Senate approved Air Force Gen. Charles Brown Jr. for the Pentagon’s top position, by 83-11 vote (The Washington Post). Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has been blocking assignments over his opposition to a military provision that helps troops travel to a state different from their post for abortion services.
Brown, who becomes the second Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after Gen. Colin Powell replaces the retiring chairman, Gen. Mark Milley, who has served in the post since 2019.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
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WEDNESDAY 9/20/23
Lavrov to Face Zelenskyy – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Wednesday in a special United Nations Security Council session. Russian state media reported Lavrov’s attendance, The Washington Post reports, “setting up a potentially dramatic encounter” 19 months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
At the General Assembly: Speaking before the UN’s General Assembly Tuesday, Zelenskyy reiterated Ukraine’s position that it will not accept any peace plan that does not include Russia’s full withdrawal – including from the Crimean region it invaded in 2014.
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House Judiciary to Grill Garland – Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland appears before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday to take questions about the Justice Department’s investigations of Hunter Biden and former President Trump. Hard-right House Republicans have criticized the department for what they say is favorable treatment of the current president’s son compared with the department’s treatment of the former president, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.
In Garland’s prepared statement to the Judiciary Committee, he says; "As the president himself has said, and I reaffirm here today: I am not the president's lawyer. I will also add that I am not Congress' prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people. Our job is to follow the facts and the law, wherever they lead. And that is what we do."
--TL
Biden Urges Unity for Ukraine
TUESDAY 9/19/23
UPDATE -- President Biden called for world unity in aiding Ukraine's fight for sovereignty in his Tuesday morning address to the United Nations General Assembly. He also took the opportunity to urge all nations to intensify efforts to reverse climate change.
"The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people, because we know our future is bound up with yours," Biden said. "And no nation can meet the challenges of today alone."
Citing record-breaking heatwaves, wildfires, drought and flooding in various regions around the globe, the president said "these snapshots tell an urgent story of what awaits us if we fail to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and begin to climate-proof our world."
With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy looking on from the audience, Biden said; "Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence. But I ask you this: If we abandon the core principles of the UN Charter to appease an aggressor, can any member state feel confident that we are protected? If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?
"The answer is 'no.' We must stand up to this naked aggression today to deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow."
Biden to UN – President Biden tells the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday the U.S. is reversing the Trump administration’s isolationist policies with “more American engagement, more American investment, more American presence” across “all continents, all corners of the world,” White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan says (per NPR’s Morning Edition). This includes enduring support for Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s invasion, of course. The White House has asked Congress for another $24 billion in aid to Ukraine in the face of MAGA-Republican pushback in the federal budget showdown playing out on Capitol Hill.
Zelenskyy attends: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also speaks before the General Assembly in New York, where he will try to win over countries – many in Africa and Latin America -- that have refused to condemn Russia’s invasion, The Globe and Mail reports. Zelenskyy and Biden are scheduled to meet at the White House after their UN appearances in New York. Later, Zelenskyy flies off to Ottawa to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and rally support against the Russian invasion, sources told The Globe and Mail.
C5+1: Biden also is scheduled to meet with leaders of the C5 nations Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, in an effort to release them from the influence of the superpowers that surround them; Russia and China.
Absent: Russia and China, as well as France and the United Kingdom are not attending this year’s UN General Assembly. Prior to leaving Kyiv, Zelenskyy questioned why Russia still has a place in the UN.
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Trudeau; ‘Credible Intel’ of Killing by India – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons Monday that Canada has “credible intelligence” that the government of India was behind the killing of a Sikh leader in British Columbia (The Globe and Mail). The leader, Hardeep Sign Nijov, was designated a “terrorist” by New Delhi. Trudeau’s charges have deepened a growing crisis between the two countries, with India expelling a Canadian diplomat after Canada ordered an Indian diplomat to leave Ottawa.
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CR is DOA – Senate Democrats have “no interest” in House Republicans’ 30-day Continuing Resolution introduced Sunday night, that would keep the lights on in the federal government through the end of October, Roll Call Daily reports. But even a $279-billion, three-bill fiscal 2024 spending package put forth by the Senate’s Democratic majority may be quashed by some Republicans’ procedural objections. The Senate is considering suspending the germaneness rule in order to cut off objections by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and others. Their procedural objections would require 67 votes.
Upshot: With such disarray in the Senate as well as Republican infighting in the House, a government shutdown after the end of the fiscal year September 30 is likely.
Pushing the speaker?: Aides and allies to Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are convinced that conservative House Republicans – you know, the more conservative, MAGA and MAGA-esque ones – are trying to provoke a shutdown in order to push him out as speaker, Punchbowl News reports. Evan after the House Freedom Caucus forced McCarthy to cut $100 billion in spending bills from a deal he made with President Biden earlier this year, Republican leaders remain unable to pass 2024 appropriations bills on the floor because of the continued GOP infighting.
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Today is … Talk Like a Pirate Day. Yet we’ve refrained from doing so, until now. Arrrrrrg, matey.
--TL
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...meanwhile...
MONDAY 9/18/23
U.S., Iran Swap Prisoners -- Five American citizens held in Iran are to fly to the United States, with a brief stop in Qatar, in exchange for five Iranians held by the U.S., plus the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian oil funds held in South Korea. The agreement reached overnight is described by The Washington Post as a "high-stakes" prisoner swap indicating a thaw in relations between Iran and the U.S.
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House GOP Whips Up Deal to Avert Shutdown – The Main Street Caucus and the House Freedom Caucus, both consisting of House Republicans, reached a short-term spending deal they plan to bring to the floor as a continuing resolution (CR), this week, The Hill reported late Sunday night, saying it would have “slim odds” of passing the Senate and of being signed by the White House. In fact, the GOP’s majority may be too slim to get it off the House floor.
The federal government's fiscal year ends September 30.
Discretionary spending cuts: The deal would keep Department of Defense, and Veterans Affairs spending at the current level, but would cut all discretionary spending by 8%.
And, a border crackdown: The deal also would include the House GOP’s H.R. 2 Border Crackdown Bill, minus its provision to require E-verify.
It leaves out… disaster relief funds and a request for supplemental funding for Ukraine that the White House requested in August to be added to the CR.
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Preventing WWIII – People in Ukraine are dying every day to prevent World War III, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CBS News’ 60 Minutes. When Scott Pelley asked about recent drone strikes on the Kremlin, Zelenskyy said that foreign drones supplied by NATO nations were not used but added this warning to Russia and Vladimir Putin; “your sky is not as well protected as you think.”
Zelenskyy, President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu are scheduled to speak to the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York.
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Trump’s Art of the Peace – Former President Trump declined to give details on how he would end the war in Ukraine Sunday on NBC News’ Meet the Press, telling moderator Kristen Welker, “if I tell you exactly, I lose all my bargaining chips.”
Welker later asked Trump for his reaction to a recent Putin statement that, “We surely hear that Mr. Trump says he will resolve all the burning issues within several days, including the Ukrainian crisis. We cannot help but feel happy about it.”
“Well, I like that he said that,” Trump told Welker. “Because that means what I’m saying is right. I would get him into a room. I’d get Zelenskyy into a room. Then I’d bring them together. And I’d have a deal worked out. It would have been a lot easier before it started.”
Up on the Hill – Both the House of Representatives and the Senate are in session Monday through Thursday. The Senate only is in session Friday.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
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