Shutdown Day 22

Nearly 7 million citizens, including this couple in Philadelphia, attended about 2,700 No Kings events across the US Saturday, NBC News reports. Scroll down the left column for additional commentary by KE Bell, and the right column for commentary by RJ Caster.

Shutdown Day 22

Vance Arrives in Israel – Vice President JD Vance, “Trump’s top messenger” according to USA Today, is in Israel Wednesday to “rein in” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold together the week-old peace deal with Hamas. Vance’s formidable task is to move the peace deal on to its next phase, entailing Hamas’ disarmament and Israel’s full withdrawal of troops from Gaza.

•••

Racism Sinks Nominee – Paul Ingrassia has pulled his name from nomination to lead the Office of Special Counsel after Politicoreported comments he made in a text chat that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday belongs in “hell” and that he has a “Nazi streak.”

A sufficient number of Senate Republicans noticed. Ingrassia, 30, whose ties to Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate delayed a Senate committee hearing, finally was to appear before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs committee Thursday.

But after Politico’s scoop Ingrassia pulled his own name from consideration because he knew there were enough Republican senators to vote against him.

Ingrassia tweeted and Truth Socialed Tuesday: “I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time. I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout this process and will continue to serve President Trump and this administration to Make America Great Again!”

•••

On Japan’s First Female PM – Japan’s parliament elected the country’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, Tuesday after weeks of her serving as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party. The conservative LDP has led Japan for much of the past seven decades.

Takaichi is hardly a feminist, counting the late UK PM Margaret Thatcher as her heroine and holding über-traditional gender values, NPR’s All Things Considered reports.

Takaichi will meet with another political hero, President Trump, who flies to Japan on Monday for a three-day visit. –TL

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TUESDAY 10/21/25

Putin Drops Meeting – Officially, there are no plans for President Trump to meet with Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin to discuss a peace deal, or ceasefire, in Ukraine, in the immediate future, The New York Times reports Tuesday. Unofficially, it’s clear Putin does not feel the need to discuss a meeting in which he would be expected to give up any Ukrainian territory Russia has captured, or which he soon expects or hopes to capture, in the foreseeable future.

Also not planning to meet are Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had a “productive” call Monday, The Kyiv Independent reports.

Trump said last Thursday following a phone call with Putin that the two would meet in Budapest in unspecified coming weeks. The next day, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Trump at the White House, Putin got what he wanted: Trump refused his request to sell long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.

•••

Comey Moves to Dismiss – The Justice Department’s two-count indictment of former FBI Director James Comey is considered among the weakest of the Trump retribution cases, and on Monday defense attorneys issued two dismissal motions with the court, per Roll Call.

Comey’s attorneys argue that former insurance attorney Lindsey Halligan was improperly appointed and therefore should not be able to bring the case. They argue Halligan’s appointment was contrary to the Constitution’s Appointment Clause, which requires Senate confirmation.

In the second motion, Comey’s attorneys argue the charges against him are indicative of Trump’s selective prosecution.

•••

Biden Spox Goes Indy – Accountability rather than defection is the reason for Biden White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s switch from registered Democrat to independent voter, she tells NPR’s Michel Martin on Tuesday’s Morning Edition. In her new book, Independent: A Look Inside the White House, Outside the Party Lines Jean-Pierre says President Biden’s disastrous June 2024 debate performance revealed “political vulnerability” and not “cognitive decline,” and the former press secretary blames Democratic disunity in part for Trump’s triumphant return to power.

Jean-Pierre told NPR’s Martin that criticism of her as press secretary reflected a deeper bias, and said that Democrats have failed Black women, taking advantage of the party’s most reliable supporters.

•••

White House’s Gold Period – Every act of creation begins with an act of destruction, Pablo Picasso once said, and if you’re all-in on President Trump’s $250 million privately funded White House ballroom in all its gilded glory, you’ll like this. Demolition has begun on the East Wing to make way for the 999-person capacity ballroom, The Washington Post reports. Trump had previously said the ballroom would accommodate up to 650 people and would not require any demolition of the East Wing.

•••

Colombian Cutoff – President Trump said Sunday he would end aid to Colombia and impose new tariffs on the country after its leftist president, Gustavo Petro, said the latest US military strike on boats in the Caribbean had killed a fisherman, The New York Times reports. The US military has attacked several boats from Colombia’s neighbor Venezuela in recent months, with the White House claiming without evidence they were operated by drug cartels. –TL

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Shutdown Day 20 -- MONDAY 10/20/25

Putin Prevails – The close, friendly relationship between Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin and President Trump apparently has not waned in the face of Trump’s pressure on Putin to end the war in Ukraine. Last Friday President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to the White House hoping to procure Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine’s defense against Russia but left without any such commitment.

President Trump had spoken by phone with Putin on Thursday and apparently rung off convinced not to give Zelenskyy the 1,000-mile+-range missiles, The Washington Post reports.

Last Friday’s private White House meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy reportedly was as acrimonious as their public meeting back in February, with Trump pressuring Zelenskyy in a “shouting match” to accept Russia’s ceasefire terms, according to the Financial Times. Trump told Zelenskyy Russia will “destroy” Ukraine if Zelenskyy didn’t agree to the terms.

In Orbánistan … Before Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy, he had committed to a meeting with Putin in Putin-friendly Budapest, Hungary in an unspecified number of coming weeks. Zelenskyy has since said he wants to be part of the meeting.

•••

Trump Frees Santos – President Trump has commuted the sentence of former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), 37, who was serving a seven-year sentence at a federal prison in New Jersey after pleading guilty to wire fraud and aggravated theft, The New York Times reports. Trump Truth Socialed late Friday that he had cut Santos’ sentence short, citing their shared politics and the president’s belief the sentence had been excessive.

New York Republicans criticized Trump’s commutation.

“George Santos is a convicted con artist. That will forever be his legacy and I disagree with the commutation,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said in a statement Saturday, according to the NYT.

– Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 10/20/25

Is This Any Way to Run a Country?

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

The government shutdown continues.

If a functioning government is a good thing, then why isn’t Donald Trump trying to get it up and running rather than simply claiming that the Democrats want to fund the healthcare of illegal aliens?

Never mind the absurdity of that claim, but aren’t all of those ICE agents supposed to be ridding the country of illegal aliens?

Then there is the whole question of putting the National Guard in the streets of American cities even though governors like Gavin Newsom and JB Pritzker have said they don’t want them.

Conservatives used to believe in the sanctity of state’s rights. This is crushing that with a boot.

Rather than providing substantive reasons for troop deployments, Donald Trump simply makes unsubstantiated claims about the amount of crime that’s occurring and calls those two governors insulting names.

Is this how the president of the country should deal with governors?

Ironically enough, in the Federalist No. 46 James Madison wrote:

"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of."

Which seems to indicate that Newsom and Pritzker, not Donald Trump, should have control over the National Guard in the states.

But should we expect those who govern the country to be familiar with what are arguably founding documents of the country?

On September 1 on his site Donald Trump posted:

"Pam, nothing is being done!!! What Comey, Sh’ Schiff, Letitia??? They all guilty as hell, nothing is to be done. We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, indicted me 5 times OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!"

Presumably the “Pam” in question is the US Attorney General.

Subsequently James Comey and Letitia James have been charged, the former for making false statements (rich in the context of the Donald Trump Administration) and obstructing a congressional investigation, the latter for mortgage fraud (rich in the context of Donald Trump being convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree).

Adam Schiff is under investigation for fraud (mortgage, bank, and wire) and for making false statements to financial institution’s (rich in the context of Donald Trump’s felony convictions in New York for inflating and deflating the value of properties to either get better loans or to decrease tax exposure). Schiff has yet to be charged (though by the time you read this. . . .)

Is the post directed to Ms. Bondi the sort of thing that a president should be writing? Didn’t the Supreme Court rule in Coffin v. United States (1895) “It is a maxim of law that every person must be presumed innocent until proven guilty”?

On October 10 China announced it would restrict the exports of rare earths, materials that are essential for the production of everything from electric motors to smart phones. China has an estimated 60% of all the rare earth mining in the world and performs 90% of the processing (after it is dug up it needs to be processed to become useful).

Donald Trump immediately took to his social media site and said he would put 100% tariffs on Chinese imports as “immediate and full retaliation” for what he considers “hostile and monopoly behavior.”

It should be noted that the US does have rare earths, as do Brazil, India, Australia, and Canada. It is interesting to note that the US’s once very good friend Canada has 15.2 million tonnes of rare earths in the ground — and the US has 1.9 million. Wouldn’t it be advantageous to try to rebuild the relationships that Donald Trump wrecked?

Anyway. . .there is no monopoly.

The US markets had a negative reaction to Trump’s post — on the order of $2 trillion — so a week ago Sunday the tone changed to “the US would like to help China, not hurt it. Don’t worry about China, it will be all fine!”

Is this how diplomacy is carried out: by a series of social media posts that include unfounded information?

The Administration has struck a deal with EMD Serono that, in part, will have the division of Merck provide in vitro fertilization medications to American women at a deep discount. The drug company will be relieved on Section 232 tariffs as long as it puts in more US manufacturing and performs more research here.

While this is certainly a good thing for the women who are considering IVF, which is exceedingly expensive, it does seem to be a bit of a shakedown for the company – again, something that conservatives are not in favor of.

In order to access these drugs it will be necessary to go the TrumpRx.gov website.

What seems to be forgotten in what is going on is that Donald Trump is serving the American people. The citizens are paying for that website, Donald Trump isn’t. If there is a governments website for prescription drugs, shouldn’t it be something like “AmericaRx.gov”?

How Conservatives can find any of this behavior acceptable is a mystery.

As Russell Kirk wrote:

“A state in which an individual or a small group are able to dominate the wills of their fellows without check is a despotism, whether it is called monarchical or aristocratic or democratic.”

He is undoubtedly rolling in his grave in Mecosta, Michigan.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

•••

Commentary on Saturday’s No Kings from a contributing pundit, who, unlike Stephen Macaulay, is not a never-Trump conservative -- A great reminder to rewatch Nixon's "Silent Majority" speech on Saturday! –RJ Caster

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MONDAY 10/20/25

…meanwhile…

President Trump at the signing ceremony in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Monday evening. Trump left the ceremony early to return to Washington in time to posthumously present Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom on what would have been his 32^nd birthday* Tuesday.

WEDNESDAY 10/15/25

Bill VIII Fails – Senate Democrats blocked Republicans’ eighth attempt to pass a stopgap funding bill to reopen the federal government late Tuesday night, NPR reports.

President Trump renewed his threat Tuesday to strip funding away from programs with “Democratic priorities” if the government remains closed, per The New York Times. Trump said he would spare “Republican programs” and will release his kill list on Friday.

“Their intimidation tactics are not working and will continue to fail,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said in response, as his party apparently continues to succeed in painting the shutdown as the GOP’s fault despite the Trump administration’s efforts to turn the tables, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s video distributed to the nation’s airports declaring such.

US Airports have generally refused to show Noem’s blatant violation of the Hatch Act.

What are ‘Democratic’ programs? … It would be an educated guess to say that Trump will announce Friday the killing of programs within the Health and Human Services and/or Housing and Urban Development departments, or perhaps the Environmental Protection Agency (established by President Nixon in December 1970) as among “Democratic priorities.”

Republican priorities? Maybe the War Department, as the administration likes to call the de-DEI-ified Defense Department?

Speaking of the Pentagon … Dozens of reporters have turned in their Pentagon press passes in rejecting War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new policy that bans disclosure in news reports of information not authorized by the Pentagon for public release – even if it’s not classified information. Only one news organization, the hard-MAGA One America News network has signed on.

Reporters for The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Reuters, The Atlantic, Fox News, CNN, NPR, Newsmax and The Washington Times are among those who will lose their Pentagon credentials for not signing Hegseth’s policy.

“It turns us into stenographers, not reporters,” NPR’s credentialed Pentagon reporter of 28 years, Tom Bowman, told All Things Considered Tuesday.

The Pentagon Press Association released this statement Monday: “The Pentagon certainly has the right to make its own policies, within the constraints of the law. There is no need or justification, however, for it to require reporters to affirm their understanding of vague, likely unconstitutional policies as a precondition to reporting from Pentagon facilities.”

*Mediaite notes President Trump chuckled over this anecdote Tuesday at the White House ceremony in which Turning Point USA co-founder and CEO Charlie Kirk was posthumously presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

“They have the devil’s ideology and they’re failing and they know it. They feel it and they become violent. They seem to become very violent on the left.

“They’ve rammed vehicles into federal law enforcement, fired sniper rifles at ICE agents– and me.

“You know, I made a turn at a good time. I made a turn at a good time. I turned to the right.

“Charlie couldn’t believe it. Actually, he said, “How the hell did you make that turn?

“I said, ‘I don’t know.’” –TL

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TUESDAY 10/14/25

Signing the Peace Deal – President Trump showed off his distinctive signature on the peace deal between Israel and Hamas ending the war in Gaza and sending 20 surviving Israeli hostages and the first of nearly 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners and detainees free Monday. Since then, Hamas has returned the first four of 28 deceased hostages to Israel (per NPR).

Trump led a signing ceremony in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where he said the world is witnessing the “historic dawn of a new Middle East,” after addressing the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem late Monday. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan added their signatures to Trump’s document, Egyptian Streets reports.

“This took 3,000 years to get to this point, can you believe it?” Trump said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not attend. He said a previous engagement related to the Jewish holiday conflicted with the ceremony in Sharm el-Sheikh.

But during Trump’s earlier address to the Knesset, he surprised the Israeli cabinet when he told President Isaac Herzog that Netanyahu should be pardoned before his trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, Politico reports.

“Give him a pardon, come on,” Trump told Herzog, calling Netanyahu, who earlier this year said he had nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, “one of the greatest” wartime leaders.

In addition to legal maneuvers by his attorneys, Netanyahu has successfully delayed his trial by citing the need not to be distracted from the two-year-old war on Hamas in Gaza. –TL

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MONDAY 10/13/25

Hamas Releases Living Hostages – President Trump addressed Israel’s Knesset Monday afternoon local time after Hamas released 20 remaining Israeli hostages from its attack two years ago, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Trump later will travel to Egypt to commemorate the peace deal with other world leaders.

“Mr. President, you are committed to this peace,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “I am committed to this peace and together we will achieve this peace.”

Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner had arrived days earlier. Kushner, considered key negotiator for the Abraham Accords at the end of Trump’s first term, has been given a lot of credit for the latest peace deal.

“Everybody is happy,” Trump said upon arrival Monday. “Whether it’s Jewish or Muslim or Arab countries. Every country is dancing in the streets.”

Though Trump touts the ceasefire as the beginning of a permanent peace, Netanyahu is more circumspect. Israel will maintain about 200 of its defense force in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government was to begin handing over nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees later Monday. Hundreds of aid trucks began heading to Gaza from Egypt Sunday.

•••

More Federal Layoffs – Vice President JD Vance warned on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures that the Trump administration will look for “deeper cuts” as the shutdown begins its third week Wednesday. Last Friday layoff notices were sent to about 4,200 employees across eight agencies, Forbes reports, citing an Office of Management and Budget response to a lawsuit seeking those numbers, by the 800,000-member American Federation of Government Employees.

That number includes nearly 1,500 Treasury Department employees -- of which about 1,300 are Internal Revenue Service workers -- Bloomberg reported, as well as another 1,200 Health and Human Services workers.

•••

Today’s Front Page -- …is not a debate, but rather, Contributing Pundit Jerry Lanson’s claiming of an abandoned Washington Post slogan to warn of Trump administration tactics being used to track down and arrest alleged undocumented aliens, in the left column, and Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s critical look at the administration’s record of government debt v. services, in the right column.

To comment on either or both of these commentaries, and/or on news/aggregate/analysis in the center column, email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings (right v. left, conservative v. liberal, or however you describe it, so long as we can publish your comments in the proper column) in the subject line. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 10/13/25

Trump Legal Scorecard

[CPI at 3.2% -- As some economists (and the Biden campaign) eagerly anticipate an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve sometime this year, the Consumer Price Index has ticked up to 3.2% in February, from an annual rate of 3.1% in January, the Labor Department reports. That’s the wrong direction from the Fed’s target 2% rate. The month-over-month increase was 0.4%, with shelter and gas accounting for 60% of the increase. Energy was up 2.3%, while food, and food at home, was unchanged.]

IDES OF MARCH 2024

Fulton County, Georgia – Atlanta Judge Scott McAfee ruled Friday morning that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can remain on the election interference case against Donald J. Trump, but only if her former romantic partner, Nathan Wade, withdraws from the case …

Mar-a-Lagogate – U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon appears to have handed prosecutors in the confidential documents case against Trump a win by ruling against the ex-president’s attorneys’ motion that the Espionage Act behind the indictments are “unconstitutionally vague.” However, Newsweek notes that Trump appointee Cannon instructed his attorneys in the ruling that they should bring up the “unconstitutionally vague” argument in “connection with the jury instruction briefing” …

Hush Money Case – New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg says his office is willing to delay Trump’s hush money case after receiving late evidence from the U.S. attorney’s office, to give defense attorneys sufficient time for review. The trial was scheduled to begin March 25, and may now be delayed by 30 days.

--TL

•••

The Schumer-Netanyahu Split – After Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called for new Israeli elections on π day Thursday in frustration over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intransigence on a ceasefire in Gaza, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the Senate floor to “remind” Schumer that Israel is not an American colony, calling his remarks “grotesque” and “unprecedented” (per Punchbowl News).

But just as Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition continues to consider Palestinians and their Hamas “leadership” in Gaza one and the same, so too do the staunchest U.S. supporters of Netanyahu refuse to distinguish between the Israeli government and the Jewish people. This despite the fact that even before the vicious, horrible Hamas attack October 7, Netanyahu was long-resistant to a two-state solution with Palestinians in Gaza.

Meanwhile ...

Gaza's health ministry has accused Israel's military of firing on Palestinians awaiting aid in Gaza, killing 20 and injuring 150, The Guardian reports. The Israeli military denies the reports.

Influencing our November election

In trying to save his own power, Netanyahu has helped to throw the November U.S. presidential election to Donald J. Trump, and he knows it. Biden has ceded substantial votes to “uncommitted” in the Michigan and Minnesota Democratic primaries as he tries to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza in vain.

While Biden has known Netanyahu for a very long time, going back to his time in the Senate, Trump and Netanyahu had a closer relationship during the Trump administration – until Netanyahu congratulated Biden for his victory in 2020, which of course led Trump to criticize the Israeli prime minister for his “disloyalty.”

If Netanyahu continues to reject ceasefire in Gaza (it is necessary to note that Hamas has done very little to help, either) the Israeli prime minister might very well be able to make it up to Trump by congratulating him this November.

--Analysis by Todd Lassa

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THURSDAY π Day 2024

Schumer Calls for Israeli Elections -- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), wants Israel to hold new elections, saying its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has "lost his way" (per The Hill). "As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7," Schumer continued. "The world has changed -- radically -- since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past."

•••

VP to Abortion Clinic -- Vice President Kamala Harris visits a Twin Cities, Minnesota abortion clinic Thursday, Axios reports, a first-ever such appearance by a sitting veep according to the White House.

•••

Meanwhile, in Ft. Pierce, Florida – Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon holds a hearing Thursday morning on two of the ex-president’s requests to dismiss his 40-count federal indictment in Mar-a-Lagogate. Donald J. Trump’s attorneys claim the section of the Espionage Act accusing him of mishandling classified documents and obstructing federal officials’ attempts to get them back to the National Archives Washington is “unconstitutionally vague as applied to President Trump,” The Washington Post reports.

Meanwhile, in Fulton County, Georgia: Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee Wednesday dismissed three of 13 counts against Trump in the election interference case (per WaPo). Prosecutors may refile the charges, however.

•••

Schumer's Watch is Slow – The Senate may take its time in taking up the House bill passed Wednesday, 352-65, that would force ByteDance to sell its U.S. interest in TikTok, or face some sort of blockage or shutdown in the country.

“The Senate will review the legislation when it comes over from the House,” CQ Roll Call quotes Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

This, despite obvious House urgency for the bill sponsored by Select China committee chair Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL).

Not on Warner's watch: From its interview with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Semafor has a much different take on the upper-chamber's timing on the TikTok bill. "We're going into a 24-hour election cycle, where literally millions of Americans get a lot of their news from this site," said the chairman of the Senate Select committee. "And if that can be manipulated against American interests -- I don't care whether you're Democrat or Republican, that is not in America's interests."

The Trump factor: Politico reports of worry that billionaire Jeff Yass, who has a 15% stake in TikTok, has influenced Trump’s flip-flop on the issue, as he has since objected to removing the social media platform from the nation. Former Trump administration Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway has signed on with Club for Growth to counter the push to ban TikTok on national security concerns.

Our take: Two things. A.) It’s a notable shift if the Senate, and not the House, takes up Trump’s cause. But after all, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is now a solid Trump backer. B.) If ByteDance is forced to sell TikTok to an American entity or face shutdown, wouldn’t Yass be in the catbird seat to buy up the 85% he doesn’t already own?

--TL

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Tick...Tick...Tick...

WEDNESDAY 3/13/24

Rrrrring -- The House passed HR 7521 Wednesday morning, 352-65, (per The Hill) that would force ByteDance to divest U.S. interest in TikTok within 165 days. That clock doesn't start ticking until the Senate passes the bill. President Biden, whose re-election campaign has used the social media platform to reach young voters, is in favor of the bill and presumably will sign it.

How to Stop a Clock – The House is expected to pass HR 7521 Wednesday, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would force China’s ByteDance to divest its U.S. interest in TikTok within 165 days over national security concerns, or face shut-down here. This, even though the House needs two-thirds majority to fast-track suspension of rules procedures that the Republican leadership plans to use, Punchbowl News reports, and even though the leader of the GOP, Donald J. Trump, has reversed his position calling for the social media phenomenon’s removal.

TikTok flip-flop: Much has been speculated about Trump’s reversal on TikTok. He proposed a ban in 2020, but more recently said that its shut-down here will give more power to Facebook, which a 2022 “documentary” blames for Trump’s 2020 re-election loss. One theory that sticks out more than most is that billionaire Jeff Yass, who has a “huge financial stake” in ByteDance according to Axios, has invited Trump to a retreat by Club for Growth, a conservative group that also opposes the ban. Yass has previously contributed $4.9 million to Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign.

Bonus social media gossip: Trump last summer asked The World’s Second-Richest Man Elon Musk whether he wanted to buy Truth Social, The Washington Post scoops Wednesday morning, citing two people “with knowledge” of the matter. Musk apparently demurred, but the conversation indicates an even closer relationship between the 91-times indicted ex-president and the owner of X than previously known.

•••

It’s … Trump v. Biden – In sports terms, the 2020 race would be Biden v. Trump, but however you put it, November’s presidential election is a rerun of the last. Ex-President Trump and President Biden both clinched their parties’ nominations Tuesday, winning primaries in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington. In addition, Donald J. Trump took the Hawaii Republican primary (Biden earlier won the state).

Georgia on my mind: Pundits point to Georgia, the state where Trump begged for 11,780 extra votes in ’20. While Biden took 95.2% of the Democratic vote (Marianne Williamson, 3%, Rep. Dean Phillips, 1.8%) Trump took 84.2% of the Republican vote, with 13.2% going to Nikki Haley and 1.3% to Ron DeSantis.

Democrats shouldn’t get too excited, though: Republican voter turnout in Georgia was more than twice that for the Democratic Party.

History: November will mark the seventh time in U.S. history that the two major party candidates will be the same as in the previous election. For those of you who are about to be contestants on Jeopardy! here are the previous six, according to Pew Research:

1952 and 1956: Dwight D. Eisenhower v. Adlai Stevenson.

1896 and 1900: William McKinley v. William Jennings Bryan.

1888 and 1892: Grover Cleveland v. Benjamin Harrison.

1836 and 1840: Martin Van Buren v. William Henry Harrison.

1824 and 1828: John Quincy Adams v. Andrew Jackson.

1796 and 1800: John Adams v. Thomas Jefferson.

•••

Not With Hur -- Perhaps it’s a sign of how well Robert K. Hur, special counsel on President Biden’s documents case, did his job that both Democrats and Republicans took shots at him in a congressional hearing Tuesday. Hur argued that he did not “exonerate” Biden in his report, and he defended his questioning of Biden’s memory, according to The Washington Post.

“I did not exonerate him. The word does not appear in the report, congresswoman,” he told Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).

Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) called him “part of the Praetorian Guard” preserving the Washington “swamp.”

Responding to a question by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) on the federal documents case against Donald J. Trump; “Sir, I’m not here to express any opinion with respect to a pending case against another defendant.”

You can read Hur's full report for the U.S. Department of Justice here.

--TL

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TUESDAY 3/12/24

Buck Out -- Rep. Ken Buck (D-CO) said last year he would not run for rr-election this November. On Tuesday, he told reporters he can't wait that long to leave.

"This place just keeps going down, and I don't want to spend my time here," Buck said (per The Hill). The 65-year-old congressman often breaks from his party on various issues, and has criticized Trumpian election denial. With his unexpected early departure, the GOP now has 218 members to 213 House Democrats.

•••

Tuesday’s Primaries – Georgia is the big one for both Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald J. Trump. There are also primaries in Mississippi, Washington and the Northern Mariana Islands, with Hawaii holding GOP caucuses, per U.S. News & World Report. The organization Democrats Abroad also hosts a primary.

•••

Biden Budget v. House GOP – The Biden administration proposes a $7.3 trillion budget for fiscal year 2025, up 4.7% from this year, but with tax raises on corporations and the wealthiest Americans to cut the deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade (per USA Today). The proposal would restore the child tax credit from the American Rescue Plan, launch a program for affordable, high-quality childcare available from birth to kindergarten and provide new mortgage relief for home buyers.

The White House’s budget is a wish list that will get lots of attention by both the Biden campaign and the Trump campaign between now and November (as Congress likely extends this fiscal year’s budget past its September 30 end), as will an alternate proposal just passed by the GOP-led House Budget Committee, according to the Huffpost. That “budget blueprint” for 2025 would shrink the deficit by $14 trillion over the next decade while extending the Trump tax cuts, which expire next year. HuffPost says “vulnerable” congressional Republicans are balking at taking a full House vote on what would be the first such Republican alt-budget to hit the floor since 2014.

--TL

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MONDAY 3/11/24

Orban Explains All -- Fresh back in Budapest from his visit to Mar-a-Lago, Hungary's authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, explained how Donald J. Trump will end the war in Ukraine if he is returned to the White House.

"He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russian war," Orban told Hungary's M1 TV channel, according to the BBC. "That is why the war will end. ... If the Americans don't give money and weapons, along with the Europeans, then this war is over. And if the Americans don't give money, the Europeans alone are unable to finance this war. And then the war is over."

We have been warned.

•••

Sweden became NATO's 31^st member nation Monday morning, NPR reports, after decades resisting joining the Western military alliance. Sweden and Finland applied for membership in May 2022. Finland joined last year, but Sweden had faced opposition from Turkey and Hungary.

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Trump Mocks Biden’s Stutter – After generally favorable reviews of his State of the Union address last Thursday for its display of the president’s energy if nothing else, Joe Biden’s stutter has become the subject of Donald J. Trump’s ridicule beginning with a rally in Georgia Sunday. Trump infamously mocked a New York Times reporter for his upper-body disability back in 2015, but this is his first such attack on Biden’s lifelong speech impediment.

What stands out about this to John Hendrickson, himself a stutterer, writes in The Atlantic is, “the sound of Trump’s supporters laughing right along with him. This is a building block of Trumpism. The man at the top gives his followers to be the worst version of themselves.”

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Oscar Speech – Mystyslav Chernov, one of three filmmakers of 20 Days in Mariupol to win the Academy Award for Documentary Feature Film Sunday night said in his acceptance speech he wishes he could exchange his Oscar statue for “Russia never Invading Ukraine.” At last year’s Academy Award ceremony Navalny took home the Oscar for the same category. Its subject, Aleksei Navalny, who died under suspicious circumstances at a Russian prison last month, led the Oscar broadcast “death reel.”

Pope chimes in on Ukraine: Pope Francis "sparked anger" last weekend after he said Ukraine should have the "courage of the white flag" and negotiate the end of the war with Russia, CNN reports. On X, Business Ukraine magazine responded with the post that the Pope "might want to consider the famous words of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu on, "neutrality"; "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."

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ICYMI – After all the hand wringing and folderol about the current fiscal year budget, its can having been kicked by continuing resolutions several times since last October, the Senate passed a $460 billion bill, 75-22 last Friday to avert a partial government shutdown (per The New York Times). Congress now has to March 22 to pass the other half of the federal budget. On Monday, President Biden unveiled his federal budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, which begins October 1.

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Up on the Hill – Both the full House and the full Senate are in session Monday through Wednesday. The Senate only is in session Thursday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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