McConnell to Step Down – "Three Johns" are lining up to replace Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who this week announced he will step down as Senate leader of the GOP (per NPR’s All Things Considered). Donald J. Trump prefers Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), so of course, Daines it is. While Democrats will forever be angry with McConnell for blocking President Obama’s SCOTUS pick in 2016, he also remains part of the shrinking anti-MAGA Republican bulwark on Capitol Hill. McConnell says he will finish the remainder of his Senate term, at least, to 2027.
FRIDAY 3/1/24
Right Column -- Headline in Friday's New York Times reads "Trump May Find Success With Strategy of Trial Delays." A pull-quote reads "The former president may face only one or two trials this year." Don't miss Stephen Macaulay's right-column commentary, "Book 'em."
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Next Week -- Super Tuesday is, well, Tuesday. President Biden's State of the Union address is Thursday.
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Navalny's Funeral -- Despite heavy state police presence thousands attended the funeral of Putin opposition leader Alexei Navalny Friday, two weeks after his unexplained death at a Russian prison in the Arctic Circle, the Associated Press reports. Funeral crowds chanted "You weren't afraid, neither are we," reports WAMU's The 1A.
Meanwhile, in the Kremlin ... Vladimir Putin, who obviously did not attend Navalny's funeral, warned of nuclear attacks on the West if it intervenes more directly in Russia's war on Ukraine, Thursday (per The New York Times). Speaking at his annual state-of-the-nation address, Putin said NATO countries helping Ukraine strike Russian territories or potentially planning to deploy their own troops "must, in the end, understand (that) all this truly threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and therefore the destruction of civilization."
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Meanwhile, on Our Own Southern Border -- Thursday was, of course, the Big Day of dueling presidential candidates on the southern border with Mexico. In one corner, incumbent President Biden said from Brownsville, Texas, the U.S. needs a "new, efficient and fair process for the government to consider asylum claims."
In the other corner, incumbent President Biden-denier Donald J. Trump -- who infamously scuttled the bipartisan border agreement recently via House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) -- said from Eagle Pass a "vicious violation of our country" is already underway. (Reporting by The Washington Post.)
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War Casualties -- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week conceded that 31,000 of his fellow Ukrainians have been killed by Russian troops since its invasion two years ago, a lower number than U.S. military estimates, according to The 1A. Since Hamas' bloody attack on Israel last October 7, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the health ministry there (multiple news sources).
Latest was that "scores" were killed when the IDF opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians near a convoy of food aid trucks Thursday (per NYT). The Gaza health ministry issued a statement that more than 100 were killed and more than 700 injured as they waited for food from the convoy. Israel says its forces were firing in defense, and that most casualties were the result of a stampede for supplies. Meanwhile, chances are growing dim for a ceasefire negotiated between Hamas and Israel and the Biden State Department before Ramadan.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
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LEAP DAY 2024
Border Lines – President Biden visits the Tex-Mex border in Brownsville Thursday where he will try to turn the tables on the narrative he is responsible for a “crisis” there and point out that Donald J. Trump conspired with MAGA Congress members to block a bill that would have tackled said crisis while funding Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan defense and the whole damn federal government (per NPR’s Morning Edition).
Trump, meanwhile … goes to Eagle Pass where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is in a sort of “states’ rights” fight, having kicked out U.S. Border Patrol and replacing them with the Texas National Guard.
Expect plenty of quotables Thursday.
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Wasting Away Again in SCOTUSville – The Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to rule on Donald J. Trump’s immunity claim from prosecution over criminal charges he conspired to overturn the 2020 presidential election, SCOTUSblog reports. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan had initially set March 4 as the trial date but tossed that idea when it became clear the SCOTUS ruling would push timing back toward the November 5 election, when Trump will have the chance to win back the White House and throw out the charges along with Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Meanwhile, in the Windy City: Citing the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection ban” Cook County Judge Tracie Porter ordered Donald J. Trump removed from the Illinois ballot, but put her decision on-hold to Friday, as she is expecting an appeal by the former president’s attorneys, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Meanwhile, on CNN: Asked by Kaitlan Collins whether he would vote for Donald J. Trump over President Biden, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who leaves the Senate when his term ends next year said on The Source “No, no, no … absolutely not.” A Trump re-election would end the United States’ status as the Arsenal of Democracy and Reaganesque “shining city on a hill” Romney said, and while he prefers Trump’s domestic policy, especially at the southern border, the lame-duck senator believes Trump lacks the character necessary for the job.
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Two-Tiered Can Kicked – With at least 36 hours to go before partial government shutdown, congressional leaders reached an agreement Thursday to get the funding can down the road on the way to full federal funding. The deal extends Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Transportation-HUD one week to March 8, according to CQ Roll Call, when it would join Interior-Environment and Commerce-Justice-Science in a continuing resolution to March 22, at which point Congress will theoretically have time to finish a bill to fund the government for the current fiscal year. Which means it comes up again at the end of September for FY2025.
--TL
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WEDNESDAY 2/28/24
Michigan Primary Results -- President Biden garnered 81.3% of the Democratic primary vote in Michigan, to the Palestinian protest vote of 12.8% for "uncommitted," per CNN. But the raw number for that uncommitted vote was 75,768, far above the 10,000-vote margin Donald J. Trump scored there against Hilary Clinton in 2016, the goal for the Arab American protest. And in Dearborn, where nearly half the population is ethnically Arab, Biden's margin of victory was only 56% to 41%, according to MSNBC's Steve Kornacki.
Meanwhile, Donald J. Trump trounced Nikki Haley in Michigan, 68% to 26.7% (CNN).
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TUESDAY 2/27/24
Ramadan Ceasefire? – Israel could reach a temporary ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan next week if a hostage release deal is reached, President Biden announced Monday, according to The Washington Post. Biden said on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers his advisors were still working out the details and could have an announcement by Monday.
However, Israel says it will continue fighting in Gaza after such a pause.
Meanwhile, the U.S. senior airman who self-immolated Monday at the Israeli embassy in Washington shouting “free Palestine,” has been identified as Aaron Bushnell, 25. According to the WaPo, Bushnell grew up on a religious compound and had an anarchist past.
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Michigan’s Primary is Tuesday – President Biden faces challenger “uncommitted” as the state’s large Arab American population is expected to express anger at the White House’s support for Israel’s occupation of Gaza. If at least 10,000 voters chose “uncommitted” it will equal the margin by which Donald J. Trump beat Hilary Clinton in Michigan in 2016 (per NPR’s Morning Edition).
Meanwhile, Trump faces not so much Nikki Haley, but rather a Michigan GOP structure split in two.
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It’s Back – Senators returned to Washington Monday to quickly begin working a spending bill in order to avoid a government shutdown that could begin in some federal departments Saturday and extend through eight others a week later. President Biden was scheduled to hold a White House meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Appropriators appear ready to pass Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development before the Friday midnight deadline, CQ Roll Call reports, and Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) says these four are “close to being completed,” though lawmakers are working on a stopgap funding resolution just in case.
The remaining spending bills due March 8 are said to be a “heavier lift” according to Roll Call’s report, and a continuing resolution kicking this can to March 22 is being considered. It would be Congress’ fourth CR for this year’s budget.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
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The Day After Super Tuesday
By Todd Lassa (MON 2/26/24)
The New York Times might have come up with a less-predictable headline than “Haley Is Dealt Stinging Loss in Home State,” at the top of its front page Sunday. The “stinging loss” had been predicted for weeks following her second-place finish to None of These Candidates February 6th in Nevada, and her 43% to Donald J. Trump’s 55% in New Hampshire two weeks earlier.
To be fair to Haley, who knew as well as anyone she would lose the primary in her home state, the 59.8% of the South Carolina vote Trump took (for 47 delegates), to the former governor and UN ambassador’s 39.5% (four delegates) is a better result for her than the 64% to 33% result an average of state polls had predicted, as counted by 538 last Friday.
Then there’s Haley’s political history in the state. As several outlets including the NYT recalled, Nikki Haley won her first South Carolina gubernatorial election in 2010 as an alt-Republican Tea Party candidate in 2010.
The Tea Party gave Haley her political life. Now it has taken it away.
Haley would seem to have a better chance in a purple state – perhaps Michigan, which holds its primary Tuesday. In Michigan, pundits’ eyes will be diverted – somewhat – to the Democratic ticket where President Biden faces the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, many of them angry over his support of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Nikki Haley says she will stick it out at least until Super Tuesday, which comes a week after Michigan, on March 5.
Now along comes another NYT news report late Sunday saying that the Koch brothers’ political action group, Americans for Prosperity Action has suspended its support of Haley, after spending millions on her with hopes of driving a stake through the heart of MAGA politics. If you need to be truly startled by a specific stinging loss suffered by Haley, this would be the one.
Elsewhere Sunday, Politico Playbook ran its own Reader's Digest take on The Atlantic’s entire January/February issue warning of the ramifications of a Trump victory in November.
“A wide range of our Politico colleagues have a thorough examination of how Donald Trump’s return to the White House would blow the policy agenda from his first go-around out of the water,” including abortion bans in blue as well as red states, climate science denial, expanded trade fights against allies as well as rivals, expanded classroom culture wars, attempts to kill the electric vehicle movement (MAGA-friendly Elon Musk notwithstanding), neutering the federal election watchdog, deploying U.S. troops on Americans, loosening controls on crypto … oh, and abandoning NATO and maybe even bombing Mexico.
The last GOP candidate standing between a repeat of the Biden v. Trump showdown, Nikki Haley, is now abandoned by the Koch brothers PAC so they can try to beat the MAGA faction on Capitol Hill. How much good will that do when MAGA congressmembers, already a minority, are running the House?