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Migrants converging on El Paso fuel calls for border crackdown

Increased migrant border crossings near El Paso are drawing attention back to the border, as Congress grapples with must-pass end of year legislation that could include an immigration deal.

The focus on border chaos has fueled calls for draconian measures, including extending the much-criticized Title 42 border control policy, which was ruled illegal by a federal judge last month and is due to end on Dec. 21.

The crisis in El Paso, where shelters are saturated and some migrants are being forced to sleep in the streets, showcases how an overwhelmed federal asylum program has been unable to keep up with growing hemispheric migration flows.

“The impact of the pandemic just imploded economies everywhere, especially in the really badly governed countries like Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua,” said Adam Isacson, director for defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America.

“On top of that is the same phenomenon that happened even during the Trump years, where people who come in and ask for asylum get to stay here for several years, because our asylum system is so busted up. And then they get on WhatsApp and tell everybody back in their community how they got in,” added Isacson.

The combination of a growing external supply of migrants and an overwhelmed system remains unaddressed in U.S. lawmaking, but the endless political debate over immigration have created their own bogeymen and proposals on how to counter them.

For instance, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Wednesday asked his attorney general, Ken Paxton, to investigate nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) for allegedly aiding migrants to cross the border, and a coalition of two Republicans and two conservative Democrats pleaded with the Biden administration to find a way to continue summary expulsions of migrants after Title 42.

Under Title 42, border officials are allowed to expel nationals of certain countries without screening for asylum requests, a measure that’s arguably a violation of U.S. asylum law, but one that greatly reduces the workload for U.S. border officials while avoiding the release of foreign nationals to the interior of the country.

Proponents of stricter border measures have centered their appeals both on the desires of Customs and Border Patrol staff and on a perceived need to minimize the entry of foreign nationals into the United States through the asylum process.

“It’s OK to listen to immigration activists, it’s OK to do that, that’s one perspective,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), one of the co-signers of the Title 42 extension plea, told CNN.

“But who’s listening to the men and women in green and blue, and more importantly, who’s listening to our border communities?” he asked.

Cities along the border, like El Paso, have long complained that they are unfairly burdened with providing social services to new immigrants, many of whom are in the early days of adjusting to life in the United States.

But the plea for the interior to share the burden of onboarding newcomers to the country has become inextricably linked with the push to further gut the asylum process and attempt to seal the border.

Even as Republicans show no signs of easing off on criticism of the Biden administration’s border policies, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is pushing its own plan to shrink the asylum system.

The Biden administration, which is appealing the Title 42 ruling in court, has been leaking details of future plans to limit the number of people who qualify for asylum, essentially delivering another punch to a dilapidated system.

According to several reports, DHS plans to enact a “transit ban,” taking yet another page from the Trump administration’s menagerie of draconian immigration measures.

That transit ban would require the collaboration of third countries, most likely Mexico, to take in people who left their countries to seek asylum in the United States but were denied.

But most regional migration experts agree that such a plan, even if it succeeded in returning a large number of people to Mexico, would do little to quell migration flows in the Western Hemisphere.

“Lots of Latin America is sort of a lost decade at this point. People are a lot hungrier, and you layer on droughts and floods, storms and all the other things that are going on, there’s more reason to leave,” said Isacson.

And security conditions in Mexico have worsened, at times provoking mass runs on the border, like the push on El Paso over the weekend.

A substantial number of the migrants requesting asylum in El Paso are Nicaraguan nationals — ineligible for Title 42 processing — who entered Mexico in late November and were given 30 days to cross the country.

About 1,500 of those migrants, traveling on 50 buses, were kidnapped Dec. 2 by an armed group near the city of Gómez Palacio, some 450 miles south of El Paso.

According to local daily El Heraldo de Chihuahua, the Mexican National Guard — a militarized federal police force — accidentally stumbled onto the safe houses where the migrants were kept, and the kidnappers fled.

“They were freed by the authorities, and then basically the authorities just put them on buses towards the border so that they could be whisked out of the country,” said Isacson.

Source: TEST FEED1

Majority of Americans say Trump's Constitution comments disqualifying: poll 

More than half of Americans in a new poll think former President Trump’s call for the Constitution’s election rules to be terminated should disqualify him from running for the White House in 2024. 

A Quinnipiac University Poll released Wednesday found that 51 percent of registered voters think the former president’s recent comments should keep him off the 2024 ballot, while 40 percent say he shouldn’t be disqualified over the matter. 

Broken down by party, 86 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of independents think the remarks should disqualify him, while just 17 percent of Republicans think the same.

Trump announced his 2024 bid shortly after the November midterm elections saw disappointing results for the GOP and losses in key races by some of Trump’s top endorsees.

Trump earlier this month took to Truth Social to argue that the 2020 presidential election saw “a Massive Fraud” that “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” 

“Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!” Trump wrote.

His claims followed new discourse about Twitter‘s handling of a 2020 New York Post article on President Biden’s son Hunter Biden. 

Trump has tried to walk back his comments and insist he wasn’t calling for the Constitution’s termination. 

But he former president further wrote that “if an election is irrefutably fraudulent, it should go to the rightful winner or, at a minimum, be redone. Where open and blatant fraud is involved, there should be no time limit for change!” 

The Quinnipiac poll also found Trump’s favorability has reached new lows among both Republican voters and voters at large, with just 31 percent of Americans reporting a favorable view of the former president. 

Conducted Dec. 8-12, the poll surveyed 1,456 registered U.S. voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Fed slows down rate hikes amid early signs of inflation easing

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday issued its smallest interest rate hike since June as the central bank attempts to curb high inflation without derailing a surprisingly resilient economy.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the panel of Fed officials responsible for monetary policy, bumped up the bank’s baseline interest range by 0.5 percentage points Wednesday to a span of 4.25 to 4.5 percent. All 12 voting members of the FOMC approved the hike.

After issuing four straight rate hikes of 0.75 percentage points earlier in the year, the Fed’s smaller Wednesday increase marks a turning point in its battle with high inflation. 

Even so, U.S. households will still see rates on mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards rise well into next year. And Fed leaders are on track to keep interest rates high until inflation is finally quashed for good.

“We’ve taken forceful actions to tighten the stance of monetary policy. We’ve covered a lot of ground and the full effects of our rapid tightening so far are yet to be felt. Even so we have more work to do,” said Fed Chair Jerome Powell at press conference following the announcement.

FOMC members now expect to hike interest rates to a span of 5 to 5.25 percent by the end of next year, according to projections released Wednesday, up from the 4.5 to 4.75 range officials projected in September.

Fed officials do not expect to begin cutting interest rates again until 2024, according to current projections.

“The committee decided to raise interest rates by 50 basis points today a step down from the 75 basis point pace seen over the previous four meetings. Of course 50 basis points is still a historically large increase, and we still have some ways to go,” Powell said.

“What we’re writing down today is our best estimate of what we think that that peak rate will be based on what we know,” Powell continued. “Obviously, if data if the inflation data come in worse, that could move up. It could move down if inflation data are are softer.”

Fed officials are attempting to balance promising signs of inflation slowing with concerns about a strong economy spurring it higher. 

The annual inflation rate as measured by the consumer price index (CPI) fell to 7.1 percent in November from 7.7 percent in October, according to data released Tuesday by the Labor Department. While annual inflation has fallen well below its peak of 9.1 percent in June, it’s still much higher than the Fed’s target of 2 percent. 

With inflation still high, Fed officials have been reluctant to ease up on interest rate hikes, which are meant to reduce inflation by slowing the economy. Higher interest rates leave households and businesses with less money to spend, forcing businesses to freeze or cut prices to compensate for the drop in sales.

While Fed’s rapid rate hikes have triggered a severe slowdown in the housing sector and a decline in stock values, the rest of the economy has held strong. The U.S. is still adding more than 200,000 jobs a month, consumer spending is still rising and retail sales have held strong.

But many economists are still fearful that the combination of higher interest rates, slowing growth abroad and delayed impacts of Fed rate hikes will tip the U.S. into recession if the Fed doesn’t relieve some pressure on the economy.

Fed officials also appear to be losing faith in their ability to curb inflation without a blow to the U.S. economy.

The FOMC’s median estimate of the December 2023 unemployment rate was 4.6 percent, up from a September estimate of 4.4 percent and much higher than the November jobless rate of 3.7 percent. Fed officials also projected gross domestic product (GDP) of just 0.5 percent for 2023, which would keep the U.S. barely out of a retraction.

Updated at 2:44 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Raffensperger calls on Georgia to end runoff elections

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is calling on legislators to do away with the state’s runoff system for general elections, arguing that the process places too heavy a burden on voters and election officials. 

“Georgia is one of the only states in [the] country with a General Election Runoff,” Raffensperger, a Republican, said in a statement Wednesday. “We’re also one of the only states that always seems to have a runoff. I’m calling on the General Assembly to visit the topic of the General Election Runoff and consider reforms.”

His comments came just over a week after Georgia held its second Senate runoff election in less than two years. That race saw Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) defeat Republican Herschel Walker, adding one more seat to Democrats’ Senate majority. 

State law currently requires a candidate to receive more than 50 percent of the vote in a general election to win outright. If no candidate hits that threshold, the race heads to a runoff between the top two vote-getters.

It’s a relatively unusual system. Only one other state, Louisiana, requires runoffs when no candidate receives a majority of the vote. In most other states, candidates only needs to win a plurality of the vote to clinch victory, while Maine and Alaska rely on ranked-choice voting to decide elections.

Georgia’s runoff election system became even more demanding under a new law put into place last year that significantly shortened the runoff period from nine weeks to just four weeks — a time frame that ran through the Thanksgiving holiday season. 

In his statement, Raffensperger said that the state’s general election runoff system was simply too demanding and put undue pressure on county officials and voters, especially during the holidays.

“No one wants to be dealing with politics in the middle of their family holiday,” he said. “It’s even tougher on the counties who had a difficult time completing all of their deadlines, an election audit and executing a runoff in a four-week time period.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden on 10 years since Sandy Hook: 'We should have societal guilt' for inaction on gun violence

President Biden on Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary that left 20 children and six teachers dead, saying the country has made progress on gun violence but must do more.

“We should have societal guilt for taking too long to deal with this problem,” Biden said in a statement. “We have a moral obligation to pass and enforce laws that can prevent these things from happening again. We owe it to the courageous, young survivors and to the families who lost part of their soul 10 years ago to turn their pain into purpose.”

Biden has signed executive orders since taking office cracking down on the proliferation of so-called ghost guns, which are more difficult to trace and track.

And earlier this year he signed into law a bipartisan bill bolstering red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to confiscate weapons from dangerous individuals, closing the so-called boyfriend loophole and enhancing background checks for those ages 18-21.

“Still, we must do more. I am determined to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines like those used at Sandy Hook and countless other mass shootings in America,” Biden said. “Enough is enough. Our obligation is clear. We must eliminate these weapons that have no purpose other than to kill people in large numbers. It is within our power to do this — for the sake of not only the lives of the innocents lost, but for the survivors who still hope.”

Biden was serving as vice president at the time of the Sandy Hook shooting, and he led a task force to develop recommendations for then-President Obama on how to address gun violence and mass shootings.

Obama ultimately signed a package of executive orders, but Congress failed to pass legislation banning assault weapons or instituting universal background checks after they stalled in the Senate.

Biden repeatedly mentions his desire to reinstitute an assault weapons ban, bringing it up at fundraisers and economic speeches. Biden led efforts as a senator to pass an assault weapons ban in 1994, but the ban expired after 10 years and was not renewed.

Source: TEST FEED1

White House: GOP lawmaker's call for martial law 'disgusting affront' to country's principles

The White House on Wednesday pushed back on newly published texts from Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) that showed him urging the Trump administration to impose martial law in its waning days.

“Plotting against the rule of law and to subvert the will of the people is a disgusting affront to our deepest principles as a country,” deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement. “We all, regardless of party, need to stand up for mainstream values and the Constitution, against dangerous, ultra MAGA conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric.”

Talking Points Memo on Monday published texts from Republican lawmakers that were sent to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the final days of Trump’s presidency.

One of the messages was from Norman three days prior to President Biden’s inauguration, in which the congressman urged Meadows to encourage Trump to impose martial law — something that he considered “our last hope” in “saving our Republic.”

In a statement to local news outlets on Tuesday, Norman said the text about imposing martial law came from “a source of frustration” about the 2020 election and its use was not warranted.

The Norman texts were published on the heels of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) telling a gala in New York over the weekend that the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection would have been more successful had she and former Trump strategist Stephen Bannon organized it. 

The White House similarly rebuked those comments, calling them a “slap in the face” to law enforcement who responded to the riots that day.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Hill's Morning Report — Lawmakers agree on framework for government funding

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

Just days before a deadline that would have triggered a government shutdown, lawmakers have struck a much-anticipated deal on a framework for a so-called omnibus spending bill to fund the government for fiscal 2023.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) late Tuesday said in a statement that negotiators had “reached a bipartisan, bicameral framework that should allow us to finish an omnibus appropriations bill that can pass the House and Senate and be signed into law by the President.”

House Appropriations Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said that the House and Senate Appropriations committees will “work around the clock” to negotiate the final spending bills for 2023 (The Hill).

“We have a framework that provides a path forward to enact an omnibus next week,” she said in a statement.

Negotiators didn’t release government funding totals when they announced the deal, but appropriators have largely settled on an $858 billion defense budget in recent weeks, a 10 percent boost over current funding levels. Domestic funding levels proved the major hangup between both parties in recent weeks as talks stalled, eventually boiling down to a $26 billion difference in nondefense spending.

Democrats had signaled a willingness to move toward the Senate GOP position earlier on Tuesday in order to secure a deal before Republicans take control of the House in January. With a bipartisan framework and legislative text largely written, lawmakers could be on track to clear the omnibus just before the holidays. 

Current government funding runs out this Friday, but both the House and Senate are expected to pass a one-week stopgap spending bill to give appropriators more time to pass the omnibus bill before Dec. 23 (Roll Call and Politico).

Vox: Why the government is constantly on the verge of shutting down.

The committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will hold its final event on Monday, during which it will release its list of criminal referrals and vote to publish its final report two days later. Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told reporters Tuesday that the committee has sped up its timeline to cap its more than yearlong investigation (The Hill).

“We looked at the schedule, and it appears we can complete our work a little bit before that,” he said. “So why not get it to the public as quick as we can.”

Looking back on the midterms, McConnell on Tuesday blamed the power former President Trump exerted in GOP primaries for the “candidate quality” issues his party struggled with in key races — including Arizona, New Hampshire and Georgia, where Trump-backed candidates lost at the ballot box. He said that some Republicans had forgotten the lessons of the 2010 and 2012 elections, when the GOP fumbled good opportunities to win races because extreme or controversial Republican candidates won those years’ primaries.

“I do think we had the opportunity to relearn one more time [that] you have to have quality candidates to win competitive senate races,” he said. 

In addition to candidate quality issues, many swing voters saw the Republican Party as too extreme in the midterms — and two new controversies aren’t helping to change that image, writes The Hill’s Niall Stanage. Comments from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) about Jan. 6 and the revelation that Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) wanted martial law to be imposed to keep Trump in power both present new headaches for those who argue the GOP has to show a more electable face.

One Republican facing questions about his political future after the midterms is Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.), writes The Hill’s Max Greenwood. Scott has found himself at the center of multiple dramas over the past year, ranging from his rollout of a policy agenda that was panned by many in his party to his quarrel with McConnell over the quality of the GOP’s Senate candidates. The GOP’s failed effort to recapture control of the Senate has only intensified the criticism of Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), raising questions about his role in the party.

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, meanwhile, is facing her clearest leadership challenge to date, and yet her job appears to be as safe as ever, The Hill’s Brett Samuels reports. Much of the finger-pointing in the wake of the GOP’s underwhelming midterm showing has been directed at McDaniel, but the process of choosing an RNC leader is designed to insulate an incumbent from an outside challenge, making it unlikely the organization will move on from McDaniel before 2024.

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: US announces breakthrough on fusion energy.

▪ Politico: The 2024 presidential campaigns of both Trump and Biden are riddled with uncertainties. That means other presidential hopefuls are lying low — for now.

▪ CNN: Recount reconfirms Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-Colo.) victory in Colorado’s 3rd District.

▪ The Washington Post: Democratic senators sidestep Arizona race after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I) leaves party.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ CONGRESS

Online attacks against LGBTQ people have skyrocketed in recent months, rising in lockstep with proposed policies seeking to roll back LGBTQ rights and culminating in real-world violence, writes The Hill’s Brooke Migdon. A House committee today is set to investigate the connection in a first-of-its kind hearing with testimony from policy experts and survivors of mass shootings motivated by anti-LGBTQ hate.

▪ Reuters: Lawmakers unveil bipartisan bid to ban China’s TikTok.

▪ Roll Call: House Democrats reject committee term limit proposal.

▪ Vanity Fair: “They don’t see us”: Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) is eyeing a leadership role to leverage her platform and profile at a time when women’s rights are under attack in a post-Roe world.

A bill to allow Puerto Ricans an open vote on their status is up in the air as competing political forces from San Juan to Washington wrestle over a dying deal that months ago was hailed as a generational breakthrough, The Hill’s Rafael Bernal reports. The Puerto Rico Status Act — which details the transition to and implementation of a non-territory status for Puerto Rico of either statehood, independence or sovereignty in free association with the U.S. — cleared the House Natural Resources Committee in July, raising hopes among supporters that it would quickly receive a House vote and go to the Senate.

➤ ADMINISTRATION

President Biden on Tuesday signed legislation to safeguard marriage equality after Congress approved federal protections for same-sex marriage. Biden has championed the Respect for Marriage Act, with the White House describing the bill as “personal” to him. He signed the legislation at a celebratory event at the White House with more than 2,000 attendees.

“The road for the moment has been long but those who believe in equality and justice, you never gave up,” Biden said Tuesday. “Many of you standing on the South Lawn here. So many of you put your relationships on the line, your jobs on the line, your lives on the line to fight for the law I’m about to sign.”

The bill passed the House on Thursday in a 258-169-1 vote, with 39 Republicans joining all Democrats in supporting the measure. The Senate cleared the measure last week in a 61-38 vote; 12 GOP senators joined on to the bill once it included an amendment outlining some protections for religious beliefs (The Hill and NPR).

Biden is hosting 50 leaders from Africa in Washington this week for a critical summit about trade, investments, elections and the future of the U.S. relationship with the continent. As The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Brett Samuels report, it is the first time since 2014 the White House will host a summit with African leaders and reinforces the Biden administration’s priority of seeking greater collaboration on the economy and climate and to counter Chinese and Russian influence. 

The U.S.-Africa Summit comes amid concerns over global food security during the war in Ukraine, as well as Biden’s ongoing concern about strengthening democracies abroad. 

Biden is under increasing pressure to secure the release of ex-Marine Paul Whelan following the release of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for WNBA star Brittney Griner, write The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Laura Kelly. 

The Whelan family has voiced support for the president’s efforts to secure Griner’s release and increased focus on Whelan’s return, but Biden has been attacked by Republicans and Trump. They allege that the administration negotiated an unfair and dangerous trade with Bout and isn’t focused enough on Whelan.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

The U.S. is finalizing plans to give Ukraine its coveted Patriot missile defense systems following months of Russian missile and drone attacks on the country’s power grid, cities and civilian infrastructure. If the administration goes forward with the deal, the Patriot would be the most sophisticated system Washington has provided Kyiv since the war began in February (The Wall Street Journal).

Russia today attacked Kyiv with 13 Iranian-made drones, according to Ukrainian officials. Most of the drones were destroyed by air defenses, and there were no immediate reports of casualties (Reuters). The withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine by the end of the year is “out of the question,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday, adding that any peace deal with Kyiv was “impossible” (The Washington Post).

▪ Reuters: The supply chain that keeps tech flowing to Russia.

▪ The Washington Post: Peru’s Pedro Castillo says he’s still president; some international allies agree.

▪ The New York Times: The prince accused of a plot to overthrow the government in Germany is said to have visited Russian diplomats.

Today’s faceoff between France and Morocco in the World Cup semifinal in Doha, Qatar, will be about more than just soccer. From their past colonial ties to contemporary waves of immigration, the two nations are intertwined by a century-old shared history and culture. Many hope that these bonds, embodied by a vast community of dual nationals, will give the game a fraternal tone.

Anas Daif, a French Moroccan who was born near Paris, told The New York Times he thought about the pride that Morocco’s historic run during the tournament has brought to Africa and the Arab world — and how emblematic a victory over its former colonizer would be.

“I realized my heart went out to Morocco,” Daif said. “It’s a support rooted in greater symbolism.”

▪ The Washington Post: For Morocco, a World Cup run that transcends the sport.

▪ NPR: Lionel Messi’s dream lives on as Argentina defeats Croatia to reach the World Cup final.

➤ FINANCE 

Inflation slowed more sharply than expected in November, in an encouraging sign for the Federal Reserve and consumers, hinting that 18 months of rapid price increases may be starting to drop. Stock prices jumped sharply after data showed that inflation eased to 7.1 percent in the year through November, down from 7.7 percent.

Despite this, the new data is unlikely to alter the Fed’s plan to raise interest rates by another half-point today. But the moderation in inflation has caused investors to speculate that the Fed could pursue a less aggressive policy path next year — potentially increasing the chances of a “soft landing,” or one in which the economy slows gradually and without a painful recession (The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal).

Biden on Tuesday sought to capitalize on the news that inflation numbers are cooling after months of facing political derision for rising prices (The Washington Post).

“Inflation is coming down in America,” Biden said from the White House. “Look, I know it’s been a rough few years for hard-working Americans and for small business as well — and for a lot of folks things are still pretty rough. But there are bright spots all across America. We’re beginning to see the impact of our economic strategy. And we’re just getting started.”

▪ The Hill: Five ways inflation is shaping the economy. 

▪ Bloomberg News: U.S. inflation relief is finally happening, putting Fed pause in view.

After two years of tax policy being at the center of major legislative vehicles, the focus in 2023 may turn to how the IRS uses $80 billion in new funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, writes The Hill’s Tobias Burns. The bulk of the IRS’s new funding will be distributed over the next decade and involve training thousands of new workers to perform more complicated audits, but more immediately, the money will be used to hire additional staff to pick up the phone and answer questions as well as grind through a backlog of millions of tax returns. 

“The two places where I expect we’ll see immediate effects of the funding is getting the phone answered and the backlog of tax returns finally cleared, getting people their refunds,” Howard Gleckman, an analyst with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, told The Hill. “People should start to see these benefits early next year when tax season starts in February.” 

The Hill: What to watch for in the housing market in 2023. 

OPINION

■  What the debate over guns tells us about America, by Sheryll Cashin, contributor, Politico Magazine. https://politi.co/3W9YvQe 

■ Historic advance in nuclear fusion is truly something to celebrate, by Megan McArdle, columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3hmNQTx

WHERE AND WHEN

👉 The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will convene at 10 a.m. and discuss the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to the Further Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2023.

The Senate will convene at 10 a.m.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9 a.m. At 1:30 p.m., the president will speak at the U.S.-Africa Business Forum at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington. At 3:40 p.m., Biden will host a small group multilateral meeting with leaders at the White House. He and first lady Jill Biden will host the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit dinner at the White House at 7 p.m., which will be attended by Vice President Harris and second gentleman Dough Emhoff.

The vice president will attend the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit dinner at the White House.

The first lady at 10 a.m. will host a spousal program at the REACH at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts as part of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. She will attend the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit dinner at the White House.

The second gentleman will attend and speak at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit spousal program. He will attend the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit dinner at the White House.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will participate in the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington. At 7 p.m., he will speak at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Foreign Ministers Dinner at the State Department.

ELSEWHERE

 ➤ TECH

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried with organizing a scheme to defraud investors after he was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday, writes The Hill’s Tobias Burns. Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange unexpectedly announced bankruptcy in November. 

“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a news release.

In addition to the charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, Bankman-Fried on Tuesday was also charged with violating a slew of campaign finance laws, including conspiring to make campaign contributions above the federal limit on donations. As The Hill’s Julia Manchester writes, the charges against Bankman-Fried in relation to campaign finance laws are notable given his status as one of the most prominent political donors in this campaign cycle. 

▪ The Hill: FTX hearing: Six big revelations from House panel questioning.

▪ The New York Times: The new FTX chief says the company appeared to use “old-fashioned embezzlement.”

▪ Reuters: How a secret software change allowed FTX to use client money.

▪ Bloomberg News: Bankman-Fried’s arrest in Bahamas sets up a U.S. extradition fight.

Elon Musk’s conquest of the Twitter-verse has sent hordes of mostly left-leaning users scrambling for a social-media backup plan, The Hill’s Daniel de Visé reports. 

They set off in waves: first when Musk announced plans to acquire Twitter, then when he made good on his pledge and now in response to a series of inflammatory tweets from the Tesla billionaire that seemed tailored to provoke the left. But few, if any, of the disaffected have actually closed their Twitter accounts, instead opening new ones, often on a previously unknown startup called Mastodon. Now, they are monitoring Twitter to see how it all plays out.

The New York Times: Musk shakes up Twitter’s legal team as he looks to cut more costs. Twitter has stopped paying rent on offices and is considering not paying severance packages to former employees.

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH 

Masks are back, and, this time, they’re not there to protect against COVID-19. A “tripledemic” of the coronavirus, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus is sweeping through the United States. Several cities and counties, including New York City and Los Angeles County, have encouraged people to wear a mask in indoor public spaces once again.

Nationwide, COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations have spiked by 56 percent and 24 percent, respectively, over the past two weeks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there have already been 13 million illnesses and 7,300 deaths from flu this season. Those numbers are expected to rise in the coming months (The New York Times and U.S. News).

Information about COVID-19 vaccine and booster shot availability can be found at Vaccines.gov.

▪ DCist: Less than a third of D.C. nursing home residents and staff are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines.

▪ The New York Times: When Black psychiatrists reach out to teens of color.

▪ Reuters: Positive Moderna, Merck cancer vaccine data advances mRNA promise, shares rise.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,085,251. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 2,981 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

And finally … 🌌 It’s dusty up there! While scientists have seen plenty of dust devils on Mars, they’ve now heard one for the first time. A vortex has made a direct hit on NASA’s Perseverance rover, peppering the spacecraft with dust and whispering into a microphone that the team had included in its package of instruments.

The findings, published Tuesday, come with a trove of data that has thrilled scientists who are aware just how much influence Martian dust has on the planet’s climate. 

The fine-grained particles can damage scientific instruments on Martian landers and rovers and potentially blanket their solar panels, rendering them useless. Being able to study the rover’s recordings can provide insights into the way dust affects current Mars missions and maybe even future human exploration (The Washington Post).

“As the dust devil passed over Perseverance we could actually hear individual impacts of grains on the rover,” Naomi Murdoch, a planetary scientist at ISAE-SUPAERO, an aerospace engineering institute in Toulouse, France, and the author of the new report, told the Post. “We could actually count them.”

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Biden looks to reassert US influence in Africa with summit

President Biden is hosting 50 leaders from Africa in Washington this week for a high-profile summit seeking to bolster future relations with the continent and counter Chinese and Russian influence.

It is the first time since 2014 the White House will host a summit with African leaders as the Biden administration seeks greater collaboration on trade, investments, elections and climate change. 

The U.S.-Africa Summit comes while some African nations refuse to take a stance against Russia, amid concerns over global food security during the war in Ukraine and as part of Biden’s ongoing efforts to strengthen democracies abroad.

Experts believe Biden’s greatest challenge will be proving to African leaders that the U.S. can be a reliable, long-term partner for a fast-growing continent that has significant sway in the global economy and diplomatic community.

“They don’t see us as a long-term partner. They don’t see us as trusted. They see us as kind of unreliable. And this summit is the start of the effort to try to rewrite that narrative,” said Cameron Hudson, a senior associate in the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Hudson noted Biden has not held many White House visits or meetings on the sidelines of the United Nations with African leaders compared to his predecessors. But the continent is home to key minerals for global supply chains, and its growing population means it will also provide an increasing percentage of the global workforce.

African nations make up roughly a quarter of the United Nations General Assembly, and many of those nations either abstained or broke from the U.S. earlier this year on a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The African leaders’ reaction to the war in Ukraine played a large role in the decision for the Biden administration to hold the summit, experts said.

“There’s a part of me that sort of feels that the American policy establishment is shaken by the African reaction to the Ukraine conflict. And this seems to be an overture. This seems to be born out of a realization that things aren’t what they used to be,” said Ebenezer Obadare, the Douglas Dillon senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

“And if the United States is going to have to hold on to its allies in the region, it is going to have to do some smooching.”

The U.S. is working through a long-term strategy on diplomacy with Africa that has a lot to do with Russia’s focus on the continent, as well as China’s, Obadare added.

“I won’t believe it for a minute if anybody says it’s got nothing to do with Russia,” he said. “I think the United States is thinking much more in the longer term. … How did we drop the ball to such an extent that we allowed China and Russia to gain so much hold in the continent that we’re actually scrambling?” 

“You’re looking beyond the immediate need to wrest African countries away from Russia to regaining the affections of those countries and consolidating American interest in Africa,” he added.

The White House this week sought to allay concerns that the summit will be a one-off event or that Biden’s focus on Africa will fall by the wayside once it is over.

Biden during the summit will announce the U.S. is committing $55 billion to Africa over the next three years.

He will also announce his support for the African Union to join the Group of 20 permanently and his support for the U.N. Security Council to include a permanent member from the African continent. Additionally, a commitment on travel to Africa in 2023 is expected.

The U.S. will name Ambassador Johnnie Carson, who was assistant secretary of State for the bureau of African affairs and has held ambassadorships to Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Uganda, to be the new special representative for U.S. Africa Leaders Summit implementation.

But the White House has insisted the summit is not about trying to sway an African nation into taking a side against Russia.

“We’re not putting a gun to anyone’s head. We believe that the war in Ukraine is a matter of principle,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday. ”But we’re not imposing conditionality.”

”We’re not approaching this from the point of view of coercing other countries,” he added.

Obadare, though, noted that the U.S. may want commitments from African countries while they are providing deliverables to Africa during this three-day summit.

“I think that the long-term question will be if America stays the course … African countries want certain commitments from the United States,” Obadare said. “The United States is not just going to say, ‘Here is our moral support, here’s our financial support,’ and not asking anything from African countries.’”

Also on the agenda at the summit are meetings on business relations with Africa and future elections in the region.

On Wednesday, Biden will host a meeting about trade and investment between the U.S. and Africa, which will include CEOs from more than 300 U.S. and African companies and will conclude with public remarks from Biden. Then, the president will hold a meeting on free and fair African elections and close the day with a dinner for leaders and spouses. 

High-level discussions on the African Union’s vision for the continent will take place on Thursday, followed by a working lunch hosted by Vice President Harris and a meeting on food security hosted by Biden.

The three-day summit kicks off on Tuesday with conversations about the role of civil society, trade investment, health, climate, peace and space.

Source: TEST FEED1

McConnell steps up attacks on a weakened Trump

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is stepping up his attacks on former President Trump as Trump’s support dips.

The Senate GOP leader on Tuesday blamed Trump for the “candidate quality” problem that hampered the party’s bid to recapture the Senate in 2022, marking the third time in three weeks that McConnell has directly criticized the former president after repeatedly avoiding engaging with him over the past two years. 

The stronger pushback comes as polls show Trump’s support is slipping among Republican voters, a trend that has accelerated since Trump-aligned candidates lost important races across the country in the midterm elections. 

A USA Today-Suffolk University poll published Tuesday showed that 61 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters want someone else to be the party’s nominee for president in 2024. 

The poll also showed Republican voters prefer Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over Trump as a potential presidential candidate by a margin of 56 percent to 33 percent. 

With Trump “leaking oil,” in the words of one GOP senator, McConnell isn’t wasting any time in striking back against someone who has repeatedly called for his ouster as Senate Republican leader. 

McConnell told reporters Tuesday that Trump was a big reason why Senate GOP leaders were not able to steer Senate nominations to stronger candidates in key battleground states such as Arizona, Georgia and New Hampshire. 

He had hinted at a press conference a week after Election Day that he thought Trump was a drag on Republican efforts to win back the Senate, but he made his criticism more explicit after Republicans lost another key race, last week’s Senate runoff in Georgia. 

“We ended up having a candidate quality [issue],” he told reporters Tuesday. “Look at Arizona, look at New Hampshire and the challenging situation in Georgia as well.” 

McConnell said his affiliated super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, intervened in the Republican Senate primaries in Alabama and Missouri by investing money to defeat Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) and former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens.

But he argued that Trump’s influence with primary voters made it very difficult to weed out weak candidates who had Trump’s support or embraced his false claims of a stolen 2020 election. 

“Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in ’22 because the support of the former president proved to be very decisive in these primaries. So my view was do the best you can with the cards you’re dealt. Hopefully in the next cycle we’ll have quality candidates everywhere and a better outcome,” he said. 

McConnell also took shots at Trump the previous two weeks when he criticized Trump’s call to terminate parts of the Constitution to allow himself to return to the White House and condemned Trump’s dinner at Mar-a-Lago with an outspoken white supremacist and antisemite. 

The leader’s stiffening rhetoric against the former president reflects the growing consensus within the Senate GOP conference that Trump would not match up well against President Biden or another Democrat in the 2024 general election and, if nominated for the White House, could drag down candidates in Senate races as well. 

So far, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (Ala.) is the only Republican senator to have publicly endorsed Trump’s 2024 presidential candidacy, which Trump launched with a rally at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 15. 

McConnell questioned Trump’s ability to win the presidency after he had dinner with Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, who has lost business partnerships after making a string of antisemitic comments, and Nick Fuentes, a prominent white supremacist and antisemite. 

“There is no room in the Republican Party for antisemitism or white supremacy, and anyone meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgment, [is] highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the United States,” he told reporters after Thanksgiving. 

The following week, McConnell observed that Trump or anyone else would have a hard time getting sworn into office if he refused to uphold the Constitution, a pointed reference to Trump’s call for a “termination” of “all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” after new details emerged of content moderation at Twitter during the 2020 presidential election. 

At the same time, Trump’s legal problems are mounting, and GOP lawmakers think there’s a good chance that special counsel Jack Smith will move forward with one or multiple indictments against him. 

The Justice Department asked a federal judge to hold Trump in contempt of court for failing to comply with a subpoena to turn over classified documents he took from the White House. 

Trump’s family business, the Trump Organization, was convicted last week on 17 criminal counts related to what prosecutors said was a 15-year tax fraud scheme. 

McConnell’s stiffer stance against Trump also came after the former president encouraged National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to challenge the senior Kentucky lawmaker for Senate GOP leader. 

Trump predicted Scott would “have a lot of support” if he challenged his leader, but McConnell defeated him easily in a 37-10 vote. 

McConnell and Trump haven’t spoken since Dec. 15, 2020, after McConnell recognized Biden as the winner of the presidential election. 

Their relationship really soured after McConnell excoriated Trump on the Senate floor for instigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, even though McConnell voted to acquit the president of the impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection. 

But after that scathing floor speech, McConnell kept largely quiet about Trump’s behavior and controversial comments throughout 2021 and 2022, when Trump repeatedly rehashed his false claims that the presidential election was stolen through widespread fraud. 

The family of the late Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died in the line of duty defending lawmakers on Jan. 6, refused to shake McConnell’s hand — and that of House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) — at a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony last week because they felt GOP leaders didn’t do enough to call out Trump. 

Source: TEST FEED1