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Jan. 6 panel plans to release criminal referrals alongside final report

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol will release its list of criminal referrals alongside its final report on Dec. 21, the panel’s chair told reporters Thursday.

“We will make that announcement on the 21st when we release the report,” said Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.).

The panel is meeting this Sunday to hash out what referrals it may make to the Department of Justice (DOJ), where the ultimate decision rests over whether to pursue any charges for the activity related to the effort to block the transfer of power.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told reporters that the panel is still weighing who should be included in the list of criminal referrals.

“We want to make sure no one slips through the cracks. We want to make sure that the key organizers and movers of this attack don’t escape the scrutiny of the justice system,” Raskin said.

“The committee is engaged in very painstaking due diligence about all of the statutory events… and reviewing the record and the video and the testimony. Even though what we’re doing is just making a referral of our views, we want to take it very seriously.”

Thompson said that although it’s up to DOJ to make the call on who to prosecute, he believes they may be interested in their work.

DOJ had previously requested the committee turn over some of its deposition transcripts, but the panel ultimately decided not to do so.

“As you know, DOJ has been actively pursuing our work product,” Thompson said.

“So we think now is a good time to share it with them.”

Source: TEST FEED1

How Black women served a critical role in securing Britney Griner's release 

Jotaka Eaddy was sitting at her home in Washington on Thursday morning when she got a text message from a friend: Brittney Grinder was coming home, it said.  

Eaddy paused, then reread the message as a flood of emotions — relief, joy, pride— ran through her.

The founder of the Win With Black Women collective, Eaddy had been among thousands of women across the country battling to bring Griner, a center for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and an Olympic gold medalist, home after she was detained in Russia for bringing vape cartridges with hashish oil into the country. 

Eaddy and members of Win With Black Women wrote the Biden Administration in July, demanding more be done to secure Griner’s freedom.

“When you see a fellow American and when you see a fellow sister in such intolerable, unfair conditions, you’re compelled to act and you’re compelled to do something and say something and keep saying something until she’s home,” Eaddy told The Hill.

Since Griner’s detainment 294 days ago, Black women have been at the forefront of seeing the WNBA star’s release and keeping the pressure on the administration.  

The campaign We Are BG was organized, and more than 300,000 people signed a petition urging the government to create a deal to bring Griner home.  

“It was painful for so many, particularly Black women, to see another Black woman be in those harsh conditions, to just see the pain in her face,” Eaddy said. “It was hard to watch. It’s hard to hear about the inhumane conditions that she was forced to be in.” 

Eaddy said Black women played a critical role in securing Griner’s release.  

Not only were they courageous and consistent in speaking truth to power, she said, but much of the organizing was done by a Black woman: Griner’s wife, Cherelle.  

Members of the WNBA including executive director Terri Jackson and former star Dawn Staley, a basketball Hall of Famer and three-time Olympic gold medalist who is now the head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks, also spoke out consistently on Griner’s imprisonment. Griner’s own team also stood in solidarity after she was sentenced to nine years in prison in August.

Vice President Harris was also a major player in securing Griner’s release. 

“It took Black women sending a strong message to the world that we had to do everything that we could possibly do to get Brittney home,” said Eaddy. “It took the work and the voices of so many that have leveraged their platforms, their individual power, to help join the corps of so many Americans, especially Black women, to say that we must bring Brittney home and we will not stop saying her name, we will not stop standing in solidarity, we will not stop pushing until she’s safely home.” 

Black women across the country could identify with Griner’s story, said LaTosha Brown, community activist and co-founder of Black Voters Matter.  

“Part of the reason why I think myself and so many others wanted to continue to uplift her name and this issue is because I know it is very, very easy for America to forget about Black women or to not fight for us,” Brown said.  

“Part of that is why you saw Black women come together and I think it was very intentional to affirm this notion of ‘We Are BG.’ We’re feeling this and we’re collectively seeing her as a part of us. And so when she’s not OK, we’re not OK.” 

Racial and gender issues hung over the the story of Griner, whose detention in Russia was widely seen as politically motivated given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

Some argued that if men and women athletes were paid the same, Griner would not have been forced to join a Russian team in the offseason and there never would have been a possibility of her arrest. 

Others said if Griner were not Black or lesbian, more would have been done sooner to secure her release.  

“It reminded me of the African American experience,” said Brown. “How you’ve just been snatched from your environment and your comfort … [Griner] was taken and held captive against her will and there was nothing she could do about it.”

Brown said she was moved to tears when she heard Thursday’s announcement. She reflected on photos and videos of Griner in Russian courtrooms, the terrified look on her face and stories of the conditions Griner faced in the penal colony. 

“We kept getting reports that even because of her height, because of her body, that the cell that she was in was extremely cramped and not really big enough,” said Brown. “We also know that she was in a prison that was created to intentionally inflict long-term consequences.”

In a statement, Marcela Howell, president and CEO of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, said Griner should have been home all along.  

“As a Black, queer, American woman, Brittney Griner was at grave risk in a country known for its human rights violations, especially at this time when Russia is ramping up its attacks on LGBTQ people,” Howell said. 

“Brittney Griner is free, but others still languish in Russian prisons,” Howell added. “Today, we celebrate Griner’s release — tomorrow we join advocates around the world in demanding that Russia stop its human rights abuses once and for all.” 

Eaddy said that though she is celebrating Griner’s release today, she too is thinking of all those still detained — including Paul Whelan, a high-profile American who was not part of what appeared to be a prisoner swap that saw the U.S. release notorious arms dealer Victor Bout.

She says she will continue to pray and advocate for “the countless other Americans wrongfully detained.”

Brown added that if she could say anything to Griner today, it would be to remind her she is in the hearts of millions. 

“I would say to her, sister, we love you. Be free. Enjoy your time. Enjoy this moment with your family and just be free,” said Brown. 

Source: TEST FEED1

House passes annual defense funding bill

The House on Thursday passed the annual defense authorization bill, sending the mammoth, $847 billion measure to the Senate for consideration ahead of the year-end deadline.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed in a bipartisan 350-80 vote. It was approved under suspension of the rules, an expedited process to pass legislation in the House that requires a two-thirds majority.

“I can’t go through every single item that is in this bill, but I can tell you that just about every member of this House has something in this bill that is important for policy, important in their district,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said ahead of the vote. “This is important policy that makes a huge difference for the people in this body and the people in this country, and I’ve urged us to support it.”

The NDAA, legislation seen as a must-pass for Congress annually, includes an $817 billion top line for the Defense Department and about $30 billion to fund nuclear activities in the Department of Energy.

The bill lays out the blueprint for how the billions of dollars will be allocated at the Pentagon, including a 4.6 percent pay raise for both service members and the agency’s civilian workforce, new weapons programs and equipment upgrades, and new programs and personnel policies.

“We have a nearly 4,000-page bill that exercises the authorizing and oversight authority of the United States Congress on behalf of the American people. We did it very well, we accomplished a lot in this bill. I think every member of this body can vote for it and feel really good about that,” Smith said. 

House leaders decided to use the fast-track process after a last-minute push from the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Wednesday night to set an accompanying vote on a bill bolstering the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which had previously passed through the House but stalled in the Senate. The chamber was initially scheduled to pass the defense bill on Wednesday but punted action to Thursday because of the CBC holdup.

The final bill came together after months of negotiations between lawmakers of both parties and chambers, which bore victories for those on the left and right.

In a win for Republicans, the measure includes language that repeals the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for U.S. service members, which has been in place since August 2021.

The concession was seen as a surprise by many. The White House and Pentagon spoke out against it and similar measures to significantly limit the vaccine mandate were voted down in the House Armed Services Committee during the bill’s markup earlier this year. 

But GOP lawmakers for months have spoken out against the policy, arguing that it was a government overreach to force service members to receive the jab and claiming that the policy was hurting military recruitment and retention. 

Thousands of active-duty troops have been discharged since the policy went into effect.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) threatened to hold up the legislation if it did not include a rollback of the mandate. McCarthy over the weekend told “Fox News Sunday” that “the bill will not move” if the policy was not lifted. He said he relayed the same message to President Biden during a meeting at the White House last week with the four congressional leaders.

The GOP leader celebrated the victory Monday evening, calling the development “a win for our military.”

Smith on Thursday said the original August 2021 mandate was the “absolute right policy” at the time, but he allowed that it now “does make sense to repeal that order.”

He also urged the Pentagon to reevaluate its vaccine policy “and think about what the right and best policy would be.”

“Personally, I would have preferred the Department of Defense do it on their own, rather than the legislature telling them to, but since they didn’t, I think this makes sense,” Smith added.

Another stumbling block throughout negotiations was whether to include a deal on energy project permitting reform, which Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) sad been pushing for. The initiative was ultimately excluded from the text, handing a significant victory to progressives who wanted it left out while dealing a blow to Manchin.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus released a statement Tuesday night, shortly before the bill text was released, officially staking its opposition to the permitting reform deal — signaling headwinds for Manchin and the fate of the NDAA with his initiative included.

“While many within the CPC are supportive of accelerating and expanding renewable energy transmission, progressives have raised objections to a specific approach under consideration that entrenches new fossil fuel infrastructure, undermines judicial independence, rolls back environmental protection law, and impedes frontline communities’ input or ability to contest polluting infrastructure in their areas, among other concerns,” the group wrote.

Democratic leaders over the summer promised Manchin that a vote on his permitting reform measure would be held this year in exchange for his support of the party’s climate, tax and health care bill, titled the Inflation Reduction Act.

He initially pushed for it to be included in a stopgap government funding measure lawmakers passed in September but later asked for it to be stripped out at the last minute amid growing opposition from Democrats and Republicans.

The West Virginia Democrat then eyed the annual defense spending bill as a way to pass his permitting deal, which aims to speed up the timeline for environmental reviews, bolster the deployment of transmission lines, require the president to expedite priority fossil and renewable projects and secure the approval of a natural gas pipeline in West Virginia.

Manchin slammed the exclusion of his measure from the defense legislation.

“Our energy infrastructure is under attack and America’s energy security has never been more threatened,” he wrote in a statement Tuesday night. “Failing to pass bipartisan energy permitting reform that both Republicans and Democrats have called for will have long term consequences for our energy independence.”

“The American people will pay the steepest price for Washington once again failing to put common sense policy ahead of toxic tribal politics. This is why the American people hate politics in Washington,” he added.

Source: TEST FEED1

First Gen Z congressman-elect says he was denied DC apartment, noting 'really bad' credit

The congressman-elect who will become the first member of Generation Z to join Congress next month said on Thursday that he was denied an apartment in Washington, D.C., because of his “really bad” credit. 

Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a community organizer who is set to take the seat of Rep. Val Demings (D) representing Florida’s 10th Congressional District, tweeted that he told his potential landlord that his credit was poor as he applied to the apartment, and was told it would be fine. 

But Frost said his application was denied and he lost the apartment and the application fee. He said his credit is so poor because he “ran up a lot of debt running for Congress for a year and a half.”

He said he did not make enough money working for Uber to pay for the cost of living. 

Frost surprised party leaders with his victory in a crowded primary filled with senior political figures before comfortably winning against his Republican opponent in a solidly blue district. 

He campaigned on a variety of progressive policies, including ending mass incarceration, demilitarizing the police and abolishing the death penalty. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who also ran as a young progressive candidate, said after her election in 2018 that she could not afford to rent an apartment in Washington. She reportedly shared a one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx with her partner at the time.

Source: TEST FEED1

Why the US was able to bring home Brittney Griner but not Paul Whelan

The release of WNBA star Brittney Griner in a prisoner swap with Russia has brought renewed attention to the case of retired Marine Paul Whelan, who has been detained in Russia since 2018. 

Griner’s case received outsized media attention compared to Whelan given her status as a star women’s basketball player and Olympic gold medalist. But Whelan has been detained in Russia longer, and Thursday’s announcement, while celebrated by many, has raised difficult questions about why the U.S. was able to secure Griner’s freedom but not Whelan’s.

“Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case different than Brittney’s. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up,” President Biden said in remarks shortly after Griner’s release was made public.

Griner was arrested in February on charges that she illegally brought vape cartridges containing hashish oil into Russia. She was convicted on drug smuggling charges and sentenced in August to serve nine years in prison. She  had been recently transferred to a penal colony. Advocates had raised particular concern about her fate given she is a Black, gay woman.

The White House announced Thursday that Griner was freed in exchange for the release of Viktor Bout, a Russian arms deal who was serving a 25-year sentence for weapons trafficking.

Whelan, a former U.S. marine, has spent four years imprisoned in Russia following a conviction on espionage charges in 2020. The U.S. has determined his detention to be unlawful and criticized the Russian criminal allegations and court process as a sham. The State Department said last week he had been transferred to a prison hospital in recent weeks, but has since been returned to the penal colony where he is serving his sentence.

A senior administration official said Thursday they believe the Russians are holding Whelan’s release to a higher bar than Griner’s because of the espionage charges. 

“We as a government have sought to bring Paul Whelan home as well. We did so in good faith with the Russians and proposed multiple different options. Regrettably, due to the nature of the sham espionage charges Russia levied against Paul, the Russians have treated, continue to treat, his situation differently from Brittney’s and rejected each and every one of our proposals for his release.”

In an interview with CNN from Russian prison, Whelan said he was surprised he was not included in the swap, but seemed to agree that it was because Russia is holding him to a different standard because of the espionage charges.

While the Biden administration spent recent months trying to negotiate a deal that would lead to the release of Griner and Whelan together, including a reported deal that involved the release of Bout, the senior administration official said Russia ultimately rejected efforts to free Whelan.

“This was not a situation where we had a choice of which American to bring home. It was a choice between bringing home one particular American, Brittney Griner, or bringing home none,” the official said, speaking in a call with reporters shortly after Griner’s release was made public.

Whelan’s brother, David, released a statement following Griner’s release calling it the right decision by the administration to secure her freedom. He said he’d been in touch with the Biden administration prior to the public announcement, giving the family time to process the news that Paul would not be coming home at this time.

It is the second time this year the Whelan family has learned the U.S. had secured the release of an American wrongfully detained in Russia while Paul Whelan remains imprisoned there. 

The White House in April was able to free former Marine Trevor Reed as part of a prisoner exchange for a Russian citizen, Konstantin Yaroshenko, who had been serving out a 20-year sentence on drug charges.

At the time, David Whelan expressed happiness for Reed’s release but questioned whether Biden was willing to make the choices necessary to bring his brother home.

In recent weeks, the Whelan family had raised concerns about Paul’s status after they did not hear from him during the Thanksgiving holiday or on his father’s birthday, two dates where they were typically in touch.

They have since heard from him, but David Whelan on Thursday appeared pessimistic about his brother’s case moving forward.

“We do worry about what’s in Paul’s future,” David Whelan said Thursday on CNN. “I think it’s become clear that the U.S. doesn’t have any concessions that the Russian government wants for Paul. So I’m not really sure what the future holds.”

Laura Kelly contributed.

Source: TEST FEED1

House sends marriage equality bill to Biden’s desk

The House on Thursday passed a bill to safeguard marriage equality, sending the measure to President Biden’s desk and marking the first time Congress has provided federal protections for same-sex marriage.

The legislation, titled the Respect for Marriage Act, passed in a 258-169-1 vote. Thirty-nine Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the measure.

The Senate approved the measure in a bipartisan 61-36 vote last week, notching a significant win for negotiators after months of talks that followed Justice Clarence Thomas floating the idea of overturning the Supreme Court decision protecting same-sex marriage.

Twelve Senate Republicans joined all voting Democrats to pass the bill.

Following the bill’s passage in the Senate, Biden said he would “promptly and proudly” sign it into law once it arrived on his desk.

The measure enshrines federal protections for same-sex couples, requiring that the federal government and all states recognize marriages if the pair was wed in a state where the union was legal. It also cements protections for interracial couples, ordering states to recognize marriages regardless of “the sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin of those individuals.”

Additionally, the measure repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that recognizes marriage as “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife” and refers to the word spouse as “a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife.”

The legislation approved by both chambers also includes an amendment outlining protections for religious liberties — an eleventh-hour addition that was central to securing enough Republican support for the bill’s passage in the Senate.

The House had passed the Respect for Marriage Act in a bipartisan 267-157 vote in July, with 47 Republicans joining all Democrats.

But Senate Republicans raised concerns about the lack of religious freedom protections in the measure, which led to bipartisan talks within the chamber to break the impasse and, last month, strike a deal on an amendment. The addition shields religious organizations from having to provide services supporting same-sex marriage, ensures that the federal government does not acknowledge polygamous marriage and includes conscience protections under the Constitution and federal law.

The addition of the amendment required the House to take up the measure again on Thursday.

The push for a bill protecting marriage equality on the federal level began in earnest over the summer after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, the almost 50-year-old abortion rights decision. In a concurring opinion to that ruling, Thomas called on the court to reconsider Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision that enshrined same-sex marriage as a constitutional right.

Thomas’s statement — and seeing a landmark case overturned — set off alarm bells among Democrats that LGBTQ rights were in danger.

The Respect for Marriage Act would require that states recognize same-sex marriages if the court were to overturn Obergefell, which would return the issue to the states. It does not, however, go as far as to mandate that states perform those marriages, which is required in the Supreme Court ruling.

Lawmakers referenced that concern during debate on the House floor Thursday.

“Today we will vote for equality and against discrimination by finally overturning the exclusionary, homophobic Defense of Marriage Act and guaranteeing crucial protections for same-sex and interracial marriages,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), a co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, said.

“By passing the Respect for Marriage Act we will ensure that all Americans continue to be afforded the same rights by the government, no matter what the Supreme Court may decide in the future,” he added.

Some members spoke about how the measure would affect them personally.

“Thanks to bipartisan work in the Senate, the Respect for Marriage Act comes back to the House with added language that should allay anyone’s fears or misunderstandings, yet still ensure we can legally recognize marriage as it is currently recognized in this country,” Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), another co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, said on the House floor. “It would be wrong to say my husband Phil and I have a marriage that is any different than anyone else’s marriage here in this body.”

Not all Republicans, however, were won over with the religious liberty amendment.

“I rise today in strong opposition to the so-called Respect for Marriage Act — honestly the bill should be called the ‘Disrespect for Marriage Act,’” Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) said on the House floor during debate. “This bill certainly disregards God’s definition of marriage, a definition that has served his creation well for more than 5,000 years of recorded history.”

“And his definition is the only one that really matters,” he added.

Good, who was first elected to the House in 2020, beat former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) in a GOP primary that year after Riggleman became the target of criticism for officiating a same-sex wedding.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) called the addition a “flimsy” and “hollow” amendment.

Other Republicans disagreed with the argument that LGBTQ rights were in danger.

“Democrats have conjured up this nonexistent threat based on one line in Justice Thomas’s concurrence in Dobbs. And they are misunderstanding, or they are deliberately misrepresenting, what Justice Thomas wrote,” Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said during debate.

“Justice Thomas made the same point that he’s made for years: that the collection of rights secured by the doctrine of substantive due process is better understood as being a function of the Constitution’s Privileges and Immunities Clause. That’s it,” he added.

House and Senate passage of the bill came shortly after five people were killed in a shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Source: TEST FEED1

WNBA star Brittney Griner freed in US-Russia prisoner swap

President Biden on Thursday announced the U.S. had secured the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russia, nearly 10 months after she was detained there.

“After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances, Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should’ve been there all along,” Biden said from the Roosevelt Room.

Biden said Griner is in “good spirits,” and he thanked the United Arab Emirates for their help in facilitating her release. He said he expected her to be back in the U.S. in the next 24 hours.

The president said he spoke to Griner over the phone. He was joined for the call by Griner’s wife, Cherelle, Vice President Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

U.S. officials said early Thursday they’d secured Griner’s release roughly 300 days after she was first detained in Russia for bringing vape cartridges with hashish oil into the country. Biden administration officials have worked since to bring Griner, a WNBA star and Olympic gold medalist, back home through a prisoner swap or other means.

Griner in August was sentenced to serve nine years in prison and had been recently transferred to a penal colony.

Biden did not detail the specifics of Griner’s release, but she was reportedly part of a one-for-one prisoner swap for Viktor Bout, an arms dealer sentenced in 2012 to 25 years in prison for various charges related to trafficking weapons and conspiring to kill Americans.

Cherelle Griner at the White House thanked the president and the organizations who helped her during her wife’s imprisonment.

“Today my family is whole but as you all are aware, there are so many families that are not whole,” she said, adding that her and Brittney will remain committed to helping other families, including Paul Whelan’s.

“Today’s just a happy day for me and my family so I’m going to smile right now. Thank you,” she said.

Biden faced significant pressure to secure Griner’s release. Griner is an accomplished athlete and a Black and gay woman, and millions of Americans followed updates on her case as she went through what Biden called a “show trial.”

The agreement that led to Griner’s release is likely to draw some criticism given the U.S. is releasing a man convicted of selling weapons to terrorists, and experts have expressed concerns that agreeing to prisoner swaps may increase the likelihood Americans abroad are abducted if foreign nations believe they can use them as leverage.

Additionally, Biden was unable to secure the release of Paul Whelan, who has been held in Russia since 2018 on spying charges that he vehemently denies. He has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Biden acknowledged Whelan’s family likely has “mixed feelings” about seeing Griner’s release while Whelan remains imprisoned. But he vowed to continue pushing for his return to the United States.

“Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case different than Brittney’s,” Biden said. “And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.”

American Marc Fogel is also imprisoned in Russia and State Department officials have said they will pursue his release on humanitarian grounds but have not applied the determination that the Pennsylvania native is unjustly detained or being held for political purposes.

Updated 9 a.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Hill's Morning Report — Congress faces a funding time crunch

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.

Lawmakers are scrambling to try to fund the government and pass a wide-ranging defense policy bill before a new Congress is sworn in. With government funding expiring at the end of next week on Dec. 16 and no concrete compromise in sight, it appears all but certain that lawmakers will have to pass a short-term extension as they try to reach a broader full-year funding agreement (CNN).

While the language for the omnibus spending bill has yet to be released, lawmakers on Tuesday debuted draft language of the other key piece of legislation, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). 

House Democrats delayed action on the bill following an eleventh-hour push from Black lawmakers for an accompanying vote to protect voting rights. Legislators had reached a deal on the $847 billion defense legislation Tuesday night, and it was expected to sail through the House with bipartisan support when it hit the floor on Wednesday. But the plan hit a snag when members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) demanded simultaneous action on a separate measure to enhance the 1965 Voting Rights Act (The Hill). 

▪ The Washington Examiner: The winners and losers of Congress’s NDAA fight.

▪ Yahoo Finance: What’s in the NDAA for 2023.

Senate conservatives led by outgoing National Republican Senatorial Committee (NSRC) Chairman Rick Scott (Fla.), as well as Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Mike Lee (Utah) are ramping up the pressure on GOP leaders in the House and Senate to go along with a long-term stopgap spending bill to freeze spending into 2023, when Republicans will be in control of the lower chamber, writes The Hill’s Alexander Bolton.

Conservatives secured a victory this week by pressing for the defense authorization bill to remove the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on military service members, which Democrats agreed to Tuesday. Now they’re flexing on the omnibus bill — which will fund the government — and appear to be gaining traction as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) floated the idea of a short-term spending bill as a possible necessity at his Tuesday leadership press conference.

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, cemented a major victory Tuesday night with the reelection of Sen. Raphael Warnock in the Georgia runoff, securing the party a 51-49 majority in the chamber, which will reduce reliance on Vice President Harris as a tiebreaker for votes.

A visibly exuberant Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday celebrated Warnock’s reelection, calling him “a unique man with a great future.” He said the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, as well as public hearings from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection Capitol helped turn voters in Democrats’ favor (The Washington Post).

“The public began to realize how far right these MAGA Republicans had gone,” Schumer told reporters. “People said, ‘Wow, these MAGA Republicans are serious about turning the clock all the way back.’ … I think [the Jan. 6 hearings] played an important effect because people didn’t just read about something that happened once, but every night they saw on TV these hooligans, these insurrectionists being violent, beating up police officers.”

Analysts on both sides of the aisle are still seeking the full picture of what led to Democrats’ better-than-expected performance in the midterms. While Republicans blame the GOP’s losses on former President Trump and poor GOP candidates, many Democrats argue that their candidates’ wins came down to their party’s messaging, writes The Hill’s Julia Manchester. 

Democrats defied expectations up and down the ballot in 2022 despite facing historic headwinds and other challenges going into the midterms. Throughout the year Democrats braced for losses while Republicans tried to tie President Biden and his party to rising inflation, violent crime and the flow of migrants across the U.S. southern border. 

Herschel Walker’s loss in Georgia has Republicans wondering what the party can do differently during the 2024 cycle when the terrain is much friendlier, The Hill’s Al Weaver reports.

Chief on the list: improve “candidate quality,” as McConnell put it over the summer, followed by the inability to look beyond the 2020 election results and Trump’s continuing presence. But how Republicans will do so remains to be seen after the NSRC’s hands-off approach during the primary season, coupled with Trump’s recruitment efforts led to electoral disaster in the fall.

“Candidates matter,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who is retiring at the end of the year, told The Hill. “We lost two or three or four races we didn’t have to lose this year.”

Scott and other conservatives place the blame for election losses on the GOP establishment in Washington, which they say failed to present a compelling governing vision to voters, writes The Hill’s Alexander Bolton. 

Bloomberg News: Warnock’s narrow victory solidifies Georgia as a battleground state for 2024.

Related Articles

▪ The Hill’s Niall Stanage’s The Memo: Trump hit by double blow with Walker defeat, courtroom loss. 

▪ The New York Times: The Trump Organization was branded a felon. Herschel Walker was defeated in Georgia. Donald J. Trump has had better Tuesdays.

▪ The New York Times: Classified documents were found by a search team hired by Trump under a judge’s order, unearthed at a storage site in West Palm Beach, Fla., run by the General Services Administration. 

▪ Politico: The Republican National Committee needs new leadership after the GOP results in midterm contests, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) said on Wednesday while clarifying he will not seek the chairmanship held by Ronna McDaniel. “Change is desperately needed,” he said.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ MORE IN CONGRESS

The House on Thursday is poised to codify federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages, bringing the landmark Respect for Marriage Act one step closer to Biden’s desk for his signature (ABC News). Here’s an analysis of how the legislation picked up bipartisan support, which is considered an achievement during polarized political times, although the measure does not guarantee same-sex marriage as a constitutional right (The Washington Post).

How far will the House Jan. 6 investigative panel go toward implicating Trump in criminal referrals based on evidence gathered by the committee, which is expected to be shared with the Justice Department (The Hill). “This could help stiffen the spine of federal prosecutors,” Norm Eisen, counsel for Democrats in Trump’s first impeachment, told reporters. 

A roller coaster bid to be elected Speaker in January, waged by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), has triggered pushback from a small group of hardline GOP members who say he’s a Washington establishment figure. The House has not seen a multiple-ballot process to select a Speaker since 1923, but some lawmakers worry McCarthy might be in that situation nearly a century later. There’s also the prospect that moderate Republicans in the House, working with some Democrats, might select an alternative GOP Speaker, reports The Hill’s Emily Brooks.

Lawmakers face a rapidly closing window for Congress to move key marijuana legislation into law before the end of the year, despite broad bipartisan support (The Hill). 

➤ ADMINISTRATION

Warnock’s narrow victory in Georgia on Tuesday is expected to help Biden in tangible ways, even in a divided government next year. With a 51-vote majority in the Senate, the president’s party controls committees and consideration of his judicial and other appointments, even if enactment of major new laws is out of reach.

The results in Georgia mean Biden will be less reliant on the demands of any single senator. And because the president is expected in the new year to announce his bid for reelection, the history-making 2022 midterms bolster Biden’s claims to wielding smart policies and effective political narratives that helped Democratic candidates and hurt Republicans, including presidential candidate Trump (The Hill). It was the first time since 1934 that the president’s party gained both Senate and governor’s seats in a midterm (The Washington Post).

Guns: Biden on Wednesday renewed his call to members of Congress to ban assault weapons this year while Democrats are still in the majority of both the House and Senate. “Together, we made some important progress: the most significant gun law passed in 30 years, but still not enough,” Biden said while advocating “common sense” legislation. He was the first president to attend the National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence, which has honored more than 1 million gun violence victims since the Dec. 14, 2012, mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. There is no expectation that during the lame duck session this month Congress will take up an assault weapons ban, which was enacted as part of a 1994 crime bill and then expired in 2004 (Politico).

Pentagon: The U.S. on Tuesday approved $425 million in arms sales to Taiwan for spare parts for F-16s and other systems (WOKV).

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky is Time’s Person of the Year for 2022, the magazine announced Wednesday. The magazine’s editor, Edward Felsenthal, said choosing Zelensky and “the spirit of Ukraine” as person of the year was one of the “most clear-cut [decisions] in memory.”

“In a world that had come to be defined by its divisiveness, there was a coming together around this cause, around this country,” Felsenthal wrote.

He added that the “spirit of Ukraine” referred to Ukrainians around the world, including many who “fought behind the scenes.” The magazine said Zelensky had inspired Ukrainians and has been recognized internationally for his courage in resisting the Russian invasion of his country.

“Zelensky’s success as a wartime leader has relied on the fact that courage is contagious,” Time said.

Russian forces killed at least 441 civilians extrajudicially outside of Kyiv in the first weeks of the invasion of Ukraine, in what likely amounts to war crimes, according to a United Nations report released Thursday, though the actual number of civilians summarily killed is likely to be “considerably higher.” The findings add to mounting evidence that Russian forces have targeted and summarily executed Ukrainian civilians in grave violations of international law (The Washington Post).

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, said Thursday that his reminders about Russia’s supply of nuclear weapons are a “factor of deterrence” in the war with Ukraine, not one of escalation, and that his army could be fighting in Ukraine for a long time, but said for now there will be no second call-up of soldiers (The Hill and Reuters).

▪ The New York Times: Peru’s president is quickly ousted after moving to dissolve Congress. Pedro Castillo announced the move just before Congress voted to impeach him. Much of his government resigned to protest what political leaders said was a coup attempt.

▪ Bloomberg News: Peru swears in Dina Boluarte as new president after Castillo’s “coup” attempt fails.

▪ Reuters: The Nigerian military ran a secret mass abortion program in the war against Boko Haram.

▪ The Washington Post: “Once-in-a-lifetime” find in central England of a 1,300-year-old necklace dazzles historians.

OPINION

■ Restore the enhanced Child Tax Credit to improve health and educational outcomes, by Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), opinion contributor (The Hill).

■ Jerome Powell’s choice: More misery or less misery, by Avraham Shama, opinion contributor (The Hill).

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.

⭐ INVITATION: Join a newsmaker event hosted by The Hill andthe Bipartisan Policy Center on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 10 a.m. ET (hybrid), “Risk to Resilience: Cyber & Climate Solutions to Bolster America’s Power Grid,” withRep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Energy Department Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response Director Puesh Kumar and more. Information for in-person and online participation is HERE.

The House will convene at 9 a.m. 

The Senate will convene at 11 a.m. and resume consideration of the nomination of Jeffery Hopkins to be a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Ohio.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9 a.m. Biden and Harris will lunch together at 12:15 p.m. The president will speak at 2:10 p.m. in the South Court Auditorium next to the White House about $36 billion in relief for a major pension fund to avoid benefit cuts for union employees and retirees (The Hill). Labor Secretary Marty Walsh will join Biden. 

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will be in Fort Worth, Texas, to visit a Bureau of Engraving and Printing facility there at 10 a.m. CST for the official unveiling of history-making U.S. banknotes with the signature of a female head of the Treasury. Yellen and Lynn Malerba, treasurer of the United States and also chief of the Mohegan Tribe, will receive a tour and Yellen will address employees at 11:15 a.m. CST.

Special U.S. envoy for climate change John Kerry will speak during a Washington Post Live event, “This is Climate,” which begins at 9 a.m. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) will participate later in the morning with a focus on investments in clean energy and the outlook in Congress. Information is HERE.

Economic indicator: The Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. will report on filings for unemployment benefits in the week ending Dec. 3.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 12:30 p.m. 

ELSEWHERE

➤ TECH

A slew of changes implemented by Elon Musk after his takeover as head of Twitter is changing the lens through which users and the general public view the platform along partisan lines, write The Hill’s Rebecca Klar and Dominick Mastrangelo. Musk, who has himself emerged a popular cultural figure among conservatives for aggressive pushback against his critics in the news media, has in recent weeks rolled back the platform’s content moderation policies which Republicans have long asserted are biased against them. 

Musk’s penchant for reshaping Twitter in a way that angers his critics came to a head last week, when the eccentric billionaire shared with an independent journalist a series of documents about the company’s previous content moderation procedures, seemingly in a bid to show bias at the highest level of the company’s leadership against the political right before his arrival.

The Verge: Apple will finally be adding end-to-end encryption to iCloud backups, the company said as part of a major set of security announcements on Wednesday.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has barred state workers from using the video sharing platform TikTok because of security concerns tied to its Chinese owners, ByteDance. In a Tuesday News release, Hogan — who also banned the state from using technology from several other Chinese firms — said the banned entities present an “unacceptable level of cybersecurity risk to the state,” and may be involved in acts such as “cyber-espionage, surveillance of government entities, and inappropriate collection of sensitive personal information.”

​​“There may be no greater threat to our personal safety and our national security than the cyber vulnerabilities that support our daily lives,” Hogan said in the statement (The Hill and NBC News).  

Hogan is not alone in his concerns about the app’s handling of user data. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) had hoped to attach his bill to prohibit federal employees from downloading or using the app on government-issued devices to the fiscal 2023 defense authorization measure, but the language didn’t make it into the final bill. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) in early November called for a more expansive national ban on TikTok that would prohibit millions of Americans from using the app, though they have yet to introduce the ensuing legislation (Roll Call).

Hogan and Rubio are both considered likely presidential contenders in 2024.

▪ Axios: GOP-led states ban TikTok on government devices.

▪ The New York Times: Indiana sues TikTok for security and child safety violations.

➤ NEWS MEDIA

Hundreds of journalists and other employees at The New York Times began a 24-hour walkout on Thursday, the first strike of its kind at the newspaper in more than 40 years. Newsroom employees and other members of The NewsGuild of New York say their last contract expired in March 2021 and bargaining has dragged on. The union announced last week that more than 1,100 employees would stage a 24-hour work stoppage starting after midnight unless the two sides reach a contract deal. The NewsGuild tweeted Thursday morning that workers “are now officially on work stoppage, the first of this scale at the company in 4 decades. It’s never an easy decision to refuse to do work you love, but our members are willing to do what it takes to win a better newsroom for all” (CNN, NPR and ABC News).

➤ SUPREME COURT

The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared to search for a middle path in an election law clash with weighty stakes for American democracy involving a bid by North Carolina GOP lawmakers to reinstate a Republican-drawn voting map, reports The Hill’s John Kruzel.

A majority of justices did not appear eager to embrace a sweeping legal theory that would give near-total authority to state legislatures to design congressional districts and shape the rules governing federal elections (Politico).

CNN: Takeaways from Moore v. Harper, the historic Supreme Court arguments on election rules.

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH 

The organization that has led the global effort to bring COVID-19 vaccines to poor and middle-income countries will decide this week whether to shut down that project, ending a historic attempt to achieve global health equity, while tacitly acknowledging that the effort fell short of its goal.

The program, known as Covax, has delivered 1.7 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to developing countries in challenging circumstances. But it was hindered by fierce vaccine nationalism in wealthy nations and a series of missteps that undermined demand for the shots (The New York Times).

With no monoclonal antibody treatments available to fight the coronavirus, vulnerable populations may be at even higher risk this winter as COVID-19 cases start rising after the Thanksgiving holiday. There aren’t currently any monoclonal antibodies on the horizon to replace those that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revoked authorization for, but there are potential antiviral drugs in the works that could help fight off infections. 

Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute developed a “decoy” drug that mimics the receptor on the surface of cells that the virus needs to bind to in order to infect the cell. This drug is still in early stages of development and would need to go through clinical trials. 

Another drug, developed by Shionogi, has received emergency authorization in Japan. It works by targeting specific enzymes that the virus needs to replicate (The Hill).

▪ The Washington Post: Face masks may return amid holiday “tripledemic” of COVID-19, flu and RSV.

▪ CIDRAP: Forty-two percent of U.S. adults likely have had COVID-19, but almost half of them say they didn’t.

▪ CNBC: COVID-19 can live on these five grocery items for days — here’s how to consume them safely.

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

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,083,362. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 1,780 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

Take Our Morning Report Quiz

And finally …  It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Inspired by the Georgia runoff, we’re eager for some smart guesses about close and not-so-close elections.

In 1972, incumbent President Richard Nixon won reelection overwhelmingly, securing the electoral votes of every state except for _____ 

1. California

2. Massachusetts

3. Vermont

4. Wyoming

Then-president Barack Obama saw his party suffer deep losses in the 2010 midterm elections. How did he describe the results?

1. A thumpin’

2. A disaster

3. A shellacking

4. A calamity

Whose presidential victory was ultimately determined by a single vote in the House of Representatives?

1. John Quincy Adams

2. Rutherford B. Hayes

3. Andrew Jackson

4. John Adams

The closest election in Senate history — the 1974 race between New Hampshire Republican Louis Wyman and Democrat John Durkin — lasted for eight months and was ultimately decided by how many votes?

1. 57

2. 2

3. 355

4. 8

Email your responses to asimendinger@thehill.com and/or kkarisch@thehill.com, and please add “Quiz” to subject lines. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.

Stay Engaged

We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch. Follow us on Twitter (@asimendinger and @kristinakarisch) and suggest this newsletter to friends!

Jan. 6 committee's referrals may 'stiffen the spine' of prosecutors

Plans from the House Jan. 6 committee to imminently release its list of criminal referrals is raising questions over how far the panel will go in implicating former President Trump and his allies in a plot that culminated in the deadly attack on the Capitol.

Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told reporters Tuesday that the committee had come to a “general agreement” to send criminal referrals to the Justice Department.

It’s a move that would allow the panel to put a finer point on its more than yearlong investigation, naming names and detailing specific statutes that were violated in an effort they have repeatedly said was a lawless campaign to block the peaceful transfer of power.

And while it would still be up to the Justice Department to act on the recommendations, it could put pressure on a department that, at least publicly, has trailed the committee in its own review of Jan. 6.

“They stiffen the spine of state and federal prosecutors by encouraging them to act,” Norm Eisen, counsel for Democrats in Trump’s first impeachment, said of the referrals on a call with reporters.

Legal experts have for some time argued there are a number of statutes that could be used for a possible Trump prosecution, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. 

But a remaining question with respect to the committee is just how broad they will go in outlining possible illegal behavior among allies.

“This is what we’re discussing as we go into the last days of our work on this important investigation,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), one of the committee’s members, said in a Wednesday morning interview on NPR.

“And that is, what would the impact of our referrals be if we make referrals, against whom and for what offenses?”

Justice Department subpoenas

The Justice Department previewed the span of its investigation in a November request made public this week, sending subpoenas to local officials in three states — Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin — asking for any communications with just under 20 Trump campaign officials and associates.

That group includes a wide array of lawyers working in different capacities on behalf of the campaign, like Rudy Giuliani as well as John Eastman, who crafted memos encouraging Vice President Mike Pence to buck his ceremonial duty to certify the election results. All were involved in efforts in seven key states where Trump lost to President Biden igniting a push by the campaign to send false slates of electors from each.

Others listed on the subpoena include campaign manager Bill Stepien, whose testimony critical of Trump’s efforts was shared by the panel, and Bernard Kerik, an aide to Giuliani in investigating the debunked claims of fraud being pushed by Trump.

How far could referrals go?

But a referral from the committee could cast a wider net, particularly in regard to those within government who assisted with Trump’s efforts. That includes then-chief of staff Mark Meadows as well as Jeffrey Clark, who Trump weighed installing as attorney general to force an investigation into his baseless claims of election fraud.

Some members of the committee have suggested the referrals could go beyond Trump alone.

“We’re all very mindful of who is responsible. We have laid out in our hearings the role that the former president played in Jan. 6, and in supporting and pointing to the U.S. Capitol and telling his supporters to come out here.…That’s not lost on any of us,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), a member of the panel, said in an interview with CNN.

But getting it right, Aguilar went on to say, means “telling the truth and make sure that within the time that we have that we ask every available question and that we aren’t shy about making suggestions and recommendations, both to protect the United States Capitol as well as to hold people accountable.”

There are a bounty of statutes Justice Department lawyers could use to charge those involved in the plot to remain in power.

A federal judge in California has already determined that Trump, in coordination with Eastman, likely committed conspiracy to defraud the U.S. as well as another crime, obstruction of an official proceeding, triggered by the use of violence. 

The ruling from Judge David Carter came in a civil case in which Eastman challenged his obligation to turn documents over to the committee.

Beyond federal crimes, the Trump effort could violate various state statutes – a dynamic already seen in Georgia as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis conducts her own investigation into a push there to “find” additional votes for Trump and challenge the election results with faulty claims of fraud.

Prosecuting Jan. 6 cases

But top of mind for prosecutors will be whether they can successfully win a guilty verdict in incredibly high-profile cases, a feat that could be more challenging for certain statutes that require demonstrating intent.

The Justice Department also has a mixed track record when it comes to taking the committee’s suggestions.

The panel, and later the full House, voted to censure four individuals subpoenaed by the committee who they say failed to comply with their subpoenas.

The Justice Department brought cases against two of the figures – one-time White House strategist Steve Bannon and Trump adviser Peter Navarro. But it declined to do so in the case of Meadows – who did provide some requested documents sought by the committee – or Dan Scavino, Trump’s communications guru.

DOJ may want more than referrals

The decision on referrals comes after the panel formed a subcommittee of its four lawyers to evaluate the decision and make specific recommendations.

Eisen said while any referrals would likely include legal analysis and statute-by-statute recommendations, the Justice Department may be more eager to get other intel from the committee.

“The roadmap, the evidence – that’s the most critical part. If I’m a prosecutor, I would much rather have the evidence than the legal analysis and conclusion that you should charge,” he said.

The committee has thus far resisted calls from DOJ to share its work, even after the panel agreed to share some 20 transcripts with investigators. Thompson said they were never turned over as the committee “just made a decision not to,” advising that DOJ would get the final report along with the public.

Schiff said that was a detail weighing on the committee.

“How much should we detail the evidence, knowing that the Justice Department has sources of evidence that we don’t, that it was able to enforce certain subpoenas and compel testimony that we have not been able to?” he said. 

“So in some ways, I think the information we provide will exceed that of the department. In other areas, they have more evidence than we do.”

Source: TEST FEED1