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McCarthy indicates Republicans plan to investigate Jan. 6 panel

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is asking the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol to preserve all its documents, saying the coming Republican majority plans to review its work. 

“It is imperative that all information collected be preserved not just for institutional prerogatives but for transparency to the American people,” McCarthy wrote in a letter to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the select committee.

“The American people have a right to know that the allegations you have made are supported by the facts and to be able to view the transcripts.”

It’s a threat that in many ways rings hollow for a panel that is weeks away from releasing to the public a massive report covering its more than yearlong investigation, including the release of more than 1,000 interviews with witnesses. 

Thompson told reporters late Wednesday that everything would be “not just preserved, but made available to the public.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) is seen during a House Jan. 6 committee hearing on Thursday, October 13, 2022 to focus on former President Trump’s efforts to remain in power following his 2020 election defeat. (Peter Afriyie)

He also noted that McCarthy withdrew several appointments to the committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rejected two of his picks.

“He had a chance to have members on the committee. So he had a chance to come and testify before the committee. So I think the horse has left the barn. And we will do our work, we will end Dec. 31. If he wants to conduct whatever he wants as Speaker, it’s his choice. But we sunset Dec. 31. He can read the report. We won’t have anything in our possession after Dec. 31,” Thompson said.

“The subpoena I signed for him to come and testify before the committee will be part of the record.”

The warning from McCarthy, who is running to be Speaker in the next Congress, comes as the panel is set to meet Friday to evaluate how to deal with the five GOP lawmakers who failed to comply with their subpoenas, a group that includes McCarthy. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) arrives to address reporters following the House Republican Leadership Election for the 118th session of Congress on Tuesday, November 15, 2022. (Greg Nash)

That meeting will also cover whether to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department. Recommendations could cover anyone involved in the scheme to keep former President Trump in power, but it would also include additional contempt of Congress referrals for those who defied the panel when it compelled their testimony. 

The committee, and later the full House, made four such referrals to the Justice Department, which chose to pursue charges in two cases: against former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon and former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro.

Mychael Schnell contributed.

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Watch live: Biden holds press conference with French President Macron

President Biden and President Emmanuel Macron of France are slated to hold a joint press briefing on Thursday morning.

Macron is expected to raise questions about the Inflation Reduction Act, which he says is “super aggressive” in its protectionist climate policies and subsidies from which he says “perhaps fix your issue but you will increase my problem.”

Macron is the first foreign leader Biden has hosted in an official state visit since taking office. It’s the French president’s first time back in the U.S. since a 2018 visit during former President Trump’s administration.

The event is scheduled to begin at 11:45 a.m. ET.

Watch the live video above.

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The Hill's Morning Report — House acts to avert rail strike; Biden urges swift Senate vote

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.

The House moved with speed on Wednesday to avert a rail strike that lawmakers fear could wreck the economy, choosing instead to intervene and impose an accord on freight rail companies and union workers (The Hill).

The measures face headwinds in the Senate today, where Republicans are reluctant to intervene before a possible Dec. 9 walkout by rail workers, despite President Biden’s entreaties to help keep freight rail moving during the holiday season, The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says he will hold up the bill unless he gets a roll call vote on giving workers seven guaranteed sick days and other senators could make their own demands, delaying the legislation. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters this week that he is willing to fast-track the House-passed measure, but some of his GOP colleagues are opposed.

The Hill: Labor activists grumbled Wednesday as paid leave for rail workers, approved by the House, appears likely to die in the Senate.

By a vote of 290 to 137, the House approved a resolution that mirrored a tentative agreement negotiated by the two largest rail unions in September with help from the Biden administration. It would provide workers with 24 percent raises over five years and allow them to take time off for medical appointments without being penalized, a key sticking point for workers.

Seventy-nine Republicans supported the House measure. Eight Democrats — Reps. Judy Chu (Calif.), Mark DeSaulnier (Calif.), Jared Golden (Maine), Donald Norcross (N.J.), Mary Peltola (Alaska), Mark Pocan (Wis.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Norma Torres (Calif.) — voted “no.”

House lawmakers also passed a separate measure by a vote of 221 to 207 to give rail workers seven days of paid sick leave per year. Three Republicans, Reps. Don Bacon (Neb.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and John Katko (N.Y.), joined all Democrats present to back the paid leave.

Union leaders had asked for 15 days of paid sick leave, but the tentative agreement between the rail companies and the unions included just one additional personal day, which sparked pushback from union workers and some Democrats in Congress.

The decision by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to hold a vote on a separate bill that would give rail workers extra sick leave was intended to address those concerns.

While some Republicans were supportive of the tentative agreement, recognizing that there was little time and few other options to avert a strike, some used the moment as an opportunity to criticize Biden and his administration for failing to resolve the rail impasse and to keep Congress out of it.

After the House vote, Biden called on the Senate to act.

“Let me say that again: without action this week, disruptions to our auto supply chains, our ability to move food to tables, and our ability to remove hazardous waste from gasoline refineries will begin,” the president said in a statement.

How the Senate will proceed, however, remains unclear. Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) could either bring the measures up as a package or consider them separately.

Railroads urged senators to pass the bill implementing the tentative agreement but reject the measure guaranteeing paid sick leave.

“Unless Congress wants to become the de facto endgame for future negotiations, any effort to put its thumb on the bargaining scale to artificially advantage either party, or otherwise obstruct a swift resolution, would be wholly irresponsible, and risk a timely outcome to avoid significant economic harm,” Association of American Railroads President Ian Jefferies said in a statement.

It is the first time since the 1990s that Congress has used its power under the Railway Labor Act to intervene in a national rail labor dispute. Progressive lawmakers say they are particularly frustrated about being pressed to override the will of rail workers who sought basic workplace rights, The New York Times reported.

House Democrats on Wednesday elected Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to head the party in the next Congress, marking a generational shift after 20 years under the Pelosi reign while making Jeffries the first Black figure to lead either party in Congress. He ran unopposed (The Hill).

▪ BBC: What to expect from Jeffries, chosen to become the House Democrats’ leader. 

▪ Roll Call: Jeffries becomes first Black leader of either party to be elected to lead a congressional caucus.

In a surprise move on Wednesday that will be put to a vote today among House Democrats, Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) challenged Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) for election to be assistant leader to serve the caucus in the minority next year (The Hill). Clyburn, who many assumed would be unopposed for the position, previously said he wanted to remain in the Democratic leadership ranks at age 82 to represent the South.

▪ The Hill: House Democrats on Wednesday elected Rep. Ted Lieu of California to serve as vice chair of the caucus next year, solidifying his place as the highest ranking Asian American in Congress. 

▪ The Hill: Republican Indiana Sen. Mike Braun on Wednesday filed paperwork to run for governor in the Hoosier State, creating an open Senate seat in 2024. 

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: Eyeing GOP House control come January, Senate conservatives press their leaders to back a short-term government funding bill rather than an omnibus spending measure that covers the fiscal year into next fall. 

▪ The Hill: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday said the central bank will keep raising interest rates but at a slower pace. 

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Fed chair says a labor-market slowdown will be needed to bring inflation back to the central bank’s 2 percent target

▪ CNN: Georgia Judge Robert McBurney, who oversees a special purpose grand jury investigation into 2020 election interference in Fulton County Superior Court, in a Wednesday ruling singled out Georgia Republican Party chairman David Shafer, one of the fake electors for former President Trump, for the role he played in efforts to overturn the presidential election. 

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS 

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is expected to go to the House floor to fight for his Speakership bid, writes The Hill’s Emily Brooks, as GOP opponents signal their stance is hardening and they will not make it easy for him to win a majority vote of those present.  

McCarthy, who was nominated to the post last month, faces a full House vote in January. And members of the GOP’s Freedom Caucus — home to several members seeking to derail his Speakership bid — are trying to use the ensuing debates to secure rule changes that would hand more power to individual members.

▪ Roll Call: Republican leader faces a perilous path to Speaker’s gavel amid conservatives’ push to scrap home-state projects.

▪ Forbes: Here are all the Republicans who oppose McCarthy’s leadership bid.

▪ New York magazine: The many ways MAGA Republicans threaten McCarthy.

Biden, meanwhile, views his call to resurrect an assault weapons ban — which he helped enact in 1994 and which expired in 2004 — as a political winner. A ban on “weapons of war” and high-capacity ammunition clips lacks enough support in Congress without a Democratic supermajority. But as a political issue, Democrats believe they can cast Republicans as extreme on gun rights ahead of 2024 elections and amid America’s epidemic of mass shootings (The Hill).

However, U.S. sales of firearms on the day after Thanksgiving suggest Americans’ enthusiasm for gun ownership is undiminished even as mass shootings escalate. Black Friday was likely the third-biggest day for gun sales ever. The FBI recorded 192,749 background checks (The Washington Examiner).

In Nevada, Democrats are making a concerted effort for the state to hold the party’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary following a surprisingly strong showing in this year’s midterm elections, writes The Hill’s Julia Manchester. The effort comes as the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws panel convenes this week to discuss its early state calendar — and follows years of haggling as party officials seek to change up the order of early-primary states.

This time, however, Nevada Democrats are optimistic about their chances, citing not just a successful midterm but also the demographics of their state, which they say more accurately reflects the makeup of the party.

▪ Vox: Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s lonely and deeply absurd quest to challenge the Arizona election results.

▪ Bloomberg News: An Arizona county’s refusal to certify election results could cost the GOP a House seat.

CNN: Georgia Democrats want an investigation by state officials of GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s official residency a week before the state’s runoff contest following news reports that the former football celebrity’s primary residence, based on state tax benefits, is in Texas. “I live in Texas,” Walker said in January when speaking to University of Georgia College Republicans. Walker sat for interviews at his Texas home twice in September 2021 and in February and March this year.

Former President Obama will campaign today in Atlanta for Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) ahead of the close Dec. 6 Senate runoff (Bloomberg News).

Republicans eyeing presidential bids in 2024 are trying to strike a delicate balance when it comes to weighing in on Trump, aiming to criticize his actions and rhetoric without appearing to attack the man himself and alienate his supporters, The Hill’s Brett Samuels reports. The high-wire act was on full display in recent days as Republicans, including some who are weighing a 2024 campaign, were quick to condemn antisemitism after Trump dined with a white nationalist, but in many cases qualified their criticism or avoided going after Trump altogether.

▪ The Hill: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) set off 2024 chatter with news of “Decades of Decadence,” a book set for release in June. The former 2016 GOP presidential candidate who won reelection to the Senate last month, also authored a memoir, “An American Son,” published in 2012, and “American Dreams,” released in 2015. 

▪ The Atlantic: Just wait until you get to know Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

▪ NBC News: The inside story of Trump’s explosive dinner with Ye and Nick Fuentes.

After a series of guilty verdicts in the Oath Keepers trial, one legal expert says the ruling is a warning sign to members of extremist groups still awaiting trial for their role in the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, writes The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch.

▪ Politico: McCarthy is demanding the chairman of the Jan. 6 panel, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), preserve all transcripts and records from the panel’s work.

▪ CBS News: The House Jan. 6 committee conducted what is likely to be its final interview, Thompson said.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL   

China is set to announce in coming days an easing of its COVID-19 quarantine protocols and a reduction in mass testing, Reuters reports, a marked shift in policy after anger over the country’s restrictive “zero-COVID” policies fuelled widespread protests.

Authorities had been trying to stamp out the demonstrations and vigils that spread across the country within the past week. Police have reportedly shown up at homes in the middle of the night, stopped individuals and searched their phones for banned apps, and summoned people for questioning at police stations. The Washington Post reports that since the protests started in response to a deadly apartment building fire last week in Urumqi, police tracked down an unknown number of demonstrators and advised them not to attend any more such gatherings.

“The tried-and-true tactics range from the most brutal to the less discernible, applied to people based on their circumstances,” Yaqiu Wang, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch, told the Post. “The authorities have already resorted to harassment and intimidation of those who went to the protest scenes.”

The cities of Guangzhou and Chongqing announced an easing of COVID-19 restrictions on Wednesday, a day after protesters in southern Guangzhou clashed with police. The protests have become a show of public defiance unprecedented since President Xi Jinping assumed power in 2012 (Reuters).

▪ The Atlantic: The popular defiance is a direct challenge to the Communist Party leader’s authority.

▪ Vox: What makes China’s wave of protests different this time?

▪ The New York Times: “Breach of the big silence”: protests stretch China’s censorship to its limits.

The reported arrest of a Western journalist this week covering demonstrations against the government in China has highlighted the country’s effort to suppress independent reporting and control the narrative about what is happening within its borders, writes The Hill’s Dominick Mastrangelo.  

With state-controlled media in China largely ignoring the protests, a handful of independent and international news organizations have been providing the majority of the reporting from the ground. Experts say China’s effort to spread propaganda and fight against critical international press coverage shows how important media messaging is to the larger agenda of one of the world’s largest superpowers and a leading U.S. foreign adversary.

In Ukraine, Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure are forcing millions of refugees who intended to return home to stay put, prolonging their ordeal and straining Europe’s ability to absorb one of the biggest migrant flows in decades.

The repeated strikes on power stations and heating equipment have caused rolling blackouts in Ukraine, depriving millions across the country of power, heating and running water amid freezing temperatures, leading Kyiv to urge Ukrainian refugees to stay where they are for now (The Wall Street Journal).

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Moscow was ready to listen if anyone wanted to hold talks on Ukraine — if the West changed its mind about the merit of discussing security proposals that Moscow floated in December (Reuters).

Meanwhile, the United Nations on Thursday launched a record-breaking appeal to international donors for $51.5 billion to tackle spiraling levels of desperation, fueled in part by the war in Ukraine. The disruption to food and fertilizer shipments caused by the war, combined with climate-related disasters and a looming threat of a global economic recession, has produced what the appeal warns is “the largest global food crisis in modern history” (The New York Times).

▪ Axios: Why Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. 

▪ The Washington Post: In Ukraine’s capital, Putin’s attacks don’t dim the resolve to fight Russia.

▪ The Hill: Secretary of State Antony Blinken described Russian attacks on Ukraine energy infrastructure as “barbaric.”

▪ Reuters: NATO seeks to shore up Russia’s neighbors as Moscow attacks Ukraine on multiple fronts.

OPINION

■ House Republicans face a triple threat, by Matthew Green, guest essayist, The New York Times. https://nyti.ms/3GYAXcE 

■ Enough with shipping migrants out of state, by Khalil Cumberbatch and Marc Levin, contributors, Washington Monthly. https://bit.ly/3irtlFj 

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 noon.​​ 

The Senate will convene at 10 a.m. and resume consideration of the nomination of Jerry Blackwell to be a U.S. district judge for the District of Minnesota.

The president at 8 a.m. will receive the President’s Daily Brief. He and first lady Jill Biden will welcome President Emmanuel Macron of France and his wife, Brigitte Macron, to the White House with a South Lawn arrival ceremony at 9 a.m. Biden will meet with Macron at 10 a.m. before their joint press conference at 11:45 a.m. In honor of the Macrons and the U.S. alliance with France, the president and first lady will host the first state dinner of Biden’s term with invited guests at 7 p.m.

The vice president and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will attend the White House arrival ceremony and state dinner for the Macrons. The vice president also will attend the state luncheon.

The first lady, separate from the president’s schedule, will host Brigitte Macron at Planet Word, an interactive museum in Washington, D.C., at 10:30 a.m. They will be joined by local public school students enrolled in a French immersion education.  

Economic indicators: The Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. will report on claims for unemployment benefits in the week ending Nov. 26. In a separate report on Wednesday, job openings fell in October, reversing a surprise jump in September (Bloomberg News).

ELSEWHERE

➤ STATE WATCH

Biden on Wednesday designated Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada, a biologically diverse landscape of nearly 450,000 acres sacred to 10 Yuman-speaking tribes as well as the Hopi and Chemehuevi Paiute, as a national monument (The Washington Post). 

During a White House Tribal Nations summit, the president acknowledged the federal government’s choppy historical record when it comes to treaty commitments to Native Americans while touting his own economic, environmental and educational initiatives. “No one’s ever done as much as this administration, period,” he said. “I am committed.” He vowed to make an official visit to Indian Country as president.

R.J. Reynolds and other tobacco and vape companies on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court for an emergency injunction that would stop a flavored-tobacco ban set to go into effect in California later this month (Politico). The high court filing comes after two lower courts, including the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, denied stay requests from the industry. The group first requested a preliminary injunction in the District Court of the Southern District of California the day after 62 percent of Californians voted to uphold a statewide ban on flavored-tobacco products in stores and vending machines.

The Atlantic: The contested idea that the Constitution grants state legislatures some level of special authority in administering federal elections that may not be constrained by state courts or perhaps even state constitutions will come before the Supreme Court on Dec. 7 in Moore v. Harper. 

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH 

In the United States, COVID-19 remains a serious risk to the elderly because COVID deaths are occurring predominantly among seniors. All told, the 65-plus age group last month accounted for nearly 90 percent of COVID-19 deaths despite that age category being only 16 percent of the population. Last month, people 85 and older represented 41.4 percent of deaths, those 75 to 84 were 30 percent of deaths, and those 65 to 74 were 17.5 percent of deaths, according to a sobering analysis by The Washington Post. 

The coronavirus is likely to rank third as a cause of death this year, or 150,000 to 175,000 fatalities, the Post reports. By comparison, heart disease and cancer kill roughly 600,000 people each year; accidents, 170,000; stroke, 150,000; and Alzheimer’s, 120,000. Flu, in contrast, kills 12,000 to 52,000. 

In an unusual decision triggered by the ever-changing COVID-19 virus, the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday rescinded emergency-use approval of Eli Lilly’s  bebtelovimab monoclonal antibody treatment because the government said it is not expected to be effective at neutralizing the two most dominant omicron subvariants currently circulating in the United States (The Hill). 

🦠 Former President Clinton, 76, announced on Wednesday that he tested positive for COVID-19 with manageable symptoms. “I’m doing fine overall and keeping myself busy at home. I’m grateful to be vaccinated and boosted, which has kept my case mild, and I urge everyone to do the same, especially as we move into the winter months,” he tweeted. 

▪ CNBC: Long COVID-19 may be “the next public health disaster” — with a $3.7 trillion economic impact rivaling the Great Recession.

▪ The Hill: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention award over $3 billion to bolster public health workforce, infrastructure.

▪ The New York Times: Is spreading medical misinformation a doctor’s free speech right?

▪ The Washington Post: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Wednesday it will begin an expansion of wastewater testing for the virus that causes polio beyond New York, where it has been detected, to include monitoring in Philadelphia and Detroit. Once underway, testing will last at least four months. 

Information about the availability of COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots 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): 1,080,444. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 2,644 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

Try Our Morning Report Quiz

And finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Inspired by the French president’s state visit to Washington, we’re eager for some smart guesses about protocol, state dinners and diplospeak.

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.

In 1987, former President Reagan, who enjoyed state dinners, hosted a White House evening for France at which Dionne Warwick was the celebrity entertainer. Which French president was the guest of honor?

1. Nicolas Sarkozy
2. Charles de Gaulle
3. Jacques Chirac
4. François Hollande

French President Emmanuel Macron, tonight’s guest at the White House, attended his first U.S. state dinner in 2018, hosted by former President Trump. In France in 2017, Macron impressed and flattered Trump by making him the guest of honor at a lavish _______.

1. Bastille Day parade
2. Dinner at Versailles
3. Folies Bergère show
4. Soccer exhibition at Olympique de Marseilles

France is known for its excellent wine, so only French wine is served when the White House hosts a head of state from France.

1. True
2. False

Biden last year apologized publicly to Macron for the U.S. handling of a submarine deal with Australia and the U.K. that infuriated France, which was cut out of a contract worth an estimated $66 billion. Which of these was Macron’s reaction after Biden’s efforts to smooth relations (as recounted in news coverage this week)?

1. “Apology accepted”
2. “Merde”
3. “Trust is like love: Declarations are good, but proof is better”
4. “Incroyable”

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!

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Why Biden’s repeated call for an assault weapons ban could be a political winner

President Biden has time and time again called for an assault weapons ban that can’t pass in Congress, but his efforts show that gun control is no longer an issue the Democratic Party is dodging as it did decades ago.

Recent mass shootings that have devastated communities across the U.S. — 600 so far in 2022 — have reinvigorated Biden’s call for an assault weapons ban, even though Congress doesn’t have the Democratic supermajority it needs for a bill to pass.

Still, the issue has evolved into more of a political winner for the party, unlike the early 2000s, when the National Rifle Association targeted Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore and a host of candidates who steered away from highlighting gun control in their campaigns.

“This is always a tricky issue, because it’s so charged politically,” said Ivan Zapien, a former Democratic National Committee official. “During those times and other times, people thought that it was too controversial to go as far as they could on day one.”

The reason for the shift is a mix of public support and politics.

Biden served in the Senate in 1994, when Congress and former President Clinton passed a 10-year ban on assault weapons. But when that expired, Democrats distanced themselves from the gun issue,  like during the 2004 presidential election. 

The closest Congress came to reinstituting the ban was in 2013, following the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., but that only garnered 40 Senate votes because several Democrats from swing states voted against it.

Biden appears to now see pushing for an assault weapons ban as a good strategy for the party, as evidenced in part by its better-than-expected performance in the midterm elections. 

“It’s a Democratic rallying point. … The public actually supports this, so the question isn’t necessarily whether there’s the national support, it’s whether there’s the mechanical route for it to get to the president’s desk,” Zapien said.

Americans have heard Biden plea several times this year following mass shootings for Congress to reinstitute an assault weapons ban, including during a prime-time address after an elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May, when he declared: “What the hell’s the matter with us?”

 A spate of shootings just before Thanksgiving, including one at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo., caused Biden to reiterate his familiar line: “We need to enact an assault weapons ban to get weapons of war off America’s streets.”

 Gun violence isn’t expected to be tackled in the lame-duck session, which marks the final weeks of a narrowly Democratic-controlled Congress before the House flips in January. 

After Uvalde, Biden signed a gun violence prevention law, which passed Congress with bipartisan support and tackles issues like red flag laws and curbing “ghost” guns, but no further legislation on the matter is currently in the works.

Biden told reporters last week that he’s “going to try to get rid of assault weapons,” adding that he will move forward once he makes an assessment on the votes he has. 

An assault weapons ban would need 60 votes in the Senate to bypass the legislative filibuster, but Democrats will have a maximum of 51 seats in the next Congress if Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) prevails in a tight runoff race next week to keep his seat. 

Yet Biden keeps on, even if he knows the numbers aren’t there.

“It’s something that President Biden feels deeply in his heart. He’s one of the original authors of the legislation that passed in the 1990s, it means a lot to him, it’s part of his congressional legacy, it makes sense from a public policy standpoint,” said Jim Kessler, co-founder of the centrist think tank Third Way, adding that while the votes obviously won’t be there in a GOP-controlled House, “it’s still worth talking about.”

Kessler also noted the composition of the Senate means that Biden’s call for an assault weapons ban won’t politically hurt Democrats in Congress like it could have decades ago.

“The gun issue does play better for Democrats right now than it did a couple decades ago, but also the geography for Democrats is different now,” he said. “The nation has sorted itself, and there aren’t as many places where Democrats hold seats in states where an assault weapons ban would be unpopular.”

He said that in 2004, Democrats held six of the eight Senate seats in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Nebraska. Now, Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.) is the only Democrat from those states.

Stricter gun laws, even those geared toward curbing assault weapons, also play well with the public.

Polling from June showed that 63 percent of Americans support banning assault weapons, and 8 in 10 were in favor of raising the age to buy an assault weapon to 21 years old. The poll also showed that 84 percent of Democrats favored banning assault weapons.

Scott Mulhauser, former deputy chief of staff to then-Vice President Biden, argued that Biden is simply answering the calls from Americans for solutions to reduce gun violence.

“For a president who has rightfully read the room on what the moment demands time and again, this is another step in that direction — leading the country to where he rightfully believes it should go with allies in Congress rather than lamenting what can’t be done,” said Mulhauser, a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive.

Biden calling for gun control could also be a way to paint Republicans as extreme, a tactic he used ahead of the midterms. Republican lawmakers, in turn, have bashed Biden for wanting to curb the use of assault weapons.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said the AR-15 is her “favorite gun for hunting & home defense” and that banning assault weapons wouldn’t have stopped the Colorado nightclub shooting. She also argued that Biden knows nothing about guns.

 Kessler said it makes sense for the White House to highlight that kind of rhetoric from Republicans because “the politics of guns have changed too with the extremism on the right and the amount of gunfire that they own.”

A White House official noted shifts in the political landscape on the matter in the form of the gun bill that passed this year with bipartisan support.

“The President has been pushing to revive an assault weapons ban for a very long time. He has effectively used the bully pulpit to make the case to the public and make this a winning issue, and believes it’s important to continue doing so,” the official said.

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Rail strike bill is rare rift between Democrats, unions

Senators predict they will have at least 60 votes to pass legislation approved by the House Wednesday to stop a nationwide railway strike, but a companion proposal to give railway workers more sick leave doesn’t have much Republican support.

As a result, the Democratic-controlled Congress is poised to impose a labor deal on railway workers that was rejected by four freight rail unions — a rare rift between Democrats and organized labor.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) as of Wednesday afternoon had given colleagues little idea of how he would structure the votes on the two bills approved by the House — one to block the strike and a second to give railway works an additional seven days of sick leave.

But the Democratic leader made clear that he is intent on avoiding a rail strike that would freeze major parts of the supply chain and put more pressure on a national economy already struggling with 40-year-high inflation.

He said he’s working with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to “avoid a shutdown” of the railroads “and be as fair to the workers as we can be.”

President Biden called Schumer, Pelosi, McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to the White House Tuesday to implore them to pass legislation by the end of the week to stop a rail strike that White House officials fear would have massive reverberations across the economy.

The strike deadline is Dec. 9, but congressional leaders want to act before the end of this week to avoid any disruption to the supply chain.

The vast majority of Senate Democrats are expected to pass a bill to avert a railway strike even if it doesn’t include more sick leave for workers.

But several prominent liberals, including Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), declined to say whether they would vote to force workers to accept the labor deal brokered by the emergency board President Biden created in July.

Sanders only said he would insist on a vote on additional sick leave but dismissed questions about how that vote needs to be set up as “speculating.”

Brown said he’s “going to insist that we have an agreement with paid leave days,” but added he didn’t want to say whether the lack of extra sick days would be a “deal breaker.”

Warren said she initially thought that Schumer would use the House-passed bill blocking the strike as the base legislation and then allow Sanders to offer an amendment to add sick leave to the contract between rail carriers and workers.

But she later said the process for considering the two proposals had yet to be decided.

That means Schumer may need 10 to 13 Republican votes to overcome a filibuster, depending on how many members of his caucus defect.

The House voted 290 to 137 to pass legislation imposing a labor agreement on rail companies and workers, with 79 Republicans backing the measure and eight Democrats voting against it.

A companion bill to give rail workers seven days of sick leave per year passed by a much narrower margin, 221 to 207, with only three Republicans voting for it: Reps. Don Bacon (Neb.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and John Katko (N.Y.).

As of Wednesday afternoon, no Senate Republican had definitively committed to voting for giving workers seven days of paid sick leave.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who said he will vote against any legislation that imposes a labor deal that railway workers have already rejected, said he would have to talk to workers before deciding how to vote on the additional sick leave.

“I’d want to know what the workers say, so I’d want to talk to them and get their view on that,” he said, explaining that he’d want to make sure that any legislation giving workers more sick days would be “binding.”

“Why not allow the workers further time to negotiate this? Why not give them the opportunity to wade back in?” he said.

That view — that negotiations should be given more time — is gaining support among some Senate Republicans who on Wednesday floated the idea of passing legislation to block a strike for a month or two months to give freight carriers and the unions more time to work out a final agreement.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) and Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), a counselor to Senate GOP leadership, said they didn’t think the legislation giving workers more sick leave has the votes to pass.

“I don’t know at this point where the votes are for anything,” Thune said.

Cornyn told reporters: “In terms of the precedent it would set, that it’s a bad idea for Congress to try to rewrite these collective bargaining agreements. As sympathetic I am to their desire to get more sick days … I just think there would be a long queue, a long line of different labor disputes that would end up on our door.”

A group of conservatives, including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), are making the argument that Congress shouldn’t take any action and force Biden to resolve the situation or take the blame for an economically devastating rail strike.

One Republican senator said, “The natives are getting restless in the cloakroom and don’t want to give the president any political cover.”

Cruz on Thursday argued that it would be improper for Congress to force railroad workers to accept a labor deal.

“I don’t think it’s Congress’s place to jump in as the Biden White House is asking us to do and side with management overruling the union workers. I think it ought to be freely negotiated between the two,” he said.

Scott said “the Biden administration ought to figure out how to come to an agreement, get the unions and companies to come to agreement.”

But Cornyn contradicted Cruz, his home-state colleague, arguing that the Railway Labor Act of 1926, which empowers Congress to intervene to stop a railway strike, gives lawmakers full authority to act.

“I think the law says otherwise. I think it is our responsibility,” he said.

Source: TEST FEED1

GOP rivals walk high-wire when it comes to criticizing Trump

Republicans eyeing presidential bids in 2024 are trying to strike a very delicate balance when it comes to weighing in on former President Trump, aiming to criticize his actions and rhetoric without appearing to attack the man himself and alienate his supporters.

The high-wire act was on full display in recent days as Republicans, including some who are weighing a 2024 campaign, were quick to condemn antisemitism after Trump dined with a white nationalist, but in many cases qualified their criticism or avoided going after Trump altogether.

Former Vice President Mike Pence called on Trump to apologize for having dinner with Nick Fuentes, an antisemite and racist who joined the former president and the rapper Ye last week. Ye, formerly Kanye West, has also espoused antisemitic views in recent months.

“With that being said, as I point out in the book as well, I don’t believe Donald Trump is an antisemite. I don’t believe he’s a racist or a bigot. I would not have been his vice president if he was,” added Pence, who has said he will consider whether to run for president in the coming months.

Another former Trump administration official mulling a White House bid is former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who didn’t even go as far as naming Trump in apparently condemning his controversial dinner guests. Instead, he issued a broadly worded tweet calling antisemitism “a cancer” and vowing to “stand with the Jewish people in the fight against the world’s oldest bigotry.”

The responses were emblematic of how Republicans hoping to take the mantle from Trump in 2024 will have to deal with the former president and his controversies. 

Dedicated Trump supporters still make up a sizable portion of the GOP electorate, and peeling away at least some of those voters will be critical for any candidate hoping to win the nomination.

Candidates will need to find a way to simultaneously show deference to the former president while establishing a difference between their vision for the country and Trump’s. And that’s where things can get tricky.

“That’s going to be the same tightrope that every Republican in Congress walked for the last four years, but now the tightrope is a lot higher,” said Alex Conant, who worked on Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) 2016 presidential campaign. “Presidential campaigns are the Super Bowl of politics, and everything is scrutinized a lot more.”

“I think if you’re trying to run as a presidential candidate without alienating his base that’s defined Republican politics for the last four years, it’s going to be all that much harder because of the increased scrutiny,” Conant added.

A Quinnipiac University poll conducted after Trump announced his 2024 candidacy found 70 percent of Republicans believe Trump has mainly had a positive impact on the party. The poll also found 79 percent of Republicans consider themselves supporters of the “Make America Great Again” movement Trump founded, while 16 percent of Republicans do not.

A Pew Research poll released in mid-November found 60 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents feel warmly toward Trump, down from 67 percent in July 2021.

The data reflects how important Trump and his movement are in capturing a majority of support within the modern Republican Party. It also shows why many officials are treading carefully. 

Pompeo used a speech earlier this month to the Republican Jewish Coalition to take veiled swipes at Trump, saying the GOP needed to focus more on policy and values and less on personality and celebrity. But at no point has he actually chastised his former boss by name. 

Nikki Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, similarly called for the party to look toward a new generation of leadership, but refrained from explicitly blaming Trump for the party’s midterm losses.

Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), whom many in the party view as perhaps the most viable alternative to Trump in 2024, has steered clear of responding to the former president’s attacks in recent weeks, even as they grew more personal.

Pence is perhaps the most vivid example of a Republican trying to strike a balance with Trump. He often speaks proudly of the accomplishments of the “Trump-Pence administration” on tax cuts, trade, energy and foreign policy. In his new memoir, he refers to Trump as his friend and defends him over numerous controversies, attributing it to hysteria among Democrats or the media.

But Pence has broken with Trump on one major issue: The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, when some rioters called for Pence to be hanged after he resisted Trump’s entreaties to overturn the 2020 election results. Pence has said those events fractured their relationship, and he has said there will be better alternatives to Trump in 2024.

“If anybody has a lane here of how they can campaign, it’s Mike Pence,” said Doug Heye, a former spokesperson for the Republican National Committee. “He can say, ‘I backed the administration and worked to push every accomplishment,’ and then say, ‘However,’ and everybody understands the however. But for some reason, he seems to be unwilling to really go there.”

The balancing act has even extended to those running for certain positions within Congress.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who after the Jan. 6 attack said Trump bore some responsibility, has been careful not to alienate the former president as he tries to navigate the race to become the next House Speaker. McCarthy must satisfy both moderate Republicans and staunch Trump loyalists like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to win the vote.

Asked Tuesday about Trump’s dinner, McCarthy said that while nobody should be spending time with Fuentes, Trump had condemned his ideology. When a reporter noted Trump had not done so, McCarthy responded that he personally condemned it.

With Trump already in the 2024 race, Pompeo, Haley, Pence and DeSantis will be under a microscope with how they respond to Trump’s actions and rhetoric.

Strategists believe the candidates in the best position to capture the party’s support without turning off Trump voters are those who have been able to build a brand outside of their ties to the Trump administration.

“I think the people that have done it most successfully, they forge their own brands like Ron DeSantis or Glenn Youngkin, and so their appeal is clearly separate from Trump,” Conant said, referring to Virginia’s GOP governor. 

“It’s not based on their opposition to Trump or support of Trump, it’s based on their own strengths as an individual. You want to run on Trump’s policies and reject the personality.”

Source: TEST FEED1

McCarthy readies for floor showdown in Speakership bid as opponents dig in heels

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is expected to go to the House floor to fight for the Speakership as his GOP opponents signal their stance is hardening.

McCarthy this week started posturing for a floor showdown and turning up the heat on those withholding support.

On Newsmax on Monday, McCarthy warned that House Democrats could pick the Speaker if Republicans “play games” on the House floor on Jan. 3. He shot down a question from CNN on Tuesday on whether he would step down in the race for Speaker if he does not get support from 218 Republicans. And on Fox News Tuesday night, he warned that if he does not get a majority of Speaker votes, GOP investigative priorities cannot go forward.

“We can’t start investigating [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas. We can’t secure the border. We can’t lower the gasoline price by making us energy independent,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy won support from more than 80 percent of the House Republican Conference for the Speakership nomination. But 31 Republicans voted against him, and with the GOP winning a slim majority — around 222 seats to around 212 for Democrats, all of whom are expected to vote for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) for Speaker — just a handful of GOP defectors on the floor could force multiple Speaker ballots or sink his bid.

A Speaker can be elected with fewer than 218 votes, as the nominee only needs support from a majority of those voting for a candidate. Vacancies, such as the seat for the late Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), who died on Monday, absences and “present” votes lower the threshold that a Speaker will have to reach, and potentially give McCarthy some wiggle room.

But in an escalation, all five of the House Republicans who have explicitly said or strongly indicated that they will not vote for McCarthy on the House floor on Jan. 3 — Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.), Ralph Norman (S.C.) and Andy Biggs (Ariz.) — now say they will not vote “present” during the Speakership vote.

Biggs and Good clarified this week they will vote for an alternative candidate, taking the same position as Norman. Rosendale also said he will not vote “present” and said he could only vote for McCarthy under “extreme circumstances.”

“I’ve been a lawmaker since 2010. Never voted ‘present’ in my life. Don’t plan to start now,” Gaetz told The Hill.

“If Jan 3. turns into a shitshow, it will be a direct result of McCarthy denialism. He doesn’t have the votes. He never had the votes. It is time to move on and consider candidates who lack five objectors in our conference,” Gaetz said. “Kevin’s brinksmanship and stubbornness pose the greatest risk of empowering Democrats to impact the Speakership vote.”

Several other hard-line conservative lawmakers have declined to say how they plan to vote. 

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said he will not make his position public, and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) has only said that no one has 218 votes for Speaker right now. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has declined to disclose her thinking on the Speakership, saying she is focused on the automatic recount in her election.

There is no viable GOP alternative to McCarthy for Speaker, making him the favorite to ultimately win the contest. But even some of McCarthy’s most vocal supporters, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), worry there might be multiple floor ballots for Speaker.

“I don’t want to see that happen. I can’t guarantee that not happening right now,” Greene, a relatively recent backer of McCarthy, said.

Biggs and Good say that they think there are around 20 “hard noes” on McCarthy. Greene said she thought the universe of those leaning against McCarthy is closer to 10 members.

As those against McCarthy harden their stance, outside commentators are chiming in against the opposition. Conservative commentator Mark Levin on Tuesday called McCarthy’s opponents the “five boneheads.”

“They’re playing right into the hands of the Democrats, right into the hands of the establishment Republicans, right into the hands of the media,” Levin said.

Among the priorities of those withholding support are rules changes for the House GOP conference and House as a whole, with the Freedom Caucus proposing measures that would empower individual members. Biggs has criticized McCarthy for not promising to impeach Mayorkas, though McCarthy last week called on the Homeland Security secretary to resign or face GOP investigations and a potential impeachment inquiry.

Several members of the Freedom Caucus also appear to be preparing for a floor showdown. A group of hard-liners met with the House parliamentarian on Wednesday, Politico reported.

“We are all very interested in how this place operates, the rules that govern it, those kinds of things. You would certainly want us to be well informed, wouldn’t you?” Perry said of the meeting.

There is still time for McCarthy to change minds and forge deals. In mid-December 2018, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) struck a deal with several members who were opposed to her Speakership to win their support. 

McCarthy on Tuesday brought together leaders from several factions and caucuses in the House GOP — the “five families,” he later joked — to discuss rules change proposals and procedures for a House GOP majority.

McCarthy supporters Greene and Rep. Kevin Hern (Okla.), chair-elect for the Republican Study Committee, said they reached an agreement on a structure that would allow members to submit amendments for review if they meet a certain threshold of support among the GOP conference. In a Wednesday conference meeting, that threshold was set at 20 percent, Hern said.

The Wednesday meeting on making changes to internal House GOP rules was more cordial than before the Thanksgiving break, members said, with several proposals from the Freedom Caucus either passing or being withdrawn.

But one Freedom Caucus priority to ban earmarks, which were brought back in this Congress as “community project funding” after a decadelong ban, was overwhelmingly shot down in a secret ballot vote. Hern said that only about a quarter of the conference voted in favor of the measure.

Hern expects McCarthy to win the Speakership at the end of the day.

“Nobody worked harder than he has to get us to this point in both raising money, but going around the country. He’s done a great job,” Hern said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Warnock holds narrow lead over Walker in Georgia runoff: poll

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) holds a narrow 2 percentage point lead over Republican rival Herschel Walker in the Georgia Senate runoff, according to a new survey from Emerson College Polling and The Hill.

The poll released on Thursday found that 49 percent of very likely voters surveyed said they would back Warnock, compared to 47 percent who said they would vote for Walker. A separate 4 percent said they were undecided; that polling falls within the margin of error, effectively tying the two candidates. 

When undecided voters were asked which candidate they were leaning toward, support for Warnock increased to 51 percent while Walker’s support rose to 49 percent.

But when respondents were asked who they expected would win the Georgia Senate runoff regardless of whom they supported, a wider gap emerged: 57 percent said they expected Warnock to prevail compared to 43 percent who said Walker would.

The development comes less than a week before Georgia holds its runoff election, the last Senate election of the November midterms. Warnock is vying for his first full-term in office after he won a special election in 2020 against former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), but neither he nor Walker notched the more than 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a runoff. 

“Warnock’s base lies with voters under 50 — a 55% majority support him for re-election — whereas Walker holds a similar 55% majority among voters over 50,” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling. “The early vote breaks for Warnock by about 29 points, 63% to 34%, whereas those who have yet to cast their ballot break for Walker by eight points 52% to 44%.” 

“Despite the ballot test being well within the poll’s margin of error, a Walker win would surprise the majority of voters. About 1 in 5 Republicans expect their nominee to lose. This reflects a significant shift since the last pre-general election poll earlier this month, where voters were nearly 50-50 if Warnock or Walker would win,” he added.

Though the midterm environment was thought to favor Republicans, Walker faces several headwinds; among them, he’s no longer on a ballot that includes Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who handily won reelection last month.

And because the November midterms determined that Democrats would at least be retaining their majority in the Senate, it’s possible GOP voters might feel less enthusiastic about turning out again given the race won’t change Democratic control in the upper chamber.

The Emerson College Polling-The Hill survey was conducted from Nov. 28 to Nov. 30 with 888 very likely voters surveyed. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Rubio stokes 2024 chatter with planned book release

There’s a possible new entrant in the 2024 GOP book primary: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

Rubio, who finished third in the 2016 GOP primary race, is set to release a new book, titled “Decades of Decadence,” on June 13 with jockeying underway for the 2024 presidential primary. The 272-page book is set to be released by Broadside Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. 

HarperCollins did not list any further details about the upcoming release by the Florida Republican. A Rubio spokesman declined to comment or provide additional details. A request for comment from Broadside Books was not returned. 

The book is Rubio’s third since he took office. His last, “American Dreams,” was released in January 2015 — only months before he launched his bid for the GOP nomination in 2016. 

Unlike 2016 though, the presidential buzz surrounding Rubio has been relatively muted, with much of the attention centered on former President Trump’s third bid in as many cycles and a possible run by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Whether Rubio is interested in another presidential bid is a question in itself. Two GOP operatives indicated to The Hill that while he has not been full steam ahead on a 2024 bid, he would likely aim to be prepared in case a lane presented itself.

“It’s not just that if you try really hard and you’re the best candidate, you win,” Rubio told author David M. Drucker for his 2021 book, “In Trump’s Shadow,” about a possible 2024 campaign.

“I’m not a surfer, but I equate it a little bit to surfing: You can have the best surfboard in the world; you could be the best surfer in the world. If there’s not waves, or if you don’t time the waves, you’re not going to surf. You don’t control that part of it.”

However, a third GOP operative noted that Rubio has not made the kind of structural moves one would make in advance of a possible presidential bid. 

“His problem is he doesn’t have a base. That was the problem in ’16, but it’s worse now. The base he had then was young suburban voters,” the Republican operative said, noting that other possible candidates, including Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), now occupy part of that real estate.

“A lot of his supporters from 2016 are with other people now, and he hasn’t done anything over the last four years to build the type of organization you’d need to show you’re running for president,” the operative continued, adding that two of his main surrogates in 2016 — former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) — are floating presidential bids of their own. 

The GOP’s 2016 bronze medal winner is fresh off securing a third term in office, defeating Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) by more than 16 percentage points.

Rubio has made multiple noteworthy moves since his reelection win. He was among the first Senate Republicans to call for leadership elections to be delayed, and he was the first GOP senator to say that he wouldn’t vote for a deal to end the potential rail strike that lacked support from railroad workers. 

“Here’s the reason why he could be viable. He’s just a great communicator and a very skilled candidate. He’s never lost a race, other than to Donald Trump, and he still gives the best speech in Republican politics,” the third operative continued. “The challenges are obvious, but the skill is undeniable.”

The Florida senator is by no means the only potential 2024 candidate to test the waters via the best-seller lists. Former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Haley, Scott and DeSantis all have released books or are releasing books in the coming months.

News of DeSantis’s book emerged on Wednesday.

Source: TEST FEED1