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Democrats launch effort to expel Santos from Congress

A group of House Democrats unveiled a resolution on Thursday to expel Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) from Congress, citing the long and growing list of résumé fabrications that have defined his first weeks on Capitol Hill.

“This is not just a simple liar,” Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.) told reporters on the steps of the Capitol. “This is a con-man who does not belong in Congress, and he needs to go.”

Sponsored by Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the proposal has little chance of getting a vote in a chamber controlled by GOP leaders who are defending Santos’s right to keep his seat. But Democrats are hoping the measure will draw new attention to the embattled lawmaker, link the broader GOP to Santos’s many scandals, and force Republican leaders to stand by their opposition to his removal even as the questions surrounding his background and campaign finances pile up.

“We’re going to send the clear message that if [Speaker] Kevin McCarthy [R-Calif.] refuses to hold George Santos accountable, we will,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) said.

Torres was flanked by the other sponsors of the resolution — Reps. Garcia, Goldman, Becca Balint (D-Vt.) and Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.) — as well as a staffer holding a sign listing some of Santos’s most prominent transgressions. All but Goldman are members of the Congressional Equality Caucus, which promotes LGBTQ rights, and they’re taking special umbrage with Santos’s lies about employees dying in the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. 

“His continued pattern of fraud and deception is especially worrisome to our own LGBTQ+ community, and it’s time we act and immediately expel him from Congress,” Garcia said. 

Santos was part of the red wave that hit New York during the November midterms, picking up the Nassau County seat vacated by Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), who retired, and helping Republicans win a slight House majority in the new Congress. In the process Santos made history, becoming the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat without the advantage of incumbency. 

Yet Santos has come under intense scrutiny following a New York Times investigation that raised questions about the accuracy of the life history he had boasted on the campaign trail. Santos had, at various times, told voters that he’d graduated Baruch College; worked with Citigroup and Goldman Sachs; and managed a small, family-based real estate empire. He also claimed that his mother died in the 9/11 attacks, and his grandparents had fled the Holocaust — both of which have been refuted by more recent reports.

Throughout the saga, McCarthy has defended Santos’s right to remain in Congress, emphasizing that he won his election fair and square. 

“You know why I’m standing by him? Because his constituents voted for him,” McCarthy told reporters late last month. “I do not have the power, simply because I disagree with somebody on what they have said, that I will remove them from elected office.”

The single-page resolution leans on the constitutional clause empowering each chamber to “punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.”

The two-thirds stipulation is a high bar, requiring 290 lawmakers to adopt the measure if it were to reach the floor. That means Democrats would need almost 80 Republicans to jump on board — an unlikely scenario as long as GOP leaders continue to back Santos. 

House Democrats, even from the minority, could tap special procedural moves to force the resolution to the floor. But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has been cold to that idea, saying last month that Santos’s fate is “an issue that Republicans need to handle.”

On Thursday, Jeffries blasted Santos as a “total fraud,” but declined to endorse the expulsion proposal.

“I haven’t had the opportunity to look at the precise language connected to the resolution,” he said. “I can only imagine what it says, and it certainly speaks for itself.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Hunter Biden attorney rejects House Oversight request for records

In a sharply worded opening volley against the House GOP’s probe into Hunter Biden and the business dealings of President Biden’s family, an attorney for the president’s son denied a request for documents and information from the Oversight Committee, saying it has “no legislative purpose.”

“Peddling your own inaccurate and baseless conclusions under the guise of a real investigation, turns the Committee into ‘Wonderland’ and you into the Queen of Hearts shouting, ‘sentence first, verdict afterwords,’” Abbe David Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, wrote a letter sent Thursday.

Lowell said that the committee’s assertion that the influence-peddling investigation will assist with “drafting legislation to strengthen ethics laws regarding public officials and their families” is an “attempt to invent a legislative purpose that is thinly veiled, at best.”

He offered to sit down with House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), and committee staff to see whether Hunter Biden has any information “that may inform some legitimate legislative purpose.”

Comer sent letters to the president’s son, the president’s brother James Biden and Hunter Biden’s business associate Eric Schwerin on Wednesday evening requesting a wide range of communications and documents, including financial information, contracts, leases and real estate transactions. 

“Evidence obtained in our investigation reveals the Biden family business model is built on Joe Biden’s political career and connections,” Comer said in a statement. “Biden family members attempted to sell access around the world, including individuals who were connected to the Chinese Communist Party, to enrich themselves to the detriment of American interests. If President Biden is compromised by deals with foreign adversaries and they are impacting his decision making, this is a threat to national security.”

The Oversight chairman had asked that the Bidens provide the requested information by Feb. 22. Comer has said it is likely the committee will subpoena Hunter Biden at some point.

Lovell’s argument that the committee’s requests has no legislative purpose echoes those that Republicans made when refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 select committee in the last Congress. 

He also argued that the committee has limited authority to investigate when dealing with a private citizen — and brought up Republicans previously being outraged when congressional Democrats subpoenaed former President Trump’s family members.

The Oversight Committee GOP majority dismissed Lovell’s letter.

“It’s no surprise that Hunter Biden is trying to stonewall Congress’ oversight and hide information about Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s suspicious business practices,” a committee spokesperson said in a statement. “The American people demand transparency and oversight, not political coverups. The Oversight Committee will continue its oversight and use all tools at its disposal to gather information critical to our investigation and to inform legislative solutions.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Rep. Angie Craig assaulted in DC apartment building

Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) was assaulted Thursday morning in her Washington, D.C., apartment building, her office said. 

The attack does not appear politically motivated, her chief of staff Nick Coe added.

The assault, which occurred in the building’s elevator around 7:15 a.m., left her bruised, according to a statement from Coe. The lawmaker called 911 and the assailant fled.

“Rep. Craig defended herself from the attacker and suffered bruising, but is otherwise physically okay,” Coe said in a release, noting that “there is no evidence that the incident was politically motivated.”

Craig told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday that she was having “a bad morning,” but didn’t go into further detail.

This is a developing story. Mike Lillis contributed.

Source: TEST FEED1

Alyssa Farah Griffin: 'Overhyped' DeSantis will 'implode' following sustained Trump attacks

Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin is predicting that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won’t last long in the GOP White House primary against former President Trump.

“On DeSantis, I think he’s so overhyped. I’m just gonna be honest. I have seen Trump take out every mini version of Trump for the last five years,” Griffin said during Thursday’s edition of ABC’s “The View.” “Right now, the party wants someone other than Trump, they want Trump-lite, so they’re boosting and hyping DeSantis.”

DeSantis has not announced any plans to seek the Republican nomination for president but is widely expected to in the coming months. Trump declared his candidacy for a second term in the White House soon after last fall’s midterm elections.

Recent polling has shown DeSantis with a near double-digit lead on Trump in a potential head-to-head match-up.

Griffin, who worked as a top aide to Trump during his time in the Oval Office before later becoming a vocal critic of his, said DeSantis’s recent strategy largely ignoring national media and what she says is lack of experience “on the national stage” could hurt him if he decides to run.

“I think he will implode once Trump keeps going after him and going after him,” she said. “How ugly this got this quickly is remarkable and really spells for a very bad two years ahead.”

Trump has ratcheted up his attacks on DeSantis in recent months as speculation about the governor’s presidential ambitions has grown.

On Tuesday, he went after the governor on his social media app, Truth Social, reposting allegations that DeSantis was at a party with underage girls when he was a high school teacher and saying that he would not have endorsed DeSantis had he known he voted against a border security bill when he was a member of the House in 2018.

“I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden,” DeSantis responded at a press conference on Wednesday. “That’s how I spend my time. I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.”

Source: TEST FEED1

House unanimously approves resolution condemning China for spy balloon

The House unanimously approved a resolution on Thursday condemning the Chinese Communist Party’s use of a spy balloon over the continental U.S., labeling the situation “a brazen violation of United States sovereignty.”

The resolution — which cleared the chamber in a bipartisan 419-0 vote — came to the House floor five days after the U.S. shot down the Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast, intensifying tensions between Washington and Beijing.

“An event like this, Mr. Speaker, must not happen again. And it cannot go unanswered,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and sponsor of the measure, said on the House floor during debate Thursday.

“They only understand one thing and that is force, and that’s projecting power, and we need to project power and force and strength against the Chinese communist party,” he added. “They must understand that we do desire peace, but infringing upon our sovereignty leads us down a dangerous path. Our adversaries must believe that any future incursion into American airspace by a spy balloon or any other vehicle will be met with decisive force. And that is why the house should pass this resolution.”

The Pentagon last week announced that it was tracking a high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon floating over the U.S., prompting widespread media coverage. On Saturday, the U.S. shot down the object over water off the coast of South Carolina, and the American military is now working to recover the debris.

The situation prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone his trip to Beijing. 

Republicans were quick to criticize President Biden for waiting days to shoot down the balloon, which allowed the object to float across several states in the U.S. The president said he ordered the Pentagon last week to shoot down the balloon “as soon as possible,” and his national security officials determined that “the best time to do that was when it got over water.”

Despite the criticism, McCaul this week said he wanted the resolution to be a bipartisan effort rather than a partisan measure that knocked the Biden administration.

“It’s too important of an issue,” McCaul told reporters on Monday. “We want to stand strong together against China instead of having our internal fights.”

The resolution calls on the Biden administration to continue keeping Congress apprised of developments through “comprehensive briefings on this incident” that include a timeline of when the balloon was first detected to when it was shot down, an assessment of surveillance data the People’s Republic of China was potentially able to collect or send, a detailed account of measures taken to mitigate the intelligence collection threat from the balloon, a description of options to mitigate the situation, and an account of diplomatic communications between Washington and Beijing on the matter.

The resolution also requests information on previous times the People’s Republic of China used surveillance balloons across the world.

And it denounces Beijing for its “efforts to deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns” that violated American sovereignty. Beijing has insisted the object was a civilian weather balloon that went off course and mistakenly entered U.S. airspace.

Source: TEST FEED1

White House spars with GOP senator on Social Security

The White House on Thursday hit back at Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) after the senator insisted he was not aware of any Republican in Congress who has tried to tie Social Security reforms to raising the debt ceiling, the latest swipe the administration has taken at the GOP on the issue. 

“By protesting too much, Congressional Republicans keep proving the President’s point about their long history of threatening Medicare and Social Security,” deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement to The Hill.

“Half of Sen. Lee’s statement is an admission that he did indeed call for eliminating Social Security outright. But in terms of his claim that he’s aware of ‘no Republican — in either House of Congress — who has suggested any modification to Social Security as a condition for raising the debt ceiling,’ we can help.”

Bates pointed to several reports from the past few months about Republicans eyeing changes to Social Security and Medicare. 

He noted an October Fox News piece headlined “Republicans eye using debt limit hike to overhaul entitlement programs if entrusted with majority” that quoted multiple House members.

He pointed to a November Bloomberg report that said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, indicated the party wanted to leverage the debt limit increase to secure cuts in federal spending and changes to entitlement programs.

Bates cited a Jan. 6 Reuters report that “several leading GOP House members are threatening to block an increase to force cuts to Medicare and Social Security spending.”

And the White House aide highlighted a Jan. 24 report from The Washington Post headlined “House GOP eyes Social Security, Medicare amid spending battle.”

The White House has gone back and forth with Lee in the time since President Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, when the president drew jeers from the Utah senator and others when he argued some Republicans wanted to hold the debt ceiling hostage in order to sunset Social Security and Medicare.

Biden on Wednesday directly quoted a 2010 video in which Lee said: “I’m here right now to tell you one thing you’ve probably never heard from a politician. It’ll be my objective to phase out Social Security.”

Lee defended his stance in a lengthy statement issued Tuesday night, saying his comments at the time were meant to reflect how Congress should not have “sweeping power over people’s livelihoods,” but that existing commitments should be honored.

“In repeatedly quoting my 2010 remarks today, President Biden conveniently left out that critical details—that even when I voiced that position, I insisted that we honor the reliance interests of those who have paid into the system,” Lee said in a statement, adding that he has not proposed abolishing Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid during his time as a senator.

Biden has embraced the back-and-forth with Republicans over Social Security and Medicare for months, viewing it as a winning issue for the White House and Democrats. 

Leading up to the midterms last fall, Biden repeatedly tied the GOP to a proposal from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to sunset all federal legislation after five years to argue the party wanted to put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block.

The president during his State of the Union address drew boos and jeers from some GOP lawmakers in attendance when he claimed they were threatening Social Security and Medicare, a move he vowed to veto. When Biden’s call to protect those programs drew bipartisan applause, he suggested there was unanimous agreement on the issue.

“So tonight, let’s all agree — and we apparently are — let’s stand up for seniors,” Biden said Tuesday. “Stand up and show them we will not cut Social Security. We will not cut Medicare.”

The president on Thursday will travel to Florida to further highlight the contrast between Democrats and Republicans on Social Security and Medicare benefits, the White House said.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Hill's Morning Report — Republicans probe for liberal conspiracy, corruption

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.

House conservatives on Wednesday tried to cast President Biden and fellow Democrats as the swaddled darlings of Twitter while also accusing the Justice Department of conspiring against former President Trump and other Republicans.

In the majority since January, House Republicans are using their sway on oversight and investigative panels to try to turn the tables on the president, his son Hunter Biden, and officials in the FBI and at the top of the Justice Department, asserting that alleged past actions were corrupt and must come to light.

The back-and-forth at GOP hearings this week and the heckling heard during Tuesday’s State of the Union portend a venomous year filled with attempts to stoke public distrust of government.

The Hill: GOP divided over whether heckling Biden hurts them. 

Republican lawmakers grilled former Twitter executives on Wednesday about the company’s initial decision, later reversed more than two years ago, to limit the dissemination of a New York Post article critical of the president’s son, his business dealings and his associates. Democrats on the panel blasted their GOP colleagues for “wasting our time,” The Hill’s Rebecca Klar reports. 

Twitter’s former leaders, during a combative Wednesday hearing, maintained that the company’s initial reaction to the newspaper report was not evidence of anti-conservative “censorship” but rather a mistake explained long ago, which resulted from caution about false information tied to the 2020 presidential election (The Washington Post and NBC News).

Twitter is now owned by Elon Musk, an ally of some Republicans, including Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) alleged that Twitter’s handling of news accounts showed a “coordinated campaign by social media companies, mainstream news and the intelligence community to suppress and delegitimize the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop” and its contents. Former Twitter executives denied a conspiracy or suppression of GOP lawmakers’ First Amendment rights.

Today’s House fireworks are expected to be similarly backward gazing under the guidance of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who plans to use a new subcommittee to assert the “weaponization” of the FBI and the Justice Department against Republicans, an accusation also favored by Trump (CNN and Fox News).

▪ The Hill: Rep. Jordan requested communications between the Biden administration and social media companies.

▪ The Hill: Twitter on Wednesday experienced widespread outages.

▪ The Hill: Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) is now a member of the House weaponization panel, replacing Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas). 

▪ The Hill: The House on Wednesday approved a measure that would end the federal COVID-19 vaccine requirement for most international travelers to the United States.

House Republicans show no signs they want to work with Biden and Democratic colleagues on major legislation, such as raising the debt ceiling or negotiations to keep the government funded. Senate Republicans are allowing McCarthy to craft a debt ceiling strategy. 

“I think he can do it,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said this week, referring to McCarthy (Politico). “I’ve seen him quoted saying he doesn’t think we should default on the debt. And, you know, I believe him.”

Biden on Tuesday during his address to the nation allied himself with the majority of Americans who tell pollsters they frown on the House GOP brinkmanship over the debt ceiling. 

To jeers from House Republicans as he spoke, the president said the federal debt rose every year during Trump’s presidency with little pushback from GOP lawmakers. “No president added more to the national debt in any four years than my predecessor,” Biden said, telling the naysayers to “check it out.”

▪ The Hill: Here are the spending cuts House Republicans have pitched in debt limit talks. 

▪ The Hill: Here’s what Republicans have said about cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

▪ The Hill: What the pundits are saying about Biden’s State of the Union speech.

▪ Forbes: More than 23 million viewers watched the president’s address on Tuesday, compared with 38 million viewers last year across 16 broadcast and cable networks.

Related Articles

▪ WPVI ABC6: Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D), 53, who suffered a stroke and heart troubles last year, was hospitalized in Washington on Wednesday after complaining of lightheadedness. 

▪ The Hill: Biden told PBS NewsHour during a Wednesday interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin “already lost Ukraine.”

▪ The Hill: South Carolina is emerging as an early battleground in the Republican presidential primary. 

▪ The Hill: Following Biden’s jab Tuesday night, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) doubled down on his idea to sunset all federal programs to allow for reevaluation and defended his approach. “I’ve never advocated cutting Social Security or Medicare and never would,” Scott added.

▪ The Hill: Biden once offered a budget bill strikingly similar to the Rick Scott plan. 

LEADING THE DAY

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Paris on Wednesday evening for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Macron vowed France would help Ukraine to victory against Russia, after Zelensky praised the French president for changing his stance on Putin. Macron said France is “determined to help Ukraine to victory and the re-establishment of its legitimate rights,” while Scholz assured the Ukrainian president of enduring allied support.

Zelensky is in Brussels today, where he addressed the European Parliament, emphasizing, “This is our Europe, these are our rules, this is our way of life, and for Ukraine it’s a way home, a way to home” (The Telegraph and Politico EU).

The United Kingdom is considering sending British fighter jets to Ukraine and will begin training Ukrainian pilots in coming months, a major victory for Zelensky, who made a surprise visit to European allies Wednesday to lobby Western governments to provide more air power to counter a growing Russian offensive.

Hours after Zelensky made an emotional plea to the British Parliament for more military aid, U.K. officials said that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had tasked his defense minister with analyzing which jets Britain might send, adding that no final decision had been made and that it could take a significant amount of time for pilots to be fully trained (The Hill and The Wall Street Journal). 

“I’m not just speaking about weapons. We’ve proved together that the world truly helps those who are brave in defending freedom,” the Ukrainian leader said, but “evil is still around today and the battle continues.”

▪ The New York Times: Zelensky meets King Charles III in a sweatshirt. The Ukrainian president continues to weaponize his wardrobe.

▪ The Washington Post: Dutch probe implicates Putin in 2014 downing of Malaysian passenger jet.

▪ Bloomberg News: G-7 weighs sanctioning Chinese, Iranian and North Korean firms for aiding Russia’s military.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Russia throws soldiers into Ukraine’s firing line to gain inches.

▪ Reuters: U.S., UK and Australia carry out China-focused air drills.

▪ Politico: North Korea shows off largest-ever number of nuclear missiles at nighttime parade.

With hope of finding survivors fading, stretched rescue teams in Turkey and Syria searched Wednesday for signs of life in the rubble of thousands of buildings toppled by the world’s deadliest earthquake in more than a decade. The death toll exceeded 16,000 early Thursday (USA Today).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited the especially hard-hit Hatay province, where more than 3,300 people died and entire neighborhoods were destroyed. Residents have criticized the government’s response, saying rescuers were slow to arrive, and Erdoğan, who faces a tough battle for reelection in May, acknowledged “shortcomings” in the response to Monday’s 7.8 magnitude quake but said the winter weather had been a factor (CNBC). 

▪ NPR: Search teams race to find quake survivors as the death toll climbs.

▪ The Washington Post: Among Germany’s Turkish diaspora, anguish — and a rally to help.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ ADMINISTRATION 

Fresh off his Tuesday speech, Biden on Wednesday embarked on a tour of U.S. states crucial to his expected 2024 reelection bid, appearing with union members near Madison, Wis., to crow that “it looks like we negotiated a deal last night” with Republican lawmakers to protect Social Security from spending cuts (Reuters). 

Social Security and healthcare cost savings added to Medicare on his watch will be among Biden’s topics today during an event in Tampa, Fla. (Tampa Bay Times). The White House today released a collection of quotations from Republican senators who have proposed changes to reduce the budgetary obligations of Social Security and House Republicans who oppose the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act, which reduced some prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries.

The increasingly Republican Sunshine State, home to Trump and potential GOP presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis, is seen as ground zero for favored conservative culture war themes that Biden describes as “ultra MAGA” and divisive.

WFLA News Channel 8: Tampa Bay family says insulin relief would be life-changing as Biden pushes Congress to cap prices. 

CNN: Chris Inglis, a top White House cybersecurity adviser, is retiring Feb. 15. Kemba Eneas Walden, a former Microsoft executive who joined the Office of the National Cyber Director in May, will serve as acting director until a successor is named.

The Hill: Chris Miller, Trump’s former acting Defense Secretary, wrote “Soldier Secretary,” a memoir.  

➤ SUPREME COURT

Recent scrutiny of Supreme Court justices’ spouses has prompted calls for more stringent ethics rules, The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld reports. Chief Justice John Roberts’s wife, Jane Roberts, became the latest spouse to enter the spotlight when her former colleague wrote an ethics complaint that surfaced late last month. Legal ethics experts largely agreed the concerns are dwarfed by the recent scrutiny surrounding Ginni Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas who supported efforts to overturn the 2020 election, but the controversy is the latest for the court as it faces an increasingly untrustful public. Some progressives for years have demanded the justices adopt a binding code of ethics, and the proposal gained traction this week as the American Bar Association voted to support it. 

▪ Vox: A federal judge mocks the Supreme Court on abortion. The Democratic federal judge suggests that banning abortion violates the 13th Amendment’s prohibition on “involuntary servitude.”

▪ CNN: The Biden administration told the Supreme Court that Title 42 immigration policy will end when the COVID-19 public health emergency expires in May.

▪ CBS News: In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment decision, uncertainty plagues gun laws new and old.

OPINION

■ Biden should cap credit card interest rates, not just late fees, by Alexis Leondis, columnist, Bloomberg Opinion. https://bloom.bg/3I65Dbd

■ Biden presented a path of cooperation — Republicans should follow it, by

former Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3DSATsQ 

WHERE AND WHEN

📲 Ask 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 9 a.m. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) will hold a news conference at 10:30 a.m. 

The Senate meets at 10 a.m. and will resume consideration of the nomination of DeAndrea Benjamin to be a U.S. Circuit judge for the Fourth Circuit. Members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee at 10 a.m. will question representatives of Southwest Airlines and other witnesses about recent mass cancellations by the airline. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense will question Pentagon officials during a briefing for lawmakers about Chinese surveillance balloons in U.S. airspace.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9 a.m. Biden will fly to Tampa to speak at 1:30 p.m. at the University of Tampa about strengthening Social Security and Medicare. He will return to the White House tonight.

Vice President Harris is scheduled to fly to St. Cloud, Minn., for a tour by union members at a final assembly plant for New Flyer electric buses at 2:10 p.m. CT. Harris will speak at 2:55 p.m. CT at the plant about the clean energy economy and jobs. The vice president will return to Washington tonight (SC Times).

Secretary of State Antony Blinken willmeet at 11 a.m. with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein at the State Department. He will speak at the 5:45 p.m. signing of a memorandum of understanding for a Diplomatic Culinary Partnership.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will offer an update on multilateral development banks and her recent trip to Africa during remarks at 11:30 a.m. in Washington at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She will also participate in a moderated discussion.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will travel to New York City to speak at 3 p.m. during a United Nations event focused on combating antisemitism.

The National Governors Association meets today through Saturday in Washington. The governors of North Dakota, North Carolina, Illinois, New Hampshire, Minnesota and Washington are scheduled beginning at 10 a.m. to participate in one-on-one interviews during an event hosted by Politico in the nation’s capital. Information is HERE.

ELSEWHERE

➤ STATE WATCH

🙈 How did a thief steal two small monkeys from the Dallas Zoo? Texas suspect Davion Irvin says he smuggled them away to a vacant house using the city’s light commuter rail. The 24-year-old suspected tamarin snatcher said he loves animals, adding if he’s released from jail he would steal more. He is charged with six counts of animal cruelty and two counts of burglary (Dallas News and ABC News). 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) chief of staff told state agency leaders and public university administrators in a Monday memo that using diversity, equity and inclusion policies (DEI) in hiring violates federal and state employment laws and hiring cannot be based on factors “other than merit.”

The directive marks the latest effort by GOP leaders fighting back against policies and academic disciplines that Republicans nationwide have deemed “woke.” DEI, along with critical race theory, has become a target of conservatives who argue that white people are being unfairly treated in schools and workplaces (The Texas Tribune).

Democrats won three Pennsylvania House seats up for grabs in special elections on Tuesday, taking the majority in the state chamber. The state House has been effectively stalled since the new session was sworn in, with the vacancies meaning Republicans had more bodies in the chamber than Democrats, despite the blue win during the midterms.

“We elected a Democratic majority for the second time in a row. The voters in Allegheny County have elected 3 new Democrats to the House — and with that, they protected the 102 seat majority that millions of Pennsylvanians first elected almost 3 months ago,” Pennsylvania House Democrats said in an update (The Hill).

▪ Vox: Democrats build on midterm wins with new control of Pennsylvania House.

▪ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The Democratic sweep will cement a razor-thin majority for the party in the state House and end a partisan stalemate that has effectively frozen the General Assembly in place.

Twice in the last two weeks, major corporations have scored wins in their fights against progressive policies approved by California Democrats. Fast-food companies collected enough signatures to force a referendum on a state law meant to boost wages for restaurant workers, and oil companies’ effort to overturn an environmental safety law that would ban new drilling projects near homes and schools similarly qualified for the ballot. Both laws are now on hold until voters decide in November 2024 whether to uphold them (Los Angeles Times).

🏵 Meanwhile, a California “super bloom” of golden poppies, the state flower, has attracted too many thousands of nature-loving visitors, forcing closure of the area for safety reasons by Lake Elsinore city officials (SF Gate). 

➤ HEALTH & PANDEMIC 

💉 The Biden administration is planning to roll out a road map as early as today on what it will mean for the country when the COVID-19 public health emergency comes to an end later this year, CNN reports. The White House announced last week that Biden intends to end the national and public health emergencies on May 11 — a decision that signals that the administration believes the pandemic is now squarely in a different stage than it has been over the past few years.

The goal of the expected roadmap, one source said, is to try to lay out for the public in a clear way what the end of the declaration “does and does not mean,” including for various stakeholders such as state health departments and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

▪ Time: We still don’t know the best way to slow the spread of COVID-19.

▪ NPR: COVID-19 test kits, treatments and vaccines won’t be free to many consumers much longer.

▪ The New York Times: Sandwiches and fruit cups sold on Amtrak are recalled over listeria risk.

🍫 Could chocolate be healthier than we think? Global chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to review the research regarding the health benefits of flavanols, which are compounds found in chocolate, and while research is still emerging, early data suggests flavanols may be associated with benefits ranging from improved cardiovascular health to cancer prevention.

The FDA, for its part, said it won’t prevent manufacturers from making qualified health claims about flavanols (VeryWell Health).

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): 1,113,236. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 3,452 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 State of the Union, we’re eager for some smart guesses about State of the Union speeches past and present.

Be sure to email your responses to asimendinger@thehill.com and kkarisch@thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.

Who was the first president to deliver a televised State of the Union address?

1. Calvin Coolidge
2. Harry S. Truman
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt
4. Dwight D. Eisenhower

Until 1934, State of the Union remarks were typically delivered in which month?

1. March
2. August
3. May
4. December

When President Biden addressed the first lady during his Tuesday speech, what did he call her?

1. Darling
2. Sweetheart
3. Kid
4. FLOTUS

Which president began calling his “Annual Message” the “State of the Union”?

1. George Washington
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt
3. Herbert Hoover
4. Andrew Jackson

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Calls grow for stronger ethics rules for Supreme Court justices, families

Growing scrutiny of the spouses of Supreme Court justices is now raising calls for more stringent ethics rules governing the judges and their families.

The latest example of a judicial spouse winning unwanted attention is Jane Roberts, who is married to Chief Justice John Roberts.

A former colleague targeted Roberts in an ethics complaint that surfaced late last month, saying her legal recruiting work involved firms with business before the court and that the chief justice did not properly recuse himself.

Opinions in the legal world vary over the Roberts affair, with some experts downplaying any meaningful ethics issues.

More serious, said a number of experts interviewed for this story, are the conflicts of interest for Justice Clarence Thomas given his wife Ginni Thomas’s support for efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Still, the Roberts episode has emerged as the latest sore point for the court as an increasingly untrusting public demands more accountability. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) described the reports about Roberts’s wife as “Example #4,394” why lawmakers should pass a requirement for justices to follow a binding code of ethics. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) also signaled support after receiving the complaint.

Efforts by the left to implement a binding code of ethics for justices — like the one in place for lower federal courts — gained steam this week after the American Bar Association (ABA) voted to support it.

“This will be the first time the legal profession has demanded the U.S. Supreme Court adopt a binding code of ethics,” Tom Fitzpatrick, who helped draft the resolution, said in a statement. “The lack thereof jeopardizes the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and the judicial system at large.” 

The ABA and other supporters argue their calls aren’t a response to any singular incident and instead speak to a broader pattern of unaccountability on the high court.

Some proponents point back to 2004, when Justice Antonin Scalia rebuffed calls to recuse himself from a case involving Vice President Dick Cheney following the duo’s duck-hunting trip, which came three weeks after the justices agreed to hear the case.

Others note various lapses in justices’ financial disclosures, trips to speak with ideological groups and how Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s husband, Marty Ginsburg, was a tax lawyer at a firm involved in multiple Supreme Court cases.

“There’s no enforcement mechanism whatsoever, and in fact the Code of Judicial Conduct doesn’t even apply to the justices,” said Vin Bonventre, an Albany Law School professor and former Supreme Court judicial fellow.

Although the criticisms have involved justices appointed by both parties, the left in particular has stepped up pressure in recent years as the court’s conservative majority sparked new, progressive watchdog groups.

They condemned the extraordinary leak of the court’s draft majority opinion overturning federal abortion protections and Ginni Thomas pressing state lawmakers to help overturn former President Trump’s election loss.

Their skepticism only grew after reports emerged of a major operation by the religious right to schmooze with the justices and gain influence. A former anti-abortion activist accused Justice Samuel Alito and his wife of leaking a high-profile contraception decision in 2014 to a couple involved in the effort, but Alito has denied the claim.

Ethics experts expressed various levels of concern about the Roberts accusation but generally agreed the episode isn’t comparable to some other recent controversies. 

Recusal decisions ultimately rest with the justices, but an often-cited Judicial Conference ethics opinion written in 2009 states that judges do not ordinarily need to recuse themselves when their spouse is a service provider to a firm.

“While I suppose one could spin out an extreme scenario where there might possibly be some influence being used in terms of hiring her to get to him, I think it’s very, very unlikely, and I think they’ve behaved as they should,” Amanda Frost, a University of Virginia law professor, said of Roberts.

The chief justice for much of his career on the Supreme Court has made an effort to protect the court’s image, and to keep it from being seen as too overtly political.

Those efforts were punctured by a series of decisions, including the Senate GOP’s refusal to consider President Obama’s nominee to replace Scalia after the conservative justice died in early 2016 and its rush to quickly confirm a Trump nominee to replace Ginsburg after the liberal stalwart died weeks before the 2020 presidential election.

The three Trump-appointed justices last summer voted to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision, making abortion illegal in a number of states.

There is growing public concern that the high court is deciding cases on politics, rather than law, a trend that has led the court’s approval to near historic lows.

“I don’t think the public distinguishes among events that undermine the court’s reputation,” said New York University law professor Stephen Gillers. “I think it’s just one thing after another. Whatever the thing happens to be just adds to the negative impression.”

The proposal from Durbin for a binding code of conduct isn’t the first time Congress has looked to wade into judicial ethics.

After a Wall Street Journal investigation in September 2021 identified 131 federal judges who heard cases where they had financial interest, President Biden signed a bipartisan bill requiring prompt reporting of justices and other federal judges’ major stock transactions.

If lawmakers go further, however, they could run into separation of powers issues or the balking of justices who desire an insular approach.

In his 2011 year-end report, Roberts questioned the constitutionality of certain legislative remedies. After the Wall Street Journal investigation, Roberts indicated the Judicial Conference was “up to the task” of solving the issues. 

For the investigation into the abortion opinion leak, Roberts delegated the task to the court’s marshal, who is answerable to the justices themselves. The investigation has not conclusively identified the leaker.

“The court needs an intervention,” Gillers said. “The court needs to get real and worried about its reputation.”

Source: TEST FEED1

GOP divided over whether heckling Biden hurts them

House Republicans are divided on whether the raucous heckling of President Biden during his State of the Union address on Tuesday night was inappropriate — or whether it helped them effectively communicate their position to the American public.

Many Republicans thought the uproar in response to Biden’s comment accusing Republicans of wanting to sunset Social Security and Medicare was justified, blaming the president for “instigating” a desired reaction that would put Republicans in a bad light. But some expressed doubts about the rowdiness that followed.

The claim about Social Security was the first to draw such an audible reaction from Republicans, who are fighting for spending cuts as a condition of raising the debt ceiling and seeking to sell those cuts to the American public. 

“He started off, I thought, wonderfully. … But then you can’t stand up there and blatantly lie,” Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) said. “So as much as I wish we had had more decorum, OK, you are instigating that behavior. So it starts with the leader.”

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also put the blame on Biden. 

“The president was trying to goad the members, and the members are passionate about it,” McCarthy said on Fox News Wednesday morning. “But the one thing that the president was saying was something that he knew was not true.”

Though Republicans have sought for decades to privatize Social Security and cut Medicare — and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) released a proposal last year to sunset all federal programs after five years — McCarthy has repeatedly said that cuts to entitlement programs are “off the table” in debt ceiling talks, which he launched with Biden last week.

Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) said while he thought the president deserves respect, he understands why some members found it difficult to “uphold decorum.”

“The office of the president deserves respect, period, agree or disagree,” he said.

“I got a little uneasy in my seat and pretty frustrated listening to some of the allegations that are just patently false,” Graves added.

Once the vocal pushback started, though, it didn’t stop. Later in the speech, some Republicans chanted “secure the border” and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) yelled “It’s your fault” when Biden mentioned fentanyl deaths.

Some thought the uproar went too far.

“I think it’s important that proper decorum be addressed not only in the chamber, but everywhere we go. And we should hold ourselves to a higher ground,” said Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), chair of the more centrist Republican Governance Group. “That’s something we shouldn’t engage in, and we should at least show the respect that’s due and owed [to] the office of president when he comes to our chamber to speak.”

The most high-profile of the hecklers Tuesday night was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a conservative firebrand who stood and yelled that Biden was a “liar” when the president accused Republicans of wanting to eliminate Social Security and Medicare. 

The episode was reminiscent of Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-S.C.) outburst during the State of the Union in 2009, when he shouted “you lie” to protest then-President Obama’s claim that Democrats had no designs to provide health care to undocumented immigrants.

House Democrats formally reprimanded Wilson on the floor, and the South Carolina Republican quickly apologized for letting “my emotions get the best of me.” 

Greene is conceding no such fault. 

“I let him know exactly how the people feel. I got more text messages last night and this morning than I did on my — probably winning both elections,” Greene told reporters outside the Capitol on Wednesday. “So, no, I have no regrets.”

McCarthy is just starting negotiations with Biden on the debt limit fight, and he projected ahead of the address that Republicans would be civil and not play “childish games” during the State of the Union. 

Republican members were reminded in a morning conference meeting that there would be hot mics and cameras, and McCarthy pledged that he would not rip up a copy of Biden’s speech — in reference to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tearing in half a copy of former President Trump’s speech.

While McCarthy, in his Fox interview, largely defended the hecklers, he also expressed some disappointment that they had taken “the bait” in the form of Biden’s entitlements jab. 

“We need to be smart,” he said. “Don’t take the bait.”

Greene, however, had other ideas.  

“I wasn’t goaded into anything,” she said. “I was reacting based on how the American people feel. They’re fed up with President Biden. And I don’t have any problems with Speaker McCarthy; he’s doing a great job.” 

She said McCarthy has not spoken to her since Tuesday’s speech.

Multiple times, McCarthy appeared to be shushing his conference as they jeered Biden — gestures captured by the C-SPAN cameras for the public to see — and some moderate Republicans praised the Speaker for trying to keep his conference in order. 

“Kevin McCarthy’s, I think he’s doing a great job of trying to be a statesman, stand above the fray,” moderate Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said. “I’ve been impressed with what he’s been doing since he won the Speaker’s fight on Jan. 7.”

It remains to be seen whether the rowdy response will affect debt ceiling negotiations, but initial polling and research show a largely positive reaction to Biden’s speech, while independents were turned off by the back-and-forth — not welcome signs for Republicans.

A CNN flash poll found 72 percent of adult viewers, including 67 percent of independents, had a very or somewhat positive reaction to Biden’s speech. 

Lee Carter, president at the communications consulting firm Maslansky + Partners, said in an analysis of live voter opinion data on Fox News that when Biden was heckled while talking about fentanyl and the border, both Republicans and Democrats gave the speech a grade of a “B” – but independent voters put it at a “D.”

“The independents were really turned off by the whole exchange, and that’s one of the themes that you saw for the night,” Carter said. “The way that the Republicans behaved really did turn off a lot of independent voters.”

“What people were saying over and over again was, there should be some amount of decorum. You can fight back, you can slap back, there’s a lot of other times and places to do it,” Carter said. “They just didn’t like the sort of coliseum feel that was happening last night.”

Mychael Schnell and Aris Folley contributed.

Source: TEST FEED1