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DeSantis revs up shadow campaign

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is kicking his 2024 campaign-in-waiting into higher gear as a handful of his would-be Republican rivals gather this week for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

Over the weekend, the likely 2024 hopeful held a retreat for Republican donors and elected officials in West Palm Beach, Fla. He’s also kicking off an aggressive public schedule that includes a book tour through Florida, a speech at the Club for Growth’s annual donor retreat and appearances in Alabama, Texas and California in the coming days.

The flurry of activity comes as GOP luminaries and presidential contenders — including former President Trump, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — gather outside of Washington, D.C., this week for CPAC, the high-profile gathering of conservatives and a longtime mecca for Republican White House hopefuls.

DeSantis, who hasn’t formally launched a presidential bid yet, will be notably absent from the conference. But his jam-packed schedule is the latest — and perhaps clearest — sign that he’s entering a new, more aggressive phase of his 2024 preparations.

“What you’re seeing is that DeSantis has found a way to run without officially throwing his hat in the ring,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist. “The book deal, putting himself in front of donors — and at the same time he’s also back home reminding Floridians of who he is and what he’s done.”

“He’s finding a way to make that balance work,” O’Connell added. “He doesn’t want his hand forced.”

A campaign announcement from DeSantis is still likely months away; the governor said last week that he would make a final decision sometime after the Florida state legislature wraps up its regular session in May. 

But there’s little doubt among Republicans that he will jump into the race. His advisers have been reaching out to potential campaign staff hires for at least several weeks. And in another sign that DeSantis is preparing for a campaign, he released a new book — “The Courage to be Free” — on Tuesday, taking a step that several other prospective candidates have already taken.

DeSantis is scheduled to attend two fundraisers in Texas on Saturday before jetting off to California on Sunday to speak at a reception for the Orange County GOP. He will also be the keynote speaker at the Alabama GOP’s annual Winter Dinner on March 9. 

And there are signs that DeSantis will soon begin a swing through the early primary and caucus states that will be crucial to deciding the GOP’s 2024 nominee. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that he will make stops in Iowa in the first half of March, followed by trips to Nevada and New Hampshire.

Yet DeSantis and his team have signaled that they will move at their own pace when it comes to an official campaign launch, despite the fact that the primary field already includes three other candidates and is expected to grow larger in the coming weeks and months. 

Former Vice President Mike Pence has said that he will make a decision on a 2024 run “by the spring,” while former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who’s scheduled to speak at CPAC, is expected to announce his intentions in a matter of months. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has begun to prepare for a possible campaign. He traveled to Iowa last week, where he delivered a pair of speeches outlining his vision for a revamped GOP.

Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor, acknowledged that “there’s some nervousness among donors” that DeSantis hasn’t announced his 2024 intentions yet. But he also said that the Florida governor’s hands are tied until the end of the state legislative session, arguing that DeSantis is doing what he can to keep his momentum up.

“Gov. DeSantis can’t officially launch his campaign for the GOP nomination until after the legislative session ends in May, so he’s doing what he can now to keep one foot on the national stage,” Eberhart said. 

“There’s some nervousness among donors that DeSantis isn’t out there more, but we still have a long way to go before the nomination is decided,” he added. “I don’t have any doubt that DeSantis will make a big splash in the pond of candidates when he does officially announce. In the meantime, those other candidates can decide how they want to take on Trump.” 

For now, DeSantis appears to have at least some room to set his own schedule when it comes to a 2024 campaign. Early polling shows him and Trump running far ahead of every other Republican candidate, either current or prospective. In multiple hypothetical head-to-head match-ups against the former president, DeSantis has emerged as the favorite.

But there are still some key challenges facing DeSantis. Some recent polls have shown Trump coming out ahead of the governor in a GOP primary. One Republican consultant with deep experience in Florida politics said DeSantis “doesn’t have all the mechanics in place” for a campaign; he’s still trying to build out a more robust staff, while his massive political war chest remains tied up in state accounts. 

Another GOP strategist questioned DeSantis’s decision to skip CPAC, saying that it’s a missed opportunity to put himself in front of the Republican Party’s conservative activist class.

“It’s a well-known Beltway commodity. Trump is going, Haley is going, so why not show up?” the strategist asked. “He knows where he wants to be, so I guess he doesn’t see it as a big deal. But if Trump’s going to be there, why cede that ground to him?”

Other Republicans, however, argue that DeSantis is a special case, having managed to draw the kind of national attention that most would-be presidential contenders crave without going through the typical motions.

“He’s been able to generate national attention and national news coverage without going to these sort of cattle call events, and he’s risen to the top of the polls without having to do the sort of stuff that other candidates have to do,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who served as a senior aide to Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential run. 

“It’ll be a test for sure,” he added. “But it strikes me that he’s running the sort of race he wants to run, not running one driven by the formula of past rollouts.”

Source: TEST FEED1

10 key figures who will — and won't — be at CPAC

Presidential hopefuls and Republican firebrands aren’t the only names generating buzz ahead of this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Perhaps just as notable are those who are skipping the event altogether.  

While GOP presidential candidates former President Trump and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley will be attending the four-day event, others are noticeably missing from the announced speaker lineup, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). 

The conference, which begins on Wednesday and will be held in National Harbor, Md., precedes what’s expected to be a crowded Republican presidential primary and comes amid infighting over the direction of the GOP. 

Here are 10 key figures who will be — and won’t be — at CPAC: 

Who will be attending: 

Former President Trump 

Former President Trump will be speaking at CPAC at a time when he remains the formidable Republican to beat in a GOP presidential primary. A Fox News poll released on Sunday found Trump receiving 43 percent support while DeSantis, who’s widely speculated to be gearing up for a White House run, received 28 percent, among a list of hypothetical primary contenders.  

Many of CPAC’s speakers and attendees are also staunch supporters or allies of the former president, including CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp; House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). 

Trump is expected to deliver the last speech on Saturday evening. 

With Desantis’ absence, Trump will have more of the 2024 spotlight for himself. The former president will still have to compete for attention against Haley, the other high-profile GOP presidential candidate who announced her run last month and is attending CPAC. 

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley 

Haley’s CPAC appearance will offer the Republican presidential candidate a key opportunity to get in front of some of the party’s most important movers and shakers since announcing her candidacy in mid-February. And while CPAC will be a more Trump-favorable venue, that doesn’t mean that Republicans aren’t shopping for another presidential nominee. 

Haley has sought to present herself as a new face for the Republican party, saying in her campaign launch ad, “it’s time for a new generation of leadership.”  

She’s also referenced her gender, alluding to the fact that she could make history as the first woman — as well as the first candidate of color — to become the GOP’s presidential nominee. 

Haley is expected to make remarks on Friday afternoon. 

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo 

Though other widely speculated presidential candidates like DeSantis, former Vice President Pence and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) are not among CPAC’s announced speakers, Pompeo will be delivering remarks on Thursday evening. 

In the days after Republicans’ disappointing November midterms, which saw many of Trump’s endorsees struggle to cross the finish line, Pompeo offered several jabs at the former president.  

Responding to Trump’s remarks made during his presidential announcement in which he portrayed himself as a “victim,” Pompeo tweeted in November: “We need more seriousness, less noise, and leaders who are looking forward, not staring in the rearview mirror claiming victimhood.” 

Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake 

Lake garnered much media attention during the November midterms as she went head-to-head with Democrat Katie Hobbs in the Arizona gubernatorial race. Lake, who lost her election but has refused to concede, has been seen as a Trump acolyte who’s endorsed the former president’s baseless claims about the 2020 election. 

There are murmurs that Lake is considering a Senate run, with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (I-Ariz.) seat up in 2024. There’s also been speculation that she might be considered as a vice presidential pick. She held a rally in Arizona in late January and has made stops in Iowa, an early presidential primary state where she grew up and attended college.  

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) 

Scott is also slated to deliver remarks on Thursday, and his presence at CPAC comes several months after a failed bid to take on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for Senate GOP leader.  

The two were at loggerheads during the November midterms as Scott, who served as the chair of the Senate GOP campaign arm last cycle, defended the quality of the party’s Senate candidates while McConnell hedged his bets that the Senate may be less likely to flip, citing candidate quality. 

Scott was also put on defense recently over a 12-point plan he released last year in which one of the points advocated to sunset all federal programs, which include Social Security and Medicare, after five years. McConnell dinged the Florida Republican over the proposal, calling it “the Scott plan […] not a Republican plan.”  

Who won’t be back CPAC:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis  

Florida’s governor, who won widespread praise from Republicans following his reelection by an impressive 19-point margin, is skipping CPAC and is instead making visits to Florida, Texas and the Club for Growth donor retreat. 

But that doesn’t mean he’s missing out on the spotlight among Republicans and media alike. DeSantis has regularly been making headlines in recent weeks, including over signing legislation that eliminates Disney’s self-governing status and over his administration’s move to reject an Advanced Placement African American studies course. 

DeSantis, who has not yet announced a formal bid for the White House, is expected to make an announcement after Florida’s state legislature session wraps up in the spring.  

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

McConnell is also not among the list of announced speakers at CPAC, though it may be unsurprising given that the Senate GOP leader has been a Trump critic and many of CPAC’s attendees are supportive of the former president. 

McConnell drew Trump’s ire for criticizing the former president in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, and he notably hedged his party’s bets over taking back the Senate. Many of the Senate Republicans running last cycle were backed by Trump, though some of them lost in their general elections.  

Former Vice President Pence 

Pence is also reportedly not attending CPAC this week, ABC News reported, citing multiple sources. He didn’t attend the conference in 2021 or 2022, either.  

Like DeSantis, Pence will also be attending Club for Growth’s donor retreat, which spans from Thursday to Sunday in Palm Beach, Fla. Pence and DeSantis’ absences raise the question whether Republican presidential candidates can chart their own paths without the platform or visits of key groups and institutions like CPAC. 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)

McCarthy is not on the list of announced speakers at CPAC, though the House Speaker didn’t attend last year’s event either. The conference comes close to two months since McCarthy prevailed in the House Speakership vote as Republicans attempted to vote on and elect the California Republican for the gavel position. 

The Speakership vote underscored lingering divisions within the House GOP, though some of McCarthy’s initial detractors have since gained top committee assignments like CPAC attendees Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who sits on the House Steering Committee, and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who serves on the House Homeland Security and the Oversight and Reform committees. 

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.)

The South Carolina Republican is also a widely speculated 2024 GOP presidential candidate following news last month that he was launching a listening tour, with stops in early presidential primary states like South Carolina and Iowa.  

Scott is also slated to attend Club for Growth’s donor retreat — one that does not include Trump on its list of featured speakers. A possible Scott presidential candidacy would make him the second South Carolinian to enter the race, though he said in a recent interview, “I bet there’s room for three or four. Certainly room for two.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

Senate group wades into tough talks on Social Security

A bipartisan group of senators is treading carefully into the politically difficult discussion of making changes to Social Security to extend its solvency.  

Senators from both parties who have been involved in the talks are tight-lipped when it comes to revealing details, though reports have begun to surface of discussions of potential changes to the age threshold for retirement and raising the taxable wage cap. 

“All of the ideas on the table are the ones you would expect, but the thing that I like about these discussions is that there’s ideas on the table that nobody has talked about until now, but that have a track record of working, and that’s what I think is interesting,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said. 

It’s unclear exactly how many senators are involved in the talks, though Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said about five to six senators have been attending briefings “routinely,” including Sens. Angus King (I-Maine), Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah).

The talks are taking place against the backdrop of efforts to raise the debt ceiling this summer. House Republicans have demanded steep spending cuts in return for raising the ceiling.  

The Biden administration has argued that the lifting of the debt ceiling should be handled separately, while accusing Republicans of seeking to make cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

Republicans in the Senate and House have chafed at the White House attacks, and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has insisted that Social Security and Medicare will not be touched as part of a debt limit deal.  

But there are voices in both parties who think changes do need to be made to Social Security to extend its life separately from the debt limit fight.  

A report released by the Congressional Budget Office earlier this month warned that the Social Security trust fund could run out of money by 2032 — a year earlier than previously expected — without changes to existing policies.   

The development puts the exhaustion date within a 10-year window, the first time experts say that’s happened in decades, prompting fresh uneasiness among lawmakers.  

But changes to the program are a tough lift, especially in a Congress where one party leads each chamber.  

“The only way that any reforms to Social Security are going to work out is if they’re 100 percent bipartisan,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), who expressed interest in some of the ideas that have been a part of the informal Senate talks. “If there’s even one person out of balance, it won’t work.”  

One idea that has piqued interest on both sides of the aisle is to create a new sovereign wealth fund to help finance Social Security.   

While senators say the overall plan is yet to be finalized, sources familiar with the proposal told Semafor that the fund could involve more than $1 trillion in seed money to help finance investments.  

The idea has prompted questions from some experts over how much the fund could help shore up the program, which is expected to pay out more than a $1 trillion in benefits this year alone.

But the proposal has gotten some support from senators involved in the bipartisan effort being led by Cassidy and King.   

Romney said the proposal would allow the country “to be able to borrow at low interest rates and invest in the growth of our economy, and perhaps economies of other nations as well.”   

“That’s what other retirement funds do around the world, in corporations and in the railway world, and it creates a substantial source of revenue,” he said, adding that if the investments “didn’t do terribly well, we would kick in through other sources and make sure that we don’t threaten in any way the benefits of recipients.”  

According to Semafor, among the ideas being discussed as a potential backup plan if the fund falls short of at least 8 percent in return include upping the maximum taxable income and payroll tax rate. But both are proposals that could see a tough time garnering necessary support for passage in a divided Congress.   

The senators involved in the bipartisan group say they are trying to keep the talks from becoming politicized. That’s a difficult task given the high stakes in the debt ceiling fight.   

President Biden in his State of the Union address sought to get Republicans to agree to not make any cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Former President Trump, who is running for another term in office, has also criticized the idea of cutting Social Security or Medicare.

In remarks on Tuesday, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who has been a part of the talks, said one of the biggest hurdles to the effort is keeping “presidential politics out of it.”  

“It’s a really easy third rail to use on both sides of the aisle, if you want to go after an opponent,” Rounds told The Hill.

“Sometimes, it’s easier just to spin it because this is an area that people care about, but they’re always concerned because they’re worried about somebody taking away benefits and they don’t trust government the way it is,” he added.   

Some Democrats aren’t crazy about the talks, however.   

Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), one of six vulnerable Democrats targeted in a recent GOP campaign effort charging the party with “threatening Social Security and Medicare,” called the proposed sovereign wealth fund a distraction by Republicans to detract attention from proposals to cut existing benefits.

The Biden administration has also been hesitant to lean into the discussions.  

As for when lawmakers plan to put ink to the plan, senators involved in the effort say the public could see text in a matter of months.

“I think it will likely be introduced this year,” Romney said. “I’m not sure it’ll pass this year, but obviously, it’s a huge topic with enormous interest, and the fact that we have both Medicare and Social Security that are slated to become insolvent within a decade suggests that we need to make sure to save them.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Vance pitches PPP for Ohio while other Republicans say to wait

Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-Ohio) call for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)-style plan to help workers and businesses affected by the East Palestine train derailment is being greeted skeptically by Senate Republicans as they think about the best way to deliver aid to the community.

Vance has been among the leaders calling for increased attention and resources for East Palestine and a region that is still in the midst of a toxic waste cleanup following the Feb. 3 derailment. 

But while most senators say they’re open at looking ways to help the area recover but they caution it’s too early to make that determination and question whether a PPP-type program is necessary.

“It’s something I’d be willing to look at. … I think it would be difficult. We want to see those small businesses get back up on [their feet], and I know they’re having trouble with that, but how do you quantify a train derailment disaster over some other kind of thing?” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “It’s something to consider. I’d have to see how he would enact something like that.” 

Vance’s call for an aid package along the lines of the pandemic program that provided billions of dollars for small businesses came as part of an op-ed in The Washington Post where he relayed anecdotes from residents of the town who are concerned about the financial viability of staying in the area. 

Financial assistance from Congress is not likely to come immediately, however, as lawmakers await investigations by the National Transit Safety Board and other agencies to be completed and cleanup to be concluded, which they hope give them a better idea of what the area needs.

“I understand where Sen. Vance is coming from. We’ve all had natural disasters. When we do, we all try to help each other. … But it needs to be thought through. A little time needs to pass. We don’t even know what the health impacts are going to be yet of train derailment, much less the economic impacts. I would look at anything that JD wants to propose,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told The Hill.

Kennedy also noted that a major question surrounds how much Norfolk Southern will be on the hook for when all is said and done. 

In total, the railway has committed nearly $8 million to the area in various ways, but lawmakers indicated they are nowhere close to being finished on that end. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) told reporters on Tuesday that the federal government should not have to provide assistance to the area and believes Norfolk Southern should cover more than the lion’s share of what is needed. 

“Norfolk Southern’s paying for all of this. … There shouldn’t have to be federal dollars. Norfolk Southern’s paying for this. They’ve committed to that and we’re going to hold them to it,” Brown told reporters.

Brown added that he is “open to anything” on Vance’s PPP idea and that they have discussed it.

Vance told The Hill on Tuesday that he and his staff are still figuring out the nuts and bolts of the PPP-type proposal, adding that it is “one piece” of the financial response and will be thought through over the “next couple of weeks.” 

“We’re still thinking through what exactly it would look like, but the PPP program is a pretty good structural basis for it, which is effectively income replacement for people who lost their job through no fault of their own. That’s the baseline of how we think this would work,” Vance said in a brief interview, adding that questions surrounding where the funds would come from and underwater mortgages also need to be addressed. 

While popular when it passed, the Paycheck Protection Program has drawn the ire of many Republicans in recent months as experts estimate that $80 billion of the $800 billion in PPP loans that were doled out to small businesses were fraudulent. Unlike that system, any proposal for those in eastern Ohio would be on a much smaller scale, though it would be unprecedented for a non-COVID situation. 

“I’m open to helping. I’m not sure that’s the right model,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said of the PPP idea. “That’s been the norm around here when there are disasters like this, the federal government steps up and tries to help, and I wouldn’t expect this to be any different.”

Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), a longtime House Ways and Means Committee member, indicated he is open to the idea. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told The Hill that he would discuss the possibility with Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), who represents the area. 

On the disaster front, lawmakers OK’d more than $40 billion for victims of storms and wildfires as part of the year-end omnibus spending bill. 

One entity that is not aiding financially is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which said that the derailment does not qualify as a traditional disaster. The agency has, however, dispatched multiple staffers to the area. 

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor on Monday that lawmakers will work with Vance “to ensure the people of Ohio are appropriately informed and supported in the months to come.”

Mychael Schnell contributed.

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House panel lays out 'existential struggle' with China in primetime debut

Anti-war protesters. Audiovisuals. Tough talk on the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party.

The House Select Committee on China kicked off its first hearing Tuesday evening with fireworks as it laid out the challenge facing the U.S. in catching up and confronting an aggressive foe in Beijing. 

“We may call this a ‘strategic competition,’ but this is not a polite tennis match,” Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) said in his opening remarks. “This is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century — and the most fundamental freedoms are at stake.”  

The committee, which was established by a bipartisan vote to run for the tenure of the 118th Congress, is an ambitious attempt by lawmakers to craft the next generation of U.S. policy towards China that has buy in from the majority of Congress and the world.

Republicans and Democrats hand-selected to participate on the committee have stressed their professionalism and commitment to civility and pursuit of bipartisanship, but opening remarks by the top lawmakers touched on issues that are deeply divisive — both in policy and culture.    

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the panel, immediately sought to distinguish between the CCP and Chinese citizens and those of Asian heritage. He warned against verbal attacks against people within those demographics, pointing specifically to those targeting members of Congress.  

“We must practice bipartisanship and avoid anti-Chinese or Asian stereotyping at all costs,” he said. 

He referenced recent remarks questioning the “loyalty” of Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), holding back from naming Texas Republican Lance Gooden, who suggested she be denied access to sensitive classified materials.  

“These comments only feed the scapegoating and targeting of Chinese Americans, further endangering them and other Asian Americans. Indeed, this xenophobia and stereotyping is what the CCP would want to happen. The CCP is counting on us being divided. We must rise to the occasion and prove them wrong,” Krishnamoorthi added.  

The meeting — held in the same hearing room and at the same time as the kickoff for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack last year — took another page from the panel’s playbook, introducing the topic with a video rolling through actions taken by the CCP. 

The committee is not expected to produce the same level of excitement that surrounded the Jan. 6 hearings, which uncovered numerous previously unknown details surrounding the attack on the Capitol, but instead aims to serve as a deep dive into how the U.S. can navigate a deeply interconnected, but perilous, relationship with China. 

And even as the committee sought attention with its primetime rollout, it had to contend with drama it wasn’t bargaining for when a series of protesters interrupted its meeting, casting the committee as aggravating tensions between U.S. and Beijing. 

The protesters were from the group CODEPINK, which are known for staging disruptive public displays of confrontation, advocating a blanket non interventionist approach to global conflicts. 

One protester, who stood up and shouted, held up a sign that read, “China is not our enemy,” before being forcibly removed by security. A second protestor stood up shortly after, holding a sign that read “Stop Asian Hate,” and shouting accusations that the committee was “saber-rattling.”  

That drew a reaction from Gallagher, who told the protester, “Your sign is upside down,” s well as a remark from the committee’s expert witness, who said that such dissent would not be tolerated in Beijing. 

“They’d have no such right in China. It wouldn’t be broadcast, their voices would be silenced perhaps permanently,” said Scott Paul, President for Alliance for American Manufacturing ahead of his opening remarks.  

Despite the interruption, the committee was largely substantive, with lawmakers digging into topics including human rights, trade, technology, global relations and military deterrence.  

Other expert witnesses included two former Trump administration senior officials — former national security adviser H.R. McMaster and former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger — and Tong Yi, a Chinese human rights advocate who talked about her imprisonment in a Chinese labor camp related to her work alongside pro-democracy activists. 

“I was handed a two-and-a-half-years sentence for disturbing social order and sent to a forced labor camp,” Tong said in opening remarks.  

Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi jointly produced a video focusing in on human rights criticisms in China and included other video presentations underscoring the Chinese Communist Party’s ambitions to undermine and overtake democracies like the U.S. 

“The success that the Chinese Communist Party once enjoyed presenting itself as constructive, cooperative, responsible, normal, was one of the great magic tricks of the modern era,” Pottinger said.  

Lawmakers addressed questions to the experts on some of the most contentious issues plaguing Washington. 

This included newly reported intelligence assessments that lends more support to the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China; whether the U.S. is adequately positioned to help prepare Taiwan to defend itself against a potential military invasion from the Chinese military, the People’s Liberation Army; and the security risks posed by the ubiquitous, China-based social media app TikTok.  

Gallagher, speaking to the professionalism on the panel, said he sought to allow each lawmaker the breadth to question the experts even as the committee hearing was set to last for more than what would be a two hour meeting. 

“If you are the eager student that stays until the end, I will entertain a second round of questioning,” Gallagher said. “So you may find yourself alone with me and the witnesses at 1 a.m. asking endless rounds of questions if you’re so interested in the topic.”  

The chairman did not receive requests for a second round of questioning and closed the hearing just before 10 p.m. 

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Johnson to face Vallas in Chicago mayoral runoff

Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson is projected to advance in Chicago’s mayoral race, pitting him against former Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Paul Vallas, according to The Associated Press.

The Cook County commissioner needed to be among the top two candidates with the most votes in order to advance to the Chicago mayoral runoff given the unlikeliness that any one candidate would outright win at least half of the vote on Tuesday. 

The race also marks a stunning fall for Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D), who was running for reelection but failed to advance to the final round.

Despite being an incumbent, Lightfoot was largely seen as an underdog. Recent polling either placing her in a statistical tie with or trailing one of the following candidates: former Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Paul Vallas, Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.), and Johnson. 

Johnson has sought to position himself as the progressive candidate in the race, accusing fellow mayoral candidate García as being “a staunch ally of Lori Lightfoot.” The Cook County commissioner, who has the backing of the powerful Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), however, has had to tread a fine line over a previous position of supporting defunding the police. 

The Cook County commissioner was targeted over his support for defunding the police in one of Lightfoot’s ads. In an interview with The Hill last week, he would not say whether he would remove funding from the Chicago Police Department, only saying he would be “investing in what works.”

Vallas, meanwhile, last ran for mayor in 2019, though he was unable to make it into the runoff that year, which saw Lightfoot elected.

He leaned into tough-on-crime messaging during the race in an election where public safety was ranked in some polling as a top issue among voters. He’s also backed by the Fraternal Order of Police.

In a sign of the competitive nature of the race, Lightfoot and other candidates targeted Vallas, casting him as a Republican. The Chicago mayor has also targeted him over his position on abortion. Vallas has dismissed the attacks, saying he’s a “lifelong pro-choice Democrat.”

The Chicago mayoral runoff is set for April 4.

Source: TEST FEED1

Lightfoot ousted as Chicago mayor

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) is projected to lose her bid for reelection, a stunning blow to an incumbent who made headlines as an underdog reformer candidate who defied expectations and won the city’s top job in 2019.

Lightfoot on Tuesday failed to be one of the top two vote-getters to notch a spot in the final round of voting in April, according to The Associated Press. A runoff was expected given the unlikeliness that any one candidate would outright win at least half of the vote on Tuesday.

Paul Vallas, former Chicago Public Schools CEO, and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson are projected to face each other in the April 4 runoff.

Despite being an incumbent in the race, Lightfoot was largely seen as an underdog. Recent polling either placed her in a statistical tie with or trailing one of the following candidates: former Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Paul Vallas; Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.); and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson. 

The Chicago mayor’s tenure has at times been colored by contentious relationships she’s had with individuals and groups like the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). 

Experts suggested ahead of the race that it wasn’t clear what type of constituency would vote for Lightfoot ahead of the race given some of the groups who had once backed her, including the city’s white and progressive-leaning North Side lakefront cohort, appeared less likely to endorse her again. 

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FBI director says origin of COVID-19 pandemic ‘most likely’ a lab ‘incident’ in Wuhan

FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the agency has assessed that the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic was “most likely a potential lab incident” in Wuhan, China. 

Wray told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview on Tuesday that the FBI’s work on determining where the pandemic originated is continuing, but many details related to the investigation remain classified. 

“So as you note, Bret, the FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” he said. 

Wray added that he believes that Beijing has been working to undermine the investigation from the United States and other members of the international community. 

“I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here. The work that we’re doing, the work that our U.S. government and close foreign partners are doing. And that’s unfortunate for everybody,” he said. 

Wray’s comments come a couple days after the revelation that the Energy Department (DOE) recently released a report that determined with “low confidence” that a lab leak was responsible for the start of the pandemic. 

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the FBI previously concluded with “moderate confidence” that a lab leak was the cause of the coronavirus spreading to the public, but other U.S. intelligence agencies have been split on whether that was the source. 

The Journal reported that people who read the DOE’s report said the CIA and one other agency are unsure about the source of the pandemic, while the report said the National Intelligence Council and four agencies believe it came by a natural occurrence from an infected animal.

The intelligence agencies released a report in 2021 on their assessment of the origin of the virus, but it did not definitively make a conclusion on many questions.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan responded to the Journal’s report on Sunday that the intelligence community has not received a “definitive answer” on the pandemic’s origins.

“There is a variety of views in the intelligence community. Some elements of the intelligence community have reached conclusions on one side, some on the other. A number of them have said they just don’t have enough information to be sure,” he said.

The House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Response, which the body formed last month, is investigating the source of the pandemic during this session of Congress. Debate over the origin has been significantly politicized since the pandemic began three years ago. 

GOP members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee concluded in a report released last year that the virus escaped from a Wuhan lab.

Source: TEST FEED1

McCarthy, GOP pump brakes on release of Jan. 6 footage to Tucker Carlson

House Republicans are pumping the brakes on the release of Jan. 6 surveillance footage they’ve offered to Fox News host Tucker Carlson and going on offense against Democrats who have spent the past week slamming the move.

Republican leaders are emphasizing that no clips will be broadcast without prior security clearance while accusing Democrats of neglecting the same precautions during the investigation by the House select committee last year — a charge the Democrats quickly rejected.

Carlson, Fox’s wildly popular conservative pundit, said last week that he would begin airing footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot this week, after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) offered him what Carlson described as “unfettered” exclusive access to more than 40,000 hours of unreleased surveillance tape starting earlier in the month.

Yet McCarthy and other Republicans, following days of silence on the topic, made clear Tuesday that no information would be released to Carlson’s team — let alone broadcast publicly — before the footage is screened to ensure it doesn’t compromise the security of the Capitol complex. 

The Speaker said Republicans are working with the U.S. Capitol Police to ensure that’s the case.

“It’s many more hours of tape than we were ever told. They said at the beginning it was like, 14,000 hours. There’s roughly almost 42,000 hours. We’re working through that. We work with the Capitol Police as well, so we’ll make sure security is taken care of,” McCarthy told reporters in the Capitol. 

“There’s certain parts that he wanted to see,” McCarthy said of Carlson, but stressed that the Fox News host’s team specifically said they do not want to see “exit routes.”

“They’re not interested in it. They don’t want to show that,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy statement was a shot at the Jan. 6 select committee for airing footage showing then-Vice President Mike Pence leaving the Senate chamber after rioters stormed into the Capitol in a failed effort to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory.

The footage did not show Pence’s full route out of the Capitol, and members of the investigative committee said they took pains to clear each video clip with leaders of the Capitol Police before broadcasting them. 

“What we showed to the public was video that we vetted through general counsel, we vetted through the chief of the Capitol Police,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss,), chairman of the since-dissolved Jan. 6 committee, told reporters Tuesday. “And under no circumstances did we push out anything that we felt that would have violated any aspect of the security of this area.” 

McCarthy, though, cast doubt on the Democrats’ narrative, saying members of the Capitol Police force have informed him directly that not all footage from the Jan. 6 select committee was screened.

“There’s times when the Capitol Police told me that they didn’t consult with them either on some of these routes, so that’s a concern,” McCarthy said.

The Capitol Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

McCarthy said that he expects the security footage to be widely released “as soon as possible,” but would not “predetermine” the format of such a release. 

McCarthy told The Hill that he has not spoken personally to Carlson about the Jan. 6 footage.

McCarthy also criticized the Jan. 6 Select Committee for airing clips that showed his staff members being evacuated from his office wing.

“They went in and they showed our office … because they have a camera in our office. They never talked to any of us about it,” said McCarthy, who did not cooperate with the Jan. 6 select committee after it issued a subpoena to talk to him.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) also raised concerns about footage released by the Jan. 6 select committee, pointing to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) daughter filming a documentary in a secure location where congressional leaders were kept during the riot.

But Democrats are also pointing fingers, voicing their own doubts that Republicans are adopting strong security protocols as they share the footage with Carlson, who has downplayed the violence on Jan. 6 and promoted conspiracy theories about the riot being orchestrated by Trump’s political adversaries. 

Thompson said his office has been asking for — but not received — written procedures governing how the many hours of footage would released, and then used. 

“If they don’t have anything in writing … then I say it’s a bad idea,” Thompson said. 

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chair of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, said that his panel is still working through those procedures.

“We’re working on putting protocols together and policies and procedures and schedules,” Loudermilk said.

While Carlson’s team has full access to watch the tens of thousands of hours of footage, Loudermilk said, he will work with the sergeant-at-arms and Capitol Police to ensure that any copies of that footage given to Carlson do not pose security risks.

“There hasn’t been a release of tapes,” Loudermilk said. “It’s basically controlled access to be able to view tapes. Can’t record, can’t take anything with you. Then they will request any particular clips that — that they may need, and then we’ll make sure that there’s nothing sensitive, nothing classified — you know, escape routes.”

The fierce debate over the release of the full Jan. 6 footage — and the appropriateness of granting exclusive access to Carlson — comes as McCarthy is fighting to solidify support from some Republicans wary that the new Speaker lacks the conservative bonafides to take on President Biden and the Washington “swamp.”

Some of those critics said McCarthy had promised them, during the hard-fought Speaker’s balloting, that he would release the full library of Jan. 6 footage in return for their support. Carlson himself also suggested that McCarthy pledge to release the tapes to earn support for the Speakership.

McCarthy denied that claim on Tuesday. While he has said in other comments and in a fundraising email that he had “promised” to release the footage, he said that was a reference to a question in a press conference last month, not because of negotiations during the Speaker’s election.

“I’m just following through on that,” he said Tuesday.

 It’s unclear if McCarthy’s most vocal Republican detractors — whose backing he needs to pass legislation in a narrowly divided House — will accept a more limited release of the footage.

Carlson, Fox’s most popular commentator, has been among McCarthy’s most prominent, if not frequent, right-wing critics. And McCarthy’s decision to share the Jan. 6 footage exclusively with Carlson has led to accusations that the Speaker is simply coddling up to the popular host to save his own political hide. 

“The Speaker is saying that this is about public accountability and transparency. But that is totally belied by the fact that he gave it to one extreme person in the media,” said Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the Democratic whip. 

The choice of Carlson is under additional scrutiny this week following revelations — released as part of an ongoing defamation lawsuit against Fox News — that he was among the network pundits furious that Fox had correctly called Arizona for Biden. Carlson, at the time, voiced concern that the accurate reporting would drive Fox viewers to other conservative outlets, which continued to report Trump’s lies about a stolen election. 

McCarthy defended the choice of Carlson on Tuesday, accusing the Jan. 6 select committee of handing surveillance footage to outlets favored by liberal viewers, including CNN and MSNBC.

“Have you ever had an exclusive? I see it on your networks all the time,” McCarthy said to a group of reporters that included correspondents from CNN and MSNBC.

Source: TEST FEED1