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Upton on Trump officials speaking out about Jan. 6: 'Where were they a year and a half ago?'
Rep. Fred Upton (D-Mich.), one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach former President Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection, said Thursday that other GOP members now speaking out about Trump’s actions that day “should’ve helped us” at the time.
“What disappoints me the most is here we are a year and a half later, we’re now just getting other Republicans within the former administration to step up, to tell what they thought, what they saw happened,” Upton told NBC’s Peter Alexander on “Meet the Press” Thursday afternoon.
“Where were they a year and a half ago, when ten of us voted our conscience and decided to cast the vote that we did?”
A handful of DOJ officials — including former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue and then-head of the Office of Legal Counsel Steven Engel — appeared for a public hearing last month to detail Trump’s pressure campaign to cast doubt on the 2020 election.
Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who was replaced by Mark Meadows in 2020 but stayed on as a diplomatic envoy in the administration, has penned recent op-eds warning that “things could get very dark” for Trump amid recent revelations of his actions before, during and after Jan. 6.
The House Jan. 6 panel also secured the testimony of Pat Cipollone, Trump’s former White House counsel, who is scheduled to appear for a transcribed interview on Friday.
The nine other GOP members who joined Upton in voting for Trump’s impeachment were Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Tom Rice (R-S.C.), Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), John Katko (R-N.Y.), Peter Meijer (R-Mich.), David Valadao (R-Calif.), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.).
“None of the 10 of us regretted our vote that we cast,” Upton said Thursday.
Upton is among half of the group that has decided against running for reelection, while others are facing Trump-backed primary challenges. Rice lost his mid-June primary, insisting just before the election that Trump “is not the future of the Republican party.”
At the end of June, 14 Republicans broke with their party to vote with their Democratic colleagues on a gun control bill. Seven were from the group of 10 that voted for impeachment: Cheney, Upton, Rice, Kinzinger, Gonzales, Katko and Meijer.
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Feinstein says she'd vote for filibuster carveout to codify abortion rights
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Thursday said she supports the Senate removing the procedural filibuster rule in order to codify abortion rights into law.
Feinstein said she “certainly would vote” to support a carveout to the filibuster to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act and codify federal-level abortion protections.
“Let me be clear: If it comes down to protecting the filibuster or protecting a woman’s right to choose, there should be no question that I will vote to protect a woman’s right to choose,” she said in a statement.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, clearing the way for states to ban or severely restrict abortion access, President Biden called on the Senate to carve out an exception to the filibuster rule to codify abortion rights into law.
Previous efforts to eliminate the filibuster rule, which allows for voting on legislation to be indefinitely delayed unless 60 senators vote to end debate, have failed because Democrats hold a thin majority in the upper chamber with 50 senators and a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.
Biden would need the support of all Democrats to get rid of the filibuster, including from Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who have long resisted ending the established Senate procedure.
After Politico in May published a leaked draft opinion showing the Supreme Court was preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade and the 50-year constitutional right to abortion, both Manchin and Sinema reiterated their support for the filibuster rule.
“The filibuster is the only protection we have in democracy,” Manchin told The Hill in May.
While the House passed the Women’s Health Protection Act last year, the Senate failed to pass the legislation after bringing it to a vote in both February and May. The chamber was unable to muster the 60 votes needed to end the filibuster both times.
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), as well as the largest nursing union in the country, have intensified calls for the Senate to end the filibuster procedure in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
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Graham, Blumenthal meet with Zelensky in Kyiv
Sens. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday to push for legislation that would classify Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism.”
The bipartisan duo introduced a resolution in May seeking to make Russian the fifth addition to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, joining North Korea, Iran, Syria and Cuba.
In late June, Zelensky called on the United Nations to designate Russia as a terrorist state.
“Bicameral and bipartisan support is really important for Ukraine. We feel it, we feel this unity,” Zelensky said, according to a report from the president’s office Thursday.
Both U.S. parties, he said, “support Ukraine very fundamentally,” as evidenced by the resolution, which Zelensky hopes “will be brought to fruition.”
Blumenthal mention the grisly images that emerged from Bucha following Russia’s withdrawal from the Kyiv regions, saying, “If that isn’t terrorism, I don’t know what is,” in an interview with Reuters Thursday.
The proposal from Graham and Blumenthal calls on the secretary of state to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
“There’s no doubt in my mind, senator, that the Russians are terrorizing the Ukrainian people,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told senators in a hearing in April. “The question is this — and again, this is something that the lawyers are looking at — to make sure that we actually meet the statutory requirements of that designation.”
Zelensky also debriefed the senators Thursday about Russia’s latest attacks, with strikes hitting the Kharkiv and Donbas regions in southern Ukraine the same day of the senators’ visit.
The Ukrainian president said he hoped the meeting would help “our partners have accurate information about our defense needs” and stressed the importance of air defense to combat the ongoing attacks.
The trio reportedly discussed using U.S. weapons systems to reclaim Russian-occupied territory in eastern Ukraine, using long-range artillery and hand-to-hand combat.
The Department of Defense last week unveiled an $820 million weapons package for Ukraine, which includes advanced air defense systems. The U.S. has committed $6.9 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24.
“The greater the defense aid to Ukraine is now, the sooner the war will end with our victory and the smaller will be the losses of all the countries of the world, the losses of the Untied States from Russian pressure on democratic societies,” Zelensky said in his daily address to Ukrainians.
Both Graham and Blumenthal supported Zelensky’s call for increased weaponry during their meeting, per Reuters.
“We have a chance here in the next 60 days … the decisions we make can turn the tide of this war in favor of Ukraine,” Graham reportedly said.
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Newsom announces California will produce its own 'low cost' insulin
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced on Thursday that his state will be producing its own “low cost” insulin, stating, “People should not go into debt to get life-saving medication.”
Newsom said that the state budget he recently signs includes $100 million for California to “contract and make [its] own insulin at a cheaper price, close to at-cost, and to make it available to all.”
He said $50 million of that budget will go to the development of the low-cost insulin, while the additional $50 million will go towards a California-based manufacturing facility for the lower-cost drug, which Newsom claims “will provide new, high-paying jobs and a stronger supply chain.”
Newsom also said in his announcement that he had signed an executive order his first day in office to put California on the path to creating its own prescription drugs, touting that “now it’s happening.”
“Nothing epitomizes market failures more than the cost of insulin,” Newsom stated, going on to say that “many Americans experience out-of-pocket costs ranging anywhere from $300 to $500 per month for this life-saving drug.”
This comes amid a push on Capitol Hill to cap insulin costs. A bipartisan insulin bill from Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) is expected to be voted on as soon as this month.
Collins has urged her Republican colleagues to support the bill. However, some Republicans have pushed back on the measure with concerns that it would be too expensive or interfere too much in the free market.
On Wednesday, Senate Democrats removed a provision in a separate drug pricing bill to cap patients’ insulin costs at $35 per month, a goal which has been a high selling point for Democrats, including President Biden, for their economic package.
The provision is part of the bipartisan insulin bill from Shaheen and Collins, which will require support from at least 10 Republican senators in order to clear a filibuster and pass.
By contrast, the Democratic-only drug pricing measure is a part of Biden’s economic package, which uses a process known as reconciliation to bypass a GOP filibuster, meaning it can pass with only 50 Democratic votes.
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On The Money – All eyes on IRS audits
The IRS is under fire over questionable audits conducted during the Trump administration. We’ll also look at falling gas prices, AbbVie’s tax evasion tactics and the companies at risk of losing their assets to Russia.
But first, President Biden just awarded the Medal of Freedom to 17 recipients, including his late friend Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and a few historic firsts.
Welcome to On The Money, your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. For The Hill, we’re Sylvan Lane, Aris Folley and Karl Evers-Hillstrom. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.
IRS in political storm over Trump-era audits
The IRS is at the center of a political storm over audits conducted on former FBI director James Comey and former deputy director Andrew McCabe.
- Both had high profile fights with President Trump, and the rare audits were conducted on Trump’s watch under the Trump-appointed IRS commissioner Charles Rettig.
- Comey was fired by President Trump in 2017 during the FBI’s probe into possible relationships between the Russian government and Trump’s 2016 campaign team.
- McCabe took over for Comey as acting director of the FBI and was fired in 2018.
According to The New York Times, Comey and McCabe were both served a rare and highly demanding type of IRS audit following their firings.
“The possibility that the former President or someone in the White House, his cabinet, his appointees, or leadership working under the Trump-appointed IRS Commissioner may have requested an audit of those deemed disloyal is alarming,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said in a statement Thursday.
“It is unconscionable that someone within the IRS may have acted on this request out of loyalty to the Trump administration or fear of retaliation for failing to act,” he said.
One wild stat: There was a 1-in-30,000 chance of Comey getting the NRP audit and a 1-in-20,000 chance of McCabe getting the audit, according to the Times. Taken together, that’s about a 1-in-600,000,000 chance of two randomly selected individuals receiving the same audit in a pool of more than 150,000,000 U.S. taxpayers.
The Hill’s Tobias Burns breaks it down here.
WHEN I DIP YOU DIP WE DIP
Gasoline prices dip a quarter from recent $5 highs
Gas prices fell slightly this week, with a select few stations dropping beneath $4 per gallon as prices fall across the board.
- Data from the Oil Price Information Service shared with The Hill shows that the median price of gasoline in the U.S. is about $4.60 per gallon, down from about $4.70 per gallon a week ago.
- Average prices are also down to $4.74, down from $4.84 a week ago.
- The data shows that a small percentage of stations — 2.3 percent — are below $4 per gallon. A week ago, just 0.5 percent were below $4 per gallon.
Still, this is a small share of the more than 100,000 gas stations in the U.S. The Hill’s Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk have more.
SHADY RECORDS
Drug company AbbVie used Trump tax law to shield profits, Senate report finds
Pharmaceutical giant AbbVie generates almost all of its sales in the United States but has allegedly exploited former President Trump’s tax law to shield much of its sales from taxes, according to an interim report released Thursday by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee.
- The report details how loopholes in the 2017 tax law have allowed AbbVie, a large multinational corporation headquartered in the U.S., to substantially shrink its tax burden and stash profits overseas to avoid paying taxes on prescription drug sales.
- According to the report, AbbVie generated over $56 billion in worldwide sales in 2021, with over 77 percent made to American consumers, yet just 1 percent of AbbVie’s income was reported in the U.S. for tax purposes.
AbbVie makes the arthritis drug Humira, which has been the best-selling drug in the world for several years. Over the last four years, AbbVie has sold $62 billion worth of Humira in the United States.
Find out more on this here from The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel.
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SOON TO SEIZE
At least 47 major companies at risk of having Russia seize key assets: report
At least 47 multinational companies with a presence in Russia, including gas giant BP and aircraft behemoth Boeing, are at risk of having key assets seized by the Russian government.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February spurred dozens of major international companies to pull out of the country amid sweeping sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies.
A report that will be published next week from the Russian monitoring organization the Moral Rating Agency says the Kremlin may soon seize or redirect assets of those companies to a friendlier firm.
- Other at-risk firms include Shell, Samsung, PepsiCo, Nissan, Intel, Microsoft, Toyota and Ford, according to the report.
- The companies at risk of losing assets to Russia make up 24 percent of the 200 largest corporations in the world.
The Hill’s Brad Dress has more here.
Good to Know
From The Associated Press: “More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week and while layoffs remain low, it was the fifth consecutive week that claims topped the 230,000 mark and the most in almost six months.
“Applications for jobless aid for the week ending July 2 rose to 235,000, up 4,000 from the previous week and the most since mid-January, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time applications generally track with the number of layoffs. Until early June, claims hadn’t eclipsed 220,000 since January and have often been below 200,000 this year.” Read more.
Here’s what else we have our eye on:
- Former President Trump and his son were among six board members removed from the board of Trump’s social media company weeks before it was hit with federal subpoenas, according to state records.
- House Republicans are weighing what kind of national-level abortion ban legislation to pursue if they win the House majority next year, with a 15-week ban or further on the table.
- The Biden administration will grant nearly $1 billion to 85 airports across the country to improve terminals, the White House announced on Thursday.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Finance page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.
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Energy & Environment — DOT proposes climate transportation rule for states
The Biden administration is pressing for new climate requirements and eyeing potential plastic limits on its purchases. And good news for drivers: Gas prices seem to be coming down.
This is Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.
Officials float state carbon emissions rule
A proposed rule released by the Biden administration Thursday would require states and cities to set carbon emission reduction targets for transportation.
The draft rule would require state transportation departments and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) with National Highway System mileage within their boundaries to both measure their transportation-related emissions and develop reduction targets.
This would build on existing regulations that require those institutions to track other forms of air pollutants. Transportation is the single largest source of carbon emissions in the U.S.
The deets: Under the terms of the rule, both state departments of transportation and MPOs would be required to report their progress on meeting their emissions goals twice a year. The proposal contains no specific requirements for the goals, saying it would allow states and cities to determine which targets “are appropriate for their communities and … work for their respective climate change and other policy priorities.”
The bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law by President Biden in November put just under $6.5 billion toward helping local and state governments reduce highway-related emissions. The funds, announced in April, are contingent on recipients developing an emissions reduction strategy.
Read more about the proposal here.
Gas prices down a quarter
Gas prices took a dip this week and are about 25 cents lower than their recent highs.
- Data from the Oil Price Information Service shared with The Hill shows that the median price of gasoline in the U.S. is about $4.60 per gallon, down from about $4.70 per gallon a week ago.
- The data shows that a small percentage of stations — 2.3 percent — are below $4 per gallon. A week ago, just 0.5 percent were below $4 per gallon.
- Overall, prices are down about a quarter from recent highs; they were about $4.92 per gallon a month ago, per AAA, and rose as high as $5 per gallon in June.
Prices are continuing what has been a weeks-long downward trend, Devin Gladden, AAA National’s manager for federal affairs, told The Hill.
“One, we’ve seen oil prices decline. … They’re still elevated, but we’ve seen them break below $100 per barrel,” Gladden said. “We’ve also seen gas demand weaken a bit, and so those two forces have helped to put pressure on prices. And as those trends continue, we’re likely to see prices continue to decline.”
Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service, said in an email that he thinks the current change is “an interlude and not a trend change.”
“What we saw in the last week was that the market had become overbought,” he said. “Those weaker buyers got flushed out.”
Kloza predicted that prices could drop between 5 and 25 cents between now and the end of next week, but he also said they would bounce back later in the summer before cooling down in September.
And, new indicators on Thursday had even forecasters who are more optimistic revising their projections.
- Patrick De Haan of price tracking website GasBuddy, who on Wednesday told The Hill he believed gasoline prices could fall by between 40 and 65 cents over the next few weeks, now expects them to drop between 20 and 35 cents.
- He cited increases in the prices of both oil and wholesale gasoline — prices paid by gas station owners who then sell it retail to consumers.
ADMIN EYES PLASTIC PURCHASING LIMITS
The Biden administration may set some limits on the use of single-use plastics in goods that are purchased by the federal government.
The General Services Administration (GSA), which oversees federal government purchasing, said in a notice published on Thursday that it could restrict the purchases.
Single-use plastics contribute significantly to the world’s waste. A report last year from an Australian nonprofit found that globally, more than 130 million metric tons of plastics used a single time were thrown away in 2019.
In its notice, the GSA asked the public for information on plastic consumed in packaging and shipping and other single-use plastics in agency contracts.
It said that this information will be used to inform a future rule that sets up requirements and reporting mechanisms aimed at reducing “unnecessary” single use-plastic, including in packaging and shipping materials.
Read more about the move here.
WHAT WE’RE READING
- US water likely contains more ‘forever chemicals’ than EPA tests show (The Guardian)
- The Southwest is bone dry. Now, a key water source is at risk (Politico)
- France to Nationalize Debt-Laden EDF as Energy Crisis Mounts (Bloomberg)
- How a composting facility likely spread massive amounts of ‘forever chemicals’ across one town in Massachusetts (The Boston Globe)
ICYMI
Union presses Park Police chief on staffing levels
And finally, something offbeat but on-beat: Robert Downey Jr. pitches clean energy jobs.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Energy & Environment page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.
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NotedDC – Republicans eye Latino-majority districts
Republicans know Hispanic voters are key to their political playbook.
So in a bid to win more toss-up districts this November they’re investing heavily on the ground in areas where they’ve traditionally had less of a presence.
Former President Trump made inroads with Hispanic voters in Florida and Texas in 2020, and Republicans point to that shift in party affiliation as they pour money into battleground states where the demographic is growing.
“Democrats have taken [these states] for granted,” Danielle Alvarez, communications director for the Republican National Committee (RNC), said. “We’re going to be present.”
They released a slew of Spanish-language ads last week in states where Hispanic voters were key to President Biden’s 2020 victory, including in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
And they’ve been opening community centers to reach out to voters of color — 30 to date. Those include 12 Hispanic community centers: four in Texas, two in Florida and one each in Wisconsin, Nevada, Georgia, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.
“It is a place where we can have two-way conversations,” Jaime Florez, the RNC’s Hispanic communications director told NotedDC. “We can listen to our community to tell us how they think our party could be doing better things for them.”
Republicans are banking on Biden’s economic woes to shift voters this cycle and in 2024, with current polls suggesting that Hispanic voters view Biden less favorably than they did in 2020.
Welcome to NotedDC: Your guide to politics, policy and people of consequence in D.C. Have some news, juicy gossip, insight or other insider info? Send us tips: Elizabeth Crisp and Kelsey Carolan.
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DEMOCRATS KEY IN ON ABORTION AND GUN SAFETY
But Chuck Rocha, a Democratic operative, told NotedDC there isn’t a wholesale shift to the GOP, but rather finally a fight between the parties. Essentially, Republicans are investing in areas Democrats have traditionally had to themselves, he said.
“Democrats still won the vote overwhelmingly in most places [in 2020] but you saw an erosion of support going to Republicans because they were now competing for the vote,” Rocha said.
Still, Rocha said that Democrats still shouldn’t be naive to think that it will be an easy feat to keep control of the House, especially when Republicans are on offense about inflation, an issue polls typically rank as a first or second priority for Hispanic voters.
“Democrats aren’t good at fighting,” Rocha said. “Republicans are brilliant at laying blame and creating narratives that aren’t true because they know Democrats aren’t going to fight back aggressively.”
Democrats hope that abortion rights and gun safety are issues that will drive Hispanic voters to the polls in November, especially younger voters who are less socially conservative.
An Ispos/Axios poll released at the end of June found that gun violence and crime passed inflation as Hispanic voter’s top issue. And a poll by Future Majority found that Hispanics in battleground states overwhelmingly support access to abortions.
“Our job is to take that anger and use it to mobilize and engage people to go out,” Gilberto Hinojosa, the chair of the Texas Democrats, said.
Historically, Hispanic voters have been pinned as socially conservative, but Democratic strategist Maria Cardona said Democrats should focus on the generational shift in the demographic, emphasizing that they need to pay attention to young voters.
“Young people, especially, are a lot more focused and driven on reproductive rights,” Cardona said. “Democrats need to spend the time, the money and the resources.”
A BELLWETHER OR A FLUKE?
Republicans had a win to point to last month when Mayra Flores flipped Rep. Filomen Vela’s seat in June in South Texas, a Hispanic-majority area where both parties have invested heavily in the past few election cycles.
They held up the special election as another sign Hispanic voters are shifting toward the GOP and hope her victory will be the first of many.
But Gilberto Hinojosa, the chair of the Texas Democrats, attributed Republicans’ win to the special election being held a week after the primaries, with only 28,990 votes being casted compared to around 200,000 in the 2020 general election for the same seat. Democrats also invested little in the race until the week before the vote.
“I don’t think anybody can make a claim that based upon that, somehow Republicans lead in South Texas,” Hinojosa said.
Jan. 6 committee to hear from key witness
The Jan. 6 House committee is preparing to hear more potential bombshell testimony, this time from former White House counsel Pat Cipollone on Friday behind closed doors.
Cipollone’s testimony is expected to be significant. He advised former President Trump during the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election and in the lead up to the attack at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
He’s been thought of as one of the missing pieces to the puzzle, only appearing before the committee for an informal interview. But after Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Mark Meadows, testified last week that Cipollone told Meadows on Jan. 6 that “something needs to be done or people are going to die,” his testimony was seen as all but necessary.
“Where the committee has cast Meadows as a servile Trump loyalist, they’ve made clear they see Cipollone as being one of the few inner-circle figures to protest the president’s bellicose plans for Jan. 6, including his persistent intention to march with his supporters to the Capitol that day,” our colleagues Rebecca Beitsch, Mike Lillis and Brett Samuels write.
- His testimony may give more insight into how legal advisers stopped Trump from firing his acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and replacing him with Jeffrey Clark, a lawyer willing to advance Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud.
- It also might shed light on how Cipollone attempted to strike parts of Trump’s speech he gave at the Capitol on Jan. 6, with Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) saying before that the committee views Cipollone’s actions as trying to “do what was right.”
What else we’re reading: “Secret Service denial of Hutchinson story fuels attacks from both sides.”
BIDEN FACES INCREASING PRESSURE TO ACT ON ABORTION
The Women’s March is heading to the White House this Saturday to put pressure on the Biden administration to protect abortion rights.
“Women’s March members and protestors will risk arrest to get our message over to President Biden: protect abortion,” they said in a statement.
The sit-in at the White House will begin at noon. Read more from our colleague Joseph Choi.
Red flag laws under scrutiny
The July Fourth shooting in a suburb of Chicago is shedding light on loopholes in red flag laws after Congress just passed a bill with $750 million in incentives for more states to pass them.
The 21-year-old man who is accused of killing seven people at the parade slipped past Illinois’ red flag laws, otherwise known as extreme risk protection orders that remove guns from people deemed to be a threat to themselves or others.
Our colleague Alex Gangitano reports that their effectiveness depends on how states implement them, with some experts arguing they would be more powerful if it were a law at the federal level.
Democrats and gun safety advocates will likely put more pressure on President Biden and Congress to pass more aggressive measures, like an assault weapons ban and universal background checks.
- House Democrats are already showing signs they will continue to focus on gun safety ahead of midterms. On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Reform Committee requested testimony from the executives at three major gun manufacturers.
DULLES AIRPORT REVAMP
The Dulles International Airport will get an upgrade thanks to the Department of Transportation.
The airport will use the $49.6 million grant from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law to help build a new 14-gate concourse to replace the existing temporary one.
Our colleague Alex Gangitano reports that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he thinks the $1 billion in grants to 85 airports will help improve passengers’ experiences.
Still looming: Buttigieg is still facing pressure to fine airlines amid an uptick in flight cancellations and delays as summer travel heats up.
Larry the Cat steals the show
Boris Johnson‘s much-anticipated resignation announcement got a surprise star: Larry the Cat, the chief mouser at 10 Downing Street, got a prime perch in front of the awaiting cameras.
The brown and white tabby, who has been living in the executive office for more than a decade, sat on the stoop outside the front door while various Tories were interviewed on the BBC and other networks.
During one of those interviews, the BBC camera operator knew what people wanted and slowly zoomed in on the cat, rather than the interview subjects.
At another point, a heckler could be heard yelling out “Are you asking him to resign, Larry?”
Larry stays at the executive office regardless of who the prime minister is, so the embattled Johnson’s resignation will have no impact on his residency.
Biden awards first Medals of Freedom
President Biden recognized “an extraordinary, extraordinary group of Americans” during his first Medal of Freedom ceremony as president Thursday.
“This is America,” Biden said during the ceremony at the White House.
The Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor and recognizes people who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
Actor Denzel Washington wasn’t able to make it to the event after testing positive for COVID-19, but Biden said he plans to give the Oscar winner his medal at a later date at the White House.
Among the others awarded:
- Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, who is also an advocate for sexual assault survivors, the foster care system and athletes’ mental health.
- Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) co-founded Giffords, a nonprofit organization dedicated to gun violence prevention after she suffered a near-fatal attempted assassination.
- Civil rights attorney Fred Gray represented Rosa Parks, the NAACP and the Rev. Martin Luther King, who called him “the chief counsel for the protest movement.”
- Khizr Khan, a Gold Star father and founder of the Constitution Literacy and National Unity Center, is a prominent advocate for religious freedom.
- Nurse Sandra Lindsay, the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials, served on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic response in New York.
- Late Sen. John McCain (posthumous) (R-Ariz.) was a Purple Heart recipient with a gold star for his service in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. He was the Republican nominee for president in 2008. McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain, accepted the medal on his behalf.
- Civil rights leader Diane Nash worked closely with the Rev. Martin Luther King, who described her as the “driving spirit in the nonviolent assault on segregation at lunch counters.”
- Soccer star Megan Rapinoe is an Olympic gold medalist and two-time Women’s World Cup champion. She is a noted advocate for gender pay equality and LGBTQI+ rights.
See the full list of recipients here, and watch the ceremony here.
Stay with TheHill.com for the latest and recommend NotedDC to others: thehill.com/noted. See you tomorrow.
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Hillicon Valley – Trump removed from his own media firm
Former President Trump and his son were kicked off the board of Trump’s social media company weeks before the organization was subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a grand jury in Manhattan.
In other news, a trio of Democrats introduced two bicameral bills aimed at boosting media literacy skills for students and veterans by providing funding for nationwide educational programs.
This is Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Send tips to The Hill’s Rebecca Klar, Chris Mills Rodrigo and Ines Kagubare. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.
Trump off his own media company board
Former President Trump and his son were among six board members removed from the board of Trump’s social media company weeks before it was hit with federal subpoenas, according to state records.
Florida state business records showed Trump, Donald Trump, Jr. and the four others were removed as board members of the Trump Media and Technology Group on June 8, based on a filing with the state’s Division of Corporations. Roughly three weeks later, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and a grand jury in Manhattan subpoenaed the company.
The news was first reported by The Herald-Tribune.
Other board members removed include Wes Moss, Kashyap Patel, Andrew Northwall and Scott Glabe, according to the filing.
A spokesperson for the Trump Media and Technology Group denied that Trump is no longer a board member in a statement posted on Truth Social, the social media app associated with Trump’s media company.
Dems seek to boost media literacy
A trio of Democrats introduced two bicameral bills aimed at boosting media literacy skills for students and veterans by providing funding for nationwide educational programs.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), a lead sponsor of the bills in the Senate, said Thursday the effort will “help combat disinformation and misinformation campaigns that seek to manipulate perceptions and sow division.”
“These bills will provide students and veterans with the skills they need to make informed decisions about online content and protect themselves from exploitation,” Klobuchar said in a statement.
The bills, introduced with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and by Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) in the House, would together provide $40 million to federal agencies to fund education programs to improve media literacy for American students and veterans.
US, UK AGENCIES WARN AGAINST CHINESE ESPIONAGE
The heads of the FBI and the United Kingdom’s MI5 warned against what they described as a sweeping Chinese espionage threat during a rare joint appearance in London on Wednesday.
FBI Director Christopher Wray and MI5 Director General Ken McCallum detailed the potential calamities before an audience of business and academic leaders, arguing China’s efforts to steal technology, maintain hidden investments and control business operations in China extend to companies of all sizes and industries.
“The Chinese government poses an even more serious threat to Western businesses than even many sophisticated businesspeople realize,” Wray said.
Wednesday’s appearance marked the first time the leaders of the FBI and MI5 shared a public platform, according to McCallum.
BITS & PIECES
An op-ed to chew on: US needs to foster competition in the Cloud now
Notable links from around the web:
Siberia or Japan? Expert Google Maps Players Can Tell at a Glimpse. (The New York Times / Kellen Browning)
Why business is booming for military AI startups (MIT Tech Review / Melissa Heikkilä)
Netflix to Its Techies: Shut Up (Vulture and The Verge / Zöe Schiffer)
Lighter click: Little shoes 🙂
One more thing: Musk’s twins
Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly had twins with a top executive at one of his companies last year, his eighth and ninth known children.
Court documents obtained by Insider on Wednesday showed that Musk and the children’s mother, Shivon Zilis, filed a petition to change the twins’ names in order to “have their father’s last name and contain their mother’s last name as part of their middle name.”
The order was then approved by a federal judge in May. Zilis purchased a home in the Austin, Texas, area in August, nearly three months before the twins were born, according to Insider. Musk also has a waterfront estate in the city.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Technology and Cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.
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Health Care — House GOP considering national abortion restrictions
Global inflation has hit the zoo. Facing rising costs, a Japanese zoo is giving its penguins and otters cheaper fish than usual. Some of the animals are less than impressed and refusing to eat the cheap stuff.
In health news, with Roe overturned, Republican House members are now thinking of restricting abortions across the country, though any legislation faces several obstacles.
Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. For The Hill, we’re Peter Sullivan, Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.
House Republicans weigh federal abortion legislation
House Republicans are weighing what kind of national-level abortion ban legislation to pursue if they win the House majority next year, with a 15-week ban or further on the table.
But even as they cheer the Supreme Court overturning the landmark abortion rights decision in Roe v. Wade, GOP congressional leaders have made few promises on specific measures they would pursue, and some Republicans have advocated leaving abortion restrictions to the states.
House Republicans previously passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortion after 20 weeks, in 2015 and in 2017.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), the sponsor of the bill in this Congress, told CNN that he was considering changing the limit to a 15-week ban. Asked about a 15-week abortion ban, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told CNN that he would support that.
Roadblocks remain: It is unlikely that any abortion ban passed in a GOP-controlled House in the next Congress would become law. Election analysts believe it is unlikely that Republicans would win a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and President Biden would almost certainly veto it if such a bill did pass the upper chamber.
But passing an abortion ban in the House would send a message about where the GOP stands on abortion in a post-Roe landscape and could signal the type of restrictions that Republicans would implement if they do win total control of government.
WHO to reassess monkeypox as cases climb
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday said he plans on reconvening a meeting of his organization’s Emergency Committee to assess the current state of the monkeypox outbreak in Western countries.
In remarks given Thursday, Tedros told WHO member states that he was still concerned about the spread and scale of the monkeypox virus in nonendemic countries.
According to the WHO chief, more than 7,000 cases have been confirmed in 60 countries so far, with Europe currently the epicenter of the outbreak.
“My teams are following the data closely. I plan to reconvene the Emergency Committee so they are updated on the current epidemiology and evolution of the outbreak, and implementation of counter measures,” said Tedros.
He stated that he plans to convene the meeting during the week of July 18 or sooner if needed.
Last month, the WHO’s Emergency Committee said the monkeypox outbreak did not warrant declaring a global health emergency despite the rapid rise in cases.
WOMEN’S MARCH PLANNING WHITE HOUSE SIT-IN FOR ABORTION RIGHTS
The Women’s March says it is planning to hold a sit-in at the White House on Saturday to push the Biden administration to protect abortion access.
The civil rights organization announced plans for what it refers to as a “mass action” that will include a rally and march to the White House followed by a sit-in.
“Women’s March members and protestors will risk arrest to get our message over to President Biden: protect abortion,” the Women’s March said in a statement.
The sit-in is scheduled to begin at noon.
Women’s March Executive Director Rachel O’Leary Carmona called on the administration to “declare a public health emergency on abortion, codify reproductive rights through executive action, and expand the court.”
Immediately after the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Women’s March called for a “summer of rage” in response to the limits and bans on abortions that were quickly introduced by states across the country.
MISSISSIPPI’S ONLY ABORTION CLINIC CLOSES, MOVES TO NEW MEXICO
The last abortion clinic in Mississippi officially shut down Wednesday, a day before a trigger ban against almost all abortion procedures is poised to take effect in the state, following the Supreme Court’s decision last month to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Shannon Brewer, who led the clinic involved in the controversial Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court case, told The Washington Post in May about plans to relocate to New Mexico, where abortion procedures are still legal.
In late June, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an executive order protecting medical providers in the state from “discipline due to an out-of-state resident receiving abortion services in New Mexico,” according to a release from the governor’s office.
Grisham’s order also established that “New Mexico will not entertain extradition attempts from other states relating to receiving or performing reproductive services.”
Abortions are restricted in Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona and Utah, which border New Mexico. Texas made headlines last fall with a law that banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. This spring, Oklahoma banned abortions from the point of fertilization.
Report: Abbvie used Trump tax law to shield profits
Pharmaceutical giant AbbVie generates almost all of its sales in the U.S. but has allegedly exploited former President Trump’s tax law to shield much of its sales from taxes, according to a report released Thursday by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee.
The report details how loopholes in the 2017 tax law have allowed AbbVie, a large multinational corporation headquartered in the United States, to substantially shrink its tax burden and stash profits overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes on prescription drug sales.
According to the report, AbbVie generated over $56 billion in worldwide sales in 2021, with over 77 percent made to American consumers, yet just 1 percent of AbbVie’s income was reported in the United States for tax purposes.
The company was allegedly able to accomplish this by taking advantage of Trump’s tax law, which changed how companies calculate their tax bills on profits generated internationally.
“While Big Pharma’s game playing to avoid paying taxes is no secret, the scope of AbbVie’s tax avoidance is eye popping,” Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement. “It’s critical that Congress takes steps to fix this broken system, so nurses and firefighters aren’t paying higher tax rates than Big Pharma.”
WHAT WE’RE READING
- Feds want a policy that advocates say would let hospitals off the hook for Covid-era lapses (Kaiser Health News)
- WTO faces new battle over COVID tests, drugs (Reuters)
- EU Parliament condemns US abortion ruling, seeks safeguards (Associated Press)
STATE BY STATE
- Tweaks in state opioid funding could mean big changes for people with addiction (North Carolina Health News)
- Monkeypox vaccine rollout is marred by glitches in New York (New York Times)
- DC medical marijuana users can now self-certify (NBC Washington)
STATE BY STATE
- Keeping global disease on the run
- Protecting women’s choice post-Dobbs: State constitutional law
- Price controls on prescriptions mean fewer jobs, not lower inflation
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