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Schumer, McCarthy working relationship off to rocky start

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are set to test each other’s mettle as they battle over the debt limit, government funding and the 2024 election.  

The two leaders don’t have much of a personal relationship, according to congressional aides and strategists, and their working relationship is off to a rocky start, with Schumer accusing McCarthy and his House GOP colleagues of pushing an “extreme” agenda that would undercut women’s health care and cut Medicare and Social Security benefits.  

Despite the shots, Schumer is hoping to develop enough rapport with McCarthy to avoid a government shutdown and to pass a debt ceiling hike that would prevent a downgrading of the nation’s credit rating — or worse.

Bigger legislative deals are much less likely, as is a warmer working relationship.

“There’s been no reason up until now for them to have a relationship,” said Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist and former aide to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

He noted that it doesn’t help McCarthy with his own GOP conference to be compromising with Schumer.

“So openly and publicly having a good relationship with Schumer doesn’t help him,” Mollineau said.

McCarthy has developed a back channel relationship of sorts with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), according to GOP aides.  

McCarthy and McConnell don’t often make public appearances together, but aides say they have a good relationship and meet regularly.  

A GOP leadership aide told The Hill the two leaders try to meet at least once every congressional work period and rotate meetings between their two offices, using a private hallway between the two chambers.  

McConnell and McCarthy have repeatedly split in public over high-profile bills, such as the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, legislation to address gun violence after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, a $280 billion bill to help the domestic semi-conductor industry, and the year-end $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package.  

McConnell voted for all four major bills while McCarthy voted against all of them.  

McCarthy’s relationship with Schumer will be far more complicated in the 118th Congress because the new Speaker doesn’t have the same freedom he had in 2021 and 2022 to vote against bipartisan and must-pass bills.  

“It’s always a balancing act when different parties control different chamber. Obviously there will be some things they have to get done, and that’s a three-way relationship” with President Biden, as well, said Mike Lux, a Democratic strategist.  

If McCarthy refuses to put legislation on the House floor to raise the debt limit or fund the government that can also get 60 votes to pass the Senate, it could lead to a default or shutdown.  

The problem for McCarthy is that if he brings a compromise bill to the House floor, it could trigger a snap vote on whether he remains as Speaker. McCarthy agreed to a rules package that allows just one conservative to force a vote on a new Speaker.

“I think McCarthy is going to be extremely dysfunctional because his caucus is extremely dysfunctional and the [House] rules package is ridiculous,” Lux said. “Democrats are going to need to press on getting the things done that have to get done” such as raising the debt limit and funding government “and we can’t expect to get done many other things.”  

McCarthy in a television interview Sunday pointed out that the new House GOP majority has already passed legislation, such as a bill to cancel $72 billion in funding to hire new Internal Revenue Service agents and beef up the agency’s auditing power.

He also highlighted legislation that passed the House last week with a large bipartisan majority to ban the export of reserve oil to China and called on the Senate to take up the measure.

McCarthy told Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo” that he would like to see Senate Democrats from Republican-leaning states put pressure on their leadership to bring the House-passed legislation  to the Senate floor for a vote.

He called on Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who are up for re-election next year, “and others who say they’re moderates” to work with the House.

Schumer has shown an ability to partner with Republicans.

The Democratic leader worked with Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who at the time was the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to introduce the Endless Frontier Act in 2020, which later became the basis for last year’s $280 billion Chips and Science Act.  

Schumer told CNN in an interview Friday that he hopes the new House GOP majority will mellow over the next few months and “mainstream Republicans” in the lower chamber will look to strike deals with Senate Democrats and the White House.  

“I don’t want to have them just investigate and pass the crazy bills led by a few extremists,” he said. “I do believe — not in the next two weeks but in the next few months — many of the mainstream Republicans when you talk to them privately, they despise what the MAGA folks have done, will come back and that gives McCarthy some ability to come back and negotiate and get some real things done for the American people.”  

At the same time, Schumer is counting on the most conservative members of the House to overplay their hands, giving his party plenty of material to use in the 2024 elections. Senate Democrats face a difficult map in that cycle.

Accordingly, Schumer is mixing entreaties for common ground with sharp attacks portraying the House GOP conference as controlled by extreme conservative ideologues.  

“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen this week from House Republicans is more chaos and ultra MAGA proposals,” he write in a “Dear Colleague” letter circulated on Friday.  

“I want to work with Speaker McCarthy to get things done, but so far, House Republicans have been focused on delivering for wealthy special interests and the extreme win of their party,” he wrote.  

Some House Republicans are talking about increasing the age for when future Social Security and Medicare benefits kick in as well as changing benefits for beneficiaries in their early 50s and younger.  

Democratic strategists say that will help Biden and Democrats up for reelection in tough states, such as Sens. Jon Tester (Mont.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio), in 2024.  

Democratic strategists say Schumer and Biden are relying on the House GOP providing them plenty of political ammo heading into the presidential election.  

“The House Republicans are going to pass some crazy things on their side, things that are outside the mainstream, things that will offend independent voters, different constituencies and I think that’s the way Democrats will play up the MAGA extremism,” Mollineau said.  

Schumer pledged in his letter to colleagues that Senate Democrats will be “a firewall” against House Republican extremism, pointing to the House GOP’s formation of a new powerful Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.  

The Democratic leader argued the panel will “undermine and threaten law enforcement” and shows “they’re more interested in defending Jan. 6th insurrectionists and carrying water for the disgraced former president than protecting democracy,” referring to former President Trump.  

Democratic strategists say, however, that Schumer and Senate Democratic committee chairmen have limited power to counter House GOP investigations of the Biden administration other than to invite Cabinet officials to the Senate to tell their side of the story.  

“Senate Democrats can help the administration fight back against the House GOP by utilizing hearings with Cabinet secretaries and administration officials to refute the narratives coming from the Republicans. Every hearing will be an opportunity for Senate Democrats to help the White House set the record straight,” said Matt House, a Democratic strategist and former senior aide to Schumer.  

Schumer, however, hasn’t said whether he expects Democratic-controlled Senate committees to take up investigations into Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol or his personal business dealings.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Study suggests US freshwater fish highly contaminated with 'forever chemicals'

Eating just one serving of freshwater fish each year could have the same effect as drinking water heavily polluted with “forever chemicals” for an entire month, a new study finds.

The equivalent month-long amount of water would be contaminated at levels 2,400 times greater than what’s recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) drinking water health advisories, according to the study, published Tuesday in Environmental Research.

The research added that locally caught freshwater fish are far more polluted than commercial catches with per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) — so-called “forever chemicals” that are notorious for their persistence in the body and the environment.

PFAS are key ingredients in jet fuel firefighting foam, industrial discharge and many household products, including certain types of food packaging. For decades, they have leached into drinking water supplies while also contaminating irrigated crops and fish that inhabit local waterways.

Fish consumption has long been identified as a route of exposure to PFAS, according to the study. Researchers first identified such contamination in catfish that inhabited the Tennessee River in 1979.

“Food has always been kind of the hypothesis of how most people are exposed to PFAS compounds,” corresponding author David Andrews, a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, told The Hill.

But Tuesday’s study is the first analysis to connect U.S. fish consumption to blood levels of PFAS, while also comparing PFAS levels in freshwater fish with those in commercial seafood samples, the authors explained.

To draw their conclusions, the researchers evaluated the presence of different types of PFAS in 501 fish fillet samples, collected across the U.S. from 2013 to 2015.

These samples were acquired through two EPA programs: the 2013-2014 National Rivers and Streams Assessment and the 2015 Great Lakes Human Health Fish Fillet Tissue Study.

The median level of total targeted PFAS in fish from rivers and streams was 9,500 nanograms per kilogram, while the median in the Great Lakes was 11,800 nanograms per kilogram, according to the study. These levels indicate that the consumption of such fish “is potentially a significant source of exposure” to PFAS, the authors determined.

While the samples included many types of forever chemicals — of which there are thousands — the biggest contributor to total PFAS levels was the compound known as PFOS, responsible for about 74 percent of the total, the researchers found.

Although PFOS has largely been phased out of manufacturing, it used to be the main ingredient in fabric protector Scotchgard, and it lingers on in the environment.

PFOS is so potent that ingesting just one serving of freshwater fish would be equivalent to drinking a month’s worth of water contaminated with PFOS at levels of 48 parts per trillion, according to the study. 

“The extent that PFAS has contaminated fish is staggering,” first author Nadia Barbo, a graduate student at Duke University, said in a statement. “There should be a single health protective fish consumption advisory for freshwater fish across the country.”

Although scientists might not know precisely how people are being exposed to PFAS, the study “clearly indicates that for people who consume freshwater fish even very infrequently, it is likely a significant source of their exposure,” Andrews said.

Of the 349 samples analyzed in the National Rivers and Streams Assessment, only one sample contained no detectable PFAS, the authors determined.

All 152 fish samples tested in the Great Lakes study had detectable PFAS — and had “overall higher levels of PFOS” in comparison to those in the national assessment. 

“PFAS contamination may be of particular concern for the Great Lakes ecosystem and the health of people who depend on fishing on the Great Lakes for sustenance and cultural practices,” the authors noted.

Contamination in the Great Lakes, as well as in other lakes and ponds, may be comparatively greater than the PFAS pollution in rivers and streams because these basins don’t cycle as frequently, according to Andrews.

“The water doesn’t get flushed out as quickly,” he said.

Median levels of total detected PFAS in freshwater fish were 278 times higher than those in commercially relevant fish tested from 2019-2022.

“It’s incredible how different they are,” Andrews said.

The data on retail fish came from the Food and Drug Administration’s Total Diet Study datasets in 2019-2021, as well as a specific sampling of seafood conducted in 2022.

Some commercially caught fish may be less contaminated because they are grown in controlled aquaculture environments, Andrews explained. Meanwhile, large-scale ocean fishing often occurs farther offshore, where PFAS pollution would be more diluted, he added.

Andrews acknowledged, however, that the data on commercially caught fish is much more recent than the freshwater contamination figures.

He also recognized that with the industrial phaseout of PFOS production, the pollution “levels in rivers and streams do seem to be decreasing, which is important.”

“At the same time, the levels are still so high that any fish consumption likely impacts serum levels,” Andrews said. “But they are moving in the right direction, which I think is some good news, at least in terms of the rivers and streams.”

While this study did not evaluate whether PFAS uptake is worse in some fish versus others, Andrews pointed to recent tests demonstrating that even small fish with short lifespans can amass dangerous quantities of these compounds.

Last week, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services updated its “Eat Safe Fish” guidelines to limit the amount of rainbow smelt that should be consumed — based on elevated levels of PFOS.

Rainbow smelt — small, silvery fish with short life cycles — are “low on the food web and don’t generally bioaccumulate chemicals,” Michigan Live reported.

The Hill has reached out for comment on the study from the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team, a Department of Health and Human Services group working on the Great Lakes contamination issue and that oversees the Eat Safe Fish program.

In comparison to commercially caught fish, local freshwater fish consumption can be difficult to quantify, as “there is significant variability with respect to dietary fish intake,” the study authors acknowledged. 

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has determined that the general population eats about 18 grams per day of fish, with greater consumption occurring among men and adults ages 31 to 50, according to the study.

High fish consumption — eating one or more fish meal per week — is typical among anglers, individuals living along coasts or lakes, communities for which fishing is culturally important and immigrants who hail from countries where fish is a dietary staple, the authors noted.

The researchers therefore characterized exposure to PFAS in freshwater fish as “a textbook case of environmental injustice” in which certain communities are “inordinately harmed.”

Contamination of this food source particularly “threatens those who cannot afford to purchase commercial seafood,” the authors stressed in a statement accompanying the study.

Andrews emphasized the need for both guidance for anglers and action on “this environmental justice issue” from a federal level.

Attention to this subject, he added, must address “this contamination of a source of protein for many communities who rely on it both for subsistence as well as for cultural reasons.”

–Updated at 5:50 a.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Experts see 'desperation' in 'flailing' Putin's war leadership shuffle

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “flailing” decision this week to name a new leader for his invasion of Ukraine reflects a growing sense of desperation for the Kremlin, U.S. experts say.  

The appointment of former chief of the general staff General Valery Gerasimov as overall commander of the country’s so-called special military operation has global watchers increasingly dubious of Putin’s wartime strategy following a series of embarrassing battlefield losses since summer.  

But the switch-up, which included the demotion of Gen. Sergey Surovikin, head of the invasion since October, could also indicate a coming escalation of Russia’s brutal war tactics.  

“My sense is that Putin is flailing because he’s not getting what he wants,” former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor told The Hill. 

“His military is failing. He’s trying to shake things up in order to get a better outcome, and that’s not the problem. … His military is not capable of doing what he wants for all kinds of institutional, historical, corruption, competence reasons, and shaking up the command structure, I don’t think it is going to get him what he wants.” 

That line of thinking was shared by the Pentagon’s top spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, who said Putin’s decisions point to ongoing logistical, leadership and manpower challenges for Russia in the fight, now nearly in its second year. 

Gerasimov’s promotion reflects “some of the systemic challenges that the Russian military has faced since the beginning of this invasion,” Ryder told reporters Thursday. 

“We’ve talked about some of those things in terms of its logistics problems, command and control problems, sustainment problems, morale and the large failure to obtain the strategic objectives that they’ve set for themselves,” he added. 

The view also was voiced by the United Kingdom’s former chief of the general staff Richard Dannatt, who last week told Sky News that Putin’s decision to replace Surovikin with Gerasimov — just three months after the former took charge — can be seen as a “sign of desperation.” 

Russia is trying to turn the tide of the war after months of struggling to make advances in the face of a strong Ukrainian counteroffensive that has clawed back thousands of square kilometers from Kremlin control.  

Moscow for weeks has struggled to take over the eastern salt-mining town of Soledar, a fight that was still being contested as of Monday. While not expected to turn the tide of the war, a Russian win could allow for further advances in the Donetsk region as well as give Putin a symbolic victory.  

Amid the on-the-ground battle, Russia on Saturday also renewed missile attacks on several Ukrainian cities for the first time in nearly two weeks, a barrage that continued into Monday.  

Among the worst hit was Ukraine’s fourth largest city Dnipro, with at least 40 people including three children dead after a Kremlin cruise missile struck an apartment block, one of the deadliest single attacks of the war, according to Ukrainian officials. Another 75 individuals were injured in the attack, and 46 are still reported missing. 

The new missile strikes, when viewed with Gerasimov’s new role, seem to indicate Russia is stepping up its tactics against Ukraine in a bid to shift the conflict in Moscow’s favor. 

Gerasimov “needs some kind of win or a career ends in ignominy. This may well suggest some kinds of escalation,” tweeted Mark Galeotti of the London consultancy firm Mayak Intelligence. “Not the nuclear option, but more mobilization or, arguably more militarily logical but politically dangerous, also deploying conscripts.” 

Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate, said Gerasimov’s new position was part of a goal to seize the Donbas region by early spring.  

“Putin does not pay attention to reality . . .. And the next timeline he defines already for Gerasimov as, let’s say, the new leader of the war against Ukraine… This goal is to seize Donbas and form a security zone there but already by March,” Yusov, told Ukrainian news outlet FREEDIM TV. 

Though not viewed as promising for Russia’s battlefield outcome, Moscow’s setbacks and leadership shuffle do not make the country any less dangerous, warned John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine now with the Atlantic Council. 

“The incompetence of the Russian military has now been thoroughly demonstrated,” Herbst told The Hill. “I don’t want to overstate that because they still have significant assets. They have a hell of a lot more ammunition and delivery systems than Ukrainians do and they have more men than the Ukrainians do, and they’re willing to let them die to try and get marginal pieces of territory.” 

Herbst compared the leadership switch to political theater for Putin to deal with the criticisms for his military failures. 

“Putin has a problem [and] he’s happy to see others receive blame for the failures of his operation. … As long as he’s kept away from the criticism, it’s fine with him,” Herbst said.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Five mayoral races to watch in 2023

Americans will vote for some of their top local leaders as major cities across the country hold mayoral elections in 2023.

The majority of the country’s largest cities have mayors who are Democrats or are affiliated with the party, though many of the mayoral races are technically nonpartisan. Only two of the 20 largest cities in the U.S. have mayors who are Republicans, according to Ballotpedia.

Still, while most big-city mayors are Democrats, the races can offer clues about the types of issues resonating with voters and what qualities residents will be looking for in their leaders ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Here are five key mayoral races on tap for 2023:

Chicago

Lori Lightfoot (D) made history in 2019 when she was elected as Chicago’s first Black lesbian mayor. Fast forward less than four years, and she now faces a crowded field of eight challengers as she vies for a second bid. 

Those other candidates running against Lightfoot to head the country’s third largest city include: Rep. Jesús ‘Chuy’ García (D-Ill.); Alds. Sophia King and Roderick Sawyer; state Rep. Kam Buckner (D); Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson; businessman Willie Wilson; former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas; and activist Ja’Mal Green.

Among some of the issues that have colored Lightfoot’s time in office include the COVID-19 pandemic, where she — like many other elected officials — received criticism regarding how she handled pandemic restrictions; two walkouts by Chicago Public Schools teachers; and concerns over crime.

Though recent data shows major crimes like murder and aggravated battery declining between 2021 and 2022, certain crimes like murder and theft are still at much higher numbers in 2022 than in 2019 when Lightfoot was first elected. 

The election is slated for Feb. 28, but if no candidate outright wins at least half the vote, the two top vote-getters will head into an April 4 runoff election.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D) is term-limited, and the candidate field is already crowded, with at least nine people so far announcing their intention to run. Given that the city leans Democratic, whoever prevails in the May 16 primary will be considered the heavy favorite in the Nov. 7 general election. 

Among those who are running to succeed Kenney include former City Councilmembers Helen Gym, Allan Domb, Cherelle Parker, Derek Green and Maria Quiñones Sánchez; former City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart; grocer Jeff Brown; state Rep. Amen Brown; and former Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge James DeLeon. All of them are Democrats, but other candidates could jump into the race, including City Councilmember David Oh (R), former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (D) and City Council Majority Deputy Whip Cindy Bass (D).

One issue that will dominate the race will be public safety and crime as the city grapples with rising violence. Data from the Philadelphia Police Department shows that while the number of homicide victims declined slightly between 2021 and 2022, those figures are still much higher than in 2019, when Kenney was reelected. 

Houston

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) is term-limited, and a number of candidates have entered the field for the open seat, including state Sen. John Whitmire (D), former at-large City Council member and former Senate hopeful Amanda Edwards, former Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins (D) and Missouri City, Texas police officer Robin Williams. 

Whitmire, the dean of the state Senate, will pose one of the fiercest challenges given that he’s represented portions of Harris County and north Houston in the state’s upper chamber since the 1980s and has a war chest of $11 million. Hollins gained notoriety in 2020 as Harris County’s top elections official when he sought to send mail-in ballot applications to voters and offered 24-hour voting during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Edwards is a familiar face given she previously vied for the Democratic Senate nomination in 2020 to face off against Sen. John Cornyn (R), though she later lost to M.J. Hegar. Hegar lost to Cornyn that November. 

The mayoral election takes place Nov. 7.

Dallas

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson (D) has his eyes set on another term in office, and he has several things going in his favor: incumbency; a war chest of more than $1.2 million, according to The Dallas Morning News; and key endorsements from the Dallas Police Association, Dallas Fire Fighters Association and several members of Congress. 

Local resident Kendal Richardson has also announced a run in the mayoral race, while former Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa announced he would not be throwing his hat in the ring. The filing deadline for candidates is Feb. 17 and the election is May 6.

Hinojosa would have been considered a serious challenger to Johnson had he chosen to run, though The Dallas Morning News notes that mayoral incumbents in Dallas are usually favored to win reelection.

Denver

Rising homelessness, an expensive housing market and a rise in violent and property crimes are just some of the issues that will be front and center as Denver voters weigh in on a new mayor to replace the term-limited Michael Hancock.

At least 28 candidates are running in the race, according to the city’s municipal candidate tracker. Some of those names include state Rep. Leslie Herod (D), state Sen. Chris Hansen (D), former state Sen. Mike Johnston (D), former Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce Chair Kelly Brough and City Councilwoman Debbie Ortega.

The mayoral race is scheduled for April 4, with a runoff date of June 6.

Source: TEST FEED1

In deposition, Trump dismisses 'hoax' rape claim, threatens to sue accuser

Former President Trump repeatedly insulted and threatened to sue a writer who has accused him of raping her in the 1990s, according to recently unsealed portions of his October deposition.

Trump is being sued by E. Jean Carroll, who has accused the former president of raping her in a New York City department store, one of more than 20 women who have accused the New York real estate mogul of sexual misconduct.

The unsealed deposition became public after a federal judge in New York rejected Trump’s efforts to shield the records from being released.

In the deposition from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, the former president calls Carroll a “wack job,” says she is “sick, mentally sick,” and argues “there’s something wrong with her in my opinion.” Trump has repeatedly denied the allegation by Carroll, who sued Trump in 2019 after he accused her of lying about the incident.

Trump also threatens to sue Carroll in the deposition, repeatedly calling the accusation a “hoax.”

“I will sue her after this is over, and that’s the thing I really look forward to doing,” he said.

“And I’ll sue you, too,” he added to Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan.

In an October post on the social media platform Truth Social, Trump repeated his past assertion that Carroll “is not my type!”

“There’s no way I would ever be attracted to her,” he added in the deposition. “Now, some people would be attracted to her perhaps. I would never be attracted to her.”

The former president, who in November announced a 2024 White House campaign, goes on to say that the deposition and the lawsuit are a waste of time and a distraction for him. 

“Keep Trump busy because this is the way you defeat him, to keep him busy with litigation,” he said.

At one point, Kaplan asks Trump in the deposition if he has ever pressured women to engage in sex, to which Trump responds: “The answer is no. But you may have some people like your client who are willing to lie.”

And asked if he had ever kissed a woman without consent, he replied, “Well, I don’t — I can’t think of any complaints. But no. I mean, I don’t think so.”

Mischaracterizing an interview Carroll did on CNN, Trump falsely said the writer “actually indicated that she loved it.”

“She loved it until commercial break,” he said. “In fact, I think she said it was sexy, didn’t she? She said it was very sexy to be raped. Didn’t she say that?”

Carroll had said in the interview that “most people think of rape as being sexy … they think of the fantasies,” but that “this was not sexual — it just hurt.”

Carroll filed a second lawsuit against Trump in New York in November, under a new state law that allows adult sexual assault accusers to sue over claims that have otherwise been barred by time. A judge rejected Trump’s motion to dismiss that lawsuit.

The case is expected to go to trial in April.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden knocks 'fiscally demented' Republicans in MLK Day speech

President Biden on Monday called Republicans “fiscally demented” and knocked GOP priorities during the keynote speech at the National Action Network’s (NAN) annual breakfast to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“They’re gonna talk about big-spending Democrats again. Guess what? I reduced the deficit last year $350 billion. This year, federal deficit is down $1 trillion-plus. That’s a fact. And there’s gonna be hundreds of billions reduced over the next decade. But so what? These guys are the fiscally demented, I think. They don’t quite get it,” Biden said of Republicans, prompting laughter from the crowd. 

Biden in his speech offered sweeping remarks on his administration’s work on civil rights and called out Republicans for their economic stances in light of disparities faced by minority communities. 

“I think the economy — the way it should grow in America — is from the bottom up and the middle out. That way poor folks have a shot, middle-class people do well and the wealthy still do very well. They still do very well. But they start to pay their fair share,” Biden said.  

The president said he’s “ready to work” with Republicans who just took over the House, but said he was disappointed by the first few bills put forward in the chamber.

“Like many Americans, I was disappointed to see the very first bill that House Republicans… are bringing to the floor. It would help the wealthy people and big corporations cheat on their taxes at the expense of ordinary middle-class taxpayers… This is their first bill and they campaigned on inflation. They didn’t say if elected their plan was to make inflation worse,” Biden said.

He called out to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the audience, saying the California lawmaker was “probably rolling over” when the bill was introduced. 

Biden also knocked a House bill on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and a proposal to implement a national sales tax — and vowed to veto the legislation if it gets through Congress. 

“What in God’s name is that all about? … That’s how they’re starting their new term,” Biden said. “If any of these bills happen to reach my desk, I will veto them.”

Biden also talked about building Black generational wealth by chipping away at economic disparities and closing the racial wealth gap — refocusing on funding for HBCUs and “aggressively” combatting discrimination in housing.

And the president reiterated calls to ban assault weapons, protect women’s right to choose and pardon marijuana possession charges. He said he didn’t “want to hear a word from the other side” about his plan to forgive student loan debt.

“These are the same folks who didn’t have any problem at all, any problem at all, during the pandemic… [making] sure they get these so-called pandemic relief loans… A lot of these folks in the Congress on the Republican side were beneficiaries of these debt relief loans to the tune of tens of millions of dollars,” Biden said.

“I did not hear a word from them about ‘They shouldn’t be getting that relief.’ … And they’re complaining about some kid being able to take away $20,000 of student debt that keeps him and his wife or his husband, her husband from being able to buy a home or start a business or just get going?” he said, saying he’s confident his plan will clear the legal challenges against it.

The president closed by saying he was pleased to see Democrats and Republicans work together on the Electoral Count Reform Act and urged Congress to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and further protect “the sacred right to vote.”

“We have the most vibrant economy in the world right now. We’re doing better than any other major nation in the world today… The path is clear to go forward. We need to go together,” Biden said.

Introduced to the NAN’s annual breakfast by the Rev. Al Sharpton, Biden spoke before an audience of around 350 attendees, including civil rights leaders and members of Congress.

The day prior, Biden gave remarks at the Atlanta church where the slain Martin Luther King Jr. preached, arguing that the country is at an “inflection point” in its fight for democracy and equality.

Source: TEST FEED1

White House counsel: No visitor logs for Biden Delaware home

The White House says no visitor logs exist for President Biden’s private residence near Wilmington, Delaware, where classified documents were found, after House Republicans called for the release of such records.

“Like every President across decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” the White House Counsel’s office said in a statement to numerous news outlets on Monday.

“But upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitors logs, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration ended them,” it added.

The revelation comes after Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, called on the administration to release the visitor logs from the Delaware home as Republicans heats up their inquiry into Biden’s handling of Obama-era classified documents.

“Given the serious national security implications, the White House must provide the Wilmington residence’s visitor log,” Comer wrote in a letter to Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain.

Biden’s legal team has said it has found classified documents dating back to Biden’s time as vice president at the Delaware home as well as a Washington think tank. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur last week to be the special counsel that investigates the issue for the Department of Justice (DOJ). Republicans have sounded the alarm that Biden’s handling of classified information could have jeopardized the country’s national security — a concern that Comer communicated to Klain in the letter.

Comer also requested all documents and communications related to the search of Biden’s properties and other locations where classified documents were found. He also wants the identity of the Biden aides who conducted the searches.

Former President Trump, who is also under investigation for his handling of classified information, reacted to the latest development, saying in a social media post on Monday “Maybe they are smarter than we think!”

“The White House just announced that there are no LOGS or information of any kind on visitors to the Wilmington house and flimsy, unlocked, and unsecured, but now very famous, garage,” Trump said in the post.

As the DOJ investigation and congressional inquiries begin, the White House has been adamant that administration officials have cooperated fully with law enforcement.

Source: TEST FEED1

Republicans decry 'double standard' in handling of Biden classified documents case

Republicans see a double standard when it comes to how President Biden’s handling of classified documents is being treated compared to how a similar controversy has played out regarding former President Trump.

Months after Democrats panned Trump relentlessly for his handling of classified documents, Republicans are returning serve after what the White House says was a “small number” of Obama-Biden era files were found at the president’s office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania. More were found days later in the garage of his Wilmington, Del., home, and a third set was found at his home on Thursday.

Republicans are griping both about how investigators obtained the documents and how the discovery was — or in their view, wasn’t — publicized. 

“Where’s the raid of Biden’s garage?” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) tweeted at the FBI, referring to the August raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Fla.

“Now, we learn that Biden kept additional classified materials at his home in Delaware in his GARAGE. Yet there was no raid. No ransacking of Biden’s home. Nothing,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said on Twitter.

There are differences in Biden and Trump’s situations, to be sure. The sheer number of documents Trump kept — more than 300 — is significantly higher than what was found in Biden’s possession. And Trump showed little indication that he was willing to turn them over to the FBI and the National Archives, which led to the raid at his Florida home.

Those distinctions, however, did little to assuage top Republicans.

 Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) labeled the situation as “another faux pas by the Biden administration” by “treating law differently based upon your political beliefs.” 

“Treats one President Trump one way but treats President Biden a whole different way,” McCarthy told reporters on Thursday. “That’s why we had to provide a new entity from our Church-style [committee] to look after the weaponization of what’s gone on that you want an equal playing of the law to all Americans.” 

Republicans this week zeroed in on the different ways the classified documents were retrieved. 

The White House counsel’s office said Biden’s lawyers discovered the materials and notified the Archives, which then took possession of the papers. In Trump’s case, the FBI conducted the raid on his residence after federal officials tried to recover documents they believed were at the South Florida club.

Nonetheless, Republicans are calling for an official search — the same treatment Trump received.

“More classified documents Biden took from the Obama White House have been found at Biden’s Delaware house next to his Corvette. Biden assures the public it’s OK because his garage is locked… So, when’s the FBI raid?” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wrote on Twitter Thursday.

McCarthy also pointed out the fact that officials have not released any photos of the documents recovered from Biden’s office and home. The Justice Department included a photo of materials retrieved from Trump’s residence in a court filing that was made public. 

“You watched them leak photos of sitting out files of President Trump. Where’s the photos of President Biden’s documents? Where are those photos at?” McCarthy said on Thursday.

One Republican demand did come to fruition on Thursday, when Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped Robert Hur to serve as a special counsel to investigate Biden’s handling of the documents. The development came hours after the White House confirmed a second batch of classified papers had been discovered.

Garland in November tapped another special counsel, Jack Smith, to investigate Trump.

The news, however, is a double-edged sword for Republicans who had been hoping to see the papers and are vowing their own investigations. Hur’s appointment means it is unlikely that lawmakers will be able to obtain much information about the documents, with the probe into Trump’s handling of classified information serving as a likely precursor. 

The Justice Department has rebuffed entreaties from the Senate Intelligence Committee to examine about 300 classified documents — including some labeled “top secret” — that Trump previously had in his possession at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

“[Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines] must provide the Senate Intel Committee all classified documents which were discovered in the garage of President Biden’s home in Delaware & an assessment of the risk to national security if those classified documents were to be exposed in public or foreign adversary,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, tweeted on Thursday. 

But scrutiny of Biden’s handling of classified documents is unlikely to stop there. 

McCarthy on Wednesday said Congress should investigate the situation, noting that the matter could go before several committees — including the newly minted Select Committee on the Weaponization of Federal Government, which has vowed to probe federal law enforcement agencies.

“The issue with weaponization, with that select subcommittee, is the double standard,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who will chair the panel, told reporters on Thursday. “The different treatment that we now see, it’s not supposed to be that way, it’s supposed to be equal treatment, equal application of the law, I don’t know that we’ve seen that.”

On Friday, Jordan launched an investigation under the auspices of the Judiciary Committee, which he also chairs. 

“We are conducting oversight of the Justice Department’s actions with respect to former Vice President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, including the apparently unauthorized possession of classified material at a Washington, D.C. private office and in the garage of his Wilmington, Delaware residence,” Jordan and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote in a letter to Garland. 

House Republicans heading other committees are also spearheading probes into the documents. 

House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) sent letters to the National Archives and the White House Counsel’s office on Tuesday requesting documents and communications relating to the classified materials, as well as information about the documents themselves and who may have had access to them.

On Thursday, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, sent letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Haines requesting a classified briefing about the classified documents in Biden’s files. Earlier in the week, he asked Haines to conduct a damage assessment based on the files. 

Emily Brooks contributed.

Source: TEST FEED1

Juan Williams: Will House Republicans push granny off a cliff or cut Pentagon waste?

Granny is going over the cliff, again, apparently.

During the 2012 campaign, Democrats’ allies ran political advertisements showing a grandmother-like figure in a wheelchair heading for the big fall — along with everyone else on Social Security and Medicare — under Republican proposals to cut government spending.

The advertisement worked. President Obama won a second term, and Democrats added two Senate seats and eight seats in the House.

Then, in 2018, former President Trump blocked a federal budget deal over his demand to build a border wall. That led to chaos as federal workers stayed home and airports went without full air traffic control during a partial government shutdown for 35 days.

That stumble came years after a Tea Party-inspired 2011 delay in increasing in the debt ceiling which resulted in Standard & Poor’s downgrading of the nation’s credit rating for the first time in U.S. history.

Now, with the 2024 presidential election approaching, House Republicans appear ready to play the same losing game. They are threatening damage to the economy and their chances in the 2024 elections by insisting on budget cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

This is political malpractice.

Democrats would be fools not to run more of those “Grandma going over the cliff” political advertisements. Doing so would boost their chances of regaining the House majority in two years.

It would give a lift to President Biden’s chances at a second term, too. Biden is soon to be hailed as the hero of seniors for his coming defense of Social Security and Medicare, if Republicans continue to target those programs. (Don’t forget that he already has taken steps to lower the cost of prescription drugs, limit the cost of insulin, and allow over-the-counter sales of hearing aids.)

Seniors may walk slowly, but they’ll get to the polls.

The House GOP’s decision to launch a rerun of a failed political strategy grew out of the rules package passed by House Republicans last week. It handcuffs House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to cuts for Social Security and Medicare before he even begins negotiations with Democrats on a new budget.

“To win over holdouts in the House Freedom Caucus [in the 15-rounds of voting he needed to become Speaker], McCarthy struck a series of concessions that include opening debate on spending bills and vows not to raise the debt limit without major cuts to the likes of Social Security and Medicare,” The New York Times reported last week.

Here is a breakdown on federal spending: In 2022, the federal government spent 21 percent of its budget on Social Security, 25 percent on health programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, and 13 percent on national defense.

It’s simple arithmetic: For Republicans to make good on their pledge, they are going to have to cut one or all of them.

But for much of the House Republican caucus, cutting money to defense contractors and shrinking the bloated Pentagon budget is a non-starter.

“I’m all for a balanced budget, but we’re not going to do it on the backs of our troops and our military,” Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), a former Army Green Beret, said last week on Fox. “If we really want to talk about the debt and spending, it’s the entitlements programs.”

That led Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, to write that “they are going to try to cut Social Security and Medicare, it could not be clearer.”

In fact, the Republican Study Committee unveiled a budget plan last week that would raise the eligibility ages for Social Security and Medicare but not cut into the benefit formula for people over 54 years old.

Over the weekend the Washington Post reported the House GOP plans that if no debt deal is reached, they will propose making a priority of payments to Social Security, Medicare and the military while leaving Medicaid, air traffic control, food security and border security without funds. This is political and practical nonsense.

The new Congress could protect Social Security and Medicare by undoing some of the tax cuts passed by Republicans and President Trump. But revenue-raising measures like removing tax breaks for the rich are a non-starter with the McCarthy-led House Republicans. They’ve already introduced plans to make permanent the historically regressive Trump tax cuts of 2018.

One of the first bills introduced by Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) would eliminate the Internal Revenue Service and the federal income tax. The House passed a measure to defund the so-called “army of 87,000 new IRS agents.” That number has been fact-checked by several news outlets and declared wrong.

Reuters reported in August that the IRS said the new hires will replace “50,000 IRS employees who are on the verge of retirement and that the majority of new hires would serve in customer service roles like … answering calls.”

What about cuts to defense spending? Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) told Fox News that “defense hawks” in the House Republican conference will “put up a fight” against any military spending cuts.

Last year, of course, brought news that the Pentagon failed a congressionally mandated audit for the fifth year in a row. And military brass and civilian analysts have testified to Congress for years that useless, money-pit weapons programs often are in place only because members of Congress are afraid that eliminating them will lead to job cuts in their congressional districts.

If Rep. Boebert and other GOP hardliners want to have that debate over wasteful defense spending in good faith, a lot of Democrats would say, “Great!”

So, let’s have that debate and cut the fat out of the Pentagon budget to slow the gravy train to defense contractors before we get ready to push granny off the cliff.

House Republicans, give granny a break!

Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.

Source: TEST FEED1