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House rules package in the spotlight after Speaker vote drama 

The rules package that would govern House procedures throughout the new session of Congress is taking center stage after the drawn-out Speakership election in which Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) fought for the votes he needed to eventually take the top leadership spot.  

Faced with a group of around 20 lawmakers from his own party who voted for alternative candidates and stalled progress until a 15th round of ballots, McCarthy made a number of concessions on the package in order to flip enough GOP holdouts — including changes to the procedure for introducing amendments and a change to lower the bar for motions to oust a sitting Speaker.  

McCarthy eventually flipped a handful of Republican holdouts and won the Speakership in the 15th bout of voting early Saturday with 216 votes, with some Republicans voting “present.” All Democrats voted for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). 

Now that the House finally has a Speaker and new members have been sworn in, the rules package is next on the docket, and is expected to come up for a vote Monday. 

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) on CBS’s “Face the Nation” said on Sunday there are “some very great ideas” in the rules proposed, but she’s worried about any “backroom deals” that may have been brokered as McCarthy worked behind the scenes to get the hardline holdouts to vote for him. 

“What I saw last week was a small faction… trying to cut backroom deals in private, in secret, without anyone knowing what else was going on,” Mace said, raising concerns about a smaller group within the 20 Republicans who resisted McCarthy.  

“We don’t have any idea what promises were made, or what gentlemen’s handshakes were made,” Mace said, adding that the lack of transparency gives her “quite a bit of heartburn.” 

“So my question really is today is: What backroom deals were cut? And did they get those?” she asked. 

Mace said she’ll have to carefully consider supporting the rules package, while Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said he’s confident McCarthy will get the votes to pass it.  

“I think we’ll get the 218 votes we need to pass the rules package,” Jordan said on “Fox News Sunday” with host Shannon Bream.   

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), however, on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday said he doesn’t plan to support the rules package due to a possible cut in defense spending.  

The GOP response to the drama during the Speakership race — and to the divisions within the party as lawmakers split on support for McCarthy — has varied, with some Republicans on Sunday dismissing the turmoil as “pointless” and others calling it a “healthy” exercise in democracy. 

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that there wasn’t “as much disagreement as everyone thinks” in negotiations about the rules package and that the drama was “pointless.” 

“There was no reason for us to keep voting, keep voting, keep allowing these speeches that just degraded and diminished and insulted Kevin McCarthy. We didn’t have to keep doing that. We could have just adjourned for the whole week and just kept negotiating. So that’s where the heartburn is and that’s what I want people to know. This deal was easy. That wasn’t the hard part,” Crenshaw said.   

On the other hand, Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) said on ABC’s “This Week” that the debate on display last week is “what a healthy democracy actually requires” and is a good sign for the new Congress.  

“I understand the American people’s concern with the delay in electing a Speaker. Certainly it’s going to be a challenge to have a conference full of independent thinkers with a thin majority. But not only did the framers of our Constitution expect us to debate the operations of the House… that’s what a healthy democracy actually requires,” Barr said. 

And Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on CNN’s “State of the Union” said Congress needs conflict in order to get lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to the debate table.  

“Let’s remember that a little temporary conflict is necessary in this town in order to stop this town from rolling over the American people,” Roy said.  

“I don’t think anybody, on either side of the aisle, could say with a straight face that they think that Washington is doing good work for the American people on a regular basis and isn’t broken. We have to work to fix this place.” 

The delay caused by the Speakership election means the House is cutting it close to a Jan. 13 deadline by which the rules package must be adopted in order to process payroll for staff, according to guidance from the House Administration Committee first reported by Politico. 

Source: TEST FEED1

GOP grapples with candidate quality problem ahead of 2024

Republicans are figuring out how to strengthen their recruitment efforts after a disappointing 2022 midterm cycle that many Republicans blamed on the poor quality of the party’s candidates.

GOP officials and strategists are still poring over the midterm results and debating what exactly went wrong. But there’s broad consensus that the GOP’s roster of untested — and in several cases, controversial — candidates were at least partially responsible for the party’s failed effort to recapture control of the Senate.  

“One of the lessons from 2022 is that candidate quality matters a lot,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist and former adviser to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). “We came up short in a couple of key races because independent voters and some moderate Republicans didn’t like our nominees.” 

“If we’re going to win back the Senate and keep the House, we have to have good candidates,” he added. “In 2022, that just wasn’t the case.”

Odd-numbered years are when the parties typically look to build out their roster of candidates. But 2021 and early 2022 proved difficult for Republicans, as top-tier recruits like New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey passed on Senate bids. 

Democrats went on to win the Senate races in both New Hampshire and Arizona, beating out GOP opponents who were viewed by many as too far outside the political mainstream. 

In other races, like the Senate contests in Georgia and Pennsylvania, Republican voters elevated political newcomers, largely at the behest of former President Trump, who didn’t hesitate to endorse in GOP primaries. 

Those outcomes proved catastrophic for Republicans. In Georgia, Trump’s Senate pick, former NFL star Herschel Walker, found himself repeatedly beset by personal controversies. In Pennsylvania, Republican nominee Mehmet Oz, the celebrity physician, struggled to get his general election campaign off the ground and ultimately lost to Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).

The end result was far from what the GOP had hoped. Despite running in an otherwise favorable political environment, Republicans failed to flip even a single Democratic Senate seat, while Democrats added one seat to their razor-thin majority.

“This past time we had Trump as a force in this. Trump was a big part of Herschel Walker. He was a big part of Blake Masters,” said Doug Heye, a Republican strategist, referring to the Republican venture capitalist who lost his 2022 Senate bid to Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). “Those candidates who lost, you can draw a pretty straight line from them to Donald Trump.”

The GOP’s recruitment and candidate vetting efforts also emerged as a point of contention between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), the now-former chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). 

Scott largely stayed out of Republican primaries, arguing that GOP voters — and not the NRSC — should determine the party’s Senate nominees. McConnell, meanwhile, criticized the quality of the GOP’s lineup of candidates, predicting early-on that the Senate would be harder for Republicans to flip than the House because of the caliber of hopefuls.

“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different — they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome,” McConnell told reporters last summer.

Of course, 2024 may be different. Democrats are defending more than twice as many Senate seats as Republicans are and have few opportunities to go on the offensive. 

Republicans also got a dose of good news on Thursday, when Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) announced that she would not seek reelection in 2024, opening up a seat in a state that the GOP sees as a prime pickup opportunity.

Multiple Republicans also expressed optimism about the party’s recruitment efforts ahead of 2024, saying that a more hands-on strategy combined with Trump’s waning influence within the GOP could help reassure top-tier recruits.

“You need people who can successfully navigate both the primary and the general. That’s the No. 1 threshold,” one Republican strategist said. “But what you have to be able to do is convince those types of candidates that, A, they’ll have the resources they need and, B, Donald Trump won’t swoop in and steal their thunder and their ability to win.”

“Again, the map is great for Republicans, but candidate recruitment is going to be critical,” the strategist added. “I think you’re already seeing the largest influencers saying that they very well may play a role in making those decisions.”

Another Republican operative familiar with Senate campaigns said that Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), the new chair of the NRSC, and the Senate Leadership Fund, the influential McConnell-aligned super PAC, have signaled a willingness to play a “more active and involved” role in open 2024 Senate primaries.

Mike Berg, the communications director for the NRSC, said that the committee has already been in touch with multiple potential candidates interested in running next year.

“Recruitment is one of Chairman Daines’ top priorities and we’ve already received outreach from a number of potential top-tier candidates who are excited to run,” Berg said in a statement to The Hill.

But some Republicans said that the GOP’s candidate recruitment strategy is only one piece of a larger puzzle that still needs to be solved. One GOP Senate campaign consultant said that without adequate support from establishment-aligned groups, top-tier Senate recruits will be at risk of falling to Trump loyalists in primaries, regardless of their qualifications.

“I think it’s incumbent upon the establishment wing to do a better job, not just recruiting, but winning,” the consultant said. “They’ve got to do a better job at actually winning and campaigning in the modern day in primaries.”

Heye, the Republican strategist, said there may be a bigger challenge for party leaders hoping to recruit high-profile candidates: dysfunction in Washington. In the House, for instance, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has tried and failed for days to win the Speakership amid a rebellion from hard-right members of his own party.

“If you’ve looked at Washington over the past two years, it’s an advertisement to not run,” Heye said. “Clearly what we’re seeing on the House floor right now speaks to that candidate recruitment issue.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Trump takes credit for McCarthy Speaker win

Former President Trump is taking a victory lap following Speaker Kevin McCarthy‘s (R-Calif.) win after 15 rounds of voting.

“The Fake News Media was, believe it or not, very gracious in their reporting that I greatly helped Kevin McCarthy attain the position of Speaker of the House,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.

“Thank you, I did our Country a big favor!”

Although there was talk of Trump’s weakened political clout after Republicans opposed to McCarthy’s Speakership bid ignored the former president’s urging to back him, reports throughout the days-long voting process showed that Trump may have successfully swayed some of McCarthy’s GOP detractors.

Trump placed a potentially critical phone call to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), whose “present” vote solidified McCarthy’s defeat on the 14th ballot late Friday night, according to The New York Times. The former president also spoke on the phone with Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), another vocal McCarthy holdout, CNN reported.

Trump was also in contact with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on the night that McCarthy won the Speakership, who was seen in a widely circulated photo trying to hold her phone up to Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), one of McCarthy’s last remaining detractors. The caller ID shown in the photo read “DT,” and Greene later confirmed that it was, in fact, Trump on the other line.

McCarthy praised Trump while speaking to reporters after he secured the gavel, saying, “I don’t think anybody should doubt his influence. He was with me from the beginning.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden’s campaign brain trust: Here are the key people to know 

President Biden is expected to announce he will run for reelection in the coming weeks after spending some time consulting with his family and his closest advisers over the holidays.  

Many of those advisers have been by Biden’s side for years — if not decades — making up his all-important brain trust.  

Who is Biden leaning on as he revs up for another run?  

Ron Klain 

Biden’s chief of staff has the most outward visibility of anyone in his inner circle.  

He has a constant presence on Twitter and routinely makes the rounds on cable and network news and with good reason: He not only has a mastery of Biden’s politics and policy, but most importantly he is entrenched in every part of the operation at the White House, Biden allies say.  

Klain has kept a steady ship at the White House even during the rockiest of times. Biden’s Cabinet is the same at the two-year marker as it was at the start, and the West Wing has seen very little turnover in the first couple of years.  

He’s also the one who has dropped the biggest hints to date about Biden’s intentions: “I expect the decision will be to do it,” Klain said last month at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit.  

Steve Ricchetti  

The White House senior adviser is known as the “Biden whisperer.” But in many ways, he’s also the president’s chief dealmaker in key moments on Capitol Hill — including the big infrastructure deal in 2021.  

“He was the closer for us, full stop,” said one Biden ally. “He knows the president, the president trusts what he says. But he also earned the trust of folks on the other side of the negotiating table too.”  

Having served as chief of staff to Biden during his time as vice president and chief strategist during the 2020 presidential campaign, Ricchetti understands how to frame a potential race for Biden and what he might be up against.  

“He’s the Biden whisperer because he has a sense of what the landscape looks like,” one donor said.  

Mike Donilon  

At the end of the year, Biden’s senior adviser — who has been by the president’s side since 1981 — circulated a memo to “interested parties” about the successes of the administration in its first two years, something that sent a clear message about the president’s political prospects.  

In the memo, Donilon, who is known for the major role he plays in speeches and the overall spoken word disseminating from the White House, made the case for why Biden should run again.  

“In November, the President and the Democrats saw an historic midterm outcome — far stronger than the disastrous ‘Red Wave’ that had been predicted,” Donilon wrote.  

“The result has been a strong jolt of momentum for the President as we move into the New Year. Just look at the results. Democrats gained Governors seats, flipped state legislatures, won crucial Secretary of State races, and held key districts in the House of Representatives. And President Biden became the first President since FDR in 1934 to not lose a single incumbent United States Senate seat,” he said.  

Donilon and other aides have been working on Biden’s State of the Union for weeks, and it’s expected to be a guide for what the president will tout on the trail should he decide to run again.  

Anita Dunn 

The prominent communications adviser knows Biden’s style and his messaging arguably better than almost anyone else.  

Dunn is credited with steadying the ship during Biden’s tumultuous 2020 campaign and has been an invaluable player at the start of Biden’s presidency.  

“She’s been there for all the key moments, and that’s no coincidence,” the Biden ally said. “Her counsel matters a lot to the team and to the president and I’m sure he’s listening carefully to what she’s advising on his next steps.”  

Jen O’Malley Dillon  

The White House aide has been one of the few outsiders to crack Biden’s inner orbit after serving as his general election campaign manager.  

In the halls of the West Wing, O’Malley Dillon, who serves as a deputy chief of staff, has been quietly laying the groundwork for another political run along with other aides.  

She has been speaking with interest groups to keep them engaged and working on expanding the digital strategy for 2024.  

In an interview with The Washington Post last month, she said, “The idea is not just to meet people where they are, but it’s to meet people everywhere they are.”  

Biden allies say she knows what a second run will entail for Biden and is a major part of the launchpad for another run.  

“She knows exactly what to expect,” one ally said.  

Source: TEST FEED1

What we know about the XBB.1.5 COVID variant sweeping the Northeast

The XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant is raising concerns of a potential surge in COVID-19 cases as it sweeps across the Northeast.

Officials have warned in recent weeks that the strain is highly transmissible, can more easily evade the immunity offered by vaccines or prior infections than past variants — and is likely to drive cases up around the country.

The subvariant has already rapidly spread in the Northeast, where it is currently estimated to be causing about 72 percent of infections.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated last week that XBB.1.5 was the most prevalent subvariant in the U.S. as a whole, accounting for 40.5 percent of cases in the country. However, this information is subject to change as more data is collected from states, and XBB.1.5’s share of U.S. cases has fallen to an estimated 27.6 percent as of Friday.

But while another omicron subvariant, BQ.1.1, is still dominant in the country beyond the Northeast, XBB.1.5 has also reached all other regions of the U.S., and officials predict it will continue to spread. Due to its recent ascent, data on XBB.1.5 is limited, but health officials have disclosed some key insights into the strain, as well as what questions remain unanswered.

Here is what know about XBB.1.5:

‘Most transmissible’ omicron subvariant so far

​​XBB.1.5 is “the most transmissible subvariant that has been detected yet” of the already highly contagious omicron strain, Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID-19 response, said in a recent briefing.

Van Kerkhove attributed the subvariant’s high transmissibility to the mutations it carries allowing it to “adhere to the cell and replicate easily.”

Ashish Jha, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator, concurred with Van Kerkhove’s assessment, saying on Twitter that XBB.1.5 was most likely more able to evade immunity than previous omicron subvariants.

People who have not recently been infected with COVID-19 or vaccinated against it probably have “very little protection against infection” caused by XBB.1.5, Jha further advised.

Cases are expected to rise

The northeastern regions of the country have already seen a recent rise in cases, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. Hospitalizations in these areas have also risen between 10 and 15 percent, though it remains to be seen if XBB.1.5 causes more severe illness than previous subvariants and is behind this jump.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said when speaking about XBB.1.5 this week that he expected a further increase in cases.

“The XBB variant and its related variants (XBB.1 & XBB.1.5) are sweeping through the Northeast and will likely move to other regions quickly,” he tweeted.

But Califf noted that the cases caused by XBB.1.5 and other new variants don’t appear to be more serious than those caused by past strains of the virus.

“At this point, we’re experiencing an increase in cases with no evidence of increased severity of illness related to these variants,” he said.

Van Kerkhove echoed Califf’s forecast, saying, “We do expect further waves of infection around the world.”

“But,” she added, “that doesn’t have to translate to further waves of death, because our countermeasures continue to work.”

First detected in the US before spreading globally

While XBB, the subvariant from which XBB.1.5 descends, was initially detected in India, the latter mutation is believed to have first been identified in the U.S. in October.

It has since been detected in 29 other countries, according to the WHO. Roughly a dozen countries in the European Union alone have detected XBB.1.5, though levels of the subvariant remain low there, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

It’s a recombinant virus. What does that mean?

XBB.1.5 is considered a recombinant virus, meaning it carries genetic data from two previous viral mutations. 

The subvariant is descended from XBB, which in turn has genetic data from two viral strains that descended from the BA.2 “stealth” subvariant. That strain, characterized by its mutations that made it difficult to track with PCR tests, was the most prevalent in the U.S. in early 2022 before being overtaken by two other omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5.

Treatments and vaccines likely still effective

Countermeasures are currently still expected to be effective at treating COVID-19 infections caused by XBB.1.5 and reducing the severity of illness, as Van Kerkhove said.

Jha said the updated bivalent COVID-19 booster is still the “best protection” against infection and severe illness.

Califf noted that while that booster has been observed to be less effective in neutralizing against the XBB strain when compared to the ancestral strain, the neutralization it offered was still strong enough to provide “some degree of protection.”

Columbia University researchers found in an early preprint study that subvariants descended from the BQ and XBB lines are better than previous strains at evading neutralizing antibodies. Neutralizing antibodies, which can be gained through prior infections or vaccination, stop infections by binding to viruses and blocking them from attaching to cells.

Mutations and changes to the SARS-CoV-2 virus can make it harder for neutralizing antibodies to recognize and detect the virus when it enters a person’s system, enabling the virus to evade an immune response that could have otherwise stopped it from causing infection.

But the researchers noted that vaccines have still been shown to be effective against such strains.

“It is important to emphasize that although infections may now be more likely, COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to remain effective at preventing hospitalization and severe disease even against Omicron as well as possibly reducing the risk of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC or long COVID),” they said.

Oral antivirals like Paxlovid and molnupiravir are also still expected to be effective against XBB.1.5, as they don’t function by boosting antibodies — which the strain appears better able to evade — but by hindering the virus’s ability to replicate itself.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Memo: Republicans stumble out of the starting blocks

The GOP has stumbled at the starting line of the new Congress, squandering a moment of rare opportunity.

Having won a House majority, albeit a slim one, most Republican members were eager to turn up the heat on President Biden and advance the agenda on which voters elected them.

Instead, they have spent almost a week embroiled in a debacle, only finally electing Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as Speaker in the 15th round of voting soon after midnight Saturday.

Even then, the core problem of disunity between McCarthy’s supporters and opponents was on vivid display, with pro-McCarthy Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) having to be restrained from a physical confrontation with one of the most fervent hold-outs, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

Enmity had bubbled all week between the two camps, with McCarthy supporters like Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) branding the dissenters “clowns.”

One major strand of the frustration was a stark fact: the internecine squabble was preventing anything else from getting done.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told the Omaha World-Herald that the anti-McCarthy members were “making demands and acting like they are more righteous and pure than anyone else…We’re tired of it.”

Bacon added, “At some point, if they refuse to play at all, we have to find another way to govern.” 

One group of center-right members, the Republican Main Street Partnership, even launched a digital ad campaign with the goal of “reminding Americans across the country that the majority of the House Republican Majority is ready to get to work for the American people.”

The problem is, the reminder was needed in the first place.

The chaos in which the GOP has become enmeshed is especially galling for many Republicans because their opponents are in a vulnerable position.

Though Democrats did better than expected in November’s midterm elections, they are hardly riding high.

Biden’s approval ratings remain stubbornly underwater. 

The weighted average maintained by polling and data site FiveThirtyEight had Biden winning the approval of roughly 44 percent of Americans as of Saturday evening. Fifty-one percent disapproved of the president’s performance.

There are several specific issues that are sore spots for the administration, particularly inflation and immigration. 

Biden is expected to make his first visit as president to the southwestern border on Sunday, when he will go to El Paso. 

The visit — together with a plan released Thursday aimed at curbing the rush of migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua — reflects an awareness within the White House that the administration needs to do more to get on top of the issue.

Border Patrol agents had almost 2.4 million encounters with unauthorized migrants at the southwestern border during the 2022 fiscal year — an all-time high. The numbers have overwhelmed shelters and other facilities in the region, and have caused stress farther afield. New York City is currently accommodating more than 20,000 migrants in its shelter system.

A recent poll from The Economist/YouGov indicated that just 31 percent of Americans — and a mere 18 percent of those who identify as independent — approve of Biden’s handling of the immigration issue.

But instead of pressing the case against Biden this weekend, Republicans will, at best, be having to explain why the process of electing a Speaker took more rounds of voting than it has done at any point since the Civil War.

“It’s not a great look, it doesn’t set a great tone,” GOP strategist Dan Judy told this column shortly before McCarthy was elected. 

Judy emphasized that memories of this week’s mayhem could fade if the House Republicans get down to more “substantive” business soon. 

But he also acknowledged a more pessimistic scenario in which “this could certainly set the tone for a conference that is dysfunctional and divided.”

Some moderates fear exactly that outcome, in part because of the compromises McCarthy has made to get himself over the finish line. 

McCarthy won the gavel at the price of a number of concessions, including making it much easier for members of try to topple a sitting Speaker.

Democrats, meanwhile, can hardly believe their luck.

Several, including Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Bill Pascrell (D-N.J), had made gleeful references to eating popcorn while watching Republicans vainly try to unite earlier in the week. 

After Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) alleged Democrats had been drinking amid the proceedings, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted back, “If only! If Dems took a shot every time McCarthy lost a Republican, we’d all be unconscious by now.”

Even Biden and Vice President Harris seem bemused by events at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, agreeing amid smiles at a Thursday news conference that they were paying close “attention” to the goings-on.

Democratic strategist Basil Smikle told this column, “The juxtaposition between the disarray on the right and the consensus on the left is glaring for the voter. Voters don’t mind divided government but what they care about is a functioning government.”

The picture could yet change. Now Republicans have finally elected a Speaker, the political focus will shift.

But if the old saying that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression holds true, the GOP will have plenty of cause to rue the events of this week.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden confronts his border problem

President Biden on Sunday will make his first trip to the southern border since taking office, confronting the issue of immigration head on as it threatens to become a growing problem for him and his administration.

Biden had resisted making the trip despite months of pressure from Republicans and even some Democrats to do more to address the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

His travel to El Paso underscores the humanitarian and political problems the situation poses for the Biden administration as it deals with a House GOP majority intent on highlighting the border crisis and a looming 2024 campaign where the Republican nominee is likely to elevate immigration.

“It’s clear that immigration is a political issue that extreme Republicans are always going to run on,” Biden said Thursday at the White House. “But now they have a choice: They can keep using immigration to try to score political points or they can help solve the problem. They can help solve the problem and come together to fix the broken system.”

The White House this week unveiled a raft of measures aimed at getting the number of migrants crossing into the U.S. under control, while also using Biden’s upcoming travel to show they are taking the matter seriously.

The administration said Thursday that individuals from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti would be blocked from applying for asylum if they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization. Officials also said they would propose a rule prohibiting migrants from applying for asylum in the U.S. if they did not first seek protection in a country they traveled through en route to the southern border.

And border officials will continue to enforce Title 42, a Trump-era policy that has been used for nearly three years to quickly expel migrants under the guise of it being a public health measure. Immigration advocates have criticized Biden’s continued use of the policy as inhumane, viewing it as a migration tool disguised as a public health measure. The Supreme Court is set to review its legality in the coming months.

Biden himself will visit the border on Sunday during a trip to El Paso. He will meet with front-line officials to hear more about the migrant situation, as well as what more can be done to block the flow of fentanyl and other drugs across the border.

The president will travel from Texas to Mexico for a two-day summit with North American leaders, where migration concerns are among the main topics expected to be discussed.

“This has been one of the biggest attacks from Republicans. ‘You haven’t even been to the border, you haven’t seen what’s happened,’” former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on MSNBC. “He’s vocalized and said it’s a problem, it’s outdated, broken, we need to fix it. That’s why he put forward a plan on his first day. This allows him to say, ‘I have been to the border, I put forward a plan. What’s in your cupboard, what are you putting forward?’”

Republicans have for months called on Biden to visit the border, amplifying images of groups of migrants crossing into the U.S. and highlighting border patrol data that showed nearly 234,000 migrants were apprehended along the southern border in November 2022, the highest number ever recorded for the month of November.

The GOP-controlled House is in a state of disarray as Republicans struggle to elect a Speaker, which has in turn delayed the swearing-in of members and formation of committees. 

But once the dust settles in the House, lawmakers have indicated immigration will be a key focus of their oversight powers. Some in the party have even floated the possibility of impeaching Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas over the surge in migrants, which has strained resources in communities at the border and around the country.

Even some Democratic leaders, such as New York City Mayor Eric Adams, have complained at times about the flow of migrants into their cities and states, arguing they do not have the resources to care for the scores of individuals arriving there after crossing into the U.S.

The at-times bipartisan criticism of Biden’s border policies underscores that it is a potential political vulnerability that the eventual 2024 Republican presidential nominee may seek to exploit. Some potential opponents of Biden’s got a head start on the matter this week.

Former President Trump, the only declared Republican in the 2024 field, released a video on Thursday outlining his plan to “wage war” on drug cartels in Mexico and crack down on the flow of drugs across the border. The plan includes proposals to send military assets to go after cartel leaders and ask Congress to pass legislation that would mandate the death penalty for drug smugglers and human traffickers.

“Biden’s open border policies are a deadly betrayal of our nation,” Trump said in the recorded statement. “When I am president, it will be the policy of the United States to take down the cartels, just as we took down ISIS and the ISIS caliphate and just as, unlike the situation we’re in today, we had a very strong border.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who has emerged as the most formidable potential challenger to Trump for the party’s presidential nomination, used his inauguration address this week to attack Biden without naming him over his immigration policies.

The federal government “has recklessly facilitated open borders, making a mockery of the rule of law, allowing massive amounts of narcotics to infest our states, importing criminal aliens, and greenlighting the flow of millions of illegal aliens into our country, burdening communities and taxpayers throughout the land,” DeSantis said in prepared remarks. 

The Florida governor made headlines last year when he arranged to fly migrants who had crossed the southern border to Martha’s Vineyard, a liberal sanctuary jurisdiction that has said it will not report those in the country illegally.

While Biden’s actions this week might insulate him from some criticism that he hasn’t addressed the border, he has acknowledged it’s an imperfect solution that won’t satisfy everyone. Already, numerous humanitarian groups have criticized Biden’s actions as making it more difficult for those fleeing violence to find safe harbor and accused him of doubling down on Trump-era policies.

Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) issued a joint statement on Friday expressing their disappointment in the new Biden policies, arguing “it will increase border crossings over time and further enrich human smuggling networks.”

Immigration has been among the most vexing issues for Congress for the last several years, with Democrats and Republicans unable to come to an agreement on how to both fund border security and deal with the flow of migrants into the country.

Despite that, the White House has repeatedly deferred to Congress when confronted with the number of crossings at the southern border, arguing it falls to lawmakers to overhaul a broken system.

Biden, speaking to reporters Thursday, reiterated that immigration policy will be a long-term issue, not a short-term fix.

“I’ll sit down with anyone who, in good faith, wants to fix our broken immigration system. And it’s hard. It’s hard on the best of circumstances,” Biden said. “But if the most extreme Republicans continue to demagogue this issue and reject solutions, I’m left with only one choice: to act on my own, do as much as I can on my own to try to change the atmosphere.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Hispanic Caucus split between rage and lukewarm reception to Biden's new border plan

The Biden administration’s plan to crack down at the border in exchange for some expanded legal pathways of entry for migrants received a generally tepid response from Hispanic Democrats, though some in the group were incensed that they were sidelined in favor of developing a policy many worry treads too closely to Trump-era immigration efforts. 

The Biden administration announced Thursday it would expand Title 42 limitations that allow them to turn away asylum-seekers, pairing it with a pledge to allow some 30,000 Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians into the U.S. through a separate program.

Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.), in her first major statement as chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), praised the administration’s expanded legal pathways but expressed disappointment with the Title 42 expansion at the border.

“As a nation of immigrants, we must have a humane, efficient, and professional immigration system that reflects our American values,” Barragán said. 

“The Congressional Hispanic Caucus welcomes the Administration’s efforts to expand legal pathways for refugees and asylum seekers but is disappointed with the expansion of the failed Trump-era Title 42 policy that has denied asylum seekers their rights to due process for far too long.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), a former CHC chair, released his own statement later Friday, issuing a strongly worded condemnation of the administration’s plans that contrasted with the careful balance adopted by Barragán.

“I am deeply disappointed to see the Biden administration extending failed Trump-era immigration policies that exacerbate chaos and irregular migration at the Southern border,” Castro said.

Castro said he “appreciates” the administration’s expanded legal pathway, but panned the transit ban and parole requirements “willfully dismissive of the realities facing asylum seekers.”

“Instead of making concessions to the same reactionaries who have spent decades opposing immigration reform, the Biden administration should work with Congress to develop smart immigration policy that meets our nation’s economic needs, upholds our fundamental values, and addresses the root causes of migration,” said Castro.

And the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) weighed in after a call on the policy with Mayorkas.

CPC Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and CPC Immigration Task Force Chairman Jesús García (D-Ill.) — also a CHC member — put out their own statement, taking a more forceful tone than Barragán, but less combative than Castro.

Jayapal and García called on President Biden to “reconsider this proposal” though they lauded its expanded legal pathways.

“However, the new Department of Homeland Security proposal also includes expanding the use of Title 42, a public health law weaponized by Donald Trump to deny legal rights to asylum seekers, as well as potential regulations that would restrict the legal right to seek asylum. That is unacceptable,” Jayapal and García wrote.

Barragán’s statement came a day after CHC members met with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in the Capitol for what turned into a heated briefing on the new policy. 

At the meeting, two CHC members, Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), grilled Mayorkas, pushing the secretary to say why they weren’t consulted during the planning process of the new policy.

Menendez, in particular, was “pretty lit” as he tore into Mayorkas, according to several people in the room, and Luján “let him have it” over the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) failure to include CHC input in planning.

Menendez went so far as to quote a Biden campaign pledge to Mayorkas, when the then-Democratic nominee ripped then-President Trump over his “safe third country agreements” proposal.

The new Biden immigration proposal mimics the Trump push in that it penalizes migrants who transit away from their current location by making them ineligible to claim asylum.

Representatives for Mayorkas did not respond to a question Friday on why the administration did not consult its allies in Congress.

One CHC member complained the new policy “breathes new life” into Title 42.

“People are upset that a Democratic administration would expand the policy that Stephen Miller put in place under Donald Trump. There are some good things about what’s being proposed: allowing people to apply for asylum if they have a sponsor, and providing work permits. But there’s a big downside to it, which is the expansion of Title 42. Title 42 is supposed to be wound down and this seems to breathe new life into it,” the member said.

But the senators’ ire was not shared by all in the meeting.

While Barragán shared other CHC members’ concerns over elements of the policy, including that it essentially amounts to a thinly veiled transit ban, she said the conversation with Mayorkas was “constructive.”

Other members, including the two senators, who put out a harshly critical statement Thursday alongside Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), were much less generous about the meeting.

Still, Barragán added in her statement that members “made clear that the CHC must be consulted on all policies regarding the border and immigration.”

Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), a vice chair of the CHC, said he shared his colleagues’ concerns with the plan but praised Mayorkas as a DHS chief who “has strong empathy and more support than anybody else in that position before him for immigrants.”

Still, Espaillat said the administration and other stakeholders were missing the core issue that’s created the migrant crisis, a “crisis of democracy in the Americas.”

“The real issue here is, what’s happening in the Americas? Why are these people leaving their families behind and coming here? What are the compelling reasons that are forcing women to take their kids and walk thousands of miles, to put their lives in danger to get to America?” Espaillat said.

“Unless that’s addressed, it going to be very difficult. … I understand that’s not going to happen overnight, but we must begin to address those issues and I think we have not.”

The different takes reflect divisions within the CHC, where some members see immigration as the keystone issue for U.S. Hispanics, while others view it as a legacy topic that’s lost political punch to issues like the economy, education and the environment.

And the political reality of border security is felt differently by members who represent border districts, particularly in Texas, which often bear disproportionate costs in times of heightened migration.

Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.), a top advocate for migrant rights who’s at times butted heads with Democratic leadership over immigration, recognized the different political realities faced by some of his colleagues.

“I do know some people at the border, their communities are bearing a lot of the brunt of this refugee crisis. And so they’re looking for some solutions, so they may be more open to those solutions then others,” Correa told The Hill.

Still, Correa struck at the center of the Biden administration’s plan — an expansion of Title 42 expulsions — noting the border policy’s core precept is defunct.

“[Title] 42 should not even be part of the immigration debate, because it’s a health care issue, not an immigration weapon,” said Correa, alluding to the original stated rationale for Title 42, that it would be used to keep the coronavirus from crossing the southern border.

Other CHC members noted that the administration’s promises to open new pathways for migrants could fail to pan out.

One member noted, for instance, that promises to aggressively expand the refugee program have been made before with paltry results.

“Look at what’s happened with the refugee situation where they propose a number of 125,000 refugees, but accepted in actuality only a low number. So to me, it doesn’t really matter what your number is in principle — what’s your number in practice? So if they’re going to set this number and say 30,000 per month is it, the number that can come in, yeah, but how many are you actually going to allow to come in?” they said. 

Administration officials are already touting the early success of the program, however.

Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols said on Friday that sign-ups for the program are already in the thousands, just a day after it was announced.

“Thousands of people have already applied and it’s been a day. The application is free. There’s no cost — that comes in contrast to people paying migrant smugglers, polleros, coyotes, you can use whatever term you want, 1000s of dollars for a risky journey with no guarantee of entry into the United States,” Nichols said at a Wilson Center conference previewing Biden’s trip to Mexico City on Sunday.

“I think that the the policies that the president has announced will provide legal pathways for some 30,000 people a month from countries where there’s a significant demand and that will prevent people from putting their lives at risk through a perilous journey,” added Nichols.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden basks in GOP Speaker chaos

Republicans gave President Biden a late Christmas gift with their messy, drawn-out struggle to elect a House Speaker.

Biden called the drama, which finally ended with victory for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in an early Saturday morning 15th ballot, “embarrassing” and a bad look for the country. But Democratic strategists and White House officials see the House GOP’s disarray as an easy opportunity for contrast — and an issue where Biden can make political hay as he prepares a reelection campaign.

“When your foe is lighting themselves on fire, don’t hand them a hose,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the centrist think tank Third Way. 

“The White House keeping their distance, I think, is smart,” Bennett continued. “Say these people are irresponsible and they do not take the task of governing seriously. It’s very easy to do that with this episode. But it will allow them to do the same when they try to impeach [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas and drag Biden’s son through the mud. So it really provides amplification to the idea that anything they’re doing is irresponsible.”

The House this week saw a Speaker selection go beyond a single ballot for the first time in a century as McCarthy struggled to secure the support of a handful of GOP holdouts who denied him a majority of the chamber while Democrats stayed united behind Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). Though McCarthy eventually prevailed, the protracted fight led to days of bad headlines and optics for Republicans, and it leaves the California lawmaker with a tenuous grasp on the gavel.

Biden and other White House officials avoided throwing any lifelines to House Republicans, saying it was McCarthy’s problem to figure out. But the president has rarely missed an opportunity in recent days to remind the public of the consequences of the House GOP’s infighting.

“One, it’s embarrassing for the country. I mean, literally,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s just the reality is that, you know, to … have a Congress that can’t function is just embarrassing.  We’re the greatest nation in the world. How can that be?”

“And we’ve had a lot of trouble with … the attacks on our institutions already,” Biden added. “And it’s just, that’s what worries me more than anything else.”

With no members sworn in, there were no committees meeting, giving Biden and his administration a brief reprieve from Republicans’ planned investigations into sensitive issues such as the Afghanistan withdrawal, the southern border or Hunter Biden.

Members on intelligence and military panels have been unable to get classified briefings about important national security matters since they are not technically part of the new Congress yet.

Biden ran for president on a platform of restoring basic competence to the Oval Office after four tumultuous years, and White House officials have spent the last few weeks emphasizing his willingness to reach across the aisle and the lengthy list of legislation he signed during his first two years in office.

The president and his top aides have in recent days projected confidence and assured the public that the White House would be there to ensure the work of government gets done while the House GOP gets its act together.

“Here’s the thing. We hope that the House resolves this soon. It has been a couple of days now. And we have important work to do for the American people,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday. “And so, we have to get back to work here. But of course the administration is going to continue to do everything we can to ensure that the House of Reps are kept informed and have what they need.”

John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, downplayed any national security risks that might stem for members being unable to get classified briefings.

Biden, meanwhile, traveled to Kentucky this week to tout how funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law passed in 2021 would be used to upgrade a major bridge over the Ohio River. He was joined there by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a not-so-subtle split-screen image as House lawmakers were casting yet another unsuccessful round of votes to elect a Speaker. 

Democrats were publicly frustrated that Republicans prevented the House from getting to work, but they also believe it reflects the broader reality that the GOP should not be trusted by voters to govern effectively.

White House allies believe the situation only strengthened Biden’s hand at a time when attention is shifting to the 2024 presidential campaign. Biden is expected to formally announce his plan to run for reelection in the coming months, and strategists believe he can use this week’s squabbling among House Republicans to his advantage when speaking to voters.

“The only upside to all this lunacy is they’re going to show America who they are,” said Bennett, the Third Way co-founder. “When we’re faced with a seminal vote in 2024, that’s going to matter.”

Source: TEST FEED1