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How Biden keeps focus on gun violence 10 years after Sandy Hook

Then-Vice President Joe Biden stood at a podium in the South Court Auditorium of the White House nearly 10 years ago as the leader of a task force formed to find solutions after a gunman killed 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

In 2016, Biden spoke to a group of Sandy Hook families and expressed hope that change was on the horizon with gun laws, noting it took him seven years of pushing as a senator before a decadelong assault weapons ban was enacted in 1994.

Wednesday will mark 10 years since the Sandy Hook massacre, but gun violence is as central to Biden’s politics as ever. 

Perhaps more than any other issue, Biden has used his bully pulpit as president to push Congress to address gun violence, calling repeatedly for lawmakers to reimpose a ban on assault weapons as mass shooting after mass shooting devastates the country on a regular basis.

“Together, we’ve made some important progress: the most significant gun law passed in 30 years, but still not enough. Still not enough,” Biden said last week at the 10th annual Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence.

White House officials and advocates believe the nation is in a different place in its ability to fight gun violence than it was 10 years ago, largely because of the work done by groups after the Sandy Hook shooting that have helped shift public attitudes and make incremental legislative progress.

But the regularity with which Biden issues statements after mass shootings — in Boulder, in Buffalo, in Uvalde, in Tulsa, in Highland Park, in Raleigh, in Colorado Springs — shows how much work there still is to do.

“One benefit of Biden’s long career in Washington is that we all know what issues animate him, and it’s clear that gun violence is at the top of that list,” said Eric Schultz, a former deputy press secretary in the Obama White House. 

The Sandy Hook shooting led Congress to coming the closest it has in decades to reinstituting an assault weapons ban. But when it came to a vote in 2013, it only garnered 40 Senate votes because several Democrats from swing states voted against it. 

Congress also failed to pass universal background checks in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting. The 20-year-old shooter in Newtown, Conn., used a semi-automatic rifle and other guns legally purchased by his mother.

In the decade since, through executive action and legislation, the federal government has made progress on gun violence in other ways. Obama signed a package of executive orders after Sandy Hook with the help of Biden and his task force.

Biden has signed executive orders aiming to crack down on the use of ghost guns, which are more difficult to track and trace when they are used in crimes. 

And Congress earlier this year passed bipartisan legislation bolstering red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to confiscate weapons from dangerous individuals, closing the so-called boyfriend loophole and enhancing background checks for those ages 18-21.

Groups like Everytown, Sandy Hook Promise, March for Our Lives and others have emerged in recent years to provide a counterbalance to the gun lobby. And polling has repeatedly shown stronger background checks and outlawing some semi-automatic weapons are popular with a majority of Americans.

Aides say the issue is personal for Biden, who has met with scores of survivors of gun violence and family members of victims during his time in government. In a 2016 speech to Sandy Hook families, he lamented that they shared something in common: They belonged to a “lousy club” of parents whose children had died before them. Biden lost his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015.

“He is consistent on this issue, and he’s been consistent for decades,” said Stefanie Feldman, a senior adviser on the White House Domestic Policy Council. “Because of that, he carries with him so many stories of people who have been directly impacted. He knows an assault weapons ban works. He knows other strategies to reduce gun violence work.”

Biden has talked at fundraisers and economic events, such as the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act, about banning assault weapons. A White House official said Biden will sometimes ask that a reference to banning assault weapons be added to speeches if it is not already included.

Biden traveled to Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas, following shootings at a grocery store and an elementary school, respectively. The president is expected to mark the Sandy Hook anniversary on Wednesday, and it is likely to renew attention on what still needs to be done to prevent future mass shootings.

Gun violence prevention advocates agree that not enough has been done to curb violence in the decade since the shooting at Sandy Hook. But, they say, progress has been made.

“The last 10 years have seen remarkable progress in building an effective social movement, the gun and safety movement, virtually from scratch. We have achieved more, I think, from a political advocacy standpoint than you might have expected when we first set out,” said Peter Ambler, executive director of Giffords.

“We’re hopeful that in the next decade that we’re going to be able to start seeing more of the effects of the policies that have been put in place and, more importantly, we’re going to be able to do more,” he said.

Zeenat Yahya, March For Our Lives policy director, said the uptick in gun violence since Sandy Hook is a clear indicator the problem persists.

“I don’t think enough has been done to curb gun violence in America, and particularly what’s really scary to me … what has really indicated that, obviously, is the fact that gun violence has increased so much over the years,” she said.

What gives advocates hope is the support for the gun violence prevention law that Biden signed in June.

Ambler called the gun control bill insufficient and narrow in scope but “an important validation of our strategy and our work over the past decade.” And it sets the stage for another 10 years of growth.

While Biden said as recently as last month that he was counting the votes to see if an assault weapons ban could pass Congress, the White House hasn’t given an update on if he has talked to lawmakers and its path to passage is unclear.

An assault weapons ban would need 60 votes in the Senate to bypass the legislative filibuster. Democrats will increase their majority next Congress to only 51 seats, while Republicans will hold a narrow majority in the House.

Advocates think that Biden should continue pushing for an assault weapons ban, even if he doesn’t have the votes.

“We need him to be able to do everything in his power possible to really apply pressure to Sen. [Charles] Schumer and to the Senate Dems, to get everybody on board and really just kind of go for it,” Yahya said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Democrats tiptoe around Sinema’s political future 

Senate Democrats are in a tough spot over Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (I-Ariz.) surprise announcement that she will leave the Democratic Party: looking to keep her close in the tightly divided chamber even as some in the party look to oust her in 2024. 

Sinema’s decision to register as an Independent creates the prospect of a three-way general election race for her seat, which Republicans believe would give them a clear path to picking it up.  

Arizona Democrats are already talking about potential challengers, including Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.), showing no sign that they’ll give Sinema a clear shot at keeping her seat as an Independent.  

Democratic senators on Monday declined to say whether they would support a Democratic challenger against Sinema or comment on whether the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee or allied outside groups, such as Senate Majority PAC, should back her reelection. 

“It’s her personal decision. I just hope she’s with us for some important votes in the future,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the second-ranking member of the Senate Democratic leadership. 

Sinema, who is 46, has not said whether she plans to run for reelection.  

Durbin declined to comment on whether Sinema should run for reelection, or whether he would support her if she did, after she blew up Democratic efforts to raise the corporate tax rate or reform the Senate’s filibuster rule to allow voting rights legislation to pass.  

“I’m not going to make that judgment, that’s her judgment,” he said when asked if she would run again.  

“I’m not going to tell Arizona what to do,” he added when asked whether Democrats should back her as an Independent.  

Durbin also declined to say whether he would discourage Gallego or another Democrat from running for Sinema’s seat.  

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), a usually outspoken member of the Democratic caucus, was also tight-lipped on Sinema’s decision to leave the party.  

She emphasized that Sinema’s decision will not affect the Democrats’ outright majority control of the Senate, which they won when Sen. Raphael Warnock defeated Herschel Walker in the Georgia runoff. 

“She’s part of our 51 Democratic caucus so that’s what’s important,” Hirono said.  

Asked if she was disappointed that Sinema had decided to quit the Democratic Party, Hirono replied: “No, she does what she does.” 

“It’s not going to change the fact that we’re going to have a majority in the committees. That’s very important,” she added.  

Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), a member of the Democratic leadership and the incoming Senate president pro tempore, said she didn’t want to speculate on Sinema’s potential 2024 reelection campaign. 

“I’ll answer that when she decides what she’s going to do,” she said.  

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), the newly reelected chairwoman of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, ducked quickly into Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) office for a Monday leadership meeting, dodging questions about Sinema.  

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a leading Senate liberal, said she wasn’t focused on Sinema’s party switch or the prospects of keeping her seat from falling into Republican hands in 2024.  

“I’m just not focused on that. I’m focused on the things we need to do in the next two weeks,” she said, citing the need to pass an omnibus spending package and legislation to raise the federal debt ceiling high enough to avoid a standoff with House Republicans next year.  

Warren also declined to comment on Sinema’s most controversial decisions, such as refusing to back a Democratic push to raise the top marginal income tax rate for wealthy individuals or raising the corporate tax rate — two key pillars of President Biden’s agenda.  

Schumer made no mention of Sinema during his Monday afternoon floor speech opening the Senate for the week and instead talked about the year-end spending negotiations and the resurgence of antisemitism in the United States.  

Sinema’s announcement prompted speculation on Capitol Hill that fellow centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who is also up for reelection in 2024, might follow her and leave the Democratic Party.  

But Manchin, who flirted with the idea of declaring himself an Independent in 2021, ruled out the idea.  

“I’ll look at all of these things, I’ve always looked at all these things, but I have no intention of doing anything right now,” he told reporters Monday.   

“Whether I do something later, I can’t tell you what the future’s going to bring. I can only tell you where I am and my mindset” is now, he said.

Manchin, who is up for reelection in 2024, added, “I want to work with Kyrsten every day, the same as I have before.”   

He later said, “I tremendously respect her decision and wish her the best.”

Manchin has not yet made a public decision about running for a fourth term in a state that former President Trump won with 68.6 percent of the vote in 2020.    

Manchin threatened in October of last year to register as an Independent if fellow Senate Democrats couldn’t accept his opposition to elements of Biden’s agenda.   

“I said, me being a moderate centrist Democrat, if that causes you a problem, let me know and I’d switch to be an Independent. But I’d still be caucusing with Democrats,” he said at the time. 

Hirono said Monday she wasn’t surprised that Sinema officially decided to register as an Independent.  

Colleagues noted that Sinema almost never attended their caucus lunches even before leaving the party.  

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who threatened to support a primary challenger against Sinema when Democrats’ frustration with her hit its peak in January, on Monday declined to say whether he would campaign against her in 2024, telling reporters the next election is a long way off.

Sen. Steve Daines (Mont.), the incoming chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Republicans are following the political developments carefully.

“We’re going to keep a very close eye on Arizona,” he said. Asked if the possibility of a three-way race for Sinema’s seat in 2024 helps Republicans, Daines replied: “What do you think?”

Source: TEST FEED1

How GOP centrists have an opportunity in the new majority

A narrow House majority in divided government will be an opportunity for moderate and pragmatic House Republicans to prove the value of their style and philosophy of working in earnest across party lines on achievable legislative priorities. 

But they will face a tough environment next year, with ideological polarization and confrontational tactics from the House GOP’s right flank potentially complicating their hopes of acting on any middle ground. 

Those in favor of Republicans taking a pragmatic approach to a GOP House majority say that midterm election results, which included GOP losses for some hard-right candidates and wins for more centrist Republicans, give them a mandate on their stylistic approach. 

“We’re the group that’s the majority-makers,” said Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), chair of the more centrist Republican Governance Group. “We don’t come from districts where we’re going to get reelected no matter what. We come from districts that honor our commitment to trying to get things done, and they respect the fact that we go back to our districts and tell them the truth — certain things are achievable, but certain things aren’t achievable.” 

“We’re not interested in making noise or interested in making a point. We’re interested in getting things done,” Joyce said.  

Much attention has been placed on how a slim majority can empower a handful of hard-line Republicans to shape the direction of the chamber, as evidenced by a small number of opponents complicating House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) path to the Speakership. But the dynamic can cut both ways, giving those more willing to work across the aisle a greater opportunity to shape policy. 

“Working together is what the American people want to do,” said Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.), a co-chair of the Main Street Caucus. “And we don’t have to leave our founding principles, those conservative principles, to get legislation across the floor. We can work with our legislators on both sides of the aisle to deliver for the American people.” 

GOP members of the Republican Governance Group, formerly known as the Tuesday Group, pragmatic conservatives in the Main Street Caucus and bipartisan coalition-seeking Republicans in the Problem Solvers Caucus are more likely to see working across the aisle as an opportunity to create better policy rather than as a roadblock to getting their priorities through Congress. 

“I believe in two-party solutions. I don’t think that any one party has a monopoly on good ideas. I don’t think anyone’s party has a monopoly on good people,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a co-chair of the Problem Solver’s Caucus. 

The infrastructure bill signed into law last year, Fitzpatrick said, was a prime example of those in the middle coming together. Opposition from some progressive Democrats over tactical choices meant that it could not pass the House without support from Republicans, and 13 House GOP members broke with their party to support it. 

And legislation that starts with bipartisan support in the House, pragmatists say, has a better chance of making it through a Democratic-controlled Senate. 

“You don’t allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. You’d rather get 80 percent of something than 100 percent of nothing. You come to the center, you build consensus, you move forward,” Fitzpatrick said. “That’s how [Americans] manage their relationships, their families, their businesses, and they just want this chamber to function the same way.” 

That ethos contrasts with the aggressive leverage-maximizing tactics favored by those in the right-wing House Freedom Caucus. And the role of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the House, is to push Republicans toward more aspirational conservative policies. There is, however, some overlap in membership with those caucuses and the more pragmatic ones. 

Opportunities to reach agreements with Democrats on major legislation may be few and far between in the next Congress. A Pew Research Center analysis from March found that Republicans and Democrats in the current Congress are further apart ideologically than at any other point in the last 50 years. 

Republicans’ shift to the right has been larger than Democrats’ shift to the left, the analysis found, which sets up centrist Republicans to likely face battles within their own party as they try to reach across the aisle. 

Hard-line conservative members have called on leadership to use must-pass items like raising the debt ceiling and government funding bills to pressure Democrats and the Biden administration into securing conservative priorities, such as spending cuts. 

“We don’t feel like being held hostage by a much smaller group. So people need to negotiate in good faith when you get an 85 percent deal, whatever it may be, you coalesce and you work together as a team. None of this, ‘I demand 100 percent or I’m gonna pack my bags and go home,’” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), another co-chair of the Main Street Caucus. 

The break in tactical styles could be a challenge for McCarthy, who has indicated that he plans to use the debt ceiling to leverage spending cuts but has rejected other tactical calls of the hard-line Republicans.  

But the pragmatic Republicans are optimistic nonetheless. 

“I think you’re going to see the conference unified on some things where we have common goals and beliefs, like border security and election security and the like. And then there’s going to be other areas where, you know, you’re going to continue to see our Problem Solvers work together to advance solutions that are being blocked on the floor,” Fitzpatrick said. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Republicans fear Trump civil war could cost them in 2024

The rising animosity between pro-Trump and anti-Trump forces is creating the prospect of something no Republican wants: a GOP civil war that could split the party in two and leave the path clear for Democrats to win big in 2024. 

The fear is that two years of infighting won’t just put the White House at risk. Republicans worry it could also hand Democrats the House and Senate and at least two more years of united control over Washington.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) raised that possibility last week, saying his “greatest fear” involves the possibility of a repeat of 1964, when the party split between Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller.

“I can imagine a Trump-anti-Trump war over the next two years that just guarantees Biden’s re-election in a landslide and guarantees that Democrats control everything,” Gingrich told The New York Times.

Top Republicans are not ready thus far to hit the panic button and say a repeat of 1964 is far from assured as former President Trump and other would-be candidates stake their ground.

“You’ve got tensions in the Democratic Party. You’ve got tensions here, but no,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said. “Dysfunctional political parties is the norm. It’s not the exception on both sides.” 

But the battle over Trump also spilled further into public view on Monday as Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was questioned on Fox Business repeatedly about the ex-president’s impact on the 2022 midterms and the Georgia Senate runoff.

Several candidates the former president had pushed across the primary finish line failed to secure wins in key Senate races, including in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada. In Georgia, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) defeated Trump-backed Republican candidate Herschel Walker in last week’s runoff. 

“I’m not into the blame game right now. I think we have to do an analysis. I think it is too quick,” McDaniel told host Stuart Varney, who laid the blame at Trump’s feet. “Most importantly, how do we get independents to support Republicans and how we get Republicans to support other Republicans?”

“This infighting within our party is never going to help that. We need Trump voters, we need McCain voters, we need Romney voters and then some in order to beat the Democrats,” she added. 

Republicans are still picking up the pieces from a disastrous 2022 midterm cycle, in which the party expected to win a substantial House majority and retake the Senate after a two-year hiatus. Neither of those things happened, leaving the GOP to plot the future while working out just how much influence Trump will have.

Republicans point out that, regardless of the outcome of the presidential primary, they’ll have a favorable map in 2024 — and that the presidential contest has barely begun.

Democrats hold 23 of the 33 Senate seats that will be up in 2024, including several that in ruby-red states like West Virginia, Montana and Ohio.

“In ’24, we’re going to have a spirited contest for the nomination to be president. We have a very favorable map, and after being disappointed in 2022, I think people are going to up their game [because] they don’t want to do this twice,” Graham said. 

While the Senate races offer hope, however, the looming presidential primary fight is likely to get bloody no matter how it’s sliced. And Trump has remained squarely in the headlines since announcing last month he would run for president.

The first month of Trump’s presidential bid was full of moments that made even some of his allies wince. That initial stretch was headlined by hosting Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, and white supremacist Nick Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago resort for dinner and his call to terminate parts of the Constitution in order to overturn the 2020 presidential election results — both of which resulted in rebukes from across the GOP.

Some top GOP figures believe it would behoove the party to look outward and keep the attention on President Biden, just as it tried to do during the midterms. 

According to the most recent Reuters-Ipsos poll, only 38 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s job in office. 

“Not as long as we keep Joe Biden in focus. We are united around Joe Biden. We are less united around other personalities and people,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said with a chuckle. “I don’t worry about ‘civil wars.’” 

“One of the things I always try to not do is be disrespectful to the rank-and-file Republicans because we’re not sheep. It’s our greatest strength and our greatest weakness, and in politics it can be a weakness,” Cramer said.

For others, the overall message has to change. A number of Republican candidates who lost in November did so after falsely peddling for months that the 2020 election was stolen, showing that voters have little tolerance for that talk moving forward — especially in Arizona and Georgia, two states that both voted against high-profile candidates supported by Trump.

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who previously chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told reporters when asked for takeaways from the Georgia runoff, “Don’t scare the children.” 

“We need to come up with a vision that appeals to at least 50 percent plus one of the electorate and communicate it to people,” Young said when asked to expound on the comment. “Don’t get caught appealing to a narrow segment of the electorate, which is something we have a tendency to do from time to time.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrested in Bahamas

The founder and former CEO of the bankrupt cryptocurrency platform FTX Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested by the Royal Bahamas Police Force, according to authorities.

The Attorney General for the Bahamas said in a statement Monday that the Royal Bahamas police arrested the Bankman-Fried after the U.S. notified them of criminal charges against the ex-billionaire, noting that the U.S. “likely” to request extradition.

“The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public’s trust and broken the law,” said Attorney General Ryan Pinder.

Pinder said the Bahamas will continue its own investigations into the failed cryptocurrency platform while the U.S. pursues its charges against Bankman-Fried.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said authorities in the Bahamas arrested the ex-billionaire after New York shared a sealed indictment with the island nation’s government.

“We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time,” Williams said in a Twitter statement.

Bankman-Fried is in the Bahamas amid controversy over calls for him to testify before the Senate Banking Committee.

While Bankman-Fried is set to testify virtually before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, he has refused to commit to appearing before the Senate.

Lawmakers are looking to get Bankman-Fried to testify at hearings about the collapse of FTX.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden establishes government task force to combat antisemitism

President Biden will establish a task force to coordinate government efforts to address antisemitism and other forms of religious bigotry, the White House said Monday, in the wake of a rise in antisemitic rhetoric from high-profile public figures.

Biden is creating an interagency group led by the staff at the Domestic Policy Council and the National Security Council, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. The group’s first order of business will be to formulate a national strategy to counter antisemitism.

“This strategy will raise understanding about antisemitism and the threat it poses to the Jewish community and all Americans, address antisemitic harassment and abuse both online and offline, seek to prevent antisemitic attacks and incidents, and encourage whole-of-society efforts to counter antisemitism and build a more inclusive nation,” Jean-Pierre said.

The group will meet with advocates, community leaders and members of Congress, the press secretary said.

“As President Biden has made clear: antisemitism has no place in America. All Americans should forcefully reject antisemitism — including Holocaust denial — wherever it exists,” Jean-Pierre said.

The announcement comes roughly one week after more than 100 lawmakers sent a letter asking Biden for a national strategy to combat antisemitism and a “whole-of-government” approach to threats and violence against Jewish communities. 

Strategic coordination would help agencies “share best practices, data, and intelligence; identify gaps in efforts; streamline overlapping activities and roles; and execute a unified national strategy,” the lawmakers said.  

There has been renewed concern about a rising antisemitic sentiment in the U.S. in recent weeks.

Former President Trump fueled the issue when he hosted the antisemitic rapper Ye and Nick Fuentes, an avowed white nationalist and Holocaust denier, for dinner at his residence last month. Trump has in recent weeks also suggested Jews who do not support Israel enough, or his political views, are disloyal, a common antisemitic trope.

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, then went on the right-wing radio show of Alex Jones and espoused antisemitic rhetoric attacking Jewish people and expressing appreciation for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff last week hosted a roundtable at the White House with community leaders to discuss the rise in antisemitism and how to combat it.

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Lawmakers race toward Christmas deal on spending

Congressional negotiators are racing to strike a bipartisan deal on government funding for fiscal year 2023 this week, but they have a long way to go before they can put a bow on an omnibus before Christmas.

Lawmakers have until midnight on Friday to pass legislation to keep the government running or risk a shutdown. 

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) said from the chamber floor on Monday that Congress is headed for a short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), this week, giving negotiators a likely extra week to try to hash out a larger compromise on billions in spending.

“Members should be prepared to take quick action on a CR, a one-week CR, so we can give appropriators more time to finish a full funding bill before the holidays,” Schumer said on Monday afternoon. 

Democratic negotiators had been expected to release new funding proposals as early as Monday after bipartisan spending talks appeared to stall last week. 

They said the bills were designed to attract bipartisan support in lieu of a larger spending deal, but the plans met immediate skepticism in the GOP who said the bills had not been pre-approved by Republicans.

“It might come out of the House, but it’s going nowhere in the Senate,” Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters last week, while writing off such bills as “absolutely” a waste of time.

But those plans were scrapped over the weekend after an aide said negotiators made progress in discussions.

A Senate Democratic aide told The Hill on early Monday that Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) felt that “sufficient progress in negotiations took place over the weekend to delay the introduction of the omnibus appropriations bill for the time being.”

“Bipartisan and bicameral negotiations continue,” the aide added.

Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), an appropriator, said last week that one of the biggest hold-ups preventing an agreement is a roughly $25 billion gap between what Democrats and Republicans want allocated for discretionary spending. 

Another issue Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) raised on Thursday is a conflict over whether veterans funding should be classified as nondefense discretionary spending.

“The more we do for our veterans, which we should do, they want to take it out of other needs that we have for our judiciary, for our housing, for education, for food, for transportation, for energy,” Pelosi said during a press conference. 

“So, if we’re increasing veterans at the expense of our domestic agenda, then you see how challenging that is,” Pelosi told reporters, while pushing for certain veterans funding to be considered “in their own category.”

The partisan clashes come as Democrats are fighting to seize what could be the party’s last opportunity to help shape government funding while it still holds narrow control of Congress before January.

Democrats have been unified in pressing for an omnibus by the end of the month, as the House prepares to welcome a newly GOP-led majority at the start of next month. But Republicans in both chambers have been divided over whether Congress should wait until next year to enact new government funding levels to allow the party more sway in talks.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said last week that Congress should pass a CR that runs “until early next year” – a move he said would allow the newly elected Congress to “enact the priorities that the voters elected them to enact.”

Other Republicans have called for an omnibus to ensure adequate funding for defense and national security. 

At the same time, Republicans who have expressed support for an omnibus this month are also pushing hard for Democrats to come down their demands for domestic spending.

“Both sides know what it would take for the Senate to pass a full year government funding bill into law,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor on Monday. 

“[The] funding agreement would need to fully fund our national defense at the level written into the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) without lavishing extra funding beyond what President Biden even requested on the Democrats partisan domestic priorities,” McConnell said. 

The House recently passed the $847 billion defense authorization bill. 

Democrats have hit at Republicans for pushing to plus up defense, while insisting that domestic spending the party passed without GOP support in reconciliation bills over the past two years be factored into talks.

In recent days, the drama has helped fuel a high-stakes spending tug of war on Capitol Hill that has Democrats threatening an option none are thrilled about on Capitol Hill to play hardball: a full-year CR.

“Our preference is an omnibus. That’s what the country needs,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who also serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told The Hill last week. 

But if lawmakers fail to strike a larger funding deal before the next Congress begins, Van Hollen said Democrats would push for a CR “that goes through the remainder of the fiscal year.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Greene creates new headache for McCarthy over Jan. 6

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) is being dragged into a new row set off by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) as Democrats seek to tie the would-be GOP Speaker to the firebrand lawmaker’s remarks that Jan. 6 rioters would have been armed if she had been their organizer.

Greene has emerged as a key conservative ally to McCarthy as he seeks to win a floor vote to become the Speaker of the House when Republicans take over the majority in January. 

That’s linked McCarthy, who in the fall gave Greene a prominent seat at a Pittsburgh event to lay out the policy goals of a new GOP majority, much more closely to one of the most conservative and controversial House allies of former President Trump. 

Democrats on Monday wasted no time in tying McCarthy close to Greene after a midterm election that, while delivering a House majority to the GOP, saw the party as a whole underperform as various pro-Trump candidates faltered.

“Marjorie Taylor Greene just said if she organized January 6 ‘it would have been armed.’ This is who Kevin McCarthy wants to give power to if he becomes speaker of the House,” the Democratic National Committee wrote on Twitter.

“I simply think that Kevin McCarthy and the Republican conference need to decide which side of the insurrection they’re on,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the House Jan. 6 select committee, told The Hill. “The side of the officers and the Constitution, or the side of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump?”

Greene’s remarks came during a gala on Saturday for the New York Young Republicans Club, where she hit back at claims that she and former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon planned the Jan. 6, 2021, event. 

“Then Jan. 6 happens and next thing you know I organized the whole thing, along with Steve Bannon here. And I want to tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, it would’ve been armed,” Greene said.

“See that’s the whole joke, isn’t it? They say that whole thing was planned and I’m like, are you kidding me? A bunch of conservatives, Second Amendment supporters, went in the Capitol without guns, and they think that we organized that? I don’t think so,” she added.

The congresswoman tried to soften her remarks on Monday, arguing that they were “sarcasm.”

“The White House needs to learn how sarcasm works,” Greene said in response to criticism from the White House and others. “My comments were making fun of Joe Biden and the Democrats, who have continuously made me a political target since January 6.”

The controversy comes just weeks before McCarthy will go to the floor to try to pull together a majority vote of those lawmakers present to elect him Speaker.

McCarthy has struggled to shore up support among Republicans amid opposition from some conservatives. 

Republicans will likely hold a narrow 222-212 majority at the start of the next Congress. Five Republicans have said or strongly signaled that they will not vote for McCarthy in January, leaving him little room for more defections. 

Greene has been a consistent source of support for McCarthy, repeatedly saying in public that Republicans would be making a mistake if they do not support him in the floor vote. 

The Georgia Republican came out in favor of McCarthy even before he won the GOP nomination for the post last month, arguing that any challenge to the California Republican would be a “bad strategy,” citing the razor-thin margin in the House. 

That now complicates any effort by McCarthy to criticize or rein in Greene, while allowing Democrats to go on offense in linking the two together. It’s an approach they clearly think will help their party in the elections to come. 

“Threatening violence against Congress and our democracy itself is unacceptable. After we removed Greene from her committees for violent threats against our colleagues, Kevin McCarthy promised to reward and empower her,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) wrote on Twitter Saturday.

The House voted to kick Greene off committees in February 2021 as a rebuke for the new congresswoman’s endorsement of conspiracy theories and violence against Democratic politicians. McCarthy has pledged to return those assignments to Greene.

The congresswoman told The New York Times Magazine for a profile published in October that in order for McCarthy to “please the base,” he would have to give her “a lot of power and a lot of leeway,” warning that if he does not, “they’re going to be very unhappy about it.”

“His support for MTG signals that the GOP welcomes violence,” Beyer added on Twitter.

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates criticized Greene’s comments as “a slap in the face to the Capitol Police, the DC Metropolitan Police, the National Guard, and the families who lost loved ones as a result of the attack on the Capitol.”

“It goes against our fundamental values as a country for a Member of Congress to wish that the carnage of January 6th had been even worse, and to boast that she would have succeeded in an armed insurrection against the United States government,” he said on Monday morning.

In a separate tweet, Bates tied the remarks to McCarthy, juxtaposing Greene’s comments with McCarthy’s pledge to award the congresswoman her committee assignments. 

“We’ve known for a long time that Marjorie Taylor Greene is the real power behind the new majority,” Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) told The Hill.

“They are trying to stay quiet until the leadership vote,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 select committee and a frequent critic of McCarthy, said of McCarthy and House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (N.Y.).

Source: TEST FEED1

Senators say Bankman-Fried is refusing subpoena to testify about FTX collapse

Lawyers for FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried have refused to accept a subpoena for the disgraced cryptocurrency magnate to appear before the Senate Banking Committee, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the panel said Monday.

In a Monday statement, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and ranking Republican Sen. Pat Toomey (Pa.) blasted Bankman-Fried for “an unprecedented abdication of accountability” after rejecting several requests to testify at hearings about the collapse of FTX.

“Virtually every CEO, financial regulator, and administration official for Republicans and Democrats has agreed to testify in front of both the Senate and House when called upon – that is how congressional oversight works,” Brown and Toomey said.

“Given that Bankman-Fried’s counsel has stated they are unwilling to accept service of a subpoena, we will continue to work to have him appear before the Committee. He owes the American people an explanation,” they continued.

Bankman-Fried, who lives in the Bahamas, is being represented by Mark S. Cohen of law firm Cohen & Gresser, a prominent white collar criminal defense attorney. The Hill has reached out to Cohen for comment.

While Bankman-Fried is set to testify virtually before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, he has refused to commit to appearing before the Senate Banking panel. The Banking Committee is set to hold its own hearing on the FTX collapse Thursday, but Bankman-Fried suggested during a Monday livestream on Twitter that he was too busy to appear.

Brown and Toomey said Monday they gave Bankman-Fried a chance to testify on Dec. 20 instead, but that offer was also refused. 

“We have offered Sam Bankman-Fried two different dates for providing testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and are willing to accommodate virtual testimony. He has declined in an unprecedented abdication of accountability,” the senators said.

Lawmakers have been eager to press Bankman-Fried on his role in the collapse of FTX, particularly after he’s admitted to several missteps and potentially illegal conduct that laid the groundwork for his company’s demise.

Bankman-Fried said he and FTX leaders lacked basic information about the amount of money it owed to customers and how much hard cash it had to back up its obligations. He also said FTX sent money held by customers on its exchange to fund Alameda’s investments — many of which failed — even though FTX promised users it would not use customer money for such purposes.

It is unclear what consequences Bankman-Fried or his counsel could face for rejecting service— or, the actual physical presentation—of the subpoena. But those who flout subpoenas given to them from Congress can face serious legal repercussions.

Former Trump White House and campaign strategist Stephen Bannon was sentenced to four months in federal prison in October after defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

Source: TEST FEED1

Manchin says he has no intention of leaving Democratic Party

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Monday that he has no intention of leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent after fellow centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) announced last week that she would no longer identify as a Democrat.  

Manchin, however, declined to rule out changing his party affiliation at some point in the future.

“I’ll look at all of these things, I’ve always looked all these things but I have no intention of doing anything right now,” he told reporters Monday.  

“Whether I do something later, I can’t tell you what the future’s going to bring. I can only tell you where I am and my mindset” now, he said.  

Manchin, who is up for re-election in 2024, added “I want to work with Kyrsten everyday, the same as I have before.”  

He later said “I tremendously respect her decision and wish her the best.”  

Manchin teamed up with Sinema to defeat an effort by Democratic colleagues to weaken the Senate’s filibuster rule.

He has not yet made a decision about running for fourth term in a state that former President Trump won with 68.6 percent of the vote.  

Manchin flirted with leaving the Democratic Party and identifying as an independent during the heated intraparty debate over President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda last year.  

He threatened in October of last year to switch his affiliation to independent if fellow Senate Democrats weren’t happy with his policy positions. 

“I said, me being a moderate centrist Democrat, if that causes you a problem, let me know and I’d switch to be an independent. But I’d still be caucusing with Democrats,” he said at the time, characterizing his tense discussions with Democratic colleagues during negotiations over Biden’s climate change and tax reform agenda.  

Source: TEST FEED1