Categories Uncategorized

DHS expands Trump-era policy to Venezuelans while opening new pathway to US

The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday announced it would seek to block irregular migration from Venezuela by expanding a Trump-era policy and kicking off a new program for Venezuelans fleeing the country.

The new program is modeled off of the Uniting for Ukraine program that allowed people in the U.S. to privately sponsor Ukrainians, in this case allowing up to 24,000 Venezuelans to secure a work authorization for up to two years.

But along with the new program, the U.S. said it will now expel Venezuelans who cross the border from Mexico, extending the Title 42 program that allows U.S. officials to quickly expel foreign nationals crossing the border.

Until the announcement, Venezuelans were not subject to Title 42 expulsions because neither their home country nor any other third country was willing to accept their return.

In a parallel announcement, Mexican officials did not specify if they would implement a limit on Venezuelan Title 42 expulsions, instead touting the agreement, which will allow Venezuelans currently in Mexico to apply for sponsorship to enter the United States.

“The migrant persons that are in Mexican territory will have to prove they entered Mexico before [Wednesday] to be able to request their orderly access to the United States. Those persons who enter Mexico after [Wednesday] will not be able to present their application from our national territory,” read a press release by the Mexican Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The announcement comes ahead of a meeting Thursday between Mexico’s top diplomatic, security and military Cabinet officials and Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to discuss a broad shared agenda with deep political implications in both countries.

The move comes as migration from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua has accounted for an increasingly large share of migration at the border — roughly a third of those who crossed the border in August came from the trio of countries.

The Department of Homeland Security made a point of saying that “failing communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are driving a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere” when it announced the numbers shortly after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) made headlines after he flew a group of mainly Venezuelan migrants from the Texas border to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

But Cubans and Nicaraguans are not eligible for the new program.

According to administration officials, a broad majority of program applicants will enter the country by air, and any Venezuelans who attempt to enter the country between ports of entry will be immediately barred from the program.

“These actions make clear that there is a lawful and orderly way for Venezuelans to enter the United States, and lawful entry is the only way,” Mayorkas said in a release. 

“Those who attempt to cross the southern border of the United States illegally will be returned to Mexico and will be ineligible for this process in the future. Those who follow the lawful process will have the opportunity to travel safely to the United States and become eligible to work here.”

The bilateral migration agreement between the United States and Mexico will also include an expansion of the H2-B visa program.

While the Uniting for Ukraine program on which the Venezuelan program is modeled has helped nearly 100,000 Ukrainians come to the U.S., some advocates have been concerned over the private sponsorship model, noting that many are not otherwise connected with anyone in the U.S. who could serve as their sponsor. That sponsor has to provide financial support.

To be eligible for the program, Venezuelans cannot have been removed from the U.S. in the last five years or “irregularly entered Mexico or Panama.” Many Venezuelans have crossed into Central America through the Darién Gap, the roadless jungle territory connecting Panama and Colombia, Venezuela’s western neighbor. They also must complete security vetting.

Venezuelans who are already in Mexico will only be allowed to apply if they entered that country by Wednesday.

According to the UN, more than six million people – more than a quarter of the country’s residents – have fled Venezuela’s ongoing economic and political crisis.

About five million of those Venezuelans have settled in Latin American countries, mainly in Colombia, but many of those refugees have continued to move amid economic uncertainty in the region. 

As part of the bilateral migration agreement between the United States and Mexico, the U.S. will expand of the H2-B seasonal worker visa program. 

“In response to a request by Mexico, and a shared vision on labor mobility, the United States has announced it will grant 65,000 additional H2-B visas for non-agricultural temporary workers, 20,000 of which will be destined to people from Central America and Haiti,” read the Mexican government’s announcement.

While the expansion of the visa program could provide a pressure valve for countries that currently participate in the Title 42 program in some way, the expansion of the Trump-era program is certain to rankle pro-immigrant advocates.

Under Title 42, U.S. border officials can quickly expel foreign nationals who present at the border, without screening for asylum requests, under the guise of pandemic protections.

When it was first implemented by Trump administration officials, the policy was widely perceived as a naked attempt to decimate the asylum system using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse.

The Biden administration in April announced its intention to lift Title 42, but a federal judge blocked that order, forcing officials to continue implementing it while fighting in court to lift the policy permanently.

Administration officials said the returns of Venezuelans to Mexico will be executed under Title 42, a move that’s only possible with the receiving country’s consent.

“Once Title 42 is no longer in place, then we will work with Mexico to ensure returns are done pursuant to other processes,” said an administration official.

And while Mexico did not set numerical limits on how many Venezuelans it will accept under Title 42, it will “permit in a temporary manner for some people of Venezuelan nationality to enter national territory through the northern border.”

In practical terms, the deal with Mexico will be the biggest expansion of the program since its implementation, when Mexico was pushed to admit nationals of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador expelled from the United States.

Still, it’s unlikely that the expansion of a Trump-era border management program will deter attacks against the Biden administration from the right.

In a reaction released before DHS had formally unveiled the policy, immigration restrictionist group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) panned the new program for being excessively permissive.

“Once again, President Biden is looking to exploit Americans’ sympathies and permanently resettle hundreds of thousands in the United States by ignoring our immigration laws through the abuse of parole authority. Afghans, Ukrainians, now Venezuelans. Who’s next?” said RJ Hauman head of government relations and communications at FAIR.

Updated: 8:01 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Jan. 6 panel’s likely final hearing to focus on Trump’s ‘state of mind’

The House committee investigating last year’s attack on the Capitol will assemble Thursday for what could be its final public hearing ahead of the midterms, promising to delve into former President Trump’s state of mind in a presentation designed to tie up a host of loose ends before the panel dissolves at the end of the year.

Through eight hearings in June and July, the committee had aired damning evidence revealing the extent to which Trump and members of his inner circle had sought to leverage the powers of the presidency to keep him in office despite his election defeat — a campaign that crescendoed in the violent rampage at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

But 16 months into the probe, investigators face the daunting task of crunching evidence gleaned from tens of thousands of documents and more than 1,000 witness interviews, packaging it into a concise closing argument and delivering it in the form of a compelling narrative capable of convincing voters that Trump and his supporters pose an ongoing threat to America’s democratic institutions.

For more than two hours on Thursday, they will begin that process. 

“We’re going to bring a particular focus on the former president’s state of mind and his involvement in these events as they unfolded,” a committee aide told reporters Wednesday. 

“So what you’re going to see is a synthesis of some evidence we’ve already presented with that new, never-before-seen information to illustrate Donald Trump’s centrality from the time prior to the election,” the aide said.

Such information could be key for Trump’s legal culpability, as many potential charges relating to the insurrection rely on demonstrating intent. As a separate matter, the committee still has to decide whether it will make criminal referrals based on its findings to the Justice Department, which is conducting its own wide-ranging investigation. 

“We have not reached a conclusion on that at this point,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a member of the committee, told CNN on Friday. 

In a departure from prior hearings where one or two members were primarily responsible for walking through evidence and witness questions, in Thursday’s hearing, each participant on the nine-member panel will have a role. The panel is also not planning to have any live witness testimony for the hearing.

“In June and July, we zeroed in for the most part on a particular topic as we laid out a multistep plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election and block transfer of power,” the aide said.

“Tomorrow what we’re going to be doing is taking a step back.” 

The hearing comes after the panel rescheduled what was originally slated to be a late September event due to Hurricane Ian, delaying by two weeks their presentation and pushing it closer to the midterm elections. 

The panel has pledged to offer up details on the evidence they collected throughout the summer, with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) saying the committee was struggling with how to present an “avalanche” of new information.

Among the details the committee is expected to share Thursday are new information gleaned from documents turned over by the Secret Service as well as clips from a documentary crew that followed Trump confidant Roger Stone.

The Secret Service turned over more than a million digital communications to the committee, far exceeding the information the panel requested.

Emails obtained by The Washington Post that were given to the committee by the Secret Service show that the agency was concerned about the armed supporters who were resistant to going through security to enter the Ellipse for Trump’s speech, a detail first revealed during the committee’s hearing with witness Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide.

The emails also reportedly show the extent the White House was warned of the deteriorating situation at the Capitol, including resistance to Trump’s desired plan to make the journey to Capitol Hill alongside his supporters.

Other emails discuss Trump’s anger at being blocked from making the trip, though it is not clear whether the panel will be able to corroborate Hutchinson’s account – recounted to her in the presence of Trump’s lead security officer that day – that he lunged at his security detail on a drive from the Ellipse to the White House.

Additional evidence collected over the summer includes footage obtained following an international journey by investigative staff, who traveled to Denmark in August to meet with a documentary film crew that spent three years following Stone.

The crew was with Stone in Washington on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, capturing some of his phone conversations as he stayed at the Willard Hotel, which the Trump team used as its “war room” ahead of Congress’s vote to certify the election results.

A March report from The Washington Post details how Stone was arranging pardons, and expressed resentment toward “lily-livered, weak-kneed” lawyers in the special counsel’s office for blocking some of them, including preemptive pardons.

Additional footage from the documentary obtained by CNN shows Stone condoning violence and stressing the need to claim victory in the election. 

“F— the voting, let’s get right to the violence,” he says in a clip shot the day before the election.

Days earlier, in another clip, Stone had laid out his strategy. “I really do suspect it’ll still be up in the air. When that happens, the key thing to do is to claim victory,” he said. “Possession is nine-tenths of the law. ‘No, we won.’”

That strategy was not limited to the fringes of the GOP, but adopted by Republicans up and down the ranks, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who went on Fox News two days after the election to claim that “Trump won this election.”

According to CNN, the committee secured an agreement with the filmmakers, Christoffer Guldbrandsen and Frederik Marbell, to show some eight minutes of footage at the hearing.

For his part Stone has disputed “the accuracy and the authenticity of these videos and believe they have been manipulated and selectively edited.” He also said the clips “do not prove I had anything to do with the events of Jan. 6.” 

“That being said,” he added, “it clearly shows I advocated for lawful congressional and judicial options.”

The Stone footage could bring the panel one step closer to addressing loose ends. The Trump ally used Oath Keepers as security guards, suggesting at least a tangential connection between the former president and the far-right militia group.

“Different members have been focused on different loose ends that might need to be wrapped up and out so, again, speaking just for myself, I would hope that the hearing would allow us to make some overall synthetic judgments about what took place and why and the culpability of different key actors,” Raskin told reporters in September.

“And I hope that we would be able to speak to the question of the ongoing threats that are still out there. … I think that that is something that we need to address before it’s all over.”

The panel is not, however, expected to release any information from its sit-down interview with Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Lofgren said this week.

Expectations are high for the panel that went on hiatus during August recess after generating significant momentum with their slate of eight hearings earlier this year.

“We need to meet or exceed hearings that we’ve had in the past. … It won’t be a repeat of any earlier hearings, and we’re trying to be as strategic as we can in not repeating ourselves,” Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told reporters in September.

“Whatever we do will be new information. Some of it we continue to collect on almost a daily basis,” he said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Jury orders Alex Jones to pay nearly $1B to families of Sandy Hook victims

A Connecticut jury on Wednesday ordered Infowars host Alex Jones to pay nearly $1 billion in damages to the family of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.

The jury’s decision means Jones must pay $965 million in compensatory and punitive damages to 15 plaintiffs, who are the relatives of eight victims of the Sandy Hook, Conn., elementary school shooting.

The award is far higher than the $550 million that one of the plaintiff’s attorneys had asked for.

Relatives sued Jones after the Infowars host claimed the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax staged by the U.S. government in order to enact stricter gun control measures.
Jones has since apologized for spreading the conspiracy theory and acknowledged he spread a lie.

The jury was not deciding whether Jones was guilty, as the judge had already ruled that Jones is liable for defamation, infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy.

Jurors were to decide how much money he owed each of the victims.

In court, jurors heard how Jones and his company Free Speech Systems made millions of dollars selling nutritional supplements, survival gear and other items.

Source: TEST FEED1

Here's what the White House is expecting tomorrow's Social Security COLA increase to be

The White House predicted that Americans on Social Security will see a $140 per month increase ahead of Thursday, when the Social Security Administration is expected to announce a cost of living adjustment (COLA).

“Tomorrow, seniors and other Americans on Social Security are will learn precisely how much their monthly checks will increase – but experts forecast it will be $140 per month, on average, starting in January. For the first time in over a decade, seniors’ Medicare premiums will decrease even as their Social Security checks increase,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

The COLA is expected to change by at least 8 percent, which would be the largest increase in four decades. The annual adjustment is determined by inflation, which fell to 9.1 percent and 8.6 percent in July and August, respectively.

The Labor Department is set to release data on consumer prices from September on Thursday.

Jean-Pierre said a COLA increase would allow Americans on Social Security to get ahead of inflation.

“This means that seniors will have a chance to get ahead of inflation, due to the rare combination of rising benefits and falling premiums.  We will put more money in their pockets and provide them with a little extra breathing room,” she said.

She also took a stab at Republicans, mentioning Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) tax plan that includes sunset provisions to such programs. Scott’s plan is not widely endorsed by other Republicans.

“MAGA Republicans in Congress continue to threaten Social Security and Medicare – proposing to put them on the chopping block every five years, threatening benefits, and to change eligibility,” Jean-Pierre said.

“If Republicans in Congress have their way, seniors will pay more for prescription drugs and their Social Security benefits will never be secure. The President has a different approach – one that continues the progress we’ve made and saves seniors money,” she added.

Persistently high inflation has plagued Democrats, including President Biden’s approval rating, and economists are expecting the consumer price index to have increased by 0.2 percent in September.

Source: TEST FEED1

Judge rules Trump must sit for deposition in rape accuser's lawsuit next week

A federal judge has denied former President Trump’s motion to pause the proceedings of a defamation suit against him from a woman who has accused him of rape while appeals over the case play out, setting him up for a deposition next week. 

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled on Wednesday that Trump’s argument did not meet the legal threshold required for a stay to be issued. Trump has been pushing for the United States to be substituted in E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit against him because the comments Trump made denying her claim and criticizing her happened while he was president. 

Carroll has accused Trump of raping her at a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Trump has countered by accusing Carroll of lying and making remarks criticizing her appearance. 

Trump requested that proceedings in the defamation case that Carroll filed in response be paused while the D.C. Court of Appeals weighs whether Trump was acting in his official capacity as president when he criticized Carroll, but Kaplan ruled that Trump has not demonstrated a likelihood to succeed on the merits of his argument. 

Kaplan wrote in his ruling that the court could rule either way on the question, but Trump did not give a reason for him to conclude that the ruling will be in his favor. 

He also found that Trump failed to show a meaningful threat of irreparable injury if a stay is not put in place. 

Trump had argued that he should have immunity from the suit under the Westfall Act, which protects government employees from civil lawsuits if they are acting in their capacity as government officials. But the question as to whether Trump was acting in his capacity as president is unresolved. 

Kaplan also found that a stay would cause irreparable injury to Carroll. He said Trump appears to be attempting to delay the case as much as possible, and 20 months have already passed from when Kaplan initially denied Trump’s motion to substitute the United States for him in the lawsuit. 

“The defendant should not be permitted to run out the clock on the plaintiff’s attempt to gain a remedy for what allegedly was a serious wrong,” Kaplan said. 

Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, said in a statement that they are pleased with the ruling against Trump’s requested stay. Roberta Kaplan said they also look forward to filing a lawsuit against Trump under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, a law that Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed in May to create a one-year window for those who experienced sexual assault to file civil lawsuits against abusers regardless of when the abuse happened.

That window will open in late November.

Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump, said in a statement that Carroll’s case is baseless. 

“We look forward to establishing on the record that this case is, and always has been, entirely without merit,” she said. 

Trump’s deposition is now set for next Wednesday.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden says Democrats will keep Georgia Senate seat

President Biden said Wednesday that he thinks Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock (Ga.) will hold onto his seat, while avoiding giving his reaction to the allegations against GOP candidate Herschel Walker that have roiled the race.

“Negative. And yes,” Biden told reporters when asked about Walker and if Democrats can hold the seat.

The president’s remarks were his first time weighing in on the Georgia race since the claims against Walker become public. The Daily Beast reported last week that Walker conceived a child with a woman he was dating in 2009 and encouraged her to get an abortion. 

The outlet then reported that the same woman is also the mother of one of Walker’s children, and The New York Times has since reported that Walker pressed for a second abortion. The allegations follow previous claims of domestic abuse against the former football star.

Walker is a self-described pro-life candidate and has denied the allegations.

Georgia is a pivotal state for Democrats in November, and in 2020, Warnock won in a runoff to solidify Democrats’ majority in the Senate. Biden won the Peach State by nearly 12,000 votes, flipping a state that former President Trump won in 2016 by more than 100,000 votes.

Warnock this week narrowly pulled ahead of Walker, according to an Emerson College Polling-The Hill survey. The Democrat garnered 48 percent, compared to Walker’s 46 percent, which is a 4 point improvement for Warnock since August when he was trailing Walker 44 to 46 percent.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he will stick with Walker and not pull support for the candidate, despite the allegations. McConnell endorsed Walker in the GOP primary for Georgia Senate, and the candidate has been financially supported by the Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican PAC tied to McConnell.

Source: TEST FEED1

McConnell says he has votes to serve as majority leader, despite Trump attacks 

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) says he has the votes to serve as majority leader if Republicans capture control of the Senate, despite weathering nearly two years of personal attacks from former President Trump.  

Trump has repeatedly called on Senate Republicans to replace McConnell as leader but he hasn’t gotten any traction in the Senate GOP conference.  

“I have the votes,” McConnell told CNN in an interview, slamming the door on any speculation that an influx of Trump-aligned freshman senators could shake up the Senate GOP leadership structure.  

Republican senators say that no one in their conference has made a move to explore support for a possible challenge to McConnell.  

The top members of McConnell’s leadership team — Senate Republican Whip John Thune (R-S.D.), GOP Conference Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) — have stayed unswervingly loyal to McConnell, knowing that he retains a firm grip on power.  

McConnell has augmented his influence both among Senate GOP colleagues and candidates running in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Colorado through tens of millions of dollars in spending by an affiliated super PAC, Senate Leadership Fund.  

The Senate Leadership Fund has spent $52 million on television ads in the past two weeks, according to AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm.  

Trump’s PAC, Save America, has contributed only about $8.4 million to Republican candidates and committees, according to The Washington Post. A huge chunk of its budget has been consumed by legal fees.  

Still, that hasn’t stopped Trump for criticizing McConnell on Monday for not steering more money into the Arizona Senate race, where Trump-allied candidate Blake Masters trails incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) in the polls.  

Trump specifically criticized the Senate Leadership Fund for supporting moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) in Alaska over Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka, who is waging a challenge from the right.  

Trump most recently called for McConnell to be ousted from his job in August.  

“Mitch McConnell is not an Opposition Leader, he is a pawn for the Democrats to get whatever they want,” Trump said in a statement. “He is afraid of them, and will not do what has to be done. A new Republican Leader in the Senate should be picked immediately!” 

McConnell has not spoken to Trump since mid-December 2020 and denounced him on the Senate floor in February of last year for instigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Michael Cohen says he fears for his safety if Trump becomes president again

Michael Cohen says he fears for his safety if Donald Trump ever becomes president again.

“Yeah, I am,” Trump’s former personal lawyer says when asked if he’s worried about his wellbeing should the 45^th commander-in-chief return to the Oval Office. “Actually I’m worried for your safety, too,” he said, “and everybody else in America.”

“My fear is that you’re going to see like what you see in Russia right now,” Cohen added in an interview with ITK this week. “All of these individuals flying out of windows or mysterious deaths of suicide. Donald has a very long list of — we’ll call it an enemies list — and I’m certain that I am definitively on it.”

The onetime Trump attorney has become one of his most vocal critics, calling the ex-president a “con man” and a “predator.” But Cohen says even that hasn’t stopped GOP groups from hitting him up for cash in fundraising emails.

“I’ve never been a Republican. In [1987 and 1988] I worked for Rep. Joe Moakley [D-Mass.], that’s how far back I go to the Democratic Party. But what’s interesting is every single day, I must get at least 15 to 20 [emails] — and that’s on a light day — from Donald.”

“’Hey, friend. I need you,’” Cohen said, imitating a fundraising pitch from his former boss. “’One thousand times we’re going to increase your donation,’” Cohen continued. “I’d be curious to know if anybody’s increasing people’s donations or matching 1000 percent.”

That’s part of the reason that Cohen, who served as Trump’s self-described “fixer” for more than a decade until 2018 before calling him a “racist” and a “cheat” in a statement before the House Oversight Committee a year later, says that despite his public flirtations with another White House bid, Trump won’t pull the trigger on a 2024 campaign.

“This is the greatest grift for Donald in the history of his entire work experience,” Cohen said.

Trump “barely works, doesn’t do anything. People are putting out these letters for him all day long. And he’s raking in $150 million to $200 million. That all comes to an end if he runs.” 

‘Indictments coming down against Donald’

Cohen — who pleaded guilty in 2018 to nine federal crimes including tax fraud, lying to Congress and paying off two women who threatened to go public with their alleged past affairs with Trump just before the 2016 presidential election — details his fears of another Trump presidency in his new book, “Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the U.S. Department of Justice Against His Critics,” released Tuesday.

While Trump has faced countless lawsuits over the years, Cohen maintains that New York Attorney General Letitia James’s (D) fraud investigation into the Trump Organization will lead to indictments.

Under the Biden administration and with Attorney General Merrick Garland, whom Cohen described as “so methodical that he’s almost like molasses through a strainer,” there “will be indictments coming down against Donald, his company, including possibly his children, as well as others that are in his orbit,” the ex-attorney predicted.

“Do I think the Mar-a-Lago raid will be the first of those indictments? I do not,” he added, referring to the FBI’s August search of Trump Florida residence, which recovered boxes of White House records, including many that were classified.

“I believe that the indictments should be — because it’s the low hanging fruit — for tax evasion. I call that my ‘Al Capone theory’: They couldn’t get him on murder, racketeering, extortion. So instead they got him on tax evasion. The same thing that they can get Donald on, not to mention Tish James’s case will financially destroy him.”

‘Mea Culpa’ with Kathy Griffin

Cohen’s also ready to engage in a bit of political theater himself, heading to Los Angeles to tape his podcast from Audio Up, “Mea Culpa,” with the help of an unlikely Hollywood ally: Kathy Griffin.

The comedian, who famously made headlines and stirred controversy in 2017 by posing with a prop meant to look like Trump’s decapitated head, will be on-hand for the Nov. 1 taping at Hollywood’s El Rey Theatre. The improbable duo will be joined by former deputy assistant attorney general Harry Litman and former Oath Keeper spokesperson Jason Van Tatenhove.

Cohen said he and Griffin met through fellow comedian and outspoken Trump critic Rosie O’Donnell. The former “View” co-host visited with him for almost six hours when he was incarcerated in Otisville, N.Y., Cohen said, and connected him with Griffin. Cohen was released early from prison in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Well, hell has frozen over. I LOVE Michael Cohen,” Griffin said in a statement about the three-hour event, with tickets going on sale this week.

Cohen said he still considers himself to be a Democrat, and “fundamentally disagrees” with GOP Trump allies including Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.). But he’s not ruling out throwing his support behind a candidate on the other side of the aisle.

“If there was a Republican that came out that I thought could unify this country, which is what we need, kill this divisiveness that is stymieing progress in America, 100 percent I would be in favor of that individual,” he said.

The father of two expressed regret for ever accepting a job offer from Trump to be his personal lawyer. “I am not the person that the media has made me out to be,” he said.

“I wish [“Family Guy’s”] Stewie Griffin would come make me a time machine and then I’d end up going back in time and when [Trump] asked me if I would come work for him, I would have just said, ‘I’ll tell you what, why don’t you just pay me the bill that you owe, and we can just call this friendship quits.’ It would’ve saved me a lot of hurt and it would’ve saved my family a lot of unhappiness.”

Drawing on a quote from former President Reagan’s Labor secretary, Raymond Donovan, who resigned after being charged with grand larceny and was later acquitted by a jury, Cohen asked, “What does a person need to do to get their reputation back?”

“I can tell you from firsthand experience, it’s not easy,” he said. “You just have to fight every day for the truth.”

Source: TEST FEED1

The Hill's Morning Report — Biden: Putin `miscalculated’ in Ukraine; US has not

For the United States and global allies, backing Ukraine “for as long as it takes” continues to present tradeoffs.

Vows to supply more weapons systems and air defenses come with practical considerations, assessments of risk and reevaluations of how Russia’s war with its neighbor might eventually end.

NATO nations have committed to send Ukraine billions of dollars in sophisticated Western weapons — including about $17 billion from the United States alone. But old, surplus Russian-style weapons are in vogue because Ukrainian troops know how to use them without extra training. To find those weapons, the United States and other allies are scouring the globe, looking for suppliers attracted to the cause or to their newfound leverage as weapons dealers with the U.S. and the West. Cyprus may be one example, The New York Times reports. Quiet U.S. offers to Cyprus to gather up its Russian wares and replace the old with the new worry Turkey. For every action, there is a reaction.

President Biden, during a CNN interview broadcast on Tuesday, said Russian President Vladimir Putin “totally miscalculated” when invading Ukraine and could opt to end the brutal war by pulling Russia’s military out, explaining to the Russian people that goals were accomplished and still “hold his position in Russia.” 

Pull Quote here in Bold “I don’t know what’s in his mind,” Biden told Jake Tapper.

The president said he had no plans to meet with Putin during the Group of 20 summit next month in Bali, but suggested lines of communication are open depending on what the Russian president might want to discuss (The Hill). With counterparts in the G-7, Biden said the West’s approach is unified: “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.” 

A Western official who met with Putin on Tuesday, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi, emphasized a major problem facing Ukraine at the moment: Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which is surrounded by Russian troops, has lost all external power needed for vital safety systems for the second time in five days. The plant’s power for nuclear safety equipment is coming from backup diesel generators (The Associated Press).

The Pentagon will soon deliver two advanced NASAM anti-aircraft systems, which Kyiv has long sought to provide medium- to long-range defense against missile attacks. In a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, Biden said the United States will “continue providing Ukraine with the support needed to defend itself, including advanced air defense systems,” the White House said.

Zelensky told Biden and other the leaders from Group of Seven nations during a virtual meeting on Tuesday that Russia this week fired more than 100 missiles and dozens of drones at Ukraine, which he said underscored that his country needs “more modern and effective” air defenses. No one is disputing his assessment. Zelensky will speak virtually today to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank about Ukraine’s financial needs. Separately in Brussels today, defense and military leaders from 50 countries are meeting to discuss bolstering security assistance to Ukraine (The New York Times).

The Hill: House Republicans to date have largely supported U.S. assistance to Ukraine, but some in the party are opposed to more without additional oversight. If the GOP captures the House majority next year, Biden’s largely unquestioned leeway when it comes to arming Ukraine will run into additional scrutiny.

Congress is out of Washington until mid-November, but lawmakers are showcasing their misgivings about a range of international policies, including with Saudi Arabia and China. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) is unhappy with Riyadh’s backing of Russian oil and its decision within OPEC to produce less petroleum, which hurts Europe and the U.S. and boosts Moscow’s coffers. Menendez this week called for a freeze on the U.S.-Saudi alliance.

The White House was quick to say the president wants to work with Congress to reevaluate Washington’s ties to the Saudis (The New York Times). Biden told CNN “there are going to be some consequences” for Saudi Arabia because of its alliance with Russia, but he declined to say what he has in mind, and said he would consult members of Congress in November (The Hill).

In the meantime, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) questioned the wisdom of trying to freeze relations with Saudi Arabia. “You will see Saudi Arabia turn more and more to Russia and China,” he said on Tuesday. “And how does that play out in terms of meeting our interests? So, it’s a lot more complicated than just saying, you know, `We don’t like Saudi Arabia, and therefore we’re cutting it off,’ and everything will be fine from there” (The Hill).

The Hill: Momentum in Congress is building behind legislation known as “NOPEC,” intended to respond to petroleum production cuts announced by OPEC.

Related Articles

▪ The New York Times: Germany delivered to Ukraine the first of four ultramodern Iris-T SLM air defense systems valued at $136 million and designed to protect population centers. Even Germany does not own one.

▪ The New York Times: Russia today announced the arrests of eight suspects in Saturday’s bombing of the bridge between Russia and Crimea, including five Russian citizens.

▪ The Hill: How latest strikes show Putin will stick with Russia’s hawks on Ukraine war.  

▪ CNN: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen slammed Moscow officials on Tuesday during a joint meeting with the Russian finance minister.  

▪ The Hill: Recession anxieties abroad, inflation fighters in U.S.

▪ The Hill: Biden says “slight” recession possible but does not anticipate one. 

LEADING THE DAY 

➤ POLITICS

There are 27 days until the midterm elections. 

“When it comes to electing the next Congress, it’s not a referendum; it’s a choice between two different ways of looking at our country. Democrats got a lot done. We have so much more to do,” Biden said Tuesday during a virtual fundraiser while describing the stakes. “We cannot afford to lose our majority in the House, and we have to increase our majority in the Senate.” 

Pennsylvania Senate candidate Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) on Tuesday spoke with NBC News’s Dasha Burns about recovering from a stroke while on the campaign trail. Fetterman, who suffered a stroke in May, said he still struggles to understand what he hears and to speak clearly.

His opponent, former TV doctor and Republican Mehmet Oz, has focused much of his campaign strategy on attacking Fetterman’s health — and his implied unfitness for office. But it hasn’t been enough to put Oz in the lead in any major polls. Fetterman has a 3.7 percentage point lead over Oz, smaller than the double-digit lead he had when Oz first won his primary, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling average. But Fetterman, who now uses closed captioning to better understand spoken communication, said he’s confident about his ability to assume office if he wins in November.

“I don’t think it’s going to have an impact,” Fetterman said. “I feel like I’m gonna get better and better — every day. And by January, I’m going [to] be, you know, much better. And Dr. Oz is still going to be a fraud.”

▪ CNBC: Biden to host fundraiser with Fetterman in Philadelphia as Senate race with Oz tightens.

▪ NPR: Key Senate races tighten with a flood of GOP ad spending.

Meanwhile, in the Peach State, voters could expect a familiar scenario in November: a Senate runoff election. As The Hill’s Max Greenwood writes, even allegations that Republican nominee Herschel Walker paid for his then-girlfriend’s abortion over a decade ago haven’t tipped polling definitively in his opponent’s favor. According to a Tuesday Emerson College poll, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) is leading with 48 percent of voters’ support, but Walker is close behind at 46 percent (The Hill).

With neither candidate breaking the 50 percent threshold, both parties must confront the possibility that the fight for Senate control could head into overtime, leaving the chamber’s majority hanging in the balance for weeks after Election Day.

▪ The Washington Post: Woman says she had to press Walker to pay for abortion he wanted.

▪ The New York Times: Groups saturate TV with negative ads about Warnock and Walker.

▪ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Top Republicans frame vote for Walker as vote against Biden.

GOP candidates across the country are getting direct financial support from former President Trump, who has finally dipped into his financial reserves, writes The Hill’s Al Weaver. Trump has spent at least $5 million on candidates in Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Arizona in recent weeks after facing pressure from his own party to contribute funds.

But some worry that the former president’s efforts may be too little too late. With only four weeks until election day, the GOP is being handily outspent in several states as Republicans wage a multifront fight to end their congressional minority.

▪ The Hill: Biden: “I believe I can beat Donald Trump again.” 

▪ The Washington Post: How Trump’s legal expenses consumed GOP donor money.

▪ Politico: Republicans are chasing key governorships. There’s one big thing missing — TV ads.

▪ Politico: Retiring Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) endorses Dems in major governor, secretary of state races.

▪ The New York Times: Dozens of candidates of color are giving House Republicans a path to diversity.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) have been on different wavelengths — if not different planets, entirely — for most of the past two years, raising questions about how they will work together if Republicans win back the House, writes The Hill’s Alexander Bolton.

CNN’s Manu Raju on Friday interviewed McConnell, who noted he has sufficient support locked up among his GOP colleagues to make history in the next Congress as the longest-serving Senate leader. “I have the votes,” he said.

After New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) declared a state of emergency over migrants being bused there from border states, saying the demand being put on the city to provide housing and other assistance is “not sustainable, ”Republican lawmakers are calling on Biden to solve the issue (USA Today).

“The mayor rightfully indicated that this is an ‘unsustainable manufactured crisis’ but failed to tell New Yorkers that it was singlehandedly manufactured by President Biden who unraveled policies that were in place when he took office that stemmed the flow of illegal immigration and brought order to the asylum process,” Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) said in a Saturday statement.

The New York Times: The origins of the GOP tactic of sending migrants to blue states.

Biden on Tuesday urged all the Los Angeles City Council members caught on tape making racist remarks to resign (The Hill).  

“The president is glad to see that one of the participants in that conversation has resigned, but they all should,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday, calling the language recorded during the conversation “unacceptable” and “appalling.”

The White House’s comments follow Nury Martinez’s announcement that she would take a leave of absence from the council, after she stepped down Monday from her post as president. Martinez and two other colleagues were surreptitiously caught on a recording making racist comments and denigrating colleagues (The Los Angeles Times).

▪ The Los Angeles Times: Protests, anger, tears roil L.A. City Council meeting over leaked racist recordings.

▪ Politico: Los Angeles staggers under cascade of scandals.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ SUPREME COURT

The Supreme Court denied an appeal Tuesday by Charleston, S.C., church shooter Dylann Roof, leaving in place his death sentence for the 2015 shooting deaths of nine Black congregants (The Hill). 

Justices on Tuesday also declined to decide whether fetuses are entitled to constitutional personhood rights in light of the court’s June ruling turning abortion legal decisions over to the states. The high court turned away an appeal by a Catholic group and two Rhode Island women who sought to challenge a 2019 state law that codified the right to abortion in line with the 1973 Roe v. Wade landmark ruling, no longer in place (Reuters).

▪ The Hill: Justice Department asks SCOTUS to reject Trump plea for intervention on special master.

▪ Reuters: U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs challenge to police qualified immunity defense.

OPINION

■ The one thing that can save Herschel Walker, by Joshua Green, Bloomberg Opinion.https://bloom.bg/3EQri7h

■ What the approaching GOP majority can deliver in Congress, by Hugh Hewitt, contributing columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3TdRIUh

■ A conservative Supreme Court could still surprise us, by Elizabeth Wydra, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3g35afz

WHERE AND WHEN

👉 INVITATION today at 1 p.m. ET, The Hill’s insider virtual discussion, “Midterms: The Final Countdown,” with Bob Cusack, The Hill’s editor-in-chief, and Al Weaver, Senate reporter. Register (free) HERE. Participants are welcome to pose questions in advance.

The House meets at 11:30 a.m. on Friday for a pro forma session. Members are scheduled to return to the Capitol on Nov. 14. 

The Senate convenes Friday at 11:30 a.m. for a pro forma session. Senators make their way back to Washington on Nov. 14.  

The president receives the President’s Daily Brief at 8:30 a.m. Biden will travel to Vail, Colo., to speak at 1:30 p.m. MT about protecting some of America’s outdoor spaces. Biden will depart Colorado and fly to Los Angeles and then Santa Monica, Calif., where he will remain overnight.

Vice President Harris will talk with local radio stations in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin ahead of midterm contests to describe federal investments the administration, along with Congress, are making in specific communities.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with members of the Foreign Affairs Policy Board at the Department of State at 9 a.m. The secretary at 7 p.m. will host the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies reception and dinner.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will represent the United States at the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action ministerial. The secretary will participate in the second ministerial roundtable discussion for Ukraine support at 1:45 p.m. with opening session remarks. Yellen will speak at 3:45 p.m. during a fireside chat at the Bretton Woods Committee’s International Council. The secretary will participate this evening in a working dinner among finance ministers and central bank governors from Group of 20 nations.

First lady Jill Biden will fly to Nashville this morning and visit a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at noon at St. James Missionary Baptist Church. She will speak at a Democratic National Committee event in the city at 1:15 p.m. before leaving Tennessee to fly to Milwaukee. In Wisconsin at 5 p.m. CT, the first lady will speak to the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association of the National Education Association at Washington Park Senior Center. A half-hour later, she will visit students, parents and educators at a Milwaukee Public Schools’ “Homework Diner” at Westside Academy in Milwaukee.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will speak at 2 p.m. about Biden’s international strategy during an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security and the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington. Information is HERE.

🖥 Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features news and interviews at http://thehill.com/hilltv, on YouTube and on Facebook at 10:30 a.m. ET. Also, check out the “Rising” podcast here.

ELSEWHERE

➤ BUSINESS, CONSUMERS, COSTS 

A new Labor Department proposal, unveiled Tuesday, would make it more likely for millions of home-care and construction workers, janitors and gig drivers to be classified as employees instead of independent contractors.

The reclassification would give the workers access to benefits and protections not awarded to contractors, such as minimum wage pay and overtime. The proposal would deal a blow to companies such as Uber and Lyft, which have worked hard to maintain their workers’ status as contractors, not employees (The New York Times).

Retailers are mounting a last-ditch push for a bill to crack down on credit card swipe fees charged by Visa and MasterCard, writes The Hill’s Karl Evers-Hillstrom. They aim to slip the legislation into the National Defense Authorization Act, which senators are meeting to discuss this week, prompting alarm from financial services giants that say the effort would upend Americans’ credit card rewards. 

Business Insider: The Credit Card Competition Act of 2022 is good for veterans but bad for credit card rewards.

Renters are feeling pressure from rising mortgage rates, writes The Hill’s Adam Barnes, as would-be first-time home buyers are being priced out of the housing market and pushed back into renting. This added demographic is further straining an already supply-crunched rental market experiencing low vacancy rates and price increases well above pre-pandemic levels.

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH 

The Biden administration is racing against the clock to persuade more Americans to get the updated COVID-19 booster shots before winter temperatures set in and more people stay indoors — leading to a possible surge in cases and deaths. 

Its efforts are being hindered by confusion over the vaccine, declining case numbers and pandemic fatigue. Politico reports that as of the end of last week, the administration expected only between 13 and 15 million of the 283.4 million Americans aged 12 and up will have gotten the booster shot. Information about COVID-19 vaccines, including the new boosters, can be found HERE.

While scientists in the U.S. don’t see as many definitive signs of a winter surge as they have in years past, new COVID-19 variants found in other countries could pose a greater risk if they spread to North America (The Boston Globe).

“Right now, we don’t have any signs that this will happen,” said Cécile Viboud, an epidemiologist at the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health. But she said the possibility can’t be excluded and “we shouldn’t let our guard down.”

▪ Nature: Emerging variants and waning immunity are likely to push infection rates higher in the Northern Hemisphere as influenza also makes a comeback.

▪ Fortune: What is XBB? The new “immune-evasive” COVID-19 strain that combines omicron variants is driving cases in Bangladesh and Singapore.

D.C. public schools will enforce a neglected policy requiring enrolled students to be up to date on vaccinations starting Tuesday. Experts estimate a quarter of the city’s school-age population is still behind on required shots (The Washington Post).

▪ The New York Times: As hospitals close children’s units because adult hospital beds are more lucrative, where does that leave pediatric patients?

▪ The Hill: New rule opens ObamaCare subsidies to more families seeking coverage.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,063,338. Current average U.S. COVID-19 daily deaths are 338, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

THE CLOSER

And finally … 🐕 Your dog thinks you smell upset. And she’s right. 

Dogs are able to smell the changes in human breath and sweat and identify key chemical odors people emit when they feel anxious, according to a new study from Queen’s University of Belfast in Northern Ireland (The Washington Post).

The study’s findings provide “deeper knowledge of the human-dog relationship and adds to our understanding of how dogs perceive and interact with human psychological states,” said Clara Wilson, a doctoral student and co-author of the study.

While dogs have long been trained to use their sense of smell to detect everything from explosives to illnesses and controlled substances, Wilson said it’s exciting to see that our furry friends can “smell other parts of the human experience.”

The study adds to a growing amount of research on dog behavior and the positive impacts our four-legged companions can have on our everyday lives. Trained dogs can assist those recovering from trauma or individuals managing anxiety and depression, and the knowledge that dogs can smell human stress could prove valuable in training service and therapy dogs, researchers said.

Stay Engaged

We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch. Follow us on Twitter (@asimendinger and @kristinakarisch) and suggest this newsletter to friends!

Tuberville reparations remarks bring renewed attention to House bill

Backlash to Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) remarks at a campaign rally in Nevada linking slavery reparations to crime is drawing attention to a long-sought bill that has stalled in Congress.

Tuberville prompted an uproar this past weekend after comments he made about reparations during a rally hosted by former President Trump went viral.

“They want crime because they want to take over what you got,” Tuberville said in Nevada on Saturday, referring to Democrats. “They want to control what you have. They want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.”

Democrats and advocates pounced on the remarks instantly, decrying the comments as racist and harmful. But the controversy is shining a light some say could be critical to a years-long legislative push to form a commission to study reparations that supporters hope might still move forward before 2023.

“There is no better moment than a moment like this, when essentially Black people have been accused of being criminals and using criminality as a basis for reparations,” Ron Daniels, convener of the National African American Reparations Commission, told The Hill on Tuesday. 

The commission bill, known as H.R. 40, was first introduced by the late Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) more than 30 years ago and filed by the congressman again and again throughout his time in office until he retired in 2017.

It didn’t receive its first markup and committee action until last year, after it was introduced by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on the heels of the nation’s racial reckoning following the police murder of George Floyd in 2020.

More than a year has passed since the House Judiciary Committee advanced the bill in a historic vote, and some proponents are hopeful they’ll see action on it during the lame-duck session of Congress.

“It certainly still has a chance to get passed, a good chance to get passed, and I’d like to see it happen,” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) told The Hill.

“I would like to see it pass today,” Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) also told The Hill shortly before the House left for October recess. “The sooner we pass it the better, because that involves a study to ascertain what the circumstance is and what we might do.”

A government page for the bill lists 196 co-sponsors, though those names include nonvoting delegates, the late Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, who joined the president’s Cabinet in early 2021.   

Backers insist the bill would fetch 217 votes and pass the House if brought to the floor, though it would not get through the Senate, where a filibuster stands in the way. 

Democrats would need all 50 of their senators to back the legislation and at least 10 Republicans votes to bypass the 60-vote threshold.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has argued a push for reparations is unnecessary. 

“I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none us currently living are responsible is a good idea,” McConnell, then the Senate majority leader, said during the 2020 campaign season. 

“We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation,” he also said then, while adding, in reference to former President Obama: “We elected an African American president.”

Some Democrats say a vote passing the bill in the House would still hold significance, providing a real victory for an issue that advocates have worked on for years. 

Yet with the legislation likely to die in the Senate, some Democrats in the House might not want to risk a vote for the bill, even in a lame-duck session.

Advocates argue reparations are needed to address the harms of slavery and historical discrimination that continue to permeate society in the present, including in areas spanning housing, health care, education, the environment and others.

“H.R. 40 is so extensively documented by science and economics,” Jackson Lee told The Hill. “There is no doubt of the wealth gap between African American families and white families right now.”

Her comments came just days after the release of a report by the Congressional Budget Office in late September that found glaring racial disparities on median family wealth spanning 1989 through 2019.

According to the report, the median wealth of Black families hit $40,300 in 2019, compared to $260,000 for their white counterparts. The report said the “ratio of White families’ median wealth to Black families’ median wealth averaged 6.7 to 1.” 

The highest ratio recorded, according to the report, was 12 to 1 in 1989, while the lowest was recorded in 1998, at 5.1 to 1.

Jackson Lee, who is spearheading the legislative push for the commission bill, has called on the Biden administration to take up the cause, and visited the White House earlier this year to discuss the matter.

“We were in the White House in February, where the team promised a strong look at H.R. 40 and a strong look at doing an executive order,” she told The Hill, adding she’s also “appreciated the president’s executive orders dealing with police safety issues, gun issues, transgender family issues.”

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), who backs the measure, told The Hill it would be progress if the House passed the bill and if President Biden issued an executive order. 

“I think if the House could do that, and the president does an executive order, that’s two-thirds of the government saying we need to do this thing,” he said.

Source: TEST FEED1