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Why defunding IRS auditors won’t be easy GOP promise to keep 

Republicans heading into November’s midterm elections are talking a big game on the IRS, promising to take back the $80 billion in agency funding provided by Democrats and scuttle plans to hire what the GOP has characterized as an army of new auditors. 

The strategy could pay political dividends at the polls in November if the GOP is correct that the calls will motivate their base, but it will also raise expectations that Republicans will follow through on their vows.  

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) says the first bill a new Republican majority will pass if it wins control of the House will be one repealing the new IRS agents. 

Yet with President Biden still in office and Republicans at best having a slim majority in the Senate, such a House bill is unlikely to become law.  

Democrats already are promising to go to the mat to protect the hard-won funding, which was included in the sweeping tax, health care and climate change bill signed into law in August.  

They argue the new IRS funding is necessary to make sure the agency can conduct audits on wealthy tax cheats and that middle-class Americans are unlikely to be audited. Instead, they say the middle class would be hurt by the GOP’s plans because it might delay their receiving tax refund checks. 

“Republicans are openly vowing that their number one priority if they retake power is to delay Americans’ tax refund checks and make it even easier for millionaires to cheat on their taxes,” Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) said in a statement to The Hill. “After years of deliberate Republican sabotage of the IRS, the Inflation Reduction Act will finally give IRS resources to process returns faster, answer the phone, and crack down on big business tax cheats.”  

The National Republican Congressional Committee, House Ways and Means Committee Republicans, Senate Finance Committee Republicans and McCarthy’s office did not respond to questions about procedural obstacles in the way of repealing IRS funding.

Republicans scoff at Democratic arguments that the infusion of money for the IRS won’t lead to audits of small businesses and the middle class, while expressing doubt it will help with speedy tax refunds.  

“I work every day with people who still haven’t received their tax returns,” Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) said Thursday on the Fox Business Network. “And now we’re going to put a tax police out — 87,000 — who you know, they’re going to go after the middle- and lower-income taxpayers.” 

Some Republicans have used unusually harsh rhetoric to describe the IRS. 

“Are they going to have a strike force that goes in with AK-15s already loaded, ready to shoot some small-business person in Iowa with these, because I think they’re going after middle-class and small-business people,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a former chairman of the Finance Committee, said of the new funding during an August appearance on Fox News. 

Such statements about armed IRS agents have been debunked by numerous fact-checkers and tax experts, but have not discouraged ramped-up political messaging by Republicans.  

The figure of 87,000 new IRS auditors comes from last year’s Treasury Department compliance report, which found that $80 billion could pay for 86,852 new IRS hires. But only a portion of those would be new auditors, tax experts say. The rest would be customer service representatives, computer scientists and other kinds of agency workers. 

Moreover, due to an aging workforce, the IRS estimates it will need to hire 52,000 employees over the next six year to maintain current levels, which are more than 10 percent lower than they were a decade ago, according to IRS data. 

The IRS has yet to break down exactly how it’s going to spend the $80 billion, which will stretch over the next decade and grow the agency’s budget from roughly $12 billion a year to $20 billion a year. But the new law blocks it out into major chunks, including $45 billion for additional audits, $25 billion for improving basic operations, $3 billion for taxpayer services such as answering phone calls and nearly $5 billion for new technology. 

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the IRS the new money for enforcement should be used specifically to go after corporations and wealthier people, whose audit rates in recent years have declined faster relative to other income classes. 

“These investments will not result in households earning $400,000 per year or less or small businesses seeing an increase in the chances that they are audited relative to historical levels,” Yellen wrote in an August memo to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig. “Instead, they will allow the IRS to work to end the two-tiered tax system, where most Americans pay what they owe, but those at the top of the distribution often do not.” 

The decline in tax enforcement has vastly increased the estimated revenue lost each year to underpayments — the IRS puts the figure as high as $1 trillion — increasing a reliance on deficit spending that Republicans have long decried.  

Republicans have also been fierce critics of the IRS’s operational performance — criticisms that grew only louder during the COVID-19 pandemic when the backlog of tax returns increased significantly. Much of the new agency funding is designed to eliminate that backlog, streamline the processing of tax returns and reduce wait times for taxpayers calling into IRS information centers — efficiencies that would be undermined by slashing the agency budget. 

Earlier this year, Republicans on the House’s chief tax-writing Way and Means Committee called attention to a letter to Yellen from “166 bipartisan Members of Congress [expressing] concern about the backlog” and pointing out “the IRS’s inability to do its job.”  

The “IRS is in crisis with a massive backlog of unprocessed tax returns, unanswered phone calls, and bureaucratic delays,” they said.  

Democrats argue the GOP runs counter to claims that they represent the party of law and order.  

“It seems to me that Republicans just don’t want people to pay taxes, even if they’re owed,” Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), head of the House Budget Committee, said as the Inflation Reduction Act was passed in August.  

“We know there are hundreds of billions of dollars of owed but not paid taxes in this country every year. And this is an attempt to try and recover some of that money that is owed and is not being paid by taxpayers who are, in many cases, cheating.” 

The fact that the IRS bill is the first one promised by a House GOP majority, and that it is a central part of the party’s midterm messaging, shows Republicans think the theme is a pure political winner.  

Yet there are polls that suggest the IRS isn’t the public demon suggested by the GOP rhetoric. 

A 2020 Pew Research poll found that 65 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of the agency, while 29 percent have an unfavorable view. 

Source: TEST FEED1

New York mayor declares state of emergency over influx of migrants

New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) on Friday announced that the city would be entering a state of emergency as it anticipates a record number of asylum-seekers.

Adams’s emergency executive order instructs relevant agencies throughout the city to direct their efforts to responding to the influx of migrants.

“Today, I am declaring a state of emergency in the city of New York and issuing an executive order. This executive order will formally direct all relevant agencies to coordinate their efforts to construct the humanitarian relief centers. We are also suspending certain land use requirements to expedite this process,” Adams announced.

Adams also asked the federal and New York state governments for emergency aid in his address, projecting that the cost of handling the migrant crisis will amount to about $1 billion in the fiscal year.

He said that more than 17,000 migrants have been bused to the city since the spring, and he anticipates a further influx of asylum-seekers going forward that could amount to more than 100,000.

Adams also announced that New York will open a Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center to help migrants when they arrive in the city and aid them in relocating, if they so choose.

“New York City now has more than 61,000 people in our shelter system. That includes thousands of New Yorkers experiencing homelessness and thousands of asylum-seekers who have been bused in over the past few months from other parts of the country,” he said in his announcement.

“Almost 20,000 are children, and 1 in 5 of them is an asylum-seeker. And every day, the total number gets higher. Every day, from this point forward, we are setting a new record,” added Adams.

In August, Adams’s spokesperson slammed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for his continued busing of migrants from the southern border to Democratic-led cities, including New York. The spokesperson accused Abbott of using human beings as “political pawns” and called the move “disgusting.”

In response, Abbott said that he Adams “follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Musk knocks Trump’s Truth Social: 'Essentially a rightwing echo chamber’

Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk knocked former President Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, calling it a “rightwing echo chamber.”

During an in-depth interview with the Financial Times published Friday, the tech mogul talked about his reasoning behind making a bid to purchase Twitter, a transaction that, thus far, has been fraught with legal drama.

“I’m not doing Twitter for the money. It’s not like I’m trying to buy some yacht and I can’t afford it,” Musk, a billionaire, said. “I don’t own any boats. But I think it’s important that people have a maximally trusted and inclusive means of exchanging ideas and that it should be as trusted and transparent as possible.”

The other option, he told the Financial Times, is allowing the debate to splinter into different social media apps.

“It [Truth Social] is essentially a rightwing echo chamber. It might as well be called Trumpet,” he said.

Musk and Twitter were embroiled in a legal battle after Musk withdrew his $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform. Following the withdrawal, Twitter sued Musk and Musk countersued, alleging that the tech company had not been forthcoming about the number of bots occupying the platform.

Earlier this week, Musk reversed course and indicated that he was willing to go forward with the $44 billion deal just weeks before a trial that was set to take place in Delaware court over the issue.

On Thursday, the Delaware judge granted Musk’s request to stay the trial and gave him until Oct. 28 to close the deal with Twitter.

Trump, for his part, was banned from Twitter following his posts on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

Should Musk gain control of the platform, there is a possibility that the former president could be reinstated. The billionaire has indicated interest in allowing users who were permanently banned to have their accounts back.

When Musk first announced his bid to buy Twitter, Republicans hailed the move, arguing that the platform would operate under free speech principles under his ownership. Members of the GOP have argued that content moderation policies on platforms like Twitter are unfairly biased against conservative voices.

Source: TEST FEED1

White House says no change in nuclear posture after Biden 'armageddon' remark

The White House has not seen any new intelligence to indicate there is an imminent threat of Russia using nuclear weapons, even as President Biden warned that the rhetoric coming from Moscow put the world at its greatest nuclear risk since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

“We have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture, nor do we have indications that Russia is preparing to imminently use nuclear weapons,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Jean-Pierre downplayed the severity of Biden’s rhetoric, arguing he was reinforcing the administration’s consistent message that Russia’s threats are irresponsible and should be taken seriously.

“The kind of irresponsible rhetoric we have seen is no way for the leader of a nuclear-armed state to speak, and that’s what the president was making very clear,” Jean-Pierre said.

Biden, who was speaking at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser at the home of James Murdoch, expressed skepticism that there was any way for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia to use a smaller, tactical nuclear weapon without it leading to “armageddon.”

“We have not faced the prospect of armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Biden said at a fundraiser in New York City, citing the 1962 standoff with the Soviet Union.

“We’ve got a guy I know fairly well,” Biden continued, referencing Putin. “He’s not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming.” 

Biden’s comments are some of the starkest yet from U.S. officials about the threat of Russia using a nuclear weapon and dramatically escalating its war in Ukraine.

In a speech last month announcing the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops to fight in Ukraine, Putin said Moscow was prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend any of its territory, accusing the U.S. and its allies of “nuclear blackmail” and moving to “destroy” his country.

U.S. officials had previously been generally vague in their response to Russia’s talk of nuclear weaponry, warning that there would be severe consequences if Moscow went that route without publicizing what the response would be.

Source: TEST FEED1

Grassley a 'no' on Graham's 15-week abortion ban

Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the most senior member of the Senate GOP conference, says he would vote against a national 15-week abortion ban sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that has caused a political headache for fellow Republicans.  

“I would vote no,” Grassley said at a televised debate Thursday night with his Democratic election opponent, Mike Franken.  

Grassley’s opposition is surprising because he previously co-sponsored Graham’s bill, introduced last year, to ban abortion after 20 weeks.  

The Iowa Republican, however, now says abortion is an issue that should be handled at the state level after the Supreme Court earlier this year struck down the constitutional right to an abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, according to the Des Moines Register, which first reported on Grassley’s comments.  

A Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll conducted in July showed Grassley leading Franken, a retired Navy admiral, by eight points, 47 percent to 39 percent.  

But Grassley, who is running for an eighth term, isn’t taking anything for granted in a state that former President Obama carried in the 2008 and 2012 elections. Since then, however, Iowa has shifted hard to the right and voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020.  

Embracing a 15-week abortion ban could rev up opposition among Iowa Democrats, especially younger voters in Des Moines and Iowa City, home of the University of Iowa, which is overwhelmingly more liberal than the rest of the state.   

Only nine Senate Republicans have sponsored Graham’s proposal to ban abortion after 15 weeks except when the life of the mother is at risk or in cases of rape or incest. 

By contrast, 43 Senate Republicans cosponsored Graham’s 20-week abortion ban when he introduced it in January 2021.  

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) wasn’t thrilled when Graham introduced his 15-week abortion ban — without consulting with the minority leader — a few weeks before the election, a move that shifted attention to the abortion debate from inflation, crime and the Southern border.  

McConnell signaled last month that he does not plan to bring Graham’s bill to the floor in 2023, even if Republicans win back the Senate majority, which would leave the senior Kentucky senator in charge of the schedule.  

“With regard to his bill, you’ll have to ask him about it. In terms of scheduling, I think most of the members of my conference prefer that this be dealt with at the state level,” he told reporters. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Georgia GOP lieutenant governor blasts Trump over Walker Senate campaign

Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) blamed former President Trump for embattled GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s campaign on Thursday as Walker’s Senate bid remains engulfed in scandal.

“[Georgia] let down the entire country,” Duncan told CNN. “Donald Trump led us down a rabbit trail post-election because he was too consumed with trying to save face from losing his election. And he ran us down a trail, and we screwed up.”

Walker’s campaign has been on defense since Monday, when The Daily Beast reported that the anti-abortion candidate had encouraged and paid for a then-girlfriend’s abortion in 2009. Walker strongly denied the allegations, which The Hill has not independently verified.

However, The Daily Beast followed up with a second story revealing that the women making the allegations was the mother of one of Walker’s children. The former NFL star’s campaign continued to struggle when his son Christian Walker, a conservative influencer, publicly criticized his father and accused him of lying about the incident.

Trump, who endorsed Walker, defended the candidate, claiming that he was “being slandered and maligned by the Fake News Media and obviously, the Democrats.”

Duncan said on Thursday that the scandal has left him, along with other Georgia Republicans, unsure of who to support in the Senate race.

“I’m not voting for Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker hasn’t earned my respect or my vote,” Duncan said. “I’m like hundreds of thousands of other Republicans here in Georgia. We’re confused. We don’t really have anywhere to go right now.”

The Georgia lieutenant governor is aligned with GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, who has frequently clashed with the former president. Kemp soundly defeated Trump’s endorsed candidate, former Sen. David Perdue, in the Republican primary for governor in May.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Hill's Morning Report — Senate races tighten as midterms near

We’re 32 days from Election Day, and pollsters agree on one thing: Contests across the country look like nail-biters, tight until the end.

While Democrats reported new levels of optimism in August and September, it’s Republicans who are now feeling hopeful about taking over the Senate as well as the House, The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports. 

In Pennsylvania, Mehmet Oz is starting to close the gap with Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) while former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt has a lead in the polls in Nevada. J.D. Vance, meanwhile, is gathering strength in Ohio, a state that has turned decisively Republican in recent election cycles.

▪ CNN: Fetterman raises $22 million in third quarter in contentious Pennsylvania Senate race.

▪ The Hill: Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) trails in poll of key Nevada Senate race.

▪ The Columbus Dispatch: Donald Trump Jr. visits Ohio to rally GOP voters behind J.D. Vance in the Senate race.

In Arizona, the National Republican Senatorial Committee announced Thursday that it is adding a “seven-figure” spending bump to support Republican Blake Masters, Politico reports. Weeks ago, the super PAC cut its advertising dollars in the state in light of Masters’ struggling campaign.  But now, Republicans see a promising path to the majority, helped in no small part by a deluge of spending by outside groups, including the Senate Leadership Fund, to whittle away Democratic candidates’ fundraising advantage.

Masters on Thursday debated Sen. Mark Kelly (D), trying to put the incumbent on defense. He sought to disrupt Kelly’s image as an independent moderate who’s willing to work across the aisle, tying him to President Biden and saying the Democrats had done little to secure the southern border. Masters tried to position himself as a pragmatist, while also invoking the culture wars and suggesting tech companies and news outlets could have impacted the 2020 election (12News Phoenix and The Hill).

“Two years ago, Mark Kelly stood right there and he promised to be independent,” Masters said in his opening statement. “But he broke that promise.”

Georgia is looking more uncertain for Republicans. Facing bombshell allegations that he paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion more than a decade ago and accusations of violence from his own son, Republican Herschel Walker’s Senate campaign has been thrown into turmoil.

Walker — who has positioned himself as staunchly anti-abortion — has denied the allegations, including further reports that the ex-girlfriend is also the mother of one of his children. But speaking to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday, Walker denied knowing the woman (The Hill).

He also appeared to contradict his own views on abortion, saying: “Had that happened, I would have said it, because it’s nothing to be ashamed of there.”

“You know, people have done that, but I know nothing about it,” Walker continued. “And if I knew about it, I would be honest and talk about it, but I know nothing about that… I’ve already been forgiven, and if I’ve been forgiven, why in the world would I not be forgiven for something like this?”

A new poll by SurveyUSA, released Wednesday, shows incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) opened up a 12-point lead against Walker, 50 percent to 38 percent (Forbes).

PULL QUOTE IN BOLD HERE  “I am not deterred,” Walker told reporters at a Thursday event, where he again denied the allegations. “I am not backing down. The stakes are too high.”

▪ The New York Times: Christian Walker, warrior for the right, now battles his father.

▪ The Daily Beast: Walker’s latest abortion denial still makes no sense.

▪ Politico: Walker’s Christian fans unfazed by abortion revelations.

▪ NPR: Republicans continue to support Walker even after abortion report.

▪ The Washington Post: GOP crisis in Herschel Walker race was nearly two years in the making.

Another busload of migrants from South America ended up in front of Vice President Harris’s official residence in Washington early Thursday. The bus, which had a Texas license plate, transported about 50 men, women and children.

Within minutes of the bus’s arrival, volunteers from SAMU First Response, a D.C.-based group that assists asylum-seekers, shuttled the migrants to nearby accommodations. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in September said he was “sending a direct message” to Harris by sending two buses of migrants to her official residence (WTOP).

Bloomberg News: Democratic Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke’s hopes in Texas run through the GOP’s last urban stronghold.

In Wisconsin, Democrats worry GOP ads are taking hold as Mandela Barnes, the party’s Senate candidate, is wobbling in his race against Sen. Ron Johnson (R), The New York Times Reports.

Florida, meanwhile, is still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Ian, which hit the state’s southwest coast last week and caused widespread destruction, leaving thousands with flooded homes and no electricity. By Thursday, the death toll in the state had risen to 118 (The Tallahassee Democrat).

Four Republican Florida counties sustained much of Hurricane Ian’s damage and they happen to be essential to the GOP’s playbook for winning statewide races next month. The Tallahassee Democrat reports that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is now “weighing what kind of emergency elections accommodations to make for this region, a move that could impact his own chances for reelection and is likely to be highly scrutinized after he spent the last two years tightening voting rules.”

But DeSantis said Wednesday he wants to limit changes for voters to avoid confusion.

“I want to keep it as normal as humanly possible,” he said. “I think the more you depart… it just creates problems.”

His own debate against Democratic challenger Charlie Crist has been postponed because of the storm (The Orlando Sentinel).

The Sunshine State will soon get another politically minded resident. The University of Florida on Thursday said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) is the sole candidate in a selection process to become university president (CNN).

The junior senator, 50, who was reelected in 2020, confirmed to The National Review that he plans to resign from the Senate at the end of this year. Earlier in his career, he served as president of Midland University in Nebraska.

“Nebraskans have well understood that I didn’t expect to be in politics as a lifelong calling,” Sasse said.

“The Senate is a very important institution, and I’m incredibly grateful for a lot of the people that I get to serve alongside here,” he added. “But frankly, I think one of the most basic things we can do to reinvigorate this place is to say that people ought to only be here for a time and then get back to building stuff.”

Sasse’s successor to the Senate would be selected by the governor under provisions of Nebraska law (The Omaha World-Herald).

The Tampa Bay Times: University of Florida’s finalist for president is Sasse. The nationally known lawmaker called UF “the most interesting university in the country.”

Related Articles

▪ The Washington Post: A majority of GOP nominees — 299 in all — have denied or questioned the 2020 election results.

▪ The Hill: Ahead of November, Democrats look to keep abortion front and center.

▪ The Hill: Republicans are gaining some traction with accusations that Democrats are soft on crime. 

▪ NBC News: In key battlegrounds, GOP onslaught of crime ads tightens Senate races.

▪ The Washington Post: Federal agents see chargeable tax, gun-purchase case against Hunter Biden.

▪ CNN: January 6 committee announces Oct. 13 public hearing, rescheduled after Hurricane Ian.

▪ The New York Times: The Justice Department is said to believe Trump has more documents,

LEADING THE DAY 

➤ ECONOMY

Biden and his economic team want a strong labor market and growth, confident consumers, abundant commodity supplies and cheaper gasoline. What the Federal Reserve wants is less demand in the economy, wages that begin to cool and prices that edge lower as output slows.

The White House and the central bank this morning will search for clues in the government’s employment report covering September, each eager to promote a narrative that allays economic anxieties and fortifies confidence. They are unlikely to locate the same script.

As CNBC put it, “Friday’s jobs report could be a case where good news isn’t really good.”

In most any circumstance, strong job gains and rising wages would be a plus. But these days, they’re exactly what the U.S. economy doesn’t need as policymakers try to beat back an inflation problem.

“Bad news equals good news, good news equals bad news,” Vincent Reinhart, chief economist at Dreyfus-Mellon, told CNBC in describing investor sentiment. “Pretty much uniformly what is dominant in investors’ concerns is the Fed tightening. When they get bad news on the economy, that means the Fed is going to tighten less.”

Investors may cheer a slower economy if it means the Fed ends rate hikes, but the West Wing does not favor contraction, particularly as voters cast ballots that could knock Democrats into the minority in one or both chambers in Congress next year.

On Thursday, Biden conceded his “disappointment” that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided this week to lower the cartel’s oil production, which will reduce supply and likely trigger higher prices for gasoline and heating fuel this winter. Saudi Arabia’s shadow over OPEC and its oil alliance with Russia prompt new reservations about a Washington-Riyadh alliance the president sought to forge during a July visit he continues to defend (The Hill).

▪ Bloomberg News: Members of Congress demand retaliation against Saudi Arabia.

▪ The New York Times, Peter Baker: Biden’s choice after OPEC cuts: woo Saudi Arabia or retaliate?  

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has made clear with explicit moves toward China and Russia that he does not take direction from the United States. The countries in OPEC in addition to Saudi Arabia are Algeria, Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

The OPEC plan to lower oil targets by 2 million barrels per day is expected to increase gasoline prices in some East Coast and Midwest regions by about 15 cents to 20 cents per gallon, said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates (The Hill).

The president and fellow Democrats have blamed global events, such as Russia’s war in Ukraine, for high-priced energy but U.S. voters are famously impatient about rising gasoline prices at the same time Republicans insist Democrats are harming the domestic oil industry with a focus on green energy policies.  

“There’s a lot of alternatives. We haven’t made up our mind yet,” Biden told reporters when asked about next steps (The Hill).

White House energy adviser Amos Hochstein, speaking Thursday to Bloomberg TV, said the administration wants to incentivize domestic supply, and the government “intends” to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) “when prices come down” even as it releases more oil from the reserve next month.

“We’re going to take a multitude of steps with the private sector in the United States, with our allies, with the SPR, and we’re going to talk to Congress about what kind of tools we may need,” he said. “We’re not quite sure what we need, but we’re going to have that conversation to make sure we have every tool available to us.”

CNN: White House left looking for answers after OPEC announces oil production cuts.

Separately, Biden visited a New York State IBM facility on Thursday to tout his administration’s efforts to boost blue-collar jobs with federal backing for U.S. semiconductor chip manufacturing. The president signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law in August — legislation that includes more than $52 billion in federal subsidies to boost production of the technology (Poughkeepsie Journal).

IBM has pledged to invest $20 billion into the state’s Hudson Valley region over the next decade to develop, among other things, semiconductors, mainframe technology, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. During his Poughkeepsie address, Biden said, “It’s here at this factory and the factories of other companies across America where America’s future is literally being built.”

▪ Reuters: Biden hails IBM’s $20 billion New York manufacturing deal.

▪ NPR: Biden has $52 billion for semiconductors. Today, work begins to spend that windfall.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ ADMINISTRATION

A month ahead of midterm elections, Biden demonstrated a powerful form of mercy by pardoning 6,500 people who have federal conviction records for marijuana possession. The move is a nod to racial justice and equity, a Biden campaign promise, and seen as a step toward the decriminalization of marijuana endorsed by some Democrats. The move will clear those charged federally with simple pot possession and benefit thousands more individuals convicted of marijuana possession in the District of Columbia (The New York Times).

The recreational use of cannabis is legal in 19 states and the nation’s capital (U.S. News).

Biden is urging governors to similarly pardon those with state marijuana convictions. The administration will consider easing the drug classification of cannabis under the Drug Enforcement Agency schedule of controlled substances (CNBC).

“Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either,” Biden said in a statement.

🚀 They docked! NASA and SpaceX partnered to successfully transport a fresh and multinational foursome of space scientists and experts to the International Space Station on Thursday with plans to eventually rotate some of the current crew back to Earth. The new arrivals are astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA; astronaut Koichi Wakata of JAXA, or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency. The United States and Russia may be at odds on terra firma, but inside the space station, the two governments boast they are partners (CNN).

OPINION

■ Have you seen the latest polls? Now forget them. Here’s why, by Jonathan Bernstein, columnist, Bloomberg Opinion. https://bloom.bg/3CbMmBX 

■ How the Supreme Court could change social media as we know it, by Paul M. Barrett, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3T4H02c

WHERE AND WHEN

The House meets at 1:30 p.m. for a pro forma session. Members are scheduled to return to the Capitol on Nov. 14.

The Senate convenes at 10 a.m. for a pro forma session. Senators also are scheduled to return for work on Nov. 14.  

The president will depart the White House for Hagerstown, Md., for a 1:35 p.m. speech about the economy at Volvo Group Powertrain Operations. He will fly from Maryland to Philadelphia in the afternoon to continue to Wilmington, Del., at 4:10 p.m., where he plans to spend the weekend.  

The vice president will ceremonially swear in Shefali Razdan Duggal at 2:15 p.m. to be U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. On Saturday, Harris will be in Austin, Texas, to be the keynote speaker at the Texas Democratic Party Johnson-Jordan Reception. The vice president will also meet on Saturday with reproductive rights advocates in Austin.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Lima, Peru, and this morning participates in a sustainable fishing event at Chorrillos Fish Market. An hour later, he meets with employees from the U.S. Embassy and then visits a Lima fair with a focus on Peruvean entrepreneurs.

First lady Jill Biden is in San Francisco to visit the University of California’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center this morning to talk about the administration’s Cancer Moonshot initiative and advances in treatment and prevention of breast cancer. She will speak at midday at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee lunch and conference for women. The first lady will depart San Francisco in the afternoon to travel to Tacoma, Wash., and Bates Technical College to discuss job training programs and technical careers aimed at high school and postsecondary students. 

Economic indicator: The Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. will report on U.S. employment in September.

🍁 The National Park Service and the White House host the annual fall White House garden tours this Saturday and Sunday. The Park Service will distribute free, timed tickets for entry on both weekend days beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET. Information is HERE and 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

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Two Russian nationals fleeing President Vladimir Putin’s conscription of military reservists reached a remote Alaskan island in the Bering Sea by boat, officials said Thursday. They are seeking asylum in the U.S. (The Washington Post).

“We are actively engaged with federal officials and residents in Gambell to determine who these individuals are, but right now, we already know that the federal response was lacking,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Thursday, emphasizing a greater need for security in the Arctic. “Only local officials and state law enforcement had the capability to immediately respond to the asylum seekers.”

The risky boat journey shows the lengths to which some Russians are going to avoid Putin’s draft as the Russian president seeks to bolster forces for the war in Ukraine.

Experts warn that nuclear threats by Putin, who marks his 70th birthday today, mean the world is the closest it has been to nuclear confrontation since the Cold War (The Hill).  

Putin is “not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons, because his military, you might say, is significantly underperforming,” Biden said Thursday at a New York event for Democratic donors (Reuters). “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” he added. “For the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, we have a direct threat to the use of nuclear weapons, if in fact things continue down the path they’d been going.” 

The president told his audience he is trying to gauge “Putin’s off-ramp” (The Hill).

🕊 This morning, the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize went to human rights campaigners in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Winners announced in Oslo are Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, a 60-year-old human rights advocate imprisoned since 2021; Russian human rights organization Memorial; and the Center for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian human rights organization founded in 2007 (NBC News and CNBC).

▪ The New York Times: She’s a doctor. He was a limo driver. They pitched a $30 million arms deal.

▪ The Washington Post: Putin confronted by insider over Ukraine war, U.S. intelligence finds.

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH 

A wave of anti-vaccine legislation sweeping the country is worrying public health leaders, who are battling apathy and skepticism toward vaccines and fear that the backlash surrounding COVID-19 vaccines will extend to routine immunizations. As Vox reports, more than 80 anti-vaccine bills have been introduced in state legislatures, according to academics tracking the trend. 

During the 2020-21 school year, childhood vaccination rates fell, to the equivalent of 35,000 children not being up to date on their immunizations. While irregular checkups at the doctor may have contributed, experts worry that these numbers don’t just signify a pandemic-era blip, but a trend that’s only accelerating.

▪ Reuters: COVID wave looms in Europe as booster campaign makes slow start.

▪ Kaiser Family Foundation: Deaths among older adults due to COVID-19 jumped during the summer of 2022 before falling somewhat in September.

▪ CBS News: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ended daily reporting of COVID-19 case and death data, in a shift to weekly updates.

▪ The New York Times: Flying to the United States from Uganda? Expect Ebola screenings as a precaution.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,062,130. Current average U.S. COVID-19 daily deaths are 323, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Congratulations to expert puzzlers who knew their way around the Supreme Court and its new term to win this week’s Morning Report Quiz! 

Here’s who successfully filed trivia petitions: Stanley Wasser, Ki Harvey, Barton Schoenfeld, Jon Berck, Patricia Swank, Paul Harris, Patrick Kavanagh, Shin Inouye, Richard Baznik, Barbara Golian, Eliza Walker, Randall Patrick, Len Jones, Nicholas Genimatas, Jaina Mehta, Annette Kuz, DKS Cohen, Pam Manges, Gretchen O’Brien, Bob Everhart, Peter Sprofera, Harry Strulovici, Terry Pflaumer, Robert Bradley, Tom Werkema, Stephen Delano and Steve James.

They knew that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, making her debut on Monday, posed pointed questions about Congress’s intent during oral arguments about a wetlands case. She was quick and confident, journalists reported.  

The Onion filed a seriously amusing 23-page petition to the Supreme Court in a particular case on behalf of parody (and humorists).

News reports this week recounted Chief Justice John Roberts’s comment last month that seeing barricades when arriving at the court was “gut-wrenching every morning.” The security fencing had disappeared by the time the court’s term began Monday with a welcome for in-person public visitors.  

Gallup reported last week that Americans’ opinions of the Supreme Court are the worst they’ve been in 50 years.

Stay Engaged

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The Memo: Republicans find traction with ‘soft-on-crime’ attacks on Democrats

Republicans are returning to an old playbook in the final stretch of the midterms campaign — and it looks like it’s working.

GOP attacks on Democratic candidates as being “soft on crime” look to be shifting two of this year’s marquee Senate races, in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, in Republicans’ favor.

Republicans believe Democrats are vulnerable on crime nationally, too — and haunted by “Defund the Police,” a politically counterproductive slogan from which most Democrats have tried to distance themselves with limited success.

“I mean, they are vulnerable because they are soft on crime — and voters say, ‘No, that’s not what we want,’” GOP pollster Glen Bolger told this column. Crime, he added, “may not be the top issue, but it is up there and it is definitely a concern for voters.”

Democrats believe their positions are being sensationalized or outright miscast by their opponents.

But the shift in the polls in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania has happened just as GOP attacks on Democratic candidates Mandela Barnes and John Fetterman have ramped up.

In Wisconsin, incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson (R) has attacked Barnes as being “dangerously liberal on crime” while the national Republican Party has sent out emails with subject lines like “9 times Mandela Barnes called for emptying prisons.”

Barnes does want to reduce the prison population, though his allies would argue that it is hyperbolic to accuse him of wanting to “empty” jails. He is opposed to cash bail, believing it to be fundamentally inequitable.

Barnes has accused the Johnson campaign of engaging in alarmist “lies” about his record.

Be that as it may, Barnes has seen the 5-point lead he enjoyed in the RealClearPolitics polling average in mid-September whittled away and then overturned. Johnson now leads by 3 points.

In Pennsylvania, Fetterman is holding onto his lead but it has been cut roughly in half, from about 8 points to 4 points since the summer, as his record on crime has been placed under a harsher spotlight by Republican competitor Mehmet Oz and his allies.

Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, also serves as chairman of its Board of Pardons. The board makes recommendations to the governor as to whether prisoners’ sentences should be commuted.

The board’s willingness to make such recommendations has increased exponentially during Fetterman’s tenure, which began in 2019.

During that time, the board has recommended 50 commutations of life sentences, having pushed for only about 12 such decisions in the preceding decade.

Fetterman has refused to yield in the face of attacks. His website describes the justice system as “too often unforgiving and vindictive” and notes his leadership of the Board of Pardons.

A recent ad from the Fetterman campaign includes a testimonial from Sean Kilkenny, the sheriff of Montgomery County, who declares himself sick of the crime-related attacks and insists “John gave a second chance to those who deserved it.”

But Oz’s attacks are not going to abate anytime soon. In a recent Fox News interview, the Republican branded Fetterman “the most pro-murderer candidate in America.”

Jabs against Democrats for alleged softness on crime have been thrown by Republicans for more than a generation. 

The most infamous example came in 1988, when Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis lost to Republican George H.W. Bush after having come under attack for his support of furlough programs as governor of Massachusetts.

A now-infamous ad from an outside group focused on Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who, while on furlough, raped a woman after binding up her fiance. Horton’s crime was horrific, but the ad itself was also widely decried as racist for playing directly into white stereotypes of Black brutality.  In retrospect, the ad has become a macabre emblem of racial ‘dog whistle’ campaigning.

The efficacy of ‘soft-on-crime’ attacks declined in subsequent years — partly because crime rates declined for roughly two decades from the early 1990s and partly because Democrats seemed to grow more adept at countering them.

That picture has changed, however, thanks to the rise of ‘Defund the Police’ as a slogan and a spike in murders.

According to FBI data, the murder date rose nationwide by a startling 30 percent between 2019 and 2020, and by an additional 4 percent in 2021. Many major cities have seen especially stark increases in homicide rates.

That has put the issue on the front burner for the first time in decades.

President Biden, for his part, has insisted more than once that wants to “fund the police,” boosting the resources available for the kind of training that could help law enforcement officers deescalate tense situations.

Last month, not long before the House rose for its preelection recess, Democrats overwhelmingly backed four bills to bolster police funding and anti-crime measures.

“This is going to send a very clear signal that Democrats support law enforcement,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), a prominent moderate, told The New York Times.

Other Democrats have been taking a similar stance.

In a Thursday interview, Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) told NewsNation’s “Morning in America”: “‘Defund the Police’ was a very unfortunate three-word phrase that I wish had never come out.”

Bustos, who noted she is married to a sheriff, added that neither she nor “the vast majority of Democrats” ever believed in the slogan.

NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, the corporate owner of The Hill.

Some candidates in tight races are making their opposition to ‘Defund’ plainer still.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who is competing for a Senate seat with Republican J.D. Vance, recently ran an ad in which he threw a football at a television screen showing the slogan.

Veteran Democratic strategist Bill Carrick told this column he believes a nuanced stance on crime can work, insulating candidates from political danger.

“If you make the ‘tough on crime’ argument or the ‘police reform’ argument by themselves, they don’t score nearly as heavily as an argument that blends both those messages into the same thing,” he said.

Right now, however, it’s far from clear that the most prominent Democrats running for office this year are threading that needle.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

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Republicans feel more optimistic about capturing Senate control 

Republicans are feeling new optimism about their chances of taking over the Senate as struggling GOP candidates in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Ohio have stabilized their races, giving themselves a chance to gain ground in the polls after a tough summer.  

Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor, is starting to close the gap in Pennsylvania as a barrage of attacks on Democratic candidate John Fetterman are starting to take their toll.  

In Arizona and Ohio, GOP nominees backed by former President Trump came under criticism from fellow Republicans for lackluster fundraising and falling behind their Democratic opponents in the polls.  

Meanwhile, Republicans still regard Nevada as one of their top two pickup opportunities. Polls in the state show former Attorney General Adam Laxalt with a consistent — though small — lead over incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D).  

Republicans think that the political momentum that President Biden and Democrats received after passing key pieces of Biden’s agenda, including tax reform, climate programs and prescription drug reform, is starting to fade.  

They also say polls from the summer were influenced by the Supreme Court’s decision striking down Roe v. Wade in late June and think that issue will be less potent a month from now.  

“I was in two fundraisers last week and I’m getting the sense that Republicans in the Senate are feeling pretty good or really good,” said Brian Darling, a Republican strategist and former Senate aide.  

“I get the sense that they’re looking at Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, plus — maybe picking up another seat,” he added. “I’m a little surprised.” 

Republicans grew pessimistic about their prospects of winning back the Senate over the summer as Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, pulled out to a big lead over Oz and GOP candidates Blake Masters and J.D. Vance, in Arizona and Ohio respectively, appeared to flounder.  

GOP strategists predict persistently high inflation will continue to take a toll on Democrats and that gas prices will start climbing again now that OPEC has announced it would cut oil production.  

“People are looking at polling trends and internal polling,” Darling said, arguing that over the summer, “people were overemphasizing the impact of the abortion issue and the impact of gas prices coming down a bit.  

“The issue that obliterates all other issues is the economy,” he added.  

The political forecasting website FiveThirtyEight.com a few weeks ago gave Democrats a 71 percent chance of keeping control of the Senate, but those odds have now dipped to 67 percent.  

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) last week said Republicans have a “50-50 shot of getting the Senate back.” 

“We’re in a bunch of close races,” he said. “It’s going to be really, really close either way.”  

Pennsylvania has been the bellwether race in the battle for the Senate and Oz has steadily gained ground on Fetterman, who is recovering from a stroke suffered earlier this year and still has problems hearing, requiring him to rely on closed captioning in video conversations.  

Republicans have pounded Fetterman over his record as the chairman of Pennsylvania’s Board of Pardon’s amid rising crime and a spate of high-profile incidents in Philadelphia.  

The Cook Political Report earlier this week shifted the Pennsylvania Senate race back to the toss-up category after rating it as a “lean Democratic” race for nearly two months.  

National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman Rick Scott (R-Fla.) last month identified Nevada and Georgia as Senate Republicans’ two best pickup opportunities.  

Since then, former NFL star Herschel Walker, the Senate GOP nominee in Georgia, has continued to struggle.  

The latest damaging revelation about Walker, who wants to completely ban abortion, is that he paid for a girlfriend’s abortion. Walker denied the allegation, but his defense was undercut when it was further revealed that he later had a child with the woman who claimed he paid for the procedure.

Polls show the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D), consistently ahead of Walker.

But Republicans are heartened by a new CBS News-YouGov poll conducted from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4 in Arizona, showing Masters trailing Sen. Mark Kelly (D) by only three points.  

“It does seem like the Republican candidates in a few states, Pennsylvania and maybe even Arizona, have settled down their campaigns a bit,” said Steven S. Smith, a professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis.

Smith, who spent five days in Arizona this past week, said Masters has tried to reach out to more moderate Republicans, distancing himself from the pro-Trump rhetoric he employed to win the primary earlier this year.  

He overhauled his campaign website to soften language on abortion, deleting a statement expressing support for a federal personhood law.  

And the NRSC has just announced a new seven-figure advertising investment in Arizona, another sign that Republicans still think Masters has a chance to win, even though the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC linked to McConnell, canceled $10 million in advertising in the state last month.  

The Senate Leadership Fund has instead shifted its money to Ohio, announcing in August a $28 million ad buy to prop up Vance, who has lagged far behind his Democratic opponent, Rep. Tim Ryan, in fundraising.  

The nonpartisan research company AdImpact now projects voters will see $344 million worth of political spending on ads.  

Matt Dole, a Republican political consultant based in Ohio, said Vance has found his footing in the campaign after struggling over the summer.  

“The polls show that J.D. Vance has settled into a comfortable, small lead. And certainly the context on the ground indicates he has the wind at his back. In a mid-term election year, more Republicans turn out than Democrats. The economy is bad and the incumbent president is Democrat. All of those context things point to J.D. Vance having the wind at his back.” 

There’s also growing discussion about the possibility that the polls are undercounting Trump-allied voters as they did in 2016 and 2020.  

“What is true of these polls is that when you get down into the cross tabs, they wildly oversample college-educated men and women who have traditionally leaned left over the last few cycles,” Dole said. “The hypothesis is if the polls show Vance up three points, he’s probably up five to eight points.  

Senate Democrats acknowledge they’re nervous about the polls misreading Republican voter enthusiasm in yet another election cycle.  

“The classic view of polling is that at best it’s a snapshot in time, and the only one that matters is the one on Election Day,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).  

Vance and Ryan are scheduled to hold their first and only statewide debate on Monday.  

A Spectrum News-Siena College poll of 642 likely Ohio voters conducted from Sept. 18 to Sept. 22 showed Ryan leading Vance by three points but a Marist poll of 1,347 Ohio adults showed Vance up by a point.  

In Wisconsin, where Democrats hope to knock off GOP incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican negative advertising blitz has driven down the favorable ratings of Democratic candidate Mandela Barnes, the lieutenant governor.  

A recent AARP Wisconsin poll showed Johnson leading Barnes by five points, 51 percent to 46 percent, among likely voters. Most worrying for Democrats, Barnes’s favorable rating stood at 43 percent — five points lower than Johnson, who had a 48 percent favorable rating.  

Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said in the last four election cycles there are instances “where Republicans were underestimated in polls more often than Democrats were.” 

“You have to be wary that the instruments we’re using to try to assess the election are going to have errors and they might be biased against Republicans,” he said.  

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Democrats look to keep abortion front and center ahead of November

Democrats are seeking to keep abortion in the headlines ahead of the midterm elections in an effort to make it top of mind for voters as they seek to retain control of the House and Senate.

Their strategy comes as Republicans have tried to steer the focus to crime, the economy and immigration, all topics Democrats would like to avoid ahead of November.

But it’s also playing out as Republicans continue to generate news about the issue themselves. Most recently, a bombshell report alleged that Georgia GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker paid for a woman’s abortion. That followed tensions spilling out into public after Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced legislation for a 15-week abortion ban, raising concerns among some Republicans that he was shooting his own party in the foot ahead of November. 

“It’s clear that abortion is an issue that resonates with a sizable number of Americans, and it’s smart for Democrats to keep that issue at the top of voters’ minds as a way to drive turnout,” said Katie Grant Drew, a Democratic communications strategist. “And it’s remarkable that some Republicans are doing Democrats a favor and keeping abortion on the front burner by proposing legislation to ban abortion nationwide, which a majority of Americans oppose.”

The Daily Beast reported on Monday that Walker, who staunchly opposes abortion in any circumstance, urged a woman to abort a child the two conceived in 2009 and later reimbursed her $700 for the procedure. The Hill has not verified The Daily Beast’s report. 

While Democrats are not addressing the Walker story head-on, the party is spotlighting the issue in races up and down the ballot across the country. Over the past month in Pennsylvania, Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman has hammered his GOP opponent Mehmet Oz for not saying whether he supports a national abortion ban. 

And last month, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) targeted Nevada Republican Senate nominee Adam Laxalt in an ad over his abortion stance as part of its $8.4 million ad reservation in the state this fall.

Incumbent New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan (D), meanwhile, is seeking to make the issue front and center in her campaign, which leans strongly in favor of abortion rights. 

“In the final weeks of the campaigns, we will continue to use every tactic and every tool at our disposal to ensure that Senate Republicans’ unpopular plan to ban abortion nationwide is front and center for voters,” said Nora Keefe, deputy communications director at the DSCC.

The issue is one Democrats believe will play well with suburban women, a key voting demographic in a number of swing states. A Reuters-Ipsos poll released on Wednesday showed the group favoring Democrats over Republicans on the issue 40 to 24 percent. 

Meanwhile, Democrats — including the White House — continue to bash Graham’s legislation, highlighting Republicans’ messaging challenges on the issue. At a Democratic National Committee fundraiser late last month, President Biden said that Republicans are discussing an abortion ban that had “no exceptions — rape, incest, no exceptions.”

“I happen to be a practicing Roman Catholic,” Biden said. “My church doesn’t even make that argument.”

Democratic strategist Michael Starr Hopkins argued that Republicans are insulting women with their moves to restrict abortion access, warning that such policies could alienate female workers.

“Democrats shouldn’t back down or hedge one bit,” he said. “We are the party that believes in body autonomy and respecting a woman’s right to choose what they do with their body and their lives. Every day Democrats aren’t making that argument is a missed opportunity and a disservice to women.” 

The White House has done its own events as well to keep abortion in the headlines.

Vice President Harris traveled on Wednesday to New Britain, Conn., to join Alexis McGill Johnson, CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) for a meeting. 

That trip was one of more than 20 meetings the vice president has done, with more than 150 state legislators from 18 states, to discuss abortion issues with local leaders.

The administration on Tuesday announced more than $6 million in new Title X grants and other grants to protect access to reproductive health care. And the Department of Education will release guidance to universities that will reiterate the Title IX requirement that institutions must protect their students from discrimination based on pregnancy, including pregnancy termination.

At the second meeting on Tuesday of the White House Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access, which came about 100 days after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, Biden focused on new guidance from the University of Idaho against offering birth control for students.

The president, echoing the tone he has used when discussing state legislation that has restricted reproductive rights, asked, “What century are we in?”

White House assistant press secretary Kevin Munoz reiterated Biden’s comments from the meeting, saying that the Supreme Court’s decision “takes us backwards as a country.”

“Whether it be a state university failing to provide contraception or a teenager being refused their essential medication, it’s clear that radical policies being championed by Republican officials are not just extreme but have very real, dangerous consequences for women’s health,” he said.

He added that Biden and Harris “are not going to hesitate to shed a light on this as the health issue it is and the reality that these policies are being propagated by Republican officials.”

Hopkins agreed, also arguing that Republicans have been hypocritical on abortion issues considering the Walker controversy this week.

“Republicans are hellbent on returning this country to a time where men control women’s bodies,” he said. “Their attempts at framing the abortion debate as concern over protecting the sanctity of life has been exposed as the height of hypocrisy by people like Herschel Walker. Women are watching and listening.”

NARAL, the abortion rights group, is also doing work to help elect Democratic candidates. It has launched what it says is its largest-ever midterm program, and its foundation has spent $2.2 million on running adds in Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada, where it has endorsed pro-abortion rights candidates. 

But recent polling shows abortion appears to be fading as a primary issue for voters. According to a Monmouth University survey released on Monday, abortion ranked seventh among the most important issues for voters, with 56 percent of respondents calling it “extremely or very important.” 

By contrast, inflation and crime came in first and second among the most important issues for voters. Eighty-two percent said inflation was “extremely or very important,” while 72 percent said the same about crime. 

“For Democrats to put all of their eggs in one basket on abortion is politically irresponsible given how much voters are concerned about the economy,” said a national Republican strategist. “Now the issue that is surging is crime.” 

The Reuters-Ipsos poll released on Wednesday found that 39 percent of registered voters said they believed Republicans were better suited to solve crime, while 30 percent said the same about Democrats. 

“I don’t see anything changing between now and November where they’re going to be able to use abortion as a wedge they’re hoping for because ultimately that’s not what’s top of mind for voters,” said one national Republican operative. 

Drew, now a principal at Monument Advocacy, also warned that Democrats can’t rely on abortion issues alone to hold on to Congress this November.

“They need to continue to remind voters that they did what they said they would do by enacting major legislation on climate change, infrastructure, and prescription drug pricing,” she said.

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