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McConnell cozies up to Sinema ahead of next Congress

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is cozying up to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) at a time when the Senate’s other most prominent Democratic centrist, Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) has suffered a swift fall from grace among his Republican colleagues. 

McConnell’s lavish praise for Sinema at an event he hosted for her at the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville is a sign that he and other Republicans view the Arizona senator as the most effective bipartisan coalition builder on the Democratic side of the aisle, say GOP senators and aides. 

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) said McConnell is grateful Sinema helped defeat the Democrats’ efforts to weaken the filibuster earlier this year. 

“He, being an institutionalist, respects the fact that she stood tall for the institution,” Thune said.   

Many liberal Democrats were furious when Sinema and Manchin sided with Republicans at the beginning of the year to defeat a Democratic effort to pare back the Senate’s filibuster rule to allow a voting rights package to pass.

But Republicans warned it would have set a major precedent for weakening the legislative filibuster and transforming the Senate into a majority-ruled body like the House. 

Sinema’s stance drew a rebuke from the Arizona Democratic Party’s executive board, which voted to censure her. 

But Sinema doubled down in her support for the Senate filibuster during her speech at the McConnell Center Monday. She even called for it to be expanded to cover executive branch and judicial nominees, as it used to before Democrats pared it back in 2013.

She said the filibuster is the “best way to identify realistic solutions instead of escalating this all-or-nothing political battle that results in no action or in those radical federal policy reversals.”  

McConnell’s treatment of Sinema raises questions about whether she might be persuaded to switch parties or change her affiliation to independent ahead of her 2024 Senate reelection race, when she could face a primary challenge from Rep. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.) or another liberal Democrat.  

Sinema ruled out the idea of switching parties last year, however.

“We’ve all made various attempts and runs at getting her to join our caucus. I think she’s comfortable where she is,” said Thune, who is one of Sinema’s good friends on the Republican side of the aisle.  

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of McConnell’s leadership team, said Republicans view Sinema as one of the few Democrats they can work with to get bills moving in a 50-50 Senate. 

Having a good relationship with her will be key to getting bills passed with bipartisan support if Republicans win back the Senate majority on Election Day, GOP lawmakers say.

“My experience with Sen. Sinema is she’s very smart and she’s willing to work with people on both sides of the aisle to solve problems. We don’t have enough people like that around here,” said Cornyn, who toured migrant facilities with Sinema in June and introduced a bill with her to address the surge of migrants at the border in April. 

Cornyn worked closely with Sinema to pass legislation to address gun violence after the mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and to pass a $280 billion chips and science bill in August.

Hours after the massacre in Uvalde, Sinema walked up to McConnell on the Senate floor and told him she was heartbroken and wanted to do something about gun violence. He suggested she speak to Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).  

Last year, she led negotiations on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, President Biden’s biggest bipartisan accomplishment of his first two years in office.  

McConnell voted for all three bills that Sinema helped negotiate — the infrastructure, gun violence and chips and science measures. All three pieces of legislation later became law.  

More recently she played a central role in the talks over the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the union of one man and one women and exempts states from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states.  

A senior Democratic aide said predicted the marriage bill is likely to pass before the end of the year, citing Sinema’s participation in the talks as a promising sign.  

“If Sinema is involved in something, it’s likely to pass,” the aide said.  

McConnell knows he will need Sinema if Republicans control the Senate by a narrow margin in 2023.  

“To get things across the finish line in today’s Senate, you need to build relationships and get bipartisan support. McConnell understands this reality, as does Sinema,” said a second Senate aide.  

McConnell thinks the battle for control of the Senate will be very close and predicts that whichever party controls the chamber next year will have a very narrow margin. 

His praise for Sinema came the same week he pulled out all the stops to derail Manchin’s permitting reform bill. He blasted Manchin’s proposal as “a phony fig leaf” and “permitting reform in name only.”  

Cornyn said Manchin’s stock with Republicans plummeted after he surprised them by announcing a deal with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in late July to vote for a budget reconciliation bill that would establish a 15-percent corporate minimum tax, spend $369 billion on climate programs and empower Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices.  

Schumer on Wednesday hailed the bill that Manchin negotiated, the Inflation Reduction Act, as the “crowning jewel” of Democrats’ accomplishments.

“Sen. Manchin was doing really well until he got to the IRA, the inflation non-reduction act,” said Cornyn.  

McConnell was much kinder to Sinema when he introduced her Monday in Louisville, hailing her as “the most effective first-term senator I’ve seen in my time in the Senate.” 

The compliment sparked a backlash from liberals.

“Blocking Biden is one of McConnell’s professed goals for this Congress, which means that, if anything, Sinema has been effective in promoting the goals of the McConnell and Republican Party,” fumed MSNBC opinion columnist Hayes Brown in an op-ed.  

Sinema in her speech at the McConnell Center pushed back against liberal critics.

“In today’s partisan Washington, it may shock some that a Democratic senator would consider the Republican leader of the Senate her friend, but back home in Arizona we don’t view life through a partisan lens,” she said.  

Schumer, who is careful not to provoke the party’s liberal base, has been put in a tough position given the criticism of Sinema.  

Asked Wednesday about McConnell’s glowing praise of Sinema, Schumer noted that McConnell has complimented other Democrats he’s invited to his center in Louisville.   

“Sen. McConnell said I was very effective when I was there, as well,” Schumer responded. 

But the Democratic leader declined to say whether he would endorse Sinema in a 2024 Democratic primary. 

“Sen. Sinema has done a good job on a whole lot of different issues,” he said tersely.   

Source: TEST FEED1

Top Cuban diplomat: ‘We will have to’ negotiate with the United States

NEW YORK – Cuba’s top diplomat said Tuesday his country’s officials have no choice but to engage the United States in negotiations to normalize relations, despite a decade of diplomatic whiplash and mixed messages from Washington. 

In an interview with The Hill, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla responded to a question posed by former Obama administration adviser Ben Rhodes on whether Cuban officials would “ever, ever negotiate anything with America ever again after this?” 

“We will have to,” said Rodríguez Parrilla, who was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly. 

“We will have to, first, because there is a historical trend that will, at some point, force us to reestablish dialogue and lift the blockade.” 

After a historic and controversial push to normalize relations between Washington and Havana under former President Obama, the Trump administration did an about-face, most famously adding Cuba to a list of state sponsors of terrorism. 

The Biden administration, though less hawkish than the Trump administration, has not taken major steps to normalize relations, including keeping Cuba on the terrorism watchlist. 

“We shouldn’t expect President Biden to return to the policies of President Obama. One would have expected President Biden to implement his own policy, adjusted to his electoral platform, to his commitments with his voters, to the current reality of the international situation,” said Rodríguez Parrilla. 

“What has been a regrettable surprise is that President Biden continues to apply, precisely, the adverse, abusive, failed policies that do not bring the United States closer to any result [inherited from] President Trump, who is [Biden’s] political antipode,” he added.  

Still, the Biden administration has softened some of its predecessor’s Cuba policies, often despite domestic political pressure. 

“President Biden’s policy toward Cuba is rooted in supporting the Cuban people and protecting human rights. Our approach to Cuba, just like any other country, takes into account various current political, economic, and security factors. Over the past few years, conditions in Cuba and in the region have changed, and we have adapted our Cuba policy accordingly,” a National Security Council spokesperson told The Hill.

In May, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) panned a Biden administration announcement that some travel restrictions to the island were being lifted, while celebrating the resumption of the Cuban Family Reunification Parole program, which streamlines legal immigration for Cubans with family in the United States. 

“I am dismayed to learn the Biden administration will begin authorizing group travel to Cuba through visits akin to tourism. To be clear, those who still believe that increasing travel will breed democracy in Cuba are simply in a state of denial. For decades, the world has been traveling to Cuba and nothing has changed,” said Menendez, the highest-ranking Cuban American in the history of the United States Congress.  

The Biden administration has also announced that the U.S. consulate in Havana will resume processing migrant visas in 2023, and in May, it announced eased restrictions on remittances — money sent by U.S. residents to friends and relatives on the island. 

“I think it was positive, that announcement in May by the current U.S. government to reestablish the regular flow of remittances,” said Rodríguez Parrilla. 

“However, that announcement has not materialized into a concrete decision, and it’s still not happening. One ought to wonder why,” he added. 

A representatives for the White House did not respond to a request for comment on this story. 

Rodríguez Parrilla is the highest-ranking Cuban official — other than Fidel Castro in 1959 — to visit Washington since the Cuban Revolution, and in Rodríguez Parrilla’s own lifetime. 

The foreign minister was in Washington in 2015 to reopen the Cuban Embassy, one of the greater symbolic gestures of the rapprochement period during the Obama administration. 

While those milestones seem frozen in the past for now, Cuba and the United States collaborate on a series of important, if technical, matters.  

For instance, Cuba quickly opened its airports to flights stranded in the air during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the island has often allowed U.S. military storm-chaser aircraft to enter its airspace for hurricane research and the United States provided technical assistance to clean up after a fire at a Matanzas oil supertanker installation in August. 

“There is a cooperation agreement on environmental issues including search and rescue, common waters, that passed a test of adversity with the previous Republican government, but that remains in effect,” said Rodríguez Parrilla.  

Part of this collaboration is due to proximity and shared crises — Hurricane Ian hit Cuba’s western provinces before picking up steam in the northern Gulf of Mexico and hitting Florida Wednesday. 

“It’s a very intense relationship. There is a deep cultural connection between the two neighboring countries, there is also a shared history. However, there are deep and totally asymmetrical differences,” said Rodríguez Parrilla. 

“U.S. government policy, historically, since 1959, has been one of hostility and aggression. Its core element is the economic, commercial and financial blockade, which is the factor that decides the quality of the bilateral relationship,” he added. 

While the Cuban embargo is a unilateral U.S. policy, various domestic and international pressures feed into U.S. hostility toward the Cuban communist regime. 

First and foremost, the core of the Cuban diaspora in the United States is composed of people who fled the 1959 revolution and their descendants. 

Three decades of Cuban alignment with the Soviet Union solidified a sense of enmity and incompatibility, building once seemingly insurmountable political barriers against rapprochement within the United States. 

Cuba also maintains core elements of Soviet-style communism — including a politburo of which Rodríguez Parrilla is a member — though its dynamic political system is far more open than the top-down autocracies of other extant communist regimes, like North Korea. 

And the island’s human rights record has been panned by actors throughout the political spectrum, including left-leaning groups like Human Rights Watch, which last year condemned repression against demonstrators who were largely protesting economic conditions. 

Still, Cuba’s flawed human rights record is not exclusively one of repression.  

On Sunday, Cuba held an open referendum for citizens to vote on a series of social reforms, including same-sex marriage and gender equality measures. 

The proposal was overwhelmingly approved, with nearly 4 million votes in favor, and nearly 2 million against. The results showed both a split with conservative attitudes associated with the old guard and a diversity of opinion on a major social issue. 

“Tell me of any [other] country that decided these topics by referendum,” said Rodríguez Parrilla, in reference to countries like the United States, Mexico and Colombia, where controversial but widely accepted social issues like same-sex marriage have been left to the courts. 

“And regardless, there are other countries, that through votes that sometimes inevitably are perceived as partisan, through the courts, they determine what citizens should democratically determine directly by themselves, without mediators, as is the case with sexual and reproductive rights.” 

“Make the comparison … between the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on abortion, and submitting to popular referendum everything related to that topic and others,” said Rodríguez Parrilla. 

The Cuban diplomat’s understanding of how the country’s referendum on social issues compares to the debate over abortion rights in the United States is a feature of a political class that has carefully studied U.S. politics for decades. 

Cuban officials feel that’s an advantage they have over their U.S. counterparts, who they say often caricaturize a complex political system as a monolithic old-style communist regime. 

“With all due respect, the United States government is not at all a studious being,” said Rodríguez Parrilla.

“The criteria that have been put forward by one side and the other on U.S. democracy in the last two years are very peculiar,” he said. 

Still, Cuba’s stability is more in question today than at any time since at least the end of the Cold War, as internal and external economic and political difficulties pile on for the island. 

U.S. hawks see an opportunity to further push the 60-year-old embargo in the hopes that it will finally achieve a collapse of a recalcitrant communist system; doves see a risk of creating an unnecessary humanitarian crisis in a country that’s shown some openness to reform. 

Cuban officials say the ball to reopen talks is in the U.S. court.  

“We have that willingness. No doubt the U.S. government will have to show a similar willingness. And in the end we’ll have to judge based on tangible acts,” said Rodríguez Parrilla. 

“But it already happened. It already happened once, which proves it’s possible. And it proved that it was beneficial. I am sure the historical trend leads to that — a policy that’s failed for 60 years has to be changed,” he added. 

Source: TEST FEED1

People trapped, 2.5M without power as Ian drenches Florida

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Ian left a path of destruction in southwest Florida, trapping people in flooded homes, damaging the roof of a hospital intensive care unit and knocking out power to 2.5 million people before aiming for the Atlantic Coast on Thursday.

One of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the United States churned across the Florida peninsula, threatening catastrophic flooding inland. Ian’s tropical-storm-force winds extended outward up to 415 miles (665 km), and nearly the entire state was getting drenched.

The National Hurricane Center said Ian became a tropical storm over land early Thursday and was expected to regain near-hurricane strength after emerging over Atlantic waters near the Kennedy Space Center later in the day. Flooding rains continued across the state, and a stretch of the Gulf Coast remained inundated by ocean water, pushed ashore by the massive storm.

“Severe and life-threatening storm surge inundation of 8 to 10 feet above ground level along with destructive waves is ongoing along the southwest Florida coastline from Englewood to Bonita Beach, including Charlotte Harbor,” the center said.

In Port Charlotte, along Florida’s Gulf Coast, the storm surge flooded a lower-level emergency room in a hospital even as fierce winds ripped away part of the roof from its intensive care unit, according to a doctor who works there.

Water gushed down onto the ICU, forcing staff to evacuate the hospital’s sickest patients — some of whom were on ventilators — to other floors, said Dr. Birgit Bodine of HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital. Staff members used towels and plastic bins to try to mop up the sodden mess.

The medium-sized hospital spans four floors, but patients were forced into just two because of the damage. Bodine planned to spend the night there in case people injured from the storm arrive needing help.

“As long as our patients do OK and nobody ends up dying or having a bad outcome, that’s what matters,” Bodine said.

Law enforcement officials in nearby Fort Myers received calls from people trapped in flooded homes or from worried relatives. Pleas were also posted on social media sites, some with video showing debris-covered water sloshing toward homes’ eaves.

Brittany Hailer, a journalist in Pittsburgh, contacted rescuers about her mother in North Fort Myers, whose home was swamped by 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water.

“We don’t know when the water’s going to go down. We don’t know how they’re going to leave, their cars are totaled,” Hailer said. “Her only way out is on a boat.”

Hurricane Ian turned streets into rivers and blew down trees as it slammed into southwest Florida on Wednesday with 150 mph (241 kph) winds, pushing a wall of storm surge. Ian’s strength at landfall was Category 4 and tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane, when measured by wind speed, to ever strike the U.S.

Ian dropped to a tropical storm early Thursday over land, but was expected to intensify again once its center moves over the Atlantic Ocean and menace the South Carolina coast Friday at near-hurricane strength. Storm surges as high as 6 feet (2 meters) were expected on both sides of the peninsula.

At 5 a.m. Thursday, the storm was about 40 miles (70 km) southeast of Orlando and 35 miles (55 kilometers) southwest of Cape Canaveral, carrying maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph) and moving toward the cape at 8 mph (13 kmh), the Miami-based hurricane center said.

Hurricane warnings were lowered to tropical storm warnings across the Florida peninsula, with widespread, catastrophic flooding remaining likely, the hurricane center said.

Up to a foot (30 centimeters) of rain forecast for parts of Northeast Florida, coastal Georgia and the Lowcountry of South Carolina. As much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) could fall in southern Virginia as the storm moves inland over the Carolinas, and the center said landslides were possible in the southern Appalachian mountains.

No deaths were reported in the United States from Ian by late Wednesday. But a boat carrying Cuban migrants sank Wednesday in stormy weather east of Key West.

The U.S. Coast Guard initiated a search and rescue mission for 23 people and managed to find three survivors about two miles (three kilometers) south of the Florida Keys, officials said. Four other Cubans swam to Stock Island, just east of Key West, the U.S. Border Patrol said. Air crews continued to search for possibly 20 remaining migrants.

The storm previously tore into Cuba, killing two people and bringing down the country’s electrical grid.

The hurricane’s eye made landfall near Cayo Costa, a barrier island just west of heavily populated Fort Myers. As it approached, water drained from Tampa Bay.

More than 2.5 million Florida homes and businesses were left without electricity, according to the PowerOutage.us site. Most of the homes and businesses in 12 counties were without power.

Sheriff Bull Prummell of Charlotte County, just north of Fort Myers, announced a curfew between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. “for life-saving purposes,” saying violators may face second-degree misdemeanor charges.

“I am enacting this curfew as a means of protecting the people and property of Charlotte County,” Prummell said.

Life-threatening storm surges and hurricane conditions were possible on Thursday and Friday along the coasts of northeast Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, where Ian was expected to move inland, dumping more rain well in from the coast, the hurricane center said.

The governors of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia all preemptively declared states of emergency.

___

Associated Press contributors include Christina Mesquita in Havana, Cuba; Cody Jackson and Adriana Gomez Licon in Tampa, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida; Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida; Seth Borenstein and Aamer Madhani in Washington; Bobby Caina Calvan in New York; Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio; Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama, and Alina Hartounian in Phoenix, Arizona.

Source: TEST FEED1

Hurricane Ian pounds Florida with ‘extremely dangerous’ rain and wind

Hurricane Ian pummeled Florida after making landfall Wednesday afternoon, bringing life-threatening storm surges to the coast and extreme wind and rain that knocked out power for more than a million people and spurred evacuation orders for some 2.5 million. 

“This is going to be a nasty nasty day, two days,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said earlier on Wednesday, urging people in Ian’s path along the Atlantic coast to rush to the safest possible shelter and stay there.

DeSantis said Wednesday evening that the storm surges, which were forecasted to reach up to 18 feet, had likely peaked. “But we know this has been a big storm and has done a lot of damage as it is.”

The hurricane made landfall as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm near Cayo Costa, Fla, according to the National Hurricane Center, and proceeded to sweep over the cities of Naples and Fort Myers, where images and videos showed scenes of devastation throughout the late afternoon and into the evening. 

Reports on cable news networks and on social media showed streets turned into rivers, trees knocked down by wind and houses destroyed by the storm. 

Flash floods were possible all across Florida, with the storm expected to pound the Orlando area Thursday and exit the state near Daytona Beach. Federal officials said Tuesday that inland flooding was their biggest safety concerns. 

Ian is the strongest storm to hit Florida at least since Hurricane Michael in 2018, and will rank among the top five storms to ever hit the Florida peninsula, according to DeSantis. 

Officials in southern Florida reported calls of residents who remained stuck in their homes as water levels were rising. “We are getting a significant number of calls of people trapped by water in their homes,” the Collier County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post.

More than a million Floridians have been left without power, according to poweroutage.us, which shows more than 10 counties with significant power outages, the worst of them in Lee County, where more than 300,000 residents are without power.

King Point residents leave with their belongings after a tornado spawned from an apparent overnight tornado spawned from Hurricane Ian at Kings Point 55+ community in Delray Beach, Fla., on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. (Carline Jean /South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

The National Hurricane Center issued a 5 p.m. update predicting the top winds would fall to 85 mph within 12 hours, down from their peak of 155 mph, making Ian a Category 1 hurricane. 

However, Jamie Rhome, acting director of the center, warned the destruction would continue as the storm heads north.  

“It will still pack a formidable punch as it moves across the state of Florida along the I-4 corridor in the next couple of days,” Rhome said in a Facebook broadcast. 

A spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute told The New York Times that the damage from Hurricane Ian could end up costing anywhere from $20 billion to $40 billion, depending on the storm’s path and strength.

The federal government sent 300 ambulances with medical teams and was ready to truck in 3.7 million meals and 3.5 million liters of water once the storm passes.

“We’ll be there to help you clean up and rebuild, to help Florida get moving again,” President Biden said Wednesday. “And we’ll be there every step of the way. That’s my absolute commitment to the people of the state of Florida.”

DeSantis has requested Biden grant a major disaster declaration for all 67 of the state’s counties, which would open a range of federal assistance for residents and funding for public infrastructure repairs.

DeSantis and Biden put politics aside Tuesday night and spoke about Hurricane Ian hitting Florida.

“This is about the people of Florida,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday. “This is about two people who wanted to have a conversation on how we can be partners to the governor and his constituents and make sure that we are delivering for the people of Florida.”

Additional reporting from Associated Press

Source: TEST FEED1

Putin seen as more dangerous as Russia-Ukraine war turns sour

Russian President Vladimir Putin is becoming more dangerous and desperate as he faces growing pressure at home over the flailing war effort in Ukraine, observers of the conflict and Moscow say.

Putin in the last week has renewed his threats of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine and moved to annex territories from Ukraine, while arguing attacks on that territory would amount to an attack on Russia.

His government is also suspected in leaks to a pipeline under the Baltic Sea that carries fuel to Europe, although the gas flow was earlier suspended.

The new threats come after a mobilization effort of 300,000 reservists in Russia, announced in response to criticism of Putin’s war effort, received blowback across the country. Images of lines of cars seeking to get across the border into neighboring states have circulated, underscoring internal tensions over the war.

The Biden administration and U.S. allies have reacted forcefully, warning that the use of nuclear weapons would lead to serious consequences.

Outside experts describe a tinderbox of sort.

“He is dangerous, he is desperate,” said Daniel Fried, distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former U.S. ambassador to Poland.

“Because he’s in a weak position he’s doubling down on what he may consider to be his strongest remaining assets: nuclear threat and ability to use violence to achieve his aims, such as blowing up the Nordstream pipelines, if in fact Russia is responsible, which it appears they may be. He’s hoping to use unpredictability as a tactical weapon to intimidate the West.”

Putin has warned that threats to use nuclear warheads are not a bluff, and the White House on Wednesday took notice.

“We take Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons seriously,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday. “But we have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture and we will not be deterred from supporting Ukraine.”

At the Pentagon, a senior defense official reiterated that the U.S. had given a warning to Moscow.

“We have clearly warned Moscow that any use of nuclear weapons would result in serious consequences. We’re not going to get into the specifics of what those specific responses would be,” the official said. 

“In terms of allies, we are very much in close consultation with our allies on all matters related to Ukraine, but also certainly on all aspects of the Russian threat,” the official added. “But of course, the United States also has its own prerogative to employ a U.S. option.”

More than 100,000 Russian men are reportedly fleeing the country, while protests are taking place at dozens of locations in response to the mobilization effort. There have been instances of violent retaliation against military recruiters.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has warned Americans to immediately leave the country and that dual citizens may be conscripted to fight. 

The annexation of at least four territories in Ukraine — a process initiated through contests the U.S., allies and the United Nations have rejected as “sham referenda” with staged results — is raising the threat of a greater global confrontation. 

Jean-Pierre on Wednesday condemned the votes as “pre-staged and orchestrated by the Kremlin,” pointing to armed guards who hovered near voting locations as attempts to intimidate and influence voters.

The Biden administration, in its delivery of heavy artillery to Ukraine, has requested and received assurances from the Ukrainians that they would not strike within Russian territory out of a fear that such an action would escalate a bigger reaction from Russia.

But that limit is not expected to apply to Ukrainian territory forcibly occupied by Russia. 

“Ukraine has the absolute right to defend itself throughout its territory, including to take back the territory that has been illegally seized one way or another by Russia,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Tuesday. “The weapons that we and many other countries are providing them have been used very effectively to do just that.”

The U.S. has not adjusted its nuclear posture in response to Putin’s latest comments, a sign both that it does not see an imminent threat and that it does not want to escalate the conflict.

Still, lawmakers like Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden ally, are raising alarm. 

“I am concerned that Vladimir Putin is increasingly desperate,” Coons said in an interview with MSNBC. “We should always take seriously his threats to use nuclear weapons. But frankly we need to push back, as President Biden has, and make clear that for him to do that would bring a swift and decisive response by NATO.”

Some analysts say that Putin is unlikely to use nuclear weapons given the near unanimous blowback he would likely receive.

“Anyone who understands the dynamics of the international community knows there’s no way that the international community can stand by, the day after, any government uses a nuclear weapon for the first time since World War II, everything would change,” said Evelyn Farkas, executive director of the McCain Institute at Arizona State University.

“Vladimir Putin has to know that. He has to know that he would face conventional attacks and that he would face an attempt to maneuver him out of the Kremlin, out of office, by the international community.”

Still, experts believe Putin’s latest moves — mobilizing troops, mentioning the threat of a nuclear response and annexing territory through manipulated votes — are signs of an increasingly desperate leader who is faced with the tide of the war in Ukraine turning against him.

Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he believes Putin’s strategy at this point may be to lengthen the war into the winter, when energy costs in Europe will rise, the fighting will grow more difficult and cracks may begin to form across the continent.

Farkas echoed that Putin has long employed actions as a strategy to buy time. 

“Most of his political experience ruling Russia and waging war has taught him, that if he buys a little time, he may be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat, he might get a stroke of luck or something else might happen. So he has benefited from this ability to buy time until something else happens, or he can cause something else to happen, or he can wait out his opponents, or who knows what,” she said. 

Ellen Mitchell contributed to this story.

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McConnell downplays impact of abortion politics on battle for the Senate

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday downplayed the impact of abortion politics on the battle for the Senate majority, predicting that the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade will play differently in different states.  

McConnell has sought to make the 2022 midterm election a referendum on President Biden by focusing on inflation, the influx of migrants across the Southern Border and rising crime rates in big cities.  

But political handicappers now say that Democrats are favored to keep their Senate majority, in large part because Democrats are more eager to vote in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which struck down the right to abortion.  

Asked Wednesday if he had been overly dismissive impact of abortion politics on the battle for the Senate, McConnell said: “I think that issue is playing out it in different ways in different states.”  

But the GOP leader argued that other issues are doing more to move voters nationwide. 

“The three big national issues that we’re going to be addressing here that people are most concerned about, nationally, are the ones that I mentioned: Inflation, crime and open borders. That’s clearly where we’re going to be putting the focus,” he said.  

On the hot-button issue of abortion rights, McConnell said he’ll leave it to individual Senate candidates to craft their positions.  

“I think every one of our candidates may have a different answer to that depending on where they are,” he said.  

In May, McConnell defended the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion rights and predicted the issue would be “a wash” in the November election. 

But some Senate Republican strategists now concede the issue has revved up Democratic voters more than they expected.  

A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted from Sept. 18 to Sept. 19 showed that Republicans’ generic advantage over Democrats has slipped since February.  

Forty-seven percent of respondents said they would vote for a Republican candidate in a generic House race over while 46 percent said they would vote for a Democrat. That’s a shift compared to a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted in February that showed respondents favoring Republicans 49 percent to 42 percent.  

People surveyed in the poll said by a three-point margin — 48 percent to 45 percent — that they would prefer Republicans control Congress next year. But the margin was 10 points in February — 50 percent to 40 percent.  

The poll showed that Democrats see abortion as the second-most important issue heading into the election, trailing only climate change.  

The poll also showed that voters trust Democrats more than Republicans by a 17-point margin to handle the abortion issue appropriately. Voters, however, gave Republicans the edge on crime, inflation and the economy.  

McConnell in recent weeks has tried to manage expectations about Republicans’ chances of winning back control of the Senate.  

He raised eyebrows in August when he said that Republicans are more likely to win control of the House than the Senate and cited “candidate quality,” a comment that was broadly seen as a subtle critique of some of the Senate Republican candidates who are closely aligned with former President Trump.  

The GOP leader on Wednesday said “terrific candidates” always make a big difference in Senate races and predicted the battle for the Senate majority would be a toss-up. 

“In every election every year, this year, past years, it’s great to have terrific candidates. We’re in a bunch of close races. I think we have a 50-50 shot of getting the Senate back. It’s going to be really, really close either way, in my view,” he said.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden, DeSantis put politics aside with Hurricane Ian bearing down

President Biden and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) put politics aside Tuesday night and spoke about Hurricane Ian hitting Florida, a shift after Biden hadn’t spoken directly with his potential 2024 political rival in the lead-up to the storm. 

Before the call, the White House had been pressed on why Biden hadn’t called DeSantis, a political foe who has leaned into culture wars and challenged the administration over the influx of migrants at the border.

News of the discussion silenced any criticism that politics might interfere with the government’s response to the Category 4 storm, at least for the time being.

“Voters expect politicians of all stripes to put down their swords when a disaster strikes, and it’s always advantageous to be able to cite one high-profile bipartisan action when challenged about your bipartisan bona fides,” said Stewart Verdery, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security under former President George W. Bush.

Former Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa.), a Biden ally, said it benefits Biden and DeSantis to be in discussions.

“I think it’s kind of unsurprising that there would be the Washington game of speculation, ‘will they won’t they,’ ” Carney said. “But I think ultimately, when it comes to something as potentially catastrophic and devastating as a hurricane as strong as Ian, in this case the best politics is no politics.”

The White House on Wednesday, when asked about the call, stressed that there should be no politics involved in the response to Hurricane Ian, which could bring more than 10 feet of life-threatening storm surge to Florida’s west coast and has maximum sustained winds of more than 150 miles per hour.

“This is about the people of Florida,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “This is about two people who wanted to have a conversation on how we can be partners to the governor and his constituents and make sure that we are delivering for the people of Florida.”

Florida is a swing state in presidential contests and will help decide the Senate majority this fall. DeSantis is also up for reelection.

“Once you’ve won the election, you’re the governor or you’re the president for all people,” said GOP strategist Doug Heye. “That’s certainly what Biden won on. Whoever would breach that would look bad, particularly to Florida voters and Florida’s an important state.”

Carney, now a senior policy adviser at Nossaman LLP, added that “Democrats understand that this is a life threatening, catastrophic event and you kind of check your politics at the door in such a case.”

Biden will be briefed at FEMA’s headquarters on Thursday on the federal response to the hurricane and continue to receive regular briefings. The White House has not yet said if Biden will visit Florida after Ian passes.

The storm is a key test for both men.

Presidents are always judged on their ability to handle natural disasters, while DeSantis must manage a crisis in his home state as speculation swirls over if he will mount a White House bid.

After talking to Biden, the governor went on air with Fox News’s Sean Hannity and lauded the administration’s response to the hurricane so far.

“When people’s lives and their property are at risk like this, we all need to work together regardless of party lines,” DeSantis said. “It’s my sense that the administration wants to help.” 

This isn’t the first disaster the Sunshine State has faced that has brought Biden and DeSantis together.

The two appeared together in person last year as they toured damage and spoke about the response to the collapse of a condominium building in Surfside, Fla., that killed nearly 100 people. 

But the relationship has been tense more recently. Administration officials have condemned the governor’s support of the so-called Don’t Say Gay law that restricts discussion of sexual orientation in the classroom, and more recently have called out DeSantis for flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., accusing him of using human beings as political props.

The Biden-DeSantis call was only focused on the hurricane response and no other topic, Jean-Pierre said Wednesday when asked if the Martha’s Vineyard controversy came up.

The White House and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell dodged questions on Tuesday over why the president has not called DeSantis directly. Criswell said the lack of a call at the time had not impeded planning for the storm and that Biden had personally talked to the mayors of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater.

One Florida-based GOP operative argued there is nothing to be gained politically for either DeSantis or Biden by giving the other the cold shoulder or appearing to take politics into account with a major storm bearing down on the state.

The operative noted that for DeSantis, being able to work with the federal government to show he is handling the storm well is important to his reelection prospects and beyond.

Biden has been selective in his direct conversations with governors recently.

He did not directly contact Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) about the water crisis in Jackson, but when Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico, Biden immediately contacted the territory’s Democratic governor, Pedro Pierluisi.

The political situation brought on by the hurricane this week is reminiscent to Hurricane Sandy, which hit New Jersey in 2012. 

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) felt the ire of Republicans after photographers captured pictures of him shaking hands with then-President Obama, who put his hand on the governor’s shoulder. 

Christie was repeatedly put on the defensive during the 2016 GOP presidential primary for embracing Obama.

Democratic strategists say Biden’s interaction with DeSantis, though, won’t be a bad narrative for the Florida governor. 

And the call underscores Biden’s preferred brand.

“One thing we know for sure is that President Biden’s brand is to rise above politics and he’s got the pelts on the wall to prove it,” said Democratic strategist Joel Payne.

Payne agreed that coming together at this time should be the priority.

“I’m not in the business of advising Ron DeSantis but I think it would behoove any elected official to prioritize the best interests and well-being of their constituents over politics, especially when lives are literally on the line,” he said.

Amie Parnes contributed to this report.

Source: TEST FEED1

How Florida is preparing for Hurricane Ian

Florida is bracing for the impact from Hurricane Ian by evacuating nursing homes, closing roads and shuttering airports as the Category 4 storm is set to deliver wind gusts as high as 155 mph and significant storm surges. 

Extensive power outages have already been reported on the state’s western coast, while Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has tens of thousands of workers on stand-by for power restoration efforts. 

Major tourist attractions have also been closed, including Disney World and Universal Studios. The Orlando International Airport, the state’s largest, has suspended flights for the remainder of today and the majority of Florida’s schools are closed, with some extending closures until the end of the week. 

Earlier in the week, over 2.5 million residents were ordered to evacuate their homes, but no law mandates residents must flee. Some are now being told to shelter in place, as it is too late to safely evacuate regions in Ian’s path, particularly Gulf Coast counties. 

All of the state’s counties are under emergency declarations, shelters have been erected, and tolls were lifted on some main roads. 

“As Hurricane Ian moves across the state, with more than 155 mph winds, this is as strong as a large tornado. Expect strong winds, heavy rains and flooding,” DeSantis tweeted this morning. Earlier, he called on residents to brace for a “nasty” couple of days.

The National Guard from Florida and neighboring states, along with search and rescue teams and helicopter evacuation crews, are also on alert. 

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Incarcerated people in evacuation zones have now been moved to inland regions, and certain health systems plan on stopping visitors later today. At-risk nursing homes and hospitals have also been evacuated. 

Additional resources are available to residents through Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, including a toll-free hotline on storm updates. Workers are ready to conduct damage assessments after the storm, and the Division deployed shelter support staff to counties in need. 

In addition to all these measures, Florida is also a coastal state and may be better prepared than others to meet the natural disaster given its history of hurricanes. 

Research shows that of the seven cities that have adopted strong disaster preparedness plans since Hurricane Katrina, two — Miami and Jacksonville — were in Florida. 

“Coastal communities that tend to be more impacted by hurricanes on a regular basis in places like Florida, tend to be a little better prepared, but the further you move inland the less likely that is to be the case,” Aram Dobalian, professor and division chair of health services management and policy at The Ohio State University, told Changing America. 

However, Ian is expected to be particularly damaging as winds have already reached 155 mph — 2 mph short of a Category 5 hurricane. Storm surges could also reach 18 feet in some areas. 

Furthermore, the more time that passes in between disasters, and when new regions are impacted, the less prepared communities become, Dobalian added. 

Regardless of location, certain vulnerable populations, including those who rely on power for medical purposes and homeless individuals, are at heightened risks when natural disasters strike. Elderly individuals and those with chronic conditions are also vulnerable. 

“What we’ve seen with disasters, really forever, is that the people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged in various ways tend to be the ones that are most impacted, because they don’t have the personal resources to help them weather the storms,” Dobalian said. 

Recent figures put Florida’s homeless population at more than 27,000, while homeless shelters throughout the state are gearing up to help meet demand.

In Orlando, free bus transportation has been offered to emergency and homeless shelters. In Sarasota, a local homeless outreach nonprofit, Streets of Paradise, has employed mobile services to provide information on shelter options and services for the homeless.

Homeless individuals already tend to suffer from physical and mental health conditions, and “when a disaster happens, they have to not only deal with those kinds of health conditions, but also just the greater challenges that everybody’s confronting during a disaster,” Dobalian said. 

This increased demand can put strains on already under-resourced organizations. 

In times of crisis, shelters have to accommodate both newly homeless individuals — or those who have lost their homes in the weather event — and previously homeless individuals. 

“All of those people both previously homeless and the new homeless, if you will, end up at a shelter. Shelters are often not as well prepared to handle these individuals who were previously homeless and might be dealing with various other kinds of conditions. They might be dealing with hygiene issues or other things as well. And so unfortunately, there have been instances where individuals… might actually even be turned away.” 

Although this is not the policy of emergency organizations,  “that has unfortunately happened,” Dobalian explained. 

This past year, Dobalian was part of a team that created a toolkit for incorporating homeless populations in disaster plans.

Source: TEST FEED1

House GOP calls for 'no' vote on CR

House Republican leadership is urging its members to oppose a stopgap funding bill to avoid a shutdown in Washington.

Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) sent a memo to House GOP offices Tuesday night recommending that members vote against the continuing resolution (CR), which would keep the government funded at last year’s fiscal levels until Dec. 16.

The measure also includes roughly $12.3 billion to aid Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia.

In its memo, GOP leadership encouraged members of the conference to vote “no” on the CR as a rebuke for Democrats allegedly not negotiating with Republicans on key issues, including inflation, the border and the opioid crisis.

They also took issue with the length of the CR — the Dec. 16 expiration date gives the Democratic House majority an opportunity to craft a funding plan during the lame-duck session after Election Day.

“The Majority has refused to negotiate with Ranking Member Granger or any other House Republican leader on pressing issues relating to our government funding priorities, including runaway inflation, the supply chain crisis, the border crisis, or the opioid deaths associated with drugs like fentanyl coming across our open southern border, and have instead decided to kick the can to December, setting up another government funding showdown during the unaccountable lame duck period,” the memo reads.

The Senate is currently considering the stopgap, which is expected to pass the upper chamber and head to the House on Thursday ahead of a Friday deadline. The measure cleared its first procedural vote on Tuesday night after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) asked Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to strip his controversial permitting reform from it.

Over the summer, Schumer promised Manchin that his permitting reform legislation would be tacked onto the spending bill in exchange for the West Virginia Democrat’s support of the Inflation Reduction Act, which Congress narrowly passed and President Biden signed into law last month.

Both Democrats and Republicans in both chambers lined up against Manchin’s legislation, putting the CR in jeopardy and increasing the chances of a government shutdown. Manchin asked Schumer to nix his provision roughly 30 minutes before the first procedural vote.

Even before the Manchin permitting reform issue had been hashed out, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made clear his opposition to the continuing resolution.

In a statement last week, the California Republican said he would vote against the funding bill because of the December expiration date and because it does not address issues at the border.

“President Biden is asking for a government funding bill that simply kicks the can to an unaccountable lame-duck Congress that does nothing to actually address the nation’s problems — especially the crisis at our southern border,” McCarthy wrote.

“If Biden & Democrats don’t use this government funding bill to address the border crisis immediately, I’m voting NO on this bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the same,” he added.

Despite the House GOP whipping against the continuing resolution, the measure is still expected to pass the House and avert a government shutdown — especially since Manchin’s permitting reform has been stripped from the legislation, which more than 70 Democrats opposed.

Source: TEST FEED1

Hurricane Ian roils Florida governor’s race

MELBOURNE, Fla. – Hurricane Ian is complicating Florida’s closely watched gubernatorial race, as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his Democratic opponent Charlie Crist are forced to navigate the potentially treacherous political terrain caused by the storm.

For DeSantis, the storm is a political make-or-break moment. On one hand, it offers the potential for wall-to-wall media coverage that could help boost his profile both at home and nationally as he weighs a 2024 presidential run. On the other, any perceived misstep could cost him heavily, especially in November when voters will decide whether to give him a second term in the governor’s mansion.

“Particularly for DeSantis, who has such a reputation as such a polarizing figure, it’s an opportunity for him to show that he can be bipartisan on some really important issues, some really important actions,” Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, said.

“Of course, there’s always a danger — a risk that you’re not perceived as an effective leader, in which case it might actually turn very heavily against you.” 

Meanwhile, Crist, a former Florida governor who resigned his seat in Congress last month, has found himself on the sidelines. His campaign has suspended its advertisements in key media markets amid the hurricane, seeking to avoid any suggestion that he is politicizing a natural disaster.

Asked during a press briefing on Tuesday what he thought of DeSantis’s response to the hurricane so far, Crist demurred, saying that it wasn’t the time to pass judgment on the governor’s performance.

“I don’t want to get into Monday morning quarterbacking before Monday,” Crist told reporters on Tuesday. “I don’t think it’s appropriate.”

“I think what we all need to do is protect our fellow Floridians, doing whatever we can to maintain that safety, watch out for the flooding, listen to local officials. I think that’s the appropriate posture right now.”

DeSantis, a rising conservative star known for his frequent spats with Democrats and the Biden administration, has also used the moment to highlight his willingness to work with the other side.

On Tuesday evening, the governor spoke to President Biden on the phone, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a tweet, adding that the two men committed to “continued close coordination” as Florida grapples with the hurricane and its aftermath.

That came after DeSantis told reporters during a press conference that he hadn’t yet heard from Biden but was open to talking with him.

“I’m happy to brief the president if he’s interested in hearing what we’re doing in Florida,” DeSantis said at a briefing in Tallahassee. “My view on all of this is like, you’ve got people’s lives at stake, you’ve got their property at stake and we don’t have time for pettiness. We got to work together to make sure we’re doing the best job for them. So my phone line is open.”

DeSantis, of course, isn’t the first Florida governor to be tested by a major hurricane. Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R) received generally favorable marks for his handling of a spate of storms in 2004, while Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who served two terms in the governor’s mansion between 2011 and 2019, became known for his almost-ubiquitous media presence during hurricanes.

And while hurricanes always have the potential to help or hurt incumbent governors, DeSantis’s approach to the storm carries extra weight. The midterms are just 40 days away, meaning Hurricane Ian and its aftermath will be fresh on the minds of voters come November. 

One Republican strategist said that perhaps one of the biggest questions for DeSantis will be whether he can communicate empathy in his hurricane response. 

“He’s not known for looking particularly empathetic. That’s just not his leadership style,” the strategist said. “So beyond being an effective manager, it’s a time to show empathy, to tell people that things are going to get better. I think that’s going to be the big one for him.” 

But Hurricane Ian could also cause another headache for DeSantis. Florida’s property insurance market is already incredibly fragile, and the storm has heightened fears that it could deal more damage to the market, potentially handing the governor a political blow.

On Monday, before Hurricane Ian struck Florida, Crist slammed DeSantis as the “worst property insurance governor in Florida history,” getting in one final attack before the storm. 

“Gov. DeSantis let these insurance companies double Floridians rates and they’re still going belly up when homeowners need them most,” he said. “You pay and pay and pay, and the insurance company isn’t there for you in the end anyway.”

For Crist, navigating the storm may prove particularly challenging. While he previously served as Florida governor, he never faced a major hurricane. And now, as a private citizen, Crist will have to figure out a way to stay relevant at a time when Floridians aren’t focused on politics.

“He can try to pitch in and be helpful — make announcements about being safe and certainly pitch in after the hurricane passes,” Jewett said. “But those are all somewhat limited, especially compared to the governor. Crist has a few things he could do but not a whole lot.”

Of course, defeating DeSantis was never going to be easy. Despite the Florida governor’s polarizing persona, his overall approval rating remains above water, and public polling routinely shows him leading Crist. A Suffolk University-USA Today survey released earlier this month found him with a 7-point edge over his Democratic rival.

And barring a major misstep by DeSantis, that appears unlikely to change while Florida deals with Hurricane Ian and its aftermath. In the meantime, Jewett said, both candidates would be wise to tread carefully.

“I think for both the incumbent governor and the challenger, one of obstacles is to make sure they don’t appear political on this crisis and the response,” he said. “That’s a sure way to turn voters off.” 

Source: TEST FEED1