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Walker downplays debate with Warnock: 'I'm not that smart'

Georgia Senate hopeful Herschel Walker (R) downplayed himself ahead of his debate with Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) next month, saying “I’m not that smart” — comments that his campaign argued were sarcasm.

After some haggling between the two campaigns, the candidates announced last week that Warnock and Walker would be participating in a televised debate on Oct. 14 with Savannah, Ga., Nexstar affiliate WSAV. The Hill is owned by Nexstar.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Walker was asked what kind of preparation he was doing for the debate.

“Talking to the voters, talking to you. You told me I gotta prepare, so I’m preparin’,” he said to the reporters. “I’m this country boy, you know, I’m not that smart. And he’s that preacher. He’s a smart man, wears these nice suits. So he going to show up there, embarrass me at the debate, October the 14th. And I’m just waiting, you know, I’ll show up and I’m [going to] do my best.”

Will Kiley, a spokesperson for Walker’s campaign, argued the candidate’s comments were sarcasm.

“It is a sad day when so many people in politics and the media don’t understand sarcasm. Herschel has been traveling across Georgia for over a year meeting the people and listening to their concerns,” he said in a statement. “Herschel is going to be ready on October 14 in Savannah to debate Raphael Warnock, who has to stand there and explain his horrendous voting record to the people.”

The Georgia Senate race has been considered one of the most competitive of this cycle and has been rated a “toss up” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. 

A Quinnipiac University poll released last week showed Warnock leading Walker by 6 percentage points among likely Georgia voters, with the incumbent receiving 52 percent compared to the former football star receiving 46 percent.

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Here's where GOP governors have sent nearly 13,000 migrants

Republican governors in three border states have sent nearly 13,000 migrants to Democrat-led cities in protest of President Biden’s immigration policies.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) led the charge, sending migrants north as early as April of this year, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) initiated his own transport of migrants this week.   

Democrats are criticizing the busing as a “political stunt” by the three Republican governors, two of which are up for reelection this year.

“There is a process in place to manage migrants at the border, and Republican governors meddling in that process and using desperate migrants as political tools is shameful and it is wrong,” a White House official said in an email to The Hill last month.

Here are the four Democrat-led cities that have so far been targeted by the Republican governors:

Washington, D.C.

Abbott first sent a bus of migrants to the nation’s capital in April and has since sent more than 8,000 migrants on over 190 buses. Ducey soon followed Abbott’s lead, sending Arizona’s first bus of migrants to D.C. in May. He has sent just over 1,800 migrants on 50 buses since the spring. 

Receiving close to 10,000 migrants total, D.C. has faced the largest group of migrants. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency earlier this month and has requested the activation of the D.C. National Guard to help the city manage the influx of migrants, an ask the Defense Department has denied. 

“We know that they are targeting Washington, D.C., not because of any particular ties that the people boarding the buses have to Washington, D.C., but they want to make a point to the federal government,” Bowser said last week in a press conference. 

Abbott also recently sent two buses to Vice President Harris’s Naval Observatory residence in D.C.

“VP Harris claims our border is ‘secure’ & denies the crisis. We’re sending migrants to her backyard to call on the Biden Administration to do its job & secure the border,” Abbott said on Twitter on Thursday. 

New York City, N.Y.

Texas has sent more than 2,500 migrants to New York City on over 45 buses since it began sending groups of migrants on Aug. 5.

New York City mayor Eric Adams (D) hit back at Abbott over the issue, calling for Texas voters to oust the governor in this year’s midterm elections.

“I am deeply contemplating taking a busload of New Yorkers to go to Texas and do some good old-fashioned door knocking. Because for the good of America, we have to get him out of office,” Adams said last month.

Abbott is up for reelection, fighting to keep his Senate seat in a tight race against Democrat nominee Beto O’Rourke.

Adams has followed Bowser in requesting federal assistance 

Chicago, Ill.

Migrants first began arriving in Chicago on Aug. 31 and continue to arrive daily, according to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D). Abbott has sent more than 600 migrants on over 10 buses in the weeks since.

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) has criticized Abbott over the move, calling him “un-American.”

“You don’t treat people with this lack of respect, lack of dignity, putting them on buses to an unknown destination with very little food, very little water,” Lightfoot said last week.

Pritzker issued an emergency disaster declaration on Wednesday and activated 75 members of the Illinois National Guard to help respond to the influx of migrants.

Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

DeSantis on Wednesday sent two planes carrying about 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., an island south of Cape Cod. 

The planes reportedly arrived from Texas, though they were chartered by the Florida governor. Abbott in Texas has thanked DeSantis for “the support in responding to this national crisis,” but denied involvement in the move. 

DeSantis, a rumored presidential candidate for 2024, had last year named the island, where former President Obama owns an estate, as a potential destination in his effort to transport migrants out of Florida. 

He has also mentioned sending migrants to Delaware, Biden’s home state.

“All those people in D.C. and New York were beating their chests when Trump was president, saying they were so proud to be sanctuary jurisdictions, saying how bad it was to have a secure border,” DeSantis said during a news conference Thursday. 

“The minute even a small fraction of what those border towns deal with every day is brought to their front door, they all of a sudden go berserk and they’re so upset that this is happening.”

DeSantis said on Friday that the Martha’s Vineyard planes were “just the beginning” of his efforts to relocate migrants.

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The Hill's Morning Report — With 50 days to go, parties seize migrant messages

Republican governors in Texas, Florida and Arizona continue to accuse President Biden and his administration of creating an “immigration crisis,” while Democratic lawmakers and mayors on Sunday returned fire with accusations of “shameful” exploitation of migrants as political props 50 days before the midterm elections.

What became clear over the weekend was that GOP Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas, Ron DeSantis of Florida and Doug Ducey of Arizona are not inclined to halt the use of buses or chartered planes to ship migrants to liberal locales as a tool to taunt Democrats under a national media spotlight. Assertions remain potent with the GOP base that the southern border is unsafe and insecure, and that immigrants are drug cartel criminals who enter illegally and tap public benefits.

▪ Fox News: Fifty additional migrants arrived at Vice President Harris’s official residence on Saturday. Texas sent six more buses of migrants to New York.

▪ Vice: Harris, in a Friday interview, described GOP governors’ actions as “dereliction of duty.”

In response, Democrats continued to pitch pro-immigration messages to voters, promised shelter and services for migrants and their families under the law, and wielded pointed condemnations of red-state governors for refusing to sync up transports in advance with states and major cities to which migrants, including children, are being relocated, often far from court-ordered hearing locations.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) on Sunday called on Abbott and DeSantis to work with major city mayors and administrations. 

“I traveled to Washington last week, spoke with [Democrats] Sen. [Charles] Schumer, Sen. [Kirsten] Gillibrand and other lawmakers and sat down with the Biden administration to talk about — how do we coordinate?” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Their goal is to make sure that we get resources and coordination that’s needed.”

“These migrants and asylum-seekers are not coming to any particular city. They’re coming to America. This is an American crisis that we need to face,” Adams said.

Biden argues that his administration has a system in place for safely handling migrants at the southern border, but he accused Republicans of blocking federal plans while also opposing legislative reform proposals that for decades have faltered in Congress. The United States will see more than 2 million migrants enter the country this year.

“We understand that we have work to do,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Friday. “We understand that. And we have been doing the work to do that.” 

▪ Axios: Cabinet heads and White House officials met on Friday to discuss a range of pressing immigration issues — including “litigation options” to respond to GOP governors.

▪ NPR: Critics say transporting migrants from Texas to Massachusetts was political. Was it legal?

Here’s what else we’re watching this week:

Today: The president and first lady Jill Biden this morning are attending the state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II at London’s Westminster Abbey among the largest gathering of global leaders and elected officials in many decades. The Bidens also paid their respects to her majesty on Sunday in Westminster Hall (The Hill).

Tuesday: Federal Judge Raymond Dearie, the new special master selected to weigh documents for potential executive privilege drawn from the cartons of materials in the possession of former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago and seized by the FBI, has scheduled a Tuesday meeting in the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse with Trump’s legal team and the representatives from the Justice Department. Dearie faces a Nov. 30 deadline to complete his review. The department on Friday appealed part of a Florida judge’s ruling laying out Dearie’s task (The Hill).

Wednesday: Biden will address the U.N. General Assembly in New York City during a gathering expected to be dominated by Russia’s war with Ukraine (The Hill). The White House wants the president’s U.N. speech to frame the war in the context of larger global tests for democracies and autocracies, Politico reported. … Biden also will meet during the U.N. gathering with Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss. Their tentatively planned first bilateral session was moved to New York instead of London (The Guardian).

Also on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve is expected to conclude a two-day meeting with another inflation-fighting (and markets roiling) hike in interest rates, predicted to be a third-straight 75-basis-point increase (Yahoo Finance). The government also will report data about August sales of existing homes, expected to show a slowdown because of rising mortgage rates.

Related Articles

▪ Bloomberg News: Fed seen raising to 4 percent in 2022 and signaling higher for longer.

▪ The Hill: Who is Dearie, the special master in the Trump case?

▪ Axios: Team Trump perceives Dearie as an FBI skeptic. 

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS & INVESTIGATIONS

Anything can happen in politics in 50 days, right? We are marking off the calendar until Election Day, which will determine if there’s divided government next year, if a president with upside-down job approval ratings and navigating sky-high inflation can nudge members of his party to victory, and if a former president under multiple investigations and personally delighted to be in the news will be a net plus for the GOP, even when not on any ballot.

The Hill’s Max Greenwood reports that Democrats are riding a wave of enthusiasm, while Republicans are looking to rebound from a grueling primary season and recast the fight for control of Congress as a referendum on Biden and his party. 

Josh Kraushaar, Axios: Democrats’ midterm reality check. The elevation of weak Senate candidates is the biggest political challenge for Republicans in the home stretch.

Senate Democrats are braced for the possibility of a Republican majority in the House next year. The new majority would block any Biden momentum, investigate Democrats and the White House and help lay the groundwork for the 2024 presidential election, they predict.

If Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is elected by his colleagues to be Speaker, some Democrats say they anticipate gridlock, possible partial government shutdowns and even default of the country’s authority to borrow to meet obligations. McCarthy will be in Pittsburgh today to lay out a midterm communications plan for Republican House candidates — a gossamer version of his party’s 1994 Contract with America, which the California conservative has reframed as a “Commitment to America.”

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) says he’s worried about attempts by allies of former President Trump to undermine the traditional political neutrality of the U.S. military. Other Democrats say they hope there will be narrow areas of common ground where both parties could conceivably collaborate, reports The Hill’s Alexander Bolton.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who threw his party into a tailspin last week when he unveiled a bill that would nationalize abortion restrictions with a proposed cutoff at 15 weeks of pregnancy, continued to defend his position during a Sunday interview on Fox News. Democrats have thanked Graham for unintentionally providing material for progressive campaign ads that seek to argue Republicans are extremists who will take aim at stripping away constitutional rights, one by one.

“I will not sit on the sidelines and watch this nation become China when it comes to aborting babies up to the moment of birth,” the senator said. “I reject that. I will continue to introduce legislation at the national level setting a minimum standard at 15 weeks.”

On Thursday, Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman pressed Republican candidate Mehmet Oz to take a position on Graham’s ban, while incumbent New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan (D) warned that her GOP opponent Don Bolduc and congressional Republicans would push for a nationwide ban on terminating pregnancies, if elected. Democrats point to victories on a ballot initiative vote in Kansas and recent polling to assert that most Americans back Roe v. Wade rather than a patchwork of restrictive laws dealing with abortion and access to reproductive services across the states.

The Hill: Swing-state Republicans on defense over Graham’s abortion ban.

Members of the House Jan. 6 investigative committee are planning at least one more public hearing, possibly on Sept. 28, and are racing to craft a legislative proposal before the end of the year aimed at safeguarding elections and preventing insurrections, based on evidence uncovered about the events of the 2020 election — before, during and after.

“We have some minor factual loose ends to wrap up, but then really what we need to do is to make our sweeping legislative recommendations about what needs to be done to fortify America against coups and insurrections and political violence in the future,” said committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) (The Hill). 

▪ Politico: Why the Jan. 6 panel is keeping its distance from the Justice Department’s Trump probes.

▪ Axios: Members say their final report will likely come afterthe election but that late September and October will “push out” information before the November elections.

▪ The Associated Press: Biden warns U.S. democracy is threatened, but how can he as president save it?

Policies to reckon with political misinformation, as crafted by social media companies, are weak ahead of the Nov. 8 contests, according to a new report released today (The Hill). Researchers with New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights fault Meta, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.

▪ The Associated Press: Trump openly embraces, amplifies QAnon conspiracy theories.

▪ The New York Times: Trump in Ohio on Saturday appeared to embrace QAnon by including a particular song during a rally playlist. The music was all but identical to a song called “Wwg1wga” — an abbreviation for the QAnon slogan, “Where we go one, we go all.” The extremist group’s adherents have falsely asserted that Trump as president was locked in a war against satanic, child-trafficking liberals and Democrats.

Worries about chaos and possible violence after Nov. 8, election challenges and refusals to concede losses, are prompted by midterm conservative candidates, Trump’s continued apocalyptic rhetoric and extremist groups eager to challenge democracy by definition and practice.

🗳 Here are six midterm Republican candidates in battleground states who say they will refuse to accept election results if they lose (The New York Times). … In a survey by The Washington Post of 19 of the most closely watched statewide races in the country, the contrast between Republican and Democratic candidates was stark. While seven GOP nominees committed to accepting the outcomes in their contests, 12 either refused to commit or declined to respond. On the Democratic side, 18 said they would accept the outcome and one did not respond to the Post’s survey.

➤ CONGRESS

Tensions are rising among lawmakers who are frustrated about being kept in the dark as Democratic leaders strategize how to pass an energy deal struck with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — and avoid a government shutdown in the process.

As The Hill’s Aris Folley and Rachel Frazin report, Democratic leadership wants to use a must-pass stopgap spending bill by Sept. 30 to advance Manchin’s proposal. Roughly two weeks ahead of the funding deadline, negotiations remain opaque.

“We don’t know what it is. They haven’t released the text, they don’t give us the detailed explanation,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told The Hill last week. “So, I don’t know how you could ask people to vote for something they don’t know what it is.”

Only a broad outline of Manchin’s bill has been released so far, leaving lawmakers on both sides of the aisle unhappy. Some Democrats — such as Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) — are publicly calling for a clean bill without Manchin’s additions (The Hill).

“The bill includes setting maximum timelines for the environmental review process for energy projects, which advocates say could undercut the analysis required for a project’s approval and weaken community involvement,” according to The Hill.

▪ Bloomberg: Manchin says he may need 20 GOP votes for his energy-permitting plan.

▪ Politico: To fight, or not to fight? Progressive caucus warily eyes Manchin’s energy deal.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday delivered remarks in Armenia, expressing support for the country in the wake of deadly clashes with its neighbor, Azerbaijan (CNBC).

Pelosi strongly condemned “illegal and deadly attacks by Azerbaijan” and said the violence threatened the possibility of a peace agreement between the nations. The escalating violence stems from a decades-long standoff over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but populated mostly by native Armenians. 

Both sides last Wednesday agreed to a cease-fire, days before Pelosi’s arrival in Armenia (The Hill).

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ ADMINISTRATION

Biden says the COVID-19 pandemic is over in the United States, adds that he intends to seek a second term but has not made a firm decision, and warns Russian President Vladimir Putin “don’t” if he is pondering the use of chemical or tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

During a CBS “60 Minutes” interview recorded last week and timed to grab some of the Sunday night football viewing audience, the president said he hasn’t made a “firm decision” about seeking reelection in 2024 and will reassess after the midterm elections.

“Look, my intention, as I said, to begin with is that I would run again,” Biden told CBS’s Scott Pelley. “But it’s just an intention. But is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen.”

Ahead of a major speech the president plans to give this week at the United Nations, Biden said Putin should reconsider use of nuclear weapons in its war against Ukraine. “Don’t. Don’t,” the president said, when asked about such concerns, widely discussed in European capitals, at the Pentagon and among intelligence agencies. “You will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II,” he added.

The president declined to discuss what a U.S. response would be, saying only that it would be “consequential.” 

“They’ll become more of a pariah in the world than they ever have been,” Biden said. “And depending on the extent of what they do will determine what response would occur.”

Biden asserted during the interview that the “pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. It’s — but the pandemic is over,” he repeated.

▪ CNN: Biden to CBS: “The pandemic is over.” 

▪ NPR: Biden says the COVID-19 pandemic is over. This is what the data tells us.

No federal infectious disease expert has asserted that the ongoing pandemic, at least in the United States, is over as the government continues to try to persuade Americans to get vaccinated, boosted and to voluntarily use precautions against the highly transmissible BA.5 version of omicron. More than 1 million people in this country have died from infections with the coronavirus.

▪ The Hill: Biden says he intends to run in 2024, has not made a “firm decision.”

▪ NBC News reported that the Biden political team is putting together a reelection effort still in early stages, but with plans to use DNC funds and with built-in flexibility if the president opts not to seek a second term.

▪ The Hill: Biden says he intends to run. Democrats still have their doubts. 

▪ CBS News: Biden tells CBS that U.S. troops would defend Taiwan, but White House says this is not official U.S. policy.

▪ USA Today: Biden says he doesn’t know what national secrets are contained in federal documents found by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago.

OPINION

■  Ukraine war shows the U.S. military isn’t ready for war with China, by Hal Brands, Bloomberg Opinion columnist.https://bloom.bg/3UkB1I9

■ The real midterm election stakes, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board. https://on.wsj.com/3dlNieT

WHERE AND WHEN

The House meets at noon. 

The Senate convenes at 3 p.m. and will resume consideration of the nomination of Florence Pan to be a circuit judge for the D.C. Circuit.

The president this morningis attending a funeral for Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey, along with the first lady. The Bidens will depart London at 2:25 p.m. BST to return to the White House by 5:05 p.m. EST.

The vice president at 5:40 p.m. in her office will ceremonially administer the oath of office to Yohannes Abraham to be U.S. ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will speak in Washington at 9 a.m. at the STC Advocacy Summit focused on early childhood education and child hunger. He will join a virtual roundtable with administration officials at 11:30 a.m. aimed at the Latino community to discuss mental health. 

The Clinton Global Initiative conference today and Tuesday in New York City is scheduled to include international, federal, state and local officials as speakers, including: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R), California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, White House National Economic Council director Brian Deese, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Gary Gensler andBaltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D).

🖥  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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday promised there would be no letup in the counteroffensive that has reclaimed cities and towns across the country from Russian troops even as shelling continued across much of Ukraine (The Associated Press).

“Maybe now it seems to some of you that after a series of victories we have a certain lull,” Zelensky told the nation in his nightly video address. “But this is not a lull. This is preparation for the next series. … Because Ukraine must be free — all of it.”

Among the successful counteroffensives are attacks in the northeastern part of the country that have pushed the war directly onto Putin’s doorstep as Ukrainian artillery strikes hit military targets in Russia (The Washington Post).

“On Saturday, a new round of strikes hit the Belgorod region in Western Russia, killing at least one person and wounding two,” according to the Post. “On Friday, Ukraine reportedly struck the base of the Russian 3rd Motorized Rifle Division near Valuyki, just nine miles north of the Russia-Ukraine border.”

Russia has blamed the attacks on Ukrainian forces, but the government in Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for them. 

▪ The Washington Post: “Look, these are our boys”: Ukrainian troops drive Russian tanks on new front line.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Russia expands attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine after battlefield losses.

▪ The New York Times: Ukrainian officials try to build support to hold Russia accountable for alleged war crimes.

▪ The New York Times: Ukraine’s counteroffensive forces face mobilized inmates and private military forces fighting for Russia and drones supplied to Russia by Iran. There is no evidence of a mass withdrawal of Russian forces in the east and south.

▪ Reuters: Russia’s Foreign Ministry today said it is ready for talks with the United States about a prisoner swap, but scolded U.S. embassy representatives in Moscow. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan of Turkey says he is targeting membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Eurasian political, economic and security organization representing China, India, Iran, Russia, Pakistan and several former Soviet bloc states (Reuters).

Turkey would be the first NATO member to join the organization. Erdoǧan’s announcement followed talks in Uzbekistan last week, where he spoke with leaders including Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (Bloomberg).

“Our relationship with these countries will be moved to a much different position with this step,” Erdoǧan said, according to Turkish media.

▪ Reuters: A 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Taiwan on Sunday, leading to building collapse.

➤ POX, PANDEMIC & HEALTH 

Monkeypox cases are declining in many areas of the country, making it harder for the administration to sell lawmakers on the urgency of its $4.5 billion funding request, writes The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel. The GOP says the White House already has more than enough funding, and some Democrats acknowledge the declining case numbers of the virus. That, combined with the administration’s initially halting response to the disease, have complicated efforts on Capitol Hill to justify additional funding.

But experts and public health advocates warn about the consequences of underfunding public health. 

“It appears that we haven’t learned anything … controlling outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics require a sustained effort over a lengthy period of time,” said Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “If we’re truly going to understand what happened and how to continue to prevent the spread of this virus, we have to put the resources in place to do so.”

🦠Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) on Sunday announced that she tested positive for COVID-19 with mild symptoms and is working remotely (The Hill). 

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,053,420. Current average U.S. COVID-19 daily deaths are 391, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

➤ STATE & TERRITORY WATCH

Hurricane Fiona made landfall in Puerto Rico on Sunday after knocking out power on the island, forcing rescues and evacuations and creating flash flood conditions (The Associated Press).

“The damages that we are seeing are catastrophic,” said Gov. Pedro Pierluisi (D).

The storm arrived on the island’s southwestern coast, near Punta Tocon, at 3:20 p.m. local time on Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center, which warned that the Dominican Republic also should expect “catastrophic flooding” from the storm. 

With flash flood warnings in effect across Puerto Rico, an island with more than 3 million residents, experts predicted up to 30 inches of rain (The Washington Post). The National Hurricane Center this morning reported the storm had maximum sustained winds of 90 mph. The center predicted Fiona could become a major hurricane by Wednesday, meaning a Category 3 or stronger storm with maximum sustained winds of 111 mph or higher.

As floodwaters rose, hundreds of people were evacuated across the island. Hurricane Fiona washed away a bridge in the mountain town of Utuado that police say was installed by the National Guard after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017. Fiona struck just two days before the anniversary of Hurricane Maria (The Associated Press).

“I think all of us Puerto Ricans who lived through Maria have that post-traumatic stress of, ‘What is going to happen, how long is it going to last and what needs might we face?’” Danny Hernández, a San Juan worker who planned on waiting out the storm with his family in Mayaguez, told The Associated Press.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Sunday announced on Twitter that her department’s Response Organization had been activated, and responders were deployed to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“We’re working with [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], local officials, and authorities to monitor #Fiona outages and will assist with restoration efforts as it becomes safe to do so,” Granholm tweeted. 

Pierluisi activated the National Guard in Puerto Rico, and Biden on Sunday declared a state of emergency there (The Hill).

Separately in headlines across the country, state attorneys general are leading efforts to crack down on the power of big technology firms, The Hill’s Rebecca Klar reports. California last week announced an antitrust lawsuit against e-commerce giant Amazon (The New York Times) and a Texas-led coalition is taking on Google with an antitrust lawsuit focused on the company’s ad dominance (The Hill).

THE CLOSER

And finally … A beloved Hollywood icon is getting a facelift beginning today. A sign recognized around the world that has long proclaimed both a Los Angeles industry and the dazzle of cinema fantasies is getting a fresh paint job to celebrate its centennial, its first sprucing-up since 2012.

Over the course of eight weeks, a crew of 10 workers will apply almost 400 gallons of white paint to the 45-foot tall sign, which originally said, “Hollywoodland,” the Los Angeles Daily News reports.

“The sign is the pride of Los Angeles and we are excited for fans all around the world to see this makeover for a very special 100th anniversary,” said Jeff Zarrinnam, chair of the Hollywood Sign Trust (Los Angeles Daily News).

Stay Engaged

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Russian-Ukraine war set to dominate UN leaders gathering

The United States and other countries opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine will be brought to the table at this week’s United Nations General Assembly with nations that sympathetic to Moscow or have refused to take a side, posing a major test for the U.N.

The war will likely be the dominating topic for the U.S. and its allies in the New York discussion, which will put those countries that haven’t joined in on condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin in the hot seat.

While the war itself will be a major point of discussion, so will many of its ripple effects in terms of the global energy supply, economics, human rights, food security and more.

“I think it’ll be sort of a sub-theme of the event that many countries are more sympathetic to the Russian perspective, or at least that they’re benefiting from — in the case of China — lower oil prices,” said Michael Allen, special assistant to former President George W. Bush on the National Security Council.

Biden will address the General Assembly on Wednesday and is likely to focus on Putin’s aggression, along with other priorities, including addressing climate change.

“A core message that I think you’re going to hear from leaders across the U.S. government is that respect for the core principles of the international order is needed now more than ever,” John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, said Friday.

The U.N. was founded in response to the type of land war in Europe that many worried would unfold if Russia captured major Ukrainian cities and opted to move into other nations.

While the U.S., Great Britain, France, Germany, Canada and other allies have banded together to impose economic sanctions on Russia and provide military aid to Ukraine, this week’s meetings will underscore both the limits of the United Nations in confronting the Kremlin and the fractured nature of the organization.

The U.N. has had limited success in pushing back on Russia, specifically by suspending it from the Human Rights Council. But Russia sits on the powerful U.N. Security Council, giving it veto power over more sweeping proposals, as well as a platform to grandstand.

Russia has also found allies in China, Brazil, India and other nations that have not been willing to go nearly as far in imposing sanctions or even outright condemning Moscow’s actions.

In the lead-up to the General Assembly, Putin has held meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian President Narendra Modi.

Daniel Hamilton, a Europe expert at the Brookings Institution, said that U.S. and allies will be tasked this week with trying to convince more countries to oppose the war because it has global ramifications.

“They’ve been playing catch-up, frankly, in making an argument around the world, to the rest of the world. So, many countries around the world don’t really buy the argument or they’re sitting on the fence either because they have contacts to Russia or are the skeptical of the U.S. or European claims,” Hamilton said.

The meetings in New York also come amid successful counteroffenses from the Ukrainian military. Ukraine has recently regained thousands of miles of territory in the country’s northeast and forced thousands of Kremlin troops to retreat.

Biden in his speech is likely to highlight how Kyiv’s success on the battlefield is due in part to the steady stream of aid provided by the U.S. and its allies. The Biden administration has committed roughly $15 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the invasion began in February, including a fresh $600 million announced days before the meeting in New York.

He will also likely use the fight between Kyiv and Moscow to emphasize a long-standing theme of his presidency: that the world is at an inflection point in the struggle between democracies and autocracies, and that it is up to world leaders to band together to ensure democratic values survive and thrive.

“He’s going to have to try to walk the line between not declaring victory too early, but making the argument for why we need to keep providing that support to Ukraine,” said Carrie Filipetti, executive director of the Vandenberg Coalition and a former senior policy adviser to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has delivered stirring speeches to Congress and other governing bodies around the world to rally support for his country, may appear via video at the General Assembly. But Reuters reported that Russia is seeking to block the message on the grounds that Zelensky should have to attend in person to speak.

Putin will not be in New York for the gathering of leaders, but the U.S. approved a visa for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to attend.

Experts also predict that there will be some sanctions coordination meetings between the U.S. and its allies, even on the sidelines of the meetings.

Kirby told reporters on Friday that he believed the recent images out of Izyum in Ukraine, where officials have discovered mass graves, should make leaders sympathetic to Russia reconsider their connections to Putin.

“I think you’re starting to see even countries who were not vociferous and strident in opposing him are beginning to question what he’s doing in Ukraine and rightly so because it’s just, it’s just brutal,” he said. “It’s absolutely depraved and brutal. And I think it’s becoming more and more obvious to the rest of the international community.”

Source: TEST FEED1

50 DAYS: Trump gives Democrats new hope for Senate

With 50 days to go until the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats are riding a wave of enthusiasm, while Republicans are looking to rebound from a grueling primary season and recast the fight for control of Congress as a referendum on President Biden and his party.

The contours of the midterms were unthinkable just a few months ago, when Democrats were bracing for a potential electoral thrashing in November. But a series of developments — most notably the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade — have given the party powerful themes to run on, like abortion rights and the fate of American democracy. 

“I’m from South Carolina, and the one thing we know is it’s never good to predict the weather five or six months out,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist and senior adviser to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“Every election is difficult because there are so many things you can and cannot control,” he added. “What I do know is we’ve been able to prioritize the priorities, focus on the focus and deliver the deliverables and I think that’s going to make the difference in the end.” 

Republicans still appear poised to win back their House majority thanks to gains made in redistricting and lingering concerns among voters over inflation, the economy and perceived rising crime. 

But control of the Senate is much less certain. While the GOP needs to net just one seat to recapture its majority in the upper chamber, a roster of untested — and in some cases controversial — candidates, combined with a series of early campaign trail stumbles, has made achieving that goal more difficult.

Top Republicans are aware of their obstacles. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) acknowledged last month that “there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate,” before taking a thinly veiled swipe at his party’s candidates in some of the most competitive Senate races: “Candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”

The vulnerability of certain GOP candidates is just one aspect of the midterm dynamics that have buoyed Democrats’ hopes. Former President Trump, perhaps the ultimate Democratic boogeyman, has stayed front-and-center in headlines and has begun facing mounting legal threats.

His insistence on injecting himself into Republican primary contests has also bolstered Democrats’ ability to tie GOP candidates to the former president — something that has irked some Republicans. 

“We let him run roughshod over the primaries and as a consequence, we ended up with some problematic candidates,” one Republican consultant said.

But perhaps no issue has shaken the political landscape as much as reproductive rights. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights case, over the summer, Democrats went on the offensive, warning that Republican control of Congress would almost certainly mean new restrictions on reproductive freedoms.

“We said this in the run-up to Roe and certainly in the aftermath that, if this goes through as we were warned it would, that it would scramble every assumption about the midterms,” said Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist. “All of a sudden, people are basing their vote not on esoteric matters, but on the most personal and most life-impacting issue of all.”

Even Republicans acknowledge that the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling and its aftermath have given Democrats a crucial shot in the arm.

“I think the Democrats have done a very good job at playing up the most restrictive laws and ignoring the more permissive ones and making it an issue that has helped them,” said Saul Anuzis, a Republican strategist and former Michigan GOP chairman. “That is the competitive advantage.”

Anuzis said that the fight over abortion rights has put Republicans in the position of having to defend a policy achievement that they’ve worked toward for decades.

“If you’re explaining, you’re losing,” he said. “It’s a tough spot to be in.”

The Republican National Committee this week issued a memo telling GOP candidates to tighten up their messaging ahead of November, signaling an effort to refocus on topics like the cost of living, crime and the economy — issues that they see as their biggest assets this year. 

But despite the massive shifts in the political environment over the past few months, Republicans are still on track to flip control of the House. The GOP needs to net just five seats to recapture its majority, and it appears likely to win three or four thanks to the redistricting process alone. 

At the same time, there’s no denying that Democrats are running against history. The party in power almost always loses ground in Congress in midterm elections. And while President Biden’s approval ratings have bounced back from an all-time low in July, they still remain underwater.

“I’d be lying if I told you I was hopeful for the House,” one Democratic strategist said. “These things come down to the national environment, to the president’s approval, and neither of those things are great for us. Maybe if our majority was larger, it’d be a different story.”

The fight for control of the Senate, however, has emerged as a bright spot for Democrats, who now appear favored to hold onto their razor-thin majority.

Some of the party’s incumbents who once looked exceedingly vulnerable, like Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), have held their own in the face of aggressive Republican challenges. Polling out of Arizona routinely shows Kelly leading his GOP rival Blake Masters, while Warnock is statistically deadlocked with his opponent, former football star Herschel Walker. 

Meanwhile, Democrats are also staring down opportunities to flip a handful of Republican-held seats. In Pennsylvania, Democratic Lt. Gov John Fetterman is seen as the favorite to win the seat of retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R), with polls showing him comfortably leading his Republican rival, celebrity physician Mehmet Oz.

Likewise, in Wisconsin, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes has put up a formidable challenge to Sen. Ron Johnson (R), giving Democrats an opportunity to knock off one of their most-detested Republican targets. 

Even in states that once appeared to be longshots for Democrats, the party’s candidates have shocked some political observers with strong performances. Democrats now say they have a chance to flip GOP-held seats in North Carolina, Florida and Ohio — three states that have proven elusive for the party in recent years.

Still, while polling in some of the most competitive Senate battlegrounds shows Democrats making critical gains, there are lingering concerns for the party. With nearly two months to go before Election Day, there’s still time for the political landscape to shift in the GOP’s favor. And strategists on both sides of the aisle caution against reading too far into the polls, noting that they’ve been wrong before.

“I don’t think there’s any question that the Democrats are in a better position on the Senate side,” Anuzis said. “But the numbers that have us behind are coming out of the same places where the polls were really wrong in 2020.”

In one sign that the fight for control of the Senate remains volatile, a Marquette University Law School survey — widely considered to be the gold standard for polling in Wisconsin — found Johnson mounting a comeback against Barnes. The same poll last month showed Barnes with a 7-point edge in the race.

Republicans also believe that they have a chance to bring into play the Senate race in Colorado, where GOP voters nominated a relative centrist, construction company CEO Joe O’Dea, to challenge Sen. Michael Bennet (D). 

And with the Senate majority being as slim as it is, Democrats are acutely aware that there’s no room for error.

“[Republicans] don’t need to have a great night to have a good night,” one Democratic consultant, who is working on a hotly contested Senate race this year, said. “All it takes is one seat and everything changes.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Democrats brace for life with a House GOP majority

Senate Democrats are bracing for the possibility for life under a divided government, with President Biden in office and a strong possibility of a Republican-controlled House.

Democrats hope they can retain their majority in the Senate, where a number of political handicappers say the party is favored. That would give Democrats more leverage and congressional support for Biden over the next two years.

But if the House does fall as expected, lawmakers expect partisan gridlock.

Some Democrats are predicting government shutdowns and standoffs over raising the federal debt limit will take center stage.  

“If Republicans win control of the House, they will not be able to govern. It’ll be a cascading nightmare of dysfunction and horrible for the country and horrible news for anybody who relies on federal funding,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. 

Murphy predicted that if Republicans are in charge of one or both chambers, “it’s probably a series of shutdowns and funding crises.” 

“This new breed of Republicans are anarchists. They don’t really believe government should be funding anything,” he added.  

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the House minority leader who is in line to become Speaker if Republicans win the lower chamber, is more allied with former President Trump than his Senate GOP counterpart, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).  

McCarthy sided with Trump last year when the former president called on Republicans to block legislation to raise the debt limit, which would have put the nation at risk of default.

Not a single House Republican voted to raise the debt ceiling in October and it fell to McConnell and his leadership team and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to provide the votes to keep the United States fulfilling its debt obligations.  

Trump, who retains a strong grip on the Republican base, slammed McConnell for compromising with Democrats, arguing that GOP lawmakers should have sought to paralyze Biden’s agenda.  

Trump presided over a 35-day government shutdown at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 — the longest in U.S. history — which was triggered by his demand to spend nearly $6 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.  

FiveThirtyEight.com, a political forecasting website, gives Republicans a 7 in 10 chance of winning the House majority and Democrats a 7 in 10 chance of keeping control of the Senate.  

Another Democratic senator who requested anonymity to comment frankly on the likely result of the November election, said if Republicans capture the House, it will yield “a series of investigations” of the Biden administration.  

“Many want to impeach Joe Biden. It would be a recipe for chaos and for gridlock,” the lawmaker said.

Several House conservatives have already introduced articles of impeachment against Biden, alleging “high crimes” related to his handling of border security and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan last year to has management of the coronavirus pandemic.  

Conservatives are signaling they will attempt to block funding for the Internal Revenue Service to hire an estimated 87,000 new employees, which was provided for in the Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats passed in August under the budget reconciliation process.  

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a prominent Trump ally, penned an op-ed for Fox News with Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) urging fellow Republicans to “stop caving to Democrats” and warned “under no circumstances should any Republican in the new majorities next year vote to fund the Democrats’ newly passed army of 87,000 new IRS officials to audit and harass Americans.”  

Some Trump allies still haven’t given up hope of repealing the Affordable Care Act, which was one of Trump’s top domestic priorities after taking office in 2017.  

“If we’re going to repeal and replace ObamaCare — I still think we need to fix our health care system — we need to have the plan ahead of time so that once we get in office, we can implement it immediately, not knock around like we did last time and fail,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who is running for reelection, told Breitbart News Radio earlier this year.  

When Republicans took control of the House after the 2010 midterms, then-Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), whose influence in the party has grown significantly over the last decade, proposed $2.5 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years. His proposed Spending Reduction Act would have cut nondefense discretionary spending dramatically.  

In April of that year, then-President Obama and then-Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) flirted with a government shutdown before Democrats finally agreed to $39 billion spending cuts in a late-night deal.

The Congress also came perilously close to defaulting on the federal debt in August of 2011, a few months after House Republicans captured the House. Fiscal disaster was averted by a compromise that McConnell and Biden, who was then vice president, helped craft.   

Senate Democrats say they hope such standoffs will be avoided.

“I think we’ve learned that shutdowns really are a lose-lose [proposition,]” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who came to Congress in 2011. “Certainly some House Republicans have learned. Whether all of them or the newly elected ones remains to be seen.” 

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said he’s optimistic about working with House Republicans in the next Congress to pass the annual defense authorization bill. But he expressed concerns that Trump allies in the House will try to undermine the professionalism and political neutrality of the military.  

Trump tried to shake up the Pentagon’s senior ranks and install loyalists into key positions after he lost the 2020 election to Biden, and Reed fears that Trump allies in the House may still have that on their agenda.  

“One of my concerns is less the NDAA, it’s the growing attack on the military as an institution. I just saw where the Arizona candidate for the Senate called for firing all the generals and putting in conservatives. That’s not how we [run] our army. It’s based on competence and experience and the judgment of others, their superior military officers,” Reed said.   

Blake Masters, the Republican candidate for Senate in Arizona, has repeatedly called for the across-the-board firing of generals between August of 2021 and March of this year, according to a recent report by Vice.com.  

Despite the growing Democratic concerns of having to interact with a House Republican majority in 2023, some Democratic senators think they’ll be able to find narrow areas of common ground.  

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) cited bipartisan support for the chips and science bill that passed both chambers this year with bipartisan majorities.  

“Of course there will be areas where we can work together,” he said.  

“They’ll be doing a lot of stuff for show,” he added, anticipating new investigations of the Biden administration. 

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) noted he is working with Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) to restore the pensions of salaried retirees in Delphi who were terminated when General Motors declared bankruptcy in 2009.  

“There will be ways. They’re not all crazy. Some of them are,” he said of House Republicans.  

Brown, however, insisted the political winds are shifting in Democrats’ favor, even in the battle for the House.  

“I think things are changing and these are close races,” he said. “The only thing that would cost us the House is redistricting,” referring to the changes to congressional maps made after the 2020 census.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Juan Williams: Let's hope Lindsey Graham's abortion plan backfires

What’s the backstory on Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) proposed nationwide abortion ban?

He wants Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) job as top Senate Republican.

Here’s the context.

As the midterms approach, McConnell’s reign over the Senate’s GOP caucus is being challenged. His problem starts on the campaign trail where he is stuck with Trump-backed Senate nominees of questionable “candidate quality,” to use McConnell’s own phrase. 

Earlier this year, forecasts predicted a red wave and McConnell’s return as the Senate Majority Leader. But with weak candidates, the party looks set, at best, for a narrow majority — and may have to be content with limiting its losses as Democrats retain the majority.

McConnell is openly playing the blame game with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) who, like Graham, is doing his best to suggest it is time for a new leader.

“Many of the very people responsible for losing the Senate last cycle are now trying to stop us from winning the majority this time by trash-talking our Republican candidates…It’s treasonous to the conservative cause,” Scott wrote earlier this month in The Washington Examiner.

Scott defied McConnell earlier this year by outlining a detailed GOP agenda that includes tax hikes and the possible end of Social Security. It was a political gift to Democrats, from which McConnell tried to dissociate himself as fast as possible.

But Scott, like Graham, wants to be Trump’s leader in the Senate.

Graham’s shot at McConnell is more damaging coming just weeks before Election Day and with the Supreme Court’s decision ending nationwide abortion rights already proving a negative for Republicans.

Last week, a Fox News poll reported that 63 percent of registered voters disapprove of the Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion. In the same poll, abortion was the “main issue motivating you to vote” for 16 percent of voters, a close second to the 19 percent who cited inflation.

McConnell planned to calm the abortion issue for his GOP Senate candidates by emphasizing the view that abortion rights are best decided by voters in each state, not the U.S. Senate.

Graham just destroyed that strategy.

And he did it just as Scott, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) are challenging McConnell for not backing a long-term spending plan to meet a more far-right, Trump agenda.

Graham, Scott, Cruz, and Lee see weakness in McConnell’s post-midterm position as the leading establishment Republican in a party defined by Trump’s tactics.

They see Trump controlling the future of the party, even if it is a smaller party with fewer wins, by riling up far-right voters with culture war issues such as abortion.

Graham, who was a 2016 presidential candidate running against Trump for the GOP nomination, long ago became an obsequious ally. He recently drew attention by forecasting “riots in the streets” by Trump supporters if the former president faces changes for taking classified U.S. documents as he left The White House.

Now Graham sees an opening to put himself between McConnell and the party’s strong faction of abortion opponents who say they don’t care about potential political damage from a Republican Senate pushing a national abortion ban.

Former Vice President Pence said last week that “short-term politics” are less important than advocating for a nationwide abortion ban. 

But McConnell has said he has no plans to ever schedule a vote on an abortion ban. He added: “I think most of the members of my conference prefer that this be dealt with at the state level.”

Graham’s bill has no chance of passing the Senate absent an unlikely Republican wave of wins in Senate races.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) would likely oppose Graham’s national ban. In fact, Murkowski is emphasizing her support for abortion rights as she runs for reelection.

The issue is political kryptonite for Republicans who need independent suburban women voters to break for them in purple states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona. 

An Economist/YouGov poll released earlier this month found 60 percent of Americans believing abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances.

I could find no instance of Graham being asked if he would support McConnell for Leader next Congress. Someone should really ask him to go on the record with that question. 

Backstabbing McConnell is a very unattractive look for Graham. 

He was once known as the sidekick of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), an independent-minded conservative.

That was before the far right laughed as Trump mocked Graham as a “nutjob” and “one of the dumbest human beings I’ve ever seen.”

Now he sees his future in McConnell’s downfall. And he is enlisting the zealots of the anti-abortion movement as his army. 

This is about exploiting base politics even if it divides the party and runs counter to the will of the American people. For the sake of the country, I hope it backfires mightily on Graham.

As Shakespeare might have written “Et Tu, Senator Graham?” 

Juan Williams is an author, and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden: 'The pandemic is over'

President Biden declared the coronavirus pandemic “over” in an interview that aired Sunday, pointing to the return of large events and the lack of masking and other public health measures in place nationwide.

“The pandemic is over,” Biden told “60 Minutes” from the Detroit auto show last Wednesday, the first time the even has been held since the onset of the pandemic in 2020.

“We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lotta work on it. It’s — but the pandemic is over. if you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing. And I think this is a perfect example of it.”

The United States is still recording an average of more than 400 deaths per day from COVID-19, according to New York Times data, and more than 1 million Americans have died from the virus since the pandemic began in early 2020.

Highly contagious variants have spread throughout the globe, making it nearly impossible to fully eradicate COVID-19.

As a result, the Biden administration has focused its messaging on the importance of getting vaccinated and receiving booster shots to increase immunity, as well as the wide availability of of antiviral pills and other forms of treatment for those who contract the virus.

Biden himself contracted COVID-19 in July, but experienced only mild symptoms, according to his doctor. Officials credited his mild case to being fully vaccinated and taking the antiviral drug Paxlovid.

The U.S. and much of the world has returned to hosting large events over the past year, like the auto show, and done away with requirements that attendees wear masks or provide proof of vaccination. The U.S. still requires foreign visitors to be fully vaccinated to come to the country by plane.

The World Health Organization (WHO) still categorizes COVID-19 as a pandemic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s top medical adviser on the pandemic, said earlier this year the U.S. was moving “out of the pandemic phase” with COVID-19, pointing to the manageable levels of hospitalizations and deaths in the country.

Biden has in the past argued that the United States had turned a corner on the pandemic, most notably during a speech on Independence Day in 2021, when he asserted the country had the tools necessary to “declare independence” from the virus.

But in the weeks that followed, the delta variant contributed to a surge in cases and deaths. And in late 2021 into early 2022, the omicron variant again led to a spike in cases and deaths. Newly available booster shots were designed specifically to shield Americans from severe cases of the omicron variant.

In the 60 Minutes interview, Biden said the “impact on the psyche of the American people as a consequence of the pandemic is profound.”

“Think of how that has changed everything. You know, people’s attitudes about themselves, their families, about the state of the nation, about the state of their communities. And so there’s a lot of uncertainty out there, a great deal of uncertainty. And we lost a million people. A million people to COVID,” he said.

“When I got in office, when I got elected, only 2 million people had been vaccinated. I got 220 million — my point is it takes time,” he added. “We were left in a very difficult situation. It’s been a very difficult time. Very difficult.”

Updated at 8:58 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Tensions rise amid frustration over mystery Manchin deal

Lawmakers are frustrated about being kept in the dark as Democratic leaders strategize how to jimmy an energy deal struck with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) behind closed doors through Congress — while also averting a government shutdown.

Democratic leadership is aiming to use a must-pass government-funding bill to advance an energy permitting proposal by Manchin by the end of the month. But with roughly two weeks standing between Congress and the critical funding deadline, tensions are simmering over the closely-kept negotiations. 

“We don’t know what it is. They haven’t released the text, they don’t give us the detailed explanation,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told The Hill this week. “So, I don’t know how you could ask people to vote for something they don’t know what it is.”

“There’s a reason they’re keeping it secret: it’s either still being negotiated or it’s so weak it has no meaning or it’s too strong for other people,” she added.

Only a broad outline of Manchin’s plan has been released. 

It includes setting maximum timelines for the environmental review process for energy projects, which advocates say could undercut the analysis required for a project’s approval and weaken community involvement. Other components would make it harder for states to block projects that run through their waters and require the president to pick a “balanced” list of energy projects that should be prioritized.

The outline also says that a natural gas pipeline that runs through West Virginia, known as the Mountain Valley Pipeline, would be completed. 

But in the absence of official text, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are complaining that they don’t know what they’re debating. 

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) who is leading the left-wing opposition to Manchin’s reforms, said he’d be open to negotiating a package if it will provide protections for communities that face high pollution burdens. 

Still, he expressed frustration that the details of Manchin’s proposal haven’t been spelled out.

“We’re negotiating in the dark and all the cards are held by the Senate and we’re just supposed to react,” Grijalva told The Hill. 

He said he’s seeking a meeting with leadership to negotiate and also plans to reach out to Manchin. 

Pressed on Thursday whether the text would be released before legislation is unveiled for the funding bill, Manchin told The Hill he believes it will be “released in the CR,” referring to the continuing resolution, which is expected to push the government funding deadline to December as the midterm cycle picks up.

A continuing resolution is a short-term spending bill that keeps spending at present levels.

As for when and how the funding bill will be brought up for consideration, much appears to be up in the air, as top leaders indicate those details are still being hashed out.  

Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, speculated that the CR might not drop until “probably closer to the end of the month” — which he noted would up the pressure on both sides to pass a CR before funding lapses.

However, he raised doubts about whether Manchin’s permitting measure will make it into the larger funding package.

“Republicans and a lot of Democrats [are] against it. So, I don’t know where it goes yet,” he said.

He pointed to a separate permitting proposal released by Capito and other Republicans this past week as an alternative.

It’s not totally clear how different the Capito and Manchin plans will be, though Manchin has suggested his plan will be similar to the plan from his fellow West Virginia senator.

“She dropped the marker on the same lines of what we’ve done,” Manchin said. He also expressed hopes that Republicans lining up behind her proposal, which has backing from over 40 GOP members, will translate to support for the funding bill if it includes permitting reform. Such support could also translate to the House, where there is significant Democratic opposition to the plan.

“It means that basically Democrats and Republicans are in the same mindset of going permitting and why it’s so important, and hopefully she’s able to bring at least 20 of them,” Manchin said.

Like the Manchin outline, the Capito legislation would limit environmental review timelines, restrict states’ authorities to block projects and require the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. It goes further, preventing the federal government from restricting an oil and gas extraction process known as fracking that has been linked to water contamination. It also would allow states to take over authority from the federal government of energy production on public lands. 

Some in the GOP view the Capito legislation as a starting point for negotiations, while others appear less willing to meet Manchin in the middle. But, as Manchin’s efforts are still seen as their best shot to get any kind of reform done, they may eventually coalesce around his proposal. 

Meanwhile, nearly 80 House Democrats are calling on party leadership to separate Manchin’s deal from the funding bill, though some are wary of threatening to vote against the deal if it means a government shutdown. 

“If it’s attached then that would theoretically be a shutdown vote,” Grijalva told The Hill, but he cast doubt on the chances all Democrats opposing the proposal would vote down a stopgap bill containing the measure.

Grijalva acknowledged that not every member who opposes the permitting reform changes would be willing to go to a shutdown — and didn’t say whether he himself would vote to shut down the government — but said that right now, his coalition has power. 

He said that in “any close vote, and if the Republicans don’t support any part of it, which has been the history, then then I think our vote becomes that much more significant.”

“But I’m not promoting that … The ask right now is to divide it,” he added. 

That doesn’t mean some members aren’t already doing the math, however.

“As small as our margin is, we only need what? Three, four or five?” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), one of the dozens of Democrats supporting Grijalva’s effort, told The Hill on the matter Thursday. “So, we’ll see if we have that.” 

Alex Bolton contributed.

Source: TEST FEED1

Swing-state Republicans on defense over Graham’s abortion ban

Democrats are working to take full advantage on the campaign trail of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) proposed 15-week abortion ban, looking to back their opponents into a corner on an issue Republicans had spent months trying to pivot away from.

On Thursday, Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman called on Republican candidate Mehmet Oz to take a position on Graham’s proposal, while incumbent New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan (D) warned that her GOP opponent Don Bolduc and congressional Republicans would push for a nationwide ban on the procedure if elected. 

“Don Bolduc has said that he would never vote against anti-choice legislation and would clearly join Senate Republicans in voting to ban abortion nationwide,” said Sydney Petersen, a spokesperson for Hassan’s campaign. “His anti-choice record is dangerous and out of touch with New Hampshire, and is in stark contrast to Senator Hassan’s record of fighting for a woman’s fundamental freedom.” 

In Ohio, Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan also railed against Graham’s proposed ban, telling the Cincinnati Enquirer that “this latest attack on women’s freedom is exactly” what his GOP opponent J.D. Vance wanted and “and exactly why Ohioans won’t let him anywhere near the Senate.” 

Out West, incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s (D-Nev.) campaign wasted no time tying her GOP opponent Adam Laxalt to Graham’s bill. 

“As Attorney General, Laxalt pushed for strict abortion bans across the country and even worked to restrict birth control access. He has focused his campaign on a statewide abortion ban that is even more restrictive than the federal ban proposed today, so there is no question he would support it if elected,” said Cortez-Masto spokesperson Josh Marcus-Blank. 

Meanwhile, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly’s campaign similarly went on the offensive after his GOP opponent Blake Masters supported Graham’s proposed ban. Masters, for his part, defended his stance.

The issue was already working in Democrats’ favor before Graham thrust it once again into the spotlight, with victories on a ballot initiative vote in Kansas and other candidates like now-Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) making it a centerpiece of their campaign. But the South Carolina Republican’s proposed legislation two months before the midterms gave them fresh ammunition even as it seemed to confuse and frustrate members of the GOP.

“Senate Republicans are showing voters exactly what they would do if they are in charge: pass a nationwide abortion ban and strip away women’s right to make our own health care decisions,” said Nora Keefe, a spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “For Americans of every political persuasion who value the freedom to make their own decisions about their family’s health care, the stakes of protecting and expanding our Democratic Senate majority in November have never been higher.”

On Tuesday, Graham introduced legislation that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy across the country except in the cases of rape, incest and situations where it would save the life of the mother. His announcement came roughly two months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Public backlash to the decision has grown since then, with numerous polls showing that a majority of Americans disagreed with the high court’s move. 

Republicans and anti-abortion advocates also suffered electoral losses following the decision, such as in the aforementioned campaigns in Kansas and New York.

“Without Roe, it kind of crystalizes that this is a reality for folks,” said one national Democratic operative. 

However, Republicans like Graham have attempted to use the issue to paint Democrats as extremists, specifically pointing to late-term abortion. 

“We’re trying to take a position we think will rally the country to be more sympathetic to an unborn child,” Graham said at the press conference earlier this week. 

Still, the issue has forced a number of Republican Senate candidates and campaigns to have to respond to Graham’s proposed abortion ban when they likely would rather be talking about other issues, like the economy. On top of that, Republicans are already facing an uphill battle to reclaim control of the majority in the upper chamber. 

“It’s another example of Republicans already running into some challenging headwinds,” said one Republican strategist. “When you have an individual senator go off on their own and make their political calculations, they do it at the risk of our candidates and risking our ability to really challenge for a Senate majority. 

The same strategist lamented Graham’s decision to announce the proposed ban hours after the Labor Department announced that inflation rose in August despite declining gas prices. 

“The cherry on the cake was that he did it on the day that it was so devastatingly bad for the administration,” the GOP strategist said. “It just couldn’t have gone worse or come at a worse time.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) quickly tried to throw cold water on the proposal, reiterating his position that the issue should be handled at the state level. 

“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,” McConnell said. 

Republican Senate candidates echoed McConnell’s comments this week on the campaign trail. 

In New Hampshire, Bolduc put distance between himself and Graham’s proposal this week, arguing that the ban “doesn’t make sense.” 

“Women on both sides of the issue will get a better voice at the state level,” Bolduc said. 

Meanwhile, in Nevada, Laxalt’s campaign cited the state’s law on the procedure and raised doubts about whether Graham’s proposal would pass the Senate in the first place. 

“This proposal has no chance to pass Congress and receive President Biden’s signature. The law in Nevada was settled by voters decades ago and isn’t going to change,” said Laxalt campaign spokesperson Brian Freimuth, according to the Nevada Independent. 

Vance has not yet addressed Graham’s specific proposal but has said before that the issue should be left to the states. However, the Cincinnati Enquirer resurfaced a podcast interview Vance took part in earlier this year in which he said he would like the procedure to be banned nationally, but acknowledged a federal ban is unlikely at this moment. 

Still, Democrats say they are hanging onto McConnell’s past comments from May, in which he said that a national abortion ban is “possible” if Roe was overturned during the summer. 

“They have made clear where they stand on this issue,” the national Democratic operative said. “As far as Senate Republicans running this cycle, we’re going to make sure that voters see and hear what they have said in their own words.” 

Source: TEST FEED1