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Paul clashes with Fauci over child vaccinations

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday clashed with White House medical advisor Anthony Fauci about whether children who were previously infected with COVID-19 still need to be vaccinated, the latest in his long-running feud with the nation’s top infectious diseases doctor.

During a Senate hearing about the administration’s response to monkeypox, Paul played a clip of Fauci on C-SPAN in 2004, where he tells someone who was infected with the flu they do not need a flu shot.

“If she got the flu for 14 days, she’s as protected as anybody can be, because the best vaccination is to get infected yourself,” Fauci said in the video. 

Paul then pressed Fauci on why his comments about COVID-19 differed from what he said about the flu, and why he recommends parents vaccinate their children even if they’ve previously been infected with the virus.

“What you’re doing is denying the very fundamental premise of immunology, that previous infection does provide some sort of immunity,” Paul said. “People decry vaccine hesitancy— it’s coming from the gobbledygook you give us. You’re not paying attention to the science.”

Fauci replied that Paul was taking the clip out of context, and produced a Reuters fact check that said his comments on the flu in the interview did not contradict his COVID-19 pandemic stance.  

“I have never ever denied fundamental immunology. In fact I wrote the chapter in the textbook of medicine on fundamental immunology,” Fauci countered. He said a previous infection is a “very potent way” to be protected, but getting vaccinated on top of a previous infection gives an “added, extra boost.”

Paul then pivoted to berating Fauci about vaccine royalties, and whether he or anyone on the agency committees that vote on authorizing vaccines get any payments from pharmaceutical companies. 

“We’ve been asking you, and you refuse to answer, whether anyone on the vaccine committees gets royalties from the pharmaceutical companies. I asked you last time, and what was your response? We don’t have to tell you,” Paul said. 

Paul got into an argument with Fauci over the same topic in June, when Fauci told him that according to regulations, people who receive royalties are not required to divulge them.  

Fauci has become a political lightning rod and a villain in the eyes of many on the right. Conservative media has painted him as a scapegoat for many of the nation’s missteps over the pandemic. He has served in government for more than 50 years, and is stepping down at the end of the year. 

He has clashed repeatedly with Republicans in Congress, but especially Paul, who are eagerly floating investigations into the Biden administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic if they win back control of the House or Senate in November’s midterm elections. 

Paul threatened similar action on Wednesday.

 “But I tell you this. When we get in charge, we’re going to change the rules and you will have to divulge where you get your royalties from … and if anyone on the committee has a conflict of interest we’re going to learn about, I promise you that,” Paul said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Huge Social Security COLA spike could be on the way — because of inflation

People on Social Security could see a huge spike in their checks from a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that is itself a result of inflation.

In a letter sent on Tuesday, Senior Citizens League policy analyst Mary Johnson said recipients could see an 8.7 percent COLA spike next year.

That’s a huge increase reflective of the high inflation people are experiencing across the country, though at the same time, it is actually a smaller COLA than the Senior Citizens League projected just a month ago. At that time, Johnson was forecasting a 9.6 percent hike.

“After evaluating the August consumer price data, what I’m finding clearly illustrates the weakness in our inflation adjustment system for Social Security. My COLA estimate has dropped to 8.7% almost a full percentage point from the 9.6% that I forecast last month, Johnson wrote in her letter.

“That was a significant drop, but the Consumer Price Index, CPI-W (CPI-W), the index that Social Security benefits are based on, has decreased even —by 1.10 percentage point year over year to 8.7%,” Johnson stated.

The 8.7 percent COLA would boost the average retiree’s benefit from $1,656 received monthly to $1,800 by next year, an increase of $144.10. 

This would also the highest COLA increase since 1982, when the Social Security Administration estimated a 7.4 percent increase in the cost-of-living adjustment. 

That might not translate into much more money for people living on their Social Security checks, however, given rising costs for goods and health care expenses.

“Across the board, retired and disabled Social Security recipients spend a bigger portion of their incomes on healthcare costs, housing, and food and less on gasoline,” Johnson said. “Over the past 12 months, they rank food costs as their fastest growing expenditure, housing, and transportation in that order.” 

The Labor Department on Tuesday announced that consumer prices rose in August by 0.1 percent despite a drop in gas prices, news that triggered a steep stock selloff by aggravating concerns that inflation is not easing.

Source: TEST FEED1

Rail union becomes first to authorize strike, threatening supply chain

Nearly 5,000 railway workers at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) voted to reject a tentative contract agreement with railroads and authorize a strike, the union said Wednesday.

IAM members are the first to approve a strike and reject a contract based on recommendations released by a White House-appointed board last month. 

The vote reveals that rail workers are not satisfied with the agreement, which calls for 24 percent raises and back pay but doesn’t address workers’ demands for more predictable scheduling and the ability to take time off for doctors’ appointments without being penalized. 

IAM said that it would delay strike action until Sept. 29 at noon to allow union leaders to continue negotiations with railroads.

“We look forward to continuing that vital work with a fair contract that ensures our members and their families are treated with the respect they deserve for keeping America’s goods and resources moving through the pandemic,” IAM said in a statement.

More than 115,000 rail workers are legally allowed to strike as of Friday, a move that would shut down the transport of food, fuel and other key goods. Lawmakers are preparing to use their authority to block a walkout. 

–Developing…

Source: TEST FEED1

Senate panel considers Taiwan bill — to the discomfort of White House

A Senate panel is set to consider a major overhaul of U.S. policy toward Taiwan on Wednesday despite concerns from the Biden administration.

The Taiwan Policy Act of 2022 — introduced by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in June — seeks to clarify America’s commitments to the island that are currently established by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.  

It would set aside $4.5 billion in assistance for Taiwan over four years, and designate Taiwan a Major Non-NATO Ally, which would benefit the island in terms of defense, trade, and security cooperation. The bill would also support Taiwan’s participation in international organizations and multilateral trade architecture.

China is vehemently opposed to the legislation, viewing it as an affront to the U.S. “one China” principle — a politically ambiguous policy dating back to 1972’s Shanghai Communique that states “Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China.”

Beijing views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has sought to put diplomatic pressure on countries around the world to not recognize Taiwan. Under the one-China principle, the U.S. doesn’t officially recognize Taiwan as independent from Beijing but is committed to ensuring the island can defend itself.  

Liu Pengyu a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S., said in a statement to The Hill that Taiwan Policy Act would “systematically undermine the One-China principle and change the long-standing one-China policy of the US, which is extremely egregious in nature.” 

“Once passed as law, it will have a subversive impact on China-US relations and send a gravely wrong signal to the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces,” Pengyu continued.   

“We are firmly opposed to this. We urge the US side to fully recognize the high sensitivity of the Taiwan question, earnestly respect China’s core concerns, abide by the one-China principle and the three Sino-US joint communiques, observe international law and basic norms governing international relations, stop marking up these negative bills on Taiwan, and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs,” he added.  

The administration hasn’t released a formal statement of administration policy outlining its objections to the bill, but White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview with Bloomberg’s that the Biden administration had ‘some concern about the bill. 

On Tuesday, White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the administration has held discussions with members about the bill.

“I don’t want to get too far ahead of it because it is proposed legislation. But as we do, normally we are working with members of Congress about it as it goes forward,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “We’ve been adamant about being committed to Taiwan’s self-defense and moving forward, and we look forward to working with Congress on this proposed legislation as it works through the process.”  

Brad Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, says the most important element of the bill is the guaranteed military financing over four years.

“There’s a huge gap between the deterrent capabilities that Taiwan needs and the capabilities that can afford,” Bowman said.  

“So, providing by providing this security assistance program, which is sent to which is essentially a foreign military financing program, with some similarities to what we provide Israel on an annual basis, Taiwan would be able to purchase American weapons that it would not otherwise be able to afford,” he said.  

The bill comes as tensions between China and Taiwan — and China and the U.S. — have ramped up in recent years.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also made U.S. officials more anxious about the possibility of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jingping has vowed to purse ‘reunification’ with Taiwan.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) led a congressional delegation to Taiwan in August, a significant move that was followed by China halting climate and military cooperation with the U.S. and holding large-scale drills around Taiwan.  

Twenty-eight members of Congress visited the island this year alone, the highest number to visit since 2013, Bloomberg reported.  

Taiwan has been a point of tension between Biden and lawmakers in both parties, who resoundingly backed Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan even as the White House signaled its discomfort.

As a result, the administration faces a politically fraught challenge in pushing back on the Menendez-Graham legislation.

“There’s very little bipartisan ship these days here in Washington. And here we have something that both Democrats and Republicans agree on,” said Dean Cheng, a senior research fellow on Chinese political and security affairs at the Heritage Foundation.  

“Democrats and Republicans are sponsoring this legislation. And yet, the administration rather than playing to that something that would unify the country is seemingly throwing sand in the gears,” he continued.  

It’s unclear whether the bill has a path to become law in the remaining days of this Congress, but people will be watching for signals from members of the panel closely on Wednesday.

“It’ll be really interesting to watch the business meeting. And if we see Democrats not supporting Chairman Menendez, one of my first questions is going to be were they being told by the White House to do that? Or encouraged by the White House to do that?” Bowman said.  

Source: TEST FEED1

The Hill's Morning Report — Graham steals GOP’s inflation thunder with abortion ban

Inflation, inflation, inflation. That’s the message Republicans have been begging and pleading to talk about for months. But don’t tell that to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). 

Graham stole the spotlight from the biggest news in GOP circles — that the consumer price index report showed that inflation rose 0.1 percent in August — by rolling out legislation that would ban abortion nationally after 15 weeks, creating headaches for a party that has been on its heels for much of the past month. 

The move effectively kneecapped messaging by Republicans, who have centered their midterm arguments on what they describe as shaky economic stewardship under President Biden. Adding to the economic issues, the inflation report reverberated significantly on Wall Street as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq all suffered their worst day of losses this year (CNBC). 

Hours after the inflation news, Graham, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, officially rolled out his bill, which had been teased late Monday. The Supreme Court in June overturned Roe v. Wade, sending abortion decisions to all 50 states. 

“I think we should have a law at the federal level that would say after 15 weeks, no abortion on demand except in cases of rape, incest and save the life of a mother. And that should be where America’s at,” Graham said during a press conference on Capitol Hill, adding a line sure to be featured in Democratic campaign ads in the next two months. 

“If we take back the House and the Senate, I can assure you we’ll have a vote on our bill. If the Democrats are in charge, I don’t know if we’ll ever have a vote on our bill,” he added.

The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel reports that the measure would retain state laws that are more restrictive about abortion while replacing laws in blue states that protect abortion. It also includes exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother if she is in danger from a physical condition. The bill also carries a potential five-year jail sentence for any abortion provider in violation of a ban.

The announcement bewildered a number of leading Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) quickly tossed cold water on Graham’s bill, saying abortion decisions should be left to the states (The Hill). Reactions by other Senate GOP members were less charitable.

“I don’t think there’s an appetite for a national platform here. My state, today, is working on this. I’m not sure what he’s thinking here. But I don’t think there will be a rallying around that concept,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). “I don’t think there’s much of an appetite to go that direction” (Politico).

The topic did not come up during the Senate GOP’s weekly luncheon on Tuesday. 

▪ Alexander Bolton, The Hill: Graham creates unwelcome political problem for McConnell, GOP.

▪ CNN: Graham proposes 15-week abortion bill, dividing Republicans ahead of midterm elections.

▪ The Wall Street Journal editorial board: Graham’s 15-week abortion ban: It’s constitutionally dubious and risks misreading the politics.

▪ The Washington Post: West Virginia becomes the second state to pass strict abortion ban post-Roe.

Reaction to Graham’s legislative rollout among Republicans who are focused on midterm contests was “disbelief,” according to one GOP operative. 

“He basically handed them —,” the operative said, trailing off in laughter. “I just can’t believe this happened. I cannot believe this happened. Surely Democrats are high-fiving across the country. Imagine how much money they’re going to raise, and they didn’t even have to talk about inflation. They had a press conference on inflation today, and they didn’t even have to talk about it!”

“In the history of unforced political errors, this is a first ballot hall of famer,” the GOP operative told the Morning Report of Graham’s timing.

Across the Capitol complex, House Republicans are releasing a 15-week national abortion ban of their own. According to CNN, more than 80 House GOP members have signed on, including Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), the No. 3-ranked House Republican. 

According to a recent poll by The Wall Street Journal, 57 percent of Americans oppose a ban on abortion after 15 weeks. 

▪ Politico: Graham saves Biden’s big day.

▪ The New York Times: How a proposed 15-week abortion ban compares with state laws 

▪ The Hill: White House blasts Graham abortion bill as “wildly out of step.”

However, the government’s inflation report coupled with faltering stocks on Wall Street provided a gloomy backdrop for the White House on Tuesday as it held an event celebrating the Inflation Reduction Act’s passage. Biden, in remarks to a crowd of more than 1,000 people, hailed the package as the “single most important legislation passed in the Congress to combat inflation, and one of the most significant laws in our nation’s history, in my view.”

“With this law, the American people won, and special interests lost,” Biden declared. He added to a reporter following a last-minute trip to Delaware to vote that he isn’t worried about the inflation uptick “because we’re talking about one tenth of 1 percent.”

Meanwhile, the Biden administration was faced with another thorny issue on Tuesday as it seeks to stave off a rail strike that could have a major impact on commuter rail services and prices. 

Administration officials told The Hill’s Brett Samuels that Biden and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, a former union leader, have reached out to rail companies and worker unions to help broker a deal between the two sides. A White House official added that the president was involved Monday in outreach to unions and freight rail companies and was updated again Tuesday on the situation.

“All parties need to stay at the table, bargain in good faith to resolve outstanding issues, and come to an agreement,” the Department of Labor spokesperson told The Hill. “The fact that we are already seeing some impacts of contingency planning by railways again demonstrates that a shutdown of our freight rail system is an unacceptable outcome for our economy and the American people, and all parties must work to avoid that.”

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: Congress prepares to act on rail strike amid fears of “economic catastrophe.”

▪ CNN: Amtrak suspends long-haul freight routes in case of strike.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: ​​Inflation infighting: Honey, do we really need those pine nuts?

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Inflation report keeps the Federal Reserve on an aggressive rate-rise path.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ CONGRESS

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) predicts a private deal he cut with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) will survive. During the summer, Schumer blessed changes Manchin seeks to the federal construction permitting process and says proposed changes will gain sufficient backing later this month when he attaches a measure to a short-term government funding bill that must be enacted before Oct. 1 in order to avoid a partial shutdown.

“I’m going to add it to the CR and it will pass,” he said on Tuesday, referring to his intention to use a continuing resolution as a vehicle to both prevent the government from running out of funds on Sept. 30 and make good on a promise to Manchin.

It’s a controversial move, one that’s triggered turmoil on the left and the right because until recently, few lawmakers were aware of the Schumer-Manchin deal. It’s far from clear that such a bill can pass the Senate and the House. Senators in both parties say they await legislative details and more negotiations and will gauge the uproar among progressives and some conservatives, including in the House.

Manchin nabbed a sweetener from Schumer, which progressives say would benefit the fossil fuel industry to the detriment of the environment. It was part of his leverage before supporting Democrats’ sweeping climate, health policy and tax bill, which was enacted as the Inflation Reduction Act. The president and Democratic candidates are wooing voters ahead of Election Day on the basis of provisions in the new law.

▪ Fox News: Schumer-Manchin energy permitting deal teeters in the Senate.   

▪ Vox: The Democratic infighting over Manchin’s “side deal,” explained.

In the House on Tuesday, Republicans who are eyeing a potential majority next year began locking in colleagues’ support (and blocking out competitors) for posts in the leadership come January. Stefanik announced she will seek another term as Republican Conference chairwoman, ending months of speculation that she might seek the majority whip position if Republicans gain control of the chamber. Her decision set off a cascade of revised speculation about Republicans who may want to climb the House leadership ladder, The Hill’s Emily Brooks reports.

▪ The Hill: The House Jan. 6 committee met Tuesday to discuss future hearings and next steps.

▪ The Hill: Justice Department pressure allegations lead to newest political quagmire facing Trump.

▪ Mike Lillis, The Hill: Democrats in final push to mold midterm message.

Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, Twitter’s former security chief, told the Senate Judiciary Committee during testimony on Tuesday that there was “at least one agent” from China’s intelligence service on Twitter’s payroll and that the company knowingly allowed India to add agents to the company roster, potentially giving those nations access to sensitive data about users. Twitter has denied his allegations, and Zatko has provided little supporting documentation or corroboration (The Associated Press).

The New York Times: A records analysis found that 97 lawmakers or their family members bought or sold financial assets over a three-year span in industries that could be affected by their legislative committee work.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ POLITICS & INVESTIGATIONS

As primary season draws to a close, all eyes are on New Hampshire, one of three states with a contest on Tuesday, and one of four states that will determine the Senate majority next year (alongside Arizona, Georgia and Nevada), writes The Hill’s Niall Stanage. Tuesday primaries will also be held in Rhode Island and Delaware.

For Trump, the primaries thus far have delivered mixed results: He’s suffered losses in key races, including in Georgia and South Carolina, with some of his preferred candidates facing perilous general election contests. In New Hampshire on Tuesday, Gov. Chris Sununu is projected to win the Republican primary the gubernatorial race, setting him up for a likely fourth term, The Hill reports. Gov. Dan McKee (D) of Rhode Island also won his primary, and Tuesday night saw several key wins for Trump-aligned candidates.

▪ The Hill: Five takeaways from the last primary night of the year.

▪ The Hill: Sununu prevails in New Hampshire GOP primary, setting up likely fourth term

▪ Politico: What to watch in the last primaries: A Senate GOP brawl and a Democratic governor in peril.

▪ NBC News: Five ads that define Tuesday’s primaries.

The Hill’s Julia Manchester points to midterm clues and outlooks for the 2024 presidential election.

Trump’s hold on the GOP has not loosened since he left office, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade, along with the ensuing national conversation about abortion rights, has proved a “powerful force for galvanizing Democrats and potentially some swing voters.”

▪ The New York Times: Why things may really be different for this midterm election.

▪ The Hill: Karoline Leavitt wins GOP nod to face Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.). 

▪ The Hill: Rhode Island’s Democratic governor survives competitive primary. 

The Justice Department on Monday sought to disprove Trump’s statements about declassifying the records the FBI found at Mar-a-Lago and criticized his legal team for “insinuating — but failing to fully assert — the claim,” The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch reports.

The statement follows repeated assertions earlier in the week by Trump’s lawyers that the former president had the power to declassify the records. There is no evidence or documentary record of such action before he left office.

“Plaintiff principally seeks to raise questions about the classification status of the records and their categorization under the Presidential Records Act (‘PRA’). But plaintiff does not actually assert — much less provide any evidence — that any of the seized records bearing classification markings have been declassified,” the Justice Department wrote in its brief. “Such possibilities should not be given weight absent plaintiff’s putting forward competent evidence.”

Presidents have broad powers to declassify records, but once a decision is made, it sets off a chain of events in which intelligence agencies take steps to record the completed process.

▪ Bloomberg: DOJ says Trump undercuts himself in Mar-a-Lago documents arguments.

▪ Insider: DOJ points out that Trump’s legal filings don’t align with his public statements about the Mar-a-Lago records.

▪ CNN: Biden flew to Delaware (and back to the White House) on Tuesday to vote in the state’s primary.

▪ The Hill: Why Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is sparking 2024 chatter.

▪ Mississippi Today: Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) helped Brett Favre secure welfare funding for University of Southern Mississippi volleyball stadium, texts reveal.  

OPINION

■ This might not be a Cold War, but it feels like one,Jane Perlez, foreign correspondent, The New York Times. https://nyti.ms/3Lflup2 

■ Abortion, polling and other Republican midterm troubles, by Jason L. Riley, columnist, The Wall Street Journal. https://on.wsj.com/3BFtvjy 

WHERE AND WHEN

The House meets at 10 a.m.

The Senate convenes at 10 a.m. and will resume consideration of Laura Montecalvo to be U.S. Circuit judge for the 1st Circuit.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 8:30 a.m. Biden will travel to Detroit to speak at 1:45 p.m. at the Detroit Auto Show about U.S. manufacture of electric vehicles. The president will attend a Democratic National Committee event at 3:10 p.m. in Detroit and then return to the White House.

Vice President Harris will fly to Buffalo, N.Y., this morning to tour the GROW Clean Energy Center at the State University of New York at 12:15 p.m.. She will speak at 2 p.m. about the Inflation Reduction Act before departing at 4 p.m. to return to Washington.

🖥  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

➤ RIP 

Former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, 76, who famously investigated former President Clinton, probed an Arkansas land deal and detailed Clinton’s sexual relationship with a White House intern, died on Tuesday in Houston following an undisclosed illness, hospitalization and surgery (The New York Times). 

Clinton, who was accused of lying under oath and obstructing justice, was impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate. He left office at the end of his second term with a job approval rating of 66 percent. 

Starr, like many of Clinton’s detractors, softened with familiarity and over time. “I think Bill Clinton is a good person who’s a flawed person,” he told Vice in 2018, two decades after what the nation at the time thought would be a rare presidential impeachment.

Starr, a former dean of Pepperdine University’s law school in California and former president of Baylor University in Texas, died at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center of complications from surgery, according to a former colleague, attorney Mark Lanier. He said Starr was treated in an intensive care unit for about four months (The Associated Press). 

The Waco Tribune: A memorial service for Starr is scheduled next week in Austin. 

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Russian President Vladimir Putin may try to exploit cold weather as a weapon in the fight against Ukraine by aggravating an energy crisis in Europe (The Hill). … Ukrainian officials said Wednesday that their next objective was to recapture the city of Lyman, a gateway to Luhansk Province, where Russia gained control through fierce fighting in spring and summer (The New York Times). … The United States says Russia spent $300 million to covertly influence world politics (The Associated Press). … Reuters reports that as the war with Ukraine began, Putin rejected an aide’s recommendation for a peace deal.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday began ​his first trip abroad since the outbreak of the pandemic with a stop in Kazakhstan ahead of a Thursday summit in Uzbekistan with Putin and other leaders of a Central Asian security group (The Associated Press).

Italylooks poised to elect its first female prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a far-right candidate who has earned “a level of power that’s been out of reach for her counterparts in Germany and France, and doing so even after the forces propelling nationalism on the continent — a migration backlash and Euroskepticism — have waned,” according to The Washington Post.

“In a political world where everyone’s saying one thing and doing another, our [party’s] system of values is pretty clear,” Meloni told the Post. “You may like it or not, but we aren’t misleading.”

Reuters reported on Sept. 9 that Meloni’s party, the Brothers of Italy, which dominates the country’s conservative alliance, is set to be the largest single party at the Sept. 25 vote — widening its lead over the center-left Democratic Party.

Meloni is a NATO supporter and opposes Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Under her leadership, “the country, she says, won’t take some authoritarian turn,” the Post reports. “What will surely change, though, is Italy’s tone.”

➤ POLIO & PANDEMIC

The World Health Organization added the United States to its list of countries with circulating polio, according to a Tuesday announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It now joins roughly 30 other countries with outbreaks, including Algeria, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Yemen, Israel, and the U.K.,” Fortune reports.

“We cannot emphasize enough that polio is a dangerous disease for which there is no cure,” José Romero, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a statement.

A case of polio was confirmed in New York in July in an unvaccinated 20-year-old man living in Rockland County (The Hill). Since then, the virus has been detected in wastewater in multiple locations in the state, suggesting “tip of the iceberg” local circulation. Polio, once thought to be almost eradicated in the United States, is highly transmissible through person-to-person contact with infected stools or droplets from infected individuals’ coughs and sneezes. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) last week declared a state of emergency to urge vaccination in her state (The New York Times).

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,051,303. Current average U.S. COVID-19 daily deaths are 358, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

➤ TECH

Twitter shareholders voted on Tuesday to authorize Elon Musk’s $44 billion bid to purchase the social media giant. The move comes amid the continued legal fight between Twitter and Musk, who is trying to back out of his deal over the company not being sufficiently forthcoming about the number of fake accounts and bots (CNBC). 

THE CLOSER

🐝 And finally … The British royal beekeeper had to convey an important message to his colonies: Her Majesty the Queen was dead. Queen Elizabeth II, that is, not the hive’s queen bee.

The tradition puzzled many, The New York Times reported Tuesday, but it turns out, it’s been around for centuries, “with potentially grave consequences if not followed.”

“It’s a very old and well-established tradition, but not something that’s very well-known,” Mark Norman, a folklorist and the author of a book about folklore and rural crafts, told the Times.

According to tradition, bees are considered members of the family and should thus be informed of major life events in the family, including births and deaths. Historically, beekeepers would knock on the hive and deliver the news, sometimes even covering it with a black cloth to observe a mourning period.

“In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was believed that neglecting to tell the bees could lead to various misfortunes, including their death or departure, or a failure to make honey,” the Times reports.

Stay Engaged

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DOJ pressure allegations lead to newest political quagmire facing Trump

Former President Trump is facing a new political quagmire as Senate Democrats open an investigation into allegations he pressured the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate his political opponents. Former U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman wrote in a new book that the Justice Department under Trump pushed his office to pursue criminal cases against former Secretary of State John Kerry and others viewed as political opponents of Trump. 

Democrats, who have been happy to elevate Trump and his conduct in the wake of an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate, will look into the matter, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced Monday night. 

“I welcome the investigation,” Berman said Tuesday morning on MSNBC. “The conduct that occurred was so outrageous and unprecedented. A light needs to be shined on it.” 

Berman, who served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) from 2018 until he was forced to resign in 2020, alleges in his new book that his office was pursuing charges stemming from a guilty plea by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.  

He also cited an investigation into former Trump White House official Stephen Bannon, who was eventually charged and later pardoned before Trump left office. 

In another instance, Berman said the DOJ referred a criminal case targeting Kerry to his office days after Trump sent two tweets attacking Kerry for communicating with Iranian officials about the Iran nuclear deal. 

The Justice Department suggested the SDNY cite Kerry using a statute from 1799 that had never been successfully prosecuted, Berman said Tuesday morning. 

The allegations levied by Berman, who ultimately left his post after then-Attorney General William Barr told him he had been fired at Trump’s request, present the latest headache for Trump as he preps for a 2024 presidential campaign.  

While Trump has not made an announcement, he is viewed as more likely than not to jump into the race. 

With that political backdrop, Democrats have seized on opportunities to elevate the former president’s conduct, which has made him unpopular with many independent voters. They’ve sought to tie him to GOP candidates for the House and Senate — a not terribly challenging task given Trump’s efforts to hold power over the GOP through primary endorsements.  

President Biden earlier this month delivered a speech decrying Trump and “MAGA Republicans” who are aligned with him as an urgent threat to democracy, framing the midterms as a matter of protecting democratic values. 

Democrats have been happy to discuss Trump’s handling of classified materials, which is at the center of a DOJ investigation into dozens of documents the former president took with him to his Mar-a-Lago home upon leaving office. The FBI searched the property last month after it was unable to get the materials back from Trump. 

Trump’s conduct around the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol will likely be brought back into the public eye in the weeks before the midterms as a House panel focused on Jan. 6 plans to resume its work. 

Trump allies are a focus of an investigation in Georgia into a scheme to send alternate electors to Congress who would back Trump over Biden in 2020, despite Biden winning the state. 

Berman’s claims in his new book are the latest Trump-centric controversy that Democrats have said they will look into. 

Durbin wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday night, as first reported by The New York Times, asking the Justice Department to provide documents related to Berman’s claims, specifically the cases related to Cohen and Kerry. 

“The claims made by former U.S. Attorney Berman indicate astonishing & unacceptable deviations from DOJ’s mission to pursue impartial justice—and compound the already serious concerns raised by then-AG Barr’s 2020 efforts to replace Mr. Berman and install a Trump loyalist at SDNY,” Durbin said in a statement.  

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said Berman’s allegations could pose legal trouble for Trump down the line if the Justice Department decides to open an investigation based on Durbin’s findings. 

Tobias downplayed any imminent probe involving Barr, noting that the former attorney general is likely more useful as an ally in Democratic investigations into Trump than as a target of one. Barr has appeared before the House Jan. 6 committee, and he has in recent weeks appeared on Fox News to undercut Trump’s defenses against the search of his Mar-a-Lago estate. 

“It will at least be another political headache for Trump as the allegations continue to multiply,” Tobias said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Graham creates unwelcome political problem for McConnell, GOP

Senate Republicans aren’t thrilled that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of former President Trump’s most loyal allies, is creating a political problem for them by stoking the national abortion debate, which has energized Democratic voters, shortly before Election Day.  

Graham pledged at a press conference Tuesday that Republicans will vote on legislation banning abortion nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy if they win back control of the Senate in November.

But that idea fell flat with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who on Tuesday distanced himself from Graham’s proposal. 

When asked about voting on the issue in a Republican-controlled Senate, McConnell said most Republicans want it 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 this be dealt with at the state level,” McConnell told reporters when asked about a vote next year if the GOP controls the Senate.

Speaking at a press conference in the Russell Senate Office Building, Graham confidently predicted: “If we take back the House and the Senate, I can assure you we’ll have a vote on our bill.”

Graham’s bold proclamation was a lifeline to Senate Democrats having a bad day: The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday reported that inflation reached 8.3 percent in August compared to a year ago, with prices rising 0.1 percent last month despite a drop in gas prices.  

“Proposals like the one today send a clear message from MAGA Republicans to women across the country: your body, our choice,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the floor, pouncing on Graham’s proposal.  

“Rather than expanding women’s rights, MAGA Republicans would curtail them. Rather than give individuals the freedom to make their own health care choices, they’d hand that power over to radical politicians,” he said.

Republican senators say McConnell did not sanction Graham’s high-profile push to ban abortions across the country after 15 weeks of pregnancy and punish health care providers who defy the ban with prison sentences reaching five years. It creates exceptions for cases of rape or incest against a minor or if the pregnant person’s  life is in danger.

Asked if Graham’s bill is sanctioned by the leadership, Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) replied: “No.”

“This is his idea, his decision that he’s putting out there. Whether or not it ever gets voted on remains to be seen,” Thune said. “A lot of our members believe that these are going to be issues that are debated at the state level. Individual states are going to come to a political consensus. At some point maybe there starts to become a national consensus around a sense of restrictions.”  

One Republican senator close to McConnell said Senate Republican leaders want to keep the focus on President Biden and inflation and not get distracted by a debate over abortion rights, which has given new energy to Democratic voters in the final weeks of the election season.

A senior Republican aide acknowledged the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which struck down Roe v. Wade, has energized Democratic voters more than Republicans initially expected.  

Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.), the Senate’s most vulnerable Republican incumbent, said Tuesday that abortion restrictions should be left to state officials.

A Marquette University Law School poll released in June showed that 58 percent of Wisconsinites were “very concerned about abortion” after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Twenty-seven percent of Wisconsin residents said abortion should be legal in all cases and 31 percent said it should be legal in most cases.

In Nevada, where Republicans are hoping to knock off incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D), voters rate abortion rights as their second-most important issue after the economy, according to a recent poll from The Nevada Independent and OH Predictive Insights.  

The fight over abortion is mobilizing Nevada voters even though the state constitution already protects the right to an abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. 

In Pennsylvania, where Democrats have a good chance of capturing the seat held by retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R), there has been a new surge of women under the age of 25 registering to vote.  

A Franklin and Marshall College poll published in August showed strong support for abortion rights among Pennsylvania voters, with 52 percent of respondents saying it should be legal in certain circumstances and 37 percent saying it should be legal in all circumstances.  

Graham admitted that he had not consulted with McConnell before rolling out his proposed 15-week abortion ban, which adopts a more aggressive approach to protecting the unborn than the 20-week abortion bans he has championed in the past.  

“No. I like Mitch but, no, I just sort of like spoke to the ladies behind me and they said, ‘Would you go from 20 to 15 weeks?’ I said, ‘yeah,’ and here we are,” he said, referring to the anti-abortion activists who attended the press conference where he rolled out the 15-week abortion ban.

Graham said he wanted to respond to the abortion rights bill that Schumer brought to the Senate floor in May, which every Senate Republican voted against.  

Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) also voted against the Democrats’ abortion rights bill. 

Moderate Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) define themselves as pro-choice and introduced legislation in February to codify the rights established by Roe v. Wade but voted against the Democratic bill because they thought it went too far.  

Graham predicted if his bill comes up for a vote, it will get more votes than the Democratic bill that failed in May, adding “there are a couple of Democrats that will be with us — maybe.”  

He noted that there are several European countries generally viewed as more liberal than the United States that ban abortion after 12 weeks, such as France, Denmark and Norway. Several other European nations such as Belgium, Germany and Spain ban abortion after 14 weeks. 

He rejected concerns voiced by fellow Republicans that raising the profile of the abortion debate a few weeks before the election is a political mistake.  

“I don’t think this is going to hurt us. I think [it] will more likely hurt [Democrats] when they try to explain to some reasonable person why it’s OK to be more like Iran and less like France on abortion,” he said. 

Iran has recently cracked down on abortion rights by passing a law last year creating more restrictions on the practice and empowering security agencies to keep track of who uses abortion and family planning services. The law, the Rejuvenation of the Population and Support of the Family bill, was approved by Iran’s Guardian Council to increase the nation’s low birth rate.  

McConnell on Tuesday tried to steer the conversation back to inflation, border security and rising crime — issues on which Republicans think they have a strong advantage over Democrats.   

“The expectation was that Democrats’ runaway inflation might finally begin to level off. The topline inflation rate was expected to fall. Instead, yet again, the opposite happened. Overall inflation was up even higher,” McConnell said in response to the inflation report for August.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Memo: Five Trump takeaways from primary season

The 2022 primary season is finally coming to an end with contests Tuesday in Delaware, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

The election season threw up plenty of fascinating races. More often than not, former President Trump was at their center.

Here are some of the biggest Trump-related takeaways.

The GOP impeachers were largely vanquished

Trump’s grip over the GOP was starkly shown by the fate of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him for his role in inciting the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021.

Only two of the 10 even have a chance of making it back to Congress in January — and that is far from certain.

The thrashing handed out to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in her August primary sparked particular glee among Trump allies.

Despite Cheney’s strong name recognition, sky-high media profile and — by Wyoming standards — enormous campaign bank account, she was defeated in emphatic fashion by Harriet Hageman, a Trump-backed attorney. 

In the end, Hageman beat Cheney by almost 40 points.

“Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself,” Trump gloated in a post on Truth Social. “Now she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion.”

Four of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump chose to retire.

But Reps. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.), Tom Rice (R-S.C.) and Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) all suffered the same fate as Cheney, losing to Trump-backed challengers.

Only Reps. David Valadao (R-Calif.) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) remain standing. 

Tellingly, both men were running in nonparty primaries, where the top two candidates regardless of party advanced to the general election.

Doubts over electability shadow Trump picks

There’s no denying Trump’s success in backing many primary winners.

But plenty of Republicans are disconcerted by his role in elevating GOP nominees who are struggling in their general election campaigns.

Exhibit A is Mehmet Oz, the famed TV doctor who is now the Republican Senate nominee in Pennsylvania.

Oz trails Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) by a significant margin, despite Fetterman’s campaign activities having been curtailed by a stroke in May. Fetterman led Oz by 6.5 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average on Tuesday evening.

Deepening Republican worries, the winner of the Pennsylvania contest will replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey. The loss of even one Senate seat currently held by Republicans would be a big blow to the GOP’s hopes of taking control of the upper chamber.

A similar pattern could play out in Ohio, where Trump favorite J.D. Vance is in an unexpectedly close contest for a Senate seat with Rep. Tim Ryan (D). 

A Cincinnati Enquirer-Suffolk University poll conducted earlier this month gave Ryan a 1-point lead in a state Trump carried by 8 points in 2020. 

Then there are the Trump choices who — at least according to his internal critics — may end up squandering GOP pickup opportunities. 

The two most obvious examples in this regard are Herschel Walker, the former football star trying to unseat Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) in Georgia, and Blake Masters, who is aiming to oust Sen. Mark Kelly (D) in Arizona.

Some of these Republican candidates might prevail in the end. 

But GOP worries were summed up when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) downplayed his party’s chances in August. McConnell said during an event in his home state that “candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”

The remark was widely seen as a jab at Trump. 

The former president apparently also saw it that way. He hit back at McConnell as a “broken down hack politician.”

Gubernatorial primaries prove tougher nuts for Trump to crack

Several of Trump’s losses came in gubernatorial races.

The bitterest pill for Team Trump to swallow was Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) demolition of former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) in a May primary. 

Kemp, a long-standing target of Trump’s ire for resisting the then-president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in the state, beat Perdue by more than 50 points, winning about 74 percent of the vote to Perdue’s roughly 22 percent.

But there were other losses too.

Charles Herbster, for whom Trump had campaigned in Nebraska, lost his gubernatorial primary to University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen. 

In Idaho, Gov. Brad Little (R) rebuffed a Trump-backed challenger, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin.

There were, to be sure, reasons beyond Trump that some of his candidates lost. 

Perdue proved a surprisingly lackluster campaigner. Herbster faced charges of groping from several women, which he denied.

Meanwhile, Trump did enjoy some gubernatorial successes, notably with Kari Lake in Arizona and Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania.

Still, it seems clear that voters were less willing to do the former president’s bidding in races for the governor’s mansion than they were in House or Senate contests.

A mixed bag for those who resisted Trump in 2020

Almost two years on from the 2020 presidential election, Trump keeps falsely asserting that President Biden’s win was fraudulent.

He also continues to seek vengeance on Republican officials who resisted his attempts to overturn the election.

The effort has met with mixed results.

Georgia was the most galling state for Trump. Not only did Kemp win the gubernatorial primary, but Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) also held on. 

Raffensperger was on the receiving end of Trump’s now-infamous early January 2021 phone call requesting that he “find” enough votes to overcome Biden’s margin of victory in the state. He declined to do so.

Raffensperger’s win was in many ways more surprising than Kemp’s. The Georgia secretary of state comfortably defeated Trump’s choice, Rep. Jody Hice.

Others were not so lucky. 

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) said in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election that Trump had lost his state. 

Brnovich shifted away from that position as he sought to win the GOP nomination for Senate — only to lose to the Trump-endorsed Masters.

At the state level, Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) briefly became a political celebrity following his televised testimony to the House select committee on Jan. 6.

Bowers was duly censured by his state party. He lost his state Senate primary to a pro-Trump rival.

Getting the better of Pence, by proxy

Trump’s complicated relationship with his former vice president, Mike Pence, took another few twists this primary season.

In three major contests, the two men were on opposing sides. 

Trump ended up with the better record.

Pence’s backing of Arizona gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson, a Republican establishment favorite, was insufficient to hold off Trump’s choice, Lake. Robson lost by about 5 points. 

The pattern was replicated almost exactly in the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary, where the Pence-backed Rebecca Kleefisch fell to Trump-approved businessman Tim Michels.

The one race where Pence did get the better of Trump mattered, though. 

Pence backed Kemp in Georgia, even holding a rally with him on the eve of the primary.

Still, the three results in aggregate were a reminder that Trump retains his populist advantage over his erstwhile deputy.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

Source: TEST FEED1

Why Buttigieg is sparking 2024 chatter

The ordinarily polished Mayor Pete suddenly was casual. 

“Who knows,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Vox Media’s Code Conference when asked last week about the idea of running for president again.

“You don’t run for an office — well, maybe some people do — because you always wanted to,” he said. “But I think you run for an office because you notice something about the office, and something about yourself, and something about the moment that adds up.”  

“So who knows what the future is going to call me,” he said.

What started three years ago as a longshot bid by a college town mayor for the most coveted slot in Democratic politics turned into major upsets in key early states and a Cabinet secretary position in the Biden administration.

Now, less than two months from the midterms, some Democrats are speculating about what a second Buttigieg run could look like.

“What he was able to accomplish in the Democratic primary for president is unbelievable,” said Joe Caiazzo, a Democratic strategist who ran Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) New Hampshire operation in 2020. “Mayor of a small college town is able to connect with voters in such a way that catapults him to the top tier in the first two states.”

For now, Buttigieg is keeping his cards close to his chest. But the former South Bend mayor has remained visible since first angling for the nomination in 2020, and fellow Democrats have taken note.

Buttigieg has been the public face of the bipartisan infrastructure bill President Biden signed into law in November, one of his earliest political wins that carried limping Democrats through tough times when other legislation was crumbling on Capitol Hill. That position allowed Buttigieg to move freely across the country, touching down in some of the same states he frequented during his presidential bid.

He’s been to New Hampshire and Nevada, critical early contests on the nominating calendar, as well as a handful of general election battlegrounds like Ohio, Florida and Minnesota for the administration’s “Building a Better America Tour.”

While those late August stops were billed as official government activity, they also gave Buttigieg a chance to reconnect with voters should he decide to launch another campaign.

“Pete won Iowa, he came very close in New Hampshire, and immediately following the primary became a part of the Democratic Party infrastructure in a way that allowed him to crisscross the country on behalf of the Biden administration and be the deliverer of good news,” said Caiazzo. “And you’re coming with checks.”

Buttigieg, now 40, recently moved from Indiana to the swing state of Michigan, and he’s maintained the media’s curiosity.

In addition to his considerable miles on the trail, he’s emerged as a leading voice criticizing some of the nation’s top airlines — and vowing to take steps to improve passengers’ experiences — at a time when delays, cancellations and what many see as poor performance have left travelers deeply frustrated.

He sent a letter to one airline last month on behalf of Americans voicing concerns about the quality of their travel experience. And his requests didn’t stop there.

Buttigieg further pressed the airline companies to do more for travelers, recently asking that they cover expenses like lodging and meals for delayed flights. The Transportation Department unveiled a public database to hold the corporations accountable for their travel issues, which White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said “vastly improved their plans.”

Buttigieg’s profile continued to rise as a result. Many Democrats view him both as a helpful ally and a bit of a technocrat within the administration, who could become a potential replacement for Biden if he declines to seek the White House again.

Biden has always said that he will run, and him sticking to that plan seems more plausible now than in previous months. The president has managed to claw out of a dismal stretch of bad polls that made a midterm wipeout look likely and a primary challenge seem appealing to some Democrats not too long ago.

The president’s luck appeared to turn after he signed the Inflation Reduction Act and kicked off the post-Labor Day campaign season with an impassioned speech about democracy in Philadelphia. His approval rating averages 43 percent in the latest RealClearPolitics national survey aggregate, which is higher than many other points in his term.

Still, the idea of another Democratic candidate vying to be the nominee is compelling to some political operatives and voters. Buttigieg in particular has sustained the interest of some of the same voters he courted last cycle, including in New Hampshire.

A University of New Hampshire Survey Center Granite poll from July shows the Transportation secretary narrowly beating Biden in a hypothetical contest. A separate survey from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies found that a majority of voters do not want Biden to seek reelection, with Vice President Harris and Sanders coming in as second and third place choices and Buttigieg also receiving double-digit support.

“I think he’s definitely in a better position than he was, but, still [an] open question if it’s ‘enough’ yet,” said one top Democratic operative who asked to speak without attribution to discuss possible Biden replacements like Buttigieg.

“His comms, interviews, events, etc. are all superb, and he [definitely] now has more substance than just as mayor,” the operative said. “But still a big question if that lets you leap straight to president without holding any other offices first.”

Other Democrats are less optimistic about his chances in a changing Democratic Party, particularly when there are also women and people of color waiting in the wings.

The 50-50 Senate has failed to pass voting rights legislation, frustrating many people from diverse constituencies who are greatly impacted by voting suppression laws, and one of Buttigieg’s biggest criticisms in 2020 was that he failed to catch on with minority populations, including Black voters.

“He would be moronic,” one former Buttigieg campaign staffer told The Hill. “The idea a white man would position himself over the VP. He should run in Michigan and win a local election first.”

“He will get destroyed in the media and by activists if he runs [and] if VP Harris does,” the former staffer said.

If Biden does not run, one key endorser from South Carolina, Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), has already preemptively endorsed Harris. While she has struggled at times to maintain a positive standing with the public, some party voices say she’s a closer natural successor to the president than Buttigieg.

But others think there could be room for both of them. The idea that Harris could strike a deal with Buttigieg to be her own vice president has also been floated.

“She’s not going to freeze the field,” the Democratic operative said about Harris. “I would say I’m 90 percent certain he would still jump in and run against her.”

“The crazy smart move,” the operative went on, “would be for her to run and see if she can get him right away to run as VP so that they can clear the field right now.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

Democrats in final push to mold midterm message

Against the odds, House Democrats gained a bit of steam through the long summer recess, notching some surprising political victories while tapping the energy of voters infuriated by the Supreme Court’s decision to quash abortion rights.

The party’s challenge now is to build on that momentum this month, using September’s short legislative window — the last before the midterms — to score eleventh-hour victories and polish a closing campaign argument they hope will prevent a GOP rout at the polls in November.

Democrats have been buoyed by a string of recent legislative victories, including a historic health and climate bill enacted last month, that have boosted President Biden’s standing through the late weeks of summer. They’re newly energized by the Supreme Court’s elimination of Roe v. Wade, which has led to a spike in voter registration among women in certain states. They’ve been helped by falling gas prices, which have declined each day for the last three months. And they’re getting an assist from former President Trump, whose legal troubles — most recently related to his handling of classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago home — have led Republicans to shield the party’s standard-bearer from charges that he’s abusing his power more than a year and a half after leaving office.

Outwardly, Democrats are optimistic that the combination of late-cycle factors will, at the very least, put some wind at their backs, limit the GOP’s anticipated gains and deny Republicans a comfortable cushion if they do win control of the House in November, as expected. Fueling those hopes, several of the nation’s top election handicappers have steadily shifted races in the Democrats’ favor over the past month.

But Democrats have their work cut out.

Tuesday’s news that inflation continues to soar sent the stock market into free fall and put Democrats on the defensive as they were celebrating their climate victory — a bill called the Inflation Reduction Act — with Biden at the White House. 

Democrats are also facing challenges when it comes to their legislative agenda. 

House lawmakers returned to Washington on Tuesday with the primary goal of funding the government and preventing a shutdown on Oct. 1. That bill will require Republican support in the Senate, but the greater threat to an agreement is shaping up to be the internal Democratic clash over the fate of a proposal designed to expedite the federal approval of energy infrastructure projects.

Party leaders had promised Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia, a vote on that fast-track proposal as part of winning his support for the much broader health and climate package. The plan, according to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), is to combine Manchin’s permitting reforms with the short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, which Congress must pass this month to keep the government open.  

But many House Democrats are furious with the idea of accelerating environmental reviews , particularly for fossil fuel projects, amid a global climate crisis. Almost 80 House lawmakers — a mix of liberals and moderates — urged their leaders recently to keep the permitting reforms out of the spending bill, warning that they would hurt minority and other vulnerable communities disproportionately.  

“Such a move would force Members to choose between protecting EJ [environmental justice] communities from further pollution or funding the government,” the Democrats, led by Rep. Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), wrote to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). 

It’s not the only internal disagreement that could surface this month. 

Democrats are also feuding over legislation to increase law enforcement funding around the country. A group of moderate lawmakers, hoping to burnish their pro-police bona fides ahead of the elections, have pressed for months to vote on that funding. However, they’ve met resistance from a group of liberals, many of them members of the Congressional Black Caucus, wary of boosting police funding without tougher measures for reining in police abuse, which affects minority communities disproportionately. 

The impasse forced Democratic leaders to scrap plans for a vote on the policing legislation in July. And heading into the September session, it’s unclear if those differences will be resolved in time to stage a vote before November — a dynamic that is frustrating the centrists. 

“I would venture a guess,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) said before the recess, “that probably every single member of Congress has either a department in their communities that either receives COPS grants funding or wants to receive COPS grants funding.”

Separately, another group of Democrats is pressing party leaders to vote this month on legislation to ban members of Congress from owning or trading stocks, a concept that was initially opposed by Pelosi and Hoyer. 

“As we work to ensure no members of Congress are profiting off their work with stock trades, continued delays in bringing legislation to the floor are unacceptable,” Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) said Tuesday. Republicans are targeting Pappas this fall in what is viewed as a toss-up race.

History is also betting against the Democrats, as the midterm cycle is routinely brutal for the party of first-term presidents. Redistricting and the retirement of 31 House Democrats have given the GOP an added boost this election year. And while Biden’s approval rating has ticked up in recent weeks, it remains well underwater — a figure that won’t be improved by August’s inflation numbers. 

“Democrats’ so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ does not appear to be working,” Mike Berg, a spokesman for the House Republicans’ campaign arm, said dryly on Tuesday. 

Democratic leaders remain unshaken.

On the domestic front, they’ve been encouraged by falling gas prices, steady job growth and the stunning victories in a pair of special elections over the recess — one in New York, another in Alaska — where abortion rights appear to have played an outsized role.

On the international stage, they’re touting Ukraine’s recent advances against Russian forces — fueled by billions of dollars in U.S. weapons — and last month’s deadly strike on the al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri by a Pentagon drone.

In a volatile year, they’re vowing to defy the historical trends and cling to power.   

“Some pundits in Washington were saying, ‘Well, I don’t know — in the off-year … the president’s party doesn’t win.’ We never accepted that,” Pelosi said at a recent stop in Oregon to tout the Democrats’ climate bill. 

“They say conventional wisdom,” she added. “It isn’t conventional and isn’t wisdom.”

Source: TEST FEED1