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NotedDC — Washington kicks off general election sprint

MEMBERS of both parties are running full steam ahead to the November midterms following Labor Day, which marks the unofficial start of the final sprint to the election.

Expect to see a lot more campaign ads on TV and even a polling call or two in the coming weeks as Democrats battle to retain their slim majorities in Congress.

While Democrats have seen polling and several individual election models move their direction recently, they still face an uphill battle trying to thwart a House takeover.

The Hill’s Max Greenwood has a great rundown of seven House races to watch, covering electoral contests playing out in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, Virginia, Minnesota and Washington state.

Republicans are also locked in a fierce battle for control of the Senate, where each party currently holds 50 seats. The Hill’s Mychael Schnell has the latest on the Senate races to watch heading into the final season of campaigning.

Control of the Senate carries with it plenty of implications for President Biden‘s agenda and future nominations, while House Republicans are already vowing to investigate the administration if they retake the lower chamber.

The Hill’s editor-in-chief Bob Cusack previewed on C-SPAN here what we can expect this fall from Congress.

Welcome to NotedDC: Your guide to politics, policy & people of consequence in D.C.

In today’s issue: Lawmakers return to D.C., and why a judge’s decision to allow for a special master in the Trump case matters. Plus: Mardi Gras comes early.

Back to the Capitol

Much like their kids, members of Congress will be feeling the back-to-school blues as things start back up at the Capitol this week.

• The Senate is back to business on vetting judicial appointments. Democratic leaders are coming off major wins, including passage of the party’s health, climate and tax legislation.
• House committees are meeting while other members continue their district work periods; the House agenda will heat up more next week with the official return from the August break.

Looking ahead: Democrats have been trying to plot a legislative path to codify abortion rights after the Supreme Court upended the landmark Roe v. Wade decision earlier this year. It’s unlikely the legislation will get the 60 votes needed for passage in the Senate, but it could prove to be a crucial wedge issue in the November elections.

The Senate is also weighing a vote on House-passed legislation to protect marriage equality. The House passed the bill in July, less than a month after Justice Clarence Thomas wrote an opinion calling for a reversal of several the landmark cases. Forty-seven Republicans joined Democrats in passing the bill in the House. Democrats would need to win over at least 10 Republicans to advance the bill in the Senate.

Leading it all: The stop-gap funding measure that has kept government floating will run out soon as lawmakers try to avoid a government shutdown. Temporary spending bills often have become an avenue for other priorities to hitch a ride, with the often-rushed process making it harder to keep track of everything that’s included.

🔎 Special master: Five things to watch

Monday’s court ruling requiring an independent review of documents seized last month from Mar-a-Lago is raising new legal questions about the reach of executive privilege while scrambling the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into former President Trump.

The decision passed down by Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon sets the stage for her to appoint an outside expert, known as a special master, to examine the thousands of documents recovered from Trump’s Florida residence after the DOJ’s extraordinary search operation on Aug. 8.

Here are five things to watch as the process evolves, from The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch and Mike Lillis:

1. The ruling expects cooperation between Trump and DOJ
2. The ruling impacts two different investigations  
3. A highly unusual decision
4. DOJ has to weigh appeal and whether to let ruling stand 
5. Rare win for Trump in a bad month 

Read the full story here.

WHAT WE’RE READING

Fox’s Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if she believes the 2016 election was “stolen.”

President Biden responded to a heckler: “Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.” 

Former President Trump once tried to pay a lawyer with a horse, New York Times reporter David Enrich says in his new book.  

Mehmet Oz, the celebrity physician and Trump-backed Republican Senate nominee in Pennsylvania, says he would have voted to certify Biden’s win in the 2020 election had he been in office at the time.

🎭 Celebrating Mardi Gras early

Louisiana’s lieutenant governor will be leading the launch of a new museum exhibit in Baton Rouge highlighting Washington Mardi Gras, the annual event held at the Washington Hilton hotel in northwest D.C.

• “Carnival in the Nation’s Capital: The Washington Mardi Gras Ball” will be hosted at the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge. The exhibit will be launched on Oct. 18.
• The exhibit highlights a decades-old tradition in the nation’s capital celebrated by displaced Louisianans. The hotel changes the lobby bar’s name to the “65th Parish” to recognize the thousands of Louisiana VIPs and other visitors who make the trek to bring the party to the District. 
• Here is how Louisiana Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser (R) describes it: “Begun in 1944 by homesick Louisianians eager to introduce fellow Washingtonians to their favorite holiday, Washington Mardi Gras has expanded to a three-day whirlwind of parties, brunches, dinners and networking, culminating in a formal ball under the auspices of the Mystick Krewe of Louisianians.” 

Have some news, juicy gossip, insight or other insider info? Send tips to Elizabeth Crisp and encourage friends to sign up here: thehill.com/noted.

See you tomorrow!

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Equilibrium/Sustainability — 'Renewable' waste pit leaches into waterways 

A pit of hog waste in eastern North Carolina billed as a renewable energy solution leaked tens of thousands of gallons of toxic sludge into local waterways for months over the summer, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. 

But though that spill — which seems to have burst through the pit’s plastic lining — contained a toxic slurry of urine, feces and the decomposing bodies of hogs, state law allowed it to be kept quiet, according to the News & Observer. 

White Oak Farms — a factory hog farm that was the source of the spill — had operated a side business running an anaerobic digester. 

The digesters involve covering standard waste pits, or lagoons, beside factory farms. These generally contain millions of gallons of rotting animal waste, which releases the potent climate pollutant methane that the digester captures. 

Since methane is also the major component of natural gas, many local corporations — as well as states like North Carolina and California — have rolled methane from waste it into their power supply.   

And the U.S. Department of Agriculture has heavily backed anaerobic digester as a means of capturing the potent climate pollutant. 

In North Carolina, local conglomerate Dominion Energy has teamed up with pork giant Smithfield to begin selling the captured methane as fuel. 

But critics say that the digesters don’t really fix the waste problem posed by the lagoons, which have repeatedly spilled into area waterways due to leaks or after floods, the News & Observer reported. 

When they do — as in this case — locals often may have no idea what’s gotten into their water, Jill Howell of the Pamlico-Tar riverkeeper Jill Howell told the News & Observer. 

“There was no reference to what was in the wastewater foam, there was no acknowledgment that it was swine waste or dead hogs or food waste product,” Howell said. “It’s like a bare, bare bones public notice.”

Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.

Today we’ll look at how the record heat wave is pushing California’s grid up against the possibility of blackouts. Then we’ll turn to Europe, where Russia’s Gazprom has indefinitely shuttered a major natural gas pipeline, and where Germany is backtracking on plans to end its nuclear power program.  

 Climate change strains California’s grid  

A record heat wave is pushing California’s electric grid up against the point of failure this week, with officials pointing to climate change for putting continued stress on the system. 

Emergency alert: The state issued an emergency alert for a seventh consecutive day on Tuesday, urging customers to conserve energy between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. 

• “We have now entered the most intense phase of this heat wave,” Elliot Mainzer, chief executive officer of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), a nonprofit that oversees grid operations, said at a Monday briefing.
    
• Officials said the grid was expected to be as much as 4,000 megawatts short of demand by late afternoon on Tuesday. 

What’s going on? As temperatures in the state capital of Sacramento head toward 114 degrees, CAISO said Tuesday that demand could hit an all-time record of
51,000 megawatts by 5:30 p.m.

• The reason: Solar capacity begins to taper off with sunset while temperatures — and power demand for air conditioner use — remain high. 
• To make matters worse, the older natural gas plants that provide power when demand is at its highest are less reliable in extreme heat, The Associated Press reported. 

“We are on razor thin margins,” Siva Gunda, vice chairman of the California Energy Commission, told the Sacramento Bee. 

MEETING THE MOMENT  

California is attempting to meet demand by spinning up emergency natural gas generators — enough to power 120,000 homes, according to the state’s Department of Water Resources. 

But those plants will provide just 120 megawatts — about 3 percent of the potential shortfall. That has the state calling on business and industry to cut power usage while asking households to raise thermostats and turn off large appliances in the evening. 

Conservation is working — sort of: Citizen attempts to cut electricity usage over the weekend helped cut power by 1,000 megawatts — enough to supply 750,000 households, Mainzer said. 

• “Your efforts have been making a real difference,” he continued. 
• But with temperatures set to keep rising throughout the week, if ratepayers can’t close the gap by cutting demand, then “blackouts, rolling, rotating outages are a possibility,” Mainzer added. 

What’s a rolling blackout? In a rolling blackout, grid officials deal with power shortfalls by cycling outages among users. In California in August 2020, that meant outages ranging from 15 minutes to more than two hours. 

Broader concerns: The state’s power crunch is one more sign of how climate change is straining the national grid and forcing even climate-forward states to depend even more on traditional energy sources. 

Forestalling maintenance: The power issues also highlight the strain on infrastructure in general. California avoided blackouts this week in part by postponing maintenance on power plants between noon and 10 p.m. on Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. That is a strategy that only works for so long.  

Please click here to read the full story. 

Russia shutters gas pipeline with no signs of return

Russia’s Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Europe will not resume pumping natural gas until Siemens Energy repairs defective equipment, a Gazprom executive told Reuters on Tuesday.   

These comments came after the Russian state-owned energy giant announced on Friday that the pipeline would remain closed because a turbine at a compressor station had an engine oil leak, according to Reuters.  

An anticipated crisis: Gazprom halted gas flow through Nord Stream — a major supplier to Europe, via Germany —  last Wednesday, initially declaring that it would be closed for several days of maintenance, as we reported.  

• The pipeline had already been operating at just 20 percent of its capacity, which Gazprom blamed on faulty equipment.  
• The company had previously shuttered Nord Stream for 10 days in July — prompting concerns about whether Russia would restart flow this time at all.  

Putting the onus on the West: “Problems in pumping arose because of the sanctions imposed against our country and against a number of companies by Western states, including Germany and the U.K.,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday, according to CNBC. 

The White House disagrees: A White House official accused Russia on Monday of using energy as a weapon, adding that U.S. sanctions on Moscow do not prevent this supply route from operating, Reuters reported.  

Blame game: When asked when Nord Stream would begin conveying gas to Germany again, Gazprom’s Deputy Chief Executive Vitaly Markelov pointed fingers at a German multinational energy corporation.  

• “You should ask Siemens,” Markelov told Reuters on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia.  
• “They have to repair equipment first,” he added.    

Questioning the shutdown: While Siemens told Reuters that the company was on standby, the firm said that it was not commissioned by Gazprom to perform maintenance work, according to Reuters.  

• Siemens stressed that an engine oil leak at the least remaining turbine in operation at a compressor station in Portovaya, Russia, was not a reason to keep the pipeline closed.  
• “Such leaks do not normally affect the operation of a turbine and can be sealed on site,” a statement from Siemens said.  

Economic escalation: Energy experts have come to see Russia’s decision as a bid to cause the region financial distress, CNBC reported.  

• Analysts at the New York-based Eurasia Group described Moscow’s move as “a further escalation of its policy” of inflicting pain “through repeated supply cuts to Germany.”  
• Consultants at the Oslo-based Rystad Energy, meanwhile, noted that “the European energy sector continues to be shocked by price volatility.” 
• The current shutdown, they added, has increased the chances “that Europe may not get further gas flows through Nord Stream 1 for the whole winter.” 

GERMANY BACKTRACKS ON PLANS TO END NUCLEAR 

With future energy supplies in question, Germany decided on Monday to keep two of its three remaining nuclear power plants on standby, The New York Times reported. 

• The move delays Berlin’s plans to become the first industrial power to go nuclear-free.  
• The power plants will remain operational as an emergency electricity reserve.   

Energy ‘stress tests’: Germany has already instituted a swath of conservation measures aimed at curbing its reliance on Russian gas, according to the Times.  

But the government’s decision to disregard “a political taboo” occurred after officials carried out “a series of stress tests playing out worst-case energy scenarios,” the Times reported.  

Preparing for crisis: Economy and Energy Minister Robert Habeck, of the fiercely anti-nuclear Greens party, acknowledged that a combination of factors could cause severe strain on Europe’s grid this winter, according to The Associated Press.  

• “We can’t rely securely on there being enough power plants available to stabilize the electricity network in the short term if there are grid shortages in our neighboring countries,” he said. 
• If a harsh winter coincided with a shutdown of French power plants, for example, the result could be hourslong blackouts for millions of Germans.  

The plants are still doomed: Habeck told the AP that Germany remains committed to eventually eliminating nuclear power nonetheless. 

“The nuclear plants won’t be equipped with new fuel rods,” he said. “There will be no decision to build new atomic power plants. 

West Virginia to field test electric school buses 

West Virginia — a state best known for its coal industry — will preside over a new test of electric school buses. 

• Three Type D BEAST buses are being sent to the state this week by manufacturer GreenPower — one each for Kanawha, Cabell and Mercer counties — for field testing in rural conditions, the company announced on Tuesday. 
• With this program West Virginia joins 38 additional states that have committed to their own electric school bus programs since January, according to the World Resources Institute. 

Perfect site: West Virginia offers distinct advantages for a pilot program, according to GreenPower. 

• “West Virginia is a perfect location for the first true pilot project of all-electric, purpose-built, zero-emission school buses,” company CEO Fraser Atkinson said. 
•  “The terrain, weather conditions and the combination of rural and urban settings will give a real-life demonstration of the school buses’ capabilities,” Atkinson added. 

The state Department of Education is overseeing the program. 

Looking to the future: “Electric school buses like the ones utilized for this pilot program will soon be manufactured right here in West Virginia,” Cabell County superintendent Ryan Saxe said in a statement. 

“No one can do it better, and I cannot wait to see the multitude of benefits this investment will yield for the deserving people of the Mountain State,” Saxe added. 

Tuesday Troubles

Nuclear disaster still looms in Eastern Ukraine, Kim Kardashian “picks” private jets over climate compromise and beavers troubles yield to treaty.  

Urgent need to prevent nuclear accident at Ukraine plant: watchdog  

• The International Atomic Energy Agency said there is an “urgent” need for interim measures to prevent a nuclear accident at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant, in a new report published on Tuesday, covered by our colleague Rachel Frazin. The report specifically called for a cessation of gunfire adjacent to the plant, as well as the establishment of a protection zone around it.   

Kim Kardashian: ‘You have to pick and choose’ on climate issues 

• Media personality and businesswoman Kim Kardashian — who was recently named one of the worst “celebrity [emissions] offenders” due to private jet use — told Interview Magazine on Tuesday that while she believes in climate change, she also supports “being realistic” about the issue. “I do what I can, but you have to pick and choose what really works for you in your life,” she said.   

A water-trapping treaty with beavers   

• After generations of “war” against beavers, some Western farmers are beginning to embrace the social, dam-building rodents for their skill as hydraulic engineers trapping water in a parched countryside, The New York Times reported. “It’s all about identifying those locations where beavers’ survival interests align with humans’ survival interests, and they’re not always aligned,” river scientist Caroline Nash told the Times. 

Please visit The Hill’s Sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. We’ll see you tomorrow.

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Oath Keepers leader wants trial delayed at least 90 days

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes asked a federal judge on Tuesday to delay his Jan. 6 trial for at least 90 days, saying he terminated two of his attorneys after a “breakdown” in communication.

Rhodes is set to go on trial on Sept. 26 alongside other members of the group for seditious conspiracy and other charges related to their involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack, but he argued the delay is needed for his new lawyer to get acquainted with the case.

“Rhodes has had a complete, or near-complete breakdown of communication between himself and his prior counselors,” Rhodes’s new attorney, Edward Tarpley, wrote in the filing.

Tarpley said Rhodes had not spoken on the phone with his previous attorneys since Aug. 10, and he subsequently called them “repeatedly” with no answer. The two attorneys had not visited Rhodes in almost two months and missed filing deadlines, hindering Rhodes’s defense, Tarpley wrote.

The Hill has reached out to the two attorneys for comment.

With Tarpley now heading Rhodes’s case, he outlined 14 “necessary” motions that still needed to be filed for his defense. 

Without the delay to allow Tarpley to file the motions and further look into the case, he argued Rhodes’ Fifth Amendment and Sixth Amendment rights would be violated.

“Stewart Rhodes is the prime defendant (of 9), in the most high profile, significant, complex and complicated case (with massive, potentially global, political implications), amid the entire array of 850-plus Jan. 6 defendants,” Tarpley wrote in the filing. “Yet Rhodes’ case has been fast-tracked onto a faster schedule than any other Jan. 6 case.”

The judge early last month denied a separate request to delay the defendants’ trial, dismissing their concerns that the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 could release a trove of transcripts from its interviews shortly before the trial. 

The judge said the concerns were not sufficient but he would revisit the issue if transcripts were dropped on the “eve of the trial.”

In the new request for a delay, Tarpley said he will move to separate Rhodes’ case from the other defendants, noting that most of them were indicted months earlier than the Oath Keepers founder.

“Codefendants have had almost a year more than Rhodes with which to prepare for trial,” Tarpley wrote. “Rhodes is not prepared for trial on September 26; and neither Rhodes’ prior counselors nor the attorneys for codefendants are prepared for trial.”

Tarpley also argued that last week’s arrest of Oath Keepers attorney Kellye SoRelle and other recent indictments mark a “monumental change” in how Rhodes expected to defend himself at trial.

“These additional indictments effectively remove these important, key, defense witnesses from being able to provide material testimony in defense of Rhodes at Rhodes’ trial,” Tarpley argued.

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The Memo: Trump amps up belligerent rhetoric as threat of violence rises

Former President Trump is kicking his taste for belligerent rhetoric up another notch — just as polls show public fear of political violence at historic highs.

Trump referred to President Biden as an “enemy of the state” during a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday evening.

Trump’s language at the event, ostensibly in support of GOP candidates Mehmet Oz for Senate and Doug Mastriano for governor, had little in common with standard “get out the vote” campaign-trail rhetoric.

“We have to smash the grip of this vile and vindictive political class,” he told the crowd at one point. 

If this shadowy group was not overcome, and power returned to “the people,” Trump added, “our republic and indeed our country will be destroyed.”

Trump’s turn toward ever more hard-line rhetoric comes as he faces unprecedented legal jeopardy, thanks to the FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago estate on Aug. 8. 

He is also confronted by the ongoing probe into the events around Jan. 6, 2021, by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and several other inquiries, including one looking at attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

All of these legal troubles are crowding in as Trump leans toward a 2024 presidential run.

Trump branded the FBI and DOJ “vicious monsters” during his Wilkes-Barre speech. The organizations, he claimed, were “controlled by radical leftist scoundrels, lawyers and the media who tell them what to do … and when to do it.”

At the conclusion of his speech — which lasted almost two hours, incorporating brief remarks from Oz — Trump branded his many enemies “tyrants.” These unnamed foes, he added, “do not stand a chance.”

Some will note that hot rhetoric from the former president is par the course. That’s true, to an extent. 

Trump’s inflammatory talk has drawn stark criticism since the speech that launched his first presidential bid, in which he talked about Mexico sending “rapists” across the southern border. 

The then-candidate would later suggest a judge in a Trump-related case could not be trusted to deliver justice because of his Mexican heritage; call for a “complete shutdown” of Muslim immigration; and, most infamously of all, declared there were “very fine people on both sides” amid racist violence in Charlottesville, Va.

In office, Trump was reported to have referred to African and Caribbean nations as “shithole countries.” In the wake of unrest after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, Trump reworked a slogan associated with a reactionary Miami police chief of the 1960s: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” And, in one of his presidential debates with Biden just before the 2020 election, he instructed the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” 

What’s different now?

For one, the use of terms like “tyrants” seems to invite, if not demand, a quasi-revolutionary response from Trump’s most fervent supporters. The same goes for language about having to “smash the grip” of elites who are exerting sinister control over the citizenry.

The possibility of widespread political violence in the United States seems far more immediate now than it did even in 2015, when Trump began his first run for the presidency with his ride down the escalator of Trump Tower in New York.

A new poll from CBS News and YouGov, released Monday, makes for ominous reading.

Almost two-thirds of the population — 64 percent — believe that political violence will increase in the years ahead, the poll found. 

The figure has risen rapidly even in the relatively brief time since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection — an event in which almost 150 law enforcement personnel were injured, and for which Trump became the only president in American history to be twice impeached.

In January 2021, 51 percent of Americans believed more violence was likely, CBS and YouGov found. That had risen to 57 percent by December before hitting its current high.

The new poll offered little hope of the spiral being broken. 

It found that 49 percent of Republicans considered Democrats “enemies,” not merely part of a political opposition. Among Democrats, the figure was almost identical — 47 percent considered Republicans enemies.

The deep enmity is already leading to action. 

Figures as disparate as conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) have seen people arrested outside their homes, allegedly intent on threatening their lives.

Against this backdrop, Trump’s willingness to douse the flames with a bit more gasoline seems especially threatening.

“It’s outrageous and it’s dangerous,” said Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

Noting threats against FBI agents in the wake of the raid on Trump’s Florida estate, Beirich said that the former president’s “willingness to demonize seems to know no bounds.”

Trump’s fusillades against the FBI and DOJ complicate life for his fellow Republicans, accustomed to branding themselves as staunch supporters of law enforcement.

His remarks also, politically speaking, buttress Biden’s claims about an “extreme MAGA” strand of the current GOP — and, at least to some, justify the current president’s warnings about a rising tide of “semi-fascism.”

But Trump, as usual, shows no signs of lowering the temperature.

On Monday, he was insisting anew that the FBI and DOJ should “change the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

The DOJ and FBI, he added in another post, are “being pushed to do the wrong thing by many sinister and evil outside sources.”

He did not state what the appropriate remedy might be.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

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Barr calls special master ruling on Mar-a-Lago documents 'deeply flawed'

Former Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday that a federal judge’s order to appoint a special master to review classified and top-secret documents that were allegedly kept at former President Trump’s Florida residence was a “deeply flawed” decision.

Barr told Fox News host Martha MacCallum that he doesn’t believe the special master ruling will change the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) case against Trump.

“The opinion was wrong, and I think the government should appeal it,” Barr said, noting that process could take several months to resolve. “It’s deeply flawed in a number of ways. I don’t think the appointment of a special master is going to hold up, but even if it does, I don’t see it fundamentally changing the trajectory” of the case, he added.

Barr served as Trump’s attorney general until December 2020. He resigned from the administration and has since caught the former president’s ire after stating that there was no substantial evidence that the 2020 election was fraudulent.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, on Monday granted Trump’s request for a special master to review documents and materials seized by the FBI in an early August search of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate located in Palm Beach, Fla.

Trump allies hailed the judge’s order as a win.

The DOJ is investigating whether Trump violated the Espionage Act and two other statutes. More than 100 classified records were allegedly obtained from Mar-a-Lago, according to the department. Previously, the National Archives had recovered 15 boxes of documents from Trump in February.

The DOJ argued that a special master appointment was unnecessary because its filter team has already reviewed the materials.

Barr on Tuesday said the DOJ could prosecute Trump over the case but doing so would deeply divide the nation.

“Even if they can technically make the case, there’s another step, which is, prudentially, do they want to do it?” he said. “I hope they don’t do it.”

Trump has decried the FBI’s search of his Florida property as political and demanded the materials be returned to him, along with a special master to review them. Cannon declined to return the materials to him in Monday’s order.

Barr said Trump cannot use executive privilege as a former president to keep the materials and prevent the DOJ from reviewing them.

“Can the president bar DOJ from reviewing the documents?” Barr said. “The answer to that, I think, is clearly no.”

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Biden administration awards $20M contract to expand monkeypox response

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Tuesday announced it was awarding a nearly $20 million contract to AmerisourceBergen to expand the distributions of treatments and vaccines to treat the ongoing monkeypox outbreak.

The $19.8 million contract to AmerisourceBergen, one of the largest drug distribution companies in the U.S., will allow for the shipment of up to 2,500 shipments of frozen Jynneos vaccine vials as well 2,500 “ambient temperature” shipments of the TPOXX antiviral treatment per week.

This will also allow for more locations where the shipments can be received. HHS noted that before this contract, the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile was sending products to roughly five locations per jurisdiction.

Throughout the monkeypox outbreak, state and local governments have repeatedly said they have struggled to acquire the adequate amount of vaccines to immunize their at-risk populations. Shortly after first doses of Jynneos were administered around the country, several cities ended up delaying the second dose in order to meet immediate demand while hoping more vaccine doses would soon become available.

“Today’s announcement is the result of our real-time and ongoing conversations with states and jurisdictions aimed at improving the national response. This new commercial contract will help deliver vaccines and treatments to communities and at-risk individuals more quickly and bring us a step closer to ending the current outbreak,” HHS Assistant Secretary Dawn O’Connell said in a statement.

HHS said about 800,000 vials of Jynneos and 37,000 courses of TPOXX have been distributed across the country so far. As of last week, over 352,000 doses of vaccines to treat monkeypox have been administered. No deaths directly caused by monkeypox have been confirmed so far, though one man in Texas who was “severely immunocompromised” did recently die after having been diagnosed with monkeypox.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 18,000 monkeypox cases have been confirmed in the U.S. so far. The rate of new cases has begun to attenuate in the U.S. in recent weeks. White House officials previously said it is too soon to attribute this decline in cases to the vaccination campaign.

Instead, this trend could be due to a change of sexual habits among men who have sex with men, the main demographic to be affected by the current outbreak. A CDC survey found that about half of men who have sex with men reported having fewer sexual partners and encounters due to the outbreak.

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Campaign Report — Midterms kick into high gear

Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, tracking all things related to the 2022 midterm elections. Starting this week, you can expect this newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday leading up to November’s election.   

Email us tips and feedback: Max Greenwood (mgreenwood@thehill.com), Julia Manchester (jmanchester@thehill.com), and Caroline Vakil (cvakil@thehill.com).  

Fall campaign sprint begins

It’s the day after Labor Day, which means one thing in the world of politics: The fall campaign sprint has begun.  

With only about two months to go before Election Day and most of the nation’s primaries wrapped up, expect to see candidates ramping up their campaign operations quickly. That means more ads, more campaign stops and, yes, more aggressive attacks.  

In light of that, here’s a rundown of where things stand: 

The battle for the House: Democrats are scrambling to protect one of the narrowest House majorities in decades. Republicans need to flip just five seats to recapture control of the lower chamber and they could pick up as many as three or four of those seats through redistricting alone. At the same time, Democrats are still grappling with the historical reality that the party in power tends to lose ground in Congress during midterm elections, as well as the fact that inflation remains high and President Biden’s approval ratings remain underwater. 

Of course, the political environment has improved for Democrats somewhat in recent months. The Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights case, gave the party’s voters a burst of energy over the summer and there are signs that inflation and gas prices may be easing somewhat, even if they remain elevated. Nevertheless, Republicans are still favored to recapture the House this year, given the party’s favorable redistricting outcome, decent candidate recruitment and a slew of Democratic retirements. 

The Senate map: The Senate was always expected to be easier for Democrats to hold than the House. Despite the fact that it’s split 50-50 between the two parties, Republicans are defending more seats this year, including the seats of several retiring incumbents like Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio).  

While the unfavorable political environment for Democrats that has defined most of the past year still puts the party’s Senate majority in jeopardy, there are signs that things may be improving here too for Democrats. Republicans in several crucial battleground states ultimately nominated a series of untested, Trump-endorsed candidates who have struggled to get their general election campaigns off the ground, while Democrats have appeared to pull ahead in polling and fundraising.  

But don’t count Republicans out. The battle for control of the Senate still looks like a toss-up, and GOP groups are getting ready to spend big in the coming months. And even if things look good for Democrats now, any political strategist will tell you that there’s no guarantee that will remain the case for the next two months. 

Primary Day in Massachusetts 

There’s not expected to be too many surprises in Massachusetts’ top-of-the-ticket primaries. State Attorney General Maura Healey is running virtually unopposed for the Democratic nomination for governor; her last serious challenger, state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz, dropped out of the race in June, though her name is still technically on the ballot.   

The Republican primary, meanwhile, is at least a little bit more competitive. Former President Trump has endorsed former state Rep. Geoff Diehl in that race, making him the favorite to win the nomination on Tuesday. But he still faces a challenge from businessman Chris Doughty, who has also notched some influential endorsements.  

Perhaps the most competitive race on the ballot on Tuesday is the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor. Three candidates are seeking the nomination: State Senator Eric Lesser, state Representative Tami Gouveia and Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, who has benefited from more than $1 million in spending by an aligned super PAC. 

On the Republican side, Diehl-aligned Leah Cole Allen is facing off against Kate Campanale for the party’s nomination for lieutenant governor. 

One other race to watch: Tanisha Sullivan, the president of the NAACP’s Boston branch, is challenging longtime incumbent Bill Galvin, a Democrat who’s seeking renomination for another term as Massachusetts secretary of state. Galvin has held the office for 27 years.  

ON THE TRAIL 

Back to Ohio: Trump is set to return to Ohio on Sept. 17 for a rally boosting Republican Senate nominee J.D. Vance and “the entire Ohio Trump ticket,” the former president’s leadership PAC announced on Tuesday. It’s the latest sign that Trump is entering general election mode as the fall campaign season ramps up. Over the weekend, the former president traveled to Pennsylvania to rally support for endorsed candidates there. 

A break with Trump: Mehmet Oz, the celebrity physician and Republican Senate nominee in Pennsylvania, says that he would have voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election if he had been in the Senate at the time. “I would not have objected to it,” Oz said at a press conference alongside Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Tuesday. “By the time the delegates and those reports were sent to the U.S. Senate, our job was to approve it, which is what I would have done.” 

Why it matters: Oz won the Republican nomination to succeed Toomey, who’s retiring, after scoring Trump’s endorsement. And while his comments aren’t controversial, they still put him at odds with the former president, who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election and continues to claim that widespread voter fraud robbed him of a second term in the White House. Of course, Oz will need to broaden his appeal among Pennsylvania voters if he wants a chance at winning the Senate seat in November. But his remarks could turn off Trump’s most ardent supporters, who remain a key Republican voting bloc. 

AD WATCH 

Roe v. Wade fallout: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is launching its first general election ad in Nevada targeting Republican nominee Adam Laxalt over his stance on abortion, The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld reports. The spot, which is part of the group’s $8.4 million fall ad reservation in Nevada, notes Laxalt’s praise of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, as well as his description of the landmark abortion rights case as a “joke.” “Laxalt supported overturning Nevada’s abortion protections,” the ad says. “He’d let states outlaw it, even for victims of rape and incest. Adam Laxalt’s not for us.” 

Big money: Republican-aligned groups are getting ready to hit the airwaves in key Senate battleground states with a nine-figure ad blitz, NBC News reports. Among those groups is the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), the Senate GOP-aligned super PAC, which is getting ready to go on the air with the rest of a $169.2 million advertising campaign in key states. The hefty spending comes as many GOP Senate candidates struggle to keep pace with their Democratic opponents in fundraising – a trend that has forced outside groups like SLF to ramp up their own spending. 

OP-EDS FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

• Trump’s ‘Dirty Dozen’ — 12 Republican candidates to keep an eye on, By Al Hunt, former executive editor of Bloomberg News
• Will Joe Manchin run for president? By Keith Naughton of Silent Majority Strategies
• An alternative strategy for Democrats to secure the midterms, By political consultant Douglas E. Schoen

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Campaign page for the latest news and coverage. See you tomorrow. 

VIEW FULL VERSION HERE.

Source: TEST FEED1

Baltimore issues boil water advisory after E.coli detected

The city of Baltimore has issued a boil water advisory in western sections of the city after officials detected E.coli in some water samples. 

In a news release on Monday, the city’s Department of Public Works (DPW) said it found the contamination during routine testing at the West Baltimore neighborhoods of Sandtown-Winchester and Harlem Park. 

The advisory affects about 1,500 residential and commercial facilities in the West Baltimore area, including some areas in neighboring Baltimore and Howard counties, the city said.

“As an extra precaution, DPW will be sampling and surveying the communities in the area of the facilities where the original sampling was performed,” the department wrote in a tweet on Monday. “Right now, the impact appears only at the facilities listed above, and they are being told to use water for flushing only.”

E. coli is a bacterial specimen that can cause diarrhea, cramps, nausea, and headaches and pose a particular health risk to young children, the elderly, and residents with severely compromised immune systems. 

DPW recommended residents living in the impacted areas boil their water for a minute before using it, noting that boiled and bottled water can be used to brush teeth, wash fruits and vegetables, feeding pets, and food preparation. 

In a news conference on Monday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) said that officials retested the bacterial specimen to confirm the contamination before notifying the public, according to the Baltimore Sun.

“We are taking this issue very seriously,” Scott said at the news conference. “This is why we’re here with a full operation of our operation center.”

In a tweet, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said that he and his officials have received a briefing on the situation from the state’s Department of Environment, which is currently assisting city officials on the matter. 

“We continue to monitor the situation,” he added.

Baltimore is the latest U.S. city to experience problems with its main water system.

Parts of metro Detroit were under a boil water advisory after storms last week, and Jackson, Miss. has been under a boil water advisory since July, along with water outages after massive flooding last month. 

In a news conference on Monday, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) said that the state will explore numerous long-term options in an effort to fix the city’s main water system, which has been an longtime problem.

Source: TEST FEED1

Fetterman in video highlights Oz remarks likening abortion to ‘murder’

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for the state’s open Senate seat, released an ad on Tuesday contrasting his statements defending legal abortion access for women with those of his Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz, calling the procedure “murder.” 

Fetterman’s video came after audio of comments Oz made about abortion during a tele townhall in May came to light. Oz said in response to a question from a caller about his stance on abortion that he believes life begins at conception, and he has said that “multiple times.” 

“If life starts at conception, why do you care what stage our heart starts beating at? It’s, you know, it’s still murder, if you were to terminate a child whether their heart’s beating or not,” Oz said. 

Fetterman’s ad shows the audio of Oz interspersed with comments Fetterman has made promising to support Roe v. Wade, which protected a federal right to abortion before the Supreme Court overturned the case in June. 

The ad also shows Oz saying in interviews that Roe was decided wrongly, and the issue of abortion access should be left to the states to decide. Fetterman says in the video that he would support abolishing the filibuster in the Senate for the purpose of codifying Roe into law and that he would consider a potential Supreme Court nominee’s stance on Roe to be part of his litmus test for deciding whether they would receive his support. 

Fetterman said in a release that women should not believe Oz’s claim at a press conference on Tuesday that he does not support criminalizing abortion for patients or doctors. 

A spokesperson for Oz’s campaign said in response to the audio that Oz is “pro-life” but supports exceptions for instances of rape, incest and protecting the life of the mother. 

Fetterman said in the release that Oz has said on multiple occasions that the only exception to abortion restrictions that he supports is to protect the mother’s life.

Source: TEST FEED1

What you should know about the new omicron booster shots

Nearly two years since the original coronavirus vaccines were given emergency authorization for use, we now have an updated vaccine that can be given as a booster shot. Here’s what we currently know about the new bivalent vaccine, who should get it and when. 

What is the new booster shot? 

Both Pfizer and Moderna/BioNTech have new versions of their mRNA vaccines for COVID-19. 

The updated coronavirus vaccine is bivalent, meaning that is contains the mRNA vaccine for the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and the mRNA vaccine for another strain. In this case, it is the omicron strain, specifically targeting a part that is found in both the BA.4 and BA.5 variants. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the use of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech Bivalent COVID-19 vaccines as boosters on Aug. 31, and the next day the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially gave its recommendation for it. “The updated Covid-19 boosters are formulated to better protect against the most recently circulating Covid-19 variant,” Rochelle Walensky, who is director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement. “They can help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and were designed to provide broader protection against newer variants.” 

Is it safe? 

The vaccine makers have been testing bivalent versions of their vaccines in humans with mRNA developed to target the first omicron strain, also known as BA.1. There was a better immune response in people who got the bivalent version compared to people who got the original formulation, or monovalent vaccine. Side effects were similar to the original vaccines. 

This version targeting BA.4 and BA.5 has been tested in mice, but not yet in humans. Because the vaccine is not very different from previous versions, health researchers and experts are confident that the safety profile will remain similar enough to go ahead and authorize it for use. The safety data from the previous version is also relevant because the new version is “manufactured using the same process,” according to the FDA. The data in humans will be monitored as it becomes available. 

The new bivalent versions of the vaccine could soon be widely available. Shipments have gone out to locations around the country, and some clinics have reported they have started administering the shots. 

Is it effective? 

The current data are for trials in mice, which are promising. We’re still waiting for more data to be released. 

Who is eligible 

People who are fully vaccinated are eligible for this booster shot. People who have also gotten one or two booster shots are also eligible, although the shots can’t be too close together in timing. 

Children are not yet eligible for the most part, yet. The Pfizer/BioNTech boosters were authorized for people 12 and older, and Moderna’s for people 18 and older. The FDA has said they will wait on more data before it is authorized for children. 

When you should get the shot 

The FDA states that people should wait at least two months after a previous vaccination.  

Source: TEST FEED1