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To topple Trump, GOP challengers lean on personality over policy

Republican hopefuls are relying on personality over policy in the hopes of supplanting former President Trump as the party’s 2024 presidential nominee. 

Those who have already declared their candidacy and those viewed as likely runners have in recent weeks struggled to offer up any tangible policy differences between them and the former president, a nod to how the GOP has adopted the majority of Trump’s views on immigration, the economy, education, crime and other issues.

Part of the issue for those hoping to capture the nomination in 2024 is that Trump remains popular within the party. So they must convince voters that for the GOP to be successful, it must move on from Trump without abandoning his policies while also somehow capturing his supporters.

It also underscores the degree to which those who are challenging Trump for the 2024 nomination are banking on a message of generational change to win over voters.

“The backing of Trump, whether it was early on or once he got the nomination, was never about policy. The fact there was no [RNC] platform really demonstrates that. Trump was an attitude, he wasn’t a series of position papers,” said Doug Heye, a former spokesperson for the Republican National Committee and on Capitol Hill.

Polling throughout Trump’s time in the White House showed many voters – Republicans in particular – supported his policies, but were less enthralled with his brash personality and character. 

A Gallup poll from June 2020 found 42 percent of Americans viewed Trump as empathetic and able to effectively manage government, and only 36 percent viewed him as honest and trustworthy. Even among Republicans, only 72 percent viewed him as honest, the poll found.

While the field of challengers to Trump for the 2024 nomination is still taking shape, early indications are that candidates will focus more on those issues to try and nudge GOP voters to move on from a former president who still has a sizable base of support while battling a cascade of legal issues.

Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, made one of the strongest cases for fresh blood when she proposed during her campaign launch that politicians 75 or older take a competency test, putting the spotlight on generational change.

But when pressed by Fox News host Sean Hannity during one of her many recent interviews on the network to name policy differences with Trump, Haley demurred.

“What I am saying is I don’t kick sideways, I’m kicking forward. Joe Biden is the president. He’s the one I’m running against,” Haley said in a Feb. 15 interview with Hannity. “And what I’m saying is you don’t have to be 80 years old to be president. We don’t need to have these same people going back again.”

Vivek Ramaswany, an entrepreneur running for the GOP nomination, told Hannity he was not running against Trump and gave few details on what his policy platform would be.

“He was the OG of America First, I’m taking that to the next level with America First. 2.0,” Ramaswany said.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), told Hannity last week he was glad Trump was president, and his early message to voters as he teases a 2024 bid has been focused more on his personal story and how that might appeal to a broader audience. Scott in Iowa last week spoke of “overcoming our differences and then creating converts to conservatism.”

He’s also laid blame at Democrats for the fierce political divisions in the country, borrowing a grievance often relayed by Trump himself.

“The fact is that the left is trying to sell a drug of victimhood and a narcotic of despair,” Scott told Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream.

Former Vice President Mike Pence routinely speaks about the accomplishments of the “Trump-Pence administration” during public appearances, and he has argued that the country should return to the energy and immigration policies of the previous White House.

But Pence has broken with Trump on the events of Jan. 6, 2021, calling the riots at the Capitol a “dark day” and saying Trump was wrong to try and overturn the election. He has also more recently differed from his former boss in acknowledging the need to reform entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare for long-term solvency.

But Pence has been careful not to attack Trump when asked about whether the party should back the former president for another term.

“I think the times call for different leadership,” Pence said last week in an interview with NBC News. “And I’m confident we’ll have better choices than my old running mate come 2024.”

Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has adopted the Trump policy playbook on certain issues like immigration and education. DeSantis sent migrants who crossed the southern border illegally last year to the liberal enclave of Martha’s Vineyard, a move that was reminiscent of proposals during the Trump administration to send migrants to sanctuary cities.

DeSantis has aggressively pushed back on so-called “woke” politics by attacking corporations and signing laws to prohibit discussion of gender and sexuality in grade schools.

The question, party strategists and donors said, is whether any of those potential candidates will be able to break through with voters solely based on personality and the idea that it’s time to move on from Trump, who would be 78 at the start of a potential second term in 2025.

“Presidential elections are a mix of policy and personality. Voters want candidates they agree with, but leadership qualities can be even more important,” said Alex Conant, who worked on Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) 2016 presidential campaign. “That’s why candidates are pushing messages like experience and generational change right now.”

Recent polls show that GOP candidates face an uphill battle to overtake Trump.

A Fox News poll released Monday showed Trump leading DeSantis by 15 points among Republican presidential primary voters.

An Emerson College poll released Tuesday showed Trump narrowly leading President Biden in a hypothetical 2024 matchup, while Biden leads Haley and DeSantis in those hypothetical head-to-heads.

So far, some polls suggest DeSantis may be Trump’s biggest challenge, sometimes leading the former president in surveys that ask Republicans who they want as leader of their party. As governor, DeSantis regularly makes national news for controversial policies he’s implementing as governor including the rejection of African American studies in Florida schools.

There are some policy differences emerging within the GOP field, particularly on how the U.S. should approach aid to Ukraine, but ultimately those hoping to dethrone Trump will have to capture the support of the electorate beyond policy matters, party members said.

“Trump’s greatest advantage has been that he didn’t care about decorum or how things were supposed to be done, so he was seen as someone who would fight the woke culture on the left. Most of the other candidates seeking the GOP nomination have tried to some extent to adopt that fighter’s stance,” said Dan Eberhart, a GOP donor and CEO of Canary, LLC. “The only one who seems able to challenge Trump on this point though is DeSantis.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Democrats plot effort to counter Tucker Carlson on Jan. 6 narrative

House Democrats are shaping a strategy to push back against the public broadcast of Jan. 6 surveillance footage recently provided by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who is promising to air clips on his popular prime-time program in the coming weeks.

The process is in its early stages, and “nothing formal” has been finalized, according to a Democratic source familiar with the deliberations.

But Democrats of all stripes say they have no faith that Carlson, who has promoted conspiracy theories surrounding the Capitol rampage of Jan. 6, 2021, will use the exclusive footage to present an impartial account of the events of that day. And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said this week that he’s in discussions with fellow Democrats about a plan to counter, if necessary, the narrative that emerges from Carlson’s segments. 

Two lawmakers in particular — Reps. Bennie Thompson (Miss.), who headed the House select committee that investigated the Capitol riot in the last Congress, and Joe Morelle (N.Y.), senior Democrat on the House Administration Committee — will play a central role in the response, Jeffries said. 

“We all should have a formal game plan as it relates to this very serious and sober issue of the security and the well-being of people who work on the Capitol complex,” Jeffries said. 

What form the strategy takes is yet to be clear. 

Thompson was among the first Democrats to respond last week after Axios broke the news that McCarthy had granted Carlson access to more than 40,000 hours of previously unreleased surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 attack, warning of “potential security risks” if the footage is used “irresponsibly.” And Democratic leaders say Thompson and the other remaining members of the Jan. 6 select committee — whose investigation spanned countless hours over 18 months — are best situated to respond to Carlson’s eventual broadcasts for the simple reason that they’re the most familiar with the details of the riot.

“J-6 members will be in a good position to respond once they see what Tucker Carlson produces,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.), vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus.

The response could feature formal statements, press conferences, social media blasts and references to the Jan. 6 committee’s depositions and other findings that might serve as a form of counterweight against Carlson’s potential claims. Other media outlets will also be able to fact-check Carlson, Lieu noted, once the footage is released more broadly, as McCarthy has promised. 

“The facts are the facts,” Thompson said. “I don’t see anything, from my vantage point, that could really discredit the work of our committee.”

Carlson had initially boasted of having “unfettered access” to the Jan. 6 footage, but McCarthy and other Republicans stepped in this week to clarify that, while Fox producers are welcome to view the full video library, no footage will be released for broadcast without being screened to ensure it won’t compromise the security of the Capitol complex.

Thompson, however, said it’s too early to praise those steps until GOP leaders compose formal guidelines governing the security protocols, to include screenings by the Capitol Police and password protected access to the footage.  

“If they don’t have anything in writing … then I say it’s a bad idea,” Thompson said. “If it mirrors the process we had in place, no problem at all.”  

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, said his panel is working to draft those protocols, though the timeline of their release remains uncertain. 

Meanwhile, Democrats on the Administration Committee are protesting the move to grant Carlson any access to the Jan. 6 footage. 

The full committee issued a document on Tuesday outlining its oversight goals for the current term — a bipartisan plan that included a lengthy “minority views” section in which Democrats broke sharply from the Republican majority in detailing their distrust in Carlson’s commitment to objectivity based on his history of covering Jan. 6. Among his contentious claims, Carlson has downplayed the violence at the Capitol that day and promoted the idea that the riot was a “false flag” operation orchestrated by the political enemies of former President Trump. 

“Mr. Carlson has a lengthy record of lying and spreading disinformation about the January 6, 2021, attack on his television show in an apparent attempt to rewrite history,” the Democrats wrote. “Any attempts by defenders of these actions to create a false equivalence with the work of the [Jan. 6 select committee] should be dismissed.”

A spokesperson for Fox News did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment. 

McCarthy, in the immediate wake of the Capitol attack, had supported the idea of a bipartisan investigation into its cause, but reversed course after Trump voiced his opposition. As House minority leader, McCarthy declined to participate in the select committee’s investigation, calling it a partisan witch hunt against the former president. He is now defending his decision to lend Carlson first access to the unreleased surveillance footage by suggesting it will provide a kind of counterpoint to the narrative steered solely by the Trump critics on the select committee.

“I know CNN would get knowledge of subpoenas before people were given subpoenas. I know CNN was given tapes that the Jan. 6 [committee] would pick and choose, so I know they’ve had a lot of exclusives around that,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday. 

“I want to make sure we don’t play politics like that.”

The Speaker’s decision came as he’s scrambling to secure support from Republicans wary of his voting record and concerned that he won’t represent conservative priorities in the coming policy fights with President Biden, particularly when it comes to federal spending. Carlson has been among those right-wing critics, and observers in both parties say McCarthy chose Carlson to get the first shot at the Jan. 6 footage to curry favor with the wildly popular pundit and his millions of loyal followers. 

“Kevin McCarthy seems to be somebody who is burdened neither by shame nor principle,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). “And he’s damaging the institution — and damaging the country — all at the altar of his personal ambitions.”

Beyond political considerations, critics say there may also be personal factors driving McCarthy’s decision. The Jan. 6 select committee had, in a public hearing, aired video from within McCarthy’s office during the siege, showing his staffers racing to flee the pro-Trump mob — a humiliating episode for the Republican leader, who, after blaming Trump for the rampage, quickly shifted gears to downplay the violence and bash Democrats for investigating it. 

McCarthy, in recent days, has characterized that footage as its own security threat.

“[It’s] concerning to me that [the committee] put out — and CNN would play it – the exit from my office,” he said. “Never did they talk to me or the people on it.”

Complicating the Republicans’ defense of Carlson have been a series of new revelations surrounding Fox News’s coverage of the 2020 elections, which have emerged in recent days as part of a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against the network. The disclosures have revealed that Carlson was furious after Fox correctly called Arizona for Biden, suggesting the network should have withheld the truth from its viewers for the sake of ratings. 

“Fox already admits that Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity and other hosts on their national prime-time network are not journalists. They’re entertainment hosts,” Lieu said. “So Speaker McCarthy actually didn’t give the tapes to a journalist, he gave them to an entertainment host. And we’ll see what they produce.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Ticketmaster, PayPal, eBay are hassling customers to report sales even though the IRS says they don’t have to

People are being told they need to provide their Social Security numbers to online platforms and cash transfer app companies for the sales of things like clothes and concert tickets over $600, even though the IRS says they don’t need to.

The prompts from companies like Ebay and Ticketmaster are the result of a change in the tax law that was reneged last-minute by the IRS ahead of the 2023 tax filing season.

The switch is causing a lot of confusion among taxpayers and tax professionals – and even within the IRS itself.

The threshold for reporting business income or personal income from using these apps was supposed to change this year. It was downgraded from sales above $20,000 to sales of above just $600 and was part of a provision passed in the 2021 American Rescue Plan.

That means you’d need to pay a capital gains tax on sales worth more than $600 if you used these apps to receive a payment.

But the IRS decided to delay this rule change from tax season 2023 to tax season 2024, citing “confusion during the … 2023 tax filing season” and the need to “provide more time for taxpayers to prepare and understand the new reporting requirements.”

The IRS said some taxpayers may be receiving 1099-K forms “in error.”

“Some individuals may receive a Form 1099-K for the sale of personal items or in situations where they received a Form 1099-K in error (i.e. for transactions between friends and family, or expense sharing),” the agency said in a statement.

Are companies asking for your Social Security number after you sold something?

That confusion is proving to be a real frustration for some sellers and is leading companies to ask for sensitive information from their customers in an effort to be compliant with the law.

“Ebay prompted me to enter my Social [Security number] after I ‘sold’ over $600 in items last month. I’m assuming it’s for next year,” a person by the name of Allison Chao said Wednesday in an online forum discussing the changes in IRS rules.

“The word ‘sold’ is in quotes because the transactions were actually charged sales tax by Ebay which counted towards the $600 (I didn’t receive any of that tax personally),” Chao wrote. “Really upset me!”

That kind of confusion has been felt elsewhere, even as expectations for a smoother tax season have been bolstered by new funding for the IRS.

“Ticketmaster made me enter SS info after I resold a single concert for less than I paid for it,” a person identified as Stacey Silber Shea said in the same online forum.

Making things even more confusing, if taxpayers are selling personal items at a loss, they should be reporting those on one kind of form, and if they’re selling them at a gain, they should be reporting them on another.

Losses go on a 1099-K and gains go on a 1040, the IRS says.

Ebay confirmed to The Hill that it has “taken steps to comply with the new IRS 1099-K reporting requirements, including collecting [S]ocial [S]ecurity numbers from customers when they pass the $600 threshold.”

Cash transfer companies say it’s on sellers to stay within tax laws

On top of that, as online sales companies pester customers in order to stay compliant, customers are being told by the IRS that it’s their job to sort things out with the companies if they feel they’re getting prompts in error.

This is a common problem in the case of cash transfer apps, which are termed “third-party settlement organizations” by the IRS, because it’s easy to confuse personal purchases and money transfers with sales that generate personal income, which is taxable under the law.

“Third-party settlement organizations and users repeatedly asked the IRS to provide useful guidance,” the National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA), which is an office within the IRS, said in a statement summarizing all the confusion for taxpayers last month.

“And the IRS’s response was largely to tell taxpayers that if a Form 1099-K is erroneous, they needed to go back to the third-party provider and convince the provider to issue a corrected Form 1099-K,” it reads. “Given the anticipated volume of Forms 1099-K – which likely is in the tens of millions – that was not a realistic solution.”

These demands are adding to the already considerable stress of taxpayers who are simply trying to stay within the bounds of the law.

“Last year, Paypal stopped allowing personal payments on accounts that are marked as business so I started getting hit with those 3-percent fees, and I thought, you know, whatever,” Lev Epshtyn, a tech worker in New York, said in an interview.

“But then toward the end of the year, I realized they’re about to send me one of those forms, the 1099, for all that money that my friends were paying me for restaurant expenses and things like that,” he said.

“So I actually had to call them back and get them to declassify my account from business back to personal,” he said. “I was scrambling.”

Gig workers in particular are feeling the pressure from payment companies

Professional tax preparers say they can see the stress the rule-switching is causing in their customers.

“Online [sellers] and drivers” are the people most affected among the clientele of Umar Farooq, one of the IRS’s enrolled agents, who are tax preparers officially recognized by the IRS.

“Amazon sellers deal with this. And then the most affected are the Uber drivers, the Lyft drivers, because [they get paid through] the third party,” Farooq said.

“They were just confused and they didn’t know if they were going to be issued a 1099 or no,” he said.

Other professionals dealing with the issues have seen similar headaches.

“There was concern. Should people be getting a 1099 for the personal [sales]? That’s what most of the people are asking,” Abdul Hannan, a tax preparer in Brooklyn told The Hill. “With Venmo and Cashapp, they don’t know if it’s business or if it’s personal, so people are confused.”

The IRS describes the reporting changes for next year as “hugely important” because they could affect tax compliance in a big way.

“However, the IRS noted it must be managed carefully to help ensure that 1099-Ks are only issued to taxpayers who should receive them,” the IRS said in a statement in January.

“In addition, it’s important that taxpayers understand what to do as a result of this reporting, and tax preparers and software providers have the information they need to assist taxpayers,” the statement reads.

The Hill reached out to Amazon, Venmo, Cash App, Ticketmaster and PayPal for comment.

Source: TEST FEED1

Lawmakers trounce Lobbyists in annual charity hockey game

After the House of Representatives gaveled out for the week on Wednesday, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) traded voting sheets for a sheet of ice and laced up for the Congressional Hockey Challenge.

Emmer and the rest of Team Lawmakers beat Team Lobbyists 8-3 after taking an early lead, marking the fifth consecutive win for the lawmakers in the 13th annual charity game.

“When you’re on the bench, doesn’t matter who you are … Doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican. Politics don’t matter. You just come on, you play, and it’s for a great cause,” Emmer, a noted hockey lover in Congress who played for the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, said on the ice after the game. He was all smiles as he held the event’s trophy.

“Let’s face it, ice only exists in one place that’s in heaven,” Emmer said.

The GOP representative was technically the only lawmaker to play in Wednesday’s game at MedStar Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, Va., with the rest of the team made up of Congressional staff that included Rob Wagener from Rep. Scott Fitzgerald’s (R-Wis.) office and Amber Moore from Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) office.

“More of the worthy members of Congress would play if there wasn’t a fly-out night,” said Emmer, who has played in the event since he came to Congress in 2015. House Democrats were also out of town at their annual issues retreat in Baltimore, Md. 

The Washington insiders on the ice got some assistance from three hockey Olympians: 2018 gold medalist Haley Skarupa played for Team Lawmakers, while 2018 gold medalist and 2022 silver medalist Megan Keller as well as 2022 silver medalist Hayley Scamurra played for Team Lobbyists.

The Team Lobbyists roster included Trevor Hanger of Forbes Tate, who made headlines a few years ago as an emergency backup goalie for the Washington Capitals.

The Congressional Hockey Challenge has raised more than $1 million for charities since 2009, and organizers said it raised nearly $150,000 this year. Beneficiaries include the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club in Washington, DC, Capital Beltway Warriors Hockey Program, USA Warriors Hockey and the annual “22 Hours of Hockey” event, hosted by the Tampa Warriors.

Emmer teased that he will use his hockey-guy skills in the new House GOP majority as Whip.

“They ain’t seen nothing yet,” he said. “We play a little different. We like conflict. We like to mix it up a little bit. People tend to – let’s say they get a little juices going, they tend to tell you what they really think, and then you can figure out what the problem is and solve it.”

“I can’t wait for next year. I think I gotta play well into my 70s,” said Emmer, 61.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden mocks Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: ‘Isn’t she amazing?’

BALTIMORE — President Biden mocked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Wednesday, sarcastically asking a room full of House Democrats during their annual retreat in Baltimore “isn’t she amazing?”

The president’s comments came one day after Greene, during a hearing on Capitol Hill, asked Michigan mother and conservative activist Rebecca Kiessling — who lost two children to fentanyl-related deaths on July 29, 2020 — if her sons would be alive “if our government would secure our southern border.”

Kiessling responded “absolutely,” before discussing the rise in drug-related deaths and the government’s alleged role in the drug crisis.

Greene posted a clip of the exchange on Twitter that day, writing “Listen to this mother, who lost two children to fentanyl poisoning, tell the truth about both of her son’s murders because of the Biden administrations refusal to secure our border and stop the Cartel’s from murdering Americans everyday by Chinese fentanyl.”

A CNN fact check, however, pointed out that Greene was falsely pinning the blame on the Biden administration because former President Trump still occupied the White House at the time of the sons’ deaths.

Biden responded to Greene’s claims on Wednesday.

“She was very specific — I shouldn’t digress, probably — I read, she was very specific recently saying that a mom, a poor mother who lost two kids to fentanyl, that I killed her sons. Well, the interesting thing is, that fentanyl they took came during the last administration,” Biden said, letting out a chuckle.

He stopped himself from continuing on the topic.

“Look folks. Anyway, I don’t want to get started,” he said.

The remark, which prompted laughs from the crowd, came as Biden implored congressional lawmakers to come together in a bipartisan fashion and pass legislation on a number of issues central to his policy agenda, including police and immigration reform.

He suggested that moderate GOP lawmakers could help Democrats usher in those initiatives, and said middle-of-the-road conservatives may move toward Democrats if more Republicans like Greene emerge. The firebrand congresswoman, who was first sworn into the House in 2021, has become one of the most outspoken members of the GOP conference, and became known for her history of pushing conspiracy theories.

“We need to come together on police reform and immigration reform. We need to protect voting rights and the right to choose. Ladies and gentleman, we got to reinstate Roe v. Wade and pass it nationally. We really do,” Biden said. “And look, I know as well as you the MAGA Republicans are not gonna get on board for most of these things. But that leaves a lot of Republicans that are still left. By the way watch, watch, I predict, watch, watch what happens. Republicans can help make a significant majority on some of these things.”

He continued, listing off a number of bills Congress passed in a bipartisan fashion — including the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, the CHIPS and Science Act, a gun safety bill and the Respect for Marriage Act — before turning his attention to Greene.

“It’s hard as hell, I acknowledge, but it’s there,” he said of the possibility for bipartisan cooperation, “and, you know, a little bit more of Marjorie Taylor Greene and, a few more, you’re gonna have a lot of Republicans running our way.”

The room of House Democrats erupted in laughs and applause.

“Isn’t she amazing?” he quipped, sparking more laughs.

The Hill reached out to Greene for comment.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Memo: Lightfoot is latest Democrat to fall to anger over crime

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is the latest Democrat to fall to public concerns over crime.

Lightfoot suffered an ignominious fate Tuesday when she failed to even make the runoff in her bid for a second term. 

Paul Vallas, a centrist Democrat who topped the Chicago poll by a comfortable margin, has promised to grapple more forcefully with the crime problem in the nation’s third-largest city — and has been endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police.

Lightfoot, by contrast, had at one point sought to cut around $80 million from the police department’s budget.

“Paul Vallas speaking intently on that issue was part of the reason he was able to garner the largest share of the vote on Feb. 28,” said Tom Bowen, a Chicago-based Democratic strategist who worked for both Lightfoot and her predecessor, Rahm Emanuel.

A GOP analyst in Chicago, Chris Robling, agreed, calling the issue of crime “decisive.”

“The Vallas campaign made public security and personal safety the focal points of his campaign,” Robing added. “Obviously the campaign’s polling and Vallas’s own sense of the electorate was, ‘We won’t go wrong by focusing on public safety.’”

There were, of course, other factors to the mayor’s defeat — not least her peculiar propensity to alienate former allies and her failure to win the whole-hearted allegiance of any major constituency in the city.

Still, the result is one more data point demonstrating the political perils for Democrats who don’t persuade voters they are sufficiently tough on crime.

Back in 2021, several progressive candidates hoping to become mayor of New York City were vanquished by Eric Adams (D), a former police officer and centrist, in the Democratic primary.

The same year, voters in Minneapolis — the city where George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in 2020 — emphatically rejected a ballot measure that would have supplanted the police department with a Department of Public Safety.

In June 2022, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin (D) was recalled by voters unhappy with his lenient approach on crime.

And even though Democrats suffered fewer losses than expected in last November’s midterms, they were hit hard in New York state, where Republicans gained four House seats and polls showed crime to be among voters’ top concerns.

Democratic strategist Basil Smikle contended that “crime has always been a very important talking point for the right” and that “conservatives have often racialized and urbanized crime.”

But he also acknowledged, “Democrats still have difficulty in talking about how to reduce crime,” given that the nuances the party often favors don’t always persuade moderate voters.

That problem becomes particularly salient when crime rates rise, as they have done over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now there’s a new challenge looming on the issue.

President Biden faces a tricky political choice thanks for a reformist law passed by the city council in the District of Columbia.

The overhaul of the District’s criminal code includes a number of changes that ease sentences.

Once the law takes effect, mandatory minimum sentences will be abolished for all offenses with the exception of first-degree murder — and even in that case, the length of a compulsory sentence is reduced to 24 years from 30 years. 

The law also reduces the maximum sentences for a number of crimes— often substantially. The maximum sentence for armed carjacking, for example, is down to 24 years from 40 years. The maximum for unlawful possession of a gun by a felon falls to 4 years from 15 years.

The D.C. bill is so far-reaching, at a time when crime rates in the District are elevated, that it was vetoed by Mayor Muriel Bowser, a mainstream Democrat who tangled with then-President Trump during the George Floyd protests. But reformers on the council easily mustered the votes to override her veto.

Republicans in Congress are now putting pressure on Democrats, as they push a so-called resolution of disapproval to the D.C. law. The rebuke, which would quash the D.C. law, has already passed the House and appears to have a strong shot in the Senate given that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has expressed support for it.

In that scenario, Biden would be in a serious bind as to how to use his power of veto. 

If the president lets the D.C. changes stand, Republicans will accuse him of being soft on crime. If he pushes back against them, he will offend progressives — and annoy advocates who want the District of Columbia to be freed from congressional oversight.

Republican strategist Brad Blakeman told The Hill that the label of being lax on crime “is completely toxic” for Democrats, including Biden. 

“But you can’t expect anything different when people feel unsafe and they feel the criminals are running the city,” Blakeman added.

Centrist Democrats have worried about their party’s political vulnerability on crime since at least 2020. 

The “Defund the Police” slogan in particular was seen by many as disastrously counterproductive — and as a reason why the party’s performance in congressional elections in 2020 was unexceptional even as Biden ended Trump’s time in the White House.

In his first State of the Union address in March 2022, Biden conspicuously called to “fund the police.”

Some Democratic strategists, such as Bowen, believe a modulated approach can pay off for his party.

Voters “want their leaders to combat a complex problem with complex solutions,” he said.

But so far, Democrats are struggling to unlock the code on the topic.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden says he’s not confident Supreme Court will clear student loan forgiveness plan

President Biden on Wednesday said he’s not confident that the Supreme Court will decide to clear his student loan forgiveness plan, while the majority-conservative court weighs the case.

“I’m confident we’re on the right side of the law. I’m not confident about the outcome of the decision yet,” the president told reporters at the White House.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday on challenges to his student loan plan, which would eliminate up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for millions of Americans.

Biden and the White House have consistently expressed confidence in the legal authority for the president to implement the plan through executive action. And, the White House this week has shied away from discussing any alternative or a “plan B” if the Supreme Court strikes it down.

“The plan that we put forward in August is the plan that we have, which is also a plan that you heard the solicitor general really defend in a strong and powerful way yesterday. And that’s our plan, and we believe in our legal authority to get that done and get that implemented,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar represented the Biden administration at the Supreme Court this week and attempted to fend off challenges from six GOP-led states as well as separate challenges from two individuals.

“Our focus right now is getting this done. You saw the solicitor general really give a strong argument yesterday in front of the highest court in the land. There’s a reason we took it to the Supreme Court,” Jean-Pierre added on Wednesday.

The question that will decide the fate of Biden’s plan is if Congress clearly gave authority for the executive branch to forgive debts through the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROES) Act. The White House has pointed to the law repeatedly throughout the last six months because it gives the Education secretary the authority to “waive or modify” federal student financial assistance programs when deemed necessary in connection with a national emergency. 

The Biden administration has tied the relief to the emergency established during the pandemic.

The Supreme Court’s decision on the case may not come out until May or June, which is typically when the court tends to give its most controversial decisions.

Source: TEST FEED1

House Democrats gather to chart path toward 2024 majority with wins from last Congress

BALTIMORE — House Democrats are gathering in Baltimore for their annual issues conference this week to chart a path back to the majority in 2024.

It’s an operation they say can be achieved by capitalizing on the legislative achievements they secured in the first two years of President Biden’s term, when they had the upper hand in the lower chamber. But success is far from certain as Republicans hammer Democrats on issues including rising costs and the southern border, and several high-profile and high-stakes battles loom this year.

The retreat — taking place at a hotel in Charm City’s Inner Harbor — comes roughly four months after House Democrats exceeded expectations in November’s midterm elections, holding Republicans to a slim, five-seat majority.

Party leaders say that with the right messaging, they can build on that.

“All of us share the same goal,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said during Wednesday’s opening press conference, “and that is to safeguard the progress that we have made for the last two years, and to make sure that Democrats take the House again in 2024.”

“We had unexpected results last November because we put people over politics and explained time and time again exactly what we were doing,” Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn (S.C.) added. “We’re gonna further that.”

Democrats’ dominance on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in the last Congress — controlling each chamber and the White House — propelled the caucus toward a number of legislative accomplishments that Biden signed into law.

The party claimed victory with the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue package and a $740 billion tax, climate and health bill — both of which were passed along party lines — in addition to the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act and gun safety bill.

Party leaders are hopeful that implementing and communicating those wins to the American public will help them usher in a Democratic majority next November. 

That game plan will be a prime focus of the caucus’s annual retreat this week, which will feature remarks from President Biden, Vice President Harris and a number of Cabinet officials.

“Over the last Congress, we were able to deliver significant victories for the American people,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said, listing off their five main achievements.

“That’s an agenda that puts people over politics,” he added, referring to the retreat’s theme. “It’s an agenda that we will stand behind, continue to bring to life as we move it forward this year and throughout the balance of this Congress.”

Recent polls, however, suggest that Biden’s legislative agenda is not resonating with the American public, highlighting the work Democrats will have to do between now and November to reach their ultimate goal.

In a survey conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News between Jan. 27 and Feb. 1, 62 percent of Americans said Biden has accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing” during the first two years of his presidency. Only 36 percent said he has gotten done “a great deal” or “a good amount.”

The numbers varied by party. Seventy-seven percent of Democrats said Biden has accomplished “a great deal” or “a good amount” in that time frame, while 32 percent of Independents and 7 percent of Republicans said the same.

The president is unlikely to see many — if any — of his legislative initiatives cross the finish line in the final two years of his term amid a divided Congress, underscoring the importance of touting Democratic wins from the previous session. 

Democrats have to flip at least five seats next November to retake control of the chamber, an undertaking that the caucus is already gaming out. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said on Wednesday that there are 18 Republican-held seats in districts that Biden won in 2020, calling the map “incredible opportunity.”

“We’re recruiting great candidates across the country, we’re gonna defend our incredible members and take back the majority so that we have Speaker Hakeem Jeffries,” she said.

The retreat comes roughly three months into House Democrats’ time in the minority, which has been dominated by votes on Republican messaging bills and hearings on hot-button issues like the situation at the southern border and social media censorship.

For their first legislative effort of the session, House Republicans passed a bill to rescind the bulk of an IRS funding boost that President Biden signed into law last year as part of the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. And earlier this month, the GOP-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee held a hearing focused on Twitter’s decision to limit the spread of a New York Post story about a laptop belonging to the president’s son, Hunter Biden.

Part of their strategy for taking back the majority, Democratic lawmakers said, is creating a contrast with the group they have consistently dubbed as “extreme MAGA Republicans.”

“We are working hard to continue to make sure our message is heard by the American people, and that we hold Republicans accountable for their extreme agenda,” DelBene said.

“We want to make sure that people see what Republicans are, what their message is, which is extreme. It is not focused on the needs of the American people,” she added. “So we’re gonna hold them accountable.”

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), the vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said the party will “be making sure we can come together on an agenda that can continue moving the American family forward, and to stop stupid stuff from Republicans,” pointing to a national abortion ban and a threat to not raise the debt ceiling.

Another question hanging over the heads of House Democrats this week is the fate of the White House in 2024. Biden, who is the oldest person to hold the presidency at age 81, is widely expected to run for a second term, but when that announcement will come remains unknown.

The 2024 Republican presidential primary is already underway, with former President Trump and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley having thrown their hats in the ring. And Democrat Marianne Williamson, who ran for president in 2020, confirmed that he will formally announce a 2024 campaign this weekend, setting up Biden’s first primary challenger.

Asked Wednesday, hours before Biden was set to address the caucus, if the president should announce his reelection campaign sooner rather than later, Aguilar said the decision rests squarely with Biden and his team.

“I trust that the president and his team are going to have those conversations with the American public in the proper timeline, under a timeline that he and his family are comfortable with,” he said.

“We look forward to the president affirming that we are partners in this progress that we have made. We look forward to him talking about his economic agenda, how we’ve been able to create jobs, how inflation is cooling, and how more people are back at work,” he added.

Source: TEST FEED1

What’s Biden waiting for when it comes to 2024?

President Biden says he has “other things to finish” before he can announce a reelection campaign, a stance that is raising questions about what exactly he’s waiting to do.

That Biden will run for a second term does not seem to be in significant doubt, but so far the president has only reiterated his “intention” to run for the White House again. 

Democrats say there’s no rush, and that putting off a formal announcement allows him to focus on the logistics of launching, like getting essential staff in order, choosing which domestic policies to emphasize and planning for a large outdoor event in warmer weather.

Some even point to his poll numbers improving as a reason to wait to jump in at the highest possible point. 

It’s not exactly another thing to finish, but these are the kind of steps he needs to take and should take, Democrats say, before beginning a second bid in earnest.

Supporters also brush off any need for anxiety.

“While there are financial and organizational needs that can only be fully addressed by announcing, the power of incumbency is real,” said Josh Schwerin, a Democratic consultant and founder of Saratoga Strategies, a communications firm. “President Biden should announce at the right moment for him.”

Getting a top-notch campaign staff together is one thing to complete before an announcement.

While Biden is known to have a tight-knit and loyal braintrust, it takes time to recruit and vet potential talent, and the president has a slow-and-steady approach to staffing — including in the highest levels. 

“Maybe they just haven’t found the person to lead the ship yet,” one progressive campaign operative who worked on a rival presidential campaign speculated about Biden’s potential roster. 

One of the leading fixtures in his circle, former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, said recently that he looks forward to being by the president’s side for the upcoming race, an indication that he intends to be involved in some capacity. 

Biden has also tapped Ben LaBolt, a savvy strategist who worked for former President Obama, to head up the White House communications shop. While LaBolt will not work on the campaign, observers noted that he was purposely placed in the gig during a year when Biden is ramping up his political machine — and when the White House expects an uptick in fire from Republicans.  

“He’s rolling up his sleeves and ready for a fight,” one former senior administration official said of LaBolt.  

LaBolt’s predecessor, the previous White House communications director Kate Bedingfeld, told New York magazine in an exit interview, “I know enough to know to never say never” when asked about theories that she will join Biden again after playing an integral role in his 2020 campaign. 

Another key figure, Stephen Benjamin, the former mayor of Columbia, S.C., also replaced former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as a senior adviser and the director of the Office of Public Engagement. Bottoms is expected to return to Atlanta in advance of an election in which Georgia is likely to be just as important as it was last cycle.  

“It takes a lot to launch a campaign and manage the government. Hiring and integrating people,” said the former senior administration official.

Perhaps the most critical person in the big-picture planning is his wife.

First lady Jill Biden told The Associated Press last week that there was little left to decide about a second term bid, other than when and where to make it official. While she was vague about the details, the acknowledgement that they were thinking about timing and location shows the weight given to optics and having the right people involved. 

Biden certainly has things he wants to finish when it comes to his domestic agenda.

But from a policy standpoint, Biden won’t be able to accomplish much with Republicans in control of the House, especially as it embarks on investigations into the president and his family. Aware of those limitations, allies have pointed to his work on the economy and protecting social programs as areas where he can make an impact. 

During Biden’s State of the Union speech, his first joint address as president in which he was heckled and called a “liar” by some conservative lawmakers, he telegraphed what sources close to the administration see as his major campaign themes, including protecting entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security that Democrats say Republicans are trying to dismantle. 

Biden has said nearly a dozen times that he wants to “finish the job” Americans gave him in 2020. He echoed those sentiments on Wednesday, while nominating Julie Su to be the next Labor secretary, saying he is “just anxious to finish the job here.”  

To the extent that there is still a belief among some Democrats that the president may not run, it has largely been back-burnered given the makeup of the 2024 field so far. And the White House, for its part, already seems focused on his potential GOP challengers.  

Former President Trump has declared his candidacy, and other Republican contenders, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, are assessing ways to break through his influence. There are still questions about the degree to which Trump will be relevant and that has added to the questions around Biden and his timing.  

“We’re all saying, ‘Let’s just enjoy the shitshow. This is a hallelujah moment for us,’” said one Democratic bundler. “We know who our nominee is going to be. Everything else is just noise.”  

Biden’s delayed timing has also kept significant primary challengers at bay. 

Marianne Williamson, a progressive and author who ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020, is expected to announce another presidential bid in the next few days, but there are no serious rivals to the president. That means he doesn’t have to scramble to strategize around fending off threats from within his own party, a luxury that some Democrats say has allowed him to focus on getting the details of his launch — from policy to strategy and personnel — just right.

“He isn’t a declared candidate for ‘24, but everything he does is still pretty much political from that State of the Union on,” the progressive strategist said. “They’re sitting comfortably now. There’s no immediate rush. There’s no real threat of a primary. I think they’re just taking their time.”

To be sure, Biden’s slow timing is not new; it’s a signature of his election style.   

When he passed up a chance to run for president after serving as Obama’s VP, he waited months to formally decide against it. And in the nearly two-year lead up to the 2020 cycle, when lesser-known candidates were eagerly forming exploratory bids, he again hung back, leading many polls of hypothetical contenders without officially launching a bid. 

Biden’s timing also jibes with other past presidents. Both Obama and former President Clinton announced in April, while former President George W. Bush waited until mid-May. Democrats say he has plenty to do between now and then.   

“It’s not like President Biden is sitting around his golf club angrily spouting off on social media,” said Schwerin. “Extending the period where voters see him exclusively through the lens of his office — working to deliver for the American people — helps him control the narrative and avoid daily horse race political coverage.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Senate sends bill nullifying Biden's ESG investing rule to president's desk

The Senate approved a resolution on Wednesday that aims to reverse a Biden administration rule on environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, setting up what could be the first veto of Biden’s presidency. 

The Senate voted 50-46 to block the ESG rule, with two Democrats: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) joining Republicans in opposing the Biden administration policy. 

The measure already passed the House on Tuesday and will now head to Biden’s desk. The White House has said that Biden would veto the resolution. 

In general, ESG refers to efforts to invest in an environmentally-conscious or otherwise ethical way. The rule in question clarifies that money managers can weigh climate change and other ESG factors when they make decisions for retirement investments. It replaces a Trump-era rule that the Biden administration says discouraged consideration of ESG factors “even in cases where it is in the financial interest of plans to take such considerations into account.”

Manchin described the Biden rule as “another example of how our administration prioritizes a liberal policy agenda over protecting and growing the retirement accounts of 150 million Americans.” Manchin, if he decides to run again, is expected to race a tough reelection fight next year.

Fellow red-state Democrat Tester, who is seeking reelection in 2024, had also been expected to vote to get rid of the rule.

The White House argues that the rule simply allows for relevant factors to come under consideration in investment decision-making. 

“The rule simply makes sure that retirement plan fiduciaries must engage in a risk and return analysis of their investment decisions and recognizes that these factors can be relevant to that analysis,” said a White House statement outlining the impending veto. 

The statement continued to say that if the Labor Department were to return to the Trump-era rule, “the federal government would be interfering with the market in a manner that stands in the way of retirement plan fiduciaries’ ability to protect these hard-earned retirement savings and pensions.”

And while the resolution garnered at least some Democratic support, it is part of a larger GOP effort to oppose ESG investing. 

Supporters of ESG say that following these principles allows people to make money, have a positive impact on the world around them and avoid some financial risks caused by climate change. 

Opponents of such efforts say that such considerations could take away from maximizing profits and also critique it on the grounds of negative impacts to industries like fossil fuels.

Source: TEST FEED1