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House GOP looks to get ahead of Biden address with debt limit demands and balloon criticism

House Republican counter-messaging ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday — his first to a divided government with the new House GOP majority — is out in full force.

It’s being fueled by debt limit demands, the Chinese balloon and investigations into Biden and his family revving up.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is tangoing with Biden on raising the debt ceiling, demanding spending cuts as a precondition, delivered an address on the debt ceiling on Tuesday evening. 

That got McCarthy out ahead of the president, who is likely to talk about the catastrophic economic consequences if Congress does not raise the debt limit by early June. 

“The greatest threat to our future is our national debt,” McCarthy said in the 10-minute address. 

McCarthy and Biden had their first meeting on the debt limit last week. Biden has asked for a “clean” debt ceiling increase not attached to any other stipulations.

In his address, McCarthy argued that the debt limit has long been used to push for spending reforms, including by Biden when he was a senator during debt fights two decades ago.

“We are already changing the behavior of this government. The runaway spending in the last few years — It’s over,” McCarthy said. “Now we must return Washington to a basic truth: Debt matters. The debt limit is one of the most important opportunities Congress has to change course.”

Cooling inflation and unemployment dropping to its lowest level in 52 years could give Biden some reprieve from the kind of GOP jabs that dominated the response to his address last year.

But House Republicans are not letting up on economic issues, with the Ways and Means Committee holding a field hearing in Petersburg, W.Va., on problems in the economy. Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) lamented “high energy bills, declining real wages, labor shortages, spikes in interest rates,” and other issues facing the Biden administration.

And a suspected Chinese spy balloon has given Republicans an opening to rail against Biden’s defense and foreign policy decision-making. The balloon floated across the continental U.S. before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday. 

“Clearly, the president taking it down over the Atlantic is … sort of like tackling the quarterback after the game is over,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “The satellite had completed its mission. This should never have been allowed to enter the United States, and it never should’ve been allowed to complete its mission.”

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) called on Biden and Vice President Harris to resign over their handling of the balloon.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Biden had authorized the military to take down the balloon last Wednesday, and officials waited to shoot it down over water so the debris would not harm any Americans.

Republicans had considered bringing up a resolution to condemn Biden being too slow to act on shooting down the balloon, Politico reported, with the potential for a resolution to hit the floor on the same day as the State of the Union address. As of Monday evening, no vote had been scheduled or resolution unveiled, though members confirmed a resolution was under discussion.

Investigations into the Biden administration and the president’s family will sandwich Biden’s address.

On Tuesday before the address, the committee will hold a hearing with Border Patrol agents, aiming to highlight the “crisis” on the border and the Biden administration’s policies.

Other GOP members sought to turn focus to the border this week as well, with Rep. John Joyce (R-Pa.) linking illegal migration to fentanyl overdoses.

“It’s time for President Biden to address this crisis that has killed thousands of men, women, and children across Pennsylvania and offer us a concrete solution to secure our border and put a stop to these needless American deaths,” Joyce said on the House floor on Monday in anticipation of Biden’s address.

After the address on Wednesday, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee will shift to focus on Twitter’s decision to censor a New York Post story about the contents of a hard drive belonging to Hunter Biden, the president’s son. The hearing is part of a probe into what House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) calls “influence peddling” by Biden’s family, questioning whether Biden knew about his family’s foreign business dealings.

“Americans deserve answers about this attack on the First Amendment and why Big Tech and the Swamp colluded to censor this information about the Biden family selling access for profit. Accountability is coming,” Comer said in a statement.

There will also be some floor messaging action by Republicans ahead of Biden’s address. 

On Tuesday morning, the U.S. Constitution is scheduled to be read aloud on the House floor – fulfilling an election-season plan from McCarthy to read the country’s governing document on the floor, but coming later than the promised first day of the 118th Congress. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Chinese balloon ordeal could overshadow State of the Union

The takedown of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon has the White House worried the unexpected ordeal could overshadow President Biden’s State of the Union address.

Biden has faced criticism from Republicans and pressure from his own party to explain why the administration let the balloon fly over much of the U.S. before the military was able to shoot it down on Saturday.

Officials have defended waiting until the balloon was over the Atlantic Ocean in order to prevent injuries or destruction of property. But then the administration faced a hailstorm when Biden administration officials indicated that foreign balloons had previously flown over the country during the era of former President Trump, stumping some officials who said they were unaware of that happening.

The Biden administration is working to recover the balloon, which national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday will be beneficial “so that we can then exploit what we recover and learn even more than we have learned.”

Officials have not yet discussed assessments of whether Chinese President Xi Jinping was aware of the balloon before it was revealed by the United States.

Source: TEST FEED1

Five questions for Biden’s State of the Union address

President Biden will deliver his second State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.

The speech comes at a critical point for Biden. Republicans now control the House, the glow from Democrats’ better-than-expected performance in the midterms is fading and the first moves in the 2024 campaign are already being made.

Here are some of the biggest questions around Biden’s big speech.

Will Biden be confrontational or conciliatory with Republicans?

Biden has tried to thread a complicated needle when it comes to the GOP.

On the one hand, he has emphasized his willingness to reach across the aisle and make deals — a skill honed during his three decades in the Senate.

He will almost certainly emphasize how he was able to push a $1 trillion infrastructure spending package into law, with some Republican support, in late 2021.

Yet, at the same time, Biden’s attacks on “ultra-MAGA Republicans” were effective in the run up to the midterms. The president surely won’t want to ease off that line of attack now, particularly as House Republicans start rolling out probes into a range of matters, including his son Hunter Biden.

Biden is likely to try to marry the two themes, holding out the possibility of bipartisan agreement on one hand while trying to paint the GOP as in thrall to its hard-liners.

Whether he can make that work remains to be seen.

Can Biden give himself a boost?

The president is in a tough spot despite the relative Democratic success in holding down losses in the midterms.

His approval rating, as measured in the FiveThirtyEight weighted polling average, has not been in positive territory for well over a year. The chance of him notching significant legislative accomplishments is slim in a divided Congress. And questions about his age are only growing sharper.

Biden has also had to grapple with new controversy over his handling of classified documents.

But Biden has been underestimated throughout his political career.

He still retains a capacity to connect with an audience and, in the eyes of many voters, a basic decency.

If he can turn in a performance of force and vigor on Tuesday, he could get a least a short-term boost.

How much prominence does the Chinese spy balloon get?

The instantly infamous Chinese balloon seized the political headlines last week — and its political importance hasn’t faded even as its smithereens are being retrieved from the Atlantic Ocean.

Reaction to the balloon saga was yet another example of how the supporters of each of the major parties increasingly reside in different universes.

For Democrats, Biden had prudently waited until the balloon was above water rather than land, then downed it in emphatic fashion.

For Republicans, allowing the balloon to wend its way across the continental United States was another example of Biden’s weakness in the face of Chinese provocation. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have been among Biden’s critics on the issue.

The president can at least take advantage of the big occasion Tuesday night to push his side of the story with a massive TV audience.

How do lawmakers react to mention of Ukraine?

Biden has made full-force backing of Ukraine an article of faith since Russia invaded its neighbor almost one year ago.

But the question of whether the United States will keep backing Volodymyr Zelensky and his government at the same intensity is up in the air.

Many Republicans have expressed unease at the sheer volume of aid headed to Kyiv. The broad spending bill passed by Congress late last year took the total U.S. aid since the Russian invasion began over $100 billion.

But how the war in Ukraine plays in American domestic politics is not a simple question.

Polls show significant support for Ukraine, and Biden has cast the conflict as a vital one for U.S. and Western interests. 

Some Republicans, including Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), have expressed support for Ukraine while insisting they want to see more accountability about where the money goes.

In any event, Biden is sure to reiterate his commitment to helping Ukraine. The reaction from the GOP members will be telling.

Can Biden get his economic message across as debt fight looms?

Above all, the president wants to make the case for his economic record.

He has a story to tell — 12 million jobs created since he came to office, an economy that added more than 500,000 jobs just last month and an unemployment rate that, at 3.4 percent, is the lowest since 1969.

But the chronic inflation that peaked in the middle of last year is a real problem. It has faded somewhat but hasn’t gone away. December’s figures showed the annualized rate of inflation still north of 6 percent.

Biden’s argument that the nation is on its way back to prosperity is further complicated by the looming question of when and how the debt ceiling might be raised. 

Biden and McCarthy met last week on the issue. Both sides expressed cautiously positive sentiments, but there is still a sizeable gap to be bridged. 

That leaves Biden with a complex message to deliver on Tuesday: The economy is getting better, but he feels the pain of struggling Americans — and there is also a big threat ahead. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden has work to do with State of the Union

President Biden is expected to use his State of the Union address as a launching pad for a likely reelection announcement in the coming weeks, but a batch of new polls show he still has work to do to convince voters that he deserves a second term.

Biden is likely to use Tuesday’s prime-time speech to argue the economy and Americans’ day-to-day lives are better than when he took office. The president will then hit the road to tout his achievements as his plans to run for reelection appear to be full steam ahead.

But there are signs that even a productive past year that featured major investments in the economy and declining concerns about a recession may not be enough for Biden to excite even some in his own party about a 2024 bid. 

“I think this is an impossible speech to give because it’s a speech that requires him to speak both about the state of the union as it is and the direction he hopes to lead it, which is about playing the role of statesman. But it also is going to lay the groundwork for most likely his own run for office in 2024, which will call for him to be decidedly political and to cover all kinds of ground,” said William Howell, a political scientist at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. 

Biden and his team believe they have a strong case to make to the American public that they can contrast with the chaotic early weeks of the House GOP majority. The White House especially wants to focus on the economy, which has seen some unprecedented turn around in recent weeks.

Biden plans to point to recent economic data that has shown record-setting job growth and the cost of goods falling, which, taken together, have economists optimistic that the U.S. will avoid a recession, something that was a major concern just a few months ago.

But Biden is going into his speech on the heels of a Washington Post-ABC News poll that showed 62 percent of Americans think the president accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing” in his first two years in office.

Four out of 10 of those polled indicated they are personally worse off financially since Biden became president, the most recorded in that survey in 37 years.

A Monmouth University poll released Monday found just 24 percent of Americans feel the country is headed in the right direction, down significantly from a high point of 41 percent in April 2021. 

“I think the core message is we have to make more progress, but people should feel optimism that, because of what we have seen and because of the progress we have made, that we know how to keep making progress going forward,” National Economic Council Director Brian Deese told reporters Monday when asked about Americans who may not be feeling the benefits of Biden’s economic agenda.

Another poll released Monday found that only 37 percent of Democrats want Biden to seek another term, which is down from 52 percent ahead of the midterm elections in November, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. 

Poll respondents cited his age as an issue, which has been a consistent concern for voters and some Democratic Party officials. Biden was the oldest president at the time he was sworn in, and he would be 82 at the start of a second term.

Then there is the Chinese surveillance balloon that traversed a swath of the U.S. last week, which posed an unexpected challenge for the president just days before his address to Congress.

The president has also been dogged by his handling of classified documents after sensitive materials from his time as vice president were found at his Delaware home and a Washington, D.C., office he used from 2017 to 2019.

Additionally, Biden is taking jabs for the one thing that the White House is confident it can take a victory lap on: the economy. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a moderate Republican, on Sunday said that Biden will try to take credit for the economy in his State of the Union speech but argued the achievements of the administration are not impressive.

There are other accomplishments Biden may also pepper his big speech with. The president will likely point to the passage of a bill to fund semiconductor chip manufacturing domestically and of the Inflation Reduction Act, which funds green technology and caps health care costs. 

Biden also supported a bipartisan bill to curb gun violence, a measure to codify same-sex marriage and a bill to add benefits to protect veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. And lately, the president has been traveling to tout projects funded by the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.

Tuesday will give Biden a major opportunity to dispel concerns about his ability to lead the country and to educate the public on what he’s actually done while in office, both of which will be key to boost momentum going into an eventual campaign announcement.

“When you’re sitting in the White House and you’re a year out from national elections, you understand that there’s no way this speech will be covered as anything other than an opening bid and argument for reelection,” said Patrick Gaspard, president of the Center for American Progress.

The White House believes it can draw a contrast between its own record and that of the relatively young House GOP majority, which thus far has announced plans to investigate Biden’s son Hunter Biden as well as the president’s handling of classified documents and his finances.

White House officials have been quick to pounce on Republican proposals to enact a national sales tax, something even Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) doesn’t support, as well as talk of reforming or cutting Social Security and Medicare, two popular government programs that benefit millions of seniors, a key voting bloc.

After Tuesday’s speech, Biden will head to Wisconsin to discuss his economic plan and Florida to talk about protecting Social Security and Medicare. Other administration officials will scatter around the country to highlight the Biden agenda this week, as well.

Democratic officials said after the State of the Union is when discussions will likely intensify about staffing and infrastructure for a Biden reelection bid. But Tuesday will give the president a chance to make the case to Americans that they’re better off than they were when he took office, a message that would likely be the backbone of his 2024 pitch, even if it doesn’t seem to have resonated with the public just yet, according to the recent polls.

“I think Joe Biden has been one of the most underrated leaders I have ever seen in my life,” said Tom Perez, former Democratic National Committee chairman and co-chair of American Bridge. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Here are some of the states that won big in the new House GOP

A handful of states are emerging as big winners in the new House Republican majority as their representatives head to prominent roles on key panels.

Republicans from states including Texas, Florida, Mississippi and Kentucky are chairing or sitting on some of the highest-profile committees. These assignments offer lawmakers the opportunities to address issues in their states and to cement or launch their careers, as is the case for some freshmen.

Here are the states that won key representation on influential panels in the new House.

Kentucky

Hard work has paid off for the delegation from the Bluegrass State, with a slate of representatives holding significant influence on the Appropriations, House Rules, Judiciary, and Oversight and Accountability committees. That includes Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), Rules and Judiciary member Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the House dean.

“We have members who chose paths when they got in and stuck with them,” Republican strategist Tres Watson said. “A lot of Kentucky’s influence is due to patience.”

The rising star of the group is Comer, who is leading the House investigation into the Biden administration and Biden family. 

Scott Jennings, a Kentucky-based GOP strategist, said Comer’s rise is part being in the right place at the right time and part smart maneuvering. In the lead up to the 118th Congress, several senior members either left the committee or left Congress entirely, making way for Comer to rise to the top.

Massie is the most surprising of the group, Jennings and Watson said of the northern Kentucky representative, who made a career of being an outsider and a contrarian. 

“[Massie] played it smart and stuck with McCarthy all the way through,” Jennings said. “He has forged a relationship with leadership that’s unique because it bridges between the two wings of the party.”

Florida

Long a swing state, Florida is shifting to a Republican stronghold. Seating assignments from the 118th Congress back that up, with Sunshine State representatives getting a considerable number.

“Florida is the epicenter of the GOP and the envy of the nation,” Florida GOP strategist Ford O’Connell said. “This is the heyday for Florida politics.”

Much of Florida’s influence is thanks to national politics. Former President Trump now lives in South Florida, and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is making headlines amid speculation of a 2024 presidential run and his agenda-setting policy on education and health care.

That spotlight has made it easier for Florida representatives to make their own gains, O’Connell said, such as Rep. Matt Gaetz’s seats on the influential Armed Services and Judiciary committees. 

Five Florida Republicans sit on the House Foreign Affairs Committee — the most of any state — and four sit on the Armed Services Committee, also leading the country.

“The Florida delegation has the ability to drive policy for the rest of the nation,” O’Connell said.

Texas

Texas Republicans are chairing several key House committees, even after recent high-profile retirements. Rep. Kay Granger chairs the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Jodey Arrington chairs the Budget Committee and Rep. Roger Williams chairs the Small Business Committee.  

Former Rep. Kevin Brady retired after the last Congress and was the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee. In recent years, Texas lost prominent centrist Reps. Will Hurd, who represented a southwestern border district and was at the time the House’s only Black Republican, and Kenny Marchant, then-ranking member on the Ethics Committee, to retirements, among others.

Still, that’s not to suggest Texas lawmakers are without influence: Five GOP Texans in total sit on the Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for allocating federal funding, and five Texas Republicans also serve on the Judiciary Committee.

Mississippi

Rep. Michael Guest now chairs the House Ethics Committee, a panel whose responsibilities include investigating House members or staff who may have broken House rules. His placement comes amid a slew of probes and negative headlines already embroiling first-term Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.). 

Mississippi also enjoys representation on the Appropriations, Armed Services and Homeland Security committees. Guest sits on both the Appropriations and Homeland Security panels, while Rep. Trent Kelly (R) sits on the Armed Services and Intelligence committees and Rep. Mike Ezell (R) also sits on the Homeland Security Committee. 

Guest’s spot on the Appropriations Committee is especially noteworthy for Mississippi given the panel is responsible for allocating federal money and the Magnolia State is one of the poorest in the country. 

“I think just having both Michael Guest and Sen. [Cindy] Hyde-Smith on Appropriations gives us a voice at the table to make sure that Mississippi doesn’t get shorted,” said Mississippi-based GOP strategist Henry Barbour.

Ohio

Two of the state’s House Republicans chair two of the most powerful committees: Rep. Jim Jordan chairs the House Judiciary Committee, including its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, while Rep. Michael Turner chairs the Intelligence Committee. 

Jordan has positioned himself as one of the Biden administration’s key adversaries, whose Judiciary select subcommittee is likely to target the Justice Department, among the federal agencies it could probe. Jordan and Turner also sit on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.

Ohio-based GOP strategist Mark Weaver noted that Ohio Republican lawmakers on committees are also likely to address issues that are top-of-mind in the state, including coal, natural gas and oil — important parts of the economy in the eastern part of the state.

“In a divided Congress, it’s difficult to pass legislation. But the House oversight function continues on its own, meaning every one of these chairmen of committees will be able to use the power of subpoena to call in people and put them under oath and make them tell the truth about things like what’s happening in the domestic energy situation,” Weaver said.

New York

Several of the New York Republicans who delivered major wins in the November midterms also notched leading committee assignments this Congress. 

Rep. Nick Lalota sits on the Armed Services and Homeland Security committees. Rep. Mike Lawler, who ousted powerful former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D), sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Rep. Anthony D’Esposito is also a member of the Homeland Security Committee.

Former Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.), once a member of House GOP leadership and GOP strategist, said that he believed New York would punch “considerably above its weight in this Congress.”

“That’s partially because they supplied new members, and we have a narrow majority. So New York gets a lot of credit for that,” he said, adding that those freshman Republicans entered Congress well-qualified.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, the House Republican Conference chair, also enjoys several important committee assignments, which include sitting on the Judiciary select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government. 

Source: TEST FEED1

McCarthy argues for debt limit and spending deal in pre-State of the Union address

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) defended using the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip to secure spending cuts in remarks Monday night, just ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday.

“Debt limit debates have been used for nearly every successful attempt to reform federal spending in living history. Why? Because the problem only gets solved when both parties come to the table,” McCarthy said in the roughly 10-minute address on Monday evening.

He pointed out that Biden had opposed debt limit increases when he was a senator during debt ceiling fights two decades ago.

Biden and McCarthy met in the White House last week, after which the Speaker said it was possible to find “common ground” on the debt limit issue. But there has been no movement toward a deal yet, as the White House has called for a “clean” debt limit increase not tied to any other spending stipulations. 

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement ahead of McCarthy’s speech that Biden will in his State of the Union address to highlight deficit-reduction measures included in legislation he has signed into law, like increasing taxes on big corporations, and dinged Republicans for passing Trump-era tax cuts that added to the debt.

“House Republicans are threatening to actively throw our economy into a tailspin with a default – which they have a non-negotiable, Constitutional duty to prevent – unless they can further cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It’s utterly backwards,” Bates said.

McCarthy refuted that line of messaging from the White House, saying that Republicans want a “responsible debt limit increase” and batting down worries about slashes to entitlement spending.

“We will preserve our ability to defend this nation [from] threats abroad,” McCarthy said. “Cuts to Medicare and Social Security – they are off the table.”

“Defaulting on our debt is not an option. But neither is a future of higher taxes, higher interest rates and an economy that doesn’t work for working Americans,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said he will commit to continue negotiating with Biden and to work toward finding “common ground” with a different approach.

“No drawing lines in the sand or saying it’s my way or the highway. No policy gimmicks or political games,” McCarthy. “But most of all, no blank checks for runaway spending.”

After his address, however, McCarthy did draw one line in the sand: No tax increases.

“We’re not raising any taxes. I want to be very clear with that,” McCarthy told reporters.

Brett Samuels and Mychael Schnell contributed.

Source: TEST FEED1

Lawmakers gear up to grill Biden officials over Chinese spy balloon

Lawmakers are planning to probe the Biden administration for what they are calling a failure to protect national security as a Chinese spy balloon flew over the U.S. for several days before it was shot down Saturday. 

While there has been no official announcement of an investigation yet, House Republicans are itching to grill the Biden administration for allowing a foreign adversary’s surveillance device to breach U.S. airspace, and letting it stay there for days. 

President Biden reportedly decided to shoot down the balloon on Wednesday, but the military waited to carry out those orders until it had floated over the ocean. It’s unclear why the U.S. was confident it did not pose a safety or security threat in those intervening days. 

The incident has inflamed already fraught tensions with China, and GOP lawmakers have said it’s another sign of U.S. weakness in the face of rising threats from Beijing. 

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), said he was “deeply concerned by the Biden administration’s decision to allow the spy balloon to traverse the United States.”

“The White House must provide answers about why they decided to allow a [Chinese Communist Party] spy balloon to cross the United States and what damage to our national security occurred from this decision,” he said in a Saturday statement. “The United States must project strength to deter China — this failure is another example of weakness by the Biden administration.”

The HASC has already scheduled a hearing on Tuesday morning to hear from non-governmental witnesses on the “pressing threat of the Chinese Communist Party to U.S. national defense.”

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee, also expressed concerns the Biden administration did not “take care” of the balloon before it became a “national security threat.”

“I will be demanding answers and will hold the admin accountable for this embarrassing display of weakness,” McCaul said in a statement.

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), a member of the HASC, took the issue a step further, calling on Biden and Vice President Harris to resign.

“When the domestic attack occurs, Biden and Harris will not be able to adequately respond,” Wilson tweeted.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) first detected the balloon north of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska on Jan. 28. The U.S. military did not shoot it down then, as “it wasn’t time,” NORAD commander Gen. Glen VanHerck told reporters Monday. 

The Pentagon informed reporters about the balloon five days later, on Feb. 2, after reports of sightings over Montana, home to one of the nation’s three nuclear missile fields, sparking concerns that China may have collected potentially compromising national security information.

While Democrats have largely defended the Pentagon’s response, Montana’s Democratic Sen. Jon Tester said he was “demanding answers” from the Biden administration and announced he would hold a hearing as chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. 

“I will be pulling people before my committee to get real answers on how this happened, and how we can prevent it from ever happening again,” Tester said in a Friday statement.

Ian Johnson, a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said there should be a “cooling off period” before any investigations, arguing the incident is a national security issue that shouldn’t be used for scoring political points.

Johnson added the Biden administration was in a “bind”: either wait, or shoot the balloon down over land and potentially injure people or damage structures on the ground, which would have caused its own scandal.

“I don’t think there are traitors in the Pentagon,” he said. “These allegations of an outrageous breach of our national security doesn’t make sense to me unless you’re accusing the Pentagon of gross incompetence, which I don’t think is the case.”

The Pentagon tracked the balloon, reportedly about 200 pounds and the size of three school buses, as it floated undisturbed all the way toward the Atlantic Ocean, where it was shot down by a fighter jet on Saturday off the coast of South Carolina. Recovery operations to salvage the equipment attached to the balloon are underway.

China is calling the balloon a civilian weather research airship and has expressed anger about the U.S. shooting it out of the sky. 

But the Pentagon is confident that it was a surveillance device, noting they have seen the spy balloons before, including in the Pacific near Hawaii and in other countries. A second spy balloon has been sighted in Latin America.

The Biden administration has said it brought the surveillance device down as as soon as it was safe to do so.

“Today’s deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the safety and security of the American people first,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a Sunday statement, “while responding effectively to the [People’s Republic of China’s] unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”

A senior defense official also said on Sunday there was value in tracking the balloon and they “took all necessary steps to protect against” the collection of sensitive information.

“We were able to study and scrutinize the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable,”  the official said, according to a Pentagon release. 

Several Republican senators have also called for investigations, including Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, on Sunday called Biden’s response a “dereliction of duty” for his delay in acknowledging the spy balloon in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

But the questions now go beyond just the Pentagon’s response to the Chinese spy balloon that made headlines in recent days. 

On Sunday, U.S. officials confirmed the Trump administration was apparently unaware of three previous incidents in which Chinese balloons flew over the continental U.S. under its watch.

Vanherck told reporters on Monday that intelligence analysts learned of those three balloon incursions only after the fact, which he called a “domain awareness gap that we have to figure out.”

Johnson, from the Council on Foreign Relations, said the bigger question right now should be why the Chinese are deploying surveillance balloons — and lawmakers should set aside politics to figure it out. 

“There’s so many question marks that need to be answered, there’s so many holes in the story, we just lack a lot of facts,” Johnson said. “In the Cold War, there was more bipartisan effort at solving and treating [threats] as a national security issue, rather than as a way to score points politically. The spirit of bipartisanship is lacking.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Pentagon 'did not detect' previous Chinese spy balloons: US general

A top U.S. general said that the Pentagon did not detect previous Chinese spy balloons as they were in the air, after former President Trump and members of his administration vehemently denied a claim from defense officials that such balloons had flown over the U.S. at least three times during his presidency.

Gen. Glen VanHerck, the head of U.S. Northern Command, said Monday that the Defense Department “did not detect” the previous balloons, adding that the intelligence community was made aware of them through other means of information collection.

“We did not detect those threats,” VanHerck told reporters. “The intel community after the fact — I believe as has been briefed already — assessed those threats from additional means of collection and made us aware of those balloons that were previously approaching North America or transited North America.”

President Biden ordered the latest Chinese surveillance balloon, which spent days in U.S. airspace, to be shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday. The U.S. is currently trying to recover the debris, hoping to glean intelligence from the wreckage.

After a senior defense official said over the weekend that the U.S. was aware of at least three different times such balloons flew over the U.S. during the Trump administration, the former president and his intelligence officials came out to deny the claim.

“Now they are putting out that a Balloon was put up by China during the Trump Administration, in order to take the ‘heat’ off the slow moving Biden fools,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site. “China had too much respect for ‘TRUMP’ for this to have happened, and it NEVER did. JUST FAKE DISINFORMATION!”

The clash between the Biden administration and Trump and his former officials prompted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to call for a probe into why Trump was not made aware of the balloons during his presidency if they were detected.

“If it’s true the Pentagon purposely did NOT tell President Trump of Chinese Spy Balloons during his administration then we had a serious breach in command during the Trump admin,” Greene said on Twitter. 

Senior administration officials cited Sunday in Bloomberg reporting said that the U.S. didn’t learn about the previous balloons until after Trump had left the Oval Office. It is unclear how the Biden administration learned about the previous flights.

Source: TEST FEED1

House GOP seeks to divide, conquer Democrats on socialism

As House Republicans aim to use their majority to divide Democrats on toxic political issues, they found early success this month making new hay out of an old idea: the “horrors” of socialism.  

House GOP leaders staged a vote Thursday on a resolution condemning socialism as a fundamental threat to American prosperity and independence — a proposal that split Democrats and provided a potentially potent new attack line for GOP candidates heading into the 2024 elections. 

While a majority of Democrats voted in favor of the measure, 100 of the 212-member caucus declined to endorse it. And GOP leaders wasted no time pouncing when the tally was in.

“That wasn’t a college vote on a college campus. That was a vote in the U.S. Congress that 100 Democrats couldn’t say socialism was wrong,” Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters in the Capitol. “That’s a scary point of view.”

As a logical argument, Republican attacks on socialism have been undermined by their support for social-welfare programs, including McCarthy’s recent vow to protect federal benefits under Social Security and Medicare — programs that are run exclusively by the government and funded collectively by taxpayers, who are required to contribute. 

Republicans have, for decades, castigated those entitlements as socialist initiatives that trample on free enterprise and individual liberties, and Democrats are warning that, despite the rhetoric, GOP leaders are still eyeing cuts. 

“We’re not fooled by Speaker McCarthy’s promises, by the way,” Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, said. “We know what he means when he says he wants to ‘protect these programs,’ it’s code for cuts. We’ve seen this movie before.”

From a political vantage, however, the GOP’s efforts to link Democrats to “socialism” as an abstract concept have historically been effective, resonating with broad swaths of conservative voters and helping Republicans gain vast ground in states like Florida, which has shifted squarely in recent years from a purple battleground to a red stronghold. 

Among outside political experts, there’s some disagreement about just how effective the GOP’s strategy will be. 

Tobe Berkovitz, associate professor of advertising emeritus at Boston University, noted that each party has, for years, sought to characterize the other as “radical” and “out of step with most Americans.” He pointed to former President Reagan’s effort to portray Democrats as soft on defense, and George H.W. Bush’s campaign to depict Democrats as weak on crime.  

“This has been going on forever,” he said.

Both of those strategies proved successful, and Berkovitz predicted that vulnerable Democrats may have a tough time explaining why so many in their party voted against the Republicans’ anti-socialism resolution. 

“If you are running in a contested seat, it positions you very badly because your party is advocating for something that is probably out of step with voters in these swingier districts or states. And then it just provides grist for your opponent. ‘See, the congresswoman is lining up with the socialists,'” said Berkovitz, who has worked for roughly five decades advising candidates of both parties on their media strategies. 

“So it is pretty effective, because really both parties have been pandering to their base, and yet it’s not always the base that’s going to win in a contested election.” 

Others aren’t so sure. Karlyn Bowman, an elections expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said the attacks on socialism “probably could be effective” in “a few” pockets of the country. She singled out Florida, with its relatively high concentration of Cuban and Venezuelan Americans. 

But nationally, Bowman suggested the issue will pale in comparison to lingering concerns about the volatile economy. 

“It could make life tougher for some Dems in some battleground districts,” Bowman said in an email, “but would it rank above something such as inflation or the economy and jobs? I doubt it.” 

Democrats who opted against supporting the resolution voiced various reservations, but the largest was the potential threat to entitlement programs. Despite agreeing with the overt goal of the resolution — to denounce socialist leaders and atrocities committed under such regimes — some Democrats saw the effort as a veiled step in the GOP crusade against Social Security and Medicare.

They sought to separate the two issues with an amendment — proposed by Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) — that would have added language to say “any opposition to ‘socialist’ policy implementation in the United States does not include existing Federal programs” like Social Security and Medicare. But Republicans on the Rules Committee rejected the addition in a 4-9 vote, a decision that moved the needle for some Democrats.

“I was prepared to vote for this resolution,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) said. “Socialism is clearly not the best path for America, and who wants to be associated with Stalin and the others that this resolution denounces, really thugs that were masquerading as socialists?”

“But when the promoters of this worthless resolution rejected the Takano amendment to protect Social Security and Medicare, their goal became clear,” he added. “This resolution is the foundation for continued attacks on better Medicare for more Americans, and their attempt to cut Social Security benefits.”

Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) said the resolution was meant to “provide cover” for Republicans “to try to undermine an agenda that is designed to lift up the health, safety and well-being of the American people.”

“The American people should not be fooled by anything that takes place on the floor today with respect to the so-called resolution on socialism,” he added.

Republicans, however, argued the resolution was strictly about denouncing socialism.

“To be clear, this resolution is not about Social Security or Medicare, two programs with broad bipartisan support,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said last week. “It is about a sick ideology that has destroyed nations, ruined lives, and resulted in death and destruction around the world.”

The GOP’s vocal defense of the entitlements marks a sharp break from the party’s historic position, which held that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are fundamentally socialist initiatives that undermine free markets and individual freedoms.

Even before Medicare’s creation in 1965, Reagan warned of the fundamental dangers of “socialized medicine.” Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) hoped for Medicare “to wither on the vine.” Former President George W. Bush privatized parts of Medicare, and sought to do the same with Social Security. And former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), as chair of the Budget Committee, had proposed annual budgets that ended traditional Medicare and privatized Social Security.

With the ascent of former President Trump — who vowed from the first day of his 2016 campaign to “save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, without cuts” — Republicans have largely toned down those attacks. And GOP leaders are now treading delicately around the issue heading into a series of budget debates, where some conservatives are already urging entitlement “reforms” in the name of keeping the programs solvent.

Recent polls hint at the pressure they’re facing. 

A January Economist-YouGov survey found that only 17 percent of respondents supported cuts to Medicare and Social Security, versus 70 percent who oppose such action. 

Older polls reveal another factor driving the debate: Republican voters are far more likely to oppose “socialism” broadly, but are less likely to consider the entitlement programs to fall into that category.

“Social Security and Medicare are very important to many older average Americans. And the last thing that the Republicans need to do is say, basically, ‘We’re going to screw you,’” said Berkovitz. 

“It just depends whose ox is being gored, and who is getting a benefit from any of these programs.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Ex-Manhattan prosecutor describes internal clash over charging Trump

The Manhattan district attorney possessed sufficient evidence to convict former President Trump last year and was wrong to not seek charges, an ex-prosecutor in the case contends in his forthcoming book.

Mark Pomerantz argued his team built a “solid case” for securing Trump’s conviction on financial crimes, and he offered a searing criticism of how Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) oversaw the probe upon taking office, according to an advance copy of the book obtained by The Hill.

The 304-page book details Bragg’s reluctance to seek an indictment after succeeding District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. (D), which ultimately led to Pomerantz’s resignation in February 2022.

“We developed evidence convincing us that Donald Trump had committed serious crimes. As we put the facts together, many of us came to believe that we had enough evidence to convict him, and we could present a solid case in court that would lead to a guilty verdict,” Pomerantz wrote.

Pomerantz argued Bragg did not follow through on plans to move forward with an indictment because he was not familiar enough with the evidence, adding that since Bragg was so new, the case’s imperfections “loomed particularly large.”

“The district attorney agreed and authorized the new prosecution. But then the district attorney’s office went through one of its very infrequent regime changes. The new regime decided that Donald Trump should not be prosecuted, and the investigation faltered,” Pomerantz wrote.

The book is titled “People vs. Donald Trump” and will be released on Tuesday by Simon & Schuster.

Bragg in a statement said he didn’t read the book, but he criticized it for jeopardizing the office’s ongoing investigation. When reached for comment, his office also provided a copy of confidentiality rules in the employee handbook and a series of statements from prosecutor groups raising concerns.

“After closely reviewing all the evidence from Mr. Pomerantz’s investigation, I came to the same conclusion as several senior prosecutors involved in the case, and also those I brought on: more work was needed. Put another way, Mr. Pomerantz’s plane wasn’t ready for takeoff,” Bragg said in a statement.

“Our skilled and professional legal team continues to follow the facts of this case wherever they may lead, without fear or favor. Mr. Pomerantz decided to quit a year ago and sign a book deal,” he added.

The former president, meanwhile, has lashed out at Pomerantz.

“With all of this vicious disinformation being revealed by a ‘prosecutor,’ how can I ever be treated fairly in New York, or anywhere else? End the Witch Hunts!” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday. 

The probe began prior to Pomerantz’s arrival with the investigation of a $130,000 hush money payment Trump’s longtime fixer, Michael Cohen, made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election.

Eventually, Pomerantz and the other prosecutors began focusing on a new prong: whether Trump’s businesses’ financial statements were manipulated unlawfully for tax and loan benefits.

They convened a grand jury in late 2021 and decided just before Vance retired that the office had enough evidence to prosecute Trump.

Pomerantz conceded the case wasn’t a “slam dunk,” but he argued Bragg ultimately declined to bring charges to the grand jury after being largely unavailable for much of the transition and spending most of one investigation meeting on his phone.

The ex-prosecutor said he began a “Hail Mary” effort to change his new boss’s mind, including emails to Bragg that bluntly expressed Pomerantz’s frustration.

“You need to respect our judgment, our decades of experience as prosecutors and defense lawyers, and the work that we have put into the case, more than you have to this point. Of course, you are the elected DA, and you must make your own judgment,” Pomerantz wrote in one email.

In the months since Pomerantz’s departure, Bragg has gone on to convict two business entities owned by the former president and secure a guilty plea by former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg.

The probe has now returned to how it began: the hush money payment made to Daniels, the adult-film star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Bragg’s office reportedly empaneled a grand jury last month, and legal experts say prosecutors appear to be considering state falsifying business record charges against the former president.

Pomerantz described the prong as the “zombie theory” in the book, noting it has faded before but has never died. Pomerantz reluctantly said he hopes they pursue the matter.

“If the ‘zombie’ case is the only case that [Bragg] brings against Trump, notwithstanding the trove of evidence that has now been made public about Trump’s fraudulent financial statements, that would be a very peculiar and unsatisfying end to this whole saga,” he wrote.

Source: TEST FEED1