Tag Archives : Build House

McConnell: Debt limit deal up to McCarthy and Biden

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday told reporters he will not take the lead in debt limit negotiations with the White House and said any bill to avoid a national default later this year will have to originate in the Republican-controlled House.  

While McConnell cut a deal with Senate Democrats to allow them to move a debt limit increase around a potential GOP filibuster in the fall of 2021 and negotiated another deal to end the 2011 debt limit impasse, he told reporters he doesn’t plan to play that role again.  

“You’re probably wondering what role if any the Senate would play in this. As some of you recall, I’ve been through a few of these debt ceiling situations,” McConnell said.  

“I can’t imagine any kind of debt ceiling measure that could pass the Senate would also pass the House, so even though the debt ceiling could originate in either the House or the Senate, in this current situation, the debt ceiling fix, if there is one, or how it’s to be dealt with, will have to come out of the House,” he added.  

McConnell endorsed Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) plan to insist on linking deficit-reducing reforms to a bill to raise the debt ceiling and encouraged President Biden to come to the negotiating table.  

“So I think it’s entirely reasonable for the new Speaker and his team to put spending reduction on the table. I wish him well in talking to the president. That’s where a solution lies,” he said. “At the risk of repeating myself, I can’t imagine any debt ceiling provision passed out of the Senate with 60 votes could actually pass this particular House.”

“So I think the final solution to this particular episode lies between Speaker McCarthy and the president,” he said.  

McConnell delivered his comments shortly after Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned House Republicans not to hold the debt limit hostage to get Democrats agree to spending cuts.  

“We’re now witnessing the House GOP recklessly flirt with default. Listen, it’s clear, default would be a catastrophe for American working families,” Schumer said. “Playing brinksmanship, taking hostages is being risky and not caring about average people. 

“If the MAGA GOP stops paying our nation’s bills, Americans pay the price,” he warned. “Political brinksmanship would be a massive hit to local economies, American families, nothing less than an economic crisis.” 

Yet Schumer did not completely rule out negotiating a budget deal that would also raise the debt limit, which he did in 2019 when Democrats in Congress negotiated a $320 billion discretionary spending deal with congressional Republicans and the Trump administration to raise the debt ceiling past the 2020 election. 

“I’m not going to negotiate in public. Obviously, again, we want to make sure we negotiate a budget that’s good for the average working family. We did that in the omnibus bill. we were very pleased with the outcome there, and hopefully it can be done again without brinksmanship, but I’m not going to get into specifics,” he said.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Georgia DA notes 'imminent' charging decisions in seeking to shield grand jury report

A Georgia prosecutor investigating whether former President Trump and his allies broke any laws as they sought to influence the outcome of the 2020 election has asked a judge to keep sealed a grand jury report detailing the probe, saying charging decisions for multiple people “are imminent.” 

The probe, led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), comes after Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) shortly before Jan. 6, 2021, asking him to “find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.” 

The report is expected to include recommendations to Willis on whether to charge Trump and others involved in numerous actions, including a plot to send so-called alternate electors for the state, which President Biden won.

Jurors involved in crafting the report have previously determined it should be released, but the final decision over whether to do so rests with Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who will weigh whether to do so and if any redactions are necessary to disclose the document. 

Willis cautioned the court against imminently releasing the report, saying it could impact the right of numerous defendants to have a fair trial.

“We have to be mindful of protecting future defendants’ rights. And so what the state does not want to see happen – and don’t think that there’s any way that the court would be able to guarantee – is that if that report was released, there somehow could be arguments made that it impacts the right for later individuals – multiple – to get a fair trial, to have a fair hearing, to be able to be tried in this jurisdiction,” Willis said at the outset of the hearing.

“Decisions are imminent.”

Much of the hearing centered on whether the report qualifies as a “presentment” under Georgia’s complex laws dealing with special grand juries. If so, McBurney would be required to follow the recommendation of the jurors and release it.

McBurney did not make an immediate ruling from the bench, and said he expected to send additional questions to lawyers for both the state and the media, which on Tuesday argued in favor of releasing the documents. 

The special grand jury, which was dissolved on Jan. 9, reviewed a number of actions in the state beyond the now infamous call and included appearances — many under court order — from numerous Trump allies.

Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, his then-attorney Rudy Giuliani, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) all appeared before the jury. 

Willis revealed a new detail in her opening remarks, noting that the grand jury heard in total from 75 witnesses.

Many view the probe as one of the most plausible paths for a prosecution of Trump.

A November prosecution memo prepared through the Brookings Institution found numerous state and federal statutes that may have been violated through the attempts to reverse the election results.

Attorneys for Trump said Monday they would not be present at the hearing, noting that the former president was never subpoenaed or asked to voluntarily appear before the grand jury.

“We can assume that the grand jury did their job and looked at the facts and the law, as we have, and concluded there were no violations of the law by President Trump,” attorneys Drew Findling, Marissa Golberg, and Jennifer Little said in a joint statement to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

However, 16 Republicans who met at the Georgia Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, as part of the plot to falsely certify the election for Trump have been informed they are targets of the investigation and could face criminal charges.

Unofficial hearings led by Giuliani with state legislators reviewing baseless claims of fraud were also reviewed, and Giuliani has likewise been informed he may face prosecution. 

Court filings also detail other areas of interest, including the abrupt resignation of BJ Pak, then a U.S. Attorney in the state, after he determined there was no substance to claims by Giuliani that there were “suitcases” full of ballots that were being mishandled by election workers.

Donald Wakeford, a deputy to Willis, noted the District Attorney’s Office has had little more than a week to review the report and determine how to proceed on any charges.

“The District Attorney in its ongoing investigation has to assess what has been provided by the Special Purpose Grand Jury….There has been no opportunity whatsoever for this office to incorporate anything in the document into an ongoing investigation in a meaningful way,” he said.

“Our position should not be understood to be a blanket opposition to release of the report forever and until the end of time,” he added later. 

Tom Clyde, a lawyer arguing on behalf of numerous media outlets, said prosecutors often must tangle with the release of information while continuing their investigation and that the DA’s office failed to offer sufficient specifics about how their cases might be harmed. 

“We believe the report should be released now and in its entirety,” he said.

“It is not unusual for a district attorney or a prosecuting authority to be generally uncomfortable with having to release information during the progress of a case. That occurs all the time,” he argued, adding that judges have often mandated the release of information “because the faith of the public in the court system is much improved by operating in a public way.”

McBurney said any eventual decision to release the documents would be first announced through an order giving a future date for the release of the report.

He noted there were “precious few” prior cases on similar matters, and that while some reports had been released “that doesn’t mean that that was the right thing to do.”

“I just want to be thoughtful about it because there’s clearly great interest in the work the Special Purpose Grand Jury completed,” he said.

“And we need to be responsive to what may be competing concerns of the investigative interests of the District Attorney’s Office and the public’s interest in understanding what its colleagues, the members of the Special Purpose Grand Jury, did after they heard the evidence that was presented to them.”

Updated at 2:10 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Spartz won't support McCarthy in denying Omar seat on Foreign Affairs committee

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) said she will not support Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) effort to deny Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) a seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, making matters more difficult for the GOP leader as he looks to follow through on his pledge to not seat the congresswoman on the panel.

Spartz also said she opposes McCarthy’s vow to block Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from the House Intelligence Committee.

But while McCarthy has the power to unilaterally block Schiff and Swalwell from the Intelligence Committee, unseating Omar would take a vote of the full House, where Republicans hold only a narrow majority.

Spartz pointed to the Democratic-led moves in 2021 to strip Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) of their panel assignments — which she voted against — as reason for her resistance.

“Two wrongs do not make a right,” Spartz wrote in a statement on Tuesday. “Speaker Pelosi took unprecedented actions last Congress to remove Reps. Greene and Gosar from their committees without proper due process. Speaker McCarthy is taking unprecedented actions this Congress to deny some committee assignments to the Minority without proper due process again.”

“As I spoke against it on the House floor two years ago, I will not support this charade again,” she added. “Speaker McCarthy needs to stop ‘bread and circuses’ in Congress and start governing for a change.”

McCarthy has pledged to keep Schiff and Swalwell off the Intelligence Committee and Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee after Democrats kicked Greene and Gosar off their panels.

The Intelligence panel is a select committee, which means the Speaker assigns members in consultation with the minority leader. That authority also gives him the ability to unilaterally deny members seats on the committee. Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, on the other hand, are chosen by each party then ratified by the full House.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) has also expressed a coolness to denying Omar the committee seat after voting against booting Greene and Gosar from their panels in 2021.

“I’m going to treat everybody equally,” Mace told CNN. “I want to be consistent on it.”

That GOP opposition to not seating Omar on the Foreign Affairs Committee could present a math problem for McCarthy as he looks to make good on his vow in the narrowly-split chamber.

Republicans can only afford to lose two more of their members, in addition to Spartz and Mace, and still deny Omar a seat on the committee. That number, however, could fall to three if Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) — who is recovering from injuries after falling 25 feet off a ladder — misses the vote. The Florida Republican wrote on Twitter Monday that he will be “sidelined in Sarasota for several weeks.”

In 2021, 11 Republicans, seven of whom are still in Congress, voted with Democrats to boot Greene from her committees. Former Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) were the only two Republicans who voted to oust Gosar from panels.

It is unclear when the House will vote to ratify committee assignments. The House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee is scheduled to meet this week and complete committee assignments. Omar is expected to be put on the Foreign Affairs committee, according to several sources familiar with the Democrats’ plans.

After that, the slates will go to the floor for approval.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) officially tapped Schiff and Swalwell for the Intelligence Committee in a letter this weekend to McCarthy, setting the foundation for a showdown over panel assignments for the pair.

McCarthy’s frustrations with the trio stem from different areas.

Omar, a Somali refugee, has criticized the Israeli government and its supporters in the past, leading some to accuse her of antisemitism. The congresswoman was forced to apologize in 2019 after indicating that wealthy Jews were buying congressional support for Israel.

Republicans have accused Schiff of lying to the public while leading investigations into former President Trump, and McCarthy has pointed to Swalwell’s association with a suspected Chinese spy who helped fundraise for his 2014 re-election campaign. After the FBI told Swalwell about their concerns, he put an end to his ties with the Chinese national, who left for Beijing.

Both Schiff and Swalwell played prominent roles in Trump’s impeachments.

“I’m doing exactly what we’re supposed to do,” McCarthy told reporters earlier this month, doubling down on his vows to deny the lawmakers assignments.

Source: TEST FEED1

Classified documents found at Pence's Indiana home

Documents with classified markings were found at former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home last week, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Pence’s team notified the National Archives last Wednesday that a small number of documents were “inadvertently boxed and transported” to the former vice president’s home at the end of the last administration. Pence was “unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence,” his lawyer wrote to the Archives.

The findings at Pence’s residence come as President Biden faces mounting criticism, which had also come from Pence, over the discovery of classified materials at Biden’s old office at a Washington, D.C., think tank and at his Delaware home.

Greg Jacob, the attorney representing Pence, wrote to the Archives that Pence used outside counsel with experience handling classified documents to review records stored at his personal home after several classified documents were found at Biden’s home earlier this month.

Lawyers conducting the search found “a small number of documents that could potentially contain sensitive or classified information interspersed throughout the records.” 

Pence’s team was unable to provide an exact number of documents recovered or additional descriptions of the materials because they were locked away until they could be turned over to the National Archives.

In a Sunday letter to the Archives, Jacobs explained that FBI agents came to Pence’s home on Thursday night to collect the documents that had been stored away. He indicated that Pence agreed to turn over the two boxes with materials containing classified markings, as well as two other boxes with copies of administration records.

Jacobs expressed confidence that a thorough review would find the majority of documents in all four boxes were copies of records that had already been sent to the Archives.

“Vice President Pence has directed his representatives to work with the National Archives to ensure their prompt and secure return,” he wrote about the documents. “Vice President Pence appreciates the good work of the staff at the National Archives and trusts they will provide proper counsel in response to this letter.”

The findings at Pence’s home make him the third former or current top U.S. official to have stored classified materials from his time in office at his home, following Biden and former President Trump. The Presidential Records Act requires presidents and vice presidents to turn documents over to the National Archives for proper preservation after their elected terms end.

While Biden and Pence notified the Archives and turned the materials over, Trump was uncooperative with federal officials after they requested he return documents stored at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The fight culminated in an FBI search at the estate in August, and the Justice Department has appointed a special counsel to investigate Trump’s handling of classified materials, as well as his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack.

Pence was asked in Iowa last summer in the wake of the FBI search whether he had retained classified information upon leaving office.

“No, not to my knowledge,” he said at the time.

CNN first reported that documents with classified markings were found at Pence’s home.

Pence has been among the Republicans criticizing Biden in recent weeks over the discovery of classified documents at his old office and his Wilmington home from Biden’s time as vice president and as a Delaware senator.

Pence praised the decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate Biden’s handling of the documents, arguing it would have been a double standard to name one for Trump’s case but not the current president’s. 

The former vice president was also critical of the Biden White House for waiting roughly two months to disclose that it found classified materials at the president’s old office from the time they were first discovered on Nov. 2, 2022.

Pence is weighing whether to run for president in 2024, having visited early voting states including Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire frequently over the past year.

It’s unclear whether Tuesday’s disclosure will affect his standing with voters, but some were quick to highlight how his handling of the documents compared to Trump.

“This discovery by Pence’s attorney is a very interesting reinforcement of the contrast between how Biden & Pence are properly cooperating and returning documents versus Trump stealing them, hiding them, and obstructing justice into their return,” said David Brock, president of Facts First USA.

—Updated at 12:57 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Manchin doesn't rule out White House bid: 'Everything's on the table'

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is weighing his options ahead of 2024, leaving open the possibility of a presidential bid. 

Manchin told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that while he has no plans to run for West Virginia governor — a job he already held from 2005 until 2010 — “everything’s on the table” when it comes to his next political move.

“I haven’t made a decision what I’m going to do in 2024,” Manchin said. “I’ve got two years ahead of me now to do the best I can for the state and for my country.”

“The only thing I can tell you is what I will do is whatever I can, when I make my decision, what I think is the best that I can support and represent the people of West Virginia, but also be true to this country and the Constitution of this country,” he added.

Democrats are staring down a difficult Senate map in 2024, and they’re eager for Manchin to commit to a reelection bid. West Virginia is among the most conservative states in the country, and Republicans are eyeing Manchin’s seat as a top pickup opportunity.

Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) has already launched a challenge to Manchin, and other high-profile West Virginia Republicans have expressed interest in the seat, including Gov. Jim Justice and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.

The possibility of a presidential run by Manchin would add an interesting new dynamic to the 2024 White House race. President Biden appears poised to seek a second term in office next year and is expected to make an announcement on his plans in the coming weeks. 

For his part, Manchin hasn’t said whether he would support Biden’s reelection, telling “Meet the Press” that the country needs a president who will unite Americans. 

“I haven’t decided on anything I’m going to do until I see what the lay of the land is going to be at that time, because this country needs to unite,” he said. “We need to come back together. We’re not coming together. And it needs to be somebody that can bring this country together.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Survey finds Americans wildly misinformed on housing market 

A new survey finds Americans are woefully misinformed about the nation’s mercurial housing market, even as millions of them prepare to buy homes.  

Twenty-eight million Americans plan to purchase a home in 2023, according to a survey released Tuesday by NerdWallet, the personal finance company. On average, they hope to spend $269,200. 

But that figure falls more than $100,000 short of the median home price, which was $388,100 in December, according to the real estate brokerage Redfin. Home prices crossed the $269,000 threshold sometime in 2013, Federal Reserve statistics show. 

If prospective homebuyers sound oddly optimistic about prices, that may be because they are pessimistic about the state of the housing market. Two-thirds of Americans surveyed said they expect an imminent crash. 

Real estate economists do not. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, forecast an average sale price of $385,800 this year, about the same as last year. Redfin predicts a 4 percent drop: bad news for sellers, but hardly a crash.   

“Home prices already have been falling, especially on the West Coast, and prices will fall in some cities in 2023,” said Holden Lewis, a home and mortgages expert for NerdWallet. “But a drop in home prices isn’t necessarily a crash.”  

Another head-scratcher: 61 percent of Americans told pollsters current mortgage rates are unprecedented, meaning that they have never been seen before.  

“We actually defined it,” said Elizabeth Renter, data analyst for NerdWallet. 

The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage hit 6.15 percent last week, according to the Fed. That’s higher than most mortgage rates of the past few years, which have ranged below 3 percent at times.  

But it is not unprecedented. Over the last 50 years, NerdWallet reports, 30-year mortgage rates have averaged 7.75 percent. Mortgage rates in the 6 to 7 percent range were common as recently as 2008.  

Homebuyers have basked in a climate of historically low rates for more than a decade. The Fed cut rates dramatically in the Great Recession of 2008 to stimulate the economy, a campaign that continued, on and off, through the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Runaway inflation prompted a dramatic series of hikes in 2022, which pushed mortgage rates back to “normal” levels, at least in a historical sense. 

The new survey of 2,051 American adults, conducted by the Harris Poll for NerdWallet, is the latest iteration of an annual poll. Pollsters have found overconfident home shoppers for several consecutive years.  

“We know from the past five years, roughly 10 percent of Americans say they’re going to purchase a home in the next 12 months, which is wildly optimistic,” Renter said. “Part of it could be that they’re unaware of what’s going on in the housing market.” 

Nearly 30 million Americans plan to buy a home in 2023. In all likelihood, just a small percentage of them will succeed: Only 6 million existing homes sold in 2021. 

The survey found more realism when asking respondents how their homebuying plans had panned out in 2022.   

Seventy percent of Americans who had planned to buy a home in 2022 did not succeed. Some of them made offers that were not accepted. Others shelved their plans because they couldn’t find affordable homes. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Trump leads Biden in hypothetical 2024 match-up: poll

Former President Trump holds a 3-point lead over President Biden in a hypothetical 2024 rematch, according to a new Emerson College poll released on Tuesday.

Forty-four percent in the poll said they would support Trump in the 2024 presidential election, compared to the 41 percent who said they would back Biden. Another 10 percent said they would support someone else, while 4 percent remained undecided.

This represents a reversal from Emerson’s last national poll, in November, that showed Biden with a 4-point lead over Trump, 45 percent to 41 percent.

Despite falling behind Trump in a hypothetical match-up, Biden’s approval rating saw a 5-point bump in Tuesday’s poll, increasing from 39 percent in November to 44 percent in January.

A rematch between the two 2020 opponents appears increasingly possible, as a majority of both Democrats and Republicans said in the Emerson poll that they would support Biden and Trump as their parties’ respective nominees.

Fifty-eight percent of Democratic primary or caucus voters said they think Biden should be the Democratic nominee, while 55 percent of Republicans said they think Trump should be their nominee, the poll found.

Trump holds a substantial 26-point lead over his closest potential primary competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). However, DeSantis has gained slightly on Trump since Emerson’s November poll, increasing his support by 4 percentage points.

Trump is the only candidate to officially launch a 2024 bid so far, after announcing his campaign just one week after the midterm elections in November.

Biden is reportedly preparing to launch his reelection campaign in the coming weeks, multiple sources told The Hill earlier this month.

The Emerson College poll was conducted from Jan. 19 to 21 among 1,015 registered voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Source: TEST FEED1

GOP senators demand Secret Service release Biden visitor logs

Republican Sens. Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) are calling on the Secret Service to turn over a complete list of all individuals who entered locations where President Biden held classified documents at his home and Washington office.  

“As part of our ongoing congressional investigation, we request that no later than Feb. 2, 2023, the Secret Service provide a full and complete list of all individuals who entered the locations where classified records relating to then-Vice President Biden’s tenure have been identified,” the senators wrote in a letter Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. 

Johnson, the ranking member of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Grassley, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, noted that the media has previously reported the Secret Service said it would turn over those records if requested by Congress.  

The senators made their request after FBI agents spent more than 12 hours searching Biden’s personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware, where they found additional classified documents, some of which dated back to Biden’s time in the Senate.  

“After decades in Washington, Joe Biden certainly knows how classified information should be handled, but he arrogantly doesn’t believe the rules and laws apply to him. The public deserves a full accounting of individuals that may have had access to these classified records,” Johnson said in a separate statement.  

Johnson and Grassley wrote to Richard Sauber, Biden’s special counsel, in June asking about Biden’s use of a non-government email to send government-related information to his son, Hunter Biden.   

They asked what steps President Biden took to ensure that all of his government emails and related communications were properly stored and archived.  

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the new chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, on Monday asked Cheatle for all the information the Secret Service has on individuals who visited Biden’s Delaware home in the time since he served as vice president.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Hill's Morning Report — Debt-limit jockeying to intensify this week

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

The debt ceiling stalemate between the White House and the Republican Party continues this week as Congress is back in session, though the GOP is also facing internal issues with its narrow majority in the lower chamber.

Plans to bring a border security bill to the House floor as early as this week have fallen through, and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) hasn’t found the votes for a pro-police bill (The Washington Post). Meanwhile, President Biden will host Democratic congressional leaders at the White House today ahead of an evening reception for new members of Congress.

Biden himself is set to meet with McCarthy to discuss the debt ceiling, though no date has been set for their conversation (Axios). Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday called on House Republicans to lay out the spending cuts they’re proposing as part of a deal to raise the debt, saying Democrats are prepared to “move quickly” and “well in advance of default” to raise the country’s borrowing authority, which is likely set to expire sometime in the first half of this year. The U.S. reached the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling last week, forcing the Treasury Department to resort to “extraordinary measures” to avoid a default.

“Unfortunately, House Republicans have kicked off their new majority by saying ‘yes’ to brinkmanship, ‘yes’ to hostage taking, ‘yes’ even to risking default, all because of draconian spending cuts being pushed by the hard right,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “House Republicans’ approach to the debt ceiling is dangerous, destabilizing, and the only thing it accomplishes is making a bipartisan solution less likely.”

McCarthy and conservative GOP members are expected to push for cuts to Social Security and Medicare in any deal, and some national defense spending could also be on the chopping block (The Hill).

▪ The Hill: Debt default would cost 6 million jobs, push jobless rate to 7 percent, analysis shows.

▪ The New York Times: Four questions about the debt ceiling, answered.

▪ The Economist: There is no easy escape from America’s debt-ceiling mess.

Biden is losing support from Senate Democrats over his handling of classified documents at his home and Washington office, writes The Hill’s Alexander Bolton, with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) declaring Sunday that Biden’s stature has been diminished and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) slamming the former vice president and his staff for being “totally irresponsible.”

The bigger challenge for Biden, however, may be to persuade Senate Republicans that the classified documents episode is not grounds for an impeachment trial.

The White House on Monday pledged to “accommodate legitimate oversight interests” in response to House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer’s (R-Ky.) request for materials related to classified documents found at Biden’s old office and Delaware home (The Hill).

▪  Politico: Borrow the opposition playbook? House GOP weighs the ultimate “tit for tat.”

▪ The New York Times: How McCarthy forged an ironclad bond with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

▪ The Hill: McCarthy puts his conservative critics on Rules panel in the wake of Speaker fight.

Democrats in the House are gearing up for a fight with the new GOP majority over committee assignments by submitting the names of Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) to sit on the Intelligence panel, despite Republican vows to keep them off the committee. As the Hill’s Mike Lillis reports, a similar fight will play out over Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whom Democrats will submit for an assignment to the House Foreign Affairs Committee regardless of GOP promises to prevent her seating. 

Democrats think the public fight will play to their advantage after Republicans decided to give committee seats to Rep. George Santos (R), the embattled first-term lawmaker from New York who is under the microscope over lies about his background that only became public after his election.  

▪ Politico: A majority of New Yorkers want Santos to resign, new poll shows.

▪ Roll Call: McCarthy names Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) to lead ethics panel as Santos questions loom.

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: White House, Energy Department threaten veto of pending GOP bill that would restrict Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases.  

▪ The Hill: More Oath Keepers found guilty of seditious conspiracy for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

▪ NBC News: Richard Barnett, the Arkansas man photographed during the Jan. 6 riot with his feet on a desk in then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office, was found guilty Monday on all eight counts against him, including felony obstruction. 

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

In Georgia, the findings of a 26-member special-purpose Fulton County grand jury could soon be released. Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney has scheduled a hearing today to determine whether to make public the grand jury’s final report after it spent eight months reviewing evidence in a criminal investigation into whether former President Trump and his allies broke the law when they sought to overturn the state’s 2020 election results (The Washington Post).

Media organizations filed a 109-page brief on Monday urging McBurney to unseal the report, calling it a “matter of profound public interest that goes to the heart of the nation’s democratic forms of government.”

The Atlantic, David A. Graham: A guide to the possible forthcoming indictments of Donald Trump.

Trump is the GOP’s sole announced 2024 presidential candidate with a rally scheduled in South Carolina on Saturday. Ahead of that event, Trump’s campaign is finding that Palmetto State lawmakers and political operatives are not ready to commit to the former president (The Washington Post). 

Evangelical pastor Franklin Graham told CBS News on Friday that he will not endorse Trump or any other candidate in the GOP primary, another indication that Republican influencers are waiting ahead of other possible options. 

The Hill: Fifteen Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee asked the Government Accountability Office in a Monday letter to investigate why the IRS failed to “adequately conduct mandatory audits” of Trump’s tax returns.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is skilled at keeping the Sunshine State atop the national headlines while he weighs a White House bid, continues to out-poll other potential GOP presidential contenders (The Hill).

▪ The Hill: DeSantis defends his administration’s rejection of an Advanced Placement African American studies pilot program in Florida high schools.

▪ The Hill’s Niall Stanage writes in his latest Memo that DeSantis is staking out ground to Trump’s right. 

▪ Politico Nightly: Cash-flush GOP governors look to 2024.

Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego (D), a Marine veteran who argued after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that the former president should never be allowed to hold office again, announced on Monday that he will compete in 2024 for the Senate seat held by incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) (The Hill). Sinema, who has not said if she will seek reelection, recently switched her party affiliation from Democrat to independent and continues to caucus with the Senate majority.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune of South Dakota on Monday urged Sinema to caucus with Republican senators to avoid a three-way reelection race (The Hill).

Gallego’s Senate campaign launch has sparked progressive hopes, and awkward questions (The Hill). 

➤ ADMINISTRATION

Jeff Zients will take over for outgoing White House chief of staff Ron Klain in the coming weeks, bringing to one of the toughest jobs in Washington less grounding in partisan politics at a time when the White House will be juggling GOP investigations, negotiations over the debt ceiling and the start of Biden’s likely 2024 reelection bid, The Hill’s Brett Samuels and Alex Gangitano write. Because of Zients’s private-sector career in consulting, some progressives view him with suspicion (The Atlantic). 

▪ Slate: Biden’s new chief of staff may have a different set of priorities than the last one, but the choice of this former private equity executive is a curious one.

▪ The Hill: Five things to know about Zients.

The administration this month released its 2022 regulatory agenda, which pushes back timelines for a range of rules for power plant emissions, drinking water limits for toxic chemicals and stipulations for drilling on public lands. Environmental advocates express frustration with the changes, reports The Hill’s Rachel Frazin. 

▪ The New Republic: These next six months could define the Biden presidency.

▪ The Hill: Biden will travel to Baltimore on Jan. 30 and New York City on Jan. 31 to talk about federal infrastructure investments. 

▪ Time: Vice President Harris as White House asset.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Twelve countries agreed to supply Ukraine with an estimated 100 German-made Leopard 2 tanks if the German government gives its consent, ABC News reports. Those agreements, the source said, were made at Friday’s summit at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, when allied nations discussed military support for Ukraine. Poland had already said it would ask Germany for permission to send the tanks — and would deliver them whether or not Berlin agreed, as long as other countries did too. The announcement followed German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s Sunday remarks where she signaled that Germany would not stand in Poland’s way if the country were to ask to send tanks to Ukraine (Politico EU).

Russia, meanwhile, says the tanks debate shows a NATO split, as Germany has held firm on not committing the machinery itself despite pressure from allies (Reuters and CNBC). The decision by the U.S. and Germany not to commit tanks is impacting Kyiv’s intentions to launch a renewed counteroffensive against Russia that includes the goal of retaking Crimea, writes The Hill’s Laura Kelly. Biden and other top U.S. officials have held back from publicly committing to help Ukraine liberate Crimea, but are reportedly warming to the idea of giving Kyiv the ability to strike Russian forces within the peninsula to weaken Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sense of security in the region.

Crimea represents a key tactical and symbolic military objective for Kyiv since Putin personally sponsored the construction of a massive bridge connecting Russia with Crimea, and the Kremlin’s Black Sea Fleet has its main headquarters in the port city of Sevastopol. 

Reuters: Senior Ukrainian officials step down in rare purge in Kyiv.

Japan’s finances are in perilous territory, according to the country’s finance minister, just as markets test whether the central bank can keep interest rates ultra-low in order for the government to service its debt. It is not unusual for the finance minister to refer to Japan’s strained finances, as despite the country’s growing debt pile, the government remains under pressure to keep the fiscal spigot wide open. The country must balance regional security concerns and manage a debt burden more than twice the size of its $5 trillion economy (Reuters).

💡 Pakistan has started to restore power after the country suffered a major electricity outage Monday morning that has put the focus back on the country’s battered and poorly maintained power grid. The power breakdown caused a major disruption in daily activity as internet and mobile phone services suffered intermittent outages, and hospitals, government offices, schools and airports had to rely on emergency generators to operate. Many among the country’s 220 million people were without drinking water as pumps powered by electricity also failed to work (Reuters, ABC News and The New York Times).

“There was complete chaos in the hospital because of the power outage,” Akram Shah, a 45-year-old textile worker who was accompanying his sick mother at the state-run Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in Karachi, told the Times. “Doctors asked most of the patients, who were at hospitals for surgeries, and tests, to come again tomorrow.”

➤ STATE WATCH

Question: What is the deadly issue embedded in national headlines that keeps mayors awake at night?

Answer: Crime. Whether described as mass shootings, juvenile violence, ghost guns, hate crimes, premeditated murder or police violence, the trend is perceived as horrifying and untenable.

Since the weekend, 11 people lost their lives after being gunned down by an alleged 72-year-old shooter in a Monterey Park, Calif., dance hall (The Sacramento Bee). In Louisiana, a dozen people were shot and injured in a Baton Rouge nightclub (NPR). In Chicago, five people were shot during a home invasion on Monday; two died (Block Club Chicago). In San Mateo County, Calif., on Monday, a suspect described as a “disgruntled worker” was arrested after the shooting deaths of seven people in two locations (ABC News and The Mercury News). In Des Moines, Iowa, two students at a school for at-risk juveniles were shot and died at a hospital and a teacher was critically wounded after being “targeted” by teenage suspects who fled and later apprehended by police (The Hill).

In Northeast Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) on Saturday held a two-hour community meeting to talk about crime, homicides and juvenile violence. Police Chief Robert Contee told the group that officers seized 3,152 illegal firearms in the nation’s capital last year, 800 more than the previous year. Of those, he said 624 weapons were “ghost guns” made from home kits and untraceable. He said 127 of the firearms had illegal switches so they could fire as automatic weapons (The Washington Post).

In New York City on Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams (D), who made crime a centerpiece of his campaign, told an audience, “We’re seeing a decrease in crime.” The news media pounced, writing that crime in the heart of Manhattan is not down. In the Manhattan South patrol borough — the half of Manhattan with major businesses — felony crime for the month ending Jan. 15 was up 13.3 percent from a year earlier. It’s up 24.7 percent relative to 2019, before the pandemic, the New York Post reported.

Adams and the Democratic mayors of Los Angeles and Houston were interviewed by ABC News “This Week” during last week’s annual conference of mayors in Washington and were asked the No. 1 issue facing their cities. “Public safety,” Adams and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said. In Los Angeles, new Mayor Karen Bass said it is the “intersection of income inequality and also public safety. And because income inequality is so severe in Los Angeles, the most extreme manifestation of that is 47,000 people [sleeping] on the streets in tents, every night, in the city.”    

Republican candidates in November gained ground with voters by focusing on crime, Pelosi told The New York Times’s Maureen Dowd during an interview published on Saturday. Pelosi’s example was New York, where Republicans flipped four congressional seats, the most of any state in the country (The New York Times).

Pelosi said Democrats could have retained House control if New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and other Democrats had acted sooner. “That is an issue that had to be dealt with early on, not 10 days before the election,” Pelosi said. “The governor didn’t realize soon enough where the trouble was.”

Candidates last year released thousands of campaign ads focused on violent crime, the Pew Research Center pointed out in October. Public perceptions of crime had been flagged as a key issue among voters ahead of the midterms, including among older voters, Black voters and Republicans, according to Pew’s polling weeks before Election Day. Ahead of the 2024 elections, the “public safety” and “violent crime” issues remain.

On Monday, Biden offered his support for this week’s Senate reintroduction of an assault weapons ban and ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, as well as a hike in the legal age for gun purchases to 21, calling the proposed changes “common sense actions” (The Hill). 

Gun restrictions will not pass the Republican-led House, but an assault weapons ban, which Biden helped pass before it expired in 2004, continues to be a centerpiece of the president’s agenda. Experts citing statistics have argued that the results of an assault weapons ban in reducing violent crimes during the decade it was law turned out to be mixed because of the substitution of other weapons.

“Communities across America have been struck by tragedy after tragedy, including mass shootings from Colorado Springs to Monterey Park and daily acts of gun violence that do not make national headlines,” Biden said while explaining his continued support.  

OPINION

■ The Hochul and McCarthy battles show that unity is overrated, David Atkins, contributor, Washington Monthly. https://bit.ly/3ZOMHpc 

■ Republican dysfunction is the path toward a better GOP, by David McIntosh and John Tamny, opinion contributors, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3Xvlbf2

WHERE AND WHEN

👉 The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will convene at noon.

The Senate meets at 10 a.m. 

The president and the vice president will receive the President’s Daily Briefing at 10:15 a.m. Biden and Harris will meet at the White House with Democratic congressional leaders at 3 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room. Biden, accompanied by Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, will host a reception for new members of Congress at 5:20 p.m. in the East Room.          

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen began Tuesday in Zambia before traveling to Pretoria, South Africa. Before departing Zambia, she toured two agricultural-related sites and delivered remarks. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi co-host a virtual meeting at 8 a.m. with Group of Seven and other partners to reaffirm support for Ukraine’s energy sector.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1:30 p.m.

The White House Historical Association at 5 p.m. ET kicks off a free 2023 in-person lecture series open to the public. With a focus on history, veteran journalist Frank Sesno will moderate “The Televised Presidency” in discussion with NBC News senior White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell, former White House press secretary Mike McCurry and author and presidency scholar Martha Joynt Kumar, a Towson University professor emerita. Registration is HERE.

ELSEWHERE

➤ LAYOFFS & ECONOMY

Spotify said on Monday that it will shed 6 percent of its global workforce. The Swedish music streaming giant, which employs about 9,800 across the U.S. and Sweden, is contending with a gloomy economic environment that has seen consumers and advertisers alike limit their spending (CNBC).

Ford also announced plans to cut up to 3,200 jobs across Europe and move some product development work to the United States. Germany’s IG Metall union on Monday vowed action that would disrupt the company’s operations across the continent if the cuts go ahead. The company wants to cut up to 2,500 product development jobs and up to 700 in administrative roles, with German locations most affected, the union said (Reuters).

Just days after layoff announcements from Google parent Alphabet and online retailer Wayfair boosted the firms’ stock values, Spotify shares rallied Monday as well. Analysts believe the phenomenon will continue throughout the year, boosting market values but possibly pushing millions of people into unemployment ahead of a potential recession (Forbes).

▪ The New York Times: Rock-bottom rates were the secret engine fueling $1 billion startups and virtual attempts to conquer the physical world. But in 2023, reality bites, and tech layoffs are continuing.

▪ Axios: What tech layoffs mean for the future of tech startups.

▪ Business Insider: A Google software engineer says it was a “slap in the face” to find out he was laid off via email after 20 years at the company.

▪ Fast Company: The pandemic has led to a surge of “productivity paranoia.” Here’s how to fight it.

➤ HEALTH & PANDEMIC

Doctors had braced for a dire winter — a looming disaster some dubbed a “tripledemic” — with flu season revving up, COVID-19 roaring back and the holidays providing fuel for viruses to spread, but no such surge materialized. The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)  wave has receded across the country, flu cases have rapidly dwindled and hospitalizations due to COVID-19 rose briefly after Christmas, only to fall again. It turns out that early waves of RSV and the flu peaked before the new year, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the expected winter uptick of coronavirus is nowhere close to overwhelming hospitals (The Washington Post).

“We are seeing the normal busy, but not the very busy that I thought we would see,” Juan Salazar, physician in chief at Connecticut Children’s in Hartford, told the Post. “I’m just so pleased we are now able to be back to normal staffing. Busy staffing, but not anything near to what we saw in the fall.”

▪ CNET: Scientists are working on an oral COVID-19 vaccine you can drink. It may be five years away.

▪ Reuters: The Food and Drug Administration proposes a shift to annual COVID-19 vaccines for adults. 

Information about the availability of COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots can be found at Vaccines.gov.

🏈 The New York Times reported from the hospital where Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin was treated. The trauma care of the 24-year-old football player highlighted what is done to overcome cardiac arrest, a leading cause of death in the United States.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,104,390. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 3,953 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

And finally … 🎥 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will unveil Oscar nominations at 8:30 a.m. ET. Winners will be announced on March 12 (The New York Times).

Feeling a wee bit behind in your movie viewing? Reviewers helpfully weigh in with predictions of Oscar-worthy films and performances, no matter how the nominations actually line up today!

▪ Los Angeles Times: The 2023 Oscars BuzzMeter predicts the Oscar nominations.

▪ EW: Predictions HERE, and tracking the top 2023 Oscar contenders.

▪ Variety: Final Oscar predictions: Best picture — six films locked, with 10 movies battling for the remaining slots.    

Stay Engaged

We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch. Follow us on Twitter (@asimendinger and @kristinakarisch) and suggest this newsletter to friends!

Zients’s ‘political savvy’ examined as he preps for chief of staff role

Jeff Zients is expected to step in for outgoing White House chief of staff Ron Klain in coming weeks, replacing a longtime confidant of President Biden’s with what some say is a less politically savvy adviser ahead of 2024.

That question mark comes at a time when the White House will be juggling a host of GOP-led congressional investigations, critical negotiations over the debt ceiling and the start of Biden’s likely 2024 reelection bid. Zients, while boasting a lengthy résumé, has only had government jobs in the executive branch, and his private sector experience has drawn the ire of some on the left.

“I think there are very big shoes to fill,” said Chris Whipple, who authored a book about White House chiefs of staff and more recently wrote “The Fight of His Life” about the Biden White House.

“Zients has some great attributes. He’s a managerial genius. He has a great temperament, a good relationship with the boss,” Whipple said. “I think he lacks Ron Klain’s political savvy, and I think it will be hard to match that three-decades-long-relationship bond that Klain has with Joe Biden.” 

Klain is a tireless political junkie who forged relationships with progressives and helped push a slew of bills through Congress when Democrats had narrow majorities, even as some Republicans and moderate Democrats viewed him skeptically.

Zients had been widely praised as a manager who can oversee complex operations, such as the country’s historic COVID-19 vaccination campaign, which impressed Biden. 

The White House has not officially announced any staffing changes. But Klain is not expected to remain involved much upon his departure, though he may pitch in with debate prep or in other ways with a Biden campaign, one source who has spoken to him said.

Zients is expected to coordinate extensively with Anita Dunn, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Steve Ricchetti, Kate Bedingfield and other senior White House staff who have served in the administration during Biden’s first two years.

“Next 2 years are about implementing huge bills passed during first 2 years and doing it flawlessly. It’s also about keeping tired team under fire boosted and focused on goals. No one better than @JeffreyZients to lead through that,” former White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted.

While Psaki acknowledged that Zients “isn’t a political animal,” she argued that he doesn’t have to be and can instead rely on O’Malley Dillon, who managed Biden’s 2020 campaign, and Dunn, a top White House aide who, like Klain, has also been a longtime confidant.

Zients was director of the National Economic Council under former President Obama and before that was acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, experience that could help him when dealing with the debt ceiling. Between the Obama and Biden administrations, he was chief executive officer of an investment firm, Cranemere, and was on the board of directors of Facebook.

Zients’s work for Facebook could be an issue for some progressives, who see his connection to the social media company as undermining much of Biden’s message and work.

“Zients served on the Board of Directors of Facebook as it was defending itself against growing attacks from both political parties,” Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, said in a statement. “We have long argued for a ‘corporate crackdown’ on behaviors that violate federal laws and harm the American people in order for corporations to become richer. Those are the practices that have made Zients rich.”

Prior to government, Zients was a management consultant and CEO and chairman of the Advisory Board Company alongside David Bradley, the former owner of The Atlantic. Bradley praised Zients for his intellect and judgment from his experience running the board with him from 1996 to 2001.

“Though modest in temperament, Jeff is wickedly smart. Jeff’s particular gift is judgment,” Bradley told The Hill. “He can reason through to the right answer more certainly than anyone I know.”

Zients’s financial disclosure statements dated March 2021 showed him as being the single wealthiest administration official who had disclosed assets, which ranged from nearly $90 million to more than $442 million. 

Klain, meanwhile, worked as chief of staff to Biden as vice president and to former Vice President Al Gore. He served as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, worked in the attorney general’s office and led the Obama administration’s Ebola response.

Zients is taking over with a divided Congress in place, meaning Biden’s legislative agenda will likely take a backseat to implementing and promoting the work of the last two years.

Still, part of his job will be keeping various constituencies happy, something Klain was heavily involved in.

“The President and the White House have been great partners, and Ron’s leadership was integral to that,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in comments first made to Semafor. “Ron understood both the strength and the power of progressives helping to get the President’s agenda done. He was very respectful of both our electoral and policy strength. He ensured we had a seat at the table and our ideas were heard.”

But the White House also butted heads with some key Democrats under Klain’s tenure such as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) when talks over a climate and social spending bill collapsed in late 2021. Manchin later blamed Biden’s staff for a breakdown in negotiations in which he said he had reached his “wit’s end.”

Zients will have his own to-do list of problems facing the White House as the administration continues to grapple with mounting scrutiny over classified materials that were found in Biden’s old office and his Delaware home. That controversy is likely to become the center of one of several House GOP investigations into the Biden administration in the coming months. Republicans are also seeking to investigate Biden’s son Hunter Biden over his finances.

The debt ceiling also will become a more urgent crisis in the coming months, with the White House refusing to negotiate with Republicans who want to use the talks to secure spending cuts. Officials have warned of potential economic damage if the country defaults, or even comes close to it.

And Zients will help Biden find the right balance between governing and campaigning if the president announces his reelection bid, which he is expected to do in the coming months.

“You come across someone like Jeff only once in your career. He has both a first-rate mind and exceptional judgment and he’s also a terrific leader, who — because of his generous nature — develops strong and trusted relationships very quickly,” said former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), who is a former business associate and personal friend of Zients’s.

“These are exactly the skills the president needs to manage the White House, our nation and emerging complexities like the debt ceiling,” Delaney added.

Source: TEST FEED1