Month: February 2024

Morning Digest: A s—show endorsement attempt caps Mike Johnson’s s—show week

Posted on by Daily Kos Elections

The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.

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Leading Off

● MT-Sen: House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly backed off plans to endorse Rep. Matt Rosendale in Montana's Senate race, after receiving what Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman called "a TON of blowback" from GOP leaders following the publication's report on Johnson's original intentions Thursday morning.

The bizarre turn of events grew even stranger when the Daily Beast's Reese Gorman reported that Johnson had decided to buck Senate Republicans—who want businessman Tim Sheehy to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Tester—by offering his endorsement in exchange for Rosendale's vote in favor of a bill providing assistance to Israel.

Both Rosendale and a Johnson spokesperson vociferously denied the story, but as Gorman notes, Rosendale had attacked the $17.6 billion Israel aid measure just a few days earlier because it did not require spending cuts elsewhere. The bill wound up failing on Tuesday after it was unable to secure the two-thirds support it needed because Johnson bypassed normal rules to bring it before the full House, though Rosendale still voted for it.

Following the brouhaha, Johnson told CNN in a statement that he would donate to Rosendale's campaign (which has yet to launch) but "has not made any endorsements in Senate races."

The debacle unfolded just two days after Johnson was humiliated on the House floor when a GOP effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas collapsed. Republicans had failed to account for the whereabouts of Rep. Al Green, a Texas Democrat who was wheeled into the chamber in scrubs following abdominal surgery and cast the deciding vote that kept Mayorkas from becoming just the second cabinet member in American history to be impeached.

That impeachment vote has already led to some potential electoral fallout; see our WI-08 item below.

Senate

● CA-Sen: Rep. Pete Aguliar, who is the third-ranking Democrat in the House, has endorsed Rep. Adam Schiff in his bid for California's open Senate seat. Both men also represent districts in the Southern California area, Schiff in Los Angeles and Aguilar in San Bernardino.

● NM-Sen, NM-02: Filing closed this week in New Mexico for candidates seeking statewide office or running for the House, but there were no surprises at the deadline.

In the race for Senate, two Republicans are seeking to challenge Democratic incumbent Martin Heinrich, according to the secretary of state's list of candidates: former Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales and businesswoman Nella Domenici, who is the daughter of the late Sen. Pete Domenici. Both kicked off campaigns last month, so neither has filed any fundraising reports yet, and there's been no public polling of the race.

By contrast, the matchup for the state's lone competitive House seat was set long ago. In the 2nd District, which includes Southern New Mexico and the western Albuquerque area, first-term Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez faces a rematch with former Rep. Yvette Herrell, whom he beat in 2022 in a 50.3-49.6 squeaker.

Vasquez benefitted from the fact that Democrats in the legislature redrew the lines to make the 2nd bluer following the most recent census, but it remains a swing seat: Joe Biden carried it by a fairly close 52-46 spread, while Republican Mark Ronchetti narrowly won the district by a 48.7 to 48.4 margin in the governor's race two years later, according to analyst Drew Savicki.

The Democrats who represent New Mexico's other two congressional districts, Melania Stansbury in the 1st and Teresa Leger Fernandez in the 3rd, both face badly underfunded opponents. Both of their seats are also several points bluer than the 2nd.

Statewide and congressional candidates potentially face one further hurdle to make it onto the June 4 primary ballot: If they fail to win at least 20% of the vote at their party's convention next month (the GOP's will take place on March 2 while the Democrats hold theirs a week later), they must gather additional signatures by March 19. In practice, candidates can skip the convention step by submitting a sufficient number of signatures at the initial filing deadline.

Governors

● WV-Gov: The hardline anti-tax Club for Growth, which is backing state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in the May 14 Republican primary, has launched a TV ad attacking auto dealer Chris Miller over his business record. The commercial starts with a clip of an ad Miller began airing last month in which he touts his background and says he'll "run government like a business." But the Club's spot goes on to accuse Miller's company of selling "dangerous" used cars "with known malfunctions & undisclosed accident records."

House

● CO-08: House Speaker Mike Johnson has endorsed state Rep. Gabe Evans in the GOP primary for Colorado's 8th District, a swingy seat outside of Denver represented by first-term Democrat Yadira Caraveo. Several other Republicans are running, but apart from Evans, only two have reported raising any money so far: Weld County Commissioner Scott James and health insurance consultant Joe Andujo, who self-funded $216,000 in the last quarter.

● IN-05: An internal poll for Rep. Victoria Spartz, taken just before she reversed course and announced she'd run for reelection, has her leading wealthy state Rep. Chuck Goodrich by a wide 44-8 margin in the May 7 GOP primary. The survey, conducted by co/efficient and first obtained by Inside Elections' Jacob Rubashkin, also finds that 45% of voters are undecided.

Earlier this week, Spartz said she'd seek a third term representing Indiana's conservative 5th District, a year after declaring that she'd retire. That about-face engendered considerable hostility from the other Republicans who'd been running to succeed her—including Goodrich, who has self-funded $1 million. Rubashkin relays that Goodrich has already spent some $500,000 on the airwaves, per AdImpact.

● MI-13: Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Waters entered the race for Michigan's 13th Congressional District on Thursday, making her the second notable Democrat looking to unseat Rep. Shri Thanedar in the Aug. 6 primary. She joins former Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency director Adam Hollier, who's been running since October.

Waters currently serves the entire city of Detroit in an at-large capacity, meaning she already represents half of the 13th District. However, after serving in the state House in the 2000s, she failed in three successive congressional bids.

In 2008, she had her best showing when she nearly unseated Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick in the primary, losing just 39-36. Four years later, though, she took just 3% in a multi-way race that featured two Democratic incumbents, Gary Peters and Hansen Clarke, thanks to redistricting.

The Detroit Free Press' Clara Hendrickson notes that a third effort went even more poorly, when she failed to make the ballot in the 2018 race to succeed Rep. John Conyers following his resignation. However, after two unsuccessful attempts to win a seat on the City Council, she bounced back with a victory in 2021.

● ND-AL, ND-Gov: InForum's Rob Port reports that Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak told him on Monday that she's considering joining the Republican primary to succeed Rep. Kelly Armstrong and hopes to "make a decision this week." State Tax Commissioner Brian Kroshus, by contrast, told Port that he would remain in his current office instead of running for House.

Port goes on to relay that political observers expect Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller to run for governor "at some point," but they aren't as sure about whether she would go for it this cycle or run for the House instead. A spokesperson for Miller previously said last month that the lieutenant governor was considering a gubernatorial bid and would decide "soon."

● NJ-09: Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and Passaic County party chair John Currie have endorsed longtime Rep. Bill Pascrell, who faces a challenge for the Democratic nomination from Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter. Sumter recently took steps to seek party endorsements in populous Bergen and Passaic counties, which make up almost all of the 9th District, though she said she would drop out of the race and support Pascrell if he won their backing instead.

● NY-03: A new poll from Siena College finds Democrat Tom Suozzi edging out Republican Mazi Pilip 48-44 just days ahead of Tuesday's special election for New York's 3rd Congressional District. The same sample finds voters preferring Donald Trump over Joe Biden by a 47-42 margin.

● VA-07: Prince William County Supervisor Andrea Bailey has entered the Democratic primary for Virginia's swingy 7th Congressional District, launching her campaign with an endorsement from former Gov. Ralph Northam. The field of hopefuls looking to succeed Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberg, who previously announced she'd run for governor in 2025, is exceptionally large, though one name stood out in the most recent quarterly fundraising reports: former National Security Council adviser Eugene Vindman reported raising $2 million—more than all other candidates in both parties combined.

● WA-05: Longtime Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers unexpectedly announced on Thursday that she won't seek reelection this year in Washington's conservative 5th Congressional District.

McMorris Rodgers was one of the highest-ranking Republicans in the House when she served as GOP conference chair from 2013-2019. She currently chairs the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee and could have continued in that role for another term under party rules had she won reelection, making her retirement decision all the more surprising.

At just 35 years old, McMorris Rodgers won election in 2004 to the 5th District in eastern Washington to succeed GOP Rep. George Nethercutt, who had defeated Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley in the 1994 Republican wave and unsuccessfully ran for Senate the year McMorris Rodgers was elected. In 2007, she became one of the few members of Congress to give birth while in office, and she quickly rose through the ranks to become the highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress a few years later.

While McMorris Rodgers faced serious efforts by Democratic opponents in her initial 2004 election and the 2006 Democratic wave, she won both races with ease. The only time McMorris Rodgers won by a single-digit margin was in another strong Democratic year, when she defeated well-funded Democrat Lisa Brown by a 55-45 margin in 2018. (Brown, who at the time had been a former legislative leader and university chancellor, would go on to win election last year as mayor of Spokane, which is the district's largest city.)

Washington's filing deadline isn't until May 10 for its Aug. 6 top-two primary, where the top-two finishers—regardless of party—will advance to the November general election. Since the district would have backed Donald Trump 54-44 in 2020, it's likely that a Republican will hold onto the seat.

● WI-08: Republican consultant Alex Bruesewitz, whom the Daily Beast describes in a headline as a "Trump super fan," says that he's considering a primary challenge to Rep. Mike Gallagher following the congressman's vote against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. (The Hill first reported the story, based on an unnamed source.)

Gallagher was one of just four Republicans to oppose Mayorkas' failed impeachment, though one of them, Utah Rep. Blake Moore, did so to allow GOP leaders to bring the matter up for another vote in the future. The other two Republican "no" votes belonged to Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, who is retiring, and California Rep. Tom McClintock.

Ballot Measures

● MO Ballot: A campaign to place a measure on the Missouri ballot that would have restored a limited right to an abortion has suspended its operations and given its backing to a rival effort. That movement, which is backed by local Planned Parenthood affiliates and the state branch of the ACLU, is seeking to put a constitutional amendment before voters that would protect reproductive rights, including by allowing abortion until about 24 weeks into pregnancy as well as afterward if the patient's health is at risk.

● OH Ballot: Ohio's Supreme Court has rejected a motion to expedite a lawsuit that voting rights advocates recently filed after Republican state Attorney General Dave Yost once again rejected their proposed ballot language for an initiative that would broadly expand and protect voting access.

Yost recently said the measure could not appear on the ballot with the title of the "Ohio Voters Bill of Rights" after previously rejecting language summarizing the measure. Supporters nonetheless said on Thursday that they expect the court, which did not give an explanation for why it rejected expediting the case, to "make a decision by early March."

These repeated delays have prevented organizers from beginning to gather the roughly 413,000 voter signatures needed by the initial July 3 deadline to qualify for November's ballot. And even if the GOP-majority Supreme Court compels Yost to approve organizers' ballot language, the state's Republican-controlled Ballot Board could still require the measure to be split into multiple initiatives.

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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: A lose-lose for Republicans in the Senate

Posted on by Greg Dworkin

Washington Post:

Senate votes to advance Ukraine-Israel package after border deal fails

GOP senators have been deeply divided on how to proceed on the foreign aid package, with some critics arguing that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) led them into a political box canyon where Democrats have claimed the political edge on border security after they voted down the border deal they initially demanded. A vocal faction of McConnell critics have grown louder over the past week, with a handful even calling for his ouster, as Senate Republicans have gathered in meeting after meeting and argued about the uncomfortable political situation they find themselves in.

“The Republicans wanted something and then decided that they didn’t want that thing," said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), referring to border security provisions. “Now, some of them want it again, and I think the adults are just moving on.”

But ultimately McConnell was joined by 17 fellow Republicans to advance the deal...

So what did all the drama over the border bill get the GOP? Bipartisan reprobation from their colleagues, international scorn, bad press, and in the end the bill Democrats wanted.

“They reacted to it like it was a poison,” said Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut of Senate Republicans who had previously signaled they were supportive. “I think it’s unforgiveable what they did to James.” @MCJalonick @stephengroves https://t.co/S2qgqITeNP

— Michael Tackett (@tackettdc) February 8, 2024

Associated Press:

Abandoned by his colleagues after negotiating a border compromise, GOP senator faces backlash alone

As the Republican quietly watched from a floor above, briefly the outsider after defending his legislation in a last Senate floor speech, fellow negotiator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona was down on the floor excoriating the Republicans who had abandoned Lankford, one by one, after insisting on a border deal and asking him to negotiate a compromise on one of the country’s most intractable issues.

“Less than 24 hours after we released the bill, my Republican colleagues changed their minds,” said Sinema, a former Democrat turned Independent. “Turns out they want all talk and no action. It turns out border security is not a risk to our national security. It’s just a talking point for the election.”

Lankford voted no on the Ukraine-Israel bill that advanced.

Poland’s Prime Minister:

Dear Republican Senators of America. Ronald Reagan, who helped millions of us to win back our freedom and independence, must be turning in his grave today. Shame on you.

— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) February 8, 2024

Rick Hasen/Slate:

A Grand Bargain Is Emerging in the Supreme Court’s Trump Cases, But Chaos May Be Ahead

After oral arguments at the Supreme Court in Trump v. Anderson, a grand bargain that appears to make practical sense as a compromise is beginning to come into view: The Supreme Court unanimously, or nearly so, holds that Colorado does not have the power to remove Donald Trump from the ballot, but in a separate case it rejects his immunity argument and makes Trump go on trial this spring or summer on federal election subversion charges. Depending upon how the court writes its opinion, however, it could leave the door open for chaos in January, if Donald Trump appears to win the 2024 election and a Democratic Congress rejects Electoral College votes for him on grounds he’s disqualified. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, however, may have seen this danger and found a way around it. If the court’s going to side with Trump in the disqualification case, it should embrace Justice Jackson’s rationale, even if it is not the most legally sound one.

I’ll take that bargain.

"My memory is fine." President Joe Biden slams a special counsel’s report for raising questions about his mental acuity and age https://t.co/wBLRZa9cjB pic.twitter.com/xpl0rc4MZn

— Bloomberg Politics (@bpolitics) February 9, 2024

Kevin Lind/Columbia Journalism Review:

Q&A: Dahlia Lithwick on the Colorado case, the election, and the press

I don’t think this is the vehicle that the Supreme Court will use to decide the outcome of the 2024 election. My sense is that this is both an intensely political case about the branches checking each other, and there are legitimate claims that the underlying process in the Colorado courts didn’t afford due process to Trump. In other words, if you’re going to do something that is the death penalty for a presidential election, you can’t do it with this little process. My instinct is that there are five votes on the current Supreme Court, at least, who do not want to see Donald Trump as the president in 2024—if he legitimately hasn’t won—and I don’t think this is the vehicle that they would choose to do it. It is the biggest, most dramatic intervention, and it would have the biggest fallout.

GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski said it was unclear who could trust the GOP to negotiate after they scuttled the bipartisan border bill. She told me: “I’ve gone through the multile stages of grief. Today I’m just pissed off.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 7, 2024

New York Times:

Johnson Stumbles, Deepening Republican Disarray and His Own Challenges

Little more than 100 days into his tenure, the speaker who was handed an impossible job has only made it more difficult for himself, baffling his colleagues.

The back-to-back defeats highlighted the litany of problems Mr. Johnson inherited the day he was elected speaker and his inexperience in the position, roughly 100 days after being catapulted from the rank and file to the top job in the House. Saddled with a razor-thin margin of control, and a deeply divided conference that has proved repeatedly to be a majority in name only, he has struggled to corral his unruly colleagues and made a series of decisions that only added to his own challenges.

Nancy Pelosi thought bubble: count the votes, and then bring it to the floor for a vote, not the other way around. 

Due largely to an unexpected surge in immigration, the U.S. economy will be about $7 trillion larger - & federal revenues about $1T bigger - the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) February 7, 2024

Washington Post:

GOP leaders face unrest amid chaotic, bungled votes

Former president Donald Trump has used his perch as the GOP front-runner to bend Congress to his political whims

Moments before pandemonium broke out on the House floor on Tuesday evening, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer approached Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who had assumed a leisurely slouch in a rickety wooden chair in the back of the House chamber, for what appeared to be a quick chat.

...

“Speaker Johnson never called me,” Buck said. “[Former speaker Kevin McCarthy] would have yelled — Mike knows me well enough not to yell. And [former speaker John A.] Boehner would have broken my arm. It’s gotten easier as I’ve been here.”

NEWS—Biden issues national security memorandum on “safeguards and accountability” for U.S. military aid Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) tells us this is in keeping w/his amendment to the foreign aid bill that would require recipients of U.S. aid to comply w/int’l humanitarian law

— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) February 9, 2024

This goes along with Biden remarks at his brief press conference last evening about Israel going ‘over the top’.

David Bier/The UnPopulist:

Secretary Mayorkas Is Being Impeached for Following the Law on Border Enforcement

Republicans are the ones making unconstitutional demands

Mayorkas would have been the first government official to be impeached for actually staying within the bounds of the Constitution. In fact, it is the Republicans who are making unconstitutional demands.

In the impeachment articles they drafted, they alleged that Mayorkas failed to block immigrants entering not just illegally but also legally and detain them—in inhumane and unconstitutional conditions—rather than release them. Even more absurd than the allegations is the fact that in the process of making them, Republicans repeatedly misstated the law, quoted overturned court decisions, and, hilariously, confused DHS Secretary Mayorkas’ actions with those of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others.

All of this proves just how Orwellian our political discourse on immigration has become.

Let’s go through their allegations.

And just for fun, this from Walter Shapiro/Roll Call was from late January:

Will voters punish total incompetence? House Republicans are about to find out Evidence is scant that voters would punish blundering ineptitude

So what if Johnson is poised to reject the first serious effort in years to control the chaos on our southern border? So what if Johnson is willing to let aid to Ukraine go down the tubes as part of a package deal on immigration?

The House Republicans are living in a fairy tale world. Alas, the fairy tale is taken from the Grimm Brothers and the Republicans are emulating Rumpelstiltskin, stomping their feet through the ground when they don’t get their way.

Reality check: There is no coherent strategy for House Republicans to prevail, with their fragile three-vote majority, when the Democrats control the Senate and the White House. That may explain why they are banking on divine intervention in the form of a second Trump presidency.

Cliff Schecter with a musical/political interlude:

YouTube Video

Biden retained records related to Ukraine, China; Comer demands ‘unfettered access’ amid impeachment inquiry

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

President Biden retained documents marked "secret" and "confidential" related to Ukraine and China, according to Special Counsel Robert Hur's report.

Hur, who released his report to the public on Thursday after months of investigating, did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents — and stated that he wouldn't bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office. 

Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods." 

SPECIAL COUNSEL CALLS BIDEN 'SYMPATHETIC, WELL-MEANING, ELDERLY MAN WITH A POOR MEMORY,' BRINGS NO CHARGES

But Biden also kept classified documents related to Ukraine and China.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., who is currently co-leading the impeachment inquiry against Biden, had asked Hur last year if any of the classified records Biden held were related to the countries that his family conducted business with.

Comer is now demanding "unfettered access to these documents to determine if President Biden’s retention of sensitive materials were used to help the Bidens’ influence peddling."

Hunter Biden, joined the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings in June 2014. Hunter Biden also had joint business ventures with Chinese energy firms.

COMER DEMANDS ANSWERS ON WHETHER BIDEN CLASSIFIED RECORDS MENTION COUNTRIES RELATED TO FAMILY BUSINESS DEALS

With regard to the Ukraine documents, according to the special counsel report, Biden kept a September 2014 memo with the subject line "U.S. Energy Assistance to Ukraine." That memo was marked as confidential.

Biden, at the time, did run U.S.-Ukraine policy.

The report also states that the FBI located a green file folder Biden kept, labeled "Ukraine 2/19/15." That folder was inside an "unlabeled green hanging folder." Also, inside that folder was a red file folder labeled "VP Personal."

In the "VP Personal" file folder was a telephone call sheet from Dec. 12, 2015, and talking points for a call with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk. There is a handwritten note attached addressed to Biden’s executive assistant that states: "Get copy of this conversation from Sit Rm for my Records please." The note is signed "Joe." That document was marked as "Secret."

Attached to that document was another, dated Dec. 11, 2015. The report describes that document as "a transcript documenting the substance of a Dec. 11, 2015 call between Mr. Biden and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk." The document is marked "CONFIDENTIAL" and "EYES ONLY DO NOT COPY."

NO CHARGES FOR BIDEN AFTER SPECIAL COUNSEL PROBE INTO IMPROPER HANDLING OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS

The special counsel’s report analyzes the documents, saying there "is reasonable doubt that Mr. Biden willfully retained" the documents.

"Mr. Biden's handwritten note does not request that executive assistant save the classified call sheet containing talking points for the call (A9) in his records; rather, he only requested the transcript of the phone call itself," the report states. "And no jury could reasonably find that the substance of the call between Mr. Biden and the Ukrainian Prime Minister was national defense information."

The report states that Biden and the Ukrainian prime minister "exchanged pleasantries and the Prime Minister heaped praise upon Mr. Biden for his December 9, 2015 speech to Ukraine's parliament."

"They did not engage in a substantive policy discussion. There may be technical or nuanced reasons to maintain the classification of the call, but no reasonable jury could conclude the call or its contents were national defense information after the end of Obama administration, or that by asking for a transcript of the call Biden intended to retain national defense information," the report states.

Biden, on Dec. 9, 2015, gave a speech in which he discussed corruption in Ukraine.

"And it’s not enough to set up a new anti-corruption bureau and establish a special prosecutor fighting corruption," Biden said in the speech. "The Office of the General Prosecutor desperately needs reform."

In that speech, Biden also said Ukraine’s "energy sector needs to be competitive, ruled by market principles — not sweetheart deals."

"It’s not enough to push through laws to increase transparency with regard to official sources of income," he said. "Senior elected officials have to remove all conflicts between their business interest and their government responsibilities.  Every other democracy in the world — that system pertains."

At the time, Burisma Holdings was under investigation by Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. Several months later, in March 2016, Biden successfully pressured Ukraine to remove Shokin. At the time Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, Hunter had a highly lucrative role on the board receiving tens of thousands of dollars per month.

Biden, at the time, threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.

BIDENS ALLEGEDLY ‘COERCED' BURISMA CEO TO PAY THEM MILLIONS TO HELP GET UKRAINE PROSECUTOR FIRED: FBI FORM

"I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in,' I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’" Biden recalled telling then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Biden recollected the conversation during an event for the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018.

"Well, son of a b----, he got fired," Biden said during the event. "And they put in place someone who was solid at the time."

Biden allies maintain the then-vice president pushed for Shokin's firing due to concerns the Ukrainian prosecutor went easy on corruption, and say that his firing, at the time, was the policy position of the U.S. and international community.

But Comer blasted the discovery of this information as "concerning" and questioned the timeline.

"It’s no secret Hunter Biden made millions by sitting on the board of Burisma when Joe Biden was Vice President and that Burisma benefited from the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin," Comer told Fox News Digital, saying it is "concerning Joe Biden retained classified materials related to Ukraine around the same timeframe he called for the firing of Viktor Shokin."

"The Justice Department must provide Congress with unfettered access to these documents to determine if President Biden’s retention of sensitive materials were used to help the Bidens’ influencing peddling schemes," Comer said.

Meanwhile, with regard to China, Biden retained a memo with the subject, "Engagement with China in the Second Term." That document "suggests activities Vice President Biden could do in his second term to "build on my work last year by engaging with China’s leaders in the second term."  The document was marked as confidential.

Comer’s investigation and the House impeachment inquiry is probing Hunter Biden and James Biden’s Chinese business dealings, and whether Joe Biden was involved or had knowledge of the ventures.

ICYMI: Republicans can’t count, Trump fans stand by Taylor Swift

Posted on by Jen Hayden

Leader Hakeem Jeffries: ‘It’s not our responsibility’ to help GOP count votes

In fact, are we sure Republicans can count?

OP voters out of step with Americans on Trump immunity, new poll shows

Will a Trump conviction tip the electoral scales toward Biden?

'Chaos' is the word for Republicans, and the media has finally noticed 

Disorder, havoc, shambles, snake pit, hell—the media has a lot of fun words at its disposal here.

Even Trump fans aren't buying the latest Swift-Kelce conspiracy theory

Coming soon: “The Tortured Psyops Department.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene asks if Republicans are 'being bribed' to oppose impeachment

If she doesn’t like it, it’s a conspiracy.

Mitch McConnell has lost control of Senate Republicans. Blame Mitch McConnell

Will the Republican chaos in the House infect the Senate?

Cartoon: Mike Luckovich on ex-presidential immunity

What would this mean for presidents not named Trump?

GOP congressman rants about car windshields being too safe

And while we’re at it, why not get rid of seat belts too? For Republicans, it's now 'Trump First, Putin Second, America Third'

The new GOP motto: “Победа Trump!”

Seven justices, two cases: How the future of abortion in Florida will be determined 

Reproductive rights still have a chance in the Sunshine State.

Lindsey Graham was for the border bill before he was against it 

South Carolina is a beach state, so it makes sense he’d love flip-flops.

Click here to see more cartoons.

Campaign Action

‘Chaos’ is the word for Republicans, and the media has finally noticed

Posted on by Mark Sumner

For many years, the news media has loved "Democrats in disarray" stories. Those stories always seem to pop up in election years—especially years when things are going well—to assure readers that Democrats are divided, or they’ve lost the Black vote, or they don’t trust their leaders. Something. Anything that shows the Democratic Party as disorganized and incapable of running an effective government.

Somehow, that same media has seemed to largely ignore the MAGA cancer gnawing away at the Republican Party in both the House and Senate. Sure, there was some fun to be had in watching then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy get his dignity slowly stripped away in 15 rounds of voting for speaker, then watching McCarthy get ousted less than 10 months later. But through it all, news outlets went on pretending that the Republican rebellion in the House was a matter of a few ultra-extremists, and that Senate Republicans represented the affable senior league.

Well, the media can’t ignore it now. With both the House and the Senate GOP leaderships disintegrating, and with nothing getting done amid a festering cauldron of boiling egos, the media has to say it: Republicans are in chaos.

At The Washington Post, a headline from Wednesday mentions “unrest” and “chaotic, bugled votes.” The phrase “dysfunction in the House Republican conference” also makes an appearance as the Post explains how, despite Speaker of the House Mike Johnson slavishly following Donald Trump’s every whim and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell still laboring under the illusion that he has the power to get a bill through his own caucus, neither of them can get a damn thing done.

The Atlantic gets both “chaos” and “Trump” into one Wednesday headline as the outlet rightly points out that things gang aft agley is a hallmark of Trumpism. Chaos is also dead certain to be generated when legislators subvert their own goals, to follow the orders of a leader who sees their inability to act as a good thing. The Atlantic also gets in a “fiasco” when describing the failed attempt to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, as well as pointing out that while Johnson benefited from “conservative rebels” to land his tall chair, he doesn’t appear so fond of rebellion these days.

CNN leaves “chaos” out of its own headline, referring to “disasters” when talking about Republican defeats on both ends of the Hill. But it does launch the article with “Chaos has been a common theme for the 118th Congress.” CNN then gets more specific in pinning the problems on Republicans. In doing so, it comes up with what may be the best and funniest description of Johnson’s problems in trying to rule over “a rambunctious and anemic majority.” Like a bunch of college bros who are low on iron.

Barron’s is not exactly a reliable source of Republican criticism, but they did choose to run a Wednesday article from French news agency AFP, which couldn’t help but notice “back-to-back legislative defeats” amid “Republican chaos.” Republicans earn another “dysfunction” and pick up an “embarrassed,” along with a “missteps,” and finish off with a quote of Johnson admitting that things in the House are a “mess.” That’s pretty much a clean sweep in the Ineffectual Sweepstakes. AFP also puts some numbers around just how awful things are in the House. 

Rank-and-file conservatives have repeatedly tanked legislation pushed by the leadership, meaning Republicans were able to pass only 27 bills that became law last year, despite holding 724 votes.

Note that leaders generally bring up a bill for a vote only when they expect to win. Somewhere along the line, Republicans apparently banned basic math. Also worth noting: “rank-and-file conservatives” used to have a meaning that included something about being conservative. It is now simply a measure of how well someone follows the will of Trump.

Roll Call drops in to visit Democrats seeking cover amid “House GOP chaos” and gets a nice quote from Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse, who points out that House Republicans aren’t only unproductive, they’re also unpopular. The article also gives a nod to Democratic “unity” that is keeping their votes together, even as Republicans stalk around the floor snarling at each other.

Even The New York Times joins in with an article about “deepening Republican disarray.” And, okay, they didn’t use “chaos,” but give them a break. They probably bought “disarray” in bulk, and now they need to use it up somewhere.

At NBC News, Republicans earned a “rough week” for abandoning the border security deal they wrote. That article also spills a surprising amount of words in saying positive things about Democrats, including President Joe Biden.

Finally, here’s a rare Fox News link because it seems okay to pitch Rupert Murdoch a penny when his folks are writing about how Republicans are “shooting blanks” and “misfired” on impeaching Mayorkas. But the rest of the article descends into blaming Democrats for the loss because Rep. Al Green came from the hospital to cast a vote and threw off the count. Democrats didn’t just thwart the Republican scheme; they also somehow threatened the “Hippocratic Oath.” And Fox is just so frustrated that they actually called this the “119th Congress.” (It’s the 118th.) 

Overall, any week where Republican chaos can be so obvious that it causes the news media to momentarily halt the Dems-in-disarray storylines seems like a good one. The only thing left to complain about is … alliteration. Couldn’t someone pull out a “Republican rat’s nest” or even a “MAGA muddle”?

The media should work on that. They’re probably going to need it again.

Disinformation is a growing problem in American politics, but combating it in Latino media poses its own special challenges. Joining us on this week's episode of "The Downballot" is Roberta Braga, founder of the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas, a new organization devoted to tackling disinformation and building resiliency in Latino communities. Braga explains how disinformation transcends borders but also creates opportunities for people in the U.S. to import new solutions from Latin America. She also underscores the importance of fielding Latino candidates and their unique ability to address the issue.

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to potential timing for the Senate and the international aid package

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

The Senate has now cleared the first barrier to starting debate on the $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

But how long until there’s a final vote?

In short, this might take a while.

Expect the strong possibility of weekend sessions and even important overnight votes. It’s possible this may not wrap up until next Tuesday – or beyond.

IMPEACHMENT OF ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS WILL HINGE ON THE MATH: CHAD PERGRAM

To wit:

The Senate overcame a filibuster just to start debate on the bill. From a very technical standpoint, the Senate is not on the bill just yet. Opponents of clearing the filibuster are awarded 30 hours after the vote early today.

So, unless there is an agreement to speed things up, the Senate could vote Friday evening around 7 pm ET just to get on the bill.

At that stage, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will likely "file cloture" to try to end debate on the bill.

By rule, if Schumer files on Friday, the Senate cannot vote to overcome the second filibuster until Sunday. "Cloture" (to end a filibuster) requires an "intervening day" before voting to end the filibuster. So that means the Senate can’t vote to break the second filibuster until Sunday. Saturday serves as the "intervening day."

But this is where this gets tricky.

ISRAEL, UKRAINE FOREIGN AID BILL CLEARS FIRST HURDLE IN SENATE WITHOUT BORDER AND IMMIGRATION PROVISIONS

By rule, the Senate must vote to crack the second filibuster one hour after the Senate meets on Sunday. This presents "The Super Bowl Scenario." What the Senate MIGHT do if they are really trying to step on the gas (and get senators the game or to watch the Super Bowl), is meet at 12:00:01 am et SUNDAY. The intervening day (Saturday) will have expired. By rule, the Senate can vote at 1:00:01 am ET Sunday to end debate on the overall bill.

However, there is also the "non-Super Bowl" situation here. We’ll call this the "Ravens-Lions" scenario. Say for a moment that senators don’t give a care about the Super Bowl. So the Senate might meet at noon or 1 pm et Sunday. By rule, the procedural vote to end the filibuster would happen one hour after the Senate meets. So just after 1 pm ET Sunday or 2 pm ET Sunday.

SHOOTING BLANKS: HOW REPUBLICANS MISFIRED WHEN THEY TRIED TO IMPEACH MAYORKAS

If the Senate gets 60 votes to break a filibuster, the bill is on a glidepath to eventual passage. 

But we are far from finished.

Opponents of the bill can require the Senate to burn up to 30 hours after the Senate breaks the filibuster before the Senate can vote on final passage.

So, unless there’s an agreement, the Senate couldn’t vote on final passage of the bill until Monday night after 7 pm et or so… or… in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Everything will hinge on when the Senate concludes the procedural vote to end the filibuster.

In addition, there’s lot of interesting stuff to watch in between. Debate. Votes on amendments related to the border. You name it. And, it’s entirely possible that the Senate may actually take several days of debate and amendment votes – and elect to not try to break a filibuster and then pass the bill until late next week.

This is all developing right now.

No charges for Biden after Special Counsel probe into improper handling of classified documents

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

Special Counsel Robert Hur will not recommend criminal charges against President Biden for mishandling classified documents, according to his report after a months-long investigation into the president's alleged improper retention of classified records. 

Hur has been investigating Biden’s improper retention of classified records since last year. Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security and foreign policy which Hur said implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods." 

"We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter," the report states. "We would reach the same conclusion even if the Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president."

The special counsel also described Biden as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." 

"We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," Hur wrote in the report. "Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone from whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him—by then a former president well into his eighties—of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."

GARLAND SAYS SPECIAL COUNSEL PROBING BIDEN CLASSIFIED RECORDS HAS SUBMITTED REPORT, UNDER WHITE HOUSE REVIEW

But Hur said his investigation "uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen."

The materials included "marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and notebooks containing Mr. Biden’s handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods." 

Hur said FBI agents recovered the materials from "the garages, offices, and basement den in Mr. Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware home." 

But Hur said that the evidence "does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." :

"Prosecution of Mr. Biden is also unwarranted based on our consideration of the aggravating and mitigating factors set forth in the Department of Justice’s Principles of Federal Prosecution," the report states. "For these reasons, we decline prosecution of Mr. Biden."

The White House was given the opportunity to review the report for privilege after Hur initially submitted his report on Feb. 5, and did not seek any redaction to the report. The report was transmitted to Congress Thursday afternoon. 

Damning photos were included in the report — photos that the Biden campaign reportedly feared could have a negative impact on his 2024 re-election bid. 

Classified records were first found inside the Washington, D.C., offices of the Penn Biden Center think tank on Nov. 2, 2022, but only disclosed to the public in early January 2023.

BIDEN CAMP REPORTEDLY FEARS PHOTOS FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL CLASSIFIED DOCS PROBE COULD DEVASTATE REELECTION BID

A second stash of classified documents was also found inside the garage of the president’s home in Wilmington in December, but revealed to the public earlier this month, prompting Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint former U.S. Attorney Rob Hur to serve as special counsel.

Days later, additional classified documents were found in the president’s home in Delaware. The FBI conducted a more than 12-hour search of Biden’s Delaware home Friday, seizing additional classified records.

Biden has defended the storing of classified documents in the past.

"By the way, my Corvette is in a locked garage, so it's not like they're sitting out on the street," he once said.

In a statement after Special Counsel released the report, Biden said he was "pleased to see they reached the conclusion I believed all along they would reach – that there would be no charges brought in this case and the matter is now closed."

"This was an exhaustive investigation going back more than 40 years, even into the 1970s when I was a young Senator. I cooperated completely, threw up no roadblocks, and sought no delays. In fact, I was so determined to give the Special Counsel what they needed that I went forward with five hours of in-person interviews over two days on October 8th and 9th of last year, even though Israel had just been attacked on October 7th and I was in the middle of handling an international crisis. I just believed that’s what I owed the American people so they could know no charges would be brought and the matter closed," Biden's statement continued.

"Over my career in public service, I have always worked to protect America’s security. I take these issues seriously and no one has ever questioned that," he added.

But Garland, on Nov. 18, 2022, appointed former DOJ official Jack Smith to serve as special counsel to investigate whether Trump was improperly retaining classified records at Mar-a-Lago.

When Smith was appointed to investigate Trump, Garland and top DOJ officials were simultaneously conducting an internal review of President Biden’s mishandling of classified records. That review, and the discovery of classified records at Biden’s office, was not disclosed to the public until January.

BIDEN INTERVIEWED BY SPECIAL COUNSEL ABOUT CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS

Republicans and allies of former President Trump were outraged, blasting the Justice Department for a double standard.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges out of Smith's probe. The charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner, was then charged with an additional three counts as part of a superseding indictment out of Smith’s investigation – an additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts. Trump pleaded not guilty.

That trial is set to begin on May 20, 2024. 

Biden's aides told Axios earlier this week that they are fearful former President Trump's campaign could use the photos against the Democrat incumbent ahead of their likely 2024 rematch.

COMER DEMANDS ANSWERS ON WHETHER BIDEN CLASSIFIED RECORDS MENTION COUNTRIES RELATED TO FAMILY BUSINESS DEALS

Anthony Coley, a former senior adviser to Garland, accused the Biden team of slow-walking discovery in the president’s classified records case, versus the handling of the Trump probe.

"Against the backdrop of former President Trump's indictment on charges of willful and deliberate retention of classified documents, the Biden team's drip, drip, drip of information made the discoveries seem even worse," he wrote in an op-ed.

Before Hur’s findings were released, reports suggested the Biden campaign was concerned about potentially embarrassing photos included in Hur's expected report that could be released as soon as this week.

The campaign was concerned that the images would show how Biden stored classified materials. The classified documents were carried over from Biden's time as former President Obama's vice president.

Hur interviewed Biden at the White House – an interview that lasted two days. The White House said the president’s interview with Hur was "voluntary."

Last year, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, who is co-leading the impeachment inquiry against President Biden, began investigating whether the sensitive, classified documents Biden retained involved specific countries or individuals that had financial dealings with Biden family members or their related companies. 

Comer questioned why Biden would have kept certain classified materials and asked Hur to provide his committee with a list of the countries named in any documents with classification markings recovered from Penn Biden Center, Biden’s residence, including the garage, in Wilmington, Delaware, or elsewhere; and a list of all individuals named in those documents with classification markings; and all documents found with classified markings.

It is unclear if Hur cooperated with Comer's request. 

Lindsey Graham was for the border bill before he was against it

Posted on by Joan McCarter

Senate Republicans rejected the most conservative immigration policy bill in recent decades Wednesday. Just four of them voted for the combined border security and Ukraine aid package.

And South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham was not one of them. 

Graham had argued in favor of the deal just days before on Fox News. He said it would bring “real change” immigration laws and stem border crossings. 

“I hope people keep an open mind,” Graham said Sunday, before he voted against the bill on Wednesday.

Now the Senate is set up to pass the supplemental aid bill to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan without the border provisions. What does the bill need to include to pass muster with Graham? Border security. You’ll really can’t make this shit up.

Lindsey Graham just told us he plans to vote to block the $95.3 billion package — until he gets an agreement on an amendment for more border security. But Republicans like Rand Paul are warning they will object to a time agreement, effectively denying amendment votes. Graham…

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 8, 2024

Let’s rewind four months, to the initial supplemental request from President Joe Biden—the one they’ve been fighting over all this time. What did it have? Almost $14 billion for border security, which would have paid for an additional 1,300 border patrol agents; 1,600 new asylum officers; 375 new judge teams; and $1.2 billion devoted to counter fentanyl.

But that wasn’t good enough for Graham. 

“This is about securing our border so we can then help our allies,” he said in December. He said he didn’t want to have to “try to explain why I helped Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel and did nothing to secure our own border. I will help all of our allies, but we have got to help ourselves first.” 

As far as Graham is concerned, it’s more like he has to help Donald Trump first.

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Scalise announces return as House GOP plans Mayorkas redo

Posted on by Congress

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise will return to Washington next week after undergoing treatment for blood cancer — giving Republicans a critical boost in the effort to impeach Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Scalise’s office, in a statement, said that the Louisiana Republican is in “complete remission,” “has been medically cleared to resume travel” and “will be returning to Washington next week for votes.”

House Republicans had predicted, after narrowly failing to impeach Mayorkas this week, that they would try again next week. Scalise’s return means a repeat vote could now happen as soon as Tuesday.

Republicans want to move quickly to hold a re-do vote, and for good reason: The special election to replace expelled GOP Rep. George Santos occurs on Tuesday. If Democrats are able to flip the seat it would give them 213 votes, further narrowing the GOP’s majority once Santos’ successor is sworn in.

Scalise’s office announced last month that he would be working remotely until February as he underwent treatment for blood cancer. Combined with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s end-of-the-year retirement from Congress and Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) recovering from a car accident, Republicans’ already narrow majority had become paper thin.

The retirement of Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins plus Rogers’ return gave Republicans more breathing room. But the vote to impeach Mayorkas failed 214-216 after GOP leadership miscalculated Democratic attendance, with Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) leaving the hospital to cast a vote against Mayorkas’ impeachment.

Three GOP Republicans — Reps. Ken Buck (Colo.), Tom McClintock (Calif.) and Mike Gallagher (Wis.) — opposed impeaching Mayorkas, arguing that Republicans' charges of breach of trust and refusing to comply with the law didn’t meet the constitutional bar for impeachment. With Green returning to vote, that left the tally at a tie. A fourth Republican, conference vice chair Blake Moore (Utah), then flipped his vote from yes to no — a procedural step that helps Republicans bring the impeachment articles back up.

With Scalise’s return, the vote would be 216-215 in favor of impeaching Mayorkas, assuming full attendance and no one besides Moore changing their final vote. Republicans will have to ensure they have no absences during the redo to avoid another potential embarrassing flop on the floor.

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