“Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) wants to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for working across the aisle to stop a government shutdown — but some Democrats are not on board,” Axios reports.
Said one senior Democrat: “I see almost no way that Matt gets most of the Dems. Many will vote present if they don’t vote No on Hakeem Jeffries’ recommendation.”
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) is stepping down from his role in House Democratic leadership after floating a primary challenge to President Biden, Axios reports.
Said Phillips: “My convictions relative to the 2024 presidential race are incongruent with the majority of my caucus, and I felt it appropriate to step aside from elected leadership.”
He added: “I celebrate Leader Jeffries for his remarkable and principled leadership, and extend gratitude to my outstanding friends and colleagues for having created space and place for my perspectives.”
“Allies of Rep. Barbara Lee are mounting a last-ditch effort to persuade Gov. Gavin Newsom to reverse himself and appoint Lee to the U.S. Senate,” Politico reports.
“The pressure campaign intensified in the hours and days since Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s death as Lee’s supporters — both outside advocates and members of the Congressional Black Caucus — sought to seize a narrow window of opportunity, arguing Newsom’s public disinclination to pick Lee had sidelined the best-qualified Black woman.”
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“An anonymous former state employee came forward Friday claiming to have evidence that the Arkansas governor’s office doctored documents and unlawfully withheld financial records that should have been made public under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA,” the Arkansas Times reports.
“The controversy concerns the $19,000 purchase of a lectern (or podium) by the governor’s office from an out-of-state events company earlier this year, as well as Gov. Sarah Sanders’ successful efforts to newly block access to certain governmental records.”
Playbook: “If McCarthy survives with the help of Democratic votes, Gaetz will no doubt relentlessly attack him, as he has already, as ‘the Democrats’ speaker.’ The overall effort will have done a lot of damage. What if Gaetz offers a second MTV, as anyone who knows him realizes he surely would, and McCarthy again has to survive with Democratic help? What happens on the second or third vote? Does Gaetz garner more Republican support? Does McCarthy need to find more Democratic support? There’s no limit to how many times Gaetz could do this. Eventually, this would become untenable for McCarthy.”
“So Democrats who take a position on the first MTV will need to consider that they may be locking themselves into a position on a vote that might be repeated.”
And this is key: “McCarthy has a card to play if he survives the first (or more) attack from Gaetz. He could try to pass a rule that raises the threshold for a motion to vacate from one member, where it is now, to, say, 10 members. How would he get the votes? Perhaps some of the Democrats who cut a deal to save McCarthy agree to vote for this rule as well. That would finally decapitate Gaetz.”
Donald Trump took to Truth Social to ask when Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) will be punished for pulling a House fire alarm.
Said Trump: “Will Congressman Jamal Bowman be prosecuted and imprisoned for very dangerously pulling and setting off the main fire alarm system in order to stop a Congressional vote that was going on in D.C. His egregious act is covered on tape, a horrible display of nerve and criminality.”
“As the nation’s capital seemed to be barreling toward another debilitating federal government shutdown this weekend, America, well, did not exactly seem to be on the edge of its collective seat,” the New York Times reports.
“Those are probably not signs of public confidence that the nation’s leaders would somehow avoid plummeting off the cliff at the last minute, even though, surprisingly, they did. Instead, they may indicate that America at this point assumes that Washington actually will go over the cliff, because that is what Washington does these days. After all, the 11th-hour congressional deal that kept the government open lasts only until mid-November.”
“America, it seems, has come to expect crisis.”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has once again teased a potential 2024 presidential run, The Messenger reports.
“The senator argued President Joe Biden and 2024 GOP hopeful Donald Trump are too partisan and influenced by extremists in their parties.”
Said Manchin: “Why not have options? People are unsatisfied right now.”
”The truth is we shouldn’t be here in the first place. It shouldn’t have gotten here in the first place. It’s time to end governing by crisis, and keep your word when you give it in the Congress.”
— President Biden, quoted by Politico, on Saturday’s stunning turnaround on a government funding bill.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned Sunday that ousting Speaker Kevin McCarthy would be a “disaster” for Republicans, Politico reports.
Said Graham: “I think Kevin is the right guy at the right time. The only way he loses his job is if a handful of Republicans join up with the Democratic party to fire him. That would be a disaster for the future of the Republican party.”
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign early Sunday left a birdcage and bird food in front of GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley’s hotel room door in Des Moines in reference to his new nickname for her, “Birdbrain,” The Messenger reports.
“I’ll survive. This is personal with Matt.”
— Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), quoted by Axios, on Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) promised attempt to oust him this week.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) “absolutely” would vote to remove McCarthy, Politico reports.
Said Ocasio-Cortez: “Would I cast that vote, absolutely. I think Kevin Mccarthy is a very weak speaker. He has clearly lost control of his caucus.”
“Rep. Matt Gaetz, the far-right Republican from Florida, said on Sunday that he would move this week to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his leadership post, promising to follow through on weeks of threats to oust him for working with Democrats to keep the government funded,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Gaetz’s announcement came the day after Mr. McCarthy, in a stunning reversal, steered around Republican opposition to a stopgap spending plan and turned to Democrats to help him push legislation through the House to avert a shutdown.“
Washington Post: “Gaetz said Sunday that he plans to introduce a motion to remove McCarthy from his leadership position, marking a dramatic escalation of the long-simmering tensions between the men. Once Gaetz does so, the House would have 48 hours to vote on the matter. The Florida Republican did not say when he would introduce the motion.”
“In the span of three hours, rank-and-file Republicans bucked House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, leaving both GOP leaders weakened Sunday heading into a critical legislative period,” the Washington Post reports.
Reuters: McCarthy faces ouster threat for avoiding shutdown.
“Speaker Kevin McCarthy began the final day before a government shutdown pinned against the ropes, facing dim prospects of passing any stopgap funding measure to avert the crisis that was to go into effect when the clock struck 12:01 a.m. on Sunday,” the New York Times reports.
“He ended it still on the ropes, having bucked expectations and passed a spending bill to keep the government open through mid-November — but only after being forced to turn to Democrats for help pushing through the legislation that his detractors denounced as a Republican surrender.”
“In between, there was a game of chicken between the House and the Senate over their competing stopgap spending plans, a fire alarm pulled by a progressive congressman in the Capitol complex, a 50-minute filibuster by the House minority leader as Democrats sought more time to figure out whether they wanted to help pass Mr. McCarthy’s plan, and more threats by Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida and his hard-right cohorts to call a vote to oust the speaker.”
CNN: Why McCarthy decided to take on his right flank and prevent the shutdown.
Aaron Blake: “The American right’s efforts to elevate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were as transparent as they were cynical. The idea, as advanced by Stephen K. Bannon and the like, was clearly to try to embarrass President Biden in the Democratic primary. So they used Kennedy’s inflated early poll standing as an excuse to treat the primary challenge from a fringe figure as something real and threatening.”
“Fox News picked up the ball and ran with it, publishing many dozens of stories and featuring him regularly on-air. House Republicans even invited him to testify on Capitol Hill.”
“It hasn’t worked. And now, it’s looking as if the whole thing could backfire.”
For members:Democrats Shouldn’t Fear RFK Jr.
“Donald Trump is set to go to trial Monday in New York’s civil lawsuit accusing him of extensive business fraud — and while his formal courtroom adversary is the state attorney general’s office, he’ll also be facing off against the judge,” Politico reports.
“In some ways, the trial is the culmination of months of antagonism between the former president and Justice Arthur Engoron, a Democrat who was elected to his current post as a Manhattan trial judge in 2015. The outcome of the nonjury trial will be entirely up to Engoron, who will make his decision on the heels of a series of fierce disputes with Trump.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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