Voters in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, will head to the polls Tuesday in a special election that will determine which party controls the Pennsylvania state House, The Hill reports.
Archives for September 19, 2023 at 10:01 am EDT
House GOP In Open Warfare
Politico: “Beneath the surface, things are even worse for McCarthy this time around. The faceplant by the two negotiators he’d empowered has exposed a full-on House Republican rebellion that’s officially underway.”
“It’s bigger than a clash between the centrist and right wings of the party. The Freedom Caucus itself is divided, with many members swatting down a plan backed by their own leader. Many of those conservatives are now openly threatening to try to oust McCarthy if he relies on Democratic votes to avoid a shutdown, but they’re also withholding their support from the only Republican plan on paper.”
10 House Races Shift
Inside Elections made 10 ratings changes for House seats — three in the direction of Republicans and seven towards the Democrats.
Members get the full analysis here: 2024 House Overview
Strike Is High-Stakes Gamble for Labor Movement
New York Times: “What unions haven’t had during that stretch is a true gut-check moment on a national scale. Strikes by railroad workers and UPS employees, which had the potential to rattle the U.S. economy, were averted at the last minute. The fallout from the continuing writers’ and actors’ strikes has been heavily concentrated in Southern California.”
“The strike by the United Automobile Workers, whose members walked off the job at three plants on Friday, is shaping up to be such a test. A contract with substantial wage increases and other concessions from the three automakers could announce organized labor as an economic force to be reckoned with and accelerate a recent wave of organizing.”
“But there are also real pitfalls. A prolonged strike could undermine the three established U.S. automakers — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, which owns Chrysler, Jeep and Ram — and send the politically crucial Midwest into recession. If the union is seen as overreaching, or if it settles for a weak deal after a costly stoppage, public support could sour.”
Biden to Urge Nations to Protect and Nurture Democracy
“President Biden will attempt on Tuesday to focus global attention on the need to protect and nurture democracies, calling for the world to continue backing Ukraine and urging advanced nations to do more to bolster economies in the developing world,” the New York Times reports.
“In his third speech as president to the United Nations, Mr. Biden is expected to promote his administration’s achievements around the globe even as he confronts challenges at home: growing resistance to additional Ukraine aid, a looming government shutdown, inflation and listless approval ratings ahead of next year’s election.”
Fed Creeps Toward Next Phase in Fight Against Inflation
“Federal Reserve officials are expected to leave interest rates unchanged at their meeting on Wednesday, buying themselves more time to assess whether borrowing costs are high enough to weigh down the economy and wrestle inflation under control,” the New York Times reports.
“But investors are likely to focus less on what policymakers do on Wednesday — and more on what they say about the future. Wall Street will closely watch whether Fed policymakers still expect to make another interest rate increase before the end of the year or whether they are edging closer to the next phase in their fight against rapid inflation.”
Trumpworld Is Mostly Ignoring DeSantis
“When Ron DeSantis first announced his candidacy, he was Donald Trump’s clearest rival—and a favorite punching bag for his minions. Now, Trumpworld sees little need to punch down,” the Daily Beast reports.
Trial Date Set for Dominion’s Lawsuit Against Newsmax
The $1.6 billion defamation case Dominion Voting Systems brought against Newsmax following the 2020 presidential election is set to go on trial in late September 2024, a judge ruled, CNN reports.
Quote of the Day
“Some of these folks would vote against the Bible because there’s not enough Jesus in it.”
— Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), quoted by Politico, on the House Freedom Caucus.
Tim Scott Praises Firing Striking Workers
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said during a Monday campaign event, when asked about the United Auto Workers strike, that former President Ronald Reagan “gave us a great example” when he fired striking federal workers in the 1980s, NBC News reports.
Democratic Voters Actually Like Joe Biden
Dan Pfeiffer: “Political narratives can be misleading. On the Republican side, the conversation is about Donald Trump’s stranglehold over his base. Republican voters’ devotion to Trump is portrayed as being so strong that the former President is compared to a cult leader. Reading press coverage of Joe Biden these days, one would think that Joe Biden was holding off an insurrection among his own voters. But that’s not what the polls show at ball.”
“Biden and Trump have nearly identical favorable ratings from members of their own party. In the recent New York Times/Sienna poll, Trump’s is 77/21. Biden’s is 77/19. In the most recent YouGov/Economist poll, Trump’s favorable rating among Republicans is 75/24 and Biden’s is 81/17 among Democrats. Republicans are about 10 points more enthusiastic, and both Trump and Biden will need to raise those numbers before the election, but the idea that Democratic voters are walking away from Biden does not show up in the polls.”
Indicted Trump Claims Solidarity with Black Voters
Donald Trump “is pushing his mug shot, arrests and criminal charges to try to claim new solidarity with Black voters — a group that has largely shunned him in elections,” Axios reports.
“Trump has latched on to a narrative promoted last month by Fox News commentators and others in conservative media — that his arrests could boost his standing among African Americans who believe the criminal justice system is unfair.”
Vance Says EVs Pose ‘Existential Threat’ to Autoworkers
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) writes in the Toledo Blade:
“With this moment, the UAW leadership has an opportunity they cannot let slip through their grasp. Rather than relenting to the Biden administration’s unjust transition to EVs, the UAW should use their leverage and force the President to stop subsidizing an industry that benefits Communist China more than it does American workers.”
McCarthy Foes Eye Higher Office
“Several of the House Republicans currently blocking their party from passing a budget deal may have their eye on higher office — and that’s causing some gripes among their colleagues,” Semafor reports.
Derrick Van Orden Took a Bow After Cursing at Teenagers
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) “took a celebratory bow after he reportedly yelled and cursed at a group of teenage Senate pages while giving a late-night tour of the U.S. Capitol in July, according to Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), who on Monday viewed surveillance footage of the interaction,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“Other than the reported bow, Pocan’s recounting of the footage offered few new details of the July 27 incident in which Van Orden allegedly called the group of high school-aged kids ‘lazy shits’ and told them to ‘get the fuck up’ off the floor as the pages were lying on their backs in the Capitol Rotunda taking pictures of the building’s dome during their final week at work.”
China’s Ex-Foreign Minister Ousted After Alleged Affair
“Senior Chinese officials were told that an internal Communist Party investigation found ex-Foreign Minister Qin Gang to have engaged in an extramarital affair that lasted throughout his tenure as Beijing’s top envoy to Washington,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Qin, once considered a trusted aide to leader Xi Jinping, was stripped of his foreign minister title in July—without explanation—after he disappeared from public view a month earlier. At one point leading up to his ouster, the Foreign Ministry said the absence of 57-year-old Qin was due to health reasons.”
Prisoner Swap with Iran Could Pave Way for Talks
Washington Post: “After years of escalating tensions with the United States, Iran may have seen Monday’s prisoner swap as a last chance to secure access — albeit limited — to funds at a time when the country’s economy is sputtering after years of international sanctions and economic mismanagement.”
“There is also hope that these small steps could lead to discussion of more substantive issues such as a return to the nuclear deal — though that could be hampered by uncertainty of what sort of leadership will be running the United States after the elections.”
Biden Says Trump Is Trying to Destroy the Nation
“President Joe Biden on Monday told a packed Broadway theater full of big-name stars hosting a fundraiser in his honor that he was running for reelection because Donald Trump was determined to destroy the nation,” the AP reports.
“It was the among the president’s strongest rebukes of the Republican front-runner and former president, who is facing criminal charges for his role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election.”
