Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) accused President Biden in a bizarre video — without any evidence — of being involved in “prostitution rings.”
Archives for September 29, 2023 at 1:47 pm EDT
China Blocks Executive at U.S. Firm From Leaving
“A senior executive at U.S. risk advisory firm Kroll has been barred from leaving mainland China for the past two months, heightening concerns about the risks foreign companies face when doing business in the country,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Court Ruling Puts Trump’s New York Empire at Stake
“A New York judge’s sweeping ruling on Tuesday punishing Donald Trump for years of alleged business fraud could force the former president to sell the New York real estate empire he built over decades that helped catapult him to fame, television stardom and the White House,” the Washington Post reports.
“The decision in a civil case accusing Trump of illegally inflating his property values orders the cancellation of his New York business licenses, potentially wresting from his control of dozens of properties worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Two Key Facts About U.S. Covid Policy
Nate Silver points out two related facts that make for “politically inconvenient” bedfellows:
- Until vaccines became available, there was little difference in Covid death rates between blue states and red states.
- After vaccines became available, there were clear differences, with red states having higher death rates, almost certainly as a result of lower vaccine uptake among Republicans.
“In other words, the vaccines made a real and obvious dent in Covid, whereas the effect of other NPIs — such as school and business closures, masks, and social distancing — is much less clear.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“We don’t take an oath to a king, or queen, or a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator… we take an oath to the Constitution… and we’re willing to die to protect it.”
— Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley, at his retirement ceremony.
House GOP Advances Spending Plan
“House Republicans on Friday advanced a month-long plan to fund the government — but it’s not yet clear if they can pass the bill itself with mere hours remaining before a shutdown starts at midnight on Saturday,” Politico reports.
“Republicans paired the funding stopgap, known as a continuing resolution, with steep spending cuts and a GOP border bill. They prevailed, 218-210, with every Republican present voting yes.”
GOP Braces for Nikki Haley-Ron DeSantis Showdown
“For months, Nikki Haley campaigned in relative obscurity,” NBC News reports.
“But after two debates in which the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations hammered her top-billed rivals while leaving virtually unscathed herself, and a summer in which her national and early-state polling improved while opponents stagnated, a growing number of Republicans see her entering a two-person contest with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for second place, as each seeks to be the leading alternative to former President Donald Trump heading into the early states this winter.”
New York Times: Key GOP megadonor network will hear pitches from DeSantis and Haley camps.
Matt Gaetz Asks Democrats to Help Oust McCarthy
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) “is privately courting some House Democrats to help him oust Kevin McCarthy from the speakership,” Politico reports.
“The Florida Republican, who is threatening to force a vote on booting McCarthy if he works with Democrats to avoid a shutdown, approached multiple Democrats on the floor late Thursday night to discuss how they would vote on a possible vote of no confidence against McCarthy.”
Replacing Feinstein on Judiciary Won’t Be Easy
Politico: “Democrats will need 60 votes to appoint a senator to fill Feinstein’s role on the Judiciary panel, meaning at least 10 Republicans would need to vote in favor of filling Democrats’ majority on the panel, assuming they move to do so before someone is appointed to the California Senate seat.”
“Senators are typically assigned to committees by unanimous consent, but such orders are subject to debate and can be filibustered. Republican senators could slow, or stop, Democrats from filling the Judiciary roster.”
“The panel, under Democratic control, has been advancing scores of judicial nominations that Republicans object to. Leaving the panel short one Democratic vote would hamper the majority’s steady confirmation of President Joe Biden’s nominees.”
Who Will Replace Dianne Feinstein?
“The death of Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat, immediately turns the spotlight to an intense, ongoing three-way battle to replace her, fraught with racial, political and generational tensions over one of the most coveted positions in California and national politics,” the New York Times reports.
“It also puts new pressure on Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will chose someone to fill her term through the end of 2024. Mr. Newsom, whose profile has risen in national Democratic politics in recent weeks as he has traveled the country on behalf of President Biden’s re-election campaign, had come under fire for announcing he would not pick any of the declared candidates in filling any vacancy, so as not to elevate them and give them an advantage in the Democratic primary race.”
The 19th: Feinstein’s death leaves critical Senate vacancy amid contentious race to replace her.
Key Inflation Indicator Rose Less Than Expected
“An economic indicator the Federal Reserve favors as an inflation gauge rose less than expected in August, showing that the central bank’s fight against higher prices is making progress,” CNBC reports.
Right-Wing Thinks McCarthy Set Up Impeachment to Fail
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told CNN that he heard directly from Republicans on the House floor that the right-wing believes Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) set up the initial impeachment hearing into President Biden to fail.
Said Raskin: “They couldn’t believe that such a disaster would just happen by accident.”
Near-Total Abortion Ban in Idaho Reinstated
A federal appeals court has lifted a lower court ruling that prevented the State of Idaho from enforcing aspects of its near-total ban on abortion, Politico reports.
Proud Boy on the Lam Arrested at His Home
A Proud Boy convicted in the Jan. 6 attack but who failed to show up to his sentencing last month was arrested at his home in Florida, the Naples Daily News reports.
He faces 14 years in prison.
Supreme Court to Decide Social Media Cases
“The Supreme Court on Friday said it would wade into the future of free speech online and decide whether laws passed in Texas and Florida can restrict social media companies from removing certain political posts or accounts,” the Washington Post reports.
“The justices’ decision to take the landmark social media cases came in an order that also added 10 other cases to the calendar for the Supreme Court term that begins on Monday. Earlier, the high court had said it would tackle controversial issues involving gun regulations, voting rights and the power of federal agencies. Those cases will be heard as the justices are under intense pressure from Democratic lawmakers to address ethics issues facing some of their colleagues, including potential conflicts in some of the cases.”
The GOP’s Accidental Case for Joe Biden
William Saletan: “The Republican candidates for president have a shared set of talking points: The economy sucks, the government is too big, the national debt is out of control, and we need a border wall to stop illegal immigration. In Wednesday’s debate, they hit all those points. But they also revealed, inadvertently, that the talking points are phony.”
China Is Selling So Much to Russia Containers Are Piling Up
“Russia currently has 150,000 excess shipping containers that rail depots are struggling to manage, reflecting a surge in Chinese goods flowing into the country but much less moving out,” Bloomberg reports.
Another House GOP Fiasco
Charlie Sykes: “Fresh off a chaotic and embarrassing presidential debate, and slouching toward a government shutdown, Congressional Republicans took time out Thursday to roll out the Biden impeachment inquiry. The charitable view is that the first hearing was a dumpster fire inside a clown car wrapped in a fiasco.”
How badly did it go? Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) quipped: “As a former director of emergency management, I know a disaster when I see one.”
Neil Cavuto: “I don’t know what was achieved over these last six-plus hours… The way this was built up — where there’s smoke there would be fire…but where there’s smoke today, we got more smoke.”
