Pentagon Chief Clears Out Last-Minute Trump Picks
“Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin dismissed hundreds of members of the Pentagon’s policy advisory boards Monday, ousting last-minute Trump administration nominees as well as officials appointed by previous administrations,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“By removing members, effective Feb. 16, Mr. Austin avoided selectively firing those appointed by the Trump administration.”
Quote of the Day
“When we had a Republican president and House and Senate, we kept on spending massively and adding almost a trillion dollars a year to the national debt. Now we say this is outrageous adding so much to the debt? They say we did the same thing when we were in charge. It does show that you have to be consistent in your arguments.”
— Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune.
Inside the Brutal Power Struggle at Homeland Security
The Intercept: “Tensions ran so high at the Department of Homeland Security’s oversight wing that one senior official fantasized about Arya Stark, the fictional assassin in Game of Thrones, ‘taking care of’ the agency chief.”
“The investigation, conducted in 2020 by an outside law firm, reveals bureaucratic infighting so bitter that it drove out an agency head and led to an array of startling allegations, including that a high-level official made threatening comments about a concealed weapon during a meeting. The investigation paints a picture of DHS’s Office of Inspector General in chaos.”
An Unintended Risk If Democrats Go It Alone
NBC News: “Democrats considering a maneuver to forgo bipartisan support to pass Covid-19 relief are confronting an unintended consequence: Doing so could automatically cut Medicare.
“Under the Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, known as PAYGO, new laws that raise the national debt automatically trigger offsetting cuts in some safety net programs.”
Trump’s Lawyers Submit Embarrassing Typo
Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers misspelled “United States Senate” in their opening brief ahead of the impeachment trial next week.
Buttigieg Confirmed as Transportation Secretary
“The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Pete Buttigieg as Transportation secretary, handing the former presidential candidate a wide array of challenges — from President Joe Biden’s environmental priorities to the Covid-19 pandemic,” CNBC reports.
Newsom’s Approval Rate Falls Sharply
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s approval rating has plummeted to just 46% as the public sours on his pandemic management, according to a new Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll.
Politico: “Those findings put the Democratic governor in a precarious place as he confronts the possibility of a recall election fueled by anger over the governor’s pandemic response.”
“If it makes the ballot, Newsom’s support is tepid: just 45 percent of voters said they would vote to retain him, with 36 percent backing removal and about a fifth of voters undecided.”
Manchin Doesn’t Support Minimum Wage Hike
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said that he does not support increasing the minimum age to $15 an hour—a critical roadblock to including the proposal in the final coronavirus relief bill, The Hill reports.
After the Fall
Coming soon: After the Fall: Being American in the World We’ve Made by Ben Rhodes.
“Why is democracy so threatened in America and around the world? And what can we do about it? A former White House aide and close confidante to President Barack Obama travels the globe in a deeply personal, beautifully observed quest for answers.”
After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Rhodes, Ben (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 339 Pages - 06/01/2021 (Publication Date) - Random House (Publisher)
Virginia GOP Lawmaker Sues Over Being Censured
“A firebrand conservative Virginia state senator seeking the Republican nomination for governor filed a federal lawsuit Monday that seeks to undo her legislative colleagues’ recent decision to censure her for an alleged ‘pattern of unacceptable conduct,'” the AP reports.
“In a bipartisan vote last week, the Virginia Senate approved a measure rebuking Sen. Amanda Chase over a series of incendiary incidents during her tenure, including remarks in which she seemed to voice support for those who participated in storming the U.S. Capitol last month.”
Kaine Abandons Effort to Censure Trump
“After floating the idea last week of filing a motion to censure President Donald Trump, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said Tuesday he won’t file due to the lack of support from his colleagues,” USA Today reports.
Said Kaine: “We don’t have enough support on the Republican side because they don’t want to bar Trump from running from office and I don’t have enough support on the Democratic side because for most of my colleagues, it’s impeachment or nothing.”
Biden Consolidates the Left
Mehdi Hassan: “During the Democratic presidential primaries, I was one of Biden’s fiercest critics on the left… The former vice president, I averred, ‘would be a disaster.’ Well… maybe… perhaps… I was wrong. There, I said it. The new president has been far from a disaster.”
Rich Lowry: “The fact is that Biden is governing as he promised — further to the left of his own record, further to the left of his ex-boss, former President Barack Obama, and further to the left of any Democrat who made his career prior to the ascendency of the cultural left.”
“The lesson is that the most important thing that any movement can do is influence the direction of a major political party. If the center of gravity of a party moves, the entire establishment moves with it. So it is that Biden, who has never been woke or surrounded himself with radicals, is attempting to deliver victories to the left-wing of his party almost unimaginable eight or 12 years ago — and do it quickly.”
Ginni Thomas Apologizes to Husband’s Clerks
“Conservative political activist Virginia Thomas told her husband Justice Clarence Thomas’s former law clerks that she was sorry for a rift that developed among them after her election advocacy of President Donald Trump and endorsement of the Jan. 6 rally in D.C. that resulted in violence and death at the Capitol,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Thomas: “I owe you all an apology. I have likely imposed on you my lifetime passions.”
Trump Continued a Long, Losing Tradition
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Biden’s Agenda Is Very Popular
“When asked about the 20 policies that define President Biden’s agenda, more Americans support than oppose all 20 of them,” according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
“The margins are decisive. The majority of Biden’s proposals garner at least twice as much support as opposition. Nearly half are favored by more than 60 percent of Americans.”
Key takeaway: “Of all 20 policies covered by the poll, the two most popular were the ones at the center of Biden’s current COVID proposal: $2,000 relief checks (74% favor vs. 13% oppose) and increased federal funding for vaccination (69% favor vs. 17% oppose).”
Josh Hawley Has Best Fundraising Month Yet
“January was Sen. Josh Hawley’s best fundraising month—by far—since his 2018 election, with a flood of small-dollar donations more than eclipsing the corporate cash he lost after leading an effort to block certification of President Biden’s Electoral College win,” Axios reports.
“Corporate PACs cut ties with the Missouri Republican after the Capitol insurrection that followed the Hawley-led gambit. But his grassroots fundraising bonanza in the weeks after shows the GOP base still firmly in Hawley’s camp.”
Trump’s Actions Described as Historic ‘Betrayal’
“House Democrats made their case to convict former president Donald Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in a sweeping impeachment brief filed with the Senate Tuesday that accused Trump of whipping his supporters into a ‘frenzy’ and described him as ‘singularly responsible’ for the mayhem that ensued,” the Washington Post reports.
Said the brief: “If provoking an insurrectionary riot against a Joint Session of Congress after losing an election is not an impeachable offense, it is hard to imagine what would be.”
