President Biden assured President Volodymyr Zelensky during a call Sunday that the U.S. and its allies will “respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine,” Axios reports.
China-Russia Cooperation Raises New Challenge
“Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping oversaw an ambitious joint military exercise in China this summer, which along with reported collaborations in aviation, undersea and hypersonic-weapons technology point to a solidifying defense alignment,“ the Wall Street Journal reports.
“U.S. officials and military specialists say it is difficult to pin down the level of collaboration between two nations that tightly control information, and whose actions are increasingly opaque to outsiders. But Western officials and defense experts are growing more convinced of the closer relationship based on recent economic alliances, military exercises and joint defense development, as well as the few public statements from government leaders.”
Unthinkable
A must-read book out this week: Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD).
“Raskin tells the story of the forty-five days at the start of 2021 that permanently changed his life—and his family’s—as he confronted the painful loss of his son to suicide, lived through the violent insurrection in our nation’s Capitol, and led the impeachment effort to hold President Trump accountable for inciting the political violence.”
Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Raskin, Jamie (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 465 Pages - 01/04/2022 (Publication Date) - Harper (Publisher)
Ivanka Asked Her Father to ‘Stop the Violence’
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said that the House committee investigating Jan. 6 has received testimony that then-President Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, repeatedly asked her father to intervene to stop the attack on the Capitol, The Hill reports.
Said Cheney: “We know his daughter — we have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to ‘please stop this violence.”
She added: “The committee has firsthand testimony now that he was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the attack on television as the assault on the Capitol occurred.”
Harry Reid to Lie In State Next Week
Congressional leaders and the family of late Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) are finalizing details to have the former majority leader lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda during the week of Jan. 10, Axios reports.
Manchin Returns to Negotiations on Biden Agenda
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) “is open to reengaging on the climate and child care provisions in President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda if the White House removes the enhanced child tax credit from the $1.75 trillion package — or dramatically lowers the income caps for eligible families,” Axios reports.
“The holdback senator’s engagement on specifics indicates negotiations between him and the White House could get back on track.”
More from Axios: “All eyes are on Monday night’s Senate leadership meeting, which Manchin will attend, and Tuesday’s weekly caucus lunch.”
“The lunch will be the first time all Senate Democrats are together in one room since Manchin made his opposition to the bill public last month.”
Kim Jong-Un Pledges to End Food Shortages
“Kim Jong-Un has begun his second decade as North Korea’s leader with a vow to alleviate the country’s chronic food shortages, state media reported on Saturday — a problem that he inherited from his late father 10 years ago and has yet to fix,” the New York Times reports.
Schiff Says Russia Invasion of Ukraine ‘Very Likely’
House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Russia is “very likely” to invade Ukraine and might only be deterred by “enormous sanctions,” The Guardian reports.
Said Schiff: “I also think that a powerful deterrent is the understanding that if they do invade, it is going to bring Nato closer to Russia, not push it farther away.”
Flight Cancellations Continue to Pile Up
“With travelers trying to head home at the end of the holiday season, airlines had canceled more than 2,400 flights in the United States by Sunday afternoon,” the Washington Post reports.
Meanwhile, Politico reports AT&T and Verizon rejected Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s plea to delay a new round of 5G service “amid warnings of aviation chaos.”
What to Expect from Trump on January 6
Politico: “If he follows the script laid out in his announcement of the news conference, he will commit a whitewashing of the attacks on Jan. 6, 2021, repeating the lie that the 2020 election was rigged and defending his part in fomenting the insurrection — all while a solemn prayer service is held at the Capitol, in a vivid split-screen moment. And, as Trump castigates Republicans not toeing his line, his event will also serve as a marker of Trump’s extraordinary dominion over the GOP.”
“One year ago, many prominent Republicans predicted Trump’s behavior on and ahead of Jan. 6 would relegate him to the fringes of the right, shaming the GOP back into the mainstream. Instead, the opposite has happened.”
Said GOP strategist Ralph Reed: “It’s extraordinary. You could make the argument that he’s in a stronger position within the Republican Party today than he perhaps ever has been.”
The Hill: Officials brace for January 6 anniversary.
Most Americans Expect More Political Violence
A new CBS/YouGov poll finds that 68% of respondents see the Jan. 6 attacks as “a harbinger of increasing political violence, not an isolated incident.”
Cheney Says Trump Is Threat to Democracy
“Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said she fears that if former President Donald Trump were to become president again, it could be a lethal blow to American democracy,” Politico reports.
Said Cheney: “You know, we entrust the survival of our republic into the hands of the chief executive, and when a president refuses to tell the mob to stop, when he refuses to defend any of the coordinate branches of government, he cannot be trusted.”
GOP Lawmaker Says Trump Is the Only Option
Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI) told NBC News that the GOP has “no other option” than to back former President Donald Trump.
Said Meijer: “Given how President Biden, when he was elected into office, you know, said he would be moderate and look for bipartisan solutions. But then after, and frankly, I blame the former president for this, after we lost the two Senate seats in Georgia and the Senate flipped, it became an exercise in trying to be an LBJ or FDR style presidency and enact transformational change in the absence of any compelling mandate from the American people to do so.”
He added: “So that gave the rallying signal, that created a very steep divide, and at the end of the day, there’s no other option right now in the Republican Party.”
Trump Endorses In Illinois GOP Primary
Jumping into Illinois politics, former President Donald Trump endorsed Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) on Saturday, setting up a bruising 2022 GOP primary with Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), who was a co-chair of Trump’s re-election campaign in the state, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Child Tax Credit Ends Just as Covid Surges Anew
New York Times: “The payments, which started in July and amounted to hundreds of dollars a month for most families, have helped millions of American families pay for food, rent and child care; kept millions of children out of poverty; and injected billions of dollars into the U.S. economy, according to government data and independent research.”
“Now, the benefit — an expansion of the existing child tax credit — is ending, just as the latest wave of coronavirus cases is keeping people home from work and threatening to set off a new round of furloughs.”
Trump Is Making the Midterms a Referendum on Him
The Atlantic: “Donald Trump will own the midterms just as much as Joe Biden will. Voters’ verdicts on Trump will come in Idaho, Alabama, and Georgia this spring. Then in Arizona, Alaska, and Wyoming in summer. Trump has already endorsed candidates in 2022 primary contests in all of those states. He’s made picks in nearly 40 congressional races to date, most recently training his ammunition on the House Republicans who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure package. He’s made another nine endorsements in gubernatorial primaries, including one against the GOP incumbent in Idaho.”
“The former president’s ultimate record in these races will serve as the first barometer of his continued strength as he eyes a comeback bid for the White House in 2024. So far, his picks have lifted challengers to GOP incumbents who have crossed him and a bevy of newcomers who are eager to align with his brand.”
Most Think January 6 Attack Threatened Democracy
A new ABC/Ipsos poll finds an overwhelming majority (72%) of Americans believe the people involved in the attack on the Capitol were “threatening democracy,” while 1 in 4 Americans believes that the individuals involved were “protecting democracy.”
Broken down by party identification, Democrats are nearly unanimous (96%) in believing that those involved in the attacks were threatening democracy. Republicans are more split, with 45% saying it was a threat and 52% saying those involved in the riot were “protecting democracy.”
Twitter Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene
Twitter has permanently suspended Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) personal account for spreading Covid-19 misinformation, Insider reports.
The official account for Greene remains active.
