Political Wire

Top Trump Aides Will Defy Subpoenas

October 6, 2021 at 9:52 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and other top aides subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack are expected to defy orders for documents and testimony related to January 6,” The Guardian reports.

“The move to defy the subpoenas would mark the first major investigative hurdle faced by the select committee and threatens to touch off an extended legal battle as the former president pushes some of his most senior aides to undercut the inquiry.”

AT&T Helped Build Far Right TV Network

October 6, 2021 at 9:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“One America News, the far-right network whose fortunes and viewership rose amid the triumph and tumult of the Trump administration, has flourished with support from a surprising source: AT&T Inc, the world’s largest communications company,” Reuters reports.

“A Reuters review of court records shows the role AT&T played in creating and funding OAN, a network that continues to spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and the COVID-19 pandemic.”

California Shakes Off the Delta Variant

October 6, 2021 at 9:47 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Covid-19 hospitalizations have dropped by half from the summer peak, as California continues to steadily, if slowly, shake off the worst of the Delta surge,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“California reached its summer peak in hospitalizations on the last day of August, when 8,353 people with confirmed COVID-19 were in the state’s hospitals. As of Monday, there were 4,467 people hospitalized — a number last seen in early August as the Delta surge picked up steam.”

Tens of Thousands Could Have Debt Erased

October 6, 2021 at 9:45 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The U.S. Department of Education has announced a drastic overhaul of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program that it says will allow tens of thousands of borrowers to get out of debt, NPR reports.

Climate Change Is Melting Russia’s Permafrost

October 6, 2021 at 9:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal: “Thawing earth once thought to be permanently frozen is springing to life and threatening a crucial chunk of Russia’s economy. The melting of the thick layer of the earth known as permafrost is a result of climate change, according to scientists and Russia government research. Two-thirds of the country sits on such soil, including much of its oil and gas infrastructure.”

Related from Green That Life: Should we be following Iceland’s sustainability model?

A Power Play While the Governor’s Away

October 6, 2021 at 8:09 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) said he will rescind an executive order involving Covid-19 vaccines by Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, and the commanding general of the Idaho National Guard also on Tuesday told McGeachin she can’t activate troops to send to the U.S.-Mexico border,” the AP reports.

“Little and Major General Michael Garshak made the statements as McGeachin on Tuesday in a flurry of activity attempted to exercise her authority as acting governor with Little out of the state.”

Youngkin Echoes Trump’s Call for Election ‘Audit’

October 6, 2021 at 8:07 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin continues to call for an ‘audit’ of the voting machines in his state, an echo of the Republican push to investigate 2020 election results around the country following former President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims of fraud,” Politico reports.

Young Communists Pose New Threat to Putin

October 6, 2021 at 8:04 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A candidate for the Communist Party in Russia’s parliamentary elections, Mikhail Lobanov, went overnight from being an obscure university math lecturer to being the new face of a rising threat to the Kremlin,” the Washington Post reports.

“He nearly derailed a high-profile, pro-Putin candidate in southwest Moscow in last month’s voting. Then Lobanov claimed his victory was stolen by authorities via an opaque new system of online voting.”

“Russia’s Communist Party has long been known for its compliance, never threatening the Kremlin, in return for state funding and perks. But some young communists and leftist allies did not get that memo. They are starting to behave like a genuine opposition.”

China-Taiwan Tensions Are Worst In Four Decades

October 6, 2021 at 7:55 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Nikkei Asia: “Military tensions with China are at their worst in more than 40 years, Taiwan’s defense minister said on Wednesday, days after record numbers of Chinese aircraft flew into the island’s air defense zone.”

“Tensions have hit a new high between Taipei and Beijing, which claims the democratic island as its own territory, and Chinese military aircraft have repeatedly flown through Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.”

Times of London: “China has warned that ‘war may be triggered at any time’ with Taiwan after it deployed a record number of fighter jets into the self-governing island’s air identification zone.”

Why McConnell May Want Democrats to Nuke Filibuster

October 6, 2021 at 7:51 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Bernstein: “For one thing, the filibuster doesn’t just protect minorities from legislation they don’t like; it also protects senators in the majority party from votes they don’t want to take. If Democrats vote to establish a filibuster exception for the debt limit, pressure will increase to do the same for every party priority — including those that lack the votes to pass.”

“If Republicans win House and Senate majorities next year, they may also be able to force Biden to veto lots of things he’d rather not veto in the run-up to the 2024 election. Of course, a future Republican majority could blow up the filibuster regardless of what Democrats do now, but McConnell probably thinks it’ll be easier if Democrats act first.”

The Washington Post notes McConnell has voted to raise the debt ceiling 32 times in his career.

If Democrats Change the Filibuster to Lift Debt Limit

October 6, 2021 at 6:57 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Punchbowl News: “Getting rid of the filibuster just for the debt limit really means the legislative filibuster is gone forever. Democrats can pretend otherwise, but look what happened when the nuclear option was used to ‘limit’ the filibuster on executive-branch nominations in 2013. Now all executive branch nominees are subject to simple majority votes.”

“Once the door is opened, it’ll be hard to close it again. If you allow an exception for the debt limit, why not voting rights? Or guns? Or health care? Or climate change?”

Playbook: “Just as eliminating the filibuster for court nominees eventually led to doing so for Supreme Court nominees, an exception for the debt ceiling would inevitably trigger other demands. One could imagine voting rights advocates crying foul, for instance, insisting that their issue is worthy of similar treatment.”

Biden’s Approval Rating Isn’t Bouncing Back

October 6, 2021 at 6:51 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

FiveThirtyEight: “At the time, we theorized that Biden’s approval rating might recover before too long, especially once the news cycle moved on from the crisis in Afghanistan. After all, presidents’ approval ratings tend to revert to the mean, and fluctuations in former President Donald Trump’s approval rating were especially short-lived.”

“But we’re now more than a month removed from Biden’s difficult August, and there have been no signs of a rebound in his approval rating. At the end of the day on Oct. 5, Biden’s approval/disapproval spread was 44.8 percent to 47.9 percent. That approval rating, in fact, is so far the lowest of his presidency.”

McAuliffe Targets Taylor Swift Fans

October 6, 2021 at 6:47 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Weeks before Virginia’s gubernatorial election, the campaign for Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe is reaching out to an unexpected constituency: Taylor Swift fans,” The Verge reports.

“On Tuesday, the McAuliffe campaign launched a series of Facebook, Instagram, and Google search ads highlighting his opponent Glenn Youngkin’s role in the controversial purchase of Taylor Swift’s master recordings in 2019. The buyout of Swift’s masters has been a point of bitter contention for the singer and her fans and could be an unexpected liability in the upcoming race.”

Democrats Lost the Most In Midwestern Factory Towns

October 6, 2021 at 6:45 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “The share of the Democratic presidential vote in the Midwest declined most precipitously between 2012 and 2020 in counties that experienced the steepest losses in manufacturing and union jobs and saw declines in health care, according to a new report to be released this month.”

“The party’s worsening performance in the region’s midsize communities — often overlooked places like Chippewa Falls, Wis., and Bay City, Mich. — poses a dire threat to Democrats, the report warns.”

Yellen Defends IRS Rule Tracking Tranactions

October 6, 2021 at 6:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is defending a Biden administration proposal that would require banks to report data to the Internal Revenue Service on transactions over $600, calling the collection of information ‘routine,’ after taking heat for the idea that is widely seen as an unprecedented invasion of privacy,” the New York Post reports.

Facebook Takes Defiant Stance

October 6, 2021 at 6:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “After four years of almost continuous scandal, Facebook is approaching its latest controversy over political polarization and the toxic effects of social media in a more aggressive and defiant way than it has previously, say current and former employees, including executives who helped shape the company’s earlier responses.”

“Gone is the familiar script in which chief executive Mark Zuckerberg issues a formal apology — sometimes in long blogs on his personal Facebook page or over live-streamed video for a Congressional hearing — then takes responsibility and promises change.”

“In its place, the company has deployed a slate of executives to mount a public defense while quibbling with the details of allegations from Frances Haugen, the former project manager who left Facebook with tens of thousands of documents.”

Axios: Facebook’s perfect storm.

Why Trump Wants to Tweet

October 5, 2021 at 8:56 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Donald Trump’s post-office online engagement is hitting new lows,“ Axios reports.

“It helps explain why the former president recently asked a federal judge to have Twitter restore his signature account.”

Biden Says Democrats Could Change Filibuster Rules

October 5, 2021 at 8:48 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Biden said it is a ‘real possibility’ that Senate Democrats could seek to revise the chamber’s filibuster rules to overcome a Republican blockade on raising the debt ceiling,” the Washington Post reports.

“Such a major change could give Democrats the ability to stave off a potential, calamitous default roughly two weeks before a critical fiscal deadline — but only if all party lawmakers agree to loosen the Senate’s typical 60-vote threshold in a way some, including Biden, have been disinclined to do for months.”

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