Zelensky Expected to Visit Capitol Tomorrow
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to visit the Capitol Wednesday, Punchbowl News reports.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged lawmakers in a letter Tuesday to come to Washington for “a very special focus on Democracy Wednesday night.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene Lashes Out at ‘Never Kevin’ Caucus
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) dropped a 25-tweet thread in support of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) to become House speaker while lashing out at her “friends” in the House GOP conference.
Said Greene: “It’s time for my friends in the Never Kevin Caucus to stop lying to the base just because they don’t like Kevin McCarthy. They do not have a plan and there is no consensus candidate.”
She added: “Sabotaging the country for personal reasons is not brave or righteous, it’s selfish and foolish.”
North Dakota Lieutenant Governor Steps Down
North Dakota Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford announced that he will resign from his position on Jan. 2 after serving six years as Gov. Doug Burgum’s right-hand man, the Fargo Forum reports.
Tammy Miller, the governor’s chief operating officer, will take over the role.
January 6 Panel Cooperating with Special Counsel
“The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has begun extensively cooperating with the Justice Department’s special counsel charged with overseeing investigations into former President Donald Trump,” Punchbowl News reports.
“Jack Smith, who Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed as special counsel last month, sent the select committee a letter Dec. 5 requesting all of the panel’s materials from the 18-month probe.”
“Starting last week, the select committee began sending Smith’s team documents and transcripts. Much of the production from the Jan. 6 committee is in relation to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and John Eastman, the Trump lawyer at the center of the ‘fake elector’ scheme.”
Ron DeSantis Ramps Up Focus on School Boards
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “wants to continue wielding his political influence in school board races across the state after his campaign helped two dozen conservative candidates win during this year’s midterm elections,” Politico reports.
“The Republican governor this week said he intends to flip more local seats from liberal to conservative-leaning education officials, taking aim at boards in areas such as Broward and Hillsborough counties that have pushed back against Republican policies.”
U.S. Confiscated Massive Amounts of Fentanyl
“The Drug Enforcement Administration said Tuesday it has seized more than 379 million potentially fatal doses of illegal fentanyl this year, as Mexican drug-trafficking organizations continue to flood the United States with the cheap synthetic opioid responsible for record numbers of U.S. overdose deaths,” the Washington Post reports.
Russia Seizes Oligarch’s Hotel Complex
“A Russian court has ordered the seizure of a luxury hotel complex owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, one of the few oligarchs to have criticised President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, in a sign of the pressure facing the country’s tycoons since the invasion,” the Financial Times reports.
“Deripaska has been under US sanctions since 2018 over his links to the Kremlin. But the metals tycoon is the most prominent of the small number of Russian business leaders who have spoken out since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February.”
Funding Bill Includes Money for January 6 Prosecutions
The $1.7 trillion government funding bill released Tuesday includes extra money for the Justice Department to prosecute Jan. 6 cases, NBC News reports.
Virginia Democrats Vote to Fill Donald McEachin’s Seat
Virginia’s 4th congressional district is holding its Democratic “firehouse primary” to replace the late Rep. Donald McEachin (D-VA), the New York Times reports.
The winner will be considered the overwhelming favorite in the February 21, 2023 special election as Joe Biden carried the district 67% to 31% in 2020.
Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Though polls close at 7 p.m., it could take a while to determine the winner. Vote counting won’t begin until Wednesday morning. And there are multiple lawsuits in the works alleging unfairness over the party’s decision to hold the primary on a Tuesday and with limited polling sites.”
McCarthy Backs Up Threat to GOP Senators
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — who is still trying to shore up conservative backing for his speaker bid — gave his full support to the 13 House Republicans who said they’d tank any policy priorities of GOP senators who vote for the omnibus.
Said McCarthy: “Agreed. Except no need to whip — when I’m Speaker, their bills will be dead on arrival in the House if this nearly $2T monstrosity is allowed to move forward over our objections and the will of the American people.”
Of course, one of those GOP senators backing the omnibus is Mitch McConnell.
Taliban Bans Women From Universities
Women were banned Tuesday from private and public universities in Afghanistan with immediate effect and until further notice, Bloomberg reports.
White House Braces for GOP’s Looming Afghanistan Probe
“From the moment President Biden’s Afghanistan pullout began to go wrong — chaos at Kabul’s airport, 13 U.S. service members killed by a suicide bombing, Afghans falling to their deaths from departing planes — the White House braced for withering congressional inquiries,” the Washington Post reports.
“But it never had to face one from an empowered opposition — until now. While much attention is focused on Republicans’ plans to investigate Biden’s son Hunter, some White House and other administration officials privately say an Afghanistan probe could prove more emotionally difficult and politically damaging.”
Nazi Camp Secretary Found Guilty
“A German court convicted a former Nazi camp secretary of complicity in the murder of more than 10,000 people during the Holocaust, in what is likely to be the last process connected to Nazi crimes against humanity in Germany,” Politico reports.
Prosecuting Trump Is the Least Bad Option
Jonathan Last sees three options for the Justice Department to act on the January 6 Committee referrals against Donald Trump:
- The government chooses not to prosecute: which incentivizes future attempts to overturn elections and legitimizes the stoking of political violence.
- The government prosecutes and loses: which both legitimizes the stoking of political violence and antagonizes the passions of more than a third of the country.
- The government prosecutes and wins: which creates open season for using the government to pursue political enemies, throws the 2024 Republican primary into disarray, and turns Trump into a martyr for his movement.
His conclusion: “There is no happy ending here, no scenario in which a rough comity returns to our political life. In every path, the danger to democracy increases.”
Pennsylvania County Delays Certifying Vote
“More than a month after the midterm elections, Pennsylvania still hasn’t certified its results of the 2022 election. Recount requests are holding up a process that has been playing out in sometimes dramatic fashion at the county level — producing at least one scene that should set off alarm bells for anyone concerned about election deniers refining their strategy ahead of 2024,” Vox reports.
“The state’s counties were supposed to certify their results by November 29 under Pennsylvania law, but nine of them missed the deadline, including Allegheny County, which encompasses Pittsburgh. As of Monday afternoon, all but one county ended up certifying the results, but not without a fight. The state can only certify when all the counties have done so.”
Biden Said Iran Nuclear Deal Is Dead
President Biden was caught on video saying the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is “dead,” but stressed the U.S. won’t formally announce it, Axios reports.
Caro Still Working Away on Fifth LBJ Book
“The good news on Robert Caro’s long-awaited next book is that he knows the final words,” the AP reports.
“The bad news is that he’s known them for years and remains far from concluding his Lyndon B. Johnson series. Caro, who also wrote The Power Broker, has published four volumes of The Years of Lyndon Johnson over a period of 40 years. Volume 4, The Passage of Power, came out in 2012.”
“The fifth volume is expected to cover Johnson’s first full year as president, 1964, and continue through the end of his administration in 1969 and his death four years later.”
Said Caro of the final book: “It is huge.”
No finer books have ever been written about politics and power. Robert Caro is truly extraordinary.
