“Senate Republicans on Wednesday are working to lock down votes within their conference to pave the way for bypassing the filibuster on a debt ceiling vote,” The Hill reports.
“GOP leadership is feeling confident that they’ll be able to round up the votes. But they aren’t there yet.”
“Former Sen. David Perdue (R) wasn’t planning to jump in the race for Georgia governor so soon. But Stacey Abrams (D) scrambled his schedule when she made the leap last week, presenting the Republican with a gut-check moment,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
Said Perdue: “When Stacey Abrams announced, it forced my hand, honestly. I was conflicted The last thing I want to do is run a campaign, but on the other hand, I can’t see the state go down this road that Stacey Abrams wants to go down. Kemp has failed to unite the party, and he can’t defeat her.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said that President Biden’s vaccine mandate is “a problem” for her and state government, the Greenville Daily News reports.
Said Whitmer: “We’re an employer too, the state of Michigan is. I know if that mandate happens, we’re going to lose state employees. That’s why I haven’t proposed a mandate at the state level. Some states have. We have not, we’re waiting to see what happens in court.”
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“A Texas school district pre-emptively pulled more than 400 books from its libraries for review following an inquiry from a Republican state lawmaker,” NBC News reports.
The school district said in a statement that it was reviewing the books “out of an abundance of caution” to “ensure they did not have any obscene or vulgar material in them.”
Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue (R) told Axios that he wouldn’t have signed the certification of the state’s 2020 election results if he had been governor at the time.
Said Perdue: “Not with the information that was available at the time and not with the information that has come out now. They had plenty of time to investigate this. And I wouldn’t have signed it until those things had been investigated and that’s all we were asking for.”
“Joe Biden has made a significant diplomatic concession to Moscow designed to prevent an invasion of Ukraine by signalling he wants to convene meetings between Nato allies and Russia to discuss Vladimir Putin’s grievances with the transatlantic security pact,” the Financial Times reports.
“For the first time, Hillary Clinton is sharing the speech she would have made if she had won the 2016 presidential election,” the Today Show reports.
“The former first lady and secretary of state grows emotional in an upcoming MasterClass lesson as she shares the speech that she had hoped to give on Nov. 8, 2016, when she ultimately lost the election to former President Donald Trump.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that there would be “effectively a diplomatic boycott” of the 2022 Beijing Olympics by Britain, which has now joined the United States and others in pulling its top officials from attendance of the Winter Games, the New York Times reports.
Australia, Canada and Lithuania have also announced a diplomatic boycott.
Former President Donald Trump was interviewed by Hugh Hewitt on his radio show:
TRUMP: So we have some big endorsements coming.
HEWITT: Please don’t, please don’t endorse Eric Greitens. That’s a nightmare, Mr. President. We’ll lose that seat. But that’s Hugh Hewitt’s opinion, not yours.
TRUMP: Well, that’s an interesting opinion, that’s true. He’s right now leading by quite a bit.
HEWITT: I know, but he will lose the seat. We will lose the seat.
TRUMP: I understand that. Okay, some people feel that.
An attorney for Roger Stone has informed the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that his client will plead the Fifth, The Hill reports.
Stone is now the third witness subpoenaed to plead the Fifth, along with former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clarke and attorney John Eastman.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she would “never forgive” former President Donald Trump and his “lackeys” for the “trauma” that Capitol Hill staff experienced during the Jan. 6 riot, The Hill reports.
Washington Post: “An executive order President Biden will sign later Wednesday leverages Washington’s buying power to cut the government’s carbon emissions 65 percent by the end of the decade. It lays out goals that would put the federal government on a path to net-zero emissions by 2050 and would add at least 10 gigawatts’ worth of clean electricity to the grid.”
“Under the new approach, federal operations would run entirely on carbon-free electricity by 2030. By 2035, the government would stop buying gas-powered vehicles, switching to zero-emission heavy-duty trucks and cars. A decade after that, most of the buildings owned or leased by the government would no longer contribute to the carbon pollution that’s warming the planet.”
Related from Sara Goddard: What are Carbon Offsets?
“Sen. Joe Manchin (WV), a key Democratic holdout on reforming the filibuster, is discussing small changes to Senate rules with Republicans,” The Hill reports.
“Manchin’s discussions with GOP colleagues — which haven’t been previously reported — come as Democrats are trying to win over their conservative colleague on their push to ‘restore the Senate,’ including making changes to the 60-vote legislative filibuster.”
CNN finds 10 things you probably didn’t know were in President Biden’s $1.75 trillion social spending bill.
“At least 12 major U.S. cities have broken annual homicide records in 2021 — and there’s still three weeks to go in the year,” ABC News reports.
Said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney: “It’s terrible to every morning get up and have to go look at the numbers and then look at the news and see the stories. It’s just crazy. It’s just crazy and this needs to stop.”
A new Monmouth poll finds 29% of Americans see inflation and everyday bills as the biggest concern facing their family right now.
This far outpaces Covid — which was named by 18% or respondents — or any other single issue as the top kitchen table worry in the country.
A new Quinnipiac poll in Texas finds Gov. Greg Abbott (R) leading Beto O’Rourke (D) in the race for governor, 52% to 37%.
Key finding: A majority of voters, 54%, say O’Rourke is too liberal, 3% say he is too conservative, and 35% say he is about right.
Former U.S. Ambassador Lynda Blanchard (R) announced that she’s no longer running for U.S. Senate but instead plans to challenge Gov. Kay Ivey (R) in the Republican gubernatorial primary, AL.com reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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