North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) on Wednesday vetoed a bill restricting transgender girls in K-12 sports, the Bismarck Tribune reports.
The House and Senate could override the governor’s veto with two-thirds majority votes. The House passed the bill with a veto-proof majority; the Senate did not.
“Senate Republicans on Wednesday signaled they might oppose any future increase to the debt ceiling unless Congress also couples it with comparable federal spending cuts, raising the specter of a political showdown between GOP leaders and the White House this summer,” the Washington Post reports.
“Republican lawmakers staked their position after a private gathering to consider the conference’s operating rules this session, issuing what GOP leaders described later as an important yet symbolic statement in response to the large-scale spending increases proposed by President Biden in recent months.”
“More than a century after the Ottoman Empire’s killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenian civilians, President Biden is preparing to declare that the atrocities were an act of genocide,” the New York Times reports.
“The action would signal that the American commitment to human rights outweighs the risk of further fraying the U.S. alliance with Turkey.”
Time: “Officials have said that when it comes to persuasion, they have to make sure their efforts won’t exacerbate skepticism. Their strategy largely hinges on channelling talking points and funding to community leaders who they hope will have more sway with many Americans than the federal government.”
Said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki: “We recognize that the President, that all of us, may not be exactly the right messengers for some of these audiences.”
“A Capitol Police official radioed units outside of the building on the morning of Jan. 6 and told them only to scout for anti-Trump troublemakers — not pro-Trump protesters, according to the findings of an internal investigation revealed at a public hearing by Rep. Zoe Lofgren,” Politico reports.
Former Rep. Joe Cunningham (D) filed paperwork to mount a formal challenge against incumbent South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) in 2022, the Columbia State reports.
ProPublica: “Two of the leading Republican firebrands in Congress touted big fundraising hauls as a show of grassroots support for their high-profile stands against accepting the 2020 election results.”
“But new financial disclosures show that Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) relied on an email marketing vendor that takes as much as 80 cents on the dollar. That means their headline-grabbing numbers were more the product of expensively soliciting hardcore Republicans than an organic groundswell of far-reaching support.”
“Senate Republicans are on track to affirm their decade-long earmarks ban on Wednesday, an effective rebuke of their House counterparts that upholds a central tenet of the fiscal conservatism the GOP abandoned under Donald Trump,” Politico reports.
“The largely symbolic decision, keeping the party on track with tea party-era attitudes toward spending, would come after a majority of House Republicans voted in a secret ballot to back Democrats’ return to earmarking, with extra guardrails.”
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) predicted just the opposite just last week: “It’s a done deal. They are going to have them.”
Andrew Giuliani told CNN he is set to meet with former President Trump next week in Florida as he mulls a gubernatorial bid in New York.
“In a near-unanimous vote and for only the second time in its history, the Missouri House of Representatives on Wednesday expelled one of its own,” the Kansas City Star reports.
“Rep. Rick Roeber (R), who a House committee found was credibly accused of sexually and physically abusing his children, was removed from office by a vote of 153 in favor to one present.”
Politico: “Democrats are roundly rejecting a still unfinished counteroffer to President Joe Biden’s $2.5 trillion spending package, potentially moving the slim Senate majority ever-closer to abandoning talks with Republicans on a bipartisan bill.”
“Democrats argue that the GOP plan to spend fewer than $1 trillion and focus on brick and mortar infrastructure is a non-starter and is not the basis for bipartisan negotiations.”
Billionaire Leon Cooperman declined an invitation from Sen. Elizabeth Warren to testify at a tax hearing, Bloomberg reports.
Said Cooperman: “I am not interested in being pilloried by her while she uses me as a foil to promote her far-left manifesto.”
Bloomberg: “President Joe Biden called on employers to use a tax credit to provide paid time off to workers to get vaccinated and for businesses to do more to boost the inoculation effort as the U.S. seeks to get shots in more arms.”
Aaron Blake: “Deflection is hardly a new tactic in our politics. But in recent years — and particularly with the increasing prominence of social media — it has become both a lifeblood and a cudgel. Whataboutism has infected our politics like few things have.”
“It’s near-ubiquitous today, particularly among conservatives who have long complained of media unfairness. Few arguments are as appealing in those efforts as whataboutism, given both how easy they are to make and how potent they can be. Persecution — whether real or perceived — is a powerful motivator, and combating such allegations of double standards is hugely difficult given that it’s almost always, to some degree and often to a large one, apples-to-oranges.”
“The Biden administration is moving to end a legal battle with California over the state’s authority to regulate motor-vehicle emissions, setting the stage for stricter regulations on the auto industry,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Administration officials could announce their first steps as early as Friday, these people said, as President Biden concludes a two-day international summit via videoconference to address climate change. It would be the latest in a series of efforts to unwind Trump administration policies that eased environmental rules.”
Washington Examiner: “The National Republican Congressional Committee outraised its counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, by $1.7 million in online fundraising in the first quarter for 2021.”
Wall Street Journal: “Brazil’s government, widely criticized by environmental groups as a negligent steward of the Amazon rainforest, has made an audacious offer to the Biden administration: Provide $1 billion and President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration will reduce deforestation by 40%.”
“Supported by some influential scholars and Amazon dwellers, Mr. Bolsonaro argues that the only way to save the jungle is through carbon credits and by financing sustainable economic activities… The request is likely just among the first of many similar to follow as developing nations start to negotiate with industrialized countries about who pays for costly programs to address climate change.”
Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked Stacey Abrams to list off specific provisions in Georgia’s recent elections reform bill that she objects to.
Abrams then listed and succinctly explained six different provisions before being interrupted and forced to stop by Kennedy.
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.