Sen. Lindsey Graham told CNN he would fight a judge’s order for him to testify before a grand jury in the probe over Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results in Georgia.
Said Graham: “We will be going to court to contest the subpoena. Stay tuned — our lawyers are involved.”
“I’m not walking away if anybody’s gonna threaten me or hold me hostage, if I can help the country. And if they want to play politics and play party politics, shame on ’em.”
— Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), quoted by CNN, dismissing Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) threat to derail the China competitiveness bill if Democrats push through a party-line reconciliation package.
Lawfare: “In so doing, he undermined the constitutional process of impeachment—as well as the peaceful transition of power.”
“In determining whether to bring charges, prosecutors have to assess not merely the quality of the evidence against Trump but also the national interest in a prosecution of the former president. Trump’s lies in the impeachment process should properly figure into prosecutors’ deliberations on this point. After all, this was the constitutional proceeding by which he was supposed to be held accountable, and a conviction would have included a Senate judgment of his ineligibility to ever again seek office again.”
“Corrupting the trial compounded the underlying conduct which prompted the impeachment by helping sap the adjudication of its value—thus making prosecution arguably a more important mechanism for holding the president accountable.”
New York Times: Hutchinson testimony jolts Justice Department to discuss Trump’s conduct more openly.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) slammed the reinvigorated Democratic push for social spending and climate change legislation and said moving forward with that bill would paralyze the chamber, Politico reports.
Said McConnell: “Democrats have already picked the American people’s pocket once. And now their solution is to pick your pockets a second time. First with inflation. And now with tax hikes… Now is a terrible, terrible time to paralyze the Senate by trying to tax us into recession on a partisan basis.”
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) “sounded cool on Monday to the prospects of confirming Chad Meredith — the GOP lawyer who’s reportedly under consideration to join the federal bench in Kentucky,” Politico reports.
“Durbin described the potential nomination as challenging for Democrats, given Meredith’s previous work defending abortion restrictions.”
Said Durbin: “Imagine how controversial it would be within the Democratic caucus.”
A Fulton County judge has ordered Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to testify before a special grand jury looking into possible election tampering by Donald Trump, Yahoo News reports.
Graham is being asked to testify, in part because of two phone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) in November 2020 to ask him to reexamine “certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump.”
Three absences from the U.S. Senate — Chuck Schumer D-NY), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) — “threatened to upend Democrats’ plans for a productive July in the evenly divided Senate, and were the latest reminders that the party’s bare-minimum majority is exceedingly precarious,” the New York Times reports.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) office announced he has tested positive for Covid-19 and “has very mild symptoms.”
Punchbowl News: “Now this leads to an interesting situation. The Senate is supposed to be voting this week on the nomination of Steven Dettelbach to serve as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. There hasn’t been a Senate-confirmed ATF director since 2015, and the White House and Democratic leaders would like to get Dettelbach in place.”
“GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Rob Portman voted with all 50 Democrats to discharge the nomination from the Senate Judiciary Committee, giving Dettelbach more than enough votes for confirmation. Schumer was going to schedule a cloture vote on Dettelbach’s nomination as early as Tuesday, with final passage to follow.”
“However, Schumer and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) are out. Leahy fell on June 29 and broke his hip. The 82-year-old Vermont Democrat underwent hip replacement surgery and is rehabbing.”
“Congress returns on Monday with Democrats aiming to revive central pieces of President Biden’s stalled economic agenda while trying to keep on track a separate, bipartisan bill targeted at boosting competitiveness with China that top Republicans are threatening to block,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“House Democrats also are set to roll out legislation responding to the Supreme Court ruling ending federal abortion protections. The push could include legislation to write into law the right to an abortion before fetal viability, as well as a bill intended to block any state attempts to criminalize travel for the purpose of getting an abortion. The bills wouldn’t have enough support to pass the Senate.”
“Senate Democrats are redoubling their efforts to finalize a new spending package that could lower health-care costs and combat climate change, hoping to hammer out a long-elusive deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and bring it to the chamber floor later this month,” the Washington Post reports.
“A new sense of optimism — and urgency — has set in among party lawmakers nearly seven months after their last attempt to pass a sweeping bill ended in stunning defeat. Piece by piece, Democratic leaders in recent days have started reconstructing their economic ambitions as they race to deliver on a staple element of President Biden’s agenda before the midterm elections in November.”
“So far, top Democrats have worked out with Manchin new agreements that would cut drug costs for seniors, improve the financial health of Medicare and close a tax loophole that benefits the wealthy. They even have advanced talks around addressing the challenges posed by a faster-warming planet, raising the prospect that they can secure a limited initiative to penalize methane emissions.”
“The Congressional Budget Office found on Friday that a revised drug pricing plan eyed by Senate Democrats as part of their party-line social spending plans would bring in $287 billion in revenue over 10 years. That’s a big chunk of what they’re hoping to accomplish through their push,” Politico reports.
“That comes on the heels of a plan from Democrats to boost a 3.8 percent surcharge on investment income as part of the package, which leaders think could raise $200 billion in revenue.”
Overall, Democrats are “working toward legislation that provides $1 trillion in new revenues, half of which would go toward deficit reduction and half of which would go toward energy and health spending.”
“Some key House Democrats think they’ve found a clever way to break Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s stranglehold on a popular bill to massively fund the U.S. chip industry at the expense of China,” Axios reports.
“The potential countermove is to bring the Senate-passed China bill to the House floor for an up-or-down vote and deprive McConnell of his hostage.”
“The risky gambit would require buy-in from almost every House Democrat, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who fiercely protects the House’s priorities.”
“Democratic leaders are racing to finalize a revised proposal to tackle climate change and jump-start the nation’s transition to clean energy, part of a larger sprint to strike a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on their stalled spending bill this month,” the Washington Post reports.
“The frenzied deliberations reflect weeks of private talks between Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Manchin, a centrist who scuttled negotiations over the party’s last attempt at a broader spending package in December. A climate agreement would help the country meet President Biden’s ambitious clean-energy goals, even as Manchin pursues policies that would still promote fossil fuels.”
“While top Manchin aides say they are far from a deal, some Democrats are still hoping to finalize a retooled climate proposal as soon as next week, when lawmakers are set to return from recess.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) vowed to go to court to fight a subpoena issued out of Fulton County, Ga., looking into possible criminal interference in the state following the 2020 elections, Politico reports.
From a statement: “As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Graham was well within his rights to discuss with state officials the processes and procedures around administering elections. Should it stand, the subpoena issued today would erode the constitutional balance of power and the ability of a Member of Congress to do their job. Senator Graham plans to go to court, challenge the subpoena, and expects to prevail.”
Slate: “At the end of his first year in office, President Joe Biden’s staff rightly trumpeted the fact that he had nominated and confirmed a historic number of judges at the start of his first term in office. After decades of Republicans outpacing Democrats in focus on the courts, it was welcome news.”
“But today, as terrible decisions from the Supreme Court offer a stark reminder of the importance of the judiciary, we face a tough reality: even an historic pace has not been enough to keep up with the rate of judicial retirements, and President Biden and Senate Democrats are on track to leave more than 60 judicial vacancies open at the end of this year.”
Punchbowl News: “Schumer will submit text today to the Senate parliamentarian reflecting an agreement among all Democrats – including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) – to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug costs. The parliamentarian will then begin the ‘Byrd Bath’ review process to make sure the proposal conforms with the Senate’s arcane reconciliation rules.”
“At this point, the rest of the package – informally dubbed Build Back Manchin – is up in the air. This is the low hanging fruit. Manchin has always supported this policy, as do 49 other Senate Democrats. So Schumer is starting with the lowest common denominator.”
“But this is a big deal. It represents the first formal step in reviving a new reconciliation bill for possible floor action. And Schumer is taking a risk by making this official. The top issue for Senate Democrats and the White House this month now becomes whether they can get a deal. So there’s a lot riding on this for Schumer, Manchin and President Joe Biden.”
New York Times: “The capital’s power centers may be helmed largely by the geriatric set, but they are fueled by recent college graduates, often with little to no previous job experience beyond an internship.”
“And while many of those young players rank low on the official food chain, their proximity to the pinnacle of power gives them disproportionate influence, and a front-row seat to critical moments that can define the country. Sometimes, the interns themselves appear to be running the show.”
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) underwent surgery Thursday after he broke his hip in a fall at his home, the AP reports.
“Any prolonged absence by Leahy would complicate majority Democrats’ already precarious efforts to push controversial legislation and nominations through the 50-50 Senate over Republican opposition.”
“That might include a compromise with holdout Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) — if they can reach one — on energy, health care and tax issues, a package that would be far smaller than the collection of social initiatives he killed in December.”
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.