Democrats still need to resolve key differences on Biden’s latest social spending framework release Thursday.
Some lawmakers are pushing to include drug price controls and a paid leave program.
“There’s still a lot of stuff to do,” Sen. Tim Kaine said.
President Joe Biden tried breaking the Capitol Hill logjam on his economic agenda with a new $1.75 trillion social spending plan. But lingering divides on which measures to prioritize in the slimmed-down package spells more wrangling in the weeks ahead.
Democrats are signaling the blueprint will undergo major changes in what may be another month of negotiations. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said he believed drafting a bill that clears the 50-50 Senate and passing it could happen sometime before Thanksgiving.
“I would say it’s close to final, but there’s still a lot of stuff to do,” Kaine told Insider on Thursday. “It’s just that it is a very massive bill.”
The spending framework would set up universal pre-K for six years, renew monthly cash payments to the vast majority of American families for another year, expand Medicare so it covers hearing, transition the US onto cleaner energy sources and provide child-care subsidies for six years.
The biggest chunk of the plan is devoted to tackling the climate emergency. It largely consists of tax credits for clean energy manufacturing and addressing extreme weather events. The blueprint is paid for with tax hikes on rich Americans and large corporations.
Most Democrats in both the House and Senate support it. But a pair of holdouts, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, aren’t committed to backing it yet. Every Senate Democrat must stick together for it to pass the upper chamber.
The pair’s lukewarm statements on the framework caused progressives to keep holding back support from a separate $550 billion infrastructure bill focused on repairing roads and bridges. Speaker Nancy Pelosi pulled the vote on Thursday for the second time in less than a month and it’s been stuck in the House since it passed the Senate in August.
Dissatisfaction among centrists who want the infrastructure bill immediately sent to Biden’s desk is growing. “People are frustrated right now,” Rep. Jim Costa of California told Insider. “There’s a lack of trust, and you got a lot of members that have been here four years or less and they don’t seem to understand how you get things done.”
Pelosi held out the possibility of passing both bills next week. But some lawmakers are pushing to include measures like federal drug price controls, paid leave, and a repeal of the federal deduction for state and local taxes known as SALT, all of which were dropped from Biden’s plan.
It’s also possible another version of a billionaire tax proposal that lasted less than a day before being killed by Manchin could be re-added. “This is not done,” Senate Finance chair Ron Wyden of Oregon told Insider.
Virginia gubernatorial candidates Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin remain neck-and-neck in polls ahead of next week’s highly competitive race for governor, but Democrats lead in early voting.
McAuliffe, the former Democratic governor who is seeking a comeback, leads his Republican opponent Youngkin by one percentage point in a Washington Post-Schar School poll released Friday.
McAuliffe hit 49% among likely voters polled while Youngkin was close behind at 48%, well within the poll’s margin of error of four percentage points. The poll was conducted from Oct. 20 to 26.
This shows a tighter race than the previous Washington Post-Schar School poll from mid-September, which found McAuliffe leading by three percentage points.
The race for governor in the commonwealth is much closer than Democrats had hoped, especially given their winning streak in statewide races since 2012 and President Joe Biden’s 10 percentage point win over former President Donald Trump in last year’s election.
McAuliffe has held a polling advantage over Youngkin, a former executive of global investment firm Carlyle Group, in recent months. But the gap has narrowed as the Republican candidate seized on hotly contested issues such as parental control over education, which has mobilized his partisan base.
The tighter-than-expected race now hinges on voter turnout.
Democrats have taken the lead in early voting ahead of Virginia’s Election Day on Nov. 2.
At least 858,473 Virginians have already submitted ballots, according to data from Democratic data firm TargetSmart. The state’s voters have until Saturday to vote early.
Roughly 54% of those voters so far are likely Democrats, while 30.7% are likely Republicans, according to TargetSmart. About 15% of early voters are unaffiliated, the TargetSmart data found.
Voters do not register by party in Virginia but TargetSmart predicts partisanship based on data from previous elections.
Despite Democrats’ early lead, experts say Republicans could outperform them on Election Day and close the gap.
Republicans are less likely to vote early in the wake of the 2020 presidential election when former President Donald Trump slammed mail-in voting and falsely associated it with voter fraud.
But their enthusiasm about voting in the election could result in high turnout next week.
According to a Monmouth University poll released last week, Youngkin’s supporters are more excited to vote in the upcoming election by nearly 23 percentage points.
He said the court usually took some time to review the paperwork before issuing a summons or a warrant for an arrest, but that, in this instance, the court issued a criminal summons for Mr. Cuomo’s arraignment within minutes. As a result, he said, he did not have enough time to inform prosecutors and Mr. Cuomo’s personal lawyer about the complaint before it became public.
“This just came back at a relatively accelerated rate and kind of caught us by surprise as well,” Mr. Apple said, adding that, “sometimes in police work, with investigations, things don’t go how you want them.”
Mr. Soares will now have to decide whether to go forward with what will almost certainly be a difficult case to prove, and he will be under significant pressure. Indeed, Mr. Apple on Friday appeared to put the ball in Mr. Soares’s court, saying, “I feel very confident that the district attorney is going to prosecute this.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Soares, who is also a Democrat, said the district attorney’s office recognized that Mr. Cuomo’s case was “a matter of great public interest,” but would not confirm if the office planned to prosecute him.
“At this time we are refraining from making any additional comments or engaging in interviews about the court filings made by the Albany County sheriff’s office,” Cecilia Walsh, the director of communications for the Albany district attorney’s office, said in an emailed statement.
Lawyers and academics said that Mr. Apple’s decision to proceed with a charge without input from the district attorney’s office was well outside the norm. Typically, in long-term investigations, particularly high-stakes ones, law enforcement authorities would work closely with local prosecutors, given that the prosecutors handle the case once the legal proceeding is initiated.
President Biden on Friday cruised through Rome with an 85-vehicle motorcade — drawing criticism for the poor optics ahead of a global warming summit in Glasgow, Scotland, to which Biden is bringing about a dozen top US officials.
“#Decarbonize this,” one person captioned the video.
“America’s Marie Antoinette class is Washington’s elites – and that shows it,” another person responded.
Biden routinely says there’s a “climate crisis” caused by fossil fuels. It’s unclear how many of the motorcade vehicles are electric plug-ins or hybrids, but they appeared to be standard gas-guzzling limos, SUVs and vans.
President Biden arrived by car at the Quirinale presidential palace in Rome, Italy, on Oct. 29, 2021.EPA/Francesco Ammendola
A different Washington Post reporter, Seung Min King, wrote in a White House pool report that “we are told it is 85 vehicles” in the motorcade.
The president’s domestic motorcade usually features only a couple dozen vehicles, not including those used to block off traffic.
Video of the unusually long motorcade in Rome shows the presidential Beast limo and a decoy followed by a stream of other cars — some with flashing police lights.
It’s possible that the White House was not responsible for the massive protective detail. Offering security generally is the responsibility of the host country and US law enforcement provides protective motorcades for foreign leaders in DC.
Biden said the legislation would “turn the climate crisis into an opportunity.”
Many of the vehicles appeared to be standard gas-guzzling limos, SUVs and vans.Matteo Nardone/Pacific Press/ShutterstockPresident Biden routinely discusses the “climate crisis” caused by fossil fuels.REUTERS/Guglielmo MangiapanePresident Biden drove through Rome with an 85-vehicle motorcade on Oct. 29, 2021.ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty ImagesIt wasn’t clear whether the White House was responsible for providing the massive protective detail.Matteo Nardone/Pacific Press/Shutterstock
“Folks, we all have that obligation — that obligation to our children and to our grandchildren,” Biden said of curtailing the use of fossil fuels.
After reaching the Vatican in the massive motorcade, Biden said he and Pope Francis discussed climate change.
Biden said he and the pope discussed the “moral responsibility to have to deal with this.”
NEW YORK (AP) — New York Attorney General Letitia James formally announced Friday that she is running for governor, a widely anticipated move from the woman who oversaw an investigation into allegations that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed numerous women.
James announced her candidacy on Twitter, saying, “I’m running for Governor of New York because I have the experience, vision, and courage to take on the powerful on behalf of all New Yorkers.”
A campaign video cited the multiple lawsuits she filed against former President Donald Trump’s administration and an investigation into deaths in New York’s nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
James, 62, is the first woman elected as New York’s attorney general and the first Black person to serve in the role. She’s expected to be a strong challenger against Gov. Kathy Hochul, who had been Cuomo’s lieutenant governor, for the Democratic nomination.
Hochul, who is from the Buffalo area, entered office with a reputation as centrist who is working to bolster her ties to New York City, where James’ political support is based.
James was born and raised in Brooklyn and made her first run for City Council as a candidate of the liberal Working Families Party. Her path to the nomination will be the obverse of Hochuls, trying to win over upstate Democrats who might be less progressive.
Since she became attorney general in 2019, her office has investigated Trump’s business affairs and filed dozens of lawsuits against the Republican’s administration over federal policies on immigration, the environment and other matters.
“I’ve sued the Trump administration 76 times. But who’s counting?” James said in her kickoff video, making a playful shrug of her shoulders while looking into the camera.
James also filed a lawsuit accusing the National Rifle Association ’s leaders of financial mismanagement, the latest in a string of regulatory actions that have delighted liberals but drawn complaints from Republicans that she has unfairly used her office to target political opponents.
While under public pressure in 2020, Cuomo authorized James to investigate allegations he had sexually harassed several women. The independent investigators she hired to conduct the inquiry released a report in August concluding that there were credible allegations from 11 women, including one aide who said the governor had groped her breast.
Cuomo has attacked James’ report as inaccurate and biased, denied mistreating women and said he resigned in order to avoid subjecting the state to turmoil.
James has dismissed the charge that her investigation was politically motivated, saying Cuomo should take responsibility for his own conduct.
James made the announcement the day after a criminal complaint was filed against Cuomo in Albany, accusing the former governor of committing a misdemeanor sex crime of groping a woman in December 2020.
Cuomo’s lawyer, Rita Glavin, said in a statement that the Democrat never assaulted anyone. He’s due in court Nov. 17 to respond to the charge.
“Tish James abused her office to falsely accuse Governor Cuomo because she was afraid to confront him in an election and let the people decide,” Cuomo’s spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said in a statement Friday after James’ announced her campaign.
Cuomo was once one of James’ strongest political allies.
As governor, he endorsed James for attorney general and headlined a fundraiser for her in 2018 as she ran in a four-way Democratic primary to replace Eric Schneiderman, who abruptly resigned amid allegations that he abused women.
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have both said they are considering a run. Two other potential Democratic candidates come from Long Island: Suffolk County executive Steve Bellone and U.S. Rep. Thomas Suozzi, who lives in Nassau County.
On Friday morning, James and Hochul each made brief appearances at a downtown Brooklyn restaurant for a traditional preelection breakfast for Democratic power players.
Hochul thanked the crowd for supporting her as the state’s first-ever female governor and implying in her remarks that she expected to win multiple terms as governor.
“I feel the weight of history on my shoulders because it’s my responsibility to demonstrate that a woman can govern with strength, with heart and passion and fight for the people of this state. And so when I’m done with my terms, no one will ever question the ability of a woman to hold the highest office in this state or in this land,” Hochul said.
James, speaking about 20 minutes after Hochul at the restaurant in her home turf, drew loud applause and asked, “Is Brooklyn in the house?”
The attorney general did not make any campaign remarks but urged attendees to vote in the city’s upcoming elections on Tuesday and think about “the threats to our democracy, to our freedom” including reproductive rights and threats to the environment.
“Let everybody know that Brooklyn and New York State — we’re one,” James said.
Her candidacy was quickly endorsed Friday by John Samuelsen, the international president of the Transport Workers Union, which represents 150,000 workers in the airline, railroad, transit industry and more.
BIDEN GETS IT DONE, DESPITE HIMSELF — To say Thursday was a roller coaster for President JOE BIDEN’s agenda wouldn’t do justice to how truly head-spinning the day was. The White House releases a Build Back Better (BBB) deal backed by MANCHINEMA (now they’re getting somewhere) — only to watch BERNIE SANDERS balk (never mind). The president delays his trip to Europe to rally House Democrats behind his plan — then whiffs, somehow neglecting to deliver the tough love message Democratic leaders wanted him to so they could pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill (BIF) this week.
But just when it looked like the day would end in embarrassment for Democrats, the Congressional Progressive Caucus issues a surprise endorsement of the president’s compromise plan — removing one of the last big obstacles in its way.
The CPC’s decision to backthe new BBB framework got drowned out by the group’s refusal to allow a BIF vote Thursday before full text was drafted. That deprived Speaker NANCY PELOSI of the vote she was determined to hold on BIF, and yielded lots of headlines about Democrats’ failure to clinch the win.
But the dispute over sequencing masked a major achievement for the president: Hill progressives now appear ready to swallow this deal — and that means it’s likely a matter of when, not if, it passes.
The fact that the group isn’t making demands for major changes is quite something given that many of their priorities were significantly scaled back as moderates got most of what they wanted.
“We wanted a $3.5 trillion package, but we understand the reality of the situation,” CPC Chair PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-Wash.) told reporters Thursday night. While she welcomes senators negotiating to make additional changes to the bill, she said specifically that her group’s endorsement is not contingent on that.
That stance is especially notable since earlier in the day, Sanders (I-Vt.) seemed unhappy with the package and ready to fight for more. He complained there were “major gaps” in the framework, specifically on prescription drugs and Medicare. At the same time, he did not draw any red lines and praised the plan as “the most consequential bill since the 1960s.”
It’s a reminder that there is no Freedom Caucus of the left and probably never will be. Progressives find it hard to vote against things they believe in, even if the bill doesn’t have everything that they want. For that, perhaps Biden, who’s set to meet with the pope today, should count his blessings.
THE REAL LOSER FROM THURSDAY, as WaPo’s Paul Kane pointed out, was TERRY MCAULIFFE. Democrats’ Virginia gubernatorial candidate implored leaders to pass the infrastructure bill before his election to turn out voters. But Biden did not press progressives to vote on the bill quickly, a move a senior House Democrat dubbed a “mistake” — ensuring the bill won’t pass before next week. The delay comes as a Fox News poll has GLENN YOUNGKIN pulling ahead of McAullife, 53 to 45. That survey is an outlier — FiveThirtyEight’s polling average now has the race tied, while other polls show McAuliffe narrowly ahead — but a Youngkin victory Tuesday no longer looks like a Republican pipe dream.
DON’T MISS — Our Caitlin Emma and Jenifer Scholtes have a round-up of everything that’s in and out of the reconciliation bill.
IN MEMORIAM — “A. Linwood Holton Jr., Virginia governor who took bold stance on integration, dies at 98,”by WaPo’s Jeff Baron: “Mr. Holton helped break the domination of Virginia politics by the Byrd political organization, which ardently supported racial segregation, and his election as governor in 1969 made him the first Republican to hold statewide office in Virginia in the 20th century. He persuaded the legislature to raise the income tax and the gasoline tax, and he used the money for environmental protection, higher education and transportation projects. But he called his work on race relations ‘the greatest source of satisfaction and pride for me.’”
Holton was a giant of Virginia history, as well as Sen. TIM KAINE’s (D-Va.)father-in-law.
NEVADA AD WAR, THE SEQUEL — We wrote in Playbook on Wednesday that a Nevada TV station decided to take down a pro-CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO ad sponsored by the Senate Majority PAC after the NRSC complained it included “flagrantly false” information about Republican challenger ADAM LAXALT. But it turns out the station, in a victory for the CHUCK SCHUMER-aligned outside group, reversed its decision.
The ad is now up and running on Reno’s CBS affiliate, KTVN 2 News, as well in other parts of Nevada. And SMP, which swayed the station in its favor before the decision to pull the ad took effect, is feeling vindicated. Group president JB POERSCH blasted what he called the NRSC’s “failed attempt to discredit the accuracy of the ad.”
WE’RE ON A BOAT — All summer long, activists have pressured Democratic leaders for a reconciliation package that delivers on all of Biden’s promises. That means Sens. KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) and JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) faced protesters in their offices, homes … and bathroom stalls. Today, Tara visits the progressive activists putting pressure on Manchin, and she asks POLITICO’s co-congressional bureau chief — and Manchin whisperer — Burgess Everett on whether the activism is having its intended effect on Manchin and the latest on the Democrats’ messy reconciliation fight.Listen and subscribe to Playbook Deep Dive
BIDEN’S FRIDAY (Eastern times):
— 6 a.m.: The president and first lady JILL BIDEN are currently meeting with Pope FRANCIS in Vatican City.
— 6:55 a.m.: Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Cardinal Secretary of State PIETRO PAROLIN.
— 7:55 a.m.: Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Italian President SERGIO MATTARELLA at the Quirinale Palace in Rome.
— 9:15 a.m.: Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Italian PM MARIO DRAGHI at the Chigi Palace in Rome.
— 10:15 a.m.: Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with French President EMMANUEL MACRON at the French Embassy in Rome.
VP KAMALA HARRIS’ FRIDAY:
— 2:30 p.m.: The VP will speak virtually at a DNC grassroots event.
— 3:55 p.m.: Harris will leave D.C. for Norfolk, Va.
— 6 p.m.: Harris will speak at a McAuliffecampaign event at the Peter G. Decker Half Moone Center in Norfolk, before heading back to D.C. at 7:15 p.m.
THE SENATE and THE HOUSE are out.
PLAYBOOK READS
ALL POLITICS
HOW YOUNGKIN COULD WIN — If the Republican pulls it off Tuesday, remember this story by Elena Schneider so you’re not surprised: “Republicans started the year watching the Senate slip away in Georgia — and fretting that DONALD TRUMP’s takeover of the party was so complete that the base wouldn’t show up for them without Trump himself on the ballot. Now, those fears have largely evaporated.
“Republicans hold an enormous edge in enthusiasm that could make the difference in the upcoming Virginia governor’s race, according to both public and private polling. What’s most notable in Virginia is that it’s Glenn Youngkin — a candidate who accepted Trump’s endorsement but has held the former president at arm’s length during the campaign — who stands to benefit from the electrified GOP base, which is instead animated by President Joe Biden’s sagging ratings and Democrats’ total control in Washington and Richmond.”
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK —Remember when Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest of Georgia’s new law imposing restrictions on voting? Well, consider it payback time. Heritage Action is launching a new six-figure ad buy to air in Georgia and D.C. during Game 3 of the World Series tonight — when the Atlanta Braves will play host to the Houston Astros — thanking Gov. BRIAN KEMP for the voting law and slamming MLB executives for their opposition to it. “Despite the best efforts of the woke mob, the Braves are bringing the World Series to the state for the first time since 1999, and the silence from woke executives is deafening,” the ad says. “They’ve learned an important lesson: When you go woke, you go broke.” Watch here
CONGRESS
MUCK READ — ProPublica’s Robert Faturechi has new details on Sen. RICHARD BURR’s (R-N.C.) 2020 stock trades: He called his brother-in-law after Burr dumped stocks worth more than $1.6 million, and the brother-in-law then immediately called his broker and started dumping stocks. “The revelations come as part of an effort by the SEC to force [GERALD] FAUTH to comply with a subpoena that the agency said he has stonewalled for more than a year … In the filings, the SEC also revealed that there is an ongoing insider trading investigation into both Burr and Fauth’s trades. It had previously been reported that federal prosecutors had decided not to charge Burr.”
WHITE HOUSE
IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID — Megan Cassella jumps on the latest economic numbers with a story about what they mean politically for Biden: “The U.S. economy is growing at its slowest pace since the recovery began. Faster inflation is likely to linger well into next year. Millions remain unemployed even as small businesses struggle to hire workers. And Republicans are readying attacks on President Joe Biden over all of it.”
POLICY CORNER
IMMIGRATION FILES — The Biden administration is weighing paying out $450,000 per individual to families that were separated at the border under the Trump administration, though the situation remains in flux, WSJ’s Michelle Hackman, Aruna Viswanatha and Sadie Gurman scooped. “The total potential payout could be $1 billion or more,” as a variety of ongoing lawsuits seek possible settlements/resolution by the end of next month.
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
CUOMO CHARGED — Former New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO was charged with criminal “forcible touching,” a misdemeanor, on Thursday, New York Focus’ Akash Mehta scooped. Cuomo, who resigned from office in August, “will be required to appear in court in Albany on Nov. 17 to be arraigned,” per the NYT.
DESANTIS VS. BIDEN, via Tampa Bay Times’ Mary Ellen Klas: “Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS and Attorney General ASHLEY MOODY filed another lawsuit against the U.S. government Thursday, challenging the rule requiring companies that are federal contractors to show proof of vaccination or weekly COVID tests of their employees and calling it a ‘heavy-handed mandate never authorized by Congress.’”
MEDIAWATCH
NO APOLOGIES — The WSJ Editorial Board defended its decision to publish a letter to the editor by Trumpfalsely alleging the 2020 election was “rigged.” “We trust our readers to make up their own minds about his statement. And we think it’s news when an ex-President who may run in 2024 wrote what he did, even if (or perhaps especially if) his claims are bananas,” it writes.The full response
FOX IN THE HENHOUSE — GERALDO RIVERA is calling out his Fox colleague TUCKER CARLSON over the latter’s plans to promote false conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 insurrection. “I worry that — and I’m probably going to get in trouble for this — but I’m wondering how much is done to provoke, rather than illuminate,” Rivera told NYT’s Michael Grynbaum.
TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week”: Dan Balz, Ayesha Rascoe, Ali Vitali and Jonathan Lemire.
SUNDAY SO FAR …
“The Sunday Show”: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) … Eric Adams … Maya Wiley … Jonathan Metzl … Montgomery, Ala., Mayor Steven Reed … Evan McMullin … Rachel Bitecofer.
Mitt Romneydressed up as Ted Lasso for Halloween, and delivered biscuits toKyrsten Sinema, in character as AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Welton (notes Josh Wingrove, with a “Ted Lasso” episode 1 spoiler: Sinema was in costume as “a character who sets out to purposefully tank her team”).
Bill de Blasiosaid he was in costume as Captain Kirk, but any self-respecting Trekkie knows he was wearing the wrong color shirt and was actually dressed more like Spock or Dr. McCoy.
RIP: Downtown D.C.’s last remaining (though non-functioning) pay phone, outside the Cheesecake Factory on H Street NW, is about to be removed.
SPOTTED at a screening of Matthew Heineman’s latest documentary, “The First Wave,” on Thursday at the Navy Memorial Theater and presented by National Geographic and Participant: Laurel Sakai, Kaylie Hanson Long, Denise Zheng, Nate Adler, Jenifer Healy, Corey Feist, Gianluca Nigro, Bruce Gellin, Jada Yuan, Dan Diamond, Zach Basu, Mackenzie Kuhl and Amanda Chen.
SPOTTED at a book party for Tom Galvin’s debut novel, “The Auction” ($14.95) on Thursday night: Scott Mulhauser, Tim Burger, Shane Tews, Scott Gerber and Amber Allman.
MEDIA MOVES — Alana Abramson is now a D.C. producer for CNN Plus. She most recently was a White House reporter at Time Magazine. … Matt Hadro is now senior account executive at Pinkston. He most recently has been political editor at Catholic News Agency.
WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE — Sarah Saltiel has been detailed as a workforce policy adviser to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She most recently was a digital service expert at the U.S. Digital Service.
STAFFING UP — The White House announced the appointment of Sara Minkara as U.S. special adviser on international disability rights.
TRANSITION — Charles “Chuck” Johnson will be the next president and CEO of the Aluminum Association. He most recently has been president and CEO of the International Safety Equipment Association.
ENGAGED — Kamran Daravi, a consultant at Deloitte and a Trump White House alum, proposed to Christy Ross, a sales manager at Insight Global, at sunset Wednesday evening at the Lincoln Memorial. They originally met on Bumble. Instapics, via photographer Andrea Hanks…More pics
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Georgette Kerr, co-founder and EVP of Plurus Strategies and a Hillary Clinton alum, and Charlie Kerr, flight chief for NASIC’s Civil Aviation Intelligence Analysis Squadron, welcomed Emory Hope Kerr on Wednesday afternoon. An IVF, rainbow baby who was transferred on Presidents’ Day and due on Election Day, their October surprise came in at 6 lbs, 8 oz and 20.25 inches. Pic… Another pic
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge … White House’s Kate Bedingfield and Seth Schuster … Jim Messina … Phoebe Kilgour … CNN’s Laura Jarrett and David Siegel … WaPo’s Dave Clarke … Bloomberg’s Robert George … Washington Examiner’s Jamie McIntyre … Geoff Turley … POLITICO’s Steve Heuser and Cam Debro … Isabelle James … Mike Saccone … Steve Smith of the ACLU … Kat Timpf … Bob Stevenson … Ryan Akira Quinn ofSwing Left … Natalie Jones Hallahan of the Meridian International Center … Aaron Jacobs … Nelson Cunningham of McLarty Associates … Mara Mellstrom … WSJ’s Kate Bachelder Odell … Mercedes LeGrand … Bill Jaffee of Locust Street Group … Daisy Gordon … Justin McCartney of Rep. Jennifer Wexton’s (D-Va.) office … Nick Yaeger … Avery Miller of “Face the Nation” … Coby King … former Sen. Connie Mack III (R-Fla.) … Safi Majid … Sonia Colin-Reed … Peter Albrecht of AL Media Strategy … Nick Powell … Rachel Barinbaum … Anthony Pardal of Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried’s office … Dimitri Simes … Noah Dion … former acting A.G. Matt Whitaker … Mimi Montgomery … former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne (7-0) … NBC’s David Corvo
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Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., argues House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy lied to Americans regarding details of the January 6 attack on the Capitol
Saying that he can’t run for reelection to Congress while at the same time waging a broader war for the future of the Republican Party, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois on Friday announced that he wouldn’t run for reelection next year.
The six-term conservative congressman and combat pilot veteran made headlines in January as the second-most high profile of the 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach former President Donald Trump. He becomes the second of that group to not seek another two-year term in the House in the 2022 midterm elections, following Rep. Anthony Gonzales of Ohio.
As he fights to break the GOP from its current domination by the former president and works to back other anti-Trump Republicans, Kinzinger stressed in a video announcing his decision that it has “become increasingly obvious to me that in order to break the narrative, I cannot focus on both a reelection to Congress and a broader fight nationwide.”
“I want to make it clear, this isn’t the end of my political future but the beginning,” he also emphasized. “Let me be clear, my passion for this country has only grown. My desire to make a difference is bigger than it’s ever been.”
Kinzinger joined the Air Force after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, serving in both the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He’s currently a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard.
As a 32-year-old, he was elected to Congress in the Tea Party wave election of 2010, beating a Democratic incumbent by nearly 15 points in a north-central and northeastern Illinois district, thanks in part to Sarah Palin’s endorsement. Two years later, after redistricting, he took down 10-term GOP Rep. Don Manzullo in the primary before winning the general election.
In early January, Kinzinger joined nine other House Republicans to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the deadly attack on the Capitol by right-wing extremists and other Trump supporters bent on disrupting congressional certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. The storming of the Capitol occurred soon after Trump urged a large crowd of supporters he addressed at a rally near the White House to march to the Capitol and show strength in protesting the certification of the election.
Trump was impeached by the House a week later on one count of inciting an insurrection. The 10 Republicans joined all 222 Democrats in voting to impeach Trump, with 197 Republicans voting against impeachment. In February, after leaving the White House, Trump was acquitted in a Senate trial, with seven GOP senators joining all 50 Democrats in the chamber to vote to convict the former president.
All 10 House Republicans instantly faced the wrath of Trump and his allies, who have worked to defeat the lawmakers as they run for reelection in the midterms. Trump’s endorsed primary challengers to a number of the 10, including the most well known of the bunch, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
“I stand in awe of the courage of the other nine members in the House who voted to impeach a president of their own party, knowing it could be detrimental to their political career,” Kinzinger said.
Trump, in a statement after Kinzinger’s announcement, wrote “2 down, 8 to go!”
In an apparent jab at the former president’s brand of divisive politics, Kinzinger lamented that “our political parties only survive by appealing to the most motivated and the most extreme elements within it. And the price tag to power has skyrocketed and fear and distrust has served as an effective strategy to meet that cost.”
And he argued that “dehumanizing each other has become the norm. We’ve taken it from social media to the streets. We’ve allowed leaders to reach power selling the false premise that strength comes from degrading others and dehumanizing those that look, act, think differently that we do. As a country, we’ve fallen for those lies and now we face a poisoned country.”
Kinzinger, who along with Cheney are the only two Republicans on a Democratic- named special committee investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, has seen his stance against Trump dramatically boost his fundraising. And the Country First Leadership PAC, which he formed earlier this year to support other anti-Trump Republicans, is also hauling in big bucks.
The congressman said that “I know I’m not alone. There’s many Americans that are desperately searching for a better way. They want solutions, not more problems.”
“Now is the time for choosing,” he urged. “Now is the time to join our movement at Country First.”
Another likely factor in his decision to not seek another term in the House is redistricting.
With Illinois losing a congressional seat due to the 2020 Census and Democrats controlling the redistricting process in the blue state, according to maps awaiting the signature of the Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Kinzinger may have been dumped into the same district as Republican Rep. Darin LaHood.
That would have set up a potentially nasty intra-GOP showdown in northern Illinois. Kinzinger’s decision now likely clears the way for LaHood to secure reelection in a safe Republican House district.
And there’s speculation that Kinzinger may now mull a Republican gubernatorial challenge next year against Pritzker.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Jason Donner, and James Levinson contributed to this report
ROME — After a six-week diplomatic spat that involved a scuttled nuclear-powered submarine deal and a recalled ambassador, President Biden began a one-on-one effort to mend fences with President Emmanuel Macron of France by saying U.S. handling of the matter had been “clumsy.”
“What we did was clumsy,” Mr. Biden told reporters, sitting beside Mr. Macron just before they began a private meeting. “It was not done with a lot of grace.”
He added, “I had been under the impression long before that France had been informed.”
France had an agreement to build conventionally powered submarines for Australia’s navy, but last month the United States and Britain announced their own deal with Australia for nuclear-powered subs, instead. Australia called off the deal with France, whose officials had not been told that a pact with the Americans and British was in the works, infuriating Mr. Macron and others in his government.
Washington’s European allies were already irritated by the handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which they said Mr. Biden ordered without consulting them. The treatment of the French submarine deal, they said, was further evidence of American dismissiveness.
BIDEN GETS IT DONE, DESPITE HIMSELF — To say Thursday was a roller coaster for President JOE BIDEN’s agenda wouldn’t do justice to how truly head-spinning the day was. The White House releases a Build Back Better (BBB) deal backed by MANCHINEMA (now they’re getting somewhere) — only to watch BERNIE SANDERS balk (never mind). The president delays his trip to Europe to rally House Democrats behind his plan — then whiffs, somehow neglecting to deliver the tough love message Democratic leaders wanted him to so they could pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill (BIF) this week.
But just when it looked like the day would end in embarrassment for Democrats, the Congressional Progressive Caucus issues a surprise endorsement of the president’s compromise plan — removing one of the last big obstacles in its way.
The CPC’s decision to backthe new BBB framework got drowned out by the group’s refusal to allow a BIF vote Thursday before full text was drafted. That deprived Speaker NANCY PELOSI of the vote she was determined to hold on BIF, and yielded lots of headlines about Democrats’ failure to clinch the win.
But the dispute over sequencing masked a major achievement for the president: Hill progressives now appear ready to swallow this deal — and that means it’s likely a matter of when, not if, it passes.
The fact that the group isn’t making demands for major changes is quite something given that many of their priorities were significantly scaled back as moderates got most of what they wanted.
“We wanted a $3.5 trillion package, but we understand the reality of the situation,” CPC Chair PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-Wash.) told reporters Thursday night. While she welcomes senators negotiating to make additional changes to the bill, she said specifically that her group’s endorsement is not contingent on that.
That stance is especially notable since earlier in the day, Sanders (I-Vt.) seemed unhappy with the package and ready to fight for more. He complained there were “major gaps” in the framework, specifically on prescription drugs and Medicare. At the same time, he did not draw any red lines and praised the plan as “the most consequential bill since the 1960s.”
It’s a reminder that there is no Freedom Caucus of the left and probably never will be. Progressives find it hard to vote against things they believe in, even if the bill doesn’t have everything that they want. For that, perhaps Biden, who’s set to meet with the pope today, should count his blessings.
THE REAL LOSER FROM THURSDAY, as WaPo’s Paul Kane pointed out, was TERRY MCAULIFFE. Democrats’ Virginia gubernatorial candidate implored leaders to pass the infrastructure bill before his election to turn out voters. But Biden did not press progressives to vote on the bill quickly, a move a senior House Democrat dubbed a “mistake” — ensuring the bill won’t pass before next week. The delay comes as a Fox News poll has GLENN YOUNGKIN pulling ahead of McAullife, 53 to 45. That survey is an outlier — FiveThirtyEight’s polling average now has the race tied, while other polls show McAuliffe narrowly ahead — but a Youngkin victory Tuesday no longer looks like a Republican pipe dream.
DON’T MISS — Our Caitlin Emma and Jenifer Scholtes have a round-up of everything that’s in and out of the reconciliation bill.
IN MEMORIAM — “A. Linwood Holton Jr., Virginia governor who took bold stance on integration, dies at 98,”by WaPo’s Jeff Baron: “Mr. Holton helped break the domination of Virginia politics by the Byrd political organization, which ardently supported racial segregation, and his election as governor in 1969 made him the first Republican to hold statewide office in Virginia in the 20th century. He persuaded the legislature to raise the income tax and the gasoline tax, and he used the money for environmental protection, higher education and transportation projects. But he called his work on race relations ‘the greatest source of satisfaction and pride for me.’”
Holton was a giant of Virginia history, as well as Sen. TIM KAINE’s (D-Va.)father-in-law.
NEVADA AD WAR, THE SEQUEL — We wrote in Playbook on Wednesday that a Nevada TV station decided to take down a pro-CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO ad sponsored by the Senate Majority PAC after the NRSC complained it included “flagrantly false” information about Republican challenger ADAM LAXALT. But it turns out the station, in a victory for the CHUCK SCHUMER-aligned outside group, reversed its decision.
The ad is now up and running on Reno’s CBS affiliate, KTVN 2 News, as well in other parts of Nevada. And SMP, which swayed the station in its favor before the decision to pull the ad took effect, is feeling vindicated. Group president JB POERSCH blasted what he called the NRSC’s “failed attempt to discredit the accuracy of the ad.”
WE’RE ON A BOAT — All summer long, activists have pressured Democratic leaders for a reconciliation package that delivers on all of Biden’s promises. That means Sens. KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) and JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) faced protesters in their offices, homes … and bathroom stalls. Today, Tara visits the progressive activists putting pressure on Manchin, and she asks POLITICO’s co-congressional bureau chief — and Manchin whisperer — Burgess Everett on whether the activism is having its intended effect on Manchin and the latest on the Democrats’ messy reconciliation fight.Listen and subscribe to Playbook Deep Dive
BIDEN’S FRIDAY (Eastern times):
— 6 a.m.: The president and first lady JILL BIDEN are currently meeting with Pope FRANCIS in Vatican City.
— 6:55 a.m.: Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Cardinal Secretary of State PIETRO PAROLIN.
— 7:55 a.m.: Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Italian President SERGIO MATTARELLA at the Quirinale Palace in Rome.
— 9:15 a.m.: Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Italian PM MARIO DRAGHI at the Chigi Palace in Rome.
— 10:15 a.m.: Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with French President EMMANUEL MACRON at the French Embassy in Rome.
VP KAMALA HARRIS’ FRIDAY:
— 2:30 p.m.: The VP will speak virtually at a DNC grassroots event.
— 3:55 p.m.: Harris will leave D.C. for Norfolk, Va.
— 6 p.m.: Harris will speak at a McAuliffecampaign event at the Peter G. Decker Half Moone Center in Norfolk, before heading back to D.C. at 7:15 p.m.
THE SENATE and THE HOUSE are out.
PLAYBOOK READS
ALL POLITICS
HOW YOUNGKIN COULD WIN — If the Republican pulls it off Tuesday, remember this story by Elena Schneider so you’re not surprised: “Republicans started the year watching the Senate slip away in Georgia — and fretting that DONALD TRUMP’s takeover of the party was so complete that the base wouldn’t show up for them without Trump himself on the ballot. Now, those fears have largely evaporated.
“Republicans hold an enormous edge in enthusiasm that could make the difference in the upcoming Virginia governor’s race, according to both public and private polling. What’s most notable in Virginia is that it’s Glenn Youngkin — a candidate who accepted Trump’s endorsement but has held the former president at arm’s length during the campaign — who stands to benefit from the electrified GOP base, which is instead animated by President Joe Biden’s sagging ratings and Democrats’ total control in Washington and Richmond.”
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK —Remember when Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest of Georgia’s new law imposing restrictions on voting? Well, consider it payback time. Heritage Action is launching a new six-figure ad buy to air in Georgia and D.C. during Game 3 of the World Series tonight — when the Atlanta Braves will play host to the Houston Astros — thanking Gov. BRIAN KEMP for the voting law and slamming MLB executives for their opposition to it. “Despite the best efforts of the woke mob, the Braves are bringing the World Series to the state for the first time since 1999, and the silence from woke executives is deafening,” the ad says. “They’ve learned an important lesson: When you go woke, you go broke.” Watch here
CONGRESS
MUCK READ — ProPublica’s Robert Faturechi has new details on Sen. RICHARD BURR’s (R-N.C.) 2020 stock trades: He called his brother-in-law after Burr dumped stocks worth more than $1.6 million, and the brother-in-law then immediately called his broker and started dumping stocks. “The revelations come as part of an effort by the SEC to force [GERALD] FAUTH to comply with a subpoena that the agency said he has stonewalled for more than a year … In the filings, the SEC also revealed that there is an ongoing insider trading investigation into both Burr and Fauth’s trades. It had previously been reported that federal prosecutors had decided not to charge Burr.”
WHITE HOUSE
IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID — Megan Cassella jumps on the latest economic numbers with a story about what they mean politically for Biden: “The U.S. economy is growing at its slowest pace since the recovery began. Faster inflation is likely to linger well into next year. Millions remain unemployed even as small businesses struggle to hire workers. And Republicans are readying attacks on President Joe Biden over all of it.”
POLICY CORNER
IMMIGRATION FILES — The Biden administration is weighing paying out $450,000 per individual to families that were separated at the border under the Trump administration, though the situation remains in flux, WSJ’s Michelle Hackman, Aruna Viswanatha and Sadie Gurman scooped. “The total potential payout could be $1 billion or more,” as a variety of ongoing lawsuits seek possible settlements/resolution by the end of next month.
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
CUOMO CHARGED — Former New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO was charged with criminal “forcible touching,” a misdemeanor, on Thursday, New York Focus’ Akash Mehta scooped. Cuomo, who resigned from office in August, “will be required to appear in court in Albany on Nov. 17 to be arraigned,” per the NYT.
DESANTIS VS. BIDEN, via Tampa Bay Times’ Mary Ellen Klas: “Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS and Attorney General ASHLEY MOODY filed another lawsuit against the U.S. government Thursday, challenging the rule requiring companies that are federal contractors to show proof of vaccination or weekly COVID tests of their employees and calling it a ‘heavy-handed mandate never authorized by Congress.’”
MEDIAWATCH
NO APOLOGIES — The WSJ Editorial Board defended its decision to publish a letter to the editor by Trumpfalsely alleging the 2020 election was “rigged.” “We trust our readers to make up their own minds about his statement. And we think it’s news when an ex-President who may run in 2024 wrote what he did, even if (or perhaps especially if) his claims are bananas,” it writes.The full response
FOX IN THE HENHOUSE — GERALDO RIVERA is calling out his Fox colleague TUCKER CARLSON over the latter’s plans to promote false conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 insurrection. “I worry that — and I’m probably going to get in trouble for this — but I’m wondering how much is done to provoke, rather than illuminate,” Rivera told NYT’s Michael Grynbaum.
TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week”: Dan Balz, Ayesha Rascoe, Ali Vitali and Jonathan Lemire.
SUNDAY SO FAR …
“The Sunday Show”: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) … Eric Adams … Maya Wiley … Jonathan Metzl … Montgomery, Ala., Mayor Steven Reed … Evan McMullin … Rachel Bitecofer.
Mitt Romneydressed up as Ted Lasso for Halloween, and delivered biscuits toKyrsten Sinema, in character as AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Welton (notes Josh Wingrove, with a “Ted Lasso” episode 1 spoiler: Sinema was in costume as “a character who sets out to purposefully tank her team”).
Bill de Blasiosaid he was in costume as Captain Kirk, but any self-respecting Trekkie knows he was wearing the wrong color shirt and was actually dressed more like Spock or Dr. McCoy.
RIP: Downtown D.C.’s last remaining (though non-functioning) pay phone, outside the Cheesecake Factory on H Street NW, is about to be removed.
SPOTTED at a screening of Matthew Heineman’s latest documentary, “The First Wave,” on Thursday at the Navy Memorial Theater and presented by National Geographic and Participant: Laurel Sakai, Kaylie Hanson Long, Denise Zheng, Nate Adler, Jenifer Healy, Corey Feist, Gianluca Nigro, Bruce Gellin, Jada Yuan, Dan Diamond, Zach Basu, Mackenzie Kuhl and Amanda Chen.
SPOTTED at a book party for Tom Galvin’s debut novel, “The Auction” ($14.95) on Thursday night: Scott Mulhauser, Tim Burger, Shane Tews, Scott Gerber and Amber Allman.
MEDIA MOVES — Alana Abramson is now a D.C. producer for CNN Plus. She most recently was a White House reporter at Time Magazine. … Matt Hadro is now senior account executive at Pinkston. He most recently has been political editor at Catholic News Agency.
WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE — Sarah Saltiel has been detailed as a workforce policy adviser to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She most recently was a digital service expert at the U.S. Digital Service.
STAFFING UP — The White House announced the appointment of Sara Minkara as U.S. special adviser on international disability rights.
TRANSITION — Charles “Chuck” Johnson will be the next president and CEO of the Aluminum Association. He most recently has been president and CEO of the International Safety Equipment Association.
ENGAGED — Kamran Daravi, a consultant at Deloitte and a Trump White House alum, proposed to Christy Ross, a sales manager at Insight Global, at sunset Wednesday evening at the Lincoln Memorial. They originally met on Bumble. Instapics, via photographer Andrea Hanks…More pics
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Georgette Kerr, co-founder and EVP of Plurus Strategies and a Hillary Clinton alum, and Charlie Kerr, flight chief for NASIC’s Civil Aviation Intelligence Analysis Squadron, welcomed Emory Hope Kerr on Wednesday afternoon. An IVF, rainbow baby who was transferred on Presidents’ Day and due on Election Day, their October surprise came in at 6 lbs, 8 oz and 20.25 inches. Pic… Another pic
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge … White House’s Kate Bedingfield and Seth Schuster … Jim Messina … Phoebe Kilgour … CNN’s Laura Jarrett and David Siegel … WaPo’s Dave Clarke … Bloomberg’s Robert George … Washington Examiner’s Jamie McIntyre … Geoff Turley … POLITICO’s Steve Heuser and Cam Debro … Isabelle James … Mike Saccone … Steve Smith of the ACLU … Kat Timpf … Bob Stevenson … Ryan Akira Quinn ofSwing Left … Natalie Jones Hallahan of the Meridian International Center … Aaron Jacobs … Nelson Cunningham of McLarty Associates … Mara Mellstrom … WSJ’s Kate Bachelder Odell … Mercedes LeGrand … Bill Jaffee of Locust Street Group … Daisy Gordon … Justin McCartney of Rep. Jennifer Wexton’s (D-Va.) office … Nick Yaeger … Avery Miller of “Face the Nation” … Coby King … former Sen. Connie Mack III (R-Fla.) … Safi Majid … Sonia Colin-Reed … Peter Albrecht of AL Media Strategy … Nick Powell … Rachel Barinbaum … Anthony Pardal of Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried’s office … Dimitri Simes … Noah Dion … former acting A.G. Matt Whitaker … Mimi Montgomery … former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne (7-0) … NBC’s David Corvo
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ROME – They’re the world’s two most powerful Catholics. Both are under attack by conservative wings of their faith.
But whether President Joe Biden and Pope Francis commiserated, or discussed issues like abortion on which they disagree, during their nearly 90 minute-meeting Friday is unknown.
The confab at the Vatican was closed to the press, including barring the TV cameras that typically are allowed in at the beginning of such meetings.
Notably, the one-on-one conversation lasted considerably longer than the pope’s conversations with the last two presidents. President Donald Trump met with Francis for half an hour in 2017. President Barack Obama spoke with him for about 50 minutes in 2014.
In a video the Vatican released after the meeting, showing the leaders exchanging gifts, one of Biden’s to the pontiff echoed the themes of both toughness under attack and their shared hope for a more peaceful word.
While Biden said he wasn’t sure whether it was appropriate, he gave Francis a military coin that he said American presidents bestow on warriors and leaders.
“And you are the most significant warrior for peace I’ve ever met,” he said, before enclosing the coin in Francis’ palm with his own hand.
Biden noted that, in addition to including the U.S. seal, the coin commemorates his late son’s national guard unit from Delaware.
If Francis doesn’t have the coin the next time they meet, Biden joked, the tradition is that he has to buy the drinks.
“I’m the only Irishman you’ve ever met who’s never had a drink,” the tea-totaling president added.
Biden also joked about their ages – positing that both feel a lot younger than their respective years of 78 and 84 – before capping the meeting with one of his familiar expressions that took on a greater significance at the Vatican.
“God love ya!” Biden told Francis.
Biden later told reporters the meeting had been “wonderful.”
It was only the second time in history a Catholic U.S. president is meeting with the pope.
Biden’s motorcade arrived at the Vatican just before noon Rome time and was greeted by a dozen Swiss Guards in blue and gold striped uniforms.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden shook hands with Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, the head of Papal Household, in the San Damaso courtyard and then greeted a receiving line of about a half-dozen papal ushers, or gentlemen.
“It’s good to be back,” Biden said as he shook the hand of one of his greeters. “I’m Jill’s husband,” he said to another before he was ushered into the frescoed Apostolic Palace and taken upstairs to the pope’s private library.
The Vatican said it canceled the planned live broadcast of the beginning of the meeting because of the coronavirus.
The White House said after the meeting that Biden lauded the pope’s leadership in fighting the climate crises and in advocating for an equitable global economic recovery from the pandemic.
One of the agenda items for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops when it convenes in Baltimore in mid-November is whether Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should be admonished for receiving Holy Communion.
This summer, the bishops overwhelmingly approved the drafting of a “teaching document” that many of them hope will rebuke Catholic politicians for receiving communion despite their support for abortion rights. Though any document is unlikely to mention Biden by name, its passage would be a clear admonition of the U.S. president.
The meeting between the president and the pontiff comes amid a push by conservative bishops in the U.S. to keep politicians who support abortion rights from receiving Communion.
Analysts said it was doubtful that Francis would challenge Biden’s support of abortion rights and same-sex marriage during their meeting but would instead focus on issues where they could find common ground.
The White House said the focus would be on concerns grounded in human dignity, including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate crisis, and caring for the poor.
Though Friday’s meeting marked the first time Biden and Francis have met since Biden became president, they have met three times before.
In 2013, when Biden was vice president, he led the U.S. delegation to Francis’ formal installation as pope. The two men met again when the pontiff visited the U.S. in 2015 and when Biden visited the Vatican in 2016 to speak about cancer prevention at a conference on regenerative medicine.
After some private time with the pope Friday, Biden’s meeting was expanded to include other U.S. and Vatican officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Biden was scheduled to meet later with the Cardinal Secretary of State, followed by meetings with Italy’s president and prime minister and with French President Emmanuel Macron.
PURCELLVILLE, Va. (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday hailed activist parents who are decrying school curriculums as un-American, equating instruction on the effects of institutional racism with “state-sponsored racism” and warning that such efforts might “indoctrinate” children.
The fight over schools has become a flashpoint in the Virginia governor’s race, where polls show a dead heat between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin ahead of Election Day on Tuesday. In his speech at Patrick Henry College, a Christian university about 50 miles outside Washington in Loudoun County, Pence echoed many of the criticisms Youngkin has made central to his campaign and praised activists in the surrounding suburbs for propelling a “movement spreading all across the country.”
“The eyes of the nation are on Loudoun County,” Pence told a crowd of hundreds in a gymnasium.
The former vice president has delivered speeches around the country on other policy matters and is widely thought to be preparing a 2024 presidential run. He did not appear with Youngkin or mention him by name on Thursday — but he didn’t have to. The GOP nominee has made fighting for “parental freedom” a key part of his closing argument, highlighting his support for allowing parents to object to lessons on certain books and his opposition to critical race theory, a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism.
Youngkin has tapped into the frustrations of parents’ groups in northern Virginia — many of them headed by officials with ties to the Trump administration, the Republican Party, or both — who have decried school COVID safety precautions, transgender policies and curriculums.
In recent weeks, Youngkin has seized on allegations of sexual assault at two different Loudon County high schools allegedly committed by the same student. The cases were widely publicized by conservative media, after the father of the first victim was arrested in an altercation with another parent at a school board meeting discussing transgender policy.
That led some activists to allege that school officials were more interested in punishing parents than stopping a student who has been charged with sexual assaults in separate schools.
Although the details of the case are still emerging, Pence seized on it, saying he was angered “to think those crimes happened because some adults cared more about politics than the well being of our kids.”
“Mike Pence peddling these divisive, hateful, right-wing lies shows that he and Glenn have more in common than their complete and total allegiance to Donald Trump,” McAuliffe spokeswoman Christina Freundlich said.
Pence repeatedly chided McAuliffe, who previously served as Virginia’s governor from 2014 to 2018, accusing him of supporting critical race theory. Although the academic theory is rarely taught, especially in elementary schools, Pence and other speakers at Thursday’s event said they’d heard anecdotal stories about young kids being made to feel bad about being white.
“Children as young as kindergarten are being taught to be ashamed of their skin color,” Pence said, adding that “critical race theory is nothing more than state-sponsored racism” and calling it an attempt to ”indoctrinate our youth into radical, left-wing ideology.”
In the final days of the campaign, McAuliffe has slammed Youngkin for using “racist dog whistles” to rally GOP base voters. Youngkin’s campaign released an ad this week featuring a mother who years ago sought to have the book “Beloved” banned from classrooms in suburban Washington.
The acclaimed 1987 novel by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison is about an escaped slave who kills her infant daughter rather than allowing the girl to be returned to the plantation.
The Virginia mother’s advocacy led to state legislation McAuliffe vetoed in 2016 and 2017 that would have let parents opt out of having their children study classroom materials with sexually explicit content.
McAuliffe has accused Youngkin of trying to “silence” one of America’s “most prominent Black authors.”
But Youngkin counters that the measures McAuliffe vetoed had bipartisan support among state lawmakers, meaning McAuliffe is now accusing his own party of racism.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has said she plans to fight for the inclusion of paid family leave in Democrats’ spending bill.
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
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Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has said she plans to fight for the inclusion of paid family leave in Democrats’ spending bill.
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
America is an outlier when it comes to paid family leave — a matter many Democrats had hoped to fix with President Biden’s sweeping domestic spending plan.
But the latest framework — which was cut down from its original size to satisfy centrists and which Biden unveiled Thursday — drops paid leave.
“That is one of my biggest points of dissatisfaction, and it is discouraging,” Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia told NPR.
The talks had initially called for 12 weeks of paid family leave, which includes leave for new parents and elder care. That was whittled down to four and finally down to none.
The United States is one of a handful of countries, and the only wealthy nation, without a national paid leave policy.
Many Democrats said Thursday that they still hope to add provisions to the president’s framework.
That echoes a Wednesday statement from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who has vowed to continue to fight for paid family leave until the very end.
“Until the bill is printed, I will continue working to include paid leave in the Build Back Better plan,” she said in the statement.
The Biden administration has said paid leave would make the U.S. more competitive in the global market. Women are often the hardest hit by restrictive or nonexistent paid leave policies.
“You cannot be competitive if women can’t productively engage in the workforce because they don’t have access to child care or care for their elderly loved ones,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in an interview with NPR last month. “We can’t compete globally if we’re the only industrialized nation without paid family leave, which severely underpins our workers’ productivity.”
Disagreements over the price tag
Democrats largely seemed to agree that family leave provisions should be in the massive spending package.
But Democrats plan to push the measure through the Senate using a process called reconciliation, so there needs to be complete unanimitywithin a party’s caucus that includes two major holdouts on the overall size and scope of the bill — Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Manchin has been quite vocal about what he wants and what he doesn’t want in the spending measure. The conservative Democrat — who this month made waves for saying he had offered to switch parties if he had become a “problem” to Democrats — had balked at the plan’s size, which initially rang in at $3.5 trillion.
A Sinema spokesman released a statement earlier this month saying she “does not negotiate policy details through the press,” but she previously said that she, like Manchin, would not support a package as pricey as the original $3.5 trillion proposal.
That led Democrats to have to narrow the bill down — including slashing paid leave.
Despite his discouragement that the leave policy has been dropped, Kaine and others pointed to other provisions in the bill, including an extended child tax credit and universal prekindergarten, as victories.
“What we’ll say to folks who care deeply about the issue, and I do too, is that it’s disappointing and we got more work to do,” he said. “But the combination of pro-family and pro-child issues is so strong here that it’ll give us momentum on the other things. And there’s a lot of good in this bill.”
Biden, for whom the historic measure would represent a major win for his young presidency, spoke optimistically about what has been achieved thus far.
“We spent hours and hours and hours over months and months working on this,” Biden said in remarks made before leaving for the G-20 and the U.N. climate summit. “No one got everything they wanted, including me. But that’s what compromise is. That’s consensus. And that’s what I ran on.”
(CNN)The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in a case that could broaden gun rights nationwide and transform how the Second Amendment is interpreted in the United States.
Newman slammed the move as a perversion of the democratic process but could not stop it.
“The most recently proposed map is a clear attempt to appease one person and a small handful of affluent insiders at the expense of workers and working families on Chicago’s Southwest Side and suburbs,” Newman seethed in a Thursday night statement. “Illinois residents deserve fair representation and a fair map that includes public input — not one that turns a blind eye to it.”
Besides Newman, every Republican member is also feeling the squeeze under the map. GOP Reps. Darin LaHood and Adam Kinzinger are shoved together in a deep-red seat in the north, and GOP Reps. Mike Bost and Mary Miller are looped in a similarly packed Republican seat in the south. Republican Rep. Rodney Davis has a central district to himself — unless any of his colleagues decide to run there instead.
Even before the new map was passed, the delegation was already bracing for multiple clashes between sitting members.
“I’ve been through this every 10 years. It’s Civil War-ish. It gets ugly,” said Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.). “Traditionally, longtime friends have been forced to turn against each other for survival. So it’s ugly political cannibalism.”
Newman’s fate, however, was almost avoided.
Under siege in the draft map released Saturday, Casten tapped into the network he cultivated in 2018 when he ousted then-GOP Rep. Peter Roskam. His political operation sent out an email mobilizing volunteers to contact legislators in his district and urge them to vote against pairing him with Newman.
They urged supporters to contact their state representative with a script: “Combining Sean Casten & Marie Newman would be horrible for Democratic enthusiasm across the suburbs. Forcing two popular members of Congress to battle it out in a primary will leave Democrats discouraged heading into the midterms, when we need all our energy focused on electing Democrats in the suburbs!” according to an email obtained by POLITICO.
It was unclear throughout the day on Thursday whether stateHouse Speaker Chris Welch would be able to marshal the 71 votes needed to push through a new map during the special session. And there was a fear among lawmakers that the vote might be postponed until January, when only 60 votes were needed, a move that would delay political campaigns eager to gear up for the June 2022 primary.
But then a new map surfaced late Thursday that shoved Newman’s home with Garcia’s and it passed both the state Senate and the state House by early Friday morning. It now goes to Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker for his signature.
Members of Congress do not have to live in the districts they represent, and Newman could — and is perhaps likely to — still mount a challenge against Casten in his district, which includes some of her current seat.
As of the end of last month, Casten had $1 million banked, compared to Newman’s $440,000. Both are progressive, but Newman would likely try to run to Casten’s left.
Some Casten allies have wondered if AIPAC or Democratic Majority for Israel, two pro-Israel groups, might get involved in a matchup because Newman was one of only a handful of Democrats who opposed funding the Iron Dome defense project earlier this year.
But both ceded other parts of their districts to create a new Latino opportunity seat. Two Democrats, Chicago Alderman Gilbert Villegas and state Sen. Omar Aquino, have already signaled some interest in running for the new seat.
“Given the history of how dis-empowered we’ve been, I would hope that it were a Latina or a Latino,” said Garcia, the only Hispanic member of the delegation, said of the ultimate winner of the new district.
When asked if that would mean one of his current colleagues would be out of Congress, he said: “We’ll see. That’s how these things go. Got to take a risk.”
The new map would leave every other Democratic incumbent in a relatively strong position. A northwest Illinois seat — from which Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos is retiring — would become slightly more blue, though still winnable for the GOP. It also creates a new deep blue seat that snakes from East St. Louis to Springfield to Champaign.
Still, a potential matchup between two Democratic incumbents came as a surprise to some Democrats, who have total control of the redistricting process and thus can avoid such pairings.
Illinois stands in stark contrast to other states that have adopted an incumbent-protection posture that’s made for a somewhat sleepy redistricting so far. West Virginia is the only state set to feature a member-vs-member showdown as it shrank from two seats to three.
Republicans, out of power in the legislature and the governor’s mansion, were expecting their current predicament.
LaHood said in an interview before redistricting passedthat he was waiting to see the final maps before deciding his reelection plans. (He dodged a question on whether he could beat Kinzinger, one of the GOP’s most prominent anti-Trump critics, in a primary.)
Democrats left Davis’ home of Taylorville in a central Illinois district with no other incumbents — a possible ploy to keep him from challenging Pritzker in the governor’s race.
Still, in an interview earlier this week, Davis hit Pritzker for allowing such a gerrymandered map to move forward. When asked if he is still considering a run for governor, Davis replied: “I haven’t ruled out anything because I don’t know what the battlefield is going to look like.”
The new southern district is a combination of Bost’s and Miller’s current seats and a small rectangular arm just out of the northern border to grab Miller’s hometown of Oakland.
“They didn’t do that on purpose,” Bost joked, referring to the Democrats. “They didn’t draw that little area like that.”
Still, he said he plans to run no matter what, even if it meant challenging a colleague.
Miller, meanwhile, began to scurry away when POLITICO asked whether she is planning to run for reelection. A freshman who has faced repeated controversies, Miller perhaps leans more right than the other Republicans in the delegation. She has attended press conferences with the House Freedom Caucus, including one calling for the removal of two GOP colleagues from their committees: Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
Still, when asked whether she was weighing running against one of her GOP colleagues over another, she suggested she wouldn’t be intimidated by the new maps.
“I have no idea,” she said, “but I can say I laughed when I read that they think they’re terrorizing me. Because I am not scared.”
Sen. Joe Manchin and Senate Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell huddled on the Senate floor, engaging in a deep face-to-face conversation on Thursday just days after a report said the West Virginia Democrat was mulling flipping political parties.
It also comes amid Manchin’s opposition to portions of President Biden’s $1.75 trillion spending plan that threatens to scuttle the entire package.
Biden delayed a scheduled overseas trip on Thursday to meet with Democrats on Capitol Hill to try to salvage the legislation and to call on them to put aside their differences and vote for its approval.
Amid the fast-moving events of the day, Manchin and McConnell remained in conversation on the Senate floor for 21 minutes, with each stopping to listen to the other, as other lawmakers milled about the chamber.
Video feed of the Senate from CSPAN showed McConnell (R-Ky.) standing in the front of the chamber casting a no vote on the confirmation of Omar Williams as a US District Court judge in Connecticut.
Moments later Manchin walked into view and voted to confirm Williams, then paused to take off his mask.
Sen. Joe Manchin and Senate Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell discuss at the Senate floor during a confirmation vote for a US District Court judge in Connecticut.CSPAN
He then walked over to the Senate minority leader, grabbed him by the right arm and leaned in to say something.
The two senators stood there for a few seconds, holding each other’s arms, before Manchin motioned for McConnell to join him at the GOP leader’s desk.
Manchin and McConnell sat down shoulder-to-shoulder, and Manchin started talking, gesturing with his hands and using his iPad at times to emphasize a point he was making.
Sen. Joe Manchin has refuted claims of wanting to switch to the Republican party.CSPAN
Several times, Manchin reached over to touch McConnell gently on the arm.
Later in the powwow, the West Virginia Democrat turned to face McConnell more squarely and leaned in closer.
At one point. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) stopped in front of the desk as he cast his vote and then glanced back at the pair.
David Popp, a spokesman for McConnell, joked that the two senators were, “Talking about college football, obviously.”
Sen. Joe Manchin is seen leaning in and listening closely to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell during a conversation on the Senate floor.CSPAN
Manchin’s office didn’t immediately respond to request for a readout on the conversation.
A report last week said Manchin was considering ditching the Democratic Party and becoming independent over disagreements he was having with Democrats and Biden over the $1.75 trillion bill.
The report in Mother Jones said Manchin has already worked out a departure package.
Manchin, along with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), is a crucial vote in the 50-50 divided Senate for the plan and has been demanding concessions in what provisions the bill contains and how it is paid for.
After the Mother Jones report came out, Manchin said he had “no control” over rumors and rejected it as “bulls–t.”
A few days later, Manchin expanded on the claim.
“The only thing that was ever said that we’ve ever talked about – if I’m an embarrassment to my Democratic colleagues, my caucus,” he told reporters outside the Capitol.
“I said, me being a moderate centrist Democrat — if that causes you a problem, let me know and I’d switch to be independent,” Manchin said.
McConnell said in an interview in June that he doesn’t foresee Manchin leaving the Democrats.
Sen. Joe Manchin holds Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s arm on the Senate floor.CSPAN
“Well, Sen. Manchin has pointed out over and over again he’s been a Democrat all of his life. I am certainly not anticipating that he’s going to cross the aisle,” McConnell said during a Fox News interview, when asked about the possibility.
“But I do admire his willingness to protect the Senate as an institution,” McConnell added.
Manchin, a former governor and the only Democrat holding statewide office in the Mountain State, also rejected speculation in July that he was going to switch parties after Democrats expressed their frustration with his opposition to scrapping the legislative filibuster that would allow them to pass legislation with a 51 vote majority.
Sen. Joe Manchin is seen using an iPad while talking to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor.CSPAN
“If switching a party, or whether you have a ‘D’ by your name or an ‘R’ by your name changes who you are as a person, then you’re in the wrong profession, and it’s all about you and not about the oath you take to the office, the oath to the Constitution, to protect and defend,” Manchin told Fox News’ “Special Report.” “That shouldn’t be a party affiliation, that should be all of us.”
But Fox News’ host Brett Baier pointed out that President Biden lost every county in West Virginia during the 2020 election and asked Manchin about his allegiance to the deep-red state and the Democratic Party.
“I’m here because of West Virginia,” Manchin said. “I’m here because of every person in West Virginia. I love my state as much as anything in the world, not quite as much as my family, but not far behind. I would do anything for my state of West Virginia.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s spokesman joked about the two senators discussing college football.CSPAN
Manchin also beat back speculation by political commentators that he would likely switch parties if the 2016 national election left the Senate tied at 50-50.
“That’s what goes on in Washington and I guess New York and the pundits,” Manchin told WSAZ. “I thought they had enough drama last night they didn’t need to bring me into it, but I heard they did, and they started calling me, and I said ‘no way.’ “
India rejected calls to announce a net zero carbon emissions target this week, ahead of the U.N.’s global climate talks, where world leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be gathered.
Despite mounting international pressure, India’s environment secretary R.P. Gupta announced that net zero was not the solution to the climate crisis, Reuters reported Wednesday.
“It is how much carbon you are going to put in the atmosphere before reaching net zero that is more important,” Gupta reportedly said.
Net zero emissions refer to achieving an overall balance between greenhouse gas emissions produced and greenhouse gas emissions removed fromthe atmosphere, through natural means or by using the still nascent carbon capture technology.
After China and the United States, India is the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases and is still largely dependent on fossil fuels like coal and oil. India’s energy demand is expected to rise sharply over the next decade as the economy continues on its growth trajectory.
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said that to avoid the devastating effects of climate change, the world needs to limit global warming to 1.5°C. And for that to happen, global carbon dioxide emissions would need to reach net zero around 2050.
Earlier this year, the IPCC delivered its starkest warning on climate change. To keep global temperatures from rising beyond 1.5°C or even 2°C above pre-industrial levels, the world needs immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in emissions over the next two decades, the panel said in a stern warning.
More than 130 countries, including China, have set — or are considering setting — a target of reducing emissions to net zero over the coming decades.
Modi in Glasgow
Modi will be in Glasgow, Scotland for COP26 — the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties.
He is set to participate in a two-day high-level meeting with world leaders on Monday.
In a pre-departure statement Thursday, Modi said he would share India’s track record on climate action at the meeting.
“I will also highlight the need to comprehensively address climate change issues including equitable distribution of carbon space, support for mitigation and adaptation and resilience building measures, mobilization of finance, technology transfer and importance of sustainable lifestyles for green and inclusive growth,” he said.
At COP26, India will emphasize climate justice and ask wealthier nations to transfer technology and finance needed to help developing countries deal with the fallout from global warming, India’s Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav told The Hindu news outlet this week.
“It’s a framework that will create millions of jobs, grow the economy, invest in our nation and our people, turn the climate crisis into an opportunity, and put us on a path not only to compete, but to win the economic competition for the 21st Century against China and every other major country in the world,” Mr Biden said in a TV address from the White House.
Former Vice President Pence on Thursday in Loudoun County discussed parents’ rights and school choice, issues that have risen to the forefront ahead of next week’s statewide elections in Virginia.
“Make your choice Virginia. Let’s choose educational freedom for this generation and the next,” Pence told a crowd at Patrick Henry College.
Pence praised pushback from parents and conservatives against local school boards, calling it a “movement” and a “moment in the life of our nation when we can choose educational freedom.”
The former vice president’s comments come as Republicans, particularly in Virginia, zero in on the issue of parents’ rights in K-12 education. Loudoun County in particular has become the epicenter of conservative protests against school boards on issues such as critical race theory and transgender policies. Concerns have also been voiced over sexually explicit content in learning material.
Last week, Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin called for an investigation into the handling of two sexual assault allegations in two Loudoun schools this year.
“To every Loudoun County parent that is here today and all of you that are looking on, thank you. Thank you for caring so much about your children’s education. That you’re willing to step forward and let your voice be heard,” Pence said.
“Make no mistake about it, you’re making a difference for your kids. With families here in Loudoun County, standing up for educational excellence and accountability, you are making a difference in the life of the nation,” he said.
Youngkin has also seized on the issue, making parents’ rights a centerpiece of his campaign. Pence did not mention Youngkin by name but did take the opportunity to hit Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe for 2019 comments in which he said that diversity and inclusion were just as important to teach kindergarteners as math and English.
Democrats, including McAuliffe, have called the attacks on the issue “a dog whistle,” arguing that conservative political operatives have manufactured and drummed up the enthusiasm.
A Suffolk University poll released this week showed 50 percent of Virginia voters said they believed parents should have more of an influence than school boards on students’ curriculum.
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