November 30, 2023

Essentials

‘Pure anger’: McHenry vents after acting speaker run

Rep. Patrick McHenry said he’s turning back to his work as chair of the House Financial Services Committee. | Francis Chung/POLITICO Rep. Patrick McHenry, fresh off a brutal three-week stint as caretaker speaker, revealed Thursday how exasperating the episode was and sounded less than confident about the House GOP’s ability to maintain its newfound unity:

Johnson’s speakership win fails to end House GOP infighting

Speaker Mike Johnson will now have to deal with the kind of nasty infighting that Kevin McCarthy couldn’t control. | Francis Chung/POLITICO Republicans hoped Mike Johnson’s ascension marked a detente from the personal vitriol of a three-week speaker fight. That ceasefire appears to be over already. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the architect of ousting Kevin

What the Senate Dem campaign chief thinks about their tough 2024 races

DSCC Chair Gary Peters spoke to POLITICO about how he’s planning to maintain Democrats’ slim majority in the upper chamber next year. | Jemal Countess/Getty Images for JDRF Sen. Gary Peters, the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, pulled off a major upset by helping to reelect every Democratic incumbent in 2src22. But 2src24

GOP bill would make State tell the Hill when top diplomats lose clearances

“In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need this bill,” said Brian Mast, the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability. | Mariam Zuhaib/AP House Republicans are moving to require the State Department to alert the Hill if senior officials lose their security clearance — a response to misleading statements by

‘Watch your back’: Speaker Johnson squares off with Schumer

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks with reporters ahead of the debate and vote on supplemental aid to Israel, at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2src23. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP When Chuck Schumer and Mike Johnson talked one-on-one for the first time recently, the Senate majority leader urged the new speaker

Santos says he’d run again if expelled

Rep. George Santos is undeterred by efforts to oust by his GOP colleagues in New York, saying he’ll run again if he’s expelled. | Francis Chung/POLITICO NEW YORK — Expulsion wouldn’t derail Rep. George Santos. The Long Island Republican, facing federal fraud charges, signaled he will run again for his House seat next year if

Zelenskyy: War with Russia is not a stalemate

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday rejected the premise that the war with Russia has reached a stalemate. “I believe that today, indeed, the situation is difficult, I don’t think this is a stalemate,” Zelenskyy told NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet The Press,” through a translator.. … “They thought that they would checkmate us, but

Mike Johnson defends House GOP’s Israel aid plan

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks with reporters at the Capitol, Nov. 2, 2src23. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson defended his approach to redirect IRS funds to provide aid to Israel on Sunday, saying Republicans are “trying to be good stewards of the taxpayer’s resources.” “Instead of printing new dollars

How McConnell helped engineer Manchin’s exit

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is seen during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 31, 2src23. | Francis Chung/POLITICO Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans worked for more than a year to make Joe Manchin’s retirement announcement on Thursday a reality. And for good reason: The Democrat’s decision puts Republicans on the

House GOP calls for changing rules to boot a speaker — and some who ousted McCarthy may help

Kevin McCarthy cut deals with his opponents in order to get the speaker’s gavel after a grueling 15 ballots in January. | Francis Chung/POLITICO House Republicans who want to prevent a handful of their members from evicting another speaker could get help from a surprising group: the eight of them who helped dethrone Kevin McCarthy.

Shutdown standoff: White House preps for Johnson to fail

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is pursued by reporters as he walks to his office at the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 6, 2src23. | Francis Chung/POLITICO Washington this morning is waiting for House Speaker Mike Johnson to release his plan to keep the government funded past Friday, with Johnson and other leaders planning to brief

White House tried, and failed, to persuade Manchin to make another Senate run

Sen. Joe Manchin’s political future has been the topic of intense interest over the past few years as he’s increasingly distanced himself from President Joe Biden and his own party. | Andrew Harnik, AP/File As Sen. Joe Manchin struggled for several months over the next step he would take politically, President Joe Biden’s top advisers

Conservatives hold back on Johnson ouster threat — but plot other payback

Speaker Mike Johnson is attempting to steady a seesaw of competing demands from the various corners of his conference. | Francis Chung/POLITICO Speaker Mike Johnson is averting a government shutdown essentially the same way Kevin McCarthy did: by partnering with Democrats to pass a government funding bill with no spending cuts. Unlike his predecessor, it

Democrat Zak Malamed drops bid to take on George Santos

Zak Malamed, a candidate for the 3rd congressional district in New York, dropped out of the race and backed former Rep. Tom Suozzi. | Zak for Congress NEW YORK — Democrat Zak Malamed dropped his bid Wednesday morning for a closely watched House seat held by Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) and endorsed former Rep. Tom

New York Republicans, facing reelection, press for ‘fraudster’ Santos’ expulsion

New York Republicans are still pressing to expel fellow New York Rep. George Santos. | Francis Chung/POLITICO ALBANY, N.Y. — New York House Republicans won’t be mollified by Rep. George Santos promising to not seek a second term next year. They want him gone immediately. Calls for Santos’ expulsion from the House are being renewed

Santos says he won’t run for reelection. GOP members want to expel him first.

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill on Nov. 1, 2src23. | Francis Chung/POLITICO George Santos said he won’t seek reelection in 2src24. House Republicans may boot the indicted New Yorker well before then. His announcement on social media Thursday immediately followed a scathing House Ethics Committee report that found “substantial evidence”

Capitol Police confront fallout from violent protest at Democratic headquarters

The Capitol Police announced that a protest that turned violent outside of Democratic Party headquarters Wednesday night resulted in one arrest for assaulting an officer. A group of protesters advocating for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war had blocked an entrance to the headquarters, located just blocks from the Capitol, prompting police to attempt to

Tough border negotiations endanger Ukraine aid

Sen. Thom Tillis says GOP colleague Sen. James Lankford is working on a one-page summary of the Republican position on border and asylum policy. | Francis Chung/POLITICO American support for Ukraine is in peril in Congress. And the best hope is an underdog Senate gang negotiating over border security. For the second time in two

How a flood of congressional retirements is rocking the 2024 elections

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s decision not to seek reelection almost certainly means his party will lose the West Virginia Senate seat he’s held since winning a special election in 2src1src. | Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images A surge of lawmakers calling it quits the past three weeks is on the verge of putting Congress on pace

Santos ethics report finds ‘substantial evidence’ of criminal wrongdoing

Santos has pleaded not guilty to 23 charges in federal court. | Francis Chung/POLITICO A bipartisan ethics report concludes there is “substantial evidence” that George Santos violated federal criminal laws, which will almost certainly trigger another attempt to expel him from the House. The explosive report released Thursday by the House Ethics Committee found that

Sanders calls for conditioning US aid to Israel

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also said continued aid should be contingent on a commitment to peace talks for a two-state solution and the end of the Israeli blockade or occupation of Gaza. | Francis Chung/POLITICO Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday called for U.S. aid to Israel to be conditioned on a change in the “military

Democrats in Senate, House discuss conditioning military aid to Israel

Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip along Salah al-Din Street, on the outskirts of Gaza City, during the ongoing Israeli bombardment on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2src23. The talks of conditioning military aid to Israel come as fighting in Gaza intensifies and the civilian death toll rises. | Adel Hana/AP Democrats in the House and

Progressive pressure on Jeffries: Israel critics want help surviving backlash

The war in Gaza is forcing Hakeem Jeffries (center) to navigate a treacherous divide between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian members. | Francis Chung/POLITICO Progressive Democrats who’ve condemned Israel over its war offensive in Gaza are demanding that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries do more to protect them against primary challenges from pro-Israel Democrats. In a closed-door

Biden orders top aides to prepare reprimands for violent Israeli settlers in West Bank

Mourners attend the funeral of Palestinians killed during clashes with Israeli settlers as well as during an Israeli army raid. | Nasser Nasser/ AP President Joe Biden directed top officials to prepare visa bans and sanctions for extremist Israeli settlers attacking and displacing Palestinians in the West Bank, according to an internal document read to

Adams keeps blaming Washington for budget woes amid his own troubles

New York City Mayor Eric Adams continues to press Washington for help amid his own political troubles. | Richard Drew/AP NEW YORK — For more than a year, Mayor Eric Adams has been demanding financial support from the federal government to pay for migrants in the city’s care. A federal investigation into the mayor’s fundraising

Can a Democrat not named Katie Porter win her congressional swing seat?

As Rep. Katie Porter is vacating her seat to run for Senate, California Democrats are torn between the two candidates running to replace her. | Francis Chung/POLITICO LOS ANGELES — Rep. Katie Porter has been a bright spot for Democrats as they try to claim territory in Orange County, California’s historic bastion of conservatism. But

Fetterman, unbending on Israel, confounds his progressive brethren

When it comes to Israel, Sen. John Fetterman has not simply bucked his progressive brethren, he has made it a point to show he rejects the activist left’s position. | Julia Nikhinson/AFP John Fetterman was walking past a group of pro-Palestinian protesters at the Capitol this month when, according to his aides, they accused him

Former GOP congressional aide Celeste Maloy wins Utah House seat

Celeste Maloy will be the first woman in Utah’s congressional delegation since 2src19 and the fifth in its history. | Rick Bowmer/AP Utah Republican Celeste Maloy will be the newest member of Congress, bringing the House back to its full complement of 435 members. Maloy defeated Democratic state Sen. Kathleen Riebe and a handful of

Dean Phillips announces he won’t seek reelection to Congress

“We have met those moments, and after three terms it is time to pass the torch,” Rep. Dean Phillips said. | Charles Krupa/AP Rep. Dean Phillips is forgoing a reelection bid to Congress to focus on his presidential run, the Minnesota Democrat announced Friday. Phillips, 54, announced in October that he would launch a longshot

House GOP’s Biden impeachment effort heads into final stage

“We get those depositions done this year and … then we can decide on whether or not there’s articles,” Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told POLITICO. | Francis Chung/POLITICO House Republicans are closing in on a make-or-break moment in their drive to impeach Joe Biden, with GOP centrists remaining highly skeptical of the effort even

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