Morning Report — Israel restarts war; House poised for Santos expulsion vote

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 12/01/23 6:53 AM ET

Hatem Ali/Associated Press
Palestinians evacuate wounded in Israeli bombardment Rafah, Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 1, 2023.

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As December dawns, war has resumed in Gaza, the House is expected to oust a New York GOP congressman accused of fraud, while former President Trump, also accused of fraud in New York, is back under a gag order after losing his argument against it in court. Nearly 7,000 miles away, wealthy nations surprised many at a U.N. climate summit Thursday when leaders unveiled a new fund to help poorer countries that struggle with the brunt of a warming planet.

🎤 But first, we’re wondering what audiences learned during the prime-time Fox News debate between the Democratic governor of California and Florida’s Republican governor, a presidential candidate who’s trailing behind his party’s front-runner.

During the fiery 90-minute event moderated by Sean Hannity and branded as “The Great Red vs. Blue State Debate,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom jousted over how each handled issues including COVID-19, crime and abortion, at times getting personal. The whole affair presented an almost alternate-reality experience between a pair of politicians who are not competing for the same office — or in Newsom’s case, running for anything at all (The New York Times).

“We have one thing in common: Neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024,” Newsom said early in the debate.

For DeSantis, the debate was a chance to hold the spotlight without other candidates for the Republican presidential nomination on the stage. The Florida governor was initially seen as a threat to Trump but trails the former president and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in polls.

“How’s that going for you, Ron?” Newsom asked DeSantis about Trump’s polling lead in Florida. “You’re down 41 points in your own state.”

For the California governor, whose White House ambitions will remain tempered until at least 2028, the evening was a chance to bring his smooth persona and quick wit to a national — and conservative — audience. Though Newsom often found himself on defense (including with the conservative moderator), he rebuffed attacks, defended the president, who is seeking reelection, and poked at DeSantis’s trajectory in the Republican contest.

“Is Joe Biden paying you tonight?” the host asked Newsom. “I thought this was state versus state.”

DeSantis labeled Newsom a “liberal bully” and mocked what he calls Newsom’s “shadow campaign” for the Democratic nomination. All in all, the debate was unlikely to change the political landscape, write The Hill’s Dominick Mastrangelo and Caroline Vakil.

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

▪ The U.S. stock market just posted one of its best Novembers in decades (up 8.9 percent), defying skeptics and fueling hopes for more gains to come.

▪ Montana cannot ban short-video app TikTok, at least for now, a judge ruled Thursday, saying a state law “likely” violates the First Amendment.

▪ Want a $61,000 Tesla Cybertruck? They’re available. Tesla plans to sell two higher-end versions priced at nearly $100,000. How far can a driver roam on a single charge? 340 miles.

The potent politics of ObamaCare live on: Biden’s reelection campaign, jumping on what Democrats see as a Trump blunder harmful to his White House bid, is reaching out to Latino voters to alert them that the former president would again attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, if elected. The bet is that tens of millions of people who say they have favorable views of the law enacted in 2010 are paying attention. Nervous Republicans who put health care behind them now worry Trump committed an unforced error.

The Biden campaign on Thursday used email to skewer presidentialHaley for not repudiating Trump’s social media musing that he’s “seriously looking at alternatives” to the ACA. “Whether it’s Trump, Haley, or another MAGA minion, Republicans are coming for Americans’ health care — but President Biden won’t let that happen,” a campaign spokesperson said in a statement.

LEADING THE DAY

MIDDLE EAST

A truce ended. War resumed. Negotiations continue.

Israel’s military said it “resumed combat against the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip,” restarting fighting after a relatively peaceful interim that lasted roughly a week. Israel said Hamas had “violated the operational pause and, in addition, fired toward Israeli territory.”

ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES, saying the country’s aim is to “destroy” Hamas, today dropped leaflets in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, calling it a “fighting zone” and telling residents to “evacuate immediately” (CNN). Officials in Qatar called on the international community to “move quickly to stop the violence,” and said negotiations continued.

The New York Times: Israel knew of Hamas’s attack plan more than a year ago.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with leaders Thursday in Israel and urged them to take concrete steps to reduce civilian deaths when restarting attacks against Hamas. He said the U.S. does not oppose the resumption of war, despite international pressure for a permanent cease-fire to spare Palestinian civilians. Blinken also focused on protecting critical infrastructure such as hospitals and power plants in Gaza and protecting the flow of humanitarian aid during Israel’s next military phase, The New York Times reported.

THE HOSTAGES: Late on Thursday local time, the Israeli military said six more hostages had been turned over to the Red Cross and were on their way to Israel. During the temporary truce, Hamas released 105 captives from Gaza, officials said. Israel freed 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

In Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, Blinken focused on “measures to improve the security and freedom of Palestinians in the West Bank” (The Times of Israel). He said the U.S. sought to accelerate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza and condemned Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, which has increased since October. Blinken told Abbas the U.S. “would continue to insist on full accountability for those responsible,” and remains committed to nudging next-steps toward a Palestinian state.

CONGRESS

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has kept his conference unified during his first three years as the top Senate Democrat — not an easy accomplishment. But divisions within the Democratic Party over Israel, immigration and asylum reform are testing his skills, writes The Hill’s Alexander Bolton. Liberals in the Senate want conditions placed on aid to Israel, an idea that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) dismisses as ridiculous. At the same time, Democratic senators insist changes to immigration policy must create new pathways to citizenship for illegal migrants and residents — a non-starter for Republicans.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who says he’s “open” to attaching conditions on aid to Israel, said a group of Democratic colleagues are working “earnestly” on putting together such a proposal.

“It doesn’t sound super controversial to me to require of Israel what we require of every other ally, but I haven’t endorsed any particular proposal,” he said Thursday. “I’ve said I’m open to it. I know some of my colleagues are working more earnestly on it.”

Is there a doctor in the house? Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), an eye specialist, on Thursday helped Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) using the Heimlich maneuver when she began choking on part of her meal during a GOP Senate luncheon she hosted in the Capitol. She thanked him afterward (The Hill).

▪ The Hill: A broad coalition of progressives and minority voters furious about Israel’s war in Gaza have thrust the Democratic party into a bitter fight — exposing a deep fissure over the conflict ahead of the 2024 elections, and driving a decline in American public support for Israel.

▪ The New York Times: On Israel’s war against Hamas, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) faces a backlash from the left. The progressive disappointment with the senator, a liberal icon, reflects a broader divide among Democrats over the war.

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who is accused of fraud and campaign finance violations and who angrily says colleagues are bullying him, is expected today to be kicked out of the House. Santos, who invented a personal biography that fell apart under scrutiny and was ostracized by fellow Republicans after his election, could become the sixth House member to be formally expelled. Santos refused to resign after announcing he would not seek a second term (The Hill).

TEMPERS EXPLODED at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Thursday before Democrats voted to subpoena conservative donor Harlan Crow and activist Leonard Leo, the co-chairman of the Federalist Society, in response to reporting by ProPublica that revealed the two men played roles in taking conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito on luxury vacations. The Republican members of the committee stormed out of the hearing room shortly before Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called a vote on authorizing the subpoenas. The motion passed with 11 Democratic votes. Not a single Republican was left in the room by the time the roll call ended (The Hill).

“Mr. Chairman, you just destroyed one of the most important committees in the United States Senate,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said. “Congratulations on destroying the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.”

▪ The Hill: Lawmakers staring down an end-of-the-year deadline to reauthorize the nation’s warrantless spy powers are grappling with a dizzying number of options for how to tackle needed reforms as well as a chorus of complaints about how to proceed.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Former National Institutes of Health virologist Anthony Fauci will testify to the House on COVID-19 origins.

A LIVELY FEDERAL INFRASTRUCTURE SKIRMISH involving Maryland and Virginia senators, governors and state lawmakers about a decision to locate a new FBI headquarters in Maryland rather than the Commonwealth is headed to the General Services Administration’s inspector general. The IG will probe how Greenbelt, Md., won out over a location in Virginia, according to Virginia lawmakers, who released a GSA letter Thursday. The new building would replace the FBI’s crumbling headquarters in nearby Washington, D.C. (The Washington Post). Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) has complained about the process, and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner (D), who called it “corrupt,” have been joined by colleagues from the state’s delegation in Congress to challenge a selection process that wound up favoring a plot of land outside the Greenbelt Metro station in Prince George’s County instead of a Fairfax County site in northern Virginia preferred by FBI leaders and a GSA selection panel.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House meets at 9 a.m.

The Senate convenes Monday at 3 p.m. to resume consideration of the nomination of Irma Carrillo Ramirez to be a U.S. Circuit Court judge for the 5th Circuit.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 11 a.m.

The vice president is en route to Dubai for the COP28 climate conference.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled from Israel and the West Bank to Dubai, where he will participate at 1:30 p.m. local time at the U.N. Climate Conference, COP28.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will speak at Spelman College in Atlanta at 1 p.m., followed by a roundtable discussion at 2 p.m.

ZOOM IN

MORE POLITICS

🚨 In one of the most challenging Senate races next year for Democrats and with the party’s vulnerable majority in the balance, the respected Cook Political Report moved Montana, where Democratic incumbent Jon Tester is running to hold his seat, from “lean Democrat” to “toss-up” on Thursday.

Haley in the first TV ad of her campaign says the country needs to move beyond “the chaos of the past.” The 30-second spot, part of a $10 million advertising effort in Iowa and New Hampshire, does not mention Trump or Biden.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), 45, who unsuccessfully ran for House Speaker and is in his first term in Congress, said Thursday that if asked, he’d be Trump’s running mate.“I mean, who wouldn’t?” he told SiriusXM’s guest host Elliot Williams during an interview on “The Julie Mason Show” on POTUS 124.

2024 ROUNDUP

▪ Thousands of fake social media accounts filled with polarizing political content and designed to appear to be from Americans actually originated in China in an apparent effort to divide the U.S. ahead of next year’s elections, Meta said Thursday.

▪ The Democratic Party has no Plan B if Biden were to halt his 2024 reelection campaign for any reason.

▪ Biden’s presidential rivals are critical of the Israel-Hamas hostage talks.

▪ The situations in Israel and Ukraine are forcing 2024 reckonings within both parties.

ELSEWHERE

TRUMP WORLD

🔇 An appeals court Thursday reinstated a gag order barring Trump and his counsel from speaking about staff members and clerks who serve the New York judge presiding over Trump’s ongoing business fraud trial. In a terse decision, the appeals panel denied the former president’s request to lift the order. Trump’s counsel sought to eliminate restraints on speech with an argument that Judge Arthur Engoron “casts serious doubt” on his ability to serve as an “impartial finder of fact” (The Hill and Bloomberg Law).

Trump on Tuesday took aim at Dawn Engoron, the judge’s wife, in a series of social media posts that asserted without evidence or confirmation that an account is hers on X — formerly Twitter — that has been critical of him. The judge’s wife previously told Newsweek the X account does not belong to her (The Hill).

“I do not have a Twitter account. This is not me. I have not posted any anti-Trump messages,” shesaid.

Meanwhile, Trump has a big tax bill. A court-ordered financial auditor said the former president quietly moved $40 million from the Trump Organization into a personal bank account — apparently to pay taxes. Trump isn’t supposed to be moving any money around without alerting Barbara Jones, a former federal judge in New York tasked with overseeing the Trump Organization’s business practices. On Wednesday, she notified a New York state court about some major bank transfers that were never brought to her attention. In the runup to the ongoing bank fraud trial that threatens Trump’s family business, Judge Engoron barred the Trump Organization from shifting funds to dodge paying what could become a massive penalty for fraud (The Daily Beast).

A hearing is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. today in the Fulton County, Ga., election racketeering case, where a judge is expected to consider a raft of defense motions filed by defendants.

Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer and one of Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia election-interference case, plans to meet with investigators in Arizona and Nevada, where similar probes are underway (The Washington Post). Chesebro in October entered into a deal with Georgia prosecutors and pleaded guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents and agreed to testify in the case.

CLIMATE

The United Arab Emirates pushed through a decision on the opening day of COP28 in Dubai Thursday that creates a “loss and damage” fund, which will source money from developed countries to help pay for climate damages in developing nations. The fund decision at the outset of the United Nations climate summit was something of a surprise. Developing nations for years had described such a fund as a goal. The aim is to support countries that suffer the brunt of climate-change disasters without being heavy emitters of greenhouse gas (The Atlantic).

For the fund, the U.S. is seen as tight-fisted with an “embarrassing” commitment of $17.5 million, critics say, less than a fifth of the UAE’s fund donation and 14 times less than the European Union’s. The UAE pledged $100 million, as did Germany. The United Kingdom announced $75 million and Japan contributed $10 million (CNN).

▪ Fortune: Scope 3 emissions, also referred to as value chain emissions, are the elephant in the room as COP28 kicked off in one of the most water-stressed regions in the world.

▪ Reuters: Britain’s King Charles will push for global action on climate in a COP28 speech.

▪ The Hill: COP28’s venue itself is facing scrutiny — as critics raise concerns about oil influence and human rights in Dubai.

OPINION

■ What does Gavin Newsom think he’s doing? by Matt Bai, contributing columnist, The Washington Post.

■ Three reasons big GOP donors might pick Haley over Trump, by Liz Peek, opinion contributor, The Hill.

THE CLOSER

© The Associated Press / Lawrence Jackson | Sports Illustrated, now a digital product, denied claims that some published content was AI-assisted. Author bylines and photos were fake, the website Futurism site reported.

And finally … 👏👏👏 Bravo to this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners! Thursday’s puzzle explored some of this week’s headlines about AI.

Readers who went 4/4 with their natural intelligence: Terry Plaumer, Pam Manges, Richard Baznik, Robert Bradley, Peter John, Mary Anne McEnery, Stan Wasser, Ki Harvey, Joan Domingues and Steve James.

They knew that Sports Illustrated was the media company that blamed an outside contractor after a damaging discovery that it published content using computer-invented bylines with computer-created headshots, even as it refuted that some articles were AI-generated.

Amazon is the tech company that introduced an artificial intelligence subscription product, Q, named after a character in the James Bond films.

Generative AI is changing medicine, inching closer to patient diagnoses, Axios noted this week. It has been tapped to sift through research studies, bolster clinicians’ record-keeping and speed the drug discovery process. The answer we looked for was “all of the above.”

Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer (D), is taking aim at political advertising ahead of the 2024 elections by vowing this week to sign legislation intended to curb deceptive uses of AI and manipulated media, known as deepfakes.

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