The Hill’s Morning Report — GOP (finally) wins the House

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More than a week after Election Day, the Republican Party has officially regained control of the House of Representatives. The Associated Press called the GOP’s key 218th seat Wednesday evening, ensuring control of the chamber. 

The GOP had long anticipated winning control of the House in the 2022 elections, as midterms have historically benefited the party not in control of the White House. But losses in key districts that came into focus on election night put a damper on GOP spirits, turning the projected red wave Republicans had been teasing for months into something closer to a ripple (The Hill).

“No one ever said this thing was going to be easy. I always said that all I could guarantee was that we’re going to win the majority,” National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Emmer (Minn.) told reporters last week. “How wide and how deep the majority was going to be was totally up to the voters.”

The Hill: House Democrats assess a transformed Washington after losing the majority.

The House win comes as the GOP faced more internal post-midterm tests on Wednesday when Senators gathered for leadership elections and the party grappled with former President Trump once again mounting a presidential campaign. Republicans are facing internal discord after they secured a narrow House majority but failed to flip the Senate, leading members to question whether the party is in need of a leadership overhaul. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday fended off the most serious threat to his position to date when he defeated National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott (Fla.) in the GOP leadership vote, writes The Hill’s Alexander Bolton. 

Now McConnell has the tough task of healing the fractures in his caucus exposed during an acrimonious meeting Tuesday. McConnell also faces the continued threat to his leadership posed by Trump, who fueled Scott’s challenge by repeatedly calling for McConnell’s ouster.

▪ The Washington Post: Republican infighting roils Congress as midterms fallout continues.

▪ Roll Call: McConnell prevails in Senate GOP leadership contest.

Two years after rallying behind Trump as the GOP’s uncontested champion, Republicans on Capitol Hill are sounding a very different tune as Trump seeks the White House once again in 2024, write The Hill’s Mike Lillis and Mychael Schnell. While a number of his staunchest supporters have endorsed the former president, a long list of others expressed an openness to back an alternative candidate, said it’s too early to endorse anyone, or just wanted to avoid the topic altogether. 

The lukewarm response to Trump’s announcement could provide a key opening for other Republicans still on the fence about whether to challenge him in 2024, writes The Hill’s Max Greenwood. The former president’s seemingly weakened position in the GOP, which could open the door even wider to a hard-charging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), riding high on his midterm win and with the wind at his back — as well as to other would-be challengers.

Trump has launched his third presidential campaign at a moment of political and legal vulnerability, writes The Hill’s Niall Stanage. The midterm elections have tarnished his brand, it’s plausible he gets indicted related to the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, and DeSantis is a rising rival. The GOP’s internal debate over Trump is also permeating debates about Republican congressional leadership — making for a fractured party that the former president might struggle to pull together behind him.

▪ Axios: Donor Stephen Schwarzman comes out against Trump in major defection.

▪ The Washington Post: Ivanka Trump says she won’t be part of her father’s campaign.

Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) is eyeing legislation that would bar Trump from serving in office under the 14th Amendment “for leading an insurrection against the United States.”

Cicilline, who served as an impeachment manager during the former president’s first impeachment, on Tuesday sent a letter to his Democratic colleagues previewing the bill and soliciting co-sponsors for the measure. It’s unclear when he would introduce the legislation (The Hill).

Trump’s 2024 White House bid puts a spotlight on President Biden, who has not yet officially announced he will seek another term and has kept a comfortable distance from reacting to Trump while in office, The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Brett Samuels report. The president has indicated he has no intention of getting into a mud-slinging contest with his predecessor or giving him oxygen as he tries to mount a comeback. But the White House and Democratic National Committee have signaled they are prepared to defend Biden’s record and remind the country of Trump’s, leaving Biden to do the work of being president in the meantime. 

The New York Times: Trump is running in 2024. The White House has a plan.

Georgia’s Senate race runoff is three weeks away and Democrats are hoping big names like former President Obama could help put incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock over the top against GOP candidate Hershel Walker (The Hill).

Warnock on Tuesday joined a lawsuit that seeks to overturn a rule limiting Saturday early voting in the runoff election (The New York Times). 

▪ Politico: GOP civil war spreads to Georgia runoff.

▪ Vox: The GOP had terrible Senate candidates and it really did sink them.

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Related Articles

▪ NBC News: Michael Flynn ordered to testify in Trump election interference probe.

▪ Vox: Where Trump and DeSantis actually disagree.

▪ Politico: Networks limit Trump’s airtime during 2024 announcement.

▪ FiveThirtyEight: A historic number of women will be governors next year. 

▪ The New York Times: In Arizona, Kari Lake’s next move splits factions of the GOP.

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LEADING THE DAY

➤ CONGRESS

The Senate on Wednesday voted to start debate on legislation that would codify same-sex marriage protections, paving the way for the bill to pass by the end of the week. Senators voted 62-37 to advance the measure, with every Democrat joined by 12 Republicans. The chamber is expected to vote again today to invoke cloture, setting up a final vote by the end of the week.

“This legislation unites Americans,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the lone openly lesbian senator, said on the Senate floor before the vote. “With the Respect For Marriage Act, we can ease the fear for millions of same-sex and interracial couples have that their freedoms and their rights could be stripped away… And this will give millions of loving couples the certainty, the dignity and the respect that they need and that they deserve.”

A vote on the original bill in late September was postponed until after the midterms because of a lack of Republican support prior to Election Day. GOP Senators came onboard with the bill Monday after a group of five senators, headed by Baldwin and Susan Collins (R-Maine), unveiled an amendment that contained religious freedom provisions (The Hill). 

Biden on Wednesday issued a statement in support of the bill, saying “love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love. Today’s bipartisan vote brings the United States one step closer to protecting that right in law.” He urged Congress to “quickly send the bill to my desk where I will promptly sign it into law.”

▪ Vox: The significance of the Senate’s historic vote on same-sex marriage.

▪ Bloomberg News: These 37 Republicans voted against a bill to protect same-sex marriage.

House Republicans began voting on internal conference rules change proposals Wednesday, a major priority for right-wing members who have withheld support for Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) to be Speaker, writes The Hill’s Emily Brooks. Many of those are measures pushed by the House Freedom Caucus that, on the whole, would give more power to individual members rather than leadership. Proposals include banning earmarks, changing the structure for selecting committee members and adding a “majority of the majority” rule for appropriations bills. 

Politico: McCarthy’s next step on the GOP tightrope: Navigating concessions to conservatives.

A Democratic-led push for a bipartisan fix to the nation’s debt ceiling while the party still holds control of Congress is getting a chilly reception from Senate Republicans, The Hill’s Aris Folley reports. While some Senate GOP leaders haven’t ruled out a compromise with Democrats to address the debt limit during the lame-duck session, they’ve also expressed some skepticism about the prospects of a deal. 

Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, told The Hill on Tuesday that the chances of bipartisan action on the debt limit before January are “probably not good.” Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), a member of GOP leadership, also said he thinks the idea is “less likely” than likely. 

▪ The New York Times: The House considers seating a delegate from the Cherokee Nation. Kim Teehee was named to the post in 2019, and seating her as a nonvoting delegate would fulfill part of a treaty signed in 1836.

▪ Axios: Kids’ privacy online gets year end push in Congress.

▪ The 19th: Congress passes bill to ban NDAs in cases of workplace sexual harassment.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) will likely be the first woman to serve as Senate president pro tempore, a position that would place her third in line for the presidency. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to nominate Murray, who was just elected to a sixth term, to the position. The Senate president pro tem presides over the Senate in the vice president’s absence (The Seattle Times).

The Hill: Murray seeking to be second Appropriations chairwoman.

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IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL   

Polish President Andrzej Duda said Wednesday that the missile that struck his country a day earlier, causing a deadly explosion, was most likely a Ukrainian air defense missile. Calling the strike an “unfortunate accident,” Duda eased fears that Poland and its NATO allies could have been drawn into direct conflict with Russia (Reuters).

“We have no evidence at the moment that it was a rocket launched by Russian forces,” Duda told reporters. “However, there are many indications that it was a missile that was used by Ukraine’s anti-missile defense.”

Early indications suggested that Ukrainian efforts to counter a barrage of roughly 100 Russian missiles close to the border with Poland were the cause of the blast on Tuesday. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said a preliminary analysis also pointed to a Ukrainian missile being responsible for the explosion, but a fuller investigation is still underway. Stressing that there was no indication of a deliberate attack by Russia, Stoltenberg said the blame ultimately still belongs to Moscow (The New York Times).

The White House said it has “full confidence” in Poland’s investigation and also said “the party ultimately responsible for this tragic incident is Russia, which launched a barrage of missiles on Ukraine specifically intended to target civilian infrastructure. Ukraine had — and has — every right to defend itself.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday insisted the missile was not Ukrainian, telling Ukrainian news outlets, “I have no doubt that it was not our missile or our missile strike. I want us to be fair, and if it was the use of our air defense, then I want that evidence” (The Hill).

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Ukrainian analysis identifies Western supply chain behind Iran’s drones.

▪ NPR: With winter approaching, Ukraine prepares to fight on frozen ground.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Russia agrees to renew Ukraine grain deal, UN says.

▪ Bloomberg News: Republicans pledge to give Ukraine aid tough scrutiny with House control.

➤ STATE WATCH

At least 32 transgender and gender-nonconforming people have been killed since the beginning of the year, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reported Wednesday. According to the report, more than 300 transgender individuals have been killed in the U.S. since 2013, when the FBI began reporting hate crimes motivated by anti-transgender bias. The report coincides with Transgender Awareness Week, observed each year beginning Nov. 13 and leading up to Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20, which memorializes victims of fatal violence (The Hill).

“Ten years and over three hundred deaths that we know of is a grim milestone,” Tori Cooper, the director of community engagement at the HRC’s Transgender Justice Initiative, said Wednesday. “I call on transgender people everywhere and our allies to respond to this dark moment by advocating anywhere and everywhere, to whomever will listen, in support of our lived & legal equality — and, most importantly, our lives. We will honor their lives and their memories with action.”

The 19th: Data on transgender people is hard to come by. This survey is changing that.

As violence against transgender and nonbinary people rises, lawmakers in various states continue to introduce legislation targeting the transgender community.

In Texas, Republicans introduced several bills this week, including at least two measures that seek to criminalize gender-affirming care for minors and one that would prevent children from attending drag performances (NBC News).

And in Virginia, a state legislator proposed a bill that seeks to bar transgender students in K-12 schools and colleges from competing on sports teams that match their gender identities (The Washington Post).

The Washington Post: Anti-trans laws are on the rise. Here’s a look at where — and what kind.

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OPINION

■ Three major tasks Democrats must tackle before 2024, by Jennifer Rubin, columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3UHqBlF 

■ The auto industry is the economy’s best hope right now, by Conor Sen, columnist, Bloomberg Opinion. https://bloom.bg/3tDMW7P

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WHERE AND WHEN

👉 The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House meets at 10 a.m. ​​

The Senate meets at 10 a.m. and will resume consideration of the Respect for Marriage Act.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Briefing at noon.

Vice President Harris travels to Bangkok, Thailand, where she will attend events for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff travels to Bangkok with the vice president.

Secretary Blinken is in Bangkok for the APEC Ministerial Meeting.

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ELSEWHERE

➤ ENVIRONMENT

Democrats’ overperformance in the midterm elections, even as Republicans sought to blame them for gas and energy costs, has emboldened activists and climate hawks who ran on the issue, writes The Hill’s Zack Budryk. Exit polling indicates that despite high energy prices and Republican attempts to tie them to Democratic policies, 9 percent of voters ranked climate change as their top issue — the same percentage that answered immigration and more than those that answered crime. 

Pete Maysmith, senior VP of campaigns at the League of Conservation Voters, said the results stand in sharp contrast to the Republican rout of 2010. Unlike that midterms cycle, 2022 saw the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the most ambitious climate bill in U.S. history, and no backlash developed.

A group of the world’s largest economies known as the Group of 20 (G-20) on Wednesday reaffirmed the need to limit global warming to 1.5-degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The goal stems from the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Beyond the 1.5-degree threshold, scientists say, the risk of climate catastrophes increases significantly. 

Special Climate Envoy John Kerry said that “a few” countries have resisted putting the 1.5 degree target into whatever agreement comes out of the COP27 climate summit currently being held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. 

The inclusion of the target in the G20 statement may bolster its stature at COP27. The 1.5 degree target was set out in the Paris Agreement (The Hill and The New York Times).

The New York Times: A new measure of climate’s toll: disasters are now common across the U.S. A new report found that 90 percent of all counties nationwide have suffered a major disaster since 2011.

➤ TECH

New Twitter boss Elon Musk issued an ultimatum to employees Wednesday morning: either commit to a new “hardcore” Twitter or leave the company with severance pay.

“If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” the email read, linking to an online form staff had to sign by 5 p.m. ET Thursday to remain at their jobs. Musk told staff in the email that they will have to be “extremely hardcore” going forward.

“This will mean working long hours at high intensity,” he wrote. “Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

Musk, who in less than a month of ownership has cut half of Twitter’s staff and allowed content moderation to wane and misinformation to run rampant on the site, resulting in an exodus of top executives and major advertisers, faces sharp declines in revenue and possible bankruptcy (The Washington Post). 

He said on Wednesday he expects to reduce his time at Twitter and eventually find a new leader to run the site, adding that he hopes to complete an organizational restructuring this week (The Wall Street Journal and Reuters).

The Verge: Musk says the new Twitter Blue will relaunch on Nov. 29. The $7.99 service that gave people access to the blue check mark was launched last week before quickly being yanked.

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH 

Pediatric health provider groups are calling on the Biden administration to declare a national emergency to help them combat the surge of hospitalizations due to respiratory illnesses in children. Seasonal flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other respiratory viruses are hitting young children especially hard this year. The resulting hospitalizations are putting an immense strain on a pediatric health system that is still reeling from COVID-19 (The Hill).

▪ CNN: Reduce your risk of getting sick this Thanksgiving season.

▪ NBC News: COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations are falling in the U.S., but doctors worry the virus could re-emerge as immunity wanes.

More than 1 billion young people could be at risk of facing hearing loss, a new study shows. “It is estimated that 0.67–1.35 billion adolescents and young adults worldwide could be at risk of hearing loss from exposure to unsafe listening practices,” the study, which was published in BMJ Journal on Tuesday, found. 

Your risk of hearing loss depends on how loud, how long and how often you are exposed to certain noises, and tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, is often a sign that you may have engaged in unsafe listening (NPR).

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,075,951. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 2,344 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

And finally … 🦃 It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Inspired by the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, we’re eager for some smart guesses about turkey days past and present.

The famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is tied for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States with which other city’s parade?

1. America’s Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit 

2. Philadelphia’s 6abc Dunkin’ Thanksgiving Day Parade

3. America’s Hometown Celebration in Plymouth, Mass.

4. Ameren Thanks For Giving Parade in St. Louis

What is the most popular Thanksgiving side dish, according to Statista?

1. Brussels sprouts

2. Green bean casserole

3. Stuffing

4. Mashed potatoes

Who was the first president to officially pardon a Thanksgiving turkey?

1. John F. Kennedy

2. Abraham Lincoln

3. George H. W. Bush

4. Ronald Reagan 

According to a new survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation, how much more expensive will a Thanksgiving dinner be this year than it was in 2021?

1. 20 percent

2. 5 percent

3. 45 percent

4. 15 percent

Email your responses to kkarisch@digital-release.thehill.com, and please add “Quiz” to subject lines. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.

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