Morning Report — Congress returns to governing amid 2024 politics

Whew. The clash of governance and politics is intense in Washington this week. 

A day after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he reached an agreement with Senate Democrats on an overall $1.66 trillion total for government funding in 2024, his right flank on Monday dismissed the effort as a “total failure,” sending jittery chills through the Capitol among lawmakers who desperately want to avoid shutting down parts of the federal machinery in 10 days, and at the start of an election year (The Hill).  

Is Johnson a savvy dealmaker or, as some critics predict, a dead man walking within the House’s hard right while former President Trump, de facto leader of the Republican Party, calls the shots? An accord to clear four appropriations measures by Jan. 19 and another eight by Feb. 2 will rely on votes from Democrats. To many in Congress, it’s about governing. To some inside the Freedom Caucus, it’s akin to political desertion. 

“Are we learning that negotiating with the Democrats in the White House and Senate with a slim majority is hard and you can’t get everything you want, no matter who is in the Speaker’s office?” Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) commented on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

The New York Times: Far right balks as Congress begins push to enact spending deal. 

Meanwhile, Biden delivered a South Carolina campaign speech Monday that assailed Trump for trying to turn an election “loss into a lie.” But he also found himself confronted by protestors opposed to his handling of Israel’s war in Gaza. 

Trump, who is campaigning to button up the GOP nomination, is in courtrooms twice this week, maneuvering to use political and legal arguments to defer or dismiss his many indictments until after the election. 

In the Senate, the urgency of keeping the government’s lights on may sideline other, more difficult legislative aspirations, such as crafting a border security compromise, which has been a demand of some House and Senate Republicans who advocate for stricter immigration changes before they will consider Biden’s request for $106 billion in supplemental U.S. aid for Ukraine and Israel. 

Many senators think a government funding face-off later this month would undercut the bipartisan talks to get a border security accord, seen for decades as out of reach because of the political stakes, especially in election years. Republicans describe the surge of migration as Biden’s “crisis,” while the president has said he’s willing to compromise within limits. Draft border law changes developed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers won’t be ready for review this week, Fox News reports. 

“I would say as recently as yesterday, I was thinking, ‘I think we’re close,’ but in all of our meetings last night and today, we’re not — we’re not going to be able to get there,” lead negotiator Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said of his goal to circulate legislative language. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters, “We’ve made more progress in the past couple of days on the border than we have in the past few weeks,” adding, “It is not yet finished but I am more hopeful right now, even more than I was a few days ago, that we can get something meaningful done on the border.” 

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AIR PRESSURE: Boeing, during inspections this week, found loose bolts on door plugs used with Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft in the aftermath of a dramatic Alaska Airlines fuselage failure at 16,000 feet Friday during a flight with 177 passengers aboard. Alaska Airlines has 65 of the planes in its fleet. No one was seriously injured. United Airlines described finding “installation issues” Monday as it inspects its fleet to make sure its 79 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes are safe to fly. Federal investigators also continue probes. The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday grounded 171 of the planes worldwide. The loose bolts were reported by industry publication The Air Current. 

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LEADING THE DAY 

POLITICS 

Speaking Monday in South Carolina, Biden sought to connect the fallout of the Civil War with the aftermath of the 2020 election as he warned truth and basic freedoms would be at risk if Trump won another White House term. Biden drew comparisons between 2020 and the Civil War, when he said defeated Confederates could not accept defeat and instead embraced the “lost cause” that the war was about state’s rights, not slavery. That lie, he argued, brought on Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised and discriminated against Black people (The Hill). 

“Now, we’re living in an era of a second lost cause,” Biden said. “Once again there are some in this country trying to turn loss into a lie. A lie which, if allowed to live, will once again bring terrible damage to this country. This time the lie is about the 2020 election.” 

Protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza interrupted Biden’s speech in Charleston, the latest example of divisions among Democrats over the fighting in the Middle East. Unfazed by the interruption, the president said he “[understands] their passion, and I’ve been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza.”  

Meanwhile, Trump and his allies are ramping up attacks on former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, seeking to squash any momentum she has in the primary race with the Iowa caucuses less than a week away. The Hill’s Brett Samuels reports they’re also looking to snuff out chatter that she could join Trump on the ticket as his vice president.  

Trump has increasingly been willing to attack Haley after largely ignoring her for much of 2023, and his campaign apparatus has also targeted the former ambassador to the United Nations with attack ads as she rises in the polls. Numerous Trump allies have in recent days blitzed Haley — who they view as insufficiently loyal to Trump and the MAGA agenda — amid speculation she could be on a shortlist of potential running mates should Trump clinch the nomination.  

A CNN-University of New Hampshire poll released today of likely GOP voters in the first-in-the-nation primary state shows Haley trailing Trump by 7 points. Support for Haley rose 12 percentage points since November’s CNN-UNH poll. 

In the leadup to the Iowa and New Hampshire contests, here are five things to know. 

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ZOOM IN 

COURTS 

Trump wants the sweeping criminal conspiracy case against him in Georgia to be thrown out by arguing he is protected from prosecution under presidential immunity, double jeopardy and due process protections. Trump’s legal team on Monday filed immunity claims in the Georgia case as part of a motion to dismiss state-level criminal charges, similar to those argued by his defense team in the federal election subversion case. Monday’s filing in Georgia reiterates what the former president’s lawyers have repeatedly asserted — that Trump was working in his official capacity as president when he allegedly undermined the 2020 election results and therefore has immunity from prosecution (CNN). 

Today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments by attorneys for Trump and special counsel Jack Smith over the same two claims of immunity — applied to the former president’s federal election subversion case — a hearing Trump himself is set to attend (The Hill).   

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ELSEWHERE 

INTERNATIONAL  

Israeli officials are set to tell Secretary of State Antony Blinken today that Israel won’t allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza if Hamas doesn’t agree to release more hostages, Axios reports. Making progress toward the return of Palestinians to their homes and ensuring they are not forcibly displaced is one of the goals of Blinken’s trip throughout the Middle East, as the Biden administration has expressed concerns over recent statements from some right-wing Israeli ministers who have called for Palestinians to be driven out of Gaza. 

“Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow,” Blinken said Sunday in a press conference with the Qatari prime minister in Doha. “They cannot and they must not be pressed to leave Gaza.” 

Blinken, on his latest mission to rein in the Gaza war, told Israeli leaders on Tuesday there was still a chance of winning acceptance from their Arab neighbors if they create a path to a viable Palestinian state (Reuters). 

Israeli officials have said they are entering a new phase of more targeted warfare after the mass bombardments in Gaza that have killed more than 23,000 people, according to Palestinian authorities. Blinken held talks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia on Monday to try to chart a way out of the conflict, saying Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE and Turkey would consider participating in and contributing to “day after” scenarios for the Palestinian territory (Al Jazeera). 

SINCE LATE LAST YEAR, various Iranian-backed groups have attempted to strike U.S. troop positions in Iraq and Syria, bomb merchant vessels in Middle East waterways thought to be linked to Israel and launch rockets into Israel from Lebanon. The U.S., meanwhile, has responded to provocations in the Red Sea by shooting down rockets and sinking enemy boats, and near bases that house U.S. forces, Washington has authorized strikes on positions in Syria and Iraq. The Hill’s Ellen Mitchell reports that as Israel continues to prosecute its devastating war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, there’s growing concern that the tit-for-tat exchanges with Iranian proxies outside the war zone could expand the conflict.  

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THE CLOSER 

And finally … 🐁 Decluttering. It’s a thing, even among tidy mice in Wales. For several months, someone — or something — had been tidying up after Rodney Holbrook, a Welsh retiree. Every morning when he checked on his workbench, miscellaneous items had been cleared away and placed in a small box nearby. At first, some bird food and nuts had been moved around. Then, a few screws he had left lying around mysteriously appeared in the box. To investigate, Holbrook set up a night-vision camera and caught the mysterious visitor. 

“Lo and behold, I got a video of the mouse,” he told The New York Times. “Tidying up for me.” 

The small mouse carried clothes pegs, cups and even cable ties to the box, with an enviable focus. It maneuvered a stick more than twice its length, as well as a cork and lids. Holbrook has never actually seen the mouse scurrying about, though he has named it: “Welsh Tidy Mouse.” 

If the tiny declutterer has sparked your own desire for a tidier living or working space, here is a list of 50 decluttering tips and a month-by-month guide that’ll help you clean your whole house this year. 

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Stay Engaged 

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