Morning Report — Biden boosts Japan ties, with China in mind

Delicate glass butterflies and spring flowers adorned the White House during a State Dinner honoring U.S. ally Japan on Wednesday. But President Biden today will confer with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida about the grittier details of defense pacts among allies. Both leaders have Beijing’s assertive South China Sea moves in mind.

A White House meeting today among Biden, Kishida and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines will be a first and is intended to send a message to partners in the Indo-Pacific. The president’s advisers describe a closer military link as one of the significant upgrades to the 1960 U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.

Biden, aware of uncertainties in Tokyo and other capitals about how U.S. policy would change if former President Trump is elected, seeks to cement as much permanence in the Japanese relationship as possible before the November election, according to The New York Times. 

Biden described the relationship between the United States and Japan as a “cornerstone of peace, security, prosperity.”

Meanwhile, Biden continues to wrestle with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about U.S. pressure for a cease-fire and hostage swap with Hamas, as well as moving more humanitarian assistance into Gaza (The Hill).

The Hill: The Memo, by Niall Stanage: Democratic dissent over Israel grows, deepening Biden’s dilemma.

The president’s domestic challenges will be on vivid display in the Capitol today. House conservative activists, a politically vulnerable Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Trump’s social media lobbying of lawmakers have upended legislative plans just days after Congress returned to work in Washington.

The Speaker has not allayed criticism from some GOP colleagues and has little leverage over the Democratically controlled Senate. In limbo are additional U.S. assistance to Ukraine and help for Israel.

Amid Washington gridlock and election-year jitters, Biden told Univision during an interview taped last week and broadcast Tuesday that he’s still weighing whether to flex his executive powers at the U.S. southern border. Security there is a threshold demand among House Republicans, and voters give Biden low marks on his handling of immigration.

Biden predicted that if he acts on his own without Congress, detractors will swiftly head to court.

“There’s no, there’s no guarantee that I have that power all by myself without legislation,” the president said. “And some have suggested I should just go ahead and try it. And if I get shut down by the court, I get shut down by the court. But we’re trying to work that, work through that right now.”

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👉 State Dinner: The Hill’s Judy Kurtz eyed last night’s White House guests, studied the lovely food and scribbled comments from VIPs at the gala honoring Japan. Some attendees knew their way around 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Former President Clinton, dressed in a smart tux, smiled broadly as he pointed out his wife’s portrait. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, holding his hand and wearing flowing floor-length silk, looked amused. “Oh, we’re having a good time tonight,” she told reporters when asked her thoughts about the 2024 presidential race.

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LEADING THE DAY

CONGRESS

THE HOUSE GOP IS LOOKING FOR A RESET on government funding, putting pressure on Johnson even as he faces an uphill climb to achieving many of their goals. Deep divisions in the conference, an ever-narrowing majority and the pressure of an election year are hurdles to the GOP’s goal of cutting spending and avoiding an end-of-year omnibus. And then there’s Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who is threatening to oust Johnson from the Speakership.

Greene said Wednesday the two failed to come to an agreement about a series of policy issues at the center of her grievances; the meeting marked the first time the two Republicans have spoken since Greene filed her motion last month after Johnson helped pass a spending package to avert a partial government shutdown.

Greene has recently ramped up pressure against Johnson over his handling of government funding, his pledge to bring Ukraine aid to the floor and the reauthorization of the U.S.’s warrantless surveillance powers, as contained in Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) (The Hill).

“We are not responsible for a war in Ukraine. We’re responsible for the war on the United States border. The United States border is the only border that matters,” Greene said Wednesday. “And that if he moves forward in funding Ukraine that he’s going to be personally responsible for funding the continued murder of people in a foreign country that is not a NATO allies of ours.”

Shortly after the meeting, a rule for legislation to renew Section 702 failed after 19 Republicans joined Democrats in voting against it. The chamber is now left without a clear path to address the spy tool before its expiration next week. The move comes after Trump on Wednesday urged Republicans to “KILL FISA” — throwing a wrench in an already contentious debate. The failed vote marks yet another instance of members of the GOP tanking what is typically a routine party-line vote to protest legislation put forward by leadership (The Hill).

Former Attorney General Bill Barr told The Hill the former president’s call to House Republicans to oppose FISA legislation was “crazy and reckless” and in contrast with Trump’s previous support for the law. Barr, who sparred with his former boss and departed the Justice Department weeks after Trump’s 2020 election defeat, warned Wednesday that political “posturing” against extending surveillance authority would be dangerous to national security.  

SENATE DEMOCRATS ARE PUSHING BACK against calls for Justice Sonia Sotomayor to step aside from her seat on the Supreme Court. The Hill’s Al Weaver reports left-wing activists and commentators have raised that idea in recent days, citing the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing in 2020 that cemented a 6-3 conservative majority and still spooks progressives. Sotomayor, 69, is the oldest of the three liberal justices and is facing calls by some progressives to step down now while Democrats hold both the White House and Senate. They’re also citing her health; Sotomayor has Type 1 diabetes. But many Democrats are by no means ready for her to step aside.

“I don’t think there’s anything I know about her medical condition that would disqualify her from continuing,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), adding that she should remain on the bench. “I don’t see any reason why she wouldn’t. … I don’t think there’s any question that she’s up to the job.”

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ZOOM IN

POLITICS

ABORTION: Arizona’s high court went too far this week with a near-total ban on abortion, Trump told reporters Wednesday while reiterating his view that issues tied to terminating pregnancies are up to “the will of the people” in states. He predicted Arizona’s governor “and others” will “bring it back into reason” (NBC News). If elected, Trump said he would not sign a national abortion ban (The Hill).

Arizona’s court action to embrace a strict, Civil War-era abortion ban is roiling the race to succeed Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who is not seeking reelection. The Hill’s Caroline Vakil reports that while candidates for the Senate, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Kari Lake (R), say they oppose the ruling, Republicans believe the controversy could jeopardize the party’s chances of capturing the seat in November.

Arizona Democrats on Wednesday quickly tried to push bills through the Republican-controlled state Legislature that would repeal the ban — a move they said would protect reproductive rights and force Republicans to take a formal vote to support the law or strike it down. Republican leaders in the Senate removed one bill from the day’s agenda on Wednesday, The New York Times reports. A Republican House member called for striking down the law and made a motion to vote on a Democratic repeal bill that had been long stalled, but Republican leaders quickly put the House into recess before any vote could be held.

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ELSEWHERE

INTERNATIONAL

HAMAS SAYS it does not have 40 Israeli hostages that mee the criteria for an exchange in a potential cease-fire deal, The Hill’s Laura Kelly reports. The admission raises questions about how many of the remaining hostages kidnapped Oct. 7 are alive and who is holding them. Israel says 133 hostages out of more than 240 abducted that day — mostly Israelis and dual nationals — have yet to be released. The Biden administration is pushing a plan to have Israel and Hamas agree to a six-to-eight-week cease-fire that is contingent on Hamas releasing hostages, a group that includes older men, civilians and both male and female Israeli soldiers who have been held for 187 days.

The Washington Post: Israel works to free hostages, without knowing if they are alive or dead.

ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES KILLED three adult sons of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political leadership, on Wednesday, the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr. The attack could complicate a U.S.-led plan for a cease-fire in the six-month-old conflict in Gaza (The Wall Street Journal). Haniyeh said that the killings would not change the positions held by Hamas, which has been negotiating with Israel through international mediators seeking to broker a cease-fire and secure the release of hostages held in Gaza (The New York Times).

NPR: How much aid is waiting to enter Gaza? It depends on who you ask.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday repeated he would listen to Trump’s ideas to end the war in Ukraine with “pleasure” but trod carefully around the issue during a CNN interview. The embattled Ukrainian leader’s remarks came after reports that Trump reportedly said if he were to be reelected, he would pressure Ukraine into a peace deal with Russia that would see Kyiv cede territory in the process. Zelensky previously told German newspaper Bild that he had invited Trump to Ukraine “to see everything with his own eyes and draw his own conclusions.”

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TRUMP WORLD

TRUMP’S LEGAL DELAY OPTIONS are dwindling with less than a week to go before the start of his criminal hush money trial in New York. On Wednesday, a New York appeals court rejected another bid to delay the trial, a third such denial this week (The Hill).

The former president has fought to string out his legal troubles until after Election Day. when he could intervene on his own behalf, if elected. The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld reports the former president hasn’t exhausted his options, but his legal team’s arguments have not been persuasive. 

“Their entire strategy for years and years has been delay, delay, delay,” said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University. “The later this goes, the better it is for Trump.” 

NBC News: Former Trump lawyer Allen Weisselberg on Wednesday was sentenced to five months in jail for perjury in a civil fraud trial involving the Trump Organization.

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THE CLOSER

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