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With families of 9/11 victims threatening to protest his appearance at events commemorating the 20th anniversary of the attacks, President Joe Biden took the notable step last week of ordering the Justice Department and other agencies to disclose new portions of their long-secret files on the Qaida plot. Continue reading “Declassifying The 9/11 Investigation”→
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss Joe Manchin’s new bargaining position on the reconciliation package and fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision on the Texas abortion law.
Watch below and email us your questions for next week’s episode.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
In yesterday’s episode of the podcast Kate Riga and I were trying to make sense of Joe Manchin’s various feints and positions and un-positions over the last eight months. It’s sort of a parlor game to try to make sense of the motives of people you disagree with or frustrate you. Maybe it’s not that complicated? Maybe the reason they keep doing X is because they want to do X. The fact that you don’t like X doesn’t make it that hard to understand.
Yet there’s something a bit more to it with Manchin. His notional arguments for the ‘strategic pause’ on the President’s agenda doesn’t really add up. He says we need to worry about ‘runaway inflation’ when inflation is lower than it was in the 80s after Paul Volcker had tamed it. He says we need to keep our powder dry in case COVID gets worse and we need more massive relief packages. But actually what’s being discussed is spending over ten years. If COVID turns out to be catastrophically different in a year we could just change the plan. Even diehard inflation hawks like Larry Summers don’t think the spending over a decade is an issue on this front. And none of these things are really different than 6 or 7 weeks ago when Manchin gave all signs that he was at least broadly on board, subject to some hacks and shaves, with the $3.5 trillion package.
Many a head are exploding in Trumpland after the Biden administration told ex-President Donald Trump’s appointees on military academy boards, including Kellyanne Conway and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster, on Wednesday to either resign by 6:00 p.m. ET that day or else get axed.
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
A Bad Day For Racists
The ex-president had a full meltdown over the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia on Wednesday.
That statue was a “work of art,” Trump fumed in a statement through his Save America PAC, in which he complained that the general who fought to keep Black people in chains “should be remembered as perhaps the greatest unifying force after the war was over.”
Trump also tried to argue that Lee would’ve been victorious in Afghanistan and “what an embarrassment we are suffering because we don’t have the genius of a Robert E. Lee!”
Fox News host Laura Ingraham was similarly indignant because “Of course, he fought for the Confederacy, he owned slaves,” BUT “he also played an indispensable role in post-war Reconstruction that was just instrumental in reuniting the country.”
Laura Ingraham: "Robert E. Lee is a towering figure in American history. Of course, he fought for the Confederacy and owned slaves, BUT…" pic.twitter.com/BDorgEHs4o
Manchin’s Laundry List Of Demands For Infrastructure
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and his staff have been hopping between Senate committee chairs for weeks to negotiate over the sweeping $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation plan for “soft” infrastructure, CNN reports.
Manchin’s concerns reportedly lay in the plan’s ambitious expansions in health care, education, child care and taxes.
The West Virginia Democrat has been meeting regularly with committee chairs that are central to crafting the legislation, including Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR).
Manchin wants to shrink the child tax credit, limit eligibility for universal pre-K and free community college, and lower funding for home-care services, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, five House committees will begin drafting the sprawling reconciliation bill today.
Schumer Shoots Down Manchin’s Demand For A ‘Pause’
Plans to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the expansive $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill together are moving “full speed ahead” despite Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) push to hold off on the latter and complaints about the budget’s price tag, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said yesterday.
Schumer wasn’t caught off guard by Manchin’s op-ed that called for the “strategic pause,” according to CNN. The two Democrats had reportedly been discussing the plan regularly throughout August.
The Senate Democratic leader’s comment came after Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) similarly brushed off the West Virginia Democrat’s demand.
DOJ Is Preparing To Sue Texas
The Justice Department plans to sue the Lone Star State over its extreme six-week abortion ban sometime this week, according to the Wall Street Journal and Politico.
The DOJ will argue that the ban illegally conflicts with federal interests, the two outlets report.
The suit could reportedly come as soon as today, but the timing may be pushed back.
The FBI Releases New Video Footage Of The Suspected Jan. 6 Pipe Bomber
The FBI put out new information on the person who is believed to have planted pipe bombs near the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters the day before the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
The info dump included new surveillance footageof the suspect in the areas near the offices. The FBI released a virtual map of the suspect’s route with the footage:
The FBI has collected more than 300 tips and held more than 800 interviews in the agency’s manhunt for the bomber since the insurrection, according to Steven M. D’Antuono, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
The Jan. 6 Lawyer Who Ghosted His Clients Is Back
John Pierce, a lawyer who represents 17 Jan. 6 insurrectionists and who mysteriously disappeared in late August, showed up at one of his clients’ hearings on Tuesday amid reports that he had been hospitalized for COVID-19.
Pierce, who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, wouldn’t say what he was hospitalized for, only telling the judge in the hearing that he was “hanging in there.”
Pierce told NPR that the morning he was admitted to the hospital, where he stayed for 12 days, was “extremely chaotic.”
At least three of the lawyer’s clients have dumped him since his hospitalization, according to NPR.
Harris And Obama Lend A Hand To Newsom In His Recall Fight
The vice president traveled to her home state yesterday to rally for California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) ahead of the recall election next Tuesday:
.@VP Kamala Harris: "We are here today to say we fight for Gavin Newsom. We fight for our country. We fight for the values we hold dear. We fight for working people. We fight for organized labor. We fight for Dreamers. We fight for women. We fight for voting rights." pic.twitter.com/MxesROOAhc
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris rallied for California Governor Gavin Newsom in San Leandro, saying the upcoming election to recall the Democratic leader is not just about the state but also 'about who we are as a nation' https://t.co/S2kbMU9QgQpic.twitter.com/efAhgUBLuk
Newsom’s recruited several other key powerplayers to stump for him, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and mostly recently, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY):
California: do not mess with this recall.
We need folks to TURN IN THEIR BALLOTS. Vote NO and drop it in the mail tomorrow.
Don’t sleep on this. It takes 5 mins but it’s urgent. We have so much work to do already and a nightmare fuel recall election is the last thing we need. https://t.co/XouDdNbltI
The 2020 redistricting cycle is looking to be quite bad for Democrats. Does that mean losing the House to Republicans is inevitable? Or is there some way Dems can avoid a wipeout? We’ll bring together journalists and experts of both opinions to debate just how screwed the Democrats are. Register now!
