Morning Report — Border politics will be prevalent in 2024

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 01/04/24 6:58 AM ET

AP Photo/Eric Gay
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks while standing with Republican members of Congress, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. Johnson is leading about 60 fellow Republicans in Congress on a visit to the Mexican border. Their trip comes as they are demanding hard-line immigration policies in exchange for backing President Joe Biden’s emergency wartime funding request for Ukraine.

House Republicans on Wednesday took aim at border security and immigration under President Biden while the White House accused Republicans of opposing legislative efforts to improve security at the border with Mexico.

“Instead of taking responsibility and providing leadership, this administration has done nothing but attack elected officials who are trying to fix this catastrophe,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said during a trip to Eagle Pass, Texas, accompanied by about 60 House GOP colleagues.

REELECTION: Meanwhile, the president is gearing up for campaign events Friday and Monday that he hopes can revive his arguments that American democracy and national security are at risk because of what he calls GOP “extremists” and the actions of former President Trump. In other words, voters may feel so-so about the incumbent, but Biden wants them to fear the odds-on general election alternative and his allies.

Johnson and House conservatives want to force the administration into concessions by wielding refusals to back aid to Ukraine and Israel and have begun to leverage border changes against a possible shutdown. And they’ll resume efforts next week to try to impeach the secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.  

“If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin by defending America’s national security,” Johnson said of his party’s demands.

The president will try to flip the script to paint the GOP’s tactics as partisan, obstructionist and dangerous.

National Review: Mayorkas told MSNBC he plans to cooperate with the House Homeland Security Committee while continuing to work on immigration proposals with a bipartisan group of senators. History: Impeachment of a Cabinet secretary occurred once, but was followed by acquittal.
The Hill: Shutdown risk grows with GOP’s border fury.

CAN TRUMP STAY IN RACE? Separately Wednesday, Trump’s front-runner bid to return to the White House amid his tangle of pending federal and state criminal charges took on additional drama when he asked the Supreme Court to quickly reverse a Colorado court ruling and leave him on the primary ballot. 

Questions about whether he’s an insurrectionist as a presidential candidate and disqualified under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment are new election terrain for the high court and many legal experts believe the justices have no option but to dive in, however reluctantly. The court is expected to search for a narrow consensus, according to some Supreme Court analysts.

The New York Times: How the Supreme Court may rule on Trump’s presidential run. 

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:

The Justice Department sued Texas on Wednesday over a new state law that would authorize local police and judges to arrest and remove undocumented immigrants. 
In a joint statement, the U.S. and allies warned the Houthi militia in Yemen of consequences for attacks on Red Sea shipping.
Russian hackers were inside Ukraine telecoms giant Kyivstar’s system from at least May last year in a cyberattack described as a “big warning” to the West

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska on Wednesday unsealed names of more than 170 people with various ties to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Most were previously known through news accounts, including Trump, Prince Andrew and former President Clinton. Epstein took his own life in 2019 while jailed awaiting his federal trial for sex trafficking. 

LEADING THE DAY

POLITICS

Biden will raise the stakes of the 2024 election in the coming days, sharpening the argument that Trump is a danger to democracy. The Hill’s Niall Stanage writes in The Memo that the moves will build on Biden’s frequent references to “extreme MAGA Republicans” whom he casts as outside the American mainstream. Back in 2020, Biden ran, he said, to “restore the soul of America.”

The president will give a speech Friday at Valley Forge, Pa., where George Washington had his headquarters during the Revolutionary War, to mark the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. On Monday, Biden will speak in remembrance of another solemn occasion. He will visit the Emanuel AME Church — otherwise known as “Mother Emanuel” — in Charleston, S.C. Nine people were shot dead at the historic Black church by a white gunman in 2015. Biden campaign aides have made clear that they see the Valley Forge address, in particular, as part of a new push to underline the existential threat they believe Trump poses. 

In a media call, Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said: “We are running a campaign like the fate of our democracy depends on it. Because it does.”

USA Today: Biden will mark the Jan. 6 anniversary with a speech warning Trump is a threat to democracy.

2024 ROUNDUP

Seventeen current members of Biden’s campaign staff issued an anonymous letter protesting his approach to the Israel-Hamas war while favoring “a cessation of violence.”
Former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, with his attention focused on the upcoming New Hampshire primary, says he’s not going to leave the presidential race. 
Republican presidential candidates have extreme and potentially illegal ideas for cracking down on border crossers. 
GOP presidential rivals Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis are down to the wire for second place as Iowa and New Hampshire contests loom.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House meets Friday at 10 a.m. and returns to work in Washington on Jan. 9.

The Senate will convene for legislative business on Jan. 8 and meet for a pro forma session Friday at 10 a.m.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9 a.m.

Vice President Harris is in Washington andhas no public events. 

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1 p.m.

Economic indicator: The Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. will report on filings for unemployment claims in the week ending Dec. 30.

ZOOM IN

MORE IN CONGRESS

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) has given Senate Democrats a not-so-happy start to 2024 after he was accused in a superseding indictment of receiving gifts from the Qatari government and aiding a New Jersey real estate developer who received millions in investment funds from the country as part of a years-long corruption scheme.

The Hill’s Al Weaver reports the second superseding indictment is the latest legal trouble staring down the New Jersey Democrat, who was charged initially with bribery and acting as a foreign agent on behalf of Egypt, among other things. But the news also creates another set of issues for Senate Democrats, a majority of whom have called on him to resign but have yet to take the further step of calling for his expulsion as Menendez shows no signs of backing down or going away anytime soon. 

“If he was giving the Democratic leadership headaches last year, now we’re moving into migraine territory,” said Jim Manley, a former top aide to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.).  

SOME OF BIDEN’S TOP SENATE ALLIES are criticizing the administration’s moves on Israel, which have involved approving arms sales to the military while also calling on the Israelis to wind down the fighting. The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Weaver report the Biden administration announced it would transfer weapons to the Israelis without congressional approval just weeks after the president and top U.S. officials called for the Israelis to be more careful in its fighting and to focus on a more targeted response. Senate Democrats argue the transferring of weapons to Israel without congressional oversight, which the administration has done twice, undermines transparency to the public. 

“Congressional review is a critical step for examining any large arms sale. The Administration’s decision to repeatedly short-circuit what is already a quick time frame for congressional review undermines transparency and weakens accountability. The public deserves answers,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told The Hill. 

INTERNATIONAL

The killing of a top Hamas official in Lebanon and an explosion that killed dozens of mourners of a top Iranian general are challenging efforts to contain fighting on multiple fronts in the Middle East from expanding into a larger war. The Hill’s Laura Kelly reports it’s not yet clear what connection, if any, there is between the suspected Israeli assassination against Hamas’s No. 3 official, Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut on Tuesday, and a mass casualty bombing Wednesday during an event in the Iranian city of Kerman that commemorated the life of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by the U.S. in 2020.

The latest attacks come amid a high-stakes aerial tit for tat between the U.S. and Israel on one side and Iranian proxy groups across the region on the other, which have exchanged regular fire over the three months that Israel has prosecuted its war in Gaza. “This is a multiplicity of conflicts happening all at once, with of course Israel-Hamas being the central one,” said Mona Yacoubian, vice president of the Middle East and North Africa Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

“I think there are very valid concerns that it could escalate further,” she added. “While the various actors may be calibrating their responses, and calibrating their reactions as a way to forestall a significant regionwide conflict, there’s no guarantee that’s going to work.” 

The Washington Post: The killing of a Hamas leader in Lebanon signals a shift in Israel’s war effort.
Reuters: Blasts kill nearly 100 at slain commander Soleimani’s memorial; Iran vows revenge.
The New York Times: Hezbollah’s leader pledges revenge for the killing of a top Hamas leader in Beirut.
The Wall Street Journal: Meet the “CEO” of Hamas who found the money to attack Israel. Zaher Jabarin looks after a portfolio of companies that deliver income annually to the militant group.

Russia resumed an invasion strategy of pounding Ukraine as winter arrives, writes The Hill’s Brad Dress, but Kyiv finds itself in a far more tenuous position this time around as resources run low and Western aid is up in the air. Russian forces carried out mass strikes across Ukraine shortly after Christmas Day last week and on Tuesday at the turn of the New Year. While Ukraine is still managing to thwart the majority of the missiles and drones, Russia is slowly breaking through more of the air defense systems, which are under strain as Western aid trickles to a standstill. Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, said Ukraine will eventually have to “start rationing what supplies they do have” left, endangering the protection of some cities. 

“That will force them to make some pretty tough choices with regard to their defenses,” he said. “This has been the Russian strategy all along, to try and wear Ukraine down and to wear down the Western commitment to assisting Ukraine.” 

ELSEWHERE

TRUMP WORLD

Trump asked the Supreme Court to reverse a Colorado ruling that threatens his presidential bid, but without hearing arguments (The Associated Press).

He wants the high court to reverse a Colorado ruling that bans him from ballots under the 14th Amendment, an appeal that experts believe sets up an extraordinary battle at the nation’s highest court.

Justices have never ruled on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was added after the Civil War and blocks from federal office anyone who swore an oath to “support” the U.S. Constitution but “engaged in insurrection.” Colorado’s ruling last month to ban Trump as an alleged insurrectionist from the ballot was followed a week later by a similar ruling in Maine. The deadline to finalize Colorado’s presidential primary ballots is Friday (The Hill).

Read Trump’s appeal HERE.
NBC News: Trump built the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, but it doesn’t always rule in his favor.
Vox: The arguments for (and against) removing Trump from the ballot, explained.
Lawfare Live: Today at 4 p.m. ET, Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes will lead a discussion with legal correspondents about “Trump’s Trials and Tribulations.” The livestream will be HERE.
CNN: A federal appeals court denied Trump’s effort to delay writer E. Jean Carroll’s civil trial against him.

Much of Trump’s legal strategy in his federal 2020 election interference case has, so far, centered on trying to delay the start of his federal trial in March until after the presidential election in November. But in recent court filings, CNN reports, other defense strategies have emerged. They include trying to absolve Trump of responsibility for the Capitol attack and positioning him as a victim of disinformation and overzealous government investigators.

Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — a defendant in the Georgia criminal case that accuses the former president and allies of trying to overturn the 2020 election — asked an appeals court late Tuesday to rehear his request to move his defense from state to federal court. That effort initially failed, but Meadows beefed up his legal representation by hiring respected former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement. Meadows seeks to assert immunity from prosecution in federal court, a question the Supreme Court ultimately could decide after the issue works its way through lower courts (The Hill).

STATE WATCH

A new rule requiring child welfare agencies to place LGBTQ children in “environments free of hostility, mistreatment, or abuse” based on the child’s sexual orientation, gender identity or expression is drawing opposition from Republicans, writes The Hill’s Brooke Migdon. The proposed rule, issued in September by the Department of Health and Human Services, also would require caregivers to undergo cultural competency training to ensure LGBTQ youths are placed in homes where their identities are affirmed.

A bill introduced last month by Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who is currently running for an open Senate seat, would prevent foster and adoptive families from being required to affirm a transgender child’s gender identity. The measure, called the Sensible Adoption For Every Home Act, has four Republican co-sponsors. LGBTQ rights advocates have denounced the Indiana congressman’s bill and his justification for introducing it, which they say reflects misconceptions about gender-affirming health care for youth and misrepresents what the Health Department’s draft rule aims to achieve.

“No part of this says anything about changing the sex of a child,” said Allen Morris, policy director at the National LGBTQ Task Force. “It’s talking about making sure that [LGBTQ youths] are not in an abusive home or somewhere that’s going to mistreat them.”

CNN: A record number of anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in 2023.

🌧️ An East Coast storm is looming this weekend. A slug of moisture will dump moderate to heavy precipitation — some areas will experience rain and others could see flurries. Cities such as Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia will probably walk a tightrope between a waterlogged rainstorm and plowable snow. Boston and New York City may be gassing up the snowblowers. Ahead of the weekend, The Washington Post has rounded up what weather experts know about the incoming storm.

Axios: A winter storm could bring long-awaited snow to the mid-Atlantic and Northeast this weekend.

OPINION

Biden tempts judicial fate with “whole of government” plans, by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, guest commentary, The Wall Street Journal.
What just happened at Harvard is bigger than me, by Claudine Gay, guest essayist, The New York Times.

THE CLOSER

Take Our Morning Report Quiz

And finally … 🧩 Puzzlers unite! It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for the first Morning Report Quiz of 2024! Intrigued by reporting about New Year’s superstitions and international traditions, we’re eager for some smart guesses about starting off this year with good luck.

Be sure to email your responses to asimendinger@digital-stage.thehill.com and kkarisch@digital-stage.thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.

The Chinese horoscope says 2024 is the year of the ______, representing authority and good fortune.