When Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced last week he would hold his chamber in session past the start of their holiday recess, he seemed optimistic about crafting a last-minute southern border deal that would open up aid to Ukraine.  

Now, that goal looks far out of reach, and the extra workdays for senators are amounting to more of a “check off some last-minute business” week. 

Case in point: The Senate on Tuesday confirmed nearly a dozen nominees for top military posts, marking the end of Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) remaining holds over senior promotions. With senators rushing to wrap up before the holiday, Schumer secured a deal to confirm all 11 nominees for four-star positions by voice vote. 

Their confirmation ends Tuberville’s blockade of military nominations, which was in its 11th month. The Alabama senator began blocking the confirmation of senior military promotions, which at its height reached more than 400 general and flag officers, in February in protest of the Pentagon’s policy of reimbursing travel costs for troops seeking abortions — an unprecedented holdup that prompted outcries from Pentagon brass and even fellow Republicans (The Hill and Politico). 

Unlikely to pass before the holidays? A new Ukraine aid package. Senators working to reach a border deal continued to hold hours-long meetings in the Capitol as they made slow progress on the proposal with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. But dozens of their GOP colleagues did not return to Washington this week to await the deal, as congressional leaders conceded there would be nothing to vote on before the holidays. 

“No matter how long it takes, we must succeed because the stakes are high,” Schumer said. The Senate is set to leave town today and return Jan. 8 (The Hill). But when lawmakers come back to Washington in early January, they will face a number of funding deadlines that could make it even harder to push through the complex deal that would provide $110 billion to arm Ukraine and Israel, increase border security, and provide humanitarian aid in Gaza and elsewhere (The Washington Post). 

“It’s a mess,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in reference to the Jan. 19 deadline to fund several critical parts of the government. “A lot of deadlines we face in the first few weeks of next year — and we don’t have a great record when it comes to that.” 

The Hill’s Brad Dress reports that as the prospect of a 2023 aid package dwindles, Ukrainians are bracing for a tough winter as military operations slow down, troops are forced to preserve ammunition and Russian attacks target energy infrastructure across the country. The breakdown of U.S. and European support is also threatening to derail Ukraine’s economy and give Russian forces, working closely with allies Iran and North Korea, an upper hand on the battlefield. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday he’s certain the United States will make good on its promise to provide billions of dollars in further aid for Kyiv to continue its fight against Russia. But Maksym Skrypchenko, the president of the Transatlantic Dialogue Center, a Ukrainian think tank that advises the government in Kyiv, said Ukraine can hold together for only a short time before confronting a serious shortage of supplies. He remains optimistic Congress will reach a deal, though he concedes time is not on Ukraine’s side. 

“With every week, the chances of this happening are decreasing,” he said. “It’s going to be more difficult for those Ukraine-friendly GOP senators and members of the House to vote for Ukraine support because it’s completely linked with internal debates in the U.S. And it’s also painful for us, because we also understand the logic of many Republicans, and we don’t want to be involved in the internal politics.” 

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“INSURRECTION CLAUSE”: Colorado’s highest court on Thursday knocked former President Trump off the state’s Republican primary ballot under the 14th Amendment, making it the first state to block him from seeking the presidency because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. In a major legal blow to Trump, the court affirmed he engaged in insurrection by inflaming his supporters with false claims of election fraud and directing them to the Capitol — preventing him from a second White House term under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause.” 

The court put its ruling on hold until Jan. 4, so Trump can first seek review from the Supreme Court. If he does, Trump’s name automatically remains on the ballot until the justices resolve the appeal (The Hill). The former president’s campaign announced Tuesday it will appeal the decision, calling it “completely flawed” (The Hill).  

And while Tuesday’s ruling applies only to one state, it could all but force the nation’s highest court to decide the question for all 50. The Colorado Supreme Court’s seven-member bench was entirely appointed by Democratic governors, whereas the Supreme Court has a 6-to-3 conservative majority, with three justices appointed by Trump himself. The highest court is already under extraordinary political pressure and scrutiny both for its rulings and its justices’ ethics — and faces a number of other Trump-related rulings in its 2024 term (The New York Times). 

“We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” the Colorado court wrote in its 4-3 decision. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”  

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LEADING THE DAY 

POLITICS 

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is facing a barrage of sexist attacks in her bid to become the GOP nominee for president, underscoring the hurdles women face when running for the highest office in the country. The Hill’s Hanna Trudo reports the former United Nations ambassador is surging in momentum as the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary near, tailoring her pitch around her credentials to beat Biden. But the gendered attacks against her from her male opponents also raise the question of how they might impact her momentum in the homestretch of the primary.  

“There’s no winning, no matter what approach she chooses,” said Jennifer Horn, a former New Hampshire GOP chairwoman. “Whether she decides to ignore it and continue to just advance her message or to stand up and push back strongly, it’s a lose lose. When a woman tries to push back hard, she’s perceived as whining and complaining.” 

The super PAC aligned with Trump is putting money for the first time behind television ads attacking Haley. Haley preemptively responded on Monday night to the ad, writing on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, “Two days ago, Donald Trump denied our surge in New Hampshire existed. Now, he’s running a negative ad against me. Someone’s getting nervous. #BringIt.” 

YOUNG VOTERS: A new New York Times/Siena College poll shows former President Trump beating Biden among voters under 30. Other polls have shown a similar shift, which would be disastrous for Biden, and Democrats generally, if it were borne out on Election Day. Given Democrats’ traditional advantages among younger voters, what’s going on?  

In The Memo, The Hill’s Niall Stanage writes some blame dissatisfaction with Biden’s position on Israel and the Palestinians, or the resumption of student loan payments, or his age. But that doesn’t fully explain why those voters are going to Trump rather than seeking out a third-party option or simply disengaging from the political process.  

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WHERE AND WHEN 

The House will meet for a pro forma session on Friday at 9 a.m.  

The Senate will convene at noon; no further votes are scheduled this year. 

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9 a.m. He will travel to Milwaukee, Wis., where he will speak at the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce before returning to Washington in the evening. 

Vice President Harris will chair a 2 p.m. meeting of the U.S. National Space Council. At 5:30 p.m., she and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will host a holiday reception at the Naval Observatory. 

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ZOOM IN 

Photo—Middle East-Congress protests: 

MIDDLE EAST 

Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh is in Egypt to hold talks with officials in the country about hostages and a possible cease-fire with Israel. Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday indicated that the country was willing to engage with another humanitarian pause (NBC News). 

Dozens of protesters gathered in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, as the Senate gears up to leave Washington for the holidays. U.S. Capitol Police promptly arrested members of the group as they began protesting, escorting about 60 demonstrators out of the Capitol Rotunda one by one with their wrists zip-tied. Protesters had been chanting and carrying signs calling for a cease-fire. One long banner read, “The people chose life. Ceasefire now!” 

In a statement, the protest organizers said the protest was a joint effort among 87 national movement and organizational leaders (The Hill). 

“We want Congress and Biden to act on Permanent Ceasefire Now by stopping all military funding to Israel,” the organizers wrote in a joint statement. “We demand that the United States stop arming Israel and facilitating genocide in Gaza. We demand that there be no further border violence or genocide in our names, funded with our tax dollars. In short, we demand that our leaders divest from militarism, and invest in life!” 

The protest comes as Israel’s military continues its ground campaign in Gaza, raiding one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza and launching more airstrikes in the south, The Associated Press reported. Israeli forces raided the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City overnight, according to the church that operates it. One of the hospital’s facilitators, a pastor, said just two doctors, four nurses and two janitors were left to tend to wounded patients without running water or electricity. 

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council struggled Tuesday to come up with a resolution that will stop the fighting in Gaza — at least temporarily — but that would not be vetoed by the U.S. A morning meeting ended without a vote as negotiations continued over a new draft, The Washington Post reports, that eliminated the word “cease-fire,” contained in an earlier version. Instead, it demands an “urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities.” 

Tor Wennesland, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the Council that humanitarian efforts to aid more than 2 million Gazans in dire need are “near the brink” of collapse, facing “nearly insurmountable challenges, amid displacement on an unimaginable scale.” 

The Hill: Harris says how Israel defends itself matters: “Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.” 

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ELSEWHERE 

INDUSTRY  

💻 Microsoft’s burgeoning relationship with artificial intelligence company OpenAI is piling scrutiny on the tech giant’s market power and the ways it is building and yielding that power in the lucrative AI space. As The Hill’s Rebecca Klar reports, Microsoft has successfully skirted some of the spotlight on the market power of other technology giants over the past few years. But as AI becomes a target for global regulators and lawmakers, Microsoft’s growing partnership with the leading AI firm and creator of ChatGPT is bringing renewed attention. 

Microsoft invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and has incorporated ChatGPT into its services. The lines between the two companies, however, have been blurred in the aftermath of the tumultuous firing and rehiring of OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman. The OpenAI board announced Altman was ousted as CEO on Nov. 17. By the following Monday, Microsoft announced they would be hiring Altman to lead an AI research team. Altman returned to the AI startup just a few days later — with the blessing of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella — after hundreds of OpenAI employees threatened to quit if he was not reinstated. 

Sam Weinstein, a former Justice Department antitrust attorney who is now a professor at Cardozo School of Law, said the change in having Microsoft as a nonvoting observer on OpenAI’s board “potentially raises more red flags” for antitrust enforcers.   

“Instead of what’s been characterized by Microsoft as this kind of economic interest where they have no actual control … now you have a board observer. Of course, they don’t have a vote, but they’re in the room. So do they exert control there? We won’t know, we’re outside the room, but it’s a question,” he said.   

🔧 Lawmakers on both side of the aisle are up in arms about the $15 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japanese Nippon Steel Corporation, warning the deal could threaten national security, shift steelworking jobs to low-wage states and undermine U.S. industrial capacity (The Hill). 

“This is a major blow to the American steel industry which has been instrumental in making us the superpower of the world and a direct threat to our national security,” said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) said in a Tuesday statement. “We must be doing everything we can to prevent any further deterioration of American ownership.” 

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OPINION 

■ The Founders didn’t want a Mar-a-Lago executive branch, by Danielle Allen, contributing columnist, The Washington Post. 

■ Why Biden could lose Georgia next year, by Mara Gay, editorial board member, The New York Times. 

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THE CLOSER 

And finally … 🌌 Christmas came a little early this year for astronomers peering into the depths of the universe. 

NASA released an image last month of a Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster using data from the James Webb Space Telescope, a winking collection of galaxies 4.3 billion light-years from Earth. Underlying the Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster was a detection by astronomers of 14 stars that flicker over days or months — like the lights on a Christmas tree (The New York Times). 

“Seeing an individual star in a faraway galaxy is a big deal,” said Haojing Yan, an astronomer at the University of Missouri who led the study. “Almost like a miracle.”  

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