The Hill’s Morning Report — NASA heads back to the moon

by Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver - 08/29/22 6:29 AM ET

At Cape Canaveral, Fla., this morning, weekend lightning strikes, weather worries and a hydrogen leak appeared to be surmounted with a slight delay as NASA began its countdown to send the most powerful rocket it has ever built, the Artemis I,into space without a crew between 8:33 a.m. and 10:33 a.m. ET

“We’re in really great shape. … And now we’re moving forward,” Jeremy Graeber, assistant launch director for the Artemis I launch team, explained at 5:37 a.m. ET. Both liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks were filled before 6 a.m. ET.

Vice President Harris is on hand in Florida to witness the liftoff of a mission aimed at helping the United States send astronauts back to the lunar surface by 2025 for the first time since the historic 1969 “giant leap for mankind.”

If today’s liftoff has to be delayed, Friday is the earliest fallback date for a rescheduled launch.

China has similar manned lunar landing ambitions by 2030 and has announced plans with Russia to build an international research base on the moon.

NASA boasts it will land “the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon, explore more of the lunar surface than ever before — and prepare to travel on to Mars.”

The space agency’s new rocket, as tall as a skyscraper and called the Space Launch System, or SLS, is to carry the uncrewed Orion capsule for a trip around the moon during a four- to six-week journey (The Associated Press and CNN). Splashdown of the capsule is currently expected to occur Oct. 10.

In lieu of astronauts, three test dummies will be strapped into the Orion capsule to measure vibration, acceleration and radiation, one of the biggest hazards to humans in deep space (Orlando.com).

Check out NASA’s figure-eight space map of the Earth-to-moon mission HERE.

“We test it. We stress it. We make this rocket and the spacecraft do things that we would never do with a human crew,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “The main purpose of the flight is to test the heat shield because you can’t test that in a lab. So if the heat shield survives and does what it is expected to do, it’s a successful test. So then we’re ready in two years.”

Related Articles

▪ The New York Times: Why NASA is going back to the moon.

▪ Space.com: “Zero hour” for Artemis I.

▪ WFLA News: Artemis launch a “go” for Florida’s aerospace enterprises.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

For much of the past year, Republicans have been on the offensive and the heavy favorites to make big gains in both congressional chambers, keeping Democrats on their heels ahead of the November midterms.

That script, however, has flipped. Democrats last week were given a B12 shot of optimism in the form of a special election victory in New York’s Hudson Valley, prompting the GOP to sound the alarms and pump the brakes on talk about a “red wave.”

“Republicans have to start paying attention. … The problem is where Republicans have to pick up in order to win the Congress is in districts like that,” former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) said late last week, referring to Democrat Pat Ryan’s win in the Empire State. “If you look at the national polls, if you look at a lot of these races like in my home state of Pennsylvania — if this is a red wave year, the polls are not showing it right now.”

Rep. Tom Emmer (Minn.), chairman of the House GOP’s campaign arm, and other party operatives are still more bullish on the fall and argue that the special election was just that — special.

“I would not red flag it yet. We’re going to wait to see and do some more polling, but I think things are fine,” said Sarah Chamberlain, president and CEO of Republican Main Street Partnership.

One issue that led to Ryan’s defeat of Republican Marc Molinaro was abortion rights. Following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade in late June, Ryan campaigned heavily on the topic, and Democrats in tough districts could turn to it more as it has proved to get voters to the polls over the past month.

Adding to the push behind the abortion rights messaging is the position many GOP candidates for Senate and House have taken, allowing them to talk about something other than the economy in a positive light from their point of view (The Hill).

▪ The Hill: GOP edge in race for House control slips: poll.

▪ The Associated Press: Democrats: Abortion rulings may be “a blessing in disguise.”

▪ Julia Manchester, The Hill: Five midterm lessons from this year’s special elections.

▪ The Hill: Nebraska Democrats hope abortion fury delivers rare House win.

Meanwhile, President Biden has come under heavy criticism from the Republican Party in recent days after he compared the “MAGA” wing of the GOP to “semi-fascism” at a Democratic National Committee (DNC) fundraiser last week.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) called on Biden to issue an apology to GOP voters, adding that the comments were “horribly insulting.”

“The fact that the president would go out and just insult half of America [and] effectively call half of America semi-fascist,” Sununu told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He’s trying to stir up controversy. He’s trying to stir up this anti-Republican sentiment right before the election. It’s horribly inappropriate” (The Hill).

▪ CBS News: DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison says Biden describing GOP as “semi-facism” is “calling what is what it is.”

▪ The Hill: Democrats peg inflation to corporate greed on campaign trail.

▪ Cheyanne M. Daniels, The Hill: “I deserve to know the truth”: Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn is ever-present at Jan. 6 hearings.

Is former President Trump, or anyone else, in criminal legal jeopardy for the handling of sensitive national security documents and materials allegedly squirreled away at Mar-a-Lago for more than a year while the government struggled to get it all back?

▪ The Associated Press: Trump search: What may come next in inquiry with legal peril?

▪ Heidi Kitrosser, Lawfare: Trump and the Espionage Act.

▪ USA Today: Trump aides unlikely to face charges alone over secret records.

Do Department of Justice (DOJ) and intelligence agency investigators believe no serious harm befell national security because of the loose docs? Did Trump know or direct that materials remain in his possession when the National Archives appealed to the ex-president and his representatives, and then the DOJ subpoenaed them, to relinquish what had been taken from the White House?

Will Attorney General Merrick Garland, who says no person “is above the law,” move on without pursuing fines or criminal charges (Espionage Act, obstruction of a federal investigation)? Did the FBI retrieve every presidential document and record, and in all forms, that belongs at the National Archives?

The New York Times analysis: For Garland, the Trump inquiry is a unique test.

The answers to those and other questions are unclear, but it’s a sure bet that Trump’s troubles over what went with him to Mar-a-Lago will not end soon. He has conceded he retained documents the government sought and has not explicitly denied that the boxes removed from Mar-a-Lago contained restricted national security information.

It is evident from the timeline that while Trump claimed cooperation when 15 boxes of documents went back to Washington, the Justice Department feared that sensitive materials with national security restrictions remained hidden from the government’s view in Florida. The former president, now a civilian, appears interested in leaning on executive privilege and his former authority while in office to declassify documents, which, according to legal analysts, would not eliminate the law’s repercussions for possession of certain sensitive and restricted materials.

“He is making a mistake in believing that it matters whether it’s top secret or not,” Julie O’Sullivan, a Georgetown University law professor who specializes in white-collar crime, told The New York Times in reference to Trump. “He is essentially conceding that he knew he had them.” If so, she added, then not giving them back was “obstructing the return of these documents.”

Here’s what’s ahead this week: A federal judge on Saturday signaled her intent to agree to an independent “special master” sought by Trump to review documents removed by the FBI on Aug. 8 from his estate. The government has until Tuesday to present its arguments, and the judge scheduled a Thursday court hearing in West Palm Beach, Fla. (The Washington Post). Under a judge’s order, the Justice Department on Friday released a heavily redacted copy of a 38-page affidavit that formed the justification for the search warrant executed early this month.

The circle of government involvement has expanded beyond the executive and judicial branches to include Congress. As requested by House and Senate Intelligence committee members (with expectations they will get details), intelligence analysts and Justice Department officials confirmed they are assessing classified information found by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago and reviewing the specific classifications on materials retrieved from Trump’s residence to gauge potential risks to U.S. security, Politico and The Washington Post reported.

Thus, the range of individuals scrutinizing retrieved documents, potentially missing materials, motivations, national security and legal ramifications ballooned beyond the National Archives and Trump’s legal team and aides to include the attorney general, DOJ counterintelligence experts, tipsters who helped the DOJ, the U.S. intelligence community, federal judges, potentially a court-ordered independent special master, and House and Senate lawmakers.

The president has tried to steer clear of the mess. On Friday, when asked by reporters about the DOJ’s release of a redacted affidavit, Biden said, “I’m not going to comment because I don’t know the details. I don’t even want to know. I’ll let the Justice Department take that.”

But when asked, he mocked Trump’s suggestion he’d declassified everything the FBI found. “I just want you to know I’ve declassified everything in the world. I’m president, I can do — c’mon,” Biden said (CNN).

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ ADMINISTRATION

The White House’s plan to forgive $10,000 in federal student loan debt for most borrowers was greeted mostly with cheers on the left. But on the right, it’s not only met with derision, but it’s set to be greeted with legal challenges galore.

Biden’s plans are likely to be challenged in court, throwing fresh uncertainty onto borrowers, including many young adults who stand to benefit from the administration’s policy. However, as The Hill’s Morgan Chalfant and Brett Samuels write, the problem for those attempting filing suit against the debt plan is the ability to demonstrate standing in the case, leading some experts to doubt the success of future challenges.

The Biden administration relied on the 2003 HEROES Act, passed following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and claims that the COVID-19 emergency opens the door and allows the Department of Education to both suspend loan repayments and cancel loan debt for many individuals.

The criticism from Republicans kept up over the weekend. Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), a member of GOP leadership who is retiring at the end of the year, on Sunday labeled the plan “monumentally unfair” (The Hill). However, criticism also came from some corners of the Democrat Party.

“It’s bad policy as well as bad politics. For that amount of money, you could fund free pre-K for every 3- and 4-year-old for the next 10 years. … You could free all medical debt,”Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and a former top aide to former President Clinton, told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This is terrible policy.”

“What is my party doing with this?” Begala continued. “I think they’re not helping the people we’re here to help, which is poor people and underprivileged communities. And they’re not helping their politicians who are running.”

▪ The Hill: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.): Cost of college should be tackled after student loan debt cancellation.

▪ The Hill: Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) says he prefers tax cuts over student loan debt forgiveness.

The Hill’s special report: It has been more than a year since the war in Afghanistan ended for the U.S. But the problems have not ended for many Afghan refugees who have found shelter in the U.S. but not the security they had hoped for.

In the first of a three-part series, The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch details the troubles refugees have faced since the rapid fall of Kabul and the Afghan government last year, dating back to their escapes from the country now controlled by the Taliban. One refugee named Hoja (a pseudonym) discussed how he was working as a law enforcement official on a national security project funded by the U.S. that gave him and his family of seven a healthy bank account and a summer home on 12 acres. He was forced to give it up instantly once the country fell to Taliban forces.

“I ran away. I left everything behind. That’s what I did,” he said. “And then in September, when I was in Germany — in Ramstein [Air Base] — I was just waiting on some volunteer organizations to get a pair of shoes. That was when I recognized how fragile life really is — that it takes only one shock for you to start all over again.”

▪ Ellen Mitchell, The Hill: Fears over Afghanistan threat simmer, despite White House assurances.

▪ The Hill: Broken promises: Afghan women abandoned but defiant a year after US withdrawal.

OPINION

■ College tuition is too high, but it isn’t actually rising, by Matthew Yglesias, columnist, Bloomberg Opinion. https://bloom.bg/3TnGWLZ

■ Fox News fired me after I said Biden won. That wasn’t the worst of it, by Chris Stirewalt, opinion contributor, Politico Magazine. https://politi.co/3CxPutQ

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will meet at noon Tuesday for a pro forma session and return to work in the Capitol on Sept. 13.

The Senate convenes on Tuesday at 10 a.m. for a pro forma session during its summer recess, which ends Sept. 6.

The president arrives at the White House at 9:55 a.m. from Delaware.

The vice president is in Florida for the NASA Artemis liftoff this morning at Cape Canaveral (Space.com).

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1:30 p.m.

🖥 Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features news and interviews at http://digital-staging.thehill.com/hilltv, on YouTube and on Facebook at 10:30 a.m. ET. Also, check out the “Rising” podcast here.

ELSEWHERE

➤ INTERNATIONAL

The International Atomic Energy Agency later this week will visit Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is under Russian control but operated by Ukrainians. The plans follow prolonged negotiations to gain access to assess damage to the plant, determine whether the safety and security systems were functional and evaluate the staff’s working conditions. Both Russia and Ukraine welcomed the announcement by IAEA director general Rafael Grossi, who did not specify how the team would reach the facility, which is in a region of southern Ukraine that has seen intense artillery strikes in recent weeks (The New York Times).

Two U.S. Navy warships traversed the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, marking the first U.S. maritime operation in the region since Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) visit to Taiwan earlier this month sparked anger with Beijing. According to the U.S. Navy, a pair of cruisers — Chancellorsville and Antietam — carried out the operation (Reuters).

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH

The White House is staring down a tough but key stretch in the fall to vaccinate the masses with the next generation of COVID-19 booster shots to guard against the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron variants. As The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel writes, the Biden administration is striking an optimistic tone, but the campaign has a number of pitfalls lying in wait, including that demand is expected to be low and that some scientists had said there isn’t enough evidence that they work well enough.

The Wall Street Journal: Latest COVID-19 boosters are set to roll out before human testing is completed.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,043,840. Current average U.S. COVID-19 daily deaths are 392, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of today, 78.1 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 66.7 percent is “fully vaccinated,” according to the Bloomberg News global vaccine tracker and the government’s definition. The percentage of Americans who have received third or booster doses is 33.2 percent.

THE CLOSER

And finally … Time for some sports news! 🎾 The U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows, N.Y., could mark tennis star Serena Williams’s good-bye to tennis. Tonight the 41-year-old plays the first round of the championship at 7 p.m. (CNN). As a teenager at the Open in 1999, she achieved the first of her 23 Grand Slam victories. … Williams by the numbers: Her 319 opponents tell the stories of entire eras (The Wall Street Journal).

⚾ There’s a new leader in the sports card clubhouse. A 1952 Topps card of New York Yankees legend Mickey Mantle sold for $12.6 million over the weekend, a new record in the industry, dwarfing the previous record of $7.25 million for a rare T206 Honus Wagner card. It is the highest price paid for any sports item, card or memorabilia. The card, which initially sold in 1991 for $50,000, was ungraded for 31 years by a then-anonymous buyer. The card was graded 9.5 out of 10, meaning it is in near-mint condition (ESPN).

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