Morning Report — Senators seek to defy the odds

by Kristina Karisch - 12/18/23 6:31 AM ET

While the House is already in recess for the holidays, senators are back on Capitol Hill today working toward a possible border security deal key to unlocking aid for Ukraine.

Senate negotiators met late Sunday to try to hammer out a framework for a deal that Republicans have demanded as a condition of passing President Biden’s $110 billion aid package, even as chances of approving a deal by the end of the year are growing slim. The Wall Street Journal reports negotiators joined Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) office late in the afternoon. Schumer had called on senators to stay in Washington past the weekend last week, canceling the first part of the holiday recess.

Talks picked up last week after Senate Republicans blocked a Ukraine aid bill from coming to the floor, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s personal appeal on Tuesday to senators and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) drew sympathy but didn’t change their view that the U.S. border needed to be dealt with as a condition for approving aid. The White House, backed by Democratic negotiators, then indicated it was open to creating a new expulsion power at the southern border that would allow the government to turn away asylum seekers.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told GOP senators on Sunday there are “significant issues still under discussion” in the negotiations, warning a potential vote this week will fail if the sticking points aren’t fully resolved. There is a “lot of very technical work on drafting which takes time to get right,” McConnell wrote in a note co-signed by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), one of the negotiators (Politico).

“Without text and sufficient time to review it, [a vote this week] would not succeed,” McConnell wrote.

BEYOND THIS WEEK’S POSSIBLE VOTE, lawmakers are staring down a brutal opening to 2024 as Congress attempts to navigate two government funding deadlines, writes The Hill’s Al Weaver. As negotiators stress they are still far away from a border deal of any sort, members are resigning themselves to the idea of working on the aid package next month as they juggle the pair of government shutdown deadlines — making January more difficult than it already was shaping up to be.

“It’ll be very intense,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), the No. 3 Senate Democrat. “Unfortunately, folks who actually just want continual chaos so we can’t move forward and solve problems have been successful by having these multiple dates on appropriations and so on. It does not have to be as chaotic as it will be — but it will be.”

ELECTION REPERCUSSIONS: Biden is facing a fight with his base over the emergency aid supplemental package, The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports, as young Democrats have become increasingly disaffected with Biden’s handling of the war in Israel. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on Biden this past week to cut $10.1 million in military aid to Israel, arguing the destruction in Gaza has surpassed the U.S. firebombing of Dresden and Japanese cities in World War II.

Now Biden also faces blowback from Latino and progressive voters about the border security deal he is about to cut with Republicans, and at a time when Biden’s numbers are low with young, progressive voters, the legislation is set to pose a political problem heading into an election.

The Hill: The House is back at square one for addressing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

▪ Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s war-time ambassador to the U.S., reflects in an interview with The Hill’s Laura Kelly about having to step out of her comfort zone to be more insistent and “unconventional” when advocating for the existential needs of her country in Washington.

▪ This is the inside story of how the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion. The justices transformed a long-shot case into a historic turning point — shooting down compromise and testing the boundaries of how the law is decided.

▪ The Supreme Court is re-entering the debate on abortion with its agreement to hear an appeal from the Biden administration about access to the abortion pill mifepristone. While the pills will likely stay on the market, there could be some significant changes to access, even in states where abortion remains legal and protected.

IMPEACHMENT RISKS: The House GOP’s party-line impeachment inquiry into Biden carries plenty of political risks for Republicans and has the potential to backfire. Swing-district members will have to justify the impeachment probe to voters, and Democrats are already successfully fundraising off the impeachment push. The Hill’s Emily Brooks reports skeptical Republicans justified their votes by distinguishing support for continuing an investigation from a vote accusing the president of wrongdoing. But as those leading the impeachment effort argue their evidence is compelling, comments from GOP members to the contrary could undercut the larger investigation.

The Hill: GOP senator says Biden can’t be impeached for pre-presidential actions.

And then there’s the main question: Will the House GOP have the votes in a razor-thin majority to approve any impeachment articles? If not, there’s the risk of Republicans appearing to clear Biden of any wrongdoing during an election year, but Johnson stressed the importance of a methodical process.

“There shouldn’t be any such thing as a snap impeachment, a sham impeachment, what the Democrats did against [former] President Trump. This is the opposite of that,” Johnson said. “And that’s why people are getting restless. They want things to happen quickly. If you follow the Constitution, and you do the right thing, you cannot rush it.”

LEADING THE DAY

The recent high-stakes legal drama in Texas — where the state Supreme Court denied a woman permission to seek abortion care, despite her fetus having a fatal medical condition — and the Supreme Court’s announcement it will consider restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone are the latest unwelcome reminders for Republicans that abortion rights will be front and center ahead of the 2024 election. The Hill’s Julia Mueller writes that abortion has been a calamitous political issue for the GOP since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer — but it’s been a boon for Democrats. Biden has already sought to wield the case as a cautionary tale against Republicans in power and against Trump.

“Democrats are going to want to make it a major issue in the general election,” GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak said of abortion, arguing that while Republicans have the edge on issues like immigration, Democrats are “winning” on this front. Both challenges to abortion rights have kindled a new fire under outraged Democrats, who are vowing to make the issue a central element of their 2024 campaign message, The Hill’s Mike Lillis reports.

2024 ROUNDUP

▪ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wanted to change the way campaigns were funded. Then the fights started. With just weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, the GOP candidate’s bold strategy is now in tatters and its top architect has resigned.

▪ Recent polls show Trump leading Biden in key swing states that will likely decide the 2024 election, indicating Trump is not just the overwhelming favorite to secure the GOP nomination but is in a strong position to recapture the White House less than a year before Election Day.

▪ Vulnerable House Republicans are walking a tightrope after voting this week in favor of launching an impeachment inquiry into Biden — a move that could risk their election chances in districts the president won in 2020.

▪ With Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) retirement, Republicans only need to lock up one more Senate seat to regain the chamber’s majority. They’re not taking any chances on problematic nominees.

▪ Trump is facing backlash for repeating a remark at a political rally on Saturday where he said undocumented immigrants to the U.S. are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

▪ James Biden’s dealmaking was caught on FBI tapes in an unrelated bribery probe. While the president campaigned in Mississippi, his brother planned to build a powerful consulting business — a deal that brought him to the periphery of a federal case.

▪ Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday she thinks Biden supporters in the White House would likely prefer if Hunter Biden would “go away right now.”

WHERE AND WHEN

🎄 A holiday note to readers: Morning Report will be helmed by Kristina Karisch through Dec. 27; co-author Alexis Simendinger will return Jan. 3.

The House will meet for a pro forma session on Tuesday at 2 p.m.

The Senate will convene at 3 p.m.

The president is in Delaware with first lady Jill Biden. He will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 11 a.m.

Vice President Harris will host a holiday reception at the Naval Observatory with second gentleman Doug Emhoff at 5:30 p.m.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will sign a defense cooperation agreement with Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen and Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen at 10:30 a.m., after which he will meet with Valtonen.

ZOOM IN

The Israeli military said Sunday it has discovered a large tunnel shaft in Gaza close to what was once a busy crossing into Israel, raising new questions about how Israeli surveillance missed the preparations by Hamas for the militants’ Oct. 7 attacks. The military said that it stretches for more than 2.5 miles and links up with a sprawling tunnel network across Gaza and is wide enough for cars to enter. The army said Sunday that the tunnel facilitated the transit of vehicles, militants and supplies in preparation for the attack that triggered a devastating war that has raged for more than 10 weeks and claimed more than 18,000 lives in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials.

Israel says the destruction of the tunnel network is a major objective and that much of the underground network runs beneath schools, hospitals and residential areas, even as Israel’s military, intelligence and political officials have come under heavy criticism for failing to detect the attack ahead of time (The Associated Press).

Israel opened a direct crossing for aid into Gaza for the first time in its war on Hamas on Sunday, but also stepped up attacks on the Palestinian enclave. The Israeli assaults took place amid fierce fighting the length of the coastal strip, according to residents and militants, with communications down for a fourth day, making it hard to reach the wounded (Reuters). U.S.-based Human Right Watch (HRW) accused Israel on Monday of committing a war crime by starving people in Gaza. The group said Israeli forces were deliberately blocking delivery of water, food and fuel, razing agricultural areas and depriving Gaza’s 2.3 million people of objects indispensable for their survival (Reuters).

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said Sunday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who has resisted international calls for a cease-fire in Gaza — has been “difficult” to work with as the U.S. pushes for a two-state solution to end the Israel-Hamas war.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has been an exceptionally difficult partner, and I think President Biden did the right thing right after the shattering — the horrific attack by Hamas, to go to Israel, to stand strong with Israel, and frankly, to send a firm message to Iran to stay out of this conflict,” Coons said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” adding that Biden deployed aircraft carrier groups to the region to deter escalation in the region. “What has been a real challenge is the big gap between most of us in Congress and the president who believe a two-state solution is the only way forward, and Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has done everything he can to undermine a positive vision for peace for Israel.”

▪ PBS NewsHour: Pressure mounts on Israel to renew cease-fire talks after killing of hostages raises alarm about its conduct in Gaza.

▪ The New York Times: Senators are holding up 43 of Biden’ diplomatic nominees as crises roil the world.

ELSEWHERE

TRUMP WORLD

$148 MILLION: Former Trump ally Rudy Giuliani is awaiting a Georgia criminal trial. That’s on top of his status as an alleged unnamed co-conspirator in a federal indictment against Trump. And now, with the verdict in a defamation case brought against him by two former Georgia election workers, he has been ordered to pay $148 million in damages — a sum he is unlikely to be able to afford. The string of events marks a new low point for the man once lauded as “America’s mayor,” whose advocacy of Trump’s false election claims has led to criminal charges and hefty legal bills (The Hill).

“It’s like everything is crashing down on him,” Nick Akerman, a New York attorney who briefly worked alongside Giuliani in the federal prosecutors’ office there, told The Associated Press. “He hasn’t come to grips with what he has done to his life. He has completely destroyed himself.”

Read the jury’s verdict HERE.

▪ The Guardian: “I miss my name”: The Giuliani verdict laid bare the limits of defamation law.

▪ Newsweek: Former prosecutor David Henderson warned on Sunday that Trump should be “nervous” for his Georgia racketeering trial after the outcome of Giuliani’s defamation lawsuit.

▪ The New York Times: Trump, quoting Russian President Vladimir Putin, declared the indictments against him “politically motivated persecution.” The former president cited comments by the Russian leader to argue the 91 felony charges he is facing undermine the United States’ claim to be the world leader on democracy.

TRUMP’S UPCOMING COURT CALENDAR is creating a logistical headache for his presidential campaign. Already ricocheting from the courtroom to the campaign trail, Trump’s bid for a second term is now on a collision course with court dates for the myriad legal challenges he’s facing.

Testimony in Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York wrapped last week, and lawyers on both sides will have until Jan. 5 to submit written statements before they return to court Jan. 11, just four days ahead of the Iowa caucuses. The civil trial for writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit is scheduled to start the same day as the caucuses, Jan. 15. And the trial in the former president’s federal election interference case is slated to start the day before Super Tuesday, though a judge put the case on hold as Trump’s team argues for its dismissal (Politico).

“It’s a scheduling nightmare,” Trump senior adviser Susie Wiles told reporters Saturday. “There’s no way to sugarcoat that.”

ENVIRONMENT

Azerbaijan is set to host the 2024 United Nations COP29 climate summit, the second in a row to take place in a major oil-producing nation, after this year’s event in the United Arab Emirates. But after the unexpected breakthroughs at this year’s meeting, The Hill’s Zack Budryk writes that some are hoping that the conferences can make progress when held in countries built on oil wealth.

A major oil producer hosting the summit “doesn’t have to preclude meaningful progress but I think it makes it more difficult,” said Cherelle Blazer, director of international climate policy at the Sierra Club, who attended the Dubai summit. “This is a conference that’s supposed to be protecting the environment, [but] it is a bit more of the fox guarding the henhouse.”

▪ The Wall Street Journal: A long-shot climate bet suddenly turns hot. One carbon removal method uses giant fan-like devices to pull carbon from the air.

▪ The Guardian: COP28 has finally named fossil fuels as the climate problem. But do leaders have the will to act?

▪ BBC: Nine breakthroughs for climate and nature in 2023 you may have missed.

🚰 Some Californians could find themselves flushing down a future drinking water source in just a few years’ time, assuming a Golden State regulator approves a long-awaited slate of so-called “toilet-to-tap” rules this week. As The Hill’s Sharon Udasin reports, the landmark proposal would streamline “direct potable reuse” — a process by which purified wastewater is discharged right into a public water system or just upstream of a treatment plant.

“It’s a real important step for just adding to the portfolio that we can use here in the West, for how we effectively use our water source,” Darrin Polhemus, deputy director of the State Board’s division of drinking water, told The Hill. Such capabilities, Polhemus explained, would help bolster California’s water resilience, while providing numerous environmental benefits and reducing the need to transport water long distances. “We’re not using it one time and dumping it in the ocean.”

OPINION

■ The tragedy of Rudy Giuliani, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.

■ Biden can go over Netanyahu’s head, by Jennifer Rubin, columnist, The Washington Post.

THE CLOSER

And finally … On this day in 1865, then-Secretary of State William Seward announced the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the world — the United States constitutionally abolished slavery.

The ratification of the 13th Amendment, the first of the Reconstruction Amendments, has historically been overshadowed by President Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation,” which formally tied slavery to the Civil War. However, Lincoln repeatedly stated that preserving the Union was his primary objective — not ending slavery.

His proclamation — officially signed and issued on January 1, 1863 — freed only slaves in Confederate states, but allowed slavery to continue in states where the Union could impose its will. Still, the Emancipation Proclamation served as a catalyst for abolitionists in Congress to start working in earnest to end slavery in every state.

On Dec. 6, 1865, nearly twelve months after Lincoln had signed the document, Georgia became the 27th state to ratify the 13th Amendment, reaching the three-quarters threshold for amending the Constitution. Shortly afterward, on Dec. 18, Seward made his historic announcement (National Museum of African American History and Culture).

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