Morning Report — Biden, Trump face off on the border

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 01/29/24 6:31 AM ET

A guardsman stands watch at the U.S.-Mexico border, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

President Biden and a bipartisan group of senators this week may gain some traction to wield immigration reforms as a direct challenge to House conservatives and to former President Trump.

“I’d rather have no bill than a bad bill,” Trump said Saturday while pledging to close the border, if elected.

The White House and a trio of senators could unveil an agreement as early as this week, CBS News reports, despite House GOP promises to block any pending deal, as yet unseen by lawmakers. The House returns to work today in the Capitol, ahead of proposed bipartisan Senate ideas to reduce unprecedented levels of illegal crossings recorded along the southern border in the past three years.

DEMOCRATS ARE LOOKING for border changes that can call House Republicans’ bluff about addressing some of the most prominent U.S. policy problems identified by voters nationwide. The GOP began the year by leveraging demands for enhanced national security at the border as a condition to weigh support for additional U.S. aid to Ukraine. Assistance to Kyiv is in limbo and going nowhere in the House, despite bipartisan backing among leaders in the Senate.

Biden, after years of downplaying a border crisis and eager to undercut Trump’s election-year appeal, now says he would shut down migrant traffic at the border if the Senate sends him a reasonable deal.

“If that bill were the law today, I’d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly,” the president said while campaigning in South Carolina.

Shortly after taking office in 2021, Biden said he would unwind the Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies and he sent Congress legislation that has since languished that would create pathways to citizenship for millions of immigrants living in the United States. Both moves still attracted criticism from members of his own party.

LEGISLATIVE FIXES crafted primarily by Republican Sen. James Lankford (Okla.) — under censure pressure in his home state by the GOP — along with Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) would grant the executive branch new legal authority to effectively suspend asylum in between official ports of entry when migrant crossings surpass certain thresholds, according to reporting.

Murphy told CNN Sunday, “We are sort of finalizing the last pieces of text right now. This bill could be ready to be on the floor of the United States Senate next week. But it won’t be if Republicans decide that they want to keep this issue unsettled for political purposes.”

Provisions of a Senate approach could impact remote areas in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas where migrants regularly cross into the U.S. illegally to surrender themselves to federal officials, who often release them under provisions of current law.

▪ The Hill: The U.S. border’s political value weighs on policy talks in Washington.

▪ USA Today: Almost every state with a Republican governor signed a statement last week backing Texas in its fight with the federal government over border control.

▪ The Hill: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is bedeviled as Trump and the GOP move the border goalposts.

Meanwhile, the GOP-led House Homeland Security Committee on Sunday unveiled articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and will meet Tuesday. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) says the House will vote on impeaching Mayorkas “as soon as possible.” The election-year drive to purge the secretary from the Cabinet is not expected to advance in the Senate.

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

▪ Republican legislatures in some states are trying to keep abortion off the ballot. Since 2022, voters in seven states moved to protect abortion rights or defeated attempts to curtail them in statewide votes.

▪ Bolts needed to secure part of an Alaska Airlines jet that blew off in midair appear to have been missing when the plane left Boeing’s factory, industry officials said.

▪ Investigators sought Jeff Bezos’ tax return leaker; they stumbled upon Donald Trump’s.

LEADING THE DAY

POLITICS

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley on Sunday sidestepped questions about whether winning the South Carolina primary next month is necessary for her to remain in the 2024 race, vowing to remain Trump’s main rival for the GOP nomination until Super Tuesday. On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” she was hesitant to say whether a win in her home state was “do or die.”

“I think I need to do better than I did in New Hampshire. So this is a building situation-” she said before anchor Kristen Welker interjected to ask again whether she needed to win the state. “It’s not about which state you get and which you don’t.”

TRUMP’S ATTACKS ON HALEY risk eroding his already weak support with certain female voters as he barrels toward the GOP nomination, writes The Hill’s Julia Manchester. Trump ratcheted up his attacks on Haley during his victory speech in New Hampshire where he mocked the dress she wore that evening and referred to her as “birdbrain.” Political observers say the attacks resemble the former president’s past attacks on women and could turn away critical women voters in the general election — another warning sign for Trump after New Hampshire already underscored his vulnerabilities with certain voters.

“He won’t get women voters who are swing voters,” said Juliana Bergeron, a New Hampshire Republican National Committee member. “I think there might be more women voters that are Republicans that he won’t get either. If it were to be a close election, yes, his comments could sway it.”

VEEPSTAKES: Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-N.Y.) stock is rapidly rising in the race to be Trump’s running mate. Stefanik, the No. 4 House Republican, has become a close ally of the former president and has increasingly positioned herself as a betting favorite to be on the GOP presidential ticket. She’s made campaign stops to boost Trump, frequently issues statements and social media messages backing him and at times echoes his controversial language (The Hill).

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), meanwhile, is poised to play a key role in the Trump campaign as the former president and GOP look to boost support among Black voters. Scott has been a fixture on the stage next to Trump since dropping his own 2024 bid last year, spurring speculation that he could be the former president’s VP pick (The Hill).

SENATE WATCH: Senate Republicans are expecting the final piece to their 2024 map puzzle to fall into place in short order in the key battleground state of Wisconsin as they ready themselves for a November fight against Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D). Eric Hovde, a Madison-based businessman, is expected to enter the race next month with the full support of the Senate GOP campaign apparatus as they try for a third time to defeat Baldwin, who has proven a difficult opponent for Republicans (The Hill).

In Ohio, Bernie Moreno, a staunch Trump ally, is emerging as the leading candidate for the Republican nomination to face Sen. Sherrod Brown (D). Moreno started off the primary with low-name I.D. and trailed his other GOP rivals in most early polls, but a coveted endorsement from the former president, as well as from other top Republicans, has boosted him to the top of the pack in recent weeks (The Hill).

Democrat Tammy Murphy’s connection to Biden could help her in the New Jersey Senate primary, although the president is officially neutral in the Murphy vs. Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) contest. Indicted Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) says he is running to keep his seat (Politico).

2024 ROUNDUP

▪ Arab American leaders are giving Biden the cold shoulder in Michigan, frustrated that the president has not called for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Biden trails Trump by 8 points in the state, according to a hypothetical head-to-head survey this month by The Detroit News and WDIV-TV.

▪ Triple play: Democrats are working to pull off an unprecedented spring fundraiser featuring Biden and former Presidents Obama and Clinton.

▪ California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who visited South Carolina and Nevada to help mobilize voters for Biden, warned Sunday that the Democratic Party should be wary of this year’s third-party candidates. “We have to be worried,” he told ABC’s “This Week.” “But you know what? You got to control the controllables. You got to control what you have to control. And right now, it’s getting the vote out.”

▪ The Biden-Harris campaign will set up a D.C. office funded by the Democratic National Committee in addition to the headquarters in Wilmington, Del. Top White House aides who are shifting to the campaign in April serve in top advisory roles in the West Wing.

▪ Higher education unions are on the rise, advocating for social justice and academic freedom.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House convenes at noon.

The Senate will meet at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 11 a.m. at the White House.

Vice President Harris will travel from Los Angeles to San Jose for an event at Mexican Heritage Plaza at 12:20 p.m. PT to advocate for abortion rights, contraception, health care coverage and reproductive freedom. She will be accompanied by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and her husband, Doug Emhoff. Harris and Emhoff will speak in the afternoon at a campaign fundraiser in Los Gatos, Calif., and then travel to Washington.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken at9:30 a.m. will meet with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. The secretary at 11 a.m. will meet with Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley. After an afternoon meeting between the secretary and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The two men will take questions from reporters at 3:15 p.m. at the State Department.

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

ZOOM IN

© The Associated Press / Planet Labs PBC | A military base known as Tower 22 in northeastern Jordan, pictured in October, where three American troops were killed overnight Sunday and “many” were wounded in a drone strike.

INTERNATIONAL

THREE U.S. ARMY SOLDIERS WERE KILLED and more than 34 service members were injured in a drone attack over the weekend on a small U.S. outpost in Jordan, marking the first time U.S. troops have been killed by enemy fire in the Middle East since the beginning of the war in Gaza. Biden vowed on Sunday to hold those responsible for the attack “to account,” saying that while facts are still being gathered, “We know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.”

▪ Reuters map: What is Tower 22, site of the attack on U.S. troops in Jordan?

▪ Axios: War pressure grows as Biden plans military response to deadly Jordan attack.

NEGOTIATORS ARE EDGING CLOSER to an agreement for Israel to suspend its war in Gaza for about two months in exchange for the release of more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas. While Israel said “significant gaps” remain after cease-fire talks Sunday, officials called them constructive and said they would continue in the week ahead. There are still important disagreements to be worked out, but negotiators are cautiously optimistic that a final accord is within reach, The New York Times reports. Biden spoke by phone separately Friday with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, who have served as intermediaries with Hamas, to narrow the remaining differences.

As part of the effort to break a deadlock in talks for a new hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, CIA Director William Burns met in Paris Sunday with Qatar’s prime minister and the director of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency. A Hamas official with knowledge of the talks told NBC News that the group was “flexible” on the details of the deal and would consider releasing hostages as long as the goal was a “final, comprehensive, lasting cease-fire.”

▪ NBC News: The Biden administration is discussing using weapons sales to Israel as leverage to convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to heed long-standing U.S. calls to scale back the military assault in the Gaza Strip.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: The weekend interview: Netanyahu at war.

▪ The New York Times: Where does Hamas get its weapons? Increasingly, from Israel.

THE U.N. AGENCY FOR PALESTINIAN REFUGEES said it could be forced to suspend its operations if donor states don’t resume funding that several countries paused amid allegations from Israeli authorities that a dozen of the agency’s staff participated in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the agency, known as UNRWA, would be forced to scale back aid to more than 2 million Palestinians as soon as February (The Wall Street Journal and Politico).

“The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences,” Guterres said in a statement. “But the tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized. The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met.”

▪ The New York Times: Israeli officials have presented evidence they say ties workers at a Palestinian aid agency in Gaza to violence during the Hamas-led attack on Israel.

▪ The Hill: Iran launched three satellites into space that are part of a Western-criticized program.

▪ Bloomberg News: North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles on Sunday in a move that comes as leader Kim Jong Un ramps up his rhetoric about a potential conflict with the U.S. and South Korea.

China is stepping up a campaign to coerce and intimidate Taiwan, sending batches of spy balloons over the self-governing island nation this month before and after a consequential presidential election. The Hill’s Brad Dress reports the spy balloons flew into Taiwanese airspace almost daily around Taiwan’s Jan. 13 presidential elections, which resulted in a pro-U.S. president in Taipei. The election — and China’s early steps to intimidate Taiwan after it — are spurring concerns that Beijing is inching closer to taking more aggressive action against the island, which it considers historically part of the mainland.

ELSEWHERE

HEALTH

? MEASLES ON THE RISE: The United Kingdom is facing a measles outbreak, while cases have also popped up in a few U.S. states in recent weeks, leading health authorities on both sides of the pond to issue urgent warnings. The reemergence of the virus, which was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, is a wake-up call for the importance of vaccination to personal and public health. Unlike COVID-19 vaccines, which help prevent serious illness but don’t prevent infection, the measles vaccine is almost 100 percent effective in preventing infection (The Hill).

The measles virus is particularly adept at finding pockets of vulnerability, but outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases may follow, Saad Omer, the dean of the O’Donnell School of Public Health at U.T. Southwestern in Dallas, told The New York Times.

“Measles is usually the canary in the coal mine,” Omer said.

ABC News: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns health care workers to be on alert for measles amid a rising number of cases.

TRANSGENDER PEOPLE FACE AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE in Ohio under a new law banning gender-affirming health care for minors and administrative rules that heavily restrict access to care for adults. The proposed administrative rules have been criticized as harmful and unnecessary by medical professionals and LGBTQ rights advocates. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Ohio said the rules could amount to a “de facto ban” on care in the state (The Hill).

TRUMP WORLD

In civil court in New York last week, Trump was not immune to the wheels of justice in a defamation suit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, but while he appeals the judgment to pay $83.3 million after being found guilty of sexually assaulting and defaming her, he can legally delay by posting a bond or paying the sum to be held by the court (The Hill).

The amount Carroll was awarded vastly eclipsed the $5 million awarded to her by a jury last spring in a different trial against the former president. While it could take years before she sees the money, as Trump said he will appeal, she is already considering how she might use the money once she obtains it.

“I’m not going to waste a cent of this,” she told The New York Times. “We’re going to do something good with it.”

Meanwhile, Trump targeted the judge and New York attorney general in a series of social media posts on Sunday as he awaits the verdict of his civil fraud case that could bar him from ever doing real estate business in the state again. Trump, in his posts, reiterated his defenses in the case, saying the New York case was a “witch hunt,” that his company made “only success and profits” (The Hill).

The Guardian: Twenty-five historians of the civil war and Reconstruction filed a Supreme Court brief in support of the attempt by Colorado to remove Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment, which bars insurrectionists from running for office.

OPINION

■ Don’t impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, by Michael Chertoff, opinion contributor, The Wall Street Journal.

■ Biden should target Iranian operatives after the killing of U.S. troops, by Max Boot, columnist, The Washington Post.

THE CLOSER

© The Associated Press / Matt Slocum | Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes helped his team defeat the Baltimore Ravens 17-10 during the AFC championship game Sunday ahead of the Feb. 11 Super Bowl.

And finally … ? The Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers took home invitations Sunday to Super Bowl 58 for what is being billed as an epic rematch of their 2020 game, set for Feb. 11 in Las Vegas.

The Chiefs secured their spot with a 17-10 win over the Baltimore Ravens, winning the AFC title for the fourth time in the past five seasons. The No. 1 seed 49ers clinched the NFC championship game 34-31 Sunday after the Detroit Lions fell apart. The 49ers scored 27 unanswered points between the third and fourth quarters to win after trailing the Lions 24-7 at halftime.

▪ The Athletic offers projections and analysis ahead of next month’s Super Bowl.

▪ People: Did you miss those breathless headlines about Taylor Swift’s kiss on the field for boyfriend and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce? Catch up this morning.

Stay Engaged

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