Warren offers Harris a full-throated endorsement
Warren offers Harris a full-throated endorsement
“She helps the ticket and she’s going to continue to help the ticket and I’m just grateful she’s there,” the Massachusetts Democrat told Supercreator News on Friday.
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Warren on Harris: “I’m just grateful she’s there”
Despite President JOE BIDEN’s unwavering support for KAMALA HARRIS as his running mate in his re-election campaign, pundits spent last week calling on him to drop the president as his running mate—while top Democrats like former House Speaker NANCY PELOSI and Rep. JAMIE RASKIN (D-Md.) gave tepid responses to questions when pressed on the topic.
Supercreator News on Friday asked Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) and Rep. JENNIFER McCLELLAN (D-Va.)—two women in Congress and members of the Biden campaign’s National Advisory Board—to share their thoughts on the vice president and her role on the ticket given the recent discussion.
Warren told Supercreator News that Harris is doing a terrific job as the national leader on abortion rights and voting rights whose diplomacy has strengthened US alliances worldwide.
“Joe Biden and the United States of America are lucky that Kamala Harris is on the ticket,” Warren said. “She helps the ticket and she’s going to continue to help the ticket and I’m just grateful she’s there.”
Warren’s explicit endorsement comes after the senator came under fire in March for a perceived snub of Harris in January after she was stopped short of endorsing the vice president with the same enthusiasm as she did with President Biden. Warren reportedly called Harris twice to apologize for the slight.
McClellan said Harris has not only been a strong partner to Biden but a popular figure in the communities she’s visited, including her district. The first-term congresswoman added that Harris’s focus on issues like entrepreneurship, fighting back against GOP attempts to whitewash Black history, and ensuring Black and brown people have a seat at the table has been an asset to the White House.
“It has brought perspective that has helped the Biden-Harris administration address the needs of all Americans,” McClellan said. “And she will continue to do so as our vice president going forward.”
Vice President Harris will participate in a moderated conversation on Tuesday at Reading Area Community College, a Hispanic-serving institution in Reading, Pa., to mark National Voter Registration Day. The event will be the third stop on the vice president’s month-long college tour that officially kicked off last week with stops at Hampton University and North Carolina A&T University.
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House Republicans announce government funding deal that appears to lack the votes to pass
When House Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY (R-Calif.) canceled a doomed procedural vote to bring a bill to fund the Defense Department late last week, members from two of the House Republican Conference’s major factions—the far-right House Freedom Caucus and the Main Street Caucus—worked over the weekend to hash out a deal they hoped would give House Republicans leverage in the fight over government funding.
The two sides released the details and bill text of the deal on Sunday night. And while the deal was almost always going to be dead on arrival in the Senate and at the White House, it was remarkable how quickly enough House conservatives to sink the deal came out in public opposition to the proposal.
The HFC-MSC deal includes what’s known as a continuing resolution to fund the government through Oct. 31 that cuts overall funding by one percent and slashes funding for domestic programs by eight percent.
The proposal includes an anti-immigration bill House Republicans passed in May that would resume construction of former President DONALD TRUMP’s border wall without E-verify, the federal system that allows employers to confirm that employees are eligible to work in the US.
Military and veterans programs would be fully funded and exempt from cuts under the proposal.
The bill excludes the additional funding for Ukraine aid and disaster relief the White House requested last month but gives FEMA the flexibility to spend up to a full year’s worth of funding to respond to disasters.
The Senate and White House would prefer a longer CR without the House GOP border bill and Ukraine aid and disaster relief attached to it. In other words: The weekend deal does little to decrease the odds of a government shutdown at the end of the month.
Rep. ROSA DeLAURO (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, characterized the proposal as an extreme bill that disinvests in key bipartisan priorities.
“House Republicans want to shut down the government because House Democrats, Senate Republicans and Democrats, and President Biden oppose their extreme cuts that will make working families pay even more for the things they need at a time when the cost of living is already to high,” DeLauro added. “As I said last week when they had to pull the Defense bill from floor consideration, it’s time to end the charade and get to work.”
The Rules Committee is scheduled to meet this afternoon to outline the conditions for floor debate and amendment of the deal.
The goal is to vote on the Defense bill on Wednesday and take up the continuing resolution on Thursday. But if the past is prologue, there’s no guarantee any of this will happen.
“When you can’t even pass a rule, let alone bills to fund the government on your own terms, you’ve totally lost control of the House floor and the legislative process,” a senior House Democratic aide told Supercreator News last week. “That means you are failing at your job in a way that endangers national security and our economy. These people should get out of the way and let someone who knows how to govern fix the mess they made.”
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Happenings
Today on Capitol Hill
➟ The House is in at 12 p.m. with first and last votes on several bills under suspension of the rules, including legislation to make the cost and price of health care services more transparent for consumers.
➟ The Senate is in at 3 p.m. with a vote at 5:30 p.m. to advance the nomination of VERNON OLIVER to be District Judge for the District of Connecticut.
Today at the White House
➟ President Biden will receive his daily intelligence briefing this morning and speak at two campaign receptions in New York City.
➟ Vice President Harris is in Washington and has no public events on her schedule.
➟ First Lady Dr. JILL BIDEN this afternoon will attend a meeting of the Alliance of Spouses and Heads of States and Representatives, an organization of Latin American first spouses, in New York City. Dr. Biden will also participate in the president’s second fundraiser this evening.
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Jeffries: House GOP in the middle of a civil war
House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-N.Y.) isn’t known to pull punches when describing House Republicans’ inability to govern. But he sharpened his assessment of the GOP intraparty dysfunction on Sunday morning in a way that caught my attention.
“Let’s be clear, House Republicans are in the middle of a civil war. A civil war has the following attributes: Chaos, dysfunction, and extremism,” Jeffries said on ABC’s The Week in response to a question from anchor Jonathan Karl on the House GOP’s impeachment against President Biden. “The House Republican civil war is hurting hard-working American taxpayers and limiting our ability to be able to solve problems on their behalf.”
Rep. NANCY MACE (R-S.C.) appeared in a subsequent segment and took exception to Jeffries’s criticism.
“Well, I mean, using the phrase ‘civil war’ over and over again in an interview, if that were a Republican, there would be outrage on the left,” Mace said to Karl. “So, I find it a little bit hypocritical that that is the divisive language that he used in his interview and talking about people over politics.”
Jeffries said that despite the government funding crisis and impeachment inquiry, House Democrats would focus on working with Senate Democrats and Republicans and the White House to find common ground.
“And hopefully the House Republicans will come along so that we can work to make sure we are funding the government, that we have a government that can provide for the health, the safety, the economic well-being of the American people and we can end the partisan, political gamesmanship that right now has captured House Republicans.”
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Read All About It
➟ “A glossary for giving up” by Mia Mercado: “A brief list of terms for leaning into your most ambitious self.”
➟ “A very common, very harmful thing well-meaning parents do” by Deborah Heitner: “Surveilling your kids will only backfire.”
➟ “Why Colin Allred is going to make Ted Cruz sweat” by Luisita Lopez Torregrosa: “ A recent poll shows the Texas Democrat only five percent behind the lightning-rod GOP incumbent. Here’s how he might pull off the biggest upset.”
➟ “Washington and Wall Street are split over China. What now?” by Jonathan Guyer: “Beyond Congress’s hawkishness, there are other ways of seeing the new Cold War with China.
➟ “Librarians didn’t sign up to be queer activists—but this year, they are” by “Anti-LGBTQ activists are increasingly targeting public reading spaces—and librarians are our best defenders.”
➟ “Sexyy Red keeps it real” by Patrice Peck: “I don’t care what nobody think about me.”
➟ “Inside the very strange, very expensive race to ‘de-age’” by Whizy Kim: “Young blood,” starvation, fruit-only diets: How the rich are striving to “age in reverse.”
➟ “It’s time to retire the Black woman hair trope in horror film and TV” by Nadira Goffe: “A complex subject has been flattened to a caricature in works like The Other Black Girl and They Cloned Tyrone.
➟ “An ode to the newspaper sports section, as it gasps for air” by Barry Svrluga
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Frost talks Gen-Z style, Schumer nixes Senate dress code
Rep. MAXWELL FROST (D-Fla.), the first member of Gen Z elected to Congress, headlined a feature in the New York Times on Sunday about how young politicians express their personal style within institutions known for their formalities.
“[A] cool thing about our generation is that we’re super-open to whatever fashion and whatever creativity people bring to the table,” Frost said of both his generation and his penchant for wearing Dr. Martens shoes, bomber jackets, and T-shirts when he’s away from the Capitol. “I feel like there’s a direct connection between Doc Martens, and a certain style, and progressive young people.
In related news, Supercreator News confirmed Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER (D-N.Y.) has directed the Senate’s sergeant at arms to no longer endorse the chamber’s dress code for its members.
The move is expected to benefit Sen. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-Pa.) the most: The first-term progressive prefers gym shorts and hoodies, which means he often has to vote from the Senate cloakroom instead of the House floor.
Who won’t benefit from the relaxed dress code? Reporters like me and Senate staff.
The news of the dress code update was first reported by Axios.
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