The past week's What the Fuck Just Happened Todays: Day 160: "Not my intent."
! 1/ Biden walked back his threat to veto the bipartisan infrastructure deal if lawmakers don’t also pass the rest of his infrastructure proposals – which include tax increases, climate policy, health care provisions, and investments in child care – through budget reconciliation, which would bypass the 60-vote filibuster threshold. In a statement, Biden said it “was certainly not my intent” to create the impression he was threatening to veto “the very plan I had just agreed to.” He added: “Our bipartisan agreement does not preclude Republicans from attempting to defeat my Families Plan; likewise, they should have no objections to my devoted efforts to pass that Families Plan and other proposals in tandem.” Mitch McConnell, meanwhile, continued to pressure Biden and congressional Democrats to further weaken the link between the bipartisan infrastructure deal and the spending bill, warning that Biden and his party want to “hold a bipartisan bill hostage over a separate and partisan process.” Biden “has appropriately de-linked a potential bipartisan infrastructure bill from the massive, unrelated tax-and-spend plans that Democrats want to pursue on a partisan basis,” McConnell said, adding that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi should follow suit and that Biden should “make sure they follow his lead.” Pelosi, however, has said she would not take up either proposal in the House until both get through the Senate, and Schumer plans to have the Senate vote on both measures next month. (Politico / New York Times / Bloomberg / CBS News / CNBC)
2/ Nancy Pelosi introduced legislation to create a select committee to probe the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. The House is expected to vote on it Wednesday. (Washington Post)
3/ Biden ordered airstrikes Sunday against “facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups” near the border between Iraq and Syria. The Pentagon said the militias were using the facilities to launch drone attacks against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq. The Biden administration called the strikes an act of “self-defense.” (Associated Press / Reuters)
4/ The Supreme Court rejected a Virginia school board’s appeal to reinstate its transgender bathroom ban, which prohibited transgender students from using the restroom and locker room facilities that reflect their gender identity. The Supreme Court left in place lower court rulings that found the policy unconstitutional. (CBS News / ABC News / Politico / NBC News)
5/ Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that federal laws against the sale and cultivation of marijuana may no longer make sense. As the court declined to hear the appeal of a Colorado medical marijuana dispensary that was denied federal tax breaks, Thomas, one of the court’s most conservative justices, wrote that the “prohibition […] of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper to support the federal government’s piecemeal approach.” Thomas added that “the federal government’s current approach is a half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana.” (NBC News / CNBC)
6/ A federal judge dismissed antitrust lawsuits brought against Facebook by the FTC and a coalition of 48 state attorneys general. The cases accused Facebook of creating a monopoly over social networking by buying nascent rivals, like Instagram and WhatsApp, to limit competition, as well as stifling would-be competitors by cutting off their access to its data and systems. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said the lawsuits were “legally insufficient” and didn’t provide evidence to prove that Facebook was a monopoly. The White House, meanwhile, is crafting an executive order aimed at using federal power to actively promote competition throughout the U.S. economy. (NPR / New York Times / Associated Press / Politico)
Day 161: "Take the win."
! 1/ Joe Manchin agreed to support the use of budget reconciliation to pass a broader tax and social spending bill. Manchin said he believes a Democratic-only infrastructure bill “can be done,” but hasn’t agreed on how big it will be, adding that it shouldn’t be linked to the separate bipartisan agreement. Manchin’s comments, however, come as the Progressive Caucus told the White House and party leaders that they would withhold their support for the bipartisan infrastructure bill if the bigger, broader tax and social spending package wasn’t passed in tandem. Manchin, meanwhile, urged progressive Democrats to “take the win” on the bipartisan agreement. (The Hill / Politico / New York Times / Bloomberg / Business Insider)
2/ Maricopa County will replace all of the voting equipment that was turned over to contractors hired by the Republican-controlled state Senate to conduct its audit of 2020 presidential election results. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors said that because the equipment had been placed “under the control of persons not certified to handle election equipment,” the County would “not use the subpoenaed election equipment in any future election” because it “could pose a risk to free and fair elections.” The potential cost to taxpayers is unknown. The county is currently half way through a $6.1 million lease with Dominion Voting Systems for the equipment. Meanwhile, 49% of Arizona voters say they oppose the recount effort, while 46% support the audit. (Arizona Republic / CNN / The Hill / Politico)
3/ The House will vote to remove statues honoring Confederate and other white supremacist leaders from public display in the Capitol. The legislation would also remove a bust of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that said Black people weren’t entitled to U.S. citizenship. Under the measure, Taney’s bust would be replaced with one of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice. The legislation, however, faces challenges in the evenly divided Senate where it would need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. A similar bill passed the House last year, but didn’t advance in the then Republican-controlled Senate. (NBC News / New York Times / Washington Post / CBS News)
4/ Trump Organization attorneys met with New York prosecutors to argue why Trump’s company should not be criminally charged. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has convened a grand jury and prosecutors have reportedly been considering criminal charges against Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, as well as against the organization as an entity. Trump’s personal lawyer, however, has said that Vance does not currently plan to charge the Trump Organization with crimes related to “hush money” payments or real estate value manipulations. Ronald Fischetti said Vance’s team was considering charges against the Trump Organization and individual employees related to alleged failures to pay taxes on corporate benefits and perks. Weisselberg’s former daughter-in-law, meanwhile, said she is prepared to testify before the grand jury as part of the investigation into Trump’s company. (Washington Post / Politico / CNN)
5/ The Justice Department is investigating Rudy Giuliani over possible foreign lobbying for Turkish interests. In 2017, Trump and Giuliani pressured then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to persuade the Justice Department to drop money-laundering charges against Giuliani’s client Reza Zarrab, a Turkey-based, Iranian-born businessman. Giuliani also urged Trump to extradite a Turkish cleric living in exile in the U.S., who Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused of inciting a coup. The inquiry is separate from the criminal probe into Giuliani’s activities in Ukraine. (Bloomberg / ABC News)
Day 162: "A more stable and secure world."
! 1/ The House voted to establish a 13-member committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. “That day, Jan. 6, was one of the darkest days in American history,” Nancy Pelosi said before the vote. The mob sought “to block the certification of an election and the peaceful transfer of power that is the cornerstone of our democracy.” The vote was 222-190, with two Republicans voting in favor. Pelosi will select eight of the 13 members herself, including its chairman. The remaining five will be appointed “after consultation with the minority leader,” Rep. Kevin McCarthy. The committee will also have the power to subpoena witnesses and documents. (Bloomberg / Politico / Washington Post / NBC News)
2/ The Supreme Court denied a challenge to the pandemic-related federal eviction moratorium. The court’s order means the CDC moratorium on evictions, which prohibits landlords from evicting certain tenants who fail to pay rent during the Covid-19 pandemic, will remain in place until July 31. John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh joined with the court’s three liberals to keep the moratorium in place. (CNN / Politico)
3/ The Manhattan district attorney’s office is expected to charge the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with tax-related crimes on Thursday. The charges reportedly involve non-monetary fringe benefits the Trump Organization gave to top executives, such as the use of apartments, cars, and school tuition. (Wall Street Journal / Associated Press / NBC News)
4/ Bill Cosby was released from prison after his sexual assault conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Cosby was convicted on three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2018 for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004. He served nearly three years of a three- to 10-year sentence. The state Supreme Court concluded that Cosby’s prosecution should never have occurred because of a non-prosecution deal Cosby made with former Montgomery County prosecutor Bruce Castor, who agreed not to criminally prosecute Cosby if he gave a deposition in the civil case brought against him by the woman he drugged and sexually assaulted. Castor is the same lawyer who represented Trump during his second impeachment trial. (Philadelphia Inquirer / ABC News / Associated Press / NBC News)
5/ The architect of the decades-long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is dead. Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of Defense under both Gerald Ford and George W. Bush, was 88. Rumsfeld never expressed regret for the decision to invade Iraq, which cost the U.S. $700 billion and 4,400 American lives, insisting instead that “ridding the region of Saddam [Hussein’s] brutal regime has created a more stable and secure world.” In 2004, human rights groups and a bipartisan Senate committee said Rumsfeld should face criminal charges for his decisions that had led to the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison and terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay. (New York Times / NPR / Politico / Washington Post / Reuters)
Day 163: "Sweeping and audacious."
! 1/ The Supreme Court upheld a pair of restrictive election laws in Arizona, overturning a lower court ruling that found the laws discriminated against minority voters. The Arizona laws invalidate ballots that are cast in the wrong precinct, and ban the practice known as “ballot harvesting,” in which third-party community groups or campaigns collect and return other people’s ballots. Democrats argued that the data showed the restrictions disproportionately affected voters of color, which would be a violation of the Voting Rights Act. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said the law requires “equal openness” to the voting process and that a “mere inconvenience cannot be enough to demonstrate a violation” of the law. (NPR / ABC News / NBC News / Washington Post / New York Times / Axios)
2/ The Manhattan district attorney’s office charged the Trump Organization with a 15-year-long “scheme to defraud” the government and charged its chief financial officer with grand larceny and tax fraud. Allen Weisselberg allegedly avoided paying taxes on $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation, including apartment rent, car payments, and school tuition. In all, 15 criminal charges were filed against Weisselberg, including counts of conspiracy, grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, and falsifying business records. Grand larceny in the second degree carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. “To put it bluntly, this was a sweeping and audacious illegal payments scheme,” Carey Dunne said, general counsel for the district attorney. Dunne added that the scheme to get “secret pay raises” while not paying taxes was “orchestrated by the most senior executives.” The Trump Organization, meanwhile, issued a statement, claiming that Weisselberg was being used as a “pawn in a scorched-earth attempt to harm the former president.” Weisselberg pleaded not guilty, as did an attorney on the Trump Organization’s behalf. Trump himself was not charged. (Washington Post / New York Times / Associated Press / Wall Street Journal / CNN)
3/ 130 countries endorsed setting a 15% global minimum corporate tax rate. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said the agreement on taxing global companies in countries where their goods or services are sold, even if they have no physical presence there, would generate an estimated $150 billion in additional tax revenue each year. “Multinational corporations will no longer be able to pit countries against one another in a bid to push tax rates down and protect their profits at the expense of public revenue,” Biden said. “They will no longer be able to avoid paying their fair share by hiding profits generated in the United States, or any other country, in lower-tax jurisdictions. This will level the playing field and make America more competitive.” (Washington Post / Bloomberg / New York Times)
4/ Nancy Pelosi appointed Republican Rep. Liz Cheney to the House select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In May, House Republicans removed Cheney from her leadership role because of her vote to impeach Trump and her continued criticism of Trump’s repeated lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, meanwhile, threatened to strip any Republican member of their committee assignments if they accept an offer to serve on the committee. (CNN / CNBC / Axios)
5/ The Supreme Court struck down a California law that required charities and nonprofits to disclose their top donors. Under the law, the tax-exempt groups were required to report the names and addresses of all donors who gave more than $5,000 or 2% of the organization’s total donations. Conservative groups challenged the state’s disclosure requirements, saying the information was protected under the First Amendment’s freedom of association and that the disclosure could lead to harassment. California, meanwhile, said the state attorney general needed the information to investigate complaints of charitable fraud and self-dealing. (NPR / Washington Post / CNN / New York Times)
Day 164: "An affront to our shared humanity."
! 1/ The U.S. military vacated Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan after nearly 20 years. The base was the epicenter of the U.S. military’s counterterrorism campaign in Afghanistan, with fighter jets, drones, and cargo planes taking off from the twin runways day and night. The airfield was handed over to the Afghan National Security and Defense Force, effectively ending America’s longest foreign war. The U.S., however, will continue to pay nearly $4 billion annually until 2024 to finance the Afghan security forces. (Associated Press / New York Times / Washington Post)
2/ Attorney General Merrick Garland suspended federal executions, saying he said serious concerns about the arbitrariness of capital punishment, its disparate impact on people of color, and “the troubling number of exonerations” in death penalty cases. Garland ordered a review of whether the drug approved for federal executions poses risks of pain and suffering, as well as the decision made late last year to allow other methods of execution besides lethal injection, including electrocution and firing squad. In 2019 – after 17 years without executions – then-Attorney General William Barr directed federal prison officials to begin executing 13 people on death row. (NBC News / Politico / Washington Post)
3/ Biden endorsed major changes to the military justice system that would remove investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases from the chain of command. The military justice system would instead hand sexual harassment and assault cases off to independent military lawyers. An independent review of how the military deals with sexual assault found that commanders need training in how to prevent what an official calls “daily acts of demeaning language and sexual harassment.” In a statement, Biden backed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision to work with Congress on overhauling the system, saying “sexual assault is an abuse of power and an affront to our shared humanity. And sexual assault in the military is doubly damaging because it also shreds the unity and cohesion that is essential to the functioning of the U.S. military and to our national defense. Yet for as long as we have abhorred this scourge, the statistics and the stories have grown worse.” Biden, however, stopped short of backing a congressional effort to strip commanders of oversight of all major crimes. (New York Times / NPR / USA Today / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal)
4/ The U.S. economy added 850,000 jobs in June – the largest number of jobs added in a month since last August. Biden responded to the June jobs numbers, saying the American Rescue Plan relief bill was “proving to the naysayers and the doubters that they were wrong.” He added: “Our economy is on the move, and we have Covid-19 on the run.” The unemployment rate, meanwhile, ticked up to 5.9% from 5.8%. (Washington Post / CNBC)
5/ About 11% of people in the U.S. have missed their second dose of the coronavirus vaccine – nearly 15 million people. Second doses are considered missed if more than 42 days has passed since the initial jab. (Washington Post)
poll/ 59% of Americans believe crime is an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the U.S. 17% say crime in their area is extremely or very serious, up from 10% last fall. (Washington Post)
poll/ 56% of Americans say ensuring access to voting is more important than tamping down on voter fraud. Among Democrats, 85% said voting access was more important, while 72% of Republicans said making sure no one votes who isn’t eligible was more important. (NPR)
poll/ 67% of Americans believe democracy in the U.S. is under threat, while 29% say democracy in the U.S. is alive and well. (PBS NewsHour)