Closing summary
Mike Pence’s visit to New Hampshire has added to speculation that he may be mulling a presidential run in 2024. Meanwhile, Liz Cheney announced she was considering her own bid for the White House as a defiantly anti-Trump Republican, hours after GOP voters in Wyoming rejected her bid to continue as the state’s House representative.
Here’s a rundown of today’s news:
Donald Trump sure seems to like a Wall Street Journal column suggesting a Republican-led Congress or White House could retaliate against Democrats over the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago.
A poll from Wisconsin indicates Democrats may have momentum in the state’s Senate race, though the contest for the governorship appears to be tightening.
Rudy Giuliani has appeared before a special grand jury in Atlanta that is investigating attempts to meddle with the state’s election results in 2020. He has been told he is a target of the investigation.
The memoir of Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser Jared Kushner was torn apart by The New York Times’ book reviewer.
A court ruling allowed the Biden administration to again pause new oil and gas drilling leases on federal land.
Donald Trump and his political action committee have promoted a Wall Street Journal column suggesting that Republicans could seek revenge against Democratic politicians for the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago.
Attorney general Merrick Garland’s “raid has made even the highest political figures fair prosecutorial game, and the media’s new standard is that the department can’t be questioned as it goes about ensuring ‘no one is above the law.’ Let’s see how that holds when a future Republican Justice Department starts raiding the homes of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Eric Holder, James Comey and John Brennan,” writes Kimberley A. Strassel, a member of the Journal’s editorial board.
She also posits that a GOP-controlled House, which could come as soon as next year, might create their own select committees similar to the one investigating the January 6 attack, and perhaps subpoena Democratic lawmakers. “What goes around always comes around. What went around this week will come around hard,” Strassel wrote in the piece published August 11.
Trump was apparently a fan of the column:
Trump reposts an op-ed describing the likelihood of payback — such as raiding homes of Biden, Clinton, Comey etc — if he retakes the White House. pic.twitter.com/v067yHOK69
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 17, 2022
As was the Trump War Room, managed by his Save America PAC:
ICYMI: "The Payback for Mar-a-Lago Will Be Brutal"https://t.co/58YugoDe8m
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 17, 2022
Mike Pence lays groundwork for potential 2024 run
Today, he’s in New Hampshire, promoting conservative policies while calling on fellow Republicans to hold off on attacking the FBI and signaling a willingness to talk to the January 6 committee. Next, he’ll be in Iowa, where he is to attend the state fair and meet with the state’s GOP honchos.
Just what is Mike Pence doing? Laying the groundwork for a potential presidential run in 2024, that’s what. Iowa and New Hampshire are both early voting states in the Republican presidential primary, and stops by prospective candidates such as Pence are not out of the ordinary.
Where Pence would fit into the 2024 Republican field is unclear. Donald Trump is seen as champing at the bit to return to the campaign trail, and reportedly has little love for his former number two. If Pence hopes to capture the support of Republicans who have tired of Trump, he may have to vie against Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who could tailor his campaign to the same voters. Then there’s Liz Cheney, a conservative Republican who was last night ousted from the House by the Wyoming GOP in favor of a Trump-backed attorney. If Pence opts to run as a defiantly anti-Trump Republican, she would be his chief opponent, assuming she decides to aim for the presidency.
But that’s not all. Pence could find himself up against Trump’s former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, or his former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, or even South Dakota’s governor Kristi Noem, not to mention conservative senators like Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, or Tom Cotton. In a field with this much potential for crowding, one can see why Pence may want an early start.
Updated
Planned Parenthood plans to spend a record $50 million ahead of November’s midterm elections, pouring money into contests where access to abortion will be on the ballot.
The effort, which breaks the group’s previous $45 million spending record set in 2020, comes about two months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It will be waged by the organization’s political and advocacy arms and will focus on governor’s offices, U.S. Senate seats and legislative races in nine states where abortion rights could be restricted or expanded, depending on the outcome at the ballot.
The historic proportions of the midterm campaign, when less money is usually spent than in presidential races, were made possible by a torrent of money raised after the decision by the high court’s new conservative majority, touching off a tectonic shift in abortion politics. For the first time, Republicans who have long campaigned against abortion will face voters on an issue that is no longer hypothetical and carries real life consequences.
As Republicans move towards an election season rife with internal disagreements and mixed public opinions on exceptions in abortion bans such as instances of rape and incest, many rightwing lawmakers are finding it increasingly difficult to implement cohesive abortion policies.
The phenomenon has been starkly illustrated by Kansas’s referendum a few weeks ago, where the usually Republican state voted to keep abortion protections in its constitution, providing an unexpected boost from red state America to the abortion rights movement.
Planned Parenthood says its spending will help remind voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin what’s at stake in a bid to drive turnout by Democratic and independent voters.
“Who wins in these midterm elections will determine whether a state has access to abortion and potentially determine whether we will face a national abortion ban,” said Jenny Lawson, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes. “We will be clear about who is on which side.”
Planned Parenthood says it intends to contact 6 million voters through door knocking, phone calls, digital advertising, mailers and radio ads.
It also is launching a website, takecontrol2022.com.
According to a survey conducted between 27 June and 4 July by the Pew Research center, a majority of the American public disapproves of the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe: 57% of adults disapprove of the court’s decision, including 43% who strongly disapprove, and 41% of American adults approve while 25% strongly approve of the court’s decision.
The survey also found that 62% of Americans say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 36% of Americans say that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. Only 38% of Republicans say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, marking a 1-point decrease from poll results obtained in 2007.
A poll from Wisconsin is adding credence to the idea that Democrats are gaining strength in congressional races.
The survey from Marquette University Law School shows the Democratic nominee for Senate, Mandela Barnes, up by 51 percent against Republican incumbent Ron Johnson’s 44 percent. The race for governor is much closer, with Democratic incumbent Tony Evers coming in with 45 percent of support against Tim Michels, the Republican challenging him, whose preference was at 43 percent.
The data confirms increased momentum for Barnes, who was polling at 46 percent against Johnson’s 44 percent in a mid-June survey. In the governor’s race, it suggest tightening, as Evers was up by 48 percent against Michels’ 41 percent in the earlier poll.
It appears Harriet Hageman, the attorney who ousted Liz Cheney from the House of Representatives in the Wyoming Republican party primary, has no interest in talking to her predecessor.
Politico reports that Cheney attempted to concede in a phone call to Hageman, but ended up leaving a voice message:
NEW: Rep. Liz Cheney tells me her concession call to Harriet Hageman ended up being a "clear and direct" voicemail that she left before she went on stage last night, after trying multiple times to get in touch w/ her.
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) August 17, 2022
Cheney says she still has not heard anything back.
"I left her a message before I went on stage -- again, after we tried three different times to reach her," Cheney told me in an interview today. "And that was that was that."
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) August 17, 2022
As afternoon turned to evening on January 6, 2021, the US Capitol Police received the following message from the US Secret Service: “Good afternoon, The US Secret Service is passing notification to the US Capitol Police regarding discovery of a social media threat directed toward Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”
The Secret Service sent along a social media post containing threats to lawmakers, including Pelosi. But according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which obtained Secret Service emails containing the warning, the agency had first learned about it two days before the insurrection at the Capitol, during which many of Donald Trump’s supporters made no secret of their desire for revenge against lawmakers who were a thorn in his side.
The investigation adds to the questions swirling around the Secret Service. The agency is embroiled in a scandal after it was revealed it allowed agents’ text messages from around the time of the attack to be deleted, prompting calls in Congress for accountability.
Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis is facing a federal lawsuit from a state attorney he suspended earlier this month for “wokeness”.
In a Twitter post, Andrew Warren said he filed papers in Tallahassee this morning, calling his removal as state attorney for Hillsborough county “a blatant abuse of power”.
Today we took action against Ron DeSantis' abuse of power and unlawful suspension. Please join us in this fight at https://t.co/mebZt8It8i #DefendDemocracyNow pic.twitter.com/ekluzexc2H
— Andrew Warren (@AndrewWarrenFL) August 17, 2022
DeSantis suspended Warren on 4 August for “neglect of duty” after the twice-elected official said he would not enforce the state’s new 15-week abortion ban. The governor said Warren was following a “woke agenda,” although some analysts question the legality of the move based on an action that hasn’t taken place yet.
“The governor has broken two laws. He’s violated my first amendment rights by retaliating against me for speaking out on abortion and transgender rights, and he’s violated the Florida constitution by removing me from office without any legal justification,” Warren said in the post.
There was no immediate reaction from DeSantis’s office.
The Orlando Sentinel noted that DeSantis, seen as a likely candidate for the Republican party’s 2024 presidential nomination, has taken no action against so-called “constitutional” sheriffs who say they won’t enforce certain Florida gun laws.
Former vice-president Mike Pence asked fellow Republicans to stop lashing out at the FBI over their recent search of Donald Trump’s house, reports the Associated Press.
During an event in New Hampshire, Pence called demands from Republicans to defund the FBI “just as wrong” as previous calls from activists to divest funding from the police for other needs.
“The Republican Party is the party of law and order,” said Pence.
“Our party stands with the men and women who stand on the thin blue line at the federal and state and local level, and these attacks on the FBI must stop. Calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund the police.”
Pence added Republicans can criticize attorney general Merrick Garland and ask for more transparency around the search without condemning the FBI.
FBI officials have said that law enforcement have encountered a number of Trump supporters who seem ready to attack the FBI or those they believe are investigating Trump too much, following the search.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today that the agency will undergo a massive restructuring following failures during the Covid-19 pandemic.
CDC director Rochelle P. Walensky announced the planned changes during a meeting with senior staff today, acknowledging the CDC’s botched response to Covid-19, reported the New York Times.
“For 75 years, C.D.C. and public health have been preparing for Covid-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” said Walensky on the agency’s shortcomings.
“My goal is a new, public health, action-oriented culture at C.D.C. that emphasizes accountability, collaboration, communication and timeliness.”
Changes will be aimed at increasing the CDC’s ability to faster respond to major health crises and restoring public trust.
Critics of the CDC say that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the agency failed to scale up testing, vaccination efforts, and data collection.
The CDC has also been accused of publishing ineffective and contradictory health advice on Covid-19.
Similar issues have been raised about the CDC’s response to the spread of monkey pox in the US.
The day so far
Yesterday’s elections in Wyoming and Alaska have ousted Liz Cheney from her House seat while giving Sarah Palin a shot at getting her own spot in the chamber. But Cheney has vowed to keep fighting Donald Trump and his allies, a task at which many before her have failed.
Here’s a rundown of what has happened so far today:
Former vice-president Mike Pence signaled a degree of openness to talking to the January 6 committee, though with several caveats.
Rudy Giuliani has appeared before a special grand jury in Atlanta that is investigating attempts to meddle with the state’s election results in 2020. He has been told he is a target of the investigation.
The memoir of Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser Jared Kushner was torn apart by The New York Times’ book reviewer.
A court ruling allowed the Biden administration to again pause new oil and gas drilling leases on federal land.
While Alaska’s elections were held yesterday, it may take till the end of the month to determine the winner of closely fought races, such as the special election for the state’s vacant House of Representatives seat.
According to the Anchorage Daily News, “As of 2 a.m. Wednesday, the Alaska Division of Elections had counted over 150,000 ballots in the race that will determine Alaska’s next representative in Congress, in a special election to replace 49-year Rep. Don Young, who died unexpectedly in March. The Division will continue to accept ballots until Aug. 31, as long as they were postmarked on or before election day. Once the last ballots are counted — if no candidate crosses the 50% threshold needed to win under the state’s new ranked choice voting system — the candidate in last place will be eliminated and the second-place votes of that candidate’s supporters will be redistributed.”
Sarah Palin may nearing a return to the national political stage, Maanvi Singh reports, after Alaska voters gave her decent support in last night’s special election:
Sarah Palin looks set to be on the ballot in November’s general election after the former governor of Alaska and ex vice-presidential candidate clinched one of four spots vying for a seat in the US House, according to the Associated Press.
Palin, who rose to fame more than a decade ago as John McCain’s running mate, advanced to the general election along with her two challengers, Nick Begich III, a tech millionaire backed by the Alaska Republican party, and Mary Peltola, a former state legislator and Democrat. It was too early to call the fourth spot.
Palin, Peltola and Begich are competing for Alaska’s only House seat, formerly occupied by Don Young, who died in March. The trio were also competing in a special election to serve the remainder of Young’s term, which ends early next year.
“This book is like a tour of a once majestic 18th-century wooden house, now burned to its foundations, that focuses solely on, and rejoices in, what’s left amid the ashes: the two singed bathtubs, the gravel driveway and the mailbox.” That’s a line in a New York Times review of a Trump administration official’s newly published memoir. But whose?
The answer: Jared Kushner.
The literary savaging of “Breaking History”, the memoir of Donald Trump’s son-in-law who became one of his closest White House advisers, was carried out by Times literary critic Dwight Garner, who is clearly no fan of the former president’s policies. “Kushner almost entirely ignores the chaos, the alienation of allies, the breaking of laws and norms, the flirtations with dictators, the comprehensive loss of America’s moral leadership, and so on, ad infinitum, to speak about his boyish tinkering (the “mechanic”) with issues he was interested in,” Garner writes.
The reviewer however finds plenty of issues with the book’s content and prose irrespective of its politics, concluding that it ultimately contains so little meaningful insights into the Trump administration as to be uninteresting to just about every party that would want to read it.
“You finish ‘Breaking History’ wondering: Who is this book for? There’s not enough red meat for the MAGA crowd, and Kushner has never appealed to them anyway. Political wonks will be interested — maybe, to a limited degree — but this material is more thoroughly and reliably covered elsewhere. He’s a pair of dimples without a demographic,” Garner says.
Here’s the latest on Liz Cheney’s primary defeat and plans for political rebirth, from David Smith on the ground in Jackson, Wyoming along with Richard Luscombe and Joanna Walters:
Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney has announced she is considering her own run for the White House in an all-out effort to prevent Donald Trump from winning another term as US president.
Cheney decisively lost her Republican primary race on Tuesday night and will lose her seat in the US Congress.
The Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman beat Cheney by almost 40 points as Wyoming voters took revenge for her voting to impeach Trump and for focusing on her role on the January 6 House select committee.
The panel, of which Cheney is vice-chair and one of only two Republicans, is investigating Trump’s role in fomenting the insurrection at the US Capitol by his supporters on 6 January 2021, in a vain attempt to stay in office following his defeat by Joe Biden.
Liz Cheney was praised on MSNBC this morning by, of all people, White House chief of staff Ron Klain.
“I don’t think there was anything we agree on,” said Klain, who was tasked by Joe Biden with getting his legislative proposals through Congress. “But, I respect enormously her commitment to democracy.”
.@WHCOS Ron Klain commends Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) for upholding her oath to the Constitution, instead of swearing "fealty" to Donald Trump:
— The Recount (@therecount) August 17, 2022
"I respect enormously [Liz Cheney's] commitment to democracy ... instead of her commitment to one man." pic.twitter.com/wIKog8CyQQ
Pence 'would consider' talking to January 6 committee - but with caveats
A closer look at former vice-president Mike Pence’s remarks about testifying before the January 6 committee indicates Donald Trump’s one-time White House deputy would indeed entertain the request, but also has concerns about the constitutional implications.
Here’s a full video of his comments:
Former Vice President Mike Pence when asked if he would cooperate if the January 6th committee called on him to testify:
— The Recount (@therecount) August 17, 2022
“If there was an invitation to participate, I would consider it.” pic.twitter.com/y9NFrHwYtf
The Inflation Reduction Act signed yesterday was another major part of the Biden administration’s climate plan, and includes a slew of new tax incentives to encourage green investments, Oliver Milman reports:
The giant climate bill signed by Joe Biden on Tuesday is set to touch upon myriad aspects of Americans’ lives, helping shape everything from the cars they drive to the stovetops in their kitchens.
Biden has lauded the $369bn of climate spending in the Inflation Reduction Act as the “largest investment ever in combatting the existential crisis of climate change” and predicted it will save people hundreds of dollars each year in energy costs. This claim is based upon a series of investments aimed at shifting buying habits away from a polluting status quo towards cleaner, electrified vehicles and appliances.
A US household could save $1,800 on their energy costs each year, according to a recent estimate, although this would require the installation of electric heat pumps for hot water and air conditioning, replacing a gasoline-powered car with an electric vehicle and installing solar panels on the roof.
Court allows Biden administration to again pause oil and gas leases on federal land
A Louisiana judge has allowed the Biden administration to reinstate a pause on new oil and gas leases on federal land, in a win for the White House’s climate policy, Reuters reports.
The order by a judge in the fifth circuit court of appeals overturns a previous lower court ruling that blocked the pause, which Joe Biden announced in the opening days of his administration. Earlier this year, the interior department began selling new onshore oil and natural gas drilling leases while the case made its way through court.
Mild tidbit of news from Mike Pence during his appearance in New Hampshire, as reported by Politico:
Former VP Mike Pence says if there was an invitation to testify before the Jan. 6 committee, "I would consider it." #nhpolitics
— Lisa Kashinsky (@lisakashinsky) August 17, 2022
Pence isn’t known to have talked to the committee. However, his name has been all over the public hearings, which have featured in-person and videotaped testimony from people close to Trump’s vice-president about what he was doing in the days before the attack on the Capitol, and during the assault, when he had to flee to a hidden area. Meanwhile, Pence’s former chief of staff has spoken to a grand jury investigating the assault.
Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani has arrived at an Atlanta court for his appearance before a special grand jury investigating the effort to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.
He was greeted by something of a media circus:
Rudy Giuliani has arrived at the Fulton County Courthouse to testify in grand jury proceedings looking into interference in the 2020 election results. @cbs46 pic.twitter.com/6mAC7AdcNQ
— Madeline Montgomery (@MadelineTV) August 17, 2022
Rudy Giuliani arrives at the Fulton County Courthouse, with a mob of cameras and reporters following his entrance, as he is set to testify behind closed doors in a special grand jury probe.
— stephen fowler (@stphnfwlr) August 17, 2022
He is a target of the investigation. #gapol pic.twitter.com/64BWdHcKVT
Giuliani’s appearance will not be public, but Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, who convened the special grand jury, has informed the one-time New York City mayor he is a target of the investigation. Giuliani made repeated efforts to convince state officials that Georgia’s 2020 election results were fraudulent, but none of the allegations were ever found to have substance.
Many Republicans have stood against Donald Trump. Few have succeeded.
Liz Cheney will now be the latest to try, looking to capitalize on her conservative voting record, her vice-chairmanship of the January 6 committee and of course her father’s time as vice-president under Republican George W. Bush.
Trump remains the favorite among Republicans for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, and undoing that would require Cheney to convince the GOP to abandon the viewpoints and policies he brought into the mainstream when he won the White House in 2016. It’s a tough ask, and no shortage of Republicans have failed in the past. Just ask the eight House Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment but then were ousted by voters or opted to retire, or the various party fathers and moderates who begged the GOP not to back Trump, only to be bowled over by the will of the electorate.
Why is Cheney doing it? As she said in her concession speech last night, “A few years ago, I won this primary with 73 percent of the vote. I could easily have done the same again. The path was clear, but it would have required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election… That was a path I could not and would not take.”
Politico’s Playbook has another theory. Cheney won’t have much competition in the Trump-hating space, they write, with the GOP more or less in his grips and Democrats split over how big of a deal to make of him among their voters. “So rather than a kamikaze mission, her primary loss may have been more like parachuting out of a plane that had outlived its usefulness. Her great task now is figuring out where to land,” Playbook says.
After primary loss, Liz Cheney aims for new job: Trump foe-in-chief
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Last night, Republican voters rejected Liz Cheney’s bid to continue serving as their congresswoman, meaning she has only the remainder of the year left in the House of Representatives. She will continue in the highly public role of vice-chair of the January 6 committee, but this morning, Cheney said she is thinking about a run for presidency in 2024 – putting her in a position to compete directly against Donald Trump, a fellow Republican whom she loathes.
We’re certain to hear more about that today, but here’s what else is happening:
In Alaska, ex-governor Sarah Palin advanced in the special election to fill the state’s open house seat, giving the one-time vice-presidential nominee a shot at returning to national politics. Voters will make their final decision in November.
Former vice-president Mike Pence – who also fell out with Trump – is in New Hampshire, another state where voters are known as early kingmakers for aspiring presidential candidates. Indeed, Pence has hinted he may run in 2024.
The Biden administration will attempt a victory lap following the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act yesterday, the Democrats’ landmark spending plan to fight climate change and lower health care costs. However Joe Biden himself is on vacation in Delaware.
