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April 5, 2023
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THE TOP
Happy Wednesday morning from Washington and Simi Valley, Calif., where we’re covering a large congressional delegation meeting with Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen.
The criminal case against former President Donald Trump is all anyone is talking about right now, and for good reason. Trump was charged in Manhattan on Tuesday with 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business records. The case is largely connected to a 2016 hush-money payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels. It’s the first time a former president has been hit with criminal charges, and the boisterous scene at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse is a sign of the circus to come if this matter ever goes to trial.
After returning to Mar-a-Lago – fundraising all the way – Trump spent 30 minutes Tuesday night trashing the myriad investigations he faces. Trump again attacked Judge Juan Merchan, despite Merchan’s request that everyone tied to the criminal case refrain from any comments that undermine the rule of law.
Trump called Merchan “a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris.” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg “should be prosecuted, or at a minimum, he should resign” for “illegally leaking vast amounts of grand jury information.”
“This fake case was brought only to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election, and it should be dropped immediately,” Trump said of Tuesday’s indictment. “There is no case. No case!”
Special counsel Jack Smith – who Trump quipped may have changed his name – is a “radical left lunatic known as a bomb thrower who is harassing hundreds of my people day after day over the boxes hoax.” Smith is overseeing both the federal classified documents and Jan. 6 probes.
Fulton County DA Fani Willis is a “local racist district attorney in Atlanta who is doing everything in her power to indict me over an absolutely perfect phone call.” Trump was talking about his infamous post-2020 election phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is suing the Trumps and the Trump Organization, is “another racist in reverse.”
And what about Biden? “If you took the five worst presidents in the history of the United States and added them up, they would not have done near the destruction to our country that Joe Biden and the Biden administration have done,” Trump said.
Trump was his usual mix of bluster and belligerence, yet behind the scenes, the 45th president is said to be “masking his anxiety” over the new criminal allegations, our friends Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan from the New York Times report.
We’ve also picked up on some nervousness among House Republicans about what the Trump indictment means for their razor-thin majority. Does this signal that GOP lawmakers will spend the rest of the cycle talking about Trump’s legal woes? And how will that impact the 18 House Republicans representing districts that Biden won in 2020?
House Republican leaders are already keenly aware that being overly focused on their own Biden probes is politically dangerous. Yet what about a laser focus on Bragg by several powerful House chairs even as the Manhattan DA prosecutes Trump? Speaker Kevin McCarthy backs the effort, but will vulnerable House GOP lawmakers?
Meanwhile, Trump’s potential GOP rivals aren’t exactly standing still. They haven’t been indicted, and they’re working to boost their own profiles.
Just in the last few days, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – who hasn’t said whether he’ll run for the White House – signed a bill allowing residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit in the Sunshine State. He signed the legislation in front of just a handful of people in his office. DeSantis will address the NRA’s annual conference next month, but will deliver his speech by video. Trump is set to go in person.
The Florida Senate passed a bill Monday to ban abortions after six weeks – a bill DeSantis supports.
At the same time, DeSantis is engaged in a public tit-for-tat with Disney. DeSantis tried to strip Disney of its outsized control over its famous Orlando property. Disney CEO Bob Iger called DeSantis’s moves “anti-business.”
DeSantis will be in Michigan on Thursday, and he’s got upcoming events in Ohio, Utah and New Hampshire as well.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who also hasn’t said whether he’ll run against Trump, will visit New Hampshire and Iowa next week. Scott has called his travels a “listening tour.” But typically, “listening” precedes declaring. To wit, Scott’s super PAC has hired a campaign team in South Carolina – his home state – as he “listens.”
And there were two critical election results Tuesday night. Democrat Janet Protasiewicz defeated Republican Daniel Kelly for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. This was an expensive and nationally watched race. Protasiewicz’s victory shifts the court to the left and shows the continued potency of abortion as a national issue.
In Chicago, progressive Brandon Johnson beat the more moderate Paul Vallas in the race to be the Windy City’s next mayor.
So, even as Trump’s chaos dominates Republican politics, the left has been ascendant inside the Democratic Party.
– John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman
THE VIEW FROM CALIFORNIA
Lawmakers to quiz Taiwan’s president on ‘will’ to counter China
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a bipartisan group of lawmakers will host Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen here later today in a high-stakes show of support for an ally under threat of invasion by China.
In this era of divided government, few issues have united both parties like the desire to counter the myriad national security and economic threats emanating from China. It’s what led, in part, to the creation of the House select committee on China at the start of this Congress.
And lawmakers are treating the meeting as an effort to get critical information from Taiwan’s leader about the self-governing island’s will to fight back against Beijing’s so-called “reunification” plan.
The war in Ukraine and the collapse of Afghanistan in 2021 have proven to be critical case studies as lawmakers weigh additional efforts to fortify and defend Taiwan — an effort that must originate with Congress — without prompting a belligerent response from Beijing.
In Ukraine, the county’s military showed early on that it was going to bitterly resist the Russia invasion. On the flip side, in Afghanistan, despite decades of U.S. support, the democratically elected government and American-trained military collapsed in a matter of days.
We caught up with Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), a member of the China select panel and the House Armed Services Committee. Wittman, who will be in attendance at the McCarthy-led meeting here, compared Taiwan to Ukraine in 2014, when Russia first attempted to annex its territory.
Wittman told us more about what he hopes to hear from Tsai:
The meeting, which will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, is already drawing forceful condemnations from Beijing, which is treating the visit much like it did former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan last year. Pelosi also met with Tsai and received a hero’s welcome.
At the time, China’s chief military force, the People’s Liberation Army, conducted live-fire drills around Taiwan. Once again, top Chinese officials are blasting McCarthy’s move as a provocation and a break from the United States’ long-standing One China policy. China, of course, views Taiwan as part of its own territory, and the United States has no formal diplomatic relations with Taipei.
The Chinese embassy in Washington sought to remind the members of Congress heading to California of the diplomatic landscape. Li Xiang, who handles congressional relations for Beijing’s outpost in D.C., sent an email to congressional offices Tuesday with a not-so-veiled message: cancel the meeting. Here’s an excerpt:
Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), whose office received an email from the Chinese embassy, called the message a “pathetic threat from the CCP.” More:
One more quick note: The threatening language we’re seeing from the Chinese side is nothing new. Beijing has long tried to intimidate members of Congress who show support for Taiwan. What makes this situation more significant is the fact that it’s happening on U.S. territory even as Tsai is making her way back home following meetings with allies in Central America.
“Xi Jinping is a bully,” Wittman said of the Chinese president. “And the bottom line is, you never give in to bullies.”
The Coverage:
| → | WSJ: “Taiwan’s President Quietly Met With U.S. Senators Ahead of Kevin McCarthy Sit-Down,” by Lindsay Wise in D.C. and Joyu Wang in Taipei |
| → | AP: “For McCarthy and Taiwan’s leader, visit marks historic first,” by Lisa Mascaro |
— Andrew Desiderio in Simi Valley and Jake Sherman in D.C.
#BIPARTISANSHIP
Bipartisan task force pushing for mental health, substance use awareness
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing Congress to dedicate a week this year to mental health and substance abuse awareness. And they’re doing so by pointing out a pretty grim statistic: More than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdose-related causes in 2021.
The 140-member Task Force on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder is led by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), David Trone (D-Md.), Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) and Annie Kuster (D-N.H.). The lawmakers, some of whom know or have lost loved ones due to mental health struggles or drug use, sat down with us to discuss the task force.
“Shame on us for not doing more to save our lives than we have done,” Trone said. “We’ve done a lot, but we are not winning the battle.”
Part of their goal is to remove the stigma attached to those issues, including by changing the language used to talk about mental health and substance use disorder. The group, established in 2021, changed its name from the “Addiction and Mental Health” to “Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder” task force this year.
Fitzpatrick has talked with House leaders about bringing their bills to the floor and hearing from community mental health and recovery advocates.
Although they weren’t successful in that goal during the last Congress, the lawmakers are more confident about the chances for a dedicated week as attitudes towards mental health change on Capitol Hill.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) recently checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive treatment for clinical depression. Fetterman received support across the aisle. Fetterman’s move prompted other lawmakers, such as Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), to share their own stories about struggles with mental health challenges.
“One of the things we’ve noticed from the task force is how many members’ families are impacted by this in a personal way,” Kuster said. “We’ve heard some incredible personal stories from people and it’s just very powerful.”
Trone and McClain opened up to us about losing loved ones to overdose-related deaths and mental health challenges. A son of one of McClain’s best friends died from a drug overdose, which prompted her to help launch a local sobriety group in Macomb County, Mich. Trone lost his nephew, 24-year-old Ian Trone, in 2016 to a fentanyl-laced heroin overdose.
Fitzpatrick said his top priority is ensuring any legislation the task force proposes gets bipartisan support. He also hopes to raise awareness that these issues can affect everyone.
“This knows no socioeconomic bounds or barriers,” Fitzpatrick said. “The solution should reflect that as well.”
— Mica Soellner
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THE CAMPAIGN
Stefanik raises $150K at fundraiser with Paladino
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik raised $150,000 at a Buffalo fundraiser with Carl Paladino, the controversial former congressional candidate, and Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.).
The event, at 500 Pearl in Buffalo, also included a private dinner. The money will go to help protect House Republicans’ gains in New York.
– Jake Sherman
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