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June 17, 2024
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Trump veepstakes roll on as GOP convention looms
Happy Monday morning.
The House is out this week. The Senate is in session tonight and tomorrow, out Wednesday for Juneteenth and set to return Thursday for the day. We’ll see what attendance looks like then.
Speaking of attendance … Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer may need to rely on some absences in order to confirm Mustafa Kasubhai to be a federal district court judge in Oregon.
The Judiciary Committee sent Kasubhai’s nomination to the Senate floor in January on a party-line vote. Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) has said he won’t vote for any nominee that doesn’t have Republican support. So a few absences — particularly on the GOP side — could help Schumer get Kasubhai confirmed. Kasubhai’s confirmation vote would likely occur on Thursday, and many senators could be gone by then.
Plus: Speaker Mike Johnson is heading to Mar-a-Lago with NRCC Chair Richard Hudson today to meet with former President Donald Trump. Johnson and Hudson were just with Trump last Thursday, of course.
House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-Va.) has his closely-watched primary tomorrow against John McGuire. Trump has backed McGuire, while Johnson has stayed out of the race.
If it’s Sunday, it’s Trump VP Day. The Sunday talk shows have turned into a rolling audition of sorts for Trump’s VP pick, with the GOP convention set to start on July 15 in Milwaukee.
This week’s shows featured several lawmakers who are considered to be in the mix: Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former HUD Secretary Ben Carson.
The key here is to try to get Trump’s attention by saying the most pro-Trump things possible. The former president is all about loyalty, and he especially loves the combativeness when moderators try to push back.
Let’s go over some highlights.
On ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Scott repeatedly ducked Jon Karl’s questions, although the South Carolina Republican was able to mention Trump’s name 11 times. He led this category.
When asked about Trump’s pledge to pardon Jan. 6 defendants, Scott said “the greatest threat to democracy today is Joe Biden.” Karl asked about the Supreme Court’s opinion striking down a ban on bump stocks. Scott responded: “Under Joe Biden, we’ve seen an explosion, 10 million illegal immigrants have invaded our country, leading to migrant crime that we saw just yesterday.” You get the idea.
However, Scott also stood by his vote to certify the 2020 election, which probably won’t make Trump happy. But during his meeting with Senate Republicans last week, we reported that Trump heaped praise on Scott the most out of all the potential running mates in the room.
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Cotton was also asked about Jan. 6 and Trump’s promise of pardons for some defendants. Cotton complained to Jake Tapper about “techniques that were used for every grandma in a MAGA hat who was within a country mile of the Capitol on Jan. 6 are not being used for the street militias who protested outside Supreme Court justices’ homes or the pro-Hamas lunatics who were defacing statues of veterans or who occupied college campuses last month.”
Cotton used the “street militias” line a couple of times.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Donalds echoed Johnson’s assertion that — somehow — the Supreme Court should overturn Trump’s conviction in the New York City hush-money case. This is a state case, not a federal one.
And Donalds repeated the claim that Biden and Hillary Clinton violated the Espionage Act in how they handled classified materials. Special Counsel Jack Smith brought charges against Trump in the classified documents probe, while neither Biden nor Clinton were charged after the investigations into their handling of classified information.
We wanted to highlight this Donalds’ quote as well. NBC’s Peter Alexander asked Donalds — who’s in his second House term — whether he could be president if needed:
On Fox News Sunday, Burgum was pressed by Shannon Bream about a previous comment by the former tech industry executive and GOP presidential hopeful on how he ”wouldn’t do business” with Trump.
— John Bresnahan, Andrew Desiderio and Jake Sherman
The Vault: Warren to lay out 2025 tax vision
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is ready to push Democrats to take a tough stance in the 2025 tax fight.
In a big speech today, Warren — who serves on the Senate Finance Committee — will call on fellow Democrats to “stiffen our spines” for the coming tax debate and hold out for a deal that raises taxes on the wealthy, according to excerpts of her remarks we obtained. She’ll be giving the speech at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth’s tax event.
Premium Policy subscribers got this news first. We scooped the sneak peek of Warren’s remarks in The Sunday Vault.
Here’s a bit on what Warren plans to say on the tax debate being spurred by the expiring Trump tax cuts, which will lapse at the end of 2025.
| → | Warren will lay out red lines for a tax deal: “At the end of the 2025 tax reform process, large corporations must pay higher taxes. A typical billionaire must pay a higher tax rate than a typical middle-class family. Wealthy tax cheats must be sweating because the IRS has enough money to enforce the law.” |
| → | Warren plans to warn Democrats to take a tough stance: “A little money for poor children or a modest tax cut for middle-class families is still a lousy deal when we can’t fund childcare or infrastructure because the wealthiest among us are still sucking up billions in tax breaks. Better to let all the Trump tax cuts expire than be accomplices to another slash-and-burn tax bonanza for America’s billionaires.” |
| → | You should also expect to hear Warren’s takeaways from tax fights past. For one, she’ll address the Wyden-Smith tax deal and criticize it for doing more for corporations than poor families. Warren plans to argue that Senate Republicans still “tanked the deal because they believe they can get even more next year, and Democrats won’t have the spine to stop them.” |
Warren’s speech comes as Senate Finance Committee Democrats are set to hold a meeting Thursday kicking off their 2025 prep, which we scooped last week. Warren holds significant sway with Democrats on economic policy, and fellow progressives are also ramping up to influence the big tax debate.
— Laura Weiss
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Presented by Apollo Global Management
One size rarely fits all. That’s why Apollo provides custom capital solutions designed to help companies achieve their ambitious business goals. Think Credit New