The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

A spin around the very bizarre political scene

Teirab distances himself from Social Security privatization comments

ICYMI: The Future of Defense Aviation, a leading voice

Aguilar’s campaign moves

THE TOP

A spin around the very bizarre political scene

Happy Friday morning.

How do you think the U.S. political system is doing? From our viewpoint, things are pretty grim. Let’s review.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the Democratic executive of the nation’s largest city, has been indicted on five federal criminal counts, the first time that’s happened in Big Apple history. The allegations include accepting straw-man donations and taking bribes in the form of upgraded seats on Turkish Airlines flights around the world.

Adams said he won’t resign, but New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul — who has the power to replace him — hinted Thursday night that she may.

Another indicted pol held a press conference in New York City on Thursday — former President Donald Trump. We won’t get into a full readout of the presser except to say that it was basically a campaign rally with some news thrown in at the end.

Also on Thursday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) publicly denied that he’d had sex with any women under 18, made a vague comment about drug use and warned that he may not cooperate with a subpoena from the House Ethics Committee.

Earlier this week, the New York Times broke a story that freshman Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) had both his mistress and fiancee’s daughter on his congressional payroll. D’Esposito insisted he broke no ethics rules.

So far this Congress, former New York Republican Rep. George Santos was expelled following his criminal indictment. The wildly dishonest Santos later pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He faces up to 22 years behind bars.

Former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) — who had gold bars hidden in his closet — was hit with 16 federal criminal counts last fall, including bribery and taking actions to benefit the Egyptian government. The 70-year-old Menendez resigned following his July conviction and will be sentenced in late January.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) was indicted in May for money laundering, conspiracy and bribery in a crazier-than-fiction tale about an entanglement with business interests in Mexico and Azerbaijan. Cuellar is still in Congress and running for reelection.

And did we mention that the current president’s son, Hunter Biden, was convicted on federal gun charges and then pleaded guilty to tax fraud?

The FBI seized Rep. Andy Ogles’ (R-Tenn.) cell phone in August. He’s been accused of filing false campaign reports. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) has his own legal fight with the Justice Department after his phone was seized as part of the Jan. 6 investigation.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) was arrested for pulling a fire alarm in a House office building. Bowman lost in the Democratic primary in June and won’t be coming back.

Reps. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) all face ongoing ethics investigations. Jackson, in fact, gets accused of a lot of strange stuff.

Criminal or ethics cases not your forte? There’s plenty more.

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) this week said Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio — who he called “thugs” who practice “vudu” — should get “their ass out of our country” before Inauguration Day 2025. Higgins deleted the racist tweet after Democrats confronted him about it on the House floor. Higgins also said he prayed about the decision in the House chamber. Speaker Mike Johnson defended him as a “dear friend” and “principled man.”

Rep. Mark Green’s (R-Tenn.) wife recently accused him of having an extramarital affair with the wrong woman and later apologized. The couple is getting divorced. Rep. Max Miller’s wife (R-Ohio) has claimed he’s on drugs during their divorce proceedings. Miller’s attorneys say the congressman has tested negative for drug use. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) will always have “Beetlejuice.”

As far as the broader world scene, things are also going poorly.

President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron called for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon only to be ignored by the Israelis. Upon arriving in New York Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded in Hebrew that “we will continue to hit Hezbollah with full force.” The war in Ukraine continues its deadly daily toll. Sudan is in the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet.

OK, fine, the presidency and geopolitics are complicated. How about the Capitol? How are our leaders doing there?

Well, Johnson, who was elected speaker 11 months ago this week, just passed a short-term spending bill after insisting he was “done” with such measures.

Johnson promised to keep Congress in session until they passed 12 appropriations bills. However, House Republicans have only passed five bills. Instead, they’ve spent the vast majority of the last few months back home. The Senate, for its part, has passed zero appropriations bills on the floor.

In fact, Congress left town Wednesday without doing anything on disaster aid, the farm bill, the defense authorization bill or Ukraine.

Finally, in the category of downright bizarre, we scooped that Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.) was the target of a sophisticated deepfake operation. Cardin thought he was talking to a high-ranking Ukrainian official. That is, until the “official” started asking him if he supports bombing Russia with long-range American-made missiles.

— Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan

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Teirab distances himself from Social Security privatization comments

Joe Teirab, the Republican running against Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), is distancing himself from comments he made in February on privatizing Social Security and raising the retirement age.

Craig represents a swing district in Minnesota and has been a longtime target of the House GOP. But Teirab’s newly unearthed comments — on a key plank for seniors that Democrats have long used to attack GOP candidates — could pose issues in the race.

During a conversation with a voter at a local Minnesota “Pints and Politics” event, Teirab said for someone like him in their late 30s, the “retirement age should maybe change for me or I should get more of an option to have it privatized.”

Teirab also said, “Under a certain age, you have to change what the retirement age is going to be.”

In an interview this week, Teirab characterized his comments as “rambling.” Teirab insisted he didn’t support any changes at all to Social Security or the retirement age.

“A lot of stuff was incoherent in there,” Teirab said of his February comments. “The thing that probably got lost in there is that I would vote against any type of raising the retirement age or taking away any benefits for people who paid into the system.”

Teirab did note that he supported looking into “common sense solutions to make sure that Social Security is a solvent program.”

The GOP challenger said any solution to solvency issues had to involve “people who are at a very young age who haven’t paid into the system and who haven’t even gone into the workforce yet.”

Social Security has been a key focus of Craig’s congressional career. In January, Craig introduced legislation that would cut out federal taxes on Social Security benefits for seniors.

“I think seniors are going to be very upset at anybody that wants to privatize Social Security or raise the retirement age,” Craig told us.

Minnesota’s 2nd District is rated as lean Democrat by the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. Craig won last cycle by five points over Republican Tyler Kistner and has staked out a reputation as a battle-tested incumbent.

— Max Cohen

THE FUTURE OF…

ICYMI: The Future of Defense Aviation, a leading voice

The third segment of The Future of Defense Aviation published earlier this week featuring an interview with Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.).

Scott, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, shared his thoughts on key issues impacting the sector and what Congress can do to ensure the United States maintains its place as a global leader in air defense capabilities.

Scott urged fellow lawmakers to provide consistent funding for the sector rather than relying on continuing resolutions, which can be unpredictable.

You can read the full segment with Scott’s interview here. Be sure to also listen to the accompanying podcast here.

In case you missed it, we’ve also written about the state of play of the defense aviation sector and the legislative landscape.

— Elvina Nawaguna

THE MONEY GAME

Aguilar’s campaign moves

News: Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), the No. 3 House Democrat, has brought in $3 million in dues for DCCC during the members’ dues drive he led in the run-up to November.

Aguilar has donated and raised more than $30 million for members, candidates and the Democratic Party this cycle, according to a person familiar with his operation.

On the road, Aguilar has traveled to 19 states to campaign for Democratic candidates. Aguilar has stopped in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.

Altogether, the House Democratic Caucus chair has attended over 200 campaign events to support the DCCC, House Majority PAC, members and candidates this cycle.

Along with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Whip Katherine Clark, Aguilar is the most junior member of the “New Three” — the House Democratic leadership trio that replaced Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Jim Clyburn in 2023.

If Democrats win the House, Aguilar would very likely move up to House majority whip.

Aguilar is especially well-versed in the swing seats in California that Democrats are targeting to win back the House. As we’ve reported, the Golden State will be crucial to control of the majority thanks to the plethora of House Republicans representing seats that President Joe Biden won in 2020.

— Max Cohen

THE CAMPAIGN

Michigan Senate update: The NRSC is up with a new ad this morning in Michigan. The independent-expenditure ad targets Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), the Democratic Senate nominee, primarily over inflation.

The ad notes Slotkin’s vote for the Inflation Reduction Act and features a woman who worked at General Motors for 25 years and is worried about its impact on her pension. It’ll run statewide on TV and digital.

Slotkin is running against former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) for retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s (D-Mich.) seat.

Crypto endorsements: Stand with Crypto, a Coinbase-backed advocacy group, will announce another slate of lawmaker endorsements today. For the Senate, Stand with Crypto is endorsing Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Massachusetts GOP Senate candidate John Deaton, who’s trying to unseat Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

In the House, endorsements include Reps. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Andy Barr (R-Ky.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), French Hill (R-Ark.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), John Rose (R-Tenn.), David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), Darren Soto (D-Fla.), Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) and Virginia Democratic candidate Suhas Subramanyam.

Ad watch: Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) is trying to show she’s tough on the border with a new ad vowing to “put politics aside” to help fix the country’s immigration system.

The ad features D.J. Hilson, a prosecutor in Muskegon County, Mich., who said Scholten has been “all about action” when it comes to safety.

“In Congress, Rep. Scholten worked across the aisle to spearhead legislation to increase border security, hire 22,000 border patrol agents and crack down on drug cartels,” Hilson said.

Scholten said she has encouraged other Democrats to make the border a leading issue in their campaigns, arguing to us that “immigration is really at a crisis point.”

BOLD PAC investments: The political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is launching ad buys to boost Yadira Caraveo (D-Colo.) and Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.). In Caraveo’s race, BOLD PAC is dumping six figures into a bilingual mail program and a two-week reservation on Spanish-language broadcast.

In Salinas’ 6th District race, BOLD PAC is also investing a six-figure sum for a three-week ad reservation on Portland cable and streaming services.

— Andrew Desiderio, Mica Soellner, Brendan Pedersen and Max Cohen

MOMENTS

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