View in web browser

PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

THE TOP

Washington’s immigration battles have hit a new low.

Both parties are locked in a death grip and, since Joe Biden took the White House, an escape is looking increasingly impossible.

Here are the current dynamics:

→ Former President Donald Trump spent $15 billion on a border wall Democrats bitterly opposed. Work stopped on the project following Biden’s Jan. 20 order to cease construction. It’s now a hugely expensive photo op for Republicans, a massive unfinished monument to America’s immigration follies.

→ The current surge of migrants trying to cross the U.S-Mexico border — we’re trying to resist using the word “crisis” for the moment — began during the final months of Trump’s presidency, but it has picked up pace under Biden. There’s a huge number of unaccompanied children being detained as they try to enter the country, a total running into the thousands, which poses especially sensitive problems for a variety of reasons, both humanitarian and political.

Read this story on A16 of the NYT and think how Democrats would respond if Trump was in office: 

→ “Children Are Sleeping on Mats in Overcrowded Border Facilities: The Biden administration is struggling to find space for a surge of migrant children and teenagers that is almost three times the level seen early last year,” by Miriam Jordan, Simon Romero and Zolan Kanno-Youngs.

The White House seems unprepared for the sheer scale of the challenge they face, and they’re blaming Trump for the problem. They also aren’t likely to get much in the way of solutions from Congress, so Biden administration officials are largely going to be left on their own to deal with it. 

“We recognize this is a big problem," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during Monday’s briefing. "The last administration left us a dismantled and unworkable system and, like any other problem, we are going to do all we can to solve it."

The Washington Post put it this way on its front page: “Biden faces growing political threat from border upheaval,” by Sean Sullivan and Nick Miroff

At least one prominent Senate Democrat is using the “C-word” — crisis — joining a chorus of Republicans and right-wing media outlets. “It’s a crisis — oh it’s a crisis,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told Manu Raju of CNN on Monday night.

So far, Biden has ordered FEMA to help deal with the thousands of unaccompanied minors now being held in federal detention centers under sometimes poor conditions, an extremely sensitive topic for progressives in Congress. FEMA will use the Dallas Convention Center to house perhaps as many as 3,000 immigrants teens, AP reported on Monday.

Republicans are privately comfortable letting Democrats deal with the situation. “I think we’re going to just watch to see what happens,” a top House GOP aide said. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) toured the border on Monday with a group of Republican lawmakers, and they pounded Biden for the waiting TV crews. Expect more of the same from McCarthy & Co. on Tuesday. Senate Republicans will echo this message.

Can Congress pass anything to respond to this situation? Can Biden expect any help from the Hill? The short answer: No. House Democratic leaders are unable to pass Biden’s major immigration proposal, which would would provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. That legislation also stands no chance in the Senate. Instead, the House will vote on two smaller bills this week: A DREAMers-TPS bill (Temporary Protected Status) bill, and legislation that gives legal status to migrant farm workers.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who has been working on immigration issues for years, seemed especially doubtful about the prospects of any legislative solution right now.

“I think Speaker Pelosi has discovered that she doesn’t have support for the comprehensive bill in the House,” Durbin said. “And I think that indicates where it is in the Senate as well.”

Durbin added: “So they’re [the House] supposed to take up the DREAM Act, farm labor, and we’ll receive, I think both of them, at the Judiciary Committee. And I then have to sit down with my colleagues and just see if there’s any bipartisan consensus from moving that bill with those two as the starting points.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has floated adding border security language to a Dreamers bill and trying to pass that package as a stand-alone package, but Durbin is concerned about the contours of that and whether it becomes too unwieldy to pass.

Durbin also has no timetable for passing legislation, demonstrating once again that the White House can only rely on the Hill for rhetorical help.

JAN. 6 COMMISSION UPDATE

Pelosi tries to get GOP to negotiate

It’s been 69 days since Jan. 6, and it hit us late Monday afternoon: We still don’t have a 9/11 style commission to investigate sacking of the Capitol. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she was going to create the commission after the attack.

We called around, and no one in either Democratic or Republican leadership knew what — if anything — was going on here.

Pelosi offered a proposal in mid-February to Republicans: A panel with seven Democrats and four Republicans. The GOP didn’t care much for it. Republicans said the 9/11 commission had equal representation, and subpoenas were issued by both parties. Republicans also said the panel should investigate Antifa and Black Lives Matter, as well as the Jan. 6 riot. That wasn’t going to work for Democrats. Pelosi and the GOP have been at a stalemate over the commission ever since.

Pelosi has signaled willingness to negotiate on the ratios of the committee, but she wants to create a Jan. 6 commission — not a panel on all forms of political violence.

On Monday afternoon, Pelosi sent a letter to Democratic colleagues with an update on Capitol security, and in that letter, she included a draft of the proposal she’d initially given to Republicans. This was an attempt by Pelosi to up the ante on the GOP and force them into a negotiation. 

The creation of this commission has gotten really tricky. If Republicans don’t negotiate and Pelosi creates the commission on her own, will Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy appoint members? If they don’t, does Pelosi let the idea die, or does she proceed with just Democrats? None of these are easy choices. But Pelosi needs to move one way or another in order to get something going on this issue.

THE WASHINGTON GAME

Dark money group goes after Whitehouse over dark money 

Americans for Public Trust, a conservative nonprofit, is bashing Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse in a new ad buy, accusing Whitehouse of hypocrisy on “dark money,” political spending by nonprofits or trade groups paid for by anonymous donors. Americans for Public, however, is a dark money group. Its ad is funded by dark money. It’s bashing Whitehouse over dark money. Confused? We are too.

“Sheldon Whitehouse has a dirty little secret,” says the APT ad, which is running in the D.C., market. “He relentlessly attacks dark money, harping on its supposed evils. But at the same time, he’s backed by liberal dark money. A lot of it. A whole lot of it. Millions of dollars worth. In fact, liberal dark money groups are his biggest allies.”

The ad is pretty standard for its type. As the narrator speaks, another voice whispers in the background “Hypocrite” and “What’s he hiding?” while dramatic music plays.

Whitehouse has made dark money groups, especially conservative organizations involved in the judicial nomination process like the Federalist Society and the Judicial Crisis Network, a special focus of his. Whitehouse alleges that powerful special interests groups have spent hundreds of millions of dollars getting conservative judges confirmed to the bench, then pushing legal cases with an anti-regulatory bent toward their courts. He held a hearing in a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on this issue last week. 

“We don’t know who the big donors are behind this clandestine operation, or what business they have before the judges they helped into their robes,” Whitehouse said. “It appears that the last three Supreme Court justices and many appeals court justices were ushered onto the bench through this operation.”

Republicans, rightly, pointed out during the hearing that liberal dark money groups have also spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years trying to influence campaigns and policy fights as well. Both sides are guilty, no question about it.

Americans for Public Trust was founded in 2019 and it doesn’t disclose its donors. Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt serves as outside counsel. Caitlin Sutherland, a former research director for the NRCC, is the executive director. The group has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars — sometimes in coordination with JCN — to bash President Joe Biden and his nominees, including Xavier Becerra. The group slams Democrats over — you guessed it — their ties to dark money.

“As an nonpartisan 501(c)(3), we support the privacy rights of organizations who want to get involved in public policy without the threat of harassment or intimidation,” Sutherland said of the Whitehouse ad. “The purpose of our six figure ad campaign is to shine a light on Senator Whitehouse’s hypocrisy on dark money, when he himself benefits from it.”

MOMENTS

10:15 a.m.: President Joe Biden will get his daily intelligence briefing

1:40 p.m.: Biden will leave the White House for Philadelphia. Jen Psaki will gaggle on Air Force One.

3:30 p.m.: The president will visit a small business in Chester, Pa.

5:45 p.m.: Biden will leave Pennsylvania for Wilmington, Del., where he’ll stay overnight.

VP Kamala Harris is leaving Los Angeles for Denver. She’ll visit a vaccination center and Maria Empanada.

CLIP FILE

NYT: “Covid-19: Mississippi Is Second State to Open Vaccination to All Adults”

“Can Biden Stay on the Sidelines of the Andrew Cuomo Saga?” by Maggie Haberman and Shane Goldmacher

“Democrats, Pushing Stimulus, Admit to Regrets on Obama’s 2009 Response,” Astead W. Herndon: “The pointed assessments of Mr. Obama’s handling of the 2009 stimulus effort are the closest Democrats have come to grappling with a highly delicate matter in the party: the shortcomings in the legacy of Mr. Obama, one of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party and a powerful voice for bipartisanship in a deeply divided country.

“The re-examination has irked some of the former president’s allies but thrilled the party’s progressive wing, which sees Mr. Biden’s more expansive plan as a down payment on his ambitious agenda. And it has sent an early signal that Mr. Biden’s administration does not intend to be a carbon copy of his Democratic predecessor’s. Times, all concede, have changed.”

WaPo: “Global rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine unchanged by Europe suspensions, WHO says,” Eric Cunningham

“Capitol Police officer suspended after antisemitic document found at checkpoint,” by Mike DeBonis and Tyler Pager

WSJ: “Purdue Pharma Owners Increase Settlement Offer to $4.28 Billion,” by Jonathan Randles and Sara Randazzo

WSJ Editorial Board: “The Spending Bill Cometh”: “So Ms. Yellen won’t even rule out Ms. Warren’s wealth tax that would hit all assets above $50 million each year and that Mr. Biden didn’t campaign on. The Treasury Secretary is also floating a global minimum tax on corporations, which would reduce the tax competition among countries that is a rare discipline on political tax appetites.

“Expect more such taxing surprises, as Democrats debate which taxpayers to gore, but one sure bet is that this won’t be as popular as passing out money. Paying the bill never is.”

AP: “Advocates seek Biden push on gun bills, but prospects iffy,” by Alexandra Jaffe

The Forward: “Marjorie Taylor Greene tours Orthodox spots in Brooklyn,” by Jacob Kornbluh

PROMISE MADE

Newsom says he’ll replace DiFi with a Black woman

Nevermind that Sen. Dianne Feinstein isn’t up for re-election for three years. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is already publicly musing about her replacement.

Republicans are in the middle of an effort to recall Newsom. If the GOP can knock him off and Feinstein retires, Dems could lose the governor’s mansion and Senate seat — that’s a part of his message here.

Newsom caught some flack in the Black community when he replaced Kamala Harris with Alex Padilla instead of another Black woman. 

Enjoying Punchbowl News AM?

Subscribe 10 friends with your unique link (below) and get a Punchbowl News hat!

Your referral link is: 

You can see all the rewards in here!

Or share via

You currently have: 0 referrals

Editorial photos provided by Getty Images