Border talks go virtual as Senate heads home

All eyes on U.S. Supreme Court over Trump

Dec 21, 2023

Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for December 21, 2023:

Five senior military officers remain on hold.
Senate returns Labor Secretary nomination.
The Senate wraps up legislative work for 2023.

BORDER. Key Senators had one final in-person meeting at the Capitol on Wednesday before heading home for the holiday break - still short of a deal on border security matters. Republicans have demanded immigration policy changes before they vote for a military aid package for Israel and Ukraine. Negotiators will keep trying to broker a deal over the break. Senators will return on January 8.

LEADERSHIP. "Our colleagues at the negotiating table are under no illusions about how difficult it is to fix our nation's broken asylum and parole system," said Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, who said talks would 'continue in earnest' until there is a deal. "The Senate cannot afford to get it wrong."
SCHUMER. "Make no mistake, the winter recess will be a busy and important few weeks for the U.S. Senate," said Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, as he echoed McConnell's desire to reach a deal. "The future – not only of Ukraine, but of our country and the Western world – depends on it," Schumer added.
DHS. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was back at the Capitol for the final in-person negotiating session on Wednesday. (It still doesn’t make sense that he was on the sidelines until just last week.)
TALKS. "You don't have to be here," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told reporters, as he and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) said they would begin meeting virtually today. Along with Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), those Senators have been shouldering the burden of these border talks.

OUTLOOK. Can this really get done? Can Senators not only strike a deal, but thread the needle to get support from House Republicans who might want tougher actions on the border - and from progressive Democrats who are skeptical of anything the GOP supports? I’ll say it again - I don't know if they can.

TRUMP. Senate Democrats reacted warily to Tuesday's bombshell ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court which would keep former President Donald Trump off the GOP primary ballot in that state. "It's a question that the Supreme Court will resolve, that's the bottom line," said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA).

COURTS. "It's a conflict we haven't had before," said Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), who repeatedly said he thought Trump was guilty of insurrection - but he also said it gets in the way of the voters. "By our traditions, it's always been the people who have made the decision on who the President is."
POTUS. Asked about the ruling, President Biden said Trump intentionally fanned the flames on Jan. 6. "You saw it all," Biden told reporters after he flew out to Wisconsin. "Now whether the 14th Amendment applies, I'll let the Court make that decision. But he certainly supported an insurrection."
GOP. Republicans meanwhile urged the U.S. Supreme Court to quickly resolve this question. "Democrats are running scared and hiding behind liberal activist judges," said Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE). "SCOTUS needs to take this up quickly," he tweeted.

COLORADO. The decision by the Colorado Supreme Court to knock Donald Trump off the GOP primary ballot hit home for Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) more than most on Capitol Hill. Why? Because when he was Governor of Colorado, Hickenlooper put four of those seven justices on his state's highest court.

SPLIT DECISION. How did they vote? "My appointees were two and two," Hickenlooper told reporters, noting they had split evenly on the Trump question. The Colorado Democrat would not offer his opinion on who was right or wrong. "I've always been relentlessly careful not to second guess them."

IMMUNITY. Lawyers for Donald Trump were already at the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday on a different case - the Jan. 6 charges against him. Trump is asking the Justices *not* to quickly decide whether Trump has immunity from prosecution, as he has claimed. His lawyers say the issue should move through the courts at regular speed, not on fast-forward.

BRIEF. "In 234 years of American history, no President ever faced criminal prosecution for his official acts," lawyers for Trump wrote. "Until 19 days ago, no court had ever addressed whether immunity from such prosecution exists. To this day, no appellate court has addressed it."
IMMUNITY. The idea that Trump is immune from prosecution for his actions as President seems laughable on its face. But that's what he has long argued. Last week, Special Counsel Jack Smith asked the Justices to take up the matter before a federal appeals court - and settle it on an expedited basis.
DOCKET. Frankly, I think we are going to be paying a lot of attention to the U.S. Supreme Court not just in the months ahead on cases dealing with Trump - but for a good chunk of 2024.

SCOTT PERRY. It's been almost three years since the events of Jan. 6, and the feds are still trying to get evidence from Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), who was involved in an array of efforts to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election. A federal judge has now ruled that Perry must turn over hundreds of text messages to Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigators.

ORDER. "Perry must disclose to the government 1,659 of the 2,055 records still at issue," wrote U.S. District Judge James Boasberg. "He may withhold the other 396 (messages) under the Speech or Debate clause."
MISTAKE. The ruling comes three weeks after an apparent error by the D.C. federal court, which released some of those disputed text messages on Perry's phone - and then later made that court filing secret. The texts show Perry working with Trump allies to overturn Biden's 2020 victory.
NAME. You might like the case name: "IN THE MATTER OF THE SEARCH OF THE FORENSIC COPY OF THE CELL PHONE OF REPRESENTATIVE SCOTT PERRY."

MILITARY. While Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) allowed approval of a final batch of senior military promotions earlier this week, there were five senior officers who did not get their new posts approved by the Senate. Their nominations will not be returned to the White House - as they will remain on hold into 2024.

JONSSON. One of the five is Air Force Col. Benjamin R. Jonsson, in line for Brigadier General. Jonsson has been criticized for preaching a "DEI Agenda" - shorthand for 'diversity, equity, and inclusion.' Conservative groups rallied against Jonsson - and it looks like they have won for now.
ALMOST. Ironically, Jonsson was at first confirmed by the Senate, and then un-approved. "There is one correction," Majority Leader Chuck Schumer noted on Tuesday evening - saying that nomination 453 should not have been on the list of promotions confirmed by unanimous consent.
RECORD. By the way, if you go looking for that little exchange involving the Majority Leader and this nomination in the Congressional Record - you won't find it. But the C-SPAN video record shows it did happen at 6:26 pm.
PENTAGON FIVE. Here are the five senior officers still being held up:
- Navy - Rear Adm. Daniel L. Cheever to be Vice Admiral
- Navy - Rear Adm. (lh) Jeffrey J. Czerewko to be Rear Admiral
- Navy - Capt. Brian J. Anderson to be Rear Admiral (lower half)
- Army - Col. John W. Sannes to be Brigadier General
- Air Force - Col. Benjamin R. Jonsson to be Brigadier General

SENATE. The last day of floor work for the U.S. Senate was a slow march, as Senators waited hours to find out which nominations would get approved, which would get held over for the second session of the 118th Congress, and which ones would be returned to President Biden.

RETURN TO SENDER. Dozens of nominations will go back to the White House, including that of Julie Su, President Biden's pick for Secretary of Labor. "It is clear Ms. Su lacks the necessary votes for confirmation," said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA). She was nominated in February.
ACTING. Su is basically doing the job already - she is the Deputy Secretary of Labor, and can serve as the 'Acting' Secretary as long as needed. Biden can nominate her again, or pick someone else.

CONFIRMED. There were a handful of lucky people who saw their nominations confirmed just before the window slammed shut last night. One of them was ex-Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), who was approved for another term on the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank.

ALL DONE. When the Senate was gaveled out last night, one of the GOP floor staffers thrust his arms into the air to celebrate, as the work of the First Session of the 118th Congress basically came to a close. Next votes in the Senate are on January 8.

CONFEDERATE. A day after a federal judge turned aside a legal challenge, workers removed part of a Confederate memorial erected in 1914 at Arlington National Cemetery. It featured what the U.S. military calls a “nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery.”

MEMORIAL. GOP lawmakers led by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) - who has tried repeatedly to preserve Confederate names and memorials in the U.S. military - had protested the move to get rid of the monument.
GOP. "Our nation’s history is being rewritten before our eyes," said Clyde. "Once again the Leftist mob has gotten their way to further destroy our country's history," said Rep. Bob Good (R-VA). "The media branding it as the "confederate statue," is only flaming the fire."
FIRSTHAND. There was something rather notable in this case. Judge Rossie Alston, Jr. - a Trump appointee - said in his ruling that he had personally gone to Arlington Cemetery to review the situation himself.
RULING. "It was clear to the Court that Defendants (the Pentagon) were making every effort to protect and respect the surrounding gravesites," the judge wrote, basically saying a pair of southern heritage groups lied about the dispute.

HEADING HOME. When Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer left the Capitol on Wednesday, a few of us trailed him through the hallway hoping for a headline. As Schumer made it into the elevator, he was asked if he was going home for the year. "My whereabouts - off the record - are highly classified," Schumer said to laughter.

RAP SHEET. The feds have charged a California man with crimes from Jan. 6. Kyle Colton attracted attention after bragging to passengers on his flight back from D.C. that he was part of a “second wave” of rioters at the Capitol. Video shows Colton skirmishing with police officers inside the Rotunda at one point.

LONE STAR. A Texas man has pleaded guilty to attacking police on Jan. 6. Andrew Taake used bear spray against a line of police outside the Capitol. He later used a metal whip to assault an officer. Taake is best known for how he was identified - on a dating app - by a woman mad about the Jan. 6 attack.

MUSE OF HISTORY. December 21, 1973. There was a different kind of holiday party in Washington, D.C. fifty years ago, as a White House Watergate tape turned over to a lawyer for Ralph Nader was played 'for fun' at a cocktail party. That ABC News report outraged Sen. Carl Curtis (R-NE), who took to the Senate floor to denounce the Watergate investigation in broad terms. "It is a witch hunt," Curtis declared, criticizing the work of the special Watergate committee.

LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:

The House next has votes on January 9.

The Senate has votes on January 8.

Check President Biden’s schedule.

Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.

Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com

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Regular Order by Jamie Dupree

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