Trump asks Supreme Court to withhold Jan. 6 documents

Omicron causes Christmas weekend flight disruptions

Dec 24, 2021

Donald Trump keeps trying to block the Jan. 6 investigation. Trump goes against his backers again on the vaccine. And the infrastructure law is this year’s Legislative Christmas Tree. This is “Regular Order” for December 24, 2021.

JANUARY 6. Donald Trump's lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to block the release of White House records sought by the special committee investigating the Capitol Attack. "The Committee’s request is facially invalid," Trump's team argues, again claiming Congress has no legitimate legislative purpose in investigating the January 6 attack.

PETITION. You can read the 195 page submission at this link. If the Justices refuse to hear the case, then the hold on the documents would immediately be lifted. I don't do predictions for the Supreme Court, but somehow I would be surprised if Trump loses without actual arguments happening. We’ll see.
TICK TICK TICK. While Trump has lost this battle in lower courts, the legal brawling continues to eat up valuable time for the Jan. 6 committee, especially since it's assumed the panel will be dissolved on January 3, 2023 if Republicans take control of the U.S. House in the 2022 midterm elections.
FLYNN. Earlier this week, ex-Trump aide Michael Flynn filed a lawsuit against the Jan. 6 committee to block a subpoena. It took less than a full day for a federal judge in Florida to toss out the suit, because of a series of procedural errors by Flynn's lawyers. The judge said Flynn can still refile the challenge.
VIDEO. Three hours of surveillance video was released this week from one of the U.S. Capitol doors where a great deal of violence occurred on January 6. You can watch it on YouTube. They aren’t tourists.

AIRLINES. This weekend's big COVID news may be the impact of the Omicron variant on air travel. "Your flight is canceled due to an increase in Covid cases limiting crew availability," a notice from United read on Thursday night. Delta also was suffering from crew shortages, and started canceling flights on Christmas Eve.

PASSENGERS. The Omicron cancellations come as air travel has rebounded in the U.S. On Wednesday, 2.08 million passengers were screened by the TSA - almost double the number from the same day in 2020, and more than the 1.93 million in 2019.
SENATE. Earlier this month, airline CEO's reminded Senators that the industry was still at risk from the virus outbreak. "We are not completely out of the woods, and the emergence of the Omicron variant in recent weeks is a stark reminder of that," said United CEO Scott Kirby at a hearing.

COVID POLITICS. Any airline travel snafu is one more thing the GOP can try to pin on President Biden, as Republicans are sharpening their attacks on how the White House has handled Omicron. "In 2020, then-candidate Biden promised he would ‘shut down the virus,'" said Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell. "Now new cases in our major cities are breaking records."

GOP. "Where is President Biden's version of Operation Warp Speed for approving new treatments, producing more treatments that work, or getting more tests?" said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). Here’s an example of the Republican messaging right now.
IRONY. Yes, there might be some irony involved - as the party which has resisted masks and other measures is now criticizing Biden’s virus actions. But remember the Dupree rule of thumb for a President: When things are going wrong, it’s your fault, whether it’s really your fault or not.

mike luckovich @mluckovichajc

TRUMP COVID. Donald Trump continues to contradict many of his own supporters on the Coronavirus vaccine, which was developed while he was in office. The latest example came during an interview with Candace Owens. "The ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones who don't take the vaccine," Trump said.

VACCINE. Earlier this week, Trump was booed at an event for telling people to get the booster shot. His supportive comment on the vaccine and booster have been welcomed by the White House. "We are grateful that the former President got the booster," Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.
CASES. New virus cases are going to go up - a lot. Florida reported 32,869 new virus cases on Thursday. My father summed it up accurately in a holiday dispatch from the Sunshine State: "The vaccinated think they're safe and the unvaccinated think it's a crock."
CONGRESS. The number of Congressional cases continued to grow on Thursday, as Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) announced they had tested positive for the virus.

OPEN THE CAPITOL. In the midst of the Omicron surge, a group of Republicans in Congress is again pressing to fully open the Capitol to visitors. "No more lockdowns and no more excuses," said Rep. William Timmons (R-SC), part of a group of GOP lawmakers who urged Speaker Pelosi to throw open the doors of Congress.

LETTER. "This extended closure has had real consequences on Americans' most fundamental constitutional rights," the Republicans told Pelosi, arguing the closure has restricted First Amendment rights, labeling the closure an 'authoritarian decree.'
TOURS. Some tours of the Capitol are resuming for Senate offices, but on a very limited basis. The Capitol Visitors Center remains closed - not only because of the Coronavirus situation, but also in the aftermath of the Capitol Attack, almost one year ago.

PUBLIC LAW. President Biden on Thursday signed into law a bill which would ban the import of items produced by forced labor in the Xinjiang region of China. The new law would also have the U.S. coordinate with Mexico and Canada to make sure such products aren't brought into the U.S. through those countries.

CONGRESS. "This is the most important and impactful action taken thus far by the United States to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their use of slave labor,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), one of the prime sponsors of this bipartisan plan. The bill won unanimous approval.
BIDEN. The bill signaled how both parties have now joined to put more pressure on Beijing. "The United States will continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure supply chains are free from the use of forced labor — including from Xinjiang and other parts of China," President Biden said.

CHRISTMAS TREE. Democrats may have failed to pass the Build Back Better package by Christmas, but they still have been able to bring home the bacon for the holidays, thanks to the new infrastructure law. That's my column this week for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

AIRPORTS. The FAA got to play Santa Claus in recent days, by handing out nearly $3 billion in money for airports big and small. You can check the map to see how much your state will get, and what airports will get a piece of the infrastructure pie (despite strong GOP opposition).
BOOMER SOONER. One example is Oklahoma. Not a single county there voted for Joe Biden. But the state will get $27.4 million to help with airport improvement projects - a lot of that will go to smaller airports.
WEST VIRGINIA. It's the same story in the Mountain State. Not one county in West Virginia voted for Joe Biden. But the state's airports will see $8.7 million in extra funding.

CENSUS TRIVIA. Here's some numbers to amaze your family with during Christmas dinner. What were the top 10 states in terms of population growth and population loss - percentage-wise - from July 2020 to July 2021?

GO WEST. Idaho had the largest growth of 2.9 percent, followed by Utah (1.7%), Montana (1.7%), Arizona (1.4%) and South Carolina (1.2%). Rounding out the Top 10 were Delaware, Texas, Florida, Nevada, and South Dakota.
GOODBYE. The biggest population losers were topped by Washington, D.C., which lost 2.9 percent of its population. That was followed by New York (1.6%), Illinois (0.9%), Hawaii (0.7%) and California (0.7%). The next five were Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Mississippi.

TV SCHEDULE. If you’re up early on Christmas morning, you can watch the launch of NASA’s James Webb space telescope, which is slated to take the place of the Hubble space telescope. Tentative launch time is 7:20 am on Saturday.

PRO FORMA. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) ad-libbed a little from the Speaker’s chair on Thursday, as the House met for a few minutes. “Merry Christmas to all,” Dingell said as the House adjourned until Monday.

MUSE OF HISTORY. December 24, 2009. On this date, I was at work early at the Capitol, as the Senate convened at 6:45 am, and then voted to approve a bill which became the Obama health law. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell noted this was 'the first time this body has had a vote the day before Christmas in more than a century.' Democrats blamed GOP obstruction for that. "Everyone knows we have had votes in the middle of the night and on Christmas Eve because the Republicans wouldn’t allow us to have votes at any other hour," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The final vote was 60-39 in favor. It would take four more months - and some creative legislating - to get the Affordable Care Act into law.

LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:

No votes in the House until the week of January 10.

No votes in the Senate until January 3.

President Biden’s daily schedule link.

Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree. Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com

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