Trump vows to fire Special Counsel on first day
North Carolina Rep. won't stop talking about Helene
Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for October 25, 2024:
Biden to issue apology over Native American schools.
Some poll numbers to chew on.
Farm Bill remains on hold.
TRUMP LEGAL. Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that if elected - one of his very first acts in his return to the Oval Office will be to fire the Special Counsel who has been investigating Trump's possession of classified documents and his actions surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump did not hesitate about his options.
YOU'RE FIRED. "It's so easy - I would fire him within two seconds," Trump said of Special Counsel Jack Smith during an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt. At the same time, Trump proudly noted the landmark decision about those investigations handed down in his favor earlier this year. "We got immunity at the Supreme Court," he said.
IMPEACH. Trump was then asked - what happens if Democrats take over the House? "I don’t think they will impeach me if I fire Jack Smith," Trump said. "Jack Smith is a scoundrel, he’s a very dishonest man in my opinion.”
MESSAGE. Many Republicans have probably scoffed at Democrats saying that Trump is running for President in order to stay out of jail - but that's sort of where things stand. If Trump wins in November, he will make all those cases go away. If he loses - he faces several criminal cases.
DEMS. As you might expect, Democrats in Congress frowned at Trump's remarks. "It is an affront to the rule of law for Trump to fire a special counsel prosecuting two cases against him," said Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY).
HARRIS. “With Donald Trump, it is the same old, tired playbook,” said Vice President Kamala Harris. “He has no plans to address the needs of the American people. He is only focused on himself.”
GAG ORDER. The GOP Congressman who represents the area in North Carolina hit hard by Hurricane Helene says he was told to stop sending out updates to his constituents - because it violates rules against certain official communications before an election. "This is known as the 'blackout rule,'" said Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC).
BLACKOUT RULE. The rule prohibits 'mass communications' with constituents just before an election, because a lawmaker could use government resources to boost their campaign. There are some exceptions - but none of them have anything to do with natural disaster communications.
HELENE RELIEF. Needless to say, Edwards was irate. "The House Communications Standards Commission told me I have had “ample time” to communicate with you," he wrote in his latest recovery statement. "Despite folks still being without critical needs like water, power, and housing, the Commission felt three weeks was long enough."
KEEP GOING. After Edwards said that he wasn't going to comply, House officials gave him another extension. "I will continue to keep you posted on where to find vital resources for the foreseeable future," Edwards wrote.
ONE NOTE. I did chuckle a little at one line from Edwards: "I have not politicized the tragedy of Hurricane Helene, and I never intend to," he wrote. That came two days after Edwards stood with Donald Trump near Asheville, and listened as Trump denounced the disaster response of the Biden Administration.
FARM BILL. Highlighted by the internal battles of House Republicans, the 118th Congress has been one of the most dysfunctional in American history. Things are so bad that even a major bill to help U.S. farmers has been sidetracked for two years. That's my column this week for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
ON HOLD. The House Agriculture Committee passed a GOP Farm Bill five months ago - and it still hasn’t come to the House floor for a vote. Why? Because House Republicans don’t have the votes to pass it. They’ll need Democrats on board - and that causes trouble inside the GOP (it might sound familiar).
LAME DUCK. Normally, the five year Farm Bill extension would get a lot of bipartisan support, and might be a prime item to finish after the elections. But not this year. There’s a major disaster aid bill, government funding, and a defense policy bill to deal with.
POLLS. As you might notice, I do not fill my daily newsletter with breathless reports about the latest polls. I don't want my news coverage to be driven by polling, especially after we have seen the polling errors of recent elections. But I found some interesting data on Thursday that I want to explore.
EARLY VOTE. Marist polled people who had already voted in Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia. Their numbers were somewhat uniform in favor of Kamala Harris, even though their poll found the race was dead even.
AZ 55-44 Harris
NC 55-43 Harris
GA 54-45 Harris
THOUGHTS. If the polls are tied, why would a survey find a 9-12 point edge for Harris among early voters? In North Carolina and Arizona, we know from the early vote data that Democrats are not overwhelming GOP voters so far. (Georgia does not register voters by party.) That seems to leave us with two explanations.
COMBO. This early vote survey data could suggest that Independents are breaking for Harris. And it could also suggest that some Republicans are going over to Harris as well. Maybe you have a different idea.
GOP FOR HARRIS. Speaking of Republicans breaking with Trump, another more moderate ex-GOP member of Congress has endorsed Kamala Harris. The latest is Fred Upton of Michigan - who voted to impeach Trump while in the U.S. House. Upton says he is voting for a Democrat for President for the very first time.
JANUARY 6. "He is unfit to serve as commander in chief again," Upton said in a statement where he drew a direct line to Trump from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, saying Trump "directly jeopardized the peaceful transition from one administration to the next."
IMPACT. Do these kind of endorsements mean anything overall? My thought is that ex-lawmakers like Upton, Jeff Flake, or Charlie Dent don't convince a big swath of people - but they could be reflective of a small group of Republicans who cannot stomach the idea of voting for Trump in 2024.
MARGIN. If we assume that the Harris-Trump race for President is tight, then any shift of Republican voters over to Harris is a big deal - even if it isn't a huge group (think about those GOP voters who backed Nikki Haley).
TRIVIA. Upton served for 36 years in the Congress. Your water cooler fact of the day is that Upton's niece is supermodel Kate Upton.
APOLOGY. President Biden will issue a formal public apology to Native Americans today - over the federal government's role in forcing Indian children into boarding schools where many were abused, and nearly 1,000 died. "I’m doing something I should have done a long time ago," Biden said on Thursday.
ARIZONA. Biden's message will be delivered in person in Arizona, as he visits the Gila River Indian Community, south of Phoenix. The President will also tout his administration’s accomplishments for Native Americans, whether it's from infrastructure spending, tribal sovereignty, or other matters.
REPORT. A series of reports issued by the Interior Department have revealed harrowing details of abuse. "The Department’s research revealed at least 53 different burial sites across the Federal Indian boarding school system."
INTERIOR. "These were places where children - including my grandparents - were traumatized," said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary. "I have made it one of my top priorities to help tell the story of the trauma of federal Indian boarding school policies."
BORDER. GOP lawmakers from Wisconsin held a field hearing on Thursday in Milwaukee where they showcased Donald Trump's main arguments against Democrats on the subject of illegal immigration. "Our citizens are being brutalized," said Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), who fully supports Trump's plan to deport those people in the U.S. illegally. "They should be deported immediately."
DEPORT. "We don't have to feel guilty about removing people who came here in the past few years," added Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI). "We have to deport almost all of these people."
EVENTS. I have to say that I'm surprised GOP lawmakers haven't been doing more of these events, because it gives Republicans an easy hook to make their campaign arguments about illegal immigration - and looks somewhat official in the process.
NUMBERS. The latest figures on illegal border crossings show the Biden Administration has slowed the flow of migrants. Over 101,000 people were encountered by border agents in September. That figure was nearly 72,000 when Donald Trump left office in January 2021 - but got as high as 302,000 back in March of this year.
INFRASTRUCTURE. The White House trolled one of President Biden's frequent critics in Congress on Thursday, reminding Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) that she voted against the bipartisan infrastructure law. It came after Mace touted a big grant from Uncle Sam for a highway project just outside of Charleston, South Carolina.
MACED. "We hate traffic just as much as you do," Mace tweeted this week, tagging a story about a $195 million highway construction grant. "With the $195 million we helped secure, improvements to the I-526/Long Point Road interchange are moving forward," Mace said in a statement.
TWEET. The White House dutifully reached into the archives to find a tweet from Mace from 2021 where she proclaimed her opposition to the infrastructure law. "Voted against the partisan infrastructure package tonight," Mace said back then.
POINT OF ORDER. Obviously, lawmakers can oppose a bill like that, but then later ask for money courtesy of the infrastructure law - and that's what a lot of Republicans have done. But Democrats see that as very hypocritical.
RAP SHEET. A Georgia man is expected to plead guilty today to Jan. 6 charges. Jacob Davis joined other rioters in trying to break through police lines in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel leading into the Capitol. At one point, Davis grabbed a long wooden board and threw it at police, hitting officers in the head.
MUSE OF HISTORY. October 25, 1861. In the midst of the Civil War, the nation took a giant step forward technologically, as the first transcontinental telegraph message was delivered to President Lincoln. Sent the night before by Chief Justice Samuel Field of the California Supreme Court, the message from Sacramento assured Lincoln that California was behind the Union's cause.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House next has votes on November 12.
The Senate comes back for votes on November 12.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.
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I get the idea regarding mass communication & Edwards. However, communicating (solely) about natural disasters seems like it should be an exception. I can understand, even, if there were limits around not saying things like “my opponent won’t fight for your recovery” or such. But straightforward information about it? I think that should be an exception they add.
I pray that Independents and a good percentage are breaking toward Harris...I have spend most of my life in politics, most of those years as a Republican, an elected person, who devoted more hours and donations to the Party than I can count. Since the Party has become the Party of Trump, I now consider myself an Independent and will continue to do so unless the Party can find itself to reform...