The Conversation -- October 16, 2023

Holmes Lybrand, et al., of CNN: "A federal judge on Monday issued a gag order on ... Donald Trump, limiting what he can say about special counsel Jack Smith's federal prosecution into his alleged attempt to subvert in the 2020 presidential election. The order restricts Trump's ability to publicly target court personnel, potential witnesses, or the special counsel and his staff. The order did not impose restrictions on disparaging comments about Washington, DC, -- where the jury will take place -- or certain comments about the Justice Department at large, both of which the government requested. 'This is not about whether I like the language Mr. Trump uses,' Judge Tanya Chutkan said. 'This is about language that presents a danger to the administration of justice.'" ~~~

~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging Judge Tanya Chutkan's hearing on motions regarding a gag order against Donald Trump: "Federal prosecutors and lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump are squaring off on Monday over whether a gag order should be put on Mr. Trump to restrict his often threatening statements about his federal indictment on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.... During the hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan drew a bright line between Mr. Trump the presidential candidate and Mr. Trump the criminal defendant. 'This trial will not yield to the election cycle,' she said."

Oh, there are little exchanges like this one. Charlie Savage: "Judge Chutkan tells John F. Lauro, a lawyer for Trump, to tone it down. Lauro suggests Chutkan is trying to censor his speech."

Alan Feuer & Savage: "A federal judge asked hard questions to lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump, repeatedly pressing them on Monday to explain why a gag order should not be placed on Mr. Trump to restrict his often threatening statements about his federal indictment on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. The judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, seemed to be leaning toward imposing a limited gag order on the former president that would prohibit threatening witnesses, encouraging violence or disrupting the integrity of the proceedings."

Savage: "Chutkan is taking a brief recess to think about it."

Feuer: "Judge Chutkan just said she will share the 'basic contours' of her decision now and then issue a written order."

Feuer: "Chutkan is granting in part and denying in part the government's request for a gag order. Details are coming now. The judge said she will craft 'a narrowly tailored' gag order on Trump."

Savage: "Trump can still attack the Biden administration or the Justice Department and say that he thinks the prosecution is politically motivated. But he cannot attack Jack Smith, the special counsel, or his staff or family, nor can he attack court staff or witnesses. He can attack Pence, except he can't talk about Pence's role in the events that involve this case. She did not say she was barring Trump from attacking her personally." MB: Oh, noes! How will potential jurors find out Smith is a "deranged thug"?

Feuer: "Judge Chutkan did not immediately address the question of how she will enforce her gag order. She merely said she would assess any consequences for Trump if and when he violates it." MB: My advice? Put a muzzle on him, cuff him, strap him in leg irons & toss him in the D.C. jail.

Marie: So I was wonder if Trump would claim, "I won! I won!' or if he would whine that he was being persecuted. Here's my answer:

Savage: "The Trump campaign has released a statement from an unnamed spokesman denouncing the gag order: 'Today's decision is an absolute abomination and another partisan knife stuck in the heart of our Democracy by Crooked Joe Biden, who was granted the right to muzzle his political opponent, the leading candidate for the Presidency in 2024, and the most popular political leader in America, President Donald J. Trump. President Trump will continue to fight for our Constitution, the American people's right to support him, and to keep our country free of the chains of weaponized and targeted law enforcement.'" AND ~~~

Michael Gold: ... "Trump just responded to the gag order on Truth Social.... 'A TERRIBLE THING HAPPENED TO DEMOCRACY TODAY,' he said in one post. In another, he said he planned to appeal the order. 'WITCH HUNT!' he added." AND ~~~

Maggie Haberman: "Trump's campaign has sent out a fundraising email falsely claiming the current president is behind the gag. 'A GAG ORDER HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN IMPOSED ON ME AT THE REQUEST OF JOE BIDEN,' it says."

~~~ Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: Donald Trump "lashed out on social media ahead of the [hearing], including making false statements about the extent of the gag order. Trump said the order is trying 'to silence me, through the use of a powerful GAG ORDER, making it impossible for me to criticize those who are doing the silencing, namely Crooked Joe Biden, and his corrupt and weaponized DOJ & FBI.... They want to take away my First Amendment rights, and my ability to both campaign and defend myself,' Trump added in the post on his social media site. The order actually would allow Trump to criticize President Biden as well as the Justice Department, though the department asked that the gag order limit Trump's potential attacks on the team of special counsel Jack Smith. It also allows Trump to still talk about the case, including proclaiming his innocence." MB: Trump, the habitual bully, has become a real specialist in whining about fake stories about people bullying him. And I see where his lawyer John Lauro is following Trump's example, as noted above.

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "Two of the grand jurors in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation of the alleged election racketeering plot in Georgia have agreed to sit for interviews with attorneys representing Trump co-defendants Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, reported The Messenger. Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case, made the announcement Monday, saying that the jurors 'expressed interest' in such an interview and that it 'would be on the record, but not a public proceeding.'"

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "Lawyers representing thousands of families separated at the southern border during a Trump administration crackdown have reached a settlement with the federal government that enables the migrants to remain in the United States and apply for asylum, putting them on the path to permanent legal residency. The agreement, filed on Monday in federal court in San Diego, concludes years of negotiations that were part of a class-action lawsuit to address the harm inflicted by family separations carried out in 2017 and 2018. The policy was a key component of the Trump administration's efforts to curb unauthorized immigration. Children were systematically taken from their parents and sent to shelters and foster homes across the country, and parents were criminally charged for entering the country unlawfully." An NBC News story is here.

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David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "... federal authorities and abortion rights groups said harassment, stalking and intimidation at abortion clinics have escalated since the Supreme Court's decision in the Dobbs case in June 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade -- the court's 1973 decision recognizing the federal right to an abortion. That behavior, they argue, has made the Justice Department's push for federal charges that come with harsh prison penalties more urgent.... Federal authorities are prosecuting several allegations of extremely dangerous behavior at abortion clinics that go well beyond being disruptive.... Some conservative groups, Republican lawmakers and defense attorneys have rebuked [Attorney General Merrick] Garland, accusing the department of going too far in aggressively pursuing members of antiabortion groups who have not necessarily been dangerous."

Coup de Vanilla Flambé Was the House Flavor of Last Week. Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "A number of House Republicans are in talks to block Rep. Jim Jordan's path to the speakership as the Ohio Republican tries to force a floor vote on Tuesday, according to multiple GOP sources. One senior Republican House member who is part of the opposition to Jordan told CNN that there he believes there are roughly 40 'no' votes, and that he has personally spoken to 20 members who are willing to go to the floor and block Jordan's path if the Ohio Republican forces a roll-call vote on Tuesday.... Republicans are expected to meet behind closed doors Monday evening." ~~~

~~~ Miranda Nazzaro of the Hill: "Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said Sunday if House Republicans cannot elect a Speaker soon then a 'deal will have to be done' with Democrats in order to get the chamber running again, as it nears two weeks since Rep. Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) historic ousting.... Turner[, who supports Jordan,] said Jordan is 'working right now' to put a coalition together to get to the 217 votes needed."

Kelly Garrity of Politico: "Talks of a possible bipartisan solution to the House Speaker standoff that has created chaos in the Republican caucus are underway, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday. 'There are informal conversations that have been underway. When we get back to Washington tomorrow, it's important to begin to formalize those discussions,' the New York Democrat said during an interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'"

Do Not Bother Boebert with Governing Stuff. Jessica Piper & Sam Stein of Politico: "Well before Rep. Lauren Boebert [R-Colo.] and her date got thrown out of a local theater showing of Beetlejuice for being disruptive and frisky, her campaign spent hundreds of dollars at his bar...., [the] Hooch Craft Cocktail Bar in Aspen, Co., according to her most recent campaign finance filings. That's the same bar co-owned by Quinn Gallagher, the man who accompanied Boebert to the theater that fateful September night.... Hooch is a gay friendly bar that has hosted drag shows, the latter of which Boebert has publicly criticized.... Boebert says she and Gallagher are no longer dating because he is a Democrat."

Michael Kunzelman, et al., of the AP: "Federal prosecutors and lawyers for Donald Trump will argue in court Monday over a proposed gag order aimed at reining in the former president's diatribes against likely witnesses and others in his 2020 election interference case in Washington. In pressing U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to impose the narrow gag order, special counsel Jack Smith's team has accused the Republican of using increasingly incendiary rhetoric to try to undermine the public's confidence in the justice system and taint the jury pool."

Robert Draper of the New York Times profiles Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the federal case against Donald Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Presidential Race 2024

Biden v. Bobo. Chris Megerian of the AP: "President Joe Biden is visiting the Colorado congressional district of Rep. Lauren Boebert, a combative Trump loyalist, on Monday as he draws a sharper contrast between the Democratic and Republican economic agendas. Boebert has described Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, the president's signature domestic legislation and the source of hundreds of billions of dollars for clean energy incentives, as 'a massive failure' that 'needs to be repealed.' But Biden is out to demonstrate otherwise when he visits CS Wind, the world's largest facility for wind tower manufacturing, in the town of Pueblo. The company is undergoing a $200 million expansion that is expected to create 850 jobs by 2026 with help from the tax incentives in the law."

Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Climate Power, a liberal advocacy group, plans to spend $80 million on advertising to lift President Biden's standing on environmental issues and inform voters about the impact of legislation he signed last year. Polls show few voters are aware of the president's record on climate issues, and there is a broad dissatisfaction with his stewardship of the issue, a dynamic that mirrors voters' discontent with his handling of the economy and other concerns. This new effort also adds to the constellation of outside groups working to solve one of the Democratic Party's most vexing problems: how to make a president widely seen by his own party as too old to seek re-election just popular enough to win a likely rematch with ... Donald J. Trump."

Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "President Biden's campaign announced raising $71 million in the third fundraising quarter of the year, giving him a significant advantage over the current Republican field while falling short of the inflation-adjusted hauls of Barack Obama and Donald Trump at the same point in their reelection efforts." ~~~

     ~~~ Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "President Joe Biden's reelection campaign boasted they have more cash on hand than 'the entire MAGA field combined' after 3rd quarter reporting -- including more than double what ex-President Donald Trump has on hand.... That prompted Trump to make a video appeal for more donations ahead of the Q3 FEC reporting deadline."

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Alabama. Driving While In Labor. Bracey Harris of NBC News: "By the end of the month, two Alabama hospitals will stop delivering babies. A third will follow suit a few weeks later. That will leave two counties -- Shelby and Monroe -- without any birthing hospitals, and strip a predominantly Black neighborhood in Birmingham of a sought-after maternity unit.... People in Monroe County ... could face drives between 35 to 100 miles to a labor and delivery department. Trekking that far to give birth is not unheard of in Alabama, in which more than a third of the counties are maternity care deserts.... The state has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country.... Nationally, fewer than half of rural hospitals have labor and delivery services...." MB: This is not a developed country. (Also linked yesterday.)

Illinois. Johnny Diaz, et al., of the New York Times: "The authorities in suburban Chicago accused a man of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old boy on Saturday and seriously wounding the boy's mother because they were Muslim, an attack that officials tied to the violence in Israel and Gaza.... Investigators in Will County, Ill., southwest of Chicago..., said a 71-year-old landlord turned on the boy and his mother, who were his tenants, at their home in Plainfield Township on Saturday morning, stabbing them repeatedly with a serrated knife that had a seven-inch blade." The CBS News story is here.

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Israel/Palestine

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israel and Hamas on Monday denied that they had agreed to a humanitarian cease-fire, leaving it unclear whether emergency supplies would be allowed into the Gaza Strip to ease a mounting humanitarian crisis, or whether foreigners massed near the enclave's southern border would be allowed safe passage to Egypt. More than half a million people have fled their homes in Gaza in the past few days, according to the United Nations and Israel, many in response to an Israeli warning to head south as Israel prepares to invade the northern part of the strip.

"On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said, after meeting with Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, that the Rafah border crossing with Egypt would reopen, without giving details.... But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Monday that no cease-fire had been agreed to allow foreigners out of Gaza and foreign aid into the enclave. A senior official in Hamas's political bureau, Izzat Al-Rishq, also denied reports of a temporary cease-fire or the opening of the Rafah crossing. More than 500,000 Gazans have moved south after the Israeli military urged civilians to flee before a land invasion aimed at destroying Hamas...." ~~~

~~~ CNN's liveblog is here.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden warned Israel in an interview aired on Sunday not to reoccupy Gaza, his first significant public effort to restrain America's ally in the wake of the Hamas assault that killed more than 1,300 people, including at least 29 Americans. Mr. Biden has offered staunch support for Israel since the Oct. 7 attack and refused to criticize Israel for its retaliatory siege of Gaza, the coastal enclave controlled by Hamas, even as U.N. officials have warned of a humanitarian crisis there.... 'Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don't represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again.' But 'taking out the extremists' there, he added, 'is a necessary requirement.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The "60 Minutes" story, by Scott Pelley, is here. The transcript of Pelley's interview of President Biden, via "60 Minutes," is here. ~~~

Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "CNN anchor Jake Tapper capped off his show by wishing peace to 'all of us' after an unsparing video essay featuring relatives of Hamas victims who nonetheless strive for compassion and peace, and are unafraid to criticize the Israeli government if they see it as necessary." MB: This was an excellent segment/tearjerker, and I looked for it in vain on YouTube before I discovered Christopher had picked it up. Includes video & transcript.

Ecuador. Banana Repubic? Genevieve Glatsky, et al., of the New York Times: "Daniel Noboa, a center-right scion of a banana empire, was set to win Ecuador's presidential race on Sunday night with more than three-quarters of the votes counted, in a high-stakes campaign driven by an electorate frustrated with the country's surging violence and ailing economy. The political outsider was poised to defeat Luisa González, a leftist handpicked by former President Rafael Correa who ran on a pledge of returning to a time of prosperity and low homicide rates under the Correa government.The vote signaled a desire for change in a nation of nearly 17 million on South America's western coast that has seen a wave of violence from international criminal groups and local gangs that have turned Ecuador into a key player in the global drug trade and sent tens of thousands of Ecuadoreans fleeing to the U.S.-Mexico border."

Poland. Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "Centrist and progressive forces appeared capable of forming a new government in Poland after securing more seats in a critical general election on Sunday, despite the governing nationalist party, Law and Justice, winning the most votes for a single party. Exit polls showing a strong second place finish by the main opposition group, Civic Coalition, and better than expected results for two smaller centrist and progressive parties suggested a dramatic upset that would frustrate the governing party's hope of an unprecedented third consecutive term. A jubilant Donald Tusk, Civic Coalition's leader, declared the projected results a resounding 'win for democracy' that would end the rule of Law and Justice, known by its Polish acronym PiS, in power since 2015." The AP's story is here.

The Conversation -- October 15, 2023

Alabama. Driving While In Labor. Bracey Harris of NBC News: "By the end of the month, two Alabama hospitals will stop delivering babies. A third will follow suit a few weeks later. That will leave two counties -- Shelby and Monroe -- without any birthing hospitals, and strip a predominantly Black neighborhood in Birmingham of a sought-after maternity unit.... People in Monroe County ... could face drives between 35 to 100 miles to a labor and delivery department. Trekking that far to give birth is not unheard of in Alabama, in which more than a third of the counties are maternity care deserts.... The state has one of the highest fewer than half of rural hospitals have labor and delivery services...." MB: This is not a developed country.

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Jordan Bullies the Holdouts. Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "Representative Jim Jordan and his allies have begun a right-wing pressure campaign against Republicans opposed to electing him speaker, working to unleash the rage of the party's base voters against any lawmaker standing in the way of his election.... Lawmakers and activists close to him have taken to social media and the airwaves to blast the Republicans they believe are blocking his path to victory and encourage voters to browbeat them into supporting Mr. Jordan.... The strategy is reminiscent of the bullying tactics that Mr. Jordan and his allies have used over the past decade to pull the G.O.P. further to the right, and borrows a page from ... Donald J. Trump, who is backing Mr. Jordan. It is also an approach that helped propel the House G.O.P. into its current leadership crisis." MB: Jordan will make a great speaker, loved & admired by all. ~~~

     ~~~ A related Politico story by Rachel Bade is here. It's almost as if Jordan is not a pleasant person.

Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "As prosecutors and lawyers for Donald Trump spar over the former president's public statements, Trump the candidate keeps saying things that could hurt Trump the defendant's chances in court.... On the campaign trail, the former president has attacked the prosecutors, witnesses and alleged evidence against him in ways that seem to have only strengthened his wide lead atop the GOP field.... But the bombastic diatribes are also giving prosecutors new material that could be used at trial to prove elements of the criminal charges against the former president. If special counsel Jack Smith succeeds in his quest for a gag order on Trump, prosecutors could lose one of their best sources of incriminating information -- Trump's mouth.... [For instance,] 'I don't think this has ever been told,' he said to the rally hosted by Club 47, a group trying to get him reelected. 'They'll say, "Oh, it's classified information." Maybe it is, but I don't think so.'... [He] then proceeded to tell a story about a U.S. operation in 2020 that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Quds Force.... Whether Trump's Soleimani story is true or not, the comments could easily be used by prosecutors at trial to show Trump's intentions and state of mind, and argue to a jury that even after his indictment, the former president shows a willful disregard for protecting national security secrets."

Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "The judge presiding over the upcoming damages trial against Rudy Giuliani said Friday she will tell jurors that the former Trump lawyer intentionally hid financial documents and other records in defiance of court orders. In a five-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said the move was necessary given 'Giuliani's continued and flagrant disregard of this Court's August 30 Order that he produce financial-related documents concerning his personal and his businesses' past and present assets' and other pertinent information. That means jurors deciding how much Giuliani should pay two Georgia election workers he defamed will be told they can assume the worst about why the former New York City mayor has failed to turn over the court-ordered records. 'The jury will be instructed that it must, when determining an appropriate sum of compensatory, presumed, and punitive damages, infer that defendant Giuliani was intentionally trying to hide relevant discovery about the Giuliani Businesses' finances for the purpose of shielding his assets from discovery and artificially deflating his net worth,' the judge wrote." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2024. It seems the New Hampshire Republican party was so afraid of 15-year-old journalist/blogger Quinn Mitchell that they called the cops, who frog-marched Mitchell out of a presidential candidates' forum. It's no wonder. During a June town hall, Mitchell respectfully asked magna cum laude Yale grad & Harvard Law cum laude alum Ron DeSantis a straightforward question, and DeSantis blew it. New Hampshire Republicans later said they were very, very sorry, & Mitchell was welcome to come back. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times reports. MB: If you can't stand up to a polite teenager, how you gonna stand up to Putin & Xi?

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Louisiana Just Got a Little Worse. Sara Cline of the AP: "Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican backed by ... Donald Trump, has won the Louisiana governor's race, holding off a crowded field of candidates. The win is a major victory for the GOP as they reclaim the governor's mansion for the first time in eight years. Landry will replace current Gov. John Bel Edwards, who was unable to seek reelection due to consecutive term limits. Edwards is the only Democratic governor in the Deep South.... Landry has been in the spotlight over his involvement and staunch support of Louisiana laws that have drawn much debate, including banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths, the state's near-total abortion ban that doesn't have exceptions for cases of rape and incest, and a law restricting youths' access to 'sexually explicit material' in libraries, which opponents fear will target LGBTQ+ books." The New York Times story is here.

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The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Gaza war are here:"Hundreds of thousands of people in northern Gaza are fleeing in buses, cars and on foot, crowding onto narrow roads leading south after Israel's evacuation warning. The Israeli military said it is preparing a 'wide range' of offensive plans 'for the next stages of the war, with an emphasis on significant ground operations,' though it has not provided a concrete indication of when the assault would start. A U.S. evacuation deal to allow American citizens to leave Gaza via the Rafah border into Egypt during a small window on Saturday faltered after Palestinian and Egyptian officials failed to communicate, The Washington Post reported. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is 'fast becoming untenable,' U.N. relief head Martin Griffiths warned Saturday, adding that 'the worst is yet to come.'" ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's liveblog is here.

Matthew Lee & Lolita Baldor of the AP: "President Joe Biden on Saturday spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging the leaders to allow humanitarian aid to the region and affirmed his support for efforts to protect civilians. The weekend calls in Washington came ahead of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's announcement that the U.S. was moving up a second carrier strike group in support of Israel. Secretary of State Antony Blinken intensified diplomatic outreach across the Middle East and beyond to rally an international response to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from expanding. The broad U.S. efforts reflect the international concern about the number of civilians at risk and the potential ramifications of a prolonged war as Israel told Gaza residents to move south and Hamas urged people to remain in their homes. The Biden administration has not publicly urged Israel to restrain its response after the Hamas attack a week ago, but has emphasized the country's commitment to following the rules of war."

News Lede

New York Times: "Piper Laurie, who escaped the 1950s Hollywood starlet-making machinery to become a respected actress with three Oscar nominations and an Emmy Award, died on Saturday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91."

The Conversation -- October 14, 2023

Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "The judge presiding over the upcoming damages trial against Rudy Giuliani said Friday she will tell jurors that the former Trump lawyer intentionally hid financial documents and other records in defiance of court orders. In a five-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said the move was necessary given 'Giuliani's continued and flagrant disregard of this Court's August 30 Order that he produce financial-related documents concerning his personal and his businesses' past and present assets' and other pertinent information. That means jurors deciding how much Giuliani should pay two Georgia election workers he defamed will be told they can assume the worst about why the former New York City mayor has failed to turn over the court-ordered records. 'The jury will be instructed that it must, when determining an appropriate sum of compensatory, presumed, and punitive damages, infer that defendant Giuliani was intentionally trying to hide relevant discovery about the Giuliani Businesses finances for the purpose of shielding his assets from discovery and artificially deflating his net worth,' the judge wrote."

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Matthew Daly of the AP: "The Biden administration has selected clean-energy projects from Pennsylvania to California for a $7 billion program to kickstart development and production of hydrogen fuel, a key component of President Joe Biden's agenda to slow climate change. Biden called clean hydrogen essential to his vision of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by 2050. His goal is to establish seven regional hubs to help replace fossil fuels such as coal and oil with cleaner-burning hydrogen as an energy source for vehicles, manufacturing and generating electricity. The seven hubs, which include projects in 16 states, will spur more than $40 billion in private investment and create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs, many of them union positions, Biden said Friday at a cargo terminal in Philadelphia, where one of the hubs will be based."

Speaker Pick o' the Day

Clare Foran & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "House Republicans have picked Rep. Jim Jordan as their new speaker nominee, though it is unclear if the Ohio Republican can win enough support to secure the gavel in a full House vote as the conference faces a leadership crisis. There are already signs Jordan will encounter resistance as several lawmakers have said they would not vote for him." This is an update of a story linked earlier today. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Olivia Beavers & Jordain Carney of Politico: Jim Jordan "won with 124 votes, according to two sources..., but he'll need to meet a much higher bar of 217 to be elected speaker on the House floor. The timing of a [floor] vote is in flux, as several Republicans publicly speculate that Jordan won't be able to get there." As Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) suggested, if "moderates" reward the hardliners' bad behavior and cave to voting en masse for Jordan, they should expect more bad behavior. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "House Republicans on Friday nominated Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the hard-right chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to be their next speaker, but quickly postponed a floor vote to elect him as scores of their members refused to commit to backing him. By a vote of 124 to 81, Mr. Jordan defeated Representative Austin Scott of Georgia, a mainstream conservative and an ally of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy who had decided just hours earlier to seek the nomination. Mr. Scott had effectively put himself forward as a protest candidate against Mr. Jordan, the co-founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and a favorite of ... Donald J. Trump's. But while Mr. Jordan won the contest, his quest for the speakership still faced serious challenges. A second secret-ballot vote revealed that a sizable chunk of Republicans did not intend to support him on the floor, where he needs 217 votes to win the gavel. It was a continuation of the bitter party infighting that has broken out in recent days paralyzing the House.... Republicans sent their members home for the weekend late Friday afternoon with no resolution and no sense of when the feuding might end." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.)

Sarah Ferris, et al., of Politico: "A bipartisan solution to the GOP's leadership chaos still sounds farfetched to most on the Hill -- but then, so does the idea that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) might overcome his dozens of skeptics and win a floor vote early next week.... Unless Jordan can overcome his skeptics and push to victory on the floor in the next several days, the only way forward might be with Democrats. A group of centrist Democrats wrote to Acting Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) on Friday to propose a limited agenda and some perks for the opposing party in exchange for temporarily restarting House business during a time of global crisis. Some self-described GOP pragmatists have suggested that if Republicans can't chart a course on their own, they could cut a deal with Democrats to break the 10-day impasse." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you read through the report, you'll see why the reporters call the various schemes "far-fetched": Republicans can't agree on anything. Many are dug in with a "my way or the highway" 'tude, and the highway is a roundabout with at least half-a-dozen exits.

Sahil Kapur & Julia Jester of NBC News: "'House Republicans have selected as their nominee to be the speaker of the people's House the chairman of the chaos caucus, a defender in a dangerous way of dysfunction, and an extremist extraordinaire,' House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Friday on the steps of the Capitol, flanked by dozen of Democratic lawmakers. 'His focus has been on peddling lies and conspiracy theories and driving division amongst the American people.' House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., labeled Jordan an 'insurrectionist' and said he would be on a glide path to becoming speaker if not for the unified opposition of Democrats. 'He was directly involved in the right-wing coup that sought to overturn the 2020 election,' she said.... [Rep. Ted] Lieu [D-Calif.] also warned that if Jordan is speaker, he would fight to avoid certifying a potential Biden re-election victory in 2024: 'Jim Jordan is one of the leaders of not respecting the will of American people in elections, and he will absolutely do everything he can to not certify a Biden victory. That's what he did before.'"

GOP Beauty Contest/Queen for a Day. Scott Wong of NBC News: "Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., a member of the GOP leadership team, plans to jump into the race [for speaker] if [Rep. Jim] Jordan, R-Ohio, can't secure the 217 votes needed by early next week, according to a source familiar with the lawmaker's plans."

Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "... there's one historical claim made by fascists that gets accepted at face value by people who ought to know better: The idea that authoritarian regimes are models of order and discipline.... The belief that the far right is ruthlessly efficient and well organized terrifies its opponents and emboldens its supporters, then and now. If you still buy any of that, consider the Republicans in Congress, who are behaving like a sackful of trapped weasels over what should be a simple task: Picking which one of the indistinguishable MAGA-monsters gets to be speaker of the House.... Veering hard toward the radical right hasn't made Republicans more cohesive or more disciplined. On the contrary, it's this rightward shift that is fueling the ugliness. Contrary to popular belief, authoritarianism brings chaos, not order." (Also linked yesterday.)

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "... there is one eternal truth, one unwavering constant to steady us when all else is in flux: Every time the House Republican majority tries to govern, it's guaranteed to turn into a goat rodeo." Milbank wrote his column before Friday's events, but it's still LOL funny in places: "Reporters and TV crews chased [George] Santos back to his office, crashing into furniture in the hallway. 'How can you vote in the speaker election,' asked CNN's Manu Raju, 'when you've been charged with all these crimes?' Santos slammed his office door in Raju's face."

Marie: A year ago, much was made of former British Prime Minister's Liz Truss's failure to hold onto the top job for as long as the life of a head of lettuce. (The lettuce won.) Well, I am here to report (and this is true) that at the same time Republicans ousted My Kevin as Speaker of the House. I bought a lovely head of butter lettuce, which sat in my fridge crisper in its own little well of water to keep it fresh. For a while, I pulled off lettuce leaves, one or two at a time, to use in my sandwiches. But I never finished the head. House Republicans still have not elected another speaker, but what's left of my head of lettuce is a tiny black blob of unrecognizable origin.

Mark Mazetti & Vivian Yee of the New York Times: "The charges against Senator Robert Menendez and his wife [Nadine] highlight how Egypt's powerful intelligence agency wields influence.... [Indictments against the couple reveal how] they tried to head off potential cuts to the more than $1 billion in aid that the United States sends to Cairo each year. They gave Egyptian officials internal information about staffing at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. And they pushed the U.S. secretary of state to help block a dam project on the Nile River that Egypt's government vigorously opposed. In return, prosecutors say, the Menendezes received hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold bars, cash and other bribes.... The roles of the two Egyptian spies [-- Gen. Ahmed Helmy, Egypt's top spy in Washington ('Egyptian Official-3') and Gen. Abbas Kamel, the chief of Egypt's General Intelligence Service,('Egyptian Official-5') --] in trying to influence U.S. policy also provide more evidence to suggest that the information-passing and bribe-paying could be part of an espionage operation centered on Mr. Menendez, and not just another tactic to wield influence in Washington." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Interesting read. And for Pete's sake, don't allow Bob Menendez near any piece of classified information. He'll sell it to the highest bidder.

Graham Kates of CBS News: "... Donald Trump's ex-lawyer and 'fixer,' Michael Cohen, will not testify next week as planned in the New York civil fraud trial against Trump and his company, due to a medical issue.... Trump ... planned to attend the proceedings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday." MB: So we'll see if Trump shows up next week or if his purpose was simply to scowl at Cohen so he'll stay away.

Beth Reinhard, et al., of the Washington Post: "Less than five years into a 20-year sentence for his role in a massive fraud scheme..., [Philip] Esformes walked out of federal prison thanks to Donald Trump, who granted him clemency in the waning days of his presidency. But ... the Biden Justice Department is seeking to retry him -- a move made possible because the jury that convicted him reached no verdict on six counts, including the most serious charge of conspiracy to commit health-care fraud. Trump's clemency order was silent on those charges.... The highly unusual decision to retry a clemency recipient on hung charges has emerged as yet another flash point in the broader battle between the far right, which portrays the Justice Department as an arm of an out-of-control 'deep state,' and law-and-order proponents seeking to defend institutions of democracy against incursions by the former president and his allies. Experts say they know of no precedent for this dispute.... Some former prosecutors say a retrial is a chance to correct a grievous mistake in which Trump bypassed long-standing protocols to grant clemency to a corrupt nursing home executive."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court said on Friday that it would hear a second challenge to a foundational precedent on the power of executive agencies. The new case is almost identical to one the court agreed to hear in May, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, No. 22-451. The court's usual practice when asked to hear a follow-on case concerning the same issues is to hold the new case until the earlier one is resolved and then return it to the lower courts for reconsideration in light of the ruling in the first one. The court's unusual decision to grant review in the new case was almost surely because Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had recused herself from the earlier case, having served on the panel that heard it when she was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit."

As Democracy Crumbles. Mark Sherman of the AP: "The Supreme Court avoided a catastrophic accident last year when a piece of marble at least 2 feet long crashed to the ground in an interior courtyard used by the justices and their aides, according to several court employees. The incident, which the court still fails to acknowledge publicly, took place in the tense spring of 2022, as the court already was dealing with death threats and other security concerns and the justices were putting the final touches on their stunning decision overturning Roe v. Wade.... No one was injured when the marble fell, the employees said. The piece was easily big enough to have seriously injured someone, they said. It was much larger than the basketball-sized chunk that fell near the court's front entrance in 2005." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2024

Marshall Cohen of CNN: "... Donald Trump has lost the first of several attempts to throw out a lawsuit that seeks to block him from the 2024 presidential ballot in Colorado, based on the 14th Amendment's prohibition against insurrectionists holding public office. Colorado District Judge Sarah Wallace this week rejected Trump's bid to get the lawsuit dismissed on free-speech grounds. The former president still has several pending challenges against the case, which was initiated by a liberal government watchdog group."

Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times: "As [Donald] Trump dodges debates and is regularly seen on his golf courses in branded white polo shirts and red MAGA hats, it can seem that he is bypassing the 2024 primary fight entirely. He has done relatively few public campaign events until recent weeks. But Mr. Trump and his political team have spent months working behind the scenes to build alliances and contingency plans with key party officials, seeking to twist the primary and delegate rules in their favor....'They've rigged it anywhere they thought they could pull it off,' said Ken Cuccinelli, a former Trump administration official who founded ... [a] pro-DeSantis super PAC.... 'No one has tried to rig the rules like Donald Trump has been doing here at least in a very long time,' he said. 'And no one has ever done it who, in other circumstances, complains about the rules being rigged.'... Mr. Trump is doing to Mr. DeSantis exactly what he once accused Hillary Clinton of doing to Bernie Sanders: bending the system in his favor."

Dear Mrs. Trump: Donnie does not play well with others, to say the least. He has formed a gang of third-graders who steal from the younger children and bully even the boys & girls in the upper grades with almost mobster-like techniques. Last week he made lewd comments to me, which I will not repeat, and he super-glued a disgusting anatomical picture to the front of my skirt you-know-where. Our school counselor advises Donnie should visit with a psychiatrist. I think he also might benefit by attending a strict private boarding or military school where some discipline might be administered. I hope you and your family are well and safe because My God! -- Mrs. Clementine Woosley, Donnie's teacher ~~~

~~~ Make America Genocidal Again. Marianne Levine & Meryl Kornfeld of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump has denigrated undocumented immigrants in recent weeks by accusing them of 'poisoning the blood of our country,' associating them with drug and alcohol use and portraying them as dangerous threats to Americans, prompting widespread criticism and denunciations of racism and xenophobia from immigrant and civil rights groups. During a recent rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the former president said: 'These people are very aggressive: They drink, they have drugs, a lot of things happening.'... And in New Hampshire on Monday, Trump baselessly accused immigrants crossing the Mexican border of being involved in the recent attacks on Israel.... Across his campaign rallies, Trump devotes significant portions of his speeches to the border and to immigration, speaking in often exaggerated and graphic terms.... 'He appears to be taking pages from the Hitler Nazi playbook and using them in this production to divide Americans and engage in tribalism,' [Domingo] Garcia [of the League of United Latin American Citizens] said.... Civil rights groups ... are warning that his ... [remarks] could inspire violence against minorities and reflects rhetoric used by white nationalists."

Marie: So as Joe Biden plans for the future by addressing climate change and increasing green-energy jobs, Donald Trump recycles and escalates racist and xenophobic rhetoric. As Biden expresses unwavering support for Israel against barbaric attacks, Trump false accuses Israel's prime minister of backing out of a planned joint military strike at the last minute. ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine

The New York Times' live developments Saturday or the Israel/Hamas war are here. The AP's live updates are here. ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's live updates are here: "Israel's military has given Gazans a six-hour window to evacuate south on specified streets to 'ensure their safety.' It's unclear how widely the messaging has been received amid electricity and internet blackouts. The 'movement advisory' for Gaza residents comes a day after warnings were issued to the 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes, amid signs Israel is set to ramp up its retaliatory offensive against Hamas.... Israel's evacuation order prompted tens of thousands of people to leave their homes in Gaza Friday, according to the UN's humanitarian office. Gaza's humanitarian crisis is deepening with warnings people are at risk of starvation."

Paul Murphy, et al., of CNN: "A CNN investigation has analysed almost two years of training and propaganda video released by Hamas and its affiliates to reveal the months of preparations that went into last week's attack, finding that militants trained for the onslaught in at least six sites across Gaza. Two of those sites, including the arid training site shown in the December video, were a little more than a mile from the most fortified and patrolled section of the Gaza-Israel border.... Two years of satellite imagery, also reviewed by CNN, show no indication of an offensive Israeli military action against any of the six identified sites.... [One] video taken more than a year ago, shows Hamas fighters practicing take-offs, landings and assaults with paragliders -- the same unusual assault mode that Hamas deployed with lethal effect in the ... Oct. 7 attack.... The fact that Hamas trained for the attack in plain sight for at least two years raise further questions as to why Israel, home to the Middle East's most sophisticated military and spying operation, was unable to pick up on and stop the October 7 attack?" Some of the videos are included in the report.

Planned Barbarity. Anna Schecter of NBC News: "Documents exclusively obtained by NBC News show that Hamas created detailed plans to target elementary schools and a youth center in the Israeli kibbutz of Kfar Sa'ad, to "kill as many people as possible," seize hostages and quickly move them into the Gaza Strip. The attack plans, which are labeled 'top secret' in Arabic, appear to be orders for two highly trained Hamas units to surround and infiltrate villages and target places where civilians, including children, gather."

Paul Blumenthal of the Huffington Post: "... Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Friday that all citizens of Gaza are responsible for the attack Hamas perpetrated in Israel last weekend that left over 1,200 people dead. 'It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,' Herzog said at a press conference on Friday. 'It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It's absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d'etat.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is stupid on its face. Half the people who live in the Gaza Strip are less than age 18. Of course some of the older teens are certainly pro-Hamas or participate in Hamas programs, but that number is surely balanced out by adult citizens who oppose violence and have seen quite enough of it. A million school-aged children are not responsible for Hamas.

Kareem Fahim, et al., of the Washington Post: "A Reuters videographer [Issam Abdallah] was killed and six other journalists were wounded Friday in southern Lebanon when the area they were reporting from was struck by Israeli shelling.... Journalists from the Al Jazeera news channel and Agence France-Presse were also injured in the strike.... A cameraman for Al Araby TV said ... there was no indication that fire from Lebanon was coming from anywhere near the journalists.... Reporters Without Borders said Abdallah was 'killed by an Israeli strike while covering the situation on the southern border' in Lebanon. The press advocacy group described it as a 'heinous crime against journalists' and said it was 'continuing its investigations into the circumstances of this tragedy.'"

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "A pair of classified C.I.A. intelligence reports issued in the days ahead of a major Hamas attack on Israel warned about a potential escalation in violence but did not predict the complex, multipronged attack that Hamas gunmen launched against Israel days later, according to U.S. officials. The first of the intelligence reports, dated Sept. 28, described the possibility that Hamas would launch rockets into Israel over a period of several days. The second report, dated Oct. 5, built on the first but was more analytical. The Oct. 5 report appeared in a daily C.I.A. summary of intelligence that is distributed widely to policymakers and lawmakers, the officials said. But intelligence officials did not brief either of the reports to President Biden or senior White House officials. Nor did the C.I.A. highlight the reports to White House policymakers as being of particular significance, officials said." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

A Conspiracy Theory with Legs. Thom Hartmann raises the question: did Donald Trump leak vital classified security information to Russia, who conveyed the information to Hamas, via Iran? Hartmann describes his evidence as "speculation," but it is plausible speculation, given Trump's history of passing around classified information to Russians, random guests at his resorts, and even to the general public. Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. See also his commentary in yesterday's thread. MB: IMO, one factor that mitigates against the likelihood that Hamas relied to Trump's leaks is that Israel should have been so horrified by Trump's 2017 leak(s) that they would have been super-careful not to provide the U.S. with further intelligence that could further damage their defenses and personnel.

Every Word He Says Is a Lie, Including 'And' and 'The.' Courtney Kube & Katherine Doyle of NBC News: "... Donald Trump falsely characterized Israel's role in his administration's assassination of Iran's top general during remarks this week, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the planning of the operation. Trump said Wednesday that Israel planned to be part of the January 2020 operation that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani but abruptly backed out the night before it was to take place. In his remarks, delivered before an audience at his Mar-a-Lago club..., Trump sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for that decision after months of working with the U.S. on the operation. But the U.S. officials familiar with the planning said Trump's comments are entirely false. 'They were never on board with it,' said a former senior White House official, referring to the Israelis. 'They always thought it was a dangerous and destabilizing idea.'"

If you're sketchy on the last 3/4s of a century's history of the Israel & Palestine, here's a brief history.

New Zealand. Nick Perry of the AP: "Conservative former businessman Christopher Luxon will be New Zealand's next prime minister after winning a decisive election victory Saturday. People voted for change after six years of a liberal government led for most of that time by Jacinda Ardern."

Russia. Francesca Ebel of the Washington Post: "Three lawyers who represent the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been arrested, Navalny's spokeswoman said Friday -- depriving the Kremlin critic of one of his few remaining channels to the outside world.... Navalny press secretary Kira Yarmysh wrote on X ... that the lawyers had been detained 'so that Alexei is without legal protection .. and to send a signal to other lawyers: it is dangerous to defend him and other political prisoners.'" MB: Expect Donald Trump to put this travesty in his Great Ideas notebook.

Ukraine, et al. Aamer Madhani of the AP: "The White House said on Friday that North Korea has delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia for its ongoing war in Ukraine.... White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the U.S. believes Kim is seeking sophisticated Russian weapons technologies in return for the munitions to boost North Korea's military and nuclear program."

News Lede

** CNN: "A 'ring of fire' annular solar eclipse will put on a show from Oregon to Texas this Saturday -- as long as clouds don't spoil the fun. The moon doesn't cover 100% of the sun in an annular solar eclipse like in a total solar eclipse, but instead allows some light to peek through and encircle the moon in a so-called 'ring of fire,' also known as annularity. Only a narrow corridor of the western and central US will be able to experience the ring, when the moon will block out 90% of the sun for a few minutes on Saturday morning. Here are the best and worst places to see the eclipse unfold based on weather conditions:"