In this illustration drawn from a video feed, the prosecution presents its closing argument in the federal trial against singer R. Kelly on Sept. 22 in New York.
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In this illustration drawn from a video feed, the prosecution presents its closing argument in the federal trial against singer R. Kelly on Sept. 22 in New York.
Elizabeth Williams/AP
After more than 25 years of accusations and a New York federal court trial that lasted seven weeks, R&B singer R. Kelly has been found guilty of charges including sexual exploitation of a child, bribery, racketeering and sex trafficking involving five victims. Kelly faces a possible sentence of 10 years to life in prison.
Kelly sat absolutely still as the foreperson gave the jury’s verdict to Judge Ann Donnelly.
There were fourteen underlying acts associated with the racketeering charge. The jury found that the government had proven twelve of those acts, involving five victims: the singer Aaliyah as well as women named Stephanie, Jerhonda Pace, Jane and Stephanie. Three acts associated with an alleged victim named Sonja were not proven. (Most alleged victims went by their first names or pseudonyms.) The government needed proof of only two of the racketeering acts for a guilty charge.
Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York successfully proved to a jury of seven men and five women that Kelly had been the head of a criminal enterprise, whose purpose was to lure girls, boys and women to the R&B singer for his sexual gratification.
On top of awaiting sentencing in this New York case, Kelly will face a second federal trial on charges of child pornography and obstruction of justice in Illinois. Some of those accusations are related to a 2008 child pornography trial in Chicago, in which he was acquitted of all charges.
Additionally, Kelly faces outstanding criminal charges in both Cook County, Ill., where he was indicted by the state attorney in Feb. 2019 for aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four victims (three of them minors), and in Minnesota, where Mr. Kelly was charged in Aug. 2019 with engaging in prostitution with a minor.
The manhunt for Brian Laundrie in a Florida nature reserve will be scaled back this week, days after a county coroner said Laundrie’s fiancee, Gabby Petito, died by homicide.
The FBI is now leading the search that will be “targeted based on intelligence,” North Port Police spokesperson Josh Taylor said Monday.
More than 75 law enforcement personnel from 16 agencies joined the search last week in the 24,000-acre Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County after the FBI issued a federal arrest warrant over events after Petito’s death. Authorities used a diver unit, dogs, drones and ATV vehicles to search the wetlands.
“I don’t think you’re going to see those large-scale types of efforts this week,” Taylor told USA TODAY. “Hopefully, water will lower in areas hard to currently access.”
The park includes thousands of acres of swampy, subtropical terrain and wildlife including alligators, snakes, bobcats and coyotes. There’s more than 100 miles of hiking, biking and horseback riding trails, along with camping areas and rivers.
On Sunday, FBI agents visited Laundrie’s home and asked his parents for some of their son’s personal items to help with “DNA matching,” the family’s lawyer told NBC News and Fox News. The lawyer did not immediately confirm the visit to USA TODAY. The FBI field office in Denver, which is leading the investigation, would not comment on the case.
Laundrie was last seen nearly two weeks ago when he told his parents he was going hiking in Carlton Reserve after returning home on Sept. 1 without Petito from a cross-country trip to national parks.
The couple’s trip, which was documented on social media as a romantic adventure, began in July and was set to end in Oregon next month. After Laundrie returned home alone, investigators say he refused to share crucial information with them.
Petito’s body was then found at a campground near Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. Laundrie is considered a person of interest in Petito’s homicide but has not been charged.
Laundrie has been indicted on charges of unauthorized use of a Capital One debit card and several accounts involving more than $1,000, according to documents released Thursday by the U.S. District of Wyoming. The indictment also charges Laundrie with unauthorized access of a device and says he used the bank accounts without permission from about Aug. 30 through Sept. 1.
Meanwhile, TV personality Duane Lee Chapman, also known as “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” joined the search and promised to find Laundrie before his 24th birthday on Nov. 18. A law firm has offered a $20,000 reward for information that leads directly to Laundrie.
John Walsh, a victims’ advocate and the former host of the TV show “America’s Most Wanted,” is also searching for Laundrie and soliciting tips from the public.
As investigators searched for Laundrie, mourners gathered Sunday in New York to celebrate Petito’s life. Her funeral was in Holbrook, New York, near the Bayport-Blue Point community where Petito grew up.
Petito’s father, Joseph, told the crowd at the funeral home that the day was about remembering his daughter, not the sadness of her death, NBC New York reported.
“When you leave here today, be inspired by what she brought to the table, because the entire planet knows this woman’s name now. And she’s inspired a lot of women and a lot of men to do what’s best for them first,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud as a father.”
Contributing: John Bacon and Grace Hauck, USA TODAY
New York City, for example, experienced about 500 murders in 2020, compared with 319 in 2019, but both figures were far below the city’s worst year, 1990, when there were more than 2,200. Chicago had 771 murders last year, compared with about 500 in 2019 and 939 in 1992, one of the city’s most violent years. There were 351 murders last year in Los Angeles, versus 258 in 2019; its record is 1,010 murders in 1980.
The protests that erupted after the killing of George Floyd were also an important factor, although experts differ about why. Some argue that the police, under intense scrutiny and demoralized, pulled back from some aspects of crime prevention. Others put the emphasis on the public, suggesting that diminished respect for the police prompted more people to try to take the law into their own hands.
“The distrust of police, the low morale among police, the fact that the police are being less proactive because they are legitimately worried about being backed up by their superiors,” all were contributed factors, according to Mr. Winograd.
Law enforcement officers, like Chief Medina, also cited what they called the revolving jailhouse door created by bail reform as a factor driving up violence, although critics of that hypothesis noted that violent crime also increased in places where those changes have not occurred.
Other factors are more constant. The combination of drugs, money and guns, for example, has long provided a fuse for violent deaths among young men.
“A lot of it really does go back to people stressed by poverty and mental health issues and by drug addiction, and resolving a lot of these disputes by firearms,” said Liz Thomson, who used to supervise homicide investigations for the Albuquerque Police Department.
Even before the pandemic, people seemed more prickly, with minor disputes escalating into violent confrontations that ended in murder, law enforcement and other analysts noted. That tendency only deepened during the pandemic, they said, with perceived personal insults among the most common motivations for murder.
However, the prosecutor said the government had concerns about some current stresses in Hinckley’s life — the death of his mother in July and the looming disbanding later this year of a therapy group Hinckley regularly attended. Weston also noted that the coronavirus pandemic had basically shut down Hinckley’s work running a booth at an antique show. Those factors raise the possibility that Hinckley might become unstable due to a lack of social interaction, she said.
“Mr. Hinckley does have a history of turning inward in isolation,” Weston said. As a result, the government urged a nine-month delay on the final closing of Hinckley’s case — an arrangement she referred to as a “conditional unconditional release.”
Weston said the agreement to release Hinckley unconditionally was approved last week by officials at Justice Department headquarters. She did not elaborate on who there was involved in the decision.
“Ultimately, your honor, at his point the ball is in Mr. Hinckley’s hands,” she said. “It’s entirely up to him and the government expects and hopes that he can continue to comply as he has thus far.”
At the end of the hearing Monday in federal court in Washington, Friedman did not immediately issue the proposed order for a delayed end to Hinckley’s supervision. The Clinton-appointed judge said he wanted to make some small changes to it, but planned to approve the substance of the agreement.
In 1981, at age 25, Hinckley opened fire on Reagan as he left the Washington Hilton hotel near Dupont Circle following a speech. In addition to Reagan, Hinckley shot White House Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty. All survived the initial shooting, although Reagan was gravely wounded and Brady was left paralyzed.
Reagan recovered and completed two terms as president. He died in 2004.
Brady died in 2014, with his death being officially classified as a homicide due to his injuries more than three decades earlier.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday renewed efforts to shield hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the United States as young children from deportation, the latest maneuver in a long-running drama over the policy’s legality.
The administration proposed a rule that attempts to satisfy concerns of a federal judge in Houston who ruled in July that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was illegal, largely because the Obama administration bypassed procedural requirements when it took effect in 2012. The new rule mirrors the Obama-era initiative, recreating the 2012 policy and seeking to put it on firmer ground by going through the federal regulatory process.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said the Obama administration overstepped its authority and did not properly seek public feedback. He allowed for renewals to continue but prohibited new enrollments. The Biden administration is appealing.
The 205-page proposal solicits public feedback to address Hanen’s concern, though it is unclear if that would be enough. The proposed regulation will be published Tuesday in the Federal Register, triggering a 60-day comment period and ensuring that it is unlikely to take effect for several months.
The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who challenged DACA with eight other states before Hanen, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Obama administration created DACA with a memo issued by then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. It was intended as a stopgap measure until Congress legislated a permanent solution, which never occurred.
And because DACA isn’t the product of legislation, it falls into a category of policies that can more easily be changed from one administration to the next. President Donald Trump tried to rescind the DACA memo and end the program, but the Supreme Court concluded he did not go about it properly.
In attempting to shore up DACA through a formal rule — which is a more rigorous process than the original memo, though still not legislation — the Biden administration hopes to gain a legal stamp of approval from the courts.
It seems possible, if not likely, that the Supreme Court will once again be called upon to weigh in, unless Congress acts first.
The Biden administration’s move comes as congressional Democrats struggle to include immigration provisions in their 10-year, $3.5 trillion package of social and environment initiatives. Language in that bill helping millions of immigrants remain permanently in the U.S. has been a top goal of progressive and pro-immigration lawmakers, and Democrats cannot afford to lose many votes.
But the Senate’s nonpartisan parliamentarian said earlier this month the immigration provisions couldn’t remain in the sweeping bill because it violated the chamber’s budget rules.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called again on Monday for Congress to act swiftly to provide “the legal status they need and deserve.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration continues to take action to protect Dreamers and recognize their contributions to this country,” said Mayorkas, using a commonly used term for immigrants who came to the U.S. with their parents as young children. “This notice of proposed rulemaking is an important step to achieve that goal.”
Some pro-immigration advocates echoed Mayorkas’ view that the onus is on Congress.
“A more formalized version of DACA will stabilize the lives of DACA-eligible Dreamers but legislative action is still needed to fully solidify DACA recipients’ contributions, expand protections to other Dreamers and build a pathway to permanent legal status,” said Ali Noorani, president of the National Immigration Forum. “Formalizing DACA is a positive step, but it’s not a permanent fix.”
The Democratic-run House passed legislation earlier this year creating a way for Dreamers to become legal permanent residents, but the bill has gone nowhere in the Senate, where Republicans have blocked it and bipartisan talks have stalled. The Senate parliamentarian’s ruling further dampened legislative prospects. Advocates have said they would present alternative immigration provisions in hopes they would be permitted in the bill, but it’s not clear that would succeed.
Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law practice at Cornell Law School, said the administration’s proposal carries no major changes and “is an effort to bulletproof the existing program from litigation challenges.”
The proposal adheres to the same criteria, which include arriving in the country before age 16, continuously residing in the United States since arrival and being in the country on June 15, 2012.
Since 2012, more than 825,000 immigrants have enrolled in DACA.
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Spagat contributed from San Diego. Associated Press reporters Alan Fram in Washington and Paul Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed.
The Taliban had challenged the credentials of the ambassador from Afghanistan’s former government, and asked to represent the country at this year’s General Assembly summit, which began Sept. 21 and ends Monday.
But all challenges to credentials must be heard by the assembly’s credentials committee, which generally meets in November and did not convene earlier to hear the challenge.
But, Dujarric told The Associated Press on Monday morning: “We were notified Saturday by the Afghan Mission that they would no longer be speaking.”
Afghanistan was scheduled to deliver the final address of the gathering of presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and ministers on Monday afternoon. But it was not on the list of speakers issued Monday morning.
A phone message seeking comment was left with Afghanistan’s U.N. mission.
The Taliban overran most of Afghanistan last month as U.S. and NATO forces were in the final stages of their chaotic withdrawal from the country after 20 years and argue that they are now in charge and have the right to represent the country at the United Nations. Isaczai represents former president Ashraf Ghani’s government.
In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Taliban’s newly appointed foreign minister, Ameer Khan Muttaqi, said Ghani was “ousted” as of Aug. 15 and that countries across the world “no longer recognize him as president.”
Therefore, Muttaqi said, Isaczai no longer represents Afghanistan and the Taliban was nominating a new U.N. permanent representative, Mohammad Suhail Shaheen. He was a spokesperson for the Taliban during peace negotiations in Qatar.
“We have all the requirements needed for recognition of a government,” Shaheen told the AP last Wednesday. “So we hope the U.N., as a neutral world body, recognize the current government of Afghanistan.”
When the Taliban last ruled from 1996 to 2001, the U.N. refused to recognize their government and instead gave Afghanistan’s seat to the previous, warlord-dominated government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was killed by a suicide bomber in 2011. It was Rabbani’s government that brought Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of 9/11, to Afghanistan from Sudan in 1996.
The Taliban have said they want international recognition and financial help to rebuild the war-battered country. But the makeup of the new Taliban government poses a dilemma for the United Nations. Several of the interim ministers — including Muttaqi — are on the U.N.’s so-called blacklist of international terrorists and funders of terrorism.
When the credentials committee members do meet, they could use Taliban recognition as leverage to press for a more inclusive government that guarantees human rights, especially for girls who were barred from going to school during their previous rule, and women who weren’t able to work.
The committee’s members are the United States, Russia, China, Bahama, Bhutan, Chile, Namibia, Sierra Leone and Sweden.
Fox News chief Washington correspondent Mike Emanuel explains that Joe Biden’s recent 6% approval drop is a bad omen for Democrats in swing states on ‘Special Report.’
Just over eight months into office, President Biden is drowning in crises.
From immigration, to foreign policy, to the economy, to the coronavirus pandemic, the president’s problems appear to be mounting.
Afghanistan
Arguably the biggest crisis facing Biden right now stems from his troop withdrawal that saw 13 American service members killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul.
Biden was quick to blame others for the botched operation that saw the Taliban swiftly take over the country as Afghan security forces crumbled and U.S. weapons and equipment were seized.
The Taliban flag flew over the former U.S. embassy in Kabul as Americans struggled to leave the country, while the Biden administration claimed it was able to get every American citizen out of Afghanistan.
This was untrue, as Americans scrambled to get on planes and flee over land routes to escape the war-torn nation. Congressional offices were slammed by people desperate to return home to America, turning to them because the State Department was unhelpful.
In addition to American citizens being stranded in Afghanistan, special immigrant visa (SIV) holders, green card holders and Afghan allies were left trapped in the Taliban-controlled country as the State Department prevented flights with refugees from landing in bordering nations.
Additionally, the Biden administration’s vetting process has been rife with error, with American citizens and others with ties to the U.S. government being left behind as thousands of people without ties to America were evacuated to the United States.
The chaotic withdrawal has seen disease outbreaks among refugees and the administration scrambling to settle them in America.
In another embarassment, the Pentagon revealed recently that a drone strike they carried out against terrorist targets hit innocent Afghans instead.
Biden’s administration has all but turned a blind eye to the compounding crisis at the southern border, where hundreds of thousands of people have already illegally crossed into America this year alone.
On top of the hundreds of people being jam-packed into processing centers amid a global pandemic and the tens of thousands of migrants in a makeshift camp underneath an overpass in Del Rio, Texas, physical and sexual assaults of unaccompanied migrant children have been occurring at shocking rates in government-contracted facilities.
HHS documents first reported by Fox News on Wednesday illustrated the dark reality faced by some migrant children, with 33 instances of “sexual abuse” against unaccompanied minors tied to voluntary agencies contracting with the federal government.
Additionally, Biden is claiming to have visited the southern border but has never made the trek down in his entire political career.
Vice President Kamala Harris was tasked with addressing the root causes of the migrant surge and traveled to the border earlier this year after months of media scrutiny for avoiding a trip down south.
The economy
Congressional Democrats are working their tails off to pass Biden’s massive spending proposals. One of the biggest currently making its way through Congress has drawn warnings from Republicans, who say it will further increase inflation.
Federal unemployment benefits extended from the previous administration’s COVID-19 response have created a massive labor shortage in the U.S., with prices of goods and services rising because of it, as well as supply chain problems.
Proposed deficit-spending of another $3.5 trillion has spurred inflation fears, with alarms being sounded by many Republicans.
Additionally, the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus has prompted some states to float the idea of enacting coronavirus lockdowns again, despite the risk of severe economic consequences.
Delta variant
A crisis inherited from his predecessor, Biden’s response to the pandemic, let alone the currently dominant delta variant, has been rife with contradictions.
One of the most recent instances of the president flip-flopping in his COVID-19 response was his widely-panned vaccine mandate announcement for companies with over 100 employees.
Under the mandate, companies with more than 100 employees would be required to have all employees vaccinated or test negative weekly before returning to the office.
Biden had previously promised in December that there would not be a nationwide vaccine mandate, with his administration doubling down only two months before on the stance, saying the mandates were “not the role” of the federal government.
The announcement was met with fierce opposition from conservatives, who argue for public awareness of the vaccine but say medical decisions should not be mandated.
Additionally, Biden has been relying heavily on National Institute on Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci, who has had his own share of flip-flops.
Recently released documents outliningNational Institute of Health-funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China have put Fauci’s congressional testimony of no such research occurring under scrutiny.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a medical doctor, accused Fauci of lying to Congress last month over the bombshell report from the Intercept that revealed the U.S. government pumped $3.1 million into American health organization EcoHealth Alliance to back bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Leaked documentsrecently obtained by private research group DRASTIC “completely contradict” claims made by both China and Fauci about the reality of gain-of-function research being done inside the Wuhan institute that may have caused the coronavirus pandemic, according to a former State Department COVID-19 investigator.
Dr. David Asher, the ex-State Department official, told Fox News the biggest takeaway from the new documents is that there is a “smoking gun that explains the specific features of the [virus] sequence that are so peculiar.”
“The most genetically unusual piece of the puzzle and the sequence is a ‘furin cleavage site’, which allows the virus to spread from bats to humans, and among humans in a highly pathogenic way,” he said.
Republicans have been callingfor Fauci to step down or be fired by the president over his handling of the pandemic.
The manhunt for Brian Laundrie in a Florida nature reserve will be scaled back this week following the death of his fiancee Gabby Petito.
The FBI is now leading the search that will be “targeted based on intelligence,” said North Port Police spokesperson Josh Taylor.
More than 75 law enforcement personnel from 16 agencies joined the search last week in the 24,000-acre Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County after the FBI issued a federal arrest warrant over events that occurred following Petito’s death. Authorities used a specialized diver unit, dogs, drones and ATV vehicles to search the wetlands.
“I don’t think you’re going to see those large scale types of efforts this week,” Taylor told USA TODAY. “Hopefully, water will lower in areas hard to currently access.”
The park includes thousands of acres of swampy, subtropical terrain and wildlife including alligators, snakes, bobcats and coyotes. There’s more than 100 miles of hiking, biking and horseback riding trails, camping areas and rivers.
Laundrie was last seen nearly two weeks ago when he told his parents he was going hiking in Carlton Reserve after returning home from a cross-country trip to national parks without Petito on Sept. 1.
The couple’s trip, which was documented on social media as a romantic adventure, began in July and was set to end in Oregon next month. After Laundrie returned home alone, investigators say he refused to share critical information about the case with them.
Petito’s body was then found at a campground near Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. Laundrie is considered a person of interest in Petito’s homicide but has not been charged.
Laundrie has been indicted on charges of unauthorized use of a Capital One debit card and several accounts involving more than $1,000, according to documents released Thursday by the U.S. District of Wyoming. The indictment also charges Laundrie with unauthorized access of a device and says he used the bank accounts without permission from about Aug. 30 through Sept. 1.
Meanwhile, TV personality Duane Lee Chapman, also known as “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” joined the search and promised to find Laundrie before his 24th birthday on Nov. 18. A law firm offered a $20,000 reward for information that leads directly to Laundrie.
As investigators continued the search for Laundrie, mourners gathered in New York on Sunday to celebrate Petito’s life. The funeral services were held in Holbrook, New York, near the Bayport-Blue Point community where Petito grew up.
Petito’s father, Joseph, told the crowd at the funeral home that the day was about remembering his daughter, not relishing in the sadness of her death, NBC New York reported.
“When you leave here today, be inspired by what she brought to the table because the entire planet knows this woman’s name now. And she’s inspired a lot of women and a lot of men to do what’s best for them first,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud as a father.”
In this Nov. 18, 2003, file photo, John Hinckley Jr. arrives at U.S. District Court in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP
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In this Nov. 18, 2003, file photo, John Hinckley Jr. arrives at U.S. District Court in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP
A federal judge has approved the unconditional release next year of John Hinckley Jr., who wounded late President Ronald Reagan and three others outside a Washington, D.C., hotel in a failed assassination attempt in 1981.
Hinckley is now 66 years old, and has been living outside a mental health facility for the past several years, a result of a gradual lightening of supervision. His lawyer said the “momentous event” of Hinckley’s full release in June 2022 is both appropriate and required by the law.
“There is no evidence of danger whatsoever,” said Barry Wm. Levine, adding that Hinckley has an “excellent” prognosis.
Prosecutor Kacie Weston said the Justice Department agreed to a settlement but wanted to monitor Hinckley for the next nine months because of two big changes in his life: he’s living on his own for the first time in about 40 years, and because one of his primary doctors is preparing for retirement and disbanding Hinckley’s therapy group. DOJ said it would file a motion with the court before June of next year if it had fresh concerns about Hinckley.
“Ultimately your honor, at this point, the ball is in Mr. Hinckley’s hands,” Weston said.
Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman pointed out that “very few patients at St. Elizabeths Hospital have been studied more thoroughly than John Hinckley.”
In 1982, a jury found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity. He had been on trial for the shooting a year earlier of former President Reagan, White House Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and Washington Metropolitan Police officer Thomas Delahanty.
After the verdict, Hinckley was committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital, in Washington, D.C., where he resided for more than three decades. Starting in 2003, restrictions on Hinckley gradually lessened.
Five years ago, the court granted him convalescent leave to live full time in the community. Hinckley went to live with his mother in Williamsburg, Va. She died in her sleep earlier this summer at age 95.
Last year, the Department of Behavioral Health proposed a release for Hinckley with no conditions, telling the court he posed “low risk for future violence.” The department reiterated that proposal earlier this year.
Hinckley previously had been ordered to stay away from actress Jodie Foster, whom he said helped inspire his assassination attempt, as well as the families of Reagan and others wounded during his attack outside a Washington, D.C., hotel.
His lawyer said Hinckley wanted to express apologies and “profound regret” to the families of his victims, Foster and the American people. He cast the eventual release as a “victory for mental health.”
Levine, a longtime lawyer for Hinckley, said his client has followed the rules and the law for years.
“His mental disease is in full, stable and complete remission and has been so for over three decades,” Levine said.
LIZ AND LESLEY — Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) got the “60 Minutes” treatment Sunday night, and the most surprising moment — the one generating outsize attention on social media — had nothing to do with DONALD TRUMP. Instead it was about her past opposition to same-sex marriage, even though her sister MARY was married to a woman. “I was wrong. I was wrong. I love my sister very much, I love her family very much, and I was wrong. … I believe that my dad was right.” The clip… More on the segment below
WHERE’S THE URGENCY? — Congress is three days out from a vote on a key plank of the president’s agenda — a massive $1.2 trillion infrastructure package (BIF) — and President JOE BIDEN and House Democratic leaders haven’t even started the whipping process, we’re told from sources across the Democratic spectrum.
Our colleagues Natasha Korecki and Laura Barrón-López reported Sunday night that the president was making calls and doing Zoom sessions from Camp David over the weekend on BIF and the larger reconciliation package. But the seeming lack of urgency so far — given the sheer scale of the task and mere days to complete it — is alarming some House Democrats going into a critical week, multiple people involved told us Sunday night.
“I don’t understand why the president isn’t whipping his own historic bill,” said one moderate House Democrat.
THE VIEW FROM LEADERSHIP: Speaker NANCY PELOSI has been trying to project an air of confidence. She announced Sunday night that she plans to start the House debate on BIF today, with a vote Thursday.
The hope is that leaders can announce an agreement or “framework” on reconciliation with Sens. KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) and JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) by then, freeing progressives to vote for BIF.
The problem: Almost everyone we spoke to Sunday said that timing is unlikely at best. One senior Democratic aide called it flat-out “fiction.” “There [are] literally no negotiations with anyone,” another House moderate said.
Yes, Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER and the White House are in regular touch with Manchema trying to make progress on the larger reconciliation package. We also hear there’s an effort underway to get Manchin to walk back his demand for a “pause” on reconciliation. But that’s a far cry from a “framework.”
FRUSTRATION WITH BIDEN: Moderate Democrats expected Biden to start twisting House progressives’ arms during their White House meeting last week. But we’re told by sources in the progressive camp and another senior Democratic aide that the president has neither asked progressives to drop their demand that the reconciliation bill pass in tandem with BIF, nor pressed them to accept a stand-alone vote on BIF this week — at least not yet. This has infuriated moderates.
“The president needs to pick up the phone and call people,” the moderate source close to the talks told us. The person argued that the White House has been in “listening mode” for too long and needs to bang heads to get this vote over the finish line this week.
It’s not just moderates who are dismayed. “There are a lot of mistakes happening here,” the senior Democratic aide said Sunday night, acknowledging the lack of a game plan going into such a critical week. “There is no whip effort on the BIF yet. Everything is hanging by a thread. Biden needs to be more engaged.”
THE PROGRESSIVE VIEW: They firmly believe that Biden and Pelosi agree with them that both bills should move together. “No one has made a case to progressives or lobbied for them to change their position and vote for it before the Build Back Better Act,” one senior House progressive source told us. “And in fact the White House, when we were there on Wednesday, was very much in the same position: There was agreement that we need both bills.”
SO WHAT WILL PELOSI DO if Schumer and the White House don’t get a reconciliation deal hashed out with Manchema by Thursday? Your guess is as good as ours. Some Pelosi watchers are predicting she’ll turn to progressives and say: I tried, it’s not ready, you have to vote for this, and try to whip them in line. Others think she could just put a $3.5 trillion bill on the floor without an agreement with the Senate, though it could fail amid moderate opposition. Or, as some progressives believe this is heading, she could break her promise to moderates to vote on BIF this week while assuring them she’s pushing hard on a reconciliation deal and just needs more time.
Pelosi was equally cryptic on ABC’s “This Week”:“Let me just say we’re going to pass the bill this week,” she said of BIF. But she also had this warning: “I’m never bringing a bill to the floor that doesn’t have the votes.”
Good Monday morning, and thanks for reading Playbook, where we promise to bring you the latest on the crazy next couple of weeks in Congress. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.
GERMANY LATEST: MERKEL’S PARTY COME UP SHORT, BUT … — A great lede from POLITICO Europe’s Matthew Karnitschnig: “Looks like Germany won’t be saying Auf Wiedersehen to ANGELA MERKEL for a while yet. The country’s general election on Sunday left the two dominant political camps — the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the conservative alliance of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) — only about 1.7 percentage points apart. That signaled a drawn-out coalition-building process that is likely to leave Merkel in charge, on a caretaker basis, through the fall, if not longer.
“About the only thing one can say for certain now is that post-Merkel, Germany will remain on a solidly pro-EU transatlantic course, with moderate parties continuing to steer Europe’s most populous country.” Read the full story here
BIDEN’S MONDAY: The president and VP KAMALA HARRIS will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10 a.m.
HARRIS’ MONDAY: The VP will also host a Congressional Black Caucus 50th anniversary reception at her residence at 3:30 p.m.
National security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN is traveling to Saudi Arabia today to meet with Crown Prince MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN,per the AP.
Press secretary JEN PSAKI will brief at 1 p.m.
THE HOUSE will meet at noon and take up the bipartisan infrastructure bill at 2 p.m., with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. The House Democratic Caucus will meet at 5:30 p.m. for what’s likely to be a tense caucus meeting. Pelosi in her “Dear Colleague” letter specifically asked for the “fullest participation” possible, a jab at moderates who routinely skip these sessions.
THE SENATE will meet at 3 p.m. to take up the motion to proceed to the bill that would avert a government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. A cloture vote on the motion to proceed will come at 5:30 p.m.
PLAYBOOK READS
CONGRESS
PELOSI VS. SCHUMER? — Mods and progressives have been at each other’s throats for a while now on reconciliation. But what caught our eye in a story by NYT’s Jonathan Weisman were a few grafs about sniping between the camps of Pelosi and Schumer: “Senate leaders wish Ms. Pelosi had not let her committee leaders draft pieces of the bill on their own, since the measure being stitched together this weekend is likely to cost well over $3.5 trillion and build expectations that will have to be dashed.
“House Democrats have been kept largely in the dark about the Senate’s plans, since Mr. Schumer is writing his version behind closed doors. But, they complain, he has not pushed his committee chairmen to nail down their positions and line up their votes, so they can begin negotiating with their House counterparts.”
DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE SHUTDOWN — You know Washington is chaotic when a potential government shutdown four days away is below-the-fold news. But let’s not lose sight. Senate Republicans tonight are expected to block a short-term spending bill, or CR, because it would also raise the debt ceiling. But while the standoff has caused some political watchers to warn that a shutdown is a real possibility, we’ve been skeptical it will happen for one reason: It would look terrible for Democrats. Republicans have said they will back a funding bill that doesn’t include the debt ceiling. We expect that might be the Dems’ next play.
Speaking of the debt ceiling, our Caitlin Emma has a story up this morning about how Democrats are still saying they have no backup plan to raise the debt ceiling on their own accord. Aides tell her it could take two weeks for the party to take care of the issue via reconciliation, when the nation could face default in as few as three weeks.
DON’T DREAM IT’S OVER —Marianne LeVine, Nicholas Wu and Sarah Ferris take stock of the long list of dashed dreams for progressives this year — “a pathway to citizenship for many immigrants, a $15 minimum wage, new gun control laws, expanding voting, new standards for racial justice in policing and scrapping the legislative filibuster” — and their final ray of hope. “[T]he stakes for the social spending plan couldn’t be higher for the left,” they write.
ALL POLITICS
More from the “60 Minutes” Cheney interview …
— On Trump: “I think that millions of people around the country have been betrayed and misled, and deceived by Donald Trump. He has said that the election was stolen. He continues to say that. He continues to say things that aren’t true, and continues to raise money off of those claims.”
— On House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY: [T]here’s a difference between somebody who voted for Donald Trump and being the Republican leader after an insurrection, and setting all of that aside and going to Mar-a-Lago, and rehabilitating him, bringing him back in. That to me is unforgivable.”
— On her reelection bid, which she called “the most important House race in the country in 2022”: “A vote against me in this race, a vote for whomever Donald Trump has endorsed is a vote for somebody who’s willing to perpetuate the big lie, somebody who’s willing to put allegiance to Trump above allegiance to the Constitution, absolutely.” The full interview
SCOTUS OUTLOOK — There’s a growing perception that Supreme Court “justices are too political, too powerful and serve for too long,” WaPo’s Robert Barnes and Seung Min Kim report. “Even those who value the court see trouble ahead.”
YOUNGKIN’S TAKE — Republican Virginia gubernatorial candidate GLENN YOUNGKIN “wouldn’t say whether he would have voted to certify the election on Jan. 6 if he were a member of Congress,” according to Axios’ Sarah Mucha.
INSANE ASYLUM
INSIDE JOB — Mesa County, Colo., Clerk and Recorder TINA PETERS was hit with a lawsuit from the secretary of state’s office, alleging she and her deputy “snuck someone into the county elections offices to copy the hard drives of Dominion Voting Systems machines,” WaPo’s Emma Brown reports. “The events in Mesa County represent an escalation in the attacks on the nation’s voting system, one in which officials who were responsible for election security allegedly took actions that undermined that security in the name of protecting it.
“As baseless claims about election fraud are embraced by broad swaths of the Republican Party, experts fear that people who embrace those claims could be elected or appointed to offices where they oversee voting, potentially posing new security risks.” The full story is worth your time.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Rob Duhart Jr. is joining Walmart Global Tech as deputy CISO leading eCommerce and M&A security. He most recently was global head of federated privacy, safety and security at Google, and is a DOD, FBI and DOE alum.
TRANSITIONS — Will Boyington is now senior manager of public policy comms at Blue Origin. He previously was comms director of the National Space Council, and is a Dan Newhouse and House Oversight alum. … Ann O’Hanlon, who spent five years as chief of staff and campaign manager for Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), is the new Washington-based chief of staff at Change Research, a Silicon Valley polling firm. … Jon Summers will be chief comms officer at UsAgainstAlzheimer’s. He currently is president of Summers Strategies and is a Harry Reid alum. …
… Eric Bagwell is joining Intel as IP policy program director. He previously was a senior adviser for Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.). … Doug Lee is now senior director at Mindset. He most recently was VP of U.S. public policy at Credit Suisse, and is a House Appropriations and Mike Quigley alum. … Jake Brennan is now a senior associate at Avalere Health. He previously was a legislative assistant at Mehlman Castagnetti.
ENGAGED — Matt Schuck, comms director for Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and a Sean Duffy and HUD alum, and Melissa Donaldson, a U.S. Navy veteran and soon-to-be law student, got engaged Saturday afternoon. Schuck sent Donaldson on a scavenger hunt through the city and led her to the Starbucks at L’Enfant Plaza, where they had their first date. Pic… Another pic
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Stephanie Talton, deputy assistant commissioner for congressional affairs at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and George Talton, assistant chief with the U.S. Border Patrol, welcomed James Stephen Talton on Thursday. He joins big brother George. Pic… Another pic
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) (37), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) and Ed Case (D-Hawaii) … Josh Mandel … Juleanna Glover … WaPo’s Tony Romm … Seema Verma … Allie Owen … Anne-Marie Slaughter of New America … BGR Public Relations Jeff Birnbaum … Jeffrey M. Lacker … TSA’s Jenny Burke … Carl Woog of WhatsApp … Brian Killheffer (4-0) … Christina DiPasquale … LaVerne Alexander … POLITICO’s Meridith McGraw, Steven Overly, Amanda Pietroski, Nick Tedesco and Molly Fruits … Will Bredderman … League of Conservation Voters’ Sara Chieffo … Marty Franks … Peebles Squire … Francisco Urena … Geoff Burgan … Madison Group’s Marcus Sebastian Mason … Dan Raviv … Brendan Dunn of Akin Gump … American Cleaning Institute’s Kristin DiNicolantonio … René Carbone Bardorf … ABC’s Matthew Vann … former Rep. Peter Kostmayer (D-Pa.) … Caitlyn Schneeweiss … Cuneyt Dil … Zach Barnett of Rep. Garret Graves’ (R-La.) office … Sam Raskin … Tim Traylor … Lee Wasserman … Abby Curran Horrell … Alexa (Wertman) Brown … Laura Whitefield
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Send Playbookers tips to [email protected]. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike Zapler, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Allie Bice, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross.
“For us, this result is disappointing,” Helge Braun, a Christian Democrat and head of the Chancellery in Merkel’s outgoing government, told German radio.
“The speaker is an incredibly good vote counter, and she knows exactly where her caucus stands, and we’ve been really clear on that,” Ms. Jayapal said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “The votes aren’t there.”
But Representative Josh Gottheimer, Democrat of New Jersey and one of the lead centrists in the House negotiating with Ms. Pelosi, suggested that progressives had issued an empty threat.
“It’s a key part of the president’s agenda,” Mr. Gottheimer said on “State of the Union.” “I just don’t buy at the end of the day that folks will vote against it.”
In the Senate on Monday, Democrats will also take up consideration of an emergency spending package needed to avert a government shutdown. Republicans, objecting because it contains legislation that would lift the limit on the federal government’s ability to borrow, are expected to block the measure in a procedural vote. The bill passed the House with only Democratic votes.
MOAB, Utah — According to newly released audio recordings, the officers who responded to a domestic violence-related incident involving Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie last month in Moab were told that Laundrie reportedly hit Petito.
FOX 13 has now obtained recordings of the dispatch radio traffic, in which a dispatcher tells officers some details of the initial witness’s report.
“RP [reporting party] states a male hit a female. Domestic. He got into a white Ford Transit van. Has a black ladder on the back. Florida plate,” the dispatcher said before giving the license plate number. “The female who got hit, they both — the male and the female — both got into the van and headed north.”
In the police report of the traffic stop some minutes later, a responding officer initially wrote that he believed “it was reported the male had been observed to have assaulted the female,” but later wrote that “no one reported that the male struck the female.”
The officer also described the incident “more accurately as a mental/emotional health ‘break’ than a domestic assault,” and that “no significant injuries” were reported.
Laundrie stayed in a hotel that night, while Petito stayed with the van.
Petito was last seen about two weeks later when the couple traveled north to Salt Lake City and Ogden, then to the Teton region of Wyoming.
On Sunday, Sept. 19, Petito’s body was found near a campground in the Bridger-Teton National Forest just outside Grand Teton National Park.
Laundrie is still missing as of this report, with his last known location believed to be a nature reserve near his parents’ home in North Port, Florida.
Court documents out of Wyoming say once Laundrie is taken into custody, he should be held in jail without the possibility of bail because he is a potential flight risk.
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Free and confidential support for individuals experiencing domestic or intimate partner abuse or violence is available, 24/7:
LONDON — European stocks rose on Monday, with German election results seen eliminating a key market risk for investors in the region.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.5% in early trade, with oil and gas stocks adding 1.7% to lead gains as all sectors and major bourses entered positive territory.
In Germany, preliminary results on Monday morning showed the center-left Social Democratic Party gaining the largest share of the vote with 25.8%. Angela Merkel’s right-leaning bloc of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union was seen with 24.1% of the vote.
But coalition negotiations, which could begin on Monday, are likely to take weeks or even months.
Market watchers noted that the poor showing for Germany’s far-left Die Linke party, meant that a fully left-leaning coalition in the Bundestag was now out of the question.
Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, said in a research note that a pact between the SPD, Die Linke and the Greens could have “impaired trend growth through tax hikes, reform reversals and excessive regulations.”
Elsewhere on Monday, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will deliver a statement to a European Parliament committee, and the U.K.’s opposition Labour party will resume its annual conference in Brighton.
There are no major earnings reports or economic data releases on Monday.
U.K. energy stocks like BP will be closely watched, after panic buying over the weekend due to a truck driver shortage that left many gas stations in Britain without any fuel. BP shares gained 2% in early trade.
London-listed Swiss office space company IWG climbed 6.1% to lead the Stoxx 600 after reports that it is exploring a multibillion pound break-up.
At the bottom of the index, Spanish wireless company Cellnex fell 2.9%.
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Lawmakers will still debate the bill on the House floor on Monday, but the actual vote will be pushed to Sept. 30, when some surface transportation programs are set to expire, Pelosi announced in a Sunday night missive to Democrats.
The vote is only part of what’s set to be a jam-packed week in the House. In addition to the vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, Democrats are also aiming to take action on the $3.5 trillion package to expand social safety net programs, act to prevent a government shutdown on Oct. 1 and avoid a debt default.
“This week is a week of opportunity, as we work to keep government open, conclude negotiations on the Build Back Better Act and advance the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework,” Pelosi wrote.
But House progressives have long maintained that they wouldn’t vote to pass the bipartisan bill before their priorities are addressed in the larger social spending package, which includes provisions like paid family leave, universal pre-K, free community college, and initiatives to address climate change.
Since the social spending package is still incomplete as of Sunday, it wasn’t clear that the bipartisan bill could pass in the House on Monday without the progressives’ votes. Jayapal has said nearly 50 members of her caucus won’t vote for the infrastructure bill before the social spending package.
Pelosi said earlier Sunday that she wouldn’t bring a bill to the floor if Democrats didn’t have the votes to pass it.
“We will bring the bill to the floor tomorrow for consideration,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.” “But you know I’m never bringing a bill to the floor that doesn’t have the votes.”
The surface transportation programs aren’t the only government funding that is expiring Thursday. The federal government’s fiscal year ends Thursday, meaning that there would be a shutdown if Congress doesn’t pass a funding bill by then.
The House passed a bill last week along party lines to fund the government through Dec. 3, as well as suspend the debt limit into December of next year.
But Republicans have vowed they won’t help Democrats pass legislation to avoid a debt default and have called for decoupling the government spending bill from that issue.
Lawmakers may have somewhat more time for addressing the debt limit; recent estimates have indicated that the deadline may be closer to mid-October.
Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Liz Cheney says she was wrong to oppose gay marriage in the past, a stand that once split her family.
Cheney, R-Wyo., a fierce critic of fellow Republican Donald Trump, also tells CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that she views her reelection campaign as the most important House race in the nation as forces aligned with the former president try to unseat her. She voted to impeach Trump over his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
In the interview aired Sunday night, Cheney said she had little affection for President Joe Biden, who she believes has embraced harmful polices for the economy and national security with the Afghanistan withdrawal. “But the alternative cannot be a man who doesn’t believe in the rule of law, and who violated his oath of office,” Cheney said.
The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney was an ascendant Republican leader before the Jan. 6 riot, yet she is increasingly defined by her public opposition to Trump and his hold on the GOP. Cheney, 55, noted that she still talks with her father every night and that they share the same views on rejecting Trump.
Liz Cheney famously broke with her family in 2013 by opposing gay marriage ahead of a failed Senate bid. Her objections caused a rift with her sister, Mary, a married lesbian. Mary’s spouse, Heather Poe, posted on Facebook that year that Cheney’s position was offensive and that “I always thought freedom meant freedom for EVERYONE.”
In the interview, Cheney said her opposition to gay marriage was misguided and she channeled her sister-in-law’s Facebook post in explaining why she changed her position.
“I was wrong. I was wrong,” she said. “It’s a very personal issue — and very personal for my family. I believe that my dad was right. And my sister and I have had that conversation … Freedom means freedom for everybody.”
While still opposed to gun control, abortion and the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” the Wyoming congresswoman finds herself on the outs for voting to impeach Trump after his Jan. 6 rally preceded a mob storming the Capitol in hopes of overturning his reelection loss to Biden. Trump continues to falsely claim election fraud in spite of results being certified by states and Republican election officials and courts rejecting dozens of legal challenges.
After voting to impeach Trump, Cheney lost her leadership post as chair of the House Republican Conference. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put her on a nine-person committee to investigate the Jan. 6 assault and she serves as vice chair.
Trump has vowed to defeat Cheney in next year’s primary election by backing Republican Harriet Hageman, an attorney. Cheney, seeking a fourth term, said nothing less than the authority of the Constitution is at stake.
“I think it’s going to be the most important House race in the country in 2022. And — and it will be one where people do have the opportunity to say, ‘We want to stand for the Constitution,’” Cheney said. “A vote against me in this race, a vote for whomever Donald Trump has endorsed, is a vote for somebody who’s willing to perpetuate the big lie, somebody who’s willing to put allegiance to Trump above allegiance to the Constitution, absolutely.”
The Wyoming congresswoman criticized House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California for sticking with Trump after the assault on the Capitol.
“What he’s done is embrace Donald Trump,” she said. “And if I were doing what he’s doing, I would be deeply ashamed of myself. I don’t know how you explain that to your children. When you are in a situation where you have somebody who did what Donald Trump did, it is absolutely clear he cannot continue to be somebody you embrace.”
GABBY Petito spent her 22th birthday with her fiancé Brian Laundrie on the Appalachian Trail – where search experts suspect he could be hiding.
Photos posted on her Instagram on March 27, nine days after her birthday, show the couple hiking and hanging out on the trail in Georgia.
The first image shows Gabby making her way through the Appalachian Trail in GeorgiaCredit: Gabby Petito/Instagram
The second photo shows Brian lying in a hammock by Gabby’s art suppliesCredit: Gabby Petito/Instagram
“Went hiking for my bday #22,” Gabby captioned the post.
The first image shows Gabby making her way through the trail.
In the second photo, Brian is seen lying in a hammock by Gabby’s art supplies. It appears Gabby was also in the hammock taking the picture.
One of Gabby’s friends, Rose Davis, previously said she believes Brian could be hiding out on the trail because he knows how to survive alone in nature and has done it before.
She told the DailyMail.com: “I know he lived in the Appalachians for what I believe was three months, and he did it by himself, so I know he’s skilled at it.”
“Brian Laundrie photo from Pinterest @blaundrie1197 page, elite hiker, outdoorsman, on the run in the woods, may be headed for the Appalachian Trail,” said the PI of Bill Warner Investigations, based in Florida.
The Appalachian Trail is one of the most famous hiking spots in the US.
Located within 14 states, the trail attracts over three million visitors per year.
The entire trail takes up over 2,190 miles from start to finish and can take about five to seven months to hike.
Gabby was last seen alive on August 24, and investigators appear to believe she was killed sometime between August 27 and 30Credit: Instagram/Joseph Petito
Many search experts believe 23-year-old Brian could be hiding out in the Appalachian TrailCredit: bizarre_design_/Instagram
Cops have been searching for Laundrie for the last seven days after the 22-year-old travel blogger’s death during their cross-country road trip.
He remains missing after returning to his home in North Port, Florida, on September 1 without Petito.
Gabby’s body was found at the Spread Creek Dispersed Campground in the Bridger-Teton National Forrest last Sunday in Wyoming – more than a week after she was reported missing.
She was last seen alive on August 24, and investigators appear to believe she was killed sometime between August 27 and 30.
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