Lawmakers return to Capitol Hill today with a relatively short—but highly contentious—list of priorities.
The biggest piece of news revolves around the developing conflict between Attorney General Merrick Garland and Republicans on the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees.
Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies during a hearing by the House Judiciary Committee, Washington on June 4, 2024. Allison Bailey/Middle East Images via AFP
Republicans, led by Chairmen Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and James Comer (R-Ky.), are seeking the release of the audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur.
Hur decided not to prosecute Biden for alleged mishandling classified documents. In a now notorious line, he cited as one of the factors in this decision, that Biden would appear to a jury as “a sympathetic old man with a poor memory.”
The DOJ has argued that it’s turned over transcripts and notes on the interview, so it’s necessary to provide the audio tapes. The president has also invoked executive privilege over the tapes.
Democrats contend that Republicans are merely going after the tapes to use for political ends.
Speaking to the House Judiciary Committee last week, Garland again refused to turn over the audio, saying that releasing it to the public would serve “no legitimate purpose.”
Last month, Republicans on the two panels passed resolutions to hold Garland in contempt of Congress—resolutions expected to be considered by the House Rules Committee today and passed along party lines.
At that point, the measure would go to the House for a full vote.
It’s unclear if the resolution could pass, as moderate Republicans from Biden districts may be hesitant to advance such a resolution.
If it is passed, it’ll be up to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to decide whether or not to pursue charges. Since that’s unlikely, the next step for Congress would be to sue the DOJ—but such a suit likely wouldn’t be resolved until after the election.
Republicans are also looking to speak to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who led the case against Trump in New York that ended in his conviction on 34 felony counts.
Bragg has indicated he’s “available” to testify, but has suggested that this testimony is likely to come after Trump’s sentencing on July 11. This week, the two parties will likely continue working on the details of that testimony.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Capitol complex, Democrats in the Senate are setting up a show vote on an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) bill.
Democrats have dubbed the bill the “Right to IVF” Act, which would codify the right to receive fertilization treatments.
The bill is in response to a decision from the Alabama Supreme Court which ruled IVF to be illegal under the state’s abortion law, even though the state legislature has already passed legislation effectively undoing the ruling.
It comes as Democrats continue to emphasize pro-abortion messaging, relying on voters’ angst about the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 as voters’ trust in Biden on other issues—namely immigration and the economy—continues to dwindle in polls.
Last week, Republicans shot down a bill to guarantee a federal right to contraception.
That said, it’s not clear if Republicans will also deny this bill the 60 votes it needs to advance through the upper chamber, or if Republicans will take the opportunity to push back on Democrats’ messaging by supporting the bill.
And that could happen—in March, following the Alabama ruling, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who’s one of the Senate’s most conservative members, put forward a resolution “expressing support for starting and growing a family through in vitro fertilization.”
—Joseph Lord
FACING THE CHALLENGE OF MILITARY SUPPLY DEMANDS
Over the past decade, the U.S. defense strategy transformed from a two-war to a one-war standard. Instead of preparing to defeat two regional adversaries simultaneously, America pivoted to planning its armed forces to win one major war. The defense industrial base adapted itself along with the strategy shift.
A major war with China over Taiwan hasn’t broken out yet, but the two regional wars in Ukraine and Gaza have been going on for years and months.
The Russia-Ukraine war shows no signs of ending. It is “a war of industrial scale” because “Russia has mobilized the economy into a war footing as it ramps up defense production,” Alex Velez-Green, a senior policy adviser at the Heritage Foundation, told The Epoch Times. The Israel-Hamas cease-fire negotiation still has to iron out many details.
Although the United States hasn’t sent any troops to the battlefields, it has donated billions of dollars worth of weapons and munitions to Ukraine and Israel: $60 billion for Ukraine and an unknown amount for Israel—over 100 presidential drawdowns from U.S. stockpiles with only two—totaling at $250 million—above the reporting threshold.
As a result, the U.S. defense industry is strained from replenishing stockpiles diminished by Ukraine, producing weapons for Ukraine, and catching up with a Taiwan arms sales backlog, according to Eric Gomez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He estimates the backlog to Taiwan sits at $20 billion, the same as the island’s annual defense budget.
Meanwhile, the foreign adversaries—China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—elevated their partnerships in sending military supplies, sharing military technologies, and increasing economic trade to circumvent U.S.-led sanctions.
Amy Mitchell, a founding partner at geopolitical consultancy Kilo Alpha Strategies, noted the administration’s strategy on all three continents is currently that of containment instead of deterrence, essentially treating each as a separate silo.
The United States, she said, needs to adapt to the changed landscape in which adversaries are aligning across regions, under the premise that any change could spill over and spread at any time.
“An unwillingness to recognize how our adversaries are reorganizing and working together only courts disaster for the United States,” she told The Epoch Times.
Recognizing the challenge of meeting military supply demands, the Defense Department issued its first-ever defense industrial strategy in January. However, many of the weapons Taiwan needs take about three years from contract to delivery.
Mitchell welcomed the effort in ramping up production but said: “The question will become—is it too little, too late? Is the U.S. defense industry prepared to ramp up as quickly as it did in World War II? And perhaps most importantly, will the timelines match?”
—Terri Wu
BOOKMARKS
The jury has begun deliberations for Hunter Biden’s gun trial in Wilmington, Delaware. The president’s son is charged with lying about his drug use on a gun purchase application.
The United Nation Security Council has approved a proposed cease-fire plan for the war between Israel and Hamas announced by Biden on May 31. Phase one of the three-phase plan will last at least six weeks, and includes withdrawal of Israeli troops from populated areas of Gaza.
Canadian Lawmakers have released a report accusing members of its own government of treason. The heavily-redacted report follows an inquiry begun in September by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into the effects of foreign influence on Canada’s government.
Biden is hemorrhaging white, non college-educated voters in all states, but he is losing them at a slower pace in Wisconsin. He is behind 13 percent in this demographic, as opposed to battleground state Michigan, where he is trailing 27 percent.
