“That’s not true,” Susan Collins said several times on the floor, shaking her head when Schiff cited a news report saying WH warned senators that a vote against Trump means “your head will be on a pike.” Risch also said aloud: “That’s not true.” Cotton laughed when Schiff said it
Sen. Barasso said Schiff "offended every Republican senator" and that no Republican had been told that, referring to the CBS report
“He was doing fine with moral courage until he got to the head on the pike. That's where he lost me,” Murkowksi said, per @jeffzeleny. “He’s a good orator you got to give him that ... He was moving right along ...and then he got to a couple places and it was just unnecessary.”
Susan Collins: “Not only have I never heard the ‘head on the pike’ line but also I know of no Republican Senator who has been threatened in any way by anyone in the Administration.”
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New — Joe Manchin, a staunch defender of the filibuster, tells us he WON’T endorse Kamala Harris now over her vow to gut the filibuster to codify Roe.
“Shame on her," Manchin, who is retiring at year's end, said in the Capitol. "She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy. It's the only thing that keeps us talking and working together. If she gets rid of that, then this would be the House on steroids."
Now that Harris has vowed to gut the filibuster on this issue, Manchin said he wouldn't back her for president.
"That ain't going to happen," he said. "I think that basically can destroy our country and my country is more important to me than any one person or any one person's ideology...I think it's the most horrible thing."
Manchin signaled just a couple weeks ago that he could endorse Harris but changed his mind after she told Wisconsin Public Radio: “We should eliminate the filibuster for Roe.”
Asked by @tedbarrettcnn about Harris’ previous support for gutting the filibuster, Manchin said: “Well, she said she supported banning fracking too, and she changed that. I was hoping she would change this."
Just spoke with Sen. James Lankford about the GOP opposition to his border deal.
“I'm frustrated when people put out intentionally false information. I expect more. There are policy disagreements on that, I get that,” he said. “If people think that politics are wrong, and now we're in a presidential year, so let's not help Biden in the process, we're just going to disagree on that. I get frustrated when people put out things that are intentionally false, that they know are false, because I expect more of Americans.”
Lankford: “It was funny for me just to be able to watch some of their conversation last night from members that I've talked to that have said to me, ‘Hey, I really need weeks to be able to review this. It's really complicated.’ And then within an hour they were coming out in opposition,” he said. “It was like, so much for the weeks I need to review it. I can tell now the weeks of review wasn't actually to review, it was just to try to kill it, stall it.”
Asked him if he were frustrated with Trump. “His job is to run for president. My job is to serve the nation,” Lankford said. “I'm in the Senate right now on Homeland Security, doing border management, I'm doing my job. He's doing his job, he’s running for president.”
Sinema, Lankford, Murphy deal would empower US to significantly restrict border crossings if they surge to 5,000 daily average over a week. Same would apply for 8,500 crossings in a single day.
In essence, border would be effectively shut down now to migrants (not fleeing persecution and who are not entering at ports of entry) — as December saw more than 300K crossings.
- Also asylum process would be sped up to six months. There would still be a minimum of 14,000 asylum applications that could be processed though legal ports of entry while the emergency authorities are in effect.
Deal could be unveiled as soon as next week when more details will be unveiled.
Pressure will be on Senate Rs as Trump has urged them to kill deal as he campaigns on migrant surge but as they have called on the US to regain control of border
Under the soon-to-be-released package, the Department of Homeland Security would be granted new emergency authority to shut down the border if daily average migrant encounters reach 4,000 over a one-week span.
If migrant crossings increase above 5,000 on average per day on a given week, DHS would be *required* to close the border to migrants crossing illegally not entering at ports of entry.
Daines: “Tim Sheehy endorsed President Trump in April. It’s a pretty late endorsement for Matt Rosendale,” Steve Daines, NRSC chairman said. “This time, he sees the inevitable that President Trump will be the nominee.”
Rosendale says it was “more beneficial” to endorse later and he didn’t want to be part of “a big crowd.”
Internal Sheehy memo says money spent early has turned the primary electorate away from Rosendale and towards Sheehy
Tommy Tuberville signals he’s backing down in blocking all military promotions. Signals next week will shift focus on blocking ones he considers “woke.” “Now, we’re working towards getting …. the promotions over with. We need to get them promoted,” he said, per @tedbarrettcnn
Tuberville: “This started out as, obviously, abortion overreach and those things. Now, since we’ve had all this time, we’ve had different groups across Washington D.C. and the country that have evaluated all these military appointees,” he told reporters.
“I think that we need to make sure that people that are our generals and admirals should be vetted to some degree, but also understand that we need to get these people promoted, and it’s been a long time for some of them,” he said
News -- Rep. Tim Burchett accuses Kevin McCarthy of a "sucker punch" to the kidneys and describes heated scene as he chased the former speaker down the hallway.
Said he's the type of the guy who as a kid would "hide behind his mama's skirt."
McCarthy denies it was intentional
Burchett told me he’s still in pain from McCarthy’s elbow.
“I got elbowed in the back and it kind of caught me off guard because it was a clean shot to the kidneys. And I turned back (and) there, there was Kevin, and for a minute I was kind of what the heck just happened and then chased after him of course.”