NEWS: Senate Republicans are developing plans to begin confirmation hearings around Oct. 12 for Trump's pick to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the US Supreme Court. It's all TENTATIVE. But could lead to a final vote by the full Senate the week of Oct. 26, sources say.
NEWS: Hearings on Trump's SCOTUS pick could begin as soon as Oct. 8, but more likely Oct. 12, per tentative GOP schedule. Full Senate vote week of Oct. 26.
But Dems could move to delay process, sources say.
Trump says “from what I heard” Senate Judiciary’s @LindseyGrahamSC
“doesn't even have to hold a hearing” because those on his SCOTUS shortlist “just went through the process” and most Rs “have already made their intentions very clear. Even Josh (Hawley) and that's a tough vote."
When press pool said but Lindsey Graham’s going to hold hearings on SCOTUS pick, Trump answered: “He's going to, I would think. He wouldn't even actually have to hold one. ... Lindsey is going to call the date of the hearing as soon—you can't call it until you have a candidate.“
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NEW: Biden learned of @SecDef Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization several days after the fact and received no advance notice from Pentagon officials. (Confirming Politico.)
Biden and @SecDef Lloyd Austin hadn’t spoken at all after the president was informed Thursday about Austin’s heath issues and hospitalization, but they just spoke this evening, I’m told.
BIDEN has full confidence in Austin, a US official says. (White House has been getting questions about whether @SecDef, who oversees largest military in world, would be fired for keeping Biden and the national security chain of command in the dark about his hospitalization.)
*BIDEN TO ZELENSKIY: I DON'T WANT YOU GIVING UP HOPE
Biden in Oval with Zelenskiy says he just signed $200m drawdown for ukraine
ZELENSKIY at White House said he wants to “work faster with the frozen Russian assets,” which is over $300 billion frozen assets “from terrorists.” Wants to use it to protect against Russia’s war, he said.
BREAKING: Biden admin is weighing whether to postpone or cancel Blinken’s upcoming trip to Beijing after detecting a Chinese surveillance balloon, sources tell @iainmarlow@jendeben@PeterMartin_PCM and me.
🚨Blinken’s trip to China is postponed.
@SecBlinken was to have mtgs in Beijing next week in 1st such visit by top US diplomat in 5 years. But the presence of the balloon—which the Pentagon decided not to shoot down—led officials to decide that going now would send wrong signal.
"I'm not going to answer any questions about anything else,” Biden says at White House after giving remarks about the economy. He ignored questions about China’s surveillance balloon.
*DOJ TOOK ANOTHER 6 ITEMS INCLUDING DOCUMENTS FROM BIDEN HOME
Justice Department officials did “a thorough” 12-hour search of Biden’s Wilmington home on Friday; it began at 9:45 a.m. and finished around 10:30 p.m. DOJ found six more “items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials.”
🚨 It was the FBI that did the search of Biden’s home Friday in Wilmington, sources tell @cstrohm and me.
US officials had previously balked at sending armored vehicles, saying heavier weapons would be too difficult for Ukraine to operate/maintain. But allies are moving to provide such weapons—Poland with tanks, France w/ AMX-10RC armored vehicles. Story here: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Germany will also provide Ukraine a Patriot battery — the 2nd headed there after the US said last month it will send one of its Patriot air-defense systems.