CHANGES FOR CHENEY — Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is on tomorrow's primary ballot in Wyoming, fighting for her political life against Trump-backed GOP challenger Harriet Hageman. But win or lose (with losing looking more likely) Cheney is also fighting to keep her mantle of leading the anti-Trump corner of the Republican party. Her major platform on the Jan. 6 select committee will continue through the end of this Congress, though it now shares investigative real estate and public attention with the Justice Department probes into Trump. Once behind the scenes, the DOJ effort exploded into public consciousness last week with the FBI's search for classified documents at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. "I don't think Liz is going to disappear," Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) told Olivia and Nicholas. More from Olivia's dispatch from Jackson, Wyoming and Nicholas' reporting in Washington: Cheney's real mission: Keeping her anti-Trump megaphone Jonathan Martin from The New York Times was also in Wyoming and digs into the end of the Cheney era in Wyoming politics: In Wyoming, Likely End of Cheney Dynasty Will Close a Political Era RELATED: Cheney and Murkowski: Trump critics facing divergent futures, from Bekcy Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska for The Associated Press AFGHANISTAN ANNIVERSARY — It was a year ago that Kabul fell to the Taliban. It marked a dark and chaotic end to America's 20-year war in Afghanistan. Our Andrew Desiderio, Lara Seligman and Alex Ward dug into an 118-page report from House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans "that examines the actions by administrations of both parties that led to the collapse of Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government, as well as the failure to adequately plan for what became a chaotic and deadly withdrawal from the country." The report finds that more than 800 Americans were helped out of the country after U.S. troops withdrew, and that hundreds more were left behind during the pullout than previously known. A State Department spokesperson told POLITICO that "at least 600 legal permanent residents" have been whisked out since the pullout was finished. RELATED: One Year Later, Life Under Taliban Rule is Brutal, by Colin Clarke for POLITICO Magazine; A year after fall of Kabul, Afghan evacuees face uncertainty in U.S., from Caroline Simon at CQ Roll Call LOOPING IN SENATE INTEL — The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee sent a letter Sunday to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting information on the FBI's search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence last week. The bipartisan request is for "the Department of Justice to share with us, on a classified basis, the specific intelligence documents seized from Mar-a-Lago," according to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the committee's GOP vice chairman. He sent his own solo request for info on the FBI's actions earlier. "The Senate Intelligence Committee is charged with overseeing counterintelligence matters, including the handling and mishandling of classified information, which appears to be at the core of the search of Mar a Lago," said an Intel Committee spokesperson on Sunday. Rubio and Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) want, in addition to the classified documents seized during the search, an "assessment of potential risks to national security as a result of their mishandling." NOT SO SURPRISING — Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) axed a tax adjustment in the Democrats' recent tax, climate and health care bill that would have increased taxes on investment income, especially for private equity and hedge fund managers. The move is just the latest she's made to shield an industry that is also a major funder of her campaigns. " Sinema has long aligned herself with the interests of private equity, hedge funds and venture capital, helping her net at least $1.5 million in campaign contributions since she was elected to the House a decade ago. But the $983,000 she has collected since last summer more than doubled what the industry donated to her during all of her preceding years in Congress combined," reports the Associated Press in a review of campaign finance disclosures. ANOTHER BARRICADE INCIDENT — Just after 4 a.m. on Sunday a man died by suicide after driving his car into a vehicle barricade near the Capitol. After colliding with the barricade, the car burst into flames and Richard Aaron York III, the 29-year-old man from Delaware, exited the car, took out a handgun and started firing it "indiscriminately," according to Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger. As officers started approaching York, he shot himself dead Police have said they do not think York was targeting members of Congress, given that both chambers are in recess. Nicholas has more on the situation. The incident is reminiscent of an April 2021 incident when a driver rammed their car into a Constitution Avenue barricade and brandished a knife. USCP officer, Billy Evans, died as a result of being hit by the car.
| 
Comments
Post a Comment