With assists from POLITICO’s Congress team WE HAVE SOME EXCITING NEWS: A new (election) year, a new speaker, and now a new name for this newsletter! Starting on Jan. 8, this newsletter will become “Inside Congress” to align with our companion “Inside Congress Live” blog, which you should definitely check out if you haven’t yet. INSIDE DEMS’ IMPEACHMENT PREP House Democratic leaders are already preparing to defend Joe Biden against a GOP effort to boot him from office. One of their first steps: consulting with the front-line members who led the impeachments of Donald Trump. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has been holding meetings over the last several months with different sets of lawmakers involved in Trump’s twin impeachments, including members of leadership and the members who served as managers for Trump’s Senate trials, according to attendees. One meeting was specifically set up to talk with the former managers, who talked through how they made their cases in the Senate against the former president, including the thorny constitutional issues involved in the impeachment process. They have also looked forward to how to respond to the future impeachment and held meetings on messaging. Democrats are more concerned with the messaging battles to come, especially since they’re firm in the belief that Republicans haven’t been able to make a substantive case against the president. So far, Democrats have focused on defending the president and are denouncing the impeachment as a political stunt. It’s not a message they’re likely to change anytime soon. Jeffries is among those with special expertise, having served as a manager for Trump’s first impeachment. Another key participant is Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a longtime Judiciary Committee member who has worked on every impeachment dating back to Richard Nixon, first as a staffer then as a member. A Jeffries aide confirmed the Democratic leader has hosted and participated in the discussions but declined to comment further. “We certainly understand the constitutional law, the requirement of high crimes and misdemeanors. We understand the process, and we see how Republicans are twisting themselves into a pretzel trying to justify the unjustifiable,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who had been the lead manager for Trump’s first impeachment, which fizzled in the GOP-controlled Senate. Waiting game: House Republicans are inching toward deciding whether to officially draft articles of impeachment against Biden. There’s no guarantee they have the votes to recommend booting the president with their incredibly slim majority and the lack of clear evidence linking decisions made by Joe Biden to his family’s business deals. But if it makes it that far, the background knowledge will be crucial to Democrats in a Senate trial as they look to “prebut” the GOP case and defend the president. The first trial, over Trump’s effort to condition aid to Ukraine on campaign help from its government, ended with the GOP-controlled Senate voting against conviction, and the second trial, over the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, also sputtered out in the narrowly Democratic-controlled Senate. An unflattering comparison: House Democrats went on offense Thursday, rolling out a report finding that former President Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million from foreign governments while in office. And while they argued that the report wasn’t in response to the GOP impeachment effort, with the investigation dating back to the Trump administration, Democrats used it to draw a hard contrast between the Biden inquiry and their probes of Trump, the frontrunning GOP presidential nominee. “I believe that all of the allegations about Joe Biden are an attempt to immunize them from the blatant fact that Donald Trump was operating his presidency as a for-profit, money-making enterprise, and this is an effort by them to cloud the issue,” Raskin told reporters. Should House Republicans proceed against Biden, Democrats are expected to heavily emphasize the GOP’s failure so far to directly implicate the president in wrongdoing. “You have to have the goods. If you don't have a case, it doesn't matter how great the presentation was,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a manager for the post-Jan. 6 impeachment. “I don’t see a Jamie Raskin or and Adam Schiff on their side.” — Nicholas Wu, with an assist from Jordain Carney GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Thursday, Jan. 4, where we are looking forward to snow (or at least slush). BORDER NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE The three Senate negotiators on a border security deal continued meeting virtually on Thursday as the focus in Washington shifts toward averting a shutdown on Jan. 19. That could complicate the drive to clinch new border restrictions and unlock billions more to Ukraine this year, which is, well, already hard enough. With the funding deadline approaching, It’s possible Senate leaders could try to roll foreign aid and border changes together with keeping the government open — though there’s no sign of that yet. Consider:
- Conservatives are now pushing to have stringent new border legislation tied to the government funding bills rather than the emergency spending supplemental.
- There have now been two months of meetings about a Ukraine-border compromise among senators, the Biden administration and leadership aides with no breakthrough.
- There are not one, but two shutdown deadlines hitting over the next five weeks.
- The general election campaign for president may be just weeks away if Donald Trump — a border hardliner and Ukraine funding skeptic — makes good on his polling leads.
Still, people watching the negotiations closely said Thursday they are still focused on getting a bipartisan Senate deal and dealing with the macro politics later. And the fact that they are still talking during an otherwise sleepy recess? Well, that's notable, too.
— Burgess Everett CAMPAIGN CORNER MICHIGAN CASH DASH — Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet is posting strong first-day fundraising numbers after kicking off a bid to succeed retiring Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), with the state senator raising over $250,000 in the first 24 hours, according to her campaign. It’s a hefty haul in what’s expected to be one of the most competitive and expensive races in the state this year. The mid-Michigan district was narrowly won by Biden in 2020, though Kildee carried it by roughly 10 points last cycle. “I am enormously grateful for the early and deep support we have seen from our broad coalition across the district. I am fully committed to building the campaign to win this seat and deliver real results for working Michiganders who work hard and yet struggle,” McDonald Rivet said in a statement. Primary concerns: McDonald Rivet won’t have the primary to herself. Michigan State Board of Education President Pamela Pugh is running for the seat, too, after dropping down from the Senate race, and others are expected to join them on the ballot. McDonald Rivet is expected to pick up establishment support, but Pugh has heavily emphasized the importance of Black political representation after Rep. Brenda Lawrence’s (D-Mich.) retirement last cycle left the state with no federal-level Black Democrats. A reminder: Your fill-in Huddle host, a native Michigander, is always interested in all things Wolverine State, so send him your tips! — Nicholas Wu MONTANA MEDDLING — A super PAC linked to Democrats is out with a new TV ad attacking Montana Republican Tim Sheehy on his ties to communist China. The spot accuses him of investing "in a Chinese company caught stealing personal information from Americans addresses." The Last Best Place PAC placed $700,000 behind the ad to air on broadcast and cable in Montana through Jan. 10. The group was created last September to hit Sheehy, the GOP frontrunner to take on Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). Senate Republicans accused Democrats of forming the group to meddle in a potential primary between Sheehy and GOP Rep. Matt Rosendale, who is also considering entering the race. “Tim Sheehy is the only Republican candidate in the country Chuck Schumer’s allies are spending money against," said Mike Berg, a spokesman for the Senate GOP campaign arm. “They are doing this because they know if Tim emerges from the primary Jon Tester will lose.” — Ally Mutnick
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