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Biden, congressional leaders to meet at White House on lame-duck agenda

Source image: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-congressional-leaders-meet-white-house-lame-duck-agenda

President Biden is set to meet with congressional leaders at the White House Tuesday morning to discuss legislative priorities for the final weeks of the year.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., are expected to attend the meeting with the president.

Vice President Harris is also expected to attend the meeting, which will take place in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

DEMOCRATS RACING TO TRY AND SECURE YEAR-LONG BUDGET DEAL BEFORE REPUBLICANS TAKE CONTROL OF THE HOUSE

The meeting comes after the midterm elections, in which Democrats narrowly retained control of the Senate and Republicans took control of the House of Representatives by a thin margin.

President Biden will meet with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders Tuesday morning

President Biden will meet with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders Tuesday morning
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images  |  AP newsroom)

The meeting also comes as congressional Democrats race to secure a year-long budget deal before Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in January.

Democrats want a budget deal that would keep the government funded from Dec. 16, when current funding terminates, until the fall of 2023. That would allow President Joe Biden’s administration to fund pet initiatives while blocking the Republican House from exerting its influence immediately.

“Government funding should rise above politics when the well-being of our troops and our national defense is on the line,” Schumer said Monday on the Senate floor, noting the geopolitical threats posed by Russia and China.

Some House Republicans argue that Congress should enact a short-term funding bill until January, which would give Republicans more leverage over Biden and Democrats as they negotiate a longer-term spending bill.

President Biden meets with congressional leaders in the Oval Office of the White House in 2021.

President Biden meets with congressional leaders in the Oval Office of the White House in 2021.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Democrats say the work already done on a year-long budget would go to waste if Congress waited until January. Any proposed spending bills for the current fiscal year would expire and have to be reintroduced if they aren’t passed when the new Congress begins on Jan. 3.

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Unless Congress approves some new spending bill by Dec. 16, the federal government will face a partial shutdown.

Other issues might also be discussed at the White House Tuesday. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Biden told reporters he would push Congress to enact a new assault weapons ban before Republicans take control of the House in January.

“I’m going to try,” said the president. “I’m going to try to get rid of assault weapons.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will meet with President Biden in what may be her last meeting as speaker.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will meet with President Biden in what may be her last meeting as speaker.
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Democrats control the House by a narrow margin until January. The Senate is split 50-50 between both parties, and the Democrats will keep control of the Senate next year. For any gun control package to pass, at least 10 GOP supporters will be needed to break the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold.

Biden said he would reach across the aisle and work with Republicans in Congress on gun control.

“I’m prepared to work with my Republican colleagues. The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well,” Biden said.

But the president said that “under no circumstances” would he support proposals to make cuts or changes to Social Security or Medicare.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will be at the White House with other congressional leaders to talk about the near-term agenda in Congress.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will be at the White House with other congressional leaders to talk about the near-term agenda in Congress.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

“That’s not on the table, I will not do that,” Biden said. “I will veto any attempt to pass a national ban on abortion.”

He added: “But I’m ready to compromise with Republicans where it makes sense on many other issues, and I always put the needs and interests of the American people first.”

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Looking ahead, Biden said the American people have “made it clear they don’t want every day going forward to be a constant political battle.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will continue to lead Republicans in the next Congress.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will continue to lead Republicans in the next Congress.
(Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images )

“There’s too much of that going on and there’s too much we have to do,” he said. “The future for America is to promise not to be trapped in an endless political warfare. And I really mean it.”

Throughout the midterm election cycle, Biden warned that the future of democracy was at stake and specifically warned against the ideology of “ultra MAGA” Republicans.

“I don’t think we’re going to break the fever for the super mega MAGA Republicans,” Biden said. “I think they’re a minority of the Republican Party. I think the vast majority of the members of the Republican Party, we disagree strongly on issues, but they’re decent, honorable people.”

Biden said those Republicans are “honest, and they’re straightforward” and “decent folks.”

Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich, Tara Prindiville, and Haris Alic contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-congressional-leaders-meet-white-house-lame-duck-agenda

Politics

Dianne Feinstein described by WaPo, NYT, AP as ‘centrist’ Dem despite progressive voting record

The liberal media are portraying the late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein as a “centrist Democrat” despite her progressive voting record. 

Feinstein, who died Thursday night at age 90, is being widely remembered as a trailblazer for women in the Congress. 

According to FiveThirtyEight’s congressional voting tracker last updated at the conclusion of the 116th Congress in January, Feinstein’s record was “100%” aligned with President Biden

However, obituaries published by several news organizations are raising eyebrows for how they describe her politics. 

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Senator Dianne Feinstein obituary photo

Senator Dianne Feinstein has died at age 90.  (Fox News)

The Washington Post ran the headline “Dianne Feinstein, centrist stalwart of the Senate, dies at 90” while also calling her a “centrist Democrat” on social media. 

In the obituary, The Post declared she was “centrist from the start,” citing the fact that “for a time, Mrs. Feinstein owned a handgun” and quoting her biographer who once said how early in her career she “started talking about how the center is so important.” The Post then quickly pivoted to her work pushing the federal assault weapons ban in the 1990s. 

The New York Times similarly reported that Feinstein “called herself a political centrist” but went even further by saying she “often embraced conservative ideas.”

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Washington Post Feinstein headline

The Washington Post declared Feinstein the “centrist stalwart of the Senate” in its obituary of the Democrat lawmaker.  (Fox News Digital)

NBC News wrote about Feinstein, “A centrist Democrat, she was known for trying to find common ground with Republicans, sometimes drawing criticism from her party’s liberal members.”

The Daily Beast alleged Feinstein was “steeped in centrist policies no longer fit the times,” citing her “warm embrace” of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., during the contentious 2020 Supreme Court confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett as an example. 

The Associated Press tried to have it both ways, calling her a “centrist Democrat” who was a “passionate advocate for liberal priorities.” The AP’s report was aggregated by several news outlets including PBS NewsHour. 

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The Los Angeles Times said she “was a centrist who leaned left.”

“She often irked Democratic constituencies. Her party moved sharply to the left on immigration over her time in the Senate, but Feinstein maintained more centrist positions,” the California paper wrote. “She favored stiffer security at the border, punishment for those who illegally employed migrants, and penalties for the so-called coyotes who smuggled them into the United States.”

Dianne Feinstein 1992

Dianne Feinstein the Mayor of San Francisco at the Democratic National Convention in 1992 running for Senate. (Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

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Politico cited a 2015 profile of Feinstein from The New Yorker in its obituary, quoting, “Feinstein is sometimes described as a centrist, but it is because her views are varied, not because they are mild; she thinks of herself, more accurately, as a pragmatist.”

Other outlets suggested there was a debate over Feinstein’s politics among critics. ABC News wrote, “Her independence was often seen in more recent years as too moderate compared to other Democrats, especially as a representative of one of the country’s most reliably blue states,” despite her 100% voting record with Biden. 

Deadline Hollywood called her a “moderate Democrat” in its report but wrote on social media she was “considered by some to be a centrist Democrat and to the Right a far-left advocate.”

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House Republicans to vote on ‘clean’ stopgap funding bill despite conservative outrage

The House of Representatives will vote Saturday on a short-term spending bill aimed at avoiding a government shutdown.

The funding patch would last for 45 days past the end of the fiscal year, which concludes at midnight Sunday, Oct. 1. The bill would also include $16 billion for U.S. disaster relief aid that President Biden requested over the summer, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on Saturday. 

The bill would also be a “clean” extension of the current year’s funding priorities, which were set by the Democrat-held Congress last year.

It comes after House Republicans tried and failed to pass a stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), filled with conservative policy items like border security and spending cuts.

The bill is being expedited past normal processes, and will need two-thirds of the House for approval — meaning Democrats will have to vote in favor of the plan for it to pass.

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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters just after the Republican majority in the House narrowly passed a sweeping debt ceiling package as they try to push President Joe Biden into negotiations on federal spending, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, April 26, 2023.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

“We need more time to get the job done,” McCarthy told reporters ahead of the vote. McCarthy said he did not want to “punish” military service members or border agents for the House’s failure to pass a budget that ends wasteful spending and addresses border security.

“The House is going to act so government will not shut down. We will put a clean funding stopgap on the floor to keep government open for 45 days for the House and Senate to get their work done,” McCarthy also said. “We will also, knowing what had transpired through the summer, the disasters in Florida, the horrendous fire in Hawaii, and also disasters in California and Vermont, we will put the supplemental portion that the president asked for in disaster there too.”

Republicans’ previous CR proposals did not get any Democratic support, and failed after enough GOP hardliners opposed them. Holdouts argued that a CR on principle is an extension of the previous Democratically-held Congress’ priorities, and is the antithesis of the House GOP majority’s promise to pass 12 individual spending bills laying out conservative priorities in the next fiscal year.

The Democratic leaders

Top Democrats huddled for an emergency meeting after the CR was proposed (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

But the majority of lawmakers on both sides have acknowledged that some kind of stopgap is needed to give them more time to cobble those deals together. The current fiscal year ends at midnight tonight, meaning that if no agreement is passed by the House and Senate, thousands of government employees will be furloughed and “nonessential” federal programs will grind to a halt.

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And despite Democrats clamoring for a “clean” CR, it’s not immediately clear if they will support the bill being put forward by the GOP now. 

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital that he believes Democrats will vote against the CR to hold out for the Senate’s proposal, which also includes funding for Ukraine aid – something a large share of House Republicans oppose.

U.S. President Joe Biden

The GOP proposal includes President Biden’s call for disaster relief aid. (Photographer: Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“I think this may fail because Democrats in the House want a Senate CR,” Barr said. “So what could happen is a pretty low vote number on this…you’ll have Democrats who are voting to shut the government down. And that’s what you’re gonna see. Democrats want to politicize this, and they’re gonna vote to shut the government down.”

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House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., would not say where he would fall when speaking to reporters before the vote but complained about Republicans having “dropped this on us in the 11th hour.”

House Republicans “lied every single step of the way,” Jeffries said.

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Ramaswamy, Burgum reject Gingrich’s claim that ‘the race is over,’ Trump will be GOP nominee

GOP presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum rejected claims from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich that “the race is over” and former President Donald Trump is the definitive 2024 Republican nominee at this time.

On “The Ingraham Angle” Thursday, Gingrich said Trump will absolutely be the nominee, and that the lower-tier candidates must ask themselves if they want to get behind him or watch President Biden get re-elected.

“There’s no middle ground here, I don’t think, because you’re either going to get Trump as president or are you going to Biden. And Biden’s re-election would be a disaster for the country,” Gingrich said.

Burgum, polling last among the candidates who qualified for the second GOP primary debate Wednesday on FOX Business, said he has long been told the things he seeks cannot be achieved.

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He said he was written off as a gubernatorial candidate in the previous North Dakota Republican primary by double digits, but has since found himself in the top job in Bismarck.

Burgum underlined that he was a strong supporter of Trump’s in his past two electoral runs, but that he has since been outpolling the former president in the Flickertail State’s GOP primary.

“I appreciate Newt’s comments, but listen, I’ve spent my whole life having people tell me what I can’t be and can’t accomplish. So I’d say get in line with everybody else,” Burgum said.

“They said you can’t build a global tech company in North Dakota: We built one with 2000 people. We built a $1 billion company. We did it with kids from small town, and we ended up with customers in 132 around the world.”

Burgun noted how in 2016, he trailed then-North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem in major primary polls but ended up pulling off an upset, then winning the general election and being re-elected again in 2020.

“I’ve said all along, I’m going to be voting for the Republican. I’m running against Joe Biden. Joe Biden’s policies on the economy, energy, national security, 180 degrees in the wrong direction. And then I’ve got again, I’ve got more business experience than the rest of the candidates on stage last night,” he added.

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Burgum said a top issue for him is American energy independence, claiming North Dakota has more production potential than many OPEC nations the U.S. currently buys oil from and adding China’s IP theft and influence threats are another major concern.

Ramaswamy also disagreed with the contention Trump’s nomination is a lock. He argued Wednesday’s debate was somewhat proof the field needs to be pared down, but that he has taken a different tact toward Trump than his opponets.

While former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spent much of the night antagonizing Trump, dubbing him “Donald Duck” for ducking the debate, Ramaswamy said he personally believes the mogul has been the best president in the 21st century.

“Everybody else is making their case versus Trump by bashing him and Monday morning quarterbacking some decision he made. My view is different,” he said.

“I acknowledge he was the greatest president of the 21st century so far, but I have something that he doesn’t, Laura. And it’s really simple. I’m young. I have fresh legs. I’m able to reach the next generation in a way that Trump cannot. That’s undeniable – And that’s how we’re going to take the America First movement to the next level.”

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Ramaswamy said that no matter who wins the GOP primary, the winning message belongs to America First movement championed by Trump, himself and others.

“My whole point is I’m an America first conservative, not a Trump first conservative, and not of a big first conservative. And so I’m the one person in this race. I’m not tearing anybody else down,” he added.

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