Day 975: "Burn the whole place down."
1/ Kevin McCarthy canceled House votes and sent members home for the weekend despite nine days remaining until a shutdown and no plan to fund the government. For the second time in three days five conservative Republicans tanked a procedural vote to start debate on a key military funding bill. McCarthy had planned to pass the defense bill – one of the 12 fiscal 2024 appropriations bills that both the House and Senate need to pass to fund the government – and begin work on a short-term funding bill to keep the entire government funded beyond Sept. 30. The House Freedom Caucus, however, has continued to demand even lower spending levels and no more aid for Ukraine – two proposals that would be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate. “This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down,” McCarthy said. “It doesn’t work.” Trump, meanwhile, called on Republicans to “defund all aspects” of the “weaponized” Biden administration, claiming it’s their “last chance” to stop his “political prosecutions.” (CNBC / Axios / CNN / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post / New York Times / Bloomberg / Politico / NBC News)
2/ The Senate voted to confirm three key military promotions despite a monthslong blockade by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is protesting the Pentagon’s policy of reimbursing troops who must go across state lines to seek an abortion. To get past Tuberville’s hold on nominees, Chuck Schumer forced a full Senate vote to confirm the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Marine Corps commandant, and the Army chief of staff. “Senator Tuberville is forcing us to face his obstruction head on,” Schumer said. “I want to make clear to my Republican colleagues — this cannot continue.” More than 300 military promotions, however, remain in limbo. (CNN / Politico / Washington Post / Bloomberg / NPR / New York Times / Associated Press / NPR)
3/ The Biden administration will offer temporary legal status to about 472,000 Venezuelan migrants who arrived in the U.S. before July 31. The move will protect Venezuelans already in the U.S. from deportation and allow them to live and work legally in the country for 18 months. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas granted the expansion due to “Venezuela’s increased instability and lack of safety due to the enduring humanitarian, security, political, and environmental conditions.” Temporary Protected Status is not a pathway to permanent residency. (Associated Press / Washington Post / New York Times / NPR)
4/ Trump instructed a former assistant to tell federal investigators that she didn’t know anything about the boxes containing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Molly Michael said that after Trump heard the FBI wanted to interview her last year, Trump allegedly told her, “You don’t know anything about the boxes.” Michael also told investigators that Trump would write to-do lists for her using documents that were marked classified. (ABC News / New York Times)
- Trump Privately Frets He Could Be Headed to Prison. “The former president and 2024 GOP frontrunner has wondered aloud in recent months about what life would be like if he’s convicted, and if appeals fail. While Trump publicly professes confidence, privately, three sources familiar with his comments say, he’s been asking lawyers and other people close to him what a prison sentence would look like for a former American president.” (Rolling Stone)
5/ A former White House aide accused Rudy Giuliani of groping her on the day of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Cassidy Hutchinson described meeting with Giuliani backstage at Trump’s speech – before his supporters marched on Congress in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election – where he put his hands “under my blazer, then my skirt.” Last year, Hutchinson testified that Trump knew some of his supporters were armed when he directed them to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, and that both Trump and Mark Meadows ignored warnings about potential violence. (The Guardian / CNN / USA Today / CNBC)
- Rudy Giuliani’s former lawyers sued him for $1.3 million in unpaid legal fees. The lawsuit alleges that Giuliani hadagreed to pay over $1.5 million to the law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron for more than three years’ worth of legal representation, but has only paid $214,000 to date. (Politico / Washington Post / NBC News / Insider)
poll/ 28% of Americans say they don’t like either political party – more than quadruple the share that said the same thing 30 years ago. In 1994, 6% of Americans viewed both parties negatively. (Pew Research Center)