Today in one sentence: Biden will issue an executive that would allow him to temporarily “shut down” the southern border when crossings surge; Dr. Anthony Fauci testified before the House panel investigating the nation’s coronavirus response; the Texas Supreme Court unanimously rejected a challenge by 20 women who sued the state over its near-total abortion ban after the law endangered their lives and stopped them from getting medical care for their complicated pregnancies; Joe Manchin left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent; convicted felon Trump vowed to appeal the guilty verdict that made him the first U.S. president convicted of a crime, calling the trial “a scam”; and 56% of Republican voters said Trump’s felony conviction would have no effect on their vote, while 35% said they were more likely to support Trump, and 10% said they are less likely to vote for Trump.

1/ Biden will issue an executive that would allow him to temporarily “shut down” the southern border when crossings surge. The order echoes Trump’s 2018 effort to ban migrants who cross the border illegally from claiming asylum, which was later blocked by federal courts. It also mirrors the bipartisan border deal struck earlier this year, which Republicans killed at Trump’s direction, who is making the border a campaign issue. The order will rely on section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to allow border officials to prevent migrants from claiming asylum and quickly turn them away when border crossings meet a certain threshold. Biden is expected to issue the order Tuesday. (Politico / New York Times / Associated Press / CNN / Axios / Wall Street Journal)

  • 📌 Day 1114: Senate Republicans blocked the $118 billion bipartisan border package that Republicans had demanded but then rejected after pressure from Trump, who is making the border a campaign issue. The bill failed to advance 49-50, falling short of the 60-vote threshold and essentially guarantees Congress won’t pass any broad immigration or border legislation before the presidential election. Republicans had initially demanded strict border policy changes in exchange for Ukraine aid, but abandoned that trade-off when House Republican leadership called the bill “dead on arrival.” After the failed vote, Chuck Schumer released a narrower, $95.3 billion version of the same package that would fund Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, but without the border-security provisions or funding. “Why have Republicans backed off on border when they know it’s the right thing to do?” Schumer said. “Two words: Donald Trump.” (Associated Press / Politico / NPR / Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News / CNN / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal)

2/ Dr. Anthony Fauci testified before the House panel investigating the nation’s coronavirus response. Fauci refuted Republican allegations that he helped fund the research that led to the pandemic or orchestrated a coverup of Covid-19’s origins, calling the accusations “absolutely false and simply preposterous.” Republicans on the panel pushed Fauci over his handling of grants to EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that studies wildlife and the emergence of new diseases, while director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The grants required EcoHealth to pass some funding onto scientific collaborators abroad, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology – the Chinese city where the spread of the new virus was first identified. Fauci testified that it was “molecularly impossible” for the taxpayer-funded experiments in Wuhan to have produced the pandemic-causing virus. “It’s just a virological fact.” (Associated Press / Wall Street Journal / ABC News / CBS News / Politico / New York Times / Washington Post / CNN)

3/ The Texas Supreme Court unanimously rejected a challenge by 20 women who sued the state over its near-total abortion ban after the law endangered their lives and stopped them from getting medical care for their complicated pregnancies. The lawsuit didn’t seek to overturn the ban, but sought to clarify when medical exceptions are allowed under the law. In August, a lower court judge issued a temporary injunction that allowed Texans to get an abortion if they had complicated pregnancies and their doctor made a “good faith judgment” that it was necessary. The state Supreme Court, however, struck down that ruling that clarified, saying it “departed from the law as written without constitutional justification.” As a result, Texas will continue enforcing bans on performing abortions even when pregnancies develop serious complications. (Texas Tribune / The 19th / Axios)

  • A pair of Texas professors sued the Biden administration to fail students who miss class to seek an abortion in a state with a near-total ban on abortions. Daniel Bonevac and John Hatfield claim the Education Department overstepped its authority when it issued new regulations forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, sex characteristics, or pregnancy status. The pair say they won’t excuse class absences for students who get elective abortions as the result of “voluntary and consensual sexual intercourse,” suggesting that “pregnancy is not a disease, and elective abortions are not ‘health care.’” (Salon / Austin American-Statesman)

4/ Joe Manchin left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent. Manchin accused both the Democratic and Republican parties of prioritizing “partisan extremism” and “jeopardizing our democracy.” The decision comes ahead of a deadline for filing as an independent in West Virginia, and preserves his ability to run in November as an independent, even though he’s said he will not run for re-election in the Senate or for governor. (NBC News / New York Times / Bloomberg / Politico / Axios)

5/ 👑 Portrait of a president: Convicted felon Trump vowed to appeal the guilty verdict that made him the first U.S. president convicted of a crime, calling the trial “a scam.” After a New York jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of election interference involving falsified business records to conceal a hush money payment to an adult-film actress, Trump renewed his attacks on the judge, the prosecutors, and aired other grievances about the process, making multiple false and misleading claims that the trial was “rigged.” There is no evidence of this. Biden, meanwhile, called Trump’s guilty verdict a confirmation that “no one is above the law,” adding that it’s “reckless,” “dangerous,” and “irresponsible” for Trump and his fellow Republicans to attack the results and the justice system. (Washington Post / Reuters / NPR / Politico / Wall Street Journal / New York Times / Slate / Politico / Washington Post / New York Times)

  • Convicted felon Trump falsely claims he never called for Hillary Clinton to be locked up. “I didn’t say ‘lock her up,’ but the people said lock her up, lock her up,” Trump said. “Then, we won. And I say — and I said pretty openly, I said, all right, come on, just relax, let’s go, we’ve got to make our country great.” (Washington Post)

  • House Speaker Mike Johnson called for the U.S. Supreme Court to “step in” to overturn convicted felon Trump’s guilty verdict. “I think that the Justices on the court – I know many of them personally – I think they are deeply concerned about that, as we are. So I think they’ll set this straight,” Johnson said. (Axios)

  • Supporters of convicted felon Trump called for riots, revolution, and violent retribution. “1,000,000 men (armed) need to go to Washington and hang everyone. That’s the only solution,” one Trump supporter said on a pro-Trump platform. Another added: “Trump should already know he has an army willing to fight and die for him if he says the words…I’ll take up arms if he asks.” (Reuters)

  • Trump supporters try to dox jurors and post violent threats after his conviction. “On social media and web forums, users called for jurors, judges and prosecutors to be killed after the former president was found guilty on 34 felony counts.” (NBC News)

  • Trump’s guilty verdict shatters his aura of invincibility. “Now that Trump has been branded a felon, dubiously helping Trump delay justice will become harder to justify, and will come at a greater political and institutional price.” (The New Republic)

  • Wall street billionaires are rushing to back convicted felon Trump. “A big reason, in a word: money. Trump has promised to cut taxes for the wealthy and eliminate regulations. President Joe Biden wants the opposite.” (Bloomberg)

  • A turning point in America’s cold civil war. “Nearly a decade into the Trump era, he finally has a comeuppance worthy of the historical moment: a felony conviction on all 34 counts by a state jury sitting in Manhattan, the locus of his life and business career. It took way too long.” (Talking Points Memo)

  • Why the ludicrous Republican response to Trump’s conviction matters. “The conspiratorial vibe is — ensuring that, in whatever way possible, Republican voters get the message that anything bad that ever happens to Donald Trump is the fault of the Democrat-controlled system.” (Vox)

  • A list of all the Republican lawmakers calling on convicted felon Trump to drop out of the race. (HuffPost)

poll/ 50% of Americans think Trump’s guilty verdict was correct, and 49% think he should end his 2024 presidential campaign over the result. (ABC News)

poll/ 54% of voters approve of Trump’s guilty verdict, compared to 34% who disapprove. (Morning Consult)

poll/ 56% of Republican voters said Trump’s felony conviction would have no effect on their vote, while 35% said they were more likely to support Trump, and 10% said they are less likely to vote for Trump. (Reuters)

Three years ago today: Day 135: "To no avail."
Four years ago today: Day 1231: "No idea."