WASHINGTON — If it’s Tuesday ... The GOP-controlled House passes a rules package for 118th Congress with just one GOP defection, NBC’s Kyle Stewart reports. ... The House also passes first bill, which rescinds IRS funding. ... President Biden spends his final day in Mexico City at North American Leaders’ Summit. ... And special state Senate election takes place in Virginia.
But first: The news that the Justice Department is reviewing Obama Era classified documents found at a think tank tied to President Biden is quite a political gift to Donald Trump.
Even if Biden’s alleged transgression pales in comparison to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago situation.
What we learned yesterday: “The documents were discovered in a locked closet by Biden’s attorneys days before the midterm elections as they prepared to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president said in a statement,” per NBC News.
The discovery was first reported by CBS News.
Importantly, the number of classified documents found at the Penn Biden Center is far smaller than what was discovered at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago; Biden’s lawyers say they immediately turned over the documents (unlike Trump’s situation); and the classification level of these Biden documents remains unclear (versus what we know about some “top secret” documents found at Mar-a-Lago).
Yet those differences didn’t stop Trump from seizing on the news.
“When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?” Trump posted on his Truth Social account.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the new chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, told reporters he plans to ask the White House and National Archives about these documents.
And Biden’s past criticism of Trump is now coming back to haunt him.
“How that could possibly happen? How one-- anyone could be that irresponsible? And I thought, ‘What data was in there that may compromise sources and methods?’” Biden said on “60 Minutes” last October when asked the classified documents seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
One of Trump’s most effective plays has always been able to use others’ mistakes — no matter how innocent they are — to downplay his own.
Headline of the day
Data Download: The number of the day is … $5 million
That’s how much money Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker had in his campaign account at the end of the year after his unsuccessful and high-profile bid this year, new filings show.
Walker spent heavily in the race’s final weeks — taking in $15 million and spending $19.8 million between Nov. 17 and Dec. 28, closing the period with a little more than $5 million in cash on hand. But his rival, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, raised and spent more than double that on his way to securing a full six-year term.
It’s not uncommon for candidates to end a cycle with a significant amount of money in their campaign account (think North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in 2018 and Maine Democrat Sara Gideon in 2020). A spokeswoman with the Republican’s campaign did not return a request for comment about why the campaign didn’t spend more of its cash reserves in the runoff, which Walker lost by less than 2 percentage points.
Read more on the Meet the Press Blog.
Other numbers to know:
1: The number of Republicans who opposed the House rules package, which passed the House on Monday. The lone Republican who voted against the package was Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales.
$80 billion: The IRS funding that House Republicans voted Monday night to rescind in their first bill of the year.
7: How many days Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin was in an Ohio hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest during last week’s game, before he was transferred to a Buffalo hospital on Monday.
1,500: The estimated number of people detained in Brazil after supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the capital over the weekend.
6: The number of shootings recently at or near the homes of New Mexico Democratic political leaders, including the incoming state House speaker. Police say they have a suspect, who is in custody on unrelated charges.
10,000: The number of people under an evacuation order in Montecito, California, ahead of winter storm and heavy rainfall.
51: The age of Lynette Hardaway, also known as Diamond, the pro-Trump influencer who passed away.
Eyes on 2024: Georgia on Trump’s mind
A Georgia grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump and his allies’ attempts to overturn the 2020 election has completed its work, per a judge’s ruling on Monday. While it’s not clear if the grand jury’s findings will be made public, Trump took to his social media platform on Monday to defend himself.
NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard reports that Trump posted on his Truth Social account that “my phone call(s) to Georgia Officials were PERFECT.” He also added that “the call to the Secretary of State challenged Election Integrity, or lack there of, which is my Right/Duty,” referring to his controversial phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump said, “I just want to find 11,780 votes.”
The looming grand jury report underscores how Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 election continue to define his political future — and after candidates echoing those falsehoods were rejected in multiple battleground states in the midterms.
In other campaign news:
Gary’s back: Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., will once again lead the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee after a successful 2022 election cycle. He’ll also have two vice chairs: Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., and Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.
Pelican State politics: Louisiana’s gubernatorial race is continuing to heat up, with GOP state Treasurer John Schroder jumping into the contest Monday. Also on Monday, GOP Rep. Mike Johnson took sides in the governor’s race, endorsing Attorney General Jeff Landry.
Florida men: Politico reports that Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is “steamrolling into the next election cycle,” adding that he’s focused on his re-election next year but he is also “not entirely ruling out a possible future run for Senate GOP leader or a White House bid.” On the Democratic side, NBC News’ Marc Caputo reports former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz has resigned as state party chair.
No confidence: NBC News’ Henry Gomez reports that the Alabama Republican Party issued a vote of no confidence in Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
South Carolina shakeup: A panel of three judges ruled Friday that South Carolina’s 1st District is a racial gerrymander, and said it must be redrawn.
Putting the social in social conservatives: Former Vice President Mike Pence is appearing at a prominent Baptist church this week as he looks to woo social conservatives ahead of a possible presidential bid.
Dust herself off and try again: Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams says she “will likely run again,” but didn’t specify an office or a timeline for a future bid for office.
ICYMI: What else is happening in the world
House Republicans are planning to create a new subcommittee to look into the “weaponization of the federal government.”
President Biden is facing calls to extradite former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro from the U.S. after his supporters in Brazil stormed the country’s capital.
The Supreme Court on Monday revived a case from Texas of an inmate who claims DNA evidence used to convict him was later found to be unreliable. The court also allowed a case involving WhatsApp and an Israeli spyware company to move forward in the Northern District of California.
