Happening this Wednesday: Speaker Kevin McCarthy announces House will begin impeachment inquiry into President Biden… Trump and DeSantis camps lobby Florida GOP over its loyalty pledge… Vivek Ramaswamy gets questions about his Hindu faith from Iowa voters… And Biden hits a campaign fundraiser in McLean, Va.
But FIRST… In 2019-2020, almost every Democratic member of the House voted to impeach Donald Trump in his first impeachment, and every Democratic senator voted to convict him in the Senate trial — along with one GOP senator (Mitt Romney).
By contrast, Republicans are starting out their announced impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden divided.
Here’s Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., on MSNBC: “There is not a strong connection at this point between the evidence on Hunter Biden and any evidence connecting the president. So I am more focused on the issues that I think Americans care deeply about.”
Here’s Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., per The Hill: “As of now I don’t support [an impeachment inquiry],” he said. “I think an inquiry should be based on evidence of a crime that points directly to President Biden… [I]mpeachment needs to be about the dad, not the son.”
And GOP senators — from John Cornyn of Texas, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Marco Rubio of Florida — don’t seem to be pleased about this impeachment effort.
Yes, many Republicans DO support the inquiry. (“I think we should have impeached his ass a long time ago,” said Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, per NBC’s Kyle Stewart.)
Yes, it’s also very early. (We can only imagine the conservative pressure campaigns on the likes of Buck and Bacon to change their minds.)
But right now, Republicans aren’t on the same page. (Remember when several freshmen members from competitive districts — such as Abigail Spanberger, Elisa Slotkin and Mikie Sherrill urged the House to use its impeachment powers to investigate Trump back in Sept. 2019? There’s been no similar drive by at-risk House Republicans when it comes to Biden.)
One other point to make: The timing of the announcement of this impeachment inquiry — right before the need to avert a government shutdown by Sept. 30 — sure seems like this effort is aimed at MORE than any potential wrongdoing by Biden and his son.
It looks like it’s aimed at placating conservative members.
And that appearance matters.
Quote of the day: Rep. Ken Buck’s transformation
“Pretty amazing to see the transformation of Ken Buck from guy who lost 2010 CO-SEN because he was ‘too conservative and fringe” to being thorn in the side of Freedom Caucus and a regular mainstream media guest.”
Amy walter of the Cook political report with amy walter on x
The number of the day is … $10.2 billion
That’s how much money the ad-tracking firm AdImpact predicts will be spent on political advertising during the 2024 election cycle, which would make it the most expensive political cycle (in terms of ad spending) ever.
That would amount to a 13% increase over the $9 billion spent in 2020, and a massive increase from the $2.6 billion spent during the 2016 cycle.
No surprise, the presidential race is projected to pace the spending. We’re already seeing historic spending among the GOP presidential hopefuls, who eclipsed $100 million in presidential ad spending faster than ever before.
Read more on NBCNews.com.
Other numbers to know
42%: President Biden’s approval rating in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll out Tuesday — his highest in the poll since March.
2 million: The number of doors Never Back Down, a super PAC backing DeSantis, has knocked on in its grassroots push for DeSantis, Fox News reports.
60: The number of days InfoWars host Owen Shroyer was sentenced to prison in his Jan. 6 case.
6 months: The starting age at which the CDC recommended receiving Covid vaccine shots on Tuesday, following an advisory committee vote.
300: The number of books Florida school districts removed from library shelves last year.
Up to 10,000: The number of people missing and feared dead after a major storm and flooding in Libya.
5: The number of former Memphis police officers charged Tuesday in the death of Tyre Nichols, nine months after he was killed after a traffic stop.
12.4%: The portion of U.S. children in poverty last year, up from 5.2% the year before, CNN reports.
Eyes on 2024: Looming deadlines mean presidential field likely set
The Iowa caucuses are still four months away, but the window for any more GOP candidates to jump into the presidential race is closing fast as filing deadlines approach, per a new NBC News report.
Nevada and South Carolina’s filing deadlines are coming up next month, and Arkansas and Alabama have November deadlines. A slew of other states, including California and Texas (states expected to have among the most convention delegates up for grabs), have December deadlines.
To meet those deadlines, campaigns would have to be working right now to gather the required signatures to qualify for the ballot.
That’s bad news for Republicans who may want to see someone like Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin or Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp jump into the race.
“The runway for someone to realistically run for president is basically over,” said Nick Trainer, who served as Delegates and Party Organization director on Trump’s 2020 campaign and isn’t working with a candidate this cycle.
Read more on NBCNews.com.
In other campaign news…
Pledge drama: Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ teams are clashing over the Florida GOP’s requirement to pledge to support the party’s nominee in order to get on the primary ballot, which Trump’s supporters want to nix, NBC News’ Matt Dixon reports.
Around the world in five days: NBC News’ Peter Nicholas examines the victories and missteps that followed Biden on his five-day trek across the globe.
14th Amendment strikes again: A group of voters filed a lawsuit Tuesday to remove Trump from the ballot in Minnesota, on the grounds that he violated the 14th Amendment. It’s the second such lawsuit filed this month. The first was in Colorado, where a judge nixed Trump’s request to move the case to federal court.
Talking religion: NBC News’ Alex Tabet, Katherine Koretski and Emma Barnett report on how GOP primary voters continue to pepper Vivek Ramaswamy with questions about his Hindu faith and about how he views Christianity as he tries to court a heavily evangelical group of Iowa GOP caucusgoers.
Cut, baby, cut: Ramaswamy also spoke with NBC News’ Allan Smith about why he thinks the U.S. Supreme Court would greenlight his push to slash the federal bureaucracy.
He’s in: Former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Morgan entered the Democratic primary for governor in North Carolina on Tuesday, He joined one other Democrat — state Attorney General Josh Stein — in the race to succeed Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is term limited, next year.
He’s back: North Carolina Republican Mark Harris, whose 2018 election was tossed out due to election fraud perpetrated by one of his consultants, announced Tuesday that he is running for Congress again. Back in 2019 Harris called for a new election, but on Tuesday he said Democrats stole his election, comparing himself to Trump.
Anonymous attacks: A mysterious super PAC is on the airwaves in Montana, running ads attacking GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy over a PPP loan he received, Politico reports.
Boebert’s ‘parallel identities’: After surviving a close re-election race last year, conservative Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., is embracing “parallel identities,” Politico writes: “the Washington firebrand when in D.C., and the bring-home-the-bacon pol in Colorado.”
ICYMI: What ELSE is happening in the world:
Many Republicans are outraged that the Biden administration is allowing a prisoner exchange with Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi tells NBC News’ Lester Holt that he has no regrets with how Iranian security forces treated protesters following the death of a woman in police custody.
New Mexico’s Attorney General said he will not defend the governor’s temporary gun banfrom legal challenges.
A high-ranking FBI official told the House Judiciary Committee that David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, never said he didn’t have full authority to oversee the Hunter Biden case, contradicting the testimony of a whistleblower, the New York Times reports.
