Happening this Friday: President Joe Biden signs short-term funding bill into law, averting government shutdown… Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., says he won’t run for re-election after scathing House Ethics report… New Washington Post/Monmouth poll shows Donald Trump ahead in New Hampshire (similar to yesterday’s CNN poll of the state)… Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy appear at Iowa Family Leader Foundation forum, per NBC’s Alex Tabet… And Trump campaigns in Iowa on Saturday.
But FIRST… The good news on Capitol Hill this week is that Congress averted a government shutdown. For now, at least.
The bad news, unfortunately, was almost everything else.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., almost got into a fight with the president of the Teamsters union during a hearing — until Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., broke it up.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who voted to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker last month said he got elbowed in the kidney by McCarthy, which the former speaker denied doing.
Oh, and Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., made news again — this time announcing he won’t seek re-election after a damning House Ethics report.
On top of all the chaos and dysfunction, more and more members of Congress are heading for the exits.
On Thursday, Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., joined Santos in saying he won’t run for re-election. (Kildee’s seat is competitive, and the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter moved the seat from Lean Democrat to Toss Up after the retirement news.)
That makes 26 House members who have said they’re retiring or seeking other office — nine for Republicans, 17 for Democrats. And that doesn’t include the members who have resigned from Congress.
Here was one of those nine retiring Republicans, Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., last month: “Right now, Washington, D.C. is broken; it is hard to get anything done,” she said.
And here was one of the resignations, Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y.: “Congress is not the institution that I went to 19 years ago. It’s a very different place today. We’re spending more time doing less and the American people aren’t being served,” he said. “There was a time where leadership could discern what was serious and what was not. Unfortunately, those days are over.”
Headline of the day
The number of the day is … 56 pages
That’s the length of a report the House Ethics Committee released Thursday that concluded there is “substantial evidence,” that Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., “violated federal criminal laws,” NBC’s Scott Wong, Kyle Stewart, Rebecca Kaplan and Kate Santaliz report.
Following the release of the report, Santos announced that he would not seek re-election to a second term in 2024.
Outside of Congress, Santos faces federal charges of wire fraud, identity theft and more. He’s set to go to trial next September. Santos has said he would serve out his term, but he might be forced out of Congress even sooner. The effort to expel Santos from Congress, which would require support from two-thirds of House members, is gaining steam among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, per NBC’s Capitol Hill team.
Santos survived a vote to expel him earlier this month, but Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., plans to file another resolution to oust Santos on Friday.
Meanwhile, a deep bench of Democrats and Republicans are already lining up to run for Santos’ seat next year, a battleground district on Long Island.
Eyes on 2024: Haley rises as race for second heats up
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov Ron DeSantis are continuing to fight it out for second place in the GOP presidential primary, with former President Donald still dominating the Republican contest.
But Haley has started to rise, and “an increasing number of GOP donors who oppose former President Donald Trump see her as the best alternative,” write NBC’s Matt Dixon, Jonathan Allen and CNBC’s Brian Schwartz. They report that some fundraisers who previously supported South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott have shifted their support to Haley since Scott dropped out of the race.
One of those donors, Eric Levine, who is hosting a fundraiser next month for Haley, wrote in a text message that Haley “has serious momentum and folks genuinely believe she can beat Trump and easily win the general against Biden.”
The New York Times also reports that Haley is moving to take on DeSantis in Iowa, where the Florida governor has focused his campaign, ramping up her events and ad spending in the Hawkeye State.
And in New Hampshire, a pair of polls show Haley rising to second place in the Granite State. A CNN survey finds Haley at 20%, with DeSantis at 9%, while a new Washington Post-Monmouth University Poll finds Haley at 18% and DeSantis at 7%. But both polls show Trump firmly leading the field with support from more than 40% of those surveyed.
In other campaign news…
The Kamala-not-Joe voters: Recent New York Times surveys found voters who say they would support Vice President Kamala Harris but not President Joe Biden, and the Times spoke to some of those voters to find out why.
Thinking about TikTok: The Biden campaign had previously decided it would not join TikTok, but Axios reports that the campaign is now considering joining the app to better reach young voters.
Return of the infomercial: The super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential bid is planning to spend “millions” on a 30-minute infomercial about Kennedy, per Politico.
New Hampshire vandalism: A New Hampshire Democratic Party county office was vandalized with white supremacist and antisemitic symbols.
He’s running: Retired Army Col. Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman announced that he is running for Virginia Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s House seat, the first Democrat to jump into the race. Vindman played a role in reporting the 2019 phone call between former President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that led to Trump’s first impeachment, and his twin brother Alexander, who worked for the National Security Council at the time, testified in Trump’s impeachment hearings.
California Dreamin’? Politico explores whether Democrats can hold onto California’s competitive 47th District, an open seat with Democratic Rep. Katie Porter running for Senate.
New York state of mind: Democrats are making their case before New York’s Court of Appeals that they should be able to redraw the state’s congressional lines, which could shake up the battle for the House, per NBC’s Jane C. Timm.
ICYMI: What ELSE is happening in the world
David DePape was convicted Thursday of assault and attempted kidnapping after he attacked Paul Pelosi, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, during a break-in at the couple’s home last year.
Two Democratic lawmakers who were in Israel during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas wrote to Biden, asking him to do more to condemn attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank.
Lawmakers inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters were “rattled” when police put the building on lockdown and had to break up a pro-Palestinian protest just outside, NBC’s Kyle Stewart and Summer Concepcion report.
General Motors union workers on Thursday voted to ratify a new deal by slim margins after weeks of striking by members of the United Auto Workers union against Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers.
