Politics
The state of the union is anxious, but annual speech to Congress offers Biden an opportunity
President Biden took workplace 13 months in the past vowing to halt the COVID-19 pandemic, enhance the economic system, soften America’s calcifying partisan division, restore religion in Washington’s management on the world stage and show that democracies can perform and ship.
As he prepares for his first State of the Union handle on Tuesday — at a second of rising nervousness throughout the nation and the world — these endeavors stay works in progress, at finest.
“No president in my reminiscence has had so many crises dumped onto him within the first yr as Biden has, and the speech must be equal to that,” stated Bob Shrum, a longtime Democratic speechwriter who aided President Clinton along with his State of the Union addresses. “It’s his finest probability and his finest platform to attempt to outline the Democratic Get together and his presidency in a approach that may have traction within the [November] midterms.”
Shrum stated Biden must strike a cautious stability within the speech. He wants to focus on his administration’s successes, Shrum stated, however can not strike a triumphalist tone.
“It’s a must to say what individuals [will] consider,” Shrum continued. “They want a really cautious framing that claims, ‘We’ve achieved some necessary issues, however there are some actually necessary challenges that matter to people who now we have to deal with.’ The important thing right here is to not sound happy.”
Though the pandemic could also be easing, main the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention to elevate most indoor masks necessities Friday, Biden can’t simply declare victory and repeat a mistake that had huge political penalties. Seven months in the past, he instructed the nation it had turned a nook within the pandemic, simply earlier than new coronavirus variants arrived and drove up COVID-19 caseloads, hospitalizations and deaths. The Delta and Omicron waves exhausted what little endurance the nation had left.
Biden can also’t simply have fun surging financial progress. Regardless of file first-year positive aspects within the job market, surging inflation has exacerbated the financial insecurity felt by tens of millions of Individuals.
And whereas he gained passage of a bipartisan infrastructure bundle in October, the president’s different main home agenda merchandise — an financial reduction bundle for working households that additionally included his administration’s foremost try to fight local weather change — has stalled. Biden has forged the plan as one of the best ways to make sure America’s relevance on the planet economic system whereas defending the setting. However these Rooseveltian ambitions have been deflated by the realities of Democrats’ razor-thin congressional majorities, upsetting his celebration’s most ardent supporters forward of November’s midterm elections.
With the American public largely preoccupied with home issues and his approval score within the low 40s, Biden should communicate to Individuals’ financial considerations whereas providing some reassurance that issues are enhancing.
“The president will probably be ridiculed if he says the state of the union is powerful, however he doesn’t must say it’s horrible,” stated Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York College. “They need honesty, however in addition they need hope.”
Dan Sena, a Democratic operative and former government director of the Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee, stated that Biden “has to acknowledge the general public’s fears and considerations and the work common individuals have performed to maneuver ahead. And that may make the viewers extra receptive to listening to about what he and Democrats have performed.”
His combined success in curbing the pandemic and passing his legislative agenda has been additional sophisticated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine final week. The unprovoked assault threatens international vitality markets and the safety of Europe and the West, and has challenged Biden’s proposition that democracies are destined to conquer autocracies.
“In the event you’re specializing in the home scenario, it’s fairly laborious to do an upbeat discuss,” stated Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice College. “And for those who’re specializing in international affairs, it’s laborious to do an upbeat discuss.”
Even so, Russia’s battle in Ukraine provides Biden a chance, in Brinkley’s view, to persuade Individuals of the significance of a united transatlantic alliance and to emphasise that he introduced allies collectively to face in opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assault.
“It’s a key second to take the stage as the worldwide chief who’s going to halt authoritarianism by build up our armed forces,” Brinkley stated. “He in some way has to make individuals actually really feel like ‘the USA is again,’ that democracy is everlasting.”
With broad bipartisan help within the U.S. coalescing behind Ukraine in its combat in opposition to Russia, the battle represents Biden’s finest probability to garner robust applause from each side of the Home chamber.
Whereas not recognized for hovering oratory, Biden, like each president, will use the speech “to stipulate his imaginative and prescient and agenda,” stated John Anzalone, a Democratic pollster who labored on Biden’s 2020 marketing campaign. “Joe Biden does an excellent job on massive, necessary speeches of being actually clear about what his imaginative and prescient and agenda is, and in addition what he himself believes and values,” he stated.
Biden, aides say, has been reviewing drafts of the speech for a number of weeks, squeezing prep classes into days already jam-packed with conferences about Ukraine, his nomination on Friday of the primary Black lady to the Supreme Court docket, and journey geared toward selling the advantages of the infrastructure legislation.
Within the handle, he’s prone to make a case that Congress ought to go key components of his agenda, together with subsidies for baby care and tax breaks to incentivize cleaner vitality markets. However elevating expectations on insurance policies which might be no certain guess to turn out to be legislation carries some danger.
Sena, the Democratic operative, stated it might be extra useful to Democrats on the poll in November for Biden to emphasise what he has already achieved, particularly the reduction bundle enacted almost a yr in the past that has triggered a drop in unemployment, and passage of the bipartisan infrastructure legislation.
“Giving campaigns the power to plant their toes and lean into their accomplishments and what they’ve performed to ship in making individuals’s lives simpler, that ought to be the aim,” Sena stated.
By touting his nomination of Decide Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court docket, Biden also can lean into the historical past she would make as the primary Black feminine justice whereas reminding Democrats that holding on to the Senate and the presidency would enable him to additional affect the trajectory of the judiciary.
Jennifer Palmieri, who served as President Obama’s White Home communications director, sees Biden tying collectively the Supreme Court docket, his home agenda and his international coverage objectives beneath the broader theme of working to revive the vitality of American and international democracy — an purpose that the battle in Ukraine has forged in sharper reduction.
“That is the hand they’ve been dealt,” stated Palmieri, asserting that aides little question “need him speaking about how he’s going to fight inflation.”
Biden ought to “lean into the necessary historic second [he’s] in,” she added. “It could be tougher to have a extra conventional, grounded coverage agenda break by means of this yr, but when I had been them, I’d say this can be a second for the president of the US to rally the nation to a really massive second and problem for the nation and the world.
“And unifying round this one combat goes to assist to construct credibility for others.”
Politics
Appeals court rules Texas has right to build razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration: 'Huge win'
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas has the right to build a razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration into the Lone Star State.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the ruling on X, saying President Biden was “wrong to cut our razor wire.”
“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican leader wrote.
Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for Texas to pursue a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of trespassing without having to remove the fencing.
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It also reversed a federal judge’s November 2023 refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to Texas as the state resisted federal efforts to remove fencing along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas.
U.S. Border Patrol agents cut an opening through razor wire after immigrant families crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, Sept. 27, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee during the president-elect’s first term, wrote for Wednesday’s majority that Texas was trying only to safeguard its own property, not “regulate” U.S. Border Patrol, and was likely to succeed in its trespass claims.
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Duncan said the federal government waived its sovereign immunity and rejected its concerns that a ruling by Texas would impede the enforcement of immigration law and undermine the government’s relationship with Mexico.
A Venezuelan immigrant asks Texas National Guard troops to let his family pass through razor wire after they crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, Sept. 27, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)
He said the public interest “supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control” and ensuring that federal immigration law enforcement does not “unnecessarily intrude into the rights of countless property owners.”
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “huge win for Texas.”
“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”
Migrants attempt to cross the southern border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in February. (David Peinado/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The White House has been locked in legal battles with Texas and other states that have tried to deter illegal immigration.
In May, the full 5th Circuit heard arguments in a separate case between Texas and the White House over whether the state can keep a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande.
The appeals court is also reviewing a judge’s order blocking a Texas law that would allow state officials to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people in the country illegally.
Politics
Rep. Katie Porter obtains temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend on harassment allegations
U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) secured a temporary restraining order Tuesday against a former boyfriend, saying in dozens of pages of court filings that he had bombarded her, as well as her family and colleagues, with hundreds of messages that she described as “persistent abuse and harassment.”
Porter, 50, alleged in a filing with Orange County Superior Court that her ex-boyfriend Julian Willis, 55, was contacting her and her family with such frequency that she had a “significant fear” for her “personal safety and emotional well-being.”
Judge Stephen T. Hicklin signed a restraining order Tuesday barring Willis from communicating with Porter and her children until a mid-December court hearing. He also barred Willis from communicating about Porter with her current and former colleagues.
In the court filing, Porter said that Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a history of abusing prescription painkillers and other drugs.
She said in a statement to The Times that Willis’ mental health and struggles with addiction seemed to have gotten worse since she asked him in August to move out of her Irvine home. She said she sought the court order after his threats to her family and colleagues “escalated in both their frequency and intensity.”
“I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs,” Porter said.
Willis declined to comment. He will have an opportunity to file a legal response to the temporary restraining order and challenge Porter’s allegations.
Porter is leaving the House of Representatives in January after losing in California’s U.S. Senate primary in March. She has been discussed as a front-runner in the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out, but has not said whether she will launch a campaign.
The 53-page court filing, first reported by Politico, included 22 pages of emails, text messages and other communications among Porter, family members and colleagues who had received messages from Willis, as well as messages that Willis sent to Porter’s attorney and to her political mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The filing also included messages between herself and Willis’ siblings as they discussed trying to help him during his psychiatric holds and while he was staying in a sober-living facility.
Porter said that since she ordered Willis to move out, he had sent her more than 1,000 text messages and emails, including texting her 82 times in one 24-hour period in September, and 55 times on Nov. 12 before she blocked his number.
Porter said in the filing that her ex-boyfriend had “already contacted at least three reporters to disseminate false and damaging information” about her and her children, which she said “poses a serious risk to [her] career and personal reputation.”
The filing includes an email that Porter said Willis sent to her attorney late Monday, in which Willis said he had visited Porter’s son at college in Iowa and told him that he would “bring the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into a million pieces.”
Another screenshot shows Willis telling Porter’s attorney that he would file a complaint about Porter, who has children ages 12 and 16, with child protective services.
One of Porter’s congressional staff members received a text message from Willis saying he would “punish the f—” out of him if he did not agree to “cooperate” with a New York Times reporter and Willis’ attorneys, according to a screenshot included in the court document.
Willis previously made the news in 2021, when he was arrested after a fight that broke out at a Porter town hall at a park in Irvine.
Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.
Politics
Homan taking death threats against him ‘more seriously’ after Trump officials targeted with violent threats
Incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan reacted to news of death threats against Trump nominees on Wednesday and said he now takes the death threats he has previously received seriously.
“I have not taken this serious up to this point,” Homan told Fox News anchor Gillian Turner on “The Story” on Wednesday, referring to previous death threats made against him and his family.
“Now that I know what’s happened in the last 24 hours. I will take it a little more serious. But look, I’ve been dealing with this. When I was the ICE director in the first administration, I had numerous death threats. I had a security detail with me all the time. Even after I retired, death threats continued and even after I retired as the ICE Director. I had U.S. Marshals protection for a long time to protect me and my family.”
Homan explained that what “doesn’t help” the situation is the “negative press” around Trump.
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President Elect Donald Trump, left, and new appointed Tom Homan, right (Getty)
“I’m not in the cabinet, but, you know, I’ve read numerous hit pieces. I mean, you know, I’m a racist and, you know, I’m the father of family separation, all this other stuff. So the hate media doesn’t help at all because there are some nuts out there. They’ll take advantage. So that doesn’t help.”
Homan’s comments come shortly after Fox News Digital first reported that nearly a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response.
ARMED FELON ARRESTED FOR THREATENING TO KILL TRUMP ATTENDED RALLY WEEKS AFTER BUTLER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he arrives to speak at a campaign event at Nassau Coliseum, Wednesday, Sept.18, 2024, in Uniondale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “In response, law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”
Sources told Fox News Digital that John Ratcliffe, the nominee to be CIA director, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for UN ambassador, were among those targeted. Brooke Rollins, who Trump has tapped to be secretary of agriculture, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s nominee to be EPA administrator, separately revealed they were also targeted.
Threats were also made against Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee, GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and former Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz’s family.
Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024. Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
Homan told Fox News that he is “not going to be intimidated by these people” and “I’m not going to let them silence me.”
“What I’ve learned today I’ll start taking a little more serious.”
Homan added that he believes “we need to have a strong response once we find out is behind all this.”
“It’s illegal to threaten someone’s life. And we need to follow through with that.”
The threats on Tuesday night came mere months after Trump survived two assassination attempts.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report
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