Politics
Under the dome and on the diamond
If life imitates art, then the Congressional Baseball Game imitates Capitol Hill.
On the field, as in the Capitol, the sides are divided. In the House and Senate chambers, the Republicans sit on one side, Democrats on the other. At the Congressional Baseball Game, Republicans occupy the first base dugout. Democrats take up residence in the third base dugout.
The teams play hard. For keeps even. They challenge their opponent across the aisle — or diamond. They try to score political points. In this case, runs.
The annual, bipartisan baseball tilt at Nats Park is emblematic of what unfolds daily under the Capitol Dome up the street. It’s just that, for one night a year, lawmakers take it outside, under the lights. They wear cleats. They don New York Mets and University of Texas at San Antonio jerseys. Lawmakers even encounter protesters like they do in the halls of Congress.
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Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., and Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, face off in the Congressional Baseball Game for Charity at Nationals Park June 12, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Only these demonstrators don’t surface in the Cannon Rotunda. They vault a fence near the left field foul pole only to be tackled in the grass by U.S. Capitol Police. Similar to what sometimes goes down in Congress.
Minus the left field foul pole.
Congress is often criticized for doing a lot of running around without accomplishing much.
A single play encapsulated this on the field Wednesday night.
Republicans were pounding the Democrats, 21-6, in the bottom of the sixth inning of a seven-inning game. But the Democrats had the bases loaded and were threatening to tighten the score.
Unlike in a Major League Baseball game, there are a lot more wild pitches and passed balls.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., went deep into the game for Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, the Republican skipper and former Atlanta Braves farmhand. But Williams switched pitchers later, bringing in Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, in relief.
Pfluger is the GOP “fireman.” He entered the game sporting a microscopic 1.11 ERA, reminiscent of Bob Gibson’s astonishing 1.12 ERA when he won the Cy Young Award in 1968.
In the bottom of the sixth, a breaking ball from Pfluger popped off the mitt of Republican catcher Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, for a passed ball. The runners didn’t advance as Pfluger charged in to cover the plate.
But baserunning — and congressional hijinks — ensued a couple of pitches later.
Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y. was at bat. Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., was on first. Rep. Tim Kennedy, D-N.Y., was on second. Rep. Nanette Barragan, D-Calif., occupied third.
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And then Pfluger uncorked a wild pitch that went all the way to brick backstop. The ball caromed across the grass in foul territory toward Lutrell.
Barragan creeped down the line halfway as Goldman wildly gyrated his arms, waving Barragan home.
However, Lutrell recovered the ball cleanly as Pfluger raced to cover the plate. Lutrell tossed it to Pfluger. It would be a no-no for Nanette to score on this one. The California Democrat retreated to the third base bag.
But that’s where trouble started.
Kennedy is not only a freshman but a rookie. In both Capitol Hill and congressional terms. Just called up to the big club from Buffalo. Not the Buffalo Bisons, the Toronto Blue Jays’ AAA affiliate. But Congress. He’s only represented Buffalo since early May, after winning a special election to succeed former Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y.
It’s customary for junior lawmakers not to upstage more senior lawmakers. But, at this stage, Kennedy was bearing down on third as Barragan tried to hustle back to safety. There were about to be two runners on third base. A conference committee. So, Kennedy reversed course, faster than a member halfway to Reagan National Airport on a congressional getaway day when the House calls an unexpected vote. Pfluger fired down to second, getting Kennedy in a rundown and the most press he’s ever garnered in his young congressional career. Now, Kennedy is trapped. He can’t head back to second because Pat Ryan, the runner on first, was legging it toward second.
Members of the Republican team stand during the singing of the national anthem during the Congressional Baseball Game for Charity at Nationals Park June 12, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
So, to help Kennedy, Ryan makes a motion to recommit to first base just as the Republicans throw the ball away. The GOP had Kennedy in a true pickle. But he escaped.
And just like on Capitol Hill, you sometimes get a second chance.
Kennedy’s baseline filibuster allowed Barragan to score. Kennedy advanced safely to third.
This turn of events for both clubs made the Bad News Bears look like the ’75 Cincinnati Reds.
But after the errant throw in the Kennedy rundown, Ryan was now running again toward second base.
Most strange things in Congress seem to emerge “from left field.”
But, on this night, it came from right field.
Rep. Jake Ellzey, R-Texas, likely deserves the most alert play of the game.
Ellzey crept all the way in from right field to back up the rundown of Kennedy between second and third. Ellzey then fielded the wayward throw and bolted in an utter sprint, running directly at Ryan.
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The New York Democrat was hung up between first and second, the third rundown in this bizarro sequence of events. Ellzey clenched the ball in his right hand, stretching toward Ryan and tagged him directly with the ball.
Ryan was out.
Ellzey is a graduate of the Naval Academy and flew missions as a fighter pilot. Ryan is a graduate of West Point and wore a Golden Knights jersey for the game.
Ellzey catching Ryan in the footrace was a true “Go Navy, beat Army” moment.
So, only one run scored amid all of that. And one out.
But like what often happens often in Congress, there are errors on both sides. And a lot of running around without much to show for it, even though Democrats eked out a run.
The play ended the bottom of the sixth inning in the seven-ining affair.
Members of the Democratic and Republican teams shake hands after the Congressional Baseball Game for Charity at National’s Park June 12, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Republicans then went on to drop a ten spot on the Democrats in the top of the seventh and cruised to a staggering 31-11 victory.
“Biggest margin of victory since 1909,” gloated House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “I think it’s an omen about the election cycle. We’re looking for more of that in November.”
As for the Democrats, they need to dig into their farm system for some pitching.
“We have some opportunities that are out there in terms of additional talent,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. “We made it competitive during the early part of the game and laid a foundation for the great Democratic comeback in 2025.
Just like daily politics on the Hill. Republicans banking on big victories this fall.
Democrats looking to reclaim control of the House.
No different under the Dome. Or on the diamond.
When President-elect Donald J. Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Saturday to pressure him on a cease-fire deal in Gaza, there was someone on the speakerphone: Brett H. McGurk, President Biden’s longtime Mideast negotiator.
It was a vivid example of cooperation between two men representing bitter political rivals whose relationship has been best described as poisonous. Rarely if ever have teams of current and new presidents of different parties worked together at such a high-stakes moment, with the fate of American lives and the future of a devastating war hanging in the balance.
Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden publicly claimed credit for the breakthrough.
“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media site even before the deal was formally announced in the Middle East.
At the White House, Mr. Biden told reporters that his administration had worked tirelessly for months to convince the two sides to halt the fighting. He called it “one of the toughest negotiations I’ve ever experienced” and gave credit to “an extraordinary team of American diplomats who have worked nonstop for months to get this done.”
As he left the room, a reporter asked Mr. Biden, “Who gets credit for this, Mr. President, you or Trump?” Mr. Biden stopped, turned around and smiled.
“Is that a joke?” he asked.
But despite the tension between the current president and the next one, their representatives in the Middle East described a cooperative working relationship in the weeks since Election Day.
“Brett is in the lead,” Mr. Witkoff said last week at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s club in Florida, describing the working relationship. That description was accurate by all accounts, even if it did not match what Mr. Trump had said moments before in one of several statements describing his negotiators as critical players.
In fact, Mr. Trump’s threat that “all hell” would break loose if no deal was reached before his inauguration on Monday might have helped motivate Hamas’s leadership to make final decisions. But people familiar with the negotiations said the announcement on Wednesday of a deal to temporarily end hostilities in Gaza was the result of months of work by Mr. McGurk in the Middle East, capped off by several weeks of carefully coordinated efforts by Mr. Witkoff.
Mr. Witkoff, 67, a blunt real estate investor from the Bronx, has largely planted himself in Qatar for the negotiations, knowing that whatever Mr. McGurk negotiated, he would have to execute. In fact, the 33 hostages who will be released under the cease-fire deal may not see freedom until Inauguration Day or after. The cease-fire would expire six weeks later, unless Phase 2 of the agreement kicks in.
By design, the goal was to send a unified message that the fighting must end and the hostages held by Hamas must be released. One person familiar with the negotiations, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the discussions, said Mr. McGurk was more involved in hammering out details of the agreement, while Mr. Witkoff’s role was to make clear that Mr. Trump wanted a deal by the time he is inaugurated.
The president-elect has also been setting some early parameters in his dealings with Mr. Netanyahu — who, for all his support of Mr. Trump in the election, was perceived by the Trump camp as dragging his feet on a deal. Mr. Witkoff flew to to Israel from Doha on Saturday — despite the Sabbath — to underscore the message that Mr. Netanyahu had to get on board.
Mr. Witkoff’s work, including the meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, helped Mr. McGurk and the Biden administration to put pressure on both sides during the negotiation, according to the person familiar with the talks.
It was not at all clear that such an arrangement would work in the days immediately after Mr. Trump won a second term.
He and Mr. Biden have barely talked in recent weeks, their already acrimonious relationship weighed down by the Trump team’s determination to clean out the White House career staff and the Biden team issuing last-minute orders to box in the new administration.
In his remarks on Wednesday, Mr. Biden acknowledged some level of cooperation and respect between their aides.
“This deal was developed and negotiated under my administration, but its terms will be implemented for the most part by the next administration,” Mr. Biden told reporters. “In these past few days, we’ve been speaking as one team.”
But he did not give any more credit to Mr. Trump for helping the effort. For his part, the president-elect said he was “thrilled” that the American hostages would be released, but he did not mention Mr. Biden or the work of the current administration.
“We have achieved so much without even being in the White House,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Just imagine all of the wonderful things that will happen when I return to the White House, and my Administration is fully confirmed, so they can secure more Victories for the United States!”
Both leaders left it to staff members to describe the way they had worked together on the Gaza negotiations.
A person familiar with that effort said a close partnership between Mr. McGurk and Mr. Witkoff was part of an “incredibly effective” process by which the Biden administration finalized a deal that the Trump administration would have to oversee.
That cooperation began soon after Mr. Trump won the election and named Mr. Witkoff to be his envoy to the region. Biden administration officials have said they believe the momentum for a deal began before that, when Mr. Biden helped broker a separate agreement to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. That isolated Hamas and helped persuade the group that a cease-fire was in its interests, according to Biden officials.
Politics
Stephen Miller preps House Republicans for Trump's immigration overhaul in closed-door meeting
President-elect Trump’s top aide on immigration and the border spoke with House Republicans during a roughly hour-long meeting Wednesday.
Lawmakers who left the room hailed Stephen Miller, who was tapped to be U.S. Homeland Security adviser in the new Trump administration, as a brilliant policy mind.
Two sources present for the discussions told Fox News Digital Miller talked about the need to scale up the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workforce, which is noteworthy given Trump’s promise to execute mass deportations when he returns to office.
Miller also discussed ways to cut federal funds going toward sanctuary cities and states, a cash flow that Republicans had previously promised to target if they were to control the levers of power in Washington.
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Trump adviser Stephen Miller addressed a group of House Republicans Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (Getty Images)
The strategy meeting comes as congressional Republicans are preparing for a massive conservative policy overhaul through the budget reconciliation process. By lowering the threshold for passage in the Senate from 60 votes to 51, reconciliation allows the party controlling Congress and the White House to pass broad policy changes — provided they deal with budgetary and other fiscal matters.
The sources told Fox News Digital Miller’s portion of the meeting partly focused on what border and immigration policies could go into a reconciliation package and what kind of funding Congress would need to appropriate.
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The sources said Miller told Republicans the incoming Trump administration understood the president-elect’s border and immigration goals were “probably not going to get a lot” of Democratic votes and that “those more controversial things would need to be in reconciliation.” More bipartisan initiatives could be passed during the regular process, the sources added.
A House GOP lawmaker told Fox News Digital of an understanding that Congress would follow Trump’s lead.
“I think we’re going to see a slew of executive orders early, and that is going to be helpful to separate from what we have to do legislatively,” the lawmaker said.
One source in the room said Miller emphasized the importance of messaging, adding that “nothing matters if we don’t get our message out to the American people.”
President-elect Trump has promised to carry out mass deportations. (Donald Trump/Truth Social)
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital Miller discussed “low-hanging fruit” that Trump could tackle by executive order, mentioning “deportation” as a possibility.
“Tax stuff, that’s going to take some time,” Norman said.
Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., declined to go into specifics about the meeting but told Fox News Digital the discussion focused on “illegal immigration and how that’s going to be curbed … to bring commonsense solutions to the program.”
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“I had a couple of questions about the cost to American taxpayers if we don’t repatriate some 12 million illegal aliens who the Biden administration has let into our country,” Alford said.
Miller declined to answer reporters’ questions when he left the room.
He was invited to address the Republican Study Committee led by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, the House GOP’s largest caucus, which acts as a conservative think tank of sorts for the rest of the House Republican Conference.
House GOP leaders like Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., were not in attendance, nor were they expected.
Rep. Mark Alford said he asked about the cost to taxpayers to keep millions of illegal immigrants in the country. (Getty Images)
Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., the group’s previous chairman, said there was “nothing new” said during the meeting, adding it was an opportunity for Trump’s aides to address the House GOP.
Trump and his aides have already paid heavy attention to congressional Republicans.
Several of his incoming White House aides are in regular contact with top GOP lawmakers. Trump personally invited several groups of House Republicans to Mar-a-Lago last weekend.
WASHINGTON — Thanks to the internet and smartphones, children today have instant access to vast amounts of online pornography, much of it graphic, violent and degrading, Texas state attorneys told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
They urged justices to restore the rules of an earlier era, when X-rated theaters and bookstores had an adults-only policy.
Last year, Texas enacted an age-verification law that requires pornographic websites to confirm their users are 18 or older.
Lawyers for 23 other Republican-led states joined in support of Texas, saying they have or plan to adopt similar measures.
The court’s conservative justices signaled they are prepared to uphold these new laws.
They noted that age-verification rules are now common for online gambling and for buying alcohol or tobacco online.
But more importantly, they pointed to the dramatic change in technology and the easy availability of hardcore pornography.
We are “in an entirely different era,” said Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. “The technological access to pornography has exploded.”
He said that warrants reconsidering rulings from decades past that invoked the 1st Amendment to strike down anti-pornography measures.
In one such ruling, the court in 2004 said parents and librarians could use filtering software to protect children from pornography.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett said parents have long known that “filtering” software is not effective in protecting children. “Kids can get online porn through gaming systems, tablets, phones and computers,” she said. “I can say from personal experience … content filtering isn’t working.”
In the past, she said the court had no problem upholding laws that prevent bookstores from selling sexually explicit books or magazine to children or teens.
She questioned why online porn should be treated differently.
Washington attorney Derek Shaffer, who represented the adult entertainment industry that challenged the Texas law on 1st Amendment grounds, argued the Texas law could have a “chilling effect” on adult customers who may be leery of providing personal information needed to verify age and identity.
Texas state solicitor Aaron Nielsen said the new age-verification systems allow customers to confirm their age online without directly contacting a particular website.
“Age verification is simple, safe and common,” he said.
The justices and the attorneys spent most of their time on what free speech standard should apply to such a law.
In the past, the court said anti-pornography laws must be viewed with “strict scrutiny.” Usually, that resulted in narrowing or striking down such laws.
By contrast, the 5th Circuit Court allowed the Texas law to take effect because it was a “rational” means of protecting children.
Several of the justices said they would vote to uphold the Texas law, but they may also agree to send it back to the 5th Circuit Court for a second hearing.
Republican-led states pointed to a growing pornography problem.
“The average child is exposed to internet pornography while still in elementary school,” wrote state attorneys for Ohio and Indiana. “Pornography websites receive more traffic in the U.S. than social media platforms Instagram, TikTok, Netflix, and Pinterest combined.”
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