Thursday, March 21, 2024

3/21 WAKE-UP CALL: Bibi Commits To Eradicating Hamas


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Senate Republicans he's committed to eradicating Hamas as the Israel-Hamas war stretches into its seventh month, and as Israel has drawn increasing criticism from some American lawmakers. Netanyahu also said he wasn't happy with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's call last week for elections in Israel. Senate Republicans repeatedly hammered the New York lawmaker following the meeting where the Israeli leader appeared via video conference Wednesday.

Republicans' reactions reflected a deepening divide in the Senate over the politics of the war between Israel and Hamas. Democrats are aiming to thread the needle between supporting Israel while condemning its killing of Palestinian civilians, and Republicans allege their Democratic counterparts are undermining Israel's efforts to eliminate Hamas.

 ➤BIDEN PICKS-UP UNION SUPPORT: Less than a week after President Joe Biden came out in opposition of the planned sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese-based Nippon Steel Corporation, the company’s union has endorsed his 2024 reelection bid. “With his track record of supporting working people, we're eager for his administration's continued progress on our core issues,” the union announced in a Tweet Wednesday. The United Steelworkers union, which also backed Biden in 2020, represents 850,000 workers in steel mills, manufacturing plants, mines, rubber plants and railyards as well as nursing homes, legal clinics, social agencies, call centers and credit unions, among other sectors.

➤JUDGE ALLOWS TRUMP APPEAL: A judge ruled Wednesday that Donald Trump and eight other defendants in the Georgia election fraud case can proceed with an emergency appeal of his decision last week allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to stay on the prosecution despite her affair with the special prosecutor she hired to oversee it. Defense lawyers for Trump and the others filed the emergency appeal Monday, notifying Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee that his March 15 decision "is of such importance to the case that immediate review" should be conducted. Such a request under Georgia law requires the judge's approval, and McAfee granted it Wednesday without significant comment.

In their request asking McAfee to grant a certificate of immediate review, the lawyers said his decision didn't go far enough. They not only want Willis and her entire office thrown off the case, but the charges dismissed altogether, as some of them petitioned in their initial court motions back in January. McAfee's approval means that Trump and the others can now formally appeal his ruling to the Georgia state Court of Appeals, which must agree to hear the case in order for the appeal to go forward.

➤POWELL..FEDS EXPECT 'BUMPY' INFLATION DECLINE: Fed officials still see three interest-rate cuts this year, despite solid growth and firmer-than-anticipated inflation in recent months. The central bank also held steady its benchmark federal-funds rate in a range between 5.25% and 5.5%, a 23-year high. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that officials had expected the inflation decline might be “bumpy” and that it was too soon to say if the recent trajectory of lower inflation had stalled or reversed. All three major U.S. stock indexes closed at records after the Fed’s announcement. Investors had worried that recent inflation data could prompt the central bank to dial back its likely 2024 rate cuts.

➤DOJ CONSIDERS ASSANGE PLEA: The Justice Department is considering whether to allow Julian Assange to plead guilty, according to people familiar with the matter. That could lead to a deal releasing the WikiLeaks founder from a British jail. Assange is fighting extradition to the U.S. to face trial for publishing thousands of confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables around 2010. Assange has spent some five years behind bars, after seeking asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in 2012. U.S. prosecutors face diminishing odds that he would serve much more time even if he were convicted stateside.


➤JUDGES AT ODDS OVER TEXAS LAW: Federal appeals-court judges appeared at odds over the legality of a Texas law that would allow the state to arrest and deport unauthorized migrants. In a hearing, the three-judge panel gave no indication whether the measure, known as SB 4, could go into effect while Texas and the Biden administration fight over whether the state may set its own immigration policy. Yesterday, the Supreme Court allowed the law to take effect, but hours later, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals halted it. Neither court has ruled on the law’s constitutionality. More than a century of precedent holds that the U.S. government has the sole authority to set and enforce national borders.

➤TRUMP RISKS VOTER SUPPORT OVER STOLEN-ELECTION CLAIMS:  Donald Trump is threatening Republican get-out-the-vote efforts by dialing up his warning that this year’s presidential election could be rigged. Despite his unfounded stolen-election claims, the former president is urging GOP supporters to cast their ballots. Trump needs to woo moderate and swing voters—who could be turned off by this rhetoric. He also has argued that Republican-controlled states could better secure their elections right away by insisting on single-day, in-person voting, with ID checks. However, intensive GOP messaging encourages supporters to use early voting and mail-in ballots, methods that appeal to a growing portion of the electorate.

➤TRUMP..MAKE AID TO UKRAINE A LOAN: As aid to Ukraine has stalled in the halls of Congress, interest is growing in the idea of delivering funds to the war-torn nation as a loan, a proposal first floated by former President Donald Trump. Several powerful Ukraine advocates are still pushing the House to take up the $95 billion spending package the Senate passed in February with bipartisan support. It’s stuck in the lower chamber, with hard-right opposition stopping its advancement. That bill would send $60 billion to Ukraine, though much of the funding would go to U.S. defense contractors or the Department of Defense to offset aid that has already been shared.  The rest, however, could be provided in the form of a no-interest, waivable loan, Trump said on the campaign trail last month. The former president has come out against the Senate-passed Ukraine aid as is, putting additional pressure on House Republicans to oppose it.

➤LAWMAKERS SQUABBLE DURING HOUSE HEARING: House lawmakers squabbled for hours, hurling accusations of lying and Russian subversion, but broke no new ground about Hunter Biden’s overseas business deals at a hearing that is part of the impeachment inquiry against his father, President Joe Biden. Hunter Biden boycotted the House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing after testifying at a closed-door deposition. So did his business associate, Devon Archer. That left three witnesses, who each had their credibility challenged, including one who served time in prison − and one who testified from prison.

Republicans threatened to recommend the Justice Department investigate criminal charges against witnesses in the inquiry. Lawmakers accused Hunter Biden and the president’s brother, James Biden, of committing perjury in their depositions. “The scam is simple,” said the chairman, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. “The Biden family promises they can make a foreign partner’s problems go away by engaging the U.S. government.”

➤HOUSE TO 'INVITE' BIDEN TO GIVE TESTIMONY:  House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., announced he'll invite President Joe Biden to testify to investigators as part of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into the president.  “In the coming days, I will invite President Joe Biden to the House Oversight Committee to provide his own testimony and explain why his family received tens of millions of dollars from foreign companies with his assistance,” Comer alleged in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The announcement comes after the Oversight Committee held a public hearing on Wednesday with Biden family business associates. GOP lawmakers levied accusations of corruption against the president’s relatives.

🏀NCAA TOURNEY (Wednesday 3/20)

  • Colorado 60 Boise St 53
  • Grambling st 88 Montana State 81

⚾DODGERS FIRE OHTANI's INTERPRETER: In a startling development involving baseball’s biggest global superstar, Shohei Ohtani's interpreter, training partner and constant companion was allegedly taking significant sums of money from him in an effort to settle gambling debts. Ippei Mizuhara, who has been by the two-way superstar’s side since Ohtani’s Major League Baseball career began in 2018, was fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday, just hours after Ohtani’s regular season debut with the club in Seoul.

Ohtani is beginning a record 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers after spending six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, during which he grossed nearly $40 million in salary and an endorsement income exceeding nine figures. Yet the Los Angeles Times discovered that Ohtani’s name emerged in a federal investigation of an Orange County resident allegedly tied to illegal bookmaking, and Ohtani’s legal team investigated Mizuhara’s actions after learning of their client’s tie, the Times reported. Citing two sources seeking anonymity, the Times reported that the sum Mizuhara is accused of stealing was in the millions of dollars. ESPN reported that Mizuhara's debts totaled at least $4.5 million.

➤THURSDAY'S WEATHER MAP:



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