Biden tears into ‘extreme’ House Republicans over looming shutdown

By Geoff Earle In Philadelphia For Dailymail.Com and Morgan Phillips, Politics Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Published: 16:41 EDT, 26 September 2023 | Updated: 16:41 EDT, 26 September 2023

Advertisement

The House voted to pass a rule vote to begin debate on four separate spending bills after two rules votes failed last week, prompting Republicans to burst into applaus on the floor.  

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was the only Republican to vote against the rule, opposing the ‘blood money’ it contained for Ukraine. 

The House now moves on to debating amendments for the agriculture-FDA, defense, homeland security and state appropriations bills.

McCarthy celebrated the win in a news conference with reporters after the vote where he vowed to bring a stopgap spending bill to the floor to extend the September 30 deadline for a government shutdown.

He said he would bring it to the floor whether or not it had the votes to pass as multiple GOP members remain opposed to any CR, arguing the House must pass 12 single-subject spending bills or nothing.  

‘We want to make sure government stays open as we do our work,’ he said. 

But the speaker scoffed at the Senate‘s new bipartisan CR plan that includes money for Ukraine and disaster relief. He said the Senate’s priorities are ‘backwards’ because their CR included money for Ukraine but did not include border security provisions.  

With only four days to shutdown, the rule vote gave a hint of optimism to the House GOP, which is not facing new pressure to agree on spending legislation after the Senate released a bill that would kick the deadline for a government shutdown down the road by six weeks.

The continuing resolution (CR), endorsed by both Senate leaders Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would extend government funding from September 30 to November 17. 

It includes over $6 billion in Ukraine aid, sure to trigger some House conservatives. It also includes $6 billion in disaster relief and no border provisions. 

It’s unlikely the deal could pass before Sunday if Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., holds up ‘quick passage’ – which requires unanimous consent. He claimed Tuesday he would continue to do so. 

‘I will object to any kind of easy passage or speeding up of the time. I think it’s bad policy to borrow money from China to send it to Ukraine.’

Meanwhile Speaker Kevin McCarthy remained non-committal on whether he’d ever give a Senate-authored CR a vote on the House floor. He’s also called for Ukraine aid to be dealt with separately from stopgap spending legislation. 

On Tuesday he did say he would put a stopgap funding bill on the floor before Saturday but said he would continue pushing for one that included border security. 

The Senate CR would likely pass both the upper chamber and the lower chamber with votes from Democrats and some Republicans if House GOP leadership put it up for a vote. But doing so could endanger McCarthy’s speakership. 

McConnell endorsed a ‘standard, short-term’ stopgap spending bill on the Senate floor Tuesday. 

‘Over the years, I’ve been pretty clear in my view that government shutdowns are bad news whichever way you look at them. They don’t work as political bargaining chips,’ the GOP leader said. 

The Senate is set to advance the House’s FAA reauthorization bill on Tuesday, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will use to advance a CR through the Senate. 

Meanwhile the knives are out between Congress and the White House four days before a government shutdown, as McCarthy lays blame on Joe Biden‘s border policies and tears into right-wing Republicans who ‘side’ with the president.

The GOP leader said he would put a short-term continuing resolution (CR), or a stopgap spending bill to fund the government past September 30, on the floor before Saturday and it would likely include provisions to bolster border security. 

‘What’s concerning to me is that there are people in the Republican Party who will take the position of President Biden against what the rest of Americans want,’ McCarthy said Tuesday. 

The speaker can only afford to lose four Republican votes and still pass a party-line CR loaded up with spending cuts.

More than four in his conference have expressed opposition to a CR – most vocally McCarthy opposer Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. They insist the House most move forward on 12 single-subject spending bills. 

McCarthy, who cut a debt limit deal with President Biden that set top line spending numbers for fiscal year 2024, is now requesting a meeting him to cut another deal to keep the government funded.  

‘Why don’t we just cut a deal with the president?’ McCarthy told reporters who pressed him on when he would cut a CR deal with congressional Democrats. 

The House is set to vote on a rule to advance four of 12 appropriations bills Tuesday night in what could be an bellwether for the week to come.  It’s not clear yet clear whether a handful of obstinate Republicans will allow the rule to pass. 

He then suggested that if Biden fixed his border policy they could work together on funding – a seemingly infeasible tradeoff. 

‘Listen, the president, all he has to do … it’s only actions that he has to take. He can do it like that. He changed all the policies on the border. He can change those,’ McCarthy said. ‘We can keep government open and finish out the work that we have done.’

Border crossings in fiscal year 2023, which ends at the end of September, are on track to surpass that of 2022 after figures released Friday show an uptick of 50,000 in apprehensions in the month of August.

In recent days the Biden team has piled on to the GOP for causing the shutdown: Biden warned voters to ‘stop electing Republicans’ if they could not pass spending deals that keep the government open. 

President Joe Biden once again ripped House Republicans Tuesday and warned against a government shutdown, with funding set to run out September 30th if lawmakers can’t reach a resolution.

‘In just about a week, we could be facing a government shutdown if Republicans in the House Representatives don’t do their job. There’s no reason for us to be in this position,’ he inveighed in a new video Biden released on his official account on the former Twitter site.

Biden cited his earlier talks with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which resulted in agreement on spending levels. He warned against the potential toll on the military and on government services, as the White House prepares to try to capitalize on the prospect of chaos in the Capitol.

‘Now, there’s a small group of extreme House Republicans who don’t want to live up to that deal. So they’re determined to shut down the government – shut it down now. And it makes no sense,’ he said, speaking from the Oval Office in a video with multiple camera cuts.

Biden said he was prepared to do his part by House Republicans ‘refuse to stand up to the extremists in their party.’ In a shutdown scenario, military members would be on duty ‘but not get paid,’ Biden said, in just one of the federal impacts the White House has been rollign out this week. ‘And frankly, that’s adding insult to injury.’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday came to the Senate floor to warn against a shutdown, after earlier observing shutdowns haven’t worked out well for Republicans in the past.

‘Over the years, I’ve been pretty clear in my view that government shutdowns are bad news whichever way you look at them,’ McConnell said.

‘They don’t work as political bargaining chips. They create unnecessary hardships for millions of Americans. For example, nearly 46,000 servicemembers and 22,000 civilian workers in my home state of Kentucky who earn federal government paychecks. And they hardly ever produce meaningful policy outcomes at the end of the day,’ he continued.

‘A government shutdown would be an unnecessary disruption of the important work on the Senate’s agenda. So I would urge each of my colleagues to work this week to avoid one.’

He spoke while on the other side of the Capitol, House Republicans struggled to find a way forward.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he would put a short-term continuing resolution (CR) on the floor to fund the government beyond September 30. But McCarthy, facing pressure from his conference, would likely include provisions to bolster border security.

‘What’s concerning to me is that there are people in the Republican Party who will take the position of President Biden against what the rest of Americans want,’ McCarthy said Tuesday. 

The speaker can only afford to lose four Republican votes and still pass a party-line CR loaded up with spending cuts.

But more than a quarter of Republicans have blasted a temporary funding bill, including Donald Trump loyalist Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

Biden’s video came a day after he dared Americans to stop electing Republicans if the government careens into shutdown next weekend.

‘Funding the government is one of the most basic, fundamental responsibilities of the Congress and if Republicans in the House don’t start doing their job, we should stop electing them,’ Biden said in remarks at the White House. 

The government will run out of money on September 30 if the House and Senate do not agree on spending legislation to send to the president’s desk.  

The president pointed to the debt ceiling deal he made with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which set funding caps for fiscal year 2024.

But the deal roiled some House conservatives who demanded McCarthy write up 12 separate spending bills at caps lower than those agreed to in the debt ceiling legislation. 

‘Now, a small group of extreme House Republicans, they don’t want to live up to that deal and everyone in America could be faced with paying a price for that,’ he said. ‘We made a deal. We shook hands. We said this is what we’re going to do and now they’re reneging on the deal, which is not much of a surprise these days.’ 

Democrats have launched an all-out campaign to lay blame on Republicans for a government shutdown. 

Earlier the Biden campaign accused House Republicans of ‘gleefully letting Donald Trump function as their chief political strategist at the expense of American families.’

Five days before a government shutdown, it’s not clear the House is any closer to passing a spending deal than it was last week. 

Last week Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., warned shutdowns ‘have always been a loser for Republicans politically’ and that they’ve ‘never produced a policy change.’

Speaker Kevin McCarthy is expected to take yet another gamble with a rule vote that would advance four separate spending bills on Tuesday, though it’s far from clear the rule would pass. 

The speaker would need to flip five Republican holdouts who voted ‘no’ on a rule vote for the defense spending bill last week, a rule vote that failed twice in 48 hours. 

The rule vote that tees up debate on spending bills typically passes with support from almost everyone in the majority party. But the House GOP has struggled to push through a rule vote three times this year. 

The rule vote for the military, the Department of Homeland Security, State and agriculture on Tuesday night will take the temperature for how the rest of the week could play out for House Republicans.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has already said she is a ‘hard no’ on the rule because it includes ‘blood money’ for Ukraine.

McCarthy had said he would strip $300 million to train Ukrainian soldiers from the defense spending bill and hold a separate vote on it on Friday. But he did an about-face and decided to leave the money in their as he realized it would be too difficult to strip that and the Ukraine funding in the bill for State Department funding.  

The other GOP ‘no’ votes include Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.) and Dan Bishop (N.C.) and it’s not clear if any of them have changed their mind this week. 

Even if they are able to begin debate on the bills, it’s far from clear they could actually pass them.  

And if all 12 appropriations bills were passed by the House, a daunting feat in itself, the government would still shut down because the Senate would never take up and pass those bills by Saturday night. 

Meanwhile, McCarthy is pushing forward with a Republican-only continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the government open and give his conference more time to push through spending bills. 

The Senate, meanwhile, is prepping a bill that could advance a Democrat-led CR  and put pressure on McCarthy to put it on the floor. 

And House moderates have begun to prep their own bipartisan CR plans and look at ways to advance them without the blessing of leadership. Some moderate Republicans have said they would join with Democrats on a discharge petition, meaning they could force a CR vote on the floor if five Republicans and all Democrats agree to it. 

McCarthy has urged his colleagues to fight against a shutdown, even as some seem open to closing the government to get what they want. Trump urged Republicans on Truth Social Sunday: ‘UNLESS YOU GET EVERYTHING, SHUT IT DOWN!’ 

‘You have to keep the government open. I mean, if people want to close the government — only makes them weaker,’ McCarthy said. 

‘Why would they want to stop paying the troops or stop paying the border agents or the Coast Guard? I don’t understand how that makes you stronger. I don’t understand what point you’re trying to make.’ 

Credit rating agency Moody’s has cautioned that a government shutdown could harm America’s credit rating.

While it said that a short-lived shutdown would ‘unlikely disrupt the economy,’ it would ‘underscore the weakness of US institutional and governance strength’ of the US compared to other top-tier economies. 

Moody’s is the last major ratings agency to still have assigned US its top rating of AAA. 

Last month, Fitch, another major ratings agency, dropped the US rating from AAA to AA+, citing the country’s $33 billion debt and ‘a steady deterioration in standards of governance.’

On Monday, Moody’s echoed that sentiment, saying a shutdown would highlight the constraints that ‘intensifying political polarization put on fiscal policymaking at a time of declining fiscal strength.’

‘Looking ahead, weaker fiscal policymaking that leads to persistently high fiscal deficits and higher than expected interest costs would put pressure on the US rating or outlook,’ Moody’s wrote in a statement.

If Congress this week fails to provide funding for the new fiscal year, starting on October 1, government services would be disrupted and hundreds of thousands of federal workers would be furloughed without pay.

Moody’s analyst William Foster told Reuters the shutdown would be evidence of Washington’s weak policymaking in the face of financial pressures brought about by high interest rates and the country’s substantial $33 billion of debt.

‘If there is not an effective fiscal policy response to try to offset those pressures… the likelihood of that having an increasingly negative impact on the credit profile will be there,’ said Foster.

‘And that could lead to a negative outlook, potentially a downgrade at some point, if those pressures aren’t addressed.’

Moody’s rates the US government AAA with a stable outlook – the highest creditworthiness it assigns to economies.

‘Fiscal policymaking is less robust in the US than in many AAA-rated peers, and another shutdown would be further evidence of this weakness,’ Moody’s said.

President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser, Lael Brainard, said the Moody’s comment highlighted the importance that Congress reaches an agreement.

‘Today’s statement from Moody’s underscores that a Republican shutdown would be reckless, create completely unnecessary risks for our economy, and lead to disruptions for communities and families across the country,’ Brainard, director of the National Economic Council, said in a statement.

‘Congress must do its job and keep the government open.’

A Treasury spokesperson said the Moody’s report delivered ‘further evidence that a shutdown could undercut our current economic momentum’ at a time when inflation and unemployment were both below 4 percent.

Moody’s said the economic impact of a shutdown would likely be limited and short-lived, with the most direct effect from lower government spending, and the negatives growing the longer the shutdown lasts.

Congress so far has failed to pass any spending bills to fund federal agency programs amid a Republican Party feud. The shutdown would not affect government debt payments. 

Earlier this year political feuding around lifting the US debt limit threatened to cause a US sovereign debt default.

Although the crisis was eventually resolved before any debt payments were missed, it was a major factor leading to Fitch’s downgrade last month.

‘In this environment of higher rates for longer and pressures building on the debt affordability front, it’s that much more important that fiscal policy can respond,’ said Foster, from Moody’s.

‘And it looks increasingly challenged because of things like the government shutdown and having come off the debt limit episode, because it’s such a polarized political dynamic in Washington,’ he said.

More than seven in 10 Americans believe the Biden administration is withholding information about UFOs, a DailyMail.com poll has revealed.

And nearly four in 10 think that Earth has been visited by aliens from another planet in the past fifty years, according to the survey. 

We put several UFO-themed questions to 1,000 voters following a series of unprecedented Congressional hearings and a NASA investigation into unidentified craft flying in our skies.

More than four in 10 respondents said they would feel safer if Donald Trump were President of the US if aliens were to invade Earth, while a third said they would feel safer under Joe Biden. The rest were unsure.

J.L Partners conducted the poll from September 15 through 20, asking questions to Americans by phone, text and in its dedicated app.

Participants ranged in age from 18 to over 65. Scarlett Maguire, Director at JLP, said: ‘Biden’s approval rating isn’t the only thing that has fallen to Earth recently. 

‘Only four in 10 Americans believe recent reports of UFOs are human in origin, and just one in four rule out extra-terrestrials having visited in the last 50 years. 

‘And, perhaps unsurprisingly, for a demographic that embraces astrology, 18-29-year-old women are one of the groups most likely to think we have already had a close encounter of the third kind.’

‘As with crime and the economy, the public’s trust in the Biden administration’s handling of UFOs doesn’t survive first contact. 

‘Even Democrats don’t believe they have been told everything about UFOs. And when Mars attacks, there is only one man in town to save the day: more Americans – including independents – would choose Trump over Biden to defend them.’

When asked about the recent strange sightings by US Navy pilots, a total of 27 percent said they were ‘probably alien in origin.’

A 41 percent majority said the strange flying objects were of human origin, and 32 percent said they did not know.

However, males, Black voters, non-graduates and Republicans were among the highest groups to believe the sightings were extraterrestrial in origin.

The poll revealed that more Americans than not believe the Biden Administration is withholding information about UFOs. 

More than 66 percent of Republicans answered ‘definitely’, compared to just 22 percent of Democrats.

DailyMail.com also asked respondents if aliens attacked Earth, who do they think we would be safer under, Joe Biden or Donald Trump.

Forty-three percent voted for Trump, 32 percent said Biden and 25 percent gave ‘don’t know’ as their answer. 

Every age, race, education level and political party chose Trump. 

Trump appeared on the ‘Hugh Hewitt’ podcast this month, where he said he was briefed on UFOs during his presidency. 

The former president explained how he spoke with ‘a couple of people from the Air Force’ who experienced strange objects in the sky.

When asked if he believes in them, Trump responded: ‘I have, I always have an open mind.’

Biden has steered clear of the topic in interviews.

In 2021, the president was asked about Barak Obama’s statements that there is footage and records of objects in the sky — these unidentified aerial phenomena – but said he does not know what they are.

Biden responded: ‘I would ask him again.’

However, earlier this year, he announced an interagency group to look into unidentified objects in US airspace.

White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby, who briefed reporters in February, announced the formation of the inquiry team. 

‘The president, through his national security adviser, has today directed an interagency team to study the broader policy implications for detection, analysis and disposition of unidentified aerial objects that pose either safety or security risks,’ Kirby said.

He explained that the team will include ‘every element’ of the government and stressed its formation was intended to ‘redouble’ the United States’ efforts to understand and, hopefully, prevent incidents with what he described as ‘high-altitude, low-speed craft.’

A tranche of UFO videos, including some never-before-seen, were quietly released by the US Customs and Border Protection, the agency responsible for keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the country.

The agency uploaded 10 videos showing craft moving strangely in our skies.

The videos were released on August 9 without warning, a press release or much in the way of context, only to be discovered by UFO enthusiasts and online investigators last week.

The videos document a fighter jet pursued by a baffling flying orb, as well as something that appears to be a propeller-powered hang-glider and yet another apparent floating orb, hovering this time near a parked 16-wheeler truck.

But the enigmatic nature of the drop — which offered little detail regarding the times and locations of these sightings, plus more than a few sweeping redactions — has left more questions than answers.

President Biden dared Americans to stop electing Republicans if the government careens into shutdown next weekend.

‘Funding the government is one of the most basic, fundamental responsibilities of the Congress and if Republicans in the House don’t start doing their job, we should stop electing them,’ Biden said in remarks at the White House. 

The government will run out of money on September 30 if the House and Senate do not agree on spending legislation to send to the president’s desk.  

The president pointed to the debt ceiling deal he made with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which set funding caps for fiscal year 2024.

But the deal roiled some House conservatives who demanded McCarthy write up 12 separate spending bills at caps lower than those agreed to in the debt ceiling legislation. 

‘Now, a small group of extreme House Republicans, they don’t want to live up to that deal and everyone in America could be faced with paying a price for that,’ he said. ‘We made a deal. We shook hands. We said this is what we’re going to do and now they’re reneging on the deal, which is not much of a surprise these days.’ 

Democrats have launched an all-out campaign to lay blame on Republicans for a government shutdown. 

Earlier the Biden campaign accused House Republicans of ‘gleefully letting Donald Trump function as their chief political strategist at the expense of American families.’

Five days before a government shutdown, it’s not clear the House is any closer to passing a spending deal than it was last week. 

Last week Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., warned shutdowns ‘have always been a loser for Republicans politically’ and that they’ve ‘never produced a policy change.’

Speaker Kevin McCarthy is expected to take yet another gamble with a rule vote that would advance four separate spending bills on Tuesday, though it’s far from clear the rule would pass. 

The speaker would need to flip five Republican holdouts who voted ‘no’ on a rule vote for the defense spending bill last week, a rule vote that failed twice in 48 hours. 

The rule vote that tees up debate on spending bills typically passes with support from almost everyone in the majority party. But the House GOP has struggled to push through a rule vote three times this year. 

The rule vote for the military, the Department of Homeland Security, State and agriculture on Tuesday night will take the temperature for how the rest of the week could play out for House Republicans.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has already said she is a ‘hard no’ on the rule because it includes ‘blood money’ for Ukraine.

McCarthy had said he would strip $300 million to train Ukrainian soldiers from the defense spending bill and hold a separate vote on it on Friday. But he did an about-face and decided to leave the money in their as he realized it would be too difficult to strip that and the Ukraine funding in the bill for State Department funding.  

The other GOP ‘no’ votes include Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.) and Dan Bishop (N.C.) and it’s not clear if any of them have changed their mind this week. 

Even if they are able to begin debate on the bills, it’s far from clear they could actually pass them.  

And if all 12 appropriations bills were passed by the House, a daunting feat in itself, the government would still shut down because the Senate would never take up and pass those bills by Saturday night. 

Meanwhile, McCarthy is pushing forward with a Republican-only continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the government open and give his conference more time to push through spending bills. 

The Senate, meanwhile, is prepping a bill that could advance a Democrat-led CR  and put pressure on McCarthy to put it on the floor. 

And House moderates have begun to prep their own bipartisan CR plans and look at ways to advance them without the blessing of leadership. Some moderate Republicans have said they would join with Democrats on a discharge petition, meaning they could force a CR vote on the floor if five Republicans and all Democrats agree to it. 

McCarthy has urged his colleagues to fight against a shutdown, even as some seem open to closing the government to get what they want. Trump urged Republicans on Truth Social Sunday: ‘UNLESS YOU GET EVERYTHING, SHUT IT DOWN!’ 

‘You have to keep the government open. I mean, if people want to close the government — only makes them weaker,’ McCarthy said. 

‘Why would they want to stop paying the troops or stop paying the border agents or the Coast Guard? I don’t understand how that makes you stronger. I don’t understand what point you’re trying to make.’ 

President Joe Biden got briefly marooned while announcing a plan to invest $40 billion in infrastructure for Pacific islands – then skipped over the acronym for the new program he was touting after botching the name during delivery.

Biden announced the Pacific Islands Initiative at the start of a White House summit for Pacific island nations.

‘We call it the P … PI … anyway, doesn’t matter what we call it, but that’s what it is,’ he said.

Then he riffed, ‘I was going to get back to acronyms and I’m … not doing that,’ he joked, earning some laughs from participants in the East Room of the White House.

Biden, 80, has spoken of the arduous task of overcoming a speech impediment during his youth, although his stumbles have been gaining increasing attention amid voter concerns about his age. Last week, he mentioned the name of the black caucus instead of the hispanic caucus at an event, and bumped into the Brazilian flag at an event at the UN, amid polls showing him essentially tied with Donald Trump. 

Then at Monday’s meeting, Biden got to touting some of what those investments, with congressional buy-in, would be – at a time the U.S. is courting nations large and small in the region amid China‘s muscle-flexing.

He said they included digital connectivity, global infrastructure investment, and micro-finance, along with sustainable fisheries and efforts to grapple with climate change and rising sea levels. 

‘I want you to know I hear you.. we hear your warnings of the rising seas,’ he said.

‘We hear your calls reassurance that you never never never will lose your statehood, or membership the UN as result of climate crisis,’ Biden said. Smaller nations represent and influential block at the UN.

At the top of his remarks, Biden thanked the prime minister of Papua New Guinea, who he said brought an ‘incredible gift.’

It was a small piece of an A20 aircraft.

Biden then told a story, saying that ‘during World War II my … uncle was in the Army Air Corps’ having flown many missions across the Pacific. He ‘flew many missions in that A20,’ Biden said.

‘In 1944 during one of those missions his plane crashed off the coast of Papua New Guinea,’ Biden said. ‘My uncle’s remains were never recovered, never found.’

He said Gen. Douglas MacArthur sent a condolence letter. ‘He died serving in a crusade from which a better world for all will come,’ the general wrote. 

Biden apologized for having to cancel a planned trip to Papua New Guinea earlier this year amid talks over averting a debt limit default. 

According to the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, which put out a call for proposals, the program Biden mentioned is called the Pacific Island Strategic Infrastructure Initiative. 

Biden hosted Pacific island leaders for a second White House summit on Monday, part of a three-day U.S. charm offensive to block further Chinese inroads into a strategic region Washington has long considered its own backyard.

Ahead of a White House welcome for the leaders, Biden announced U.S. diplomatic recognition of two more Pacific islands nations, the Cook Islands and Niue. The U.S. will also promise new money for infrastructure for the region, including to improve internet connectivity via undersea cables, and honor regional leaders at an NFL game.

Biden held an inaugural summit with the islanders at the White House a year ago and was due to meet them again in Papua New Guinea in May. That plan was scrapped when a U.S. debt- ceiling crisis forced Biden to cut short an Asia trip.

At last year’s summit with 14 Pacific island nations, Biden’s administration pledged to help islanders fend off China’s ‘economic coercion’ and a joint declaration resolved to strengthen their partnership, saying they shared a vision for a region where ‘democracy will be able to flourish.’

The White House said this year it would focus on priorities including climate change, economic growth, sustainable development, public health and countering illegal fishing.

In announcing recognition of the Cook Islands and Niue as sovereign and independent states, Biden said the move would ‘enable us to expand the scope of this enduring partnership as we seek to tackle the challenges that matter most to our peoples’ lives.’

He said the U.S. had a long history of cooperation with the Cook Islands, dating back to World War Two, when the U.S. military built airport runways in one if the chain’s atolls. He said Niue played ‘a critical and constructive role in the Pacific,’ including by supporting sustainable development, security, and marine protection and ocean conservation.

In Baltimore on Sunday, Pacific island leaders visited a Coast Guard cutter in the harbor and were briefed on combating illegal fishing by the Commandant of the Coast Guard, an official said.

They also attended Sunday’s National Football League game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Indianapolis Colts. Dozens of NFL players are of Pacific Islander heritage.

SOME SKIP SUMMIT

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, who has deepened his country’s ties with China, will skip the summit. A senior Biden administration official said the U.S. was ‘disappointed’ by Sogavare’s decision.

Washington appears to have made no progress on offers of substantial infrastructure funding and expanded aid to the Solomons. Sogavare visited China in July, announcing a policing agreement with Beijing that builds on a security pact signed last year.

The White House in 2022 said the U.S. would invest more than $810 million in expanded programs to aid the Pacific islands.

Meg Keen, director of Pacific Island Programs at Australia’s Lowy Institute, said that while the U.S. had opened new embassies and USAID offices in the region since last year’s summit, Congress had yet to approve the funds.

She added that Pacific island countries ‘welcome the U.S. re-engagement with the region, but don’t want geopolitical tussles to result in an escalation of militarization.’

Vanuatu Prime Minister Sato Kilman will also not attend the summit, his office told Reuters.

Kilman was elected by lawmakers two weeks ago to replace Ishmael Kalsakau, who lost a no-confidence vote for actions including signing a security pact with U.S. ally Australia.

The U.S. is still negotiating to open an embassy in Vanuatu, but has not significantly increased its engagement with the nation, which counts China as its largest external creditor. China last month sent police experts to Vanuatu and signed a policing agreement.

A senior Biden administration official said the U.S. was on track to open the Vanuatu embassy by early next year and that other Vanuatu officials would attend the summit.

Fiji has welcomed the stronger U.S. regional presence as making the Pacific ‘more secure,’ but Kiribati, one of the most remote Pacific island states, 2,500 miles (4,000 km) southwest of Hawaii, said this year it plans to upgrade a former World War Two airstrip with Chinese assistance.

Washington renewed agreements this year with Palau and Micronesia that give it exclusive military access to strategic parts of the Pacific, but has yet to do so with the Marshall Islands, which wants more money to deal with the legacy of massive U.S. nuclear testing in the 1940s and 50s.

A Biden administration official said it was confident of concluding a deal with the Marshall Islands.

Senator Bob Menendez is set to announce his re-election bid on Monday, doubling down on his defense as fellow Democrats are calling on him to resign after he was charged with accepting bribes for favors.

The Democratic senator will hold a press conference in his home state of New Jersey, speaking publicly for the first time since he and his wife Nadine Arslanian Menendez were indicted by a federal grand jury over corruption allegations in an investigation that focused on a luxury car, $400,000 in gold bars and cash, plus payments toward a home mortgage allegedly received by the couple.

Menendez, who is up for re-election in 2024, is expected to announce he will run for a fifth term. He will speak at 11:30 am at Hudson County Community College. Hudson County is where he got his start in politics, serving as mayor of Union City.

But support for the embattled Democrat is waning. More than two dozen Democrats in New Jersey have called on him to resign.

And, Rep. Andy Kim, who cleaned up the Capitol after the rioters left on Jan. 6, 2021, announced he’s running for Senate, setting up a tough primary challenge for Menendez. 

‘This is not something I expected to do, but I believe New Jersey deserves better,’ Kim said in a statement. ‘We cannot jeopardize the Senate or compromise our country´s integrity. I believe it´s time we restore faith in our democracy, and that´s why I am stepping up and running for Senate.’ 

It is the second round of bribery charges for Menendez.  A 2015 case ended in mistrial after a jury failed to reach a verdict on all counts and a judge acquitted him on some charges.

But, in contrast to eight years ago, when many in the party stood by him, multiple Democrats – including New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman – have called on Menendez to resign. 

‘The alleged facts are so serious that they compromise the ability of Senator Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state,’ Murphy said. As governor, he would appoint a senator to replace Menendez should he resign.

Notably, New Jersey’s other Democratic Senator, Cory Booker, has been silent on Menendez. 

Menendez himself has remained defiant – although he has stepped down from his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Menendez called the investigation ‘an active smear campaign of anonymous sources and innuendos to create an air of impropriety where none exists.’

‘The excesses of these prosecutors is apparent,’ Menendez said. ‘They have misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office. On top of that, not content with making false claims against me, they have attacked my wife for the longstanding friendships she had before she and I even met.’

He also claimed he is being ‘falsely accused’ because he is a ‘Latin American’ who rose from a humble childhood to the United States Senate.

‘Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first generation Latin American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. senator,’ he said. 

Republicans see an opening to win a Senate seat if Menendez stays on the ballot.

But former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has ruled out a run, sticking with his campaign to be the Republican presidential nominee.

‘I have no interest in being in the United States Senate,’ Christie told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker in a Sunday morning interview.

The 27-page indictment, unsealed on Friday, claims that Bob and Nadine Menendezt had an improper relationship with three New Jersey businessmen: Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, who allegedly paid the couple in exchange for Menendez to use his influence in Washington D.C. to their benefit.

The couple face three criminal counts each: conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. The three businessmen face charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud

The indictment also charges the senator with providing ‘sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt.’ 

David Schertler, a lawyer for Nadine Menendez, said she ‘denies any criminal conduct and will vigorously contest these charges in court.’ 

The indictment outlines a series of texts, payments and actions the couple allegedly took to help the three businessmen, actions from which they financially benefited.

The probe listed several ‘bribes’ paid to them. ‘Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,’ the indictment said.

A June 2022 raid on their New Jersey home found ‘over $480,000 in cash – much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe,’ the indictment notes, adding Nadine had over $70,000 in a safe deposit box. 

It also found two one-kilogram gold bars and eleven one-ounce gold bars.

The indictment alleges that Menendez tried to disrupt a federal criminal prosecution of Fred Daibes in exchange for the money and other items of value. Daibes is an old friend of Menendez, has fundraised for his Senate campaign, and allegedly has ties to the Genovese mob family.

The indictment charges Menendez ‘promised to and did use his influence and power’ to pressure President Joe Biden to nominate a U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey who Menendez ‘believed could be influenced by Menendez with respect to the federal criminal prosecution of Fred Daibes.’

Menendez recommended and Biden later nominated Phillip Sellinger as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, the top federal prosecutor in the state. 

Daibes has been under investigation before. New Jersey authorities have tracked high-ranking mobsters meeting with Daibes repeatedly over the last decade, the Daily Beast reported. 

Daibes provided the couple with gold bars and envelopes of cash, the indictment states. 

‘Multiple gold bars provided by Daibes were found during the court-authorized June 2022 search; of the couple’s home, the indictment states. It also says the senator performed a web search for ‘how much is one kilo of gold worth’ and that the envelopes of cash had the fingerprints of Daibes and his driver. 

The investigation also focused on 40-year-old New Jersey businessman, Wael Hana, who has known Nadine since before she started dating Menendez.

Hana, who is originally from Egypt, operated the company IS EG Halal in New Jersey and it soon became the sole entity authorized to certify that any halal food product imported into Egypt from anywhere in the world had been prepared according to Islamic law. 

According to the indictment, Menendez ‘improperly advised and pressured an official at the United States Department of Agriculture for the purpose of protecting a business monopoly granted to Hana by Egypt and used in part to fund the bribes being paid to Menendez through Nadine Menendez.’ 

The designation of IS EG Halal surprised U.S. agriculture officials. Previously, several other companies had been doing that certification, but they were dismissed by Egyptian agriculture officials in favor of IS EG Halal, which had no previous experience in the field.

The indictment charges Menendez with using the power of his position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to influence the State Department regarding policy in Egypt and with sending Nadine ‘highly sensitive’ about Egypt that he got in Senate briefings that she, in turn, gave to Hana.

As a senator, Menendez could put a ‘hold’ on State Department funding to the country. 

In a text to his wife, Menendez tells her: ‘I am going to sign off this sale to Egypt today. Egypt: 46,000 120MM Target Practice Rounds and 10,000 Rounds Tank Ammunition: $99 million.’

Nadine then forwarded it to an Egyptian official who replies with the thumbs up emoji.

Chris Christie isn’t interested in trying to fill embattled Sen. Bob Menendez’s congressional seat – even if his 2024 presidential run is unsuccessful.

It comes as even Democratic members are calling for the New Jersey senator’s resignation following bribery claims.

The Senate‘s No. 2 Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), stopped short Sunday morning of calling for Menendez to step down.

A federal grand jury indicted the senator and his wife Nadine Arslanian Menendez over corruption allegations in an investigation that focused on a luxury car, $400,000 in gold bars and cash, plus payments toward a home mortgage allegedly received by the couple.

While even those within Menendez’s own Party seem not to want him in the Senate any longer, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he won’t be the one to take his place.

‘I have no interest in being in the United States Senate,’ Christie told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker in a Sunday morning interview.

Currently Christie is among the crowded field of Republican candidates vying for the GOP presidential nomination against far-frontrunner Donald Trump.

It’s highly unlikely that Christie, who polls toward the middle to back of the pack, will be Republican’s candidate in 2024. But he made it clear that his alternative plan is not to join the U.S. Senate.

Welker pressed: ‘You rule it out completely?

‘Yes, I have,’ the former governor and one-time Trump adviser said. ‘I have throughout my entire career. I had a chance to appoint myself to the United States Senate, Kristen, in 2013 when Frank Lautenberg passed away and I was governor.’

‘If I didn’t appoint myself to the United States Senate, the easiest way to get there, I sure as heck am not going to run for it,’ he explained.

Menendez is a two-term senator and son of Cuban immigrants – and is up for reelection in 2024. Before becoming a senator, Menendez served in the House since 1991 representing at different times two separate New Jersey districts. 

He denied on Friday corruption charges against him and claims the indictment is racially motivated. He refused to resign.

‘Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first generation Latin American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. senator,’ he said in a statement claiming he stands ‘falsely accused.’

Durbin, who ranks just behind Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, stopped short of calling for his resignation – but was critical of the senator’s alleged actions that led to the charges.

‘This is a very serious charge,’ Durbin told CNN during an interview with State of the Union host Dana Bash on Sunday morning.

He compared the charges to the seriousness of the indictments against former President Trump.

‘In terms of resignation,’ Durbin added, ‘that’s a decision for Sen. Menendez and the people of New Jersey.’

The indictment against Menendez claim the senator and his wife had an improper relationship with three New Jersey businessmen: Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, who allegedly paid the couple in exchange for Menendez to use his influence in Washington D.C. to their benefit.

The couple face three criminal counts each – conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.

Menendez also stands accused of providing ‘sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt .’

The three businessmen are also facing charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.

Menendez said prosecutors in the Southern District of New York ‘misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office’ in the indictment against him.

‘I have been falsely accused before because I refused to back down to the powers that be and the people of New Jersey were able to see through the smoke and mirrors and recognize I was innocent,’ he said in a statement on the charges.

The senator added he would not be ‘distracted by baseless allegations’ but continue his work as senator. He has agreed to step down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Rep. Eric Swalwell said the House is acting like they are a ‘law firm with just one client’ – former President Donald Trump as he slammed Speaker Kevin McCarthy for barreling toward a government shutdown.

The Democratic lawmaker claimed that while McCarthy has the ‘title’ of Speaker, far-right factions of the Republican Party are really running the show in the House of Representatives.

His comments to MSNBC host Jen Psaki come just days before the House must reach a deal to avoid a government shutdown by passing all 12 appropriation bills for the annual funding of federal agencies.

‘The House, unfortunately, has become a law firm, with just one client, Donald Trump,’ Swalwell said in noting those running the lower chamber have their priorities elsewhere than avoiding a shutdown.

‘And, again, it’s at the expense of American people,’ he noted, adding that ‘people are going to feel the pain’ of a shutdown in coming weeks.

While the House needs to pass appropriations before September 30 to avoid a shutdown, Republicans have focused-in on other issues. Earlier this month, McCarthy announced when coming back into session after August recess an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said Sunday that he’s open to voting to oust Speaker McCarthy if he can’t reach a deal in time to prevent a shutdown.

Meanwhile, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) predicts the shutdown is inevitable at this point as Republicans refuse to band together behind a single deal – and a MAGA-arm of the Party persists in wanting Speaker McCarthy out.

‘Kevin McCarthy is a spectator speaker,’ Swalwell insisted. ‘He may have the title, but Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, they all share the job.’

‘And the problem is, is that McCarthy is only worried about his own job, and keeping it, and not the jobs of your viewers – the millions who would be affected if we don’t pay our troops, if we don’t pay border agents, if we don’t pay air traffic controllers,’ the lawmaker said during his MSNBC interview Sunday morning.

‘McCarthy could simply bring forward the same legislation that Senator Schumer and McConnell have worked on in the Senate, that President Biden would sign, and be an adult and put the country first, and we would fund the government before funding run out.’

‘But, instead, the House Republicans are failures.’

A government shutdown could be just days away as the spending bill for the last fiscal year runs out on September 30.

Meanwhile, McCarthy is having trouble juggingling the desires of moderate Republicans and hard-right factions of the Party, let alone deal with the flurry of deviating priorities of the Democrats.

Asked in a CNN State of the Union interview on Sunday morning whether he would support booting McCarthy from his speaker role, Rep. Burchett replied: ‘That would be something I would look strongly at.’

‘If we do away with our duty that we said we’re going to do,’ Burchett told CNN host Dana Bash. ‘They’re all talking about this promise that he made with Biden a year ago… What about the promise we made to the American public that we were going to be responsible Americans?’

‘We are going to be governing over a pile of rubble if we’re not careful,’ the Tennessee Republican added. ‘Our financial ship is sinking – and the American public needs to realize, all these fancy titles, C.R.s and omnibus, to confuse the American public is not working. The curtain’s off. We need to do our duty. We should be back in Washington right now and dealing with it. But what are we doing? Well, they sent us home.’

Despite the tightening deadline, the House recessed for a long weekend instead of staying in Washington, D.C. to advance at least some of the a dozen appropriation bills set forward to avoid a shutdown.

The government is funded each year by 12 appropriations bills, each covering different agencies or groups of agencies. In recent years, some or all of these bills have been rolled into a single ‘omnibus’ package and approved together.

Any parts of the government whose appropriations have not been approved and signed into law by midnight on September 30 could shut down. With less than a week until that deadline, it’s likely the federal government will go into at least a partial shutdown.

Rep. Waters says she’s sure a few agencies will need to close their doors until appropriations are approved for the next fiscal year.

‘We’re headed for a shutdown,’ Waters said in an interview with MSNBC’s the Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart.

She added: ‘The Republican Party is in complete disarray. It is chaotic.’

‘The Speaker is on his knees begging, but he sold his soul when we had 15 roll calls that was taken in order for him to get to be speaker, and now he has no control. We’re headed for a shutdown.’

Waters was referencing the fact that the House had to hold 15 separate votes to actually approve McCarthy as Speaker when Republicans gained control of the lower chamber in the 2022 midterms.

Now, that chaos is catching up with Waters’ California colleague.

Despite months of trying to get separate factions of the Party to work together, now the lawmakers are blaming their leader in the House for the inability to get legislation passed.