“The waters have been calmed.”
So spoke Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on CNN Sunday after a frenetic 48 hours in which President Biden and his Republican partners strove to salvage a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package.
Biden threw the accord’s fate in doubt Thursday by saying he wouldn’t sign it unless it landed on his desk paired with a much larger infrastructure bill passed through the reconciliation process that lets his party go it alone if they are united.
“If this is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it,” the president had declared. “I’m not just signing the bipartisan bill and forgetting about the rest.”
The promise seemed geared to reassure wary progressives their priorities won’t be sacrificed on the altar of bipartisanship, which might have tempted some of them to modify or even vote against the two-party proposal, potentially killing it.
The White House requires 60 votes for the bipartisan project, meaning it needs 10 Republicans if Democrats all stick together, and it would be unlikely to be able to make up for lost progressives from the ranks of the GOP.
But Republicans who had signed on to the still-notional bipartisan deal declared Biden’s apparent veto threat a betrayal, and by Saturday night Biden himself seemed to change course.
In a written statement, he diagnosed GOP lawmakers as “understandably upset” and said his statement “created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent.”
“The bottom line is this: I gave my word to support the Infrastructure Plan, and that’s what I intend to do. … I fully stand behind it without reservation or hesitation,” said Biden, who predicted he would ultimately sign both into law.
On CNN’s “State of the Union” yesterday, Romney said he had broad and deep disagreements with Biden on policy, “but do I take him at his word and do I think he’s a man of honor? Absolutely.”
“He made very clear in the much larger statement that came out over the weekend, carefully crafted and thought through piece by piece, that, if the infrastructure bill reaches his desk, and it comes alone, he will sign it,” he said.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) sounded similarly upbeat on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I was very glad to see the president clarify his remarks because it was inconsistent with everything that we had been told all along the way,” Portman said.
“And I’m glad they’ve now been de-linked and it’s very clear that we can move forward with a bipartisan bill that’s broadly popular, not just among members of Congress, but the American people,” he added.
But Biden’s statement on Saturday didn’t “de-link” the bills: He explicitly said he would work to pass the nascent bipartisan package and the much broader legislation “in tandem.”
And “there has been no doubt or ambiguity about my intention to proceed this way,” he said.
He just didn’t repeat his warning from Thursday about not signing one if he did not get the other. This may be splitting presidential hairs, but it seems to still be an open question.
Don’t take my word for it.
On CNN, host Jake Tapper made several attempts to get White House adviser Cedric Richmond to “clarify, once and for all” whether Biden would sign the bipartisan package if that’s all Congress sends him. Richmond wouldn’t do it.
“Well, look, I don’t think it’s a yes-or-no question,” Richmond replied at one point. (Narrator Voice: It’s a yes or no question.)
The ambiguity helps the White House on two fronts. First, it keeps progressives on board by promising them Biden will fight for a Democrats-only infrastructure plan that will include broad climate measures and benefits like child care they argue are as important in 2021 as new bridges.
Second, it diminishes the impression GOP senators are going along with a process designed to get the broader package over the finish line, which might make an otherwise broadly popular spending item intolerable to the Republican base.
Biden and Democratic leaders have been working from a blueprint calling for Congress to craft and pass the bipartisan package, a budget resolution paving the way for reconciliation and the broader package all before the new fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) promised progressives last week she won’t bring the bipartisan plan to a vote until the Senate sends the House the reconciliation bill.
If the current ambiguity survives, and Republicans stay on board, the other big obstacle for Biden is intra-Democratic fighting over the more sweeping legislation, notably how to pay for it.
On Monday morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Biden had “appropriately delinked” the two proposals and urged the president to get Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to “walk back” the plan to hold off on the bipartisan package until they also get the broader one.
“The president cannot let congressional Democrats hold a bipartisan bill hostage over a separate and partisan process,” he said.
They say the waters are strangely calm in the eye of a hurricane.
The Supreme Court declined to hear a legal battle over the rights of transgender students, handing a victory to Gavin Grimm over the Virginia school board that denied him the right to use the boys’ restroom. “As is its custom, the court did not say why it was rejecting the appeal of the Gloucester County school district. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they would have accepted the case,” Robert Barnes reports. “The court’s decision not to take up the case does not establish a national precedent, nor does it signal agreement with the lower court.”
A record-crushing heat wave is nearing its peak in the Pacific Northwest. “The extraordinary heat swelled north of the international border as Canada saw its highest temperature recorded Sunday afternoon, when Lytton in British Columbia surged to 116 degrees. For perspective, that is just 1 degree from the all-time record in Las Vegas,” Jason Samenow and Ian Livingston report.
Lunchtime reads from The Post
- “Anatomy of a health conundrum: The racial gap in vaccinations,” by Akilah Johnson and Dan Keating: “An examination of city and federal vaccination data and interviews with more than 20 researchers, doctors, health officials and residents in the nation’s sixth-largest city opens a window onto the missteps and misunderstandings, the legacy and loss that have fostered the disproportionate pain of death and disease in communities of color. Coronavirus immunizations are the latest iteration of the pandemic’s unequal burden.”
- “Inside William Barr’s breakup with Trump,” by ABC News’s Jonathan Karl: “In a series of interviews with me this spring, Barr [Trump’s former attorney general] spoke, for the first time, about the events surrounding his break with Trump. … Barr and those close to him have a reason to tell his version of this story. He has been widely seen as a Trump lackey who politicized the Justice Department. But when the big moment came after the election, he defied the president who expected him to do his bidding. Barr’s betrayal came on December 1, over lunch in the attorney general’s private dining room with Michael Balsamo, a Justice Department beat reporter at the Associated Press. … When Barr dropped his bombshell between bites of salad, he mumbled, and Balsamo wasn’t sure that he had caught what the attorney general had said. … ‘To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,’ Barr repeated. This time Balsamo heard him. Balsamo’s story appeared on the AP newswire shortly after lunch ended. …
“The story blew a hole in the president’s claims. Nobody seriously questioned Barr’s conservative credentials or whether he had been among Trump’s most loyal cabinet secretaries. His conclusion sent a definitive message that the effort to overturn the election was without merit. Barr told me that Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell had been urging him to speak out since mid-November. Publicly, McConnell had said nothing to criticize Trump’s allegations, but he told Barr that Trump’s claims were damaging to the country and to the Republican Party. … Barr told me he had already concluded that it was highly unlikely that evidence existed that would tip the scales in the election. He had expected Trump to lose and therefore was not surprised by the outcome. He also knew that at some point, Trump was going to confront him about the allegations. … So, in addition to giving prosecutors approval to open investigations into clear and credible allegations of substantial fraud, Barr began his own, unofficial inquiry into the major claims that the president and his allies were making.
“ ‘My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time,’ Barr told me. ‘If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all b——t.’”
In a lengthy statement, Trump reacted to Barr’s words:
The U.S. launched airstrikes on facilities on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border in response to recent drone attacks on U.S. troops in the region.
- The attacks, officials said, were carried out by Iranian-backed militias, Alex Horton, Louisa Loveluck and John Hudson report.
- “Two militia locations in Syria were attacked, along with one in Iraq, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement, which described the strikes as defensive in nature. … Officials have said militias’ use of small, explosive-laden drones to attack regional U.S. personnel are one of the chief concerns of the U.S. military mission there.”
- Iraq condemned the U.S. airstrikes this morning, describing the overnight attack as a “blatant” violation of national sovereignty that breached international conventions, Louisa Loveluck, John Hudson and Alex Horton report.
Hardening rhetoric by both Iran and the U.S. complicates negotiations to revive a nuclear deal.
- “Iran’s parliament speaker said Sunday that Tehran would never share with the U.N. nuclear watchdog recorded footage of activity at some of its nuclear sites,” Kareem Fahim and Karen DeYoung report. “The comments by the parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, came days after the expiration of a separate agreement between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency that allows the U.N. agency to temporarily monitor Iran’s nuclear activity.”
Biden is hosting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin at the White House today.
- “As president, Rivlin has a largely ceremonial figurehead role, less powerful than the prime minister. Under a deal brokered by a range of right- and left-wing parties united in their desire to oust long-serving prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right-wing leader Naftali Bennett succeeded him two weeks ago. Bennett has agreed to step aside as prime minister in two years for Yair Lapid, a centrist who now serves as foreign minister,” John Wagner reports.
- “In a statement, the White House said Rivlin’s visit would ‘highlight the enduring partnership between the United States and Israel and the deep ties between our governments and our people.’”
The vice president postponed a trip to Detroit to urge vaccinations after the city flooded.
- “The White House did not announce a reason for the postponement, but the Detroit News noted that the region experienced major flooding over the weekend,” Wagner reports. “Harris’s trip would have been her first to Michigan since last year’s presidential election. In an advisory, the White House said additional details about the postponement would be released later.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Pope Francis today, who voiced “affection” for Americans.
- “Pope Francis expressed his ‘affection’ for the American people as he met at length Monday with Blinken, with the latter declining to delve into “domestic politics” when later asked if the two discussed a campaign by U.S. bishops to deny Communion to Catholic politicians like the U.S. president who support abortion rights,” the AP’s Frances D’Emilio reports.
- “Conservative U.S. bishops have been clamoring for clear directives against giving Holy Communion to U.S. political figures who are Roman Catholics and support women’s right to abortion. … This campaign puts the heat on Biden, a Catholic who has said that while he personally opposes abortion, he supports abortion rights.”
- “Francis himself hasn’t weighed in publicly on the latest squabble in the long-running wrangling over the Communion issue within the U.S. Conference of Bishops.”
New York prosecutors have given Trump’s attorneys a deadline of this afternoon to make any final arguments as to why the Trump Organization should not face criminal charges.
- “That deadline is a strong signal that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D) and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) — now working together, after each has spent more than two years investigating Trump’s business — are considering criminal charges against the company as an entity,” Shayna Jacobs, Josh Dawsey and David Fahrenthold report.
- “Spokespeople for Vance and James declined to comment on Sunday, as did an attorney for Trump, Ronald Fischetti, and an attorney for the Trump Organization, Alan Futerfas.”
- “People familiar with the probe confirmed to The Washington Post that prosecutors were looking at charging the Trump Organization as an entity, as well as Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, following Weisselberg’s refusal to assist in the investigation.”
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, blew up at Trump over how to handle last summer’s racial-justice protests.
- Trump put Milley in charge of an aggressive campaign to suppress protests, a charge Milley pushed back against, writes the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender in his forthcoming book, “Frankly, We Did Win This Election.”
“Milley confronted Trump about his role. He was an adviser, and not in command. But Trump had had enough. ‘I said you’re in f—ing charge!’ Trump shouted at him,” Bender writes, per an excerpt published in Axios. “‘Well, I’m not in charge!’ Milley yelled back.” - “‘You can’t f——g talk to me like that!’ Trump said.”
- “ ‘Goddamnit,” Milley said to others. ‘There’s a room full of lawyers here. Will someone inform him of my legal responsibilities?’ ‘He’s right, Mr. President,’ Barr said. ‘The general is right.’ ”
The Florida condo collapse
The search for survivors entered its fifth day as more than 150 are still missing.
- “Rescuers have found hints of life — stuffed animals, T-shirts, photos — but progress has been slow in finding people missing underneath the rubble, and families are wondering how long to hold onto hope. On Sunday night, police identified four more of the nine confirmed dead. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava stressed the number of those unaccounted is ‘not final,’ ” Paulina Firozi and Lateshia Beachum report.
- Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Andy Alvarez told “Good Morning America” that “crews have found pockets, mostly from underneath the building, that have helped them tunnel through in search of any survivors. He noted that the conditions are ‘not ideal,’ because of the sun, the humidity and the rain.”
- Biden said descriptions from the scene were “excruciating” following a Sunday afternoon call with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, Lateshia Beachum reports. Biden said his office will continue to coordinate with officials on the ground throughout search-and-rescue efforts.
Surfside officials launched an aggressive investigation into why Champlain Towers South collapsed, bringing in a veteran engineer to conduct an autopsy of the tower.
- “Allyn Kilsheimer said he will examine the foundation, concrete, leaks, groundwater and possible intrusion of saltwater to arrive at a conclusion,” Darryl Fears and Lori Rozsa report.
- “The water penetration can be groundwater, it can be tidal water, and it can be rainwater. We don’t know the answer to any of those yet,” said Kilsheimer, who investigated other disasters such as the Oklahoma City federal building bombing in 1995 and the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.
- Referring to the theory that sea level rise contributed to the collapse, he added, “The chances that that is a problem is minimal at best.”
Stories of those missing, and of survivors, are coming to light.
- Leidy Luna Villalba, a Paraguayan nursing student who had traveled to the U.S. for the first time as a nanny for the family of Silvana López Moreira, the first lady of Paraguay, is still missing, María Luisa Paúl reports. “She was the one who kept the family together,” Nilda Villalba, her cousin, said. “We’re very humble and don’t have much, but she helped us pull through.”
- Erick De Moura, who’s rented an apartment in the tower for three years, wanted to head home the night of the collapse. His girlfriend asked him to stay, and might have saved his life. De Moura, from Brazil, “feels drawn to the site of the catastrophe. He’s been going twice a day, just standing there and expecting that at any moment someone will tell him it’s safe to go home. Except his home doesn’t exist anymore.” He hasn’t cried yet, De Moura told Jacklyn Peiser. “I feel like I’m in a movie. I’m in a bad movie,” he said.
“Hope — that’s what I’m focusing on,” Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said yesterday, adding that he could not yet say when the search-and-rescue operation might shift to a recovery effort.
How the Miami-Dade condo collapsed, visualized
Investigators say it is too early to know what caused the building’s collapse. A Post examination of videos, photos and audio shows the building collapsed in less than 30 seconds. A video filmed roughly 300 feet away captures the moment of collapse and appears to show the northern section of the building fold onto itself first, quickly followed by the ocean-facing eastern tower, Meg Kelly, Joyce Sohyun Lee and Dylan Moriarty report:
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) says he’s a “big history buff,” but he keeps getting historical facts wrong, writes CNN’s Daniel Dale. For example, Cawthorn, speaking on the House floor Thursday to criticize Biden’s handling of the economy, said “It was Thomas Jefferson that said, ‘Facts are stubborn things. And whatever may be our wishes, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.’ ” This is a famous quote from John Adams, not Jefferson.
QAnon supporters expressed boredom with the “same old” Trump speech. “Both QAnon and longtime supporters of Trump criticized his Saturday night speech in Wellington, Ohio, accusing him of the ‘same-old, same-old’ grievances against Democrats and his 2020 election loss to Biden,” Newsweek reports. “QAnon supporters, some of whom are the former president’s most fanatical online backers, sent a barrage of messages through the Telegram app that expressed boredom and even anger at the speech. … They [also] blasted Trump for not mentioning how his January 6 insurrection supporters are ‘rotting in jail.’ And numerous others said Trump should be booed by the Ohio rallygoers for even ‘bringing up the word ‘vaccine,’ specifically because they believe COVID-19 was entirely a hoax.”
Biden will meet with Rivlin today at 4 p.m.
Harris will fly to D.C. from Los Angeles today at 1:30 Pacific time.
The U.S. Olympics gymnastics team is set, full of star power and led by Simone Biles. “Biles’s second Olympic berth wasn’t official until Sunday night, but she had essentially already locked up her spot thanks to nearly a decade of dominance. Sunisa Lee and Jordan Chiles have seemed poised all season to join Biles on the four-member Olympic team, and their performances here at the U.S. Olympic trials only strengthened their cases. Then there was the fourth spot, and the selection committee had to choose. Grace McCallum, an 18-year-old from Minnesota, earned the nod,” Emily Giambalvo reports.
And John Oliver, in an attempt to show how easily health-care sharing ministries can be set up without actually providing Americans with the right care, started his own Florida-based church:
