If a president’s party can only keep one chamber of Congress, the Senate is the one to have.
The Senate is tasked with approving the White House’s nominations, including cabinet secretaries, federal judges and most crucially, supreme court justices. With Democrats holding the majority for the next two years, Joe Biden is once again guaranteed the ability to get his cabinet secretaries and judges confirmed to post across the government. That will increase the chances Biden’s legislative accomplishments – and those of future Democratic presidents – survive court challenges.
But if the House falls to Republicans, Biden’s days of big legislating may have come to an end, at least for now. The chamber’s GOP leadership has shown little interest in working with the president, and it’s unlikely any of their bills make it through the Senate and to the president’s desk. Control of the House also gives the GOP the ability to conduct investigations and issue subpoenas. Expect them to do that to officials involved in the US withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, and to Hunter Biden.
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Here’s what else is happening today:
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Joe Biden doesn’t believe the House is winnable for Democrats, nor that there’s enough support for a measure to codify abortion rights into law.
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The Senate plans to vote on a measure to codify same-sex marriage rights this week, after a conservative supreme court justice raised the possibility of the court reconsidering its ruling establishing the rights.
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The January 6 committee is cleared to access the phone records of Arizona’s Republican party chair after the supreme court quashed a challenge to the lawmakers’ subpoena.
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The January 6 committee can access the phone records of the chair of Arizona’s Republican party after the supreme court turned down an attempt to block the lawmakers’ subpoena:
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NEW: Supreme Court rejects bid by Ariz GOP Chair Kelli Ward to block a Jan. 6 committee subpoena for her phone records. Thomas and Alito dissent. pic.twitter.com/g3IoSuuRuk
— Greg Stohr (@GregStohr) November 14, 2022
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Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito are two of the court’s most conservative justices, and objected to the court’s order.
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Arizona was one of the states targeted by Donald Trump and his allies in the weeks after the 2020 election, as part of their effort to tamper with Joe Biden’s election victory.
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The Senate will this week vote on a bill to codify same-sex marriage rights, Semafor reports.
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Same-sex marriage rights are currently established nationwide by a supreme court ruling, but Democrats are trying to pass a law protecting the rights after rightwing justice Clarence Thomas in June mulled overturning the ruling.
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The House passed the Respect for Marriage Act earlier this year with the support of 47 Republicans in addition to all Democrats. While all Democratic senators are expected to vote for the legislation, it’s unclear if it will receive the votes of 10 Republicans necessary to overcome a filibuster in the upper chamber. In September, the Senate’s Democratic leadership delayed voting on the bill until after the midterm elections.
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Last Tuesday’s midterm elections confirmed the strength of America’s democracy after voters rejected candidates who denied the outcome of the 2020 election, Joe Biden said.
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“The American people proved once again that democracy is who we are,” Biden said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia.
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“There was a strong rejection of election deniers at every level, from those seeking to lead our states and those seeking to serve in Congress and also those seeking to oversee the elections. And there was a strong rejection of political violence and voter intimidation. There was an emphatic statement that in America, the will of the people prevails.”
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Good morning, US politics blog readers. Ballots are still being counted in races that will determine control of the House of Representatives, and things are not trending in Democrats’ direction. They’re behind in several districts needed to secure control of Congress’ lower chamber for another two years, which would be an unprecedented victory for Joe Biden’s allies, if they pull it off. Over the weekend, Democrats secured enough seats to retain the majority in the Senate. We may find out today if they have the votes to do the same in the House.
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Here’s what else is happening today:
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Joe Biden has just concluded his meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia, and will give remarks and take questions from reporters in the next few minutes.
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Congress returns for the first time since the midterm elections and Democrats have a heaping plate of legislation they’d like to accomplish before the end of the year, including a government funding bill, codifying same-sex marriage and reforming electoral laws to prevent another January 6.
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Former vice-president Mike Pence spoke about his experience during the Capitol attack and relationship with Donald Trump in an interview with ABC News.
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Key events
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Senate to vote on same-sex marriage bill this week
Senator Chuck Schumer is filing a bill to codify same-sex marriage today, setting it up for a Wednesday vote.
Schumer is filing the same sex marraige bill now, setting up a Weds vote
— Liz Goodwin (@lizcgoodwin) November 14, 2022
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Schumer is filing the same sex marraige bill now, setting up a Weds vote
— Liz Goodwin (@lizcgoodwin) November 14, 2022
The Respect for Marriage Act passed the House this year, and CNN reported today a bipartisan group of senators believed the bill had enough support to pass the chamber.
Prosecutors say criminal charges not expected from Giuliani raid
New York prosecutors said in a letter to a judge on Monday they do not plan to criminally charge Rudy Giuliani following an investigation into his dealings with Ukrainian associates – a development Giuliani’s team called “a total victory”.
Prosecutors had been investigating whether Giuliani should have been registered as a foreign agent due to his dealings with figures in Ukraine in the run-up to the 2020 election.
The investigation, which resulted in raids on his residence in April 2021 and seizure of a number of electronic devices, has concluded, and that criminal charges would not be forthcoming.
“In my business, we would call that total victory,” Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello, told the Associated Press. “We appreciate what the US attorney’s [office] has done. We only wish they had done it a lot sooner.”
Read the full story here.
Kari Paul here taking over for the next couple hours, stay tuned for updates.
Trump wasn’t keeping all those classified documents at Mar-a-Lago for the money, the Washington Post reports.
Rather, the motivation for his alleged retention of government secrets at his south Florida resort was more about Trump’s desire to hang on to keepsakes from his time in the White House, according to the Post, which cited federal investigators. That doesn’t mean he won’t face charges in the case, which is one of many inquiries the former president is involved in nearly two years after he left office.
Here’s more from the Post:
That review has not found any appa