•The Taliban have announced its all-male government for Afghanistan, consisting mostly of old-guard members, including interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list, the Associated Press reports.
•The trial of 20 men accused in the Islamic State group’s Paris terrorist attacks has begun (AP). The November 13, 2015, attacks left 130 dead at the Bataclan concert halls, national soccer stadium, and local restaurants.
•A 130-year-old-plus statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee came down Wednesday morning in Richmond, Virginia (AP). It will be placed in storage for the time being. The statue’s graffiti-covered base remains in place.
Capitol Police Prepare for September 18 Protests, Potential Violence – Capitol Police are preparing for potential violence as a group led by a Trump campaign employee has requested a permit for up to 500 protesters in Washington, D.C., for Saturday, September 18, Roll Call reports. Members of Congress have been invited to attend the protests organized by Matt Brayard of Look Ahead America, noon in Union Square.
The group will protest the treatment of more than 570 people arrested so far in the January 6 pro-Trump Capitol insurrection and the shooting of one of the rioters, Ashli Babbitt.
Note: While Brayard has reportedly instructed participants in the “#JusticeForJ6” rally to remain peaceful, a Capitol Police intelligence report warns of potential violence. They do not want to be caught off-guard a second time.
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Biden Warns of ‘Code-Red’ on Climate Change – Surveying Hurricane Ida damage in New York and New Jersey Tuesday, President Biden warned we are in a “code red” moment for climate change, The Washington Post reports. The Biden administration is about to ask Congress for additional billions of dollars in emergency funding for such national disasters as Ida, which hit New Orleans hard before wreaking havoc on the East Coast, and for wildfires in the West, including California’s largest fire on record, now near Lake Tahoe.
Biden used the visit to lobby for his infrastructure plan, scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives by September 27, and for his “Build Back Better” $3.5 trillion “social infrastructure” plan, which Congress will write this month.
Note: Roll Call suggests emergency funds for the Hurricane Ida aftermath may lead to a deal between Congressional Democrats and Republicans over the debt-ceiling deadline.
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Senate-House Democrats Clash Over Social Infrastructure – Senate Democrats, led by Bernie Sanders, I-VT, and backed by Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, are clashing with progressive House Democrats over health care components in the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill, Punchbowl News reports. According to the Capitol Hill news website, Sanders and the Senate Democrats want to add dental, vision and hearing coverage to Medicare – a very expensive prospect – while House Democrats want to expand Medicaid and permanently fund the Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare.”
Note: Progressive House Democrats’ assert that the budget reconciliation package currently being written is too small; that it should be on the order of $6 trillion to $10 trillion – a complete obliteration, not a mere overhaul, of the supply-side economic philosophy that has dominated Capitol Hill since the Reagan administration. Progressives believe they have the votes for a huge social package so long as Democrats have wafer-thin majorities in both chambers.
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Trump Chooses Candidate to Primary Cheney: Report – Ex-President Trump will announce in the coming days he will back Wyoming attorney Harriet Hageman to run against Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY, in next year’s primary, according to a Politico scoop. Cheney is most prominent of the 10 House Republicans who voted for Trump’s second impeachment last January and is one of two Republicans on the select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection by Trump supporters.
Cheney’s supporters, including never-Trump Republicans, hope that a crowded 2022 Wyoming primary will give her the advantage with a plurality in the vote as her opponents knock each other out. Trump’s team has met with at least three other Wyoming Republicans looking to unseat Cheney, according to the Politico report.
Note: Two gubernatorial elections loom “canaries in the coalmine” tests of whether Trump’s GOP appeal endures beyond his post-presidency fundraising capabilities: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, D, faces a recall election next Tuesday, in which he needs 50%-plus-one vote to finish his term into next year. If he falls below 50%, the likely governor is Republican conservative talk radio host Larry Elder, who has vowed to replace 88-year-old Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-CA, whom reports suggest may step down before her term is up next year.
The other is Virginia’s gubernatorial election this November, in which previous Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe faces Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin, who has downplayed his Trump bona fides recently in the campaign. One of them will replace Gov. Ralph Northam, D, who is term-limited in the now-purple state.
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Obituary: Former Sen. Adlai Stevenson III – Former U.S. senator from Illinois Adlai Stevenson III, and member of a Democratic Party dynasty that included his great-grandfather, former Vice President Adlai Stevenson, and grandfather, two-time 1950s presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson II, has died. He was 90.
Adlai Stevenson III ran for Illinois governor twice, losing in 1982 by just 5,074 votes to Republican Gov. Jim Thompson, the closest margin for the governorship in modern state history, according to The Hill.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods