Hot dish 10.01.24

By Sydney Kashiwagi

Hello and welcome back to another DC Dish.

We’re five weeks away from Election Day and Congress is off for the rest of the month and will not return until the week after the election.

That is, unless President Joe Biden calls them back into session to pass a supplemental spending bill to help states impacted by Hurricane Helene, a move he indicated Monday he’s considering.

Despite their more than months-long recess to get ready for Election Day, the GOP-led House Oversight Committee pressed forward with investigating Gov. Tim Walz’s possible connections to the Chinese Communist Party.

PIVOT TO DHS: In recent weeks it appeared the committee’s investigation into Walz’s ties was coming to a standstill. Committee chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. asked the FBI in an August letter to provide “all documents and communications in the FBI’s possession” that would shed light on Chinese entities or individuals Walz may have “engaged or partnered” with.

However, Comer told me last week as Congress was getting ready to leave Washington that there’s been “radio silence” from the FBI. And the chances of the committee holding a hearing on its possible findings before Election Day looked slim to none.

But on Monday, Comer turned his focus to the Department of Homeland Security, hitting DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas with a subpoena so the committee could gain access to “intelligence reports, documents, and communications in its possession related to” any of Walz’s possible CCP connections.

Comer decided to take on DHS after a whistleblower alerted the committee to a non-classified Microsoft Teams group chat between DHS employees about Walz that was “relevant to the Committee’s investigation,” he said.

Comer wants to see the contents of that group chat and all “Intelligence Information Reports and Regional Intelligence Notes” related to Walz since November 2023.

“The information required of DHS by the Committee’s subpoena will inform the Committee’s understanding of how successful the CCP has been in waging political warfare in and against the United States, how effectively federal agencies are addressing the communist regime’s campaign, and what reforms are necessary to counter this threat,” Comer said in a statement.

The Harris-Walz campaign had nothing to say about the subpoena when reached. But ranking Democrat on the committee Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin accused Comer of waging a “comically trivial last-ditch attempt to smear” Walz on the eve of Tuesday’s VP debate.

DEBATE NIGHT: It’s happening tonight between Walz and Sen. JD Vance in front of a national audience for the first and only time, in what could be the final televised debate of this year’s presidential election, my colleague Ryan Faircloth reports.

No further presidential debates have been scheduled between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, raising the stakes of Tuesday’s vice presidential showdown. As they seek to introduce themselves to Americans, Walz and Vance are also tasked with delivering their campaigns’ arguments to a national audience.

GOP Rep. Tom Emmer, who is standing in as Walz to help get Vance ready to debate him, kept his game plan close to the vest when I asked him last week to could preview Minnesota specific topics he’s getting Trump’s VP pick ready for.

“We’ve been preparing with what Tim Walz does, Emmer said. “JD Vance is going to be awesome and I’m not going to get ahead of them,” he said of Vance and Trump.

But Emmer has since given some sprinkles of what’s to come in the debate as he made his rounds on TV networks in recent days.

Emmer talked about the legislation Walz signed into law last year that gives unauthorized immigrants driver’s licenses when he discussed his debate prep on CNN, saying the governor is for “free healthcare, free college tuition,” and has given “driver’s licenses to illegals.”

“He stood by as the city of Minneapolis burned to the ground. Refused to call out the National Guard,” he noted during an interview on Fox News. Emmer also brought up Walz’s “rocks and cows” assessment of greater Minnesota.

After having spent the last month watching all of his past debates, Emmer admitted Walz is a “very good” debater. Trump’s Senior Advisor Jason Miller also agreed, recently telling reporters Walz is “very good in debates. Really good.”

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar will be one of the surrogates who will stump for Walz in the CBS spin room after the debate, the Harris-Walz campaign announced this morning.

ON ROYCE WHITE: The other five Minnesota Democrats in Congress readily say they plan to back Klobuchar’s reelection bid.

But none of the four Minnesota Republicans in Congress will say if they plan to support “MAGA extremist” ex-NBA player Royce White in his bid against the three-term incumbent.

“I’m not going to tell you what I’m going to do with my vote,” Emmer said in a brief interview on Capitol Hill when asked if he plans to vote for White and support him. “That’s not a right question to be asking me. Do you ask people on the street?” But nonetheless, the House majority whip insisted he’s focused on winning the White House, Senate and House in November.

Emmer previously said he would be open to meeting White at some point.

Rep. Pete Stauber, who also said previously said he would be open to meeting White, said last week he still is, but stopped short of saying whether he would vote for him in November.

“You asked me last time. I’ve never met him,” Stauber said, speaking of his past remarks from May. “I look forward to meeting him sometime before the election. Again, I’m focused on my race, the Eighth Congressional District. We’re doing everything we can to get out the vote,” he said before he stopped the brief interview to take a call.

When Rep. Michelle Fischbach heard White’s name, she asked me to contact her office. Her office did not respond to requests for comment on whether she plans to back him.

Rep. Brad Finstad also declined to say when asked and directed the question to his office, which also did not respond to a request for comment.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines, who previously said he did not think White could win a primary or general election, once again provided a grim outlook on White’s prospects against Klobuchar heading into November.

“I haven’t seen a credible poll yet that suggests that race will be competitive,” Daines said in a brief interview on the Hill. Daines reiterated the same response when asked if he planned to support White heading into Election Day.

White has come under fire for using past campaign funds to spend lavishly after his previous bid for Congress ended. He also has a history of making antisemitic and derogatory slurs to attack critics on social media. But despite his controversial past, he won the state party’s backing against establishment candidate Joe Fraser in May and defeated him in the primary.

White shot back at Daines, calling him Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s “lapdog.”

“He and the NRSC just lost the Republican primary after softly endorsing my opponent. Our goal is to get myself and Donald Trump across the finish line in November. We’re under no illusions that my work or the work of this movement stops there,” White said in a statement.

White said Minnesota’s four members of Congress could “play that game if they want.”

“Not one of them would ever step foot on a stage to talk about any of the issues against me,” White continued. “We know who is who and we’re not afraid to walk alone.”

FARM BILL: The massive federal law that doles out dollars for everything from apple research to zucchini stands at farmers markets officially expired Monday, at least on paper,” my colleague Chris Vondracek reports.

The bill’s expiration date does not mean programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have run out of money. That won’t, technically, start to happen until the new year, say political observers. Still, the failure to reauthorize casts a pall over farm policymakers.

With a price tag expected to top out at $1.5 trillion, the bill has succumbed to the politics of Washington, Earlier this year, the House Agriculture Committee on a mostly party line vote approved a bill from Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican, drawing accolades from lobbies for Midwestern commodities such as corn and soybeans, and from dairy and pork producers.

ZELENSKY VISITS DC: Klobuchar was among the bipartisan group of senators who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his visit to Washington last week, who provided them with an update on the war. Following his visit, Klobuchar reiterated in a statement that the United States will “continue to stand with” Ukraine. Rep. Betty McCollum also among a group of House members who met with Zelensky during his visit.

WHERE’S WALZ:

He has no public events scheduled on his gubernatorial agenda. But he’s set to appear with Vance in the debate in New York that will begin at 9 p.m. ET.

READING LIST

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