Hot Dish 6.04.24

By Sydney Kashiwagi

Hello and welcome back to DC Dish! Congress returned from Memorial Day recess on Monday and got straight to work after what turned out to be a busy time in politics during their break.

Bipartisanship can be hard to come by in politics these days, so when it does happen, it’s worth pointing out, and I have a couple of examples to share this week.

UNITING AFTER TRAGEDY: All eight members of the Minnesota congressional delegation gathered on the House floor Monday evening to remember the life of the late officer Jamal Mitchell who was killed in the line of duty last week.

Rep. Ilhan Omar led the delegation in a moment of silence to honor Mitchell, who died in her district, describing him as a “community leader, a changemaker and a peacekeeper.”

UNITING AROUND USPS: The moment of silence wasn’t the only showing of bipartisanship in recent days. Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar and GOP Rep. Pete Stauber unveiled the Rural Mail Delivery Improvement Act last week. The bill would make sure USPS implements all of the recommendations the Office of the Inspector General made after its audit of the Bemidji Post Office, which found nearly 79,000 pieces of delayed mail in its processing area.

The audit blamed the delay on a lack of adequate staff training and the list of recommendations include getting USPS to fill carrier vacancies at the Bemidji Post Office and provide better mail processing training. Sen. Tina Smith had also called for greater accountability and action after the OIG’s report.

Phillips later clarified that he believes Trump should be pardoned because the verdict is likely energizing his base.

PHILLIPS SAID: “Making him a martyr over a payment to a porn star is stupid. (Election charges are entirely different.) It’s energizing his base, generating record sums of campaign cash, and will likely result in an electoral boost.”

Trump and the RNC announced on Monday they raised $141 million in May, nearly doubling what they raised in April, crediting his conviction for the money boost. Several recent polls released after the verdict have also shown that Americans appear to agree with the outcome while Republicans are still standing behind Trump.

ABORTION: The Senate will vote as early as Wednesday on the Right to Contraception Act as the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court voting to overturn Roe v. Wade nears later this month.

The bill would “provide a clear and comprehensive right to contraception” and ensure the federal government and states can’t prevent people from obtaining contraception. Klobuchar and Smith are both co-sponsors of the legislation. The bill is largely seen as an effort to get Republicans on the record on reproductive rights as November nears.

IMMIGRATION: President Joe Biden is reportedly getting an executive order ready that would stop asylum requests at the border once daily encounters hit a 2,500 ports of entry threshold. The border would reopen only once that threshold goes down to 1,500, the AP reports.

Biden’s slated order comes on the heels of Craig leading a bipartisan group of lawmakers in calling on the White House to take executive action at the southern border.

MORIARTY: A day after Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced she would drop murder and manslaughter charges against a Minnesota state trooper, Gov. Tim Walz, who has publicly criticized Moriarty’s handling of the case, revealed that he had planned to use his legal authority to remove her from the prosecution, my colleagues Andy Mannix, Rochelle Olson and Liz Sawyer report.

WALZ SAID: “Yes, we would have done that.” Adding that if Moriarty had not dropped the charges against 27-year-old Ryan Londregan he would have taken action “soon.”

“I think what became apparent to many folks is that there were problems with prosecution from the beginning,” Walz continued.

WHERE’S WALZ:

Traveling to France for a business development mission and also to mark the D-Day anniversary.

READING LIST

Keep us posted at hotdish@startribune.com.