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MORNING REPORT

Thursday, December 29

by Kristina Karisch

Republicans in turmoil heading into 2023

The Republican Party, which entered 2022 with ambitions of recapturing both chambers of Congress and using discontent with President Biden to mount a strong case for retaking the White House in 2024, is ending the year in a state of uncertainty across the board, writes The Hill's Brett Samuels.

Former President Trump, who has for the last six years had a vice grip on the GOP, is politically weakened and legally vulnerable. Trump is the only declared candidate in the 2024 field, but the landscape for the presidential nomination remains unsettled with several others eyeing a bid. Meanwhile, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is facing blowback from a handful of state party leaders and some conservatives as she seeks to win another term during the party's meetings next month. And in the Senate, Republicans are coming off a disappointing midterm showing that saw them fail to recapture the majority. Across the Capitol, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is still short of the votes needed to secure the Speaker's gavel in January as a handful of conservative firebrands continue to withhold their support.

The Republican-on-Republican attacks aren't helping the party reset after the midterms," Dan Eberhart, a GOP donor and fundraiser, told The Hill. "We just look weak. But it's a process we may have to endure to come back as a reinvigorated party for the 2024 contest."

The New York Times: Republicans step up attacks on the FBI as it investigates Trump.
Politico: A Republican free-for-all looms in the 2024 Indiana Senate race.
The New York Times: The race for the GOP chair obscures the party's bigger problems.
The Hill: Republicans rethink abortion strategy after bruising midterms.

Not helping the GOP is the unfolding situation surrounding Rep.-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.), who, as The Hill's Emily Brooks reports, has put Republicans in a pickle. Party leaders must ask themselves how to deal with his fabrications without jeopardizing their slim majority.

Throughout the revelations, House GOP leaders have largely remained silent. The reality is that the party's upcoming slim majority makes it more difficult to come down hard on Santos, as lawmakers need his vote to pass their priorities — and McCarthy needs his support to secure the Speakership. There is also a worry that being too forceful could create a dangerous precedent, as House members are rarely expelled from Congress.

Still, some Republicans are starting to speak out to condemn him, including two of his fellow GOP New York representatives-elect (The Hill). But others, such as firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), are coming to his defense.

On Wednesday, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly (R) said her office would investigate Santos (The Hill).

"The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing short of stunning," Donnelly said. "The residents of Nassau County and other parts of the third district must have an honest and accountable representative in Congress. No one is above the law and if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it."

Federal prosecutors have started looking into public filings by the congressman-elect (ABC News).

Vox: Did Santos lie about everything?
CNN: More false claims from Santos about his work, education and family history.
Business Insider: Tulsi Gabbard grilled Santos on Fox News: "Do you have no shame?"

Roll Call: Biden faces international climate-aid challenge in fiscal 2024.
Axios: Co-leader in plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) sentenced to more than 19 years in prison.
Vox: What to know about the most important elections in 2023.
The Washington Post: Art in the Capitol honors 141 enslavers and 13 Confederates. Who are they?

Leading the Day

➤ MORE POLITICS

In 2022, more than two dozen states sought to enact measures to heavily restrict or ban access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youth, writes The Hill's Brooke Migdon, marking one of the worst years on record for anti-LGBTQ legislation.

In the leadup to next year's legislative session, no fewer than 20 bills targeting transgender medical care have been prefiled in at least nine states — Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

But lawmakers in at least three states have announced efforts to protect access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youth and adults in 2023 (The Hill).

Politico: Defining "woman" battle heads to states amid new wave of LGBTQ bills.

The Supreme Court has punted a brewing debate over immigration policy to the spring with its decision to keep a Trump administration border measure that restricts the flow of migrants into the United States in place, writes The Hill's Brett Samuels. The court ruled on Tuesday that Title 42, which has for the last two years allowed the government to expel migrants who might otherwise qualify for asylum because of the COVID-19 pandemic, must continue — a win for Republican officials who had pushed for the rule.

But it also presents a reprieve for the Biden administration, which had faced growing questions from lawmakers about whether it was prepared to handle the influx of migrants that was expected to follow the end of the rule.

Politico: Newly released records show top adviser to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) used a private email and alias to coordinate migrant flights.

Politico examines how the Hill's newest progressives plan to wield power. Five new members-elect — including Rep.-elect Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), the first Gen Z member of Congress — are taking cues from the liberal squad, ready to bypass the limits of being a first-term lawmaker and use their voices to turn the party leftward.

➤ TRANSPORTATION

The federal government is zeroing in on Southwest Airlines after it canceled thousands of flights over the Christmas holidays, stranding tens of thousands of people, writes The Hill's Karl Evers-Hillstrom, and the airline's problems can't completely be blamed on the weather. While other carriers also had weather-related cancellations, Southwest shut down more than 15,000 flights over the holidays and likely won't resume normal operations until the new year.

Southwest canceled nearly 5,000 flights Wednesday and Thursday while trying to recover from the internal meltdown, but a Dec. 21 memo that highlighted a worker shortage in Denver, where Southwest has significant operations and which was pounded by the storm, may have foreshadowed the trouble.

In anticipating staffing shortages and adverse weather conditions, Southwest's vice president for ground operations, Chris Johnson, declared a "state of operational emergency" because of an "unusually high number of absences" of Denver-based ramp employees, according to the memo. "We have an obligation to our Customers and to our fellow Employees to safely and efficiently run our operation," Johnson wrote.

Southwest officials, meanwhile, have said publicly the airline was not short-staffed before the storm hit, pointing instead to the inability of internal logistics and scheduling systems — some of which are outdated and have made it difficult to coordinate flight crew assignments — to recover after widespread disruptions.

Southwest CEO Bob Jordan issued a video apology Wednesday and said that the company would "go above and beyond" to provide customers with refunds and help those who took expensive detours (The Washington Post).

The Wall Street Journal: Airlines cap fares as Southwest cancellations continue.
Bloomberg News: Southwest chaos is a told-you-so moment after warnings on old tech.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday that the Department of Transportation "will mount an extraordinary effort" to ensure that Southwest meets its obligations to its customers — including refunds (Politico).

"In order to restore that relationship with their customers, Southwest is going to have to not only make them financially whole but find a way to really rebuild trust and confidence," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "They pledged to me that they're going to do that. I want to see exactly what that means."

It marks Buttigieg's biggest test yet, write The Hill's Karl Evers-Hillstrom and Alex Gangitano. Under pressure to help get travelers home, ensure they are reimbursed for unexpected costs and take steps to prevent this kind of meltdown from ever happening again, it's perhaps the most high-profile moment of Buttigieg's tenure in the administration — and one that could make or break his future political ambitions.

In Focus / Sharp Takes

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Fighting is intensifying in southern Ukraine as Russia doubles down on its calls for Kyiv to meet its demands before any talks to end the war.

The regional governor, Yaroslav Yanushevych, said a total of 50 rockets fell in the Kherson region, including on military targets. Officials said 33 Russian rockets were fired at civilian targets in the city of Kherson on Wednesday alone, following days of continued shelling of the city and its surrounding region, even after the occupying forces retreated in November.

The Kremlin has dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's 10-point so-called peace plan, saying proposals to end the conflict must take into account what it claims are "today's realities" of four Ukrainian regions having joined Russia (NBC News).

Radio Free Europe: "We fight with our brains. They fight with numbers": Ukrainian paratroopers on the battle for the Donbas city of Kreminna.
The New York Times: U.S. scrambles to stop Iran from providing drones for Russia.

Zelensky and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink on Wednesday agreed to coordinate investment efforts to reconstruct Ukraine. The announcement came after Ukraine's economic ministry signed a memorandum of understanding in November for BlackRock to provide advisory support for designing an investment framework.

Russia's war in Ukraine entered its 11th month this weekend, and Ukraine has signaled hope for a peace summit by the end of February (The Hill).

The Hill: U.S. to impose new COVID-19 testing requirements for travelers from China.
Reuters: As the West backs Nigeria's war on insurgents, it backs off on human rights.

Opinion

How the house of Trump was built, by Carlos Lozada, columnist, The New York Times. https://nyti.ms/3hUQIaw
China's government Is a self-made COVID-19 victim, by Howard W. French, columnist, Foreign Policy. https://bit.ly/3WSq0hN

Where and When

👉 The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist's insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will convene on Tuesday, Jan. 3.

The Senate will convene on Friday at 9:30 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The president has no public schedule. He and first lady Jill Biden are in St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands, with their family.

The vice president will head to Los Angeles with the second gentleman.

The first lady is in St. Croix with the president.

Elsewhere

➤ ECONOMY

With home prices and mortgage rates soaring, inventory levels still at a low and inflation affecting all levels of the economy, new research shows half of all Americans couldn't afford to buy their current home. As The Hill's Daniel de Visé reports, 55 percent of U.S. homeowners say they could not raise the funds to purchase their home at current prices and interest rates, according to the 2022 Housing Affordability Survey by Cato Institute.

"I think that the psychology is different now, even compared with January of this year," said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at real-estate brokerage Redfin.

While inflation is often called a tax on the poor, this time it's hit middle-income households the hardest, new research shows. According to studies by the Congressional Budget Office and others, many people in low-income households — benefiting from exceptionally low unemployment rates — have found jobs and experienced wage increases that lifted income more than the cost of living. Some were also bolstered by federal payments during the pandemic.

Purchasing power from paychecks fell 2.9 percent for middle-income households in 2022 compared with 2021, while rising 1.5 percent for the bottom fifth of households and 1.1 percent for the top, according to the CBO study. Census Bureau surveys, meanwhile, show a growing share of middle-income households say they are having more trouble making ends meet (The Wall Street Journal).

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH

Going on three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus has remained persistent. So, too, has misinformation about it. As cases, hospitalizations and deaths rise in parts of the country, false narratives continue to evolve and spread, evading content moderators and exasperating doctors and public health officials (The New York Times).

"It's easy to forget that health misinformation, including about COVID, can still contribute to people not getting vaccinated or creating stigmas," Megan Marrelli, the editorial director of Meedan, a nonprofit focused on digital literacy and information access, told the Times. "We know for a fact that health misinformation contributes to the spread of real-world disease."

Amid a year when public distrust and misinformation plagued the public health system at large, the tangible wins reinforced the importance of an undervalued and often underfunded strategy: using grassroots, community-led campaigns to save lives and improve health. Vox spotlighted some of the mostly local campaigns that subdued an outbreak of a disease traveling fast through sexual networks, extended COVID-19 vaccines to underserved populations, and overcame stigma and provider shortages to soften the impacts of mental illness, substance use, and overdoses.

The Washington Post: U.S. watchdogs guarding $5 trillion in COVID-19 aid say they need more money.

Information about COVID-19 vaccine and booster shot availability can be found at Vaccines.gov.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,091,473. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 2,952 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

The Closer

Take our Morning Report Quiz

And finally … 🎆 It's Thursday, which means it's time for this week's Morning Report Quiz! Inspired by the upcoming new year, we're eager for some smart guesses about newsy events in 2022.

When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) mixed up Gestapo and the Spanish cold soup gazpacho — resulting in the ever-memorable term "gazpacho police" — what was she criticizing?

Routine security checks by the Capitol Police
COVID-19 mask enforcement
Troops at the U.S.-Mexico border
The Jan. 6 select committee

Russia's February invasion of Ukraine thrust Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into the global spotlight as he led his country through a brutal war. But before taking office, Zelensky had a very different career as a ____?

Janitor
Comedian
Pilot
Teacher

Liz Truss became the U.K.'s shortest-serving prime minister this year, resigning after only how many days in office?

During the midterms, much of Sen.-elect John Fetterman's (D-Pa.) social media strategy hinged on trolling Republican opponent Mehmet Oz's long-term residence in what state?

New York
New Jersey
Connecticut
Rhode Island

Email your responses to kkarisch@thehill.com, and please add "Quiz" to subject lines. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.