Politico

The Department of Justice plans to sue Texas for deploying a floating barricade at the southern border, according to a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott obtained by POLITICO.

Abbott’s response: “I’ll see you in court, Mr. President.”

In its Thursday letter, the DOJ cited the “unlawful construction of a floating barrier in the Rio Grande River” and asserted that the barrier might impede the federal government’s “official duties.”

The letter did not address any migrant-related concerns at the Texas-Mexico border, but DOJ spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa said Friday that “the department is aware of the troubling reports, and we are working with DHS and other relevant agencies to assess the situation.”

Later Friday, White House Assistant Press Secretary Abdullah Hasan assured reporters that President Joe Biden’s border policies are “working” and that illegal immigration is “down to the lowest levels in over two years.”

“Governor Abbott’s dangerous and unlawful actions are undermining our effective border enforcement plan and making it hard for CBP to do their jobs of securing the border,” Hasan said. “The governor’s actions are cruel and putting both migrants and border agents in danger. The Department of Justice made clear that it is prepared to take the governor to court if he doesn’t immediately remove the unlawful structures in the Rio Grande.”

A group of 87 congressional Democrats also penned a letter to the president on Friday, asking him to intervene in Texas’ border practices.

Led by Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, the lawmakers expressed “profound concern” about Abbott’s border policies, known as Operation Lone Star. The letter asked the federal government to “immediately intervene,” citing reports of “barbaric” practices making the border areas “death traps for migrants,” and arguing that the border policies interfere in the federal enforcement of immigration laws and violate U.S.-Mexico border treaties.

According to The Associated Press, Mexico’s top diplomat, Foreign Relations Secretary Alicia Bárcena, also filed a complaint to the U.S. government last week, alleging that Texas’ makeshift floating border on the Rio Grande may violate two treaties.

Abbott responded to the concerns around Operation Lone Star in a series of tweets Friday afternoon, centering the blame on Biden and stating: “Texas is stepping up to address this crisis.”

“The tragic humanitarian crisis on the border was created because of Biden’s refusal to secure the border,” Abbott wrote. “His open border policies encourage migrants to risk their lives crossing illegally through the Rio Grande, instead of safely and legally over a bridge.”

The political skirmish is the latest in a prolonged battle over border policies between Republican governors and the Biden administration, with state leaders like Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sending migrants to Democratic-led cities as a show of protest against federal immigration policies.

According to the San Antonio Express-News, National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety troops received orders to push migrant children into the Rio Grande River and to withhold water from migrants experiencing heat exhaustion. The report also detailed incidents of migrants being injured by razor wire placed along an unsanctioned, makeshift buoy wall in the Rio Grande, including a pregnant woman having a miscarriage and a teen who broke their leg trying to cross the wire.

Josh Gerstein and Myah Ward contributed to this report.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Vice President Kamala Harris laid into the DeSantis administration during her keynote address on Thursday at Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.’s national convention in Indianapolis. And it appears she plans to do it again when she touches down later Friday in Jacksonville.

During her speech, she took aim at African American history standards adopted this week by the state Board of Education that critics contend rewrite and omit key facts or push uncomfortable topics into higher grades. Most glaringly, one of the new standards seeks instruction on “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

“Speaking of our children, extremists pass book bans to prevent them from learning our true history — book bans in this year of our Lord 2023. And while they do this, check it out, they push forward revisionist history,” Harris said. “Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it.”

It was just one part of Harris’ remarks, but the White House made sure to draw attention to it when excerpts were delivered to the media.

And then on Thursday evening, the White House announced that Harris would visit Florida, where she would “deliver remarks on the fight to protect fundamental freedoms, specifically, the freedom to learn and teach America’s full and true history.” So it looks the Biden administration is leaning into this.

There hasn’t been any direct response from Gov. Ron DeSantis about this. But there has been some pushback from state education officials about the rising criticism.

Alex Lanfranconi, who works as a spokesperson for Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, late Thursday afternoon tweeted out a statement from those who worked on the new standards. Lanfranconi drew attention to this part: “Any attempt to reduce slaves to just victims of oppression fails to recognize their strength, courage and resiliency during a difficult time in American history.”

The other messaging from Diaz and others is that the critics of the standards are in the thrall of the state’s teacher union — which has clashed repeatedly with the DeSantis administration over the past few years.

If the past is prologue, however, expect the governor and his supporters to respond forcefully to Harris soon.

A version of this article first appeared in Florida Playbook. Sign up for it here.

Another Donald Trump legal problem has been met by another vow of silence from President Joe Biden and those who work for him.

At this point, no one should expect anything different.

The decision by the White House and Biden’s campaign to not comment on his predecessor’s growing criminal trouble — this time connected to the Jan. 6 insurrection — is rooted in the president’s promise to avoid appearances of interfering with the Department of Justice’s work.

But it also hints at what is likely to become a broader Biden campaign strategy: There will be plenty of other people who will do that work for him. And if the 2024 conversation is about Trump, the best option for Biden is to simply get off the stage.

Biden advisers have watched the nonstop news coverage of the target letter sent from special counsel Jack Smith to Trump this week advising the former president that charges may be coming soon connected to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and stay in power. That media frenzy echoed the blanket coverage that followed Trump’s two previous indictments — one in New York on his business dealings, the other over his handling of classified documents after leaving office. Biden allies believe that the press’ focus on the story line will only accelerate in the months ahead, as court dates approach and, perhaps, more indictments are unsealed.

It’s easy to imagine — as Biden aides have been privately discussing — that Trump spends part of his 2024 campaign having to shuttle from one court date to the next, standing trial in multiple cases, spawning negative headline after negative headline. And while Trump will surely play the victim to fire up his base, Biden’s aides believe his time as a repeated criminal defendant will almost certainly turn off the independent and swing voters who often decide elections.

If Trump’s campaign shows signs of collapsing under the weight of the myriad criminal proceedings, the Biden team feels its best approach may just be to stand back and not engage.

“It’s not just that he could be flying around the country during the campaign going from trial to trial, what if he wins?” asked the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader and Biden ally. “Do we really want a president who is trying to deal with an international crisis while also in the defendant box? Even some Republicans may not want to vote for that possibility.”

Biden declared at the start of his presidency that he would not discuss DOJ investigations, particularly those about the former president, believing that a firewall needed to be reestablished between the White House and the attorney general’s probes. He has remained tightlipped during Trump’s previous two indictments and has said nothing this week about the new target letter.

The silence extends beyond Biden, whom to this point has been explicit: The entities that the White House controls, which includes the reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee, are not to publicly discuss any of the criminal investigations into Trump.

The DNC specifically has advised members of Congress seeking guidance on what to say that they should not comment on the Trump probes if they are speaking publicly in their role as Biden campaign surrogates. And when the Biden campaign put out a statement on Trump this week — the first time it formally attacked him since the president’s reelection launch — it was on the topic of job creation, not Jan. 6.

As the president’s advisers chart a court for the campaign to come, they are aware that continued silence about the charges facing Trump would deprive Biden’s reelection effort of a potent political weapon. Some Democrats have argued that Biden would also miss a chance to underscore an important national moment, particularly since charges of election interference and inciting the Jan. 6 riot make up much of Biden’s long-standing case that Trump poses a unique threat to American democracy.

But there are also clear benefits to staying quiet.

The Republicans have made clear that they intend to defend Trump with allegations that the Department of Justice is deliberately conducting a political prosecution of Biden’s top GOP rival. Any attacks about Trump’s legal trouble would risk fueling that perception, many political strategists feel.

“Last time, there were independents and even some Republicans went for Biden because they are sick of Trump,” said Susan Del Percio, a longtime Republican strategist who opposes Trump. “They might not even really love Biden but they’d probably break his way again — why risk turning them off by piling on?”

Additionally, Biden aides believe that most voters have already made up their minds about the conduct from Trump that has spawned the criminal charges and likely wouldn’t be persuaded otherwise. The president also intends to continue to make a fierce defense of democracy part of his re-election message and will continue to do that, aides said, even if Trump is charged for election interference or if another Republican becomes the nominee.

Steering clear of specific discussion of the crimes would also allow Biden to do what aides feel is his best strategy: focus on his work governing and sell the accomplishments he has. Both men appear poised to head into the general election with high negatives. The president’s aides believe that, like in 2020, they should work on upping their numbers and let Trump dominate the news cycle.

There are some side-benefits that Biden’s team sees in such an approach. It would allow the president’s own vulnerabilities, namely his age, be a secondary storyline and remind voters of their fatigue with the former president. Biden campaign staffers also believe they have plenty of other avenues from which to attack Trump, including abortion rights, guns and his handling of the economy.

“When it comes to investigations and crimes, Donald Trump is like a dumpster fire. No one needs to bring a match,” said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist who worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. “Donald Trump’s legal problems aren’t an issue of Democrats vs. Republicans, it’s an issue of laws v. crimes. That’s the most effective frame and the accurate frame.”

While Biden has framed his stance of silence as in line with longstanding tradition, it is not uncommon for presidents to occasionally weigh in on ongoing criminal investigations. Biden has done so himself at times — including before the verdict was announced in the 2021 trial of the white Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd.

The decision to be silent could be revisited next year. Though the president will likely not ever directly comment on the legal matters, other top Democrats and surrogates could take up the argument — especially if Biden dips behind Trump in the polls late in the race. Outside groups aligned with Biden could also advertise on the issue. And, even now, some GOP-aligned anti-Trump groups are running ads that question the toll the trials will have on his electability.

The White House and Biden’s re-election campaign declined to comment.

But those close to Biden also acknowledge a particular sensitivity at the moment on matters related to the Department of Justice, which had been investigating his son. Hunter Biden recently took a plea deal on tax-related charges, which whipped up howls of anger from Republicans who claimed the president’s son had received preferential treatment. Moreover, the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents after his stint as vice president remains open.

The Biden administration is ready to move on from Julie Su’s nearly five-month confirmation battle, looking instead to indefinitely leave her in the role as acting Labor secretary, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

The decision comes after a White House official last week publicly urged two senators who caucus with the Democrats to reconsider their position on Su. Though the White House is keeping the door open for a change in circumstances, internally there is little expectation that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) will reverse his public opposition or that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) — who has not publicly declared a position — will support Su, according to the two people familiar with the talks. And so, the president and his team are set to move forward in defiance of the Senate confirmation process. It amounts to an implicit admission that the first Cabinet-level official to be replaced in the Biden administration lacks the votes.

The White House feels emboldened to keep Su in the role by a Labor Department rule that allows a deputy to serve in an acting capacity indefinitely, unlike other nominees who are subject to a time limit by a federal vacancies rule.

President Joe Biden still supports Su’s nomination and senior administration officials believe she has done well in the role. Chief of staff Jeff Zients and legislative director Louisa Terrell plan to remain in touch with Senate Democrats if the vote prospect changes, according to a person familiar with their plans.

“She’s doing a great job so I’m not in a hurry to get her confirmed at this point,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who has worked with the White House to support Su and advocated for having Asian Americans in the Cabinet. “She’s doing the job. She’s more than qualified. She’s been Senate-confirmed once, so just let her continue doing the job.”

The administration’s decision is already facing pushback from Republicans — and could be the basis of legal challenges of any Labor Department regulations issued in Su’s tenure.

Su set a dubious distinction Thursday when she set a record for having the longest pending nomination of a Cabinet-level official when both the White House and Senate were controlled by the same party, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis conducted for Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the top Republican on the HELP panel.

Cassidy accused the White House of doing an end-run around the Senate.

“If your administration believes Ms. Su cannot receive the necessary votes for confirmation, then you should rescind her nomination,” he wrote in a letter Thursday to Biden. “Any attempts to bypass the will of Congress, especially its constitutionally mandated advice and consent role, is unacceptable.”

The administration’s efforts are an attempt to clear the cloud of uncertainty that has surrounded Su’s status as an embattled nominee, particularly as it heads into a summer with multiple high-profile labor strikes anticipated.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that oversees the Labor Department, is similarly nonplussed about filling the Cabinet vacancy.

“She would make a great secretary of Labor and I hope very much she will become the secretary,” he said. “If not, I’m confident she’ll continue doing a great job in the position that she has.”

Democrats had hopes that by padding their caucus in last year’s midterm election by one new member, Senate confirmations would be easier this year. Su’s struggles could be ominous for any future Cabinet replacement and come amid a handful of other failed nominees.

But not all Democrats have publicly embraced defeat. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters on Wednesday that he and Senate leadership is “trying to do everything we can to get her passed, plain and simple.”

And some Democrats privately believe Sinema’s position is still truly unknown — perhaps even to the Arizona lawmaker herself.

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), another prominent Su supporter, said they only need “one more vote” to get Su across the finish line, although she acknowledged she’d like more clarity about the confirmation prospects from the White House.

The White House official’s request last week that Sinema and Manchin reconsider their positions on Su’s nomination left open the possibility of confirmation. But Manchin, citing “genuine concerns” about Su’s “progressive background,” said he would oppose the nomination. Because Sinema hasn’t publicly revealed any position — as she frequently does — a “yes” vote down the road may be spun against her as caving to the White House’s demand. Su can afford to lose no more than one senator who caucuses with Democrats because Republicans are expected to be universally opposed.

Su initially kept a relatively low public profile typical of pending nominees. But as the White House has embraced her fate, Su has stepped out more publicly, similar to other members of Biden’s Cabinet. She appeared Tuesday with first lady Jill Biden to talk about the administration’s Investing in America Workforce Hub in Pittsburgh. Earlier this month, she did several media interviews related to the monthly jobs report, a typical duty of the secretary.

In another sign of the changing posture of the administration, the Labor Department is expected to soon release several rules that had been pending.

Su’s unconfirmed status has downsides. Because she is currently deputy, the department appears unlikely to be able to fill that role with another person. Acting officials are also often viewed as lacking the gravitas of having successfully gone through Senate confirmation. Former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, who has lobbied Sinema, Manchin and others on Su’s behalf, pushed back on that idea.

“However long Julie Su is the acting secretary or secretary, she’s going to put her mark on the job,” he said. “I don’t think the word ‘acting’ is any part of it.”

House Education and Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) last week asked the Government Accountability Office to clarify the acting secretary’s legal authority to continue serving. An agency spokesperson on Thursday confirmed it has opened a review but said it has no timeframe on the process. GAO reports can often take months or more to be released.

Nick Niedzwiadek contributed to this report.

Last summer, the actor Matthew McConaughey lent his voice and star power to the White House’s push for action on gun safety following the deadly shooting at an elementary school in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas.

Now, he’s launching an endeavor to ensure that the $1 billion in school safety funding included in the law resulting from last year’s push, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, doesn’t go to waste.

“When these funds get disseminated the right way to where it’s needed, it’s gonna help,” McConaughey told POLITICO in an interview. “Is it the solution to any and all school violence? Hell no. Is it a step solid in the right direction? Hell yes.”

On Thursday, McConaughey launched the Greenlights Grant Initiative, a privately funded program intended to help smaller school districts and local education agencies (LEAs) apply for the competitive grants available under the law. The funding is meant to help establish safer and healthier learning environments and prevent and respond to acts of bullying, violence, and hate, as well as other educational programs.

The need for such a program first became clear, McConaughey said, when the actor and his wife, Camila, had dinner with Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas) a few months after the bipartisan law was enacted. The lawmaker noted that only 12 of the 119 schools in his district had applied for grants under the law — and none got approved.

“We started to do research and said, ‘Is this a localized problem to that area?’ No. It’s a national problem,” McConaughey said. “We noticed it was happening all over the place that people were not aware or didn’t have the ability or the resources to fill out grants and write them competitively.”

Under the law, the grant money can be reallocated if it isn’t distributed by 2026. “That would make the passing of the bill a great symbol that wasn’t really activated and didn’t become useful, and I think that’d be a shame,” McConaughey said.

Part of the actor’s new effort involves a public awareness campaign with a spot featuring the actor himself and a website launched Thursday, all to ensure school districts know the funding is available. Additionally, the initiative will offer higher-need school districts multiple resources to help in applying for the grants — tutorials, webinars, guidebooks and even grant writing services at no cost.

Sasha Pudelski, the director of advocacy for AASA, The School Superintendents Association, said the initiative “doesn’t just tell multiple federal agencies to ‘do better’ — it will model for them how to target federal dollars to schools more equitably and how to level the playing field so that resource-poor communities have a fighting chance to pull down critical school safety funding.”

McConaughey, who met with several lawmakers in Washington last summer, has also established a strategic advisory board chaired by a group of bipartisan lawmakers who played key roles in the passage of the BSCA: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), and Gonzalez.

“The long term goal is to simplify this process, because it is not simple at all,” McConaughey said.

President Joe Biden and United Auto Workers leader Shawn Fain met Wednesday at the White House, a union official and a White House aide told POLITICO, as labor contract discussions are beginning between the powerful union and the Big Three automakers.

The meeting comes as Democratic officials and labor observers brace for a likely strike by UAW, which could have major economic and political ramifications. It also took place in the shadow of the UAW withholding its support from the president’s reelection campaign for the time being due to its concerns over his handling of the electric vehicle transition.

UAW spokesperson Jonah Furman told POLITICO that Fain asked for Biden’s support in contract talks with GM, Ford and Stellantis. Furman said Fain asked Biden to use his “bully pulpit” and pushed him to attach stronger labor provisions to federal grants and loans funded by the Inflation Reduction Act.

UAW’s contract with the car companies ends Sept. 14.

A White House official said that UAW asked to set up a meeting with Biden’s senior staff so that they could present their position on the labor negotiations with the automakers. When Biden heard about the meeting, the official said, he asked if he could speak with Fain privately. The two had a short discussion.

The meeting with top aides and UAW included Gene Sperling, who Biden has tapped as a point person on talks between UAW and the Big Three.

The UAW has prodded Biden publicly over provisions and funding from the IRA, which is key to his political, economic and climate agenda. The union took aim at $9.2 billion in loans awarded to Ford last month, criticizing taxpayer support flowing to states with less favorable organizing rights like Kentucky and Tennessee.

“[Fain] knows that President Biden is one of the most pro-union presidents that we’ve had in this country,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who met with Fain on Wednesday, said in an interview. “But clearly President Fain is focused on an aggressive negotiation for his members.”

Biden has made shifting to electric vehicles a central part of his climate and economic strategy. He has sought to make all new vehicle sales electric by 2030, and his EPA has proposed vehicle standards that would require 67 percent of new vehicle sales to be zero-emissions by 2032.

The auto union has said it supports a transition to electric vehicles but is concerned about the quality of jobs in the emerging sector. The UAW has acknowledged the market is trending toward electric vehicles. But it has said the new federal funding contains too few provisions to encourage better standards for workers in the emerging batteries industry that will be central to electric vehicle employment.

Much of the UAW’s anxiety stems from transitioning out of factories where union members work on internal combustion engines to the emerging battery sector. But the U.S. battery industry is nascent and therefore has little connection to organized labor.

GM and Stellantis said in response to questions from POLITICO that they support workers’ rights to organize, including at facilities where joint ventures exist with other companies. Ford did not immediately return a request for comment.

“We believe the UAW, given their historic and constructive relationship in the automotive industry, would be well positioned to represent the workforce,” GM spokesperson Jeannine Ginivan said in a statement.

Fain is also meeting with House members and senators over the next couple days, according to multiple congressional aides and members. The Congressional Labor Caucus was scheduled to begin a conversation with Fain at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Some lawmakers have shared the UAW’s worries that the Biden administration has not done enough to convince auto companies to improve standards for workers.

“I was disappointed in some of the deployment of that initial investment,” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), who has GM facilities in his district, said in an interview. “I want to see more in Michigan, and I want to see more on existing factory sites or existing facilities where we have a history of UAW contracts.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sharply denounced a conspiracy theory floated by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that Covid-19 was engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, calling the longshot Democratic candidate’s remarks “false” and “vile.”

“The claims made on that tape is false,” she said during a Monday press briefing about a video published over the weekend. “It is vile, and they put our fellow Americans in danger.”

In the video, Kennedy suggests that Covid was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people.” He later added that “the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

Kennedy has defended himself on Twitter, disputing the New York Post’s initial reporting of his comments, insisting he was just relaying others’ research, and denying that he said the virus was made to “spare Jews.” But after the video emerged, his remarks prompted condemnation across the Democratic Party and even from members of his own family.

“I STRONGLY condemn my brother’s deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about Covid being engineered for ethnic targeting,” wrote Kennedy’s sister, Kerry, on Twitter.

Jean-Pierre declined to discuss Kennedy directly, citing the legal constraints on the administration’s ability to address campaign matters. But she warned that Kennedy’s remarks amounted to encouraging racist theories around the virus.

“If you think about the racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories that come out of saying those type of things, it’s an attack on our fellow citizens,” Jean-Pierre said. “And so it’s important that we essentially speak out when we hear those claims more broadly.”

Jean-Pierre also cited a statement from the American Jewish Committee that called Kennedy’s claims “deeply offensive” and reflective of “some of the most abhorrent antisemitic conspiracy theories throughout history.”

“This is something that this president, and this whole administration, is going to stand against,” she added.

President Joe Biden is growing his unusually small reelection campaign team, announcing Monday plans to add three new people to the payroll.

Former Rep. Cedric Richmond is joining as campaign co-chair. Former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Rufus Gifford will serve as finance chair of Biden-Harris 2024 and DNC National Finance Chair Chris Korge will join as finance chair of the Biden Victory Fund, the larger of the president’s joint fundraising committees.

The Biden campaign has a run a bare-bones operations since the president announced his reelection bid in April, spending less than some Senate candidates and employing just four people: Campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez, principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks, spokesperson Kevin Munoz and general counsel Maury Riggan.

The announcement comes days after the campaign revealed its $72 million fundraising haul with the DNC in the second quarter. Though it’s less than the past two presidents raised during the same time in their reelection bids, Biden does have more cash on hand than former President Barack Obama did at this point in the cycle — in part because of the lean operation he’s running.

“Our campaign is off to a strong start, securing early endorsements and unified support from across the Biden-Harris coalition, and a historic quarter for our fundraising operation,” Chávez Rodríguez said in a statement. “Already, this team has shown its ability to think outside the box to raise money, and bring in supporters across the country for the President and Vice President. With this talented team at the helm, I’m confident our campaign will have the resources it needs to win again in 2024.”