Michmutters

Republicans are sharpening their knives while the Senate prepares to hunker in for a long weekend as Democrats deploy a special process to pass the party’s sprawling health care, tax and climate plan without buy-in from across the aisle.

Republican leaders smoked over the Democratic effort at a press conference on Friday, one day before the Senate is prepared to begin consideration of the plan, while taking aim at Sens. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz. ), two key centrist holdouts, for backing the effort.

“So, what will vote-a-rama be like?” Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C) told reporters on Friday, referring to the voting marathon senators are set to be subjected to in the next few days as part of the process Democrats are using to pass the bill. “It’d be like hell.”

“They deserve this. As much as I admire Joe Manchin and Sinema for standing up to the radical left at times, they’re empowering legislation that will make the average person’s life more difficult,” Graham said.

Graham, along with Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), also threatened not to vote for a critical funding measure ahead of a September deadline, when government funding is set to lapse, over the effort.

Democrats are using a complicated procedure known as budget reconciliation to try to pass the party’s Inflation Reduction Act, a massive package that would advance key pieces of President Biden’s legislative agenda.

The procedure, which Republicans used to pass former President Trump’s signature tax law in 2017, will allow Democrats to pass a bill in the 50-50 Senate with a simple majority, bypassing the usual 60-vote threshold.

But to pass the bill using the maneuver, Democrats have to jump through a series of hoops before they bring the bill to the floor for a vote. That includes what’s known as vote-a-rama — an often lengthy and messy voting marathon in which senators can offer a series of amendments for a chance to influence legislation before a final vote on the overall bill.

Republicans have been strategizing in recent days on how to make Democrats feel as much pain as possible during the coming voting session, promising to line up tough votes for the party that could be used as ammunition for the coming campaign season.

During the recent press conference, Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.), a member of Republican leadership, said the GOP will be focusing specifically on areas like “energy, inflation, border and crime.”

Many Republicans have been keeping their cards close to the vest on what amendments they plan to bring up during the voting marathon.

Pressed by The Hill on Thursday about which ones he’ll offer, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) declined to divulge, saying he wants “it to be a surprise.”

“My colleagues will all have plenty of time to read my amendments,” Kennedy said. “But I don’t believe in leading with my chin.”

Republicans have expressed hopes at attaching some of their amendments to the overall bill, despite their overwhelming opposition to the package, in the event it could make the legislation tougher to pass in the House.

Still, there is concern among GOP members around the chances Democrats will introduce a “wraparound” amendment, which could allow for erasure of all amendments adopted during the session.

Sen. John Thune (SD), the No. 2 Senate Republican, acknowledged the issue during the press conference on Friday, questioning whether Manchin and Sinema would vote for such an amendment.

“Because they both said that they won’t vote after they felt like, in the American Rescue Plan, they voted for a wraparound amendment and felt like they were misled by their leadership at the time that they would never vote for one of those again ,” Thune said.

The Hill has reached out to the offices of Manchin and Sinema for comment.

Former President Donald Trump’s “worst day” came this week when his White House counsel Pat Cipollone was subpoenaed by federal investigators, one former Watergate prosecutor said.

Nick Ackerman, who served as an assistant special Watergate prosecutor, said that Tuesday’s subpoena marked “the worst day for Donald Trump.”

Cipollone has been ordered to testify in front of a grand jury as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into the activities leading up to the January 6, 2021, Capitol Riot. He has already been interviewed by the House committee investigating the attack, but Ackerman said the federal subpoena will be much more damning to Trump.

“I think that the Department of Justice is going to get a lot more information from Pat Cipollone,” the former prosecutor told MSNBC’s The Beat on Wednesday. “If he thought that he was his worst experience—going before the committee—he is in for a major surprise when he appears before that grand jury.”

So far, Cipollone has been the highest-ranking White House official to be subpoenaed by the Justice Department. Marc Short, former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, and Greg Jacobs, Pence’s former chief counsel, have also reportedly testified to a grand jury in recent weeks.

Ackerman said that unlike the House panel, federal investigators won’t let the former Trump lawyer cite executive privilege over conversations he had with Trump in his final days in office.

“They allowed him to claim attorney-client privilege. None of this is going to go anywhere with the feds,” Ackerman said. “He is going to claim privileges with individual questions. They will take him to a court judge, who is going to order him to testify and tell him there is no privilege.”

The former Watergate prosecutor said Cipollone could try to appeal those rulings, but he added that the investigation would move much swifter than the House committee’s hearings have this summer.

“Pat Cipollone is going to be talking more before the grand jury,” he said.

Even though the House panel allowed Cipollone to claim privilege over certain discussions to get him to testify, the former White House counsel’s testimony still provided the lawmakers with information for the panel to build its case against Trump.

Corroborating the accounts of other former Trump officials, Cipollone said that the Trump legal team’s plan to seize voting machines was “a terrible idea for the country.”

“There is a way to contest elections, you know, that happens all the time,” Cipollone said in the interview. “But the idea that the federal government could come in and seize election machines? I don’t understand why we even have to tell you that’s a bad idea for the country. It’s a terrible idea.”

Cipollone also told the committee that he believed that Trump should have granted the election in December 2020 and that he supported former Attorney General Bill Barr’s conclusion that there was no evidence of election fraud.

Hundreds of staff members and guests were stuck in a National Park after monsoonal weather caused major flooding that prevented them from escaping Friday morning, park service officials said.

Heavy rains pushed dirt and debris onto the roads around Death Valley National Park, making them impassable and forcing officials to close the park. The National Park Service (NPS) said the decision trapped 500 staff and 500 visitors inside.

“There are approximately 500 visitors and 500 staff currently unable to exit the park. No injuries to staff or visitors have been reported,” the National Park Service said in a statement Friday.

“On August 5, 2022, unprecedented amounts of rainfall caused substantial flooding within Death Valley National Park. All roads into and out of the park are currently closed and will remain closed until park staff can assess the extensiveness of the situation,” the statement added .

CALIFORNIA, ARIZONA RESIDENTS FORCED TO EVACUATE AS WILDFIRES BURN

Flooding closed all roads around the Death Valley National Park on August 5, 2022.
(National Park Service)

The California Department of Transportation said clearing the roads would take several hours, pending cooperative weather, the statement added.

“Approximately sixty cars, belonging to visitors and staff, are buried in several feet of debris at the Inn at Death Valley,” NPS said. “The flood waters pushed dumpster containers into parked cars, which caused cars to collide into one another. Additionally, many facilities are flooded including hotel rooms and business offices.”

“The Cow Creek Water system, which provides water to the Cow Creek area for park residents and offices, has failed. Park staff have identified a major break in the line due to the flooding which is being repaired. The remainder of the line is being inspected,” the statement added.

According to NPS, the amount of rain the park experienced Friday, 1.46 inches, was about 75% of the amount of rain the area typically receives in a year.

It also nearly matches the daily record of 1.47 inches set on April 15, 1988.

CALIFORNIA FIREFIGHTERS ARE HELPED BY FAVORABLE WEATHER IN FIGHT AGAINST FOREST FIRES

Friday’s park closure comes after flash floods on Monday disrupted travel on some roads along Highway 190, near the Death Valley National Park.

“Remember: turn around, don’t drown!” the Death Valley National Park warned visitors.

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All park roads remain closed as of Friday. Also, the Sunset, Texas Spring, and Stovepipe Wells Campgrounds were closed.

Emergency services and the California Department of Transportation are continuing to assess the situation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.