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US pledges $1 billion more rockets, other arms for Ukraine

US pledges $1 billion more rockets, other arms for Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Monday it was shipping its biggest yet direct delivery of weapons to Ukraine as that country prepares for a potentially decisive counteroffensive in the south against Russia, sending $1 billion in rockets, ammunition and other material to Ukraine from Defense Department stockpiles.

The new US arms shipment would further strengthen Ukraine as it mounts the counteroffensive, which analysts say for the first time could allow Kyiv to shape the course of the rest of the warnow at the half-year mark.

Kyiv aims to push Russian troops back out of Kherson and other southern territory near the Dnipro River. Russia in recent days was moving troops and equipment in the direction of the southern port cities to stave off the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

“At every stage of this conflict, we have been focused on getting the Ukrainians what they need, depending on the evolving conditions on the battlefield,” Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, said Monday in announcing the new weapons shipment.

The new US aid includes additional rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, as well as thousands of artillery rounds, mortar systems, Javelins and other ammunition and equipment. Military commanders and other US officials say the HIMARS and artillery systems have been crucial in Ukraine’s fight to block Russia from taking more ground.

While the US has already provided 16 HIMARS to Ukraine, Kahl said the new package does not include additional ones.

“These are not systems that we assess you need in the hundreds to have the type of effects” needed, Kahl said. “These are precision-guided systems for very particular types of targets and the Ukrainians are using them as such.”

He declined to say how many of the precision-guided missile systems for the HIMARS were included in Monday’s announcement, but said the US has provided “multiple hundreds” of them in recent weeks.

The latest announcement brings the total US security assistance committed to Ukraine by the Biden administration to more than $9 billion.

In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the United States for the package, and said “100% of it we will use to protect freedom, our common freedom.”

Until now, the largest single security assistance package announcement was for $1 billion on June 15. But that aid included $350 million in presidential drawdown authority, and another $650 million under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which provides funding for training, equipment and other security needs that can be bought from other countries or companies.

Monday’s package allows the US to deliver weapons systems and other equipment more quickly since it takes them off the Defense Department shelves.

In addition to the rockets for the HIMARS, it includes 75,000 rounds of 155mm artillery, 20 mortar systems and 20,000 rounds for them, 1,000 shoulder-mounted Javelin rockets, and other arms, explosives and medical equipment.

For the last four months of the war, Russia has concentrated on capturing the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have controlled some territory as self-proclaimed republics for eight years. Russian forces have made a gradual headway in the region while launching missile and rocket attacks to curtail the movements of Ukrainian fighters elsewhere.

Kahl estimated that Russian forces have sustained up to 80,000 deaths and injuries in the fighting, though he did not break down the figure with an estimate of forces killed.

He said the Russian troops have managed to gain “incremental” ground in eastern Ukraine, although not in recent weeks. “But that has come at extraordinary cost to the Russian military because of how well the Ukrainian military has performed and all the assistance that the Ukrainian military has gotten. And I think now, conditions in the east have essentially stabilized and the focus is really shifting to the south.”

The new funding is being paid for through $40 billion in economic and security aid for Ukraine approved by Congress in May.

This is the 18th time the Pentagon has provided equipment from Defense Department stocks to Ukraine since August 2021.

The US and allies are still evaluating whether to supply aircraft to Ukraine, Kahl said. It’s “not inconceivable that western aircraft down the road could be part of the mix,” he said.

Zelenskyy early in the war made near-daily appeals for warplanes, calling them essential to protecting Ukraine’s skies. The US and some other NATO countries feared that they could draw them into more direct involvement with Ukraine’s war against Russia, and have not provided Western aircraft.

Separately Monday, the Treasury Department said it was sending $3 billion more in direct economic assistance to Ukraine. That’s part of a previously approved $7.5 billion in economic assistance, with $1.5 billion yet to be disbursed.

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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.

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What to watch in Wis., 3 other states in Tuesday’s primaries

What to watch in Wis., 3 other states in Tuesday's primaries

The Republican matchup in the Wisconsin governor’s race on Tuesday features competing candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump and his estranged vice president, Mike Pence. Democrats are picking a candidate to face two-term GOP Sen. Ron Johnson for control of the closely divided chamber.

Meanwhile, voters in Vermont are choosing a replacement for US Sen. patrick leahy as the chamber’s longest-serving member retires. In Minnesota, US Rep. Ilhan Omar faces a Democratic primary challenger who helped defeat a voter referendum to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety.

What to watch in Tuesday’s primary elections in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont and Connecticut:

WISCONSIN

Construction company co-owner Tim Michels has Trump’s endorsement in the governor’s race and has been spending millions of his own money, touting both the former president’s backing and his years working to build his family’s business into Wisconsin’s largest construction company. Michels casts himself as an outsider, although he previously lost a campaign to oust then-US Sen. Russ Feingold in 2004 and has long been a prominent GOP donor.

Establishment Republicans including Pence and former Gov. Scott Walker have endorsed former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefischwho along with Walker, survived a 2012 recall effort. She argues she has the experience and knowledge to pursue conservative priorities, including dismantling the bipartisan commission that runs elections.

With Senate control at stake, Democrats will also make their pick to take on Johnson. Democratic support coalesced around Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes beats in the race, when his three top rivals dropped out and threw their support to him. He would become the state’s first Black senator if elected.

Several lesser-known candidates remain in the primary, but Johnson and Republicans have treated Barnes as the nominee, casting him as too liberal for Wisconsin, a state Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020.

Four Democrats are also running in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, a seat that opened up with the retirement of veteran Democratic US Rep. Ron Kind. The district has been trending Republican, and Derrick Van Orden — who narrowly lost to Kind in 2020 and has Trump’s endorsement — is running unopposed.

MINNESOTA

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz faces a little-known opponent as he seeks a second term. His likely challenger is Republican Scott Jensena physician and former state lawmaker who has made vaccine skepticism a centerpiece of his campaign and faces token opposition.

Both men have been waging a virtual campaign for months, with Jensen attacking Walz for his management of the pandemic and hammering the governor for rising crime around Minneapolis. Walz has highlighted his own support of abortion rights and suggested that Jensen would be a threat to chip away at the procedure’s legality in Minnesota.

Crime has emerged as the biggest issue in Rep. Omar’s Democratic primary. She faces a challenge from former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, who opposes the movement to defund the police and last year helped defeat efforts to replace the city’s police department. Omar, who supported the referendum, has a substantial money advantage and is expected to benefit from a strong grassroots operation.

The most confusing part of Tuesday’s ballot was for the 1st Congressional District seat that was held by US Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died earlier this year from cancer. Republican former state Rep. Brad Finstad and Democrat Jeff Ettinger, a former Hormel CEO, are simultaneously competing in primaries to determine the November matchup for the next two-year term representing the southern Minnesota district, as well as a special election to finish the last few months of Hagedorn’s term.

CONNECTICUT

It’s been roughly three decades since Connecticut had a Republican in the US Senate, but the party isn’t giving up.

In the GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthalthe party has endorsed former state House Minority Leader Themis Klarides. She’s a social moderate who supports abortion rights and certain gun control measures and says she did not vote for Trump in 2020. Klarides contends her experience and positions can persuade voters to oppose Blumenthal, a two-term senator who in May registered a 45% job approval rating, his lowest in a Quinnipiac poll since taking office.

Klarides is being challenged by conservative attorney Peter Lumaj and Republican National Committee member Leora Levy, whom Trump endorsed last week. Both candidates oppose abortion rights and further gun restrictions, and they back Trump’s policies from him.

VERMONT

Leahy’s upcoming retirement has opened up two seats in Vermont’s tiny three-person congressional delegation — and the opportunity for the state to send a woman to represent it in Washington for the first time.

Democratic US Rep. Peter Welch, the state’s at-large congressman, quickly launched his Senate bid after Leahy revealed he was stepping down. Leahy, who is president pro tempore of the Senate, has been hospitalized a couple of times over the last two years, including after breaking his hip this summer.

Welch has been endorsed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and is the odds-on favorite to win the seat in November. He faces two other Democrats in the primary: Isaac Evans-Frantz, an activist, and Dr. Niki Thran, an emergency physician.

On the Republican side, former US Attorney Christina Nolan, retired US Army officer Gerald Malloy and investment banker Myers Mermel are competing for the nomination.

The race to replace Welch has yielded Vermont’s first wide-open US House campaign since 2006.

Two women, including Lt. Gov. Molly Gray and state Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, are the top Democratic candidates in the race. Gray, elected in 2020 in her first political bid, is a lawyer and a former assistant state attorney general.

The winner of the Democratic primary will be the heavy favorite to win the general election in the liberal state. In 2018, Vermont became the last state without female representation in Congress when Mississippi Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith was appointed to the Senate.

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Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Doug Glass in Minneapolis; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn.; and Wilson Ring in Montpelier, Vermont, contributed to this report.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP

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China extends threatening military exercises around Taiwan

China extends threatening military exercises around Taiwan

BEIJING (AP) — China said Monday it is extending threatening military exercises surrounding Taiwan that have disrupted shipping and air traffic and substantially raised concerns about the potential for conflict in a region crucial to global trade.

The announcement increases uncertainty in the crisis that developed last week with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.

The exercises will include anti-submarine drills, apparently targeting US support for Taiwan in the event of a potential Chinese invasion, according to social media posts from the eastern leadership of China’s ruling Communist Party’s military arm, the People’s Liberation Army.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory and its leader, Xi Jinping, has focused on bringing the self-governing island democracy under the mainland’s control, by force if necessary. The two sides split in 1949 after a civil war, but Beijing considers visits to Taiwan by foreign officials as recognizing its sovereignty.

Xi is seeking a third term as Communist Party leader later this year. His control of him over the armed forces and what he has defined as China’s “core interests” — including Taiwan, territorial claims in the South China Sea and historic adversary Japan — are key to maintaining his nationalist credentials of him.

The military has said the exercises, involving missile strikes, warplanes and ship movements crossing the midline of the Taiwan Strait dividing the sides, were a response to Pelosi’s visit.

China has ignored calls to calm the tensions, and there was no immediate indication of when it would end what amounts to a blockade.

On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said China would “firmly safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, resolutely deter the US from containing China with the Taiwan issue and resolutely shatter the Taiwan authorities’ illusion of “relying on the US for independence.”

China’s slowing economic growth, which has reduced options among migrant workers as well as college graduates, has raised the specter of social unrest. The party has maintained its power through total control of the press and social media, along with suppression of political opponents, independent lawyers and activists working on issues from online free speech to LGBQT rights.

China doesn’t allow public opinion polls, and popular opinion is hard to judge. However, it generally skews in favor of the government and its efforts to restore China’s former dominant role in the region that puts it in conflict with the United States and its allies, including Japan and Australia.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said Sunday it detected a total of 66 aircraft and 14 warships conducting the naval and air exercises. The island has responded by putting its military on alert and deploying ships, plans and other assets to monitor Chinese aircraft, ships and drones that are “simulating attacks on the island of Taiwan and our ships at sea.”

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reported that Taiwan’s army will conduct live-fire artillery drills in southern Pingtung county on Tuesday and Thursday, in response to the Chinese exercises.

The drills will include snipers, combat vehicles, armored vehicles as well as attack helicopters, said the report, which cited an anonymous source.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has called on the international community to “support democratic Taiwan” and “halt any escalation of the regional security situation.” The Group of Seven industrialized nations has also criticized China’s actions, prompting Beijing to cancel a meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi.

China has cut off defense and climate talks with the US and imposed sanctions on Pelosi in retaliation for her visit.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia over the weekend that Pelosi’s visit was peaceful and did not represent a change in American policy toward Taiwan. He accused China of using the trip as a “pretext to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait.”

The Biden administration and Pelosi say the US remains committed to the “one-China” policy that extends formal diplomatic recognition to Beijing while allowing robust informal relations and defense ties with Taipei.

The US, however, criticized Beijing’s actions in the Taiwan Strait, with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre calling them “fundamentally irresponsible.”

“There’s no need and no reason for this escalation,” Jean-Pierre said.

In Washington, Taiwanese de facto ambassador Bi-khim Hsiao said China had no reason to “be so furious” over Pelosi’s visit, which follows a long tradition of American lawmakers visiting Taiwan.

“Well, you know, we have been living under the threat from China for decades,” Hsiao told CBS News on Sunday. “If you have a kid being bullied at school, you don’t say you don’t go to school. You try to find a way to deal with the bully.

“The risks are posed by Beijing,” Hsiao said.

On a visit to Myanmar, whose Chinese-backed military government has been accused of murdering its opponents, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Washington was “taking the opportunity to build up its military deployment in the region, which deserves high vigilance and resolute boycott from all sides.”

“China’s firm stance” is aimed at “earnestly safeguarding peace across the Taiwan Strait and regional stability,” Wang was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Meanwhile, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong called for a cooling of tensions. “Australia continues to urge restraint, Australia continues to urge deescalation, and this is not something that solely Australia is calling for, and the whole region is concerned about the current situation, the whole region is calling for stability to be restored,” Wong told reporters in Canberra.

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Biden steps out of the room and finds legacy-defining wins

Biden steps out of the room and finds legacy-defining wins

WASHINGTON (AP) — Over five decades in Washington, Joe Biden knew that the way to influence was to be in the room where it happens. But in the second year of his presidency, some of Biden’s most striking, legacy-defining legislative victories came about by staying out of it.

A summer lawmaking blitz has sent bipartisan bills addressing gun violence and boosting the nation’s high-tech manufacturing sector to Biden’s desk, and the president is now on the cusp of securing what he called the “final piece” of his economic agenda with the sudden resurrection of a Democrats-only climate and prescription drug deal. And in a counterintuitive turn for the president who has long promoted his decades of Capitol Hill experience, Biden’s aides chalk up his victories to the fact that he’s been publicly playing the role of cheerleader rather than legislative quarterback.

“In a 50-50 Senate, it’s just true that when the White House takes ownership over a topic, it scares off a lot of Republicans,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. “I think all of this is purposeful. When you step back and let Congress lead, and then apply pressure and help at the right times, it can be a much more effective strategy to get things done.”

Democrats and the White House hope the run of legislative victories, both bipartisan and not, just four months before the November elections will help resuscitate their political fortunes by showing voters what they can accomplish with even the slimmest of majorities.

Biden opened 2022 with his legislative agenda at a standstill, poll numbers on the decline and a candid admission that he had made a “mistake” in how he carried himself in the role.

“The public doesn’t want me to be the ‘President-Senator,’” he said. “They want me to be the president and let senators be senators.”

Letting the senators be senators was no easy task for Biden, whose political and personal identities are rooted in his formative years spent in that chamber. He spent 36 years as a senator from Delaware, and eight more as the Senate’s president when he was valued for his Capitol Hill relationships and insights from him as Barack Obama’s vice president.

As Biden took a step back, he left it to aides to do much of the direct negotiating. His legislative strategy, instead, focused more on using his role as president to provide strategic jolts of urgency for his agenda both with lawmakers and voters.

In the estimation of many of his aides and advisers, leaving the Senate behind was key to his subsequent success. The heightened expectations for Democrats, who hold precarious majorities in Congress but nonetheless have unified control of Washington, were dragging Biden down among his supporters of him who wanted more ambitious action.

The sometimes unsavory horse-trading required to win consensus often put the president deep in the weeds and short on inspiration. And the dramatic negotiating breakdowns on the way to an ultimate deal proved to be all the more tantalizing because Biden himself was a party to the talks.

In the spring of 2021, Biden made a big show of negotiating directly with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, RW.Va., on an infrastructure bill, only to have the talks collapse over the scope of the package and how to finance it. At the same time, a separate bipartisan group had been quietly meeting on its own, discussing how to overhaul the nation’s transportation, water and broadband systems. After the White House gave initial approval and then settled the final details with senators, that became the version that was shepherded into law.

The president next tried to strike a deal on a sweeping social spending and climate package with Sen. Joe Manchin, going as far as inviting the West Virginia lawmaker to his home in Wilmington, Delawareuntil the conservative Democrat abruptly pulled the plug on the talks in a Fox News interview. Manchin would later pick up the negotiations again, this time with just Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and the two would eventually reach an agreement that is now on the verge of Senate approval after more than a year of legislative wrangling.

In late 2021, White House aides persuaded the president to clamor up about his conversations with the Hill, as part of a deliberate shift to move negotiations on his legislative agenda out of the public eye. The West Wing, once swift with the news that Biden had called this lawmaker or invited that caucus to the White House for a meeting, kept silent.

The new approach drew criticism from the press, but the White House wagered that the public was not invested in the details and would reward the outcomes.

Biden and his team “have been using the bully pulpit and closely working with Congress to fight for policies that lower costs for families and fight inflation, strengthen our competitiveness versus China, act against gun violence” and help veterans, said White House spokesman Andrew Bates . “He also directed his Cabinet, senior staff and legislative team to constantly engage with key lawmakers as we work together to achieve what could soon be the most productive legislative record of any president” since Lyndon Johnson.

Some of the shift, White House aides said, also reflected the changing dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic, which kept Biden in Washington for most of 2021; his meetings of him with lawmakers amounted to one of the few ways to show he was working. As the pandemic eased and Biden was able to return to holding more in-person events with voters and interest groups, he was able to use those settings to drive his message directly to people.

The subtle transformation did not immediately pay dividends: Biden’s approval rating only continued to slide amid legislative inertia and soaring inflation.

Yet in time, Biden’s decision to embrace a facilitating role rather than being a negotiator in chief — which had achieved mixed success — began to pay off: the first substantive gun restrictions in nearly three decades, a measure to boost domestic production of semiconductor computer chips, and care for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.

White House officials credit Biden’s emotional speech after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, with helping to galvanize lawmakers to act on gun violence — and even his push for more extensive measures than made it into the bill with giving the GOP space to reach a compromise. And they point to a steady cadence of speeches over months emphasizing the need to lower prescription drug costs or to act on climate with keeping those issues in the national conversation amid the legislative fits and starts.

In turn, both Democratic and GOP lawmakers say that Biden removing himself directly from the negotiations empowered senators to reach consensus among themselves, without the distraction of a White House that may have repeatedly pushed for something that would be unattainable with Republicans or could be viewed as compromising by some Democrats.

“The president kind of had said that we’re staying out,” Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said, referring to the gun talks earlier this year. “I think that was helpful.”

Being hands off, however, by no means meant the administration was absent.

Rather than be in the room as a gun deal was coming together, White House aides stayed by the phone, explaining how the administration would likely interpret and regulate the law that senators were drafting. Murphy spoke with White House officials every day, and when the Connecticut senator met personally with Biden in early June to offer an update, the president never gave him an ultimatum on what he was or was not willing to sign — continuing to defer to lawmakers.

At another point during the gun negotiations, rumors flew that the administration was considering barring the Pentagon from selling certain types of surplus ammunition to gun dealers, who then sold the ammunition commercially, according to two people familiar with the deliberations. But Republicans, chiefly Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, urged the White House to scrap those plans because it would run counter to the parameters of what the gun negotiators had discussed, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of private negotiations.

The White House eventually did so, issuing a statement to a conservative publication that no such executive order on ammunition was under consideration.

On the semiconductor package that Biden plans to sign into law Tuesday, the administration organized classified briefings for lawmakers that emphasized how China is gaining influence in the computer chip sector and the national security implications. Republicans were regularly in touch with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a Biden Cabinet official who has developed warm relationships across the aisle.

And on the Democrats’ party-line climate and health care package, Manchin has emphasized that it is impossible to craft legislation of this magnitude without White House input, although he did not deal with Biden directly until near the end, when the president called to let Manchin know the White House would support his agreement with Schumer, according to an official with knowledge of the call.

Biden also stayed out of the last-minute deliberations involving Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and she and the president did not speak even as Democrats finalized an agreement that accommodated her demands.

“In his heart, Joe is a US senator,” said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., the chief Democratic author of the burn pits legislation who also helped hash out the infrastructure law last year. “So he understands allowing this to work is how you get it done.”

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In wake of floods, typical barbs at Kentucky political event

In wake of floods, typical barbs at Kentucky political event

FANCY FARM, Ky. (AP) — While Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear was consoling families displaced by historic flooding in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, Republicans at the state’s premier political event on the other side of the state were campaigning to oust him from office in 2023.

GOP candidates speaking at the Fancy Farm picnic in western Kentucky bashed the Democratic governor’s record earlier in this term, especially his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. But they also offered support for recovery efforts that Beshear is leading in the wake of historic flooding and tornadoes.

While his challengers aimed zingers at him, Beshear spent the day meeting with families displaced by flash flooding that swamped the Appalachian region more than a week ago, killing 37. Beshear visited two state parks where some of the suddenly homeless took refuge.

“Today I’m at our state parks, spending time with our eastern Kentucky families who have been displaced from the catastrophic flooding,” Beshear posted on social media. “These Kentuckians have been through the unimaginable. My priority is being there for them.”

Last December, deadly tornadoes tore through parts of western Kentucky. The political speaking at the annual Fancy Farm picnic — the traditional start of the fall campaign in Kentucky — took place about 10 miles (16 km) from Mayfield, which took a direct hit from a tornado.

Living up to the event’s reputation for edgy attacks, Republicans wanting to unseat Beshear took aim at restrictions that the governor imposed on businesses and gatherings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor has said his actions of him saved lives at a perilous time when vaccines were not available. The state’s GOP-dominated legislature reined in the governor’s virus policymaking power in a case settled by the state’s Supreme Court.

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Ryan Quarles referred to Beshear as the “shutdown governor.”

“He shut down our economy,” said Quarles, the state’s agriculture commissioner. “I’ve shut down our ‘mom and pop’ stores. He killed countless jobs and kept the big box stores open.

“Folks, just because we lived through a global pandemic doesn’t mean that our rights, our freedoms and liberties should be tossed out the window,” he added.

In his speech, Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Colmon Elridge came to the defense of Beshear, who consistently receives strong approval ratings from Kentuckians in polls. Elridge praised Beshear’s efforts in leading recovery efforts in tornado-ravaged western Kentucky and said he’ll do the same for flood victims in the state’s Appalachian region.

“Once again, our governor is showing through his actions how we show up in moments of devastation and embrace our fellow Kentuckian, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Kentuckians,” Elridge said.

The governor is highlighting his management of the state’s economy in asking voters for a second term. Kentucky has posted records for job creation and investments during his term and recently posted its lowest-ever unemployment rates.

Beshear was already a committed no-show for the state’s premiere political event. The governor initially planned a visit to Israel that coincided with the Fancy Farm picnic. I canceled that trip after the massive flooding hit eastern Kentucky.

The Fancy Farm stage was dominated by Republican officeholders — reflecting the GOP’s electoral dominance. The event is a rite of passage for statewide candidates, who are tested in stump-style speeches in the August heat while facing taunts and shouts from partisans from the other party.

The political attacks were punctuated by calls for continued public support for people rebuilding from tornadoes and facing the same daunting task in flood-ravaged areas.

“We might be sharing a few laughs today, but whether we’re Republican or Democrat, know that we are with you,” said GOP gubernatorial hopeful Daniel Cameron. “When natural disasters strike, we take off our partisan hats and we root for each other. We help repair and we help rebuild.”

Cameron then shifted into promoting his candidacy. I have touted his endorsement from former President Donald Trump and his work from him as the state’s attorney general in defending Kentucky’s anti-abortion laws and fighting Biden administration policies in court.

“I am the best candidate and the only candidate that can beat Andy Beshear next fall,” Cameron said.

Two other GOP gubernatorial candidates also made pitches to the crowd and a statewide television audience that watched — state Auditor Mike Harmon and state Rep. Savannah Maddox.

The still-emerging 2023 governor’s race is already overshadowing the state’s top-of-the-ticket race this year — the contest between Republican US Sen. Rand Paul and Democratic challenger Charles Booker. Paul was unable to attend the picnic because of Senate duties.

Also missing from the political speaking Saturday was Kentucky’s most powerful Republican, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell. A picnic mainstay for decades, McConnell relishes the verbal combat but also missed the event because of Senate duties. In a Senate speech Saturday, McConnell said the federal role in the long recovery for flood-damaged areas in his home state will grow once the rebuilding begins.

“Soon I’ll visit the region myself to meet with flood victims and listen to their concerns,” McConnell said. “Then I’ll take what I hear from my constituents back to Washington and ensure we stand by their side as we rebuild bigger and better than before.”

Biden declared a federal disaster to direct relief money to hard-hit Kentucky counties.

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Senate parliamentarian OKs most of Dems’ drug price controls

Senate parliamentarian OKs most of Dems' drug price controls

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate parliamentarian narrowed Democrats’ plan for curbing drug prices but left it largely intact Saturday, Democrats said, as party leaders prepared to start moving their sprawling economic bill through the chamber.

Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s rules arbiter, also gave the green light to clean air provisions in the measure, including one limiting electric vehicle tax credits to those assembled in the US, Democrats said.

The nonpartisan official’s rulings came as Democrats planned to begin Senate votes Saturday on their wide-ranging package addressing climate change, energy, health care costs, taxes and even deficit reduction. Party leaders have said they believe they now have the unity they will need to move the legislation through the 50-50 Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote.

MacDonough said provisions must be removed that would force drugmakers to pay rebates if their prices rise above inflation for products they sell to private insurers. Pharmaceutical companies would have to pay those penalties, though, if their prices for drugs bought by Medicare rise too high.

Dropping penalties on drugmakers for increasing prices on private insurers was a clear setback for Democrats. The decision reduces incentives on pharmaceutical companies to restrain what they charge, increasing costs for patients.

Erasing that language will cut the $288 billion in 10-year savings that the Democrats’ overall drug curbs were estimated to generate — a reduction of perhaps tens of billions of dollars, analysts have said. But other restrictions on rising pharmaceutical costs survived, including letting Medicare negotiate costs for the drugs it buys, capping seniors’ out-of-pocket expenses and providing free vaccines.

The surviving pharmaceutical provisions left Democrats promoting the drug language as a boon to consumers at a time when voters are infuriated by the worst inflation in four decades.

“This is a major victory for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said in a statement. “While there was one unfortunate ruling in that the inflation rebate is more limited in scope, the overall program remains intact and we are one step closer to finally taking on Big Pharma and lowering Rx drug prices for millions of Americans.”

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said that while he was “disappointed” the penalties for higher drug prices for privately insured consumers were dropped, “the legislation nevertheless puts a substantial check on Big Pharma’s ability to price gouge.”

The parliamentarian’s decision came after a 10-day period that saw Democrats resurrect top components of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda after they were seemingly dead. In rapid-fire deals with Democrats’ two most unpredictable senators—first conservative Joe Manchin of West Virginiathen Arizona centrist Kyrsten Sinema — Schumer pieced together a broad package that, while a fraction of earlier, larger versions that Manchin derailed, would give the party an achievement against the backdrop of this fall’s congressional elections.

The parliamentarian signed off on a fee on excess emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas contributor, from oil and gas drilling. She also let stand environmental grants to minority communities and other initiatives for reducing carbon emissionssaid Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Thomas Carper, D-Del.

She approved a provision requiring union-scale wages to be paid if energy efficiency projects are to qualify for tax credits, and another that would limit electric vehicle tax credits to those cars and trucks assembled in the United States.

The overall measure faces unanimous Republican opposition. But assuming Democrats fight off a nonstop “vote-a-rama” of amendments — many designed by Republicans to derail the measure — they should be able to muscle the measure through the Senate.

House passage could come when that chamber returns briefly from recess on Friday.

“What will vote-a-rama be like. It will be like hell,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said Friday of the approaching GOP amendments. He said that in supporting the Democratic bill, Manchin and Sinema “are empowering legislation that will make the average person’s life more difficult” by forcing up energy costs with tax increases and making it harder for companies to hire workers.

The bill offers spending and tax incentives for moving toward cleaner fuels and supporting coal with assistance for reducing carbon emissions. Expiring subsidies that help millions of people afford private insurance premiums would be extended for three years, and there is $4 billion to help Western states combat drought.

There would be a new 15% minimum tax on some corporations that earn over $1 billion annually but pay far less than the current 21% corporate tax. There would also be a 1% tax on companies that buy back their own stock, swapped in after Sinema refused to support higher taxes on private equity firm executives and hedge fund managers. The IRS budget would be pumped up to strengthen its tax collections.

While the bill’s final costs are still being determined, it overall would spend more than $300 billion over 10 years to slow climate change, which analysts say would be the country’s largest investment in that effort, and billions more on health care. It would raise more than $700 billion in taxes and from government drug cost savings, leaving about $300 billion for deficit reduction — a modest bite out of projected 10-year shortfalls of many trillions of dollars.

Democrats are using special procedures that would let them pass the measure without having to reach the 60-vote majority that legislation often needs in the Senate.

It is the parliamentarian’s job to decide whether parts of legislation must be dropped for violating those rules, which include a requirement that provisions be chiefly aimed at affecting the federal budget, not imposing new policy.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

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Sinema gives her nod, and influence, to Democrats’ big bill

Sinema gives her nod, and influence, to Democrats' big bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Joe Manchin sealed the deal reviving President Joe Biden’s big economic, health care and climate bill. But it was another Democratic senator, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizonawho intently, quietly and deliberately shaped the final product.

Democrats pushed ahead Friday on an estimated $730 billion package that in many ways reflects Sinema’s priorities and handiwork more than the other political figures who have played a key role in delivering on Biden’s signature domestic policy agenda.

It was Sinema early on who rejected Biden’s plan to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, as she broke with the party’s primary goal of reversing the Trump-era tax break Republicans gave to corporate America.

Sinema also scaled back her party’s long-running plan to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies as a way to reduce overall costs to the government and consumers. She limited which drugs can be negotiated.

Her insistence on climate change provisions forced the coal-state Manchin to stay at the table to accept some $369 billion in renewable energy investments and tax breaks. She also is tucking in more money to fight Western droughts.

And it was Sinema who in one final stroke gave her blessing to the deal by extracting an ultimate demand — she forced Democrats to drop plans to close a tax loophole that benefits wealthy hedge fund managers and high-income earners, long a party priority. Instead, the final bill will keep the tax rate at 20% instead of hiking it to the typical 37%.

“Kyrsten Sinema’s proven herself to be a very effective legislator,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who has negotiated extensively with his colleague over the past year, including on the tax loophole.

In a 50-50 Senate where every vote matters, the often inscrutable and politically undefinable Sinema puts hers to use in powerful ways. Her negotiating at the highest levels of power — she appears to have equal access to Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and even Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell — has infuriated some, wowed others and left no doubt she is a powerful new political figure.

While other lawmakers bristle at the influence a single senator can wield in Congress, where each member represents thousands if not millions of voters, Sinema’s nod of approval late Thursday was the last hurdle Democrats needed to push the Inflation Reduction Act forward. A final round of grueling votes on the package is expected to begin this weekend.

“We had no choice,” Schumer told reporters Friday at the Capitol.

Getting what you want in Congress does not come without political costs, and Sinema is amassing a balance due.

Progressives are outraged at their behavior, which they view as beyond the norms of sausage-making during the legislative process and verging on an unsettling restacking of party priorities to a more centrist, if not conservative, lane.

Progressive Rep. Ruben Gallego is openly musing about challenging Sinema in the 2024 primary in Arizona, and an independent expenditure group, Change for Arizona 2024, says it will support grassroots organizations committed to defeating her in a Democratic primary.

“The new reconciliation bill will lower the cost of prescription drugs,” Gallego wrote on Twitter last weekend. “@SenatorSinema is holding it up to try to protect ultra rich hedge fund managers so they can pay a lower tax.”

In fact, on the left and the right, commentators lambasted her final act—saving the tax breaks for the wealthy. Some pointed to past legislative luminaries—the late Sen. Robert Byrd, for example, used his clout to leave his name on roads, buildings and civic institutions across the West Virginia hillsides. They scoff at Sinema establishing her legacy of her in such a way.

“Astonishing,” wrote conservative Hugh Hewitt on Twitter. “@SenatorSinema could have demanded anything she wanted — anything that spent money or changed taxes — and with that leverage for Arizona she choose … to protect the carry interest exemption for investors. …Not the border. Not the country. A tax break. wow.”

Democratic former Clinton-era Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote, “The ‘carried interest’ loophole for billionaire hedge-fund and private-equity partners is now out of the Inflation Reduction Act, courtesy of Kyrsten Sinema.

“She’s up in 2024. Primary her and get her out of the Senate.”

But Sinema has never cared much about what others say about her, from the time she set foot in the Senate, breaking the rules with her whimsical fashion choices and her willingness to reach across the aisle to Republicans — literally joining them at times in the private Senate GOP cloakroom.

The Arizona senator seeks to emulate the maverick career of John McCain, drawing on his farewell address for her maiden Senate speech, and trying to adopt his renegade style alongside her own — a comparison that draws some eyerolls for its reach and scope.

Still, in her short time in the Senate, Sinema has come herself to be a serious study who understands intricacies of legislation and a hard-driving dealer who does not flinch. She has been instrumental in landmark legislation, including the bipartisan infrastructure bill Biden signed into law last summer.

“There’s not been a bipartisan group that she’s not been a part of,” Warner said.

In the end, the final package is slimmer than Biden first envisioned with his lofty Build Back Better initiative, but still a monumental undertaking and a bookend to a surprisingly productive if messy legislative session.

The bill would make health care gains for many Americans, capping pharmacy costs for seniors at $2,000 out of pocket and providing subsidies to help millions of people who buy health insurance on the private market. It includes what the Biden administration calls the largest investment in climate change ever, with money for renewable energy and consumer rebates for new and used electric cars. It would mostly be paid for by higher corporate taxes, with some $300 billion going to deficit reductions.

On the climate provisions, a priority for Democrats, Sinema may have played a role in keeping the sweeping provisions in the bill, when Manchin was less inclined to do so.

Environmental leaders, who have been involved in talks on the bill since last year, said Sinema has helped shape the bill all along. She was especially helpful last year when she made it clear she supports the climate and energy provisions, and her commitment to climate issues has remained steadfast, environmentalists said.

She tacked on her own priority, money to help Western states dealing with droughts, in the final push.

Jamal Raad, executive director of Evergreen Action, an environmental group that has pushed for the climate bill, said: “Senator Sinema needed money for drought relief to help her constituents stave off the worst effects of climate change. If that’s what was needed to gain her support from her, then good on her.

At home in Arizona, business allies that have been crucial to Sinema’s efforts to build an independent image have cheered on her willingness to resist party pressure over the tax increases.

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the National Association of Manufacturers ran ads against the deal, though they didn’t target Sinema by name, and bent her ear in a phone call this week.

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Associated Press writers Matthew Daly in Washington and JJ Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this article.

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GOP Rep who voted to impeach advances in Washington primary

GOP Rep who voted to impeach advances in Washington primary

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse, who voted to impeach Donald Trump, advanced Friday to the general election following days of vote counts in Washington state’s primary, but fellow Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler saw her advantage against an opponent endorsed by Trump rapidly shrink to within recount territory with thousands of votes left to count.

Both drew interparty challenges due to their vote to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Newhouse, the four-term incumbent in the 4th Congressional District in central Washington and Democrat Doug White were essentially tied, with each capturing about 25% of the vote on a crowded ballot. White also advanced to the fall ballot. Loren Culp, a Trump-endorsed former small town police chief who lost the 2020 governor’s race to Democrat Jay Inslee, was at about 21%.

In the 3rd Congressional District in southwestern Washington, Democrat Marie Perez was the top vote getter, with 31% of the vote. Herrera Beutler, who had about 24% on Tuesday night, dropped to 22.6% Thursday night, 257 votes ahead of Joe Kent – ​​a former Green Beret endorsed by Trump — who was at 22.5%.

A mandatory recount would occur if the margin of votes between the No. 2 and No. 3 candidates is less than half of 1% and closer than 2,000 votes.

Because Washington is a vote-by-mail state and ballots just need to be in by Election Day, it often takes days to learn final results in close races as ballots arrive at county election offices throughout the week.

An estimated 35,000 votes are left to count, and the three counties where votes remain to be counted — the majority of it in the 3rd District’s largest county, Clark, — won’t update their tallies again until late Monday afternoon. Counties have until Aug. 16 to finish their count and for canvassing boards to certify the results, followed by certification by the secretary of state by Aug. 19.

Under Washington’s primary system, all candidates run on the same ballot, and the top two vote getters in each of Tuesday’s races advance to the November election, regardless of party.

Of the 10 House Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment, four opted not to run for reelection. Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer was defeated in a primary Tuesday by Trump-endorsed John Gibbs and Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina lost to a Trump-endorsed challenger in June. Rep. David Valadao of California — which has an open primary like Washington — survived a primary challenge. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming is bracing for defeat in her Aug. 16 primary against a Trump-backed rival.

In another key match in the 8th Congressional District, incumbent Democratic Rep. Kim Schrier advanced to the November ballot with more than 47% of the vote, and will face former state attorney general candidate Matt Larkin in November.

With about 17% of the vote, Larkin edged out King County Council Member Reagan Dunn, a former federal prosecutor whose mother once held the seat. Dunn granted the race Thursday. The district is a key target of GOP efforts to retake control of the House.

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Democrats’ big package: What remains in and what’s out?

Democrats' big package: What remains in and what's out?

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s nowhere near the $4 trillion proposal President Joe Biden first launched to rebuild America’s public infrastructure and family support systems but the compromise package of inflation-fighting health care, climate change and deficit reduction strategies appears on track toward Senate votes this weekend.

The estimated $740 billion proposal, struck by two top negotiators, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and holdout Sen. Joe Manchin, the conservative West Virginia Democrat, includes some hard-fought party priorities. But the final touches came this week from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who put her handiwork on the latest revisions.

What’s in, and out, of the Democrats’ “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” as it stands now:

LOWER PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS

Launching a long-sought goal, the bill would allow the Medicare program to negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, saving the federal government some $288 billion over the 10-year budget window.

Those new revenues would be put back into lower costs for seniors on medications, including a $2,000 out-of-pocket cap for older adults buying prescriptions from pharmacies.

The money would also be used to provide free vaccinations for seniors, who now are among the few not guaranteed free access, according to a summary document.

HELP PAY FOR HEALTH INSURANCE

The bill would extend the subsidies provided during the COVID-19 pandemic to help some Americans who buy health insurance on their own.

Under earlier pandemic relief, the extra help was set to expire this year. But the bill would allow the assistance to keep going for three more years, lowering insurance premiums for people who are purchasing their own health care policies.

‘SINGLE BIGGEST INVESTMENT IN CLIMATE CHANGE IN US HISTORY’

The bill would invest nearly $374 billion over the decade in climate change-fighting strategies including investments in renewable energy production and tax rebates for consumers to buy new or used electric vehicles.

It’s broken down to include $60 billion for a clean energy manufacturing tax credit and $30 billion for a production tax credit for wind and solar, seen as ways to boost and support the industries that can help curb the country’s dependence on fossil fuels. The bill also gives tax credits for nuclear power and carbon capture technology that oil companies such as Exxon Mobil have invested millions of dollars to advance.

The bill would impose a new fee on excess methane emissions from oil and gas drilling while giving fossil fuel companies access to more leases on federal lands and waters.

A late addition pushed by Sinema and other Democrats in Arizona, Nevada and Colorado would designate $4 billion to combat a mega-drought in the West, including conservation efforts in the Colorado River Basin, which nearly 40 million Americans rely on for drinking water.

For consumers, there are tax breaks as incentives to go green. One is a 10-year consumer tax credit for renewable energy investments in wind and solar. There are tax breaks for buying electric vehicles, including a $4,000 tax credit for purchase of used electric vehicles and $7,500 for new ones.

In all, Democrats believe the strategy could put the country on a path to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030, and “would represent the single biggest climate investment in US history, by far.”

HOW TO PAY FOR ALL OF THIS?

The biggest revenue-raiser in the bill is a new 15% minimum tax on corporations that earn more than $1 billion in annual profits.

It’s a way to clamp down on some 200 US companies that avoid paying the standard 21% corporate tax rate, including some that end up paying no taxes at all.

The new corporate minimum tax would kick in after the 2022 tax year and raise some $258 billion over the decade.

The revenue would have been $313 billion, but Sinema insisted on one change to the 15% corporate minimum, allowing a depreciation deduction used by manufacturing industries. That shaves about $55 billion off the total revenue.

Money is also raised by boosting the IRS to go after tax cheats. The bill proposes an $80 billion investment in taxpayer services, enforcement and modernization, which is projected to raise $203 billion in new revenue — a net gain of $124 billion over the decade.

The bill sticks with Biden’s original pledge not to raise taxes on families or businesses making less than $400,000 a year.

The lower drug prices for seniors are paid for with savings from Medicare’s negotiations with the drug companies.

WHAT’S CHANGED IN RECENT DAYS?

To win over Sinema, Democrats dropped plans to close a tax loophole long enjoyed by wealthier Americans — the so-called “carried interest,” which under current law taxes wealthy hedge fund managers and others at a 20% rate.

The left has for years sought to increase the carried interest tax rate, hiked to 37% in the original bill, more in line with upper-income earners. Sinema wouldn’t allow it.

Keeping the tax break for the wealthy deprives the party of $14 billion in revenue they were counting on to help pay for the package.

In its place, Democrats, with Sinema’s nod, will impose a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks, raising some $74 billion over the decade.

EXTRA MONEY TO PAY DOWN DEFICITS

With some $740 billion in new revenue and around $433 billion in new investments, the bill promises to put the difference toward deficit reduction.

Federal deficits spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic when federal spending soared and tax revenues fell as the nation’s economy churned through shutdowns, closed offices and other massive changes.

The nation has seen deficits rise and fall in recent years. But overall federal budgeting is on an unsustainable path, according to the Congressional Budget Officewhich put out a new report this week on long-term projections.

WHAT’S LEFT BEHIND

This latest package after 18 months of start-stop negotiations leaves behind many of Biden’s more ambitious goals.

While Congress did pass a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill for highways, broadband and other investments that Biden signed into law last year, the president’s and the party’s other key priorities have slipped away.

Among them is a continuation of a $300 monthly child tax credit that was sending money directly to families during the pandemic and is believed to have widely reduced child poverty.

Also gone, for now, are plans for free pre-kindergarten and community college, as well as the nation’s first paid family leave program that would have provided up to $4,000 a month for births, deaths and other pivotal needs.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

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Flash floods strand 1K people in Death Valley National Park

Flash floods strand 1K people in Death Valley National Park

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Flash flooding at Death Valley National Park triggered by heavy rainfall on Friday buried cars, forced officials to close all roads in and out the park and stranded about 1,000 people, officials said

The park near the California-Nevada state line received at least 1.7 inches (4.3 centimeters) of rain at the Furnace Creek area, which park officials in a statement said represented “nearly an entire year’s worth of rain in one morning.” The park’s average annual rainfall is 1.9 inches (4.8 centimeters).

About 60 vehicles were buried in debris and about 500 visitors and 500 park workers were stranded, park officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries and the California Department of Transportation estimated it would take four to six hours to open a road that would allow park visitors to leave.

It was the second major flooding event at the park this week. Some roads were closed Monday after they were inundated with mud and debris from flash floods that also hit western Nevada and northern Arizona hard.

The rain started around 2 am, said John Sirlin, a photographer for an Arizona-based adventure company who witnessed the flooding as he perched on a hillside boulder where he was trying to take pictures of lightning as the storm approached.

“It was more extreme than anything I’ve seen there,” said Sirlin, who lives in Chandler, Arizona, and has been visiting the park since 2016. He is the lead guide for Incredible Weather Adventures and said he started chasing storms in Minnesota and the high plains in the 1990s.

“I’ve never seen it to the point where entire trees and boulders were washing down. The noise from some of the rocks coming down the mountain was just incredible,” he said in a phone interview Friday afternoon.

“A lot of washes were flowing several feet deep. There are rocks probably 3 or 4 feet covering the road,” he said.

Sirlin said it took him about 6 hours to drive about 35 miles (56 kilometers) out of the park from near the Inn at Death Valley.

“There were at least two dozen cars that got smashed and stuck in there,” he said, adding that he didn’t see anyone injured “or any high water rescues.”

During Friday’s rainstorms, 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 park statement said.

A water system that provides it for park residents and offices also failed after a line broke that was being repaired, the statement said.

A flash flood warning for the park and surrounding area expired at 12:45 pm, Friday but a flood advisory remained in effect into the evening, the National Weather Service said.

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