Politics

(NEW YORK) — As President Joe Biden faces a critical moment for his agenda, Americans’ confidence in his handling of a range of issues is eroding, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds.

Compared to an August ABC News/Ipsos poll, public approval of how Biden is handling key issues — the pandemic, immigration and the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, gun violence and even rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, the issue he’s pushing this week — is on the decline. Dissatisfaction among Republicans and independents is fueling the decline, but the president’s ratings are also hampered by more lackluster approval among members of his own party than presidents typically enjoy.

The poll, which was conducted Sept. 24-28 using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, comes roughly a month after the most difficult stretch of his presidency thus far — the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Thirteen U.S. service members were killed in a terrorist attack at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport during that drawdown, and for the first time since taking office, FiveThirtyEight’s tracker averaging presidential approval polls showed more Americans disapproved than approved of the job Biden was doing as president.

His overall approval rating now, measured by FiveThirtyEight’s average at 49% disapprove and 45% approve, has worsened since late August, and that sentiment is reflected in the issue-specific approvals measured in this most recent ABC News/Ipsos poll.

Biden’s performance on the coronavirus remains his strongest issue, with nearly six in 10 (57%) Americans still approving of how he is handling it. Still, compared to the ABC News/Ipsos poll in the field Aug. 27-28, Biden’s approval on this issue is down seven points overall and among independents, and down 14 points among Republicans. It’s also down 15 points from his late March record high on COVID-19 job performance in ABC News/Ipsos polling.

Although some Americans are now eligible for a third shot of the vaccine, following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation of boosters for certain populations, vaccinating the unvaccinated remains a central challenge for Biden as his administration works to end the pandemic.

Children under 12 are not currently eligible for vaccines, but that’s likely to change soon. After submitting data on vaccine trials for 5- to 11-year-olds on Tuesday, Pfizer expects to formally request emergency use authorization from the FDA to vaccinate this population.

But this poll, which was weighted to reflect the CDC’s adult vaccination rate, highlights how persuading vaccine-hesitant parents to have their children inoculated will be an additional obstacle for the Biden administration.

A majority (56%) of parents with children under 12 say they are likely to have their child get the coronavirus vaccine when it is available for them. Still, over four in 10 (43%) say they are not likely to.

Even among parents who are vaccinated with at least one shot, approximately two in 10 (21%) say they are not likely to get their child vaccinated when they are eligible. Nearly all (89%) unvaccinated parents say they are not likely to have their child get the coronavirus vaccine when eligible.

About half of parents who have at most a high school degree or who attended some college, 49% and 48% respectively, say they are likely to get their child vaccinated when it’s available to their age group. Among parents with a bachelor’s degree or higher, seven in 10 say they are likely to have their child get the vaccine when possible.

Parents who are Democrats are most likely to be vaccinated with at least one dose themselves (86%) compared to parents who are independents (65%) and parents who are Republicans (55%). For parents who are Democrats and independents, 78% and 61% respectively say they are likely to get their child vaccinated once eligible. However, though a majority of parents who are Republicans are vaccinated, fewer than four in 10 (38%) say they will have their child get the vaccine when it’s available to their age group.

The economic recovery from the pandemic also continues to be a challenge for the president. About equal shares of the public approve and disapprove of his handling of the economic recovery, 51% to 48%. The percentage of Americans disapproving of Biden on the economy increased seven points since late August.

Besides the pandemic, enacting a bill to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure is the most pressing priority for Biden this week, as it will be brought up for a vote on the House floor Thursday. By an 11-point margin, Americans approve of Biden’s handling of this issue, 55% to 44%, but disapproval has increased by nine points since late August. Among Republicans and independents, approval dropped 10 and nine points, respectively.

Black and Hispanic Americans overwhelmingly support the president’s handling of the United States’ infrastructure, with 71% and 70% respectively approving, while a majority of white Americans (54%) disapprove.

In politics today, partisans usually are more unified in their support of or opposition to particular issues or people, but that is not the case for Biden on multiple issues. The vast majority of Democrats back the president on his handling of COVID-19 (91%), rebuilding U.S. infrastructure (87%) and the economic recovery (84%), but support among members of his party drops for his handling of Afghanistan (69%), gun violence (65%) and the immigration situation at the southern border (60%).

Without overwhelming support from his party, Biden’s approval among U.S. adults overall falls below 40% on all three of those issues — 38% on gun violence, 38% on Afghanistan and 33% on immigration and the situation at the border.

The humanitarian crisis at the southern border was thrust into the spotlight over the last two weeks after a surge of migrants, mostly from Haiti, were sheltering under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, hoping to claim asylum and remain in the United States. That migrant camp was cleared as of Friday, but more than 17,400 remained in the U.S., according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

While the secretary said Friday that about 12,400 of those migrants will have an opportunity to have their asylum cases heard before an immigration judge and about 5,000 were still being processed, thousands did not have that chance before being flown directly back to Haiti or returning on their own to Mexico. The administration has employed a controversial policy using a public health rationale to immediately expel unauthorized migrants at the border.

Most Americans (58%) believe the United States should allow migrants seeking asylum at the border to stay until their cases are heard while four in 10 believe they should be deported back to their native countries immediately, the ABC News/Ipsos poll found.

By party, a majority of Democrats (83%) and independents (57%) believe migrants seeking asylum should be allowed to remain in the United States while their cases are heard, but about seven in 10 (72%) Republicans believe they should be deported immediately.

Across racial groups, most Americans think these migrants should be allowed to stay until their asylum cases are heard, but white Americans (52%) are less likely to feel this way than Hispanic (66%) and Black (78%) Americans.

METHODOLOGY – This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs‘ KnowledgePanel® September 24-28, 2021, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,101 adults, including an oversample of 537 parents with children under the age of 12. The overall results have a margin of sampling error of 3.7 points, including the design effect. Results among parents have a margin of sampling error of 4.7 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 31-24-36 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents. See the poll’s topline results and details on the methodology here.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — In their first appearance before Congress since the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan, the nation’s top military leaders candidly admitted to lawmakers that they had recommended to President Joe Biden that the U.S. should keep a troop presence there, appearing to contradict his assertions.

The testimony by Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, was at odds with Biden’s comments earlier this year to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that his military commanders did not recommend keeping a residual force.

The revelations came during at a six-hour hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee where Milley also characterized that the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan had been “a strategic failure” and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin acknowledged that it was time to acknowledged some “uncomfortable truths” about the two decade U.S. military mission in Afghanistan.

Here are some key takeaways:

Military commanders wanted to keep at least 2,500 troops in Afghanistan

While Milley and McKenzie said they would not disclose the content of private conversations with Biden, both generals offered their personal opinions that they said matched their recommendations.

“My assessment was back in the fall of ’20 and remained consistent throughout that we should keep a steady state of 2,500, could bounce up to 3,500,” Milley told Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

“I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and I also recommended early in the fall of 2020 that we maintain 4,500 at that time, those were my personal views,” McKenzie said.

The generals’ statements were at odds with what Biden had told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in an interview on Aug. 18.

“No one told — your military advisers did not tell you, “No, we should just keep 2,500 troops. It’s been a stable situation for the last several years. We can do that. We can continue to do that?,” Stephanopoulos asked Biden.

“No,” said Biden. “No one said that to me, that I can recall.”

Biden also said his military advisers were “split” on the matter.

McKenzie said he had also warned that the withdrawal of U.S. troops “would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan government and the Afghan military.”

“I also had a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and eventually the Afghan government,” he said.

‘A strategic failure’

Austin and Milley told senators that the sudden collapse of the Afghan government, as well as the U.S. military’s mission in Afghanistan over the past two decades, should be examined to learn what may have gone wrong.

Milley became the first U.S. military leader to describe the American military mission in Afghanistan as “a strategic failure” that had developed over time.

“Outcomes in a war like this, an outcome that is a strategic failure — the enemy is in charge in Kabul, there’s no way else to describe that — that is a cumulative effect of 20 years,” Milley said.

The general speculated that the U.S. had trained an Afghan Army that “mirrored” the American military without taking into account local and cultural traditions and allowed it to becoe too dependent on American technology.

“We helped build a state, but we could not forge a nation,” said Austin. “The fact that the Afghan army, we and our partners trained, simply melted away – in many cases without firing a shot – took us all by surprise. It would be dishonest to claim otherwise.”

“We need to consider some uncomfortable truths,” he added. “That we did not fully comprehend the depth of corruption and poor leadership in their senior ranks, that we did not grasp the damaging effect of frequent and unexplained rotations by President Ghani of his commanders, that we did not anticipate the snowball effect caused by the deals that Taliban commanders struck with local leaders in the wake of the Doha agreement, that the Doha agreement itself had a demoralizing effect on Afghan soldiers, and that we failed to fully grasp that there was only so much for which – and for whom – many of the Afghan forces would fight. We provided the Afghan military with equipment and aircraft and the skills to use them.”

“Over the years, they often fought bravely,” said Austin. “Tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers and police officers died. But in the end, we couldn’t provide them with the will to win. At least not all of them.”

US intelligence did not predict the Taliban’s swift takeover, the generals said

The three leaders expressed surprise at how Afghan forces had quickly fallen apart leading to a Taliban takeover of the country in 11 days.

“I did not foresee it to be days. I thought it could take months,” said McKenzie, who added that he had anticipated that the Afghan military would be able to hold out against the Taliban until later this year and possibly into early next year.

“We certainly did not plan against a collapse of the government in 11 days,” Austin said.

“There’s no intel assessment that says the government is going to collapse and the military is going to collapse in 11 days that I’m aware of. And I’ve read I think all of them,” said Milley, who later described the failure to predict the scope and scale of the Taliban takeover as “a swing and a miss.”

Revelations in ‘the book’

In his opening statement, Milley explained how his two phone calls to his counterpart in China, first described in the book “Peril” by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, were authorized by then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Milley also said that the Trump national security team was fully briefed on the calls that were intended to reassure China that then-President Donald Trump was not planning a military attack.

“I know, I am certain, that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese, and it is my directed responsibility and it was my directed responsibility by the secretary, to convey that intent to the Chinese,” Milley said. “My task at that time was to de-escalate my message again was consistent, stay calm, steady and de-escalate. We are not going to attack you.”

He pushed back on another story in the book that, in a phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, he agreed with her assessment that Trump was “crazy.”

“I’m not qualified to evaluate the mental fitness or the health of a former president, present president or anybody else or anybody in this room,” Milley said. “That’s not my job. That’s not what I do. And that’s not what I did.”

Several Republican senators took Milley to task for giving access to reporters and authors.

“I think what you did with making time to talk to these authors, burnishing your image, kind of building that bluster, but then not putting the focus on Afghanistan and what was happening there,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. “General Milley, this is disappointing to me. I know it’s disappointing to people that have served with you or under you, under your command. It does not serve our nation.”

“You’re doing these interviews and doing them in 2021. Makes me wonder the books, were you a little distracted about what was going on in Afghanistan?” said GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri who then demanded that Austin and Milley should resign.

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(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday that if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling by the deadline it would be a ‘calamity.’

Testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs alongside Federal Reserve System Chairman Jerome Powell, Yellen said the U.S. would hit its debt limit in less than three weeks, on Oct. 18.

“This would be a manufactured crisis we had imposed on this country, which has been going through a very difficult period and is on the road to recovery,” she said. “This would be a self-inflicted wound of enormous proportions.”

The United States has never defaulted on its debt. Congress has voted 80 times to raise or suspend the debt limit since 1960.

Yellen has previously laid out the consequences to lawmakers of missing the deadline. She has said nearly 50 million seniors could temporarily stop receiving Social Security checks, troops could go unpaid and millions of families who receive the monthly child tax credit could experience delays. A default could also trigger a spike in interest rates and result in a steep drop in stock prices and other financial turmoil, reversing the current economic recovery into a recession, with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost.

Yellen painted a grim picture again Tuesday.

Even if Congress increases the debt limit but does so too close to the deadline, it could cause economic fallout, Yellen said.

“Furthermore, we know from previous debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise borrowing costs for taxpayers and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States for years to come. Failure to act promptly could also result in substantial disruptions to financial markets, as heightened uncertainty can exacerbate volatility and erode investor confidence,” Yellen outlined in a letter to congressional leadership.

Yellen also reiterated that raising the debt limit has nothing to do with future government spending — a point some Republicans have tried to push as reason for not supporting a debt-limit hike as Democrats on the Hill scramble to try to pass both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a larger social spending package.

“I want to see that the debt ceiling is raised. I believe that it would be catastrophic not to do so. But I equally believe that deficits have been under both Democratic and Republican administrations, it’s important to recognize that, and that means paying the bills for those deficits is a shared responsibility,” Yellen testified.

ABC News’ Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Caitlyn Jenner, a candidate in California’s recent gubernatorial recall election, said Tuesday on “The View” that she would run for office again, advocating for greater inclusivity among “old school” Republicans who are hurting the party.

This month’s attempted recall of California Gov. Gavin Newsom failed by more than 24%, with some votes left to count. Jenner did not finish among the top 10 replacement candidates.

“Even though it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to in the end, it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” Jenner said.

“Would I run again? Yes. I want to stay involved,” she added. “But there’s other things that I would like to do, and that is — one is — try to get the Republican Party to be more inclusive.”

Jenner, a transgender woman, had defended former President Donald Trump while he was in office, but later she said she could no longer support him after he “relentlessly attacked” the trans community. She said on Tuesday that she thinks the media doesn’t give Republicans a “fair break.”

“Trump certainly had his messaging issues,” Jenner said. “I will agree with you on that.”

“He had an insurrection issue and a couple of impeachment issues as well,” co-host Sunny Hostin added.

“We need better candidates,” Jenner responded, adding that “old school” Republicans are hurting the party.

“Honestly,” Jenner continued, “I feel like [they] are destroying the Republican Party in so many ways, they have to move on. There’s got to be a next generation to come in, and I think they’re out there. And I’m hopeful that they’re out there, but we have to change, we have to do a better job.”

Co-host Joy Behar asked Jenner her thoughts on the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection in Washington.

“Did that bother you too?” she asked Jenner.

Jenner said that Jan. 6 “obviously wasn’t right. And we can’t have that in our country.”

“We need to bring people together is what we need to do. We have a tendency in this country to put everybody in a box,” she said. “And the Republican party needs to change, and to be honest with you, I am the poster child for change.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — 

The TAKE with Rick Klein

He’s been there before, with many of the same players alongside him, and wants to see his party get there again.

With that in mind, former President Barack Obama is lending rhetorical support to President Joe Biden’s agenda — an agenda he thinks the nation “desperately needs” and that he believes Democrats will get across the finish line.

In an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts — ahead of the groundbreaking for what he sees as a legacy-defining initiative: the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago — the former president urged his party not to shy away from the argument that wealthier Americans should be asked to pay more in taxes.

“I think that they can afford it. We can afford it. I put myself in this category now,” Obama said. “And I think anybody who pretends that it’s a hardship for billionaires to pay a little bit more in taxes so that a single mom gets child care support, or so that we can make sure that our communities aren’t inundated by wildfires and floods and that we’re doing something about climate change, for the next generation, you know, that’s an argument that is unsustainable.”

It’s a relatively simple message, but one with complicated repercussions at this moment of uncertainty for the agenda of his former vice president.

Memories of the political wipeout that followed the passage of Obamacare — back when Democrats had far more comfortable margins in Congress than they do now — would be fresh even if so many key figures weren’t still in positions of power.

One critique from back then is that Democrats failed to sell what they were seeking to do, in a debate where Obama and others found themselves playing defense around what bills would not do.

Obama’s long-view-of-history take isn’t shared by all Democrats, just like they don’t all agree on the unmitigated political upside of what Biden wants. But the party might be able to use a dose of the fierce urgency they famously had in the Obama days, in the uncertain now.

 

The RUNDOWN with Averi Harper

Top Pentagon officials are slated to face tough questions during testimony on Afghanistan before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, U.S. Central Command head Gen. Kenneth McKenzie and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley will offer their insight into the chaotic troop drawdown in Afghanistan.

All eyes will be on Milley, who has taken heat, including calls to resign, since Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa revealed in their book “Peril,” that Milley took secret precautions to keep former President Donald Trump from being able to launch a nuclear weapon or taking military action after the attack at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Milley and the others will likely be grilled on not only the troop withdrawal and the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members, but also on the later retaliatory drone strike that killed 10 civilians, including children.

Milley had first referred to the drone strike as “righteous,” but changed his stance amid the fallout.

“This is a horrible tragedy of war and it’s heart wrenching and we are committed to being fully transparent about this incident,” Milley said.

 

The TIP with Alisa Wiersema

The long-awaited debut of Texas’ redistricting proposal revealed that despite Republican influence on the map-making process, the outcome broadly favored incumbents on both sides of the aisle. Additionally, given the state’s rapid population growth, two newly proposed congressional districts — numbered 37 and 38 — were outlined respectively in the Austin and Houston suburbs.

Under the proposed map, incumbent Democrats — like Rep. Colin Allred and Rep. Lizzie Fletcher — whose current district borders would have led to competitive midterm challenges, were “packed” into would-be bluer districts. On the flipside, this means that many of the areas surrounding those districts are also going to become more favorable to Republicans and would lessen future chances of competitive races that could benefit Democrats.

Democrats also argue that the current configuration doesn’t reflect the state’s increased population being attributed to people of color.

The political packing approach is likely to resonate most in the Houston metropolitan area, where existing Democrat-represented districts were redrawn to overlap one another. This allows the newly proposed 38th Congressional District to create a new, reliably red district in the suburbs. Meanwhile, the creation of the 37th Congressional District near Austin would spread out existing Democrat influence, while reinforcing surrounding GOP-controlled districts.

The most visible border change would happen to Texas’ 34th Congressional District, which is currently occupied by retiring Democrat Filemon Vela. The current district would essentially be split in half and the southern, bluer region would become the entire district. The former northern portion would fold into the more GOP-favoring 27th district, which is currently occupied by GOP Rep. Michael Cloud.

 

THE PLAYLIST

ABC News’ “Start Here” Podcast. Tuesday morning’s episode begins with analysis of the verdict in R. Kelly’s sex trafficking and racketeering trial. Then, ABC’s Anne Flaherty reports on the impact of New York’s vaccine mandate on hospital workers. And, ABC News Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman is on the site of a major train derailment in Montana, where the NTSB is still trying to determine what happened. http://apple.co/2HPocUL

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

• ABC News’ Robin Roberts’ exclusive interview with former President Barack Obama airs on ABC’s “Good Morning America” at 7 a.m.
• Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Commander of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie testify in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan and plans for future counterterrorism operations at 9:30 a.m.
• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testify in a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on supporting an equitable pandemic recovery at 10 a.m.
• President Joe Biden receives the President’s Daily Brief at 10:30 a.m.
• The White House COVID-19 Response Team and public health officials hold a press briefing at 12:30 p.m.
• Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago at 1:15 p.m. CT
• White House press secretary Jen Psaki holds a briefing at 1:30 p.m.
• Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin participate in the final Virginia gubernatorial debate of the general election campaign in Alexandria, Virginia, at 7 p.m.

The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the day’s top stories in politics. Please check back tomorrow for the latest.

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(CHICAGO) — Former President Barack Obama believes the migrant crisis at the border in Del Rio, Texas, is “heartbreaking” and thinks comprehensive immigration reform is needed to fix “a system that, overall, is dysfunctional.”

“It’s no secret that we don’t have that. It’s the reason I proposed comprehensive immigration reform. It’s the reason Joe Biden proposed it during his administration, and it’s something that is long overdue,” Obama told Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts in an exclusive interview that aired Tuesday morning.

As a candidate, Biden vowed to work with Democrats and Republicans to reach common ground on comprehensive immigration reform — efforts that have stalled in Congress for two decades.

Obama said that the crisis in Del Rio “is a painful reminder that we don’t have this right yet and we’ve got more work to do.”

“As big-hearted as he is, nobody understands that better than Joe Biden,” Obama added. “And the question is now: Are we gonna get serious about dealing with this problem in a systemic way, as opposed to these one-offs where we’re constantly reacting to emergencies? And I think that that’s something that every American should wanna put an end to.”

Biden vowed to implement a more humane approach to immigration than his predecessor, President Donald Trump, but now Biden is under fire from members of his own party over his administration’s handling of the migrant surge at the border in Del Rio.

At the center of the criticism from Democrats is the Biden administration’s use of a Trump-era public health order to rapidly expel thousands of those migrants, mostly Haitian nationals, without giving them a chance to apply for asylum within the United States — a move that violates U.S. asylum law, according to advocates challenging it in court.

“Despite the Administration’s rapid deployment of personnel and resources in response to this crisis, much of the strategy to address the care of these vulnerable individuals is deeply concerning,” Democratic Reps. Bennie Thompson and Gregory W. Meeks said in a joint statement Wednesday. “Specifically, we urge the Administration to halt repatriations to Haiti until the country recovers from these devastating crises.”

The Biden administration is defending its use of a Trump-era public health order to deport migrant families in court, arguing that lifting it would lead to overcrowding at DHS facilities, and that an influx of migrants, amid the delta variant surge, poses a public health risk.

So far, more than a dozen flights have taken about 4,000 people back to Haiti, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on CNN on Sunday.

At one point, there were more than 14,000 migrants in Del Rio, putting a strain on Customs and Border Patrol resources.

The influx of migrants from Haiti came after civil unrest erupted this summer following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that devastated the Caribbean nation.

“Immigration is tough. It always has been because, on the one hand, I think we are naturally a people that wants to help others. And we see tragedy and hardship and families that are desperately trying to get here so that their kids are safe, and they’re in some cases fleeing violence or catastrophe,” Obama said. “At the same time, we’re a nation state. We have borders. The idea that we can just have open borders is something that … as a practical matter, is unsustainable.”

Obama also weighed in on Biden’s attempts to unite Democrats as divisions within the party threaten to imperil the president’s domestic agenda.

Amid ongoing disagreements within the party over a $3.5 trillion so-called “human infrastructure” bill, Biden met last week with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, as well as moderate and progressive Democrats from both chambers.

“And as far as Democrats are concerned, I think President Biden is handling it exactly right, which is one of the great strengths of the Democratic Party is we’re diverse,” Obama said. “We come from all parts of the country. We look like the country as a whole.”

Obama said the country “desperately needs” the programs Biden has planned and predicted that the infrastructure package will pass.

“Any time Democrats try to pass legislation, there’s gonna be some negotiation and back and forth and sometimes some arguments that spill out into the press,” he said. “At the end of the day though, Democrats believe that we can make an economy that is fair, that we can address critical issues like climate change in a smart way.”

Obama has been outspoken in his support for his former vice president and told the New York Times in June that the Biden administration is “finishing the job” begun by the Obama presidency.

Obama is set to attend the groundbreaking of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Tuesday — a presidential library in the historic Jackson Park neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side that will honor his legacy as the first Black president.

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(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi privately rallied Democrats in a caucus meeting Monday evening as the House began debate over the bipartisan infrastructure package.

Pelosi signaled she plans to push forward with a Thursday vote on the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, regardless of the status of negotiations on the larger Democratic policy package with the Senate.

Members believe it’s an attempt to pressure key senators to reach an agreement on the social spending plan, and some remain skeptical that the package will be ironed out with the backing of enough Democrats to clear the chamber by then.

Pelosi’s announcement to Democrats was a reversal of her earlier pledge to move both pieces of legislation together. It’s also a test of progressives’ vow to block the Senate-passed legislation unless it’s paired with the social spending package.

President Joe Biden and White House press secretary Jen Psaki both indicated earlier Monday afternoon that negotiations could stretch beyond this week.

“What we’re focused on right now is working in lockstep with leadership to move the agenda forward and get it over the finish line,” Psaki said in a briefing, adding, “We’ll see,” when asked if it could go into next week.

On the other side of Capitol Hill, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia did not share the House’s urgency on the social spending package, eschewing progressive threats to tank the bipartisan infrastructure bill Manchin co-authored without a deal certain on the larger social and economic spending package.

“I don’t do really good on threats,” Manchin told reporters. “I’ll guarantee you this: The infrastructure bill will be passed before November 2022, before the election.”

Biden spoke on the phone with Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday afternoon before they both met with their respective Democratic colleagues to discuss the infrastructure package, the larger economic plan and avoiding a U.S. default, according to the White House.

The White House said the leaders “covered the outreach that each of the three are doing to Democratic House and Senate members” on the two big bills that represent much of Biden’s domestic priorities, though more specific details about that outreach were not provided.

Biden, Pelosi and Schumer “will continue their close coordination over the coming days,” the White House said.

Pelosi also privately told House members that Biden is negotiating directly with senators over the overall price tag of the reconciliation package.

“We just have to make difficult choices,” she said during the Monday evening caucus meeting. “But we’re still waiting for the number because you cannot prove the design on the legislation without the number. And the president is working on that piece. He’s working on that piece.”

The speaker indicated that she and Schumer are “completely in sync” and plan to have the same bill.

“We are not going to pass a bill that cannot pass – that won’t pass the Senate,” Pelosi told caucus members. “And that’s why we have to come up with a number. But we’re not there yet.”

However, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., told reporters that figure is less important than making sure their “priorities” are addressed.

“It’s about the priorities that are getting funded and specific policies we put forth,” Omar said.

Democrats will continue working behind the scenes to reach an agreement with Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., on a range of different issues from climate change to the size and scope of the education and medical programs in the package, as well as who will be impacted by the tax law changes.

“We can’t have a situation where the Senate doesn’t agree with us, or we leave some issues off the table,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said. “The whole bill needs to be agreed upon, written, etc.”

Some Republicans did signal plans to vote with Democrats on the package — “This is a working piece of legislation that will build, put people to work,” Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, the dean of the House, said — others spoke out against it, despite it being negotiated by both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate.

“It’s a facade to lure everyone into opening the door for Speaker Pelosi’s real priority: a $3.5 trillion tax and spend plan,” Republican Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri, the top Republican on the House Transportation Committee, said.

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(CHICAGO) — President Biden’s far-reaching multitrillion-dollar domestic agenda, in peril because of Democratic infighting, is getting a prominent boost from former President Barack Obama, who told ABC News in an exclusive interview that the country “desperately needs” the programs and that he supports taxing the wealthy to help support the package.

“You’re talking about us stepping up and spending money on providing childcare tax credits — making those permanent to help families, who for a long time, have needed help,” Obama told Good Morning America host Robin Roberts.

“You’re looking at making our infrastructure function more efficiently … you’re talking about rebuilding a lot of buildings, roads, bridges, ports so that they are fortified against climate change. And also, that we start investing in the kinds of energy efficiency that’s going to be required to battle climate change.”

The former president’s comments come as ongoing disagreements between progressive and moderate Democrats in the House delayed a vote on a sweeping $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed in the Senate on Aug. 10.

The legislation bolsters funding for the country’s infrastructure — from roads and bridges to transit systems and the electricity grid.

Progressives have indicated that they will not vote on the infrastructure bill until the larger $3.5 trillion so-called “human infrastructure” bill is also ready for a vote, but some of the contents of the larger bill, as well as disagreements over how to pay for it have been a point of contention among Democrats.

The $3.5 trillion bill is a 10-year spending plan that covers a host of Democratic priorities, including investments in health care, child care, eldercare, universal preschool, free community college, as well as efforts to combat climate change.

Republicans and some moderate Democrats have raised concerns over the price tag of the package, while House Democrats have sought to offset the costs by raising taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations — a proposal that Obama said he supports.

“I think that they can afford it. We can afford it. I put myself in this category now,” Obama told Roberts.

“It’s paid for by asking the wealthiest of Americans, who have benefited incredibly over the last several decades — and even in the midst of a pandemic, saw their wealth and assets rise enormously — asking them to pay a few percentage points more in taxes in order to make sure that we have a economy that’s fair for everybody,” Obama said.

“I think anybody who pretends that it’s a hardship for billionaires to pay a little bit more in taxes so that a single mom gets childcare support or so that we can make sure that our communities aren’t inundated by wildfires and floods and that we’re doing something about climate change for the next generation — you know, that’s an argument that is unsustainable,” he added.

Hoping to salvage his agenda, Biden met with members of Congress last week, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., as well as Democratic moderates and progressives from both chambers.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday that the administration is considering a “range of options” for financing the plan.

“Our bar has continued — has always been from the beginning, nothing that would raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year. And certainly we wouldn’t support anything that would,” she added.
Pelosi may delay vote on Senate bipartisan infrastructure bill

Following the meeting with the president Pelosi indicated that a vote on the infrastructure bill in the House was set for Monday Sept. 27 — a timetable that she has since indicated could change.

“I’m never bringing to the floor a bill that doesn’t have the votes,” Pelosi told ABC’s This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.

“You cannot choose the date,” she added. “You have to go when you have the votes in a reasonable time, and we will.”

A White House official told ABC News on Monday that Biden, along with senior White House staff, spoke over the weekend with several members of Congress whose votes are key to getting the legislation passed.

“Engagement is happening through the weekend into Monday and it continues to be clear that there is strong resolve across the caucuses behind passing these bills so that our economy delivers for the middle class and not just those at the top,” the White House official said.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Senate is poised to vote on a measure aimed at averting a government shutdown and raising the federal debt limit Monday evening, but Republicans have promised to block it.

If Monday’s vote fails, as it is expected to, Congress will be left with just four days to cobble together a government funding bill.

The measure being considered by senators Monday would extend federal funding at the current levels through early December and provide billions in emergency relief funds for Afghan refugee resettlement and Hurricane Ida relief. It also includes raising the federal debt limit through December 2022.

The debt limit must be dealt with by mid-October if lawmakers hope to avert potential financial calamity. Experts warn that failure to act could lead to the stock market crashing, rising rates for mortgages, loans and credit cards, and businesses finding it more expensive to do basic business, leading to layoffs.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen put it in stark terms in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, saying, “In a matter of days, millions of Americans could be strapped for cash.”

“Nearly 50 million seniors could stop receiving Social Security checks for a time,” she wrote. “Troops could go unpaid. Millions of families who rely on the monthly child tax credit could see delays.”

But Republicans are nearly united in their resolve to block any hike to the debt limit from moving forward, though Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy may vote to advance it because he feels his state desperately needs the hurricane relief.

On Monday, Republicans are expected to deny Democrats the 60 votes necessary to move forward on a stopgap funding bill because it would raise the debt limit.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer scolded Republicans for signaling they won’t come together to vote yes on Monday’s continuing resolution, calling their refusal “unhinged” and “radical.”

“There is no scenario on God’s green Earth where it should be worth risking millions of jobs, trillions in household wealth, people’s social security checks, veterans benefits and another recession, just to score short-term meaningless political points,” Schumer said.

“We’re facing a parade of horrible that will hurt every single American in this country,” he added.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell argued Republicans have been transparent for weeks that they will not support a continuing resolution that raises the debt ceiling.

“We will support a clean continuing resolution that will prevent a government shutdown, get disaster relief to Louisiana, help properly vetted Afghan refugees who put themselves on the line for America and support the Iron Dome assistance for our ally, Israel,” McConnell said. “We will not provide Republican votes for raising the debt limit.”

McConnell has argued that Democrats can and should be responsible for raising the debt limit on their own to offset the cost of a not-yet-passed massive social spending bill that encompasses many of President Joe Biden’s agenda items.

That social spending bill is exempt from the normal 60-vote threshold in the Senate. Democrats can pass it without any GOP support, and a raise in the debt limit should be tied to that bill, Republicans argue.

“My advice to this Democratic government, the president, the House and the Senate: Don’t play Russian roulette with our economy. Step up and raise the debt ceiling to cover all that you’ve been engaged in all year long,” McConnell said last week. “This is a totally Democratic government. They have an obligation to raise the debt ceiling, and they will do it.”

But raising the debt limit is traditionally a bipartisan objective. Senate Democrats have cried foul, alleging that McConnell is being inconsistent in his position.

Democrats worked with Republicans under the Trump administration to raise the debt limit on multiple occasions, and the limit now needs to be raised largely to pay for legislation passed during the Trump presidency. New proposals from the Biden administration haven’t yet been factored in.

“For Republicans to suddenly throw their hands in the air and abscond from their responsibility to pay debt that they proudly supported is nothing short of a dine and dash of historic proportions,” Schumer said last week. “Republicans wracked trillions of dollars in debt under President Trump and are demanding American families foot the bill.”

It’s not clear exactly how the Senate might proceed in the coming days to stop a shutdown.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested last week that Congress would likely consider a stopgap funding measure that does not impact the debt limit, buying lawmakers more time to strategize on how to proceed. McConnell said Republicans would support this.

But the clock is ticking. Democrats must address both the debt limit and government funding in the coming weeks while simultaneously juggling the fate of many of Biden’s most ambitious domestic policy priorities.

Without the 60 votes necessary to advance a debt limit hike in the Senate, lawmakers will have little choice but to include it in their massive $3.5 trillion social spending bill — but that bill’s fate is anything but certain.

In the House, moderates are threatening to withhold votes unless a separate $1 trillion infrastructure bill that passed the Senate in August clears the lower chamber. The House is expected to vote on the bipartisan bill later this week, but progressives want to see more progression the larger social bill before they lend their support to it.

Biden addressed the big week on Capitol Hill while receiving his booster shot earlier Monday.

“We’ve got three things to do: the debt ceiling, continuing resolution and the two pieces of legislation. We do that, the country is going to be in great shape,” Biden told reporters.

Echoing the president at a briefing Monday afternoon, White House press secretary Jen Psaki indicated congressional negotiations could stretch beyond this week.

“You said it could go into next week? That’s your expectations?” one reporter asked.

“We’ll see,” Psaki replied.

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(WASHINGTON) —

The TAKE with Rick Klein

There are three mammoth bills, two enormous deadlines and one big collective legacy to be defined – by a pair of veteran Democrats who need each other to make it happen.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is framing the high-stakes action coming to the House floor as an opportunity to enact “the vision of Joe Biden,” as he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” Sunday.

That and more is at stake this week, in what could be the biggest votes in the long careers of both the House speaker and the president. Pelosi and Biden need a nearly unanimous Democratic Party to cast risky votes that carry uncertain payoffs, with failure on all or part bringing potential calamity.

Already, the timeline and price tag of key components are slipping, as was inevitable, and the president said Sunday that action should “take the better part of the week.”

The long-promised Monday vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill is most likely getting pushed back, and a Senate vote to keep government funding flowing will almost certainly fail on Monday given complete GOP opposition.

Biden’s sliding approval rating and spotty direct involvement continue to be a factor. So does the mistrust between the moderate and progressive wings that Pelosi is struggling to unite.

There’s a lot of truth here: “Overwhelmingly, the entirety of our caucus – except for a few whose judgment I respect – support the vision of Joe Biden,” Pelosi said on “This Week.”

Biden and Pelosi have both been in a position where they need to respect all Democrats’ judgment, because the obvious alternative if failure. Their most potent argument from here is that failure is possible – one of the few things all Democrats definitely agree on at the moment.

The RUNDOWN with Averi Harper

An investigation of border patrol agents on horses appearing to whip migrants is ongoing, but Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is making his support for those agents clear.

“If [Biden] takes any action against them whatsoever, I have worked side-by-side with those border patrol agents, I want them to know something. If they are at risk of losing their job at a president who is abandoning his duty to secure the border, you have a job in the state of Texas,” said Abbott on Fox News Sunday. “I will hire you to help Texas secure our border.”

Abbott’s declaration comes after Biden denounced the actions taken by those border patrol agents.

“It’s outrageous, I promise you, those people will pay,” Biden told ABC News’ congressional correspondent, Rachel Scott.

If an investigation determines that the law enforcement officers in those controversial images acted inappropriately, Abbott’s commitment to employ them despite potential misconduct would undermine Biden’s attempt at holding them accountable.

The idea also highlights an aspect of police reform that Democrats hoped to address in the now-dead George Floyd Justice in Policing Act: handling law enforcement officers who are reprimanded or terminated by one agency only to be employed by another. The legislation aimed to create a national police misconduct registry.

The issue, along with so many other aspects of police reform, remains unaddressed after the breakdown of Senate negotiations.

The TIP with Alisa Wiersema

After Arizona’s so-called “audit” results only added votes to Biden’s 2020 winning margin, former President Donald Trump rallied supporters on Saturday by continuing to cling false allegations that Georgia’s elections also suffered from mass voter fraud.

The validity of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia has been backed by several investigations, a statewide hand recount, a statewide voting machine recount and a voter signature review in one of the state’s most populous counties. Still, former Trump continues to deny the evidence to the extent of endorsing Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s Republican primary opponent, Rep. Jody Hice, who challenged November’s election results in Congress.

Trump’s adamance to oppose history also includes targeting Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, of Georgia, who refused to get involved in overturning the outcome of the election despite being pressured to do so by the former president last year. Trump’s apparent fixation on Kemp even caused him to go off-message at Saturday’s rally, which was meant to support pro-Trump Republican candidates in upcoming elections.

Instead, Trump said voting rights advocate and possible Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams would make a better executive than Kemp. “Having her, I think, might be better than having your existing governor. It might very well be better,” Trump said of his fellow Republican. Abrams is popularly credited with successfully mobilizing voters and turning Georgia blue.

THE PLAYLIST

ABC News’ “Start Here” Podcast. Monday morning’s episode features a breakdown of this week’s key reconciliation and infrastructure votes for Democrats with ABC News White House Correspondent MaryAlice Parks. Then, a Florida school board member talks about spending a weekend knocking on hundreds of doors to find students still missing from school. And, ABC’s Britt Clennett tells us why world leaders are paying close attention to who will replace German Chancellor Angela Merkel. http://apple.co/2HPocUL

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEKEND

• President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will receive the president’s daily brief in the Oval Office.
• Former President Barack Obama hosts a discussion with campaign alums ahead of the Obama Presidential Library groundbreaking on Tuesday.
• Virtual groundbreaking celebrations begin for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
• The House of Representatives, which convenes at noon for morning hour and at 2 p.m. for legislative business, will begin a floor debate on the bipartisan infrastructure framework.
• The Senate convenes at 3 p.m. and resumes consideration of the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act.

The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the day’s top stories in politics. Please check back Monday for the latest.

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