Johnson plows ahead with doomed funding plan
Plus: A Harris-Trump debate preview, AOC on her bill to prevent sexually explicit deepfakes and two major Biden health care policy wins.
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome back to Once Upon a Hill. The general election is eight weeks away, or 56 days, to be exact. The vice presidential debate between Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) is in 21 days. Government funding expires the day before.
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, an awareness day organized by the International Association for Suicide Prevention to promote a worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides.
President Joe Biden signed a proclamation to honor the memories of all those lost to suicide, hold strength for their grieving loved ones and recognize the professionals working to end the second-leading cause of death for young people, the leading cause of maternal death and a cause of death for veterans that’s 50 percent higher than for anyone else.
Dial 988 in the US to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The Trevor Project, which provides help and suicide-prevention resources for LGBTQ youth, is 1-866-488-7386. Find other international suicide helplines at Befrienders Worldwide (befrienders.org).
I’m lowkey bummed I missed the White House celebration of the University of South Carolina women’s basketball team this morning. Head Coach Dawn Staley is one of my favorite people and Raven Johnson, Bree Hall, Te-Hina Paopao and Tessa Johnson are some of my favorite hoopers. But duty called at the US Capitol and I will never complain about getting to work from this building. President Biden also hosted the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team to celebrate their national championship.
It’s also debate day. A couple of hours from now, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will meet for the first time in Philadelphia to match wits for 90 minutes on ABC.
Harris spent four days in Pittsburgh prepping for the debate—save for an unscheduled Saturday trip to a local spice store and a walk outside with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff on Sunday—before traveling to Philly on Monday. She did a walkthrough of the debate hall at the National Constitution Center this afternoon before returning to her hotel to prepare for primetime.
When asked by reporters, Harris says she’s ready to debate Trump. But if I had to describe the energy among the roughly half dozen Hill Democrats I spoke to this morning after a closed-door House caucus meeting and later following Senate Democrats’ weekly policy lunch, it would be nervous optimism.
There’s still the residue from the first presidential debate 75 days ago when Joe performed so poorly that it ignited the opposition campaign, which led Biden to pass the torch to Harris 24 days later. Democrats also expressed concerns about how Trump’s unchecked lies will disadvantage Harris.
Not all Harris supporters are antsy, though. Keep reading to the end of this edition to learn why Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) told me she believes the debate will be “enjoyable.”
As for Harris’s assignment during the debate, Markus Batchelor, national political director for People For the American Way, a progressive advocacy group, told me over the phone that she should focus not on the Trump spectacle but on introducing herself to the portion of the electorate who wants to know her better.
“That curiosity is important and I think this is really an opportunity for her to seize on it,” he said. “The debate, in theory, should be where these voters at the margins are coming to get some of their questions answered.”
For all the millions who will watch the debate live, many more will likely consume the event through viral clips, memes and other social content. I asked Batchelor to share his thoughts on the value of this snackable content and also how Harris can connect with a broad tent that now includes former Vice President and staunch conservative Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) on one end and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on the other.
But first, the latest developments on the government funding negotiations.
The House approved a procedural motion to allow for a floor debate and final vote on a six-month short-term funding extension known as a continuing resolution that includes a controversial so-called “voter integrity” bill Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) attached to mollify the far-right wing of his conference. (I explained in-depth the specifics of the CR and Johnson’s impossible governing task in the paid-only Sunday edition.)
Two Republicans voted against the rule, which passed by a 209–206 vote. No Democrats supported it.
The final House vote on the CR is expected on Wednesday. But Johnson lacks the votes to pass it so it remains to be seen if he will ultimately bring it to the floor.
”Why would extreme MAGA Republicans put a bill on the floor they know is dead on arrival, might not even have the votes to pass the House, and certainly will see no daylight in the Senate?” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said to reporters after Democrats huddled at a closed-door meeting this morning.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) called out moderate Republicans during his weekly press conference for failing to stand up to House conservatives.
“The so-called reasonable Republicans are nowhere to be seen as Speaker Johnson tries to jam Trump’s Project 2025 agenda into government funding legislation,” the number-three House Democrat said. “Extreme Republicans know that this bill has no chance of becoming law. And yet they want to force a vote that jeopardizes military readiness and veterans health care. We’ve seen how this ends: The only way to pass a government funding bill is to pass it on a bipartisan basis.”
Democrats spent Monday boxing the speaker into an untenable position.
Jeffries sent House Democrats a message rejected Johnson’s plan as “unserious and unacceptable.” Then the White House issued a veto threat from President Biden, which served as a formality since Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) dismissed the proposed CR as well on Sunday night and again Monday afternoon and this morning.
And to make matters worse for Johnson, former President Trump called on congressional Republicans to shut the government down unless a CR coupled with the SAVE Act passes both chambers. He’s living in fantasy land.
Back to my conversation with Markus Batchelor on tonight’s debate.
The Harris campaign is hosting 1,300 watch parties across all 50 states with digital creators attending the events across the battleground states to share content with their fans.
These creators give the campaign an army of moment-makers who can repackage soundbites, GIFs and photos into what’s known as free media.
But Batchelor told me that the character of how it happens will change because of how this debate is set up.
“There will be a mute button that’ll cut the speakers off after their time is elapsed. There will be no live audience and so what moments resonate is going to be harder to determine in the moment,” he said. “And so it will be kind of up to these pundits after the fact to determine what resonated and what didn’t. So it’ll be interesting to watch. But for sure, I’m sure both candidates are thinking about their opponent, how to get under the skin and how to make the moment that resonates with the American people.”
This task is especially unique due to the bipartisan coalition Harris has built, which includes establishment Democrats, grassroots progressives and never-Trump Republicans.
“I think she is really looking to carry over the finish line probably the biggest tent the Democratic Party has ever had at this stage,” Batchelor told me. “Unlike President Biden in the most recent debate performance, the great thing about Kamala Harris is she’s going to be able to prosecute Trump on the spot for the lies he’s telling in the moment. And I think that that's going to be a beautiful contrast too.”
The issue to watch: Abortion
The economy, immigration and foreign policy will likely earn substantive airtime during tonight’s debate. But given Trump’s role in nominating three of six justices that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 with the Dobbs decision—a ruling that helped her find her political footing as the administration’s face of the response to Dobbs, by the way—and his recent flip-flops on his support a ballot initiative Florida voters will consider in November to enshrine abortion rights into the state’s constitution, along with his brief support for public-funded IVF despite his own party’s platform proposing a law to establish so-called fetal personhood, how each candidate articulates their positions will shape the outcome of the debate.
“Tonight we will witness what we have been seeing for months, Vice President Harris as a leader for the people who is moving this country forward and Donald Trump gaslighting voters on his true intentions and spreading extremist anti-abortion disinformation,” Ryan Stitzlein, vice president of political and government relations for Reproductive Freedom for All, said to me in a statement. “We are excited, ready, and mobilized to elect Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz to the White House this November.”
Over the weekend, the Harris campaign launched a new three-ad blitz ahead of the debate. The ads focus on abortion and feature former President Trump’s own words saying he is “proud” to have overturned Roe v. Wade. They also explain how Project 2025 could further restrict reproductive freedom and spotlight two women who have been affected by bans on abortion care and fertility treatments.
The blitz is part of the campaign’s $370 paid media buy through Election Day to reach voters online, on radio and on TV. It comes days after the campaign launched a bus tour across red and blue communities in battleground states to contrast the differences between Harris and Trump on reproductive freedom.
And finally, if you need some pre-debate reading, GQ published an interview with Beyoncé this morning where she discussed business, legacy, art and family—and that new whiskey that’s taken over the internet. Here’s Frazier Tharpe, GQ’s senior editor, on Bey:
At 43, Beyoncé has shown, time and again, the ability to exert a rare kind of control—over her image, her likeness, her music and business worlds. She has become adept at breaking rules and entering new spaces, in business and in art, creating new norms and new opportunities for others as she goes. At this rate, there’s no frontier she can’t conquer, no stone any longer outside of her grasp. As the end of that Cowboy Carter verse goes, “I ain’t no regular singer, now come get everything you came for.” Still, there’s plenty left to wonder about: What keeps her going, three decades in, with nothing left to prove? Who is she, really, between the critically acclaimed albums, the blockbuster tours, and the dynamic docu-concert films? We got a rare glimpse in an extensive back-and-forth conducted via email this summer.
During the interview, she revealed her favorite music of the year and why she hasn’t released visuals to supplement her recent albums. Speaking of visuals, the images that accompany the Q&A are stunning.
Aguilar stops short of endorsing Senate-passed online child safety bills
The Senate passed the first child online safety legislation in almost 30 years this summer that would establish the first meaningful guardrails for tech companies against youth exploitation in the history of the social internet.
Despite the strong bipartisan vote (91–3) and fierce urging for House Republican leadership to put the bill up for a vote, the path in the lower chamber is unclear.
I asked House Democratic Caucus Chair Aguilar this morning if his members supported the two bills—the Kids Online Safety Act and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act—and supported Schumer’s insistence on a House vote and he stopped short of fully endorsing either notion.
“In this era where social media is such an important part of our lives and our kids‘ lives, we need to do everything we can. Now, members may take issues with specific pieces of this legislation,” Aguilar told me. “But on balance, we need to look at what is in the legislation and what it will do to help our communities and help young people navigate the world that is in front of them—the most connected generation in our lifetime.”
It’s harder to influence the debate when you serve in the minority party, a point Aguilar expressed to me.
“Unfortunately, Speaker Johnson has put a series of bills that aren‘t going to become law on the house forward, and we’re wasting precious time,” he said. “But as we’ve talked about, that’s part of the chaos that is in the hallmark of his tenure and of House Republicans the past session.”
AOC expresses optimism on deepfakes legislation
The Senate unanimously passed in late July the DEFIANCE Act, another online safety bill that would discourage the spread of sexually explicit AI-generated deepfakes and empower survivors to take civil action against perpetrators who generate and distribute deepfakes using AI and other technologies.
I caught up with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—the lead member of the House’s version of the legislation—for a status update on the path ahead on her side of the Capitol.
She told me she had encouraging conversations right until Congress broke for the August recess and that momentum carried through the six-week adjournment. Case in point: Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) became the first Republican co-lead on the bill and Ocasio-Cortez be meeting with the AI Task Force, which is chaired by Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA), whom Ocasio-Cortez said has expressed a lot of openness to trying to move the bill forward.
“I think we’ve been able to build enough trust and some, some generosity here on the Republican side and with my Republican counterparts that this is not a gotcha bill. This is really about protecting victims,” she said. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed. You never know until the actual moment happens.”
If it does, then it means the House and Senate will have to reconcile slightly different versions of the bill. These differences are narrow and aren’t likely to compromise the foundation of the bill.
“I would argue that in substance they’re identical. I think that the House version just has extra language asserting and reaffirming existing law,” she said. “They’re virtually identical. But that is the process that we would have to go through and so there’s absolutely urgency there.”
Ocasio-Cortez participated in a roundtable this afternoon hosted by the Democratic Women’s Caucus. She was joined by DWC Policy Co-Chair Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) actress and activist Sophia Bush and founder and CEO of the Sexual Violence Prevention Association Omny Miranda Martone for a discussion on the harms of nonconsensual, sexually explicit deepfake pornography, the impact on survivors, and to explore ways Congress and the White House can address it.
Stay tuned for a follow-up report in the Friday edition—to mark the 30th anniversary of former President Bill Clinton signing the Violence Against Women Act into law—featuring insight from Martone and Bush on why deepfake pornography is a form of gender-based violence and Ocasio-Cortez’s personal experience of a survivor of the explicit synthetic media.
Crockett makes the case for Harris
Jasmine Crockett, the first-term congresswoman from North Dallas whose use of her five minutes during House Oversight Committee hearings have turned her into a viral sensation, was a trial attorney before becoming an elected official.
It’s this experience, she told to me this afternoon, that explains why she believes Harris will succeed during tonight’s debate.
“As she said very early on, she knows Donald Trump’s type. And as someone who has had the opportunity to cross examine and direct examine witnesses for my fair share of time in a courtroom, you understand what it is to make your presence known and to control the narrative,” Crockett said. “That is your job when you are a litigator in court. It is different than just having a law degree or being an attorney. Being a trial attorney is completely different. You oftentimes have a limited amount of time to make your case to a jury, and I think that she is going to make her case very clear to the American people.”
Crockett told me that Harris’s candidacy so far has exceeded expectations and the vice president is entering tonight’s debate at the top of her game.
“I anticipate that she will exceed all expectations yet again.”
Biden’s health policy wins
One more thing: President Biden released a statement this morning highlighting a report from the Treasury Department showing that nearly 50 million—or one in seven—Americans have had coverage in the Affordable Care Act marketplace over the past decade.
“It’s a really big deal,” Biden said. “And yet Republicans in Congress remain committed to taking us backward by repealing the Affordable Care Act.”
The statement comes a day after the Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services announced a final rule requiring parity between mental and physical health care coverage for more than 150 million Americans.
That’s all I’ve got for now.
Until Thursday,
Michael
Do you have questions about the election? Drop me a line at michael@onceuponahill.com or send me a message below to get in touch and I’ll find the answers.