GOP Salivating Over Hunter Biden

Good morning and welcome to 10 Things in Politics. If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

I’m Insider senior politics reporter Grace Panetta, filling in for Brent Griffiths. You can ship me ideas at [email protected] or @grace_panetta on Twitter.

Here’s what we’re speaking about immediately:

With Jordan Erb.

One factor to look out for immediately: Kamala Harris is making her first trip to the US-Mexico border as vice president.


Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden.


Kris Connor/WireImage



1. GOP ITCHES TO GO AFTER HUNTER: The GOP solely must win again a handful of seats to retake the House in 2022 — they usually’re “salivating” to make use of that potential majority to relentlessly investigate the president’s son.

  • A refresher: Hunter Biden got here below intense scrutiny throughout the 2020 marketing campaign over every thing from his enterprise dealings to his struggles with substance abuse. (There’s no proof his overseas dealings have influenced the administration.) Hunter’s also the subject of a DOJ investigation out of Delaware into his tax affairs.

Four key GOP lawmakers on committees of jurisdiction advised us they’re able to flex their oversight energy if voters put them ready to steer investigations once more.

  • They’d attempt to nail the president on his immigration insurance policies and on the origins of COVID-19 — however one lawmaker additionally mentioned that Hunter’s dealings could be on Republicans’ top-10 checklist of priorities to discover.

This may turn into the brand new Benghazi probe in a GOP-led Congress: It would comply with a well-worn playbook for the GOP. Remember: their prolonged investigation into the 2012 terrorist assault in Benghazi led to the invention of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s personal e mail server.

Here’s how these inquiries would force the White House to play whack-a-mole.


2. Pence hits again at Trump: Former VP Mike Pence struck again at former President Donald Trump final night time, saying that there is “no idea more un-American” than that one person could decide the presidency.

Pence pushed again on the president’s continued assaults on him throughout a speech at the Ronald Reagan Library. He additionally repeated the identical argument he made on January 6 — that he feels he did his responsibility and adopted the Constitution.

While Pence did not point out Trump by title throughout this portion of his speech, the remarks have been clearly directed at Trump and his supporters. 


3. “We have a deal!”: A bipartisan group of 21 senators and President Joe Biden reached a major breakthrough in negotiations for an infrastructure bill

  • The group agreed to a $1 trillion bundle, with $579 billion in new spending. This would fund transportation infrastructure, water, broadband, and energy-efficiency initiatives.

But the senators nonetheless need to get their colleagues on board with the invoice. And for Democrats, the legislation has to be part of a package deal with a much larger budget bill.

“There ain’t going to be an infrastructure invoice until we now have the reconciliation invoice handed by the United States Senate,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi mentioned Thursday.


Aerial view of Building collapse in Surfside, Florida

Aerial view of a constructing collapse in Surfside, Florida.

Joe Raedle/ Getty Images


4. Biden presents help after the tragic constructing collapse in Florida: The president signed an emergency declaration for the state of Florida, permitting FEMA to coordinate with restoration efforts after a part of a high-rise condo complicated close to Miami collapsed within the early hours of Thursday morning. (See before-and-after photos showing the devastation.)

Watch video footage of the tower crumbling to the ground. 


5. Rudy Giuliani loses his regulation license — for now: A New York courtroom officially suspended Giuliani’s license to practice law for 2 years.  

This makes Giuliani the primary lawyer to expertise skilled sanctions for presenting lies in regards to the 2020 election. It’s a surprising rebuke for the previous prosecutor identified for taking down the New York mob within the late Eighties. 

A deep dive from our DC bureau: The inside story of Giuliani’s descent from ‘America’s mayor’ to presidential lawyer and now an FBI target.


6. Trump boasts about “massive crowds” at a rally … that is not taking place till tomorrow: Trump’s getting again on the rally circuit after laying low for the previous few months, and is already setting excessive expectations for crowd sizes. (Historically a dangerous game for the Trump group.)

Hopefully this weekend will not be a repeat of this headline from June 2020: Trump had a meltdown and yelled at aides backstage when he realized how empty his rally in Tulsa was, reports say.”


7. Biden faucets Cindy McCain for ambassadorship: If she’s confirmed by the Senate, McCain, an Arizona businesswoman and the widow of the late Republican Sen. John McCain, will characterize the US on the UN’s Agencies for Food and Agriculture. More on McCain’s career and appointment here. 


8. So … wanna stay in France?: Its tax insurance policies may sooner or later entice you to make the transfer, in line with monetary planner Brian Dunhill. 

He suggests ultimately retiring there — as a result of France offers retiring expats top-of-the-line double taxation agreements on the earth. The financial guru breaks down what that means here.


drought map june 2021 thumbnail



National Drought Mitigation Center


9. Drought maps present the West is a ticking time bomb: The western US is withering below its worst drought in a minimum of 20 years — presumably in 1,200 years. The hottest months lie forward, and early excessive climate may foreshadow one other devastating hearth season. Look at the maps here.


10. New Yorker paperwork his journey to the Midwest — and goes viral: One of Insider’s newest journey tales has been shared broadly this week. Since everybody’s speaking about it, we figured we would share it with you, too. Behold: “I’m a New Yorker who visited the Midwest for the first time. Here are 15 things that surprised me.” 


Today’s trivia query: Today would have been the sixty fifth birthday of Anthony Bourdain. Which American politician famously joined him for a meal in Vietnam? Email your reply and a recommended query to [email protected] — sure, Brent will likely be again subsequent week.

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