Biden’s top priority for a second term: Abortion rights

President Joe Biden’s day one priority if he earns a second term?

“First of all: Roe,” deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said Sunday during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“The president has been adamant that we need to restore Roe. It is unfathomable that women today wake up in a country with less rights than their ancestors had years ago,” Fulks said.

Biden has been poised to run on what has been described as the strongest abortion rights platform of any general election candidate as he and his allies look to notch a victory in the first presidential election since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

The president, who is Catholic, has described himself as personally not "big on abortion" because of his faith, but the landmark 1973 decision "got it right,” he said over the summer. And he’s slammed court rulings limiting abortion access and fought efforts to restrict the availability of abortion pills.

Last month, Biden seized on a case in Texas, where a woman, Kate Cox, was denied an abortion despite the risk to her life posed by her pregnancy.

“No woman should be forced to go to court or flee her home state just to receive the health care she needs,” Biden said of the case. “But that is exactly what happened in Texas thanks to Republican elected officials, and it is simply outrageous. This should never happen in America, period.”

When abortion rights are on the ballot, they win with voters across the political spectrum — though they don’t always boost Democratic candidates on ballots advocating for them, a POLITICO analysis found.

Still, as the Biden campaign works to turn the focus of the election away from the president himself and on to the threat posed by the possibility of Trump’s return to power, the attention on abortion rights — which Trump had a hand in through his Supreme Court nominees — is expected to continue to be a focal point of the campaign.

“Look, the president understands that this election isn't about him: it's about the American people,” Fulks said Sunday.

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DNC blasts NH Dems over ‘meaningless’ primary

The Democratic National Committee is blasting New Hampshire Democrats for selecting delegates for the state's “meaningless” unsanctioned presidential primary.

The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee fired off a letter to New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley ahead of the state party’s delegate caucuses Saturday warning that the process had not been approved and that no delegates or alternates would be awarded based on the results of the unofficial primary.

“Non-compliant processes can disenfranchise and confuse voters,” Minyon Moore and Jim Roosevelt Jr., the co-chairs of the Rules and Bylaws committee, wrote to Buckley in the Friday letter shared first with POLITICO.

The upcoming primary is “detrimental” and “meaningless,” they wrote, and “the NHDP and presidential candidates should take all steps possible not to participate.” The committee asked the state party to submit a “compliant” delegate selection plan by Jan. 15.

Buckley, the New Hampshire Democratic Party chair, dismissed the pushback as "nothing new."

"They've been saying that for a year, yet we persist," he said.

New Hampshire is holding an unsanctioned Democratic primary in just over two weeks after state and national Democrats failed to agree on the order of this year’s nominating calendar.

President Joe Biden and the DNC pitched South Carolina, a more diverse state that propelled Biden to the nomination in 2020, for the lead-off spot. But Republicans who control New Hampshire’s government refused to change the law that says the state must hold its primary a week before any similar contest. The secretary of state scheduled the primary for Jan. 23. South Carolina’s Democratic primary is Feb. 3.

Biden skipped putting his name on the ballot for New Hampshire’s primary as a result. His allies in the state are now waging a write-in campaign on his behalf.

New Hampshire Democrats continued with business as usual by scheduling delegate-selection caucuses for Biden and longshot challengers Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and self-help guru Marianne Williamson on Saturday.

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On Jan. 6 anniversary, DeSantis accuses Democrats of waving ‘bloody shirt’

DES MOINES, Iowa — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis chided Democrats and the media on the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol by contending they have used the attack as a “bloody shirt” to “impugn” Americans.

DeSantis has been repeatedly asked — by the media as well as voters at his campaign stops in the state this week — about Jan. 6. He has called the attack a “riot” but his comments Saturday on Fox News may mark the first time he has leaned into a term associated with the political battles held in the immediate shadow of the Civil War.

“It’s one thing to say ‘ok you know these things shouldn’t have happened’ but it’s another thing to wave the bloody shirt and try to impugn tens of millions of Americans as a result of that,” said DeSantis, who then smacked President Joe Biden for his focus on Jan. 6.

“[Biden] had a chance to be a uniter for this country but he has failed,” said DeSantis, who eventually added: “At some point are we going to move on and focus on the people’s issues? … This is not on the top of the mind for voters.”

The term “wave the bloody shirt” is a reference to the rhetoric used in the late 19th century following the four-year war that ripped the nation apart. It has been viewed as a critical term thrown against politicians, primarily Republicans, who referred to the losses of the war while campaigning.

DeSantis was sharply critical of the Jan. 6, 2021 riots in the immediate aftermath. But he would eventually lambast Democrats — and the congressional committee investigating the attacks — by saying they were trying to “smear” Trump supporters. On the first anniversary of the attacks, he rejected defining the riots as an “insurrection” because no one has been charged with any crimes that fit that definition.

Now two years later, DeSantis has been pushed to talk about Jan. 6 after two states blocked Trump from the primary ballot by relying on a clause in the 14th amendment that bars some people from holding public office if they “engaged in insurrection.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider whether the states have the power to disqualify Trump from the ballot. DeSantis has predicted the high court will rule against Colorado and Maine and he criticized the push to disqualify Trump by saying it violated the due process rights of the former president. Trump is currently facing federal charges that he tried to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election.

“How do you get to say then that someone should be off the ballot absent a conviction, not only for him but for anyone?” DeSantis told reporters following a Friday campaign stop in the small town of Cumming. “That opens up Pandora’s box.”

At that same stop, DeSantis was asked by an Iowa voter whether Trump had engaged in an insurrection on Jan. 6. He didn’t directly answer the question and instead said that no one had been charged with insurrection.

DeSantis is challenging Trump for the GOP presidential nomination but has struggled to gain traction and is viewing Iowa as a make-or-break state.

The comments by DeSantis on Jan. 6 are still in stark contrast to Trump, who brought up the attacks during a rally he held in Sioux City. He said that “there was Antifa and there was FBI,” at the riot. He added that those who had been imprisoned for their roles that day were “hostages.”

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Azerbaijan taps former oil industry leader to head this year's climate talks

Azerbaijan has selected its minister of ecology — a former state oil executive — to helm the United Nations climate talks later this year, in a move that stands to fuel debate about the oil and gas industry's role in international negotiations aimed at reducing fossil fuel use.

Mukhtar Babayev worked for the country’s state-owned oil company SOCAR for nearly 25 years before taking his current post as minister of ecology and natural resources in 2018.

It marks the second year in a row that an official with ties to the fossil fuel industry will oversee global climate negotiations, following the controversial COP28 presidency of Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber during the climate talks that ended last month in the United Arab Emirates.

Al-Jaber, who leads the UAE's state-run oil company, faced backlash from climate advocates and lawmakers who feared that his connections to the industry created a conflict of interest.

COP28 ended with a broad agreement to transition away from oil, gas and coal, the first time fossil fuels had been mentioned in the final outcome of climate talks over nearly 30 years. But the agreement failed to include language calling for a phase-out of fossil fuels, due in large part to opposition from oil- and gas-reliant countries

Several experts and climate leaders have called for an overhaul of U.N. rules to prevent oil companies from shaping the annual climate conferences.

“Given the enormous conflict of interest, oil industry executives should not be allowed to heavily influence, much less preside over, the summit,” Michael Mann, a prominent climate scientist who works at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times last month.

After Babayev's appointment, Mann said in a post on X: “It appears that the @UNFCCC folks REALLY didn’t take to heart our suggestions," referring to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

It’s up to the host country to select the president of the talks, and it’s not unusual for the minister of environment or ecology to be tapped as president-designate. It is unusual for that official to be a veteran oil executive.

That may owe to Azerbaijan’s status as a petrostate, with its economy highly dependent on the production and sale of its fossil fuel resources. Oil and gas supports around 90 percent of the country’s export revenue and finances around 60 percent of its government budget, according to the International Energy Agency.

It is the third oil exporter to host the annual U.N. climate talks after Egypt and the UAE.

Azerbaijan's deputy foreign minister, Yalchin Rafiyev, will serve as lead negotiator of the talks, which begin in November.

Babayev’s chief of staff, Rashad Allahverdiyev, confirmed the appointments and said countries, observer groups and the U.N. climate secretariat had been notified of the selection.

Babayev, 56, has a degree in political science from Moscow State University and another degree in foreign economic relations from Azerbaijan State University of Economics, according to his profile on the ministry’s website.

During a plenary speech in Dubai, he said Azerbaijan aimed to cut its climate pollution 35 percent by 2030 and 40 percent by 2050. It has also set a goal of increasing its renewable energy capacity to 30 percent of its national energy mix this decade.

“As the impacts of climate change become increasingly evident, we acknowledge the necessity to unite our efforts, catalyze global cooperation and ensure that our actions are aligned with the gravity of the situation,” Babayev said.

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Ramaswamy wants the US out of NATO

Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has told multiple people he would withdraw the U.S. from NATO as president, the furthest anyone vying for the Oval Office has gone on the idea of ending America’s role in the alliance.

The remarks made to different groups experts and supporters, detailed to POLITICO by three people familiar with his comments, signal NATO’s days may be numbered if Ramaswamy or someone who shares his general worldview, like former President Donald Trump, wins the election in November.

Last October, Ramaswamy told POLITICO the idea of the U.S. leaving NATO was “reasonable,” but stopped short of supporting taking the U.S. out of the 31-nation bloc. Such a move would hobble the alliance and threaten NATO’s ability to serve as a credible deterrent force against Russia. It could also usher in the largest transatlantic crisis in decades, leading to questions from Europe, North America and even Asia about America’s willingness to defend or support allies in moments of need.

But Ramaswamy, who has also floated taking the U.S. out of the United Nations, has privately held the view that it’s past time to remove the U.S. from NATO. Asked about his comments out of the spotlight, Ramaswamy’s campaign spokesperson Tricia Mclaughlin declined to comment directly on what he would do regarding NATO, but didn’t deny the candidate’s stance.

“Vivek has serious concerns that most NATO allies fail to meet their military investment commitments and will reevaluate our own support as necessary. He also believes that post Cold War NATO expansionism has unnecessarily increased the risk of major conflict with Russia,” she said.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have taken action to prevent the end of America’s prominent spot in NATO. Congress approved a bill that stops any president from unilaterally ending America’s participation in the alliance, which considers an attack on one member as an attack on all. The only time NATO acted on that was after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, leading allies to join American forces in Afghanistan to root out al-Qaeda.

It’s unlikely Ramaswamy will have the opportunity to order the withdrawal from behind the Resolute Desk. Polls show him a distant fourth in national polls and nowhere near winning in Iowa and New Hampshire.

But Ramaswamy is not the only NATO-wary Republican candidate. As president, Trump discussed taking the U.S. out of the alliance and may yet to do so if he reenters the Oval Office. “We have to finish the process we began under my administration of fundamentally reevaluating NATO's purpose and NATO's mission,” reads his campaign website.

It’s possible Ramaswamy joins a Republican administration, especially Trump’s, as he has remained in the frontrunner’s good graces and is close with Tucker Carlson, a staunch Trump supporter. Ramaswamy has taken positions that appeal to the MAGA base, like making a deal with Russia’s Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, cutting economic ties with China and ending American military adventures abroad. He has occasionally run afoul of U.S. foreign policy orthodoxy, such as when he suggested ending aid to Israel — even after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

Ramaswamy, however, isn’t looking for a complete removal of the United States from world affairs. He has promoted military strikes on Mexican drug cartels to curb the spread of fentanyl, and has warned other countries, namely China, that if they wade deeper into the Western Hemisphere, they will “have hell to pay.”

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Florida attorney and Dem fundraiser John Morgan floats potential run for governor

Prominent Florida trial attorney John Morgan, known as the godfather of Florida’s medical marijuana amendment and a Democratic fundraiser, may add another title to his résumé: Florida governor.

Morgan this week teased a potential 2026 run on social media, saying “maybe I should run for Governor… as an Independent” in response to a recent story about Gov. Ron DeSantis touting Florida’s gradual minimum wage hike.

Morgan was the architect of the state’s 2020 initiative to increase Florida’s minimum wage to $15 by 2026 and took issue with DeSantis highlighting it while campaigning in Iowa for the GOP presidential nomination. The Republican Florida governor opposed it several years ago.

“This is hilarious. And why we despise most politicians,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter. “@GovRonDeSantis fought me tooth and nail along with his usual suspects.”

This isn’t Morgan’s first time floating a potential run for governor. During the 2018 election cycle, Morgan weighed — but ultimately turned down — a run for the Democratic nomination, saying at the time that “I can’t muster the enthusiasm to run for the nomination.”

He added: “I plan to register as an Independent and when I vote, vote for the lesser of two evils. And if I ever ran, run as an Independent.”

Morgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Morgan has widespread name recognition in the state, in part because of television ads for his legal practice that have dominated the airwaves in Florida for years. He’s also spearheaded several successful ballot initiatives, including one legalizing medical marijuana.

Despite being two years away, the field for the 2026 gubernatorial race is already taking shape since DeSantis is in his second term and can’t run again. Florida GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz and Byron Donalds are both expected to mount a bid, though Gaetz regularly denies that he’s interested. Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez and Attorney General Ashley Moody, both Republicans, have also been discussed as potential candidates.

On the Democratic side, state Sen. Shevrin Jones of Miami Gardens has said he’s weighing a bid, as is Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell.

Morgan this week also suggested that if he ran, he’d want former NBA star Grant Hill, who lives in Central Florida, to be his running mate. Hill’s name was previously floated as a possible candidate to run against Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who is up for reelection in 2024.

Morgan has supported Hill’s candidacy, telling the Orlando Sentinel last year that “a beloved celebrity makes a much better candidate than some political hack, especially when as smart and charismatic as Grant.”

Whether Morgan is serious about a run this time is yet to be seen, but he already suggested that if he was elected, he’d ensure that the Florida Legislature meet every two years instead of annually because “every time these folks get together they fuck the people over for the benefit of a few powerful interests.”

He also hinted that, not surprisingly, he wouldn’t be a typical elected official.

“One thing is for sure… We will all be smoking legal weed at the inauguration,” he posted.

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Eric Adams sues for $700 million from Texas bus companies in latest move against Gov. Abbott

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams is suing 17 Texas charter bus companies in his latest move to thwart Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's policy of busing thousands of migrants from his state's border to New York City.

The lawsuit seeks $708 million to cover the costs of caring for migrants transported to the city, the mayor said.

“New York City has and will always do our part to manage this humanitarian crisis, but we cannot bear the costs of reckless political ploys from the state of Texas alone,” Adams said in a video accompanying the announcement. “Texas Governor Abbott’s continued use of migrants as political pawns is not only chaotic and inhumane but makes clear he puts politics over people.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul expressed support for the lawsuit, accusing Abbott of using "human beings as political pawns" in a statement.

"It’s about time that the companies facilitating his actions take responsibility for their role in this ongoing crisis,” Hochul added.

The move comes a week after Adams announced an executive order restricting how charter buses can drop off migrants in the city. In it, he required bus companies to notify his administration 32 hours in advance and drop off migrants only between 8:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. on weekdays at a specific Manhattan location.

Last week’s order has already caused the bus companies, most of which are chartered by the state of Texas, to circumvent the new rules by dropping migrants off in areas outside New York City’s jurisdiction, such as Edison, N.J. and outside the weekday morning time frame. Since the order, migrants have been dropped off at “various NJ TRANSIT train stations,” a spokesperson for New Jersey’s Gov. Phil Murphy told POLITICO in a statement.

The lawsuit comes as Adams has continued to press federal officials for more migrant aid while blasting Abbott’s busing program as “cruel” and a “use of migrants as potential as political pawns.” It alleges the companies participated in "bad faith" conduct when they each "knowingly implemented Governor Abbott’s publicly articulated plan without any regard for the individuals they were transporting or an effort to help manage this humanitarian crisis," according to Adams' announcement.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has also criticized Abbott’s policies and issued a similar executive restricting migrant bus drop-offs. That order also led to chartered buses dropping migrants far outside Chicago city limits.

Separately, New York City has paid to transport asylum seekers to destinations outside the city. Between March and November, the city spent about $4.6 million to purchase more than 19,300 plane tickets for migrants seeking travel to other cities. A spokesperson for Adams claimed Abbott’s actions differ from the mayor’s because the Texas governor's program offers migrants little access to food, water and bathrooms and because the mayor's ticketing process intends to get migrants to their preferred destinations.

The governments of both Texas and New York City say the migrants are traveling willingly.

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