'We have significant testimony'
A tough year dawns for Democrats
Here's hoping the new year is happier for Meanwhile readers than it's likely to be for President Joe Biden's Democrats.
Every year that arrives with the sting of a general election in its tail brings anticipation of a biennial reshuffling of Washington's political deck. First-term Presidents, though, curse the midterm elections that will award all the seats in the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate. Bill Clinton suffered a rout in 1994 when the Republicans won the House for the first time in 40 years. In 2010, Barack Obama owned up to a "shellacking" after the GOP won back the House. Four years ago, Donald Trump's chaotic first two years handed the House to Democrats, a fateful development that made possible his two impeachments. Only George W. Bush escaped the first-term curse in recent decades with a searing national security message 14 months after 9/11 that helped Republicans actually gain seats and reclaim the Senate. There's little reason to think Biden could emulate the 43rd President. Covid-19 fatigue is deepening the usual midterm angst and threatens to hammer incumbents at all levels of national, state and local government.
US elections usually turn on the economy. And there ought to be some hope here for Biden. Heavy retail spending over the holidays suggested Americans have money to spend. Unemployment is lower than it has been in years. But there's something that just doesn't feel right. High inflation -- traditionally a doom-laden sign for political leaders -- and spiked gasoline prices, despite a recent easing, have made Americans feel less well off. Conservative media and GOP leaders, meanwhile, paint an exaggerated picture of 1970s-style blight.
If the Omicron variant turns out to be a last blast of the pandemic, supply chains could unblock and inflation could tumble, providing Biden with a post-Covid boom in time for November. The House may already be too far gone, although feel-good factors could help Democrats in a duel for the Senate.
But there's a good chance that in exactly a year's time, we will be asking whether an isolated Biden besieged by a Republican Congress can relaunch his presidency and keep the White House in 2024.
The world and America
President Joe Biden spoke to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky
Sudan's PM resigns amid anti-coup protests
South Africa's president is dismayed over a "terrible" parliament fire
An unknown person crosses South Korea's border into North Korea
Big Ben bonged in the New Year after a four-year repair
Meanwhile in America … rare supercell tornadoes touched down in Georgia
It's finally goodbye for the classic "Crackberry"
And it rained fish in Texas
'We have significant testimony'
As America prepares this week to mark the first anniversary of the worst attack on its democratic electoral system in history, the chairman of the House select committee probing the January 6 attack on the US Capitol offered the most intriguing insight yet into what it has uncovered. Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi indicated that the panel has managed to penetrate Trump's West Wing circle and raised the possibility that the ex-President openly refused to take any action to thwart the mob attack on Congress.
"We have significant testimony that leads us to believe that the White House had been told to do something," he said. "We want to verify all of it so that when we produce our report and when we have the hearings, the public will have an opportunity to see for themselves," Thompson said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "The only thing I can say is it's highly unusual for anyone in charge of anything to watch what's going on and do nothing."
Asked whether Trump's actions warrant a criminal referral in what would be a stunning move against an ex-President, Thompson added: "We don't know yet … If there's a criminal act we believe occurred, we will make the referral."
Ex-President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter mark the arrival of the New Year with a kiss.
Hanging on the telephone
To jaw-jaw is always better than war-war, Winston Churchill once said, predating by nearly 70 years the Biden administration's approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin's threat to Ukraine.
The US President spoke to his Kremlin counterpart over the phone on Thursday in their second direct interaction in three weeks. But a read of the tea leaves suggests that not much changed. Biden warned Putin that Russia would face an unprecedented slate of sanctions if he orders tens of thousands of troops to march across Ukraine's border. Putin told Biden that punishing Russia would be a "colossal" mistake, according to the Russian side.
The focus now moves to a series of talks next week between US and Russian negotiators. The challenge from the West's point of view will be to offer Putin a path to de-escalation in which he could plausibly claim a victory while dismissing his demands for security guarantees and the withdrawal of NATO forces from former Warsaw Pact countries that could weaken the alliance.
To his critics, Biden is already giving Putin what he wants -- an equal billing with the leader of the world's most powerful nation in echoes of Cold War summits that can be spun into enhancing his legend in Moscow. The US President is opening himself up to accusations of appeasement if Russia does invade Ukraine. But an alternative approach -- humiliating Putin -- may not be any more successful. Obama's description of Russia as a weakened "regional" power in 2014 was a painful blow to a great cultural, literary and historic civilization and will have particularly infuriated Putin. But there may come a time when talking Putin down hits a wall. That's because the Russian president's geopolitical project is antithetical to US foreign policy goals. Putin has dedicated himself to tarnishing and diminishing Western power and prestige in order to enhance Russia' relative global standing.
Those differences are ultimately irreconcilable.
Thanks for reading.
On Monday, a 2009 settlement agreement between Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre, which bears directly on Giuffre's civil lawsuit accusing Britain's Prince Andrew of sexual abuse, is expected to be made public. FC Barcelona unveils 21-year-old Spanish forward Ferran Torres as their new player. The Quadrantid meteor shower is expected to peak in the early morning.
