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In today’s edition, Stephen Miller is taking a leading role in the Republican push for a big border ͏‌  ͏‌  ͏‌  ͏‌  ͏‌  ͏‌ 
 
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December 12, 2024
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Principals

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Today in DC
A numbered map of Washington, DC
  1. Miller rises
  2. Trump’s Syria plans
  3. What’s next at FBI
  4. Dem senator weighs gov race
  5. Manchin sinks labor pick

PDB: Biden’s new act of clemency

Trump to ring bell at New York Stock Exchange … Blinken heads to Jordan, Turkey … South Korea’s Yoon faces second impeachment motion

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Semafor Exclusive
1

Stephen Miller’s starring role in GOP agenda drama

Stephen Miller
Nathan Howard/Reuters

Stephen Miller is taking on a leading role in Republican efforts to plot a big border bill next year, Semafor’s Kadia Goba and Burgess Everett report. As Donald Trump’s incoming deputy chief of staff, Miller is talking regularly with Sen. Lindsey Graham, the incoming Senate Budget Committee chair who once doubted Miller’s ability to get anything negotiated; trading correspondence with incoming Senate GOP leader John Thune; and building on his relationship with House Speaker Mike Johnson, who called Miller a “trusted friend.” Miller is bolstering the push by senior senators to pass a border security and energy production package before a tax bill. But that idea isn’t sitting well with one powerful House GOP chair, Jason Smith, who prefers a single mega-bill, one person familiar with House strategy said.

Read on to find out why Smith may lose out. →

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2

GOP war over Trump’s Syria policy

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Ammar Awad/Reuters

Trump may be signaling a hands-off approach to Syria, yet some Republicans plan to nudge him toward a more active role, Semafor’s Morgan Chalfant and Burgess Everett report. Most of them, that is. “It’s a terrible idea to have any soldiers there. Soldiers serve as a target for terrorists, they serve as a tripwire to get us involved in a messy civil war,” GOP Sen. Rand Paul said. He called for Trump to pull out the roughly 900 US troops stationed in Syria “on Day One.” The collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime is sparking fresh intraparty debate over Trump’s approach, particularly after he sought to wind down US troop presence in Syria in his last administration. “I would advise him to do everything he can to make sure ISIS doesn’t come back,” said GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump ally.

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3

FBI top spot clears for Kash Patel

FBI Director Christopher Wray
Nathan Howard/File Photo/Reuters

Kash Patel faces one less hurdle to becoming FBI director under Trump. During an FBI town hall on Wednesday, current director Christopher Wray announced his plans to resign come January. Wray, tapped by Trump in 2017, was seven years into his 10-year term and was facing the likelihood of being fired by the president-elect who’d long ago soured on his leadership (a prospect that some Republican lawmakers were comfortable with). The news came as Patel made the rounds on Capitol Hill for meetings with senators ahead of his confirmation process. And while no one is guaranteeing Patel has the votes, most congressional Republicans are in favor of major changes at the bureau, arguing that it’s become too politicized — a topic Patel has discussed at length.

— Shelby Talcott

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Semafor Exclusive
4

Heinrich’s choice: Senate or governor’s race?

Sen. Martin Heinrich, R-N.M. speaking in 2024
U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich/YouTube

New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich has a good gig lined up next year after winning his third term; he’s in line to lead Democrats on the Senate Energy Committee. He’s also looking at a run for governor back home, we’re told. In a very brief interview, Heinrich neither confirmed nor denied that he’s mulling a run: “I don’t really have anything to share today.” Heinrich’s Senate colleague, Ben Ray Luján, said in a separate interview that Heinrich’s seniority in the Senate matters to the state and recalled urging former Sens. Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman to stay when they chose retirement. “I think very highly of Martin,” Luján said. A Heinrich spokesperson said he prioritizes “what’s best for New Mexico, and that will continue to guide his work moving forward.” Another name in the state’s gubernatorial mix: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

— Burgess Everett

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Plug

Semafor will be on the ground in Davos for the World Economic Forum, the annual gathering where the world’s most powerful come together to strike deals, tout their good deeds, and navigate the snow — sometimes getting stuck long enough to share a scoop or two with us.

We’ll deliver exclusives on the high-stakes conversations shaping the world. Expect original reporting, scoops, and insights on all the deal-making, gossip, and lofty ambitions — with a touch of the pretentious grandeur Davos is famous for.

Get the big ideas and small talk from the global village — subscribe to Semafor Davos.

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5

Why Manchin took down an NLRB nominee

 Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) attends a press conference, following a Senate Democrats weekly policy lunch, on Capitol Hill in Washington
Leah Millis/Reuters

Joe Manchin isn’t fading into the night as he nears retirement. The West Virginia senator raced back from a speaking engagement on Wednesday afternoon (his office wouldn’t say where he was) to provide the deciding vote against National Labor Relations Board nominee Lauren McFerran, a huge blow to labor and Democratic leadership. Manchin told Semafor that supporters were “playing hardball” to get his vote but he had already told them he would not vote for McFerran due to her support for the joint-employer regulation broadening the reach of labor laws. “Hell yes, they know,” Manchin said. The vote was tied 49-49, with all Republicans opposed as well as Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Manchin returned before Vice President Kamala Harris could break the tie. “The only thing they could do is catch me when I’m not there,” Manchin said.

Burgess Everett

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PDB

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: House Speaker Mike Johnson gave members of the Steering Committee the impression that he was backing Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., to lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee during a closed-door meeting earlier this week, despite Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo. — the favorite for the position — entering the meeting with Johnson’s support. After Mast was picked in a surprise, Johnson insisted he didn’t try to influence members one way or another — a departure from what past speakers have done.

Playbook: Some Democrats are warming up to Elon Musk, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who both “want to shape the thinking of someone who will have an outsize microphone regardless of what they do.”

Axios: Executives in Washington, DC, are encouraging Donald Trump to push more federal workers back to the office.

Blindspot

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, curated with help from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: The immigration surge under President Biden represents the largest in US history, according to The New York Times.

What the Right isn’t reading: Biden is facing more pressure from allies to extend protections to undocumented immigrants in the US before Donald Trump takes office in January.

White House

  • President Biden granted clemency to 1,500 people serving long prison sentences who were placed in home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and pardoned 39 others who were convicted of nonviolent crimes. The moves represent the “largest single-day act of clemency in modern history,” according to the Associated Press.
  • Anita Dunn, a former top Biden White House aide, sharply criticized the timing and explanation behind Biden’s earlier decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden.

Congress

  • The House passed the $895.2 billion fiscal year 2025 defense policy bill in a 281-140 vote. Less than half of the chamber’s Democratic members voted in favor of it, as many disagreed with a provision curtailing transgender health care.

Transition

  • Donald Trump invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration. — CBS
  • Trump has named Kari Lake to be the director of government-funded media outlet Voice of America.
  • Trump named Leandro Rizzuto Jr. as ambassador to the Organization of American States, Peter Lamelas as ambassador to Argentina, and Dan Newlin as ambassador to Colombia.
  • Meta Platforms donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. — WSJ

Outside the Beltway

  • North Carolina Republicans overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill to strip power from incoming Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat.

Economy

  • The consumer price index ticked up 0.3% in the last month — its highest monthly increase since April and a sign that the period of steady cooling of inflation may be coming to an end.

Business

Courts

Polls

  • Just four-in-10 US adults approve of President Biden’s decision to pardon his son, according to a new Marist poll, while an AP-NORC poll put the figure even lower at two-in-10.
  • Fifty-four percent of US adults believe Donald Trump will do a good job when he returns to the White House, according to a CNN poll.
A chart showing how much confidence Americans have in Donald Trump for certain tasks he is expected to complete.

National Security

  • The Defense, State, and Treasury departments disagree with President Biden’s decision to block Nippon Steel’s acquisition of US Steel on national security grounds. — FT

Foreign Policy

  • Hamas said it will agree to allow Israeli forces to temporarily remain in Gaza once fighting stops, and handed over a list of hostages it would free as part of a ceasefire deal, raising hopes for momentum around peace talks. — WSJ
  • Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged the Trump administration to maintain an economic dialogue with China.

Technology

  • Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., joined Truth Social.
  • Sixteen percent of sitting US congresswomen have had AI-generated images of themselves appear on deepfake porn websites without their consent, according to the American Sunlight Project.

Media

  • Donald Trump will be named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year,” a milestone he’ll celebrate with an appearance at the New York Stock Exchange this morning. — Politico

Big Read

  • Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell intends to spend the last two years of his time in office fighting against a Republican party that is becoming more isolationist, the Financial Times reports. “We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now, reminiscent of before World War Two,” he was quoted as saying. “Even the slogan is the same. ‘America First.’ That is what they said in the ’30s.”

Principals Team

  • Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Elana Schor, Morgan Chalfant
  • Reporters: Burgess Everett, Kadia Goba, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel
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One Good Text

Greg Casar is a Democratic congressman from Texas and the new chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

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Semafor Spotlight
A graphic saying “A great read from Semafor Net Zero”A geothermal plant in California
slworking2/Flickr

The latest auction for leases to drill geothermal energy wells on federal land in the US was a bust, bucking the trend of more successful recent sales and showing the nascent technology still faces hurdles to becoming a clean energy powerhouse, Semafor’s Tim McDonnell reported.

Despite Tuesday’s lackluster auction, geothermal stands to be a big winner under the incoming Trump administration. It has two things going for it: The scramble to power data centers, and a strong bipartisan support base.

For more on the energy transition, subscribe to Semafor’s Net Zero newsletter. →

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