Quest for minerals

U.S. quest for minerals leads to a remote nation surrounded by adversaries

China dominates the flow of raw materials for climate-friendly technology. Now the U.S. is hatching a plan to find other sources.

By SARA SCHONHARDT

A global charm offensive to secure the key minerals needed to replace fossil fuels has drawn U.S. diplomats to a country surrounded by America’s leading adversaries.

Mongolia — nicknamed “Minegolia” by some academics due to its abundant reserves of copper, gold and coal — hosted a handful of American officials on a mission in June to ease the United States’ dependence on China for the natural resources at the heart of several clean energy technologies.

The trip, the second for a senior State Department official this year, sheds light on U.S. efforts to forge pacts with countries that could supply American manufacturers ramping up their industrial production of solar and wind farms, and millions of electric vehicles.

“Mongolia is facing a generational opportunity. And that generational opportunity is a need for us to find critical minerals and rare earths in order to achieve our clean energy goals,” Jose Fernandez, undersecretary of State for economic growth, energy and the environment, who led the overseas trip, said in an interview with POLITICO’s E&E News.

China dominates the global flow of raw or processed minerals, and American officials say the U.S. strategy is meant to diversify supply chains that feed materials and components to the growing number of domestic companies that are manufacturing low-carbon products.

That effort gained urgency after U.S. relations with Beijing abruptly deteriorated a year ago, raising concerns that China could restrict access to minerals as the United States races to exponentially increase production of renewable energy and electric vehicles. It also provides some insight into the Biden administration’s sales pitch: that the United States will give countries a better deal for their resources and do it while hewing to environmental, social and corporate governance principles.

“What we offer is a way for them to do so responsibly, in a way that observes and adheres to ESG principles and that benefits the community,” Fernandez said.

That’s appealing to resource-rich, but financially poor, countries that want to reap the benefits of the current mineral rush to grow their economies. It’s particularly important to Mongolia, which is experiencing major impacts from climate change and faces local opposition to mining projects.

But the United States is in an uphill battle.

It has to convince countries that American companies won’t squeeze their lands and people for resources, and then leave them with an environmental mess. And it wants to encourage them to support regulations that attract private investment, officials say. Tensions around logistics and geopolitics are also at play. In Mongolia, there are no overland routes out of the country that don’t touch China or Russia.

Yet if the United States fails to find new mineral sources, its climate goals are at risk.

Turning over every stone

The International Energy Agency estimates that demand for critical minerals will surge over the next two decades if renewables are ramped up fast enough to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement.

For lithium, demand is expected to grow 40-fold, followed by graphite and cobalt — all of which are needed to make electric cars. Demand for copper, which Mongolia has in abundance and is used in solar and wind technologies, could rise by more than 40 percent.

“Within a decade, shortages of critical minerals such as lithium, graphite and copper will increase prices and slow the deployment of clean energy technologies,” Fernandez said at an event hosted recently by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

That coming crunch has put the Biden administration into overdrive. American officials have contacted mineral-producing allies as well as frontier nations like Mongolia to secure raw materials.

Fernandez said Mongolia is an example of what the United States hopes to achieve through the Minerals Security Partnership, an initiative with 14 mostly Western countries to bolster sustainable investment in the mining, processing and recycling of critical minerals. It includes Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, India and several European nations. It puts an emphasis on the private sector and works to ease the risk for businesses through diplomatic support and government-backed financing mechanisms like the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Earlier this year, the partnership announced a set of principles for participating companies and governments that emphasizes transparency, ethical business operations, environmental protection and support to local economies.

Mongolia is just one potential source of raw materials. In the past year, Fernandez has also traveled to South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mexico. And in May, he held virtual talks with officials in Argentina to discuss critical minerals projects.

Where Mongolia fits on the priority list isn’t clear. It produces 1.4 percent of the world’s copper and 1 percent of its molybdenum, an element mixed into steel alloys used for solar panels and wind technology, according to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global standard for good governance of oil, gas and minerals.

But much of its mineral wealth remains untapped.

In a troubled neighborhood

Mongolia is one of the most sparsely populated countries on the planet.

Under the feet of its nomadic herders, a potential wealth of minerals has yet to be fully discovered. But large-scale mining projects have faced barriers because of concerns about environmental degradation on the Mongolian steppes, where its people are culturally entwined with the landscape.

Climate change is already leading to more frequent drought and dust storms in Mongolia, and its capital, Ulaanbaatar, suffers from some of the world’s worst air pollution due to the extensive use of coal.

Encompassed by Russia to the north and China to the south, Mongolia has sought to lessen the grip of its neighbors by engaging with countries such as the United States, France and Australia. France reportedly struck a deal to source minerals, including uranium, from Mongolia during a visit in May by French President Emmanuel Macron.

“Mongolia is very keen to maintain economic relationships with countries other than Russia and China in order to keep their hand and their political and economic interests balanced,” said Piper Campbell, who served as U.S. ambassador to Mongolia in the Obama administration.

It’s a delicate balancing act. Roughly a quarter of Mongolia’s economy depends on mining, and nearly 90 percent of its export revenue comes from minerals — most of which go to China, either for processing or to pass through its ports.

“If the Chinese say, ‘We’ll stop buying coal and copper from you,’ Mongolia’s economy stops,” said Amar Adiya, a former Mongolian diplomat who runs Mongolia Weekly, a newsletter for investors.

In the future, some of the minerals could be loaded onto planes and flown out, experts say. But many of those materials would first need to be processed into less bulky products. That would require new investments to build processing facilities — a notoriously polluting business that could spark local resistance.

Some of the minerals could potentially go to South Korea, where they could be processed and exported to the United States and its allies. Fernandez’s visit to Mongolia included a first-ever trilateral meeting with Korea about collaborating on critical mineral supply chains.

For now, American outreach to Mongolia seems to be as focused on maintaining an ally in a region of the world that’s difficult to navigate for Western nations as a full-fledged effort to create the conditions to procure minerals, according to experts.

“Mongolia is clearly geostrategically important given its location between Russia and China, and as a bulwark of democracy and in a somewhat troubled region of the world,” said Campbell, the former ambassador.

The United States is already providing Mongolia with technical assistance to map resources and improve the transparency of the tendering process, Fernandez said. The next step could be to help implement a project.

The Minerals Security Partnership is currently vetting 15 projects on several continents that it could eventually support through a combination of finance, political backing or technical support. That’s down from close to 200 projects just nine months ago, Fernandez said.

He wouldn’t reveal where they are, saying companies want that information kept confidential to protect potential investments. He hopes to be able to announce a project by the end of the year and then “start moving the needle.”

The Players......

2 more Trump indictments loom. Here are all the names to know.

As Jack Smith and Fani Willis finalize their investigations into election interference, a sprawling cast of characters may be swept up in the cases.

By KYLE CHENEY

The investigations of Donald Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election introduced America to an extensive cast of allies, enablers, detractors and victims who may soon figure into federal charges against the former president.

Some were involved in multiple aspects of Trump’s disparate, increasingly desperate attempts to cling to power: assembling false slates of presidential electors; pressuring state legislators and Congress to upend the results; browbeating Mike Pence to single-handedly overturn Joe Biden’s victory; and even weighing a plan to seize voting machines.

Now, prosecutors in Washington and Georgia are about to determine whether, in their view, any of those efforts turned criminal. Special counsel Jack Smith has already told Trump he’s considering charging him with efforts to obstruct the transfer of power, and Atlanta-area District Attorney Fani Willis has similarly indicated that charges are imminent in her long-running election probe, with Trump at the center.

Here’s a look at the central figures whose names may return to the forefront when Willis or Smith issue charges — as soon as this week.

THE LAWYERS

John Eastman

A conservative attorney who had advised Florida’s legislature in the contested 2000 election, Eastman was brought into Trump’s fold in September 2020, when a like-minded lawyer — veteran GOP campaign attorney Cleta Mitchell — assembled a working group to prepare for post-election litigation. Mitchell asked Eastman on Nov. 5, 2020, two days before the race was called for Biden, to offer his best legal analysis of state legislatures’ authority to appoint their own presidential electors in states Trump expected to challenge. Eastman’s paper ended up in the Oval Office by the end of that month.

Eastman also spoke to state legislatures in public and private, encouraging them to simply appoint presidential electors by claiming unilateral constitutional authority. The Trump campaign formally hired Eastman in early December 2020, and he authored Trump’s Supreme Court brief in a longshot legal bid to upend the election.

Eastman argued forcefully that electors appointed by legislatures could be counted by Congress and used to reverse Trump’s apparent defeat. But when state legislatures resisted, Eastman shifted his focus, contending that the “uncertainty” caused by slates of pro-Turmp electors that had declared themselves to be legitimate — even without the backing of a state legislature — had sowed sufficient doubt. He soon became the force behind efforts to persuade then-Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally block Biden’s election. And he sought a pardon after the effort failed.

Ken Chesebro

A lawyer who emerged during the closing weeks of Trump’s presidency as a key advocate for some of the fringe theories Eastman would adopt and build upon, he drafted memos about the importance of Trump assembling slates of “contingent” electors in states he lost and having them meet in state Capitols on Dec. 14, 2020 — the same day the certified Democratic electors were required to meet. Later he drafted a “President of the Senate” strategy memo to game out efforts to press Pence to act. A federal judge provided that email to Congress’ Jan. 6 select committee after determining it fell under the “crime-fraud exception” to attorney client privilege.

Cleta Mitchell

Mitchell helped assemble Trump’s team of post-election lawyers raising challenges to the results. She also played a direct role in helping legal efforts to contest Georgia’s election and participated in a Jan. 2, 2021, conference call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Mitchell engaged in a memorable text message exchange with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who rebuffed the Trump team’s Jan. 6 strategy and called it “dangerous” for the country.

Rudy Giuliani

Donald Trump’s personal attorney became the overseer of his post-election strategy to lobby state legislatures to reverse the outcome. He first helped convince Trump to declare victory in the early morning hours of Nov. 4, 2020, despite polls showing Biden was likely to eclipse him in enough swing states to win the election. Giuliani then spearheaded efforts to challenge post-Election Day vote-counting efforts in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, visiting state Capitols and rallying GOP lawmakers to embrace unfounded claims of fraud and assert their own power to address it. Giuliani aligned closely with Eastman as the latter gained prominence in Trump’s orbit. On Jan. 6, he called for “trial by combat” during a speech to Trump’s rally crowd. In the aftermath of the election, Giuliani has faced numerous bar discipline proceedings, including in Washington.

Jenna Ellis

Ellis traveled with Giuliani in support of his efforts in the states. She also drafted memos — independent of Eastman’s efforts — that were circulated among Trump aides arguing for Pence’s authority to block Biden’s election on Jan. 6. Ellis acknowledged in March, in a settlement with Colorado bar authorities, that she repeatedly made misrepresentations about voter fraud and the 2020 election.

Sidney Powell

An attorney who gained notoriety in Trump’s orbit after she helped former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn unravel his guilty plea reached during the Trump-Russia probe, Powell quickly became one of Trump’s most extreme allies in the effort to undermine confidence in the election results. Though she briefly served on Trump’s official post-election team, internal clashes over some of her fringiest allegations led to her exit. Nevertheless, Trump brought her to the Oval Office on Dec. 18, 2020, where she, Flynn, former Overstock.com boss Patrick Byrne and others pushed Trump to assert federal power to seize voting machines and amplify his fraud claims. Trump considered — and Powell says he approved — a plan to name Powell a roving special counsel to pursue election fraud. But it was never implemented.

THE WEST WING

Mike Pence

Trump’s vice president became the object of his last-ditch effort to remain in power. While Trump fought battles in court, his allies began signaling that Pence’s role presiding over Congress on Jan. 6 — when, as president of the Senate, he was tasked with leading the count of electoral votes — would become the next and final avenue to upend the election results. So Pence set his chief legal counsel, Greg Jacob, to work. Jacob wrote a series of memos to Pence in December 2020 and January 2021 ultimately making the case that Pence lacked the authority to disregard Biden’s electors, a route Pence had leaned toward anyway. And Jacob clashed with Eastman repeatedly in the days before — and even on Jan. 6, amid the violence at the Capitol — fending off pressure to get Pence to reverse course.

Mark Meadows

As the White House chief of staff, Meadows was the ubiquitous player in every aspect of Trump’s scheme to stay in office despite his defeat. He was in meetings with members of Congress, on emails and calls with the Trump campaign and involved in talks with Trump’s outside advisers, and he even joined Trump’s call with Raffensperger in early January 2021. Most notably, Meadows was a prolific texter, frequently contacting many of those same figures and discussing their wide-ranging efforts. He was mobile and active on Jan. 6, as Trump continued pressing Pence to subvert the outcome. And aides have described his interactions with Trump on that day. But Meadows himself has remained elusive and largely out of sight since Jan. 6. His testimony to Smith’s team, as well as prosecutors in Georgia, may shed more light on his mindset than previously understood.

Tony Ornato

Trump’s deputy chief of staff had been a Secret Service agent and leader for much of his career, making his transition into a political role in the White House unusual. Ornato frequently coordinated with his Secret Service counterparts about logistics and events. On Jan. 6, he was aware of threat information about the pro-Trump mob and would have relayed details to Meadows and others on Trump’s staff, the timing of which could be key evidence in Trump’s understanding of the threat his crowd posed to the Capitol. Ornato retired from the Secret Service last year.

Eric Herschmann

A key Trump legal adviser in the closing days of the administration, Herschmann formed a bulwark of sorts with Pat Cipollone and his deputy Pat Philbin against many of the more extreme ideas to emerge from Trump’s inner circle. Herschmann raised doubts about the accuracy of some of the claims that made it into Trump’s 11th-hour legal battles in Georgia, and he testified to the Jan. 6 select committee that figures like Eastman were still pressing for ways to overturn the 2020 election in the days after Jan. 6.

Pat Cipollone

Trump’s final White House counsel played a starring role in Trump’s defense against his 2020 impeachment for pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. But he was not willing to countenance some of Trump’s more extreme plans after the 2020 election. He rejected Trump’s plan to use alternate electors to reverse the election results, disagreed with Trump’s pressure campaign against Pence and was among those who threatened to quit if Trump installed more pliable leaders atop the Justice Department in his final weeks in office. Cipollone declined to testify to Congress about some aspects of his interactions with Trump, citing executive privilege, but courts ruled at least partially to override the privilege in his testimony to a federal grand jury.

Dan Scavino

Trump’s social media manager and top White House aide is known for having the keys to Trump’s powerful online accounts. Prosecutors, like the Jan. 6 committee, may be interested in some of the most significant messages Trump conveyed to the public ahead of — and on — Jan. 6. Trump’s middle-of-the-night tweet on Dec. 19, 2020 urging supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6 for a “wild” protest became a rallying cry for extremist groups. And his 2:24 p.m. tweet on Jan. 6 attacking Pence for refusing to unilaterally prevent Biden’s election sent the already-violent mob into a fury.

Peter Navarro

Ostensibly a trade adviser to Trump and a central player in the administration’s Covid response, Navarro turned his attention to election fraud in November 2020. He produced a report that relied on discredited and debunked claims. Trump, nevertheless, touted that report in the Dec. 19 tweet that also urged supporters to come to Washington for a “wild” rally.

Cassidy Hutchinson

An aide to Meadows, Hutchinson provided explosive testimony to the Jan. 6 select committee about her boss’ movements in the final weeks of the Trump presidency. She attended meetings where she witnessed members of Congress advocate Pence’s authority to overturn the results and discuss their efforts to challenge the results. She saw Cipollone at times advise that certain courses of action would likely be ill-advised or be struck down by the courts. Some of her more explosive testimony about Trump’s Jan. 6 behavior came to her second or even third-hand. It’s unclear how much of it has since been corroborated by witnesses whom prosecutors have called separately. Hutchinson also recounted her conversations with other Trump allies, like GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe.

THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

Jeff Clark

A DOJ civil attorney who primarily worked on environmental litigation rocketed up the department’s depth chart in the final weeks of Trump’s administration. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), a prominent conservative lawmaker, put Clark directly on Trump’s radar as Trump sought allies within DOJ to validate his unfounded claims of election fraud. Clark, along with an aide, drafted a letter — marked for state legislatures in GOP-controlled states — urging them to return to session and consider whether to appoint new presidential electors. Clark pushed DOJ leaders to send the letter and used his direct line to Trump to dial up the pressure. But they resisted. By the end of December 2020, Trump was prepared to install Clark as acting attorney general, supplanting a leadership that Trump viewed as unwilling to bolster his efforts to stay in power. But the rest of DOJ’s leadership, backed by Trump’s White House lawyers, threatened to resign if he took that step. The Justice Department searched Clark’s home last year.

Ken Klukowski

Clark’s deputy at DOJ, Klukowski helped draft the letter that Clark insisted should be sent to the states.

William Barr

Trump’s attorney general for the latter half of his term, Barr helped shield Trump from congressional investigations led by Democrats. But when Trump began promoting false claims of voter fraud and demanding that his Justice Department act, Barr resisted. He told the Jan. 6 select committee that he had DOJ and FBI officials pursue and ultimately debunk some of the most egregious claims of fraud, but Trump’s anger at Barr grew as Jan. 6 approached. Barr ultimately resigned in late December, shaking up the leadership as Trump continued to exert pressure on DOJ to validate his claims.

Jeff Rosen

Rosen became the acting attorney general upon Barr’s resignation. He immediately was met with a push by Trump to activate the Justice Department in support of his bid to remain in power. Rosen, flanked by his deputy Richard Donoghue, became a key bastion of resistance to that pressure as Trump grew increasingly desperate to deploy the government in support of his efforts.

Richard Donoghue

Donoghue’s notes may be key evidence for prosecutors. He memorialized meetings and calls in which Trump made clear he simply wanted DOJ to lend credibility to his claims of fraud — and call for states to appoint pro-Trump electors — and leave the rest to him “and the R Congressmen.” Donoghue was one of the first Trump administration officials on the scene at the Capitol as law enforcement began to regain control of the building from the Jan. 6 mob. He said no one at DOJ heard from Trump that day as the violence unfolded.

THE CAMPAIGN

Bill Stepien

Trump’s campaign manager described conveying Trump’s “bleak” chances of winning the election as the results began to pour in, and his clashes with Trump aides who he worried were fueling Trump’s false hopes of a path to victory. Stepien described a division that emerged in Trump’s orbit between Giuliani’s team and what Stepien dubbed “Team Normal.” Trump increasingly shunned advisers who told him his paths had dwindled and drifted further into the fringe.

Alex Cannon

Alex Cannon, Matt Morgan and Justin Clark were part of a coterie of Trump campaign officials who delved into Trump’s claims of election fraud and found them to be unsupported and certainly insufficient to help reverse his defeat. Their efforts to convey those messages went unheeded and at times were met by scorn from some of Trump’s closer advisers.

Ronna McDaniel

The RNC chair told the Jan. 6 select committee that she remembered a phone call with Trump in December 2020 in which Trump put her on with Eastman to emphasize the importance of assembling slates of “alternate” presidential electors.

CONGRESS

Kevin McCarthy (R-CALIF.)

The speaker of the House joined pre-election efforts to persuade Trump that he should embrace mail-in voting — entreaties Trump rejected as he preferred to vilify the expanded use of mail-in voting as a grave fraud risk. But after the election, McCarthy led more than half the House GOP conference in signing onto a Supreme Court brief advocating for a ruling that would essentially have thrown the results into chaos. He also supported efforts to challenge the results when Congress gathered to count Electoral College ballots.

As rioters rampaged in the Capitol, McCarthy had a call with Trump in which he pleaded with Trump to tell his supporters to go home, drawing a memorable response from Trump: “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.” McCarthy briefly said Trump bore responsibility for the Jan. 6 riot before meeting with him and largely welcoming him back into the GOP fold.

Jim Jordan (R-OHIO)

One of Trump’s most ardent backers in the House, Jordan was a key strategic adviser to Trump in the final weeks of his presidency, helping devise and implement a plan for GOP lawmakers to object to the election results in a handful of states won by Biden. Those objections triggered hours of delay in the Jan. 6 session of Congress, which Trump and his allies later used to press reluctant Republican senators to join. Trump, in the meantime, had hoped delays would motivate hesitant GOP state legislators to appoint new presidential electors. Jordan’s role was primarily to coordinate the challenges in the House, and testimony to the Jan. 6 select committee showed Trump was eager to watch his House floor remarks live.

Scott Perry (R-PA.)

Perry’s role has been the most obviously scrutinized by federal prosecutors, but it’s unclear what they’ve learned. He’s primarily known as the crucial connector between Trump and Clark. But he also texted with Meadows, a former House Freedom Caucus ally, about wild and false theories related to the CIA director and European allies’ purported efforts to manipulate the election. And he also texted with Meadows in December 2020 about people who should fill out other leadership ranks in DOJ. The FBI seized Perry’s phone in August 2022, but DOJ has been fighting legal battles for nearly a year to access its contents. That effort now rests with a federal appeals court panel, which has been weighing the matter since February.

Louie Gohmert (R-TEXAS)

The former GOP congressmember played a significant role in the final days of the Trump presidency, filing a lawsuit that appeared primarily aimed at learning what Pence’s intentions were. Gohmert sued Pence, asking that a federal court declare the nation’s longstanding electoral vote-counting procedures to be unconstitutional and empowering Pence to single-handedly choose which electors should be counted. Such a ruling would have meant Pence could simply discard Biden’s challenged electoral votes and decide that Trump was the winner, or send the contest back to the states for further proceedings. Gohmert’s suit went nowhere, but dueling filings gave the earliest indication that Pence was likely to oppose Trump’s last-ditch bid to stay in power.

OUTSIDERS

Ali Alexander

A founder of the post-2020 election “Stop the Steal” organization who helped mobilize crowds to descend on Washington, Alexander, who previously described relationships with GOP lawmakers, discussed those connections with the Jan. 6 select committee.

Alex Jones

A key influencer in far-right, conspiracy-minded circles, Jones helped drive up the energy behind Trump’s “Stop the Steal” efforts and spoke about the election in apocalyptic terms. He attended Trump’s rally and then led thousands of Trump supporters down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. Though he’s seen on video offering to help defuse the crowd, police officers asked his group to leave and the large following that accompanied him added to the pressure facing officers in the early hours when they were outnumbered and overmatched. An associate, Owen Shroyer, who was by Jones for much of the day, recently pleaded guilty to misdemeanors relating to his actions that day. Jones also had links to leaders of extremist groups, like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, whose members discussed contacts with him in communications obtained by federal prosecutors.

Caroline Wren

A GOP fundraiser, Wren was a key connector between some of the activist groups calling for Trump to remain in power and the White House. She helped coordinate speakers for Trump’s rally, clashed at times with West Wing personnel about who should be allowed to appear on the stage before Trump and helped facilitate financing for the event. She also communicated with Jones about his march from the Ellipse to the Capitol.

Michael Flynn

Trump’s former national security adviser became a vocal advocate for him to declare martial law and use federal power to seize voting machines. He joined Powell and others in the Oval Office on Dec. 18, 2020, to push Trump to adopt that position, but Trump never authorized the step, despite several draft executive orders circulating in the West Wing.

Roger Stone

A ubiquitous aide and ally to Trump for decades, Stone’s exact involvement in Jan. 6 matters remains murky. He encouraged Trump to challenge the results, predicted violence and even foreshadowed Trump’s plan to declare victory before all the votes were counted. He also visited D.C. ahead of Jan. 6 and hired members of the Oath Keepers — some of whom were later convicted of seditious conspiracy — as his personal security. Jan. 6 committee investigators traveled to Copenhagen to obtain documentary footage of Stone from a crew that followed him during the post-election timeframe.

Steve Bannon

A former aide in Trump’s White House, Bannon had drifted away from Trump’s orbit for awhile but used his prominent “War Room” podcast to reingratiate himself toward the latter part of Trump’s term. Bannon was convicted and is awaiting a four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee. The panel wanted to grill him about his conversations with Trump in the days before Jan. 6. The committee’s evidence suggests Bannon was an important figure in convincing Trump to focus on Jan. 6, and he predicted on his podcast the day before that “all hell is going to break loose” in Washington. White House records show he and Trump spoke twice that day, including in the hours after the riot.

Proven to be difficult

DeSantis unveils economic plan, aim to ease process for discharging student loans through bankruptcy

It is currently possible to get student loans discharged through bankruptcy, according to the Department of Education’s website, but the process has proven to be difficult.

By KIERRA FRAZIER

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a new economic plan Monday as part of his 2024 presidential bid that includes a goal of easing the path for student loans to be discharged through bankruptcy.

DeSantis’ “declaration of economic independence” includes 10 pillars that he says will “reverse the decline of our nation’s struggling economy and fight for the middle class.”

One of the pillars includes “reforming” the education system to “make universities, not taxpayers, responsible for the loans their students accrue” and to allow those loans to be discharged through bankruptcy “like any other loan.”

It is currently possible to get student loans discharged through bankruptcy, according to the Department of Education’s website, but the process has proven to be difficult. Under current department guidelines, student loan borrowers must, in addition to filing for bankruptcy, demonstrate to a bankruptcy court why repaying their student loan would cause “undue hardship.”

“I have sympathy for some of these students because I think they were sold a bill of goods. I think these universities knew that they could take all this federal loan money,” DeSantis said Monday at a campaign event in New Hampshire. “So we need to do things to make it better for our students to be able to have pathways for success, but it starts with holding these universities accountable.”

President Joe Biden has made sweeping efforts to forgive some student loan debt for borrowers, though the Supreme Court struck down his proposed program last month. Millions of borrowers are set to resume student loan payments this fall after a hiatus that has been in effect since 2020.

DeSantis’ plans come as the governor is under fire for new teaching standards that require middle schoolers to be instructed that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” Many Black Republican lawmakers, such as Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), have taken issue with the new standards.

The economic plan is the third major policy announcement DeSantis has made since launching his campaign — following his plan to secure the border and a plan for a “mission first military” — and comes as he continues to lag in polls. In a new New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday, former President Donald Trump held a 37-percentage point lead over DeSantis in the GOP presidential field.

The same morning as DeSantis’ unveiling event in New Hampshire, the state’s governor, Chris Sununu, told conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt that DeSantis “shouldn’t worry about policy stuff.”

“You are the leader, you are the winner, you’re the person that is going to inspire the rest of the party to get bigger and more excited,” said Sununu, who recently announced he will not run for reelection in the Granite State. “So it’s really about, kind of, a little bit of that charisma and leadership that they’ve got to show to folks one-on-one.”

DeSantis said Monday that he rolled out his economic plan to declare “economic independence from the failed elites and policies that have harmed this nation’s middle class.”

“We are not cogs in a global economic empire,” DeSantis said, adding: “The goal of our Declaration of Independence is simple. We the American people win, they lose.”

Counter soft-on-crime attacks

Top New York Democrats unite to counter soft-on-crime attacks from Republicans

“You can’t say you’re serious about fighting crime if you’re not serious about getting illegal guns off our streets,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “And that is the difference between red states and blue states and the statistics bear it out.”

By EMILY NGO

Three of New York’s most prominent Democrats sat shoulder-to-shoulder Monday to announce a gun violence prevention plan intended in part to blunt Republican critics who’ve portrayed the city as a crime-ridden hellscape.

“You can’t say you’re serious about fighting crime if you’re not serious about getting illegal guns off our streets,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a press conference at New York City Hall. “And that is the difference between red states and blue states and the statistics bear it out.”

Last year’s Democratic losses in New York — and Hochul’s own close call — have been blamed on the party’s apparent lack of vision on public safety. Republicans have vilified big-city and big-state Democrats as a part of the problem, saying their energy is spent on social issues when it should be focused on combating crime.

On Monday, Hochul, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and state Attorney General Tish James joined dozens of government officials and community leaders to unveil a 54-page blueprint from the city’s Gun Prevention Task Force.

The three repeatedly highlighted what they described as a novel — and necessary — partnership that unites the state’s leading Democrats, whose predecessors were often entangled in intraparty infighting.

The road map commits $485 million toward a multifaceted approach that includes resources for early intervention, housing and police relations. It focuses on six NYPD precincts with the highest rates of gun violence.

The mayor and others stressed New York City as the country’s “safest big city.” Administration officials touted a 27 percent decline in shootings as of last week compared with the same point last year. Officials also said the NYPD has removed more than 11,000 illegal guns from the streets since Adams took office in January 2022.

“It clearly shows that when people are saying, ‘Democrats are soft on crime,’ that’s just not the reality,” said Adams, a former NYPD captain who has staked his mayoralty on increasing public safety.

Adams said Republican lawmakers have been blocking gun safety legislation and funding efforts that include boosting police resources.

New York State Republican Party leaders scoffed at the idea that the Democrats’ priority is tackling crime.

“Kathy Hochul and Democrats have repeatedly made it clear to New Yorkers that keeping our streets safe is the least of their concerns,” state GOP communications director David Laska said in a statement. He blamed the governing party for recidivism through policies “encouraging rampant lawlessness throughout the state.”

Hochul last year was forced to revise her campaign approach when it appeared that her GOP opponent, former Rep. Lee Zeldin, was gaining because he focused on public safety while she advocated for abortion rights.

The Democrats’ path to retaking the House majority in 2024 could run through New York, the same state where four upsets last year in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island cost them the speaker’s gavel. And President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects could be improved if Democrat-controlled cities and states show public safety gains.

Adams, while not formally part of Biden’s campaign, could find that his fate influences that of the president.

The mayor said Monday that as the city drives down overall crime, it’ll be a good example to take on the road.

“I think it’s a mistake not to sell the good product that we have as Democrats,” he said.

Not that clean....

Nuclear power’s landmark project stumbles across the finish line

Critics blast the ever-extending timeline and bloated budget of Plant Vogtle’s expansion. Supporters say the Georgia project is part of a nuclear revival.

By ZACH BRIGHT

Georgia Power was set to reach a milestone last month and open the first of two long-awaited nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. Then came a delay — and more uncertainty.

Missed deadlines are a familiar refrain for the project near Augusta, Ga. The expansion is placing the country’s first major reactors built from scratch this century near two existing nuclear units brought online in the 1980s.

Unit 3 is now providing everyday power after entering commercial operations, according to an update Monday from Southern Co., the Atlanta-based parent of Georgia Power. It had been delayed by a cooling system issue. And federal regulators gave the green light last week for Unit 4 to start loading nuclear fuel. That unit could open later this year or in 2024.

The Vogtle expansion’s arrival is a huge moment for the U.S. electric industry that experts and officials expect to ripple well beyond eastern Georgia. Never mind that the two new nuclear gems Southern is scrambling to add to its crown were supposed to be up and running in 2016 and 2017. Or that their cost has more than doubled to over $30 billion.

Vogtle proponents argue large-scale nuclear is crucial to meeting growing energy needs without climate-warming emissions and will soon prove its worth. Opponents point to past debacles and the plant’s repeated stumbles as reasons why more Vogtles can’t help meet President Joe Biden’s goal of a 100 percent carbon-free U.S. power grid by 2035.

Georgia Power CEO Kim Greene said in a statement Monday that Unit 3’s entry into commercial operations “marks the first day of the next 60 to 80 years that Vogtle Unit 3 will serve our customers with clean, reliable energy” and that it’s “important that we make these kinds of long-term investments and see them through.”

Southern’s new chief executive told investors in May about the project’s difficulties, while also stressing Vogtle’s importance.

“Yes, we’ve had our challenges,” CEO Chris Womack said during the company’s annual meeting. “I’m confident that the state of Georgia and our customers, our company, the world, will be so proud of the work that we’ve done in bringing Vogtle online.”

Spokespeople for Southern and Georgia Power did not provide updates on future nuclear investment plans when asked last week by E&E News.

‘U.S. nuclear renaissance’

Vogtle’s steps toward completion come as the Georgia Public Service Commission plans to decide how much ratepayer costs should rise to cover the project’s overruns. And U.S. senators last week passed legislation that’s supportive of the nuclear industry.

The plant’s new reactors will be able generate more than 1,000 megawatts each. Altogether, Vogtle’s two new reactors will be able to power more than 1 million homes and businesses with carbon-free electricity, Southern spokesperson John Kraft said. Georgia Power is building Vogtle with a group of public power utilities.

To help construct the expansion to Vogtle, the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office had issued $12 billion in loan guarantees to Georgia power providers. Its director, Jigar Shah, said in an interview that there were a lot of mistakes made and lessons learned.

But Shah said he’s optimistic and thinks Vogtle is a nuclear turning point, with a pivot toward smaller-scale projects that will be easier and cheaper to replicate.

“We’re ecstatic that this project is going to be turned on and really respectful of the perseverance and grit that it took ... but I also think it sets up the U.S. nuclear renaissance very well in small modular reactors,” Shah told E&E News.

Clean energy groups like the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy warn that the enormous costs of units 3 and 4 could fall on ratepayers, because monopoly utilities, they say, aren’t meaningfully regulated in the region.

“There is no nuclear power plant that we’re aware of that has ever come on in the Southeast on budget or on schedule,” Stephen Smith, the alliance’s executive director, said in an interview.

Yet for folks like Steven Biegalski, chair of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s nuclear and radiological engineering program, Vogtle’s sheer generating capacity with no climate-warming emissions is reason enough to make more nuclear plants like it.

“The only technology to meet the demand that is currently available and proven are the AP1000 units that are just being built and finished at Vogtle,” he said. “Anything else is just sort of a pipe dream.”

Big nuclear

Plant Vogtle’s problems have been “the accumulation of quite a few design and construction deficiencies,” said Edwin Lyman, nuclear power safety director for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The AP1000 reactor, a design from Westinghouse Electric Co., is at the heart of Vogtle’s expansion. Approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2006, it was aimed at simplifying large nuclear with modularized designs meant to shorten construction schedules and reduce costs that would set a new industry standard.

But “big, complicated, megaprojects” require a “great deal of project management and coordinated project planning,” Kathryn Huff, who leads DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, said in an interview.

Challenges ranged from workforce constraints — the project required 9,000 builders, welders, electricians at the peak of construction — to what critics called a lack of meaningful regulation from public utility commissions to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“It’s not that simple to manufacture these complex components and just stamp them together like Legos,” Lyman said.

Smith from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy pointed to difficulties at a similar South Carolina nuclear project.

An attempt to add two AP1000s to South Carolina’s V.C. Summer nuclear plant fell through in 2017. The expansion was designed to be similar to Vogtle’s and had an estimated $9.8 billion cost. But its price quickly ballooned, and its construction timeline was pushed back years past scheduled operational dates of 2016 and 2019.

Vogtle may have survived Westinghouse’s bankruptcy, but the plant has “taken so long that the industry itself has kind of moved beyond the whole concept of AP1000s,” Smith said.

While small modular reactors are worth researching in Biegalski’s view, he said the AP1000 design is the country’s “only option” for the immediate future of nuclear.

Nuclear advocates have acknowledged the delays.

“I can certainly understand the frustration — the nuclear industry has a track record of over-promising and under-delivering,” said Madison Hilly, executive director at the Campaign for a Green Nuclear Deal.

Still, the recently trained Vogtle workforce is a prime reason to keep the ball rolling, Georgia Tech’s Biegalski said. With this expertise, he sees future projects being built quicker and at a lower cost.

“If we put the baton down as the U.S. and wait another 10 or 15 years before we start building other nuclear power plants, it’s going to be the same exact story, where you have to recreate the wheel,” he said.

Tim Echols, vice chair of the Georgia Public Service Commission, also shares the view that Vogtle shouldn’t be the last of its kind. But “no one seems to be interested in doing a big project anymore,” he said in an interview.

Biegalski said energy needs are only going to grow, noting extreme heat events in the country’s most populous two states: California and Texas. The Golden State was in danger of rolling blackouts last summer, and the Lone Star state’s electricity use is reaching all-time highs this summer.

While small modular reactors are worth researching in Biegalski’s view, he said the AP1000 design is the country’s “only option” for the immediate future of nuclear, he said.

Small reactors

As Vogtle expands, Southern and other power companies are trying to crack the equation of cheaper and easier to build carbon-free nuclear power.

This month, a Washington state public power agency said it’s planning to build the state’s first small modular reactors, eyeing a dozen units in partnership with a nuclear developer. Back in January, NuScale Power Corp. became the first small modular reactor design to be certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

And Westinghouse, the AP1000’s architect, is aiming to build an AP300 — its first small modular reactor by 2030, looking at shuttered coal plants in West Virginia and Ohio as possible sites.

Engineering, procurement and construction contractors as well as financiers now have a preference for power projects at a fraction of Vogtle’s cost, according to Shah from the Loan Programs Office.

“The beauty of the small modular reactor is it fits within that $2 [billion] to $4 billion price range,” Shah said.

The country’s largest public power provider, the Tennessee Valley Authority, has the biggest plans of the bunch. With global partners, it’s aiming to build and standardize a commercially viable small modular reactor that would be 300 MW per unit, compared to an AP1000 unit that is more than 1,000 MW.

Using a BWRX-300 design, TVA hopes to build a successful pilot and a fleet of potentially 20 small reactors to meet growing energy demands in the southeastern United States.

“TVA wants to be one of the first, and everybody else wants to see others succeed before they jump into the water,” said Greg Boerschig, vice president of the Clinch River Project, the agency’s first planned small modular reactor project.

Boerschig said some of TVA’s major takeaways from observing the Georgia project include the importance of using a mature design from the start and finishing one phase before moving onto the next.

“Don’t let your desire to succeed get in front of the will to plan. And plan effectively,” Boerschig said, adding that TVA “can make the same mistakes [Southern] did on a small plant, and we don’t want to do that.”

Echols said TVA could run into similar overruns by venturing to attempt another first of its kind.

“‘Why are y’all building four 300-megawatt reactors that haven’t been built anywhere instead of an AP1000?’” he said in speaking to E&E News. “You could just have our workforce just come up there, just one state up. That would be very attractive.”

TVA CEO Jeff Lyash has previously said that the agency favors small modular reactors over larger counterparts, citing factors including smaller anticipated capital commitments and shorter construction timelines.

Boerschig said TVA’s plans of smaller, dispatchable power make the most sense for the agency.

He hopes TVA in 2024 will be able to demonstrate that a first-of-a-kind small modular reactor can scale up to help meet growing power demand and can secure funding and construction approval next. In 2026, the electric utility expects it can get approval from U.S. nuclear regulators for the model.

Critics like Smith say utilities across the Southeast, such as TVA, Duke Energy Corp. and Dominion Energy Inc., are incentivized by a lack of energy market competition to build projects because they can profit with a rate of return guaranteed by state regulators.

“The southeast United States is really the only place that has been serious about trying to keep the nuclear flame alive,” Smith said, “because nobody else in competitive markets will touch building a new nuclear power plant.”

A federal agency, TVA is regulated by its board of directors, whose nine members are appointed by the U.S. president.

The power provider once proposed building 17 nuclear reactors at seven sites, but only seven were built, at a total cost of $8 billion across the 1970s and ‘80s.

The last nuclear plant to come online before Vogtle’s expansion, was TVA’s Watts Bar Unit 2, started in the 1970s and brought into operation in 2016.

Smith called small modular reactors “a distraction.”

“They take our eye off the prize of really working with the technologies that we know can be done, can be modularly built out like solar and wind,” he said.

National security

Last month, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm visited Georgia — and POLITICO Pro reported that she expressed confidence that Vogtle’s latest woes wouldn’t depress future nuclear investment. Granholm insisted that the new reactor’s entry into commercial operations would bring international interest to American nuclear.

That interest is crucial to U.S. national security if the nation wants to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and maintain its deterrence capabilities, Shah told E&E News. That’s because other countries will continue to pursue nuclear energy regardless of where the U.S. takes it, he said.

“If we don’t show a proactive stance here, then countries who want access to nuclear technology will go to those other countries, oftentimes Russia and China,” Shah said.

Biegalski echoed the sentiment, saying the United States has “to be very, very, very careful at how world maps are redrawn and alliances are redrawn through these energy policies.”

As for improving upon Vogtle’s delays and cost overruns, and those of nuclear plants that preceded it, Lyman said that it “doesn’t seem like the industry writ large is really interested in learning those lessons.”

Domestic appetite for nuclear is still holding on strong among some power providers.

Dominion and Duke have included nuclear power in integrated resource plans. Duke in particular got $70 million approved from the North Carolina Utilities Commission, Shah said, to start working out early site permitting for a small modular reactor.

American Electric Power Co. and Southern have also made verbal commitments around future plans for small modular reactors, Shah added.

“That momentum sometimes leads to a renaissance,” Shah said, “but we’ll have to wait and see.”

Block on military promotions

DeSantis supports Tuberville’s block on military promotions, blames Pentagon

“I think it plays into a larger problem that we have seen in the military,” the Florida governor and GOP presidential hopeful told Fox News.

By KELLY GARRITY

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Monday that he supported a blockade by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) on hundreds of military promotions, asserting that the Pentagon was “violating the law” with its abortion travel policy.

The new policy — which pays the travel costs for service members who don’t have local access to reproductive health care, including abortions — is “not consistent with longstanding U.S. law,” DeSantis said Monday during an interview in New Hampshire with FOX News’ Bret Baier.

“I think it plays into a larger problem that we have seen in the military,” the Republican presidential hopeful added. “You have a lot of civilians forcing them to engage in political and culture issues that are detracting from [the] mission — this is one of them, but the pronouns and the drag queens and all those other things.”

Tuberville’s hold is set to leave the Army and Navy without Senate-confirmed nominees to replace retiring leaders by mid-August. The monthslong logjam has already left the Marine Corps with a temporary commandant — the first time in 100 years the branch has not had a Senate-confirmed leader — and has kept more than 270 military promotions in limbo.

DeSantis, who during the interview on Monday noted that his own experience in the military differentiated him from the crowded GOP field, said it was the Pentagon that picked the fight with Tuberville “by violating the law.”

“So I think that standing up for that is the right thing to do,” DeSantis said.

Both the Senate GOP and Alabama Republicans are split over Tuberville’s blockade, while President Joe Biden has warned that the hold will lead to “a growing cascade of damage and disruption.”

On Monday afternoon, the White House announced that the permanent headquarters of the U.S. Space Command would be in Colorado, instead of Tuberville’s home state of Alabama.

The move prompted outrage from lawmakers in Alabama, including Tuberville, who called the decision “shameful” in a statement on Monday evening.

Raises nearly $6 million

Chris Christie super PAC raises nearly $6 million for 2024 campaign

Donations poured in from well-heeled donors of Wall Street and real estate.

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

The super PAC supporting Chris Christie’s presidential campaign raised $5.9 million since the former New Jersey governor launched his bid in June, according to its first filing with the Federal Election Commission.

Donations to the independent group, Tell It Like It Is, poured in from some of the most well-known and wealthiest names in the New York region and beyond — such as Jared Kushner’s uncle, Murray Kushner, entertainment mogul Barry Diller, Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper and real estate developer Harlan Crow, whose giving to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has come under fire in recent weeks.

The reporting period covers May 30 through June 30, with nearly all of donations to the Christie-aligned super PAC coming after he announced his campaign June 6.

“In just three short weeks, we’re proud of the nearly $6 million dollars raised for Tell It Like It Is,” the group’s chair, Bill Palatucci, said in a statement. “This is just a starting point, and we’re confident our donor base will grow as the Governor’s message of moving the Republican Party forward continues to take hold.”

Christie is considered a long shot to win the nomination of a party firmly in the grip of Donald Trump despite multiple indictments hanging over the former president. Although Christie has qualified for the first Republican debate, on Aug. 23, his polling average is 2.4 percent, according to RealClearPolitics, light years behind Trump’s 54 percent.

But Christie has the backing of some prominent anti-Trump donors and those who come from the party’s mainstream, such as the son of former presidential candidate Ross Perot and Trump’s gone-in-a-flash communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

The super PAC’s biggest donation was $1 million, from SHBT, a limited liability company based in Denton, Texas, according to the FEC.

Tell It Like It Is received three $500,000 donations, according to the commission. They came from Richard Saker, CEO of the New Jersey-based supermarket chain ShopRite; Walter Buckley Jr., a retired investor; and Defending Democracy Together, an advocacy group led by well-known Republican Trump critics Bill Kristol and Tim Miller.

The super PAC also received seven donations of $250,000, including from Tepper, and 11 donations of $100,000, including from Crow, Scaramucci and Scaramucci’s investment firm, Skybridge Capital. Other six-figure donations came from hedge fund managers Cliff Asness, Stanley Druckenmiller and Bruce Kovner.

Murray Kushner and his New Jersey-based company, KRE Property Management, each donated $10,000, according to the FEC. He is the brother of Jared’s father, Charles, and has also donated to Christie’s presidential campaign for 2016 and 2024.

Tell It Like It Is spent nearly $428,000 during the reporting period, leaving it with about $5.45 million on hand. Much of that spending was on media ads and emails and text messaging services.

The Christie campaign said it is “well ahead” of its fundraising pace in the former governor’s 2016 bid, raising more than $1.6 million in its first 25 days. It ended the quarter with $1.6 million in cash and no debt, “reflecting a lean, modern, and responsible operation,” the campaign said.

Law that cuts its power...

Israel’s Supreme Court to hear petitions about law that cuts its power

The law passed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has spurred massive protests.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Israel’s Supreme Court said Monday that a full panel of 15 justices would hear petitions in September against a contentious law that was passed last week by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and which has spurred mass protests.

The law was one of a series of proposed changes to Israel’s judiciary put forward by Netanyahu’s government earlier this year that seek to curb the power of the Supreme Court. The judicial overhaul plan has been met with months of sustained mass protest against the legislation and drawn criticism from the White House.

Critics of the overhaul say that the package of laws would concentrate power in the hands of the ruling coalition and erode the system of checks and balances between branches of government. Proponents say the measures are necessary to limit the power of unelected judges who they say are overly activist.

Netanyahu and his allies passed a law last week that removes the high court’s ability to annul government decisions considered “unreasonable.” The “reasonableness standard” was implemented by the Supreme Court earlier this year to thwart the appointment of a Netanyahu ally as interior minister after he had recently pleaded guilty to tax offenses.

The court said the hearing concerning the law striking down the “reasonableness standard” would take place on Sept. 12 with a full bench of 15 justices. The Supreme Court typically hears cases with smaller panels of justices, but appears to have opted for a full complement of judges because of the highly delicate nature of the matter.

The Netanyahu administration’s push to overhaul the judiciary has deeply divided an already highly polarized country and sparked the longest sustained protests in the country’s history.

Netanyahu and his allies took office in December after the country’s fifth election in under four years, most of them referendums on the longtime leader’s fitness to serve while on trial for corruption.

Unprecedented move

US limits visa waiver for Hungarians

The unprecedented move comes in response to security concerns, Washington says.

BY LILI BAYER

The United States on Tuesday sharply limited Hungary’s participation in its visa waiver program over security concerns regarding new passports issued between 2011 and 2020. 

Under the American Visa Waiver Program, citizens of participating countries can travel to the U.S. for tourism or business for up to 90 days without a visa, and simply need a so-called Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). 

But starting Tuesday, ESTA validity for Hungarian passport holders will be reduced from two years to one, and an ESTA will only be valid for a single use. 

The unprecedented move, in response to security concerns, affects Hungary as the only one of 40 countries participating in the U.S. program. 

After coming to power in 2010, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government implemented a major policy change that granted citizenship to ethnic Hungarians abroad — including in Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. Domestic critics say Orbán’s controversial move was designed to boost his electoral prospects.

David Pressman, the U.S. ambassador in Budapest, told POLITICO in an interview ahead of the announcement, “There are hundreds of thousands of passports that have been issued by the government of Hungary as part of the simplified naturalization program without stringent identity verification mechanisms in place.”

The U.S. government has been engaging the Hungarian government on this “security vulnerability” for many years and across multiple administrations, Pressman said. But “the government of Hungary has opted not to close” it. 

Responding to the American decision, Hungary’s interior ministry said the country “will not disclose the data of Hungarians beyond the border with dual citizenship because that would risk their security” and accused the White House of “taking revenge on Hungarians with the new visa waiver limit.”

“This is a really unfortunate day,” Pressman said. “This is not the outcome the United States sought or is seeking.”

Washington’s move comes at a time when Hungary’s relationship with Western partners is at a low point.

Budapest’s NATO allies are deeply frustrated that Hungary’s parliament has yet to ratify Sweden’s bid to join the alliance. 

There are also ongoing concerns about senior Hungarian officials promoting Kremlin-style narratives at home, as well as over efforts to water down European sanctions targeting Moscow. Earlier this year, the U.S. imposed sanctions on a Hungary-based bank linked to Russia. 

Many Western countries have spoken out about deteriorating democratic standards in Hungary, as well as policies and rhetoric they say undermine the rights of LGBTQ+ people there. 

Pressman underscored how American experts had previously identified ways the security concerns could be addressed. 

The U.S. in 2017 made Hungary’s status in the visa waiver program provisional, while security concerns were also behind a decision to render Hungarians born outside the country ineligible starting in 2020. 

Now, however, all Hungarian passport holders will be affected. 

“This is about a choice,” the ambassador said. “The Hungarian government thus far has chosen not to address that security concern, which has led the United States to respond.”

Pile on....

Pence, Scott pile on DeSantis over stance on nationwide abortion restrictions

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America slammed DeSantis’ position on a national abortion policy, calling it “unacceptable.”

By MATT BERG

A pair of GOP presidential candidates took aim Monday night at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his refusal to support nationwide abortion restrictions after the country’s leading anti-abortion group criticized his stance.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America slammed DeSantis’ failure to support federal abortion restrictions on Monday, calling it “unacceptable.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence posted on X, formally known as Twitter, that pro-life Americans will “have a champion in the White House!” if he wins the election, linking out to the SBA’s public statement lambasting DeSantis. A staunch anti-abortion candidate, Pence has said he’d support banning abortion nationally after six weeks of pregnancy, a restriction DeSantis enacted in Florida.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) piled on, saying that “Republicans should not be retreating on life.” In his post, he advocated for a 15-week restriction to “stop blue states from pushing abortion on demand.”

SBA’s criticism of DeSantis came in response to a recent interview in which the Florida governor said abortion policy would be best decided by the states. In the interview, DeSantis stressed that he would bring his views on abortion into the Oval Office, and that he would “be a leader with the bully pulpit to help local communities and states advance the cause of life.” But DeSantis said he lacked confidence that Congress would do “anything meaningful” to institute nationwide abortion restrictions.

The anti-abortion group’s broadside landed amid a DeSantis campaign shakeup. The governor has struggled to catch up to the frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, in the presidential race for the Republican ticket. A poll released on Monday found Trump ahead of DeSantis by 37 percent. Both Pence and Scott polled at just 3 percent.