Upcoming scoops : Executive orders and so on
Here are some inside scoops from my contacts in DC.
Trump is unhappy with Mitch McConnell.
People who can raise money end up becoming party leaders. MM is very trusted Senator of big party donors. Trump had asked him to raise more money for his campaign though Mitch is finding it very hard to convince the donors to help him on this front.
After the tactics of begging money failed Trump wanted more extortion like tactics to extract money from others. Which Mitch is unwilling to engage in as he understand this has long term negative impact on support base.
Trump was determined to replace Mitch and asked Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Hagerty and Rick Scott to be his boys to dethrone Mitch.
This move is more motivated by sheer malice than political smarts.
Biden’s immigration woes.
Biden is also an anti-immigrant president but not as much as Trump. Biden and Mayorkas have been working on various plans to get the border surge under control but have failed since long.
BigTech specifically has asked for more green cards and EADs and reduction in fees for all processing. Hispanic caucus and Construction lobby has also asked Biden to make key changes.
All this resulted into Biden administration secretly working with Lankford and Mitch over the “border security bill”. The idea was that Biden becomes the first president in recent history to pass a key border security bill, claim that he “closed the border”. Mitch would prove to the donors that he is still in charge of Senate and can get things done.
Throughout the negotiations Biden administration has been using executive actions as the bargaining chip. If the border security bill does not pass, Biden has declared that he will release a record number of executive actions around border security and immigration.
Biden will release storm of executive actions in first week of March.
What you will see in first week of march is at least 4 executive orders. Now, it is not clear if there will be 4 separate orders or one order merging all of them.
TPS will be extended
It is 100% certain that some of these will be expanding TPS.
We will see some orders specifically around EB categories. I am told that some of the ideas discussed here are to not count family members against the cap, recapture greencards and issue i140 based EADs and advanced parole. But the ideas are only being used as negotiation tactics. Whether Biden actually signs such EOs is not clear.
Biden is expected to massively use parole program, create a special asylum program and focus on reducing crossings through border by allowing people to enter via ports of entry.
Biden is likely to work with states and end right to shelter programs for migrants.
Biden is going to issue record number of EADs.
Validity period of all immigration documents might be increased to max possible limit.
Improve the Dream will get what they want
Biden’s successor will be announced in March too.
Biden is not going for a re-election. Right now Kamala Harris insists on being the successor but he has been trying to persuade her that now is not the time.
While some names are being floated such as Gavin Newsom, I think this name is not yet has been decided and Biden administration is having lot of backroom chats.
Is Biden mentally incompetent ?
From his appearances clearly his age is showing. However is he really mentally incompetent ? From the folks who have met president, they suggest that he has some age related issues but he is mentally still pretty sharp. His issues remain mostly with speech and articulation but not the thinking itself. That is based on my sources who have interacted with him.