The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | December 12th, 2023: Biden Bypasses Deadlocked Congress & Harvard's President Retains Power

Episode Date: December 12, 2023

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:  The Biden administration quietly bypassed a deadlocked Congress over the weekend to approve the sale of more than $100 million in tank ammunition to Israel for their war effort in Gaza. Harvard has announced that they will not fire their current president despite mounting criticism over her widely condemned testimony last week on antisemitism. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.     Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You talking to me? Kayak. Got that right. It's Tuesday, December 12th. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. The Biden administration quietly bypassed a deadlocked Congress over the weekend to approve the sale of more than $100 million in tank ammunition to Israel

for their war effort in Gaza. Also, I'll bring you the latest on Harvard President Claudine Gay, who appears to have survived efforts to depose her despite outrage over her testimony. to Congress last week. But first, our afternoon spotlight. The Biden administration is finding creative ways to bypass a deadlocked Congress to get critical munitions to Israel. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken disclosed on Saturday that the U.S. government approved the sale of $106.5 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel, following a request for assistance from the Israeli government. The decision came amid the ongoing fight in Congress over the approval of a nearly $111 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific region.

With the fate of that package uncertain, the Biden administration opted to bypass Congress and use an emergency determination to approve the sale. Now, under Section 36B of the Arms Export Control Act, arms sales are subject to congressional review. requirements that allow lawmakers the chance to weigh in and possibly reject any proposed weapons transfer. However, if a presidential administration determines that an emergency exists, the Congressional Review requirement can be waived. The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency reportedly gave Congress the required notification of the arms transfer on Friday. A statement released Saturday by the State Department said that Blinken, quote, determined and provided detailed justification to Congress that an emergency exists that requires

the immediate sale to the government of Israel of the above defense articles and services in the national security interests of the United States, end quote. Officials added that it was consistent with the U.S.'s commitment to Israel's security and said that, quote, Israel will use the enhanced capability as a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defense. The sale will reportedly be facilitated through the U.S. Army's inventory, but officials with the State Department stress that it will not have any, quote, adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness. While using an emergency determination for a foreign arms sale is a rare step that remains

controversial within the halls of Congress, the situation is not without precedent. four presidential administrations have employed the tactic in the past, and the most notable being President George H.W. Bush's use of the maneuver to quickly arm Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. Ironically, the Biden administration's move to bypass Congress is likely to rankle members of the Democrat caucus more than their counterparts in the GOP. A group of Democrat lawmakers had recently floated the idea of making the $14.3 billion, earmarked, in the eight package for Israel, contingent on receiving ironclad promises from Israel to change their military response strategy to further reduce civilian casualties in Gaza.

Interestingly, at the same time as the Biden administration is quietly shipping ammunition to Israel, the White House is getting publicly sideways with the Israeli government and war cabinet over the prosecution of the war against Hamas. Biden seems to be going out of his way, possibly to appease critics at home to pressure Israel to come to a speedy end to their military operations. We'll have to watch this space and see to what degree Netanyahu and his war cabinet bend to White House pressure. Right now, it appears they won't. After all, Israel's most pressing concern here is to remove Hamas as an existential threat, while the Biden administration's most pressing concern may be the loss of support among their base of young progressive voters

and Arab American voters by continuing their support of Israel's military operations in Gaza. All right. Coming up after the break, the Harvard Board has announced that they will not fire their current president despite mounting criticism over her widely condemned testimony last week on anti-Semitism. I'll be right back.

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Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. I wanted to give an update on a story we covered earlier today about Harvard President Claudine Gay and efforts to oust her from her post, following her testimony at a congressional hearing on campus anti-Semitism. It looks like President Gay has survived. After deliberating late into the night on Monday, Harvard's governing body, the Harvard Corporation, chose not to remove President Gay from her leadership role. Now, the corporation publicly reiterated its confidence in her, writing,

quote, as members of the Harvard Corporation, sounds so posh, doesn't it, We today reaffirm our support for President Gay's continued leadership of Harvard University. Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing, end quote. The board added, we hope our feckless and timid response to President Gay's testimony will keep the self-righteous progressive mob on campus from coming after us. All right, fair enough. I made up that last quote.

Look, I don't know, call me skeptical, but part of the community that the board says needs to heal would be the Jewish community. And President Gay doesn't seem to know whether calling for their genocide is considered harassment. It's not exactly a healing touch. However, the board, the corporation, did recognize missteps by President Gay, particularly concerning her initial response to the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7th. The board wrote, quote, so many people have suffered tremendous damage and pain because of Hamas's brutal terrorist attack, and the university's initial statement should have been an immediate, direct, and unequivocal condemnation.

So apparently, the Harvard Corporation is a master of the statement of the obvious. As we reported earlier today, approximately 700 Harvard faculty members had rallied in her defense, as had the Harvard Alumni Association, which expressed its unwavering support for President Gay, stating their unanimous and unequivocal backing. Despite this, the controversy has reportedly led to a significant loss in donations, allegedly exceeding some $1 billion. The vote of confidence in Gay comes just days after her counterpart at U.Pen, Elizabeth McGill, resigned her position, along with the chair of the school's board of trustees. In addition to President McGill and Gay, MIT President Sally Cornbluth has come under fire for her similarly evasive answer on the question

of Jewish genocide. However, MIT's governing board released a statement last week standing behind Cornbloth, meaning she's unlikely to face any consequences for her statements. In the wake of the testimony, The House Education and Workforce Committee is opening an investigation into UPenn, MIT, Harvard, and other universities. But I frankly wouldn't place too much hope in that investigation resulting in any real change. As we've noted here before on the PDB, Washington, D.C. is where all investigations go to die. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Tuesday, 12 December. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to do that. me at PDB at thefirstTV.com.

I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now. at yamava theater.com only at yamava resort and casino celebrating its 40th anniversary you in must be 21 to enter