The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | February 7th, 2024: GOP Impeachment Failure & Hamas Ceasefire Demands

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:     House Republicans suffered a major defeat on Tuesday, losing their vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the border crisis. We’ll discuss Hamas's response to the ceasefire plan for Gaza and the militant group’s lengthy list of demands. 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

This podcast is sponsored by Blackout Coffee. Start your day off with a cup or two or maybe three of delicious American-made Blackout Coffee. Family-owned, premium coffee, fresh-roasted, and shipped out within 48 hours of roasting. Go to blackout coffee.com, promo code PDB for 20% off your first purchase. It's Wednesday, 7 February. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed.

First, House Republicans suffered a major defeat on Tuesday, losing their vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the border crisis. Also, we'll discuss the latest details regarding Hamas' response to the ceasefire plan for Gaza and the Iran-backed militant group's lengthy list of demands. But first, our afternoon spotlight. We begin this afternoon in the U.S., where House Republicans suffered. suffered a major embarrassment Tuesday evening with their controversial attempt to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the border crisis. In a near-party-line vote, the GOP effort

to impeach Mayorkas failed with 214 votes in favor and 216 opposing. The outcome represents a failure for Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who appeared unable to unify Republican caucus members behind the contentious effort. Now, Majorcas has been accused of willfully refusing to enforce U.S. immigration laws, thus facilitating the record levels of illegal immigration occurring at the U.S. border. Ultimately, three Republicans jumped ship and voted no. A fourth Republican, Representative Blank Moore, also switched his vote at the last minute. However, that was a calculated procedural move to enable House Republicans

to bring the impeachment resolution back to the floor at a later date. A tide vote would have permanently ended the effort for some reason. Now, if you're confused over the bizarre rules that govern congressional procedures, it's by design. Politicians often cite the difficulty of understanding the rules that govern legislating as a reason why we can't have nice things like term limits. The reasoning being, well, I need to stay here on Capitol Hill for few. 50 years because it takes that long to become an effective politician, not to mention wealthy.

The House's rejection of impeachment was clinched by the surprise appearance of Democrat Representative Al Green of Texas, surprise, which House Republicans had not anticipated, apparently, due to a recent surgery that Green was having performed. Green reportedly showed up in the chamber fresh from his surgery wearing hospital scrubs. Now, the Democrats are definitely the masters of sticking together, even dragging Representative Green off the surgery table to foil the Republicans. Republican leadership said they now plan to hold another vote when House Majority Leader Steve Scalese returns to Congress. He's currently undergoing cancer treatment that left him unable to attend Tuesday's proceedings, good God, both sides emptying the hospitals in an effort to pass

or defeat legislation. A spokesman for Speaker Johnson said, House Republicans fully intend to bring articles of impeachment against Secretary Majorcas back to the floor when we have the votes for passage, end quote. The dissenting Republicans argued that despite their strong opposition to the Biden administration's border policies, their colleagues were stretching the constitutional authority of the House in pursuing impeachment. Republican Representative Tom McClintock said, quote, the failure of the Biden administration to rein in an open border is a national disgrace, and will be a stain on his presidential legacy. However, he said, the truth is that this is a policy disagreement masked as an impeachment,

end quote. Democrats had protested the impeachment attempt as political theater. Well, that's never happened in D.C. before, and had vowed to quickly reject the effort if it came to the Senate. Tuesday's vote put a spotlight on the razor-thin 219-212-12 majority the Republicans currently have in the House and the party's vulnerability to factional disagreement. That discord was further underlined later Tuesday evening when House Republicans failed to pass a standalone $17.6 billion aid package for Israel.

That package required a two-thirds majority to pass, but failed to garner enough support. Ultimately, 250 members voted in favor with 180 against. Now, I'm not a mathematician, but that's not a two-thirds majority. The 166 Democrats who voted no were joined in this case by 14 Republicans, who had advocated cuts in other areas of the budget to offset the aid funds. Speaker Johnson had opposed Democrat efforts to tie Israeli aid to border security and aid to Ukraine. However, the Democrat caucus stayed united with their counterparts in the Senate, who are pushing a controversial $118 billion package that addresses the U.S.

as well as aid to Israel and Ukraine. That bill, as we discussed earlier on the PDB, is also expected to fail. At this point, it does appear that the politicians in the U.S. House and Senate combined couldn't organize panic in a doomed submarine. Coming up after the break, we'll discuss Hamas' response to the ceasefire plan for Gaza and the militant group's lengthy list of demands. I'll be right back. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon.

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trillion dollar swings, there's a money side to every story. And when you see the money side, you understand what others miss. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. We're receiving more details on Hamas's response to the ceasefire plan supported by the United States. Egypt and Qatar. The response, published in a newspaper aligned with Hezbollah, also an Iranian-backed proxy, suggests a deal that entails a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and aims to end the war in three 45-day phases. The Hamas proposal outlines a 135-day hiatus in hostilities, significantly longer than the six-week period suggested in the U.S. endorsed plan. The ceasefire would commence with a

45-day break, during which Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza would release Israeli civilians, including women, children, and those who are elderly or ill. In return, Hamas demands the liberation of all Palestinian women, children, men over 50, and sick detainees from Israeli prisons, alongside 1,500 male Palestinian prisoners, 500 of whom would be selected by Hamas from those serving life for extensive sentences. Israeli troops would also be required to retreat from populated areas. A second 45-day period would then follow, focusing on the exchange of remaining male Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. The final phase would involve both sides exchanging remains and bodies. The deal would facilitate increased

deliveries of food and other aid to Gaza, and by the conclusion of this one hundred and 135-day fighting pause, Hamas anticipates that negotiations to permanently end the war would be finalized. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's office confirmed on Tuesday that it had received Hamas' response, and they're reviewing it thoroughly. However, it's safe to say that Israel and Hamas remain far apart on key aspects of the deal. Our previous reports noted a lukewarm reception from U.S. President Biden, who described the counterproposal as, quote, a little over the top, end quote. Now, describing Hamas's demands, given that they started this war that nobody except them and Iran wanted, with the brutal 7 October slaughter in southern Israel, as a, quote, little over the top,

well, that's an understatement of epic proportions. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who's currently in the Middle East, in part to whip up support for a deal, acknowledge the challenges ahead in achieving a permanent ceasefire, but emphasized the critical need for lasting peace, indicating that substantial efforts are still required. So, the U.S. Secretary of State made the keen observations that lasting peace is good and a lot of work is required. Not to be cynical, but that's not exactly confidence-inspiring. Despite the platitudes and mumblings about some progress. The reality is, Hamas currently is acting as if they're in the driver's seat. Their list of demands are so beyond doable that they seem designed to ensure the conflict

continues, which frankly is likely what their puppet masters in Iran have instructed. What's not being discussed openly is the fact that no negotiation can resolve the core issue. Israel's objective is to degrade Hamas to the degree that they can never govern Gaza again nor be in a position to carry out future attacks similar to the 7th October attacks, while Hamas and Iran have no intention of letting that happen. Any demands from Hamas that include them playing a role in the future, no matter what that role would be, will scuttle a longer-term ceasefire or agreement. The immediate focus thusly, I'm not sure it's either thus or thusly,

needs to be on short-term pauses, something similar to what was agreed to, during the first pause and the release of hostages. Hamas, though, is counting on pressure from the international community to force Israel to agree to something longer, which creates an opening for them, meaning Hamas, to remain in charge of Gaza. In which case, the only winners in this entire deadly mess would be Hamas and Iran. Violence and instability would continue as they pursue their stated objective of destroying Israel, and the people of Gaza would continue to be governed by a corrupt terrorist crime syndicate that cares more about their Iranian benefactors

than creating a better life for Palestinians. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Wednesday, 7 February. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.