Up First from NPR - Christmas In Bethlehem, Biden's 2024 Campaign, Congress Year Ender

Episode Date: December 25, 2023

Christmas in Bethlehem is somber this year. In the wake of the war in Gaza, church leaders are canceling traditional celebrations. The 2024 presidential election year is upon us and it's promising to be unlike any we've seen before. And, although little legislation was passed this year, Congress has seen plenty of action.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Michael Sullivan, Roberta Rampton, Kelsey Snell and Mohamad ElBardicy. It was produced by Julie Depenbrock and Mansee Khurana. We get engineering support from Phil Edfors. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The streets of Bethlehem are usually bustling with people around Christmas, but with the war in Gaza raging on, this year's traditional celebrations have been cancelled. What does the holiday look like in the Holy Land? I'm Asma Khalid, filling in as host on Up First from NPR News. With 2024 right around the corner, the presidential election campaign is expected to kick into high gear. What can we expect from the candidates? And it's been an eventful year on Capitol Hill, even if little legislation was actually passed. We'll take a look at some of the ongoing drama in a deeply divided Congress.

So stay tuned for all the news you need to start your day. Now Our Change will honour 100 years of the Royal Canadian Air Force and their dedicated service to communities at home and abroad. From the skies to Our Change, this $2 commemorative circulation coin marks their storied past and promising future. Find the limited edition Royal Canadian Air Force $2 coin today. Christmas morning in Bethlehem is somber. Not the usual joyful town with parades and bands in Manger Square. Church leaders canceled celebrations there because of the Israel-Hamas

war. Some Palestinian Christians say they are not celebrating when, according to health officials in Gaza, more than 20,000 people have been killed since Israel began its offensive after the October 7th Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people. Joining us now from Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is NPR's Jason DeRose. Good morning, Jason. Good morning. So what is the scene like in Bethlehem this morning? Well, Christmas cheer is definitely not in the air. There are about 200,000 Palestinian Christians who live in and around Bethlehem, the Galilee region, and Gaza, and usually crowds of them would be packed into Manger Square for

celebrations on Christmas Day. Loudspeakers would be blaring carols. But now the mood is subdued, and Manger Square is essentially deserted this morning. And what have you been hearing from the people that you've spoken with? Those I've spoken with bring up the war immediately. You know, Bethlehem is just 45 miles from Gaza. People here have friends and family there. And they say they just can't celebrate knowing conditions for people there. I met Koudi Zahra in Manger Square. He's a 22-year-old electrical engineering student. In this war, it's really bad days, you know. Even if we make some parties, we are not happy

from our health, you know. But if Jesus is still in our health, like, it will be happy. As he says, it's the parties that are canceled, but people are still observing Christmas as a religious holiday. The Catholic Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity was full. I was at another worship service earlier last evening where the pastor said he wasn't expecting many people, maybe 25 or 30, but instead the church was packed with about 200 people. So many, they were printing extra bulletins as the opening hymn began. In fact, mine was still warm from the printer. Wow. So it sounds like people are finding some solace in those worship ceremonies at this point. I understand, Jason, that the only Christmas decoration in Manger Square

is a nativity this year. Is that right? That's right, but it's not your typical cozy manger scene. It's this destroyed nativity, statues of Mary and Joseph and Jesus encircled by razor wire. There's rubble everywhere, big pieces of broken concrete. The shepherd is turned away in despair. The artist who created this nativity is Tarek Salsa. He says he wanted to show the holy family

as Palestinian refugees oppressed, rejected, displaced. He says pain is there as long as the occupation is there. If the occupation withdraws, then the pain is over. And Jason, outside of Bethlehem, can you fill us in on the latest developments in Israel's war against Hamas? Well, the United Nations says more than 80% of Gaza's population is now displaced. Over the weekend, health officials in Gaza say at least 70 people were killed on Sunday alone. And the Israeli military says it sustained some of its heaviest losses since the war began. Also, the humanitarian crisis continues to worsen. Food is scarce. The

UN says starvation is happening in Gaza. And clean water is a huge problem. The average person uses about 17 liters of water a day right now. The World Food Program says each person in Gaza is getting less than two. That is NPR's Jason DeRose in Bethlehem. Jason, thank you so much for your reporting. You're welcome. The last thing you all probably want to talk about right now is politics. But for those of us who cover this all the time, it's clear a presidential election year is upon us. And 2024 is promising to be like no campaign we have experienced so far. My friend and colleague and peer senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith is following the Biden campaign and joins us now with a preview of the year ahead. Good morning, my friend.

Hey, Asma. So the campaign is still in its early stages, but what can you tell us about how Biden plans to run based on the kinds of things that he's been doing? Well, we've all seen polls showing Biden may have serious trouble with younger voters and voters of color. They are turned off from politics and in some cases disillusioned. So the Biden campaign is already spending money on advertising directed to Black and Latino voters in key swing states. And part of that is trying to figure out which messages will work and how to get them to people. Not a lot of them are likely to vote for Trump or a Republican, but they could stay home or vote for a third party candidate. And the Biden campaign needs to get them engaged. So they do vote and vote for Biden. So how does what we are seeing now compare to Barack Obama's reelection campaign in 2012? Well, they had a ton of people out in the field, organizers in these key states. The Biden campaign just doesn't have that yet. And that makes some Democrats nervous.

But the Biden team says they have to do things differently because the way people get information has changed so dramatically since then. And they have begun announcing some new hires in swing states. Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada will be talking about them a lot in the year to come. And we can expect to see more of that. Interestingly, they also have staff now in South Carolina. That's a state that is definitely going to go Republican in the general election, but it holds the first officially sanctioned Democratic primary of the year in early February. And the Biden team wants to win. Yeah. Tam, you and I hear the president talk every day trying to convince voters to give him credit for the policies that he has enacted during his time in office. How do you us have been hearing some of this in campaign fundraisers already, where he is refining his stump speech, talking about the stakes in 2024. These are off camera, but here's a taste from a recent Boston fundraiser.

The audio is a little hard to hear because it was filmed on a phone by someone in the audience. Donald Trump poses a lot of threats to our country, from the right to choose, health care overall, America's standing in the world. But the greatest threat he poses at all is towards our very democracy, he says. In these remarks, he talks about Trump's authoritarian language and his promise of retribution. The Biden team expects this election will be incredibly close, especially in those swing states. So, Tam, let's go back to where our conversation started in terms of what makes this such an unusual election cycle. First, there are essentially two incumbents, President Biden and, unless something dramatic changes, former President Trump, who still claims falsely that the last election was stolen from him. To be blunt,

both are older than any president elected to a second term. They are also really unpopular, and a large share of voters say they are not looking forward to a rematch. Then you have Trump's indictments, and House Republicans have now voted to formally open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. His son is facing tax evasion and gun charges. All of this just introduces a massive amount of uncertainty. All right. A lot to keep an eye on. NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, thanks so much. You're welcome. Lawmakers have fled Washington and Congress has officially wrapped up its business for the year. It was a year full of drama, fraught with fights over the speakership and government funding. A lot happened, even if little legislation was actually passed.

NPR congressional reporter Eric McDaniel is here to help us make sense of the year that was and set expectations for the year ahead. Eric, it's great to have you with us. Hey there, Asma. How should we break down what happened in 2023? I think we can do it with three Fs. We've got fired, we've got fraud, and we've got funding. Where do you want to start? Let's start with fired. And I assume that you're talking about the former Speaker of the House here, Kevin McCarthy. That is right. The California Republican, he became the first ever Speaker of the House to be axed by his colleagues. Eight Republicans, if you remember, with a mixture of personal and policy disagreements with McCarthy, chose to remove him from the top job. Then after the weeks of turmoil it took to replace him, he decided to quit Congress altogether, leaving his successor, Mike Johnson, with an even smaller majority to pass bills.

And someone else was notably fired, but let's go ahead and save him for the fraud section. I'm going to take a wild guess here and assume that you're referring to George Santos from New York. That is right. We're talking about a first term New York Republican in the House. Colleagues ousted him after three tries from Congress last month. That came after he was exposed by The New York Times for lying extensively about his background and then later indicted by federal prosecutors for various financial crimes mostly connected with his campaign. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is the

first congressperson ever ousted other than Confederate sympathizers without having been fully convicted of a crime. Also in the fraud section here over in the Senate, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey is facing criminal charges. He and his wife were charged over allegedly accepting luxury goods and large sums of money and gold bars in exchange for committing corrupt acts, prosecutors say, including providing sensitive information to the government of Egypt. They have both pled not guilty, and the senator has so far refused to resign. So, Eric, I believe this leaves us with your final F of the year, that is funding. How do you want to explain that to us?

So they haven't been able to pass the 12 annual federal spending bills. Instead, they passed two short-term extensions, the most recent of which will expire in two stages next year. That's January 19th and February 2nd. Our government shut down deadlines now. That is, of course, unless Mike Johnson can unite his House Republicans in a way he hasn't been able to so far. Yeah. Eric, I actually was just thinking of one more F, foreign aid. That's another major issue that seems unresolved as we wrap up the year. Right. That's another F. So it's been a year since Congress approved any military aid to Ukraine. They're currently negotiating in the Senate, even though they're on break on a big combined

aid package that includes Israel and the Indo-Pacific as well. And also, kind of strangely, immigration policy reform. Right now, a record number of migrants are crossing the border, often in excess of 10,000 people each day seeking asylum. That negotiation has been all extremely slow going, though Senate negotiators, I'm told, are still working by the light of their holiday decor over Zoom. We should know more by early January. We jest, but it's all very serious issues. And PR's Eric McDaniel, thank you so much. Thanks, Asma.

And that's Up First for Monday, December 25th. Merry Christmas. I'm Asma Khalid. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Michael Sullivan, Roberta Rampton, Kelsey Snell, and Mohamed El-Bardisi. It was produced by Julie Deppenbrock and Manzi Khurana. We get engineering support from Phil Edfors, and our technical director is Zach Coleman. Start your day here with us again tomorrow. Thanks for listening to Up First. You can find more in-depth coverage of the stories we talked about today and lots, lots more on NPR's Morning Edition. That's the radio show that Steve Inskeep, Leila Fadal, Michelle Martin, and A. Martinez host.

Find Morning Edition on your local NPR station at stations.npr.org.