The Contemptuous Merrick Garland
Plus: The Federal Reserve considers an interest rate cut, its chairman considers persistently high inflation, housing pops up on the National Mall, and more...
Republicans hold Merrick Garland in contempt. This has long been true, but on Wednesday the GOP-controlled House of Representatives made it official.
In a near-total party-line vote, with only Rep. Dave Joyce (R–Ohio) crossing the aisle, House Republicans voted to hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress for refusing to release recordings of an interview President Joe Biden did with Special Counsel Robert Hur as part of the president's classified documents case.
Back in February, Hur controversially declined to prosecute Biden for keeping classified documents at his private residence, much to the chagrin of Republicans who claimed a partisan double standard. Former President Donald Trump is currently being prosecuted for keeping classified documents at his home.
In a report on why he declined to prosecute Biden, Hur cited the president's failing memory and confused answers he'd given during an interview he'd done with the special counsel.
Hur's report set off a wave of speculation that Biden's mental faculties were in serious decline. Republicans have since been clamoring for full recordings of Biden's interview with Hur to be released.
Garland did make transcripts of the interview available. But on the last day he had to comply with a House subpoena for audio recordings of that interview, the White House declined to give up the recordings, citing executive privilege, reported the Associated Press.
Republicans, in voting to hold Garland in contempt, argued that a cover-up was afoot.
"There's only one reason why the attorney general would do that. He doesn't want us to hear it. That's why," said Rep. Chip Roy (R–Texas) on the House floor Wednesday, reported Fox News. "And there's really only two reasons why that would be the case—either the transcript doesn't match the audio, or the audio is so bad that he doesn't want us to hear it."
Garland, for his part, has dismissed the whole affair as a partisan witch hunt.
"It is deeply disappointing that this House of Representatives has turned a serious congressional authority into a partisan weapon. Today's vote disregards the constitutional separation of powers, the Justice Department's need to protect its investigations, and the substantial amount of information we have provided to the Committees," he said in a statement.
An interest rate cut? Yesterday's relatively mild inflation report raised the hopes of the nation's borrowers that interest rates too might begin to fall. The Federal Reserve has repeatedly hiked interest rates over the past two years to try to get stubbornly high inflation in check, raising the costs of credit across the economy.
With inflation falling, analysts have been predicting that the central bank might cut rates. Yet Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gave rate-cutting enthusiasts only modest cause for optimism.
"We've made pretty good progress on inflation," said Powell yesterday according to The Wall Street Journal, calling Wednesday's report "a step in the right direction…but you don't want to be too motivated by any single data point."
At their policy meeting yesterday, Federal Reserve officials kept interest rates the same for the time being. They also scheduled only a single interest rate cut this year.
Inflation staying up? Given the clamor to cut interest rates, the question going forward is whether the Fed will continue to try to bring inflation back down to its annual 2 percent target (annual inflation is 3.3 percent right now). In remarks yesterday, Powell gave some indication that he and the Fed might tolerate an inflation rate higher than 2 percent.
The Fed chairman said that if Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) inflation was closer to 3 percent, that was "a good place."
*POWELL: IF YOU'RE AT 2.6, 2.7% PCE INFLATION, THAT'S GOOD PLACE https://t.co/rxgMs9e121
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 12, 2024
That's got inflation hawks worried that we're entering a new era of persistently higher consumer prices. The difference between 2 percent and 3 percent inflation might not sound like a lot, but over time it makes a big difference.
2% annual inflation means 21.9% inflation over a decade. 2.7% annual inflation means 30.5% inflation over a decade. That's a huge difference and we shouldn't not be satisfied with it.
(They want us to tolerate higher inflation because it makes federal deficit spending easier.) https://t.co/N23KjkCpt8
— David Ditch (@DavidADitch) June 12, 2024
Writes Dominic Pino over at National Review, "Jerome Powell has staked the Fed's credibility on a return to 2 percent inflation. Some have argued he should raise the inflation target to 3 percent, but he has declined to do so. To go back on that now would signal that he doesn't have what it takes to stand up for independent monetary policy that seeks price stability."
Scenes from Washington, D.C.
Over the weekend, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development hosted its annual Innovative Housing Showcase on the National Mall to highlight "innovative and affordable housing designs and technologies that have the potential to increase housing supply [and] lower the cost of construction."
Affordable housing popping up in such a great, amenity-rich neighborhood was truly a sight to behold.
Yesterday I toured some new homes that just went up on the National Mall. Good downtown location. Quiet at night. Easy access to museums and Blue/Orange/Silver Lines pic.twitter.com/2VKGBQb4Ux
— ◥◤Kriston Capps (@kristoncapps) June 11, 2022
But it was too good to last. With the showcase now over, this temporary housing will be dismantled and the mall turned back over to tourists, nondenominational tent revivals, and softball players.
QUICK HITS
- Congressional Republicans eye tax cuts should they regain full control of Congress in November, reports Politico.
- At the G-7 summit in Italy today, Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are slated to sign a 10-year security agreement promising long-term U.S. support to the embattled country.
- Nathan Wade, formerly part of the team of Fulton County, Georgia, prosecutors bringing the election fraud case against Trump until it was revealed he was in a relationship with his boss Fani Willis, is interrupted by his "media consultant" during a live interview on CNN.
Watch the moment Nathan Wade's team interrupted him mid-interview with @kaitlancollins, as the former Fulton County prosecutor was talking about his romantic relationship with D.A. Fani Willis. pic.twitter.com/BP5KTB5aUM
— TheSourceCNN (@TheSourceCNN) June 13, 2024
- The war on weed is back in full swing in New York City, where the cops are cracking down on unlicensed pot shops.
- Speaking of illegal drugs, Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) issued some interesting criticism of the Justice Department's successful prosecution of Hunter Biden for purchasing a firearm while also being a drug user. If it can get the younger Biden on that charge, it can get the millions of marijuana users who also own guns, argued Massie.
- Rumors of an Amazon tribe's newfound porn addiction have been greatly exaggerated.
