Strolling Toward a Shutdown

Happy Friday! We’ve got some bittersweet personnel news to report, as today is Esther’s last day with TMD. As bummed as we are to be saying goodbye to a colleague and a friend, we’ll be rooting for her as she pursues her dream of joining the State Department as a foreign service officer.

Thanks for all your hard work, Esther—we’ll make sure your appreciation for Taylor Swift, the Federal Reserve, and the great state of Maine lives on.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• President Joe Biden is meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol today at Camp David, the first time since 2015 a president has received world leaders at the Maryland retreat. The trilateral summit is indicative of the warming relations between Tokyo and Seoul, united against the shared threats of China and North Korea. The leaders are expected to announce increased intelligence-sharing about threats like North Korean missiles and establish a three-way crisis hotline, as well as regular joint military exercises.
• The Biden administration approved the transfer of training materials for F-16 fighter jets to Denmark so Ukrainian pilots can train on the American jets. The administration also gave assurances to Denmark and the Netherlands that the U.S. will “expedite” approval of the transfer of the jets themselves to Ukraine. However, Kyiv does not expect them to arrive in time to aid the current counteroffensive, which according to U.S. intelligence obtained by the Washington Post, will likely fail to meet its objective of reaching the southeastern city of Melitopol and severing Russia’s land bridge to Crimea.
• Israeli officials said Thursday that the U.S. granted approval for them to sell the Arrow 3 air-defense missile system to Germany in a $3.5 billion deal, the largest arms deal in Israeli history. Germany will make the purchase as part of the European Sky Shield—a multilateral effort to set up a ballistic missile defense shield in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
• President Biden announced Thursday that White House Counsel Stuart Delery will leave his post in the coming weeks after holding the job for a little more than a year. Delery was a key architect of the administration’s student loan forgiveness plan struck down by the Supreme Court, and has spent much of this year responding to congressional investigations. Biden has not yet named Delery’s replacement.
• Prosecutors charged a Texas woman with threatening to kill the judge overseeing special counsel Jack Smith’s case against former President Donald Trump regarding efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The woman called Judge Tanya Chutkan’s chambers and left a voicemail threatening to kill her if Trump isn’t reelected, according to the criminal complaint. The caller also threatened to kill Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, all Democrats in D.C., and all people in the LGBTQ community. Meanwhile, the Fulton CountySheriff’s Office said Thursday it was investigating online threats made against some of the grand jurors who voted to indict former Trump and 18 co-defendants earlier this week in Georgia. The names of all of the grand jurors were released as part of the 98-page indictment, as is required by Georgia law—in most states and in the federal system, grand jurors remain anonymous. 
• Wildfires in Canada’s Northwest Territories have prompted the evacuation of Yellowknife, the province’s capital, in recent days, with authorities ordering 20,000 residents to leave their homes by Friday. Most of Canada’s 1,000 wildfires are burning out of control, and smoke from the blazes has once again threatened to blanket regions stretching from the Midwest to New York with poor air quality this weekend.
• Sixty-three people are presumed dead after a migrant boat was discovered this week adrift off the coast of West Africa near Cape Verde. Authorities rescued 38 people from the vessel, but 56 people were missing since the boat began its voyage from Senegal more than a month ago, and seven bodies were recovered from the boat. Cape Verde lies along a migrant route to the Canary Islands—a Spanish-controlled territory seen as a pathway to migrating to Europe.

Shutdown Looming?

With Congress increasingly unable to see through even the most rudimentary of tasks without a ruckus (even electing a speaker is a tall task these days), we know it can feel like political doomsayers prophesy a government shutdown every year. But with only six weeks to go until the end of the current fiscal year—and Congress on August recess until after Labor Day—it’s becoming harder and harder each day to picture any other outcome.

When the House returns to Washington on September 5, members have a long few weeks ahead of them: Speaker Kevin McCarthy has vowed to pass all 12 individual spending bills through committee, a feat Congress hasn’t achieved on time since 1977. In the 45 years since, Congress has opted instead for omnibus spending packages, packaging together all the smaller bills for easier passage. To earn the support of some Republican holdouts earlier this year, however, McCarthy promised a return to regular order.

The transition has been a little choppy. The Senate has gotten all 12 of its bills through committee markups, but none of those has been taken up yet on the floor, while the House has gotten 10 of its bills through committee and thus far passed one, approving the military construction and VA bill last month along party lines.

Worth Your Time

• Ryan Burge, a pastor and political science professor in Illinois, argues in the Wall Street Journal that churches are increasingly suffering the consequences of the ‘big sort’—the trend of Americans self-segregating socially, economically, and even geographically. “Neighborhoods, schools and workplaces turned out to offer very little economic diversity,” he writes. “The one venue that did was houses of worship. But as American religion is increasingly dominated by educated, middle-class worshipers, the likelihood that a person facing financial struggles will show up for services is growing smaller by the year. Being economically and educationally stratified means that houses of worship are becoming more politically homogeneous as well. If someone walked into an average Protestant or Catholic church in the 1980s, they were just as likely to sit next to a Democrat as a Republican. That’s no longer the case: In almost all majority-white Protestant churches, political conservatives dramatically outnumber those who are left of center. In 1978, 50 percent of white weekly churchgoers were Democrats and 40 percent were Republicans. Today, 60 percent identify as Republicans and just 25 percent as Democrats.” 
• Today is former first lady Rosalynn Carter’s 96th birthday. After former President Jimmy Carter was placed in hospice care earlier this year, the pair will celebrate together at their home in Plains, Georgia. “Jimmy Carter is often out of bed first, waiting in his recliner for his wife to emerge,” Mary Jordan writes for the Washington Post. “‘Rosalynn comes in the room and makes a beeline for this chair and bends over and kisses him,’ said Jill Stuckey, a close friend. They spend many hours sitting side by side. Jimmy Carter has now lived longer than any other U.S. president. The couple’s 77-year marriage is in the presidential record books, too. ‘Never count Jimmy Carter out,’ said Gerald Rafshoon, who was Carter’s White House spokesman. ‘When he sets a goal, he gets there.’ Rafshoon and others believe a key reason the Carters keep going is that neither wants to leave the other. It was Carter’s unwillingness to leave Rosalynn home alone that led to his February decision to opt out of any more ‘medical intervention,’ a close family member said. Jimmy Carter, who had survived melanoma that had spread to the brain as well as injuries from several falls, said he wouldn’t go to the hospital anymore.”

Presented Without Comment

FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan: “When you have somebody with a good idea and a viable business built around that good idea, but the market is not rewarding that good idea, it suggests that something is broken in the market and that there may be a competition problem.”

Also Presented Without Comment

New York Times: Defend Trump and ‘Hammer’ Ramaswamy: DeSantis Allies Reveal Debate Strategy

Also Also Presented Without Comment

Politico: Donald Trump Calls Off Press Conference Where He Said He Would Share Report on Georgia Election Fraud Claims

Toeing the Company Line

• Reminder: Dispatch members within driving distance of Milwaukee can register here for Tuesday’s pre-GOP debate happy hour with Steve, Drucker, and Audrey—two drink tickets on us. Space is limited, so be sure to sign up soon—and invite any friends who might be interested in becoming a member!
• Reminder: We’re hiring! Perhaps related to Esther’s news at the top, we’re looking to bring on an editor to work on the Morning Dispatch. If you think you’re the person for the job, click here!
• In the newsletters: In Boiling Frogs (members only) Nick argues that Donald Trump’s rivals have squandered their chance to make an electability argument against the former president.
• On the podcasts: Chris joins Sarah and Jonah on this week’s Dispatch Podcast to preview the upcoming GOP primary debate. 
• On the site: Kevin completes the Dispatch trilogy on why small-dollar political donations are a problem, Price explains what systematic reviews of gender-transition treatment have found, and Gabriel Malor analyzes Fani Willis’ RICO charge against Trump & Co.