The Excerpt podcast: Ohio passes abortion ballot measure, Democrats win in Virginia

On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: From ballot measures to governor's races - it was a busy off-year election. The Israel-Hamas War reaches its one-month point. USA TODAY Congress, Campaigns and Democracy Reporter Ken Tran explains what lawmakers are working on to try and avoid a government shutdown. WeWork files for bankruptcy. USA TODAY National Political Correspondent David Jackson looks at Donald Trump's strategy to keep skipping presidential debates.

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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Wednesday, November 8th, 2023. This is The Excerpt, formerly 5 Things. Today we recap a busy election day nationwide, plus the Israel-Hamas war has reached its one-month point, and we have the latest as lawmakers try to again avoid a government shutdown.

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Americans from coast to coast voted in yesterday's off-year election, including controversial ballot measures, competitive governor's races, and more. Democrats had several victories last night. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear was reelected, beating out Republican challenger Daniel Cameron, and Democrats in Virginia won control of the State Senate and House of Delegates, taking the latter majority back from Republicans. President Joe Biden fared better than Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. Biden had endorsed 23 Virginia Democrats against Youngkin-backed Republicans. By midnight, 16 of the races had been called, and all but one were wins for Biden's picks. Biden also hailed Ohio's approval of a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights. Meanwhile, Republicans won in Mississippi as Governor Tate Reeves won reelection, defeating Democratic challenger Brandon Presley. The race was unusually competitive for the GOP stronghold, but Reeves won in part by casting Presley as a liberal backed by out-of-state donors, out of touch with Mississippi. You can read more from election day with our recaps on usatoday.com.

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At the one-month point of the Israel-Hamas war, Israel's military says its troops have entered Gaza City, and are in the midst of a ground operation against Hamas militants. Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007. A Hamas spokesman denied that Israeli troops had reached deep into Gaza City, and said many of them had been killed. Neither side's claims could be verified. The pace of Palestinian civilians fleeing the combat zone in northern Gaza is picking up. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said yesterday that about 15,000 people fled yesterday, compared to 5,000 on Monday and 2,000 on Sunday. The densely populated northern part of the territory has been a focus of Israel's push to crush Hamas in the wake of a Hamas attack in Israel last month. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, in an interview with ABC News that aired Monday, that Israel will have "overall security responsibility" in Gaza for an indefinite period after the war ends. It was the first time Israel's leader publicly shed light on his apparent long-term plan for Gaza.

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Another government shutdown is looming, bringing an immediate challenge for Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who began his speakership late last month. I spoke with USA Today Congress, Campaigns and Democracy reporter Ken Tran for the latest from Capitol Hill. Ken, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt.

Ken:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So, House Republicans are working to try and avoid another looming government shutdown, and new House Speaker Mike Johnson has offered three options to fellow Republicans. Ken, one would be a so-called continuing resolution, Congress avoided a shutdown last time in September by passing one of these. Could you remind us what that is, and what chance does it have as a solution this time around?

Ken:

So, Congress right now has nine days to avert a government shutdown. To fund the government, Congress has to pass a long-term package. Right now they're focusing on doing 12 appropriation bills. Each bill is designed to target a specific government function. But with little time remaining, it's not feasible for both the House and Senate to pass the bills, come together, negotiate a compromise, and then fund the government. So, they will have to do what is called a continuing resolution, which is a short-term stop-gap measure, which will keep the government funded at current levels. Any solution is going to be some variant of the continuing resolution. Really, the debate right now is just how would they do it.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. You also wrote about this possible laddered approach. Can you walk us through what this resolution would look like?

Ken:

A laddered continuing resolution is a fairly new approach on Congress. This laddered approach has been brought about and is strongly supported by some of the more conservative House Republicans in Congress, namely some Freedom Caucus members. A standard continuing resolution would fund all aspects of the government up until a certain deadline. That could be either a month, a few weeks, two months, depends on how long Congress wants to do it. But a laddered continuing resolution would specifically target certain bills, so it would fund different functions of the government up until certain deadlines. So, the plan right now for House Republicans, if they do want to go with the laddered approach, is that four out of the 12 bills would fund the government until the middle of December, and the other eight would fund the government until the middle of January. Critics of the plan say the plan is overly complicated, and they think that they should keep it simple and just do one package to avert a shutdown.

Taylor Wilson:

And Ken, there's also the possibility of negotiating with the Democratic controlled Senate. Where does this strategy stand right now?

Ken:

This strategy is looking like the least likely of the solutions to fund the government, namely because House Republicans want to push their own proposal first, see what they can get out of their own conference. Eventually they will have to negotiate with the Senate if they produce something that the Senate's not a fan of, but they'd rather push something on their own right now to strengthen their negotiating position and say, "Here's what we did. We need you to push something forward. Let's fund the government."

Taylor Wilson:

Ken, Speaker Mike Johnson is new on the job, relatively new, and has inherited a really fractured caucus. How eager do other lawmakers seem to be to work with him at this point?

Ken:

Something important to note is that former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy faced a lot of backlash throughout his entire tenure as Speaker from the more conservative lawmakers. One of the reasons why he was removed as Speaker is because he put forward a clean continuing resolution that kept the government funded, exactly at current levels, on the house floor. He got removed for that. And new Speaker Mike Johnson might do that, and the conservatives are more open to keeping him in office, because they say that he deserves a little grace period to adjust to the job.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Ken Tran, great insight as always. Thank you, Ken.

Ken:

Thanks for having me.

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Taylor Wilson:

WeWork has filed for bankruptcy. The office-sharing company filed for Chapter 11 protection in New Jersey federal court on Monday, just years after being valued at $47 billion. The filing is limited to the company's locations in the US and Canada, and as part of what WeWork is calling a comprehensive reorganization of the business. Part of that plan includes reducing its number of office leases. WeWork was founded in 2010 providing office and co-working space, and the company was made infamous last year with the Apple TV series called WeCrashed. The drama followed co-founder Adam Neumann and wife Rebekah Neumann, along with the company's roller coaster rise and fall. WeWork attempted to go public in 2019, when it was worth nearly $50 billion, but nearly went bankrupt weeks later. Adam Neumann stepped down as CEO shortly thereafter, and the company eventually went public in 2021.

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Republican presidential candidates will face off tonight in Miami for the third GOP primary debate, but the stage will be a little less crowded this time around. The Republican National Committee announced that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott qualified for the debate. And once again, Republican front-runner Donald Trump is skipping the debate. I spoke with USA Today national political correspondent David Jackson about Trump's strategy of skipping debates, and whether he'll be able to stay off the stage for much longer. David, thanks for making the time.

David:

Thank you.

Taylor Wilson:

So, how has Donald Trump benefited from skipping debates so far?

David:

He hasn't seen any decline in his poll numbers. In fact, they're slightly up since the debate started back in late August. So, if something that doesn't hurt you is automatically a benefit, but he's also benefited from the fact that he's kind of isolated his opponents. He's made them look kind of small-time by his own absence, and that also seems to have helped, at least among Republican voters.

Taylor Wilson:

So, we know he's skipping this next debate tonight. What is Trump doing instead of attending the debate?

David:

He's trying to host a big rally in Hialeah, Florida, which is right next door to Miami. It's about 10 miles from the actual debate site. So, he's coming to the actual doorstep of the Republican debates to protest them, and he's just hoping for a traditional [inaudible 00:09:06] they're trying to round up a big crowd. I don't know how successful they're going to be, but the idea is to draw more people and better ratings for his rally than for the debate. And he's going to use the opportunity to say that the Republicans should cancel future debates, shouldn't have them any more.

Taylor Wilson:

Have they responded to that kind of talk at all, David?

David:

Not directly, but they've responded with their actions. They keep scheduling debates. Earlier this week, they actually scheduled the next debate for the University of Alabama on, I think, December 5th. So, they've actually gone ahead and they're going to hold at least one more. And they've also made it clear that they're planning to hold debates in Iowa and New Hampshire right before the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. That's where the rubber's going to hit the road in terms of Trump's behavior, because it's going to be awfully hard for them to skip those debates without risking alienating voters in some key early states. So, that's what we're really waiting on, to see if he maintains this posture right up until people actually start to vote.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. What is the difference there, David? I mean, we know this strategy has worked out for him so far. Why might it be tougher for him in these upcoming debates in Iowa and New Hampshire?

David:

Because he'll actually be connected to people voting. I mean, the Iowa caucuses are January 15th, and the Republicans want to hold the debate the week before that, so there'll be a great proximity to the debate and people actually voting. And there's also some history here. Donald Trump skipped an Iowa debate a week before the caucuses in 2016, and people forget he actually lost those caucuses to Ted Cruz. Snubbing the debate was considered a very big factor in that loss, so it's going to be a hard decision for him when that debate actually rolls around in Iowa as to whether to attend or not.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. David Jackson, thanks as always.

David:

Thank you, sir.

Taylor Wilson:

Tonight's debate is set for 8:00 PM Eastern Time and will air on NBC.

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Thanks for listening. A reminder, if you have any comments, you can always find us at [email protected], and you can get The Excerpt wherever you get your podcasts. If you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt.