POLITICO NIGHTLY: The congressman who wouldn’t leave

 

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BY ELANA SCHOR

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) speaks with reporters as he departs his office on Capitol Hill today. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

BIG JIM ENERGY — Think of today’s tumult over the resignation calls now besieging Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) as a preview of further tribulations likely to confront Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s fractious House GOP.

After McCarthy’s conference openly debated Santos’ future role in the wake of what looks like extensive fabrications of his personal and professional history, the speaker said his fraud-plagued freshman wouldn’t be seated on high-profile committees. But with some of McCarthy’s members pushing for Santos to get no assignments at all, the tough questions are likely to continue.

Which brings us to Jim Fouts.

Most people on Capitol Hill have never heard of the four-term mayor of Warren, Mich. But they should start reading up on Fouts, who’s both a cautionary tale and a north star for House Republicans as they navigate the often-harsh glare of newly acquired power.

It’s tough to fit Fouts’ most eyebrow-raising moves since taking office into a single sentence, but here goes, in no order of significance: He’s been embroiled for two years running in legal battles with his own city council over alleged misuse of the budget; blamed “dirty politics” for scrutiny of the salary bump given to a young aide filmed holding hands with him; and insisted his voice was fabricated on recordings that appeared to capture him making viciously racist, misogynist remarks.

Oh, and he’s moving toward a run for a fifth term despite a term-limits law passed in 2020 that would seem to prohibit that . If he does, Fouts has a real shot at winning.

How has he hung on to power for so long? The mayor of Detroit’s biggest suburb is a living testament to the strange but enduring political power of being unsympathetic. He’s entered every one of the plentiful fights he’s picked with a dogged belief in the inferiority of his critics’ arguments. Those opponents don’t have to like it — and they most certainly do not, per local reporting — but Fouts refuses to give an inch.

And if McCarthy’s slim majority wants to survive the next two years of internal elbow-throwing and external maneuvering around the Democratic president and Senate, they’d do well to borrow Fouts’ energy.

Until McCarthy makes a firm decision on Santos, the questions will keep coming. So WWJFD (What Would Jim Fouts Do) in this case? The mayor would likely dig in to defend the most politically expedient position — which, in this case, is letting Santos stay in his swing seat for as long as McCarthy needs his vote in the chamber’s thin majority.

Democrats can and will seek to pin Santos’ notoriety on McCarthy, but the Foutsian move would be to push on past any pressure, regardless of its relative substance. Indeed, Fouts treats his most serious court battles over city spending with the same stone-faced gravity as a Christmastime prank in which pictures were publicly posted with his face transposed on the Grinch’s.

So no one should be surprised if McCarthy’s conference treats the Santos scandal, and the next chaotic drama that is bound to engulf it (remember former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.)?) with Foutsian commitment to the most politically beneficial position.

There’s always a risk of handing attack-ad or viral-video fodder to the opposition — and looking, for lack of a better word, shameless about tough moments — but Fouts is proof that digging in works, more often than not. McCarthy himself arguably personified a similar sort of tenacity by refusing to back down during the 15 tense ballots of last week’s speaker election.

Be prepared to watch the House GOP, from the speaker to Santos on down, grind their heels in even further for the rest of this Congress.

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at eschor@politico.com or on Twitter at @eschor .

WHAT'D I MISS?

— Biden aides find second batch of classified documents: Aides to President Joe Biden have recovered at least one additional batch of classified documents at a location other than the Washington, D.C. office the president used after his departure from the Obama administration, NBC News reported . The classification level, number and precise location of the documents recovered today is not immediately clear. The discovery comes after the revelation of a separate batch of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center on Monday, which prompted aides to search for any other classified documents that need to be turned over to the National Archives and reviewed by the Justice Department.

— House GOP makes first official moves on Hunter Biden probe: Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) is readying his probe into President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and other Biden family members . Comer sent letters to three former Twitter employees: James Baker, former Twitter deputy general counsel; Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former global head of trust and safety; and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s former chief legal officer, asking they attend a hearing the week of Feb. 6. Specifically, he wants officials to explain what was behind the company’s decision in 2020 to block users from sharing coverage of Hunter Biden’s business dealings. Comer is giving them until Jan. 18 to confirm their attendance with committee staff.

— Santos refuses to resign amid calls from local N.Y. GOP: Rep. George Santos refused to resign today despite a parade of local party and elected officials demanding he step down . Officials from across Santos’ Long Island district and beyond gathered at the headquarters of the Nassau County Republican Committee to offer biting critiques. They also pledged to cut Santos’ local support system off at the knees after he fabricated much of his resume and backstory during a successful congressional campaign last year. With so many speakers pledging to ice out Santos and deny him support for any reelection campaign, today's announcement cemented that any future bid by Santos to stay in the seat would be incredibly difficult.

— SCOTUS: New York gun laws can stay in place, for now: New York’s concealed carry restrictions can be enforced as legal challenges continue , the Supreme Court said. The short, unsigned decision issued today deferred to an appeals court that held off on blocking several portions of the law amid requests from the state. The Supreme Court last summer struck down New York’s requirement that applicants show good cause to carry concealed firearms in a landmark decision affecting gunholder restrictions across the nation.

AROUND THE WORLD

Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil in October. | Pool photo by Bruna Prado

SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s tenure as a Florida man may soon come to an end, writes David Kihara.

Bolsonaro, who has been staying at a house in the Orlando, Fla., area since December after losing his reelection bid last year, told CNN’s Brazilian affiliate Tuesday that he plans to return to Brazil sooner than his scheduled late January departure.

“I came to stay until the end of the month, but I intend to bring forward my return,” he said, adding that he wanted to go back to see his doctors after he was hospitalized in Florida for abdominal pain.

Bolsonaro’s comments come as lawmakers in the U.S. have called for his ouster from America after thousands of his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia, the Brazilian capitol, objecting to the former president’s defeat by smashing windows and setting off fireworks from the roof of the nation’s Congress. Bolsonaro, who contested the October election results, said the protesters crossed a line with their violent conduct.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D.-N.Y.) and Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) called on the Biden administration to kick Bolsonaro out of the country while Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told POLITICO that the U.S. should comply with any valid extradition request from Brazil to return Bolsonaro.

NIGHTLY NUMBER

138 percent The percentage of rainwater that has fallen on California , compared to the average for this time of year, after big storms across the state in recent days. The rain has alleviated some drought pressure in California, as reservoirs are filling up, but most remain below their historical averages, in particular in Northern California.

RADAR SWEEP

MIC DROP — The podcasting world is bracing for financial turbulence in the year 2023 with hundreds involved with the industry voicing concerns over layoffs, consolidations, shuttered shows and studio closures . Part of the problem is large media companies like Spotify and IHeartMedia, which dominate the space with extravagant financial investments, according to those surveyed. One producer said the sector’s financial instability “will force some shows to close and perhaps nudge us closer to a reckoning of what a podcast really is for and how its success is measured.” Read Nicholas Quah ’s deep dive for Vulture.

PARTING WORDS

People sit at a luggage pick-up at JFK airport today in New York City. Thousands of flights throughout the country were grounded after the Federal Aviation Administration suffered a computer outage. | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

GROUNDED — As of this 5 p.m. EST, more than 9,000 flights have been delayed or canceled due to a Federal Aviation Administration system failure this morning , which left passengers stranded and hastened calls for reform. Republicans responded by going after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for mismanagement, write Tanya Snyder and Lauren Gardner .

The cause of the computer system failure, which led to the most widespread U.S. aviation shutdown in more than two decades, remains unknown. The system in question ensures that pilots have updated information about critical safety items such as closed runways or airports.

Buttigieg told CNN today that flights were grounded because of “irregularities in the messages that were going out [overnight] that reflected a bigger systems issue.” By morning, “there were still problems validating that the messages were going out,” so the FAA issued a ground stop for airplanes lasting “about an hour and a half” as a safety precaution.

The sudden failure of the system came just weeks after Southwest Airlines delayed and canceled thousands of flights during the Christmas holiday week due to its own computer breakdowns. It places Buttigieg firmly in sight for a newly emboldened House Republican conference eager to pound the Biden administration over its policies. And it comes as the FAA lacks a Senate-confirmed administrator, following former chief Steve Dickson’s resignation in March.

“Today’s failure of the FAA has wreaked havoc across the country,” said Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.). “The past year has made clear that significant improvements across the aviation system are needed. We will aggressively pursue accountability and craft reforms that focus on enhancing the passenger experience.”

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