Sanders backs progressive challenger to Thanedar
Sanders announced his support for Michigan state Rep. Donavan McKinney (D) on Tuesday, giving him his second congressional endorsement after Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) endorsed him last month. Sanders said in a statement that McKinney understands the struggles that working class communities are facing in Detroit and across the country because he's experienced them himself.
'A former union leader, he has dedicated his life to standing with working people, and is ready to lead the struggle against Donald Trump, the oligarchy, and the corporate interests who prioritize profits over people,' Sanders said. 'I'm urging all Michiganders to join me in supporting Donavan's campaign.'
Progressives are targeting Thanedar after he fended off a primary challenge last year despite facing heightened scrutiny from the left. But they're hoping to be successful this time in Michigan's 13th Congressional District.
McKinney has gone after Thanedar over his significant wealth and is seeking to depict him as an out-of-touch millionaire. He compared the two-term congressman to President Trump and Elon Musk in his campaign launch video and slammed the large amounts of money he lent himself during his last campaign.
'Senator Sanders has long been a progressive champion for working class Americans, and I am honored to receive his endorsement,' McKinney said in a statement. 'His political courage and his commitment to doing the right thing — even when it's unpopular, even when it's hard, even if he's alone — are a true inspiration to me, as is his commitment to fighting for a more just, more equal America.'
Thanedar initially ran as a progressive for his House seat in 2022 but has faced attacks from the left over his self-funding and other issues. He's maintained that he hasn't changed politically and remains popular in his district.
McKinney has also received support from the progressive group Justice Democrats.
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Politico
33 minutes ago
- Politico
Pritzker's gerrymander jab draws fire
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Fox News
42 minutes ago
- Fox News
Ex-Biden chief of staff Ron Klain faces grilling in House GOP's cover-up probe
Print Close By Elizabeth Elkind Published July 24, 2025 A senior former Biden administration official is appearing before House investigators on Thursday. Ronald Klain served as former President Joe Biden's chief of staff in the first half of his term, from the beginning of his term in January 2021 until early February 2023. He is expected to sit down with staff from the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors on Thursday morning for a voluntary transcribed interview. Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is investigating whether Biden's top White House aides concealed signs of mental decline in the then-president, and if that meant executive actions were signed via autopen without his knowledge. Biden maintained he "made every decision" in a recent interview with The New York Times. Klain is the sixth ex-White House official to appear as part of Comer's probe, and the third to appear on voluntary terms. Former White House physician Kevin O'Connor, as well as senior advisors Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, all appeared under subpoena. Each also pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions. Ex-staff secretary Neera Tanden and longtime Biden advisor Ashley Williams both appeared for voluntary transcribed interviews, like Klain. Both of their interviews lasted over four hours, though House GOP investigators appear to have gleaned little new information. Before serving as Biden's chief of staff, Klain worked in the same capacity when the Delaware Democrat was vice president during the Obama administration. He also served as a top advisor on Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. Most critical to investigators, perhaps, is the prominent role Klain reportedly played in preparing Biden for his disastrous June 2024 debate against now-President Donald Trump. Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., a member of the Oversight Committee, shared some of the information he hoped would be gleaned from Klain's sitdown. "Did you ever see a question of cognitive ability in the president? Were you aware that he was not making these decisions? Was he being led?" Burlison asked. Fox News Digital's Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report. Print Close URL
Politico
44 minutes ago
- Politico
Jay Powell's new normal
Presented by Editor's note: Morning Money is a free version of POLITICO Pro Financial Services morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 5:15 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. Quick Fix President Donald Trump's pressure campaign on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will intensify on Thursday, with a scheduled visit by him and other administration officials to the central bank headquarters as part of a probe into the ballooning price tag of its renovation. Expect to see it all over social media. The 4 p.m. inspection of the Fed's upgrades to two buildings will be yet another opportunity for officials to hammer Powell — those making the visit along with the president include White House officials James Blair and Russ Vought — and comes less than a week before the Fed's next interest rate decision. Trump has been hectoring Powell to slash borrowing costs – or perhaps just resign altogether, though the Fed chair has shown no sign of entertaining that possibility. There's also no sign that the administration and its allies are letting up. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has benignly compared Trump's broadsides against Powell to legendary college basketball coach Bobby Knight's strategy of 'working the refs' in an attempt to secure lower rates more quickly. A White House official told POLITICO last week that their goal in highlighting the costly renovations was, in part, 'to damage this guy's image.' Plenty of Trump allies are joining in on both counts. Take Tuesday, which represented what has increasingly become a normal day for Powell. At 8:42 a.m., Trump's top housing regulator, Bill Pulte, wrote on X: 'Jerome Powell should RESIGN,' one of many anti-Powell messages he posted that day. (Pulte is also among those scheduled to visit Fed HQ). A few hours later, Trump suggested in the Oval Office that he wouldn't try to fire Powell but also said: 'I think he's done a bad job, but he's going to be out pretty soon anyway,' calling him a 'numbskull' — one of his go-to insults for the central bank leader. A bit after 2 p.m. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) posted a (fake) resignation letter from the Fed chief with the caption, 'Powell's out!' bookended by siren emojis. (Lee later deleted the tweet, telling a group of reporters that he'd done so 'out of an abundance of caution,' saying he hadn't checked if it was legitimate.) At 3:04 p.m., Sen. Cynthia Lummis posted: 'It's time for new leadership at the Fed. We need a Chair who has the trust of ALL Americans.' During all of that, Powell was at the Fed's headquarters (at a building not under construction) participating in a conference about bank regulation. Powell certainly isn't the first Fed chair to face a backlash. A Bloomberg column out Wednesday bore the headline: 'Fed Legend Paul Volcker Would Shrug Over This Attack,' pointing to presidential pressure faced by the former Fed chair during his push to crush inflation through high interest rates. But the campaign by the administration to undermine Powell's reputation is particularly striking and persistent. 'Some of it is maybe to throw some interference at Powell,' Stephen Moore, a former economic adviser to Trump, told MM of the administration's crusade. 'Some of it is just legitimate complaints about the way the Fed operates.' 'President Trump can both call out the Fed for failing to do its job by its own stated objectives and ensure that taxpayer money is not wasted on things that do not benefit the American people,' White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to MM. Notably, Powell and his fellow Fed officials are forecasting that the central bank will cut interest rates this year. It's just not likely they will do so next week, though Fed board member Christopher Waller, who is on the shortlist to be the next chair, is among those internally making the case that they should. Indeed, more economists have been arguing for lower borrowing costs, given growing weaknesses in the economy such as a slowdown in consumer spending, although inflation also creeped up in June. Unemployment remains low, but the job market is showing signs of strain. 'Interest rates are clearly above neutral and that is slowly pulling the economy down and that's sort of a slow-moving problem,' said Adam Ozimek, chief economist at the public policy research firm Economic Innovation Group. 'If we don't get interest rates back to neutral soon enough, the strength of interest rates alone could bring us into recession.' But, 'obviously, the Federal Reserve is holding off on rate cuts as a result of uncertainty from the tariffs,' he added. 'If we didn't have tariffs, the Fed would have cut by now.' Investors expect Powell to begin cutting in either September or October, according to CME's FedWatch tool, when economic weakness could become more evident. In the meantime, pressuring Powell is 'the rough equivalent of someone on an elevator hitting the button repeatedly hoping it will make the elevator go up or down faster,' said Neil Dutta, head of U.S. economic research at Renaissance Macro Research. It's Thursday — How do you think this Trump-Powell saga ends? Let me know: vguida@ And as always, you can direct your MM tips and pitches to Sam at ssutton@ MORNING MONEY: CAPITAL RISK — POLITICO's flagship financial newsletter has a new Friday edition built for the economic era we're living in: one shaped by political volatility, disruption and a wave of policy decisions with sector-wide consequences. Each week, Morning Money: Capital Risk brings sharp reporting and analysis on how political risk is moving markets and how investors are adapting. Want to know how health care regulation, tariffs, or court rulings could ripple through the economy? Start here. Driving the day New home sales data for June is out at 10 a.m. …. House Financial Services ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) speaks at a Brookings Institution event at 11:30 a.m. … The view from Congress on Powell — Republican lawmakers still don't seem overly eager to engage on the question of whether Trump could or should fire Powell, according to reporting from our Katherine Hapgood, with many of them deferring both to Trump and to Fed independence. —'I've disagreed with some of the things that Chairman Powell has done, but also I think he's done a pretty good job of helping navigate through some of our tough financial times,' Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) said. But 'with the president and his staff looking at it, I would ultimately probably support a decision that he makes.' —'I'd support the president, whatever he decided,' Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) said. —'I don't think he's doing a terrible job,' said Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.). 'I don't really support removal of chairs without any reasonable, significant, credible reasons why we need to remove them. So I would support him staying in the office.' Former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross' take, as told to our Ari Hawkins: 'If he tried to fire Powell and Powell resisted, that would mean there would be litigation — and if there's litigation, it can be very hard to end it in less than a year. … It's a little unclear to me why he would take on the headache for no gain in time.' The plan for AI — The White House released an action plan for artificial intelligence Wednesday, a sweeping federal initiative designed to cement U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence through deregulation, infrastructure expansion and global tech diplomacy, our Mohar Chatterjee reports. The 28-page policy blueprint runs through more than 90 federal actions with the goal of implementing them within the next year. It went public as part of a relaunched ' website Wednesday. —The plan also urges the SEC and other federal regulators to establish artificial intelligence-focused regulatory sandboxes, in a bid to boost the fast-moving technology's adoption, our Declan Harty reports. Fintechs fight back — The Financial Technology Association, American Fintech Council, Chamber of Progress Crypto Council for Innovation, The Digital Chamber Financial Data and Technology Association have sent a letter to Trump asking him to direct his administration to push back on a lawsuit filed by banks to block a new open banking rule. The government must file a brief on the lawsuit by July 29. Banks 'are exploiting regulatory uncertainty to preserve their market position and block competition, undermining your agenda and denying Americans access to the future of finance. This risks the future of fintech, digital assets, and America's financial innovation and global leadership,' they wrote. 'You can right this wrong.' 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Nom nom nom — The Senate Banking Committee advanced Trump's nominee to chair the Export-Import Bank, along with a slate of other economic policy nominees at HUD and Commerce, our Jasper Goodman reports. First in MM: Cortez Masto introduced bill to restore CFPB funding – Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and 14 of her colleagues introduced a bill to restore the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding levels to 12 percent of the Federal Reserve's operating budget and reward whistleblowers with financial compensation. Among the co-sponsors is Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Katherine reports. 'Slashing the CFPB's funding is a short-sighted decision that will have long-lasting effects on working families and our financial markets,' Cortez Masto said. 'It's important that we not only restore this funding but also give them more tools to keep us safe from scams.' Jobs report The Crypto Council for Innovation has named Ji Kim as its new CEO. Kim has been leading CCI as acting CEO since January. — Declan Megan Smith Thorpe is joining the Digital Chamber, a crypto trade group, as communications director. She is an alum of Kraken and former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper's office. — Jasper
