Wednesday morning news: March 13, 2024

$300M aid to Ukraine » President Biden says the Pentagon will rush about $300 million in weapons to Ukraine.

BIDEN: The package includes munitions and rounds to help Ukraine hold the line against Russia’s brutal attacks for the next couple weeks, which I have the authority to do without asking Congress for some more money.

That after the Pentagon found some cost savings in its contracts.

The military recently revealed that it’s not only out of funds to replenish its supplies, but it’s already deeply overdrawn and needs at least $10 billion to replenish all the weapons it has already pulled from its stocks to help Kyiv.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is ready to approve those funds.

MCCONNELL: Our friends in Ukraine are running out of ammo. And our friends in Israel need help as well.

But Republicans remain divided on funding more aid to Ukraine. The disagreement is mostly over the conditions of that aid. Many GOP lawmakers demand that President Biden first reinstall Trump-era immigration policies to help secure the U.S. Mexico border.

Polish Prime Minister at White House » President Biden announced the Ukraine aid as he hosted top leaders from Poland in the East Room of the White House.

BIDEN: Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, it’s an honor to welcome you on this historic anniversary.

Monday marked 25 years since Poland joined the NATO alliance.

President Andrzej Duda used the occasion to challenge other NATO allies to step up defense spending from 2 percent of GDP to 3 percent.

DUDA: Two percent was good 10 years ago. Now, 3 percent is required in response to the full scale war launched by Russia right beyond NATO’s eastern border.

Duda also met with U.S. lawmakers at the Capitol Tuesday urging all leaders in Washington to approve more funding for military aid to Ukraine.

Primary elections » President Biden has clinched the Democratic nomination for president. As several more states voted on Tuesday, Biden passed the roughly 2,000 delegate mark to seal the nomination.

And as of midnight, Donald Trump was on track to clinch the Republican nomination in short order.

Of course, neither candidate will officially be nominated until their respective party conventions in the summer.

Biden special counsel testimony » Special counsel Robert Hur was in the hot seat on Capitol Hill Tuesday defending his report on President Biden’s mishandling of classified information.

Hur said the evidence suggests that Biden retained classified materials after his vice presidency and that it was no oversight or accident.

HUR: This evidence included an audio recorded conversation in which Mr. Biden told his ghost writer that he had “just found all the classified stuff downstairs.”

At the time of that recording, Biden was a private citizen who had just signed an $8 million dollar book deal.

Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.

JORDAN: Joe Biden had 8 million reasons to break the rules. He took classified information and shared it with the guy who was writing the book.

Republicans pressed Mr. Hur over his decision not to pursue criminal charges against Biden.

Democrats, meantime, blasted him for his description of Biden’s cognitive decline within the report. Congressman Adam Schiff:

SCHIFF: You don’t gratuitously add language that you know will be useful in a political campaign.

Hur said politics played no role in his work, adding that he had to consider how a jury likely would perceive Biden’s memory and mental state in a criminal trial.

HUR: And because these issues were important to my ultimate decision, I had to include a discussion of them in my report to the attorney general. The evidence and the president himself put his memory squarely at issue.

House threat hearing » Meantime, in another House hearing room members heard from top intelligence and law enforcement officials about global threats to America.

One day after FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to a Senate panel, he told the House Intelligence Committee:

WRAY: We have seen over the last, I think, five years, an increase in the number of KSTs – or known or suspected terrorists – attempting to cross the southern border.

He said the United States was already on heightened alert before the October 7th terror attacks in Israel. But now, the threat is on another level entirely.

Wray and other agency heads said now is not a time for panic, but for heightened vigilance.

The testimony highlighted dangers posed by the porous U.S.-Mexico border, cyber-attacks, and growing threats in China and Iran.

Ken Buck leaving House, further shrinking GOP majority » The GOP’s already razor thin margin in the House is about to get even smaller.

Colorado Congressman Ken Buck is stepping down next week. Buck says while he’s resigning from Congress, he plans to remain involved in politics.

BUCK: So I’m going to get involved in this election cycle and make sure we choose the best candidates we can.

When Buck steps down, there will be 218 Republicans, 213 Democrats.

His departure will trigger a special election to serve the remainder of his term.

Inflation » A new government report shows that inflation numbers came in hot for last month, underscoring that the battle against rising prices is not over.

Annually, prices jumped by 3.2%, a tad above the 3.1% rate seen in January. Even when you strip out the volatile sectors like food and energy, the core inflation rate also rose by almost one half one percent.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: International threats to American security…on Washington Wednesday. Plus, World Tour.

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