🤫 Twin scoops

Plus: Dems' Byrd play | Wednesday, December 08, 2021

Open in app View in browser   Presented By Facebook   Axios Sneak Peek By the Axios Politics team ·Dec 08, 2021 Welcome back to Sneak. ⚡Situational awareness: "Senate Republicans' debt-deal divide," an inside look by Axios' Alayna Treene. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,084 words ... 4 minutes. Edited by Glen Johnson.     1 big thing: Scoop - U.S. turns away Afghans Afghan refugees on a bus bound for temporary housing after arriving in Greece. Photo: Byron Smith/Getty Images   The Biden administration has begun issuing denials to Afghans seeking to emigrate to the United States through the humanitarian parole process, after a system that typically processes 2,000 applications annually has been flooded with more than 30,000, Axios' Sophia Cai and Stef Kight report. Why it matters: Afghans face steeper odds and longer processes for escaping to the U.S., despite the earlier sweeping efforts by the Biden administration to assist its allies. Immigration lawyers and advocacy groups say the government has set untenable barriers to a safe haven in the U.S. Humanitarian parole has already been used for tens of thousands of Afghans. Driving the news: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has started issuing the humanitarian parole denials, according to multiple immigration attorneys and advocates. More than 100 Afghans have been approved since the summer, one Homeland Security official confirmed. Now, there reportedly are dozens of denials, too. One denial letter obtained by Axios calls for "documentation from a third-party source specifically naming the beneficiary, and outlining the serious harm they face." Immigration lawyers and advocacy groups say that threat standard is untenable, given the circumstances in Afghanistan. They hoped the administration would utilize the parole process to allow fast-track pathways for even more Afghans to enter the United States. A 2017 USCIS training manual "explicitly provides instruction that they may grant parole to individuals who are facing fear of harm due to generalized violence," Jill Marie Bussey, Director for Public Policy at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, told Axios. "They're failing to utilize the power of their own guidance to protect Afghans." Keep reading.     2. Scoop: Treasury's IMF move shocks White House The International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington. Photo: Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images   The White House was surprised Treasury officials orchestrated the promotion of Gita Gopinath to the International Monetary Fund's No. 2 position without their consent, people familiar with the matter tell Axios' Hans Nichols. Why it matters: The communication failure over who should replace Geoffrey Okamoto as first deputy managing director suggests there are different opinions in the administration about how to use U.S. leverage at the Fund. The IMF serves as the world's economic firefighter, providing billions of dollars in financial support to countries facing fiscal crises. The No. 2 slot helps set policies, resolve differences between departments and oversees the Fund's most significant and complicated lending programs. "The White House and Treasury are in lockstep on ensuring the Fund can continue its critical and necessary work, especially during the global economic recovery," a White House official told Axios. Between the lines: By tradition, the top IMF job goes to a European, with the U.S. getting to pick the second-in-command. That relationship is reversed at the World Bank: the U.S. gets the top pick, Europeans the No. 2 slot. While most of the recent holders of the job have been academic economists, Okamoto, a former Trump official who joined the IMF in early 2020, was not. He'll leave his post in January. Gopinath had been serving as the IMF's chief economist. Keep reading.     3. Democrats cite Byrd to sell Manchin Photo illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photos: Diana Walker, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images   A small group of Senate Democrats is privately invoking the legacy of late West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd in an effort to sway Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to support their plans to change the chamber's rules, Alayna also has learned. Why it matters: Manchin — who holds Byrd's Senate seat — has often referenced his predecessor's strong moral conviction, and insistence on preserving the Senate as an institution, as justification for some of his tough positions. Even Byrd, one of the most ardent defenders of Senate decorum and procedure, helped change the Senate rules in the face of obstruction, these senators argue. The group includes Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.). Invoking Byrd's legacy is one tack to convince Manchin to get on board, particularly as Democrats navigate a filibuster workaround to pass voting rights legislation. While Manchin, to the chagrin of several of his Democratic colleagues, has repeatedly refused to eliminate the filibuster, he's shown openness to changing Senate rules, multiple lawmakers and their aides tell Axios. The backdrop: The push comes as Democrats have been meeting behind closed doors on a package of rule changes to help break the gridlock confronting the Senate, particularly with a 50-50 split chamber. "We're exploring other alternatives," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told Axios. "We are looking at a whole package of reforms to make the Senate work better that we think could facilitate passage of voting rights, but would not abolish the filibuster," Kaine also said Tuesday. Keep reading.     A message from Facebook Why Facebook supports updated internet regulations, including Section 230     Aaron is one of 40,000 people working on safety and security issues at Facebook. Hear more from Aaron on why Facebook supports updating regulations on the internet's most pressing challenges, including reforming Section 230 to set clear guidelines for all large tech companies.     4. Perdue's run of falsehoods David Perdue (left), alongside Marty and Brian Kemp, greeted President Trump in September 2020. Photo: Brendan Smialowski via Getty Images   Former Sen. David Perdue is running for Georgia's 2022 Republican gubernatorial nomination with a campaign — so far — rooted in a string of falsehoods, Axios Atlanta's Emma Hurt writes in her Sneak debut. Why it matters: As Axios's Jonathan Swan has pointed out, this follows a national trend of Trump-backed Republicans challenging those who didn't go along with overturning the 2020 election. Perdue says, "What I'm trying to do is pull our party back together." There's been no evidence widespread fraud took place in Georgia's elections last year, and the November results were counted three times — once by hand. Driving the news: Perdue is running against a former ally and fellow Republican, Gov. Brian Kemp. The former senator told Axios today that if he'd been governor in 2020, he wouldn't have certified the state's presidential election results "with the information that was available at the time." Georgia law does not offer the governor or the secretary of state the ability to not certify an election. Any challenge to an election's integrity must happen through the courts. All legal challenges to the 2020 election in Georgia have failed. Go deeper: Another of Perdue's central arguments is that Kemp "caved" to past — and current — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. He refers to a 2020 settlement agreement between several Democratic groups and the Georgia secretary of state regarding absentee ballot protocols. Neither Abrams nor Kemp was party to the agreement. More details: In addition, Perdue said he would have called for a special legislative session to "investigate" claims of fraud last year. Perdue said he asked Kemp to call a session in 2020, not to change the November outcome but to "protect and fix what was wrong for the January election." Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr investigated and found no evidence of widespread fraud in 2020. Keep reading. ✍️ Subscribe: You can sign up for Axios Atlanta or any of our free local newsletters through this link.     5. Pic du jour Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images   President Biden arrived at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown to mark the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.     A message from Facebook Facebook invested $13B in teams and technology to enhance safety     It's working: we lead the industry in stopping bad actors online. In the past few months, we took action on: 1.7B fake accounts. 3.8M drugs and firearms sales posts. 7.1M terrorism-related posts. 32.8 million explicit adult posts. Learn more about how we're making our platforms safer.   🐫 Thanks for reading. We made it through Hump Day! A reminder your family, friends and colleagues can subscribe to Sneak or any of Axios' other free local and national newsletters through this link. Like this email style and format? Bring the strength of Smart Brevity® to your team — more effective communications, powered by Axios HQ.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Suite 1300, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. Change your preferences or unsubscribe here.   Was this email forwarded to you? 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