Happy Thursday! Famed director Francis Ford Coppola boldly gave his own film, Megalopolis—which comes out tomorrow—five stars on the social movie-ranking app Letterboxd. But that’s the kind of confidence you need when you’ve sunk $120 million of your own money into a behemoth that reviewers are now calling, “​​a wild fever dream of excess and idealism,” “both overcooked and half-baked,” and a “a zero-star, wacko disaster.” 

• The Chinese Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that the People’s Liberation Army successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with a dummy warhead into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday morning local time, the first time it had test-fired an ICBM into international waters since 1980. The defense ministry claimed the test was “in line with international law and international practice and is not directed against any country or target.” According to China’s state-run news agency, “relevant countries” were notified of the test in advance. A spokesman for the Japanese government said that while it did not appear that the missile passed over Japanese territory, they were not notified in advance, adding that Chinese military demonstrations “have become a matter of serious concern for Japan and for the international community.”
• Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, on Wednesday suggested a ground invasion of Lebanon could be imminent as Israel called up two additional reserve brigades to the north. “You hear the jets above, we are attacking all day,” Halevi told soldiers near the Israeli-Lebanon border. “[This is] both to prepare the area for the possibility of your entry [into Lebanon] and also to continue causing blows to Hezbollah.” 
• Later on Wednesday, President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron released a joint statement—endorsed by 11 countries and the European Union— calling for a temporary ceasefire at the Israel-Lebanon border to “to give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalations across the border.” The pair call for a settlement that would maintain security and allow civilians to return to their homes. The proposed short-term truce would reportedly last 21 days. Israel has signaled it’s open to a diplomatic solution, though it’s unclear whether Hezbollah—which isn’t named in the joint statement—would agree to such a deal. 
• The New York Times reported on Wednesday that New York City Mayor Eric Adams had been indicted on federal criminal charges, almost a year after the FBI searched the mayor’s electronic devices. Though the indictment remained sealed on Wednesday evening, obscuring the exact nature of any charges, there are several ongoing federal corruption investigations related to the mayor’s administration. City officials on Wednesday began calling for Adams to resign, though the mayor maintained his innocence in a statement. “I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target—and a target I became,” he said. “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.” Adams would be the first sitting New York City mayor to face criminal charges. 
• Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday sat for a friendly interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle that focused primarily on the Democratic nominee’s economic proposals. Harris dodged a question about how she could accomplish her plans for a tax cut for the middle class or to fund child care or health care if Democrats lose control of the Senate come November. Speaking from Pittsburgh, she also defended her opposition to Japanese company Nippon Steel’s planned purchase of U.S. Steel. 
• The Trump campaign on Tuesday said that U.S. intelligence officials briefed former President Donald Trump on “specific threats from Iran to assassinate him.” Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung also claimed that the “coordinated attacks”—meant to “sow chaos”—have intensified in recent months. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed that the briefing took place but did not provide any specifics. Tehran has a long history of attempting to target former U.S. government officials and Iranian dissidents on American soil. 
• The House and Senate on Wednesday passed stop-gap funding legislation to avoid a government shutdown that would have otherwise gone into effect at midnight on Monday. House Speaker Mike Johnson brought the continuing resolution (CR)—which extends government funding for three months at roughly the current levels without controversial conservative policy riders—to the floor under a procedural maneuver called “suspension of the rules,” which requires a two-thirds vote instead of a simple majority. The House passed the measure 341-82, with more Democrats than Republicans voting in favor—though a majority of the House GOP conference supported the bill. The Senate passed the CR 78-18, and it now heads to the desk of President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it.
• The bipartisan Senate panel investigating the July assassination attempt on Trump at a campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday released its preliminary report, which concluded that “foreseeable” and “preventable” Secret Service planning failures preceded the attempt on the former president’s life. The interim report underlines the Secret Service’s failure to define planning responsibilities and coordinate with local officials, as well as ensure coverage of the building where the gunman was positioned. According to the report, Trump and his security detail were not removed from the stage because of a communications breakdown, even as local law enforcement identified a person on the roof of the building two minutes before shots were fired.
• Meanwhile, the Secret Service and Vice President Kamala Harris’ office confirmed on Wednesday that the agency had recently notified the vice president’s office of an incident involving a Secret Service agent. The individual was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation. The exact nature of the alleged offense has yet to be confirmed, though RealClearPolitics reported on Wednesday that a Secret Service agent had been accused of sexually assaulting a Harris staffer in Green Bay, Wisconsin, last week. Harris’ office said that it took the “safety of staff seriously” and that it has “zero tolerance for sexual misconduct.” 

On Monday, the House Rules Committee met to consider how Congress would avert a government shutdown. The vibes were much like those of an intro philosophy seminar, as the committee members wondered aloud whether the ultimate result of their efforts—a bipartisan continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government at roughly current levels until just before Christmas—was inevitable. 

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky argued the “clean” CR—a stop-gap funding measure without controversial conservative policy riders—was the endgame all along. 

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas—who helped draft one such policy rider—pushed back. “The inevitability of ending up where we are was a self-fulfilling prophecy of killing a different approach a week ago,” he said. 

Some of the more practical voices offered a standard objection to the philosophical musings: Why are we even talking about this? “I’m not quite sure what this exercise is all about,” concluded Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the leading Democrat on the committee, after pointing out that the latest CR proposal had bipartisan support and, therefore, could be passed under a suspension of the rules without the approval of the Rules Committee. “This should be a quick meeting, I hope,” he added. 

The hearing concluded an hour and a half later, by which point House Speaker Mike Johnson had decided to pull the CR from the rule vote anyway. “I assume we’ll bring it up under suspension, which is the way I thought we would to begin with,” McGovern noted as the hearing ended.

The Rules Committee tedium represented a microcosm of the government funding fights over the last 20 months that have plagued the narrow Republican majority. The GOP infighting over spending cost former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy his gavel and could ultimately imperil Johnson’s own speakership as Congress will now look to complete appropriations less than a month before the new Congress holds leadership elections in January.  

House Republican and Democratic leaders struck a deal over the weekend on a three-month CR to keep the government running until December 20. The House passed the CR on a 341-82 vote Wednesday under suspension of the rules—a procedural move Johnson has used frequently to leapfrog the Rules Committee and his unruly conference, though bills considered under suspension require a two-thirds vote to pass instead of a simple majority. The Senate followed suit that evening and the measure now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk for signature. 

The funding measure was what most lawmakers had predicted it would be when they came back after the summer recess—that is, most aside from Johnson himself. Perhaps to appease his conference’s right flank, Johnson initially tried to insist on a longer, six-month CR combined with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. The Roy-authored measure would require Americans to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

The CR with the SAVE Act tacked on had no chance in the Democrat-controlled Senate. But as we explained earlier this month, it was ultimately the GOP spending hardliners—opposed to CRs generally—who blocked Johnson’s plan from passing in the House, completing the measure’s fleeting life cycle. 

By this weekend, we ended up where the dozens of us who follow the Sisyphean funding debate expected we’d be: a shorter CR without the policy poison pill. “While this is not the solution any of us prefer, it is the most prudent path forward under the present circumstances,” Johnson wrote in a letter to his conference on Sunday after the final CR was announced. 

The funding measure is mostly “clean,” extending spending at current levels. But it does include a $231 million add-on—an “anomaly” in appropriations-speak—to boost funding to the Secret Service, as well as $67 million to assist with the upcoming presidential transition. The stop-gap punted several major appropriation questions, including funding requests beyond the extension levels for disaster relief, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Social Security Administration. The White House endorsed the CR in a statement on Tuesday but expressed concern about the lack of action “to avoid severe disruptions to several critical government services.” 

December will also likely feature a battle over the topline spending caps President Joe Biden and then-Speaker McCarthy negotiated in 2023 as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, legislation that suspended the debt ceiling until January 2025. The measure capped discretionary spending increases for fiscal year 2025 at 1 percent, but part of those negotiations also involved so-called “side deals” that allowed for spending beyond the cap. House Republicans have said they don’t feel bound by what McCarthy—no longer a member of Congress—negotiated and want more spending cuts. Democratic appropriators have started arguing the cap doesn’t allow for needed funding for a plethora of domestic programs.  

Johnson has insisted that finishing appropriations in December won’t involve any kind of large spending package—or bills of bills—also known as omnibus or minibus bills. “There won’t be a Christmas omnibus,” he said Tuesday. “Someone asked me in the hallway a little while ago, ‘Will there be minibuses?’ We don’t want any buses. We’re not going to do any buses.” Famous last words, Mr. Speaker.

Avoiding a spending package would require Congress to either pass all 12 of the annual appropriations bills between now and December 20 or resort to another CR to give lawmakers even more time to pass them: The House has only passed five of those necessary bills, and the Senate hasn’t passed any. Plus, Congress won’t be back in session until after the election, in mid-November. Johnson made a similar pledge regarding short-term CRs, saying last November, “I’m done with short-term CRs.” In the last go-round, the government was only funded nearly six months after the fiscal year had begun and only after the House punted on four occasions with … short-term CRs. 

But the spending fight might just be the sideshow to a potentially uglier showdown over who leads the House GOP conference come January. The fact that a solid majority of the majority voted for the CR bodes well for Johnson—who has said he wants to lead the conference past the 2024 election—at least in the short term. But if conservatives and spending hardliners feel shunted aside by whatever happens in December, they could try to sink Johnson’s bid for either speaker or minority leader, depending on who wins the House. 

Ultimately, the speaker’s stock within his own conference could hinge on the results of the election. If former President Donald Trump wins and the GOP keeps the House, Republicans may be happy to continue with Johnson as their leader, spending gripes notwithstanding, Brendan Buck—a former adviser to Republican House Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan—told TMD. Trump publicly pushed for a government shutdown if the SAVE Act wasn’t included with the CR, but Johnson seemed to come to an understanding with the former president, who reportedly was lobbying Republicans on Wednesday to vote for the clean CR. 

Of course, it’s also possible that Vice President Kamala Harris will win and internal GOP divisions over appropriations will be eclipsed by “Stop the Steal 2.0” efforts that Trump and his allies will almost assuredly be pushing. How, either as speaker or minority leader, Johnson will handle the election results is an open question. 

“The big wild card in all that is what is happening in the lame duck [session], what is the post-election fallout with Trump losing, and what chaos is being sowed,” Buck said. “Is [Johnson] participating in that chaos? All of that’s just really hard to game out.” If Harris wins and the GOP holds the House, Buck argued, “the way he handles a Trump loss is probably going to be determinative of whether they will support him for speaker, [at least] for enough members that could make a difference.

“The people who are likely to vote against a conference nominee on the floor for speaker are the exact same people who are going to want to do some crazy stuff to stop Harris from taking office,” he added. 

The speaker was asked on Tuesday whether he would commit to observing regular order in the certification process of the 2024 election, even if Harris beats Trump. “Well, of course, if we have a free, fair, and safe election, we’re going to follow the Constitution,” Johnson responded. “Absolutely, yes, absolutely.” Much will ride on those “free, fair, and safe” qualifiers.

Democratic lawmakers quickly criticized Johnson’s apparent equivocating. “When he says things like he did today … it causes great concern,” said Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the ranking member on the House Administration Committee.   

Johnson played a leading role in Republican efforts to discredit the results of the 2020 election, and he voted against certification of the results. As we explained last fall: 

He focused less on fraud conspiracy theories to justify his skepticism, instead developing what he described as a “third option” for Republicans deciding between calling the election legitimate and fully embracing Trump’s conspiracies as their justification to block the certification. Johnson argued that state-level pandemic changes to election procedures made the slate of electors unconstitutional, even drafting a memo with talking points for his colleagues.

He has not disavowed his actions despite calling descriptions of him as an election denier “nonsense.”  

A handful of GOP lawmakers have tried to lay the groundwork to preempt a replay of 2020 in November and beyond. Just six House Republicans signed onto a “Unity Commitment” authored by Democrat Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, promising to respect the results of the election. 

TMD reached out to each of the Republican signatories yesterday for their reaction to Johnson’s “free, fair, and safe” qualifications. None of the offices commented specifically on the speaker’s answer, but Nate Soule, a spokesman for New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, told TMD, “Congressman Lawler has made his position clear—he will certify the results of the election in January.” 

Here at TMD, we’re excited to get to cover all of it … the week before Christmas! 

• Former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins joined Christianity Today’s podcast, The Bulletin, to discuss his new book, The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust. “Even though I think people sitting in the pews on Sunday are people of love, what’s coming across so much is controversy, anger, recriminations, even hypocrisy,” he told Mike Cosper. “And that is just so hurtful to see. For me as a Christian who’s also a scientist, it’s been really troubling to see that one of the consequences of all of this disillusionment and distrust about everything has included science. That I’m a scientist who sees science as God’s gift, giving us a chance to learn about God’s creation. That’s what you’re doing with science, is you’re exploring what God has given us. And for that to be a source of controversy or a disagreement in terms of whether science is actually a good thing, seems troubling, to put it mildly.” 
• In the New Yorker, Kyle Chayka reflected on getting a new iPhone 16 and whether we’ve reached peak iPhone. Is the never-ending upgrade process finally reaching diminishing returns? “Ultimately, the iPhone 16 does little to meaningfully improve on the experience I had with the 12,” he wrote. “Instead, the greatest leaps in Apple’s hardware are largely directed at those niche users who are already invested in using tools such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality. … The fact that I do not need an iPhone 16 is a testament not so much to the iPhone’s failure as to its resounding success. A lot of the digital software we rely on has grown worse for users in recent years; the iPhone, by contrast, has become so good that it’s hard to imagine anything but incremental improvements. Apple’s teleological phone-design strategy may have simply reached its end point, the same way evolution in nature has repeatedly resulted in an optimized species of crab.”

The Hill: Michael Cohen Says He’ll Leave Country, Change Name if Trump Wins 

President Joe Biden speaking on The View on Wednesday: 

I never fully believed the assertions that somehow there was this overwhelming reluctance of my running again. I didn’t sense that. … The fact of the matter is my polling was about—you know, we were always within range of beating this guy.

There’s nothing like the Atlanta Braves mascot, Blooper, stiff-arming a 10-year-old during the Indianapolis Colts’ halftime “Mascots v. PeeWees” football game to make you proud to be an American. 

• In the newsletters: The Dispatch Politics crew broke down how and when votes will be counted on election night in the key battleground states, Nick explored the logic behind Harris’ denunciations of the filibuster, and Jonah argued (🔒) that large swaths of the West are addicted to resistance. 
• On the podcasts: Jonah is joined on The Remnant by neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris for a double-length episode covering secularism, cognitive dissonance, artificial intelligence, and more. 
• On the site: Eric Cunningham recounts how North Carolina Republicans could have stopped Mark Robinson’s political rise.

How do you think Mike Johnson will react if he faces pressure from his conference to endorse stolen election claims?