GOP Rep. Rodney Davis on facing down Trump and the Jan. 6 committee

In today's edition: President Biden's student loan action ignites instant political battle … What We're Watching: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell will outline his plan to control inflation, plus the DOJ's redacted version of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant … National Abortion Federation imposes new restrictions … but first …

On the Hill

Why Rep. Rodney Davis lost his primary to a Trump-backed rival

Eight questions for … Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.): We spoke with Davis, who lost his primary to a Trump-backed primary challenger in June, about why he lost, his criticisms of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and why he thinks a Democrat won the special election for a House seat in New York. This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

The Early: It’s been two months since you lost your primary to Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) after Democrats combined your districts in redistricting. You lost despite winning the endorsements of Reps. Mike Bost (R-Ill.) and Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and the Illinois Farm Bureau. Why do you think you came up short?

Davis: First off, voters in Illinois were not used to voting in June. It’s the first time we'd ever had a primary in June in my lifetime. Secondly, in a low-turnout environment, President Trump came into the district the last weekend before [the primary and held a rally for Miller]. We weren’t able to overcome that.

The Early: Do you think Miller would have won if Trump had not endorsed her? 

Davis: No. 

The Early: You were one of 35 House Republicans who voted last year to create a nonpartisan commission to investigate Jan. 6. Did you anticipate at the time that a primary opponent might wield your vote against you as Miller did?

Davis: No, not at all. Frankly, I think even President Trump would rather have a bipartisan commission right now. I thought it was the right thing to do, and I think recent history and the partisanship coming from the select committee is proving me right.

The Early: You've been critical of the Jan. 6 select committee. What do you think it's done well and where has it fallen short?

Davis: I don’t have time to list the areas where I think they’ve fallen short. I'll start with the most pressing area that they have yet to address: Why did the security apparatus fail so miserably leading up to and on January 6? My life was saved by the bravery of Capitol Police officers who ran toward gunfire so my friends could run away from it on the baseball field five years ago. To see my heroes, those Capitol Police, put in the situation they were put in on January 6 — it breaks my heart and it makes me angry at the same time. Because we know from evidence that was gleaned in a bipartisan Senate Rules [Committee] investigation that the Capitol Police intelligence division had intel from the FBI that said the Capitol would be under attack. Through testimony during that same bipartisan investigation, we also know that that information was not even delivered to [Capitol Police] Chief [Steven] Sund. That is abhorrent. Why hasn't anyone been held accountable for those actions and inactions? Those are the questions that the select committee still has yet to ask.

The Early: Why do you think the select committee hasn't been more interested in delving into these questions?

Davis: Because it’s all about Trump.

The Early: You’re the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, which is in charge of safety at the Capitol. Who do you think bears responsibility for the security failures on Jan. 6?

Davis: There was a whole host of bad decisions up and down the spectrum of the entire security apparatus that were unfortunately made that day. We have invested hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in making the Capitol complex secure. But at the same time, we’ve allowed bureaucracy to get in the way of making sure that we don't have breakable glass in the Capitol — things like that could’ve been done years ago and, frankly, I thought had already been done.

The Early: You were one of the five Republicans whom House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy initially appointed to the select committee. Do you think in hindsight that it was a mistake for McCarthy to pull the Republicans from the committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to allow two of his appointees — Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) — to sit on it?

Davis: It certainly wasn't a bad decision at the time. Frankly, it's an unprecedented decision made by Speaker Pelosi to not seat members of the minority party. That is a precedent that I cannot believe that she and the Democrats allowed to be set. But I believe that was their intention: to create a select committee that was only going to focus on one thing, and that's going after President Trump.

The Early: After the Kansas abortion ballot measure was defeated earlier this month, you told Puck the issue was “something that every Republican has to be concerned about, especially if it’s used as a motivator to get Democrats excited to vote in this election.” What do you make of Democrats’ victory on Tuesday in the special election for a House seat in New York?

Davis: Oh, I don't make much of it. Frankly, it seems to me the Democrat probably ran the better campaign. The special election turnout is much different than the general election turnout. All you have to do is look at the special election victories that Republicans had in 2018 that [were] not a harbinger of us keeping the majority. That race is not going to be a harbinger of Democrats being able to keep the majority, either.

The campaign

Biden student loan action spurs instant political battle

Trouble in paradise: Fissures have opened within the Democratic Party following Biden’s decision to forgive billions in student loans, our colleagues Matt Viser and Mark Guarino write. “Moderates said Biden was doing too much and liberals demanded he do more, while Republicans lined up in adamant opposition to the debt forgiveness plan.” 

Here’s what Democrats in competitive races around the country are saying, per Viser: 

• Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.): Masto said she disagreed with Biden’s move, adding, “It doesn’t address the root problems that make college unaffordable.”
• Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.): Pappas criticized Biden for “sidestepping Congress and for adopting a plan that he said is not paid for and would add to the deficit.”
• Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine): “This decision by the president is out of touch with what the majority of the American people want from the White House, which is leadership to address the most immediate challenges the country is facing,” he said.
• Rep. Tim Ryan, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Ohio: “While there’s no doubt that a college education should be about opening opportunities,” Ryan said, “waiving debt for those already on a trajectory to financial security sends the wrong message to the millions of Ohioans without a degree working just as hard to make ends meet.”

Not just along party lines: The move also “touches on volatile issues of education and class, with conservatives saying it will force blue-collar taxpayers to subsidize elite college students, and Black and liberal leaders saying it will provide critical relief to people who are struggling,” our colleagues write. “And it quickly spurred debates on fairness, including among those who had forgone an expensive college to avoid burdensome debt, only to now see the government help those who attended costly schools.”

What we're watching

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell will outline his plan today in a much-anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyo., for how the Fed can “control inflation without jerking the economy into a recession," our colleague Rachel Siegel reports.

The speech comes a year after Powell reassured listeners at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium that inflation would be temporary.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department is expected to release the redacted version of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant by noon. 

The campaign

National Abortion Federation imposes new restrictions

An ever-changing abortion landscape: The National Abortion Federation and its NAF Hotline Fund will now require patients who receive their funding to undergo a medication abortion — a two-part regimen that includes mifepristone and misoprostol — in a state where abortion is legal, our colleague Caroline Kitchener reports.

Patients who cross state lines to receive a medication abortion usually take the mifepristone in the clinic where abortion is legal before driving home with the misoprostol, to a state where abortion is illegal, to be taken between 24 and 48 hours later. “The restrictions will disproportionately impact poor women and women of color,” several providers told Kitchener.

• “It’s hard enough to make that trip even if you return home the same day,” said an abortion provider in New Mexico who is subject to the NAF’s regulations. “Now my patients are being further regulated unnecessarily by a so-called ally.”
• The new NAF restrictions, the provider added, “look like something that an antiabortion lawyer would write.”

The White House, meanwhile, is decrying new abortion restrictions that took effect this week in Idaho, Tennessee and Texas, as well as an Oklahoma law set to go into effect on Saturday that will increase “penalties for doctors who perform illegal abortions, to include a $100,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison,” as our colleague Katie Shepherd reports.

“Congress should act immediately to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe — and people across the country should make their voices heard,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement to The Early.

The Media

Weekend reeeads

• In fiery midterm speech, Biden says GOP’s turned toward ‘semi-fascism.’ By The Post’s Matt Viser.
• Two plead guilty to theft of diary purportedly belonging to Biden’s daughter. By The Post’s Mariana Alfaro.
• Trump’s secret papers and the ‘myth’ of presidential security clearance. By The Post’s Devlin Barrett, Ellen Nakashima and Josh Dawsey.
• ICYMI: Oz’s Senate bid could be a Muslim first but is ‘complicated.’ By AP News’s Marc Levy.
• UFO lobbyist’s quest to prove to the government that alien life exists. By the Washingtonian’s Luke Mullins.
• Georgia judge skeptical of claims of political bias in 2020 election probe. By The Post’s Matthew Brown, Tom Hamburger and Ann E. Marimow.
• Blue states poised to copy California’s gas-car phaseout. By Politico’s Camille Von Kaenel and Alex Guillén.
• How China could choke Taiwan. By the New York Times’s Chris Buckley, Pablo Robles, Marco Hernandez and Amy Chang Chien.
• Google Maps will label clinics that provide abortion services. By The Post’s Gerrit De Vynck.
• Dr. Oz shifts strategy as campaign ails. By Politico's Holly Otterbein and Natalie Allison.

Viral

The White House to MTG and co.: This you?

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