By Calder McHugh and Charlie Mahtesian

The sun sets behind a gap along the Border wall at the Morelos Dam between the U.S. and Mexico in Yuma, Arizona on May 31, 2022. | Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT — On Wednesday evening, the Biden administration put out the call: Build The Wall.

The administration announced that it was waiving 26 federal laws in order to allow the construction of Trump’s border wall to continue in Texas, breaking a key campaign promise as he attempts to stem growing complaints from both parties about a worsening migrant crisis.

And today, senior administration officials announced that they would resume deportation flights to Venezuela, with 240,000 Venezuelans expected to be deported.

The actions are a sudden change in direction for Biden, who vowed on the campaign trail that there would “not be another foot” of border wall built. They’re also a tacit acknowledgment that the administration is getting swamped on the politics of border security.

Asked by reporters about the change of course today, Biden said he still does not believe border walls work, and that “the money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get [Congress] to reappropriate it, to redirect that money. They didn’t, they wouldn’t.”

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre expanded on that answer, saying, “In August, the President told Congress we needed up to 4,000 more troops to support border operations; resources, equipment, and overtime to support the operations of 24,000 more Customs and Border Protection; 39,000 more detention beds; new technology to prevent cartels from moving fentanyl. And Republicans failed. They failed to act.”

While Biden insists that his position has not evolved, the moves aren’t happening in a vacuum.

Within the party, the issue is creating a wedge as top Democrats in three of the bluest states in the nation — Illinois, Massachusetts and New York — pressure the administration for action amid increasing arrivals of migrants. Thousands of those migrants have been flown and bused to their states over the past year by Republican governors in protest of Biden administration immigration policies.

Democratic politicians in those states who would otherwise be loath to break ranks and criticize Biden on such a highly charged issue — and against the backdrop of a looming presidential Election — are now unloading on the president.

In Massachusetts, a visibly frustrated House Speaker Ron Mariano said Wednesday that “the guy’s running for president. He better start paying attention to this… We need someone to take charge of [the issue of immigration] and say ‘this is what you can expect.’”

In an open letter to Biden on Monday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker argued that “as the numbers [of asylum seekers] being transported to Chicago are accelerating, the humanitarian crisis is overwhelming our ability to provide aid to the refugee population… there is much more that can and must be done on a federal level.”

And before Biden was in New York for the UN General Assembly meetings in September, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said “while [Biden’s] here, I think that they should really reflect on, New York City has done its part… We’re getting no support on this national crisis.” Adams and Biden, once fast friends, avoiding seeing one another while Biden was in New York. Things haven’t gotten any better since September; on Tuesday Adams said the White House is “wrong on immigration.”

Yet even as local Democratic officials criticize the president, none have asked specifically for the continuation of the border wall.

“We need two things from the Biden administration: We need federal funding and we need expedited work authorizations,” Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat who sits on Biden’s national campaign advisory board, said Wednesday.

Recent polling suggests public sentiment toward immigration in general has turned in recent years — and the Democratic Party’s standing on the issue has deteriorated. In May 2020, according to Gallup, 26 percent of those polled said the level of immigration should be decreased. When Gallup asked the same question in June, that number had risen to 41 percent.

The most recent NBC News poll gave an idea of the precariousness of Biden’s position. The survey found that Democrats face their largest deficit ever on the question of immigration — a gap that began expanding once Biden took office. Just 27 percent of registered voters said that Democrats better handle the issue of immigration while 45 percent said Republicans better handle the issue.

The numbers were even worse when the question was phrased in terms of securing the border. When asked which party would do a better job of dealing with border security, 50 percent said the GOP, compared to just 20 percent who said Democrats would do a better job — the widest gap of any of the 11 issues tested.

So despite his insistence that a border wall won’t work, Biden’s building one. One major difference between him and his predecessor? Biden’s not insisting Mexico will pay for it.

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— Trump considering trip to Congress before speakership election: Former President Donald Trump is considering a visit to the Capitol next week where he is open to pitching himself as a speaker candidate, according to a Republican familiar with internal discussions. If it happens, Trump would come speak to the House GOP sometime before lawmakers’ internal speaker election, which is set to happen on Wednesday, that person said. A final decision hasn’t yet been made. The full GOP will meet Tuesday for an internal “candidate forum.”

— Man with handgun seeking governor arrested in Wisconsin Capitol, returns with assault rifle: A man illegally brought a loaded handgun into the Wisconsin Capitol, demanding to see Gov. Tony Evers, and returned at night with an assault rifle after posting bail, a spokesperson for the state said today. The man, who was shirtless and had a holstered handgun, approached the governor’s office on the first floor of the Capitol around 2 p.m. Wednesday, state Department of Administration spokesperson Tatyana Warrick said. The man was demanding to see the governor, who was not in the building at the time, Warrick said. The man was taken into custody for openly carrying a firearm in the Capitol, which is against the law. He returned to the outside of the Capitol shortly before 9 p.m., three hours after the building closed, with a loaded assault-style rifle and a collapsible police baton in his backpack, Warrick said. He again demanded to see the governor and was taken into custody.

— Trump says he’s ‘immune’ from prosecution for attempts to reverse 2020 election results: Donald Trump’s months-long efforts to reverse his defeat in the 2020 election were “within the heartland” of his “official duties,” his lawyers claimed today in a bid to get his federal criminal case in Washington, D.C., thrown out. Defense attorneys John Lauro and Todd Blanche say special counsel Jack Smith’s case against the former president is an attempt to criminalize actions that were well within his White House duties, such as enforcing federal election laws. As a result, they said, the charges against Trump — accusing him of conspiracies to obstruct the election process and defraud the public — must be dismissed.

— Lawyers bail on MyPillow’s Michael Lindell, saying he owes millions in fees: Prominent election conspiracy theorist and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell faces money woes so serious that two law firms defending him are seeking to dump him as a client. A Minnesota-based law firm, Parker Daniels Kibort, and Washington-based Lewin and Lewin notified federal judges in Washington and St. Paul today that they are owed millions of dollars in legal fees by Lindell and his company in connection with lawsuits where voting machine makers Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems and a former Dominion employee are suing Lindell for defamation.

CHANGING LANES — Presidential candidate Cornel West is leaving the Green Party and will continue his bid for the White House as an independent candidate, reports POLITICO.

“As Dr. West’s campaign for president grows, he believes the best way to challenge the entrenched system is by focusing 100% on the people, not on the intricacies of internal party dynamics,” said the West campaign in a statement.

West, an outspoken progressive and longtime university scholar, has ruffled feathers among Democrats, who view him as a potential spoiler for President Joe Biden’s reelection chances. West has batted back the idea he might pull support from Biden in multiple interviews, saying the Biden campaign is free to court the voters flocking to him. A former Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) surrogate, West first entered the race on the People’s Party ticket. But that party’s lack of ballot access, soon compelled him to run for the Green Party’s nomination instead.

STRAINED SYSTEM — A tide of resignations and retirements by election officials in battleground states, who have increasingly faced threats, harassment and interference, could further strain the election system in 2024, a national voting rights group warned in a report released today.

The group, the Voting Rights Lab, said that the departures of election officials in Arizona, Pennsylvania and other swing states had the potential to undermine the independence of those positions.

A Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone is displayed during a rehearsal of a military parade. | Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo

SHOT DOWN — A U.S. F-16 fighter jet shot down a Turkish drone that was flying over a base in northeast Syria where American forces are located, according to a person familiar with the situation, writes Lara Seligman.

The drone, which belonged to the Turkish government, was armed with air-to-ground missiles and deemed a threat to the American troops and Syrian Democratic Forces at the Tal Baydar base, said the person, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic.

The uncrewed aerial vehicle was a Bayraktar TB2, a medium-altitude, long-endurance drone built by Turkish defense company Baykar for use primarily by the Turkish armed forces, the person said. The Turkish defense ministry reportedly denied it owned the drone.

Turkey has recently stepped up attacks on Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria after Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in Ankara on Sunday. Turkey views the Syrian Democratic Forces as a wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which numerous nations have designated a terrorist organization.

A Turkish official on Wednesday said Turkish forces discovered two terrorists who had arrived in Turkey from Syria, and warned that infrastructure and energy facilities in Syria and Iraq affiliated with PKK or the YPG, the Turkish name for the SDF, are now “legitimate targets.”

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NEW TREATMENT — For thousands of years, people have been doing some form of psychedelic drugs — and for that whole time, there have been groups that believe they can have real medicinal effects. But our research into that possibility remains in its infancy, despite big pushes to legalize psychedelics in states across the U.S. Now, a group of researchers has fed entries from old drug forums, including brain imaging and testimonials, into an AI tool that has been synthesizing them. The results could change our understanding of how psychedelics affect the nervous system. Natasha Boyd reports for Pioneer Works.

On this date in 1976: A smiling Barbara Walters chats with co-host Harry Reasoner following her debut as the nation's first female network news anchor on ABC's evening news program in New York. | Ray Stubblebine/AP Photo

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