Sen. Bernie Sanders tried to rally Democrats and President Joe Biden to do more to lower drug prices just a year after they ordered Medicare to negotiate with pharma. None showed up.

The Vermont independent’s campaign took a blow on Wednesday as Democrats joined forces with Republicans to advance Biden’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health over Sanders’ objections.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that Sanders chairs voted 15-6 to confirm Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, with five Republicans, including the panel’s ranking member Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, joining all 10 Democrats.

Democrats rejected Sanders’ case, that Bertagnolli had not demonstrated she would “take on the greed and power of the drug companies and health care industry and fight for the transformative changes the NIH needs at this critical moment.”

“I have been impressed with Dr. Bertagnolli’s thoughtful approach to addressing the range of public health challenges facing our country,” Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) said in a statement. “I look forward to her leadership of NIH.”

Meanwhile, the GOP votes for Bertagnolli, though not unanimous, show that at least some in the party want to restore bipartisan support for the NIH, which evaporated during the pandemic.

Many Republicans believe the coronavirus leaked from a Chinese lab that benefited from NIH funding. Others have accused former NIH Director Francis Collins and his top deputy at the agency, Dr. Anthony Fauci, of covering up the possibility of a lab leak.

But on Wednesday, Cassidy said he hoped to put the past behind.

“We need the next NIH director to engage with all parties and demonstrate clear leadership if we have hope to rebuild the trust that NIH has lost with the American public and Congress,” Cassidy said. “I plan to work with her and hold her to that challenge.”

The five Republicans’ support, along with that of other GOP senators who are not on the committee, means Bertagnolli’s confirmation is likely assured, once Majority Leader Chuck Schumer brings it up for a floor vote.

“She’s eminently qualified,” said the Senate’s third-ranking Republican, John Barrasso, who introduced Bertagnolli, a fellow Wyomingite, at her confirmation hearing last week.

Barrasso dismissed Sanders’ opposition as irrelevant to her qualifications: “It has to do with his fight with the administration on an unrelated topic.”

It now looks as though Sanders lost that fight.

Sanders held up Bertagnolli’s confirmation hearing for five months after he announced this spring that he’d block Biden’s health care nominees until the president released a “comprehensive” plan to lower drug prices.

But Democrats have proved more interested this year in highlighting for voters the Medicare drug price negotiations they achieved in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act — which aim to reduce the prices on 10 high-cost drugs starting in 2026, and more in later years — than the shortcomings Sanders sees in Biden’s efforts to lower drug prices.

When asked about Sanders’ opposition, a White House official pointed POLITICO to efforts the administration has taken to tamp down drug costs.

“The President shares the Senator’s concerns on drug pricing. That’s why he signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, the most consequential law addressing the high cost of prescription drugs,” the official wrote in an email.

Biden, who regularly touts the Medicare negotiations as a crowning achievement of his presidency, never gave Sanders a comprehensive plan. Democratic senators eager to run in 2024 on the law declined to back Sanders’ pressure campaign.

And Sanders relented, announcing last month he’d allow his committee to consider Bertagnolli after the administration struck a deal with drug company Regeneron to limit the price of a Covid therapy it’s developing with NIH backing.

A former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, told POLITICO it’s unlikely that deal will ever take effect.

“Pointing to a single case that was a particularly imbalanced situation and suggesting that there’s been a policy reversal, I think would be misguided,” added Richard Frank, director of the Brookings Schaeffer Initiative on Health Policy, expressing doubt about the significance of the Regeneron deal.

Still, drug pricing advocates, such as Public Citizen’s Peter Maybarduk, said Sanders’ push sets an important precedent. “There’s a very long way to go, but that for us is not a symptom of a wrong cause,” he said. “The senator achieved material progress in an industry in a political context that has been very difficult to move.”

When Sanders asked Bertagnolli at her confirmation hearing last week if she’d pursue tougher contract language with drugmakers that rely on NIH help, she demurred.

Then, earlier this week, Sanders called on the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate a potentially lucrative patent license the NIH proposed granting to a little-known company with ties to a former NIH researcher.

In the end, Sanders allowed his panel to vote on Bertagnolli and said he would not lobby Democrats to oppose her.

“This should be a vote of conscience,” Sanders said Tuesday.

Although Cassidy pressed Bertagnolli about whether she’d refrain from getting involved in drug pricing at her confirmation hearing — she similarly demurred — Democrats did not join Sanders in questioning her on the topic and said they looked forward to working with her on key health issues, such as Alzheimer’s disease and the opioid crisis.

Democrats remain committed to doing more to lower drug prices but are waiting for the right time, said Larry Levitt, executive vice president at KFF, the health policy research group, pointing to the Inflation Reduction Act as a likely centerpiece of Democrats’ 2024 election campaigns.

“Democrats are all-in on efforts to lower drug prices,” he said. “But it’s a little messy to pair a debate about drug prices with the nomination of an NIH director.”

David Lim and Ben Leonard contributed to this report.

By LISA MASCARO, STEPHEN GROVES, FARNOUSH AMIRI and KEVIN FREKING (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans chose Rep. Mike Johnson as their latest nominee for House speaker desperate to unite their fractious majority and end the chaos, just hours after an earlier pick abruptly withdrew in the face of opposition from Donald Trump.

Johnson of Louisiana, a lower-ranked member of the House GOP leadership team, becomes the fourth Republican nominee in what has become an almost absurd cycle of political infighting since Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as GOP factions jockey for power.

When the House convenes at noon Wednesday ahead of a floor vote, Johnson, who won the majority behind closed doors, will need almost all Republicans in the public roll call to win the gavel.

“Mike! Mike! Mike!” lawmakers chanted at a press conference late Tuesday night, surrounding Johnson and posing for selfies in a show of support.

Three weeks on, the Republicans have been frittering away their majority status — a maddening embarrassment to some, democracy in action to others, but not at all how the House is expected to function.

Refusing to unify, far-right members won’t accept a more traditional speaker and moderate conservatives don’t want a hardliner. While Johnson had no opponents during the private roll call, some two dozen Republicans did not vote, more than enough to sink his nomination.

Anxious and exhausted, Republican lawmakers are desperately trying to move on. “Pretty sad commentary on governance right now,” said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark. “Maybe on the fourth or fifth or sixth or 10th try, we’ll get this thing right.”

After he withdrew Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Tom Emmer briskly left the building where he had been meeting privately with Republicans. He said later at the Capitol that Trump’s opposition did not affect his decision to bow out.

“I made my decision based on my relationship with the conference,” he said, referring to the GOP majority. Emmer said he would support whomever emerges as the new nominee. “We’ll get it done.”

Trump, speaking as he left the courtroom in New York where he faces business fraud charges, said his “un-endorsement” must have had an impact on Emmer’s bid.

“He wasn’t MAGA,” said Trump, the party’s front-runner for the 2024 presidential election, referring to his Make America Great Again campaign slogan.

House Republicans returned behind closed doors, where they spend much of their time, desperately searching for a leader who can unite the factions, reopen the House and get the U.S. Congress working again.

Attention quickly turned to Johnson, 51, who was the second highest vote-getter on Tuesday morning’s internal ballots.

A lawyer specializing in constitutional issues, Johnson had rallied Republicans around Trump’s legal effort to overturn the 2020 election results.

Elevating Johnson to speaker would giving Louisianans two high-ranking GOP leaders, putting him above Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who was rejected by hardliners in his own bid as speaker.

But hardliners swiftly resisted Johnson’s bid and a new list of candidates emerged. Among them was Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, a Trump ally who ran third on the morning ballot, and a few others.

In the end, Johnson won 128 votes on the evening ballot, more than any other candidate. McCarthy, who was not on the ballot, won a surprising 43 votes.

“Democracy is messy sometimes, but it is our system,” Johnson said afterward, Scalise standing behind him. “We’re going to restore your trust in what we do here.”

One idea circulating, first reported by NBC News, was to reinstall McCarthy as speaker with hardline Rep. Jim Jordan in a new leadership role.

It was being pitched as a way to unite the conference, lawmakers said, but many said it would not fly.

“I think sometimes it’s good to have fresh ideas and fresh people,” said Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind.

While Emmer won a simple majority in a morning roll call behind closed doors — 117 votes — he lost more than two dozen Republicans, leaving him far short of what will be needed during a House floor tally ahead.

With Republicans controlling the House 221-212 over Democrats, any GOP nominee can afford just a few detractors to win the gavel.

Trump allies, including the influential hard-right instigator Steve Bannon, have been critical of Emmer. Some point to his support of a same-sex marriage initiative and perceived criticisms of the former president. Among the far-right groups pressuring lawmakers over the speaker’s vote, some quickly attacked Emmer.

Having rejected the top replacements, Scalise and the Trump-backed Jordan, there is no longer any obvious choice for the job.

“We’re in the same cul-de-sac,” said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., the chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus.

Yet Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., one of the hardliners, said, “This is what democracy looks like.”

Republicans have been flailing all month, unable to conduct routine business as they fight amongst themselves with daunting challenges ahead.

The federal government risks a shutdown in a matter of weeks if Congress fails to pass funding legislation by a Nov. 17 deadline to keep services and offices running. More immediately, President Joe Biden has asked Congress to provide $105 billion in aid — to help Israel and Ukraine amid their wars and to shore up the U.S. border with Mexico. Federal aviation and farming programs face expiration without action.

Many hardliners have been resisting a leader who voted for the budget deal that McCarthy struck with Biden earlier this year, which set federal spending levels that far-right Republicans don’t agree with and now want to undo. They are pursuing steeper cuts to federal programs and services with next month’s funding deadline.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said she wanted assurances the candidates would pursue impeachment inquiries into Biden and other top Cabinet officials.

During the turmoil, the House is now led by a nominal interim speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., the bow tie-wearing chairman of the Financial Services Committee. His main job is to elect a more permanent speaker.

Some Republicans — and Democrats — would like to simply give McHenry more power to get on with the routine business of governing. But McHenry, the first person to be in the position that was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks as an emergency measure, has declined to back those overtures.

___

Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.

A Fort Worth police report from August 20 acquired by the Texas Observer revealed the identities of four neo-Nazis who were issued trespassing warnings outside of Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, where they distributed antisemitic flyers associated with the Goyim Defense League (GDL): David Bloyed, a 58-year-old resident of Frost; Jeremy Fuller, a 49-year-old resident of Dallas; Barry Young, a 25-year-old resident of Plano; and Matteo Sheffield, a 20-year-old resident of Austin. The Fort Worth Police Department issued trespassing warnings to all four men and escorted them off the premises.  

Designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), GDL is a network of neo-Nazi provocateurs with members in several states. “Goyim” is a Yiddish word for a non-Jewish person.

“What’s most alarming about GDL is their aggressiveness and willingness to go into communities to harass and intimidate people they perceive as their enemies,” said Jeff Tischauser, a senior research analyst with SPLC. 

The Observer also reviewed several videos of the group’s interactions with police officers outside Dickies Arena hosted on a GDL website, which serves as a platform for neo-Nazi propaganda. These videos, in addition to referring to antisemitic tropes, provided clear views of the faces of all four men identified in the police report. 

The Observer further identified two of these men, Bloyed and Young, among a handful of neo-Nazis who gathered at Torchy’s Tacos in Fort Worth on October 8, where they ate ahead of a protest outside of the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, the world’s largest LGBTQ+ inclusive Christian church. The men were photographed holding hateful signs alongside two white supremacists who were recently arrested in Florida. 

A woman dining at Torchy’s Tacos filmed the group wearing neo-Nazi symbols and posted the video to TikTok. By the end of the week, it had been viewed millions of times and made national news, compelling the restaurant chain to issue a statement that concluded with two words in bold letters: “FUCK HATE.”

The oldest of the four men named in the police report is David Aaron Bloyed, who owns a DeSoto business that sells railway equipment. He is silver-haired, stands 6 feet tall, and can be seen toward the end of the video taken in Torchy’s Tacos, as well as in photos from outside the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas. Bloyed spreads neo-Nazi propaganda on Gab, a right-wing social media website under the moniker “Schwettyballs.” A video of Bloyed interacting with police officers outside Dickies Arena confirmed his association with the account, which he used to share a video of himself promoting the GDL website at an August 15 Fort Worth City Council meeting under an assumed name.

David Bloyed speaks at Fort Worth City Council meeting on August 15. Fort Worth City Council

Police escort David Bloyed off Dickies Arena property August 20. Goyim Defense League website

When reached for comment, Bloyed confirmed he had distributed flyers outside Dickies Arena and shared a link to a GDL website where the flyers are hosted. When asked about his presence at Torcy’s Tacos, his affiliation with the “Schwettyballs” social media handle, and his speech during the Fort Worth City Council meeting, he said it’s all “unconfirmed.”

Jeremy Fuller regularly posts videos on the GDL website using the handle “Old SSaxon”—an apparent reference to the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS). Fuller’s videos valorize Nazi ideology and regularly reference Zyklon B, a gas the Nazis used to commit genocide at the concentration camps. Fuller also posted videos documenting Fort Worth police issuing him warnings for trespassing, as well as Bloyed and two other GDL activists. Fuller could not be reached for comment.

Jeremy Fuller after being issued a trespassing warning on August 20 Goyim Defense League website

A video posted by Jeremy Fuller under the username OldSSaxon Goyim Defense League website

A third stiff-arm-saluting neo-Nazi, Barry Young, is a graduate of Texas State University from Plano. According to his LinkedIn profile, Young is employed as a salesperson at Sherwin Williams. In 2017, Young was an intern at Macias Strategies, the eponymous firm of Republican political consultant Luke Macias, who has worked with Jonathan Stickland—the consultant who started a political firestorm after meeting with Hitler admirer Nick Fuentes at his office in Fort Worth on October 6. 

Young was among the neo-Nazis spotted at Torchy’s Tacos and the Cathedral of Hope, where he can be clearly seen wearing a red swastika armband. Young flaunted the armband on Gab under the username “Baby Face.”

Barry Young after receiving a trespassing warning on August 20 Goyim Defense League website

Barry Young (left) and Ronald Murray protest outside the Cathedral of Hope on October 8. Twitter

“Finally got my nazi drip today,” Baby Face posted on August 30 along with a photo of the swastika armband.

When reached for comment, Young denied he was issued a trespassing warning in Fort Worth. He then said “you can suck 6 million dicks,” referring to the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust, before hanging up. 

The fourth man named in the police report is Matteo Sheffield, a graduate of Vandegrift High School in Austin. The Observer could not find any active social media accounts associated with Sheffield, but his identity was confirmed by a relative, who said Sheffield’s family is Jewish and he was raised in the Jewish faith. Sheffield could not be reached for comment. 

Matteo Sheffield is escorted off Dickies Arena property on August 20. Goyim Defense League website

Various videos shared on social media show that Bloyed and Young have been responsible for distributing antisemitic flyers in Fort Worth and Weatherford. Identical flyers have been recently distributed in Allen and Lavon. 

“What you’ve uncovered is part of a national trend,” Tischauser said. “We have been counting hate group flyering since 2018, and we’ve seen approximately a 290 percent increase in this activity.”

It may not quite be Bagentmania yet, but Tyson Bagent’s sparkling turn in his first NFL start on Sunday represented welcome fun for a Bears fan base unused to the concept.

The undrafted rookie out of Division II Shepherd University of West Virginia — hardly a heralded cradle of star quarterbacks — not only capably led the Bears offense, he flourished in what ended up being a lively victory over the Las Vegas Raiders.

The networks lapped it up. And, judging from some intermittent check-ins on local sports talk radio, more than a few Bears fans are now getting carried away with visions of the next Tom Brady.

That’s OK. That’s fun too.

Sports so often provides broader life lessons useful to those of us not gifted with sprinter speed or rocket arms. So it was with Bagent, who after the game spoke of how hard he’d worked to get to this level and how he’d prepared himself to succeed when he got there.

Boiled down, it all came out to lots of hard work, confidence and his love of what he does.

Some will no doubt roll their eyes at those sorts of old-fashioned virtues. Thomas Edison famously described “genius” as 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Maybe Edison’s percentages are overstated, but those words from another era still resonate.

The day that Bagent surely never will forget offered a stirring reminder that such achievements are possible even for those of us who aren’t straight out of central casting.

Lucky are those who’ve discovered what they love to do. Admirable are those who then just go for it.

We don’t know if Tyson Bagent’s Cinderella story has staying power. At the very least, he’s showing the NFL he belongs in the league, whether with the Bears or elsewhere. That in and of itself is fun.

Big-league fun, much deserved by the long suffering.

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