Biden-Xi Meeting, GOP Tensions, State Department Dissent

Can he get their militaries talking, too?

Republicans worked with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown, and some Republicans

are upset.

One says he was elbowed in a hallway.

What does the incident say about Republican infighting?

What did some say about U.S. support for Israel's war against Hamas?

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nations, and he plans a one-on-one with Biden.

Relations between the world's two largest economies are now bad enough that Biden just

wants to talk more.

one another in a crisis, being able to make sure our militaries still have contact with

one another.

the first part of that meeting today.

She joins us now from San Francisco.

Tam, it just seems like the goals bar for this meeting is low, just being able to talk

on the phone.

So what makes this meeting consequential?

Biden and Xi haven't even spoken since last November, and it's been more than a year since

China broke off military-to-military communications channels with U.S. officials.

And American leaders are not making a secret of the fact that they really want to see those

communications restored.

That's one of the goals of this meeting.

And it's important because the best way to prevent conflict is to talk.

If there's understanding of what the other guys are doing, conflict is less likely.

For Biden, this is also an important meeting because it's a chance to demonstrate what

his priorities are.

Countering China has been at the top of his foreign policy agenda, but you wouldn't really

know it because he's had to deal with all of these other issues, a land war in Europe,

now the crisis in the Middle East.

And he plans to talk to Xi about both of those global issues as well.

So what else could actually come out of this meeting?

announce what the two nations have agreed to.

There have been a lot of conversations leading up to this, and there are signs that there

could be some sort of agreement aimed at reducing the flow of the ingredients used

to make the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters yesterday that he's optimistic that

could happen.

It's something that he raised with Xi last month during a visit to China.

States than China stopping the flow of these precursor drugs, which incidentally are illegal

in China, but they don't do anything to stop them.

Back in 2018, I covered a meeting between Xi and then President Donald Trump.

And the big outcome then was a commitment to reduce the flow of fentanyl.

And yet it is still a major problem killing tens of thousands of Americans every year.

So it's the sort of commitment from China where actions may be a lot louder than words.

The process just took a while and very secretive.

So I mean, why was there so much suspense about this?

The White House has been unwilling to even say where the meeting is happening due to

security concerns.

But a source familiar told me that it will happen at a historic venue south of San Francisco.

That's as far as they would go.

Every detail has been carefully curated.

This source tells me that all the logistics were choreographed right down to what President

Xi will see out of windows.

And let's just say that the protest culture here in the Bay Area is alive and well, something

that doesn't really exist in China.

So it's not something that the Chinese president would be accustomed to seeing.

He's also not used to reporters shouting questions, but we're going to do it anyway.

NPR's Tamara Keith.

Tamara, thanks a lot.

goal and that has exposed more tensions in the majority.

At one point, two Republican lawmakers collided in a hallway.

Tim Burchett of Tennessee accused former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of shoving him.

arts correspondent, excuse me, congressional correspondent, Claudia Grisales.

Claudia, what did you see?

I was interviewing Burchett when I saw McCarthy and his detail come by.

It seemed that McCarthy shoved into Burchett and a chase ensued and that confrontation

is what you just heard.

And this is part of the same struggles we're seeing play out with Republicans in terms

of the differences, the bitterness earlier this year, the same struggles we saw during

the speakership fight.

These are all still there.

Before I shared the news yesterday of what I saw between McCarthy and Burchett, House

Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday talked about these pressures they're facing.

Everybody cool off.

Members have been here for, as Leader Scalise said, for 10 weeks.

This place is a pressure cooker.

One reason why is that it's rooted in the concern that tensions have been so high that

they could lead to altercations like the one I saw play out right in front of me.

And even passing this temporary funding measure to avert a government shutdown yesterday does

not erase the very, very difficult differences that remain.

He held a press conference to defend himself.

He's insisted that it was not intentional, that it all happened in a narrow, crowded

hallway where it's difficult to pass through when interviews are happening.

But we should note this hallway was wide enough for McCarthy and his detail to get through.

Burchett and I had moved to the side.

So you would not expect any pushing, shoving or elbowing in terms of what played out yesterday.

And McCarthy has been accused of this before.

Former Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger noted something similar happened

to him when he was in Congress in a recent book he just released.

My goodness.

I mean, it seems like it's that bad.

It's wild.

Yeah.

The temporary funding measure that passed the House.

What's expected to happen in the Senate?

We're expecting a strong bipartisan vote there as well.

So Congress is on track to avert a shutdown.

As for the House, even as Johnson saw this major victory yesterday, there was a bipartisan

vote of 336 to 95.

There's still a long ways to go before repairing these ultimate tensions that linger here.

And a new shutdown threat is now pushed off to early next year.

But both chambers are still facing the prospect of coming up with permanent funding plans.

And meanwhile, House conservatives keep taking down spending bills.

It undermines the argument that they'll get this done with the extra time.

And some members are making vague threats that could include ousting Johnson if he keeps

going down this path of bipartisan votes.

So the anger here is very present.

There's fights in the Senate as well.

So just the overall toxicity here is not great in terms of going into next year's election

year.

Keep your head on a swivel.

and targeted operation against Hamas militants at al-Shifa Hospital.

Many patients, doctors and civilians remain at that hospital amid heavy fighting.

says its fuel stocks there are empty.

The Israeli military faces widespread calls for a ceasefire in its campaign against Hamas

for humanitarian reasons.

And objections over that campaign have led to some internal disputes from the U.S. State

Department.

channel there.

NPR diplomatic correspondent Michelle Kellerman joins us now to discuss what's happening.

What do we know about the kinds of objections that have been raised?

for International Development that has its own system for employees to register opposition

to policies.

Officials at both of those agencies like to keep these channels private to allow employees

to come forward without the fear of retribution.

We also don't really know the numbers of people who have signed on.

But even if a couple of hundred, as has been reported, that's still a small percentage

of those agencies.

And there's been only one resignation that we know of so far at the State Department.

But the general thrust I'm hearing is that the dissenters want the U.S. to press Israel

to agree to a ceasefire.

The Biden administration argues that a ceasefire would allow Hamas to regroup and instead has

been encouraging temporary humanitarian pauses.

So we don't know a lot about what or who is in these dissents.

So what have U.S. officials been saying about them?

That's true at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

And that's true for Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Here's what his spokesman, Matthew Miller, had to say.

He encourages people to speak up if they disagree.

It doesn't mean that we're going to change our policy based on their disagreements.

He is going to take their recommendations and make ultimately what he thinks is the

best judgment and make his recommendations to the president about what we ought to do.

the October 7th attack.

He has been encouraging Israel to do more to protect civilians, especially around those hospitals.

So his policy and his rhetoric have evolved over the course of the conflict, but not as

much as some diplomats and aid staff would like.

It dates back to the Vietnam War and diplomats have used it for, among other things, to call

for changes in policy in Iraq, Afghanistan, and to raise objections to the Trump-Muslim ban.

But retired diplomat Pete Romero says there have been more leaks recently, and that's

tough in what he calls a really toxic political environment.

on dissent.

And he says young diplomats in particular are really trying to figure out how to express

dissent while still being a team player.

Michelle, thanks.

I'm A. Martinez.

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