Aug. 23, 2021: Who’ll blink first: Pelosi or the Mod Squad?

This week's big storyline: the Pelosi-Gottheimer game of chicken — The House returns to Washington today for a rare mid-August-recess vote on Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget — at least in theory. One little problem: Speaker Nancy Pelosi still doesn’t have the votes to pass it. And on Sunday night, the White House announced that over a 12-hour period at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Sunday, approximately 1,700 people were evacuated on 8 U.S. military flights, and 3,400 people via coalition aircraft. — Biden is considering extending the Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw troops in order to facilitate the evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies. Among those lobbying for it: British PM BORIS JOHNSON, according to the Telegraph.