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While he was Pennsylvania Attorney General, Josh Shapiro sued President Donald Trump’s first administration. About family separation at US borders, access to birth control, and environmental regulations.
And he again sued the Trump administration earlier this month over a freeze on more than $2 billion in federal funds promised under former President Joe Biden. And he was doing that in place of his successor as Attorney General and Republican Dave Sunday.
Sunday alked over filing such cases even if 22 other state attorney generals (all Democrats) joined a federal lawsuit in late January that challenged the funding freeze. However, he refused to stop Shapiro on Sunday. Both his office and Shapiro confirm that he has delegated responsibility to file the case to the governor’s office.
And the absence of the state’s top executive officer certainly gave Shapiro the opportunity to play the White House and the good and bad cops.
Shortly after Shapiro filed the lawsuit, Trump appointed him to the bipartisan governor’s council, and a few days later held a Washington, D.C. gathering attended by people like Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. And after he got home, Shapiro announced that while the lawsuit was still pending, the state once again had access to the money planned for the green energy and environmental restoration initiative.
“When I was in the White House on Friday… I urged them to follow the (Trump Administration) laws and respect their agreement,” Shapiro told reporters.
During his victory lap, Shapiro wasn’t just the fact that other states that filed the suit had at least partially won before the Pennsylvania lawsuit was filed. On February 7, a federal judge ordered a temporary restraining order, demanding that the Trump administration not remove the money allocated to those states, but the lawsuit continues to work.
The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comments. And Shapiro didn’t comment on who he spoke to on Trump’s team or what was said. All he does is his “pressure” return the results.
But former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, who was once the attorney general, told WESA that Shapiro was “not surprising.”
“I think Josh made some sort of impression on the president (or his administration) in some way to freeze that money,” Corbett said.
He added that it is the administration’s hope that the Pennsylvania lawsuit will shake up just like the other state lawsuits that joined together.
“Maybe (Trump) was counselled by his lawyer saying, ‘There’s no reason to fight this,'” Corbett added. “Or maybe he was impressed with the governor.”
Corbett said the invitation to DC is aimed at establishing a connection, and the event offers many “grip and grin” for photo opportunities, but also offers opportunities to talk to White House staff. During a White House meeting with the National Governors Association during the Barack Obama administration, Corbett said he spent time in the “big dining room” of the White House. “You can have two governors on the table. Their spouses may be with them, but there will always be staff (the White House) with them.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro says the state can access more than $2 billion in federal funds frozen by the Trump administration last month.
As for Sunday, there are no signs of Lancer between him and Shapiro’s office while he takes the backseat of the lawsuit. Corbett’s own dynamic with the then-democrat, General Kathleen Kane, was “a much more hostile relationship,” recalls Corbett. The two have publicly spared Kane from refusing to defend the constitutionality of other same-sex marriage bans. (Kane later resigned after being convicted in a case that included leaked large ju judge information about his political rival.)
Still, Shapiro was defended by Democrats in the state legislature. He deemed Sunday’s inaction as a humiliation to taxpayers.
Sunday was burned by Pittsburgh Democrat Emily Kinked at Wednesday’s budget hearing before the state’s minutes committee. She said western Pennsylvania relies heavily on federal dollars for biomedical research and land restoration.
“Aregeny County was standing in losing $350 million as a result of the federal freeze,” Kinked said. “In any of these cases, your office did not take steps to join the lawsuit to stop it. I’m wondering if you can explain why.”
On Sunday he reached out to the Congressional delegation, a US Senator in Pennsylvania, and replied that he was called “UPMC, Carnegie Mellon and community stakeholders.”
“The knee’s response when filing a lawsuit doesn’t always provide the best long-term outcomes,” said the former York County District Attorney Sunday.
The response did not reassure Kinked. “He believes that his office has become filib tough through his account of why he was not involved in protecting Pennsylvanians from unconstitutional behavior in the White House,” she told WESA.
“As a lawyer, I find his reaction… I ignore the reality of the immediate harm brought about by Trump’s executive order.”
But politically speaking, there may not be much reason for anger, at least as far as the governor is concerned. Shapiro was able to challenge Trump’s White House in court and promote positive results after a conversation with the administration. Sunday didn’t have to surpass the party’s standard bearer, but it also didn’t face any blowback that could have followed if funds were frozen.
Together, the two office holders have undoubtedly pulled the win-win…and not many of them these days.
