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Jim Jordan to force floor vote for House speaker on Tuesday after consolidating Republican support – as it happened

Jim Jordan has told CNN that he will force a floor vote tomorrow at noon for House speaker.

The Ohio representative previously walked back a stance that he would only call a vote if he reached the necessary 217 votes.

Jordan told CNN that his stance changed due to fighting between Israel and Hamas.

“You can’t open the House, and do the work of the American people, and help our dearest and closest friend Israel if you don’t have a Speaker,” said Jordan.

On if he can get 217 votes, Jordan said: “I don’t know if there’s any way to ever get that in the room. … But I think the only way to do this is … you have the vote tomorrow.”

Federal judge Tanya Chutkan partially granted prosecutors’ request for a gag order on Donald Trump in his trial over charges related to the trying to overturn the 2020 election. The former president will be banned from attacking special counsel Jack Smith and his team, as well as witnesses in the case and court staff, but Chutkan declined to stop him from alleging the case is politically motivated, or criticizing the government generally. Nonetheless, Trump’s presidential campaign condemned the decision as “another partisan knife stuck in the heart of our Democracy”.

Here’s what else happened today:

  • Jim Jordan is consolidating Republican votes ahead of tomorrow’s election that could see him take over as speaker of the House from the ousted Kevin McCarthy.

  • Joe Biden postponed a trip to Colorado to stay at the White House and meet with his national security team ahead of Israel’s expected invasion of Gaza.

  • Chutkan turned down a request from Smith’s team to limit how Trump’s attorneys could question potential jurors.

  • The election subversion case is one of several Trump is involved in, both at the state and federal level. Here’s a recap of his many legal troubles.

  • Biden and Kamala Harris condemned the murder of a six-year-old Palestinian Muslim boy in Illinois, and warned against Islamophobia.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have condemned the killing of six-year-old Palestinian Muslim Wadea Al-Fayoume in Illinois, who police say was targeted over the Israel-Hamas war.

“Doug and I grieve with the family of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian-American Muslim child who was stabbed to death on Saturday. We also pray for the recovery of Wadea’s mother, Hanaan Shahin, who was stabbed 12 times in the same attack,” Harris said in a statement released this afternoon. “The Department of Justice has announced a hate crimes investigation.”

Yesterday evening, the president said:

Jill and I were shocked and sickened to learn of the brutal murder of a six-year-old child and the attempted murder of the child’s mother in their home yesterday in Illinois.

The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek – a refuge to live, learn and pray in peace.

This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are.

As Americans, we must come together and reject Islamophobia and all forms of bigotry and hatred. I have said repeatedly that I will not be silent in the face of hate. We must be unequivocal. There is no place in America for hate against anyone.

Here’s the Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo with more on Wadea’s murder:

Quinn Mitchell, a 15-year-old resident of early voting state New Hampshire who could give many reporters a run for their money in terms of political knowledge, has had yet another run-in with Republican officials who apparently do not want him around, the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reports:

A 15-year-old aspiring journalist who had a viral encounter with the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, earlier this year was escorted out of a Republican political event by armed police after he was accused of being a Democratic operative.

Quinn Mitchell – a politics enthusiast who has attended more than 80 presidential campaign events – said he was given a credential to the First in the Nation Leadership Summit, an event organized by the New Hampshire Republican party.

After arriving on Friday, Mitchell watched a speech by Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who is running for president. Mitchell – who is from New Hampshire – then prepared to watch Perry Johnson, a long-shot Republican candidate.

But he was prevented from doing so.

“This woman comes up to me, I don’t know who she is, but she says to me: ‘I know who you are, you’re a tracker,’” Mitchell said on his podcast.

A tracker is a political operative who records rival candidates. Mitchell, who is not a tracker, was then escorted into a room at the Sheraton Nashua hotel, where the event was being held. The woman, who Mitchell said was a Republican official, was joined by a man, and the pair accused Mitchell of having misrepresented himself to gain access.

From the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell, here’s a full rundown of what happened earlier today, when the federal judge handling his trial on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election imposed a partial gag order on Donald Trump:

Donald Trump has been issued a limited gag order by the federal judge overseeing the criminal case over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, prohibiting him from making public statements attacking prosecutors, court staff and potential trial witnesses.

The former president was not prohibited from generally disparaging the Biden administration, the US justice department and the trial venue of Washington DC, and will continue to be allowed to allege that the case was politically motivated.

Those were the contours of a tailored protective order handed down on Monday by Tanya Chutkan, the US district judge who said she would enter a written ruling at a later date but warned Trump’s lawyers that any violation of the order could lead to immediate punitive sanctions.

The ruling was the culmination of a two-hour hearing in federal district court after prosecutors in the office of the special counsel Jack Smith had asked the judge to impose restrictions on Trump’s attacks that they felt could intimidate witnesses – and Chutkan agreed.

“There is a real risk that witnesses may be intimidated,” Chutkan said as she explained her decision from the bench, adding that just because Trump was a 2024 presidential candidate and the GOP nomination frontrunner did not give him free rein to “launch a pre-trial smear campaign”.

Joe Biden was scheduled today to travel to Colorado to promote clean energy policies, but this morning made the unusual decision to postpone the event, apparently to address the crisis in the Middle East.

The White House has announced that the president spent this afternoon meeting with his national security team about Israel’s looming invasion of the Gaza Strip:

Meanwhile, his re-election campaign has made its own foray into hostile territory, by setting up an account on Donald Trump’s Truth Social. That’s the platform the former president turned to after being banned from X, formerly known as Twitter, following the January 6 insurrection, and has continued to use even after Elon Musk let him back on last year:

We have a live blog following the latest on the war between Israel and Hamas:

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign has denounced a judge’s recent partial gag order against Donald Trump in the 2020 election case.

In a statement shared with the Hill, the spokesperson called the order “an absolute abomination and another partisan knife stuck in the heart of our Democracy.”

“President Trump will continue to fight for our Constitution, the American people’s right to support him, and to keep our country free of the chains of weaponized and targeted law enforcement,” read the statement, shared by Trump’s campaign.

Judge Tanya Chutkan’s ruling prohibits Trump from attacking special counsel Jack Smith and his staff. The former president is also banned from attacking witnesses in the case as well as court staff.

Read the full article here.

It’s unclear if Jordan will secure the 217 votes necessary for House Speaker. But his team has been making significant headway, CNN reports.

As of Monday, less than 10 Republican representatives don’t support Jordan’s bid for House speakership–compare to 20 members on Sunday.

From CNN’s Manu Raju:

Jordan’s supporters are attempting to garner support as the House speaker vote approaches.

Tennessee representative Andy Ogles posted a public letter on Monday, imploring Americans to contact their representatives to support Jordan.

In a post to X, formerly known as Twitter, Ogles said: “My Fellow Americans, .. Our Nation is in crisis, we need a leader, we need a fighter like [Jim Jordan]”.

Jim Jordan has told CNN that he will force a floor vote tomorrow at noon for House speaker.

The Ohio representative previously walked back a stance that he would only call a vote if he reached the necessary 217 votes.

Jordan told CNN that his stance changed due to fighting between Israel and Hamas.

“You can’t open the House, and do the work of the American people, and help our dearest and closest friend Israel if you don’t have a Speaker,” said Jordan.

On if he can get 217 votes, Jordan said: “I don’t know if there’s any way to ever get that in the room. … But I think the only way to do this is … you have the vote tomorrow.”

Federal judge Tanya Chutkan partially granted prosecutors’ request for a gag order on Donald Trump in his trial over charges related to the trying to overturn the 2020 election. The former president will be banned from attacking special counsel Jack Smith and his staff, as well as witnesses in the case and court staff, but Chutkan declined to stop him from alleging the case is politically motivated, or criticizing the government generally.

Here’s what else is going on today:

  • Jim Jordan is consolidating Republican votes ahead of tomorrow’s election that could see him take over as speaker of the House from the ousted Kevin McCarthy.

  • Chutkan turned down a request from Smith’s team to limit how Trump’s attorneys could question potential jurors.

  • The election subversion case is one of several Trump is involved in, both at the state and federal level. Here’s a recap of his many legal troubles.

Jim Jordan, the GOP nominee for House speaker, has spent today consolidating support ahead of a vote scheduled for tomorrow to pick a new leader of Congress’s lower chamber.

While it still remains unclear if he has the 217 votes necessary to succeed Kevin McCarthy, the Republican who was earlier this month booted from the speaker’s chair by eight far-right GOP lawmakers and the chamber’s Democrats, Jordan has made important progress today.

He notably won the support of Mike Rogers, an Alabama congressman who had previously refused to vote for him:

Jordan has supported baseless conspiracy theories about Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss and received the former president’s endorsement in the speaker’s race. In a letter he sent to his GOP colleagues today, he has pitched himself as a uniter of a conference that’s deeply divided over many issues, including McCarthy’s removal:

Judge Tanya Chutkan says with Trump’s public prejudicial statements in the 2020 election case, there is a real risk that witnesses may be intimidated.

Trump cannot “launch a pre-trial smear campaign,” Chutkan says, adding violations of order could lead to sanctions.

Federal judge Tanya Chutkan has imposed a limited gag order against Donald Trump in the 2020 election subversion case.

Chutkan’s order prevents posting or reposting attacks against the special counsel, his staff, court staff or personnel, and statements against potential witnesses or expert testimony. The judge declined to impose restrictions on criticizing the government in general, including the justice department and Biden administration. She also will allow statements alleging the case is politically motivated.

Over the past two hours the judge, Tanya Chutkan has heard arguments from both Donald Trump’s attorneys and prosecutors for special counsel Jack Smith over whether she should impose a gag order on the former president.

Prosecutors have asked her to do so, citing inflammatory statements he has made targeting various players in his federal election subversion case, including witnesses, court staff and attorneys. At the hearing, Trump’s lawyer John Lauro has argued such an order would be unnecessary, saying he can stop the ex-president from making outrageous statements, and unsuccessfully trying to get Chutkan to delay the trial until after the 2024 election.

The judge has yet to rule, but as her statement before the hearing went into recess makes clear, she seems to be leaning towards imposing some kind of order limiting what the former president can say.

Federal judge Tanya Chutkan has signaled she is partial to a request from prosecutors to impose some kind of gag order on Donald Trump in the election subversion case.

“I’m not confident that without some sort of restriction, we’ll be in here all the time,” she said after hearing about two hours of arguments from special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors and Trump’s defense attorneys.

The court is now taking a brief recess.

Judge Tanya Chutkan is now back to the argument, put forward by Donald Trump’s attorney, about how a gag order could affect a debate with his former vice-president turned rival Mike Pence.

Chutkan says she understand how it could be detrimental to their speech, but then asks Trump’s lawyer John Lauro why she could not issue an order stopping him from attacking other witnesses – such as former joint chief of staff chairman Mark Milley. Last month, Trump suggested Milley deserved “DEATH” over a phone call with his Chinese counterpart near the end of his term, where the army general assured him the president would not order military action.

Lauro replies that the first amendment does not restrict speech simply because it could be used to spur someone to violence.

Judge Tanya Chutkan asks Donald Trump’s lawyer John Lauro why the former president needed to attack the spouse of special counsel Jack Smith.

Lauro replies that he gets attacked as well, but that’s permitted under the first amendment, and nothing stops Trump from arguing the case against him is politically biased.

Chutkan then turns to Trump’s attacks against court staff, such as the New York City court clerk who he maligned earlier this month. Lauro concedes that comment was out of bounds for a judicial proceeding.

The judge then wanted to hear from Lauro his argument against her issuing an order blocking Trump from making derogatory public statements about the court or its staff. His attorney says such a step is not necessary, nothing the civil case in New York is different from the federal criminal proceedings in Washington DC. Lauro adds that he will make sure Trump does not make similar statements.

Judge Tanya Chutkan then considers another question: why Donald Trump feels the need to call a prosecutor a “thug” to make the point that the case against him is politically motivated.

His attorney John Lauro asks what else he should do in the face of oppression. “Let’s tone this down,” Chutkan replies.

“If your honor wants to censor my speech”, Lauro retorts.

Judge Tanya Chutkan poses the hypothetical question of how a statement by Donald Trump attacking the election subversion case as political and brought by Joe Biden should be handled.

Trump’s attorney John Lauro asks if such a statement would violate the potential gag order. The prosecution initially argues that yes, it would, before backtracking and saying it would not, because Biden is not a party to the case.


Source: US Politics - theguardian.com


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