Evelyn Reynolds

In the wake of the carnage wrought by Hamas in southern Israel, killing at least 1,300 people; with bombs still raining upon Gaza, having killed at least 3,000; and with 199 children and adults still held hostage, the horror is increased by the prospect of this violence begetting more.The US hopes two aircraft carrier groups in the eastern Mediterranean, non-stop shuttle diplomacy by the secretary of state and a presidential visit to Israel will see off the twin spectres of even greater humanitarian disaster in Gaza and regional catastrophe drawing in Hezbollah in Lebanon and perhaps others. Officially, Joe Biden’s visit to Israel on Wednesday will demonstrate that the US stands with Israel. It may offer Benjamin Netanyahu, disgraced in the eyes of his nation, a political lifeline. But if it is a warning to Hezbollah and Iran, it is also being used to rein in Mr Netanyahu. The US reportedly agreed to the trip only after Israel agreed to move on humanitarian aid and safe areas for civilians to avoid the bombing.But the statement that the two countries will “develop a plan” for delivery is noticeably modest. Even if implemented, it might not hold. Though Israel told the US it would restore the water supply to southern Gaza on Monday, those on the ground report only tiny quantities getting through. And while aid is essential, delivering food and medicines is hard to do and of limited use while air strikes continue.More critical may be the fact that the US, with its own disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq in mind, is pressing Israel to think hard about its plan for Gaza. President Biden warned publicly on Sunday that occupying Gaza would be a mistake. At that point, a ground incursion was regarded as imminent. But his visit has pressed pause, and on Tuesday, the IDF spokesperson Richard Hecht remarked: “Everyone’s talking about the ground offensive. It might be something different.”What happens in Gaza is likely to determine what happens in the north. On Monday, Israel gave an unprecedented order for residents close to the Lebanon border to evacuate south. The area has already seen rocket and missile attacks and border skirmishes. Hezbollah and Israel have trodden carefully since the 2006 war, for which Lebanese civilians mostly paid, though the militant group has built up its fire power and tested the boundaries. But Hezbollah has indicated that it has two red lines: the forcible displacement of large numbers of Palestinians outside Gaza – though Egypt has made it clear it does not want them – and a ground invasion aiming to destroy Hamas: Israel’s stated intention. Behind Hezbollah stands Iran; its foreign minister has warned of “multiple fronts” opening against Israel if it continues to kill civilians in Gaza.Iran does not want to lose Hezbollah, its main proxy force. But nor does it want to see Hamas wiped out. If that looks likely, experts suggest that it would probably also ask Iraqi militias to deploy to Syria or Lebanon. Washington has sent clear warnings to Tehran to stay out of it, while also indicating that it is not looking for a fight. The danger is that while neither the US nor Iran want to be drawn in further, the dynamics on the ground have their own momentum.The unendurable violence witnessed this month in part has its roots in the belief of the US and other governments that the conflict at the heart of the Middle East was unsolvable but manageable, and could be sidelined. Many warned at the time that was wrong. It appears all the more impossible to manage now – and yet that is precisely why the US and others must attempt to do so. More

As the House gears up to vote for its new speaker, all eyes are on Jim Jordan, a founder of the hard-right Freedom caucus. But while the Ohio congressman and his allies say they will have the votes soon, Jordan also has a long history of controversial views that many of his own party members and constituents are not aligned with.Here are some of the key things to know about Jordan as a politician – and a look into how he might act in the role of speaker.Jordan was closely involved in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the electionJordan was a “significant player” in Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, according to the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. As early as November of 2020, he was part of discussions with Trump campaign and White House officials examining whether Mike Pence could overturn the election. Immediately after the election, he met with Trump campaign and White House officials at the campaign’s headquarters to help develop a strategy of repeatedly, and falsely, saying the election was fraudulent, the New York Times reported.On 2 January 2021, Jordan led a conference call with members of Congress and the White House in which they discussed urging Trump supporters to march to the Capitol. The day before the January 6 attack, Jordan texted the then White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to pass on advice that Pence should “call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all”.After the violence at the Capitol, Jordan was one of several members of Congress to whom the White House reached out to try to delay counting of electoral votes. He received five calls from Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s closest allies, that night, according to the January 6 committee. The two men spoke at least twice that night. Jordan later said he spoke with Trump on January 6, but could not recall how many times.Given his staunch efforts to spread misinformation, it wasn’t much of a surprise that Jordan was one of 147 House Republicans who voted to overturn the election. He also signed on to an unsuccessful lawsuit Texas filed at the supreme court seeking to get electoral college votes thrown out in key battleground states.Jordan helped seed the lie that the election was stolenJordan has been one of the most prolific spreaders of misinformation about the election. Weeks before election day, Jordan accused Democrats of “trying to steal” the election. After election day, he continued to claim that something was amiss in Pennsylvania, one of the key states that swung the election for Biden and repeatedly and falsely tied mail-in voting to fraud. He quickly called for congressional investigations into claims of fraud and supported outlandish investigations by Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani into voting equipment.Jordan blocked efforts to find out more about his involvement in the plan to overturn the electionThe January 6 committee subpoenaed Jordan and four other congressmen after the group refused to voluntarily cooperate with the panel. Jordan refused to comply with that subpoena, calling it “an unprecedented and inappropriate demand to examine the basis for a colleague’s decision on a particular matter pending before the House of Representatives”. The committee referred Jordan to the ethics committee for investigation.Jordan was accused of engaging in a cover-up of widespread sexual abuse at Ohio State UniversityBetween 1987 and 1995, Jordan served as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University. During that time, he worked alongside Richard Strauss, a team doctor who was accused of sexual abuse. A 2019 independent report commissioned by OSU concluded that Strauss “sexually abused at least 177 male student-patients he was charged with treating as a university physician”.Jordan has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Strauss’s actions, but former wrestlers have attested that Jordan was directly informed of the doctor’s misconduct. Earlier this month, four former OSU wrestlers publicly denounced Jordan, saying his inaction rendered him unqualified to become speaker of the House.“Do you really want a guy in that job who chose not to stand up for his guys?” the former OSU wrestler Mike Schyck told NBC News. “Is that the kind of character trait you want for a House speaker?”Jordan is known for disrupting the House – but not getting much doneJohn Boehner, the former Republican House speaker, repeatedly criticized Jordan for pressuring Republican leadership to advance his hard-right agenda. Speaking to Politico Magazine in 2017, Boehner described Jordan as a “legislative terrorist”.Jordan was part of a coalition of archconservative lawmakers that antagonized Bohener, repeatedly threatening to remove him from the speakership. Though they never followed through, the constant pressure and threats ultimately drove Boehner to early retirement.“I just never saw a guy who spent more time tearing things apart – never building anything, never putting anything together,” Boehner told CBS News in 2021.According to Vanderbilt University’s Center for Effective Lawmaking, Jordan consistently ranks among Congress’s least effective lawmakers. In the last Congress, Jordan ranked 217th out of 222 House Republicans.Jordan was behind many recent shutdownsSince arriving in Congress 16 years ago, Jordan has played a central role in several of the most consequential government shutdowns. In an attempt to undermine Barack Obama’s healthcare law, Jordan led the charge to shut down the government in 2013. It lasted 16 days and nearly drove the US to the brink of default.Two years later, in 2015, he and his conservative allies in Congress used similar tactics, threatening a shutdown in an effort to defund Planned Parenthood, though an agreement was reached and a closure was averted in time.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAgain in 2018, Jordan was one of the architects of the 2018 government shutdown that lasted 35 days, the longest in US history. Jordan urged Trump to shutter federal agencies in an attempt to force Congress to fund his border wall. It backfired and Congress and Trump eventually agreed to reopen the government without providing any funding for Trump’s wall.Congress recently passed a stopgap funding measure, part of a deal the former speaker Kevin McCarthy struck with the support of Democrats to avert a government shutdown on his watch. The move enraged conservatives, who then moved to oust him.The next speaker will have to move quickly to address federal funding, set to expire in mid-November, or again risk another shutdown.Jordan has already indicated he will block more aid to Ukraine if he becomes speakerJordan has consistently voted against aid packages to assist Ukraine’s war efforts against Russia, which have become a source of outrage among hard-right lawmakers.As he launched his speakership bid earlier this month, Jordan told reporters that he was “against” providing more funding to Ukraine.“The most pressing issue on Americans’ minds is not Ukraine,” he said. “It is the border situation, and it’s crime on the streets. And everybody knows that. So let’s address those.”Foreign policy experts have warned that, without additional US aid, Ukraine’s war efforts against Russia will falter and more Ukrainian citizens will die.Jordan is a fixture on Fox News, a platform that he has used to elevate Trump and attack the Biden administrationAccording to the left-leaning group Media Matters, Jordan has appeared on Fox News at least 565 times since August 2017, making him the network’s most frequently interviewed member of Congress.Jordan has capitalized on those appearances by consistently touting the virtues of Trump, even as the former president faces 91 felony charges across four criminal cases.“I am 100% for President Trump,” Jordan told Fox News back in April. He added: “No one has demonstrated that they will do what they said and get things done like he did.”That sycophancy has paid dividends, as Trump has now endorsed Jordan’s speakership bid. Jordan has also used his Fox appearances to elevate his work, as chair of the House judiciary committee, to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings and the justice department, accusing federal officials of giving the president’s son “preferential treatment”.Jordan supports a nationwide ban on abortionJordan, an evangelical Christian, is a staunch abortion opponent. In fact, he has said the desire to restrict access to the procedure was one of the reasons he entered politics. On his congressional website, Jordan boasts that the first piece of legislation he ever co-sponsored was a bill that would extend protections to fetuses under the 14th amendment.He also introduced a “Life at Conception” act that would ban all abortions nationally. After the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, Jordan claimed on social media that the story ​​of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who had to travel to Indiana to receive an abortion after being raped was “another lie”. He later deleted the tweet after authorities charged a man in connection with the case and refused to apologize.Additionally, he opposes same-sex marriage. According to his website, Jordan says he is “committed to defending the sanctity of marriage and the family” and “oppose[s] all attempts to redefine marriage”. More

Doubling down on the hardline immigration policies that have long animated his base, Donald Trump on Monday vowed to bar refugees from Gaza and immediately expand his first-term Muslim travel ban if he wins a second term following the deadly attack on Israel last week.Speaking to supporters in Iowa, the former president said that if he returns to the Oval Office, he will immediately begin “ideological screening” for all immigrants and bar those who sympathize with Hamas and Muslim extremists. The war between Israel and Hamas has sparked what is now the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides, with more than 4,000 dead.Though Trump’s audience in the Horizon Events Center in Clive cheered his proposals, 31-year-old information technology specialist Ritu Bansal said she supported Trump but hoped he would also show compassion for the people of Gaza.“In my opinion the US government should care for the victims of the Hamas attack on Israel and the civilian victims in Gaza,” Bansal said. “The US can care for both.”Trump’s proposals would mark a dramatic expansion of the controversial – and legally dubious – policies that drew alarm from immigrant rights and civil liberties activists, but helped him win the presidency in 2016.Trump has long railed against the US taking immigrants from countries he has called inferior, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, and told the crowd Monday that while he was president the US stood up for Israel and “Judeo-Christian civilization and values”.Trump also continued to paint himself as a martyr for his loyal supporters, railing against the four indictments he is facing along with a narrow gag order that was imposed Monday by the federal judge overseeing the 2020 election interference case against him in Washington. The order, which Trump has pledged to appeal, bars him from making statements targeting prosecutors, possible witnesses and court staff.“I am willing to go to jail if that’s what it takes for our country to become a democracy again,” he said in Clive.Trump pledged to bar the entry of refugees from Gaza fleeing Israel’s retaliatory strikes after the surprise 7 October attack, just as he tried to bar citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries during his first term with an executive order. The executive order, however, was met with fierce opposition and was fought all the way to the US supreme court. The high court eventually upheld a third version of the ban, which included travelers from North Korea and some from Venezuela.Current and former members of communist and totalitarian parties and their sympathizers are already banned from entry into the US. But Trump told about 1,500 people in suburban Des Moines that if he wins a second term, the US would no longer allow what he called “dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots and maniacs to get residency in our country”.“If you empathize with radical Islamic terrorists and extremists, you’re disqualified,” he said. “If you want to abolish the state of Israel, you’re disqualified. If you support Hamas or any ideology that’s having to do with that or any of the other really sick thoughts that go through people’s minds – very dangerous thoughts – you’re disqualified.”The ex-president and 2024 Republican frontrunner also said he would aggressively deport resident aliens with “jihadist sympathies” and send immigration agents to “pro-jihadist demonstrations” to identify violators.“In the wake of the attacks on Israel, Americans have been disgusted to see the open support for terrorists among the legions of foreign nationals on college campuses. They’re teaching your children hate,” he said. “Under the Trump administration, we will revoke the student visas of radical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners at our colleges and universities and we will send them straight back home.” More

Leftwing US Jewish groups gathered outside the White House on Monday to urge the Biden administration to pressure Israel into dropping its plans for a military invasion of Gaza and instead declare an immediate ceasefire.Accusing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of planning “genocide”, several hundred volunteers from campaign groups IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace chanted slogans, carried placards and sang ancient Jewish songs in protest of what they said was an immoral response to the deadly assault on 7 October by the Palestinian group Hamas that killed at least 1,400 Israelis.At least 30 people were arrested during the protest, according to reports from ABCNews. One organiser, identifying himself only as Yotam, told demonstrators shortly before they departed an initial rallying point at Farragut Square for the White House that 150 activists had volunteered to be arrested if security personnel ordered them to vacate the entrance points.The demonstrators also trained their sights on Joe Biden, who they said was complicit in an Israeli retaliatory bombardment that had destroyed Gaza neighbourhoods, cut off water and electricity, and left around 2,200 Palestinians dead, including 700 children.The criticism of the US president came as he was considering an offer by the Israeli prime minister to visit Israel as it grieves in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks. Biden has offered unequivocal support for the country since it was attacked, but cautioned that a re-occupation of Gaza – from which Israel formally withdrew in 2005 – would be a mistake.Monday’s demonstration came as Gaza faced an intensifying humanitarian crisis as more than half a million people fled their homes in the north of the tiny coastal enclave in advance of preparations for an apparent Israeli ground invasion with the stated goal of destroying Hamas.Standing outside the White House gates, Eva Borgwardt, political director of IfNotNow, demanded an urgent meeting with Biden. “The stakes are life or death,” she said.“We are here to tell President Biden, as the commander in chief of the most powerful military in the world he needs to do everything in his power to demand a ceasefire, to demand a de-escalation, to release the Israeli hostages and to address the underlying circumstances that have led us into this nightmare.”Protest organisers said they were prepared to engage in civil disobedience to influence US policy, including blocking entrances to and from the White House.Holding placards bearing slogans including “My grief is not your weapon” and “Stop genocide in Gaza”, they said their focus was in ending US support for Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and what they described as the Jewish state’s “system of apartheid”.Several described Israeli rhetoric towards Palestinians in the wake of the Hamas attacks as explicitly genocidal.Some attendees waved Palestinian flags, while others carried “Free Palestine” placards. Some of those present wore Jewish kippas, or skull caps.For all the focus on Israel’s policy, there was little reference to or direct criticism of Hamas for its attack on Israeli towns and communities that has triggered the latest crisis in the decades-old dispute between Israelis and Palestinians.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionInstead, activists put the focus on the Biden administration’s sale of expensive military equipment to Israel.Omas Baddar, a Palestinian American analyst, said the White House was guilty of hypocrisy for condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while appearing to condone Israel’s actions.“When you compare the rhetoric of this administration, talking about being a human rights-first foreign policy administration, about the need to put an end to the violence that has taken place in Russia’s war with Ukraine and you contrast it with its rhetoric on what is happening with Israel and Palestine today, it is nothing short of a level of hypocrisy that deserves to be called out as aggressively as we possibly can,” he said.Borgwardt said the demonstration was evidence that the Jewish left was coalescing into a movement aimed at “throwing itself into [Israel’s] war machine” and stopping the onslaught on Gaza.However, some of those present acknowledged that wider support among the Jewish community is hard to come by.“I have a conflict with my family. I believe in a bi-national state,” said Sami Gold, 19, a political science and history student at George Washington University in Washington DC, who said his mother was Israeli-born. “Jews have been discriminated against for thousands of years and if there was a way of forming a Jewish state without discriminating against other people, I would be all for it. But we don’t live in that world.“My family still loves me, but they are sad that this is what I believe. But I think they are going to become more and more sympathetic to what I believe in.” More

A group of prominent progressive US lawmakers introduced a resolution on Monday calling for a ceasefire in the fast-escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas that has resulted in a death toll in the thousands, as fears grow that the war could spiral into a wider regional conflict.The two-page resolution, brought by 13 Democratic members of Congress, urges the Biden administration to “immediately call for and facilitate de-escalation and a ceasefire to urgently end the current violence” as well as to “promptly send and facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza”.“We all know collective punishment of millions of Palestinians is a war crime. No one – no one – can deny that,” said the congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian American member of the House on a Monday press call. “The answer to war crimes can never be answered with more war crimes.”Tlaib, her voice shaking with emotion, said Palestinians, including American citizens trapped in Gaza, feel “abandoned by the world”.“Please turn on the TV,” she said. “See what’s happening. Don’t turn away.”Tlaib and others, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri, introduced the resolution as Israel prepared a likely ground offensive into Gaza amid the crisis.The calls for a ceasefire are notable in Washington, where policymakers have rushed to express unwavering support for Israel following the shocking Hamas attacks. So far, only a handful of mostly progressive Democratic lawmakers have called for a de-escalation of violence, while most Democrats, adopting the posture of the Biden administration, have pledged unconditional solidarity.A leaked state department memo published by HuffPost warned US diplomats against using phrases such as “de-escalation/ceasefire” as the words did not align with current US policy.Joe Biden declared that Israel not only has a right to respond but a “duty” to do so. But as Israel masses troops around Gaza’s borders, the president has also begun to press for restraint. In an interview with CBS’s 60 minutes, Biden warned that it would be a “big mistake” for Israel to try to reoccupy the territory once more with ground troops.On Monday, Biden postponed a planned trip to Colorado to stay in Washington DC and focus on the conflict as he reportedly weighs an invitation to visit Israel in what would be an extraordinary show of support for one of the US’s closest allies.Meanwhile, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, was dispatched on a faltering diplomatic mission across the Middle East to try to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and keep the conflict from widening into a regional war.In Washington DC, the Democratic lawmakers face an uphill climb to pass their resolution in the Republican-controlled House, which is presently without a speaker and therefore unable to conduct normal business. Republicans are under pressure to quickly fill the speakership vacancy, after a handful of far-right conservatives ousted the previous occupant, in part so that Congress can respond to the widening crisis in the Middle East.There is a broad bipartisan consensus in Congress for aiding Israel’s war effort. A separate bipartisan resolution declaring that Congress “stands ready to assist Israel with emergency resupply and other security, diplomatic and intelligence support” in its “brutal” and “unprovoked” war against Hamas has 381 sponsors.But as the conflict grinds on, and the death toll rises, Tlaib said she expects more members will join their call for a ceasefire. Though the overwhelming majority of the House Democratic caucus has not yet joined calls for a ceasefire, Tlaib told reporters that party leaders did not try to dissuade her or her allies from introducing the resolution.“We’ve been clear on the need for de-escalation and a ceasefire since the attacks,” Bush said. “Leadership and the White House know exactly where we stand: there is no military solution to this conflict.”Earlier calls by progressive Democrats for a de-escalation of violence infuriated colleagues of both parties who pledged unflinching support for Israel in the wake of the unprecedented terror attack that many likened to the nation’s “own 9/11”.“Calls for de-escalation, even if well-meaning, are premature”, the congressman Jake Auchincloss, a Massachusetts Democrat who is Jewish, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, last week. “Israel needs the military latitude to re-establish deterrence and root out the nodes of terrorism. Israel did not ask America to de-escalate on September 12, 2001.”The rift underscored a shift in attitude among Democrats on the decades-old conflict. Once nearly unified in their support for Israel and its right to defend itself, Democrats in recent years have grown more critical of Israel, especially under the leadership of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his far-right government.It comes as the party’s base voters have increasingly expressed concern about the plight of the Palestinians. A Gallup poll released earlier this year marked the first time Democrats said they sympathized more with Palestinians than Israelis.A CNN poll conducted after the attack by Hamas found deep sympathy for the Israeli people among the American public. But it also found attitudes toward the conflict and the US’s response to it varied by party, with Democrats and independent voters far less likely than Republicans to say the response by the Israeli military was “fully justified”.Those divisions are only likely to become sharper as the humanitarian situation in Gaza deteriorates ahead of an expected ground invasion by the Israeli military.During the call, the congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, a progressive Democrat of Massachusetts, condemned the attack by Hamas and called on her colleagues to recognize the value of both Israeli and Palestinian lives.“Let me make it plain: the murder of innocent Israeli civilians by Hamas is horrific and unacceptable. And the murder of innocent Palestinian civilians is a horrific and unacceptable response from Israel,” Pressley said on the press call. “Vengeance should not be a foreign policy doctrine. Our shared humanity is at stake, and we must move with urgency.” More

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. More

The Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz spent time last weekend hobnobbing with Liz Truss, the shortest-serving British prime minister – but news closer to home suggested he might have reason to fear for his own job security.As reported by the Dallas Morning News and the Texas Tribune, the Democratic congressman Colin Allred, Cruz’s most likely opponent for re-election next year, reported $10.9m raised since declaring his candidacy in May.That was nearly 20 times as much as Allred’s closest Democratic rival, but it was also, the papers said, almost $2m more than fundraising reported by Cruz in the same period.The hard-right Republican – who was elected to the Senate in 2012, prompted a government shutdown in 2013 and ran for president in 2016 – reportedly raised $8.8m in the same period.In an email to the Guardian, a spokesperson for Cruz contested the reported figures, pointing to a Fox News report earlier in October which said the senator “brought in $5.4m during the July-September third quarter of 2023 fundraising … up from the $4.4m he raised during the April-June second quarter of fundraising and the $1.8m he brought in during the first three months of 2023.“… The Cruz campaign says they entered October with over $6.7m cash on hand.”Either way, Allred, a former Tennessee Titans NFL linebacker elected to Congress from his native Dallas in 2018, presents a formidable figure.Revelling in the show of fundraising muscle, Allred’s campaign manager, Paige Hutchinson, told the Texas Tribune: “Texans’ enthusiasm to retire Ted Cruz – and to elect Colin Allred to the Senate – is reflected in this quarter’s amazing outpouring of grassroots support.”Allred does seem set to breeze to victory in the Democratic primary and therefore advance to challenge Cruz. His party, however, has had its hopes dashed in Texas before.In 2018, Beto O’Rourke, then a congressman, mounted a strong challenge to Cruz but fell short. O’Rourke parlayed resulting prominence in national progressive circles into a campaign for president in 2020 but that and a run for governor of Texas two years later also ended in disappointment.On Saturday, meanwhile, Cruz tweeted a photograph of himself with his wife, Heidi Cruz, and Truss.“We are so grateful for our British friends and for strong leaders on the global stage who will champion conservative principles and defend liberty,” Cruz said.Truss thanked the Cruzes for their “warm welcome in Houston” and said: “It’s vital that conservatives win the battle of ideas both in the US and UK. The time is now.”Truss was prime minister for 49 days last September and October. Historically speaking, that made her the shortest-serving PM of all. In terms of pop culture, as promoted by the Daily Star, a tabloid newspaper, she lasted less time than a lettuce. More

Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign has joined Truth Social, a rightwing social media platform created by the Republican former president Donald Trump.Using the handle @BidenHQ, the account says it is a “project of Biden-Harris 2024” and includes a banner image that says “the malarkey ends here”, referencing the president’s signature colloquialism.The campaign wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it joined Truth Social “mostly because we thought it would be very funny”.For its profile image, the campaign chose a depiction of Biden as “Dark Brandon”, a meme that shows Biden with laser eyes and stems from the “Let’s Go Brandon” chant rightwing circles used to stand in for saltier language against the president. The stunt is the latest in a line of quips and memes from the president’s digital team.While the new account is meant to be in jest, it’s clear the Biden campaign is also using it to reach conservatives. The first few posts today shared conservatives either giving Biden credit or criticizing Trump.“Well. Let’s see how this goes. Converts welcome!” Biden’s campaign wrote in its first post on the platform.Biden’s camp told Fox News Digital that using Truth Social would “meet voters where they are” while also combatting misinformation about Biden that spreads on the platform.As mainstream social media platforms have attempted to clamp down on misinformation and hateful conduct on their sites, places like Truth Social have cropped up with missions to minimally moderate the content people post, allowing misinformation to spread more easily.The platform is not widely used. Estimates show that Truth Social has about 2 million users; Facebook has nearly 3 billion, while X has about a half-billion. More