US Politics

How the Durham inquiry backfired to show weaponization of Trump DoJ Investigation into origin of FBI Trump-Russia inquiry is ending with little to show but questions over its own political bias When the Trump justice department tapped a US attorney to examine the origins of the FBI inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, conservatives and many Republicans hoped it would end the idea Donald Trump’s campaign was boosted by Moscow and back his charges that some FBI officials and others had conspired against him.Trump documents: Congress offered briefing on records kept at Mar-a-LagoRead moreBut instead, as the multi-year investigation winds down, it is ending with accusations that unethical actions by that special counsel – John Durham – and ex-attorney general William Barr “weaponized” the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to help Trump.Former DoJ officials and top Democrats are voicing strong criticism that Durham and Barr acted improperly in the almost four-year-old inquiry, citing an in-depth New York Times story that added to other evidence the inquiry looked politically driven to placate Trump’s anger at an investigation he deemed a “witch-hunt”.The Times report provided disturbing new details, for instance, about how a key prosecutor, Nora Dannehy, quit Durham’s team in 2020 over “ethical” concerns, including his close dealings with Barr, and discussions about releasing an unorthodox interim report before the 2020 election that might have helped Trump, but which didn’t come to fruition.Critics of the Durham inquiry also noted early on that Barr on several occasions, and contrary to longtime DoJ policies, suggested publicly that Durham’s inquiry would yield significant results, which in effect would help validate Trump’s charges that some officials at the FBI and CIA had led a political witch-hunt.Further, Barr and Durham, in highly unusual public statements early in their investigation, tried to undermine a chief conclusion of a report by the DoJ inspector general, Michael Horowitz, that the Russia investigation was based on sufficient facts to warrant opening the investigation in 2016.Ex-DoJ officials say the Durham inquiry seemed aimed from the start at boosting Trump’s political fortunes.“It was clear to people following the Durham investigation as it unfolded that it was highly irregular from the start,” said former deputy AG Donald Ayer who served in the George HW Bush administration “Indeed there’s good reason to believe that its purpose and primary function was to create fodder to advance Trump’s election prospects.”Critics note that Barr tapped Durham to lead the investigation just a month after special counsel Robert Mueller issued a large report documenting substantial ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia, and concluded that Moscow tried to sway the election to help Trump in “sweeping” and “systematic” ways, a conclusion Barr and Trump worked to downplay.Despite Trump’s pressures and Durham’s sprawling investigation, including unusual overseas trips with Barr to interview officials in Italy and England about potential flaws in the Russia investigation, the inquiry notched just one minor conviction of a mid-level ex-FBI official for falsifying a document. There were also two embarrassing acquittals.The Times report revealed too that Durham had uncovered evidence during his Italy trip of possible criminal misconduct by Trump, but it’s unknown what that entailed and how much he pursued that element of the inquiry.Durham also reportedly spent time investigating a conspiratorial and dubious lead that seemed aimed at connecting an aide to billionaire George Soros, a leading Democratic donor, to the early Russian meddling investigation and the campaign of Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton.Besides Nora Dannehy, who left Durham’s office in 2020, two other prosecutors on Durham’s team reportedly left later after raising concerns about the wisdom of pursuing a prosecution against a lawyer with ties to Clinton’s campaign that ultimately led to an acquittal.For ex-DoJ leaders and top Democrats, the latest allegations about the political motives that drove Durham and Barr underscore earlier signs that the ‘investigation into the investigators” was handled improperly.“The Durham special counsel investigation was tainted from the outset by the excessive involvement of attorney general Barr and its reaching significant conclusions before it had done any significant investigation,” said the ex-DoJ inspector general Michael Bromwich.Bromwich added: “From the outset, there was no pretense that this was an independent investigation in which the facts would determine the outcome. The scorecard: an interminable, four-year investigation; a single conviction based on a case handed over by the IG on a silver platter; and two humiliating acquittals. There has never been a record like that in the half-century history of independent counsels and special counsels.”Top Democrats too are incensed by the conduct of the Durham investigation and Barr’s role in the inquiry.Congressman Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee who served on the House January 6 select committee that investigated the Capitol insurrection, said:“The whole course of the Durham investigation suggests the heights of prosecutorial misconduct. It’s hard to imagine a better case study of the weaponization of Justice than what Barr was doing with the Durham inquiry.”The Senate judiciary committee chairman, Richard Durbin, said: “These reports about abuses in special counsel Durham’s investigation – so outrageous that even his longtime colleagues quit in protest – are but one of many instances where former President Trump and his allies weaponized the justice department. The justice department should work on behalf of the American people, not for the personal benefit of any president.”Durbin added that the Senate judiciary committee would “take a hard look at these repeated episodes, and the regulations and policies that enabled them, to ensure such abuses of power cannot happen again”.Last September, Durbin notified DoJ that the judiciary panel planned to look into explosive details in a book by Geoffrey Berman, the ex-chief of DoJ’s southern district office in Manhattan, about political interference by Barr and Trump loyalists in several investigations.Trump attorney general Barr a liar, bully and thug, says fired US attorney in bookRead moreBerman wrote that Barr in 2019 sought unsuccessfully to pressure him to reverse the conviction of Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen on campaign finance violations, and to block related investigations into potential campaign finance violations.Barr also pressured Berman to resign with an eye to replacing him with a Trump loyalist, but after Berman refused to step down Trump fired him.Together, the charges by Berman, and the evidence amassed by the Times, paint a troubling picture of how Barr seemed to lean over backwards to boost Trump politically, until after the 2020 election when Barr eventually publicly rejected Trump’s claims of fraud.The justice department did not respond to requests from the Guardian seeking a comment from Durham who is expected to write a final report about his inquiry later this year. Dannehy also did not reply to phone messages asking for comment.Barr last week told the Los Angeles Times: “The idea that there was a thin basis for doing [the Durham investigation] doesn’t hold water.” Barr added that “one of the duties of the attorney general is to protect against the abuse of criminal and intelligence powers, that they’re not abused to impinge on political activity, so I felt it was my duty to find out what happened there”.Critics note that Barr’s defense is weak since Durham was tapped just a month after special counsel Robert Mueller issued an extensive report documenting substantial ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia, and concluded that Moscow tried to sway the election to help Trump in “sweeping” and “systematic” ways.Barr’s defense of the Durham investigation’s launch looks shaky too, given public comments Barr made in congressional testimony at a Senate committee hearing in 2019. Barr was asked several times by then senator Kamala Harris if Trump or any White House officials had suggested or pressured him to launch his sweeping review. Barr was evasive, but acknowledged some “discussions” of the matter had occurred, adding “they have not asked me to open an investigation”.For Raskin, the growing evidence of misconduct in the Durham investigation comes at an ironic moment, as the House Republican majority has created a special panel on the judiciary committee to look into the “weaponization of the government” that’s expected to focus heavily on the Biden administration and the Department of Justice and the FBI.The Republican majority “created a weaponization committee which is a precise and accurate description of their own activities in transforming the government to be a political weapon for Donald Trump and his inner circle”, Raskin said. “Of course, they don’t have any interest in looking at the corruption of the justice system under Trump.”TopicsDonald TrumpFBICIAUS politicsTrump administrationRussiafeaturesReuse this content More

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Last weekend, members of the Democratic National Committee voted through a plan to reshuffle the party’s presidential primary calendar, meaning voters in South Carolina will pick their candidate first, bumping Iowa and New Hampshire off top spot. This was done at the behest of Joe Biden. So why did he want to shake things up?
Jonathan Freedland is joined by Adam Gabbatt, Holly Ramer in New Hampshire and Joseph Bustos in South Carolina to discuss the ramifications of messing with political tradition

How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

Archive: MSNBC, CBS, CNN, BBC Listen to Wednesday’s episode of Politics Weekly UK. Buy tickets for the Bernie Sanders live event here. Send your questions and feedback to [email protected]. Help support the Guardian by going to theguardian.com/supportpodcasts. More

Mike Pence subpoenaed in Trump special counsel investigations – reportsFormer vice-president and former Trump official Robert O’Brien issued subpoena though nature of requests is not known Former US vice-president Mike Pence and the former national security adviser Robert O’Brien have been subpoenaed by the special counsel leading investigations into classified documents found at former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and efforts to overturn the 2020 election result, according to media reports on Thursday.Pence was issued a subpoena by special counsel Jack Smith, though the nature of the request was not immediately known, ABC News reported, citing sources. The action follows months of negotiations involving federal prosecutors and Pence’s lawyers.Judge who told Pence not to overturn election predicts ‘beginning of end of Trump’Read moreO’Brien has been asserting executive privilege in declining to provide some of the information that prosecutors are seeking from him, according to CNN.Pence’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Smith’s office declined to comment on both reports from CNN and ABC.Trump’s former acting Department of Homeland Security secretary, Chad Wolf, was interviewed by justice department lawyers in recent weeks as part of the ongoing special counsel investigation related to 2020 election interference, the report added, citing sources.The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, named Smith as special counsel in November to oversee investigations of Trump, shortly after Trump said he would seek the Republican nomination for president again in 2024.The first investigation involves Trump’s handling of highly sensitive classified documents he retained at his Florida resort after leaving the White House in January 2021.The second investigation is looking at efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election’s results, including a plot to submit phony slates of electors to block Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.Grand juries in Washington have been hearing testimony in recent months for both investigations from many former top Trump administration officials.Last month, Garland named a separate special counsel, Robert Hur, to probe the improper storage of classified documents at Biden’s home and former office.In late January, Pence said he was not aware though he takes “full responsibility” after classified documents were found at his Indiana home.The documents were discovered after a review of his personal records was conducted in the wake of classified material being found at Biden’s home in Delaware.TopicsUS newsMike PenceDonald TrumpMar-a-LagoLaw (US)US politicsnewsReuse this content More

Joe Biden attacks Republican ‘dream’ to slash Medicare and Social SecurityPresident makes comments in Florida speech, vowing to safeguard programs ahead of anticipated 2024 re-election campaign Joe Biden amplified his attacks on Republicans over Medicare and Social Security during a visit to Florida on Thursday, arguing that it was the party’s “dream” to slash the federal programs and vowing to be the “nightmare” that stops them.Speaking in Tampa, Biden outlined his administration’s plan to safeguard the popular entitlement programs as part of an ongoing war of words with his Republican opponents that began during his second State of the Union address on Tuesday.Ahead of an anticipated 2024 re-election campaign, the president has seen an opportunity to put Republicans on the defensive on an issue that resonates deeply with voters, and particularly seniors who rely on the programs and are a key part of their base.Joe Biden has steadied the nation – why don’t his polling numbers reflect this? | Robert ReichRead more“I know that a lot of Republicans – their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said, during his remarks at University of Tampa. “If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare.”Republicans have flatly rejected the assertion, despite a long record of proposing to do just that. During the midterms, several prominent Republicans opened the door to Medicare and Social Security cuts as part of their effort to reign in the federal budget.Many Republicans have accused Biden of lying about their fiscal agenda. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said this week that cuts to Medicare and Social Security were “off the table” as part of any plan to reduce the nation’s debt.Their objection to the accusation on Tuesday night – loud howls from the chamber and shouts of “liar” – prompted a remarkable back-and-forth during the State of the Union, in which Biden paused to engage his hecklers. “Liar!” screamed the congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican of Georgia.Recalling the exchange, which he referred to as a “spirited debate”, Biden boasted that he had extracted assurances from them that they would not cut the programs. “Granted, I’ll believe it when I see it,” he told the audience on Thursday, as he highlighted individual Republican plans that he said would make the programs more vulnerable to budget cuts.Among them was an idea put forward by the Republican senator Rick Scott of Florida, who proposed sunsetting nearly all federal spending programs after five years. Holding up a pamphlet with the senator’s plan, Biden said subjecting Social Security and Medicare to periodic renewal votes would raise the likelihood of dramatic cuts.“The very idea the senator from Florida wants to put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block every five years I find to be somewhat outrageous – so outrageous that you might not even believe it,” he said.In a tweet welcoming Biden to Florida, Scott accused the president of “lying to Floridians about Social Security and Medicare” and challenged him to a debate on the issue.Biden enjoys State of the Union reviews as Republicans stoke culture-war fireRead moreResponding to the senator’s pushback, Biden quipped: “Maybe he’s changed his mind; maybe he’s seen the Lord, but he seemed to want a sunset.”Despite vehement protests, Republicans have not yet said how they plan to reduce spending to meet their goal of putting the US on a path toward a balanced budget. Without touching those programs, which alone count for a substantial piece of the nation’s federal budget, it is unclear how they would meet that objective without making painful cuts to defense spending or raising taxes, options many Republicans have categorically ruled out.Biden has appeared to relish sparring with Republicans over the issue, which the White House has long seen as politically potent. Democrats tried to wield the issue against their opponents in the November midterms, but they struggled to rally voters against the hypothetical cuts despite a better-than-anticipated performance.Many Democrats now believe that changed on Tuesday, when Americans saw the debate unfold in primetime. Biden departed the House chamber confident he had bested his political foes, just as he intends to seek a second term. A formal announcement is expected sometime this spring.But recent opinion polls show Biden struggling to unite Americans behind his agenda, with few giving him credit for his legislative accomplishments. Most voters, including a majority of Democrats, say they would prefer someone else to be the party’s standard-bearer in 2024, though a primary challenge has become increasingly unlikely.With 2024 coming into focus, Biden brought his message to Florida, once the consummate presidential battleground that has slipped from Democrats’ reach in recent elections. It is also home to a large retiree population and two of the president’s potential 2024 Republican rivals: Donald Trump, who announced his candidacy shortly after the November midterms, and Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, who won re-election by a dominating 19 percentage points in November.The Guardian view on Biden’s State of the Union: deft politics – now to persuade voters | EditorialRead moreTargeting DeSantis, Biden called on the governor to expand Medicaid in the state, estimating an additional 1.1 million Floridians would be eligible for the program.“This isn’t calculus,” Biden said. “The only reason Medicare expansion hasn’t happened here is politics.” He also repeated his calls for Congress to raise taxes on the wealthiest households and corporations as well as to extend a $35 monthly cap on the cost of insulin to all Americans.In a statement ahead of Biden’s visit, Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, said the president’s plans to rebuild the economy were “too blissfully out of touch to care”.The visit was the second stop on his post-State of the Union “blitz”, which has seen the president, vice-president and cabinet officials travel the country to promote his administration’s legislative agenda. His first stop was at a union training facility in Wisconsin.TopicsJoe BidenUS politicsFloridaUS MedicareRepublicansDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

“I know that a lot of Republicans, their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden says.“If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare,” he adds, to laughter and applause.Biden talks about Rick Scott, the Republican senator from Florida, who released a plan last year to ‘sunset’ all federal programs. It would mean programs including social security and medicare are federal programs – would expire every five years, and need to be reauthorized to continue.“I guarantee you it will not happen. I will veto it I’ll defend social security and medicare,” Biden says.Biden then turns his focus to Sen Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, a Republican who has also threatened measures which would likely cut the programs.“From the time you’re a teenager you had money taken out for these programs,” Biden says.Social Security is more than a government program, it’s “a promise we made”, he adds.“And now these guys want to cut it. I don’t get it, I really don’t. I don’t know who they think they are.”That’s all for today… here are the key events that happened across the country.Joe Biden described himself as Republicans’ “nightmare” over their proposed cuts to social programs. “I know that a lot of Republicans, their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said. “If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare.” Speaking at the University of Tampa, Biden attacked Rick Scott, the Republican senator from Florida who has said programs including social security and medicare should expire every five years, and need to be reauthorized to continue. “I guarantee you it will not happen. I will veto it I’ll defend social security and medicare,” Biden said.Biden also took a dig at Ron De Santis, the Republican governor of Florida who may yet be his opponent in the 2024 presidential election. De Santis has effectively denied Floridians healthcare, Biden noted, by failing to sign on to the Affordable health care act’s Medicaid expansion provision. “Over 1.1m people in Florida would be eligible for Medicaid if Governor De Santis would just agree to expand it,” Biden said. “This isn’t calculus.”China’s balloon that crossed the United States was equipped to collect intelligence signals, the Biden administration said. The White House said the balloon, which was gunned down by the US last weekend, was part of a huge, military-linked aerial spy program that targeted more than 40 countries. A fleet of balloons is used specifically for spying, outfitted with high-tech equipment designed to collect sensitive information from targets across the globe, the US said.Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, moved closer to taking over Walt Disney World’s self-governing district on Thursday, after House Republicans approved legislation meant to punish the company over its opposition to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law.The legislation would leave Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, in which Disney has the power to decide what it builds including, in theory, its own nuclear plant, intact, but would change its name and require DeSantis to appoint a five-member governing board, Associated Press reported:Board members are currently named through entities controlled by Disney and are tasked with overseeing the government services the district provides in the company’s properties in Florida.For DeSantis, the legislation is a victory on the nation’s cultural battlegrounds, where he has harnessed political tensions on gender, race and education to bolster his position as a conservative firebrand while on a path toward an expected 2024 White House run.Last week, the Republican leaders of the Florida House and Senate, in coordination with the governor, ordered lawmakers to return for a special session to complete the state takeover of the Reedy Creek district, taking up a bill that would preserve its operating functions and financial responsibilities.The legislation is all but certain to pass in the statehouse, where a Republican supermajority is eager to carry out the governor’s agenda. Democrats have widely criticized the legislation as a retaliatory power grab by the governor but are powerless to do much else other than delay its passage.“This bill sends a message from the governor to businesses in our state that if they dissent, they will be punished,” said Rep. Rita Harris, a Democrat. “And this is chilling. It’s not just chilling to me, it’s chilling to freedom of speech.”Our columnist Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, takes a look at troubling figures for Democrats – Joe Biden’s stubbornly low approval numbers:In his first State of the Union address since Democrats lost control of the House, Joe Biden celebrated recent economic gains – especially declining inflation and soaring job growth – while taking a bow for legislative victories that will curb prescription drug prices, expand health benefits for veterans, slow climate change and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.Biden’s speech reminded me of how good a president he has been, especially given what he inherited from the former guy, who made a fetish out of dividing and angering Americans while accomplishing nothing except giving a giant tax cut to big corporations and the rich.Biden has steadied the nation. He has brought competent people into government. He has enacted important legislation. He has fortified America’s alliances against despots like Putin. He has strengthened American democracy.All of which raises a troubling paradox. Only 42% of Americans approve of Biden’s presidency – barely above the 41% at his last State of the Union address, and a lower percent at this point than any president in 75 years of polling except for Trump and Reagan (who at this point was hobbled by a deep recession).And despite Biden’s significant achievements, fully 62% think he has accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing”.Read on…Joe Biden has steadied the nation – why don’t his polling numbers reflect this? | Robert ReichRead moreMeta has restored Donald Trump’s access to Facebook and Instagram, a spokesperson confirmed on Thursday, following a two-year suspension after the deadly Capitol Hill riot on January 6 2021.Meta said in January it would lift Trump’s suspension “in the coming weeks”, but “with new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses”. Those guardrails include potential suspensions ranging from one month to two years should Trump violate its content policies again.Trump’s Facebook page was visible on Thursday. His most recent posts were all from January 6 2021, including one which read:“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol that day chanted for Pence to be hanged.Trump now regains access to key platforms for voter outreach and political fundraising ahead of another run for the White House in 2024. He had 23 million followers on Instagram and 34 million on Facebook when the pages were shut down.Joe Biden told Republicans he is “their nightmare” during a speech in Florida on Thursday, as he offered a stark contrast between his administration and the GOP.Speaking at the University of Tampa, Biden told the crowd that the GOP is seeking to hobble social programs that he has pledged to protect.“I know that a lot of Republicans, their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said.“Well let me say this: if that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare.”Biden was in Tampa touting his administration’s accomplishments in its first two years.The president sought to remind those watching that he had signed into law legislation on infrastructure, prescription drug costs, and social reform.He attacked Rick Scott, the Republican senator from Florida who released a plan which would mean programs including social security and medicare would expire every five years, and need to be reauthorized to continue.“I guarantee you it will not happen. I will veto it I’ll defend social security and medicare,” Biden said.Biden also took a dig at Ron De Santis, the Republican governor of Florida who may yet be his opponent in the 2024 presidential election.De Santis has effectively denied Floridians healthcare, Biden noted, by failing to sign on to the Affordable health care act’s Medicaid expansion provision.“Over 1.1m people in Florida would be eligible for Medicaid if Governor De Santis would just agree to expand it,” Biden said.“This isn’t calculus.”Wrapping up his speech, Biden touts his achievements in office.“12m jobs created,” he says.“800,000 manufacturing jobs.”Biden says the US has lowest unemployment rate in 50 years.Less bombastically, he adds: “Inflation is coming down.”A record 10m Americans have applied to start a small business, Biden continues.“Let’s build on the promise we made. Keep prescription drug costs down, defend Social Security and Medicare,” Biden says.“I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future.“Just remember who we are for god’s sake. We’re the United States of America.”On that triumphant note some marching band music starts blasting, and Biden heads off into the crowd to shake some hands.“I know that a lot of Republicans, their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden says.“If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare,” he adds, to laughter and applause.Biden talks about Rick Scott, the Republican senator from Florida, who released a plan last year to ‘sunset’ all federal programs. It would mean programs including social security and medicare are federal programs – would expire every five years, and need to be reauthorized to continue.“I guarantee you it will not happen. I will veto it I’ll defend social security and medicare,” Biden says.Biden then turns his focus to Sen Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, a Republican who has also threatened measures which would likely cut the programs.“From the time you’re a teenager you had money taken out for these programs,” Biden says.Social Security is more than a government program, it’s “a promise we made”, he adds.“And now these guys want to cut it. I don’t get it, I really don’t. I don’t know who they think they are.”Referencing legislation passed on infrastructure, protecting gay marriage, and social programs, Biden says:“We did that in a bipartisan way: Democrats and Republicans did it. I don’t know why they won’t acknowledge that any part of what’s making the country great again.”Biden moves on to the Inflation Reduction act, which introduced a 15% tax on some of the wealthiest companies in the US.“I thought it was time people began to pay their fair share a little bit,” Biden says.Joe Biden is championing his administration’s achievements and insisting that he will further protect Social Security and Medicare at a speech in Tampa, Florida.Biden touts bipartisan accomplishments of his first two years, including legislation on infrastructure, climate and healthcare, before repeating a theme from his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, saying the American people are “strong”. He adds: “It’s never been a good bet to count us out.”Biden is aiming to pass legislation to give “families and seniors just a little more breathing room”, he says. Florida has the highest percentage of seniors of any state in the nation, Biden notes, to scattered applause.The president is speaking in front of a banner that says: “Protect and strengthen Medicare” and “Lowering costs for American families”, as he seeks to draw contrast his vision for Social Security and Medicare with the plans of some Republicans to gut both plans.The former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen said today he is booked in for no less than his 16th meeting with Manhattan prosecutors looking into the hush money payment he made to Stormy Daniels, aka Stephanie Clifford, the adult film actor and director who claims an affair that Donald Trump denies.Cohen told Meidas Touch he will meet with prosecutors working for the Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, next week, having been in to see them for a 15th time this week.Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in 2016, as Trump campaigned for president. The payment (which Trump reimbursed) and its violation of campaign finance law played a part in Cohen being sent to jail. Trump has not been charged.The payment has come back to the fore in Bragg’s investigation of Trump, with a grand jury reportedly hearing evidence. It has also been part of a rumbling confrontation between Bragg and Mark Pomerantz, a prosecutor who resigned from the Manhattan Trump investigation last year, in protest at what he saw as Bragg’s reluctance to indict Trump, and who has now published a book.In People vs Donald Trump, Pomerantz says the Daniels payment became a “zombie case”, forever coming back from the dead as a way to indict the former president. He also says that he thinks Trump should be indicted in relation to more serious tax and fraud allegations.Cohen turned on Trump and has co-operated extensively with authorities investigating the former president.Yesterday, Cohen told MSNBC he found Bragg’s team to be “really well-versed in all aspects of this case. I’m actually impressed with how quickly they all came up to speed … they’re very knowledgeable about all the facts, all the testimony so far that’s been provided”.Further reading:Trump porn star payment a ‘zombie case’ that wouldn’t die, ex-prosecutor says in bookRead moreAngie Craig, a Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, was assaulted in her DC apartment building this morning, her chief of staff said.“Rep Craig defended herself from the attacker and suffered bruising, but is otherwise physically okay,” Nick Coe said in a statement.Coe said Craig called 911 and the attacker fled the scene. He said there was “no evidence” that the incident was politically motivated.Craig was elected to the House of Representatives in 2018. She became the first openly gay person elected to Congress from Minnesota.Congresswoman Craig assaulted today in her DC apartment, per statement from her office pic.twitter.com/A1LXvR21pL— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 9, 2023 More

Joe Biden has steadied the nation – why don’t his polling numbers reflect this?Robert ReichBiden’s State of the Union address is a reminder of how good a president he has been, but majorities believe he has made no progress In his first State of the Union address since Democrats lost control of the House, Joe Biden celebrated recent economic gains – especially declining inflation and soaring job growth – while taking a bow for legislative victories that will curb prescription drug prices, expand health benefits for veterans, slow climate change and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.Biden has revived democratic capitalism – and changed the economic paradigm | Robert ReichRead moreBiden’s speech reminded me of how good a president he has been, especially given what he inherited from the former guy, who made a fetish out of dividing and angering Americans while accomplishing nothing except giving a giant tax cut to big corporations and the rich.Biden has steadied the nation. He has brought competent people into government. He has enacted important legislation. He has fortified America’s alliances against despots like Putin. He has strengthened American democracy.All of which raises a troubling paradox. Only 42% of Americans approve of Biden’s presidency – barely above the 41% at his last State of the Union address, and a lower percentage at this point than any president in 75 years of polling except for Trump and Reagan (who at this point was hobbled by a deep recession).And despite Biden’s significant achievements, fully 62% think he has accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing”.Even on his signature initiatives – from improving the country’s infrastructure to making electric vehicles more affordable to lowering prescription drug costs to creating jobs – majorities believe he has made no progress.And although jobs are being created at an almost unprecedented rate, unemployment is at its lowest since 1969, and inflation is dropping, Americans are deeply pessimistic about the economy.Why the wide discrepancy between what Biden is achieving and what Americans think about him?It’s easy to blame faulty polling. Opinion polls are notoriously inaccurate, as America experienced in the last two presidential elections and during the 2022 midterms.Yet Biden’s has consistently low ratings across almost all opinion polls. And even if the polls systematically underestimate his popularity, he is polling no better than Trump did at this point in Trump’s presidency, which itself suggests a remarkable degree of public hostility.The media is often mentioned as another reason for Biden’s low public ratings.To be sure, Fox News and other rightwing outlets continue to minimize Biden’s achievements and exaggerate his inadequacies, and to suggest his involvement in all manner of scurrilous activities.The mainstream media is not a whole lot better. The New York Times, Washington Post, and major television networks are guilty of “two-sides”-ism – attempting to draw an equivalence between Republicans and Democrats at a time when a large swath of the Republican party continues to align itself with Trump and Trump’s attack on American democracy.This has made it difficult for the news-consuming public to appreciate how much Biden has got done and to credit him for achieving legislative victories with the smallest majorities and most extreme Republicans in living memory.That said, the media alone can’t account for Biden’s low ratings. Only a small fraction of the public is exposed to Fox News or to the New York Times or the Washington Post.A deeper reason Biden is not doing better with the public is the deeply cynical and angry divide Trump has spawned in America. Even if George Washington were president today, a large percentage of the public would probably despise him.Social media, meanwhile, has become a cauldron of ever more extremist rage. Under Elon Musk, Twitter is less a “public square” than a hellhole of hatefulness. No national leader is immune to such relentless battering.But perhaps the most important factor behind Biden’s low public ratings are the continuing crises most Americans find themselves in.About two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Almost none has job security. Most pandemic supports have terminated.Although jobs are plentiful, wages have not kept up with inflation. When the median wage is adjusted for these price increases, the purchasing power of the typical American continues to drop.And while Covid is receding, long Covid is taking a devastating toll. Fentanyl and related drug poisonings continue to rise.Joe Biden and his administration have made important progress. Their legislative victories are crucial. The American Rescue Act of 2021 helped millions survive the pandemic.But Biden’s major initiatives on infrastructure, the climate crisis and semiconductors are only starting to be implemented.Most Americans are still hurting. Hopefully for Biden and for America, the hurt won’t be nearly as bad by the fall of 2024.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
TopicsJoe BidenOpinionState of the Union addressUS politicscommentReuse this content More

Ron DeSantis’ academic restrictions show he hopes to change history by censoring itFrancine ProseFlorida’s Stop Woke Act and ban on African American studies will only deprive students of the right to think and learn For some time now, conservative groups have pressured libraries and classrooms to remove certain “controversial” books from their shelves and their syllabi. These are texts that tell uncomfortable or unpopular truths about our nation’s origins, including inequality, race, history, gender, sexuality, power and class – a range of subjects that a small but vocal group of Americans would prefer to ignore or deny.Ron DeSantis bans African American studies class from Florida high schoolsRead moreThese efforts achieved one of their most notable successes last April when the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, signed the Stop Woke Act, which prohibits in-school discussions about racism, oppression, LBGTQ+ issues and economic inequity. Books that have not been officially vetted and approved must be hidden or covered, lest teachers unknowingly break an ill-defined law against distributing pornography – a felony.On 1 February, these pernicious restrictions on academic freedom spread beyond Florida, when the College Board announced its decision to severely restrict what can and cannot be taught in the newly created advanced placement class in African American studies. Cut from the curriculum (or in some cases made optional) was any discussion of Black Lives Matter, mass incarceration, police brutality, queer Black life and the Black Power movements of the 1960s and 70s. Writers who have been removed from the reading list include bell hooks, Angela Davis and Ta-Nehisi Coates.These decisions are alarming and disturbing on so many levels that it’s hard to decide which aspect is the most damaging and insidious. At risk are our foundational principles of free speech, our conviction that educators – and not politicians – should be writing up our lesson plans and deciding what transpires in our classrooms, our belief that students can (and need to) consider complicated issues.As someone who has taught for decades, I can hardly imagine abruptly cutting off class discussions that have veered (as they inevitably will) into these now forbidden areas. Must we fear that our students will report us as insurrectionists and felons for having mentioned the grotesque racial disparities in our prison populations? I believe that education not only involves the transmission of hard information but also helps students to think for themselves, to weigh opposing arguments and to make informed decisions. How can these goals be accomplished when we are being told to (quite literally) whitewash our nation’s history, to deny that we are walking on appropriated land in a country built by kidnapped and enslaved people, when we are being encouraged to lie about the very ground beneath our feet?Students aren’t as stupid as the Florida legislature seems to think, and by adopting these new regulations, we are only encouraging them to distrust their teachers and the system that so blatantly misrepresents the realities they so clearly observe around them.In the past, authoritarianism – and the indoctrination that sustains it – has used educational systems to further its agenda. We can recall images of first-graders wearing little red kerchiefs and saluting the eastern bloc dictators, of students let out of class to welcome the Führer to town. We know that democracy depends on the free and open exchange of ideas, on conversations that begin early in the life of its citizens – and that fascism thrives when only one point of view is permitted. DeSantis’s rulings, and the campaigns that have engendered them, are inherently anti-democratic.We cannot change history by censoring it. We cannot pretend that we were never a slave-holding society, that racism ceased to exist when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. We cannot erase the past, or influence a young person’s gender and sexuality by removing a book from the library. Students are not political pawns or ideologues-in-training. They are our future and it’s frightening to imagine a future populated by citizens who were forbidden to argue and debate, to hear about a historical event from multiple perspectives and to learn to make the critical judgments and necessary distinctions that will help them navigate our increasingly complex and challenging world.It’s been noted that Ron DeSantis graduated with a degree in history from Yale, where he was presumably encouraged to engage in – and to learn from – the open debates that he is now attempting to stifle. Presumably, too, he learned what a good education is, what it means to be taught to think – and that is precisely what he is denying students who are less privileged than he and his Yale classmates.It’s a political decision designed to win over the Trump supporters that the governor will need in his bid for the presidency – that is, white working-class Americans who don’t understand that their own children are also being denied the education that will help them overcome the class divisions that perpetuate our economic inequality. Private school students will still be able to study history in depth, to learn to reason, to process and assess the accuracy of what they are being told. It’s the public school kids who will be funneled into the low-paying jobs, the dim futures for which their schooling has (not accidentally) prepared them.‘We’ve moved backwards’: US librarians face unprecedented attacks amid rightwing book bansRead moreUltimately, what’s most troubling about the new restrictions and proscriptions is that historical facts are being recast as snowflake propaganda. The truth is being distorted or omitted at a moment when we, as a nation, have never so desperately needed to maintain our grip on reality.Without being taught to distinguish truth from fiction, without being asked to think, without learning how this country evolved – a history not just of heroism and noble principles but of theft, brutality and crime – our students will be easy prey to every conspiracy theory that comes along. They will find it far more difficult to imagine and implement the important ways in which we hope to become a more equitable, less racist – and better educated – society.
Francine Prose is a former president of Pen American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
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Nikki Haley presidential run would sink DeSantis and hand Trump victory – pollYahoo News/YouGov survey finds that an additional Republican candidate would split the vote in former president’s favor As the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley prepares to announce a run for president, a new poll found that just one additional candidate in the 2024 Republican primary will be enough to split the vote and keep Donald Trump ahead of Ron DeSantis, his only current close rival.The race for the 2024 election is on. But who will take on Trump?Read moreThe Yahoo News/YouGov poll gave DeSantis, the Florida governor, a 45%-41% lead over Trump head-to-head. Similar scenarios in other polls have prompted increasing attacks on DeSantis by Trump – and deflections by DeSantis.Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, DeSantis said: “I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.”But the Wednesday poll also produced an alternative scenario involving Haley that may worry DeSantis.Haley was ambassador to the United Nations under Trump before resigning in 2018. Having changed her mind about challenging her former boss, she is due to announce her campaign in her home state next week.Yahoo News reported: “In a hypothetical three-way match-up, Haley effectively plays the spoiler, attracting 11% of Republicans and Republican-leaners while DeSantis’s support falls by roughly the same amount (to 35%), leaving Trump with more votes than either of them” at 38%.When Trump first ran for the Republican nomination, in 2016, he did so in a primary field which was 17 strong come the first debate. Trump won the nomination without winning a majority of votes cast.He ended his presidency twice-impeached and in wide-ranging legal jeopardy but he is still the only declared candidate for the nomination in 2024, having announced shortly after last year’s midterm elections.Defeats for Trump-endorsed candidates cost Republicans dearly in November, particularly as the US Senate remained in Democratic hands, prompting some Republicans to turn against the idea of a third Trump nomination.Haley is due to announce her run on 15 February in Charleston, South Carolina, before heading to New Hampshire, which also has an early slot on the primary calendar.According to the Yahoo/YouGov poll, Haley attracted much more support than other potential candidates including the former vice-president Mike Pence, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Larry Hogan, a former governor of Maryland.According to NBC News, Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire and like Hogan a Republican moderate, is also preparing to run.Nikki Haley accuses Pompeo of ‘lies and gossip to sell book’ after vice-president plot claimRead moreThe Yahoo/YouGov poll said the same vote-splitting scenario played out with fields larger than three: the anti-Trump vote split and Trump therefore beat DeSantis. Other polls have returned similar results.Art Cullen, editor of the Storm Lake Times in Iowa, the state that will vote first, recently told the Guardian: “These folks must be watching Trump’s poll numbers and that’s why there’s a delay [in announcements].”“Trump and DeSantis are doing this sparring around the ring. Others are watching to see if somebody takes a blow and gives them an opening.”But Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark, an anti-Trump conservative website, recently wrote: “Presumably the numerous candidates gearing up to run in the GOP primary understand that a fractured field benefits Donald Trump.”“Are we sure they understand that they’d need to coalesce around a frontrunner by February 2024 to avoid the same scenario that gave us Trump in 2016?”TopicsUS elections 2024US politicsRepublicansDonald TrumpRon DeSantisNikki HaleynewsReuse this content More