US Politics

The House of Representatives has voted to oust Minnesota Democratic representative Ilhan Omar from the foreign affairs committee on Thursday, the Washington Post reports.The vote comes after the House approved Democratic assignments for the powerful foreign affairs committee which included Omar.Once McCarthy learned of the assignments, he told reporters, “Oh, so now we can vote her off,” the Hill reports.Republicans claim to have removed Omar due to her previous criticisms of Israel.Republican representative Max Miller said in a statement that Omar “cannot be an objective decision-maker on the foreign affairs committee given her biases against Israel and against the Jewish people”.Omar, herself the target of anti-Muslim bigotry since taking office, said last week that the decision to oust her was “purely partisan”.She added that the move is “also a blow to the integrity of our democratic institutions and a threat to our national security”.It is now 4pm in DC. Here are the key events that happened across the country today:
The House voted along party lines as it ousted Democratic representative Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee while Democrats defended her. The vote was divided 218 to 211, CBS reports. One GOP member voted “present.” Omar defended herself on the floor on Thursday, saying: “This debate today, it’s about who gets to be an American? What opinions do we get to have, do we have to have to be counted as American?… That is what this debate is about, Madam Speaker. There is this idea that you are suspect if you are an immigrant. Or if you are from a certain part of the world, of a certain skin tone or a Muslim.”
A New Jersey councilwoman has been fatally shot on Wednesday night, according to New Jersey’s Sayreville police department. In a press statement released on Thursday, police said that they responded to shots fired on Wednesday evening in the Parlin section of Sayreville, New Jersey. Upon arrival, officers “located town councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, 30, of Sayreville, in her vehicle who had sustained multiple gunshot wounds. Dwumfour had succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced on scene.”
Senators Joe Manchin and Ted Cruz have introduced a new bill that would protect gas stoves. On Thursday, the senators introduced the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act which would prevent the Consumer Product Safety Commission from banning gas stoves across the country.
Senate majority leader Charles Schumer has said that president Joe Biden stands united alongside Democratic leaders against raising debt limits. In a statement to reporters on Thursday, Schumer said, “I’ve spoken to the president both before and his staff after the meeting. He had the same position — [House Democratic leader] Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, the House Democratic caucus, the Senate Democratic caucus and the president have the exact same position, we should pass the debt ceiling clean. That’s where we’re at,” the Hill reports.
The White House has condemned the Republican-led House vote that ousted Democratic representative Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Omar is a “highly respected member of Congress” and called the move a “political stunt,” the Hill reports.
The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, announced plans this week to block state college programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, and critical race theory in his latest attack on Black and LGBTQ+ people in the public education system. The second-term governor, widely expected to launch a 2024 White House bid, previously blocked an advanced placement course on African American studies from being taught in high schools, saying it violated state law, and championed a “don’t say gay” law prohibiting lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity in state primary schools.
The former White House press secretary turned governor of Arkansas Sarah Huckabee Sanders will give the Republican response to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. Announcing the move on Thursday, the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, called Huckabee Sanders “a servant-leader of true determination and conviction”, adding: “I’m thrilled Sarah will share her extraordinary story and bold vision for a better America on Tuesday.”
In the latest development in the saga over former presidents and vice-presidents and the improper retention of classified documents, the Wall Street Journal reports that FBI agents will soon search a property belonging to Mike Pence. Yesterday, FBI agents searched a home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, that belongs to President Joe Biden. No additional documents were found but Biden already faced the attentions of a special counsel, appointed to investigate his retention of documents from his time in the Senate and as vice-president to Barack Obama.
Florida Republican senator Rick Scott said that he does not think that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to remove him from the Senate Commerce Committee “made any sense.” “I’m going to keep doing my job… I put out a plan. He completely opposed me putting out a plan,” Scott told CNN, referring to a plan he announced last year that would have subjected all “government bureaucrats” to a 12-year term limit, shut down the Department of Education, and slashed the federal workforce by 25% within five years, among other proposals.
President Joe Biden called for cooperation and respect at the National Prayer Breakfast where he said that he and House speaker Kevin McCarthy will “treat each other with respect.” “Let’s just sort of, kind of, join hands again a little bit. Let’s start treating each other with respect. That’s what Kevin and I are going to do,” said Biden, the Hill reports.
President Joe Biden has confirmed the departure of his top economic adviser Brian Deese from the White House. In a statement on Thursday, Biden announced that Deese will be stepping down from his role as director of the National Economic Council in the coming days.
Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that she will endorse Democratic representative Adam Schiff for California senate if senator Diana Feinstein decides to not run again. In a statement released by Pelosi and reported by Politico, Pelosi wrote: “If Senator Feinstein decides to seek re-election, she has my whole-hearted support. If she decides not to run, I will be supporting House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, who knows well the nexus between a strong Democracy and a strong economy,” she said.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we wrap up the blog for today. We’ll be back tomorrow with the latest updates on US politics. Thank you.A New Jersey councilwoman has been fatally shot on Wednesday night, according to New Jersey’s Sayreville police department.In a press statement released on Thursday, police said that they responded to shots fired on Wednesday evening in the Parlin section of Sayreville, New Jersey.Upon arrival, officers “located town councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, 30, of Sayreville, in her vehicle who had sustained multiple gunshot wounds. Dwumfour had succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced on scene.”Authorities say that the investigation is currently ongoing and is asking anyone with information or surveillance footage of the area to notify them.Governor Phil Murphy mourned the loss of the Republican councilwoman, saying that he was “stunned by the news of…[her] murder…in an act of gun violence.”He added:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“Her career of public service was just beginning, and by all accounts she had already build a reputation as a committed member of the Borough Council who took her responsibility with the utmost diligence and seriousness…”Senators Joe Manchin and Ted Cruz have introduced a new bill that would protect gas stoves.On Thursday, the senators introduced the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act which would prevent the Consumer Product Safety Commission from banning gas stoves across the country.“I’ll tell you one thing, they’re not taking my gas stove out…My wife and I would both be upset,” Manchin said at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Hill reports. Cruz echoed Manchin’s sentiments, saying, “Make no mistake, radical environmentalists want to stop Americans from using natural gas… The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s proposed ban on gas stoves is the latest egregious scaremongering by the Far Left and their Biden administration allies.”Senate majority leader Charles Schumer has said that president Joe Biden stands united alongside Democratic leaders against raising debt limits.In a statement to reporters on Thursday, Schumer said, “I’ve spoken to the president both before and his staff after the meeting. He had the same position — [House Democratic leader] Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, the House Democratic caucus, the Senate Democratic caucus and the president have the exact same position, we should pass the debt ceiling clean. That’s where we’re at,” the Hill reports.“We believe the House cannot pass a debt ceiling bill the way they’re talking about. That if it is very minor cuts, the [Make America Great Again] MAGA Republicans will rebel. If it is major cuts, the more mainstream Republicans rebel. That’s why we’re saying, ‘Show us you plan.’ Because I don’t think they can get one together,” he added.Meanwhile, McCarthy said on Wednesday that he thinks that “there is an opportunity here to come to an agreement on both sides.”The White House has condemned the Republican-led House vote that ousted Democratic representative Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Omar is a “highly respected member of Congress” and called the move a “political stunt,” the Hill reports.“The way that we see this it’s a political stunt, much like House Republicans unjust removal of other leading Democrats from key committees in recent weeks, and it is a disservice to the American people,” she said, referring to the removal of California Democratic representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee.The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, announced plans this week to block state college programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, and critical race theory in his latest attack on Black and LGBTQ+ people in the public education system.The second-term governor, widely expected to launch a 2024 White House bid, previously blocked an advanced placement course on African American studies from being taught in high schools, saying it violated state law, and championed a “don’t say gay” law prohibiting lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity in state primary schools.DeSantis has pursued aggressive policies to block teaching or discussion about America’s racist past and present, making a name for himself in a national Republican party still defined by the legacy of Donald Trump, who famously mobilized white voters’ racism and resentment of attempts to change the nation’s racial hierarchy into a winning bid for the White House.Last year, DeSantis signed legislation, dubbed the “Stop Woke Act” that restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in schools and businesses. The law bars instruction that says members of one race are inherently racist or should feel guilt for past actions committed by others of the same race, among other things.In his new effort to restrict diversity efforts at public colleges, DeSantis pledged at a news conference that critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion programs, known as DEI, would get “no funding, and that will wither on the vine”.Full story:Ron DeSantis announces plan to block DEI programs in state collegesRead moreSpeaking of efforts to ban government use of the word “Latinx”, as pursued by the Republican rising star and State of the Union rebutter Sarah Huckabee Sanders, here’s a fascinating report from the Associated Press, about an effort to pass such a ban in Connecticut, a deep blue Democratic state.The effort is being led by a group of Latino Democrats:Hispanic lawmakers in Connecticut seek official ban on term ‘Latinx’Read moreThe former White House press secretary turned governor of Arkansas Sarah Huckabee Sanders will give the Republican response to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.Announcing the move on Thursday, the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, called Huckabee Sanders “a servant-leader of true determination and conviction”, adding: “I’m thrilled Sarah will share her extraordinary story and bold vision for a better America on Tuesday.”Huckabee Sanders, now 40, was the second of Donald Trump’s four press secretaries in an administration under which relations between the press and the White House dwindled to new lows.Sanders memorably admitted lying to reporters about internal opposition to FBI director James Comey during the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow.She also told the New York Times it “bothers me” to be called a liar, “because one of the few things you have are your integrity and reputation.”Huckabee Sanders said: “There’s a difference between misspeaking or not knowing something than maliciously lying.”She was elected in Arkansas last November, following her father Mike Huckabee into the governor’s mansion. She began her time in power with a flurry of executive orders on culture war subjects.One banned use in state documents of the word “Latinx”, which one proponent has defined as “a gender-neutral term to describe US residents of Latin American descent”.Another order banned the teaching of critical race theory in public schools. Critical race theory is an academic discipline that examines the ways in which racism operates in US laws and society. It is rarely taught below college level but Republicans across the US have enthusiastically and successfully used it as a wedge electoral issue.In her own statement on Thursday, Huckabee Sanders said she was “grateful for this opportunity to address the nation and contrast the GOP’s optimistic vision for the future against the failures of President Biden and the Democrats.“We are ready to begin a new chapter in the story of America – to be written by a new generation of leaders ready to defend our freedom against the radical left and expand access to quality education, jobs, and opportunity for all.”Some observers think Huckabee Sanders may in future follow her father (and the Democratic former Arkansas governor Bill Clinton) and run for president.Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, bass guitarist and pitchman for questionable health products, did so in 2008 and 2016. In his first run he won the Iowa caucuses as part of an unexpectedly strong showing before losing to John McCain. In 2016 he was one of many candidates blown out of the water by Trump.Republicans also announced on Thursday that a second rebuttal to Biden’s speech will be given by Juan Ciscomani, an Arizona congressman who will speak in Spanish.In the latest development in the saga over former presidents and vice-presidents and the improper retention of classified documents, the Wall Street Journal reports that FBI agents will soon search a property belonging to Mike Pence.Yesterday, FBI agents searched a home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, that belongs to President Joe Biden. No additional documents were found but Biden already faced the attentions of a special counsel, appointed to investigate his retention of documents from his time in the Senate and as vice-president to Barack Obama.In a case of vastly differing scale and complexity – featuring determined attempts to obstruct authorities seeking the records’ return – Donald Trump also faces a special counsel. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida was searched by FBI agents last August, a search the former president and his supporters insist on calling a raid.Trump has seized on Biden’s difficulties to claim he did nothing wrong. Most analysts say otherwise.News that Pence also improperly kept classified material emerged last week. Like Biden, Trump’s former vice-president has played straight with authorities since.According to the WSJ, the DoJ (Department of Justice) is now in negotiations with Pence’s lawyers about scheduling the search of his property in Indiana. The paper did not name sources. The FBI and DoJ did not comment.As the Journal notes, this is all fiendishly complicated for Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, what with the 2024 presidential election looming on the horizon.“Mr Pence is also considering a White House bid, a prospect that could test the standard Garland laid out in appointing the two prior prosecutors” to investigate Biden and Trump, the paper says.Biden is set to run for re-election. Trump is still the only declared challenger for the Republican nomination. And so the classified documents saga goes on.Here’s our columnist Margaret Sullivan, with more:The media is blowing Biden’s documents ‘scandal’ out of proportion | Margaret SullivanRead moreThe House voted along party lines as it ousted Democratic representative Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee while Democrats defended her. The vote was divided 218 to 211, CBS reports. One GOP member voted “present.”Omar defended herself on the floor on Thursday, saying:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“This debate today, it’s about who gets to be an American? What opinions do we get to have, do we have to have to be counted as American?… That is what this debate is about, Madam Speaker. There is this idea that you are suspect if you are an immigrant. Or if you are from a certain part of the world, of a certain skin tone or a Muslim.
Well, I am Muslim. I am an immigrant, and interestingly, from Africa. Is anyone surprised that I’m being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy?” she said.Numerous Democrats came to Omar’s defense. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Thursday that the move was “political revenge.” New York representative Gregory Meeks who serves as a committee ranking member criticized the Republican-led vote, saying that it is a “double standard.”.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“A blatant double standard is being applied here. Something just doesn’t add up. And what is the difference between Rep. Omar and these members? Could it be the way that she looks? Could it be her religious practices?” he said.Similarly, New York representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez said, “This is about targeting women of color in the United States of America,” according to the NYT.Meanwhile, Democratic representative Jamaal Bowman criticized Republicans, saying that they are “full of shit” and that Omar is an “incredible legislator,” Politico reports.The House of Representatives has voted to oust Minnesota Democratic representative Ilhan Omar from the foreign affairs committee on Thursday, the Washington Post reports.The vote comes after the House approved Democratic assignments for the powerful foreign affairs committee which included Omar.Once McCarthy learned of the assignments, he told reporters, “Oh, so now we can vote her off,” the Hill reports.Republicans claim to have removed Omar due to her previous criticisms of Israel.Republican representative Max Miller said in a statement that Omar “cannot be an objective decision-maker on the foreign affairs committee given her biases against Israel and against the Jewish people”.Omar, herself the target of anti-Muslim bigotry since taking office, said last week that the decision to oust her was “purely partisan”.She added that the move is “also a blow to the integrity of our democratic institutions and a threat to our national security”.As transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg said on Thursday that he is “not planning on going anywhere.”In an interview with Punchbowl News two years after his cabinet confirmation, Buttigieg said, “I don’t have any plans to do any job besides the one I’ve got” and that he has “the best job in the federal government.”He told the outlet that his tenure with the the transportation department is “above his pay grade” and that he works at the “pleasure of the president for the time being.”.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“I love this job and I feel like we’re right in the middle of the action,” he said. “I’m not planning on going anywhere because we’re smack in the middle of historic work,” he added.Buttigieg heads a department that has distributed $159.70 billion across its 11 sub-components in fiscal year 2023.Florida Republican senator Rick Scott said that he does not think that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to remove him from the Senate Commerce Committee “made any sense.”“I’m going to keep doing my job… I put out a plan. He completely opposed me putting out a plan,” Scott told CNN, referring to a plan he announced last year that would have subjected all “government bureaucrats” to a 12-year term limit, shut down the Department of Education, and slashed the federal workforce by 25% within five years, among other proposals.Last year, Scott also unsuccessfully challenged McConnell for his Senate leadership position after he felt that McConnell did not do enough to lay out the GOP Senate governing agenda prior to Election Day, the Hill reports..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“He didn’t like that I opposed him because I believe we have to have ideas – fight over ideas. And so, he took [Utah Republican senator] Mike Lee and I off the committee,” Scott told CNN.President Joe Biden called for cooperation and respect at the National Prayer Breakfast where he said that he and House speaker Kevin McCarthy will “treat each other with respect.”.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“Let’s just sort of, kind of, join hands again a little bit. Let’s start treating each other with respect. That’s what Kevin and I are going to do,” said Biden, the Hill reports.
“Not a joke, we had a good meeting yesterday. I think we got to do it across the board. It doesn’t mean we’re going to agree and fight like hell. But let’s treat each other with respect,” he added.Biden went on urge Americans to “look out for one another” amidst a slew of mass shootings, extreme weather conditions and frequent incidents of police brutality..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“In our politics and our lives, we too often see each other as opponents and not competitors. We see each other as enemies, not neighbors. And as tough as these times have been, if we look closer, we see the strength, the determination that has long defined America,” he said.President Joe Biden has confirmed the departure of his top economic adviser Brian Deese from the White House.In a statement on Thursday, Biden announced that Deese will be stepping down from his role as director of the National Economic Council in the coming days..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“For the past two years, I have relied on Brian Deese to help me do just that. Brian has a unique ability to translate complex policy challenges into concrete actions that improve the lives of American people. He has helped steer my economic vision into reality, and managed the transition of our historic economic recovery to steady and stable growth,” Biden said.He went on to cite Deese’s critical role in the passage of various agendas including the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, as well as the CHIPS and Science Act..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“I am grateful to his wife Kara and his children Adeline and Clark for letting us borrow Brian. I know well what it must have been like to say goodbye to him for the regular long commute to Washington, and I know they’re excited to welcome him home,” he added.Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that she will endorse Democratic representative Adam Schiff for California senate if senator Diana Feinstein decides to not run again.In a statement released by Pelosi and reported by Politico, Pelosi wrote:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“If Senator Feinstein decides to seek re-election, she has my whole-hearted support. If she decides not to run, I will be supporting House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, who knows well the nexus between a strong Democracy and a strong economy,” she said.
“In his service in the House, he has focused on strengthening our Democracy with justice and on building an economy that works for all,” she added.Pelosi’s announcement comes a week after Adam Schiff announced the launch of his campaign for California senate.Ahead of the meeting with president Joe Biden later today, the Congressional Black Caucus released a statement regarding its request to meet Biden following the death of Tyre Nichols who died after being brutally beaten by five Memphis police officers last month.On behalf of CBC members, CBC chairman and Democratic Nevada representative Steven Horsford wrote:“The Congressional Black Caucus takes its role to advocate for the safety and protection of the people in our communities very seriously. To that end, CBC is requesting a meeting with the President this week to push for negotiations on much needed national reforms to our justice system – specifically, the actions and conduct of our law enforcement…We are calling on our colleagues in the House and Senate to jumpstart negotiations now and work with us to address the public health epidemic of police violence that disproportionately affects many of our communities,” it added.Democratic representative Ilhan Omar tweeted a expletive-filled threat that her office received last week, writing, “These threats increase whenever Republicans put a target on my back.”She added that there is a “very real human cost” to Republican attacks against women of color like herself.Btw as horrific as this is to listen to, I share it because the Republican Party (and the public) need to know that there is a very real human cost to their continued targeting of women of color, not just to me but to those who share my identities.— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 2, 2023
The tweet comes amid attempts by new House Republicans seeking to oust Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee. Last Tuesday, House speaker Kevin McCarthy blocked California Democratic representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from rejoining the House Intelligence Committee.Last Congress, Democrats removed Georgia’s Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Arizona’s Paul Gosar from their committee assignments following incendiary remarks they made about their colleagues.Good morning, US politics blog readers. President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris are scheduled to meet members of the Congressional Black Caucus this afternoon to discuss police reform.The meeting comes a day after Tyre Nichols’ funeral where Harris urged Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that would address police brutality and racial profiling. Politico reports that CBC members are preparing a list of executive actions that they want to see the Biden administration take.Among the attendees will be California Democratic representative Maxine Waters. In a statement reported by Politico, Waters said”: “I’m not optimistic. I’m not confident that we are going to be able to get real police reform … I approach working on this issue as a responsibility that I have to do – that we must try.”Here’s what else we can expect today:
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on whether to remove Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar from the House foreign affairs committee, an apparent move about her former criticisms towards Israel but according to Democrats, about “spite” for removal of far-right extremists in the former Congress.
Biden and former president Bill Clinton will convene at the White House to mark the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act – the 1993 legislation that guaranteed US workers up to 12 unpaid weeks off to recover from illnesses or childbirth.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will deliver a press briefing at 12.45pm EST. More

Ilhan Omar defiant as Republicans oust her from key House committeeMinnesota Democrat accuses Republicans of trying to silence her because she is Muslim and vows to ‘advocate for a better world’ Republicans voted to expel Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar from the House foreign affairs committee on Thursday as punishment for her past remarks on Israel. Democrats objected, saying the move was about revenge after Democrats removed far-right extremists in the last Congress.A majority of 218 GOP lawmakers supported Omar’s expulsion from the committee, which is tasked with handling legislation and holding hearings affecting America’s diplomatic relations. One Republican lawmaker voted “present”.George Santos withdraws from House committees amid spiraling scandalRead moreOmar struck a defiant note in a speech shortly before the votes were counted, accusing Republicans of trying to silence her because she is a Muslim immigrant, and promising to continue speaking out.“Is anyone surprised that I am being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy? Or that they see me as a powerful voice that needs to be silenced? Frankly, it is expected because when you push power, power pushes back,” Omar said.“My leadership and voice will not be diminished. If I am not on this committee for one term, my voice will get louder and stronger and my leadership will be celebrated around the world as it has been. So take your votes or not. I am here to stay and I am here to be a voice against harms around the world and advocate for a better world.”The Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, had made removing Omar one of his first tasks after being elected the chamber’s leader last month following a lengthy battle with the party’s far right and 15 rounds of balloting. A small group of Republicans had initially objected to the effort, before changing their minds in recent days.On Wednesday, the chamber voted on party lines to move forward with the resolution, which explicitly condemns comments Omar made about Israel that drew accusations by Republicans and some Democrats of antisemitism.Omar has apologized and said she has come to understand her remarks played on antisemitic tropes.The lawmaker, who in 2018 became one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, routinely faces violent threats and bigotry, including from other lawmakers.She once called McCarthy a “liar and a coward” after he refused to condemn remarks by Lauren Boebert, a Colorado extremist Omar said was a “buffoon” and a “bigot”.“These threats increase whenever Republicans put a target on my back,” Omar said on Wednesday, sharing audio of a death threat her office received. “They can continue to target me, but they will never stop me from fighting for a more just world.”On Wednesday the Republican chair of the foreign affairs committee, Michael McCaul of Texas, told reporters: “It’s just that her worldview of Israel is so diametrically opposed to the committee’s. I don’t mind having differences of opinion, but this goes beyond that.”Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, countered: “You cannot remove a member of Congress from a committee simply because you do not agree with their views. This is both ludicrous and dangerous.”Omar has said her removal “is about revenge” and “appeasing the former president”, Donald Trump, who once said Omar and three other progressive congresswomen of color should “go back” to where they came from.In a statement on Thursday, Jasmine Hawamdeh, communications manager for the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, said: “Representative Omar is constantly breaking barriers, and is unfairly targeted as the first Somali American, African immigrant and woman of color to be elected to Congress from Minnesota.“She has earned an equal platform so that we can continue hearing her voice on matters of international importance, such as human rights protections around the globe.”Republican leaders have for weeks worked to assuage concerns among some party members that ousting Omar was no more than an act of retribution for Democrats removing Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona from committees in the last Congress.The two rightwing extremists were expelled for aggressive and threatening behaviour including Gosar’s dissemination of a video which showed him attacking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York progressive, and menacing Joe Biden. Gosar was also censured.Party leaders had previously removed members of their own party from committees. McCarthy did so in 2019, when the then Iowa congressman Steve King questioned why white supremacy was considered offensive. But McCarthy refused to take action against Greene or Gosar, which Democrats say forced them to take the then-unprecedented action of using their majority to remove members of the opposite party from committees.Under McCarthy, both have returned to committees.After the vote, the Democratic leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, tweeted that Omar’s removal was “highly partisan” and “about political revenge”. He announced he would appoint Omar to the budget committee, “where she will defend Democratic values against right-wing extremism”.Associated Press contributed to reportingTopicsIlhan OmarHouse of RepresentativesDemocratsRepublicansUS politicsKevin McCarthyUS CongressnewsReuse this content More

Sarah Huckabee Sanders to give Republican State of the Union responseFormer Trump press secretary turned Arkansas governor to share ‘the GOP’s optimistic vision for the future’ after Biden speech The White House press secretary turned Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders will give the Republican response to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address next week.Ilhan Omar defiant as Republicans oust her from key House committeeRead moreAnnouncing the move on Thursday, the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, called Huckabee Sanders “a servant-leader of true determination and conviction”, adding about his fellow Republican: “I’m thrilled Sarah will share her extraordinary story and bold vision for a better America on Tuesday.”Huckabee Sanders, now 40, was the second of Donald Trump’s four press secretaries in an administration under which relations between the press and the White House dwindled to new lows.Sanders memorably admitted lying to reporters about internal opposition to the FBI director, James Comey, during the investigation of Russian election interference in 2016 and links between the former president and Moscow.She told the New York Times it “bothers me” to be called a liar, “because one of the few things you have are your integrity and reputation”.“There’s a difference between misspeaking or not knowing something than maliciously lying,” she added.Huckabee Sanders was elected in Arkansas last November, following her father, Mike Huckabee, into the governor’s mansion. She began her time in power with a flurry of executive orders on culture war subjects.One banned use in state documents of the word “Latinx”, which one proponent has defined as “a gender-neutral term to describe US residents of Latin American descent”.Another order banned the teaching of critical race theory in public schools. Critical race theory is an academic discipline that examines the ways in which racism operates in US laws and society. It is rarely taught below college level but Republicans have enthusiastically and successfully used it as a wedge electoral issue.In her own statement on Thursday, Huckabee Sanders said she was “grateful for this opportunity to address the nation and contrast the GOP’s optimistic vision for the future against the failures of President Biden and the Democrats.Hispanic lawmakers in Connecticut seek official ban on term ‘Latinx’Read more“We are ready to begin a new chapter in the story of America – to be written by a new generation of leaders ready to defend our freedom against the radical left and expand access to quality education, jobs, and opportunity for all.”Some observers think Huckabee Sanders may in the future follow her father – and the Democratic former Arkansas governor Bill Clinton – and run for president.Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, bass guitarist and pitchman for questionable health products, did so in 2008 and 2016. In his first run he won the Iowa caucuses as part of an unexpectedly strong showing before losing to John McCain. In 2016 he was one of many candidates blown out of the water by Trump.Clinton was president for two terms beginning in 1993.Republicans also announced on Thursday that a second rebuttal to Biden’s speech will be given by the Arizona congressman Juan Ciscomani, who will speak in Spanish.TopicsState of the Union addressUS politicsJoe BidenArkansasRepublicansDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

US pension funds are on the brink of implosion – and Wall Street is ignoring itDavid SirotaPrivate equity firms managing millions of Americans’ retirement savings may be inflating their investments As public officials across America prepare to funnel even more of government workers’ savings to private equity moguls, an alarm just sounded for anyone bothering to listen. It is a warning that Wall Street executives, busy skimming fees off retirement nest eggs, want you to ignore. The longer the warning goes unheeded, however, the bigger the financial time bomb may be for workers, retirees and the governments that pay them.The world economy faces a huge stress test in 2023 | Kenneth RogoffRead moreEarlier this month, PitchBook – the go-to news outlet of the private equity industry – declared that “private equity returns are a major threat to pension plans’ ability to pay retirees in 2023”.With more than one in 10 public pension dollars invested in private equity assets – and with states continuing to keep their private equity contracts secret – PitchBook cited a new study finding that losses from the investments may be on the horizon for retirement systems that support millions of teachers, firefighters, first responders and other government employees.“Private equity returns get reported on a lag of up to six months, and with each update in 2022 values were coming down – which means 2022 numbers were including overstated private equity asset valuations and 2023 numbers are going to incorporate those losses,” noted the study from the Equable Institute.To comprehend this timebomb, you have to understand private equity’s business model.In general, private equity firms use pension money to buy up and restructure companies to then sell them at a higher price than they were purchased. In between buying and selling, there are no transparent metrics for valuing the purchased asset – private equity firms can manufacture an alleged value to tell pension investors (and there’s evidence they inflate valuations when seeking new investments).In a story about an investor receiving two different valuations for the same company, Institutional Investor underscored the absurdity: “Everyone Wants to Know What Private Assets Are Really Worth. The Truth: It’s Complicated.”Meanwhile, valuation and fee terms in contracts between private equity firms and public pensions are kept secret, exempt from open records laws.With that in mind, the new warnings are simple: private equity firms may have told their pension officials that their assets were worth much more than they actually are, all while the firms were skimming billions of dollars of fees off retirees’ money.If write-downs now happen, it could mean that when it’s time to sell the assets to pay promised retiree benefits, pension funds would have far less money available than private equity firms led them to believe. At that point, there are three painful choices: cut retirement benefits, slash social programs to fund the benefits, or raise taxes to recoup the losses.Signs of a doomsday scenario are already evident: some of the world’s largest private equity firms have been reporting big declines in earnings, and federal regulators are reportedly intensifying their scrutiny of the industry’s write-downs of asset valuations. Meanwhile, one investment bank reported that in its 2021 transactions, private equity assets sold for just 86% of their stated value last year.How to fight inflation? (Spoiler alert: not with interest rate rises) | Joseph StiglitzRead moreBut while pensioners may be imperiled, Wall Street executives are protected thanks to their heads-we-win-tails-you-lose business model. While reporting asset losses for investors, some of the firms managing pensioners’ money are raking in even more fees from investors and continuing to raise executives’ pay.Meanwhile, even as some sophisticated private investors rush to get out of private equity, the world’s largest private equity firm, Blackstone, recently reassured Wall Street analysts that state pension officials will continue using retirees’ savings to boost revenues for private equity firms, hedge funds, real estate funds and other so-called “alternative investments”.“The desire for alternatives remains very strong,” the president of Blackstone, Jon Gray, said in an investor call last week. “New York’s state legislature actually increased the allocation for the big three pension funds here by roughly a third.”Gray was referring to New York Democratic lawmakers passing legislation significantly increasing the amount of retiree money that pension officials can deliver to Wall Street. The bill was championed by the New York City comptroller, Brad Lander, just weeks after the Democrat won office promising he would be “reviewing the funds’ positions with risky and speculative assets including hedge funds, private equity, and private real estate funds”.The New York governor, Kathy Hochul, quietly signed the legislation on the Saturday before Christmas, just weeks after the Wall Street Journal reported that analysts have started warning pension funds of looming private equity losses. New York lawmakers simultaneously rejected separate legislation that would have allowed workers and retirees to see the contracts signed between state pension officials and Wall Street firms managing their money.The Empire State is hardly alone in continuing to use retirees’ money to enrich the planet’s wealthiest financial speculators – from California to Texas to Iowa, pension funds controlling hundreds of billions of dollars of workers’ retirement savings are planning to dump more money into private equity, while keeping the terms of the investments secret.While globetrotting to elite conferences in exotic locales, pension officials have defended the high-fee investments by parroting Wall Street executives’ claim that private equity reliably outperforms low-fee stock index funds. At the same time, those officials continue to conceal the terms of the investments, raising the question: if the investments are so great, why are the details being hidden?Perhaps because the investments aren’t as wonderful as advertised. In a landmark study entitled An Inconvenient Fact: Private Equity Returns & the Billionaire Factory, Oxford University’s Ludovic Phalippou documented that private equity funds “have returned about the same as public equity indices since at least 2006”, while extracting nearly a quarter-trillion dollars in fees from public pension systems.A 2018 Yahoo News analysis found that US pension systems had paid more than $600bn in fees for hedge fund, private equity, real estate and other alternative investments over a decade.“The big picture is that they’re getting a lot of money for what they’re doing, and they’re not delivering what they have promised or what they pretend they’re delivering,” Phalippou told the New York Times in 2021.Even some on Wall Street admit the truth: a JP Morgan study in 2021 found that private equity has barely outperformed the stock market, but it remains unclear whether that “very thin” outperformance is worth the risk of opaque and illiquid investments whose actual value is often impossible to determine – investments that could crater when the money is most needed.While the warnings have not halted the flood of pension cash to private equity, they have broken through in at least some corners of American politics.The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering new rules to require private equity firms to better disclose the fees they charge.The US should break up monopolies – not punish working Americans for rising prices | Robert ReichRead moreSimilarly, Ohio’s state auditor, Keith Faber, just issued a report sounding an alarm about state pension officials keeping private equity contracts secret – a practice replicated in states across the country.And following a pension corruption scandal in Pennsylvania – whose state government oversees nearly $100bn in pension money – there’s a potential financial earthquake: during his first week in office, Governor Josh Shapiro promised to shift pensioners’ money out of the hands of Wall Street firms.“We need to get rid of these risky investments,” Shapiro told his state’s largest newspaper. “We need to move away from relying on Wall Street money managers.”Shapiro could face opposition not only from private equity moguls and their lobbyists but also from the pension boards’ union-affiliated trustees. As the Philadelphia Inquirer reported: “Union members [on the boards] have mostly favored the old strategy of private investments, even when challenged by governors’ reps and the last couple of state treasurers.”When investment returns were somewhat better, the unholy alliance between some unions and Wall Street firms flew under the radar, even as pension funds were ravaged by fees. But with warnings of write-downs and losses getting louder, the dynamic could change.Better late than never – though the later it gets, the bigger the risk for millions of workers and retirees.
David Sirota is a Guardian US columnist and an award-winning investigative journalist. He is an editor at large at Jacobin, and the founder of The Lever, where this article also appeared. He served as Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign speechwriter
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Atlanta shooting part of alarming US crackdown on environmental defenders Twenty states have enacted laws restricting rights to peaceful protest, as environmentalists are increasingly criminalized The shooting of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, believed to be the first environmental defender killed in the US, is the culmination of a dangerous escalation in the criminalization and repression of those who seek to protect natural resources in America, campaigners have warned.The death of the 26-year-old, who was also known as “Tortuguita” or “Little Turtle,” in a forest on the fringes of Atlanta was the sort of deadly act “people who have been paying attention to this issue assumed would happen soon, with no sense of joy”, according to Marla Marcum, founder of the Climate Disobedience Center, which supports climate protesters.“The police and the state have a callousness towards the lives of those on the frontline of environmental causes and I hope this is a wake-up call to those who didn’t know that,” she said. “I hope people take the time to notice what’s going on, because if this trajectory of criminalization continues, no one is going to be safe.”Terán was shot and killed by police as officers from an assortment of forces swept through the small camp of a loose-knit activist group defending the urban forest on 18 January. Police say Terán shot and injured a Georgia state trooper with a handgun first, but the Georgia bureau of investigation has said the shooting was not recorded on body cameras, prompting calls for an independent investigation.Locator map of Atlanta, Georgia with South River forest colored in red.State and local authorities have reacted aggressively to protesters trying to stop 85 acres of the forest being torn down to build a sprawling, state-of-the-art, $90m police training complex – dubbed “Cop City” by opponents as it will feature a mock city for “tactical” exercises.Nineteen forest defenders have been charged with felonies under Georgia’s domestic terrorism laws since December. Authorities have detailed the alleged acts of so-called terror by nine of those facing charges, which include trespassing, constructing a campsite and sitting in the trees of the woodland, a 300-acre wedge of land that once contained a prison farm but is now one of the largest urban forests in the US.Brian Kemp, the Georgia governor who declared a state of emergency and mobilized 1,000 members of the national guard over the protests, has blamed “out-of-state rioters” and a “network of militant activists who have committed similar acts of domestic terrorism across the country” for the troubles.Georgia’s response to the protests follows an alarming pattern of environmental and land rights defenders across the US being threatened, arrested and charged with increasingly drastic crimes, including terrorism, for opposing oil and gas pipelines or the destruction of forests or waterways, advocates claim.‘Assassinated in cold blood’: activist killed protesting Georgia’s ‘Cop City’Read more“This was meant as a chilling deterrent, to show that the state can kill and jail environmental defenders with impunity. It reflects a trend towards escalation and violence to distract from the real issue of advancing corporate interests over lands,” said Nick Estes, author of Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance.The current crackdown on environmental and land rights defenders can be traced back to the aftermath of 9/11 and the expansion of the definition of terrorism which sparked a wave of arrests known as the “green scare” targeting so-called eco- terrorists.This then spurred the subsequent proliferation of state legislation criminalizing – or at least attempting to criminalize – all kinds of civil disobedience including Black Lives Matter protests and opposition to fossil fuel projects like gas pipelines, defined as critical infrastructure, essentially to protect business interests over environmental and Indigenous sovereignty concerns.“The criminalization of land and water protectors and Indigenous nations using critical infrastructure security laws can be traced back to the Patriot Act. This has contributed to the current escalation as it allows the definition of terrorism to be more vague and expansive, which is intended to have a chilling effect on peaceful protesters,” said Kai Bosworth, author of Pipeline Populism and assistant professor of geography at Virginia Commonwealth University.The 2016-17 uprising against the Dakota Access oil pipeline (DAPL), which cut through the Standing Rock reservation in North and South Dakota and threatened tribal lands, burial sites and water sources, sparked a brutal response by authorities that can be seen as a before and after in how environmental defenders are policed.Law enforcement used automatic rifles, sound cannons, concussion grenades and police dogs against protesters, leading to hundreds of injuries as personnel and equipment poured in from over 75 agencies across the country. Indigenous leaders and journalists were among hundreds of arrests – including 142 on a single day in October 2016 – with scores facing felony charges and hefty fines.Cartogram of the US, with the 20 states that have enacted laws restricting the right to protest peacefully highlighted in red.Since then, a total of 20 states have enacted laws that impose harsh penalties for impeding “critical infrastructure”, such as making trespass a felony offense, or have brought in vaguely defined domestic terrorism laws that have been used to target environmentalists and Indigenous communities. Overall, 45 states have considered legislation restricting peaceful protests, and seven currently have laws pending.These laws have “been successful in really tamping down dissent and sowing fear among people”, said Marcum. Much of this fear has been fueled by the labeling of protestors as “terrorists” by senior elected figures such as Kemp, according to Elly Page, senior legal advisor at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, which has tracked the anti-protest bills.“We see autocrats around the world use rhetoric like that to clamp down on dissent,” Page said. “The widespread demonization of protestors we’ve seen from politicians who call them terrorists or a mob is incredibly harmful. I think that creates an environment where violence against protestors is not unlikely and that more of these tragedies will take place.”This lawyer should be world-famous for his battle with Chevron – but he’s in jail | Erin BrockovichRead moreMany of the states’ legislation shares language drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), a rightwing group backed by fossil fuel companies.In Florida, South Dakota and Oklahoma, for example, a “riot” is considered to be any unauthorized action by three or more people, while in Florida, Oklahoma and Iowa drivers who injure protestors blocking traffic, a common tactic used by environmental activists, are given legal immunity.In Arkansas, an “act of terrorism” is considered to be anything that causes “substantial damage” to a public “monument”, which could include graffiti. Across 17 Republican-controlled states, protesters face up to 10 years in prison and million-dollar fines for offences.The broad application of these laws, as well as accompanying legislation that criminalize people and organizations that support allegedly dangerous protestors, “chill activism and make it riskier for people to be involved in their right to protest”, said Page.“Many of the laws have language so broad it makes constitutionally-protected speech illegal,” she said. “It gives authorities discretion to apply the law to an activity they don’t like … We know fossil fuel interests are promoting these sorts of laws.”As the criminalization of peaceful protesters has spread, so has the rollout of new fossil fuel projects projects under both Democrat and Republican administrations – despite the escalation of costly and destructive extreme weather events caused by the climate breakdown.“There have been no effective federal efforts to help protesters or defend against criminalization,” said Charmaine Chua, assistant professor of global studies at the University of California. “If you’ve been paying attention at the way cops indiscriminately kill people and the virulent antipathy towards protest movements trying to solve climate change, it’s hard to be surprised at Manuel’s death but still it does feel unprecedented.”Indigenous tribes tried to block a car battery mine. But the courts stood in the wayRead moreSabine von Mering, one of around 900 protestors who were arrested for opposing the Line 3 pipeline that moves oil through Minnesota, said she was “deeply shocked” to hear of Terán’s killing but that she hoped it will galvanize more people to get involved in climate activism. “Any criminalization of protest is an attack on our democracy,” said von Mering, an academic at Brandeis University.“At Line 3 there were several cases of police being extremely aggressive and violent, it was traumatizing to witness it and I’m an old white lady – I didn’t experience the worst of it. The charges were used to intimidate and quell protest.”To critics of the fossil fuel industry, the Line 3 protests are a prime example of its ability to shape the law enforcement that is increasingly cracking down on its opponents. In 2021 it emerged that Enbridge, the Canadian company behind the pipeline, reimbursed US police $2.4m for arresting and surveilling hundreds of Line 3 demonstrators. The payments covered officer training, police surveillance, wages, overtime, meals, hotels and equipment.Steven Donziger, an attorney who was embroiled in a long-running legal battle with Chevron on behalf of Indigenous people in Ecuador, said the payments are part of a “dangerous trend” of fossil fuel influence over the functions of government and the law.“As we get closer to tipping point of no return on climate change, the effort to silence advocacy to have clean energy transition is intensifying,” Donziger said. “To attack young people who are trying to preserve a forest with a military-style assault is totally inappropriate but is unfortunately a sad reflection of where the country has gone.“For weeks these people were called terrorists, which is a complete misuse of the word. The police have been conditioned to believe these people are terrorists and what do you do with terrorists? In the US you kill them. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”TopicsEnvironmental activismUS policingAtlantaGeorgiaUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

George Santos’s lies are so big you almost have to admire themEmma BrockesThe New York congressman’s increasingly wild claims have all the thrill-seeking of a man running across a football field naked In retrospect, as it often seems to go in these cases, the evidence appears to have been so glaringly obvious, it’s a wonder we were ever taken in. George Santos – like Anna Sorokin, the “fake heiress” – even had the Scooby-Doo, black-rimmed glasses that might have come from a joke shop selling disguises. When the representative for New York’s third congressional district entered the House last November, he was briefly notable as the Republican’s first openly gay non-incumbent to win a seat.Now, his fame resides elsewhere. So wild and untrustworthy have statements made by Santos proved to be – Did his granny really survive the Holocaust? Was his mother’s death really related to 9/11? Did he ever appear in a movie alongside Uma Thurman? – that it would come as no surprise, at this stage, to discover that rather than a 34-year-old man, Santos is actually four children piled on top of each other beneath a trenchcoat.The fascinating thing about Santos, and other practitioners of these kinds of fabrications, is how easily disprovable their falsehoods turn out to be. If compulsive lying has its roots in something deeper and more complicated than mere self-advancement, you assume the risk-taking is part of the appeal. Psychologically, Santos’s claims appear akin in scale, impulse and thrill-seeking to a man running across a football field naked, each more lurid and exposing than the last.Let’s start with the small stuff, like where he went to school and what year he graduated. Per Santos’s claims, he attended Horace Mann, a prestigious private school in the Bronx (a representative of the school told CNN it had no record of him ever attending).After school, Santos claims he studied at Baruch College in New York, graduating with a degree in economics and finance in 2010. (Baruch College has no record of him graduating that year.) He claims to have gone on to study for an MBA at New York University (no record), to have worked on Wall Street for Goldman Sachs (no record) and Citigroup (no record). All of these lies were itemised in a comprehensive list in New York magazine last week, with citations for where Santos made the claim and where it was later rebutted.The New York Times, meanwhile, has also handily uploaded a copy of Santos’s two-page CV, which even in the weeds between his biggest tent-pole lies, will make your own CV claim to be “fluent in French” look like a modest inflation.George Santos withdraws from House committees amid spiraling scandalRead moreAnd that’s just the professional stuff. The personal fabrications are, if possible, even weirder in their overreach. Santos appears to have the recognisable, attention-seeking syndrome of claiming association with historical events that on closer inspection he had nothing to do with. His claim to be of Jewish heritage and have grandparents who survived the Holocaust has been thoroughly debunked, as has the claim he made on Twitter in 2021 that his mother was in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11. (Evidence suggests that, in fact, his mother, Fatima Devolder, was in Brazil in September 2001.)He has claimed, simultaneously, to own property in Brazil worth up to $1m, to own 13 rental properties – no record of these properties has so far been found – and to own no property at all and be living with his sister. The claims and reversals have reached a pitch so chaotic that it’s tempting to regard Santos as a conman approaching the level of satirist.And yet. Before we get carried away by the sheer entertainment value of all this, it’s worth reminding ourselves that beneath the improbably fanciful claims, there are suggestions of extremely banal, entirely predictable and straightforwardly self-interested financial impropriety on Santos’s part, all of which are now being investigated by federal prosecutors. A complaint has been filed with the Federal Election Commission about his alleged misuse of campaign funds, and the source of that funding, which is also under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice. And, less than a month after being sworn in, there are, of course, calls for the man to resign. Meanwhile, the most Santos has admitted to is “embellishing” his résumé.It’s a serious thing to mislead the electorate and lie to members of Congress, with a much more damaging fallout than the lies of a fake heiress trying to score a free holiday. Still, in both cases, the fascination with the workings of compulsive liars is the same. Scrutinising photos of Santos’s blank and babyish face triggers the vertiginous possibility inherent in all really big grifts – and one, possibly, deserving of sympathy, although who knows – that he has come to believe all this stuff himself.
Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist based in New York

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Tyre Nichols officers used force in prior cases and failed to document itTwo officers were reprimanded for failing to document incidents and two others were suspended for infractions, records show Two of the since-fired Memphis police officers charged with murdering Tyre Nichols failed to document their use of force in prior cases, and a pair of others were suspended from the department for other infractions, according to personnel records released on Tuesday evening.Two of the officers charged in connection with Nichols’s beating death received written reprimands in 2021 for failing to fill out a department-required form after an instance in which force was needed to detain someone who was purportedly resisting arrest. Another officer had been twice suspended, once after a gun was discovered in the backseat of his squad car and another time for failing to submit paperwork. A fourth officer was suspended after being involved in a car accident in 2021 in an unmarked police vehicle.‘He was robbed of his life’: in Memphis, tributes to Tyre Nichols – and a call to actionRead moreThe records offer new insight into the five officers who are suspected of murdering Nichols and had been part of the police department’s Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods – or Scorpion – unit, described as an elite group in the agency that was supposed to crack down on violent criminals.Local criminal justice experts said the records alluded to wider allegations of routine overuse of force and highlighted how the department prioritized disciplinary matters.“The files look pretty routine and indicate a department that’s more concerned with the police officers damaging their car than using excessive force,” Memphis criminal defense attorney Claiborne Ferguson remarked. “And the incidents of excessive force are exactly what our clients tell us about [concerning] their interaction with the Memphis police department.”All of the officers – Desmond Mills, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith, and Tadarrius Bean – were fired last month, and Scorpion has been disbanded. Two additional police officers have been put on desk duty indefinitely, and three fire department members who were accused of failing to medically evaluate Nichols properly after the fatal beating have been fired.Mills drew the department’s attention after an evening in March 2019 during which he went to help two officers who were trying to arrest a woman who had a damaged car and was suspected of drunk-driving.Officers said the woman resisted arrest, and one of them struck her with a baton. Mills grabbed the woman’s arms, took her to the ground, and handcuffed her. The woman received bruises and facial abrasions during the encounter, records show.The case should have prompted Mills to fill out a department-required form documenting his use of force. Even though Mills was aware of that requirement, he failed to fill out the form, later telling investigators he did not think it applied in that specific instance. More than two years later, in August of 2021, the department handed him a written reprimand.Haley was involved in a similar case in February 2021. One evening, he was helping other officers investigate a report of shots fired at a Walgreens. One of the other officers saw two women laughing in a car parked nearby and decided to detain them. When police said one of the women resisted getting out of the car, Haley helped put handcuffs on her. The woman, who was arrested for disorderly conduct, said her shoulder was dislocated in the process.After the encounter, Haley should have filled out the form documenting his use of force but failed to do so. He later told investigators he was “mistaken as to the use of force necessary” to require him to fill out the form. A lieutenant who was also present at the hearing told investigators Haley was “a hard working officer who routinely makes good decisions” and “he was sure this was a limited event”. The lieutenant also was issued a written reprimand.Additionally, the records reveal that Martin, who joined the police force in March 2018, was suspended on two occasions. Martin – who moved to the Scorpion unit full-time on 16 November 2022 – was first suspended without pay in 2019 for three days after a loaded revolver was found wedged in the back of his patrol car at the end of a shift.Tyre Nichols death: white officer’s belated suspension raises questionsRead moreThe files show that the gun was eventually found by another officer and that Martin and his patrol partner had been involved in two arrests during their shift. The suspects, therefore, could have used the weapon to harm the officers without them ever realizing it was in the car.Martin later confessed that he had not performed adequate inspections of the vehicle before and after his shift. The officer was warned “this violation could have risen to the level of neglect of duty” but was charged with a lesser offense nonetheless.Martin was suspended again in February 2021, following a September 2020 case in which he failed to submit a report over a domestic disturbance complaint and therefore breached department protocol.The records show that Martin’s superiors spoke in his defense at a disciplinary hearing, describing Martin and his partner as “two of the … top producers” on their shift. Martin was still disciplined and received a one-day suspension without pay.The officer’s file also shows that Martin – who was this week accused of a separate instance of brutality for allegedly threatening to shoot two Memphis residents in the face during an arrest – received high marks in his most recent annual performance review. The department described Martin as exceeding expectations in a section on “dealing with the public”.“He is continually a top leader in arrest and calls, and not one person he has arrested has complained,” the report notes.The records furthermore show that Smith, who joined the department in 2018 and moved to the Scorpion unit in October 2020, was also suspended for two days over a January 2021 case. The officer acknowledged his role in a car crash while driving an unmarked police vehicle with “excessive speed”.A hearing summary noted that Smith “advise [sic] his memory is somewhat unclear due to his minor head injury caused by the deployment of the airbag”.Bean, who joined the police department in 2020 and moved to the Scorpion unit in August 2022, is the only one of the five officers charged in relation to Nichols’s death not to have received any previous departmental discipline.Nichols’s death three days after officers beat him on 7 January has reignited nationwide calls for reforms to American law enforcement less than three years after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd. Among other things, there have been calls for the creation of national standards that would aim to increase police accountability while stripping away qualified immunity shielding officers from civil liability for misconduct.TopicsTyre NicholsMemphisUS politicsUS policingnewsReuse this content More

“We are here to celebrate the life of Tyre Nichols … Mrs Wells, Mr Wells, you have been extraordinary in terms of your strength, your courage and your grace,” Harris said to Tyre Nichols’ parents in an address at the funeral..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“We mourn with you and the people of our country mourn with you. We have a mother and a father who mourned the life of a young man who should be here today. They have a grandson who now does not have a father…
When we look at this situation, this is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence at the hands and feet of people who had been charged with keeping them safe…
“This violent act was not in pursuit of public safety… When we talk about public safety, let us understand what it means in its truest form. Tyre Nichols should have been safe…
We demand Congress pass the George Floyd Policing Act … Joe Biden will sign it … It is non-negotiable,” she added.“There is no substitute for federal legislation,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said as she told reporters on Thursday that president Joe Biden will continue urging Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would combat police brutality, racial profiling and excessive force by police officers.At White House briefing. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: The president told Tyre Nichols’ family he would keep pushing Congress to send the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to his desk. “There is no substitute for federal legislation.” pic.twitter.com/lfiWG4kvQW— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) February 1, 2023
The funeral service of Tyre Nichols has concluded with Nichols’ family exiting the ceremony first while other attendees stood and waited for their turn.Flower arrangements were also removed.Singers sang the 1964 song A Change Is Gonna Come by American singer-songwriter Sam Cooke, as well the 2009 song Oh How Precious by American gospel musician Kathy Taylor.“Tyre was a beautiful person and for this to happen to him is just unimaginable,” said Tyre Nichols mother RowVaughn Wells as she wept at the podium while delivering her address..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“The only thing that’s keeping me going is the fact that I really truly believe my son was sent here on an assignment from God and I guess now his assignment is done. He’s been taken home…”
“I want to thank all the community activists for being there for my family…the chief of police for acting swiftly, the district attorney, the state of Tennessee…I want to thank my lawyers…
I just need…that George Floyd bill…passed. We need to take some action because there should be no other child that should suffer the way and all the other parents here that lost their children. We need to get that bill passed because if we don’t, the next child that dies, their blood is going to be on their hands.”Nichols’ stepfather Rodney Wells similarly called for justice for Tyre Nichols, saying, “We have to fight for justice. We cannot continue to let these people brutalize our kids…”.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“What’s done in a dark will always come to the light, and the light of day is justice for Tyre, justice for all the families that have lost loved ones to brutality of police or anybody,” he added.One of Tyre Nichols’ sisters recited a poem she wrote at the funeral service called “I’m Just Trying To Go Home.”“I’m just trying to go home.Is that too much to ask?I didn’t break any laws along this path.I’ve skated across barriers designed to hold me back.I’m just trying to go home where the love is loud and the smiles are warm like the sunsets that comfort me in the coldest of my storms.I’m just trying to go home.I hear the sirens,I hear the flashing lights.The directions are clear.Black skin go left, blue skin go right.I’m just trying to go home.Don’t I deserve to feel safe?Batons, badges, blue lights against my face.I’m just trying to go home.Does anyone hear the pain in my cry, the struggle in my breath?God replied, ‘Come home my son, now you can rest.’”Attorney Ben Crump said that Texas Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee has pledged to introduce a Tyre Nichols clause to the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that seeks to combat police brutality and racial bias in policing.Tyre Nichols and Breonna Taylor were born on the same day and the same year – June 5, 1993 – civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in his address.Crump asked the crowd of attendees to acknowledge Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor who was killed on March 13, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky by police during a botched raid.“I want to acknowledge Tamika Palmer… I know you said it brought back so many memories and pain so if you would stand up so let us at least acknowledge Breonna Taylor’s mother,” Crump said as the crowd clapped and stood up.Civil rights attorney Ben Crump calls for “equal justice” in his address at Tyre Nichols’ funeral..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“It really is a plea for justice…it is a plea for Tyre Nichols the son…for Tyre Nichols the brother…for Tyre Nichols the father but most of all, it is a plea for justice for Tyre Nichols the human being,” Crump said.
“Why couldn’t they see the humanity in Tyre?” Crump said of the five Memphis police officers who beat Nichols to death.
“We have to make sure they see us as human beings and once we acknowledge that we are human beings worthy of respect and justice, then we have have the God given right to say ‘I am a human being and I deserve justice not just any justice but equal justice.’”“All he wanted to do was get home,” Reverend Al Sharpton said of Tyre Nichols..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“Home is not just a physical location. Home is where you are at peace. Home is where you’re not vulnerable. Home is where everything is alright…
“He said, all I want to do is get home. I come to Memphis to say the reason I keep going is, all I’m trying to do is get home… I want to get where they can’t treat me with a double standard — I’m trying to get home. I want to get where they can’t call me names no more — I want to get home. I want to get where they can’t shoot and ask questions later — I’m trying to get home. Every black in America stands up every day trying to get home.”“You don’t fight crime by becoming criminals yourself,” Reverend Al Sharpton said of the five Black police officers who beat Tyre Nichols to death..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“Why do they go ahead? Because they feel that there is no accountability. They feel that we are going to angry a day or to and then we’re going to go onto something else. But some of us do this everyday. Some of us believe…the dream has to come true. Some of us are going to fight…
I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but we won’t stop until we hold you accountable,” Sharpton said as he called for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to be passed.
“We’re not asking for anything special… we’re asking to be treated equal. And to be treated fair.”“In the city where they slayed the dreamer… what has happened to the dream?” Reverend Al Sharpton said, referring to Martin Luther King Jr who famously delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech. “What is happening to the dream in the city where the dreamer laid down and shed his blood?” Sharpton said.“The reason…[why] what happened to Tyre is so personal to me, it was that five Black men that wouldn’t have had a job in the police department, would not ever be thought of to be in elite squad…in the city that Dr. King lost his life…you beat a brother to death,” said Reverend Al Sharpton who visited the Lorraine Hotel earlier this morning where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed 55 years ago..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“There’s nothing more insulting and offensive to those of us that fight to open doors that you walked through those doors and act like the folks we had to fight for to get you through them doors. You didn’t get on the Police Department by yourself. The police chief didn’t get there by herself. People had to march and go to jail, and some lost their lives to open the doors for you. And how dare you act like that sacrifice was for nothing,” Sharpton said.“We are here to celebrate the life of Tyre Nichols … Mrs Wells, Mr Wells, you have been extraordinary in terms of your strength, your courage and your grace,” Harris said to Tyre Nichols’ parents in an address at the funeral..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“We mourn with you and the people of our country mourn with you. We have a mother and a father who mourned the life of a young man who should be here today. They have a grandson who now does not have a father…
When we look at this situation, this is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence at the hands and feet of people who had been charged with keeping them safe…
“This violent act was not in pursuit of public safety… When we talk about public safety, let us understand what it means in its truest form. Tyre Nichols should have been safe…
We demand Congress pass the George Floyd Policing Act … Joe Biden will sign it … It is non-negotiable,” she added.Reverend Al Sharpton has called on vice president Kamala Harris to share a few words at the funeral.Reverend Al Sharpton has opened up his address by recognizing the families at the funeral who have lost their children to police brutality, including those of Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.Vice president Kamala Harris is seen greeting and joining the family of Tyre Nichols at the funeral.@VP Kamala Harris joins the parents of Tyre Nichols here at the funeral in Memphis. #TyreNichols pic.twitter.com/SjQMAAdXnx— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) February 1, 2023 More