US Politics

George Santos denies reports that he competed as drag queen in BrazilNew York Republican under pressure over fabrications about his career, past and alleged criminal behaviour George Santos on Thursday tweeted an angry denial that he competed as a drag queen in Brazilian beauty pageants 15 years ago, claims made by acquaintances that have highlighted the contrast between the Republican congressman’s past actions and now staunchly conservative views.Republicans defend George Santos as report details alleged sick dog fraudRead moreThe New Yorker, who says he is gay, dismissed the story as an “obsession” by the media, which he insisted, without irony, “continues to make outrageous claims about my life”.Santos is facing calls from Democrats and his fellow New York Republicans to step down over fabrications about his career and history and amid reports of investigations at local, state and federal level in the US and in Brazil over the use of a stolen checkbook.In another contradiction exposed on Wednesday by a New York Times analysis of immigration records, Santos’s insistence that his mother was in the World Trade Center during the 9/11 terrorist attacks was found to be false.Santos has admitted “embellishing” his résumé but otherwise denied wrongdoing and said he will not resign.The claim that Santos was a drag performer came from a 58-year-old Brazilian who uses the drag name Eula Rochard, Reuters reported.Rochard said she befriended Santos when he was cross-dressing in 2005 at the first Pride parade in Niterói, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. Three years later, Santos competed in a drag beauty pageant in Rio, she added.Another person from Niterói who knew Santos, but asked not to be named, said he participated in drag queen beauty pageants under the name Kitara Ravache, and aspired to be Miss Gay Rio de Janeiro.Santos is now a hardline conservative on numerous social issues, especially those targeting non-binary communities. Republicans have taken aim at drag shows and performers in several states, claiming they are harmful to children.In Texas, one proposal would brand venues that host such shows as “sexually oriented” businesses.Santos, the first out gay Republican to win a House seat in Congress as a non-incumbent, has supported Florida’s “don’t say gay” law, which marginalizes the LGBTQ+ community and prohibits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms.Responding in October to criticism of his support for the Florida bill, Santos told USA Today: “I am openly gay, have never had an issue with my sexual identity in the past decade, and I can tell you and assure you, I will always be an advocate for LGBTQ+ folks.”Republican leaders have so far stood by Santos. He supported the new speaker, Kevin McCarthy, through 15 rounds of voting for that position, and was rewarded with seats on two House committees in a slim Republican majority.But despite McCarthy’s support, increasing numbers of senior party officials have pleaded with Republican leadership to cut him loose. They include several of Santos’s fellow New York congressmen.The Daily Beast reported on Thursday that a “shadow” race was under way in Democratic and Republican circles to replace Santos in New York’s third district, in the expectation that he will eventually be forced out. Republicans, the Beast said, are looking for “a candidate with an immaculate, bulletproof résumé who can patch up the Long Island GOP’s scarred reputation”.Democrats are seeking somebody who can turn the district blue again after Santos’s surprise win in November.As for Santos’s alleged drag show exploits, Rochard said the congressman was a “poor” drag queen in 2005, with a simple black dress, but in 2008 “he came back to Niterói with a lot of money” and a flamboyant pink dress to show for it.Santos competed in a drag beauty pageant that year but lost, Rochard said, adding: “He’s changed a lot but he was always a liar. He was always such a dreamer.”Santos’s tweet on Thursday was his second denial in two days concerning a claim about his past. On Wednesday, he was embroiled in allegations he took money from an online fundraiser intended to help save the life of a sick dog owned by a military veteran.“The media continues to make outrageous claims about my life while I am working to deliver results,” Santos said. “I will not be distracted or fazed by this.”On Thursday, Santos called “reports that I would let a dog die … shocking and insane”.But the veteran told CNN Santos should “go to hell”.Richard Osthoff added that if he spoke to Santos now, he would ask: “Do you have a heart? Do you have a soul?’“He’d probably lie about that.”TopicsGeorge SantosHouse of RepresentativesUS CongressUS politicsDragBrazilAmericasnewsReuse this content More

Interview‘I see things now that I’ve never seen before’: the Maricopa county attorney fighting false election claimsRachel LeingangTom Liddy, a lifelong Republican, is a target of his own party for fending off lawsuits against the county over blatant election lies Down the hall from Tom Liddy’s office in downtown Phoenix, a whiteboard tracks all the election law cases filed against Maricopa county, where he works as civil division chief. Liddy has defended the county against dozens of claims, including that the 2020 election was stolen and that only hand-counted ballots can be trusted.In his office, he keeps ammunition in a safe to protect himself should a threat, which have become more frequent, become reality at work. At his desk, he’s surrounded by photos of his family, who have also become a target.Republicans have already filed dozens of bills to restrict voting in 2023Read moreLiddy is the son of G Gordon Liddy, the longtime political operative who was sentenced to prison for his role in the Watergate scandal. The 15-year veteran of the Maricopa county attorney’s office has run for Congress, hosted a conservative radio show, and defended the county in high-profile trials, including a racial profiling case that became a national flashpoint.The lifelong Republican, who calls himself a “student of politics”, still maintains his conservative principles, despite the pushback from members of his own party who have sued the county and made him a central character in their attacks. Before his work at the county, he worked as an attorney for the Republican National Committee.In recent years, he’s seen more cases based on flimsier facts. A barrage of suits after the 2022 election, when Democrats won key statewide races, contended that that year’s election was stolen as well. The county has succeeded in the courts – though it has come at a political cost for the largely Republican elected officials who run the county.As a result of his work defending Maricopa county, Liddy became the subject of a leaked video shared on social media by allies of Kari Lake, the failed Republican candidate for Arizona governor, which he says led to death threats. The FBI recently filed charges against a Texas man who threatened Liddy and his children.Known for his fiery comments and strongly worded legal letters, Liddy isn’t one to shy away from a fight.“I would hope that my friends would have kind things to say about me and the people who crossed me would be still pissed off about it,” he said.The Guardian spoke to Liddy about the rise in election lawsuits and how he’s protecting his family from violent threats against them.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.There were even more post-election lawsuits after the 2022 election than in 2020. Why do you think that is?In 2020, we saw a lot of lawsuits filed that would never have been filed before. I think it opened up the eyes of a lot of people. ‘Hey, you can contest these elections more often than if you just lose by 510 votes.’ What’s different is when you lose by more than a little bit, and you sue not to canvass or re-canvass or recount or contest, but just throw the spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks.What we’re seeing now, which I never saw before, is folks not just contesting the election, but rather demonizing county officials or state officials or entrepreneurs who are in the business of creating voting systems or voting machines. Prior to the end of the cold war, the Soviets were trying to convince the world that our system of government was no good and was no better than theirs. And now, I think that there are folks in this country that are starting to feel that way, or at least, trying to persuade others of that. I see things now that I’ve never seen before.In a few of the election lawsuits in 2022, Maricopa county asked for lawyers’ fees or sanctions – a rare move. What’s the thought process there?When lawyers go into the court, be it a state court or federal court, you may only bring facts forward and you’re obligated to do an investigation to determine that the facts that you’re getting ready to present to the court are true. We’ve been hearing a lot of stuff in 2020, 2021 and 2022 said in court that are not true. If somebody goes into court and says something that’s not true, egregiously so, the court has the power to call them on it.When we asked for sanctions, we got sanctions in federal court. The plaintiffs went in and said, ‘The elections Maricopa county is running are unconstitutional because they don’t use paper ballots.’ What? How can you say we don’t use paper ballots? The plaintiffs were two individuals that were running for office at the time. Each had voted for themselves on paper ballots for at least the last 10 years. So we asked for sanctions.I think the courts have a responsibility as well. We are a nation of laws. We adjudicate our differences peacefully in court. You can’t do it by lying to the judge or lying to the jury. If you think that’s the right way to do it, then you’re a Pino: Patriot In Name Only.Candidates have filed lawsuits over their losses even when the margins were wide. You mentioned two candidates, Mark Finchem and Kari Lake, who tried to outlaw tabulation machines. Can you seek sanctions against the plaintiffs themselves or is that atypical?Atypical, but there is a method to do it. Generally, sanctions are against the attorneys, not just because they should know better, but they must know better. It’s their obligation. There are rules of the court and rules of civil procedure. One of the rules is that if you make claims before court, you have to do at least a basic investigation to ensure that those facts are true. You can’t just be hired by a plaintiff, the plaintiff says, ‘up is down, down is up, black is white, white is black,’ and you write it in your brief and tell the court. The standards are not that high, but we’ve been hearing some things that aren’t even close to true in some of these lawsuits for three years. Somebody’s got to stop it. The courts have an obligation, in my view.Are you still a Republican?Oh, yeah.Most of the people filing these egregious lawsuits are Republicans. Has this affected how you see your politics or your beliefs?No. I’ve been a Republican since long before I could vote. One of the proudest days of my life was my 18th birthday when I went and registered to vote. I’m a real Republican and I will not change. I will be when they bury me. Now, other folks that come in here and claim to be Republican or claim to be conservative, they don’t even know what conservative is, really. I not only want smaller government, lower taxes, more personal responsibility, greater protections for the private ownership of firearms, I’m pro-life. Being a Republican and being a Democrat has never really been about being for one candidate. It’s always been for a basket of ideas.But that’s me, Tom Liddy the person, speaking, not Tom Liddy the government lawyer. My political beliefs don’t influence what I do. I defend my clients and my client is Maricopa county. I’m happy and pleased to do that. I think it would be an abuse of the public trust to hijack government power to benefit one party or the other. I just would never do that.How much does it cost the county to defend itself against these lawsuits? You mentioned that before the 2020 election, you helped the county bolster its election law team, increasing from one specialized lawyer to about eight people who dedicate at least some of their time on elections. It seems like it’s been expensive.No doubt that it’s expensive. I don’t have that figure. The real expense, much, much larger than just the legal expenses, is the time that the county employees, be they in the recorder’s office or in the elections office or support of the board of supervisors, have to put into it, because normally they’re doing the government’s business. My salary is what my salary is, whether I’m in court duking it out with somebody defending the county or not. These other folks have jobs to do. So you’ve got to ask yourself what they could have done that they weren’t able to do. The dollars and cents is a lot but I think the opportunity cost is much, much higher.The video that captured your phone conversation with the Lake campaign …[Interrupts] Captured 2min and 8sec of a 12-minute phone call.The video showed a heated conversation between you and lawyers for Lake and the Republican National Committee. It was posted online and spread among rightwing channels to imply you weren’t being helpful or transparent with the attorneys. Has something like that happened to you before?That’s an ethical violation for a lawyer to tape a conversation with another lawyer without telling the lawyer. So somebody put that on the internet and said that a Kari Lake campaign volunteer called me – that’s not true. I called a lawyer who was working for the Lake campaign and other candidates. We had many phone calls a day leading up to that. One of the other lawyers there was – and I didn’t know at the time – a lawyer for the Republican National Committee. After we’d had a conversation and they had asked me maybe three or four questions, I said, ‘let me go get the answers for you.’ And then this other guy came on the line and said, ‘Now it’s really important that we get these questions answered quickly … because there’s a lot of angry people out there that want to take to the streets, and I don’t want to have to tell them that Tom Liddy has not been cooperative.’I said, ‘That sounds like a threat.’ I said, ‘Tell them whatever you want to tell them, but if you’re not happy working with me, then don’t work with me, don’t call me, don’t ask me questions. But don’t think for a minute you could intimidate me, because you cannot, and you can’t intimidate Maricopa county, either.’ I admit I used colorful language. It was recorded, and they took only the last two minutes and put it out on the internet.Since then, I’ve been getting death threats. One of those death threats is very real, very specific. The Dallas field office of the FBI notified me of it. The FBI came in and met with my employer and my employer told me to arm myself and that the ammunition I had was not the correct ammunition. They issued me this [pulls out a box of bullets from a safe in his office] – that’s a hollow point. That’s a man-stopper. They issued me and my four children body armor, because this son of a bitch from Texas specifically threatened to kill my four children.The Texas man who made those threats was just charged recently, right?Arrested and denied bail in Lubbock, Texas. That’s the one who threatened to kill my four children, but there are plenty others that were not specific. That makes it difficult for my family to enjoy Thanksgiving, when I’ve got 24-hours-a-day armed security around my home, cameras all over my home and body armor for my kids, and I gotta pack iron everywhere I go. Listen, I’m a second amendment guy – I got plenty to protect myself, all sorts of different calibers. Come at me from up close or far away, I’m prepared. But that’s not how you want to live. That’s not how you want to celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving. So this guy was arrested I think shortly after Christmas, but that’s what my family had to deal with.Did it give you any sense of relief when he was arrested?Definitely a sense of relief, but also just happiness that the system works, somebody’s going to pay the piper. Now, he’s entitled to defense counsel, he’s entitled to a trial, a jury of his peers. I’m looking forward to flying to Texas to testify against him. I’ll be happy to do it because that’s the way the system works.Do you still have security at your home?I’m not going to comment on that. This office will provide me whatever my family needs to keep us safe. I will say, the threat level has changed since this guy was not only arrested, but denied bail. But there are still security at my home, and we still have body armor, and I still carry a firearm with me.Is it accurate to say that this was not happening before the past couple of years? Or have you experienced similar levels of threats at other times in your career?I have experienced levels of threats before in my career, but nowhere near this volume. This is the only time that the FBI contacted me.Elections have become so polarized, with threats against elections officials and lawyers like yourself and endless lawsuits after a candidate loses. What gets us out of this situation as a country?I would say the same thing that got us out of previous problems that we’ve had. Sometimes the troublemakers are either held responsible, or they fade away, or they disappear in a flash. I think there’ll be more than just lawsuits to change it. I am very optimistic that we will come together again, and we will move forward, and our best days are ahead of us. But I’m not so naive as to think we can solve this problem by one lawsuit here, one Bar complaint there.Do you think things will get better or worse in the short term, in terms of the amount of misinformation and disinformation after elections?I think better. I think that a lot of the stuff we saw in 2020 was very chaotic. Some of the stuff we have seen in 2022 was a little bit more organized. Not necessarily well founded, but a little bit more organized. My fear is that this sort of thing becomes an industry and that if people can make a name for themselves or make money, then that’s an incentive to keep doing it. Election contests are an important part of the law, but just suing for the sake of suing, and suing so you can say you’re suing and then set up a defense fund and raise millions of dollars – that’s not healthy for our society.TopicsUS newsThe fight for democracyRepublicansArizonaUS elections 2020US midterm elections 2022Donald TrumpLaw (US)interviewsReuse this content More

Nikki Haley plotted with Kushner and Ivanka to be Trump vice-president, Pompeo book saysIn book aimed at 2024 run, ex-secretary of state also says Trump asked him to be secretary of defense at same time, a ‘nutty idea’ In a new memoir peppered with broadsides at potential rivals in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state, accuses Nikki Haley of plotting with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump to be named vice-president, even while she served as Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.DeSantis and Pence lead Republican wave – of presidential campaign booksRead moreDescribing his own anger when Haley secured a personal Oval Office meeting with Trump without checking with him, Pompeo writes that Haley in fact “played” Trump’s then chief of staff, John Kelly, and instead of meeting the president alone, was accompanied by Trump’s daughter and her husband, both senior advisers.“As best Kelly could tell,” Pompeo writes, “they were presenting a possible ‘Haley for vice-president’ option. I can’t confirm this, but [Kelly] was certain he had been played, and he was not happy about it. Clearly, this visit did not reflect a team effort but undermined our work for America.”The gossipy nugget is contained in Pompeo’s new book, Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love, which will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.The Haley story is not the only startling scene in a book which also says Trump had the “nutty idea” that Pompeo could be secretary of state and secretary of defense at the same time.But the story about Haley is firmly in the vein of Washington reportage and tell-alls that Pompeo claims to disdain. It also adds weight to stories which said Trump did indeed consider dumping his vice-president, Mike Pence, for Haley, a rumor Trump was compelled to deny in 2019.It will also add to intrigue around reports that Kushner’s family is fundraising for Haley ahead of her 2024 run.A year out from the primary, Trump is still the only declared candidate for the Republican nomination. But jockeying for position is increasing. Among campaign books from possible contenders, Pompeo follows Pence into print but is a month ahead of Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who is Trump’s only serious polling rival.Pompeo is studiedly respectful in his descriptions of Pence, a self-proclaimed fellow devout Christian, and mostly of Trump himself. Unlike Pence in his memoir, So Help Me God, Pompeo avoids overt criticism of his former boss. Pompeo is also more comfortable with the former president’s often vulgar language.For instance, Pompeo describes Trump calling John Bolton, his third national security adviser, a “scumbag loser”. After being fired, Bolton produced a memoir of his own, The Room Where It Happened. Trump sought to prevent publication but the book was a bestseller, relaying the president’s private conversations and what Pompeo considers highly sensitive material.Bolton has now floated a White House run of his own, to try to block Trump. Pompeo fires salvos Bolton’s way, at one point comparing him to Edward Snowden, who leaked surveillance secrets to the media in 2013, but saying the National Security Agency contractor “at least had the decency not to lie about his motive”.Bolton, Pompeo writes, should “be in jail, for spilling classified information”. Pompeo also says he hopes one day to testify at Bolton’s trial on criminal charges.Regarding Haley, who has also published books as she considers a presidential run, Pompeo disparages both the role of UN ambassador – “a job that is far less important than people think” – and Haley’s performance in it.“She has described her role as going toe-to-toe with tyrants,” Pompeo writes. “If so, then why would she quit such an important job at such an important time?”Haley resigned – or, in Pompeo’s words, “flat-out threw in the towel” – in October 2018. By quitting, Pompeo writes, Haley “abandoned” Trump as she had “the great people of South Carolina”, by resigning as governor.True to his title, Pompeo does not give an inch in his descriptions of his own success, first as CIA director and then atop the state department.But the former soldier and congressman does spill details of a private conversation in which, he says, the president’s chief of staff said Trump wanted him to add secretary of defense to his portfolio while remaining secretary of state.According to Pompeo, on 19 July 2020, midway through the tempestuous summer of the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice, Trump’s last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, told him Mark Esper was “not going to make it” at the Pentagon for much longer.So Help Me God review: Mike Pence’s tortured bid for Republican relevanceRead morePompeo says Meadows told him Trump wanted his secretary of state to “dual hat”, meaning to “take on leading the department of defense as an additional duty”.Pompeo says he told Meadows that was “a nutty idea” as he had “plenty” to do at state and “couldn’t possibly command defense at the same time”.Nor, Pompeo writes, was that the only time Trump asked him to do two jobs. After Bolton left, he writes, “someone had reminded the president that Henry Kissinger had been both national security adviser and secretary of state” to Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.“President Trump pitched the idea to me,” Pompeo writes. “I think he was half-kidding.”Trump may not feel in a kidding mood when he reads Pompeo’s descriptions of such “nutty ideas” which, the former secretary of state writes, quickly “faded, all for the good”.TopicsBooksUS elections 2024US politicsRepublicansDonald TrumpTrump administrationMike PompeonewsReuse this content More

ExplainerWhat is the US debt ceiling and what happens if it isn’t raised?The US treasury secretary warned ‘extraordinary measures’ will have to be put in place to prevent defaulting – here’s what that means for the government The US government will hit its borrowing limit – or the debt ceiling – on 19 January, the beginning of what looks to be a vicious fight over the government’s budget and one that threatens to worsen an already precarious economic outlook.The US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, sent an ominous letter of warning to Congress last Friday that “certain extraordinary measures” will have to be put in place to prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations” – essentially moving some money around so the government does not default just yet. Those measures will last a few months, but if the limit is ultimately not raised, the federal government will run out of funds.Here is more on the debt ceiling and what it means for the federal government.What is the debt ceiling?Congress has the ability to set a limit on how much the US government can borrow to pay for its expenses. This limit is called the debt ceiling, and right now the limit is $31.4tn. Borrowing money helps the federal government pay for expenses passed in its budgets, like social security and Medicare benefits and the salaries of US military service members.What happens if the debt ceiling isn’t raised?If Congress does not raise the debt ceiling in the coming months, things will quickly go south for the economy, Yellen warned.“Failure to meet the government’s obligations would cause irreparable harm to the US economy, the livelihoods of all Americans, and global financial stability,” she wrote.If the federal government defaults on its loans, investors could lose faith in the US dollar, causing the US dollar to weaken, stocks to fall and triggering job cuts.Even if the debt ceiling is raised, a prolonged fight over it could still cause long-term financial harm. During a particularly vicious debt-ceiling battle in 2011, credit rating agency Standard & Poor downgraded the US government’s credit rating for the first time in history, making it more costly for the US government to borrow money thereafter.Why isn’t Congress raising the debt ceiling?Republicans have a fresh majority in the House, and they see the debt ceiling as a possible bargaining chip for negotiating spending cuts.House speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Fox News Sunday that reaching the debt ceiling is a test for the party on its commitment to cutting spending.“You couldn’t just keep increasing it,” he said. “Let’s sit down and change our behavior for the good of America. Because what we’re going to do is bankrupt this country and bankrupt these entitlements if we don’t change their behavior today.”The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said the administration will not be doing “any negotiations”.“It should be … done without condition,” she said.With Republicans holding onto the necessary votes needed to lift the ceiling, the fight to raise it could get ugly.In a joint statement, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said Democrats want to move quickly on passing a new debt ceiling.“We’ve seen in previous debt ceiling stand-offs that even the threat of default leads to even higher costs for working families,” they said. “Default forced by extreme Maga Republicans could plunge the country into a deep recession.”What do Republicans want?Exactly how much Republicans want to cut, and what they want to target, is still unclear. And while Republicans often rally against government spending, raising the debt ceiling funds government expenses that have already been passed by Congress. Not being able to borrow more money will put existing federal programs at risk.But Republicans, particularly the more conservative members of the party, are gearing themselves up for a battle over the ceiling.Some are even thinking Republicans can push for a payment prioritization plan that would call on the Biden administration to make only critical federal payments, like social security and Medicare. The Washington Post reported that McCarthy privately made a deal with conservative Republicans when he was fighting to get the speaker title to pass a prioritization plan in the first quarter of the year. The details of the plan are not set but make clear that Republicans are gunning for cuts.Responding to the Post’s report of the plan, the White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, tweeted that Republicans want to make “payments to wealthy foreign bondholders” in lieu of funding other federal programs like national parks and food stamps.Why does the debt ceiling exist?Experts have pointed out for years that there is no good reason why the debt ceiling exists and that raises should be routine. Few other nations have similar limits, and in recent history, it has largely been a political negotiating chip between parties – one that carries heavy consequences.What happens next?Expect months of wrangling and leaks. The Republican plan is not yet clear but it is clear that the newly empowered party – and especially its more conservative wing – wants to make its mark.Fights to raise the debt ceiling have led to government shutdowns in the past. The longest-ever shutdown was 35 days between 22 December 2018 and 25 January 2019 at a cost of $11bn – $3bn of which was permanent.So far stock markets do not seem to be rattled, suggesting investors think this is another war of words. Over the next few months, that could change.TopicsUS economyUS CongressUS politicsEconomicsexplainersReuse this content More

Republicans defend George Santos as report details alleged sick dog fraudSmall business panel chair defends seat for freshman despite claim fabulist congressman bilked veteran out of $3,000 to save dog’s life The chairman of one of two House committees on which George Santos will sit has defended the decision, despite the New York Republican’s résumé having been shown to be largely made up, and amid allegations of deceitful and criminal behaviour now including bilking a disabled veteran out of $3,000 raised to save the life of his dog, and fabricating a story about his mother surviving the 9/11 attacks.George Santos reportedly to be seated on two House committeesRead moreThe disabled veteran, Richard Osthoff, told the news site Patch he was “crying his eyes out remembering Sapphire’s last day”.In Congress, however, Roger Williams of Texas, the chair of the small business committee, told CNN of Santos: “I don’t condone what he said, what he’s done. I don’t think anybody does. But that’s not my role. He was elected.”Santos will also sit on the science, space and technology committee. CNN said requests for seats on panels dealing with the financial sector and foreign policy were rebuffed.Santos won election in New York’s third district in November. Since then, he has been the subject of relentless media scrutiny, calls to resign from his own party and from Democrats, and multiple calls for investigations of his campaign finances.But Williams was following a party line set by the new House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, who Santos supported through 15 votes for the speakership and who must work with a narrow majority.House Democrats led by Daniel Goldman and Ritchie Torres, both from New York, have called for an investigation of what Republican leaders knew about Santos’s deceptions before he won election and was seated.On Monday, McCarthy told reporters: “I never knew about his résumé or not, but I always had a few questions about it.”On Tuesday, Goldman said: “The public has no choice but to believe that McCarthy was complicit in concealing Mr Santos’s lies in order to flip a seat in a win-at-all-costs effort to gain power.”Amid spiraling claims about Santos’s personal and professional life, it was alleged on Tuesday that he stole $3,000 from a fundraising account set up to pay for life-saving surgery for Osthoff’s dog.According to Patch, Santos became involved with Osthoff and his dog, Sapphire, in 2016.Needing to raise money, the report said, Osthoff was told that a man named Anthony Devolder, with a pet charity called Friends of Pets United, could help.As Patch reported, “Anthony Devolder is one of the names Long Island representative George Santos used for years before entering politics in 2020.”Osthoff, who provided text message exchanges he said he had with Devolder, said Santos eventually took the money and disappeared. Osthoff’s dog died.“Little girl never left my side in 10 years,” Osthoff said. “I went through two bouts of seriously considering suicide, but thinking about leaving her without me saved my life. I loved that dog so much, I inhaled her last breaths when I had her euthanised.”Santos did not comment to Patch but did deny the allegation in a message to the news outlet Semafor.“Fake,” Semafor quoted Santos as saying, in a text. “No clue who this is.”Yet another of Santos’ fibs came to light later on Wednesday, when the Washington Post reported that the congressman’s story about his mother surviving the World Trade Center attack during 9/11 did not align with immigration records that said she was not in the US at the time.For now, Santos continues to find his feet in Congress. According to the New York Times, he is showing signs of aligning himself with far-right pro-Trump representatives including Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.Santos has not answered many questions from reporters. In rare comments, he has admitted “embellishing” his résumé but denied wrongdoing and said he will not resign.TopicsGeorge SantosRepublicansHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

The Biden administration has condemned the appointment of several far-right Republicans to the House committee overseeing investigations, Axios reports.“[I]t appears that House Republicans may be setting the stage for divorced-from-reality political stunts, instead of engaging in bipartisan work on behalf of the American people,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement obtained by Axios.Sams singled out the House oversight committee, which under chair James Comer will take a lead role in investigating the Biden administration. “Chairman Comer once said his goal was to ensure the Committee’s work is ‘credible,’ yet Republicans are handing the keys of oversight to the most extreme MAGA members of the Republican caucus who promote violent rhetoric and dangerous conspiracy theories.”Among the lawmakers appointed to the panel are Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene, both of whom were stripped of their committee assignments in the last Congress for making violent threats. Also serving on oversight will be Scott Perry, a Donald Trump ally whose phone was seized last year reportedly as part of the FBI’s probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and Lauren Boebert, a promoter of conspiracy theories, including Trump’s false claim that his election loss was illegitimate. That’s it for today’s US politics live blog! Here’s what happened so far:
Kamala Harris will be traveling to Florida on Sunday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Roe v Wade, said the White House. White House officials have said that Harris will give a speech while in the Sunshine state, as local Democrats have battled against attempts to restrict abortion access from Republican governor Ron DeSantis, reported Associated Press.
Trump is still the most popular man in the GOP, a new survey found.
The Biden administration condemned the appointment of several far-right Republicans to the House committee overseeing investigations, Axios reports.
Donald Trump is said to be planning a return to both Twitter and Facebook. The former president had his Facebook account locked following the January 6 insurrection, while Twitter did the same until its new owner Elon Musk reversed the ban after buying the platform last year.
Trump claimed that classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago were just a bunch of cheap folders.
Thank you for reading! See you here tomorrow for more US live coverage.During today’s White House press briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to questions about Representative George Santos being given committee positions, despite allegations that Santos fabricated several qualifications and life experiences. From Real Clear News Philip Melanchthon Wegmann: While “it’s up to the Republican conference, who have to decide what they owe the American people” when it comes to Rep. George Santos, @PressSec adds that “sadly” GOP has demonstrated a lack of commitment by appointing Santos to committee assignments.— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) January 18, 2023
Kamala Harris will be traveling to Florida on Sunday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Roe v Wade, said the White House. White House officials have said that Harris will give a speech while in the Sunshine state, as local Democrats have battled against attempts to restrict abortion access from Republican governor Ron DeSantis, reported Associated Press. “The Vice President will make very clear: the fight to secure women’s fundamental right to reproductive health care is far from over,” said Harris spokesperson Kirsten Allen in a statement. “She will lay out the consequences of extremist attacks on reproductive freedom in states across our country and underscore the need for Congress to codify Roe.”The speech is one of many actions Harris has taken in recent months to signal the White House’s commitment to reproductive rights, including meeting with activists, healthcare providers, and local lawmakers, AP further reported. Read the full article here. The Associated Press reports that a longtime adviser to Donald Trump and organizer of conservative causes is being sued for allegedly groping a staffer for former GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker:A staffer for Herschel Walker’s Republican Senate campaign filed a lawsuit against the prominent conservative activist Matt Schlapp on Tuesday, accusing Schlapp of groping him during a car ride in Georgia before last year’s midterm election.Schlapp denies the allegation. His lawyer said they were considering a countersuit.The battery and defamation lawsuit was filed in Alexandria circuit court in Virginia, where Schlapp lives, and seeks more than $9m in damages.It accuses Schlapp of “aggressively fondling” the staffer’s “genital area in a sustained fashion” while the staffer drove Schlapp back to his hotel from a bar in October, on the day of a Walker campaign event.The allegations were first reported by the Daily Beast.Trump ally Matt Schlapp sued by Herschel Walker aide over groping claimRead moreA ex-New York prosecutor has written a book he says will provide an “inside account” of the Manhattan district attorney’s case against Donald Trump, and his former boss is not pleased.Publisher Simon & Schuster last week announced it would on 7 February release “People vs. Donald Trump” by Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor in the office of the Manhattan district attorney, who after resigning last year said he believed Trump “is guilty of numerous felony violations”. In a synopsis of the book, Pomerantz says his work was used in district attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of the Trump organization and its former finance chief Allen Weisselberg, but he decided to quit when Bragg refused to pursue “a larger criminal case” against the former president.“In People vs. Donald Trump, Pomerantz tells the story of his unprecedented investigation, why he believes Donald Trump should be prosecuted, and what we can learn about the nature of justice in America from this extraordinary case,” according to the synopsis.At last week’s sentencing of the Trump organization after it was found guilty of tax fraud, Bragg hinted that his investigation is continuing, and his office today sent a letter to Simon & Schuster warning the Pomerantz could break the law if he discloses details of the case. The Daily Beast obtained a copy of the letter, in which Bragg offers to review the book before publication:Here’s the letter the Manhattan DA’s Office sent to Simon and Schuster warning about an upcoming tell-all book written by a prosecutor who quit the Trump investigation. pic.twitter.com/fZXkhzwQAJ— Jose Pagliery (@Jose_Pagliery) January 18, 2023
Republicans have lost an election finance complaint against Google, in which they alleged the tech giant violated US law by deploying its spam filter against campaign emails, Ars Technica reports.The Federal Election Commission (FEC) rejected a complaint filed jointly by the Republican National Committee (RNC), National Republican Senatorial Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee which alleged Google’s filtering of their emails represent an “illegal in-kind contributions made by Google to Biden For President and other Democrat candidates.”Last week, the FEC ruled that there was “no reason to believe” Google had made an illegal contribution, nor that Joe Biden’s presidential campaign had accepted such a contribution.“The Commission’s bipartisan decision to dismiss this complaint reaffirms that Gmail does not filter emails for political purposes,” Google said in a statement to Ars Technica on Tuesday.The Republican complaint cited a study from North Carolina State University (NCSU) that found “Gmail marks a significantly higher percentage (67.6 percent) of emails from the right as spam compared to the emails from left (just 8.2 percent).”However, the FEC rejected that assertion, saying there were several limitations to the study, and “the NCSU Study does not make any findings as to the reasons why Google’s spam filter appears to treat Republican and Democratic campaign emails differently.”Google’s trouble with the Republicans aren’t over. In October, the RNC sued the company, saying it is “throttling its email messages because of the RNC’s political affiliation and views.”A woman who helped attack the US Capitol on January 6 was indeed simply following Donald Trump’s orders but that fact does not absolve her of her culpability, a federal judge found.The opinion came in an 18-page ruling spelling out why Danean MacAndrew was guilty of violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building.Prosecutors persuaded the judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, that MacAndrew recorded video of herself storming the Capitol along with other Trump supporters in a failed attempt to prevent certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential win.In her ruling on Tuesday, Kollar-Kotelly found that MacAndrew traveled to Washington DC from California because Trump urged supporters to somehow overturn his defeat.MacAndrew ignored signs on the way to the Capitol and in the building itself which warned that her actions were unlawful, and therefore she was guilty as charged, Kollar-Kotelly concluded after a three-day bench trial.The ruling could have important implications. It echoes the central finding by the House January 6 committee which recommended Trump be charged criminally in connection with the Capital attack, because of how he urged his supporters to stage it.Trump has not been charged but prosecutors have not said he will not face charges.Others charged over the Capitol attack have defended themselves by saying they were following Trump’s orders. Such cases include five members of the far-right Proud Boys group currently on trial on charges of sedition who say they are being scapegoated for following Trump’s orders, because they are easier to prosecute than a former president.Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling in effect says obeying orders from Trump is a valid argument but does not get the accused off the hook.MacAndrew is among more than 940 people charged over the Capitol attack. About 540 have been convicted. MacAndrew’s sentence has not yet been handed down.Interesting reporting from CNN about how the White House is formulating its strategy for answering Republican attacks over Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents after leaving the vice-presidency in 2017, particularly in light of claims of hypocrisy and unfair treatment of Donald Trump, who retained many more documents when he left power two years ago and was markedly less keen to return them to the National Archives when they were discovered.A key quote, from an unnamed adviser: “He’s the president. But he also knows what people really care about – and this isn’t it.”Another key quote, from a “person familiar with the internal White House discussions”:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I’m not sure anyone is comfortable saying they’ve put that behind them at this point. That said, there’s a pretty prevalent view that if this lands how they think, nobody will remember the mess of last week anyway.CNN says “the clearest window” into White House thinking is a “barrage of attacks leveled from West Wing officials in the last 48 hours at House Republicans pledging their own investigations into the matter”..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Phrases targeting House Republicans that include ‘fake outrage’, ‘purely for partisan gain’ and ‘shamelessly hypocritical’ have started to animate a demonstrably more aggressive response from the West Wing.
In an example of that strategy, Ian Sams, spokesman for the White House counsel’s office, accused Republicans of ‘handing the keys of oversight to the most extreme MAGA members of the Republican caucus who promote violent rhetoric and dangerous conspiracy theories’.Sams provided a statement to CNN. It said: “As we have said before, the Biden administration stands ready to work in good faith to accommodate Congress’ legitimate oversight needs. However, with these members joining the oversight committee, it appears that House Republicans may be setting the stage for divorced-from-reality political stunts, instead of engaging in bipartisan work on behalf of the American people.”Reuters reports on a warning from the US energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, to Republicans in Congress, in which Granholm says limiting Joe Biden’s authority to tap US oil reserves would undermine national security, cause crude shortages and raise gasoline prices.Here’s a taste of the Reuters report:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}A bill called the Strategic Production Response Act, introduced earlier this month by Republican Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, would limit presidential authority in releasing oil from the strategic reserve, except in the case of a severe energy supply interruption.
McMorris Rodgers now chairs the House energy and commerce committee after Republicans took over the chamber earlier this month.
“This bill would significantly weaken this critical energy security tool, resulting in more oil supply shortages in times of crisis and higher gasoline prices for Americans,” Granholm said in the letter to the House energy panel, which was first seen by Reuters.
The administration has faced bipartisan concern over the current inventories of the emergency reserves and the letter represents the administration’s latest efforts to defend its actions and ease concerns about the state of reserves.Some further reading about Biden and oil:Biden implores US oil companies to pass on record profits to consumersRead moreSpeaking of the culture wars in which Ron DeSantis so gleefully fights, here’s some lunchtime reading from our columnist Jill Filipovic about a key if somewhat surprising front in those seemingly never-ending wars…Of all the political issues I assumed would come to the fore in 2023, gas stoves were not on my bingo card. And yet Americans’ right to cook on an open gas flame has turned into a red-hot culture war issue. Conservatives are gearing up for a War of the Cooktops – and unfortunately, some Democrats aren’t helping.Some five decades’ worth of studies have found that gas stoves are hazardous to human health, with a recent one suggesting that gas stoves in US homes may be to blame for nearly 13% of childhood asthma cases. Gas stoves are bad for the environment, too, powered as they are by fossil fuels.This has led some liberal cities – Berkeley, California, and New York City – to mandate that some new buildings use electric over gas. But the blistering gas stove dispute really ignited when a commissioner at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Richard Trumka Jr, told Bloomberg gas was a “hidden hazard” and that when it came to banning gas stoves, “any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned”.Cue rightwing firestorm.Read on:How did gas stoves ignite a culture war in the US? | Jill Filipovic Read moreIn light of the Morning Consult poll, reported by Chris Stein here, which showed Donald Trump 17 points up on Ron DeSantis in the notional Republican primary for 2024 … some interesting work from the Daily Beast.The site reports today on DeSantis’s decision to open a new front in his “war on woke” by going after … the NHL.Yes, the NHL, a pro sports league where even the playing surface is white and where, the Beast points out, “the player base is 93% white, and until the hiring of Mike Grier by the San Jose Sharks earlier this month there had yet to be a Black general manager in the history of the sport” … has in DeSantis’s mind apparently “somehow become the new epitome of woke culture gone awry”.DeSantis’s beef with the NHL is that around its forthcoming All-Star Game in Florida, it wanted to stage a jobs fair to benefit Floridians, and said it would welcome applications from employees in the following categories: “female, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and/or a person with a disability”.On Friday, a DeSantis spokesman said: “Discrimination of any sort is not welcome in the state of Florida, and we do not abide by the woke notion that discrimination should be overlooked if applied in a politically popular manner or against a politically unpopular demographic.”An unnamed Republican strategist told the Beast DeSantis “sees this issue as an easy one to use as an example of hypocrisy by folks on the left as well as another example of woke culture”, and insisted: “It’s a great play to make.”But others were not so sure.Stuart Stevens, a veteran Republican operative now an anti-Trump campaigner, told the Beast: “I’ve been in these rooms where political consultants get together, they try and say, ‘Well, what can we do to appeal to white voters without being just super-blatantly racist?’”But, Stevens said, DeSantis’s swipe at the NHL showed “Republicans are losing culture wars at an exponential speed.“What the NHL is doing bothers absolutely nobody in America … There was a time with Ronald Reagan, ‘Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’ So here’s Ron DeSantis standing in front of a hockey rink in Florida saying, what, exactly?“I mean it’s just ridiculous. It makes him look very small.”The White House is continuing its counteroffensive against the new GOP majority in the Congress’s lower chamber, encouraging Democrats to attack Republican economic proposals and criticizing the appointment of four rightwing lawmakers to the panel leading its investigation campaign. Elsewhere, Donald Trump is said to be planning a return to both Twitter and Facebook, and offered up a new explanation for the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago: they were just a bunch of cheap folders.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Trump is still the most popular man in the GOP, a new survey found.
“If you’re going to have a party, you have to pay the band.” So says Republican senator John Kennedy, when describing the GOP’s stance in the high-stakes negotiations over raising the debt ceiling.
Republicans have made cutting government spending their top priority in this Congress.
In posts on his Truth social account today, Donald Trump argued that the classified documents found last year at his Mar-a-Lago resort were merely “ordinary, inexpensive folders with various words printed on them”.“The Fake News Media & Crooked Democrats (That’s been proven!) keep saying I had a “large number of documents” in order to make the Biden Classified Docs look less significant. When I was in the Oval Office, or elsewhere, & ‘papers’ were distributed to groups of people & me, they would often be in a striped paper folder with ‘Classified’ or ‘Confidential’ or another word on them,” the former president begins in the first of three posts arguing that Joe Biden’s possession of classified materials was more significant than his.“When the session was over, they would collect the paper(s), but not the folders, & I saved hundreds of them,” Trump wrote. “Remember, these were just ordinary, inexpensive folders with various words printed on them, but they were a ‘cool’ keepsake.”He then went on to posit that “the Gestapo” may have construed these as classified documents, or that “Trump Hating Marxist Thugs” would “plant” classified materials. Never one to beat around the bush, Trump concludes with, “I did NOTHING WRONG. JOE DID!”Biden’s defenders have pointed to the substantial differences in the two cases, including that the president’s aides quickly alerted the justice department when they discovered classified materials, while Trump repeatedly dithered and only partially complied with a subpoena to turn over the secret documents in his possession. More

New York City to provide free abortion pills at four clinicsBronx clinic will be first of four free clinics to offer free abortion pills, followed by facilities in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, has announced free abortion pills will be provided at four public clinics across the city, making its health department the first in the nation to offer free medication abortion.Abortion pills are used in more than 50% of all US abortions, but most are given in a hospital where patients and their insurance are billed. Unlike hospitals, these clinics primarily target those on lower incomes and the uninsured. They are free to access.The news comes after the conservative-majority US supreme court voted last year to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark case that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion. Since the ruling, getting an abortion in America has become more difficult as many Republican-dominated states have limited or banned abortion. Abortion pills can be taken up to 11 weeks of pregnancy and the earlier they are taken, the more effective they are.In a speech on women’s health on Wednesday, Adams said: “For too long, health and healthcare has been centered around men. If men had periods, pap smears and menopause, they would get a paid vacation, and if men could get pregnant, we wouldn’t see Congress trying to pass laws restricting abortion.”On Wednesday, a Bronx clinic will be the first of the four free clinics to offer free abortion pills. The pills will be made available at three more clinics in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens and the rollout will take up to a year due to federally mandated training for the healthcare workers, according to health commissioner, Dr Ashwin Vasan.In New York, abortion is legal but it is now in effect banned in at least 13 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin.TopicsNew YorkEric AdamsUS politicsAbortionRoe v WadenewsReuse this content More

Trump pleads with Meta to restore Facebook accountFormer president’s lawyers petition company to allow access following ban from platform in wake of 2021 Capitol attack Donald Trump has petitioned Meta to restore his access to Facebook, as he reportedly looks to shift his 2024 presidential campaign into a higher gear.The former president was banned from Facebook more than two years ago, after his followers attacked the US Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.In a letter to Meta obtained by NBC News on Wednesday, Trump advisers argued that the ban “dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse” and should be rescinded.Meta said it would “announce a decision in the coming weeks”.Free the nipple: Facebook and Instagram told to overhaul ban on bare breastsRead moreFacebook and Twitter banned Trump a day after the January 6 attack, which has been linked to nine deaths including suicides among law enforcement.Trump used his Twitter account to encourage supporters to gather near the Capitol. In a speech before the attack, he urged supporters to “fight like hell”. He then used Twitter to criticize his vice-president, Mike Pence, for not stopping certification while the attack was in progress.A congressional committee recommended that Trump be criminally charged in connection with the attack, the fate of hundreds of his supporters.Twitter lifted its ban on Trump after Elon Musk bought the platform last year. But Trump has not tweeted since, choosing to remain on his own rival social media service, Truth Social.NBC quoted an anonymous Republican who said Trump had been bragging about eventually returning to Twitter and predicted the ex-president would do so.Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Twitter have 34 million and nearly 88 million followers respectively. On Truth Social, he has fewer than 5 million followers.Trump used Twitter and Facebook extensively when he ran for the presidency in 2016 and throughout his time in office.Impeached over the Capitol attack but acquitted, Trump announced his 2024 run in mid-November. In doing so he sought to take credit for Republicans winning back the US House in the midterm elections, though their majority was much narrower than expected and many candidates Trump endorsed suffered high-profile defeats.TopicsDonald TrumpMetaFacebookUS politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More