US Politics

We Are Not One review: assured history of Israel’s place in US politicsTo Eric Alterman, ‘Israel is a red state’ while ‘US Jewry is blue’. Like so much else, Donald Trump has disrupted that dynamic The civil war divided America’s Christians along axes of geography and theology. These days, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, soon to be prime minister again, have wrought a similar sorting. In the words of Eric Alterman, “Israel is a red state. US Jewry is blue.”DeSantis and Pence lead Republican wave – of presidential campaign booksRead moreAlterman is a distinguished professor of English and journalism at the City University of New York. We Are Not One represents four decades of effort, patience and research. Sixty pages of endnotes undergird his arguments, some dating to his student days.Alterman posits that closeness between the US and Israel has oscillated over time and that younger American Jews, particularly those outside Orthodox Judaism, are now distancing themselves from the Zionist experiment. He relies, in part, on polling by Pew Research.Practically speaking, the divide may be more nuanced, with the latest shifts also reflecting a response to a rise in crime – and messaging about it. In the midterms, the Republican Lee Zeldin won 46% of Jewish voters in New York as he came close to beating the governor, Kathy Hochul. Donald Trump never surpassed 30% nationally. In 2020, he took 37% of New York’s Jewish vote.In We Are Not One, Alterman observes how unsafe streets and racial tensions helped spawn neoconservatism. It is “impossible” to separate the movement’s “origins from the revulsions caused by constant news reports of inner-city riots … and broader societal dislocations”. Between 1968 and 1972, Richard Nixon’s share of the Jewish vote doubled from 17% to 35%.One Saturday night in 1968, a crowd thronged the streets of Borough Park in Brooklyn, a predominately Jewish enclave, to cheer the vice-president, Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic presidential nominee. Over the next four years, “law and order” found purchase. To top it off, George McGovern, the Democratic nominee, made Israel supporters nervous.The South Dakota senator’s message, “Come home America”, left them wondering if the US would be in Israel’s corner if war came again. Vietnam was a proxy for foreign policy anxieties. As a coda, Alterman recollects how Nixon nonetheless yearned to turn Jews into political foils and whipping boys. That 2016 Trump ad with a six-pointed star over a field of dollar bills? It had deep roots.Why pro-Israel lobby group Aipac is backing election deniers and extremist RepublicansRead moreAlterman also recounts how Daniel Moynihan, a Democrat, used his position as Gerald Ford’s UN ambassador to reach the Senate in 1976. With support from neoconservatives, hawkish Jews and the New York Times, he beat Bella Abzug, a leftwing lion, in the primary. Then he beat James Buckley, the Republican incumbent.Moynihan lauded Israel’s raid at Entebbe. In Alterman’s description, he appealed to “American Jews’ feelings of vulnerability and their pride and relief at Israel’s military prowess in kicking the asses” of Palestinian and German terrorists and “humiliating” Idi Amin, Uganda’s “evil dictator”.Time passes. Things remain the same. In New York, transit crime is up more than 30%. Violence against Jews is a staple, according to the NYPD.Meanwhile, on college campuses, in Alterman’s words, Israel is a “mini-America”, a useful target for faculty and students to vent against “rapaciousness on the part of the US and other western nations vis-a-vis the downtrodden of the world”.The author quotes Benzion Netanyahu, the Israeli leader’s late father: “Jewish history is in large measure a history of holocausts.” Modern insecurities spring from ancient calamities.Kanye West spews bile. Trump entertains him with Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and Holocaust denier. Republicans quietly squirm. Trump’s Jewish supporters grapple with cognitive dissonance and emotional vertigo. Take Mort Klein, of the hard-right Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), who makes several appearances in We Are Not One.Testifying before Congress, Klein accused the press of taking Trump’s comments on Charlottesville, where neo-Nazis marched in 2017, “completely out of context”. In 2018, after 11 worshippers were murdered at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Klein rode to the rescue again. At the ZOA dinner, he said it was “political blasphemy” to blame Trump.Last month, ZOA gave Trump its highest honor. According to Klein, the ex-president was the “best friend Israel ever had in the White House”. Then Trump met West, now known as Ye, and Fuentes, twisting Klein into a human pretzel.“Trump is not an antisemite,” he announced. “He loves Israel. He loves Jews. But he mainstreams, he legitimizes Jew hatred and Jew haters. And this scares me.”Trump reportedly kept Hitler’s speeches by his bed. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.At a recent confab of Agudath Israel of America, an ultra-Orthodox group, Rabbi Dovid Zwiebel, its executive vice-president, condemned Trump: “Yesterday’s friend can be tomorrow’s greatest enemy.” Two years earlier, though, its members clearly backed Trump over Joe Biden. Borough Park was as deep red as Lafayette, Louisiana.It all carries a whiff of deja vu. Alterman recounts how neoconservatives admonished America’s Jews against complaining of Israel’s alliance with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson: “The Christian Zionists’ devotion to ‘Greater Israel’ earned them a pass from the neocons for their occasional outbursts of antisemitism.”Trump had dinner with two avowed antisemites. Let’s call this what it is | Francine ProseRead moreTrump’s Mar-a-Lago dinner created a similar bind. David Friedman, his bankruptcy lawyer and ambassador to Israel, tweeted: “To my friend Donald Trump, you are better than this … I urge you to throw those bums out, disavow them and relegate them to the dustbin of history where they belong.”Trump was not amused. On Friday, he lashed out at “Jewish Leaders”. Friedman must learn patience. ZOA may wish to rescind its award.Jason Greenblatt, a Trump Organization lawyer who moved to the White House, echoed Friedman for CNN. Days later, he spoke at a synagogue in Scarsdale, north of New York City. Greenblatt repeated the need for Trump to correct the record and urged those in attendance to politely speak up.In the next breath, he lauded his one-time boss’s achievements and character. It sure is tough to quit Trump.
We Are Not One: A History of America’s Fight Over Israel is published in the US by Hachette Book Group
TopicsBooksUS politicsDemocratsRepublicansDonald TrumpIsraelUS foreign policyreviewsReuse this content More

And here we go… did Joe Biden get any heads-up from Kyrsten Sinema that she was about to defect from the Democratic party?Jean-Pierre:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We do not discuss private conversations that we have with members of Congress.
[But] he sees, and we see, Senator Sinema as a key partner on some of the most historic pieces of legislation that you will all have covered in this administration.
When you look at the past 20 months, from the American rescue plan to the bipartisan infrastructure law, to the inflation reduction act, to the respect for marriage act and also the pact act, all of these pieces of legislation have been historic, and we have partnered with Senator Sinema
We understand her decision to register as an independent in Arizona. The way we see it and understand it, it does not change the new Democratic majority control of the Senate.
And we have every reason to expect that we will continue to work with her successfully.It’s 4pm in DC. As we head into the weekend, here’s a look at the day’s biggest developments:
Senator Kyrsten Sinema has announced she is leaving the party and has registered as an independent. The dramatic news comes just three days after Raphael Warnock’s re-election in Georgia gave the Democratic party what they thought was a 51-49 majority in the chamber (which includes the two other Senate independents Angus King of Maine, and Vermont’s Bernie Sanders).
The White House said that Kyrsten Sinema’s defection “does not change Democratic Senate control” and did not reveal whether Joe Biden got a heads-up prior to her announcement. “We do not discuss private conversations that we have with members of Congress. [But] he sees, and we see, Senator Sinema as a key partner on some of the most historic pieces of legislation that you will all have covered in this administration. We understand her decision to register as an independent in Arizona. The way we see it and understand it, it does not change the new Democratic majority control of the Senate,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has issued a brief statement on the decision by Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema to sit in the chamber as an independent. “Senator Sinema informed me of her decision to change her affiliation to independent. She asked me to keep her committee assignments and I agreed. Kyrsten is independent; that’s how she’s always been. I believe she’s a good and effective senator and am looking forward to a productive session in the new Democratic majority Senate,” he said.
The Treasury Department announced on Friday that it is sanctioning a group of companies and people linked to illegal fishing operations and human rights abuses in Chinese waters. The Cayman Islands-registered fishing company Pingtan Marine Enterprise, Ltd, which maintains boats based in China and has stock traded on the Nasdaq, was identified by the Office of Foreign Assets Control for sanctions. The US accuses the company of illegally shipping endangered species and abusing crew members through its subsidiaries and fleet of over 100 fishing boats.
Russia wouldn’t release Paul Whelan without the US setting free a former colonel from the country’s domestic spy organization currently in German custody, CNN reported on Friday, adding another twist to the Brittney Griner saga. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wouldn’t confirm the story at her afternoon press briefing, but the network says Russia wanted Vadim Krasikov, who is serving a life sentence for murder.
Joe Biden plans to announce at next week’s US-Africa summit in Washington DC that he supports adding the African Union as a permanent member of the Group of 20 nations, the Associated Press reports, citing the White House. The African Union represents the continent’s 54 countries. The G20 is composed of the world’s major industrial and emerging economies and represents more than 80% of the world’s gross domestic product. South Africa is currently the only African member of the G20.
The Treasury Department announced on Friday that it is sanctioning a group of companies and people linked to illegal fishing operations and human rights abuses in Chinese waters.One company is accused of maintaining working conditions so dangerous that five workers died after 13 months at sea, with three of the workers’ bodies dumped into the ocean rather than repatriated to their homes, the Associated Press reports.The Cayman Islands-registered fishing company Pingtan Marine Enterprise, Ltd., which maintains boats based in China and has stock traded on the Nasdaq, was identified by the Office of Foreign Assets Control for sanctions.The US has accused the company of illegally shipping endangered species and abusing crew members through its subsidiaries and fleet of more than 100 fishing boats.The Biden administration also says two individuals, Li Zhenyu and Xinrong Zhuo, along with Dalian Ocean Fishing Co Ltd. and other companies engaged in illegal unreported fishing.A senior department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the US action, said on a call with reporters that Dalian employs crew members who work an average of 18 hours a day, live off expired food and drink dirty water.The action on Friday identifies 157 Chinese fishing vessels in which sanctioned companies and people have an interest.The sanctioned companies’ property and interests in the US will be blocked and American companies that do business with the sanctioned entities will have to wind down their ties with them.American Airlines and JetBlue Airways are moving forward with their partnership expansion across the north-east, even as a federal judge considers the government’s attempt to put an end to the deal.On Friday, the airlines announced that American Airlines will add six new routes from New York City and will drop an existing one, the Associated Press reports. Meanwhile, JetBlue said that it will start multiple new routes from New York and Boston. Some of the routes will only operate during summer and most will be limited to one to two flights daily. American Airlines said it plans to drop service between New York’s LaGuardia airport and Atlanta in May, when JetBlue adds that route. The airline also announced that on 5 May it will add flights between LaGuardia and Buffalo, New York; Greenville, South Carolina; and four other cities.Whether or not the expansion succeeds depends on a lawsuit in Boston which the justice department, six states and Washington DC have filed in attempts to stop the deal. The parties argue that the airlines’ move will result in lower competition and higher fares.The two airlines have pushed back, arguing that their joint expansion will make them a stronger competitor against Delta and United Airlines in the north-east.A verdict is expected early next year.Russia wouldn’t release Paul Whelan without the US setting free a former colonel from the country’s domestic spy organization currently in German custody, CNN reported on Friday, adding another twist to the Brittney Griner saga.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wouldn’t confirm the story at her afternoon press briefing, but the network says Russia wanted Vadim Krasikov, who is serving a life sentence for murder.The report suggests the US floated the idea of an exchange of Krasikov for Griner and Whelan, who has been in jail in Russia for almost four years, back in the summer.But any deal fell down, CNN says, when Germany refused to countenance his release. Krasikov assassinated a Georgian citizen in Berlin in 2019.The US then offered other names to try to persuade them to include Whelan in the Griner trade for Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms dealer jailed in the US for 12 years. They included, CNN says, Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national extradited to the US in August for cybercrime, and Roman Seleznev, another convicted Russian cyber-criminal currently serving a 14-year sentence in the US.But it became clear a week ago that Whelan was not going to be included, so the US pressed ahead with the Griner for Bout trade, which took place on Thursday.“It was either Brittney Griner, one American or no American. That’s the very difficult decision that the president had to make,” Jean-Pierre told reporters earlier.“[Russia was] not willing to negotiate in good faith for Paul Whelan.”Joe Biden plans to announce at next week’s US-Africa summit in Washington DC that he supports adding the African Union as a permanent member of the Group of 20 nations, the Associated Press reports, citing the White House.The African Union represents the continent’s 54 countries. The G20 is composed of the world’s major industrial and emerging economies and represents more than 80% of the world’s gross domestic product. South Africa is currently the only African member of the G20.“It’s past time Africa has permanent seats at the table in international organizations and initiatives,” Judd Devermont, senior director for African affairs on the national security council, said in a statement.“We need more African voices in international conversations that concern the global economy, democracy and governance, climate change, health, and security.”Biden has invited 49 African leaders to take part in the three-day Washington summit that starts Tuesday.A judge in Michigan has dismissed criminal charges against former governor Rick Snyder in the Flint water crisis, the Associated Press reports.It comes months after the state supreme court said indictments returned by a one-person grand jury were invalid.Snyder, a Republican who left office in 2019, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of misconduct in office. He was the first person in state history to be charged for alleged crimes related to service as governor.Snyder also is the eighth person to have a Flint water case thrown out after the supreme court’s unanimous June opinion. Read the full story:Judge dismisses Flint water crisis criminal charges against ex-governorRead moreWhite House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has taken a couple of questions on foreign policy, condemning a “draconian” crackdown on civilians by authorities in Iran.“They should know that the world is watching,” she said when asked about Iran’s suppressing of dissenters, including its first-known execution of an anti-government protestor.“The US is committed to supporting the Iranian people and imposing costs on those responsible for the brutal crackdown. We will stand with Iranian civilians as they are fighting for their basic freedom [and] basic human rights.”Iran executes protestor, 23, for allegedly stabbing pro-regime officer. Likely to be the first execution of many. https://t.co/AnEnBLje7d— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) December 8, 2022
A reporter also wondered if, now that gas prices are falling, the Biden administration still intended to follow through with its promise of consequences for Saudi Arabia for reducing its production of oil. There has been, essentially, silence from the White House on the issue since October.“We are assessing relations with Saudi Arabia with methodology and strategically as we have done over the last 18 years of this relationship in a bipartisan way,” was Jean-Pierre’s non-answer.“We will judge the way forward based on their actions as well as our ongoing consultations with partners and allies, and also the new Congress.”Karine Jean-Pierre is pushing back strongly against Republican criticism that the exchange of jailed basketball player Brittney Griner for convicted Russian arms trade Viktor Bout wasn’t much of a trade.The White House press secretary told reporters:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}When you have an American passport, that means something.
Brittney Griner is an American citizen who was being held unjustly.
She was being held unjustly under intolerable circumstances. That was what was happening to Brittney Griner. And so that means something to the president.Republicans have continued to snipe at the exchange, Florida senator Marco Rubio suggesting it “incentivized the taking of more Americans”.Jean-Pierre insisted Biden was still “working very hard” to secure the release of Paul Whelan, an American still held by Russia on espionage charges, but said Russia was “not negotiating in good faith”..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}This was an opportunity to bring an American home. The Russians were willing to release Brittney Griner for Mr Bout. That was what was presented to us.
They were not willing to negotiate in good faith for Paul Whelan. And so it was either Brittney Griner, one American or no American. That’s the very difficult decision that the president had to make.And here we go… did Joe Biden get any heads-up from Kyrsten Sinema that she was about to defect from the Democratic party?Jean-Pierre:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We do not discuss private conversations that we have with members of Congress.
[But] he sees, and we see, Senator Sinema as a key partner on some of the most historic pieces of legislation that you will all have covered in this administration.
When you look at the past 20 months, from the American rescue plan to the bipartisan infrastructure law, to the inflation reduction act, to the respect for marriage act and also the pact act, all of these pieces of legislation have been historic, and we have partnered with Senator Sinema
We understand her decision to register as an independent in Arizona. The way we see it and understand it, it does not change the new Democratic majority control of the Senate.
And we have every reason to expect that we will continue to work with her successfully.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is at the podium with her daily briefing.She’s talking up a big week for Joe Biden, especially securing Brittney Griner’s release from Russia, and the just-announced $275m security assistance package for Ukraine (see previous post).But you can sense that reporters in the room are just itching to ask her about Kyrsten Sinema. Stay tuned…Here’s the latest Politics Weekly America podcast from the Guardian’s ace team. With Raphael Warnock re-elected to represent Georgia in the US Senate for the next six years, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Molly Reynolds of the Brookings Institution about the significance for Democrats of having an absolute majority in the upper chamber of Congress, rather than a 50/50 split.This episode was recorded before today’s dramatic announcement by Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema that she was renouncing the Democratic party to sit as an independent.Why 51 is better than 50 in the Senate: Politics Weekly America podcastRead moreJoe Biden authorized a fresh infusion of $275 million in military aid for Ukraine offering new capabilities to defeat drones and strengthen air defenses, according to a memo released by the White House, Reuters reports.The package also includes rockets for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers made by Lockheed Martin Corp, 80,000 155mm artillery rounds, Humvee military vehicles and about 150 generators, according to the memo.This is the 27th use of Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) for Ukraine, which allows the United States to transfer defense articles and services from stocks quickly without congressional approval in response to an emergency.National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House that the equipment was “on its way.”But details were scant on two systems, “counter air defense capability” and “Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems equipment,” which appear to be new capabilities for Ukraine.Russia’s surge in missile strikes in Ukraine is partly designed to exhaust Kyiv’s supplies of air defenses and achieve dominance of the skies above the country, a senior Pentagon official said in November.To counter these attacks, the United States has sent sophisticated anti-aircraft NASAMS systems to Ukraine which have been running for a few weeks.Washington previously announced that it was sending four Avenger short-range air defense systems that use Stinger missiles, made by Raytheon Technologies Corp, and HAWK interceptor missiles. US allies have also been sending air defense systems.You can follow the Guardian’s Ukraine war live blog here. The White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is due to brief the media at 1pm ET in the west wing, as Washington and Arizona digest the news of Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s surprise news early today that she’s switching from the Democrats to be an independent.Here’s where things stand:
Chuck Schumer, Senate majority leader, issued a brief statement on the decision by Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema to sit in the chamber as an independent in future, saying she will keep her committee assignments and saying: “I believe she’s a good and effective senator.”
Republican criticism of Joe Biden for trading US basketball star and Olympic gold medallist Brittney Griner for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout continues.
The White House issued a statement via Jean-Pierre noting that it expects to ‘continue to work successfully’ with Senator Sinema.
Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema announced she would no longer represent the Democratic Party in congress and instead would become an independent. She expressed no intention to caucus with the Republicans but nor did she reassure Democrats that they can count on her vote, while saying her new status “won’t change my work” in the upper chamber.
Here’s a selection of reactions on Twitter to Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema’s decision to renounce Democrats and sit as an independent.Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki thinks the biggest question is whether Sinema runs for re-election in 2024 as an independent, and not whether she continues to support Democrats in the Senate:so here’s the thing—If Sinema still votes for the most part with Ds and keeps her committee roles (because she will want that/also helps Dems by giving them majority on committees) the biggest q is not about the DC side–its about whether she will run as an independent— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) December 9, 2022
Arizona congressman Ruben Gallego, who is now widely expected to seek the Democratic nomination for Arizona’s Senate seat in two years’ time, accused Sinema of putting her own interests ahead of those of voters:My statement on Kyrsten Sinema abandoning the Democratic Partyhttps://t.co/QdrRf2mO5W pic.twitter.com/f0P3WZAdvA— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) December 9, 2022
Republican former strategist and Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson sees a different role in Sinema’s future, and calls her a “Karen”:Karen Sinema. You know a Fox news gig is somewhere in her future. https://t.co/z8eXs9SxG5— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) December 9, 2022
Republican firebrand Lauren Boebert seems to believe that Sinema has actually switched parties to join the opposition. Spoiler: she hasn’t.Good to see @KyrstenSinema leaving the Democrat Party.Just this year we’ve had @TulsiGabbard & Senator Sinema – both high profile Democrats – change parties.Hope many more see the light!— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) December 9, 2022
Young progressives are not impressed. This from abortion rights activist Olivia Julianna:Fixed it pic.twitter.com/ok2IWMq55X— Olivia Julianna 🗳 (@0liviajulianna) December 9, 2022
From the Arizona Democratic party. Sinema has “fallen dramatically short leaving Arizonans behind”:Please see our statement below regarding @kyrstensinema’s change in party affiliation. pic.twitter.com/qGWSSVR8cU— Arizona Democratic Party (@azdemparty) December 9, 2022
Toni Cani, Joe Biden’s 2020 election chief in Arizona, thinks Sinema’s decision follows a failed gamble that Republicans won the House and Senate in the midterms, pushed “something like a national abortion ban”, and Sinema could play the hero by blocking it:One of my hottest takes was the only way Sinema survives 2024 reelect is if the GOP took the House & Senate in 2022 and she then used the filibuster to stop something like a national abortion ban. I even speculated she knew that and that was her exact gamble— Tony Cani (@tcani) December 9, 2022
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has issued a brief statement on the decision by Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema to sit in the chamber as an independent.He says she will keep her committee assignments, which he doesn’t really have a choice about if Democrats are to retain a semblance of control:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Senator Sinema informed me of her decision to change her affiliation to Independent. She asked me to keep her committee assignments and I agreed.
Kyrsten is independent; that’s how she’s always been. I believe she’s a good and effective Senator and am looking forward to a productive session in the new Democratic majority Senate.
We will maintain our new majority on committees, exercise our subpoena power, and be able to clear nominees without discharge votes.Meanwhile, The Hill has been collating reports that the 6 January House panel looking into Donald Trump’s insurrection is also considering criminal referrals, for Trump and at least four of the ex-president’s team.They are Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff; John Eastman, a conservative lawyer; Jeffrey Clark, a former justice department official; and Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s one-time personal attorney.All four were involved in plotting or executing Trump’s scheme to try to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden, the panel believes, and is considering whether to recommend them to the justice department for criminal investigation or charges.“The committee has not officially decided whom to refer for prosecution and for what offenses,” CNN reported, citing anonymous sources, and says others could also be considered. The Guardian reported Tuesday that criminal referrals were imminent from the January 6 committee, but this is the first time these names have been reported. Representatives of the panel would not comment.You can read The Hill’s report here.While we’ve been occupied this morning with Kyrsten Sinema’s defection and Brittney Griner’s homecoming, we haven’t taken our eye off Donald Trump’s legal peril, and developments with the investigations into his insurrection and mishandling of classified documents. Here’s the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell on the latest:The US justice department is seeking a top federal judge to hold Donald Trump’s political office in contempt of court for not fully complying with a grand jury subpoena issued in May demanding the return of all classified documents in its possession, according to a source familiar with the matter.The department in recent weeks asked the chief US district court judge for the District of Columbia, Beryl Howell, to hold Trump’s office in contempt after prosecutors were unable to get the former president’s lawyers to designate a custodian of records to certify all records were returned.New: Confirming that DOJ is seeking a federal judge to hold Trump’s office in contempt of court for not fully complying with May grand jury subpoena seeking return of classified docs, per source familiar — matching WaPo— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) December 8, 2022
Howell has not ruled on the matter, which remains under seal. But the move, earlier reported by the Washington Post, significantly raises the stakes for Trump as he stares down a criminal investigation into unauthorized retention of national security information and obstruction of justice.The issue is to do with the Trump legal team’s reluctance to designate a custodian of records to certify that Trump is no longer in possession of any documents marked classified and thus in compliance with the subpoena that demanded the return of all such government records, the source said.If the Trump legal team could not find someone to certify under oath that all documents bearing classified markings had been returned, the department is said to have communicated, it would seek a judicial sanction.The contempt action is understood to be focused on Trump’s office because the subpoena, issued on 11 May, sought the return of all documents and writings “in the custody of Donald J Trump and/or the Office of Donald J Trump” bearing classification markings.Read the full story:DoJ seeking to hold Trump team in contempt of court over classified documentsRead more More

Oil firms have internally dismissed swift climate action, House panel saysDocuments show the fossil fuel industry ‘has no real plans to clean up its act’ and took steps to continue business as usual Some of the world’s largest oil and gas companies have internally dismissed the need to swiftly move to renewable energy and cut planet-heating emissions, despite publicly portraying themselves as concerned about the climate crisis, a US House of Representatives committee has found.Documents obtained from companies including Exxon, Shell, BP and Chevron show that the fossil fuel industry “has no real plans to clean up its act and is barreling ahead with plans to pump more dirty fuels for decades to come”, said Carolyn Maloney, the chair of the House oversight committee, which has investigated the sector for the past year.Biden accuses oil companies of ‘war profiteering’ and threatens windfall taxRead moreThe committee accused the oil firms of a “long-running greenwashing campaign” by committing to major new projects to extract and burn fossil fuels despite espousing their efforts to go green.In reality, executives, the documents show, were derisive of the need to cut emissions, disparaged climate activists and worked to secure US government tax credits for carbon capture projects that would allow them to continue business as usual. Maloney, a Democrat, said that “these companies know their climate pledges are inadequate, but are prioritizing big oil’s record profits over the human costs of climate change”.Ro Khanna, another Democrat who sits on the committee, said that the industry’s approach was one of “intimidation” towards critics, as part of a “cynical strategy” to avoid acting on the climate emergency. He added that the committee will pass on the documents to “other entities”, raising the possibility of charges laid by the US Department of Justice.Khanna rejected allegations from Republicans that the Democrat-led committee had engaged in a sort of corporate witch-hunt. “The industry was the one out there continuing to make false statements about climate change and climate legislation,” he said. “Our goal is to get them to stop engaging in climate misinformation.”Several of the company executives appeared before the committee, where they faced accusations their companies knew of the dangers of the climate crisis for decades, only to hide this from the public. Darren Woods, chief executive of Exxon, said last year that his company’s claims over climate change were “consistent with science” at the time.“Oil and gas will continue to be necessary for the foreseeable future,” Woods added in his testimony to the committee. “We currently do not have the adequate alternative energy sources.”Exxon, like most other large oil firms, has said it backs the Paris climate accords, where governments agreed to not allow the global temperature to rise 1.5C or more above pre-industrial times to help avoid worsening heatwaves, droughts, floods and other disastrous impacts.Privately, however, these companies downplayed any need to scale down their fossil fuel activity and even to ramp it up, the committee found.Internal documents from BP in 2017 show that the company intends to “significantly increase development in regions with oil potential” and to “focus primarily on projects in current basins that generate the highest rate of return”.One BP executive subsequently asserted in an internal email that the company had “no obligation to minimize GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions”, while another admitted that any of its divestments of fossil fuels “may not directly lead to a reduction in absolute global emissions”.Industry insiders communicated with Exxon consultants about doubts over the veracity of climate science, the documents show, while a strategy slide presented to the Chevron board by its chief executive, Mike Wirth, states that the company is to “continue to invest” in fossil fuels even if others retreat from oil and gas.A Shell tweet posted in 2020 asking others what they could do to reduce emissions resulted in a torrent of ridicule from Twitter users. A communications executive for the company wrote privately that criticism that the tweet was “gaslighting” the public was “not totally without merit” and that the tweet was “pretty tone deaf”. He added: “We are, after all, in a tweet like this implying others need to sacrifice without focusing on ourselves.”The UK-headquartered oil company also poured scorn on climate activists, with a communications specialist at the company emailing in 2019 that he wished “bedbugs” upon the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led US climate group.Climate campaigners said the committee’s work showed that the fossil fuel industry was continuing to lie over global heating by pretending to act on the issue.“The key revelation in this report is that big oil has no intention of actually following through on its climate commitments,” said Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media.“It isn’t transitioning to clean energy, it’s doubling down on methane gas, and it’s actively lobbying against renewable energy solutions. This is the big tobacco playbook all over again: pretend you care about a problem, but continue your deadly business as usual.”TopicsOil and gas companiesHouse of RepresentativesFossil fuelsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

‘She answers to billionaires’: some Democrats not sorry to see Sinema leaveSenator’s decision to register as independent after playing spoiler role brings Democrats’ bitterness towards lawmaker to surface Upon learning that the Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema was leaving their party, some Democrats’ reactions could best be summed up with two words: good riddance.The lawmaker has been a thorn in their side since the early days of Joe Biden’s presidency, snarling negotiations over the White House’s priorities and voting down reforms dear to progressives such as raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and reforming the Senate filibuster.Schumer says Sinema a ‘good and effective’ senator after switch from Democrat to independent – liveRead more“Senator Sinema may now be registered as an Independent, but she has shown she answers to corporations and billionaires, not Arizonans. Senator Sinema’s party registration means nothing if she continues to not listen to her constituents,” the state’s Democratic party chair, Raquel Terán, said in a statement.Yet, much like Joe Manchin, the centrist West Virginia senator who has played a similar spoiler role over the past two years, Sinema has come through for her fellow Democrats in many key areas, supporting Biden’s policy positions 93% of the time, according to the political aggregator FiveThirtyEight.Whether she will continue to offer that help for the next two years is up in the air, after announcing on Friday she had left the party and registered as an independent, a decision that brought to the surface many Democrats’ bitterness towards the first-term lawmaker.The announcement rocked the party, which had been on something of a roll over the past weeks. On Tuesday, they succeeded in getting every single one of their senators re-elected for the first time since 1934 after Raphael Warnock won his seat in Georgia, and last month only narrowly lost the House of Representatives in the midterm elections.After spending two years navigating a fraught 50-50 Senate split in which the vice-president, Kamala Harris, came in to break tie votes, they won a new seat in Pennsylvania, and were planning to take outright control of Congress’s upper chamber.Sinema was vague about the degree to which she would continue to cooperate with the Democrats. In an interview with Politico, the senator said she would not join the Republican caucus, and indicated she would continue voting as she has since first joining the Senate in 2019. “Nothing will change about my values or my behavior,” she told the publication.Those signals probably explain the far more muted reaction of the Democratic party’s key power players – no doubt now keen to keep her onside as much as possible.The chamber’s Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, downplayed the disruption her exit caused, saying in a statement that Sinema “asked me to keep her committee assignments and I agreed. Kyrsten is independent; that’s how she’s always been. I believe she’s a good and effective senator and am looking forward to a productive session in the new Democratic majority Senate.”The White House stuck a similarly constructive note, perhaps hoping they could continue working with her, as they do with Bernie Sanders and Angus King, two independent senators who vote with Democrats.“Senator Sinema has been a key partner on some of the historic legislation President Biden has championed over the last 20 months, from the American Rescue Plan to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, from the Inflation Reduction Act to the Chips and Science Act, from the Pact Act to the Gun Safety Act to the Respect for Marriage Act, and more,” the press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said.“We understand that her decision to register as an independent in Arizona does not change the new Democratic majority control of the Senate, and we have every reason to expect that we will continue to work successfully with her.”Sinema did indeed support those pieces of legislation, but she has become best-known for what she has not supported: changing the Senate’s filibuster rules to ensure voting rights legislation can pass, various aspects of Biden’s failed Build Back Better Act, and raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, to which she expressed her rejection with an eye-catching thumbs-down delivered on the Senate floor.She was sometimes joined in these stands by Manchin, who has made little secret of his support for the fossil fuel industry relative to other Democrats, or hesitancy to break Senate tradition.Sinema’s motives were always harder to discern. She started her political career with the environmentalist Green party, but when the agreement to pass the climate change-fighting Inflation Reduction Act was announced over the summer, she withheld her support until a provision raising taxes on profits that go to the heads of private equity firms was removed.Voters appear to have noticed. A September poll from AARP Arizona showed her approval underwater with every single group of voters – including Democrats, with whom her favorability rating was a dire 37%. She was likely to face a challenge in the 2024 Democratic primary, probably from the Democratic House representative Ruben Gallego.“At a time when our nation needs leadership most, Arizona deserves a voice that won’t back down in the face of struggle. Unfortunately, Senator Sinema is once again putting her own interests ahead of getting things done for Arizonans,” Gallego said in a statement released after the senator’s departure.Arizona’s Democrats are now in a tough position. They will have to decide whether to run a candidate against Sinema in two years, and risk splitting their voters in a state where the GOP is seen as having a good shot at retaking her seat. Blunting a primary challenge may have been Sinema’s ultimate goal in leaving, but it’s hard to know. Even her supporters seem to have trouble understanding how to advocate for her.“A friend is a big Sinema supporter, someone she knows by name,” Tony Cani, the deputy director of Biden’s Arizona campaign tweeted. “They ran into each other at an event and after warm greetings this person asked: ‘I wanna be helpful, what can I tell my people when they complain about what’s going on?’ Sinema smiled and said: ‘Tell them to fuck off.’”TopicsDemocratsUS SenateUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Kyrsten Sinema goes independent days after Democrats secure Senate majorityArizona senator changes party affiliation and says she will not caucus with Republicans The US senator Kyrsten Sinema has switched her political affiliation to independent, leaving the Democratic party just days after it won a Senate race in Georgia to secure a 51st seat in the chamber.“I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington. I registered as an Arizona independent,” she said in an op-ed for Arizona Central, a local media outlet.In a separate Politico interview published on Friday, Sinema said she would not caucus with the Republican party. If that holds, Democrats could still maintain greater governing control in the closely divided chamber.Democrats had held the Senate 50-50, with the vice-president, Kamala Harris, holding a tie-breaking vote. Raphael Warnock’s victory in Tuesday’s runoff election in Georgia handed them their 51st seat.Two other senators – Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine – are registered as independents but generally caucus with Democrats.Sinema said her shift came as a growing number of people in her state were also declaring themselves politically independent, rejecting the Republican and Democratic political labels.“Like a lot of Arizonans, I have never fit perfectly in either national party,”she wrote.Sinema intends to maintain her committee assignments from the Democrats, an aide told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The aide would not say whether or not Sinema would continue to caucus with Democrats.The senator herself, however, said she would not caucus with the Republican party, according to an interview published by Politico on Friday.If that holds, Democrats could still maintain greater governing control in the closely divided chamber.Sinema and the Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia have kept Washington in suspense over the last two years as they repeatedly have withheld their needed votes for legislative initiatives sought by Joe Biden.At the same time, they have worked in a bipartisan way on high-profile bills that have become law, while forcing compromise.Sinema was realistic on Friday about the fact that she will get criticism from Democrats for her shock news.“I’m not worried about folks who may not like my approach, I’m going to continue to do what is right for my state,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that will air in fuller detail on Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.“I’m doing something that comports with my values,” she said.The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, issued a statement noting that the Democrats will continue to control the Senate.“We understand that her decision to register as an independent in Arizona does not change the new Democratic majority control of the Senate, and we have every reason to expect that we will continue to work successfully with her,” she said.Jean-Pierre’s statement also noted: “Senator Sinema has been a key partner on some of the historic legislation President Biden has championed over the last 20 months, from the American Rescue Plan to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, from the Inflation Reduction Act to the Chips and Science Act, from the Pact Act to the Gun Safety Act to the Respect for Marriage Act, and more.”The Pact Act was designed to improve healthcare access and funding for military veterans who were exposed to toxic substances during their service.Sinema’s departure from the Democratic party is less about frustrating their ability to run the Senate for the next two years, and more about protecting her own position in Arizona, Semafor reported.She was unpopular enough with Democrats in the state that she was widely expected to face a primary in 2024.But now that she is out of the party, that primary will not happen. Instead, Democrats are going to face the tough decision of whether to run a candidate against her – and risk splitting their voters and losing the seat to the GOP – or accept that she is their best bet, even if she is not actually in the party.TopicsUS SenateArizonaDemocratsUS politicsUS CongressnewsReuse this content More

The November 2022 midterms have come and gone, but there are still some potential lasting implications that could influence the next election season.

One is that young people, aged 18 to 29, had one of the highest voter turnouts in a midterm election in recent history, according to our early analysis.

Specifically, an estimated 27% of eligible voters in that age group turned out to the polls in 2022, according to research by my team at CIRCLE – a research group at Tufts University focused on youth civic engagement. This marks only the second time in the last 30 years that more than 1 in 4 voters under 30 voted in a midterm cycle. In 2018, approximately 31% of young people voted.

It was young people’s support for Democratic candidates, specifically, that led them to have a major impact on elections in key states this year. Their votes were influential or outright decisive in several close races won by Democrats, such as Nevada’s senate election. The same was true in the Georgia senate and Arizona gubernatorial races.

Voter turnout across all age groups tends to be significantly lower in midterm elections than in presidential elections.

Young people, though, have historically voted at even lower rates than older adults in general. This trend has begun to change, with double-digit increases in youth turnout between 2014 and 2018 and between 2016 and 2020.

As a scholar of young people’s participation in democracy, I think the youth vote in 2022 underscores much of what works to increase young people’s electoral participation.

More registration, more votes

For starters, there was higher youth voter registration in 2022 than in 2018 in many states, including Michigan, Nevada and Kansas. Young political and civic leaders and voters also connected to issues that affect their lives – like abortion rights – in this election.

These trends also highlight what could help lessen ongoing challenges to get more young people to vote. There are voting laws, for example, that make it easier to register and vote.

Young people typically are less likely than older people to vote in both presidential and midterm elections.
Aaron Jackendoff/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

What happened in November 2022

The overall 27% youth turnout rate is only one part of the story.

This was the 10th election cycle in a row in which 18- to 29-year-olds supported Democratic House candidates by at least a 10-point margin, according to CIRCLE’s analysis of the Edison Research data.

This year, young voters preferred Democratic House candidates by a 28-point margin. Youth of color, young women and LGBTQ youth supported Democrats by an even wider margin.

Young voters’ preference at the polls was markedly different from that of other age groups. Nationally, voters ages 30 to 44 preferred House Democrats by only 4 percentage points, and voters over the age of 65 preferred House Republicans by more than 10 points.

Why did it happen

Many reporters have asked me and my colleagues who contributed to this article – including Alberto Medina, CIRCLE’s communications team lead, and Ruby Belle Booth, CIRCLE’s elections coordinator – why youth voter turnout dropped in 2022 below the 2018 levels.

Throughout 2022, there were some signs that youth participation in the midterms would be relatively strong, including the number of young people already registered to vote. However, in that same analysis, my colleagues and I found that voter registration among 18- and 19-year-olds was lagging compared to 2018.

Supporting these young people to vote remains an enduring challenge.

Many campaigns and organizations rely on the existing voter rolls and other lists of registered voters to conduct outreach, so they often miss these potential new voters. That’s compounded by another issue: Young people are less inclined than other voters to identify or register with a political party.

Politics is personal

Instead, many young people approach politics based on the issues they care about.

In 2018, for example, the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, which killed 17 people, led more young people to vote for candidates they felt would do more to curb gun violence.

A number of high-profile climate change protests in 2020 also appeared to boost youth voter turnout that year.

In 2020, many young voters focused on racial justice and the Black Lives Matter movement, following the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man. That spurred considerable political engagement, like participating in public protests, that connected to a major increase in youth voter turnout between 2016 and 2020.

In 2022, young people continued to push for change on issues they consider personal, like climate change, gun violence and racial justice.

And after the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, abortion rose to the top of young people’s issues of concern.

While nearly 3 in 4 young people said they favor legal abortion, both young people who are for and against abortion rights said this was a top issue for them.

Our analysis of exit poll data found that young voters were the only age group to cite abortion as their top reason for voting. Other groups of voters over 30 said that inflation was their top priority.

Voter turnout among young people has historically been low, in both midterm and presidential elections.
John Moore/Getty Images

Implications for 2024 and beyond

Millions more young people born after 1996 will reach voting age by 2024. Their political power will only grow in the years to come, while those over the age of 65 will make up a declining share of the population and the electorate.

What that shift means for election results will depend on how political parties and other political and civic groups engage young people.

In recent years, most young people have voted for Democrats. This is a shift from just 20 years ago, when voters under 30 split their vote fairly evenly between Democrat and Republican candidates.

But Republicans lag behind Democrats when it comes to directly communicating with young people. Just less than 1 in 3 people aged 18 to 29 said they heard from the Republican Party or the Donald Trump campaign in the month before Election Day in 2020. Half of young people, conversely, said they heard from the Democratic Party or Joe Biden’s campaign.

There are other actions and policies that could get more people under 30 to the polls.

Preregistration, which allows young people to register to vote at age 16 so they’re ready to cast a ballot once they turn 18, can increase youth turnout, but it’s only available in 16 states. Other policies and efforts by election administrators to get more young people to vote can vary widely across states, leading to major differences in participation. In 2020, youth turnout varied from 32% in South Dakota to 67% in New Jersey.

Young people’s estimated 27% turnout rate in 2022 marks a near-record for an age group that has historically participated at lower rates in midterm elections. Whether this is a long-term trend or not will depend on whether communities and political groups implement the changes that research suggests can lead to sustained increases in youth voter turnout. More

The Georgia runoff shows that Democrats have figured out a winning strategyAndrew GawthorpeThe midterms have been an endorsement of Biden’s formula: appeal to the middle by hammering at Republicans’ extremism For the third time in a row, Democrats have won a Senate election in Georgia. Raphael Warnock’s victory makes it clear that the party’s gains in the state in 2020 were not an anomaly. Although far from being a so-called blue state, Georgia is positioned well to remain competitive in 2024 and beyond. But in order for that to happen – and to build on their victories elsewhere – Democrats have to make the right choices.Taken as a whole, the midterms have provided a ringing endorsement of the approach to politics favored by President Joe Biden. From the first moment it looked like he would enter the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden was maligned and mocked for suggesting that the path to a Democratic victory lay through gains with independent and suburban voters. Critics argued that the country was so deeply polarized that swing voters no longer existed, and that appeals for bipartisanship would fall on deaf ears. In their view, the only viable strategy was to mobilize the Democratic base with leftwing appeals, even at the cost of losing voters in the center.Georgia’s runoff was a resounding rebuke of Trumpism. Will Republicans hear it? | Lloyd GreenRead moreOver two election cycles, however, Joe Biden has proven to have a much firmer grasp on American politics than some of his critics. His victory in 2020 was driven by flipping suburban and independent voters, as well as staunching Democratic losses among the non-college-educated white voters who make up Trump’s base. And even though commentators worried that this coalition was “precariously thin” and lacked durability, a broadly similar coalition came together in key midterm races to produce one of the best results for an incumbent president in modern American politics.Warnock’s victory in Georgia is just one of many examples. To be clear, Warnock is a formidable individual and campaigner in his own right and should take primary credit for his own victory. But he and many other candidates nationwide benefited from the way that Biden has shaped the Democratic party’s brand in more moderate directions and worked to rack up an impressive checklist of bipartisan legislative accomplishments.These moves have been met with hostility or indifference on the party’s left, but they give permission to disaffected Republican and independent voters to cross the aisle. This permission was gratefully received in Georgia, where Warnock’s opponent was the Trump-endorsed Herschel Walker, and a Democratic victory followed.As they look forward to 2024, Democrats should stick with Biden’s approach. One of the president’s key insights into today’s politics is that the flagrant extremism of the Republican party creates the space for precisely this sort of centrist approach to work. In 2020, naysayers charged that Biden hadn’t really created a durable new coalition, but merely capitalized on opposition to Trump. But with Trump still defining the Republican party, it will remain important for Democrats to continue to give right-leaning voters an excuse to defect.Even choosing an alternative presidential candidate would not soothe Republican woes or invalidate Biden’s approach. Any such candidate will have to win a primary in a Maga-fied party, which means saying and doing things that a substantial portion of the general electorate finds abhorrent.Nor is the party’s extremism just some new feature of the Trump era. Take its stance on abortion. Trump has tended to shy away from making abortion a central issue in his politics, and any replacement is more likely to represent the hardline restrictionism that is mainstream in the Republican party but anathema to the public. Dumping Trump would be extraordinarily hard for the party – and actually changing tack on abortion, rather than quietly deciding to publicly talk about it less, close to impossible.Trump’s march back to power has faltered. Now comes the real challenge for the global left | Martin KettleRead moreFor their part, the main question Democrats face is whether or not Biden continues to be the best person to put at the top of their ticket. This highlights a paradox, which is that Bidenism is more popular than Biden himself. Despite the key role that independents have played in Biden’s victories, three-quarters of them do not want Biden to run again in 2024, and the group as a whole views Biden only somewhat more favorably than Trump. This is a red flag for many Democrats, who worry that questions about Biden’s age and verbal gaffes could drag them down in 2024.But concerns about Biden as a candidate should not lead to concerns about Bidenism – if anything, the case for the latter is only strengthened by the weaknesses of the former. Biden’s coalition is not held together by a charismatic individual who will eventually pass from the scene, but by the structural forces shaping American politics today. It represents a path available to Democrats for as long as they continue to face a radicalized Republican party – something they are likely to do for a long time yet.Nor should the hidden strengths of the president himself be dismissed. Biden has long been dismissed by people who imagine themselves to be more politically sophisticated. Over the past few years, he has left their predictions in the dust again and again. Most crucially of all, he is the only Democrat who has beaten Trump in a one-on-one contest, the sort which allows him to highlight the contrast between Bidenism and the radicalized opposition most convincingly.As 2024 approaches, Biden’s message to doubters in his party should be simple: I’ve done it before. Now watch me do it again.
Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University and host of the podcast America Explained
TopicsUS politicsOpinionDemocratsJoe BidenBiden administrationcommentReuse this content More

US immigration laws should be enforced with discretion. That’s common senseRobert ReichBiden ordered officials to focus on deporting immigrants convicted of felonies, rather than undocumented people en masse. I applaud that decision Texas has sued the Biden administration over its order to immigration agents to prioritize undocumented immigrants convicted of felonies rather than deport all undocumented immigrants.Texas argues that federal immigration law requires the government to deport every undocumented immigrant. The Biden administration says it doesn’t have the resources to deport the country’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, so it must develop priorities.The Crypto Crash: all Ponzi schemes topple eventually | Robert ReichRead moreThe controversy reminds me of something that happened 30 years ago.Child labor laws bar 14-year-olds from working past 7pm on school nights. Weeks before I became the US secretary of labor, in 1992, a vigilant labor department investigator discovered that the Savannah Cardinals, a Class A farm team of the Atlanta Braves, had hired 14-year-old Tommy McCoy to be their batboy. On balmy evenings extending beyond sunset, Tommy selected each player’s favorite bat and proudly delivered it to him in the batter’s box. Next morning, Tommy went to school.The investigator threatened the team with a stiff fine. The team did what it had to do: it fired little Tommy.Tommy liked being a batboy. His parents were proud of their son. The team was fond of him. The fans loved him. As long as anyone could remember, every kid in Savannah had coveted the job. Tommy did well in school.But now little Tommy was out of a job.Well, you can imagine the furor. It seemed as if the whole city of Savannah was up in arms. The Cardinals were staging a “Save Tommy’s Job Night” rally, featuring balloons, buttons, placards and a petition signed by the fans demanding that Tommy be rehired.ABC News was doing a story on the controversy, which is how I first heard about it. ABC wanted me to do an on-camera interview that evening, explaining why Tommy couldn’t be a batboy.What was I to do? ABC couldn’t wait to show America the stupidity of the government (and its new secretary of labor).The labor department’s chief inspectors, sitting around a large round table in my office, didn’t want me to back down. After all, they said, the law was clear: Children under 14 could not work past 7pm on school nights. Besides, child labor was a serious problem. Children were getting injured working long hours.“If you back down, it will look like you’re caving in to public opinion,” one of the chief inspectors told me.“But,” I asked, “isn’t it the public whom we’re here to serve?”“The Savannah team broke the law and it was our responsibility to enforce the law.”“But who says the law has to be enforced this way?” I asked. “Don’t we have some discretion over how we enforce the law? We have only a limited number of inspectors. Shouldn’t we have priorities? I can understand hitting a building contractor who’s hiring kids to put on roofing, but why are we going after batboys and girls?”They warned me that if I didn’t support the department’s investigators, the staff would become demoralized.“Good! If they become demoralized and stop enforcing the law nonsensically, so much the better,” I said.They warned that if I backed down, the labor department would lose credibility.“We’ll lose even more credibility if we stick with this outrageous decision,” I said.They said there was nothing we could do. The law was the law.“Nonsense,” I said. “We can change the regulation to make an exception for kids at sporting events.”But that would invite all sorts of abuses, they argued. Vendors would exploit young kids on school nights to sell peanuts and popcorn, stadiums would hire young children to clean the locker rooms, parking lots would use children to collect money.“OK,” I said, “so we draw the exemption tighter, and limit it to batboys and batgirls.”I was getting nowhere. In minutes I’d have to appear on World News Tonight and defend the indefensible.Then it hit me, like a fastball slamming into my thick head: I was secretary of labor. I could decide this by myself.“I’ve heard enough,” I said, standing.I turned to my assistant, “We’re going to tell the Savannah team they can keep Tommy. We’ll change the regulation to allow batboys and girls. Put out a press release right now. Call the producers for World News Tonight and tell them I’ve decided to let Tommy keep his batboy job. Tell them our investigator was way off base!”“But World News Tonight is already on the air!” my assistant said.“Call them now!”I turned on the TV in the corner of my office. Peter Jennings was reading the news from his monitor. Within moments he said:The United States Department of Labor has decided that a 14-year-old named Tommy McCoy cannot serve as batboy for the Atlanta Braves farm team in Savannah, Georgia. The decision has provoked outrage from the fans. Here’s more from …As he turned it over to ABC’s Atlanta correspondent, Jennings appeared to be smirking.I was dead, politically.I looked around the table at the inspectors. Did they understand that in 7m living rooms across America people were now saying to each other “How dumb can government get?”After two excruciating minutes during which ABC’s Atlanta correspondent detailed the story of little Tommy, it was back to Jennings:But this tale has a happy ending.My heart skipped a beat.The labor department reports that Tommy will get his job back. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has decided that the department was – quote – off-base in invoking child labor regulations under these circumstances.I was still alive, politically.But the inspectors sitting around my table were dismayed.I tried to explain to them exactly what the Biden administration is now trying to explain to the courts and to Republicans in Congress.Laws cannot be enforced without setting priorities for enforcement. Inevitably – intentionally or unintentionally – the people in charge of enforcing laws determine which cases merit their attention and resources.So enforcers must use common sense. Prioritize targeting employers who are hiring young children and putting them in dangerous jobs over, say, a farm team hiring a kid as a batboy.Prioritize undocumented immigrants convicted of felonies over, say, a Dreamer who was brought to America as an infant and has been hardworking and law-abiding for her whole life.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
TopicsUS politicsOpinionUS immigrationBiden administrationJoe BidenMigrationcommentReuse this content More