US Politics

Doug Mastriano prayed for Trump to ‘seize the power’ before Capitol attackThe Republican candidate for Pennsylvania’s governor spoke during a video call hosted by a Christian nationalist group member A week before the Capitol attack, on a video call organised by a member of a Christian nationalist group, a Pennsylvania state senator who is the Republican candidate for governor in the battleground state prayed that supporters of Donald Trump would “seize the power” on 6 January 2021.Doug Mastriano attended the pro-Trump rally in Washington that day, after which supporters, told by Trump to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat, stormed Congress in an attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden’s victory.The riot was linked to nine deaths, including suicides in the aftermath of the attack among law enforcement.‘You have to run’: Romney urged Biden to take down Trump, book saysRead moreMastriano denies crossing police lines at the Capitol and affiliations with Christian nationalist groups. He is now one of a number of Republican candidates for state positions with sway over elections who support Trump’s lie that his 2020 defeat was the result of voter fraud.Two months from election day, the polling website fivethirtyeight.com puts Mastriano just shy of seven points behind his Democratic opponent.Mastriano’s 6 January prayer, first reported by Rolling Stone on Friday, was delivered during a Zoom call, titled Global Prayer for Election Integrity, organised by what the magazine called “a prominent figure in the far-right New Apostolic Restoration movement”.As defined by Rolling Stone, “Christian nationalism is a central tenet of … NAR [which] emerge[ed] from charismatic Christianity (think: Pentecostalism) and is anchored in the belief that we are living in an age of new apostles and prophets, who receive direct revelations from the holy spirit.“NAR adherents hold that the end times are fast approaching and their calling is to hasten the second coming of Christ by re-fashioning the modern world in a biblical manner.”Mastriano is a US army veteran who once dressed up as a Confederate soldier. In his prayer, he listed historical events including the battle of Gettysburg in 1863 and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93, the plane which came down in a field in Pennsylvania on 9/11, after passengers attacked their hijackers.He said: “In 2001, while our nation was attacked by terrorists, a strong Christian man from Paramus, New Jersey, Todd Beamer, said, ‘Let’s roll.’“God I ask you that you help us roll in these dark times, that we fear not the darkness, that we will seize our Esther and Gideon moments. That … when you say, ‘Who shall I send?’ we will say, ‘Send me and not him or her’, we will take responsibility for our republic and not waver in these days that try our souls.“We’re surrounded by wickedness and fear and dithering and inaction. But that’s not our problem. Our problem is following your lead.”In the weeks before the Capitol attack, Mastriano was involved in failed attempts to overturn Trump’s defeat in Pennsylvania, the announcement of which confirmed Biden’s electoral college win.On the Zoom call, Mastriano displayed what he said were “letters that President Trump asked me this morning to send to [Senate Republican leader] Mitch McConnell and [House leader] Kevin McCarthy, outlining the fraud in Pennsylvania, and this will embolden them to stand firm and disregard what has happened in Pennsylvania until they have an investigation”.He also said: “We think about our elected officials in Pennsylvania who’ve been weak and feckless and we’ve handed over our power to a governor” – Tom Wolf, a Democrat – “who disregards the freedoms of this republic.“I pray that we’ll take responsibility, we’ll seize the power that we had given to us by the constitution, and as well by you providentially. I pray for the leaders and also in the federal government, God, on the sixth of January that they will rise up with boldness.”After the Capitol riot, when Congress reconvened, McCarthy was one of 138 Republican congressmen and nine senators who voted to object to results in Pennsylvania or Arizona or both.TopicsRepublicansChristianityUS Capitol attackDonald TrumpPennsylvaniaUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Holding the Line review: Geoffrey Berman blasts Barr and dumps Trump The fired New York prosecutor has produced a classic of a modern literary genre: Trump alumni revenge pornFive months before the 2020 election, Bill Barr fired Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the southern district of New York.‘You have to run’: Romney urged Biden to take down Trump, book saysRead moreTrying to justify the decision, Barr twisted himself into a pretzel. Donald Trump had not nominated Berman. Jeff Sessions, Barr’s predecessor as attorney general, named him to the post on an interim basis and a panel of federal judges kept him on. Barr’s authority to rid himself of this troublesome prosecutor was at best disputable.Revenge is best served cold. Two years and three months later, Berman is back with a memoir, Holding the Line. In the annals of Trump alumni revenge porn, it is an instant classic. It is smart and crisp. It is full of bile and easy to read.Barr wrote his own book. He has toured the TV studios, seeking rehabilitation. Over 350 pages, Berman immolates all that.He also tells the public what Trump and his own transition team knew from the outset: Rudy Giuliani was “unhinged”, and friends with the bottle. The chaos of Giuliani’s work as Trump’s attorney, through impeachment and insurrection, cannot have been a surprise. It may be surprising, though, that he was once in contention to be secretary of state.Berman also pulverizes Trump’s contention that Merrick Garland’s justice department is hyper-politicized. Berman shows that under Trump, Main Justice was a haven for lackeys all too willing to do the big guy’s bidding. He accuses Trump of weaponizing the justice department, pushing it to prosecute his critics and enemies while sparing his friends.After New York prosecutors brought charges against Michael Cohen, Trump’s one-time fixer, and Chris Collins, a New York congressman, the powers-that-be purportedly advised Berman: “It’s time for you guys to even things out.”Practically, that meant launching an investigation at Trump’s behest into John Kerry, for allegedly violating the Logan Act in talks with Iranian officials after retiring as secretary of state.Briefly, the Logan Act, from 1798, bars non-government officials from negotiating with foreign powers. In the case of Greg Craig, Barack Obama’s White House counsel, it meant charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. After Berman unsuccessfully argued that Craig should not have been prosecuted, Craig was acquitted by a federal jury. Kerry was never indicted.Berman is a Republican. He volunteered on Trump’s 2016 campaign and was once a law partner of Giuliani. He is also a former editor of the Stanford Law Review, happy to punch up. As with most Trump memoirs, Holding the Line is full of score-settling. Berman calls Barr a liar, a bully and a thug.Writing about his dismissal, Berman says: “I would describe Barr’s posture that morning as thuggish. He wanted to bludgeon me into submission.”“If you do not resign from your position, you will be fired,” Barr purportedly warned. “That will not be good for your resume and future job prospects.”Think of Berman as the honey badger – if the honey badger headed up a white-collar practice at a Wall Street law firm. He doesn’t give a fig. He holds the receipts. William Barr defends FBI and justice department over Mar-a-Lago searchRead more“Several hours after Barr and I met,” he writes, “on a Friday night, [Barr] issued a press release saying that I was stepping down. That was a lie.”“A lie told by the nation’s top law enforcement officer.”Barr’s stints in government are emblematic of the descent of the Republican party in the last 30 years. Barr was George HW Bush’s attorney general. Next time round he was simply Trump’s guy at Main Justice.Barr coddled Mike Flynn, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone. He marched to St John’s church with the president and misled the public about the use of teargas to disperse protesters. More than once, his relationship with the truth drew the ire of the federal bench. His last-moment departure from the Trump administration bore all the marks of the arsonist who flees when the flames grow uncomfortably close.As for Giuliani, Berman portrays him as a boozy and incoherent Islamophobe. In the spring of 2016, Berman organised a “cross-selling dinner” to introduce Giuliani and other lawyers to clients “at a large financial institution”. Things headed south. Giuliani “continued to drink”. The dinner morphed into “an utter and complete train wreck”.At one point, Berman writes, Giuliani turned to a man “wearing a yarmulke [who] had ordered a kosher meal”. Under the impression the man was a Muslim, Giuliani said: “I’m sorry to have tell you this, but the founder of your religion is a murderer.”“It was unbelievable,” Berman gasps. “Rudy was unhinged. A pall fell over the room.”Two years later, the law firm, Greenberg Traurig, shoved Giuliani out the door. He had opined that hush-money payments made via a lawyer were perfectly normal, even when not authorised by the client. In the case in question, Michael Cohen acted as a conduit between Stormy Daniels, an adult film star, and Trump.Donald Trump once tried to pay a lawyer with a horse, new book saysRead more“That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds,” Giuliani told Fox News. “Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of this with my clients.”Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges – and became a target of Trump’s animus and Barr’s vengeance.‘Unhinged’ Rudy Giuliani drank and ranted about Islam, new book claimsRead moreThese days, Giuliani is in the cross-hairs of prosecutors in Fulton county, Georgia, over Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat in the state. Trump’s own legal exposure appears to grow almost hourly. Barr surmises that an indictment may be imminent.From the looks of things, Geoffrey Berman is having the last laugh.
Holding the Line: Inside the Nation’s Preeminent US Attorney’s Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department is published in the US by Penguin Press
TopicsBooksTrump administrationDonald TrumpWilliam BarrRudy GiulianiUS politicsRepublicansreviewsReuse this content More

Will he, won’t he? Trump’s big tease keeps 2024 election rivals guessing The ex-president keeps dropping hints he will run again without taking the plunge – and finance as well as politics may be a factorIn Tennessee in June, he asked a crowd: “Would anybody like me to run for president?” Then in Nevada in July he remarked: “We have a president who ran twice, won twice and may have to do it a third time. Can you believe it?”In Pennsylvania earlier this month, he vowed that “in 2024, most importantly, we are going to take back our magnificent White House”.Donald Trump – former US president and architect of the big lie that he was robbed of victory in the 2020 election by electoral fraudsters – is now finding fresh political utility in the big tease.For more than a year he has tiptoed up to the line of declaring his candidacy for the White House in 2024 but never quite crossed it. It is a rare show of self-discipline from a man notorious for saying the quiet part out loud.It is also a strategy that yields benefits. The coyness about his intentions ensures a steady stream of coverage for his rallies and keeps potential Republican primary rivals guessing. He avoids a conflict with party leaders who fear that an official Trump candidacy would overshadow their midterm elections campaign. And it keeps money flowing to his Save America political action committee, which has raised more than $100m since it was formed after the 2020 election.Trump, battered by January 6 testimony, mulls 2024 run – and not all Republicans are happyRead more“He’s an attention whore and everything always has to be about Donald,” said the Democratic National Committee adviser Kurt Bardella. “He has to make himself the centre of the universe so he goes out there and plays this little flirtatious ‘will he, won’t he?’ card and it’s just designed to continue to keep that conversation going.“It’s also designed to try to keep his would-be competitors like Ron DeSantis or Mike Pence or Mike Pompeo at bay.”When Trump suffered a crushing defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 race, many observers expected him to follow the example of previous one-term presidents such as Jimmy Carter and George HW Bush, accept that his political career was over and contemplate a presidential library and museum.But Trump has never done anything by the book. He pushed the “big lie” that culminated in his supporters’ deadly attack on the Capitol on January 6 2021. Six months later he resumed his raucous campaign rallies with an event in Ohio, and he has since held a further 20 in locations that include Alaska, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming.At every one of them supporters have thronged in expectation that this might be the day that Trump declares he is staging a great political comeback and running for president again. Invariably he drops a hint or two in that direction, generating headlines that he is “floating” or “teasing” a run, but he never makes it explicit.The closest he came was not an adoring rally but when pressed by a journalist from New York Magazine over what would factor into his decision. Trump replied: “Well, in my own mind, I’ve already made that decision, so nothing factors in any more. In my own mind, I’ve already made that decision.”But one factor, perhaps, does give him pause. If and when Trump formally declares, he will trigger Federal Election Commission requirements about financial disclosures and limits on how much money he can raise from individual donors. The 76-year-old’s reticence may ultimately be about financial – rather than political – expediency.Henry Olsen of the Ethics and Public Policy Center thinktank in Washington, said, “It’s a matter of federal law: once one says one is a candidate for the presidency, certain attachments take place with respect to what you can and can’t spend money on and with respect to any committees organised.”This is why candidates typically announce an “exploratory” rather than “campaign” committee, added Olsen, a senior fellow at his organisation.“Presumably Trump has been briefed on this to the point where he knows that he’s not going to come close enough to crossing that line to give people the ability to argue that he’s now a candidate and that means he can’t do this or that or the other thing with his money.”Although Trump often revels in his reputation of being undisciplined, Olsen said, “he can be disciplined when he thinks that being disciplined is in his interest and he’s doing that now”.The same financial rules would apply to any would-be Republican primary challenger, making any official declarations from them similarly unlikely. Contenders include Florida governor DeSantis, former vice-president Pence, Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin and senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas, Rick Scott of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina.Bardella, a former Republican congressional aide, added: “Even if Trump knows right now that he’s not going to run, he will make it look like he is as long as he possibly can because that keeps him at the forefront of the conversation. The minute he were to not run, the attention would be immediately focused to the others and he obviously wants to avoid that as much as possible.“The one thing we know about Donald Trump is he does not want to share the spotlight with anybody and in the past has fired people in his orbit who have flown too close to the sun – like Steve Bannon.”The big tease plays out against the backdrop of multiple criminal investigations into Trump and his associates. The justice department is investigating his possession of classified material – reportedly including information on a foreign country’s nuclear capabilities – at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.The FBI search of Mar-a-Lago had a rallying effect on Trump’s supporters and led to a surge of donations. But the gravity of the case, combined with the damaging revelations of the congressional January 6 committee, make Republicans anxious that Trump’s looming presence could upend their hopes in November’s midterms by galvanising Democrats and deterring moderates.Biden last week began taking a more “gloves off” approach to calling out Trump and “Maga Republicans” as a fundamental threat to democracy. Two in three independent voters say they do not want Trump to run in 2024, according to a poll from NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist.It is possible, however, that should Trump’s legal perils reach a critical point of no return, that will be the spur for him to declare his candidacy and make the bogus claim to his supporters that he is the victim of a politically motivated persecution.The Center for Politics at the University of Virginia’s director, Larry Sabato, said: “He believes incorrectly that, if he’s a formal candidate, that will somehow protect him from legal charges. It will not. We’ve had quite a number of candidates in American history who got into legal troubles so I don’t know why he thinks that. Somebody probably said something to him once and he never let it go.”But Sabato also admitted: “Nobody knows. He is very likely to run again but I can see scenarios in which he wouldn’t. He said himself, let’s see how my health is. He hasn’t had the best diet in the world and doesn’t look to me to be in particularly good shape.”TopicsDonald TrumpUS politicsRepublicansUS elections 2024newsReuse this content More

The justice department’s legal filing is expected sometime today expanding its arguments why district court judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, must reverse her decision appointing a “special master” in the case of the former president’s hoarding of classified materials at his Florida residence.In a strongly-worded notice of intent to appeal submitted on Thursday, department lawyers let Cannon know in no uncertain terms that her decision was impeding the progress of an investigation critical to national security.The lawyers made clear it needed access back immediately to classified documents seized last month at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion by FBI agents, while Trump’s attorneys are claiming he is entitled to have sent back to him everything that was taken away.The inquiry took on added poignancy this week when it was reported that another country’s nuclear secrets were among the stash of highly classified documents Trump is said to have hidden from federal agents.The department will make its own arguments, but we couldn’t explain things any better than Politico Playbook likening Trump to a jewel thief demanding the return of his ill-gotten gains:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Imagine that someone allegedly stole a sack of diamonds from a jewelry shop and then stashed the gems in junk drawers around their house. The cops raid the place, take away everything in the drawers where they find stolen diamonds, and spend two weeks separating them from the junk.
Then a judge comes along and says that the big issue in the case isn’t the stolen diamonds but that the cops still have some of the alleged thief’s personal belongings. She halts the heist investigation until an outside expert can sort the gems from the junk.
The government thinks the judge’s decision is absurd – no other suspect has received this special treatment – but they offer the judge a compromise: let us keep all of the diamonds, and we’ll return all of the alleged thief’s junk, even a few cheap watches that they think he might have swiped from the store.Also today, the justice department and Trump’s legal team were due to jointly file a list of possible candidates to serve as the “special master” to review the records seized by the FBI.We’ll bring you news on both fronts as we get it.Read more:Trump lawyers and justice department to file list of special master candidatesRead moreThat’s it for the US politics live blog today! Here were some of the events we followed:
The Biden administration announced that it plans to admit up to 125,000 refugees in next fiscal year, the same target for this current period, announced state department spokesperson Ned Price.
Joe Biden gave a speech about transforming America’s Rustbelt region into “the silicon heartland” while speaking at the groundbreaking of a new Intel semiconductor factory in Ohio.
Kamala Harris was in Houston and spoke to astronauts aboard the international space station. The vice-president also chaired a meeting of the National Space Council this afternoon.
Department of Justice lawyers aimed to regain access to highly classified documents that were seized during an FBI search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida mansion. Lawyers called the seized documents “critical” to national security.
Have a great weekend and thank you for reading!As of August 31st, only 19,919 refugees have been admitted to the US under the Biden administration.The figure falls fairly short of the 125,000 goal proposed by his administration and doesn’t include refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine who have come more recently.From CNN reporter Priscilla Alvarez:The US has admitted only 19,919 refugees into the country as of Aug 31, falling far short of the Biden admin’s goal of 125K refugees with a month left in the fiscal year, according to federal data. That doesn’t include the thousands of Afghans and Ukrainians paroled into the US.— Priscilla Alvarez (@priscialva) September 8, 2022
The Biden’s administration says it will recommend to Congress a cap on refugee admissions to 125,000 for the fiscal year 2023, the same target for the current period, the state department says.Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement that the figure would “address the growing needs generated by humanitarian crises around the globe, including the more than 100m displaced persons around the world”.Under the previous administration of Donald Trump, the refugee cap was reduced to 15,000, its lowest ever level, something Joe Biden said during his campaign for the White House he would seek to reverse.“Over the past fiscal year, we have taken steps to increase the resettlement of members of particularly vulnerable populations including refugees from the Americas, Congolese, Syrians, Ukrainians, populations from Burma, and many other nationalities, as well LGBTQI+ persons, all while providing additional initial resettlement support to more than 80,000 Afghans in communities across the US,” Price said.“The US is, and will continue to be, a global leader in international humanitarian response, including through refugee resettlement”.Two extremist Donald Trump supporters who invaded the Capitol during the 6 January riot incited by the former president pleaded guilty Friday on felony charges.Nicholas Ochs, 36, founder of the Hawaii Proud Boys chapter, and Nicholas DeCarlo, 32, a Fort Worth, Texas, resident, shared a social media channel called Murder the Media and claimed to have been in Washington DC covering the Trump “stop the steal” rally as journalists.They will be sentenced in December and face up to four years in prison, although the judge has discretion to go beyond the guidelines.The men admitted to throwing smoke bombs at police trying to keep the mob from the stage set up for Biden’s inauguration, and posed for photos in front of a door in which they scrawled “murder the media”.According to the Associated Press, more than 870 people have been charged so far in the Capitol riot and almost 400 have pleaded guilty to charges ranging from low-level misdemeanors for illegally entering the building to felony seditious conspiracy.By all appearances, Steve Bannon likes to think that he represents the soul of the Maga movement. He sees himself as a tireless champion of the common man, fighting their battles against America’s corrupt elites. It’s not for nothing that his radio show is called War Room and carried by the Real America’s Voice network. But just like everybody else who has worked closely with Donald Trump, Bannon is either delusional or trying to delude. He’s not the everyman – he’s the corrupt elite.This was driven home once again on Thursday, when Bannon surrendered himself to New York prosecutors to face charges of defrauding donors to We Build the Wall, a non-profit organization that raised more than $25m to build a wall to keep immigrants from crossing America’s southern border. Although donors to the group were assured that 100% of their money would be used on construction, large sums were siphoned into the pockets of those running the group. And who as chairman of the board allegedly took the greatest sum of all? None other than Steve Bannon.Full column:Steve Bannon’s indictment reveals the truth about Trumpism | Andrew GawthorpeRead moreElizabeth II, who died yesterday at the age of 96, visited the US as both a princess and queen, meeting more American presidents than any other head of state, according to the White House. Here’s a pictorial look at her visits:Washington to Yosemite: the Queen’s visits to the US over the years – in picturesRead moreAnd for further reading, here’s Hadley Freeman’s look at the Queen’s relationship with America and Americans….css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Few countries are as obsessed with celebrity as the US, and royals are the ultimate celebrity, being exotically unattainable and – unlike most other celebrities – intriguingly silent. Even the most arrogant come over all awed in the Queen’s presence. When then president Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, made their 2019 state visit, he might not have understood royal protocol, occasionally walking in front of the Queen during a parade, but he was still uncharacteristically respectful in her presence.Full story: For Americans, the Queen was the ultimate celebrity | Hadley FreemanRead moreHere’s a taste of Joan E Greve’s report on another (and more explicitly political) Biden speech, made in Maryland on Thursday night…Joe Biden continued his attacks on “extreme Maga Republicans” on Thursday night, as he spoke at the Democratic National Committee summer meeting in Oxon Hill, Maryland.“We’re in a serious moment in this nation’s history,” Biden said. “That’s why those who love this country – Democrats, independents and mainstream Republicans – have to be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving American democracy than the Maga Republicans are to literally destroying American politics. You just have to vote.”Full report:Biden seeks to motivate voters from all parties against ‘Maga Republicans destroying politics’Read moreJoe Biden says it’s time to “bury the label Rust Belt and call it the silicon heartland” as he touts the groundbreaking of a new Intel semiconductor factory in Ohio, and what he says is a new dawn for US technology.The president is taking a victory tour of the US following the passage of the $52bn bipartisan Chips and Science Act this summer that he hopes will kickstart the stalled production of semiconductors in the US.That shortfall, he says, has held back the country’s automobile, healthcare, manufacturing and other industries:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The US has to lead the world in producing advanced chips, and this law makes sure that we will.
The act moves us up once again. We’re going to make sure we lead the world in industries of the future, in quantum computing, artificial intelligence, advanced biotechnology… think of the things this kind of investment can deliver, vaccines for cancer, cures for HIV, inventing the next best thing that hasn’t even been imagined yet.Aware of criticism from some Republicans, and others, that the Chips Act is a corporate giveaway, and threatens national security by sending taxpayer money to companies who do business with global competitors including China, Biden made an attempt at reassurance:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The act is not handing out blank checks to companies. I’ve directed my administration to be laser focused on the guardrails that will protect taxpayers dollars.
We’ll make sure that companies partner with unions, community colleges, technical schools, to offer training and apprenticeships and to work with small minority owned businesses.
We’re going to make sure that companies that take taxpayer dollars don’t turn around and make investments in China to undermine our supply chain and national security. We have the power to take back any federal funding if companies don’t meet these requirements.The Intel factory, Biden says, is a “field of dreams”:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It’s fitting to break ground for American infrastructure here in Ohio.
Think about our tradition here. The Wright brothers, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn… they defined American spirit, a sprit of daring innovation.
Intel’s vision builds on that legacy, a brand new $20bn campus, 7,000 construction jobs, 3,000 full-time jobs paying an average of $135,000 a year and not all of them require a college degree.He’s finished the speech now, which was focused entirely on the Chips Act and did not veer off into any other global events.Joe Biden is in the intriguingly named Licking county, Ohio, where he’s at the groundbreaking ceremony of a new Intel factory and about to deliver remarks about the Chips Act, which will boost US production of semiconductors.The White House says this particular groundbreaking is a different occasion from the usual “scripted, backslapping affairs for political dignitaries”. We’re about to find out, but so far various industry officials and political dignitaries have spent a lot of time lauding each other and talking about the forthcoming factory.We’ll bring you the best of Biden’s remarks when he delivers them.”Groundbreaking ceremonies are often scripted, backslapping affairs for political dignitaries, but this marks an important milestone for a project with major regional and national implications.” https://t.co/dCFJNsQkVC— Herbie Ziskend (@HerbieZiskend46) September 9, 2022
Self-confessed “space nerd” Kamala Harris had a problem in Houston this morning as she spoke with astronauts aboard the international space station.The vice-president is at the Johnson Space Center to chair an afternoon visit of the National Space Council, and took the opportunity to call astronauts Jessica Watkins, Bob Hines and Kjell Lindgren orbiting 250 miles above Earth. It didn’t end well.The National Space Council, chaired by @VP, will meet today at @NASA_Johnson. The vice president will talk to astronauts aboard the @Space_Station before sharing remarks about advancing space exploration & touring the home of the astronaut corps. Details: https://t.co/A5wHAyGz6M pic.twitter.com/LGpd8wP3IF— NASA (@NASA) September 9, 2022
Harris and the ISS crew exchanged pleasantries and a conversation about plants being grown on the space station, and the astronauts’ perspective looking down on the planet.“We look down and we see a world with no borders,” Hines said.“You realize how fragile it is and how much we have to take care of it as well”.The trouble came when Harris, who introduced herself to the crew as a “space nerd”, wanted some guidance for young people who might want to become astronauts, or part of the Nasa team supporting their missions. “What’s your advice for our students?” she wondered.“Well, I think that…” the reply came, followed by the audible equivalent of a black hole.“Just as the vice-president was asking her question, we passed out a range of our tracking and data relay satellite system,” a Nasa commentator on the ground interjected.Harris will deliver remarks this afternoon about “advancing space exploration”, six days after Nasa’s most recent attempt to launch its new Artemis 1 moon rocket from Florida was called off for technical problems.There are developments in the war in Ukraine, with Russian forces being driven out of areas they formerly occupied and the Ukrainian military appearing to be closing in on the city of Kupiansk, a key logistical hub for the invading forces in the Kharkiv region.The US, with its western allies, continues to provide military and humanitarian support for the Ukrainian defense effort, Joe Biden announcing two weeks ago the largest tranche of aid to date, bringing to $13bn the total the country has supplied or pledged to Kyiv since the president took office.A reminder that you can follow all the developments in the Ukraine-Russia war in our live blog here:Ukraine-Russia war live: nuclear watchdog calls for Zaporizhzhia safety zone to avoid accidentRead moreOn the night of the 2018 midterm elections, as a wave of anti-Trump sentiment swept Democrats to take control of the House, top Republican Mitt Romney urged Joe Biden to run for president.“You have to run,” said Romney, the Republican presidential nominee Biden and Barack Obama defeated in 2012, speaking to the former vice-president by phone.The same night, Romney was elected a US senator from Utah, a post from which he would twice vote to convict Donald Trump in impeachment trials.Romney’s exhortation to a man then seen as a likely challenger to Trump in 2020 will probably further enrage the former president, his supporters and the Republican party they dominate.The Biden-Romney call is described in The Long Alliance: The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama, a book by Gabriel Debenedetti that will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.Describing how Biden spent 6 November 2018, Debenedetti writes: “Biden spent election night glued to his phone as usual … He talked to most of the candidates he’d campaigned for, and plenty he didn’t, either to congratulate or console them, or just to catch up.“This time felt better than 2016” – when Trump beat Hillary Clinton for the presidency – “in part because Democrats were winning big, at least in local races and in the House.“But it was also because of a refrain [Biden] kept hearing, and not always from the most expected sources.“At one point he connected with Mitt Romney, who’d been easily elected to the Senate that night as a rare Trump-opposing Republican. They were warm as Biden cheered Romney’s win.“Then Obama’s old rival got to the point: You have to run, Romney said.”Read more:‘You have to run’: Romney urged Biden to take down Trump, book saysRead moreA federal judge in Florida has dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and former top FBI officials, rejecting the former president’s claims that they and others acted in concert to concoct the Russia investigation that shadowed much of his administration.According to the Associated Press, US district judge Donald Middlebrooks said in a sharply worded ruling that Trump’s lawsuit, filed in March, contained “glaring structural deficiencies” and that many of the “characterizations of events are implausible.”He dismissed the idea that Trump had sued to correct an actual legal harm, saying that “instead, he is seeking to flaunt a 200-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him, and this court is not the appropriate forum.”The lawsuit named as defendants Clinton and some of her top advisers, as well as former FBI director James Comey and other FBI officials involved in the investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of the election.A 2019 justice department inspector general report identified flaws by the FBI during the Russia investigation, but did not find evidence that the bureau’s leaders were motivated by political bias.Ginni Thomas, the self-styled “culture warrior” and extreme rightwing activist, has links to more than half of the anti-abortion groups and individuals who lobbied her husband Clarence Thomas and his fellow US supreme court justices ahead of their historic decision to eradicate a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.A new analysis of the written legal arguments, or “amicus briefs”, used to lobby the justices as they deliberated over abortion underlines the extent to which Clarence Thomas’s wife was intertwined with this vast pressure campaign.The survey found that 51% of the parties who filed amicus briefs calling for an end to a federal abortion right have political connections to Ginni Thomas, raising concerns about a possible conflict of interest at the highest levels of the US judiciary.The six-to-three rightwing majority of the court, supercharged by Donald Trump’s three appointed conservative justices, in June overthrew the constitutional right to an abortion. Clarence Thomas was among the six who voted for the hotly contested ruling, Dobbs v Jackson.The ruling was one of the most consequential in the supreme court’s 233-year history. It has triggered the lightning spread of partial or total abortion bans across Republican-controlled states, affecting almost one in three women aged 15 to 44.The Dobbs case, brought by Mississippi which sought to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, attracted an almost unprecedented 130 amicus briefs from both sides of the legal argument. Of those, 74 were filed in favour of overturning the right to an abortion, enshrined in 1973 in Roe v Wade.In turn, the new analysis shows that 38 of the 74 anti-abortion amicus briefs – 51% – were produced by entities and individuals with links to Ginni Thomas. They included rightwing groups, religious interests, prominent conservative individuals and lawyers.“The Thomases are normalizing the prospect of too close an association between the supreme court and those who litigate before it,” said Melissa Murray, a law professor at New York University and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast. “This isn’t the first time that Mrs Thomas has had dealings with those who come before the court and seek her husband’s vote.”Read the full story:Revealed: Ginni Thomas’s links to anti-abortion groups who lobbied to overturn RoeRead moreThe Washington Post’s White House reporter Matt Viser has taken a fascinating look at some of the similarities between Joe Biden and King Charles III.The White House said Friday that Biden would join other world leaders in attending the state funeral in London of Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on a date yet to be confirmed, but likely to be Monday 19 September.Biden was the 13th US president to meet with Queen Elizabeth II — and will likely now be the first to meet with King Charles III. Both men late in life assumed a role they spent decades hoping for, bringing experience after having served as an understudy. https://t.co/8qIJrBWCRw— Matt Viser (@mviser) September 9, 2022
Viser notes that Biden was the 13th US president to meet the Queen, and will likely become the first to meet with King Charles after his accession.“Both are men who late in life assumed a role they had spent decades positioning themselves for, and who took their positions with a deep well of experience after having served as an understudy. They also arguably capture less of the public’s fascination than their predecessors,” he writes.You can read the article here.When the far-right firebrand Steve Bannon was hit with fresh fraud charges for an alleged border wall fundraising scheme, he joined the ranks of several close Donald Trump cronies recently prosecuted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.In 2019, then district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr brought mortgage fraud charges against Paul Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman. And in 2021, the current district attorney, Alvin Bragg, charged the former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg with fraud, and Ken Kurson with felony cyberstalking, in separate cases.Put together the cases suggest that the actions of some top Trump allies can still generate legal headaches long after Trump left the White House and also despite being issued pardons.Charges do not necessarily lead to convictions, of course, let alone hard prison time, as evidenced by the outcome of these past cases. Manafort, who was convicted in federal court before the New York case unfolded, ultimately didn’t face state charges on double-jeopardy grounds. Manafort was pardoned by Trump about two months before the decision came down that he couldn’t be tried in state court due to double jeopardy.Kurson – who was first charged in Brooklyn federal court for cyberstalking, but pardoned by Trump before he left office – pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors and was ordered to do community service in his state case. Weisselberg, meanwhile, is expected to serve just 100 days in local jail under his plea deal.On the surface, some might wonder whether Bannon’s state-level case has the same legal weakness as Manafort’s did. Bannon was charged federally in August 2020 for allegedly siphoning more than $1m from the “We Build the Wall” online fundraising campaign. Trump also pardoned Bannon before his case went to trial.But longtime attorneys told the Guardian that Bragg’s Bannon case was different from Vance’s Manafort prosecution because when Bannon was pardoned, state-level charges for the same alleged misconduct do not carry the same double-jeopardy risks, they said.Read the full story:Legal fallout for Trump cronies persists despite his pardonsRead moreThe justice department’s legal filing is expected sometime today expanding its arguments why district court judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, must reverse her decision appointing a “special master” in the case of the former president’s hoarding of classified materials at his Florida residence.In a strongly-worded notice of intent to appeal submitted on Thursday, department lawyers let Cannon know in no uncertain terms that her decision was impeding the progress of an investigation critical to national security.The lawyers made clear it needed access back immediately to classified documents seized last month at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion by FBI agents, while Trump’s attorneys are claiming he is entitled to have sent back to him everything that was taken away.The inquiry took on added poignancy this week when it was reported that another country’s nuclear secrets were among the stash of highly classified documents Trump is said to have hidden from federal agents.The department will make its own arguments, but we couldn’t explain things any better than Politico Playbook likening Trump to a jewel thief demanding the return of his ill-gotten gains:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Imagine that someone allegedly stole a sack of diamonds from a jewelry shop and then stashed the gems in junk drawers around their house. The cops raid the place, take away everything in the drawers where they find stolen diamonds, and spend two weeks separating them from the junk.
Then a judge comes along and says that the big issue in the case isn’t the stolen diamonds but that the cops still have some of the alleged thief’s personal belongings. She halts the heist investigation until an outside expert can sort the gems from the junk.
The government thinks the judge’s decision is absurd – no other suspect has received this special treatment – but they offer the judge a compromise: let us keep all of the diamonds, and we’ll return all of the alleged thief’s junk, even a few cheap watches that they think he might have swiped from the store.Also today, the justice department and Trump’s legal team were due to jointly file a list of possible candidates to serve as the “special master” to review the records seized by the FBI.We’ll bring you news on both fronts as we get it.Read more:Trump lawyers and justice department to file list of special master candidatesRead moreGood morning, it’s Friday, and welcome to our US politics blog. An unusually busy week has plenty more to offer, including the justice department spelling out today in a legal filing its arguments for regaining access to highly classified documents seized in an FBI search of Donald Trump’s Florida mansion.Department lawyers on Thursday said they would appeal the ruling by district judge Aileen Cannon to appoint a “special master” in its investigation of the former president’s improper hoarding of confidential materials – including another nation’s nuclear secrets – at his residence, arguing her decision was blocking an inquiry critical to national security.They’ll flesh out their arguments in today’s expected legal filing, and Trump’s lawyers will have until Monday to respond. But it’s already evident the justice department is playing hardball. We’ll have more analysis coming up.The White House, meanwhile, announced that Joe Biden would join other world leaders at the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London, expected to be on Monday 19 September.Here’s what else we’re watching today:
Joe Biden is heading for Ohio and the groundbreaking for a new Intel factory, where he’ll deliver remarks on the Chips Act at 12.15pm.
There’s no scheduled White House media briefing, but press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will hold a “gaggle” for reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Ohio.
Vice-president Kamala Harris is in Houston to talk to astronauts aboard the international space station, and chair a meeting of the National Space Council this afternoon.
It’s a day off and a long weekend for both the US House and Senate, so we’re not expecting big news out of Congress. More

Judge rejects Trump lawsuit against Hillary Clinton over 2016 Russia claimsCourt ‘not the appropriate forum’ for former president’s complaint that Democrats unfairly linked his winning campaign to Russia A US judge has dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton, saying the former Republican president’s allegations that Democrats tried to rig that election by linking his campaign to Russia was an attempt to “flaunt” political grievances that did not belong in court.In throwing out Trump’s lawsuit on Thursday night, judge Donald Middlebrooks of the US district court for the southern district of Florida said the lawsuit was not seeking “redress for any legal harm” and that the court was “not the appropriate forum” for the former president’s complaints.“He is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him,” Middlebrooks said in his ruling.Trump in March had sued Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, and several other Democrats alleging “racketeering,” a “conspiracy to commit injurious falsehood” and other claims in a 108-page lawsuit that echoed the long list of grievances he repeatedly aired during his four years in the White House after beating Clinton.He had sought compensatory and punitive damages, saying he had incurred more than $24m in “defense costs, legal fees, and related expenses”.In his ruling, Middlebrooks said Trump had waited too long to file his complaint by exceeding the legal statute of limitations for his claims and that he failed to make his case that he was harmed by any falsehoods, noting that many of the statements made by the defendants were “plainly protected by the First Amendment” of the US constitution governing free speech.Representatives for Clinton and Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.Other defendants included Democratic representative Adam Schiff, who led one of the US House of Representatives’ two impeachments against Trump, and Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer who wrote a dossier circulated to the FBI and media outlets before the 2016 election.US intelligence officials and others in the US government have accused Russia of meddling in that election. Moscow has denied that it interfered in the campaign.TopicsDonald TrumpHillary ClintonUS elections 2016US politicsnewsReuse this content More

Biden seeks to motivate voters from all parties against ‘Maga Republicans destroying politics’Biden has repeatedly hammered the theme of Republican extremism in recent weeks as midterm elections loom Democrats are trying to defy history in November. Since 1934, there have only been two midterm elections – in 1998 and 2002 – when the president’s party gained seats in the House of Representatives. Democrats hope that the pattern will be broken for a third time.While midterms are generally viewed as a referendum on the sitting president and his party, Biden and other Democratic leaders have instead sought to reframe the upcoming elections as a test of American democracy itself. Democrats believe that, if Americans view the elections as a choice between extremists threatening their fundamental rights and candidates seeking to protect those vulnerable freedoms, then the party may be able to maintain their congressional majorities. In Democrats’ view, a historic election calls for a history-defying result.Biden has repeatedly hammered the theme of Republican extremism in recent weeks, as the president has turned more of his attention to the midterm elections. In the past month, Biden has compared Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” philosophy to “semi-fascism”, and he has warned that the former president and his allies “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic”.Biden continued his attacks on “extreme Maga Republicans” on Thursday night, as he spoke at the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting in Oxon Hill, Maryland.“We’re in a serious moment in this nation’s history,” Biden said on Thursday. “That’s why those who love this country – Democrats, independents and mainstream Republicans – have to be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving American democracy than the Maga Republicans are to literally destroying American politics. You just have to vote.”Democratic organizers have similarly embraced issues like voting rights and the protection of America’s system of government as they enter the final stretch of the campaign season before the November elections. They argue that a pro-democracy message can help mobilize voters and carry their candidates across the finish line, despite the significant headwinds that the party faces.There is some evidence to suggest that Biden’s pro-democracy messaging is resonating with voters. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken this week, 58% of Americans believe Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement is threatening the country’s democratic foundations.Fear over the fate of American democracy also appears to be weighing on voters’ minds more, which could negatively impact Republicans’ midterm prospects. One NBC News poll taken last month found that voters now name “threats to democracy” as the most important issue facing the country, outranking “cost of living” and “jobs and the economy”.“This election is a critical inflection point for American democracy,” said Kim Rogers, executive director of Democratic Association of Secretaries of State. “Because democracy is inextricably linked to other fundamental freedoms and representation, I think it’s an incredibly motivating factor for voters.”Biden has similarly sought to directly tie attacks on democracy to threats on other rights, including abortion access. In the wake of the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, ending federal protections for abortion access, Democrats have framed the midterm elections as a vital fight for fair healthcare.“I want to be crystal clear about what’s at stake on the ballot. Your right to choose is on the ballot,” Biden said on Thursday. “Your right to vote, even our democracy, is on the ballot. Are you ready to fight for these things?”Since the supreme court issued its decision to overturn Roe in June, Democrats have notched some important electoral victories. Last month, voters in Kansas, which Trump won by double digits in 2020, resoundingly rejected an anti-abortion amendment to their state constitution. Weeks later, Democrat Pat Ryan won a hotly contested special congressional election in New York after touting his support for abortion rights. Democrat Mary Peltola was also declared the winner of Alaska’s special congressional race last week, pulling off an upset in another state carried by Trump in 2020.Those developments have forced some election forecasters to reconsider their previous predictions of a shellacking by Republicans in November.“The reversal of Roe is mobilizing people to either switch parties and also mobilizing millions of people to get off the sidelines and get engaged because they see what’s at stake in this election,” said Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president and executive director of the progressive youth voting group NextGen America. “When you take away a fundamental right, you’re going to motivate an entire pissed-off generation, and I think that’s what we’re going to see this election.”Republicans summarily reject that argument, insisting that this midterm election will follow the traditional pattern of the president’s party losing ground in Congress. They predict that kitchen-table issues, particularly record-high inflation, will drive frustrated voters to the polls and cost Democrats their majorities in the House and the Senate.“Biden and Democrats are doing what they do best – dividing Americans, dodging questions and ducking blame,” said Emma Vaughn, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee. “In two months, the DNC will be hosting a meeting to show Democrats in Congress how to transition to retired life.”Republicans also have some structural advantages in the race, namely Democrats’ razor-thin majorities in both the House and the Senate. Republicans only need to win five more House seats than they did in 2020 to retake the majority, and flipping one seat in the Senate will be enough to regain control of the upper chamber.Democrats have some reason to hope they can keep their majority in the Senate, after Republicans nominated vulnerable candidates in key battleground states. But the battle for the House will be particularly painful for Democrats, especially after Republicans notched some important redistricting wins.“I think the idea of Democrats holding both chambers to me is still far-fetched,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “The Democrats basically have to sweep the toss-ups or come really close to sweeping the toss-ups in order to win [the House].”Kondik also noted a key distinction between this year’s elections and those that took place in 1998 and 2002, when the president’s party was able to pick up House seats. Both Bill Clinton and George W Bush had strong approval ratings when the midterms were held those years, while Biden’s approval rating has been underwater for more than a year.“It wouldn’t be unprecedented for Democrats to hang on to the Senate, even as Biden’s approval is bad,” Kondik said. “I do think it would be odd for them to hold both.”But, as Kondik acknowledged, history can serve as a guide but not necessarily as a fortune-teller when it comes to American politics.“Sometimes elections are just different than any election we’ve had before,” he said. “Maybe history is not particularly instructive in this instance.”Ramirez embraces that argument, insisting that Biden’s approval rating does not tell the whole story about the midterms. After a once-in-a-century pandemic, an attempted insurrection and a monumental supreme court decision, it is hard to say exactly what the 2022 electorate might look like, she said.“The traditional political wisdom doesn’t go along with the current political state of our country,” Ramirez said. “I think Biden’s numbers will not reflect overall what happens with Democratic voters because it’s beyond just one politician. It’s about saving our country and basic fundamental freedoms, and I think people understand that.”TopicsJoe BidenUS politicsDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

Steve Bannon’s indictment reveals the truth about TrumpismAndrew GawthorpeIn the end, Maga is nothing but a scam with hate in its heart and other people’s money in its pockets By all appearances, Steve Bannon likes to think that he represents the soul of the Maga movement. He sees himself as a tireless champion of the common man, fighting their battles against America’s corrupt elites. It’s not for nothing that his radio show is called War Room and carried by the Real America’s Voice network. But just like everybody else who has worked closely with Donald Trump, Bannon is either delusional or trying to delude. He’s not the everyman – he’s the corrupt elite.Steve Bannon expected to turn himself in to face fraud charges – liveRead moreThis was driven home once again on Thursday, when Bannon surrendered himself to New York prosecutors to face charges of defrauding donors to We Build the Wall, a non-profit organization that raised over $25m to build a wall to keep immigrants from crossing America’s southern border. Although donors to the group were assured that 100% of their money would be used on construction, large sums were siphoned into the pockets of those running the group. And who as chairman of the board allegedly took the greatest sum of all? None other than Steve Bannon.This affair – in which two people have already pleaded guilty – is a very direct example of a prominent figure in the Maga movement lining their pockets with the money of unsuspecting marks. But it also stands as a metaphor for the movement as a whole. Far from standing up for the interests of “ordinary Americans”, Maga exists to funnel money, power and prestige to a small elite while not lifting a finger to improve the lives of anyone else.During his first presidential campaign in 2016, Trump – with Bannon at his side – tried to present himself as a champion of the downtrodden. He promised to bring jobs back from overseas and help Americans get over their economic anxiety. But as soon as he got into office, he governed as a plutocrat. His one significant legislative achievement before the coronavirus pandemic was a 2017 tax bill which forced lower-income groups to pay more and allowed higher income groups to pay less. And every year the administration proposed steep cuts to the social programs used by real ordinary Americans, including a 2021 budget which would have cut $1.2tn from Medicaid, food stamps and elsewhere.In office, Trump continued to benefit from the economic recovery which had begun under Barack Obama, allowing him to tout high employment and wage levels. But just as the Biden administration is largely powerless to fight inflation right now, this economic performance had precious little to do with Trump. When he did intervene – for instance by launching a trade war with China – it was in ways which harmed manufacturers and cost American jobs. But for Trump and the Maga movement it’s posturing for their nationalist base, not the real effect on real people, which matters.But Trump and Bannon have done something even more pernicious than this. For they have also tried to exclude a large part of the population from even being considered as “ordinary Americans” at all. Theirs is an agenda not for the racially diverse working and middle classes that actually exist in America, but for a narrow white subset of it. They have made a mythic folk hero out of the white male worker, promising to return the country to an era like the 1950s, in which such people reigned supreme. That they then have actually done little to help even white workers should not obscure the fact that they have also poured hatred and vitriol on the immigrants and people of color who do so much of America’s actual work.All of which brings us neatly back to Bannon and the wall. It’s no coincidence that when Bannon left office, he dedicated himself to building the wall rather than building working-class communities. The border wall has endured as the ultimate symbol of Trumpism because the soul of his movement is racism and exclusion, not charity and assistance. It is through the stoking of hatred and division that Maga elites keep the punters engaged and happy to open their wallets. It’s also how they keep themselves rich and – through blocking any attempt to actually help working people – ensure the poor stay poor.This, the true driving force of Trumpism, makes a mockery of conservatives who pretend that the Republican party can become a “multiethnic, multiracial, working-class party”. The proposition is absurd not only because the party is in hock to a movement built on racial hate but also because the same movement has never evinced any interest in actually helping “ordinary Americans”. Its leading figures will eventually depart from life leaving wealthy heirs but no record of ever having helped the people they supposedly stand for. In the end, Maga is nothing but a scam with hate in its heart and other people’s money in its pockets. Just ask Steve Bannon.
Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States and host of the podcast America Explained
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My daughter is trans. She was nearly taken away from me because I let her transitionCarolyn HaysA child welfare investigation drove us from our conservative state. Little did we know that rightwing governors across America would soon be embracing this kind of persecution One autumn day in 2011, an investigator from our state’s department of children and families knocked on our door. At the time we lived in a conservative state in the American south. Someone had made an anonymous complaint accusing us of child abuse for allowing our child to have a girlhood. A lawyer told us that, in this state with decades of Republican-appointed judges, we were at risk of losing custody of our transgender daughter.The investigator’s visit felt like a bizarre clerical error; our four kids were thriving and we were well-liked in our community. The investigator ultimately found us to be good parents doing what was best for our child. However, it had become urgently clear that we would have to leave the deep south and move to a place where our youngest daughter, who had recently transitioned to she/her pronouns and a nickname, would have basic rights to equal education, housing, healthcare and, as she grew up, employment.Our map of the United States included about 13 states where there were laws likely to pass or already in place that would allow us to live as a family fully protected by law. It was a shock to have our country suddenly shrink, almost overnight. My husband and I are white, able-bodied, cis-gender, and straight; we’d taken for granted that each and every part of the United States was available to us. That was over. We were still Americans, but the terms of our supposed agreement with our own country had changed.We couldn’t have predicted that what happened to us would has now become an explicit rightwing political strategy. Earlier this year, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, issued an executive order directing the state’s department of family and protective services to investigate parents who support their transgender children, threatening to wrench apart families like ours, in a state that is home to almost 29 million people.After our own brush with losing custody of our child, we moved to New England. Over the next few years, to our surprise, the list of states with anti-discrimination laws grew. In New Jersey, a Republican governor signed laws to protect trans students. Even below the Mason-Dixon line, some Republican officials signed laws protecting transgender students in public education. Eventually there were 17 states, then 21, where children’s rights to gender self-expression were protected. It seemed possible that our daughter might get to be an American anywhere in America.That hope ended with the Trump administration. His administration waged a lockstep attack against transgender people – banning trans soldiers from military service, revoking civil rights guidelines that had protected trans students, rescinding protections for trans people who are incarcerated and for those living in homeless shelters and allowing discrimination based on gender identity in healthcare. It was ugly, swift and terrifying.After Trump lost in 2020, states took up the charge. Republican-led state governments pushed slates of anti-trans laws, many of which targeted kids. Being openly anti-trans seemed to become a point of pride among certain Republican politicians. It felt like whiplash. While our transgender daughter was flourishing, the country taking shape around her was hostile to her existence.We worry about what the map of the United States will look like in 2024 or 2025. If Republicans are in the White House with an uber-conservative majority in the supreme court and a Republican-dominated Congress, will individual states retain the right to protect families like ours? Or will the map of the United States be one solid anti-trans bloc?This issue has been clarified by the supreme court’s decision to repeal Roe v Wade. No longer allowed to make choices, with privacy and dignity, about their own bodies, people of reproductive age are being pushed to the edge of the same cliff as trans people. Every woman, queer or trans person – as individuals and as members of families and communities – faces threats to their bodily autonomy and basic privacy.It has become abundantly clear that we need to protect that autonomy and privacy for every American. The right to privacy includes our right to birth control, to marry the person we love, and to seek the healthcare we need in conversation with our doctors and not our politicians. As the country gets carved away from us, we must draw closer, putting aside differences and rising up as one. We need the power of working in solidarity to reclaim America – not in bits and pieces, but in the entirety of these United States.
Carolyn Hays is an award-winning, critically acclaimed, bestselling author. She is the author of A Girlhood: Letter to My Transgender Daughter, which she has written under a pseudonym
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