US Politics

JD Vance’s Senate run is a test of Trump’s influence on the Republican partyTrump’s primary endorsement has split voters and the party in Ohio in a race already defined by ‘meanness and pettiness and just plain craziness’ “America’s Hitler.” “A total fraud.” “A moral disaster.” Those were a few of the descriptions that JD Vance, bestselling author of the memoir Hillbilly Elegy, once offered for Donald Trump. But none of that past criticism was evident here last Saturday night, as Vance shared a stage with Trump to accept the former president’s endorsement in the Ohio Senate Republican primary.“He’s the guy that said some bad shit about me,” Trump said of Vance during his rally at the Delaware county fairgrounds. “If I went by that standard, I don’t think I would have ever endorsed anybody in the country.”Taking the podium as the rally crowd chanted his name, Vance said, “The president is right. I wasn’t always nice, but the simple fact is, he’s the best president of my lifetime, and he revealed the corruption in this country like nobody else.”In less than six years, Vance has gone from a Trump skeptic who openly contemplated voting for Hillary Clinton to a devoted loyalist who has endorsed finishing the border wall and denounced identity politics as a Democratic gimmick. Vance’s radical shift reflects the larger transformation of the Republican party, as it has become nearly impossible to succeed in a primary as a Trump critic.The stakes are high for Republicans in Ohio, as they try to hold on to retiring Senator Rob Portman’s seat and ultimately regain control of the evenly divided upper chamber of Congress. The Republican candidate who wins the 3 May primary will probably face off against Democratic congressman Tim Ryan in the general election. The Republican primary winner, whoever it is, will then be favored to win in November, considering Trump defeated Joe Biden in Ohio by eight points in 2020.Trump endorses Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance in Ohio Republican primariesRead moreFor Trump, the Ohio Senate election also represents the biggest test yet for his most influential tool as party leader: a primary endorsement. Trump’s endorsement of Vance was considered a gamble, given that he had been trailing in the limited public polling of the race. Before Trump’s announcement, former state treasurer Josh Mandel and businessman Mike Gibbons were widely considered the two frontrunners in the primary. But a new poll released this week showed Vance pulling ahead of Mandel and Gibbons.“Before the Trump endorsement, I think JD was probably top of the second tier behind Gibbons and Mandel,” said Mike Hartley, who previously served as a senior adviser to former Ohio governor and Republican presidential candidate John Kasich. “I believe that the former president’s endorsement has made this race an actual toss-up.”Now Vance is counting on Trump’s endorsement to carry him to victory. And Trump is counting on that, too.“Meanness and pettiness and just plain craziness”When Vance announced his Senate candidacy last year, he began his campaign with a remorse tour, seizing every opportunity to explain his change of heart about Trump.“I ask folks not to judge me based on what I said in 2016,” Vance told Fox News last July. “I’ve been very open that I did say those critical things and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy.”Vance’s groveling was successful in convincing the person whose opinion mattered most in the race: Trump. The former president announced earlier this month that he would endorse Vance, even though several candidates, including Mandel and Gibbons, had been openly campaigning for Trump’s support.“Like some others, JD Vance may have said some not so great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades,” Trump said in his endorsement. “He is our best chance for victory in what could be a very tough race.”But Vance’s critics have not been so easily convinced. As reports emerged of the likely endorsement, Ohio Republican leaders who had backed other candidates circulated a letter urging Trump to reconsider. The letter noted that Vance had previously attacked some of Trump’s supporters as racist and chose to support independent candidate Evan McMullin in the 2016 presidential election, after he considered voting for Clinton.“I don’t have a problem with somebody changing their mind about somebody, and JD Vance has expressed on any number of occasions that he changed his mind as Trump held office,” Gibbons told the Guardian during an event with supporters in Powell, Ohio, last week. “What troubles me is that he actually kind of played with voting for Hillary Clinton. And I don’t think you can have a shred of conservative ideology to think for one second about voting for Hillary Clinton.”Despite the last-minute effort to prevent the endorsement, Trump went ahead with his plans to publicly back Vance. Rather than inspiring unity among Ohio Republicans, the endorsement appears to have injected even more vitriol into a race that was already defined by, as one columnist said, “meanness and pettiness and just plain craziness”.The conservative group Club for Growth, which has thrown its support behind Mandel in the race, has continued to air ads highlighting Vance’s past negative comments about Trump. This week, the group released a new ad arguing Trump had made the wrong choice in backing Vance and highlighting the former president’s 2012 endorsement of Mitt Romney, who lost to Barack Obama.When Trump learned that Club for Growth, with whom he has worked in the past, was standing by its endorsement of Mandel, he reportedly had his assistant text the group’s president, “Go fuck yourself.”Trump’s closest allies have engaged in similar mudslinging, intent on proving that the former president’s endorsement is enough to guarantee victory in a close race. Donald Trump Jr, the former president’s eldest son, who has campaigned with Vance in recent days, attacked Mandel on Twitter as the “Club for Chinese Growth backed establishment candidate”.Both Mandel and Vance have the backing of super PACs that have spent millions of dollars to aid their campaigns, making it even easier to flood the airwaves with attack ads. The pro-Vance group Protect Ohio Values has been propped up by $13.5m in donations from the tech investor Peter Thiel, who reportedly lobbied Trump directly for his endorsement. Meanwhile, Gibbons has mostly self-funded his run, lending more than $16m to his campaign.The cost of the primary has given Ohio Democrats, who have relished the ugliness of the Republican race, another opening to criticize the entire field of candidates.“It was already a race to the bottom, and Trump’s visit will make it a photo-finish to the gutter for this nasty, chaotic and expensive primary,” Elizabeth Walters, chair of the Ohio Democratic party, said ahead of the former president’s rally. “No matter which one of them hobbles out of the primary, we are ready to fight back and show working families that we’re on their side.”“I don’t have to follow Trump’s every whim”Vance is hoping that Trump’s endorsement will be enough to ensure he is the candidate who “hobbles out of the primary”, and there are indeed signs that he has picked up support. A Fox News poll taken after Trump’s announcement showed Vance leading Mandel by five points, although that advantage is within the survey’s margin of error. Gibbons is now trailing Vance by 10 points, the poll found.“The endorsement’s already given us a ton of momentum,” Vance told reporters after his town hall last week in Huber Heights, just outside Dayton. “It’s my race to lose, but at the end of the day, we still have to do the work.”At Vance’s town hall, several attendees said Trump’s endorsement had brought their attention to Vance in a new way. Judy Coeling, a 59-year-old primary voter from Centerville, said she had previously been deciding between Mandel and Gibbons, but Trump’s endorsement had prompted her to reconsider Vance.“I came just to find out more information because I had two other people in mind that I was kind of debating,” Coeling said. “I think he’s probably a lot stronger than what I gave him credit for.”Despite his opponents’ efforts to smear him for his past criticism of Trump, some of Vance’s supporters also said that they understood his negative opinion because they also once had their doubts about the former president.“I thought Trump had no chance, and then I saw how skilled he was,” said Evron Colhoun, a retiree from Englewood who volunteers with the Vance campaign. “I would say that I identified with that, too, because we had a similar evolution [with Trump]. I mean, I was really surprised that Vance got his endorsement, but I see why.”“I get where he’s coming from,” Brian Kitchen, a 48-year-old voter from Huber Heights, said of Vance’s past anti-Trump views. “I was a Kasich supporter, so I still have a Kasich bumper sticker on my other car.”Vance’s opponents have attempted to downplay the impact of the endorsement, claiming they have not seen a significant decline in their support. “I literally have gotten – and I’m not exaggerating – hundreds of texts saying, ‘We’re with you,’” Gibbons said. “I’ve only had one person that said they were switching their vote.”Will Trump’s ‘reckless’ endorsements be a referendum on his political power?Read moreStanding outside an early voting site in Columbus last week, Drew Sample, 37, said he had still voted for Gibbons because of his misgivings about Vance. “I don’t completely dislike him. I just don’t think he’s qualified to be senator,” Sample said. “He’s an opportunist. I think most of these guys are opportunists.”At the Trump rally in Delaware, some of the former president’s most ardent admirers were not persuaded by his endorsement of Vance. Jessica Dicken, a 31-year-old voter from Logan, said she would instead be supporting Mark Pukita, who has bragged about being unvaccinated and was accused of making an antisemitic ad about Mandel. (He denied that charge.)“I kind of think for myself,” Dicken said as she lined up hours early to enter the rally grounds. “I definitely support Trump, but I’m going to vote for my own Ohio primary who I feel is fit and who’s best.”Laura Beringer, another Pukita supporter from Akron standing a bit behind Dicken in line, added, “I love Trump, but he’s not perfect. I don’t have to follow his every whim. I have to go by what I feel.”Democrats are hoping they will be able to capitalize on those internal divisions in November and flip Portman’s seat. “Trump’s visit won’t unite the party,” Walters said. “All it really does is throw more fuel on the dumpster fire that is the Senate and gubernatorial races in Ohio on the Republican side.”But Republicans in Ohio – and across the country – have a number of factors working in their favor for November. The president’s party traditionally loses seats in Congress during the midterm elections, and Biden’s approval rating continues to languish in the low 40s. The Cook Political Report has rated the Ohio Senate race as “lean Republican”.“I think any of the [top candidates] will beat Tim Ryan,” Hartley said. “With this political environment, if a Republican doesn’t win, it’s going to be their own damn fault.”TopicsUS politicsDonald TrumpRepublicansUS SenatefeaturesReuse this content More

US politics liveUS politicsTrump claims he doesn’t have documents New York attorney general is seeking – as it happened
Full report: judge denies Trump’s request to end contempt order
Capitol attack panel set to issue letter to Kevin McCarthy
Russia-Ukraine war – latest updates
Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email
 Updated 1h agoRichard LuscombeFri 29 Apr 2022 16.06 EDTFirst published on Fri 29 Apr 2022 09.15 EDT Show key events onlyLive feedShow key events onlyFrom More

Barr: it would be ‘big mistake’ for Republicans to nominate Trump in 2024‘I don’t think he should be our nominee,’ ex-president’s attorney general tells Newsmax William Barr, Donald Trump’s former attorney general, said in an interview on Thursday that it would be a “big mistake” for the Republican party to nominate Trump for president in 2024.Appearing on the Newsmax television channel, Barr said Trump, who has hinted that he will run again, would not be a sound choice.Capitol attack panel set to issue letters to Kevin McCarthy and other key RepublicansRead more“I don’t think he should be our nominee – the Republican party nominee,” Barr said.“And I think Republicans have a big opportunity – it would be a big mistake to put him forward.”In a poll in January 57% of Republican voters said they would choose Trump in 2024. Trump also won the less scientific Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, in February, by a large margin.Trump, who was impeached twice during his four years in the White House, has repeatedly teased his supporters with suggestions he will run again.“We did it twice, and we’ll do it again,” Trump told a crowd at the CPAC convention – claiming again that he won the 2020 election.“We’re going to be doing it again a third time.”Still, Barr’s remarks will be sure to anger Trump, who has repeatedly clashed with his former attorney general since losing the 2020 election.In Barr’s book, One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General, he wrote that Trump had “shown he has neither the temperament nor persuasive powers to provide the kind of positive leadership that is needed”.Trump, Barr said, has surrounded himself with “sycophants” and “whack jobs from outside the government, who fed him a steady diet of comforting but unsupported conspiracy theories”.Trump responded by calling Barr “slow” and “lethargic”.“When the Radical Left Democrats threatened to Hold him in contempt and even worse, Impeach him, he became virtually worthless to Law and Order and Election Integrity. They broke him just like a trainer breaks a horse.”Trump had previously called Barr a “swamp creature” and a “Rino [Republican in Name Only] … afraid, weak and frankly … pathetic”.TopicsWilliam BarrDonald TrumpRepublicansUS elections 2024US politicsnewsReuse this content More

Trump White House overrode Covid guidance for churches, emails showCDC planned to suggest in 2020 that religious communities hold services online but key passages were struck out Donald Trump’s administration overrode Covid-19 guidance to religious organizations, according to newly released emails, which would have encouraged churches to consider virtual religious services rather than in-person worship.In May 2020, as coronavirus cases and deaths surged, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent the White House a draft of its planned guidance to faith-based communities, seeking approval for publication.At the time coronavirus cases were increasingly being reported in churches across the US. Cases would continue to soar in places of worship in the following months.In response, the CDC planned to suggest that religious groups restrict in-person attendance at services, and instead hold them online.When that guidance arrived at the White House, however, it prompted discussions which ended up with important passages being struck out. In an email exchange with Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to Trump, Paul Ray, the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, suggested a series of edits.“The new CDC draft includes a significant amount of new content, much of which seems to raise religious liberty concerns. In the attached, I have proposed several passages for deletion to address those concerns,” Ray wrote.“If these edits are acceptable to you all, we could tell CDC, as early in the morning as possible, that they are free to publish contingent on striking the offensive passages.”In her reply, Conway thanked Ray for “holding firm against the newest round of mission creep”.In another email chain, Trump officials expressed dissatisfaction with CDC recommendations – which had already been posted online – which suggested that faith communities should consider holding services online.May Davis, a legal adviser to Trump, wrote to Paul and other officials that “problematic guidance is still online”. Davis attached suggested edits to the CDC guidance, which she said “removes all of the tele-church suggestions”.Davis added: “Though personally I will say that if I was old and vulnerable (I do feel old and vulnerable), drive through services would sound welcome.”Representative James Clyburn, chairman of the select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis, which released the emails, said in a statement that the Trump administration had “prioritized politics over public health”.“As today’s new evidence also makes clear, Trump White House officials worked under the direction of the former president to purposefully undercut public health officials’ recommendations and muzzle their ability to communicate clearly to the American public,” Clyburn wrote.On Friday Gene Dodaro, head of the Government Accountability Office, is due to testify before Congress about a GAO report which found staff at the CDC and other public health agencies witnessed “political interference” during the response to the pandemic.TopicsTrump administrationCoronavirusReligionUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

‘Democrats can’t catch a break’: election maps setback spells midterms troubleNew York ruling that 26 congressional districts were illegally distorted deals major blow to party’s quest to retain House New York’s highest court on Wednesday dealt national Democrats a major setback in their quest to keep control of the US House, when it struck down the state’s 26 congressional districts because they were illegally distorted in favor of Democrats.New York is critical for Democrats in the decennial process of redrawing congressional districts. The state’s 26 seats offer the party one of the richest opportunities to use mapmaking power to their advantage. Democrats currently have a 19-8 advantage in the congressional delegation, but drew a map that gives them three additional seats, increasing their advantage to 22-4 (New York is losing a congressional seat because of population loss). It would give the party 85% of the congressional seats in a state Joe Biden won with about 61% of the vote.Democrats saw that advantage as a necessary effort to counter aggressive Republican efforts to distort district lines to add Republican-friendly seats in places like Florida, Texas, Tennessee and Georgia. “For Democrats, a maximal gerrymander in New York was almost a prerequisite to any chances of holding the House,” said Dave Wasserman, a redistricting expert at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.Over the past few months, observers have noted that the redistricting process appeared to be going unexpectedly well for Democrats, who were buoyed by a mix of court rulings striking down Republican gerrymandered districts and anti-gerrymandering reforms. Some predicted that redistricting would end in a “partisan wash” or potentially even a balanced US House.Now, that looks increasingly unlikely.“A couple of months ago redistricting looked like a silver lining in an otherwise bleak election cycle for Democrats. Today, it looks like just another Republican bonus,” he said. “Democrats can’t catch a break.”Overall, Republicans are poised to pick up between four and five in the House this year, according to FiveThirtyEight. Republicans need to flip five Democratic-held seats to take control of the House.The ruling in New York, which could cost Democrats three seats, comes just after Florida governor Ron DeSantis successfully pushed an aggressively gerrymandered map that adds four additional GOP seats. The Florida map is already being challenged in state court – voting and civic action groups say the Florida plan obviously violates language in the state constitution prohibiting partisan gerrymandering. But Florida Republicans have firm control of the state supreme court, making any legal challenge an uphill battle.Meanwhile, the New York ruling is one of several redistricting decisions this year that underscore the increasingly important role state courts are playing in policing partisan gerrymandering. Last month, a court in Maryland struck down the state’s congressional map, also as being too gerrymandered in favor of Democrats. State courts in North Carolina, Kansas and Ohio have all struck down congressional districts as too distorted in favor of the GOP (the Ohio court let a revised map stand for 2022 even though voting rights groups said they were still too biased).Overall, Republicans have been able to get away with gerrymandering far more districts than Democrats have.Shorter 2022 redistricting: it’s permissible to brazenly gerrymander in some states (mostly red), but not others (mostly blue). As long as that’s true, you’re not going to end up with a “fair” or “equitable” national House map.— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) April 27, 2022
States on track for GOP gerrymanders: AL, AR, FL, GA, IN, KY, LA, OH, OK, SC, TN, TX, UT (152 districts)States on track for Dem gerrymanders: IL, MD, MA, NV, NM, OR, RI (49 districts)— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) April 27, 2022
“The fact that Maryland and New York were struck down and Florida, Ron DeSantis went into attack mode totally wipes away what Democrats had hoped.”There still is a little bit of uncertainty about what the partisan breakdown of New York’s congressional delegation will ultimately look like. The court of appeals appointed a special master to draw the districts by mid May and moved the state’s primary from June until August. Democrats may also appeal the ruling to the US supreme court, which has suggested in recent cases that courts cannot make changes to maps when an election is near.Even though Republicans have gerrymandered districts much more aggressively in recent years, the New York ruling also offered an embarrassing rebuke for Democrats, who have led national efforts to rein in severe partisan gerrymandering. The four justice majority said state Democrats had ignored a 2014 constitutional amendment, approved by voters, that adopted anti-gerrymandering language and put a bipartisan commission in charge of the process. Democrats drew the districts after the bipartisan commission failed to produce a plan.Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, who wrote the majority opinion for the court of appeals, rejected the idea that lawmakers could essentially come up with their own plan if the commission failed. Doing so, she wrote, would make the commission “nothing more than ‘window dressing’ masquerading as meaningful reform”.TopicsDemocratsThe fight to voteUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

A couple of weeks ago, the far-right website InfoWars filed for bankruptcy. Its founder, Alex Jones, is facing multiple compensation claims brought by parents of victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, an event Jones previously told his followers was a hoax.Documentary maker Jon Ronson has followed Jones’ career from the very beginning. This week, Jonathan Freedland asks him for his take on the fall of one of America’s most famous conspiracy theorists

How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

Archive: CNN, ABC News, BBC Sign up to First Edition for free at theguardian.com/firstedition Listen to Weekend Send your questions and feedback to [email protected] Help support the Guardian by going to gu.com/supportpodcasts More

Capitol attack panel set to issue letters to Kevin McCarthy and other key RepublicansMarjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert among those poised to receive letters requesting voluntary cooperation, sources say The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is expected to issue letters requesting voluntary cooperation from House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and around a dozen other Republican members of Congress, according to two sources familiar with the matter.The panel intends to issue a letter to McCarthy – the top House Republican – and is considering further letters to Scott Perry, Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mo Brooks, Lauren Boebert, Andy Biggs, as well as some Republican senators, the sources said.Biden asks Congress for $33bn Ukraine aid packageRead moreCongressman Bennie Thompson, the chair of the select committee, is expected to authorize the list of Republican members of Congress caught up in the investigation potentially as soon as this week. The letters may come either this week or next week, the sources said.The scope and subjects of the letters are not yet finalized, and the sources cautioned that the members of Congress approached for cooperation may still change. On Thursday, Thompson said only that he would send letters to McCarthy and other Republicans.But the select committee’s move to seek cooperation from some of Donald Trump’s fiercest defenders on Capitol Hill – and for some members like McCarthy, Jordan and Perry, the second such request – marks a new gear for the inquiry as it reaches its final stages.The new letters are being discussed internally as a final chance for cooperation before the select committee considers ways to compel their assistance, the sources said: once reluctant to pursue subpoenas against members of Congress, the mood on panel is changing.The panel has a renewed interest in McCarthy’s cooperation after new reporting this week showed he had told the Republican leadership days after January 6 that Trump admitted to him at least partial responsibility for the Capitol attack, the sources said.The select committee is particularly focused on whether Trump might have indicated to McCarthy why he believed he was culpable for the Capitol attack, the sources said, and whether the former president knew he may have acted unlawfully on January 6.Thompson is also considering letters to Greene and Perry and other Republicans who played an outsize role in the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and pressed the White House about Trump declaring martial law to stay in office, the sources said.The select committee wants to learn more information from members of Congress who were in constant text-messages communication with Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, described by one of the sources as “those in the text message traffic”.A spokesman for the select committee declined to comment.Greene messaged Meadows on 17 January, according to one of more than 2,000 texts Meadows turned over to the investigation and obtained by CNN, that some members of Congress were calling for Trump to impose martial law to remain in power.“In our private chat with only Members several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call Marshall [sic] law,” Greene said in the text. “I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next.”Meadows did not appear to respond to Greene’s text. But the messages Trump’s top White House aide was receiving shows the extraordinary ideas swirling around Trump after he and his operatives were unable to stop the certification of Biden’s election win on January 6.The newly-released text messages also show Perry, now the chairman of the ultra-conservative House freedom caucus, lobbying Meadows to replace the justice department leadership with Jeffrey Clark, a DoJ official sympathetic to Trump’s effort to undo the 2020 election.Greene and Clark were among the leading Republicans determined to overturn Trump’s defeat to Biden, according to the text messages – as well as testimony provided to House investigators by Cassidy Hutchinson, a Trump White House aide who worked for Meadows.The select committee appears to believe the time is right to request voluntary cooperation from the members, the sources said, capitalizing on the public outrage surrounding McCarthy’s remarks and the texts sent by the Republican members of Congress.Thompson on Thursday confirmed to reporters that he would certainly issue a second letter to McCarthy to appear before House investigators, as well as to Jordan and Perry, but declined to name other targets or how he would proceed if the requests were rejected.TopicsUS Capitol attackDonald TrumpRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

US politics live with Joan E GreveUS politics‘We’re not attacking Russia,’ Biden says as he asks for $33bn in Ukraine aid – as it happened
‘We’re helping Ukraine defend itself,’ says president
Full report: Biden asks Congress for more Ukraine aid
Russia-Ukraine war – latest updates
Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email
 Updated 1h agoJoan E Greve in WashingtonThu 28 Apr 2022 16.03 EDTFirst published on Thu 28 Apr 2022 09.13 EDT Show key events onlyLive feedShow key events onlyThat’s it from the US politics live blog today. Here’s how the day unfolded in Washington:
Joe Biden asked Congress to provide Ukraine with $33bn of additional funding to assist its fight against Russian aggression. The request includes another $20bn in military aid, as well as $8.5bn in economic aid to Kyiv and $3bn in humanitarian relief. “The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen,” Biden said at the White House today.
Biden emphasized America’s ongoing assistance to Ukraine should not be taken as an attack on Russia. “We’re not attacking Russia. We’re helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression,” Biden said. “Russia is the aggressor — no ifs, ands or buts about it.” Russia has warned the US against providing Ukraine with more weaponry, but the White House has insisted it will continue to aid its ally.
Nancy Pelosi said she expected a “strong, bipartisan vote” in the House to approve the next Ukraine aid bill. “The assistance appropriated by Congress has made a significant difference for Ukraine, but much more is needed to fight back against Putin’s brutal aggression,” the Democratic House speaker said in a statement.
The White House dodged a question about whether it was now a US policy goal for Ukraine to win its war against Russia. “We’re not going to define that from here,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at her daily briefing.
The US economy shrank in the first three months of the year, contracting by -0.4% in the first quarter, marking its weakest performance since the early days of the pandemic. Biden blamed the contraction on “technical factors” caused by the ongoing pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
The Guardian’s live blog on the war in Ukraine is still running, so be sure to follow along with that for more updates:Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv rocked by missile strikes as UN chief visits Ukraine capital – liveRead moreOne reporter asked Jen Psaki whether it was now a policy goal of the United States for Ukraine to beat Russia in the war.“We’re not going to define that from here,” the White House press secretary said, adding that the question of strategic goals was a matter for Ukrainians to determine.“What we are going to do from here is to continue to provide them with a range of security and military assistance, as evidenced by the package that the president proposed and put forward to Capitol Hill today,” Psaki said.Joe Biden’s defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said earlier this week that the US hoped the war in Ukraine would result in a “weakened” Russia.“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” Austin said. A reporter asked Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, about the expected timeline for Congress approving the requested $33bn in Ukraine aid, as well as additional pandemic response funds.“I’m not here to set new deadlines, but I can tell you that both needs are urgent,” Psaki said.Psaki underscored the crucial need to provide Ukraine with more resources as it fights off Russian attacks more than two months after the war began.“In order to continue to help assist them, help make sure they have the the weapons they need, the artillery they need, the equipment they need, it is certainly urgent to move forward on this funding,” Psaki said.The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing, and a reporter kicked off today’s questioning by asking about student debt cancelation.Joe Biden said earlier today, “I am not considering $50,000 [student] debt reduction, but I am in the process of taking a hard look at whether or not there will be additional debt forgiveness.”Asked whether the White House has concluded that Biden can cancel student debt via executive order, Psaki replied, “There’s been no conclusion of any process internally yet.”The president said today that he would provide an update on his student debt policies “in the next couple weeks”. Progressives have called on Biden to cancel all federal student debt, but Biden has signaled opposition to that proposal.Republican Senator Rick Scott has released a statement denouncing Joe Biden’s criticism of his tax proposals after the commerce department reported the US economy contracted during the first quarter of 2022.“Joe Biden is clearly obsessed with my plan to rescue America and very confused about his own agenda that is devastating American families. Unlike Joe Biden, I’m a proven tax cutter,” Scott said.The Florida senator noted a recent Washington Post analysis concluded the White House had made false claims about Scott’s proposal, which has even attracted some criticism from fellow Republicans. “As long as Biden and the Democrats keep trying to destroy this great country, I’ll be fighting to rescue it,” Scott said.Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said he would probably support a bill appropriating another $33bn in aid to Ukraine, as Joe Biden has requested.“Very likely yes,” McConnell told ABC News.Asked @LeaderMcConnell if he is supportive of the $33 billion Ukraine aid supplemental request the administration has put forward.“Very likely yes,” he said.— Allison Pecorin (@AllisonMPecorin) April 28, 2022
However, some Senate Republicans have warned Democrats against trying to combine the Ukraine aid and pandemic response funding into one bill, as the Covid money remains tied up over a dispute about a controversial border policy known as Title 42.Asked earlier today whether he thought the two proposals should be linked in one bill, Biden said, “I don’t care how they do it. I’m sending them both up. They can do it separately or together, but we need them both.”Joe Biden is now meeting with small business owners to “discuss the small businesses boom under his leadership,” per his official schedule.The president was joined at the White House meeting by Isabella Casillas Guzman, administrator of the Small Business Administration.“These enterprises and entrepreneurs know the American economy is strong because America’s small businesses are strong,” Biden said at the start of the meeting.In an instance of rather bad timing, the meeting came hours after the commerce department reported the US economy contracted in the first quarter of 2022, marking its worst performance since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.At the meeting, Biden once again attacked Republican Senator Rick Scott’s plan to raise income taxes for millions of Americans, a proposal that has divided Scott’s own party and become a Democratic punching bag.“It’s just not right,” Biden said. “Our administration wants to make it easier to start a business, easier for a small business to succeed.”Nancy Pelosi said she expected a “strong, bipartisan vote” in the House to approve the next Ukraine aid bill, which Joe Biden has requested.“The assistance appropriated by Congress has made a significant difference for Ukraine, but much more is needed to fight back against Putin’s brutal aggression,” the Democratic House speaker said in a statement.“The forthcoming supplemental package will deliver critical funding including for more defensive systems and weaponry, support for Ukraine’s energy and healthcare infrastructure, and food assistance to address a growing hunger crisis around the globe stemming from this conflict.”Biden has asked Congress to approve another $33bn in assistance to Ukraine, including $20bn in military funding and $3bn in humanitarian relief.“The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen,” Biden said at the White House earlier today.Joe Biden reiterated his message that Russia is the aggressor in Ukraine, even as the Kremlin tries to villainize the West over its efforts to aid Ukraine.“Despite the disturbing rhetoric coming out of the Kremlin, the facts are plain for all to see: We are not attacking Russia,” Biden said on Twitter. “We are helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression. And just as Putin chose to launch this brutal invasion, he could make the choice to end it.”Earlier today, Biden asked Congress to approve another $33bn in aid to Ukraine, including $20bn in military funding. Russia has warned the US to stop providing arms to Ukraine, but the White House has remained firm in its commitment to helping its ally.Despite the disturbing rhetoric coming out of the Kremlin, the facts are plain for all to see: We are not attacking Russia. We are helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression. And just as Putin chose to launch this brutal invasion, he could make the choice to end it.— President Biden (@POTUS) April 28, 2022
US FDA moves forward with proposal to ban menthol cigarettesThe Food and Drug Administration on Thursday issued a long-awaited proposal to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.The move is a major victory for anti-smoking advocates but one that could dent sales at tobacco companies.The proposal, which comes a year after the agency announced the plan, still needs to be finalized and can take years to implement as it is likely to face stiff opposition from the tobacco industry. “The proposed rules would help prevent children from becoming the next generation of smokers and help adult smokers quit,” said the health and human services secretary, Xavier Becerra, Reuters reported. For decades, menthol cigarettes have been in the crosshairs of anti-smoking groups who have argued that they contribute to disproportionate health burdens on Black communities and play a role in luring young people into smoking.‘I hope we’ll get through this’: the Ukrainian refugees arriving in TijuanaIn recent weeks Mexico has been the second-to-last stop on a journey to a semblance of normal life for some Ukrainian families hoping to get to safety in the United States. The Guardian has published a dispatch from Tijuana by Jo Napolitano who writes: Just over the zigzag pathway of the Tijuana border crossing, a mile or so from the taco and churros stands that feed locals and tourists alike, rests a pop-up encampment for Ukrainian and Russian refugees fleeing an invasion they could neither endure nor support.Tijuana has been a two- or three-day respite on their journey before trying to enter the US. There, these displaced families – a flight away from Washington state or Illinois or South Carolina – are fanning out across the country, staying with friends and relatives, applying for food stamps and social security cards and enrolling their children in school. While they are far further in their relocation than the Mexican, Central American and Haitian asylum seekers waiting years for that same opportunity, these newcomers still face many hurdles.“Everything is so different here in the US,” said Anastasiia Puzhalina, a Ukrainian refugee who arrived in the States in early April with her family. “We must learn so much. I hope we’ll get through this.”The piece is published in partnership with the the 74, a non-profit, non-partisan news site covering education in America. ‘I hope we’ll get through this’: the Ukrainian refugees arriving in TijuanaRead moreNAACP calls on Biden to cancel all student debt “President Biden, we agree that we shouldn’t cancel $50,000 in student loan debt. We should cancel all of it,” the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said in a statement on Thursday.The statement came after the president told reporters he was open to cancelling some debt but poured cold water on the $50,000 number. “$50,000 was just the bottom line. For the Black community, who’ve accumulated debt over generations of oppression, anything less is unacceptable,” the NAACP said. The NAACP has a petition calling on Biden to take action to cancel student debt, which it says would :
Provide Black borrowers with opportunities to pursue homeownership
Develop economy-boosting discretionary income
Fuel upward mobility in the Black community and equitable efforts to close the racial wealth gap
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Joe Biden asked Congress to provide Ukraine with another $33bn in funding to assist its fight against Russian aggression. The request includes another $20bn in military aid, as well as $8.5bn in economic aid to Kyiv and $3bn in humanitarian relief. “The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen,” Biden said at the White House today.
Biden emphasized America’s ongoing assistance to Ukraine should not be taken as an attack on Russia. “We’re not attacking Russia. We’re helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression,” Biden said. “Russia is the aggressor — no ifs, ands or buts about it.” Russia has warned the US against providing Ukraine with more weaponry, but the White House has insisted it will continue to aid its ally.
The US economy shrank in the first three months of the year, contracting by -0.4% in the first quarter, marking its weakest performance since the early days of the pandemic. Biden blamed the contraction on “technical factors” caused by the ongoing pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.Unrelated to the war in Ukraine, Joe Biden was asked whether he plans to cancel more student loan debt via executive order in the coming weeks.Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said yesterday that the White House is “more open to it now than ever before” when it comes to canceling student loan debt.“There’s nothing done yet, but I am really hopeful that the goal that we have had, $50,000 of student loans canceled, is getting more and more likely,” Schumer said, per NBC News.President Biden: “I am not considering $50,000 debt reduction but I am in the process of taking a hard look on whether or not there will be additional debt forgiveness. I’ll have an answer on that in the next couple weeks.” pic.twitter.com/gpwPf2ghs5— CSPAN (@cspan) April 28, 2022
Biden threw cold water on that idea today, telling reporters that he is not comfortable with the $50,000 number but is open to some debt cancelation.“I am not considering $50,000 debt reduction, but I am in the process of taking a hard look at whether or not there will be additional debt forgiveness,” Biden said. “And I’ll have an answer on that in the next couple weeks.”Biden has previously expressed openness to the idea of canceling up to $10,000 in student debt per borrower, but many progressives have criticized that proposal as insufficient.After finishing his prepared remarks, Joe Biden took several questions from reporters about his request to Congress for more Ukraine aid and other legislative matters.Asked for his message to Ukrainian refugees who are waiting at the southern border to enter the US, Biden said they are being allowed to come directly into the country.“We’ve said there’s no need to go to the southern border,” Biden said. “Fly directly to United States. We set up a mechanism whereby they can come directly with a visa.”Another reporter asked Biden about how the US will respond if Russia starts escalating its aggression toward Ukraine’s allies in response to their ongoing assistance to the country.“We are prepared for whatever they do,” Biden said.As he asked for more funding to assist Ukraine, Joe Biden also emphasized the importance of Congress appropriating more money for America’s pandemic response efforts.“That’s why I’m again urging Congress to act on our request for $22.5bn in emergency resources so the American people can continue to protect themselves from Covid-19,” Biden said.The president said the federal government would only be able to prepare more vaccine doses to help protect against future variants if Congress approves more money to preorder treatments.Noting that the US has also donated vaccine doses to other countries, Biden said, “Without additional funding, the United States won’t be able to help stop the spread around the world.”After concluding his prepared remarks, a reporter asked Biden whether he believed the Ukraine assistance and pandemic funding should be tied together in one bill, which lawmakers are currently at odds over.“I don’t care how they do it. I’m sending them both up,” Biden said. “They can do it separately or together, but we need them both.”NewestNewestPrevious1 of 2NextOldestOldestTopicsUS politicsUS politics live with Joan E GreveJoe BidenRepublicansDemocratsUS CongressUS foreign policyUkraineReuse this content More