US Politics

Capitol attack panel says ‘no choice’ but to advance contempt charges for Mark Meadows News comes one day after Trump’s former chief of staff indicated he would no longer cooperate with investigators The leaders of the House committee investigating the 6 January Capitol attack have said they have “no choice” but to hold former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress after his lawyer said Tuesday that his client will cease cooperating with the panel.Mark Meadows stops cooperating with Capitol attack investigation Read moreThe Democratic chair of the committee, Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson, released a letter to Meadows’s attorney, George Terwilliger, notifying him of the panel’s plans.“The select committee is left with no choice but to advance contempt proceedings and recommend that the body in which Mr Meadows once served refer him for criminal prosecution,” Thompson said.The news comes one day after Meadows indicated he would no longer cooperate with investigators, claiming the committee is disrespecting former president Donald Trump’s claims of executive privilege over certain records.In an abrupt reversal, Meadows attorney George Terwilliger said in a letter that a deposition would be “untenable” because the 6 January panel “has no intention of respecting boundaries” concerning questions that Trump has claimed are off-limits.Terwilliger also said he learned over the weekend that the committee had issued a subpoena to a third-party communications provider that he said would include “intensely personal” information.“As a result of careful and deliberate consideration of these factors, we now must decline the opportunity to appear voluntarily for a deposition,” Terwilliger wrote in the letter.Meadows’s decision not to cooperate is a blow to the committee, as lawmakers were hoping to interview Trump’s top White House aide about Trump’s actions before and during the violent attack of his supporters. They had also hoped to use Meadows as an example to other witnesses who may be considering not cooperating as Trump has filed legal challenges to block the panel’s work.Lawmakers on the committee have blasted Meadows’s reluctance to testify while he is also releasing a book this week that details his work inside the White House. Thompson and Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chair of the committee, said they also have questions about documents Meadows has already turned over to the panel.“Even as we litigate privilege issues, the select committee has numerous questions for Mr Meadows about records he has turned over to the committee with no claim of privilege, which include real-time communications with many individuals as the events of January 6th unfolded,” they said in a statement released yesterday.Thompson and Cheney said the panel also wants to speak to Meadows about “voluminous official records stored in his personal phone and email accounts” that could be turned over to the committee by the National Archives in the coming weeks. Trump has sued to stop the release of those records, and the case is pending in the US court of appeals.The two committee leaders did not comment on Terwilliger’s claim about subpoenas to third-party communications providers. The committee in August issued a sweeping demand that telecommunications and social media companies preserve the personal communications of hundreds of people who may have been connected to the attack, but did not ask the companies to turn over the records at that time.Terwilliger said in a statement last week that he was continuing to work with the committee and its staff on a possible accommodation that would not require Meadows to waive the executive privileges claimed by Trump or “forfeit the long-standing position that senior White House aides cannot be compelled to testify” before Congress.“We appreciate the select committee’s openness to receiving voluntary responses on non-privileged topics,” he said then.Thompson said then that the panel would “continue to assess his degree of compliance” and would take action against Meadows or any other witnesses who don’t comply, including by voting to recommend contempt charges. The House has already voted to hold longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon in contempt after he defied a subpoena, and the justice department indicted Bannon on two counts.In halting cooperation, Terwilliger cited comments from Thompson that he said unfairly cast aspersions on witnesses who invoke their fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. A separate witness, former justice department official Jeffrey Clark, has said he will invoke those fifth amendment rights, prompting questions from the committee about whether he would directly acknowledge that his answers could incriminate him.Thompson said last week that Clark’s lawyer had offered “no specific basis” for Clark to assert the fifth and that he viewed it as a “last-ditch attempt to delay the select committee’s proceedings”, but he said members would hear Clark out. The committee has already voted to recommend contempt charges for Clark, and Thompson has said it will proceed with a House vote if the panel is not satisfied with his compliance at a second deposition on 16 December.In his new book, released Tuesday, Meadows reveals that Trump received a positive Covid-19 test before a presidential debate. He also reveals that when Trump was later hospitalized with Covid, he was far sicker than the White House revealed at the time.Trump – who told his supporters to “fight like hell” before hundreds of his supporters broke into the Capitol and stopped the presidential electoral count – has attempted to hinder much of the committee’s work, including in the continuing court case, by arguing that Congress cannot obtain information about his private White House conversations.Associated Press contributed to this reportTopicsUS Capitol attackHouse of RepresentativesDonald TrumpUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

AOC speaks out against Republicans’ gun-wielding Christmas photosAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls out Lauren Boebert on Twitter for posting a picture of her family holding rifles in front of a tree Leftwing congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has spoken out about the hypocrisy of gun-wielding Christmas card photos, an emerging trend among several Republic lawmakers who have posted holiday photos showing themselves and their family holding military-style rifles.Man charged with arson for burning down Fox News Christmas treeRead moreIn a tweet on Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez called out far-right congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who had posted a picture of her family, including her small children, holding rifles in front of a Christmas tree.“Tell me again where Christ said ‘use the commemoration of my birth to flex violent weapons for personal political gain’?” said Ocasio-Cortez, recalling back in 2015 when conservatives declared that there was a “war on Christmas”, with companies like Starbucks facing threats of boycott.“lol @ all the years Republicans spent on cultural hysteria of society ‘erasing Christmas and it’s meaning’ when they’re doing that fine all on their own.”Tell me again where Christ said “use the commemoration of my birth to flex violent weapons for personal political gain”?lol @ all the years Republicans spent on cultural hysteria of society “erasing Christmas and it’s meaning” when they’re doing that fine all on their own https://t.co/TOKE1SmY4C— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 8, 2021
In addition to Boebert’s gun-themed Christmas photo, Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie recently posted a picture of his family holding rifles while posing in front of a Christmas tree, with the caption: “Merry Christmas! PS: Santa, please bring ammo.”The photo was posted only days after a school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, located an hour outside of the state’s capitol, where four students died and seven people were injured.Boebert and Massie’s Christmas photos faced widespread criticism, as several other Republicans have used violent imagery in attempts to shock and provoke as well as rally supporters. Arizona congressman Adam Gosar was censured after tweeting an animated video depicting him killing Ocasio-Cortez and Boebert received criticism for Islamaphobic comments about Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar.“Here his family’s got guns under a Christmas tree just after four kids were killed,” said Elaine Kamarck, a former official in the Clinton administration, in an interview with the Guardian. “The guy’s abominable but that’s what’s happening to the Republican party. They’re flat-out nuts. There’s a piece of the Republican party that now supports violence.”TopicsAlexandria Ocasio-CortezUS politicsRepublicansDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

Why doesn’t Biden mail free Covid tests to all Americans? Ross BarkanIn the United States, testing varies widely by city, county and state. In the UK, tests are free and sent to your home, as it should be On Monday, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, boasted about the Biden administration’s coronavirus testing apparatus. “We’ve quadrupled the size of our testing plan. We’ve cut the cost significantly over the last few months,” Psaki told reporters, noting Americans will now be able to get the costs of tests reimbursed by their private insurers.“Why not make them free and give them out everywhere?” a reporter asked.“Should we just send one to every American?” Psaki asked, beginning to smile. When the reporter answered “maybe”, the press secretary dug in. “What happens if every American has one test? How much does that cost and what happens after that?”Psaki was straining to make the question seem absurd. There are more than 300 million Americans. How can the United States government just mail a test to every person?Her sarcasm revealed a dismal truth: if America is no longer unique in struggling through the pandemic, adequate testing remains in woefully short supply. The Biden administration has failed, like the Trump administration, to make free tests available everywhere. And in that failure, America has fallen behind the rest of the world.In Boris Johnson’s United Kingdom, free packs of Covid-19 rapid lateral tests are available to order daily. Germany has reintroduced free testing as cases continue to surge. South Korea, long a global leader when it comes to aggressively testing for coronavirus, even has free tests for pets.Meanwhile, in the United States, testing varies widely by city, county and state. New York City, battered by the original wave of coronavirus, now has free and easily accessible testing sites in most neighborhoods, where results can be learned within the hour. Other localities are still charging money and taking days to return tests. In rural areas, it can be especially difficult to get tested quickly for Covid-19.At-home tests are now available in most large pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens. A package can cost more than $20. For many Americans, wrangling with a test that can outstrip the cost of dinner is just not worth it.The new Biden plan is convoluted. Instead of subsidizing the cost of tests so they are freely available in stores or following the New York model of paying for testing sites in underserved areas, the Biden administration will compel private health insurers to reimburse people who buy over the counter, at-home rapid tests. Ultimately, this puts the onus on the individual to wade through paperwork or battle with an insurance company to receive a proper reimbursement. There will be Americans who won’t even bother.For those who lack health insurance, Biden’s initiative offers little. The federal government will buy another 25m tests to give to community health centers and rural clinics, a decent gesture that doesn’t account for those who either don’t live close enough to such places or may be passed over if the tests don’t happen to reach their facilities.The plan, ultimately, is frustratingly piecemeal and reflects the byzantine approach to healthcare the American government continues to take. Instead of a universal provider akin to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service or Canada’s single-payer system, America’s healthcare regime remains a predatory patchwork.Private insurance is expensive and inefficient. Comprehensive public insurance is open only to those who are very poor, old, or work for the government. The ailing American healthcare system has been on full display during the pandemic, with those who survive hospital stays sometimes returning home with enormous medical bills. Other Americans, fearing costs, avoid medical visits altogether.A well-funded rapid testing regime could help, along with vaccination and anti-viral treatments, restore normalcy. Coronavirus, as we now know, can still spread among the vaccinated, and the Omicron variant might increase the number of breakthrough cases. This new reality will require a much greater degree of testing than we now have and force the Biden administration, Psaki included, to take it all a lot more seriously. Rapid, accurate testing can make indoor gatherings safer and ensure those with Covid don’t readily infect others. The misery we all have lived through may begin to subside if the federal government does what it should do and guarantees every American a right to a free, available test.TopicsCoronavirusOpinionJoe BidenBiden administrationUS politicsInfectious diseasescommentReuse this content More

Key events

Show

3.48pm EST

15:48

Capitol attack committee warns Meadows of potential contempt charge

3.09pm EST

15:09

White House urges Putin to embrace ‘de-escalation and diplomacy’ toward Ukraine

1.35pm EST

13:35

White House: Biden confronted Putin over Ukraine troop escalation

1.30pm EST

13:30

Today so far

1.03pm EST

13:03

One of suspected killers of Jamal Khashoggi held in Paris

12.36pm EST

12:36

Biden-Putin summit ends after two hours

12.10pm EST

12:10

Biden to speak with European leaders after Putin summit

Live feed

Show

Show key events only

4.38pm EST

16:38

The White House has released a readout of Joe Biden’s afternoon call with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“President Biden briefed leaders on his call with President Putin, in which he discussed the serious consequences of Russian military action in Ukraine and the need to de-escalate and return to diplomacy,” the White House said.
“The leaders underscored their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the need for Russia to reduce tensions and engage in diplomacy. They agreed their teams will stay in close touch, including in consultation with NATO allies and EU partners, on a coordinated and comprehensive approach.”

4.18pm EST

16:18

The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly and David Smith report:
Mark Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger, wrote in a letter on Tuesday that a deposition would be “untenable” because the 6 January select committee “has no intention of respecting boundaries” concerning questions that Donald Trump has claimed are off-limits because of executive privilege.
Executive privilege covers the confidentiality or otherwise of communications between a president and his aides. The Biden administration has waived it in the investigation of 6 January. Trump and key allies entwined in events leading up to the storming of the Capitol, around which five people died, have invoked it.
Terwilliger also said he learned over the weekend that the committee had issued a subpoena to a third-party communications provider that he said would include “intensely personal” information.
In an interview on the conservative Fox News network, the attorney added: “We have made efforts over many weeks to reach an accommodation with the committee.”
But he said the committee’s approach to negotiations and to other witnesses meant Meadows would withdraw cooperation.

3.48pm EST

15:48

Capitol attack committee warns Meadows of potential contempt charge

The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has warned Mark Meadows that lawmakers will move forward with holding him in criminal contempt if he does not appear for his scheduled deposition tomorrow.
Meadows, who previously served as Donald Trump’s chief of staff, indicated earlier today that he would no longer cooperate with the committee’s investigation.
The chair and vice-chair of the select committee, Democrat Bennie Thompson and Republican Liz Cheney, warned Meadows of the potential contempt charge in a new statement.

January 6th Committee
(@January6thCmte)
Mark Meadows has informed the Select Committee that he does not intend to cooperate further despite his apparent willingness to provide details about the January 6th attack, including conversations with President Trump, in the book he is now promoting and selling.

December 7, 2021

“Mark Meadows has informed the Select Committee that he does not intend to cooperate further with our investigation despite his apparent willingness to provide details about the facts and circumstances surrounding the January 6th attack, including conversations with President Trump, in the book he is now promoting and selling,” Thompson and Cheney said.
The two lawmakers noted investigators have many questions and requests for Meadows that do not fall under potential executive privilege claims, including “voluminous official records stored in his personal phone and email accounts”.
“Tomorrow’s deposition, which was scheduled at Mr. Meadows’s request, will go forward as planned,” Thompson and Cheney said.
“If indeed Mr. Meadows refuses to appear, the Select Committee will be left no choice but to advance contempt proceedings and recommend that the body in which Mr. Meadows once served refer him for criminal prosecution.”

3.30pm EST

15:30

National security adviser Jake Sullivan described the summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin as a “useful meeting,” although he declined to characterize the Russian leader’s remarks during the discussion.
“He can speak for himself,” Sullivan said of Putin, noting that the Russian president was “direct and straightforward” in his conversation with Biden.
“This was a real discussion. It was give and take. It was not speeches,” Sullivan said. “It was back and forth. President Putin was deeply engaged.”

3.16pm EST

15:16

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Joe Biden will speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday, after the US president held a virtual summit with Vladimir Putin today.
Sullivan said the White House does not believe that Putin has yet made a decision about whether to approve an invasion of Ukraine, as Russia builds up its troop presence along the border.
“What President Biden did today was lay out very clearly the consequences if he chooses to move,” Sullivan said of the summit.
“I will look you in the eye and tell you, as President Biden looked President Putin in the eye and told him today, that things we did not do in 2014, we are prepared to do now,” Sullivan added, referring to the US response to the Russian annexation of Crimea.

3.09pm EST

15:09

White House urges Putin to embrace ‘de-escalation and diplomacy’ toward Ukraine

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing with reporters, and she is joined by national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Sullivan provided more details on Joe Biden’s virtual summit with Vladimir Putin this morning, saying the US president was “direct and straightforward” with the Russian leader.
The president warned Putin that the US would respond with “strong economic measures” if Russia invaded Ukraine, Sullivan said.
The national security adviser added that Biden urged his Russian counterpart to embrace “de-escalation and diplomacy” toward Ukraine rather than continuing to build up a military presence along the border.

2.47pm EST

14:47

The Republican National Committee criticized Joe Biden’s foreign policy agenda after the US president’s virtual summit with Vladimir Putin this morning.
“Biden’s weak leadership on the international stage has emboldened our enemies and shaken our allies’ trust,” RNC chair Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.
“While claiming to be tough on Russia, Biden gifted Putin the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline while simultaneously embarking on a job-killing crusade against the U.S. energy industry. Today’s meeting underscores how Biden’s weak global leadership, Afghanistan disaster, and failure at our border is emblematic of his America last agenda.”
In its readout of the summit, the White House said Biden “voiced the deep concerns of the United States and our European Allies about Russia’s escalation of forces surrounding Ukraine and made clear that the U.S. and our Allies would respond with strong economic and other measures in the event of military escalation”.

2.16pm EST

14:16

Edward Helmore

Donald Trump’s plan to launch “Truth Social”, a special purpose acquisitions backed social media company, early next year may have hit a roadblock after US regulators issued a request for information on the deal on Monday.
The request from the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for information from Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), a blank-check SPAC that is set to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group, comes as a powerful Republican congressman, Devin Nunes, announced he was stepping out of politics to join the Trump media venture as CEO.
The twin developments set the stage for a major political battle over Truth Social, a platform that purportedly plans to challenge Twitter and Facebook, social platforms that have banned or curbed the former president over his involvement in stoking the 6 January Capitol riot.

1.51pm EST

13:51

About 200 officers have left the US Capitol police since the 6 January insurrection, according to the force’s inspector general.
Giving testimony before a Senate committee hearing, Michael Bolton also said the Capitol police had not done enough to improve its practices in the 11 months since the attack.

CSPAN
(@cspan)
Sen. @RoyBlunt: “How many officers have left the department since January the 6th?”U.S. Capitol Police IG Bolton: “I believe it’s around 200 or so.” pic.twitter.com/IvTBDRsLrv

December 7, 2021

Bolton also said that out of “200 security enhancements” the department told him it would make, “only 61 of those items have supporting documentation to support that those enhancements have occurred”.
The Senate Rules Committee hearing was also notable for a suggestion from Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican senator for West Virginia, that Congress should conduct large-scale drills, in the same way many US schools are forced to, in case of an active shooter.

Updated
at 1.58pm EST

1.35pm EST

13:35

White House: Biden confronted Putin over Ukraine troop escalation

Joe Biden voiced “deep concerns” about the escalation of Russian forces surrounding Ukraine during his call with Vladimir Putin today, according to a summary of the conversation published by the White House.
The call took in a “range of issues”, the White House said, including the Ukraine situation and ransomware.
From the White House:

President Biden voiced the deep concerns of the United States and our European allies about Russia’s escalation of forces surrounding Ukraine and made clear that the US and our allies would respond with strong economic and other measures in the event of military escalation.
President Biden reiterated his support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and called for de-escalation and a return to diplomacy. The two presidents tasked their teams to follow up and the US will do so in close coordination with allies and partners.
The presidents also discussed the US-Russia dialogue on strategic stability, a separate dialogue on ransomware, as well as joint work on regional issues such as Iran.

This is Adam Gabbatt, taking over from Joan for a little while.

Updated
at 1.45pm EST

1.30pm EST

13:30

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a virtual summit that lasted roughly two hours. The meeting comes as Putin has built up Russia’s troop presence along the country’s border with Ukraine, raising concerns of a potential invasion.
Biden is speaking with several European leaders this afternoon to provide an update on his conversation with Putin. The White House said Biden will speak with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff to Donald Trump, is no longer cooperating with the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. Meadows’ attorney said the panel wanted the former official to discuss matters over which Donald Trump has claimed executive privilege, although lawmakers have rejected the legitimacy of the former president’s claims.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

1.16pm EST

13:16

The White House has shared a photo of Joe Biden’s virtual summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin this morning, which wrapped up about an hour ago.
The photo shows the US president, accompanied by secretary of state Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in the Situation Room.
“.@POTUS held a secure video call with President Putin of Russia today to discuss a range of topics in the US-Russia relationship, including our concerns about Russian military activities on the border with Ukraine, cyber and regional issues,” the White House said on Twitter. More

Mark Meadows stops cooperating with Capitol attack investigation Attorney for former White House chief of staff claims House committee ‘has no intention of respecting boundaries’

‘Handful of fanatics’ to blame for Capitol riot, Meadows says
In a sudden reversal, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows will not cooperate with a House of Representatives committee investigating the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, a lawyer for the former Trump aide said on Tuesday.Trump tested positive for Covid few days before Biden debate, chief of staff says in new bookRead moreThe committee warned that Meadows will face contempt proceedings if he refuses to cooperate on Wednesday.“The Select Committee has numerous questions for Mr Meadows about records he has turned over to the Committee with no claim of privilege, which include real-time communications with many individuals as the events of January 6th unfolded,” it said in a statement. “Tomorrow’s deposition will go forward as planned.“If indeed Mr Meadows refuses to appear, the Select Committee will be left no choice but to advance contempt proceedings and recommend that the body in which Meadows once served refer him for criminal prosecution.”Meadows indicated last week that he would speak to the panel. But on the same day the Guardian broke news of Meadows’ memoir, The Chief’s Chief, in which he detailed Trump’s positive and negative Covid tests and their cover-up before his first debate with Joe Biden last year.Trump gave Meadows a glowing blurb for his book but news of its contents kicked off a firestorm of controversy and prompted a backlash from the former presidenttowards Meadows.On Tuesday, Maggie Haberman, a New York Times journalist, reported that “sources close to Trump say he hates Meadows book and feels betrayed by him”.Haberman also wrote that Meadows’ “cooperation was always seen as bare minimum. The reality doesn’t change much but timing is notable.”Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger, wrote in a letter on Tuesday that a deposition would be “untenable” because the 6 January select committee “has no intention of respecting boundaries” concerning questions that Trump has claimed are off-limits because of executive privilege.Executive privilege covers the confidentiality or otherwise of communications between a president and his aides. The Biden administration has waived it in the investigation of 6 January. Trump and allies entwined in events leading up to the storming of the Capitol, around which five people died, have invoked it.Terwilliger also said he learned over the weekend that the committee had issued a subpoena to a third-party communications provider that he said would include “intensely personal” information.In an interview on the conservative Fox News network, the attorney added: “We have made efforts over many weeks to reach an accommodation with the committee.”But he said the committee’s approach to negotiations and to other witnesses meant Meadows would withdraw cooperation.“The chairman of the committee [Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi] … publicly said that another witness’s claiming of the fifth amendment would be tantamount to an admission of guilt,” Terwilliger said, claiming that called into question “exactly what is going on with this committee”.That was a reference to Jeffery Clark, a former justice department official who pitched a plan to Trump regarding overturning election results and who, like Meadows, has been threatened with a charge of contempt of Congress if he does not cooperate with the 6 January investigation.Terwilliger wrote in his letter: “As a result of careful and deliberate consideration of these factors, we now must decline the opportunity to appear voluntarily for a deposition.”Meadows has claimed executive privilege covers any communications with Trump that the committee may wish to examine.In the aftermath of reports about his book – the Guardian being first to report that Meadows tried to downplay the Capitol riot as the work of “a handful of fanatics” – members of the committee suggested that by publishing the memoir Meadows had waived any claim to executive privilege protections.Adam Schiff of California told Politico it was “very possible that by discussing the events of 6 January in his book … [Meadows is] waiving any claim of privilege.“So, it’d be very difficult for him to maintain ‘I can’t speak about events to you, but I can speak about them in my book.’”Thompson, the committee chair, told reporters: “Some of what we plan to ask him is in the excerpts of the book.”Meadows had been due to appear before the committee on 12 November but failed to show up. At the time, Thompson warned that “there is no valid legal basis for Mr Meadows’s continued resistance to the select committee’s subpoena”.Another former Trump aide, former campaign chairman and White House strategist Steve Bannon, has been charged with criminal contempt of Congress, the first such charge since 1983. Facing a fine and jail time, he has pleaded not guilty.Trump has attempted to stall much of the committee’s work, including in a court case, by arguing that Congress does not have the right to information about his private White House conversations.TopicsUS Capitol attackDonald TrumpUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Trump’s social media platform hits roadblocks as major political battle looms‘Truth Social’ purportedly plans to challenge Twitter and Facebook, platforms that have banned or curbed the ex-president Donald Trump’s plan to launch “Truth Social”, a special purpose acquisitions backed social media company, early next year may have hit a roadblock after US regulators issued a request for information on the deal on Monday.The request from the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for information from Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), a blank-check SPAC that is set to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group, comes as a powerful Republican congressman, Devin Nunes, announced he was stepping out of politics to join the Trump media venture as CEO.The twin developments set the stage for a major political battle over Truth Social, a platform that purportedly plans to challenge Twitter and Facebook, social platforms that have banned or curbed the former president over his involvement in stoking the 6 January Capitol riot.The request for information relates to DWAC board meetings, policies about stock trading, the identities of certain investors and details of communications between DWAC and Trump’s social media firm. It comes three weeks after Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren asked the SEC to investigate possible securities violations at the company.Warren quoted news reports that said DWAC “may have committed securities violations by holding private and undisclosed discussions about the merger as early as May 2021, while omitting this information in [SEC] filing and other public statements.”But investigations into the Trump project appear to predate Warren’s request.“According to the SEC’s request, the investigation does not mean that the SEC has concluded that anyone violated the law or that the SEC has a negative opinion of DWAC or any person, event, or security,” DWAC said in a statement.Last week, Reuters reported that Trump’s new company is trying to raise up to $1bn by selling shares to hedge funds and family offices at a price higher than the SPAC pre-merger valuation of $10 a share.It also comes as the launch of the Trump media venture failed to meet a November deadline to release an invitation-only beta version of the platform.In October, soon after the deal was announced, shares in DWAC soared by more than 1,200%, suggesting the implied value of the enterprise could reach $8.2bn. Trading in the company was halted 12 times as Trump fans pumped the stock on Reddit and StockTwits, pushing Trump’s 58% stake in the combined TMT-DWAC company to $4.8bn.DWAC shares were trading at $43.19 per share on Monday morning, down almost 3% on news of the filing, even as equity markets broadly were higher.According to a press release from Trump Media & Technology, the media operation will begin operations in the first quarter of next year, with Truth Social launching ahead of the 2022 midterm election and a potential subscription video on-demand service coming later.Milos Vulanovic, an expert in SPAC deals at the Edhec Business School in Nice, France, told the Guardian that Trump’s politically oriented media venture could bring “new investors who may not fully understand how SPACs work” into the market. “I don’t see why Trump-sponsored media couldn’t take 10% of the social media market and make huge money for Trump and his investors.”TopicsDonald TrumpSocial mediaDigital mediaUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

People in counties that voted Trump more likely to die from Covid – studyAreas that voted for Trump by at least 60% in November 2020 had 2.7 times the death rate than counties that voted heavily for Biden People in counties that voted for Donald Trump are nearly three times more likely to die from Covid-19 than those who live in counties that voted for Joe Biden, according to a new study by National Public Radio.Omicron brings fresh concern for US mental health after ‘grim two years’Read moreNPR examined deaths per 100,000 people in about 3,000 counties across the US since May 2021. According to NPR, 1 May was chosen as the start date as it is roughly the time when vaccines became universally available to adults.The study found that areas that voted for Trump by at least 60% in November 2020 had death rates 2.7 times higher than counties that voted heavily for Biden.The study also found that counties that voted for Trump by an even higher percentage had lower vaccination rates and higher Covid-19 death rates.Charles Gaba, an independent analyst who helped review NPR’s methodology, said that in October, the reddest 10th of the country saw death rates six times higher than the bluest 10th.“Those numbers have dropped slightly in recent weeks,” he said. “It’s back down to 5.5 times higher.”Hawaii, Nebraska and Alaska were excluded from the study because they either do not report election results by county or do not report county-level vaccine data.The study only examined the geographic locations of Covid-related deaths. The political views of each person remain unknown. Nevertheless, according to NPR, “the strength of the association, combined with polling information about vaccination, strongly suggests that Republicans are being disproportionately affected”.People in rural Republican areas, and white Republicans in general, tend to be more resistant to getting vaccinated. According to the latest data from the Kaiser Family Fund, the rate of Republican Covid vaccination has plateaued at 59%, while 91% of Democrats have been vaccinated.Republicans have been found to be more likely to believe misinformation about Covid and vaccines. According to KFF, 94% of Republicans think one or more false statements about Covid and vaccines might be true, and 46% believe four or more statements might be true. Only 14% of Democrats believe four or more false statements about the virus.New York City sets Covid vaccine mandate for all private employersRead moreThe most widely believed false statement is that the government is exaggerating the number of Covid deaths.According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 788,000 people have died of Covid in the US.Numerous Republican governors have dismissed concerns about low vaccination rates and pushed for ending public health measures such as mask wearing and social distancing in favor of reopening businesses.“We’ve seen lower levels of personal worry among Republicans who remain unvaccinated,” Liz Hamel, vice-president of public opinion and survey research at KFF, told NPR. “That’s a real contrast with what we saw in communities of color, where there was a high level of worry about getting sick.”TopicsUS newsCoronavirusDonald TrumpUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Republican Devin Nunes to quit Congress and head Trump’s social media platformCalifornia congressman has claimed without evidence that social media companies seek to censor Republicans Devin Nunes, the California congressman and close ally of Donald Trump, will be retiring from the US House of Representatives next year to join Trump’s new social media venture.The Republican congressman, who represents a rural California district, announced his retirement from the House on Monday, writing in a letter to constituents that he was leaving his position to pursue a “new opportunity to fight for the most important issues I believe in”.Shortly after, Trump Media & Technology Group announced Nunes would become the company’s chief executive in January.Republican Devin Nunes to leave Congress and run Trump’s social media venture – liveRead moreIn a statement, Nunes said: “The time has come to reopen the internet and allow for the free flow of ideas and expression without censorship.”Nunes, 48, has served as a congressman since 2003. He was a member of the intelligence committee during Donald Trump’s first impeachment and emerged as one of Trump’s staunchest defenders in the House.Nunes has long been a critic of major social media companies. The congressman has repeatedly claimed without evidence that platforms have been trying to censor Republicans.In 2019, he filed a lawsuit against Twitter over mocking tweets from two parody accounts, “Devin Nunes’ Mom” and “Devin Nunes’ Cow”. In the lawsuit, Nunes claimed he had endured “an orchestrated defamation campaign, one that no human being should ever have to bear and suffer in their whole life”. The suit also accused Twitter of censoring “viewpoints with which it disagrees”.The parody accounts pretending to be the congressman’s cow and his mother mocked him over revelations that his family had moved its farm to Iowa from California even as he used his agricultural roots as part of his campaign in central California.Later, the Trump justice department subpoenaed Twitter for information related to a parody account that criticized Nunes, federal court records revealed – even though a judge ruled that the representative could not sue the social media company for defamation.Earlier on Monday, the blank-check company that aims to take Trump Media & Technology Group public acknowledged that two regulatory agencies are scrutinizing the $1.25bn deal.Digital World Acquisition, which is often referred to by its trading symbol, DWAC, said it was cooperating with “the preliminary, fact-finding inquiries” by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.TopicsUS CongressDonald TrumpRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More