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BooksDrunken Giuliani urged Trump to ‘just say we won’ on election night, book saysAs key states started to slip away from Trump, Rudy Giuliani repeatedly urged former president to lie, according to new book

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Race in educationAsian American history to be taught in all Illinois public schoolsState will be first in US to ensure students learn about Asian Americans’ contributions to the nation’s culture and history Sarah Betancourt@ More

TexasGovernor vows to arrest Democrats who fled Texas to block voting restrictions Lawmakers flew to Washington DC to deny legislature a quorum Greg Abbott says he will call special sessions indefinitely G More

PfizerUS officials call for more data on vaccine boosters as Pfizer pushes for third shot Pharma company presses case with senior health officials WHO urges priority for nations with low Covid vaccination rates Ankita RaoTue 13 Jul 2021 08.29 EDTLast modified on Tue 13 Jul 2021 08.49 EDTPfizer, the pharmaceutical company that created one of the first Covid-19 vaccines to be approved, has been making a hard sell for emergency approval of boosters – additional doses given to those already vaccinated, especially immunocompromised adults.But in private meetings with Pfizer on Monday, senior US officials said they needed more data – prompting the latest debate over how to curb a pandemic which has claimed more than 620,000 lives in the country. Last week, the US health department also rebuked Pfizer for pressing for a booster shot, and Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, has said there isn’t enough evidence to support needing a third shot.Pfizer pushes for US booster shots as WHO says greed is driving vaccine disparitiesRead more“It was an interesting meeting. They shared their data. There wasn’t anything resembling a decision,” Fauci said in a Monday evening interview with the New York Times. “This is just one piece of a much bigger puzzle, and it’s one part of the data, so there isn’t a question of a convincing case one way or the other.”In the US, almost half of the population is fully vaccinated, while a little over half has received one dose, according to data from the Mayo Clinic. Still, vaccination rates lag in huge swaths of the country, giving the virus more opportunities for community outbreaks.Pfizer’s experts have pointed to Israel, where the government has decided to give a third Pfizer vaccine shot to vulnerable adults. But leaders from the World Health Organization and other organizations have pushed back, highlighting the vast lack of access and inequality in global vaccine distribution. More than 3.4 billion people have been vaccinated worldwide, but some countries, such as India, have rates as low as 5%.The debate over booster shots is the latest in the many public health decisions the Biden administration has faced since January. With the country largely relaxing Covid-19 rules and opening the economy, the path forward continues to be difficult, with emerging science being incorporated in real time.In next steps, Pfizer says it will submit more evidence to the government. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meanwhile, will further study breakthrough infections – which happen when people who are vaccinated contract Covid-19.TopicsPfizerCoronavirusPharmaceuticals industryVaccines and immunisationUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

US voting rightsHouse Democrats tell Senate: exempt voting rights bill from filibusterFilibuster exception would allow Democrats to push through their voting rights reform bill over unanimous Republican opposition Hugo Lowell in Washington DCTue 13 Jul 2021 03.00 EDTLast modified on Tue 13 Jul 2021 03.01 EDTTop Democrats in the House are spearheading a new effort to convince the Senate to carve out a historic exception to the filibuster that would allow them to push through their marquee voting rights and election reform legislation over unanimous Republican opposition.The sweeping measure to expand voting rights known as S1 fell victim to a Republican filibuster last month after Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and his leadership team unified the conference to sink the bill in a party-line vote.Now, furious at Republicans for weaponizing the filibuster against Joe Biden’s legislative agenda, House majority whip James Clyburn is pushing Senate Democrats to end its use for constitutional measures, according to sources familiar with the matter.The rare and forceful effort from a member of the House leadership to pressure changes in the Senate underscores the alarm among Democrats that the filibuster may be an insurmountable obstacle as they race to overturn a wave of Republican ballot restrictions.Ending the use of the filibuster for constitutional measures – and lowering the threshold to pass legislation to a simple majority in the 50-50 Senate – is significant as it would almost certainly pave the way for Democrats to expand voting across the US.The voting rights and election reform legislation remains of singular importance to Democrats as they seek to counter new voter restrictions in Republican-led states introduced in response to Trump’s lies about a stolen 2020 presidential election.Clyburn’s proposal to change Senate rules is intended to be limited. It would not eliminate the filibuster entirely, and would allow senators in the minority party to continue to deploy the procedural tactic on other types of legislation.The problem, as Democrats see it, is that Republicans in recent years have all but rewritten Senate rules to force supermajorities even for bills that carry bipartisan support. Filibustering bills, once extremely rare, has now become routine.The proposal to create an exception to the filibuster for constitutional measures mirrors the exception Democrats carved out for judicial nominations in 2013, after Republicans blocked former President Obama’s picks for cabinet posts and the federal judiciary.Clyburn’s proposal is particularly notable, the sources said, since it is broadly supported by the rest of the House Democratic leadership and is considered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be the only way to break the logjam in the Senate.The effort to create exceptions to the filibuster is being led by Clyburn in large part because of the influence he carries with the White House and the affinity he enjoys with Biden on a personal level, the sources said. Clyburn, a South Carolina congressman, was influential in securing his state for Biden in the 2020 race for the Democratic nomination – something that rescued Biden’s campaign from disaster.When Biden endorsed partial reforms to the filibuster in March, the prospect of Democrats taking action to defang the minority party’s ability to stall legislation, shifted almost overnight from a theoretical question to a possible reality on Capitol Hill.The details of what Biden endorsed was far less important than the fact he backed reform at all, and Clyburn, encouraged by that reception, has spoken to White House counsellor Steve Ricchetti and Vice President Harris to back his proposal, the sources said.McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, told the Guardian on Monday he was deeply unimpressed by Clyburn’s maneuvers. “If it’s not broken, it doesn’t need fixing,” McConnell said of the filibuster, adding he would “absolutely” oppose any changes.Clyburn’s outreach to top Senate Democrats and the Biden administration comes after Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer brought the issue of filibuster reform to the forefront by forcing votes last month on some of Biden’s most high-profile measures.The idea was to show to moderate Democrats opposed to filibuster reform – most notably Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema – that Republicans under McConnell will sink any Democratic policy proposals in an attempt to obstruct the administration.Schumer is still strategizing over how to advance S1 after vowing to reintroduce the bill following its defeat, according to a source familiar with his thinking. “In the fight for voting rights, this vote was the starting gun, not the finish line,” Schumer said.But carving out an exception to the filibuster for constitutional measures such as voting rights legislation, first floated by the number three Senate Democrat Patty Murray, appears to be the primary option despite resistance from the likes of Manchin and Sinema.Democrats open to making the change have previously indicated that their argument that the minority party should not have the power to repeatedly block legislation with widespread support resonates with the wider American public.They have also suggested that only partially ending its use could have fewer consequences for them should their political fortunes reverse as soon as after the 2022 midterms and they are thrust into the minority, trying to block Republican legislation.“The people did not give Democrats the House, Senate and White House to compromise with insurrectionists,” House Democrat Ayanna Pressley wrote on Twitter after Republicans blocked S1, illustrating the sentiment. “Abolish the filibuster so we can do the people’s work.”TopicsUS voting rightsUS SenateHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

Donald TrumpLegal threats to Donald Trump ‘more serious than ever before’, experts say Prosecutors in New York, Georgia and Washington have inquiries that could yield further, serious charges against the ex-presidentPeter Stone in WashingtonTue 13 Jul 2021 03.00 EDTLast modified on Tue 13 Jul 2021 03.01 EDTAs a New York criminal investigation continues after bringing tax fraud charges against Donald Trump’s business and a top executive, other prosecutors in Georgia, Washington DC and New York have inquiries under way that could also yield serious charges against Trump and his company, according to former prosecutors and public records.Rupert Murdoch approved Fox News calling Arizona for Biden, book claimsRead moreFor example, a Georgia district attorney is leading a wide ranging criminal probe into Trump’s infamous call on 2 January to Georgia’s secretary of state beseeching him to “find 11,780 votes” to block Joe Biden’s presidential election win there.Meanwhile, separate prosecutors in New York and Washington DC are scrutinizing whether Trump’s businesses benefited illegally during his 2017 inauguration. The Washington attorney general has sued the inaugural committee, the Trump International Hotel in DC and the Trump Organization alleging they schemed to make “exorbitant and unlawful” payments of over $1 million to Trump’s DC hotel which hosted some inaugural events.Further, Trump could be ensnared in a federal criminal investigation of his former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who Trump tapped to dig up dirt on Biden in Ukraine during the campaign. Giuliani is being investigated reportedly for possible violations of foreign lobbying laws that require registration, and for his role in Trump’s firing of the US ambassador there in 2019.On yet another legal front, Trump is facing several civil lawsuits, including one from writer E Jean Carroll, whose 2019 memoir alleged Trump once raped her. After Trump accused her of lying to sell books, Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit.Former justice department prosecutors say these inquiries and lawsuits increase legal pressures on Trump, even as Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance and New York attorney general Letitia James investigates more allegations of illegal acts by Trump’s business besides the June tax fraud charges against the Trump organization and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, a scheme that allegedly gave him free cars, rent and other perks for years.Trump denounced the New York charges as a political ploy by Democrats, and has attacked the others as witch-hunts. Weisselberg and the Trump Organization on July 1 both plead not guilty to the tax fraud charges.But this cast of wide-ranging inquiries and lawsuits pose huge legal headaches for Trump and look far more serious than many others Trump has dodged over decades, say former prosecutors.“The current threats are more numerous and more serious than ever before and it’s hard to imagine that his good luck will continue,” Michael Bromwich, an ex- prosecutor and former inspector general at the Justice Department, said in an interview.“Trump hates playing defense, which explains his baseless suit earlier this week against the major tech companies. We are very likely to see many more shoes dropping over the foreseeable future – and Trump knows it. He has never more desperately needed top legal talent, and that’s not who he has representing him.”Other justice department veterans foresee multiple legal travails for Trump.“Donald Trump is now facing more than a dozen separate civil lawsuits and criminal investigations, with more matters likely to follow,” said Phillip Halpern, a former California prosecutor who spent three decades focused on corruption cases.Halpern added that the criminal inquiries in Georgia, New York and Washington have the potential to “drastically impact Trump’s historical legacy, and result in his – or various family members, associates, and attorneys – spending considerable time in jail.”Halpern stressed that the civil lawsuits and the New York investigation by Vance and James “carry the potential for sizable personal monetary penalties, and could subject Trump’s companies to massive penalties”.These legal threats vary in risk to Trump, but the inquiry into Trump’s call pressuring Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to reverse Biden’s win, bears watching.The district attorney leading that inquiry, Fani Willis, has written that prosecutors are examining “potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration.”Cathy Cox, a former Georgia secretary of state and Dean of Mercer University School of Law, said that the Fulton county inquiry is “nothing to take lightly”.Cox stressed that Willis is “experienced with Georgia’s expansive Rico [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] law, she has a record of using it successfully in high-profile cases, and she’s engaged the state’s undisputed Rico expert, attorney John Floyd, to assist her. Those factors ramp this case up even further in terms of its potential for serious criminal charges.”Moreover, Trump’s business faces legal jeopardy from inquiries into spending by his inaugural committee that were separately launched by federal prosecutors in New York and by Washington attorney general Karl Racine. Racine has deposed Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump, which could create other problems for the Trump family if they didn’t answer truthfully.In a court filing, Racine’s office stated that Trump Jr’s testimony “raised further questions about the nature” of an invoice related to the inauguration “and revealed evidence that defendants had not yet produced to the district”.More legal headaches for Trump may arise from the expanding inquiry into Giuliani, whose New York home and office were raided in April by federal agents who seized 10 electronic devices including cell phones and computers.The inquiry is reportedly focused on Giuliani’s role in Trump’s firing of US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch in May 2019, a move pushed by Giuliani and two Soviet-born associates – indicted earlier on charges of campaign finance violations – and a central issue in Trump’s first impeachment.Giuliani is under investigation to determine if he broke the Foreign Agents Registration Act requiring those who lobby the US government on behalf of foreign officials to register with the DoJ.Giuliani has denied doing anything unlawful.Looking ahead, ex-DoJ officials say that the detailed charges now brought against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer could presage more legal problems for Trump’s business.“The thoroughness and highly factual nature of the indictments give a lot of information about the deeply inappropriate practices of Trump’s business,” said Donald Ayer, a former deputy attorney general at the justice department in the George HW Bush administration. “There is no particular reason to think that such inappropriate practices were confined to dealings with Allen Weisselberg.”Yet some former prosecutors predict that as his legal problems mount, Trump and his supporters will milk the inquiries for political gain.“Trump uses his legal problems to reinforce his image as an outsider (and) to fire up his base,” said Barbara McQuade, a professor from practice at the University of Michigan Law School and a US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan.She added: “But for those who care about the rule of law, it is important to hold accountable individuals who engage in illegal activity, even former presidents.”TopicsDonald TrumpUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Joe BidenBiden to denounce Trump’s lies about stolen election in Tuesday speechJen Psaki said he will also ‘decry efforts to strip the right to vote’ as Republican state legislatures pass voter suppression bills David Smith in Washington@ More