US Politics

Every former American president picks up hobbies after leaving office (books, painting, skinny dipping, boxing). For the early days of Donald Trump’s post-presidency he has picked something a little different: revenge.
It’s early and presidents usually intentionally recede from public view dramatically after leaving office. But Trump appears uninterested in following that practice.
The 45th president has amassed a post-presidential war chest of $31m. He has endorsed a former aide in an upcoming gubernatorial election in the shape of his former press secretary Sarah Sanders in Arkansas.
And he has vowed to take revenge on high-profile Republicans who he sees as the chief reason he is out of office – like Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia or the House Republican Conference chairwoman, Liz Cheney, the highest-ranking member of her caucus to vote for impeaching the former president.
Some of Trump’s allies are also either keeping roles in the political campaign sphere to maintain Trumpism or beginning the siege on his opponents. Matt Gaetz, the Florida congressman and staunch Trump ally, has already traveled to Wyoming to encourage opposition to Cheney. In Arizona, pro-Trump Republicans censured the former senator Jeff Flake, Governor Doug Ducey and Cindy McCain, the widow of the late senator John McCain.
In Pennsylvania, the state Republican party recently reaffirmed its full support for Trump as well. And above the state parties, the Republican National Committee chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, a Trump ally, was re-elected to her post.
The former president has largely stayed out of public view while Congress moves forward with his second impeachment trial, but is poised to re-emerge in the months ahead. On Tuesday one of Trump’s lawyers, David Schoen, appeared on Fox News’ Hannity as well.
To cement his influence Trump has also not discounted the possibility of running for election again in 2024, forcing other would-be Republican candidates to tread carefully as they plot their own groundwork for the next presidential campaign.
But anti-Trump sentiment within the party is growing as well, albeit slowly, especially for a president who left office after one term with underwater approval ratings. Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach the president, recently set up a political action committee to help reclaim the party from Trump’s allies. Flake continues to make media appearances and uses them to fight Trump’s hold on the Republican party. More

US lawmakers have nominated Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement for the Nobel peace prize, calling the campaigners a global inspiration in the face of a crackdown by Beijing.In a letter to the Nobel committee released on Wednesday, nine lawmakers across party lines cited the estimate that more than two million people took to the streets on 16 June 2019.Given Hong Kong has a population of 7.5 million, it amounts to “one of the largest mass protests in history”, said the letter, led by Republican senator Marco Rubio and Democratic representative Jim McGovern, co-chairs of the congressional-executive commission on China which assesses human rights.“This prize would honour their bravery and determination that have inspired the world,” they wrote. “We hope that the Nobel committee will continue to shine a light on those struggling for peace and human rights in China and we believe the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong is deserving of recognition this year.”The lawmakers said they expected more Hong Kong democracy activists to be convicted in the coming months “for the sole reason of peacefully expressing their political views”.Beijing last year imposed a National Security Law that it has used to clamp down on dissent after the unrest in the financial hub.Those who have been rounded up include 24-year-old Joshua Wong, one of the city’s most recognisable democracy advocates, who has been charged with subversion.The US lawmakers recommended that the prize go broadly to all who have pushed for human rights and democracy in Hong Kong since 1997.Elected lawmakers around the world, as well as governments, academics and international judges have the right to nominate candidates for the Nobel peace prize, and recommendations do not mean that they will be selected.China put heavy pressure on Norway, whose parliament appoints members of the Nobel Committee, after the prize went in 2010 to jailed dissident writer Liu Xiaobo – who was still in state custody when he died seven years later. More

The United States government is “deeply disturbed” by reports of systematic rape and sexual torture of women detained in China’s Xinjiang camps for ethnic Uighur and other Muslims, and demanded serious consequences.The US state department was responding to a BBC report, published on Wednesday, detailing horrific allegations rape, sexual abuse and torture, based on interviews with several former detainees and a guard. The interviewees told the BBC “they experienced or saw evidence of an organised system of mass rape, sexual abuse and torture”.“We are deeply disturbed by reports, including first-hand testimony, of systematic rape and sexual abuse against women in internment camps for ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang,” a state department spokesperson said, reiterating US accusations that China has committed “crimes against humanity and genocide” in Xinjiang.“These atrocities shock the conscience and must be met with serious consequences.”The spokesperson demanded China allow “immediate and independent investigations by international observers” into the rape allegations “in addition to the other atrocities being committed in Xinjiang.”The BBC report said it was unable to independently verify the women’s stories, which included horrific accounts of sexual assault and torture, and the forcing of some women to strip and handcuff others before they were left alone with Han men. However, key details and travel documents matched timelines and available satellite imagery, and corresponded with numerous other accounts from former detainees.Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, echoed the US’s calls for international observers, including the UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, “to be given immediate, meaningful and unfettered access to Xinjiang at the earliest opportunity,” she said.“Australia has been consistent in raising our significant concerns with the human rights abuses in Xinjiang. These latest reports of systematic torture and abuse of women are deeply disturbing and raise serious questions regarding the treatment of Uighurs and other religious and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.”China has consistently denied allegations of human rights abuses and genocide in Xinjiang, despite mounting evidence of mass internment, suspected forced labour programmes, indoctrination, forced sterilisation of women, extensive digital and in person surveillance, and suppression of religious and cultural activities. China says the camps are vocational training centres designed to counter extremism.On Wednesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin accused the BBC of making a “false report” which was “wholly without factual basis”.He claimed the women interviewed were “actors disseminating false information”, and said China had released multiple reports showing “people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang live in peace and contentment, unity and harmony, and that all their legal rights are effectively guaranteed”.Among the reports referred to the Wang is a white paper on Xinjiang which last year admitted for the first time that more than 1.2 million people had been sent through its “vocational training” programmes.The BBC revelations horrified the global Uighur community, many of whom have missing family members detained or suspected to be detained in the camps. Recent data leaks have shown that contact with overseas relatives has been used by Chinese authorities to justify detaining a Uighur person in Xinjiang.“I have a mother, a wife, sisters, aunts, and grandmothers. The rape of any woman breaks my heart and makes my blood boil,” said Salih Hudayar, the US-based founder of a self-declared government-in-exile for East Turkistan.“The systematic rape of Uighur and other Turkic women are part of China’s ongoing genocide against East Turkistan’s people. We urge the international community to support our case against China at the International Criminal Court.”In December the ICC rejected an application to investigate claims of genocide in Xinjiang, saying it was unable to act because the alleged crimes occurred in China, which is not a party to the court and so is outside its jurisdiction.The Biden administration has endorsed a declaration by the outgoing Trump administration in its final days of office that China has committed genocide in Xinjiang. More

Key events

Show

4.49pm EST16:49
McCarthy defends refusal to remove extremist Greene from committees

4.30pm EST16:30
House Republicans meet to discuss Greene and Cheney

3.59pm EST15:59
Pelosi mocks McCarthy as a member of the ‘Q’ party

3.22pm EST15:22
House rules committee holds hearing on punishing extremist Greene

2.20pm EST14:20
White House walks back CDC director’s comments about vaccinating teachers

1.48pm EST13:48
White House warns against ‘cost of inaction’ on coronavirus relief

1.29pm EST13:29
DoJ drops discrimination case against Yale

Live feed

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4.49pm EST16:49

McCarthy defends refusal to remove extremist Greene from committees

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy has released a statement defending his refusal to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over her racist, anti-Semitic and violent rhetoric.

Kevin McCarthy
(@GOPLeader)
My full statement on Rep. Taylor Greene: https://t.co/BBjlftVdUn

February 3, 2021

“Past comments from and endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene on school shootings, political violence, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference,” McCarthy said.
“I condemn those comments unequivocally. I condemned them in the past. I continue to condemn them today. This House condemned QAnon last Congress and continues to do so today.”
McCarthy went on to accuse House Democratic leadership of “choosing to raise the temperature by taking the unprecedented step to further their partisan power grab regarding the committee assignments of the other party”.
“I understand that Marjorie’s comments have caused deep wounds to many and as a result, I offered Majority Leader Hoyer a path to lower the temperature and address these concerns,” McCarthy said.
Steny Hoyer released a statement earlier today saying that McCarthy made it clear there was “no alternative” to moving forward with a full House vote to remove Greene from her committee assignments. The vote will take place tomorrow.

4.42pm EST16:42

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy has been telling allies that he plans to defend Liz Cheney during this afternoon’s meeting, according to Politico.

Melanie Zanona
(@MZanona)
House @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy has been telling ppl he plans to DEFEND Liz Cheney during closed-door meeting and make the case for her to stay in leadership, per sources.

February 3, 2021

Some Republicans have called on Cheney to step down as House Republican conference chairwoman over her vote to impeach Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection.

4.30pm EST16:30

House Republicans meet to discuss Greene and Cheney

House Republicans are now holding a caucus meeting to discuss two of their members, Liz Cheney and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Both congresswomen have faced criticism from fellow Republicans in recent days, but they are each in the hot seat for very, very different reasons.

Craig Caplan
(@CraigCaplan)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) heads to House GOP Conference meeting. pic.twitter.com/nU9al3GhAe

February 3, 2021

Greene has been denounced by members of both parties for supporting the antisemitic conspiracy theory QAnon and for spouting many racist and extremist beliefs. The House is expected to hold a vote tomorrow on removing Greene from her committee assignments.
Cheney, on the other hand, has been criticized by Trump loyalists for voting to impeach the former president over inciting the 6 January insurrection at the Capitol. Some Republicans have said Cheney should step down as the House Republican conference chairwoman.
The action that House Republicans pursue in connection to the two congresswomen could provide clues as to how the caucus will conduct itself now that Trump has left office.
Stay tuned for updates from the meeting.

Updated
at 4.38pm EST

4.23pm EST16:23

Matt Gaetz, a Florida congressman who has been one of Donald Trump’s fiercest advocates in the House, suggested he would give up his seat to defend the former president in the impeachment trial.
Gaetz made the comment in an interview today with Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist.
“I love my district,” Gaetz told Bannon. “I love representing them. But I view this cancellation of the Trump presidency and the Trump movement as one of the major risks to my people, both in my district and all throughout this great country.”
Gaetz added, “Absolutely, if the president called me and wanted me to go defend him on the floor of the Senate, that would be the top priority in my life. I would leave my House seat, I would leave my home, I would do anything I had to do to ensure that the greatest president in my lifetime … got a full-throated defense.”
The House approved an article of impeachment against Trump last month, charging the then-president of incitement of insurrection in connection to the 6 January attack on the Capitol.
Ten House Republicans supported the article of impeachment, making it the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in US history.

Updated
at 4.34pm EST

4.08pm EST16:08

More Senate Republicans are coming out to denounce the racist, antisemitic and violent rhetoric of congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Thom Tillis, a Republican of North Carolina, said in a new tweet, “It’s beyond reprehensible for any elected official, especially a member of Congress, to parrot violent QAnon rhetoric and promote deranged conspiracies like the Pentagon wasn’t really hit by a plane on 9/11. It’s not conservative, it’s insane.”

Senator Thom Tillis
(@SenThomTillis)
It’s beyond reprehensible for any elected official, especially a member of Congress, to parrot violent QAnon rhetoric and promote deranged conspiracies like the Pentagon wasn’t really hit by a plane on 9/11. It’s not conservative, it’s insane.

February 3, 2021

Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota also said this afternoon that it would be “very hard” for him to support Greene staying on the House education committee, given that she has suggested school shootings were hoaxes. (Those suggestions, of course, have absolutely no basis in reality.)

Julie Tsirkin
(@JulieNBCNews)
CRAMER on House vote to strip @mtgreenee of committee assignments: “It would be very hard for me if I was over there and going to cast a vote… that I could support somebody be on the education committee that doesn’t believe that school shootings are really school shootings.” pic.twitter.com/fSk7f7tDHU

February 3, 2021

The House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, has refused to remove Greene from her committee assignments, so the Democratic leadership is moving forward with a full chamber vote to do so.

Updated
at 4.40pm EST

3.59pm EST15:59

Pelosi mocks McCarthy as a member of the ‘Q’ party

Nancy Pelosi has just released a scathing statement about minority leader Kevin McCarthy’s refusal to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over her racist, antisemitic and fringe beliefs.
The Democratic speaker’s press release identifies the Republican leader’s party and state affiliation as “Q-CA,” rather than “R-CA”.

Kadia Goba
(@kadiagoba)
Another example Dems are making QAnon the center of their strategy against Republicans. McCarthy’s party designation is now a “Q” in Pelosi’s latest note. pic.twitter.com/2YqgMIitvo

February 3, 2021

“After several conversations and literally running away from reporters, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Q-CA) made clear that he is refusing to take action against conspiracy theorist Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Pelosi said in the statement.
“As a result, the House will continue with a vote to strip Greene of her seat on the esteemed House Committee on Education & Labor and House Committee on Budget. McCarthy’s failure to lead his party effectively hands the keys over to Greene – an antisemite, QAnon adherent and 9/11 truther.”
Pelosi noted that several Republicans, including No 2 Senate Republican John Thune, have outlined the need to denounce Greene’s racist and antisemitic rhetoric.
Quoting Thune, Pelosi said, “McCarthy has chosen to make House Republicans ‘the party of conspiracy theories and QAnon’ and Rep Greene is in the driver’s seat.”

Updated
at 4.15pm EST

3.46pm EST15:46

Jim McGovern, the Democratic chairman of the House rules committee, said he believed removing Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments was “the minimum” that the House should do.
“I personally think she should resign,” McGovern said. “I don’t think she’s fit to serve in this institution.”
Other Democrats have also called on Greene to resign, but she has refused to do so, instead sending fundraising pitches linked to the outcry over her racist and anti-Semitic beliefs.

3.41pm EST15:41

Congressman Ted Deutch, a Democratic member of the House rules committee, got choked up as he discussed the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school during today’s hearing.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has suggested the shooting was a hoax. That is of course not true. The shooting was real, and 17 people were killed in the attack.
The shooting took place in Deutch’s district, and the congressman started his comments by reading off the names of the Parkland victims.
“There are not words in the English language to properly describe how the remarks of Ms Greene makes these communities feel,” Deutch said. “This makes it so much worse.”

Updated
at 3.45pm EST

3.29pm EST15:29

Tom Cole, the top Republican on the House rules committee, said he considered today’s hearing to be “premature”.
Cole described Marjorie Taylor Green’s racist, antisemitic and violent comments as “deeply offensive,” but he suggested the matter should be referred to the House ethics committee before she is removed from her committee assignments.
The House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, has already said the full House will vote on removing Greene from her committee assignments tomorrow.

Updated
at 4.15pm EST

3.22pm EST15:22

House rules committee holds hearing on punishing extremist Greene

The House rules committee is now holding a hearing on removing Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia congresswoman who has voiced support for the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory QAnon, from her committee assignments.
Jim McGovern, the Democratic chairman of the committee, opened the proceedings by noting, “We have never had a hearing like this before.” McGovern said of Greene’s racist and fringe beliefs, “This is sick stuff.”
McGovern argued that serving on House committees should be seen as a privilege rather than a right and the chamber was required to hold its members to a certain standard.
“It is not about canceling anybody with different political beliefs,” McGovern said. “It is about accountability and about upholding the integrity and the decency of this institution. If this isn’t the bottom line, I don’t know where the hell the bottom line is.”

3.07pm EST15:07

The Biden administration has said it cannot release the visitor logs from the Trump White House.
“We cannot [release them],” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said this afternoon. “That is under the purview of the National Archives, so I’d certainly point you to there.”

CBS News
(@CBSNews)
Psaki says Biden administration cannot release Trump White House visitor logs, which are controlled by the National Archives. The Trump White House cut off public access to the logs in April 2017.Psaki says Biden visitor logs will be released quarterly https://t.co/Nj065CIsxp pic.twitter.com/RNPmUHhPzR

February 3, 2021

Reporters have asked the new administration about the visitor logs amid questions over whether Donald Trump hosted anyone who participated in the January 6 insurrection in the days leading up to the attack on the Capitol.
The Biden White House has pledged to release its own visitor logs every quarter, as Barack Obama’s administration did.

2.50pm EST14:50

Leyland Cecco reports for the Guardian from Toronto:
Canada has designated the far-right Proud Boys group as a terrorist organization alongside Isis and al-Qaida, amid growing concerns over the spread of white supremacist groups in the country.
On Wednesday Bill Blair, public safety minister, also announced the federal government would designate the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups the Atomwaffen Division, the Base and the Russian Imperial Movement as terrorist entities. The federal government also added offshoots of al-Qaida, Isis and Hizbul Mujahedin to its list.
“Canada will not tolerate ideological, religious or politically motivated acts of violence,” Blair said.
The move by the federal government follows allegations that the Proud Boys played a role in the mob attack on the US Capitol in January. During the 2020 presidential debates, when Donald Trump was asked to condemn white supremacist groups, he instead told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by”.
In late January, Canada’s parliament unanimously passed a motion calling on the federal government to designate the rightwing Proud Boys as a terrorist group. The motion had no practical legal impact, but spoke to a growing worry over rightwing extremism in Canada.
Ahead of the announcement, Canadian officials told reporters that they had been monitoring the Proud Boys before the Capitol Hill attack, but the event helped with the decision to list the organization. More

Republicans faced a reckoning on Wednesday as leaders in the US House of Representatives confronted calls to punish two prominent congresswomen who represent clashing futures for a party with no dominant leader since Donald Trump left the White House.
Those loyal to the former president are demanding Republicans strip Liz Cheney, the No 3 Republican in the House, of her leadership post as punishment for her vote last month to impeach Trump.
At the same time, Republicans are facing mounting calls from Democrats and some moderate Republicans to remove the newly elected congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia from her powerful committee assignments because of her history of bigoted and violent commentary on social media.
The Republican House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, met with Greene, a devotee of the antisemitic conspiracy theory QAnon, who indicated support in the past on social media for executing Democratic politicians , to discuss her committee assignments on Tuesday night.
But the congresswoman apparently refused to resign from those positions.
On Wednesday, the Democratic House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, said Democrats were left with no choice but to move forward with a resolution to strip Greene of her assignments.
After a discussion with McCarthy, Hoyer said it was “clear there is no alternative” to holding a vote on the floor of the House, an indication that Republican leadership was not willing to strip Greene of her assignments. The vote was scheduled for Thursday.
Earlier this week, the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, assailed Greene’s embrace of what he termed “loony lies and conspiracy theories,” calling her views a “cancer for the Republican party”.
But McCarthy and other leaders have been far more circumspect, aware of her sway among the party’s grassroots – and with Trump, whom she met with earlier this week at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he has been holed up since leaving Washington on 20 January without attending election victor Joe Biden’s inauguration.
The resolution, introduced by Democrats, cites Greene’s “recent conduct”, a reference to her social media posts that include support for an array of conspiracy theories.
Other Democrats have introduced measures to censure Greene on the House floor or expel her from the chamber, an extraordinary step that would require support from dozens of Republicans.
Greene has defended herself on Twitter, claiming that Democrats’ efforts to remove her from the House labor and education committee are an attack on her identity as a “White, Woman, Wife, Mother, Christian, Conservative, Business Owner”.
But her appointment to the education committee was particularly problematic after it was revealed that she had wrongly claimed the 2018 deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, was a “false flag” event staged by those opposing lax gun rights. She has also publicly harassed a survivor of that massacre in person.
Greene also serves on the House budget committee.
McCarthy, a staunch ally of Trump who voted to overturn the election results in two states based on spurious allegations of voter fraud in the hours after the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol by Trump supporters on 6 January, also faces pressure from members of his own party to reprimand Cheney during a closed-door meeting later on Wednesday.
Cheney, the daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney and now a Republican representative for the family’s home state of Wyoming, has received support from Republican leaders, including McConnell.
He called her “a leader with deep convictions and the courage to act on them”. The Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a frequent defender of Trump, said Cheney was “one of the strongest and most reliable conservative voices in the Republican party” and called her leadership in the party “invaluable”.
The fates of the two congresswomen underscore the deep internal tensions within the Republican party as it grapples with the aftershocks of Trump’s presidency. More

Joe Biden and his new treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, are encouraging Democrats in Congress to go big and bold on the Covid-19 relief package and have effectively panned a Republican alternative that is less than a third the size of the president’s $1.9tn rescue plan.Senate Democrats took steps on Tuesday to push ahead with the huge bill, with or without Republican support, despite the ostensibly amicable bipartisan talks at the White House the day before.Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, warned that the coronavirus crisis could drag on for several years unless maximum effort for large-scale relief is made on Capitol Hill.Democrats voted to launch a process that could approve the sweeping rescue package on their own if necessary.On Tuesday, Biden and Yellen joined the Democratic senators for a private virtual meeting and both declared the Republicans’ $618bn relief offer too small.They urged ambitious and fast action to stem the coronavirus pandemic crisis and its economic fallout.Biden on Wednesday was meeting with congressional Democrats. In a call-in to the weekly meeting of Democratic representatives he said he was willing to consider tighter limits on who gets $1,400 direct payments under his Covid-19 relief plan but not the size of the checks, CNN reported.The president invited incoming Democratic chairs of some key Senate committees to the Oval Office.“This is their new home for a while anyway,” Biden said. “And with a little bit of luck, the grace of God and the goodwill of the neighbors, and the crick not rising, it’s going to be longer than just four years.”Asked whether he believed any Republican lawmakers would support his relief proposal, Biden replied: “I think we’ll get some Republicans.”“I think we’ll get some Republicans,” Biden told us in Oval, referring to GOP votes on latest coronavirus stimulus spending plan. pic.twitter.com/VrZXudKJQh— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 3, 2021
Earlier, Senators Chris Coons and Tom Carper of Delaware emerged from an hour-long meeting with Biden at the White House.Carper said the trio discussed the need to confirm Biden’s cabinet nominees, as well as president’s coronavirus relief proposal.Coons pushed for financing global vaccine relief. He noted to reporters after that it is in Biden’s coronavirus relief proposal but not in the counter proposal from 10 Republicans, and is how US can restore its global leadership.As the White House reaches for a bipartisan bill, Democrats marshaled their slim Senate majority, voting 50-49, to start a lengthy process for approving Biden’s bill with a simple majority.The goal is to have Covid-19 relief approved by March, when extra unemployment assistance and other pandemic aid expires.“President Biden spoke about the need for Congress to respond boldly and quickly,” Schumer said after the lunch meeting, and, referring to the GOP counter offer, he added: “If we did a package that small, we’d be mired in the Covid crisis for years.”Biden framed his views during the virtual lunch meeting with Democrats by talking about the need not to forget working- and middle-class families – even those like nurses and pipe-fitters making $150,000 for a family of four – who are straining during the crisis, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private call.The night before, Biden met with 10 Republican senators pitching their $618bn alternative, and let them know it was insufficient to meet the country’s needs. The president made it clear that he will not delay aid in hopes of winning GOP support.While no compromise was reached during the late Monday session, White House talks with Republicans are privately under way.The outcome will test the new president striving to unify the country but confronting a rising Covid-19 death toll and stubbornly high jobless numbers, with political risks for all sides.Vaccine distributions, direct $1,400 payments to households, school reopenings and business aid are all on the line.The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, criticized the Democrats for pressing ahead on their own. He said he had spoken to Biden ahead of his meeting with the 10 GOP senators.“They’ve chosen a totally partisan path,” McConnell said. “That’s unfortunate.”White House officials have previously cited the US Chamber of Commerce as evidence of broad support for their plan, but the nation’s most prominent business group issued a letter on Tuesday that urged a bipartisan compromise.“There ought to be common ground for a bipartisan proposal that can become law,” Neil Bradley, executive vice-president and chief policy officer, said in an interview.The cornerstone of the GOP plan is $160bn for the healthcare response and vaccine distribution, a “massive expansion” of testing, protective gear and funds for rural hospitals, similar to what Biden has proposed.But from there, the two plans drastically diverge. The vote on Tuesday opens 50 hours of debate on a budget resolution, with amendment votes expected later this week. More

Joe Biden has described his swearing-in as president as “one of the most consequential inaugurations in a long, long time” in his first White House interview.The new president marked two weeks in office on Wednesday and speaking to People magazine, Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, discussed a range of topics, including their marriage, faith and the scale of the challenges he will face.His inauguration bore a rare weight, Biden said, “not because I was being sworn in, but in the sense of what the state of the nation is, between everything from Covid to unemployment to racial inequality.“We wanted to make sure that as many Americans could participate as possible, and it turns out millions of people watched it.”Biden has signed a series of executive orders since he came into office, increasing food-stamp benefits and halting new oil and gas leases on public lands. He has also put in place stricter coronavirus rules on people entering the US.“We have such an incredible opportunity as a country now. Not because of me but because the American people sort of had the blinders ripped off, and they realized that, man, we have problems, but we also have enormous opportunities,” Biden said.On Tuesday the new president also pledged to undo the “moral shame” of Donald Trump’s immigration polices, in what was probably a deliberate choice of words Biden, who is Catholic. In the People interview, Biden discussed how important his faith is in his daily life.“My religion, for me, is a safe place. I never miss mass, because I can be alone. I mean, I’m with my family but just kind of absorbing the fundamental principle that you’ve got to treat everyone with dignity,” Biden said.“Other people may meditate. For me, prayer gives me hope, and it centers me.”The Bidens also discussed the secrets to a stable marriage, with the president saying Jill Biden “has a backbone like a ramrod”.“Everybody says marriage is 50-50. Well, sometimes you have to be 70-30,” Biden said. “Thank God that when I’m really down, she steps in, and when she’s really down, I’m able to step in. We’ve been really supportive of one another.”Jill Biden, a college educator who will continue to teach during Biden’s presidency, told People that “after 43 years of marriage there’s really not that much more to fight about”.“All that we’ve been through together – the highs, the lows and certainly tragedy and loss – there’s that quote that says sometimes you become stronger in the fractured places,” Jill Biden said.“That’s what we try to achieve.” More

In 2001, nine days after terrorists attacked the United States and its federal government, a Republican president stood before Congress with the overwhelming support of a terrified nation, as he presented a stark choice to the world.“Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,” said George W Bush to loud applause in September 2001. “From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.”Thus was born the post-9/11 era, which survived for the best part of two decades, costing trillions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives, and realigning American diplomacy and politics in stark terms.Republicans fought and won two elections on the basis that they were strong and unequivocal in defending the nation, while Democrats were weak flip-floppers who tried to have it both ways.Today Washington is staring at something like a new dawn – the start of the post-Trump era – and Republicans don’t know which side of the war they’re on. Are they with the United States or with the insurrectionists?The early answers are catastrophically weak in a world where the threats are not distant or abstract. This is not a risk posed to American officials halfway around the world, or a potential threat that might one day materialize in a foreign capital.This is a clear and present danger for the very members of Congress who must now decide between protecting their own careers or protecting the lives of the people working down the hall. With the second impeachment trial of Donald J Trump starting next week, there’s no escaping the moment of decision for at least 50 Republican senators: are you with the United States or not?In every single other working environment, this would not be a hard choice. Given the chance to save your own job or save the lives of your co-workers – even the ones you dislike – the vast majority of decent people would save lives.Just listen to the first-hand accounts of representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Katie Porter. Ocasio-Cortez gave a chilling account of hiding in her office bathroom to save her life as insurrectionists stormed the Capitol last month.It is long past time to admit the blindingly obvious: the Republican party has been hijacked by fascist extremistsThere’s no question that she, like many others, feared for her life. Porter recalled her friend desperately seeking refuge in her office. She gave Ocasio-Cortez a pair of sneakers in case they needed to run for their lives.The mortal threat was not confined to high-profile Democrats. Mike Pence, the most toady of Trump loyalists, was hiding from the mob with his family, while terrorists chanted about hanging him. If anyone needed confirmation of their murderous intent, there was a makeshift gallows outside the Capitol.It is long past time to admit the blindingly obvious: the Republican party has been hijacked by fascist extremists. It is now a far-right organization in league with neo-Nazis who have made it painfully clear they want to overthrow democracy and seize power, using violence if necessary.Every decision the so-called leaders make at this point defines which side they are on: the United States as we know it, or the white supremacist mob.In these few weeks since the mob trashed the Capitol, leading to five deaths, Republican leaders have bathed themselves less in glory than in the sewage of fascism. Given a choice between the conservative Liz Cheney and the fascist Marjorie Taylor Greene, House Republicans have shunned the former and hugged the latter.It’s Cheney whose position as part of the Republican leadership is under threat, while Greene is only coming under pressure from Democrats – who for some reason find themselves alone in feeling horrified by Greene’s advocacy for the execution of Democrats and white supremacy in general.Republican leaders now find themselves in a prisoner’s dilemma of their own making. Both Mitch McConnell in the US Senate and Kevin McCarthy in the House of Representatives could escape the worst public punishment if they act together to take back their own party. Instead, they are ratting on each other.McConnell said in a statement on Monday that Greene posed an existential threat to the party. “Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican party and our country,” he said, while also supporting Cheney’s leadership.Technically this is McCarthy’s mess to clean up, in the House rather than the Senate. But McCarthy can’t bring himself to say something in public about the QAnon cultist Greene, or what she represents.Instead he traveled to Florida at the weekend to kiss the ring of the man who really stands at the center of this threat to our democracy: one Donald J Trump, who is supposedly a Greene fan, according to Greene herself.There may be rational short-term reasons why McConnell and McCarthy have parted ways on this fascist thing.McConnell just lost control of the Senate because it’s challenging to win statewide contests – even in conservative places like Georgia – when you’re trying to overthrow democracy at the same time. McCarthy, meanwhile, deludes himself that he can get closer to power because House districts are so gerrymandered that Republicans are only threatened by the cannibalizing power of the mob.But in reality, there is no choice. This isn’t about loony lies or conspiracy theories, as McConnell suggests. It’s not about Republican primaries or Trump’s disapproval, as McCarthy fears.The choice in front of Republicans is whether they support democracy or not; whether they want to live and work in fear of the mob, or not. QAnon may be loony but its goals are to murder elected officials, and its supporters include heavily armed insurrectionists. The 1930s fascists were also unhinged and proved themselves deadly serious about mass murder.Next week Republicans in Washington have one more chance to turn their backs on fascism. They could reject the laughable claims from Trump’s lawyers that he was merely exercising his free speech rights by telling his mob to march on Congress and fight like hell. Apparently such conduct does not constitute incitement to riot, because the word “incitement” has lost all relationship to reality.Nobody expects Republican senators to vote in enough numbers to convict Trump of the obvious charges that played out on television. Nobody expects enough of them to reject the violent overthrow of the democracy that put them in the Senate.They represent, to use Bush’s language, a hostile regime inside the nation’s capital. Until Republicans split with the insurrectionists – by ejecting them from their party or forming their own – democracy itself is unsafe. More