US Politics

The US Congress on Monday began a two-week sprint to rescue the federal government from a possible shutdown amid the coronavirus pandemic, the first major test since the election of whether Republicans and Democrats intend to cooperate.Government funding for nearly all federal agencies expires on Saturday 11 December.Congressional negotiators have made progress on how to divvy up around $1.4tn to be spent by 30 September 2021, the end of the current fiscal year, according to a House of Representatives Democratic aide.But more granular details are still unresolved and votes by the full House and Senate on a huge funding bill may come close to bumping up against that 11 December deadline.Still unclear is whether Donald Trump, who was defeated in the 3 November election, will cooperate with the effort.If the post-election “lame duck” session of Congress fails to produce a budget deal, the new Congress convening in January would have to clean up the mess just weeks before the inauguration of Joe Biden.Trump has already warned that he would veto a wide-ranging defense authorization bill Congress aims to pass if a provision is included stripping Confederate leaders’ names from military bases.Failure by the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate to pass a spending bill could have dire consequences. Some healthcare operations could be short-staffed or otherwise interrupted at a time when Covid-19 cases in the US have been surging. Nearly 267,000 people have died in the US as a result of the virus.The spending bill could be the vehicle for providing billions of dollars to state and local governments to help them handle coronavirus vaccines on track to be available in coming weeks and months.Beyond pandemic worries, if government funds were allowed to run out next month, airport operations could slow, national parks would close, some medical research would be put on hold and thousands of other programs would be jeopardized as government workers are furloughed, further hurting the struggling US economy.Washington suffered record-long partial shutdowns between 22 December 2018 and 25 January 2019, the result of a standoff between Democrats and Trump over funding the US-Mexico border wall that was a centerpiece of his presidency.This time around, Republicans are seeking $2bn for the southern barrier that most Democrats and some Republican lawmakers claim is an ineffective remedy to halting illegal immigration.Negotiators also have been battling over the amount of money Republicans want for immigrant detention beds.Disagreements over abortion and family planning, education and environment programs also have been simmering. If they cannot be resolved by 11 December, agency shutdowns could be avoided only by Congress passing a stopgap funding bill.Also hovering over the budget debate will be warnings that emergency funds must be allocated in separate coronavirus aid legislation following months of deadlock.Democrats’ most recent offer was a wide-ranging $2.2tn bill to help state and local governments deal with the health and economic crisis, expand Covid-19 testing and supplies, and renew federal direct payments to individuals and families during the pandemic.Their goal is to provide a significant shot of stimulus to an economy that many experts fear could take a second dive in coming months if the pandemic shuts down more businesses.Republicans have deemed that proposal exorbitant and have been sticking with calls for a scaled-down $500bn menu of initiatives.So far there have been no signs of serious negotiations, leaving many to believe a stimulus bill will be the first order of business in Biden’s presidency, which begins on 20 January. More

A group of incoming Republican congresspeople intends to counter the “radical agenda” of the Democratic party, with the self-professed goal of becoming the Republican party’s alternative to “the Squad” – a group of progressive congresswomen of color including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.Calling themselves the Freedom Force, the Republicans say they will combat the “evil” of socialism and Marxism.“We love our nation. This group will be talking against and giving a contrast to the hard left. We have the Freedom Force versus Squad; we have a group of people who believe in our country, believe in God, family, respect for women and authority, and another group who hates everything I just mentioned,” the Utah congressman-elect Burgess Owens told the Fox News host Laura Ingraham, speaking as a representative of the Freedom Force.Owens said the group would aim to protect small business owners and the middle class. “Business ownership is the foundation of our freedom,” he said on Fox & Friends Weekend. “It’s where our middle class comes from.” He added that the middle class got its power from small businesses, while the left got its power “from misery”.During the interview, Owens – a former Super Bowl champion – also railed against NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem and against the Green New Deal.He pointed to the diversity within his new coalition. “South Korea, Cuba, Iran, Greece, I grew up in Tallahassee, Florida … We’ve all dealt with the harshness, the evil of socialism and Marxism, and so we can talk from experience,” he said.As a final warning to Democrats, he added: “You’re collateral damage if you run a business and you want to go to church and you want to put your kids in school; you’re collateral damage – that’s the way the evil Marxists and socialists roll.”The coalition of Republican lawmakers includes New York’s Nicole Malliotakis; Michelle Steel of California; Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma; Victoria Spartz of Indiana; and Carlos Giménez, Maria Elvira Salazar and Byron Donalds of Florida. More

Joe Biden announced his economic team on Monday, a slate of advisers which could include the first female secretary of the treasury, as the president-elect looks to revive the coronavirus-hit US economy.The official nominations to a diverse proposed cabinet came after Biden named an all-female communications team. Republicans are likely to launch fierce opposition to at least one of the Democrat’s economic picks.After a busy few days for Biden, who also managed to fracture his foot while playing with his dog, the former vice-president was finally allowed access to daily presidential briefings on Monday.Donald Trump still refuses to concede the election, on Sunday using his first television interview since Biden won the vote more than three weeks ago to reiterate his baseless claims that the election was stolen.Biden won 6m more votes than Trump, as he became the first presidential candidate ever to win the support of more than 80m Americans. He won the electoral college 306-232, the same score by which Trump beat Hillary Clinton four years ago.Biden’s nominee to lead the treasury, Janet Yellen, was chair of the Federal Reserve under Barack Obama and has been confirmed by the Senate before. But Republicans are already gearing up to oppose Neera Tanden, Biden’s nominee for the Office of Management and Budget.Tanden, the president of the liberal Center for American Progress thinktank, accused Senate Republicans of hypocrisy after they rushed the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the supreme court, following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Tanden has repeatedly criticized the right on Twitter.“Neera Tanden, who has an endless stream of disparaging comments about the Republican senators whose votes she’ll need, stands zero chance of being confirmed,” a spokesman for the Texas senator John Cornyn tweeted.On Monday, Biden received the presidential daily briefing, a classified document summarising high-level information on national security issues and prepared by the director of national intelligence, for the first time since he won the election.In 2018 the Washington Post reported that Trump did not read the daily briefs, preferring oral presentations. Biden is expected to study the written material. He would have received it sooner, but for the Trump administration delaying the transition process.Biden will be forced to consume the brief while nursing a broken foot, after slipping while playing with his german shepherd, Major. The president-elect’s office said the 78-year-old fractured two bones in his right foot and “will likely require a walking boot for several weeks”.There was better health news for the US as a whole on Monday, as the health secretary, Alex Azar, said the first two vaccines against the coronavirus could be administered to Americans “before Christmas”.Two vaccines are waiting to be evaluated for emergency use. If they are approved, Azar said it will be up to state governors to decide who will receive the first doses.“Be thinking people in nursing homes, the most vulnerable – be thinking healthcare workers who are on the frontlines of most interacting with suspected Covid cases, as the first tranches of people that we’ll try to get vaccinated,” Azar told CBS.As Biden moves forward with planning for the presidency, Trump has become an increasingly lonely voice in maintaining the election was fraudulent. In an interview with Fox Business on Sunday, he continued to make baseless claims of election fraud, even though his legal team has lost case after case in its attempt to overturn the result.“My mind will not change in six months,” Trump said. “There was tremendous cheating here.”Trump also said he was “going to use 125% of my energy” to fight the results.Shortly after the interview, Wisconsin completed a recount the president had requested. Officials re-tallied the votes in the state’s largest two counties, Milwaukee and Dane, where more than 800,000 votes were cast. They found little change in the results. In fact, Biden’s lead grew by 87 votes.In further bad news for Trump, it emerged on Monday that the president had lost Twitter followers in recent weeks – while Biden has grown his own following.According to the tracking website Factbase, the number of accounts following Trump – who has complained of biased treatment by Twitter – dropped by 133,902 over 11 days, while Biden gained nearly 1.2 million.Trump still has one of the most followed Twitter accounts in the world, with 88.8 million adherents. But he is some way behind his White House predecessor, Barack Obama, who has 126.8 million. More

Perhaps the liberal democratic managed capitalism desired by Martin Kettle did exist in the 1950s, including the new welfare state in the UK (The toxic polarisation of our politics can be reversed, but it will take humility, 26 November). It didn’t prove robust – the Conservatives moved to the right and embraced free-market capitalism; regulation exists but is weak and largely captured by “experts” from the relevant market sectors.It is difficult to see how the idealised consensus can be created today, especially within one state. Multinational companies moving activities to poorly regulated locations and tax havens means that regulation must be multinational. The EU is attempting to regulate and tax tech and online firms, cooperation with which the UK has abandoned. The replacement of Donald Trump by Joe Biden doesn’t mean that economic nationalism will go out of fashion.Kettle is right that respect for the truth is indispensable. The problem is that honest conservatism has gone and, internationally, the right has adopted untruth as a weapon. This approach will continue as it has proved successful. Trump has lost the election, but the size of his vote and support for his untruths demonstrate just how successful.Talking – and listening – to each other in a truthful and respectful way is a good thing, but it needs that approach from all parts of the political spectrum. Kettle implies that such consensus-seeking would inhibit the left from offering radical solutions to our problems, because that may destroy any consensus. Is that how democracy works?Doug SimpsonTodmorden, West Yorkshire• Martin Kettle rightly highlights polarisation and the growth of the “I” society since the 1960s. Surely it is no coincidence that this coincided with a digital revolution that changed all our lives? Last year, I revisited California 50 years after doing an MBA at Stanford University. The wealthiest state in the world has failed to solve homelessness in the streets or congestion on the roads. Black people have been displaced by escalating house prices.All the talking and listening in the world will be of little value unless governments get control of the land and finance needed to build a fairer society. We should be using technology to map inequalities and invest in bridging the gaps rather than consoling ourselves with webinars and games.Dr Nicholas FalkExecutive director, The Urbed Trust• It is possible to share Martin Kettle’s hope for a less divided America without romanticising the 1950s. One need only recall those who left for Europe when “cooperation” was not shown to their differing political beliefs. The 50s also saw the enlargement of the attorney general’s list of subversive organisations. A loyalty oath was required by anyone wishing to enter a graduate programme or benefit from a scholarship, and the House Committee on Un-American Activities destroyed careers. Dwight Eisenhower was no Donald Trump, but neither was he a hero to those not in the political mainstream.Susan ZagorLondon• On reading how Labour’s general secretary has banned local parties from discussing the loss of the whip from Jeremy Corbyn (Report, 27 November), I was reminded of how Joseph Stalin tried to make Leon Trotsky a non-person in Russia. It is marvellous where the party leadership takes its inspiration from.Terry WardWickford, Essex More

The president-elect announces senior communications team, led by campaign communications director Kate BedingfieldPresident-elect Joe Biden will have an all-female senior communications team at his White House, led by campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield.Bedingfield will serve as Biden’s White House communications director, and Jen Psaki, a longtime Democratic spokeswoman, will be his press secretary. Continue reading… More

President-elect will probably have to wear a boot after accident while playing with German shepherd MajorAmerican president-elect Joe Biden has fractured his right foot after slipping while playing with his dog Major.The injury was discovered in a scan on Sunday and will likely require him to wear a boot for several weeks, his doctor said. Continue reading… More

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner is headed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week for talks in a region simmering with tension after the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist.A senior administration official said on Sunday that Kushner is to meet the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in the Saudi city of Neom, and the emir of Qatar in that country in the coming days. Kushner will be joined by Middle East envoys Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook and Adam Boehler, chief executive of the US International Development Finance Corporation.Kushner and his team helped negotiate normalization deals between Israel and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan since August. The official said they would like to advance more such agreements before Donald Trump hands power to president-elect Joe Biden on 20 January.US officials believe enticing Saudi Arabia into a deal with Israel would prompt other Arab nations to follow suit. But the Saudis do not appear to be on the brink of reaching such a landmark deal and officials in recent weeks have been focusing on other countries, with concern about Iran’s regional influence a uniting factor.Kushner’s trip comes after the killing on Friday of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Tehran by unidentified assailants. Western and Israeli governments believe Fakhrizadeh was the architect of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program.Days before the killing, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, travelled to Saudi Arabia and met with Prince Mohammed, an Israeli official said, in what was the first publicly confirmed visit by an Israeli leader. Israeli media said they were joined by the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.The historic meeting underlined how opposition to Tehran is bringing about a strategic realignment of countries in the Middle East. Prince Mohammed and Netanyahu fear Biden will adopt policies on Iran similar to those adopted during Barack Obama’s presidency which strained Washington’s ties with its traditional regional allies. Biden has said he will rejoin the international nuclear pact with Iran that Trump quit in 2018 – and work with allies to strengthen its terms – if Tehran first resumes strict compliance.The senior administration official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, declined to give more details of Kushner’s trip for security reasons.The official said Kushner met at the White House last week with the Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah. Kuwait is seen as critical in any effort to resolve a three-year rift between Qatar and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, which comprise the GCC, cut diplomatic ties with Qatar in 2017 and imposed a boycott over allegations that Qatar supported terrorism, a charge it denies. More

A day after Pennsylvania’s highest court had thrown out a lower court’s order preventing the state from certifying results from the 3 November US elections, Donald Trump blasted the judges’ decision.
Saturday’s case – which had attempted to throw out 2.5m mail in votes in the crucial state – was the latest of dozens of failed lawsuits by Trump’s lawyers, with judges castigating his lawyers for failing to present evidence of fraud.
With states certifying results, Trump has an ever dwindling route to contest the election as Joe Biden pushes on with preparations for his inauguration as president on 20 January and recruits the team for his administration.
However, on Sunday in his first media appearance since losing the presidential contest to his Democratic rival, the president phoned into Fox News to blame the courts for his campaign’s so far unsuccessful legal challenges, which are based on a series of debunked conspiracies alleging widespread voter fraud.
“We’re not allowed to put in our proof. They say you don’t have standing,” Trump told Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures.
“We have affidavits, we have hundreds and hundreds of affidavits,” Trump added, noting he’d “file one nice, big beautiful lawsuit” without providing any details on the supposed “tremendous proof” attorneys have.
In the 20 days since polls closed, Republicans and Trump campaign officials have leaned into claims, without evidence, that some states allowed voters to turn in ballots after election day.
His interview comes after weeks of legal challenges from the Trump campaign in battleground states including Pennsylvania, where the underlying lawsuit was filed months after the law allowed for challenges to Pennsylvania’s year-old mail-in voting law.
The defeat on Saturday followed Friday’s decision by a federal appeals court to dismiss a separate challenge to the Pennsylvania result and back a district judge who likened the president’s evidence-free and error-strewn lawsuit to “Frankenstein’s monster”.
The president’s legal team, led by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, had also demanded recounts in states like Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan, alleging that vote-counting machines were rigged in an elaborate scheme in which even the justice department, FBI and the federal court system were complicit.
But none of these claims are true. In fact, Trump’s own legal team has never formally challenged elections results in any state court under through substantiated claims of fraud.
According to the Washington Post, the last-ditch effort has attorneys within the campaign describing – Trump’s legal advisor as increasingly “deranged.” One close adviser told to The Postthat Trump was like “Mad King George” going around the White House ‘muttering, “I won. I won. I won.”
Meanwhile, Milwaukee county completed its recount and certified its results on Friday, just 10 days after the Trump campaign filed a recount request for there and Dane county, the state’s two Democratic strongholds with large Black populations.
After nearly 400 uncounted ballots were found, Biden actually increased his margin of victory – gaining an 257 additional votes to the president’s 125 additional votes. Once Dane county certifies its results, the state will move forward in its final certification process.
In response, Trump tweeted that the recount was not an effort to find mistakes in the tally, but about “finding people who have voted illegally” – again invoking discredited conspiracies that his campaign has “found many illegal votes”.The outgoing president has yet to concede the 2020 election, even as Biden, now president-elect, announces cabinet appointments and his agenda for his first 100 days in office.
After Biden crossed the 80m-vote threshold – a more than 6m vote lead – Trump demanded Biden prove that the votes he received in the election were not “illegally obtained”, which there is no legal requirement of any winning official to do before taking office.
There have been a number or reports, based on anonymous official sources, that Trump is weighing up a run in the 2024 presidential election, including a report by the Daily Beast that he is thinking of announcing his campaign during Biden’s inauguration. More