Subterms
Rebecca Noble for The New York TimesIn Arizona’s attorney general race, the Republican candidate, Abraham Hamadeh, trails his Democratic opponent, Kris Mayes, by 511 votes, a small enough margin that a recount must happen under state law. The recount in that race, and a few other Arizona contests, is likely to be completed by the end of December. More
Arizona governor builds border wall of shipping crates in final days of office Critics say Republican Doug Ducey’s scheme is illegal because makeshift barrier is being erected on tribal and federal landA makeshift new barrier built with shipping containers is being illegally erected along part of the US-Mexico border by Arizona’s Republican governor – before he has to hand over the keys of his office to his Democratic successor in January.Doug Ducey is driving a project that is placing double-stacked old shipping containers through several miles of national forest, attempting to fill gaps in Donald Trump’s intermittent border fencing.The rusting hulks, topped with razor wire and with bits of metal jammed into gaps, stretch for more than three miles through Coronado national forest land, south of Tucson, and the governor has announced plans to extend that up to 10 miles, at a cost of $95m (£78m).Ducey’s shipping container wall on the AZ-MX border is worse than I imagined. I went down yesterday to see it myself for a Border Chronicle story. Imagine 10 miles of this through a national wildlife forest. This is happening right now👇👇 pic.twitter.com/mqCjVo59iA— Melissa del Bosque (@MelissaLaLinea) November 30, 2022
The area, with mountain ranges rising abruptly from the desert and a diverse environment of plants and animals, is federal land maintained by the US Forest Service.Ducey had first experimented with a smattering of shipping containers in August in Yuma, in the south-west corner of the state, bordering California and Mexico, aiming to stop migrants and asylum seekers.Since Donald Trump implemented the Title 42 rule in 2020 when he was president, which closed ports of entry to most seeking asylum in the US, people have sought gaps in barriers elsewhere in order to request asylum from border agents. The rule appears still to be on track to end later this month although a long legal battle is taking place.Ducey issued an executive order in August to erect old shipping containers near Yuma, and 11 days later workers had installed 130 of what he described as “22ft-high, double stacked, state-owned, 8,800lb, 9x40ft containers, linked together and welded shut”.In October, Ducey filed a lawsuit in which he claimed that the federal land along the border known as the Roosevelt Reservation actually belongs to the state, not the US government, and that Arizona has the constitutional right to protect itself against what he termed an invasion, citing “countless migrants” resulting in “a mix of drug, crime and humanitarian issues”.US attorneys issued a withering response, refuting the claims.The US Bureau of Reclamation and the Cocopah tribal nation said that Ducey was violating federal law by placing the containers on federal and tribal land there. In a letter, the bureau demanded that the state remove the containers. But the state has not, and has since been emboldened to embark on the larger project now proceeding apace more than 300 miles to the east.The Cochise county sheriff, Mark Dannels, supports the new series of shipping containers being placed in his county, hoping “it will deter crime and stop criminal behavior”.But as the line of metal boxes snakes west towards adjacent Santa Cruz county, the sheriff there, David Hathaway, told the Nogales International newspaper that if anyone tries to put the containers in his jurisdiction they will be arrested for illegal dumping.Dinah Bear, an attorney and former general counsel for the council on environmental quality within the executive office of the White House said Ducey’s lawsuit was “shockingly bad” and “frivolous”.“There’s just no question that this is federal property,” she added, as well as being public land, meaning “there’s no legal difference between the land they’re putting the shipping containers on and Grand Canyon national park.”To block the project, she said US Forest Service agents “would definitely want a court order from a judge … They’re not going to go down to the border and have a shootout with state police or arrest the governor at the [state] capitol.”Federal judge David Campbell, based in Phoenix, is presiding over the case, but no hearing has been called yet.“The clock is ticking,” Bear said, with courts backed up and the holidays approaching.The incoming Arizona governor, Democrat Katie Hobbs, who will assume office on 2 January after beating Republican candidate Kari Lake in the midterm elections, has said she will remove the containers.Bear predicts Campbell will order the removal.But before that happens, they are being laid down by a contractor called AshBritt, a Florida-based disaster remediation firm. A local media investigation found that Ducey’s announced $6m cost for the Yuma barriers had actually cost $13m.Daily protests by locals alarmed at the project have slowed what was breakneck-speed installation, but not managed to halt it.Meanwhile, Mark Ruggiero, the former Sierra Vista district ranger for the US Forest Service in Cochise county, said the shipping containers are a hazard that jeopardize a binational firefighting agreement with Mexico.“I was shocked to see this barrier going in,” he said. “It’s an illegal action on public land.”As a barrier for humans, the double-stacked boxes are not much of an obstacle, but they are an existential threat to endangered migratory species, especially jaguars and ocelots, as well as being an eyesore. Emily Burns, program director for Sky Island Alliance, a binational conservation nonprofit that tracks wildlife in the Coronado national forest said: “There was no environmental review or planning or mitigation that was done.”The Center for Biological Diversity was allowed to join the federal government as a defendant in Ducey’s lawsuit and has slammed the barrier as damaging and a political stunt.Meanwhile, Burns noted that her organization has 70 wildlife cameras in this stretch of border and they rarely see migrants crossing there.TopicsArizonaUS-Mexico borderUS immigrationRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More
Voters rebuffed the most aggressive efforts to weaken democracy in the midterms. But battles over election districts and ballot restrictions that could prove crucial in 2024 have already resumed.WASHINGTON — With Raphael Warnock’s victory in the Georgia Senate race on Tuesday, the major midterm elections are over.But the battles over voting rules, restrictions and political boundaries that will help determine who wins the next ones barely paused for ballot-counting before resuming in force.Indeed, the day after Mr. Warnock’s election, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a potentially seismic case brought by Republicans in North Carolina that could give state legislatures significantly expanded power over election laws — and virtually unlimited authority to draw gerrymandered maps.The landscape is familiar. Democrats who took control of state legislatures in Michigan and Minnesota are preparing legislation to to broaden voting access, including measures in Michigan that would mandate absentee ballot drop boxes.Republicans, who control a majority of legislatures across the country, are proposing new restrictive legislation they say would combat election fraud, though it remains exceedingly rare. And though both parties have benefited from gerrymanders, Republicans are far more likely to make it a centerpiece of their electoral strategy.In the Ohio Legislature, Republicans are poised to pass bills that would stiffen the ID requirement for casting a ballot, limit the use of drop boxes and end automatic mailings of absentee-ballot applications to voters.In North Carolina, a Republican sweep of state Supreme Court races last month makes it likely that the State Legislature will be able to gerrymander existing nonpartisan maps of congressional and legislative districts before the 2024 elections.In Wisconsin, both parties are girding for an April election that will determine partisan control of the state’s already politicized Supreme Court — and either open or shut the door on a legal challenge to an impregnable Republican gerrymander of the State Legislature.Some of that jockeying for power always goes on beneath the radar of most voters. But in the wake of more direct attacks on democracy by insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol and by election deniers in last month’s vote, the divergent legislative priorities of the two parties — and particularly Republican reliance on restrictive voting measures and supercharged gerrymanders — reflect what has become a ceaseless tug of war over the rules of American politics and governance.“It’s not the same thing as throwing out the vote count and putting in the wrong count,” said Wendy Weiser, who directs the Democracy Program at the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. “But it’s a form of unfair gaming of the system to gain electoral advantage, in a way that shuts out legitimate voters.”The Aftermath of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsCard 1 of 6A moment of reflection. More
Kari Lake: defeated governor candidate challenges Arizona election resultTrump-backed Republican files lawsuit asking court to throw out certified results of her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs Kari Lake, the Republican defeated in Arizona governor’s race, is formally challenging her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs, asking a court to throw out certified election results from the state’s most populous county and either declare her the winner or rerun the governor’s election in that county.The lawsuit filed late on Friday by Lake centers on long lines and other difficulties that people experienced while voting on election day in Maricopa county. The challenge filed in Maricopa county superior court also alleges hundreds of thousands of ballots were illegally cast, but there is no evidence that is true.‘Hatred has a great grip on the heart’: election denialism lives on in US battlegroundRead moreLake has refused to acknowledge that she lost to Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes. The Donald Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate has bombarded Maricopa county with complaints, largely related to a problem with printers at some vote centers that led to ballots being printed with markings that were too light to be read by the on-site tabulators.Lines backed up in some polling places, fueling Republican suspicions that some supporters were unable to cast a ballot, though there is no evidence it affected the outcome. County officials say everyone was able to vote and all legal ballots were counted.Lake sued Maricopa county officials and Hobbs in her current role as Arizona’s secretary of state.Sophia Solis, a spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office, said Lake’s lawsuit was being reviewed but had no other comment on the filing.Jason Berry, a Maricopa county spokesperson, declined to comment on Lake’s request to throw out the county’s election results in the governor’s race. But he said the county “respects the election contest process and looks forward to sharing facts about the administration of the 2022 general election and our work to ensure every legal voter had an opportunity to cast their ballot”.Hobbs in a post on her Twitter account called the lawsuit “Lake’s latest desperate attempt to undermine our democracy and throw out the will of the voters.” She posted a statement from her campaign manager that called the lawsuit a “sham” and said her camp remained focused on “getting ready to hit the ground running on Day One of Katie Hobbs’ administration”.Lake’s lawsuit says Republicans were disproportionately affected by the problems in Maricopa county because they outvoted Democrats on election day 3-1. GOP leaders had urged their voters to wait until election day to vote.In late November, Lake filed a public records lawsuit demanding Maricopa county hand over documents related to the election. She was seeking to identify voters who may have had trouble casting a ballot, such as people who checked in at more than one vote center or those who returned a mail ballot and also checked in at a polling place.During the summer, a federal judge also rejected a request by Lake and Mark Finchem, the defeated Republican candidate for secretary of state, to require hand counting of all ballots during the November election.The judge has since sanctioned lawyers representing Lake and Finchem, saying they “made false, misleading, and unsupported factual assertions” in their lawsuit. The lawyers told the court that their claims were “legally sound and supported by strong evidence”.Hobbs in her role as secretary of state has petitioned a court to begin an automatic statewide recount required by law in three races decided by less than half a percentage point.The race for attorney general was one of the closest contests in state history, with Democrat Kris Mayes leading Republican Abe Hamadeh by just 510 votes out of 2.5m cast.The races for superintendent of public instruction and a state legislative seat in the Phoenix suburbs will also be recounted, but the margins are much larger. TopicsArizonaUS midterm elections 2022US politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More
Ms. Lake, who fueled the false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump, lost the Arizona governor’s race by 17,000 votes.Kari Lake, the losing Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, filed a lawsuit Friday contesting the results of an election that was certified by the state this week.Ms. Lake’s lawsuit came after she had spent weeks making a series of public statements and social media posts aimed at sowing doubt in the outcome of a contest she lost by more than 17,000 votes to her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs. That loss was certified in documents signed on Monday by Ms. Hobbs, who currently serves as secretary of state.A former news anchor, Ms. Lake centered her candidacy on false conspiratorial claims that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Donald J. Trump, who had endorsed her. For the past month, Ms. Lake, her campaign and other allies have been soliciting Election Day accounts from voters on social media and at rallies.“If the process was illegitimate, then so are the results,” Ms. Lake said on Twitter on Friday evening after announcing her lawsuit. “Stay tuned, folks.”Ms. Hobbs called Ms. Lake’s suit “baseless” in a post of her own on Twitter, describing it as the “latest desperate attempt to undermine our democracy and throw out the will of the voters.”The Aftermath of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsCard 1 of 6A moment of reflection. More
Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s announcement that she would become an independent left Democrats in her state, many of whom have long wanted to defeat her in a primary, facing a new political calculus.The one constant in Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s political career, from her start as a left-wing rabble rouser and Ralph Nader aide to her announcement on Friday that she was leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent, is her boundless ability to draw attention to herself.Less than 72 hours after Democrats celebrated winning Georgia’s Senate race and the presumed 51st vote in the chamber, Ms. Sinema yanked the focus of the political world in Washington and Arizona back to her.This time, it was not another agenda-stymieing disagreement with the party that spent millions electing her to office, but instead a declaration that she was breaking with Democrats entirely, at least in name.“I’m going to be the same person I’ve always been. That’s who I am,” Ms. Sinema said in a two-minute video on Twitter on Friday morning, adding, “Nothing is going to change for me.”Democrats believe — or hope — that little will change in Congress, where Ms. Sinema will keep her Democratic committee assignments and where her defection will not change her former party’s control of the Senate.But in Arizona’s Democratic circles, distaste for the senator runs deep, and her announcement immediately shifted the spotlight to the 2024 race for her Senate seat.Democrats in the state have long presumed that she would run for re-election and that she was all but certain to face a difficult primary challenge, possibly from Representative Ruben Gallego, who has regularly criticized her over the past two years, or from Representative Greg Stanton, who signaled his interest on Friday. Ms. Sinema, however, left her potential rivals guessing, batting away questions about future bids for office.Hannah Hurley, a spokeswoman for Ms. Sinema, suggested that the senator had long promised to be an independent voice for the state, citing an ad from her 2018 campaign that emphasized a “fiercely independent record” and a “reputation for working across the aisle.”“Independent, just like Arizona,” the spot said.“She is not focused at all on campaign politics,” Ms. Hurley said of Ms. Sinema, who declined an interview on Friday afternoon.Democrats in Arizona signaled on Friday that they still planned to support a candidate against Ms. Sinema, whether it ends up being Mr. Gallego, Mr. Stanton or someone else. National Democratic leaders were cagey on Friday about how they would approach the 2024 race or a potential independent Sinema campaign. One main worry for Democrats is that running a strong candidate against Ms. Sinema in the general election might inadvertently help elect a Republican.Representatives for Senate Democrats’ campaign arm and for Senate Majority PAC, the leading Democratic super PAC devoted to Senate races, declined to comment on Friday afternoon about Ms. Sinema’s move. Senator Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat and majority leader, said that Ms. Sinema would keep her committee positions. “Kyrsten is independent,” he said in a statement. “That’s how she’s always been.”And the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said in a statement that President Biden expected to “continue to work successfully” with Ms. Sinema but did not address her 2024 prospects.Ms. Sinema was elected to the Senate in 2018, filling the seat of another party apostate, Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican who declined to seek re-election after breaking with President Donald J. Trump. He is now Mr. Biden’s ambassador to Turkey.The working assumption in Arizona political circles has long been that progressive anger at Ms. Sinema was concentrated among Democratic political activists, and that she could survive a primary from her left. But recent polling suggests that she has lost the confidence of many Arizona voters outside the center-right Chamber of Commerce types whom she has cultivated with the latest iteration of her political identity.A Civiqs survey conducted shortly before Election Day found she had an approval rating of just 7 percent among the state’s Democrats, 27 percent among Republicans and 29 percent among independents.Moderate Republicans uncomfortable with Mr. Trump’s politics have turned Arizona from a red state into a political battleground, swinging to Mr. Biden in 2020 and helping Democrats triumph in statewide elections last month against a Trump-backed slate of candidates. Ms. Sinema’s calculation in leaving the Democratic Party is that those voters can lift her to victory on their own.The Trumpian makeover of the Arizona Republican Party has also alarmed Democrats who want their candidates to be a forceful opposition — not present themselves as ideologically ambiguous.“Everything she’s done has been in the service of Kyrsten Sinema,” said Ian Danley, a progressive political consultant in Phoenix. “There’s really no other way to describe the decisions she makes. She cares about attention. She cares about setting herself up for the next thing.”The Democratic grumbling has Mr. Gallego and Mr. Stanton leaving little pretense about their ambitions to challenge Ms. Sinema in 2024. Mr. Gallego, a Harvard graduate and Marine veteran, has been a regular presence on cable news whenever Ms. Sinema alienates the party base, and his lively and occasionally profane Twitter feed often criticizes her. On Friday, he called her decision a “betrayal” of volunteers who knocked on doors in triple-digit heat to elect her as a Democrat.Ms. Sinema won election with the help of left-leaning groups in Arizona, but many of them quickly soured on her.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York TimesMr. Stanton, a former Phoenix mayor who holds Ms. Sinema’s old House seat, on Friday tweeted what appeared to be a snapshot of a poll showing him leading Ms. Sinema by 40 percentage points in a hypothetical matchup.Her decision, he wrote, “isn’t about a post-partisan epiphany. It’s about political preservation.”Arizona’s progressive organizations and officials were already wary of Ms. Sinema during her 2018 run for Senate, but at the time no Democrat in the state had won election to the chamber in three decades. They collectively held their noses to turn out the vote for her in hopes that she would reciprocate their support once in office.Once Ms. Sinema became the linchpin of Senate Democrats’ narrow governing majority in 2021, those groups began publicly fuming at Ms. Sinema, whom they accused of abandoning her promises on immigration, health care and the environment. Ms. Sinema dismissed their complaints, echoing her general practice of dodging journalists in Washington and Arizona.When she theatrically turned a thumbs-down on a Senate vote in March 2021 to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour, it was the last straw for her party’s base. When she skipped votes to participate in Ironman triathlons or spent weeks as an intern at a Sonoma County winery, it served only to cement her reputation among progressives that she had removed herself from the concerns of working-class Arizonans.In the fall of 2021, activists from LUCHA, one of the groups that worked to elect Ms. Sinema, confronted her at Arizona State University. Activists followed Ms. Sinema into a bathroom and demanded that she explain why she had not done more to push for a pathway to citizenship for about eight million undocumented immigrants. The protesters said they had taken the drastic action only because Ms. Sinema did not hold town-hall meetings or answer calls from constituents. Protesters have also chased her through airports and followed her into a high-priced fund-raising event at an upscale resort.“We are not surprised that she would once again center herself,” said Alejandra Gomez, the executive director of LUCHA. “This is another unfortunate, selfish act. It is yet another betrayal — there have been a slew of betrayals, but this is one of the ultimates, because voters elected her as Democrat, and she turned her back on those voters.”But some of Ms. Sinema’s allies argue that she has been consistently clear about having an independent streak.“I love that she’s going to be even freer now to just do the right thing,” said Tammy Caputi, a Scottsdale City Council member who is herself a political independent, adding that Ms. Sinema had long been leery of being “straitjacketed by partisan politics.”She went on, “I’m hoping that Kyrsten’s decision to become an independent will spark other people to think long and hard about being overly attached to one party.”But for many Arizonans and Ms. Sinema’s fellow senators, the big question is whether or not she will run again in 2024, which she neglected to clarify in her video announcement, an op-ed article in The Arizona Republic or news media interviews that were released on Friday morning. Because she keeps a tight political circle of advisers and speaks little to the news media, there has long been far more speculation than explanation about her motivations.“Anybody that underestimates Senator Sinema is being foolish,” said Representative Raúl Grijalva, a liberal Arizona Democrat who said he planned to support Mr. Gallego if he ran. “She’s going to be formidable if she decides to run.”Ms. Sinema and a bipartisan group of senators discussing infrastructure legislation last year. She does not hold town-hall meetings with constituents, and rarely speaks with the news media.Stefani Reynolds for The New York TimesA person familiar with Mr. Stanton’s deliberations confirmed that he was considering running for Senate in Arizona in 2024 as a Democrat. The person confirmed that the image from a poll that Mr. Stanton tweeted on Friday was from a statewide survey in which he had tested his potential candidacy for Senate.In an interview on Friday, Mr. Gallego said Ms. Sinema’s rush to announce her party switch soon after the outcome of the Georgia race fit neatly into her career trajectory.“I wish she would have waited for the Democrats at least to enjoy a couple more days after the victory,” he said. “But, you know, she’s not known really for thinking of others.”Mr. Gallego said he would make a decision about what office to seek in 2024 in the new year. He had just gotten off the phone with his mother, who was catching up on the news.“She said: ‘I heard Sinema is not running. Make sure to talk to me before you do anything,’” Mr. Gallego said. More
And here we go… did Joe Biden get any heads-up from Kyrsten Sinema that she was about to defect from the Democratic party?Jean-Pierre:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We do not discuss private conversations that we have with members of Congress.
[But] he sees, and we see, Senator Sinema as a key partner on some of the most historic pieces of legislation that you will all have covered in this administration.
When you look at the past 20 months, from the American rescue plan to the bipartisan infrastructure law, to the inflation reduction act, to the respect for marriage act and also the pact act, all of these pieces of legislation have been historic, and we have partnered with Senator Sinema
We understand her decision to register as an independent in Arizona. The way we see it and understand it, it does not change the new Democratic majority control of the Senate.
And we have every reason to expect that we will continue to work with her successfully.It’s 4pm in DC. As we head into the weekend, here’s a look at the day’s biggest developments:
Senator Kyrsten Sinema has announced she is leaving the party and has registered as an independent. The dramatic news comes just three days after Raphael Warnock’s re-election in Georgia gave the Democratic party what they thought was a 51-49 majority in the chamber (which includes the two other Senate independents Angus King of Maine, and Vermont’s Bernie Sanders).
The White House said that Kyrsten Sinema’s defection “does not change Democratic Senate control” and did not reveal whether Joe Biden got a heads-up prior to her announcement. “We do not discuss private conversations that we have with members of Congress. [But] he sees, and we see, Senator Sinema as a key partner on some of the most historic pieces of legislation that you will all have covered in this administration. We understand her decision to register as an independent in Arizona. The way we see it and understand it, it does not change the new Democratic majority control of the Senate,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has issued a brief statement on the decision by Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema to sit in the chamber as an independent. “Senator Sinema informed me of her decision to change her affiliation to independent. She asked me to keep her committee assignments and I agreed. Kyrsten is independent; that’s how she’s always been. I believe she’s a good and effective senator and am looking forward to a productive session in the new Democratic majority Senate,” he said.
The Treasury Department announced on Friday that it is sanctioning a group of companies and people linked to illegal fishing operations and human rights abuses in Chinese waters. The Cayman Islands-registered fishing company Pingtan Marine Enterprise, Ltd, which maintains boats based in China and has stock traded on the Nasdaq, was identified by the Office of Foreign Assets Control for sanctions. The US accuses the company of illegally shipping endangered species and abusing crew members through its subsidiaries and fleet of over 100 fishing boats.
Russia wouldn’t release Paul Whelan without the US setting free a former colonel from the country’s domestic spy organization currently in German custody, CNN reported on Friday, adding another twist to the Brittney Griner saga. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wouldn’t confirm the story at her afternoon press briefing, but the network says Russia wanted Vadim Krasikov, who is serving a life sentence for murder.
Joe Biden plans to announce at next week’s US-Africa summit in Washington DC that he supports adding the African Union as a permanent member of the Group of 20 nations, the Associated Press reports, citing the White House. The African Union represents the continent’s 54 countries. The G20 is composed of the world’s major industrial and emerging economies and represents more than 80% of the world’s gross domestic product. South Africa is currently the only African member of the G20.
The Treasury Department announced on Friday that it is sanctioning a group of companies and people linked to illegal fishing operations and human rights abuses in Chinese waters.One company is accused of maintaining working conditions so dangerous that five workers died after 13 months at sea, with three of the workers’ bodies dumped into the ocean rather than repatriated to their homes, the Associated Press reports.The Cayman Islands-registered fishing company Pingtan Marine Enterprise, Ltd., which maintains boats based in China and has stock traded on the Nasdaq, was identified by the Office of Foreign Assets Control for sanctions.The US has accused the company of illegally shipping endangered species and abusing crew members through its subsidiaries and fleet of more than 100 fishing boats.The Biden administration also says two individuals, Li Zhenyu and Xinrong Zhuo, along with Dalian Ocean Fishing Co Ltd. and other companies engaged in illegal unreported fishing.A senior department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the US action, said on a call with reporters that Dalian employs crew members who work an average of 18 hours a day, live off expired food and drink dirty water.The action on Friday identifies 157 Chinese fishing vessels in which sanctioned companies and people have an interest.The sanctioned companies’ property and interests in the US will be blocked and American companies that do business with the sanctioned entities will have to wind down their ties with them.American Airlines and JetBlue Airways are moving forward with their partnership expansion across the north-east, even as a federal judge considers the government’s attempt to put an end to the deal.On Friday, the airlines announced that American Airlines will add six new routes from New York City and will drop an existing one, the Associated Press reports. Meanwhile, JetBlue said that it will start multiple new routes from New York and Boston. Some of the routes will only operate during summer and most will be limited to one to two flights daily. American Airlines said it plans to drop service between New York’s LaGuardia airport and Atlanta in May, when JetBlue adds that route. The airline also announced that on 5 May it will add flights between LaGuardia and Buffalo, New York; Greenville, South Carolina; and four other cities.Whether or not the expansion succeeds depends on a lawsuit in Boston which the justice department, six states and Washington DC have filed in attempts to stop the deal. The parties argue that the airlines’ move will result in lower competition and higher fares.The two airlines have pushed back, arguing that their joint expansion will make them a stronger competitor against Delta and United Airlines in the north-east.A verdict is expected early next year.Russia wouldn’t release Paul Whelan without the US setting free a former colonel from the country’s domestic spy organization currently in German custody, CNN reported on Friday, adding another twist to the Brittney Griner saga.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wouldn’t confirm the story at her afternoon press briefing, but the network says Russia wanted Vadim Krasikov, who is serving a life sentence for murder.The report suggests the US floated the idea of an exchange of Krasikov for Griner and Whelan, who has been in jail in Russia for almost four years, back in the summer.But any deal fell down, CNN says, when Germany refused to countenance his release. Krasikov assassinated a Georgian citizen in Berlin in 2019.The US then offered other names to try to persuade them to include Whelan in the Griner trade for Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms dealer jailed in the US for 12 years. They included, CNN says, Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national extradited to the US in August for cybercrime, and Roman Seleznev, another convicted Russian cyber-criminal currently serving a 14-year sentence in the US.But it became clear a week ago that Whelan was not going to be included, so the US pressed ahead with the Griner for Bout trade, which took place on Thursday.“It was either Brittney Griner, one American or no American. That’s the very difficult decision that the president had to make,” Jean-Pierre told reporters earlier.“[Russia was] not willing to negotiate in good faith for Paul Whelan.”Joe Biden plans to announce at next week’s US-Africa summit in Washington DC that he supports adding the African Union as a permanent member of the Group of 20 nations, the Associated Press reports, citing the White House.The African Union represents the continent’s 54 countries. The G20 is composed of the world’s major industrial and emerging economies and represents more than 80% of the world’s gross domestic product. South Africa is currently the only African member of the G20.“It’s past time Africa has permanent seats at the table in international organizations and initiatives,” Judd Devermont, senior director for African affairs on the national security council, said in a statement.“We need more African voices in international conversations that concern the global economy, democracy and governance, climate change, health, and security.”Biden has invited 49 African leaders to take part in the three-day Washington summit that starts Tuesday.A judge in Michigan has dismissed criminal charges against former governor Rick Snyder in the Flint water crisis, the Associated Press reports.It comes months after the state supreme court said indictments returned by a one-person grand jury were invalid.Snyder, a Republican who left office in 2019, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of misconduct in office. He was the first person in state history to be charged for alleged crimes related to service as governor.Snyder also is the eighth person to have a Flint water case thrown out after the supreme court’s unanimous June opinion. Read the full story:Judge dismisses Flint water crisis criminal charges against ex-governorRead moreWhite House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has taken a couple of questions on foreign policy, condemning a “draconian” crackdown on civilians by authorities in Iran.“They should know that the world is watching,” she said when asked about Iran’s suppressing of dissenters, including its first-known execution of an anti-government protestor.“The US is committed to supporting the Iranian people and imposing costs on those responsible for the brutal crackdown. We will stand with Iranian civilians as they are fighting for their basic freedom [and] basic human rights.”Iran executes protestor, 23, for allegedly stabbing pro-regime officer. Likely to be the first execution of many. https://t.co/AnEnBLje7d— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) December 8, 2022
A reporter also wondered if, now that gas prices are falling, the Biden administration still intended to follow through with its promise of consequences for Saudi Arabia for reducing its production of oil. There has been, essentially, silence from the White House on the issue since October.“We are assessing relations with Saudi Arabia with methodology and strategically as we have done over the last 18 years of this relationship in a bipartisan way,” was Jean-Pierre’s non-answer.“We will judge the way forward based on their actions as well as our ongoing consultations with partners and allies, and also the new Congress.”Karine Jean-Pierre is pushing back strongly against Republican criticism that the exchange of jailed basketball player Brittney Griner for convicted Russian arms trade Viktor Bout wasn’t much of a trade.The White House press secretary told reporters:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}When you have an American passport, that means something.
Brittney Griner is an American citizen who was being held unjustly.
She was being held unjustly under intolerable circumstances. That was what was happening to Brittney Griner. And so that means something to the president.Republicans have continued to snipe at the exchange, Florida senator Marco Rubio suggesting it “incentivized the taking of more Americans”.Jean-Pierre insisted Biden was still “working very hard” to secure the release of Paul Whelan, an American still held by Russia on espionage charges, but said Russia was “not negotiating in good faith”..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}This was an opportunity to bring an American home. The Russians were willing to release Brittney Griner for Mr Bout. That was what was presented to us.
They were not willing to negotiate in good faith for Paul Whelan. And so it was either Brittney Griner, one American or no American. That’s the very difficult decision that the president had to make.And here we go… did Joe Biden get any heads-up from Kyrsten Sinema that she was about to defect from the Democratic party?Jean-Pierre:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We do not discuss private conversations that we have with members of Congress.
[But] he sees, and we see, Senator Sinema as a key partner on some of the most historic pieces of legislation that you will all have covered in this administration.
When you look at the past 20 months, from the American rescue plan to the bipartisan infrastructure law, to the inflation reduction act, to the respect for marriage act and also the pact act, all of these pieces of legislation have been historic, and we have partnered with Senator Sinema
We understand her decision to register as an independent in Arizona. The way we see it and understand it, it does not change the new Democratic majority control of the Senate.
And we have every reason to expect that we will continue to work with her successfully.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is at the podium with her daily briefing.She’s talking up a big week for Joe Biden, especially securing Brittney Griner’s release from Russia, and the just-announced $275m security assistance package for Ukraine (see previous post).But you can sense that reporters in the room are just itching to ask her about Kyrsten Sinema. Stay tuned…Here’s the latest Politics Weekly America podcast from the Guardian’s ace team. With Raphael Warnock re-elected to represent Georgia in the US Senate for the next six years, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Molly Reynolds of the Brookings Institution about the significance for Democrats of having an absolute majority in the upper chamber of Congress, rather than a 50/50 split.This episode was recorded before today’s dramatic announcement by Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema that she was renouncing the Democratic party to sit as an independent.Why 51 is better than 50 in the Senate: Politics Weekly America podcastRead moreJoe Biden authorized a fresh infusion of $275 million in military aid for Ukraine offering new capabilities to defeat drones and strengthen air defenses, according to a memo released by the White House, Reuters reports.The package also includes rockets for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers made by Lockheed Martin Corp, 80,000 155mm artillery rounds, Humvee military vehicles and about 150 generators, according to the memo.This is the 27th use of Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) for Ukraine, which allows the United States to transfer defense articles and services from stocks quickly without congressional approval in response to an emergency.National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House that the equipment was “on its way.”But details were scant on two systems, “counter air defense capability” and “Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems equipment,” which appear to be new capabilities for Ukraine.Russia’s surge in missile strikes in Ukraine is partly designed to exhaust Kyiv’s supplies of air defenses and achieve dominance of the skies above the country, a senior Pentagon official said in November.To counter these attacks, the United States has sent sophisticated anti-aircraft NASAMS systems to Ukraine which have been running for a few weeks.Washington previously announced that it was sending four Avenger short-range air defense systems that use Stinger missiles, made by Raytheon Technologies Corp, and HAWK interceptor missiles. US allies have also been sending air defense systems.You can follow the Guardian’s Ukraine war live blog here. The White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is due to brief the media at 1pm ET in the west wing, as Washington and Arizona digest the news of Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s surprise news early today that she’s switching from the Democrats to be an independent.Here’s where things stand:
Chuck Schumer, Senate majority leader, issued a brief statement on the decision by Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema to sit in the chamber as an independent in future, saying she will keep her committee assignments and saying: “I believe she’s a good and effective senator.”
Republican criticism of Joe Biden for trading US basketball star and Olympic gold medallist Brittney Griner for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout continues.
The White House issued a statement via Jean-Pierre noting that it expects to ‘continue to work successfully’ with Senator Sinema.
Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema announced she would no longer represent the Democratic Party in congress and instead would become an independent. She expressed no intention to caucus with the Republicans but nor did she reassure Democrats that they can count on her vote, while saying her new status “won’t change my work” in the upper chamber.
Here’s a selection of reactions on Twitter to Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema’s decision to renounce Democrats and sit as an independent.Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki thinks the biggest question is whether Sinema runs for re-election in 2024 as an independent, and not whether she continues to support Democrats in the Senate:so here’s the thing—If Sinema still votes for the most part with Ds and keeps her committee roles (because she will want that/also helps Dems by giving them majority on committees) the biggest q is not about the DC side–its about whether she will run as an independent— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) December 9, 2022
Arizona congressman Ruben Gallego, who is now widely expected to seek the Democratic nomination for Arizona’s Senate seat in two years’ time, accused Sinema of putting her own interests ahead of those of voters:My statement on Kyrsten Sinema abandoning the Democratic Partyhttps://t.co/QdrRf2mO5W pic.twitter.com/f0P3WZAdvA— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) December 9, 2022
Republican former strategist and Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson sees a different role in Sinema’s future, and calls her a “Karen”:Karen Sinema. You know a Fox news gig is somewhere in her future. https://t.co/z8eXs9SxG5— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) December 9, 2022
Republican firebrand Lauren Boebert seems to believe that Sinema has actually switched parties to join the opposition. Spoiler: she hasn’t.Good to see @KyrstenSinema leaving the Democrat Party.Just this year we’ve had @TulsiGabbard & Senator Sinema – both high profile Democrats – change parties.Hope many more see the light!— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) December 9, 2022
Young progressives are not impressed. This from abortion rights activist Olivia Julianna:Fixed it pic.twitter.com/ok2IWMq55X— Olivia Julianna 🗳 (@0liviajulianna) December 9, 2022
From the Arizona Democratic party. Sinema has “fallen dramatically short leaving Arizonans behind”:Please see our statement below regarding @kyrstensinema’s change in party affiliation. pic.twitter.com/qGWSSVR8cU— Arizona Democratic Party (@azdemparty) December 9, 2022
Toni Cani, Joe Biden’s 2020 election chief in Arizona, thinks Sinema’s decision follows a failed gamble that Republicans won the House and Senate in the midterms, pushed “something like a national abortion ban”, and Sinema could play the hero by blocking it:One of my hottest takes was the only way Sinema survives 2024 reelect is if the GOP took the House & Senate in 2022 and she then used the filibuster to stop something like a national abortion ban. I even speculated she knew that and that was her exact gamble— Tony Cani (@tcani) December 9, 2022
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has issued a brief statement on the decision by Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema to sit in the chamber as an independent.He says she will keep her committee assignments, which he doesn’t really have a choice about if Democrats are to retain a semblance of control:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Senator Sinema informed me of her decision to change her affiliation to Independent. She asked me to keep her committee assignments and I agreed.
Kyrsten is independent; that’s how she’s always been. I believe she’s a good and effective Senator and am looking forward to a productive session in the new Democratic majority Senate.
We will maintain our new majority on committees, exercise our subpoena power, and be able to clear nominees without discharge votes.Meanwhile, The Hill has been collating reports that the 6 January House panel looking into Donald Trump’s insurrection is also considering criminal referrals, for Trump and at least four of the ex-president’s team.They are Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff; John Eastman, a conservative lawyer; Jeffrey Clark, a former justice department official; and Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s one-time personal attorney.All four were involved in plotting or executing Trump’s scheme to try to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden, the panel believes, and is considering whether to recommend them to the justice department for criminal investigation or charges.“The committee has not officially decided whom to refer for prosecution and for what offenses,” CNN reported, citing anonymous sources, and says others could also be considered. The Guardian reported Tuesday that criminal referrals were imminent from the January 6 committee, but this is the first time these names have been reported. Representatives of the panel would not comment.You can read The Hill’s report here.While we’ve been occupied this morning with Kyrsten Sinema’s defection and Brittney Griner’s homecoming, we haven’t taken our eye off Donald Trump’s legal peril, and developments with the investigations into his insurrection and mishandling of classified documents. Here’s the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell on the latest:The US justice department is seeking a top federal judge to hold Donald Trump’s political office in contempt of court for not fully complying with a grand jury subpoena issued in May demanding the return of all classified documents in its possession, according to a source familiar with the matter.The department in recent weeks asked the chief US district court judge for the District of Columbia, Beryl Howell, to hold Trump’s office in contempt after prosecutors were unable to get the former president’s lawyers to designate a custodian of records to certify all records were returned.New: Confirming that DOJ is seeking a federal judge to hold Trump’s office in contempt of court for not fully complying with May grand jury subpoena seeking return of classified docs, per source familiar — matching WaPo— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) December 8, 2022
Howell has not ruled on the matter, which remains under seal. But the move, earlier reported by the Washington Post, significantly raises the stakes for Trump as he stares down a criminal investigation into unauthorized retention of national security information and obstruction of justice.The issue is to do with the Trump legal team’s reluctance to designate a custodian of records to certify that Trump is no longer in possession of any documents marked classified and thus in compliance with the subpoena that demanded the return of all such government records, the source said.If the Trump legal team could not find someone to certify under oath that all documents bearing classified markings had been returned, the department is said to have communicated, it would seek a judicial sanction.The contempt action is understood to be focused on Trump’s office because the subpoena, issued on 11 May, sought the return of all documents and writings “in the custody of Donald J Trump and/or the Office of Donald J Trump” bearing classification markings.Read the full story:DoJ seeking to hold Trump team in contempt of court over classified documentsRead more More
Kyrsten Sinema goes independent days after Democrats secure Senate majorityArizona senator changes party affiliation and says she will not caucus with Republicans The US senator Kyrsten Sinema has switched her political affiliation to independent, leaving the Democratic party just days after it won a Senate race in Georgia to secure a 51st seat in the chamber.“I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington. I registered as an Arizona independent,” she said in an op-ed for Arizona Central, a local media outlet.In a separate Politico interview published on Friday, Sinema said she would not caucus with the Republican party. If that holds, Democrats could still maintain greater governing control in the closely divided chamber.Democrats had held the Senate 50-50, with the vice-president, Kamala Harris, holding a tie-breaking vote. Raphael Warnock’s victory in Tuesday’s runoff election in Georgia handed them their 51st seat.Two other senators – Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine – are registered as independents but generally caucus with Democrats.Sinema said her shift came as a growing number of people in her state were also declaring themselves politically independent, rejecting the Republican and Democratic political labels.“Like a lot of Arizonans, I have never fit perfectly in either national party,”she wrote.Sinema intends to maintain her committee assignments from the Democrats, an aide told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The aide would not say whether or not Sinema would continue to caucus with Democrats.The senator herself, however, said she would not caucus with the Republican party, according to an interview published by Politico on Friday.If that holds, Democrats could still maintain greater governing control in the closely divided chamber.Sinema and the Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia have kept Washington in suspense over the last two years as they repeatedly have withheld their needed votes for legislative initiatives sought by Joe Biden.At the same time, they have worked in a bipartisan way on high-profile bills that have become law, while forcing compromise.Sinema was realistic on Friday about the fact that she will get criticism from Democrats for her shock news.“I’m not worried about folks who may not like my approach, I’m going to continue to do what is right for my state,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that will air in fuller detail on Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.“I’m doing something that comports with my values,” she said.The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, issued a statement noting that the Democrats will continue to control the Senate.“We understand that her decision to register as an independent in Arizona does not change the new Democratic majority control of the Senate, and we have every reason to expect that we will continue to work successfully with her,” she said.Jean-Pierre’s statement also noted: “Senator Sinema has been a key partner on some of the historic legislation President Biden has championed over the last 20 months, from the American Rescue Plan to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, from the Inflation Reduction Act to the Chips and Science Act, from the Pact Act to the Gun Safety Act to the Respect for Marriage Act, and more.”The Pact Act was designed to improve healthcare access and funding for military veterans who were exposed to toxic substances during their service.Sinema’s departure from the Democratic party is less about frustrating their ability to run the Senate for the next two years, and more about protecting her own position in Arizona, Semafor reported.She was unpopular enough with Democrats in the state that she was widely expected to face a primary in 2024.But now that she is out of the party, that primary will not happen. Instead, Democrats are going to face the tough decision of whether to run a candidate against her – and risk splitting their voters and losing the seat to the GOP – or accept that she is their best bet, even if she is not actually in the party.TopicsUS SenateArizonaDemocratsUS politicsUS CongressnewsReuse this content More
