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      Kevin McCarthy ousted as House speaker; Republicans to meet to discuss next steps – live

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      From 1h agoCalifornia Republican Kevin McCarthy has become the first speaker of the House forced out of the job in US history, after a rebellion by far-right Republicans that was aided by Democrats and fueled by frustration over his approach to government spending and negotiating with Joe Biden.The final vote tally was 216 in favor and 210 against.A congressman since 2007, McCarthy was elected to the speaker’s post in January, but only through a grueling 15 rounds of balloting after the same rightwing Republicans who would later plot his ouster demanded concessions in exchange for their assent. In the months that followed, those lawmakers grew frustrated with the speaker’s approach to governing after he struck deals with Biden and the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling and, this past weekend, keep the federal government open while lawmakers worked out long-term spending plans.That agreement prompted Florida Republican Matt Gaetz to on Monday file a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. While most House Republicans supported McCarthy, Democrats’ hostility to the speaker, who is an ally of Donald Trump, and a handful of GOP defections sealed his fate.The House must now begin the process of finding a new speaker. Republicans maintain a four-set majority in Congress’s lower chamber.House Democrats will meet at 9am eastern time on Wednesday after the chamber voted to remove Kevin McCarthy from his role as speaker.As we reported earlier, House Republicans are expected to meet at 6.30pm this evening to decide their next steps.Speaker election votes are not expected tonight, according to reports.South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace was among the eight Republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speakership.Explaining her decision, Mace said McCarthy “has not lived up to his word on how the House would operate”. She added:
      With the current speaker, this chaos will continue. We need a fresh start so we can get back to the people’s business free of these distractions.
      House Republicans will convene to meet at 6.30pm to decide their next steps after eight rightwing members joined with Democrats to oust Kevin McCarthy from the post of speaker of the House, according to Punchbowl News:The big question before them is who will they elect to replace McCarthy. One obvious name: Kevin McCarthy. Nothing is stopping him from running for the speakership again and hoping his detractors have changed their minds.But if they refuse, the GOP will have to find someone else.Lots of emotions in the Capitol right now, particularly among the many House Republicans who did not want to see Kevin McCarthy booted as their speaker.Case in point: Patrick McHenry, who is now acting House speaker. The way he gavelled the chamber into recess following the successful expulsion vote says it all:Speaking at an event at Georgetown University in Washington DC, Mike Pence, the former vice-president and current candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, condemned Kevin McCarthy’s overthrow as ‘chaos’.
      Chaos is never America’s strength and it’s never a friend of American families that are struggling. I’m deeply disappointed that a handful of Republicans have partnered with Democrats to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House.
      Pence added: “Political performance art in Washington DC does little to address the issues the American people are facing.”Pence represented an Indiana district in the House from 2001 to 2013.Per CNN, Kevin McCarthy had nothing to say as he left the House chamber following the vote that removed him as speaker:Eight Republicans voted to remove Kevin McCarthy, among them Tim Burchett of Tennessee.Burchett said that as he was considering whether or not to support ejecting McCarthy, the then speaker called him and “said something that I thought belittled me and my belief system”, Burchett told CNN.“You know, that pretty much sealed it with me right there. I thought that showed the character of a man,” he continued, but declined to elaborate on what McCarthy said.Asked by anchor Jake Tapper if he would support any of the high-ranking Republicans who have been floated as potential McCarthy replacements – such as Minnesota’s Tom Emmer, Oklahoma’s Tom Cole or Louisiana’s Steve Scalise – Burchett replied “All three of those would be excellent choices, and I think they can do an excellent job. They’re honorable men.”“They’ve never openly mocked me anyway,” he added.North Carolina Republican Patrick McHenry has taken over as House speaker pro tempore following Kevin McCarthy’s removal from the leadership role in Congress’s lower chamber moments ago.Per House rules, McCarthy submitted to the chamber’s clerk a list of lawmakers who would take over if his seat becomes vacant, of which McHenry was apparently first.McHenry is the chair of the financial services committee, and voted against removing McCarthy. After picking up the gavel, he recessed the House.Some sharp intakes of breath in the chamber as Kevin McCarthy was removed.McCarthy threw his head back and chuckled – perhaps the only thing he could do – as a couple of members walked over to shake his hand. The upper section of the gallery emptied pretty quickly as soon as the vote to remove was gavelled.California Republican Kevin McCarthy has become the first speaker of the House forced out of the job in US history, after a rebellion by far-right Republicans that was aided by Democrats and fueled by frustration over his approach to government spending and negotiating with Joe Biden.The final vote tally was 216 in favor and 210 against.A congressman since 2007, McCarthy was elected to the speaker’s post in January, but only through a grueling 15 rounds of balloting after the same rightwing Republicans who would later plot his ouster demanded concessions in exchange for their assent. In the months that followed, those lawmakers grew frustrated with the speaker’s approach to governing after he struck deals with Biden and the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling and, this past weekend, keep the federal government open while lawmakers worked out long-term spending plans.That agreement prompted Florida Republican Matt Gaetz to on Monday file a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. While most House Republicans supported McCarthy, Democrats’ hostility to the speaker, who is an ally of Donald Trump, and a handful of GOP defections sealed his fate.The House must now begin the process of finding a new speaker. Republicans maintain a four-set majority in Congress’s lower chamber.The vote is nearly over.The motion to vacate is currently leading with 216 in favor, and 207 opposed. Kevin McCarthy is on course to lose his position as speaker of the House.Kevin McCarthy looks resigned as he sits in his chair with his palms over each other in his lap.The number of Republicans voting for his ouster just crossed eight members – likely enough to end his speakership.Matt Gaetz, who filed the motion to remove him as speaker, is sitting towards the back of the chamber, also in an aisle seat, leaning forward in his chair and talking to a few members sitting around him.Standing near Gaetz is George Santos, the Republican congressman who is an admitted fabulist and also facing a federal indictment. It seems like he’s eavesdropping on Gaetz’s conversation.Seven Republicans have now voted to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker.Assuming all Democrats vote for his ouster, McCarthy is on track to become the first House speaker in American history ejected from the job.Ohio Republican Warren Davidson joined with Democrats to vote for proceeding with the vote to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker.But, interestingly, he just voted against actually removing McCarthy.I’m standing in the House press gallery, which is on the second level above the dais, and currently packed with reporters.The chamber feels tense. None of the lawmakers are moving around, and are barely speaking except to call out their votes. Kevin McCarthy is sitting three rows in from the well, in an aisle seat. He seems to be gripping the arm rest quite tightly with his right hand.Most of the rest of the Republican conference is standing at the back of the chamber.So far, about 120 votes have been cast, and the motion to vacate has a small lead.The House is now voting on whether to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker. Lawmakers will be called to vote in alphabetical order, similarly to how it was done in January, when he was elected to the post.About an hour ago, a motion to block the removal motion was defeated with 218 votes. That amount of support would also be enough to remove McCarthy as speaker, assuming no lawmakers change their minds.Should the motion to vacate be successful, McCarthy will become the first speaker of the House removed from his post in US history.As Republicans debate his fate on the House floor, NBC News reports that Kevin McCarthy’s office has reached out to some moderate Democrats to ask them to vote to keep him as speaker.There is no indication they are willing to oblige:If Democrats were to save McCarthy, he would likely have had to make substantial concessions to Joe Biden’s allies. One can only imagine what those would have been, but ending the impeachment inquiry would probably have been one of them. More

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      Trump rails against fraud trial as it appears legal team did not submit request for jury – live

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      From 27m agoDonald Trump, speaking after leaving the courtroom during the first day of his fraud trial, accused New York attorney general Letitia James of being a “disgrace” who “should focus on all of the violent crime and murders going on” in the state rather than on him.The former president insisted he has done “nothing wrong” and that the lawsuit was part of an effort to interfere with the 2024 election, NBC reported.He also complained that his time spent at trial was keeping him off the campaign trail.
      I’ve been sitting in a courthouse all day long instead of being in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or a lot of other places I could be at. This is a horrible situation for our country.
      Congressman Jamaal Bowman attempted to distance himself from a memo released by his office that referred to some Republican extremists as Nazis.In a memo obtained by Politico, Bowman’s office suggested several talking points his Democratic colleagues could use to defend him amid a GOP push to punish the New York congressman after he set off a House fire alarm during Saturday’s spending vote.One suggested response from Bowman’s office to questions about the incident:
      I believe Congressman Bowman when he says this was an accident. Republicans need to instead focus their energy on the Nazi members of their party before anything else.
      Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, Bowman condemned the use of the word “Nazi”, calling it “inappropriate”.Donald Trump, speaking after leaving the courtroom during the first day of his fraud trial, accused New York attorney general Letitia James of being a “disgrace” who “should focus on all of the violent crime and murders going on” in the state rather than on him.The former president insisted he has done “nothing wrong” and that the lawsuit was part of an effort to interfere with the 2024 election, NBC reported.He also complained that his time spent at trial was keeping him off the campaign trail.
      I’ve been sitting in a courthouse all day long instead of being in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or a lot of other places I could be at. This is a horrible situation for our country.
      New York City public hospitals will now offer abortion care via telehealth, placing them among the first public health systems in the US to do so.The city’s mayor, Eric Adams, announced on Monday that abortion pill prescriptions would now be available by telephone or online, adding that such access can happen from “the comfort of your home”.As a result of the move, New York City residents will now be able to connect with health practitioners for those prescriptions, building on previous legislations to protect abortions rights in New York.“If you are clinically eligible, that provider will be able to prescribe abortion medication that would be delivered to your New York City address within days,” Adams said during Monday’s announcement.“We will not stand idly by as these attacks continue and the far-rights seeks to strip our citizens of their basic rights,” Adams added, referring to abortion restrictions being legislated across the country.Abortion rights organizations celebrated Monday’s announcement as an essential step to protect reproductive rights.The first day of Donald Trump’s fraud trial has concluded, with proceedings expected to resume tomorrow morning.Judge Arthur Engoron heard testimony from the first witness in the trial, Trump’s former longtime accountant Donald Bender.A federal judge has scheduled the trial of US senator Bob Menendez and his wife on bribery and corruption charges to begin 6 May 2024.The New Jersey Democratic senator has pleaded not guilty and resisted calls for his resignation after he was indicted on charges of taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen.Under the indictment unsealed last month, Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were accused of using his seat in the Senate, as chair of the foreign relations committee, to benefit the government of Egypt.Prosecutors described how the large sums of cash were found at Menendez’s New Jersey home, as well as actual gold bars. A Mercedes-Benz car is also at issue. Three businessmen have also been charged.Gavin Newsom, the California governor, has named Laphonza Butler, a Democratic strategist and former labor leader, to fill the Senate seat held by Dianne Feinstein, who died on Thursday.The appointment fulfills Newsom’s pledge to appoint a Black woman to the Senate, while shirking calls to name Barbara Lee, a Black Bay Area congresswoman who is already running for the position in 2024.Butler, 44, will be the only Black woman serving in the US senate, and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the chamber. She currently leads Emily’s List, a national political organization dedicated to electing Democratic women who support reproductive rights. She has also served as a strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign and was a former labor leader of SEIU California, the state’s largest union, representing more than 700,000 workers.Butler currently lives in Maryland, according to her Emily’s List biography, but she owns a house in California and will re-register to vote in the state before taking office, according to the Newsom administration. She could be sworn in as early as Tuesday evening when the Senate returns to session.Democrats control the Senate 51-49, though Feinstein’s seat is vacant. The quick appointment by Newsom will give the Democratic caucus more wiggle room on close votes, including nominations that Republicans uniformly oppose.At the opening of Donald Trump and his family’s civil fraud trial today, an attorney for New York state said the defendants gained more than $100m by inflating the value of their properties, Reuters reports.The gains came through lower insurance premiums and better loan conditions, and in his opening statement, Kevin Wallace, an attorney for New York attorney general Letitia James, said the former president was “materially inaccurate” when he would describe his business to insurers and lenders.“This isn’t business as usual, and this isn’t how sophisticated parties deal with each other,” Wallace said. “These are not victimless crimes.”However, Trump’s attorney Christopher Kise denied any wrongdoing.“It is one of the most highly successful brands in the world, and he has made a fortune literally being right about real estate investments,” Kise said in his opening statement. “There was no intent to defraud, there was no illegality, there was no default, there was no breach, there was no reliance from the banks, there were no unjust profits, and there were no victims.”Kise also said that Trump’s valuations of his properties were understood to be estimates, and that just because people disagree with them does not mean they are fraudulent.But as evidence for his case, Wallace played from a deposition with Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen, where he said he was told “to attain the number that Mr. Trump wanted.”Note: We first reported the figure as $1bn, citing Reuters. We have since corrected the figure to $100m.Axios reports that congressman Jamaal Bowman’s office is encouraging his fellow Democrats to step up and defend him after he pulled a fire alarm on Saturday:Meanwhile, the Capitol police says they are investigating the incident, and released a statement recounting what happened. It reads, in part:
      At approximately 12:05 p.m. on Saturday, September 30, a fire alarm sounded inside the Cannon Building. USCP officers evacuated people from the building, floor by floor, while DC Fire & EMS responded. The fire alarm only sounded in the Cannon Building, so that was the only building that was evacuated.
      On security video, a man was seen trying to exit the door in the Cannon Building and then pulling the fire alarm that prompted the evacuation. USCP officers had previously placed signs with clear language that explained the door was secured and marked as an emergency exit only.
      At approximately 1:30 p.m. the DC Fire Marshal determined there was not a fire and the building was safe.
      The USCP will continue to keep the public updated on the status of the investigation.
      Some House Republicans have already made up their mind, and will try to expel Bowman, Axios reports. However, expelling a House member requires the approval of two-thirds of the chamber, and has not been done since 2002:As lawmakers scrambled over the weekend in their surprisingly successful effort to avert a government shutdown, the show was almost disrupted when Democratic congressman Jamaal Bowman pulled the fire alarm in a House office building. There have been some new developments in that episode, but before we get into it, here’s a recap of what happened, from the Guardian’s Maya Yang:The New York Democratic congressman Jamaal Bowman denied that he pulled a fire alarm in a Capitol office building to delay a vote on the stopgap measure that ultimately stopped a government shutdown.In a statement on Saturday evening, the New Yorker said he mistakenly thought the alarm, which prompted the Cannon House office building to be evacuated, would open a door.“Today, as I was rushing to make a vote, I came to a door that is usually open for votes but today was not open. I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door,” said Bowman.“I regret this and sincerely apologize for any confusion this caused.”He dismissed accusations from Republicans that he pulled the alarm in an attempt to delay the vote.“I want to be very clear, this was not me, in any way, trying to delay any vote. It was the exact opposite – I was trying to urgently get a vote, which I ultimately did and joined my colleagues in a bipartisan effort to keep our government open,” he said.An update on Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial, which has resumed in New York City.As the Messenger reports, the first witness to take the stand in the damages phase of the trial is Trump’s former accountant:Trump and his three children were named by their attorneys as witnesses, but that does not necessarily mean they will speak to the court.Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial isn’t the only court news happening today. As the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington reports, the supreme court is starting a new term today, giving its conservative majority another opportunity to hand down decisions that could have major impacts on American life: The US supreme court will gather on Monday at the start of a new judicial term that has the potential to catastrophically disrupt the functioning of government, expand the assault on reproductive rights and unleash yet more gun violence on an already reeling America.When the nine justices convene on Monday morning it will mark the start of the third full term in which the 6-3 rightwing supermajority created by Donald Trump is in command. Explosive rulings delivered over the past two terms have demonstrated the conservatives’ newfound muscle, stripping millions of Americans of fundamental rights from abortion to affirmative action.Three significant cases before the court this term cut to the core of the functioning of the US government itself. According to the co-hosts of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, at stake is no less than “the future of government as we know it”.On Tuesday the court will hear oral arguments in a case that poses the greatest threat to consumer protections for decades. Stephen Vladeck, an authority on constitutional law at the University of Texas law school, said that although CFPB v CFSA is technical in its framing, it has the potential to “bring down much of the American financial system”.Donald Trump, speaking in front of cameras during the break, said he attended the civil fraud trial against him so he could “watch this witch-hunt myself”.He slammed the “disgraceful trial” put forward by the “corrupt” New York attorney general, Letitia James, accusing her of wasting time when there are “murderers and killers that are all over New York killing people”. He added:
      We’re going to be here for months with a judge that already made up his mind. It’s ridiculous. He’s a Democrat judge a and operative and it’s ridiculous.
      “Other than that, things went very well,” Trump added.The former president also attacked Manhattan supreme court judge Arthur Engoron, who he said should be disbarred for “interfering with an election”.The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was asked about Matt Gaetz’s comments on the House floor accusing Speaker Kevin McCarthy of making a secret side deal on Ukraine aid with Joe Biden.Speaking to reporters, she replied:
      What we know is that there is bipartisan support for this deal. Speaker McCarthy was on the air multiple times yesterday saying that he wants to continue support for Ukraine, to get the weapons that they need. So we are going to hold him to that.
      As we reported earlier, Donald Trump’s civil fraud case is being tried without a jury reportedly because the former president’s attorneys seemingly did not pay too close of attention to their paperwork.“Nobody asked for” a jury trial, Judge Arthur Engoron noted during Monday’s trial. According to the Messenger:
      Earlier this year, New York Attorney Letitia James filed a form with a checkmark next to the field: “Trial without a jury.”
      Trump’s legal team didn’t file a corresponding form, and the former president may have regretted his lawyer’s inaction ever since.
      In brief remarks as he arrived at the courthouse, Donald Trump claimed his financial statements were “phenomenal”, even though a judge last week determined he and his family had committed fraud over the course of a decade.Here’s a clip:The damages phase of Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial opened in New York City, which the former president attended in person. Though he blasted the case as politically motivated and insisted that his financial statements were “phenomenal”, despite already being found liable for fraud, he and his children are facing severe financial consequences, and could lose control of properties such as Trump Tower. Meanwhile, in Washington DC, Republican insurgent leader Matt Gaetz held off on formally attempting to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House. Gaetz demanded answers from his fellow Republican, accusing him of cutting a side deal with Joe Biden. We’ll see if he gets them.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Gaetz said he delayed formally introducing his motion to vacate because not enough lawmakers were in town yet.
      Trump’s legal team did not ask for a jury to determine damages in the ex-president’s civil fraud trial, meaning the decision will be left to judge Arthur Engoron.
      New York attorney general Letitia James said “no one is above the law” just before Trump’s fraud trial was about to get under way. More

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      Laphonza Butler to fill Dianne Feinstein’s vacant Senate seat, Newsom office says

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      California governor Gavin Newsom will name Laphonza Butler, a Democratic strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, to fill the vacant US Senate seat previously held by Dianne Feinstein, a spokesperson in his office has said.In choosing Butler, Newsom fulfils his pledge to appoint a Black woman if Feinstein’s seat should become open. However, he had been facing pressure by some Black politicians and advocacy groups to select Barbara Lee, a prominent Black congresswoman who is already running for the seat.Butler will be the only Black woman serving in the US Senate, and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the chamber.Feinstein, the oldest member of Congress and the longest-serving woman in the Senate, died at age 90 on Thursday after a series of illnesses.Butler leads Emily’s List, a political organization that supports Democratic female candidates who favor abortion rights. She also is a former labor leader with SEIU 2015, a powerful force in California politics.Butler currently lives in Maryland, according to her Emily’s List biography.She did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. A spokesperson in Newsom’s office who declined to be named confirmed to the Associated Press that Newsom had chosen Butler.Democrats control the Senate 51-49, though Feinstein’s seat is vacant. A quick appointment by Newsom will give the Democratic caucus more wriggle room on close votes, including nominations that Republicans uniformly oppose. She could be sworn in as early as Tuesday evening when the Senate returns to session.Feinstein said in February she was would not seek reelection in 2024.Lee is one of several prominent Democrats competing for the seat, including Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. Newsom said he did not want to appoint any of the candidates because it would give them an unfair advantage in the race.His spokesperson, Anthony York, said the governor did not ask Butler to commit to staying out of the race. The deadline for candidates to file for the office is 8 December.Butler has never held elected office but has a long track record in California politics. She served as a senior adviser to Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign while working at a political firm filled with strategists who have worked for Newsom and many other prominent state Democrats. She also briefly worked in the private sector for Airbnb.She called Feinstein “a legendary figure for women in politics and around the country”, in a statement posted after Feinstein’s death.Emily’s List, the group Butler leads, focuses on electing Democratic women who support abortion rights. With the US supreme court’s 2022 decision to overturn women’s constitutional right to abortion, the issue has become a galvanizing one for many Democrats.The seat is expected to stay in Democratic hands in the 2024 election. Democrats in the liberal-leaning state have not lost a statewide election since 2006, and the party holds a nearly two-to-one voter registration advantage over Republicans. More

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      Biden says ‘brinkmanship has to end’ after US shutdown avoided but Ukraine aid left out – video

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      US president Joe Biden said that aid to Ukraine must keep flowing after a deal to avert a government shutdown dropped assistance for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion. The president lambasted Republicans for holding up government spending talks and assured Ukraine that US support and aid were unwavering. ‘We cannot under any circumstances allow American for Ukraine to be interrupted,’ Biden said More

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      Republicans attacking Bowman but backing Santos should ‘check values’, AOC says

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      Republicans calling for action against the New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman for triggering a fire alarm in a congressional office building as a vote loomed on a deal to avoid a government shutdown should “check their own values”, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, citing the lack of action against a GOP New Yorker, George Santos, after he was indicted for fraud.“They are protecting someone who has lied to the American people, lied to the United States House of Representatives, lied to congressional investigators,” Ocasio-Cortez, widely known as AOC, told CNN’s State of the Union.“But they’re filing a motion to expel a member who, in a moment of panic, was trying to escape a vestibule? Give me a break.”Santos won his seat last year but saw his resumé taken apart and his background extensively questioned before being indicted on charges of money laundering and fraud. In May, he pled not guilty. Republicans sidestepped an effort to expel him from Congress, saying legal processes should run their course.Like Ocasio-Cortez, Bowman is a prominent New York progressive. In a statement on Saturday, he denied trying to delay the process that stopped a government shutdown.He said: “As I was rushing to make a vote, I came to a door that is usually open for votes but today was not open. I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door. I regret this and sincerely apologise for any confusion this caused.“I want to be very clear, this was not me, in any way, trying to delay any vote. It was the exact opposite – I was trying to urgently get a vote, which I ultimately did.”Kevin McCarthy, the speaker under pressure from his own party over the deal with Democrats, likened Bowman’s behaviour to that of Donald Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol on 6 January 2021, trying to overturn an election in a riot now linked to nine deaths.Nicole Malliotakis, a New York Republican, said she was drafting a resolution to expel.Authorities were investigating. In Washington, falsely activating a fire alarm is a misdemeanour.Ocasio-Cortez told CNN: “I think there’s something to be said about, the government’s about to shut down, there’s a vote clock that’s going down, the exits that are normally open in that building were suddenly closed … Jamaal Bowman … he’s fully participating in saying there was a misunderstanding.“But what I do think is important to raise is the fact that Republicans like Nicole Malliotakis and others immediately moved to file motions to censure, motions to expel before there has even been conversations … to even see if there was a misunderstanding here.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“… What they did not do was to commit to the same when George Santos was actually found guilty after a thorough investigation of 13 federal charges.”Santos has reportedly negotiated with federal prosecutors, suggesting a plea deal might be on the cards. He has not been found guilty.Ocasio-Cortez continued: “He’s indicted on everything from wire fraud to actual lying to House investigators. And [Republicans] have been buddying up and giggling with him on the House floor.”Bowman, she said, “admits he’s embarrassed … he apologised. And they are protecting someone who has not only committed wire fraud, not only defrauded veterans, not only lied to congressional investigators, but is openly gloating about it.“[It] is absolutely humiliating to the Republican caucus. And I think that they should really check their own values.” More

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      Feinstein death inspired lawmakers to avoid shutdown, Pelosi says

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      The death of the California senator Dianne Feinstein may have helped inspire US lawmakers to avoid a federal government shutdown, the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said.Speaking on Sunday, to CNN’s State of the Union, the California Democrat mourned the loss of Feinstein and said: “Some of the senators said that maybe her departure and the sadness that went with us focused people more on, ‘Let’s get the job done to keep government open for the people.’”The deal to avoid the shutdown was done late on Saturday, the Senate following the House in backing the deal before Joe Biden signed it.Feinstein, who at 90 was the oldest serving senator, died in Washington on Thursday. Tributes came from both sides of the aisle. On Saturday, a plane from the presidential fleet carried her body to her home city, San Francisco.Pelosi, who accompanied Feinstein’s body with the senator’s daughter, said: “She was my neighbor, my friend. My family loved her personally, politically, in every way.“We used to always say, if Dianne and I ran against each other, my daughter Nancy would probably vote for Dianne. That was the love that existed. But love is a good word for her, because she loved people. She loved California. She loved America.”Pelosi also thanked Joe Biden for arranging the transfer “in the grand way that we did … draped in the flag – she was such a patriot – [to] be welcomed by men and women in uniform as she came off the plane”.Although she and Feinstein “were not always on the same place on the spectrum of politics”, Pelosi said, Feinstein “reached across the aisle all the time”.The former speaker, 83, also recalled a memory from the early 1980s, when Pelosi was chair of the California Democratic party and Feinstein mayor of San Francisco.“When we were moving for the Democratic convention in San Francisco … we went to see her … to say, what about this?” said Pelosi.Feinstein said: “Well, will it cost money?”“And we said: ‘Well, we have to raise money.’”Feinstein said: “Well, my first concern are people at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco.”“This is where many lower-income people … who need medical care,” Pelosi said, adding: “She was always about people and meeting their needs with her responsibility.”Pelosi also hailed Feinstein’s efforts to pass the 1994 federal assault weapons ban, calling her a “great legislator”.“Then it was reinstated and then it went away but while it was there, it saved lives,” Pelosi said of the ban. “How many people can make that claim?”Pelosi spoke hours after Biden signed a bill to extend government funding for 45 days. On Sunday, in response to the House speaker Kevin McCarthy’s deal with Democrats, the Florida Republican Matt Gaetz announced that he would try to oust McCarthy. Asked what advice she would give to her colleagues about Gaetz’s plan, Pelosi urged Democrats to follow their leader.“Hakeem Jeffries has done a great job,” she said, of the New Yorker who succeeded Pelosi atop the House Democratic caucus and is now minority leader. “Yesterday, we had a victory in the continuing resolution. It was a victory for Democrats, a defeat for the Magas,” a reference to far-right supporters of Donald Trump.Of Gaetz, Pelosi said: “You’re wasting your time on that guy, because he has no sway in the House of Representatives except to get on TV and to raise money on the internet. But, anyway, forgetting that … my advice [is] follow the leader.” More

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      Gold bars and stacks of cash: how Bob Menendez ended up charged with bribery

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      When federal prosecutors raided Bob Menendez’s home in the summer of 2022, they found a staggering haul.The US senator for New Jersey, one of the most influential and powerful Democrats in the country, had almost $500,000 in cash stuffed into jacket pockets, closets and a safe, along with 13 gold bars, two of them marked as 1kg in weight.In the garage was a gleaming Mercedes-Benz, allegedly bought for Menendez and his wife, who has been charged along with her husband with accepting bribes in return for political favors.“Congratulations mon amour de la vie, we are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes,” Nadine Mendendez texted her husband on taking possession of the black convertible in April 2019. A day earlier, prosecutors say, a New Jersey businessman, who has a previous conviction for fraud, gave her $15,000 in cash towards the car, and would eventually pay for its entire cost.Menendez was last week accused, with his wife and three Jersey-based businessmen, of a staggering range of offenses. The story has struck a blow to the heart of Democratic politics, especially when the party is busy trying to convince an increasingly cynical electorate it is a safe pair of hands for honest American governance.According to the charging document, Menendez used his position as chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee to benefit Egypt in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.Menendez also used his “power and influence”, according to the indictment, to secure and maintain a lucrative contract with Egypt for a business associate. Closer to home, Menendez allegedly attempted to disrupt a New Jersey criminal prosecution on behalf of another businessman friend.Menendez, 69, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.Wednesday’s appearance at a federal courtroom in Manhattan marked an ignominious moment for Menendez, who said he will not step down and is still planning to run for re-election next year. But it was far from the first.In 2015, he was charged in connection with a bribery scheme, after allegedly accepting gifts from a businessman friend, in exchange for intervening in a dispute with the government of the Dominican Republic. The case went to court in 2017, but ended in a mistrial after the jury was deadlocked.Menendez grew up in a tenement building in Union City, New Jersey, the bilingual son of Cuban immigrants. His was the “quintessential American story”, according to his website: elected to the Union City board of education when he was 19, he then graduated from St Peter’s University in New Jersey with a law degree.He became mayor of Jersey City in 1986, aged 32, and was a congressman by the time he was 39. In 2006, Menendez was elected to the Senate, where he became a key figure on the foreign relations committee.The latest charges are likely to bring an end to that illustrious career. At least 18 Senate Democrats have called for Menendez to resign, along with New Jersey’s governor and most of the state’s congressmen and women.But Menendez is fighting and says he has been “falsely accused” because he is Latino. He insists he will not step down.Menendez told reporters he had saved the nearly $500,000 found at his home over the course of 30 years, and kept it in cash “because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba”. But he has not addressed questions about why some of the money bore the fingerprints and DNA of Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer accused of paying Menendez bribes.The story of Menendez’s alleged corruption cannot be separated from the story of his marriage.Menendez met Nadine Arslanian in late 2017, at an iHop – a popular chain of pancake restaurants – in Jersey City.Menendez, a diminutive gray-haired man, was in his mid-60s at the time. That February, he and Arslanian were dating, and Menendez proposed in October 2019 at the Taj Mahal.A video of the proposal, posted to a YouTube account called Robert&Nadine, showed Menendez singing a snippet from the song Never Enough, from the movie The Greatest Showman, before asking Arslanian to marry him. She said yes, and they married in October 2020.At the time they met, Nadine Menendez had been friends with Wael Hana, an Egyptian American businessman, for many years – exchanging “thousands of text messages” – according to the indictment. Born in Egypt, Hana “maintained close connections with Egyptian officials”, prosecutors said.In early 2018, Nadine told Hana she was dating Menendez, and by March 2018, Hana was organizing meetings between Menendez and Egyptian military officials.Those meetings, at Menendez’s Senate office and at upscale restaurants, came as Egypt was anxious to secure American cash.For several years prior to 2018, Egypt “had often faced resistance in obtaining foreign military financing and foreign military sales” from the US, according to the indictment, and in August 2017 the US state department said it was withholding $195m from Egypt until it could “demonstrate improvements on human rights and democracy”.For Egypt, Menendez’s position as chair of the foreign relations committee made him a lucrative contact. A longstanding convention in the US government held that the state department would not proceed with a transfer of money to Egypt, or with the sale of military equipment, without sign-off from the chairman or ranking member of the committee.As such, according to the indictment, “Robert Mendendez […] possessed substantial influence over the foreign military sales and foreign military financing to Egypt.”At the meetings, organized by Hana, Egyptian officials repeatedly raised the issue of foreign military sales and foreign financing, prosecutors say. Menendez promised to “use his power and authority to facilitate such sales and financing to Egypt”, according to the indictment, in exchange for Hana putting Nadine Menendez on his company’s payroll.Reading the indictment, one of most striking themes is how the Menendezes failed to cover their tracks. Prosecutors found a flood of text messages and emails between the pair, some of which seem to directly reference actions and payments.On 6 May 2018, according to the indictment, Bob and Nadine Menendez met with Hana. That afternoon, Menendez asked the state department for staffing information regarding the US embassy in Cairo. The information was not formally classified, but was “deemed highly sensitive”, the indictment says, because it could pose “significant operational security concerns if disclosed to a foreign government”.Having obtained the information, Menendez texted Nadine a full breakdown of the people who worked in the embassy, including the number of US diplomats, and the number of locally employed Egyptian staff. Nadine Menendez forwarded the message to Hana, who forwarded it to an Egyptian government official, according to the indictment.Later that month, Menendez was again asked for his services, prosecutors say. An Egyptian official requested help in editing and drafting an email lobbying US senators to release a hold on $300m of US aid to Egypt.Menendez “edited and ghost-wrote” the requested letter, according to the indictment, and sent the letter to Nadine Menendez from his personal email account. She sent the letter to Hana, who gave the draft to Egyptian officials.The money did not immediately flow.The plan, according to prosecutors, was that Hana pay money to Nadine Menendez through his company, IS EG Halal. But several months after Bob Menendez had met, and allegedly worked on behalf of, the Egyptian officials, no money had emerged.“I have been so upset all morning,” Nadine Menendez texted her husband one day, complaining that Hana was yet to pay her any money.In the spring of 2019, things began to look up for the Menendezes. Egypt granted Hana’s company, IS EG Halal, an “exclusive monopoly” on the certification of US food exports to Egypt over halal standards.IS EG Halal had no experience in halal certification, but the deal provided a revenue stream from which, prosecutors allege, bribes were paid to the Menendezes – through a “consultant” company set up by Nadine Menendez in June 2019.“Seems like halal went through. It might be a fantastic 2019 all the way around,” Nadine Menendez texted her husband on 8 April 2019, the day after IS EG Halal was awarded the Egypt deal.With IS EG Halal now in business, money started flowing to the Menendezes.In July of that year, IS EG Halal paid about $23,000 to Nadine Menendez’s mortgage, according to the indictment. Menendez received further checks for $10,000 in August, September and November of the same year – which Daibes allegedly helped to facilitate.The relationship continued, according to the indictment, and the Menendezes continued to benefit, to the tune of “hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks, cash and gold”, prosecutors say.Along the way, the Mercedes-Benz was purchased for the delighted Nadine Menendez with money allegedly provided by Hana and Jose Uribe, one of the co-defendants and a businessman who has a previous conviction for fraud.The Mercedes was acquired after Menendez allegedly promised to intervene to disrupt the New Jersey prosecution of a friend of Uribe, in an example of how Menendez’s services were available both home and abroad.Sometimes the alleged bribes were more prosaic – expensive furniture, two exercise machines and an air purifier were bought for the couple by IS EG Halal – but still amounted to thousands of dollars.In the indictment, prosecutors have asked that the couple be required to forfeit to the government their home, the Mercedes, and the $480,000 in cash, plus $79,760 found in a safe deposit box, and all their gold bars.As for Menendez’s political career, it may now be forever associated with the photos released by investigators from his home: the almost parody-of-corruption images showing money stuffed into pockets, and gold bars laid out on paper towels.One of the jackets Menendez used to store his cash had his political title emblazoned on the chest: Senator Menendez. If prosecutors – and many of his colleagues – have their way, the New Jerseyite will be called that no more. More

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      in US Politics

      Democrat Jamaal Bowman pulled fire alarm on Capitol Hill before House vote

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      Democratic representative Jamaal Bowman pulled a fire alarm on Saturday in a Capitol office building before a House vote on a stopgap measure to avoid a government shutdown.The alarm prompted the Cannon House office building to be evacuated and triggered outcry from Republicans including the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, who compared the New York congressman’s actions with those of the January 6 rioters.“I was really appalled watching Democrats’ actions today, to delay it, to get a shutdown,” said McCarthy amid Democrats’ complaints that they did not have sufficient time to review the bill Republicans released last-minute in an attempt to avoid a government shutdown.“That’s a new low,” he said, adding, “We watched how people have been treated if they’ve done something wrong in this Capitol. It would be interesting to see how he is treated and what he was trying to obstruct when it came to the American public.”Brian Steil, a Republican Wisconsin representative and chair of the House administration committee, announced that an investigation into the incident is underway.Georgia’s Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said she is calling on the justice department to prosecute Bowman “using the same law they used to prosecute J6 defendants for interfering with an official proceeding”.Meanwhile, the Republican representative Nicole Malliotakis of New York said that she is drafting a resolution to expel Bowman, tweeting, “This is the United States Congress, not a New York City high school. This action warrants expulsion & I’m introducing a resolution to do just that.”Malliotakis’s fellow Republican representative Elise Stefanik echoed similar sentiments, tweeting, “A Democrat member of Congress just committed a felony by pulling the fire alarm to try to delay and stop a Congressional vote to fund the government.”In DC, falsely pulling a fire alarm is considered a misdemeanor.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIn a statement to The Hill, a spokesperson for Bowman said, “Congressman Bowman did not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote,” adding, “The congressman regrets any confusion.”Speaking to reporters, Bowman said, “I thought the alarm would open the door.”It remains unclear whether Bowman will be prosecuted.The 45-day funding resolution, which Bowman and a majority of Democrats ultimately voted in favor of, passed with a 335-91 vote in the House. The bill is now with the Democrat-majority Senate, and lawmakers have until midnight on Sunday to pass it and send it to president Joe Biden to sign into law before a government shutdown. More