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      Black lawmakers urge Biden to address police brutality in State of the Union speech – as it happened

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      The Congressional Black Caucus is pushing Joe Biden to address police brutality at his State of the Union address Tuesday night.Over a dozen members of the caucus are inviting as their guests families of Black Americans who have been killed by the police.Guests will include the mother of Eric Garner, brother of George Floyd, mother of Tamir Rice and father of Michael Brown – all high-profile cases of police killings over the last 10 years. Joe Biden invited the parents of Tyre Nichols to the address. They will be sitting with the White House’s special guests.More than a dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus will be bringing families of Black people killed by police to the State of the Union tonight in an effort to show the visual impact of police brutality and Congress’ inaction. pic.twitter.com/I8zixpucrl— Farnoush Amiri (@FarnoushAmiri) February 7, 2023
      Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democratic representative from New Jersey, made a pin for her and other Democrats to wear that say “1870”, referring to the year of the first known police killing of an unarmed Black man in the US.On the day of the #StateOfTheUnionAddress, my @TheBlackCaucus colleagues and I are calling for an end to the police brutality that disproportionately devastates Black and brown communities.We demand reform and accountability from those sworn to serve and protect. pic.twitter.com/nJEGb5sPiN— Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (@RepBonnie) February 7, 2023
      Here’s a quick summary of what’s happened so far today.
      House speaker Kevin McCarthy implied that George Santos is under a House ethics committee investigation, but then he backtracked to clarify that the committee has received complaints. A group of Santos’ constituents travelled to DC to call for his resignation, and though Santos has stepped down from his committee assignments, he has so far insisted that he will not step down.
      Washington is prepping for tonight’s State of the Union address, a crucial speech for Joe Biden as the 2024 election starts to loom on the horizon. The White House released a guest list of attendees, who will likely get a shout out from Biden. Tyre Nichols’ family will be there, along with Ukraine’s ambassador to the US and Bono.
      The Congressional Black Caucus is putting pressure on Biden to make police brutality one of the key issues of his address. A slate of Congress members have invited the families of victims of police brutality to the address, including the families of George Floyd, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice.
      Republicans are already bracing for an attack on Biden and Democrats in response to the State of the Union address. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, once Trump’s press secretary and now governor of Arkansas, is set to deliver the Republican’s main rebuttal to the address. Her speech will preview what criticism Republicans will throw at Democrats in the 2024 election.
      We will be closing this blog now but will be back tonight for live coverage of the State of the Union address, which starts at 9 pm ET. Thanks for reading.Joe Biden is planning to propose a 3% tax on stock buybacks – when a company buys shares of its own stock on the open market – in his State of the Union address Tuesday nights, according to the Wall Street Journal.Democrats have been doubling down on calls for new taxes that target wealthy individuals and corporations. Stock buybacks benefit shareholders of a company as it reduces the number of shares on the market and increases the price of shares. Democrats included a 1% tax on stock buybacks as part of the Inflation Reduction Act over the summer. Now, Biden will propose tripling the tax. Democrats estimate the current stock buyback tax will raise $74bn over the next decade. Now that Republicans control the House, it is unclear if such a proposal can be passed.“Republicans in Congress aren’t serious about national debt. If they were, Speaker McCarthy would support making billionaires pay their fair share and increasing taxes on corporate stock buybacks,” Elizabeth Warren said in a tweet. “This plan would raise billions in much-needed revenue.”A bus of George Santos’ constituents arrived in Washington DC to demand his resignation. The group is also delivering a petition to McCarthy calling for Santos’ expulsion from Congress.Constituents of Congressman George Santos traveled to Capitol Hill to demand his resignation and deliver a petition to Speaker McCarthy calling for a vote to expel Santos from Congress pic.twitter.com/XrOcHGfO2k— Kate Santaliz (@kate_santaliz) February 7, 2023
      A rally outside of the Capitol saw speakers denouncing Santos for his various lies – which range from where he went to college to his places of employment. Speakers at the rally included other US representatives from New York. Santos’ district encompasses part of Westchester County and Long Island, close to New York City.Rep. Dan Goldman joins people who traveled from NY’s 3rd district at the House Triangle calling for a vote to expel Santos from Congress. The group will deliver to Santos’ office and other Republicans a petition signed by more than 1,000 constituents calling for his expulsion. pic.twitter.com/VvbBuaBL5g— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) February 7, 2023
      Representative Ritchie Torres called Santos “the greatest fiction writer in the history of Congress”.“It is obvious that Kevin McCarthy forced him out of his committees, and it’s time for McCarthy to force him out of the US Congress,” Torres said. “Every day he brings new embarrassment.”Among the many falsities that Santos has campaigned on, one includes telling voters that his mother was a survivor of 9/11 – a claim which proved to be false. One constituent, a Republican, said he recalls the approximately 60 funerals that occurred in Long Island’s Manhasset neighborhood after 9/11 in a span of two weeks.“That’s not funny. To say that your mother was a part of that, you have to be really psychologically impaired to throw that around like it’s nickels.”A Republican constituent of Santos recalls all of the funerals that occurred in Manhasset in the wake of 9/11, citing that lie as particularly egregious given the sensitivity to the tragedy in the district. #NY03 pic.twitter.com/wZ702na3xn— Eva McKend (@evamckend) February 7, 2023
      Seems like House speaker Kevin McCarthy is stepping back on him saying that Republican representative George Santos is under an ethics committee investigation. McCarthy apparently meant that there have been complaints to the ethics committee against him, not that an investigation is underway – yet.“There are questions. I expect them to get answered,” he told CNN when asked if he expects an investigation from the ethics committee.Earlier, McCarthy told reporters that “ethics is moving through, and if ethics finds something, we’ll take action.”MCCARTHY CLARIFIES — ethics is not investigating santos. There have been complaints.— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) February 7, 2023
      Signs that Florida governor Ron DeSantis is eyeing the White House in 2024 keeps adding up.Politico reported today that the Republican-controlled Florida legislature is holding a 12-day special session, seemingly to help sweep up some legal challenges DeSantis faced for issues that have gotten the governor a lot of attention, like formally giving DeSantis the authority to transport migrants (he sent 50 migrants from Texas to Massachusetts last year) and placing Disney’s special district under the control of governor appointees.“Presidential campaigns aside, I have every interest in helping the governor,” Tom Leek, a Republican state representative told Politico. “What the governor is doing is helping the people of Florida.”DeSantis’ autobiography is coming out at the end of this month, and he is expected to make appearances before Republican groups in Texas, California and Alabama – a schedule ripe for a campaign. Reports also say that respected Republicans are gathering up staff, supposedly for a super PAC that would support a DeSantis campaign.Of course if DeSantis decides to run for president, he will face Trump, who helped the governor raise his national profile. Trump has already said that if DeSantis decides to run “I consider that very disloyal”.The Congressional Black Caucus is pushing Joe Biden to address police brutality at his State of the Union address Tuesday night.Over a dozen members of the caucus are inviting as their guests families of Black Americans who have been killed by the police.Guests will include the mother of Eric Garner, brother of George Floyd, mother of Tamir Rice and father of Michael Brown – all high-profile cases of police killings over the last 10 years. Joe Biden invited the parents of Tyre Nichols to the address. They will be sitting with the White House’s special guests.More than a dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus will be bringing families of Black people killed by police to the State of the Union tonight in an effort to show the visual impact of police brutality and Congress’ inaction. pic.twitter.com/I8zixpucrl— Farnoush Amiri (@FarnoushAmiri) February 7, 2023
      Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democratic representative from New Jersey, made a pin for her and other Democrats to wear that say “1870”, referring to the year of the first known police killing of an unarmed Black man in the US.On the day of the #StateOfTheUnionAddress, my @TheBlackCaucus colleagues and I are calling for an end to the police brutality that disproportionately devastates Black and brown communities.We demand reform and accountability from those sworn to serve and protect. pic.twitter.com/nJEGb5sPiN— Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (@RepBonnie) February 7, 2023
      House speaker Kevin McCarthy confirmed that the chamber’s ethics committee is investigating Republican representative George Santos.“Ethics is moving through, and if ethics finds something, we’ll take action,” McCarthy told reporters. “Right now we’re not allowing him to be on committees from the standpoint of the questions that have arisen.”Santos told reporters that he is not concerned about the investigation and said that he will not let the “freedom of speech” of his constituents distract him from his work. A recent Siena College poll found that 78% of Santos’ constituents in New York’s 3rd Congressional district.“You’re saying that the freedom of speech of my constituents is a distraction to my work?” Santos said. “Do you think people are a distraction to the work I’m doing here?”Santos faces local, state, federal and international investigations over professional and personal behavior, including a largely made up resume he touted during his campaign. Last week, a former Santos aid accused Santos of sexual harassment.As State of the Union tradition goes, the president and vice president, along with their spouses, invite guests to attend the address, usually so they can receive some sort of shout out during the president’s speech.This year’s guests give insight into the topics Biden will likely delve into during his address. RowVaugh and Rodney wells, the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols, who was killed by Memphis police in January, will be present at the speech. Other guests include Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old who disarmed the gunman who killed 11 people and injured 10 other in Monterey Park, California and Paul Pelos, husband of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi who was attacked by a home intruder in the fall.Amanda and Josh Zurawski, a couple from Austin, Texas, will be present at the speech and will likely be mentioned as Biden criticizes the overturning of Roe v Wade. Amanda Zurawski experienced severe pregnancy complications because doctors waited to perform an abortion on her, fearing that her life was technically not at risk.Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, will be present at the speech for the second year in a row. Singer Bono will also be with the group for his philanthropic work around HIV/Aids and poverty.Joe Biden will outline an optimistic vision for the future of America in his second State of the Union address on Tuesday, White House officials said, hoping to combat the widespread sense of pessimism that surveys and polls have captured across the country.As he marks the halfway point of his first term, Biden is expected to tout his legislative accomplishments from his first two years in office – including the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Chips Act.“This president is focused on delivering results for the American people, and we’ve seen him do that over and over and over again,” Kate Bedingfield, White House communications director, said. “We look forward to continuing to talk to the American people about the work that we are doing and the results that we’re delivering.”But polls show most Americans have not yet felt the impact of Biden’s policies in their everyday lives, particularly when it comes to their personal finances. Although inflation has started to cool after peaking at an alarming rate of 9.1% last summer, only 21% of Americans rate current economic conditions as positive, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.Even the jobs market, which has been a bright spot for the US economy in recent months, does not inspire much confidence among the American public. The country’s unemployment rate hit a 53-year low of 3.4% last month, but just 34% of Americans say Biden has made progress on creating more good jobs for their communities, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll found.Brian Deese, the outgoing director of the National Economic Council, said Biden would acknowledge these ongoing challenges in his State of the Union speech.“The core message is: we have to make more progress, but people should feel optimism that because of what we have seen and because of the progress that we’ve made, that we know how to keep making progress going forward,” Deese said Monday.Biden to outline optimistic vision for US’s future in State of Union addressRead moreSarah Huckabee Sanders is set to deliver the Republican’s rebuttal to the State of the Union address, a heavy handed endorsement from the Republican party of a Trump ally and one of the most successful people who came out of his administration.Sanders won the governorship in Arkansas, a post held by her father Mike Huckabee from 1996 to 2007, last year. She is the first woman elected to the state’s gubernatorial office.She was Trump’s press secretary from 2017 to 2019 and was one of his key vocal defenders during his presidency. During her campaign, Sanders took on much of Trump’s talking points, taking hits on critical race theory and national news outlets.While she has declined to outright endorse Trump’s 2024 campaign bid – many Republicans have been mum on endorsements as they consider their own bid – she told Fox News in January that “our country would infinitely be better off if he was in office right now instead of Joe Biden”.The rebuttal speech is seen as a key stepping stone for those who have national political ambitions, particularly this year’s speech as the 2024 election looms on the horizon. House speaker Kevin McCarthy praised Sanders, saying that she is “fighting on behalf of parents, small business and ordinary taxpayers.”“I’m thrilled Sarah will share her extraordinary story and bold vision for a better America on Tuesday. Everyone, including President Biden, should listen carefully,” McCarthy added.Sanders said in a statement that she is looking forward to her opportunity “to address the nation and contrast the GOP’s optimistic vision for the future against the failures of President Biden and the Democrats”.Sanders’ speech will take place at the conclusion of Biden’s 9 pm State of the Union address tonight.How Republicans are responding to the State of the Union address will offer a preview into what message the party will sell to voters in the 2024 presidential election. Republicans are already making media appearances on their chosen conservative news networks.House Republicans have a media row set up ahead of the State of the Union today, with outlets including Breitbart, Newsmax, Epoch Times, NTD, Washington Examiner, Fox News, Daily Signal, OAN. In a bit of irony, it’s set up in the newly-named Pelosi Caucus Room— Emily Brooks (@emilybrooksnews) February 7, 2023
      Elise Stefanik, House Republican Conference chair and rising GOP star from New York state whose staunch defense of Donald Trump helped her get a House seat, set up over 300 House Republican interviews with local media outlets, according to this morning’s Politico Playbook.On Sunday, Stefanik praised the upcoming appearances of Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and House Republican Juan Ciscomani as rebuttal Republican speakers, saying that “the Republican Party embodies the American dream”.On Tuesday, the first female Governor in Arkansas history and youngest Governor in America will deliver the Republican response, and a first-generation Hispanic American Republican will deliver the Spanish language response.The Republican Party embodies the American dream.— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) February 5, 2023
      It’s been less than a year since Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union address on March 2 of last year, but a lot has changed over the last year. Top of mind for many Americans has been the economy, with inflation rising to decades-high level over the summer. Republicans gained a slim majority in the House during the midterm election. One thing has not changed: The war in Ukraine is still rattling on.In last year’s 62-minute speech, Congress was largely unified in support of Ukraine, with the invasion having taken place just a week prior. Both Democrats and Republicans were wearing yellow and blue in solidarity with Ukraine, and some held small Ukrainian flags.This year, First Lady Jill Biden has invited Ukraine’s ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova to be her guest to the address for the second year. Markarova received a standing ovation when she was introduced during Biden’s speech last year.Biden is expected to ask for bipartisan support in sending more aid to Ukraine as the anniversary of the invasion approaches. Yesterday, NBC News reported that Biden is expected to travel to Poland later this month for the anniversary, though the trip has not been confirmed.State of the Union addresses are usually a pretty big deal – it’s a major opportunity for the president to set the tone for the year in front of the most important people in Washington. This year, the stakes for Joe Biden are even higher. The 2024 presidential election is already looming on the horizon, and while Biden has yet to officially launch a reelection campaign, he is expected to do so in the next few weeks.Biden has been prepping for his speech for weeks and is expected to lay out an underlying theme of unity, angling for stable leadership over one drenched in partisan disarray. He is expected to speak at length about the achievements of the last two years, including the passage of the $1.2tn Bipartisan Infrastructure bill that was passed in 2021 and invests in repairing America’s roads and bridges, among other investments. He will also touch on recent good news around the economy, including a low unemployment rate and the decreasing inflation rate.Republicans are already readying up their punches in response to tonight’s address as the party tries to make their own case to Americans that Democrats have failed while in power.“The state of the union is weaker and American families are suffering because of Joe Biden,” Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement this morning. “There is a reason Republicans took back the House, and that’s because of speeches like tonight where Biden will ignore and deflect blame for inflation, rising crime, and a border crisis he created. Americans deserve solutions, but all they’ll hear from Biden are excuses.”Good morning, and welcome to the politics live blog.Washington is gearing up for Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, what many are seeing as a “soft launch” to a likely 2024 re-election campaign. The president will touch on the economy, touting the economic measures that have been passed under his tenure so far, especially the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill and Inflation Reduction Act. He will also likely point to recent job figures and declining inflation as signs that the economy is heading in a good direction.The speech comes at a pivotal moment for Biden as the 2024 presidential election, while nearly two years away, is starting to roll in. This is the first year in Biden’s tenure that he will be addressing a divided Congress, with a Republican-controlled House. Republicans are starting to zero in on attacks against Biden, whose approval ratingshave been fluctuating just above 40% in the last few months. The address gives Biden an opportunity not only to set the tone for the year ahead, but to try to reframe how voters see his presidency so far.Here’s what else we’re watching today:
      Republicans are gearing up for a widespread rebuttal of tonight’s address – as the party not in power always does. Arkansas governor and former Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is poised to give a key speech tonight in response to Biden’s address.
      Revelations on the failure of US air defenses to spot the Chinese air balloon were revealed yesterday. Republicans have been doubling down on criticism toward Biden over the mishandling, though reports show the balloon was in the air during Donald Trump’s presidency too.
      Stay tuned for more live updates. More

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      Biden to outline optimistic vision for US’s future in State of Union address

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      Biden to outline optimistic vision for US’s future in State of Union addressPresident hopes to combat widespread sense of pessimism and to tout his accomplishments from first two years in office Joe Biden will outline an optimistic vision for the future of America in his second State of the Union address on Tuesday, White House officials said, hoping to combat the widespread sense of pessimism that surveys and polls have captured across the country.As he marks the halfway point of his first term, Biden is expected to tout his legislative accomplishments from his first two years in office – including the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Chips Act.“This president is focused on delivering results for the American people, and we’ve seen him do that over and over and over again,” Kate Bedingfield, White House communications director, said. “We look forward to continuing to talk to the American people about the work that we are doing and the results that we’re delivering.”But polls show most Americans have not yet felt the impact of Biden’s policies in their everyday lives, particularly when it comes to their personal finances. Although inflation has started to cool after peaking at an alarming rate of 9.1% last summer, only 21% of Americans rate current economic conditions as positive, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.Even the jobs market, which has been a bright spot for the US economy in recent months, does not inspire much confidence among the American public. The country’s unemployment rate hit a 53-year low of 3.4% last month, but just 34% of Americans say Biden has made progress on creating more good jobs for their communities, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll found.Brian Deese, the outgoing director of the National Economic Council, said Biden would acknowledge these challenges in his State of the Union speech.“The core message is: we have to make more progress, but people should feel optimism that because of what we have seen and because of the progress that we’ve made, that we know how to keep making progress,” Deese said Monday.Progress will now be even more difficult for Biden to achieve, however. With Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, Biden faces significant hurdles in advancing his legislative agenda. Previewing the president’s Tuesday speech, White House officials said he would work with the new House Republican majority to find areas of common ground.“We are going to work with Congress on a bipartisan basis to make progress on the issues that we’re talking about today,” Bedingfield said.But the relationship between Biden and the new House Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has gotten off to a rocky start. McCarthy has demanded government spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, but Biden has insisted on a “clean” bill to raise the nation’s borrowing limit with no strings attached. The treasury has warned that the US could be at risk of default unless the debt ceiling is raised by June.In an address Monday, McCarthy defended the Republican strategy of using the debt limit as a bargaining chip to extract spending cuts.“The debt limit is one of the most important opportunities Congress has to change course,” McCarthy argued.But the Republican’s speech was scant on details about exactly which programs his party would target. McCarthy said cuts to Medicare and social security – the largest federal spending programs – were “off the table” and told reporters Republicans would not raise taxes, leaving it unclear how his party plans to shrink the federal budget.Deese said Biden would explicitly make the case in his Tuesday speech that raising the federal borrowing limit was “Congress’s constitutional obligation” and the responsibility of all elected officials to ensure the United States does not default on its debt.Biden is prepared to hold separate talks with Republicans about fiscal discipline, Deese noted, but he has made clear he will not allow them to leverage the full faith and credit of the United States to force spending cuts.“You will hear an openness and, in fact, an eagerness to have a real serious conversation about the fiscal and economic priorities of the country and where we can find common ground,” Deese said. “That’s the kind of conversation you have in a normal budget process, and that’s the appropriate way to approach these things.”Biden will likely reiterate that message as he delivers his State of the Union speech, which he and his team have been crafting for weeks. Biden spent the weekend huddled at Camp David with advisers and his chief speechwriter, Vinay Reddy, fine-tuning the address. True to form, the president was “heavily engaged” in the drafting process, said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.“When you hear the speech there’ll be no question that this is a Joe Biden State of the Union speech.” she said.TopicsState of the Union addressJoe BidenBiden administrationDemocratsUS politicsUS economynewsReuse this content More

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      Biden prepares for State of the Union as US collects Chinese balloon debris – as it happened

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      The White House press briefing has concluded, which brings us to the close of the politics liveblog. We’ll be back tomorrow morning with the latest ahead of the president’s State of the Union address. Here’s a look back at what happened today.
      White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the president’s decision to shoot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, which Republicans say should have happened immediately after the orb was discovered in US airspace and Beijing has called an overreaction. “What China did was unacceptable. We protected civilians and we gained more intel while protecting our own sensitive information.”
      Previewing Biden’s speech tomorrow, Jean-Pierre said Biden has been “heavily engaged” in the writing process. He spent the weekend huddled with advisors and speechwriters fine-tuning the remarks, which she said he saw as an important opportunity to speak directly with the American people about his agenda. “There’ll be no question that this is a Joe Biden State of the Union speech,” she said.
      She also reiterated that the Biden administration was willing to brief former Trump officials on intelligence discovered after they left office that China had sent at least three spy balloons into US airspace when they were in charge.
      Brian Deese, the outgoing director of the National Economic Council, said the president intended to outline his economic agenda to the American people – touting his accomplishments while also making the case that more work needed to be done. He said the president would directly address the standoff with Republicans over raising the federal debt-limit. Echoing the president, Deese said the state of the US economy was “strong.”
      The US is sending assistance to Turkey and Syria, including personnel to help with the search and rescue mission, after a devastating earthquake left thousands dead. The White House said Biden would speak directly to the president of Turkey on Monday.
      Biden is en route back to the White House, after a delay that Jean-Pierre suggested was due to State of the Union prep.
      Jean-Pierre indicated that the president would address the US’s relationship with China in his address tomorrow, noting that foreign policy is always an important part of the speech, but she would not give specifics.She said the US will keep “open lines of communication” with China. Asked how damaging the incident was to the US-China relationship, Jean-Pierre said it was “up to China to figure out what kind of relationship they want”.She also said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken would reschedule his planned visit to China, which was scrapped after the country’s balloon intruded into US airspace.“When the time permits, we’ll see that trip back on the books,” she said.She also defended the president’s decision to shoot down the balloon amid Republican criticism that he waited too long to take action: “What China did was unacceptable. We protected civilians and we got to gain more intel while protecting our own sensitive information.”Back at the White House, Deese has left the briefing room and Jean-Pierre is taking over.The first question was about Biden’s delayed returned from Camp David. He was due to return to the White House at midday but has not arrived yet. Jean-Pierre said she had no updated ETA for the president, but suggested he was hunkered down working on Tuesday’s address.Next she was asked about the aforementioned polling that suggests Democrats – and Americans broadly – are not eager from him to run again in 2024. Jean-Pierre, barred by the Hatch Act from discussing certain political activities, said she believes the midterms validated Biden’s vision for the country and repeated the president’s retort to naysayers: “watch me”.Meanwhile at the state department, spokesperson Ned Price has been talking about the Chinese balloon affair. He noted that the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had warned his counterpart, Wang Yi, on Friday that the US would take “appropriate actions to protect our interests”.“It should not have come as a complete surprise” to Beijing when the balloon was shot down the following day, Price said. If it had been a US airship over China, “you can only imagine the response from Beijing”, he added.Price said that the US and allies were reviewing the extent of the military threat from high-altitude balloon at the edge of the atmosphere, especially in light of the revelation that there had been several previous incursions by Chinese balloons which were not spotted at the time.“We’re discussing this with our allies and partners, we’re comparing notes about what has happened to us in recent days, what has happened to us within recent years as well,” Price said. “We want to learn as much as we can about, not only what’s happened recently, but in recent years, and we’re going to take steps to protect our interests as appropriate.”Previewing more of Biden’s remarks in his state of the union address on Tuesday, Deese said Biden will speak about his values and principles for Social Security and Medicare. The White House has assailed Republicans who have proposed – or failed to rule out – cuts to the programs.He said many of the specific policy proposals would be contained in the White House’s 2024 budget request to Congress.At the briefing, Deese repeated Biden’s assessment from last week: “I will just say what [Biden] said on Friday, which is that ‘the state of the economy is strong.’”But he was pressed on the disconnect between Americans’ pessimism about their financial circumstances and the administration’s assessment that the economy is improving. “Is there a perception gap on inflation here,” one reporter asked Deese.He said there wasn’t, and said lowering inflation and bringing down every day costs were the president’s top priority. He added that American’s fears about the economy were understandable given the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.This has been a very challenging period,” he said. “Even as personal household circumstances for the majority of people have improved, the economic anxiety is real.”Reporters are now hearing from Brian Deese, the outgoing director of the National Economic Council, who is touting the economic progress made over the past two years.He emphasized that there is still “more work to do” but pointed to indicators – like easing inflation and gas prices – as signs that the administration’s policies were working.“I think the core message is we have to make more progress but people should feel optimism that because of what have seen, because of the progress that we have made, we know how to make progress going forward,” he said.He added that as part of that mission, Congress will need to keep lowering everyday costs for Americans, through initiatives that would bring down prescription drug prices and the cost of childcare and eldercare.On the debt limit, Deese said Biden would make the explicit case in his State of the Union address that the “full faith and credit of the United States … isn’t something that anybody should use as a bargaining chip”“The economic consequences of even questioning that bedrock principle can be quite severe – so you’ll hear that clearly from the president,” he continued, adding that Biden would demonstrate an “openness” and an “eagerness” to discuss with Republicans “the fiscal and economic priorities of the country, and where we can find common ground”.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre begins the briefing by extending condolences to Turkey and Syria after a once-in-a-century earthquake left at least 2,300 people dead and cities devastated.She said US is in the process of sending additional personnel to support the Turkish search and rescue effort as well to assist in Syria. She said Biden would speak shortly with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.Since the midterms, Democrats have largely rallied around Biden as their inevitable standard-bearer in 2024. But concerns remain about the president’s age and his hardiness for political battle, possibly in a re-match against Donald Trump or against a younger, rising Republican star.To that end, new polling showing Trump leading Biden by three percentage points in a hypothetical 2024 matchup has rattled some Democrats.Julián Castro, the former Secretary of Health and Human Services under Barack Obama who challenged Biden for the party’s nomination in 2020, called the poll “worrisome” in a tweet.It’s the general consensus that Dems are content with Biden in a Trump rematch. But this poll undermines Biden’s central argument for re-nomination. Two years is forever and it’s just one poll, but if he’s faring this poorly after a string of wins, that should be worrisome. https://t.co/n57XDeGtIe— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) February 6, 2023
      Trump’s lead is within the margin of error, and two years is a lifetime in presidential politics, as Castro notes. But it was enough to prompt a prominent Democrat to reopen publicly the debate over whether Biden is the party’s best chance at winning the White House in two years.New York representative George Santos has invited a former firefighter who was on the ground in NYC during 9/11 to tomorrow’s State of the Union, despite Santos’ own false claims about having family who died during to 9/11.Santos has invited Michael Weinstock, a Democrat who once ran in Santos’ district and former volunteer, to attend the address.Weinstock told the New York Times that he hopes to raise awareness about health conditions still facing 9/11 rescue workers.“I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ll be able to stay focused enough on the issue of 9/11 responders receiving the health care that they need without being sullied by George Santos,” said Weinstock to the Times.Santos is under investigation for several lies told during his campaign, including his claim that his mother died during 9/11.It was later discovered that Santos’ mother passed in 2016, more than 10 years after the terrorist attack.Read the full article here (paywall).Senior US officials said today that that the Biden administration is working to collect the debris of the Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot over the Atlantic Ocean.General Glen David VanHerck of the United States Northern Command said that Navy ships are working to collect debris from the surveillance balloon and mapping out the ocean’s surface, reported ABC News.NEW on Chinese balloon recovery: Gen. VanHerck of NORTHCOM says Navy ships are now collecting debris and mapping the ocean’s surface — they expect the debris field is around 1,500 square meters. EOD are out in a RHIB boat to pilot unmanned subs to scan for hazardous debris.— Matt Seyler (@MattSeyler) February 6, 2023
      VanHerck called the lack of early detection on the balloon an “awareness gap,” reported Politico.Just in: NORTHCOM commander, on the previous incidents of Chinese spy balloons overflying the US, says: “We did not detect those threats and that’s a domain awareness gap.”— Lara Seligman (@laraseligman) February 6, 2023
      The intel community, after the fact, assessed those threats through “additional means of collection,” he said.— Lara Seligman (@laraseligman) February 6, 2023
      Joe Biden returns to the White House today from a weekend trip to Camp David, ahead of the State of the Union address tomorrow night. At 2.15pm today, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is due to brief the media in the west wing. It’s been a fairly tranquil start to the day in US politics news but stick with us for developments as they happen.Here’s where things stand:
      Former vice president Mike Pence postponed a visit to the key primary state of South Carolina today after his daughter went into labor in California. Speculation is rising that Pence, who’s essentially fallen out with Donald Trump, will run for the presidency in the 2024 election.
      Federal investigators from the FBI are preparing to search Pence’s Indiana home, looking for additional classified materials, within the coming days, a fresh report today said, seeming to confirm last week’s initial report on this.
      There’s a decline in the percentage of Americans who think the state of the USA is “strong,” according to the latest opinion poll, which shows predictable partisan splits.
      Joe Biden is preparing to deliver his second state of the union address tomorrow evening, ready to tout his administration’s achievements so far and the relatively good state of the US economy right now, despite the event being clouded by rows over the Chinese spy balloon and the gaping hole in Biden’s legislative achievements on policing reform, especially embarrassing following the death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month after a brutal beating by police. More

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      Biden has revived democratic capitalism – and changed the economic paradigm

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      Biden has revived democratic capitalism – and changed the economic paradigmRobert ReichThe president’s domestic successes offer a rebuke to disciples of Reagan: the ‘free market’ has never existed How can inflation be dropping at the same time job creation is soaring?Schools and universities are ground zero for America’s culture war | Moira DoneganRead moreIt has taken one of the oldest presidents in American history, who has been in politics for over half a century, to return the nation to an economic paradigm that dominated public life between 1933 and 1980, and is far superior to the one that has dominated it since.Call it democratic capitalism.The Great Crash of 1929 followed by the Great Depression taught the nation a crucial lesson that we forgot after Ronald Reagan’s presidency: the so-called “free market” does not exist. Markets are always and inevitably human creations. They reflect decisions by judges, legislators and government agencies as to how the market should be organized and enforced – and for whom.The economy that collapsed in 1929 was the consequence of decisions that organized the market for a monied elite, allowing nearly unlimited borrowing, encouraging people to gamble on Wall Street, suppressing labor unions, holding down wages, and permitting the Street to take huge risks with other people’s money.Franklin D Roosevelt and his administration reversed this. They reorganized the market to serve public purposes – stopping excessive borrowing and Wall Street gambling, encouraging labor unions, establishing social security and creating unemployment insurance, disability insurance and a 40-hour workweek. They used government spending to create more jobs. During the second world war, they controlled prices and put almost every American to work.Democratic and Republican administrations enlarged and extended democratic capitalism. Wall Street was regulated, as were television networks, airlines, railroads, and other common carriers. CEO pay was modest. Taxes on the highest earners financed public investments in infrastructure (such as the national highway system) and higher education.America’s postwar industrial policy spurred innovation. The Department of Defense developed satellite communications, container ships and the Internet. The National Institutes of Health did trailblazing basic research in biochemistry, DNA and infectious diseases.Public spending rose during economic downturns to encourage hiring. Even Richard Nixon admitted “we’re all Keynesians”. Antitrust enforcers broke up AT&T and other monopolies. Small businesses were protected from giant chain stores. By the 1960s, a third of all private-sector workers were unionized.Large corporations sought to be responsive to all their stakeholders – not just shareholders but employees, consumers, the communities where they produced goods and services, and the nation as a whole.Then came a giant U-turn. The Opec oil embargo of the 1970s brought double-digit inflation followed by the Fed chair Paul Volcker’s effort to “break the back” of inflation by raising interest rates so high the economy fell into deep recession.All of which prepared the ground for Reagan’s war on democratic capitalism.From 1981, a new bipartisan orthodoxy emerged that the so-called “free market” functioned well only if the government got out of the way (conveniently forgetting that the market required government). The goal of economic policy thereby shifted from public welfare to economic growth. And the means shifted from public oversight of the market to deregulation, free trade, privatization, “trickle-down” tax cuts, and deficit-reduction – all of which helped the monied interests make more money.What happened next? For 40 years, the economy grew but median wages stagnated. Inequalities of income and wealth ballooned. Wall Street reverted to the betting parlor it had been in the 1920s. Finance once again ruled the economy. Spurred by hostile takeovers, corporations began focusing solely on maximizing shareholder returns – which led them to fight unions, suppress wages, abandon their communities and outsource abroad.Corporations and the super-rich used their increasing wealth to corrupt politics with campaign donations – buying tax cuts, tax loopholes, government subsidies, bailouts, loan guarantees, non-bid government contracts and government forbearance from antitrust enforcement, allowing them to monopolize markets.Democratic capitalism, organized to serve public purposes, all but disappeared. It was replaced by corporate capitalism, organized to serve the monied interests.Joe Biden is reviving democratic capitalism.From the Obama administration’s mistake of spending too little to pull the economy out of the Great Recession, he learned that the pandemic required substantially greater spending, which would also give working families a cushion against adversity. So he pushed for the giant $1.9tn American Rescue Plan.This was followed by a $550bn initiative to rebuild bridges, roads, public transit, broadband, water and energy systems. And in 2022, the biggest investment in clean energy in American history – expanding wind and solar power, electric vehicles, carbon capture and sequestration, and hydrogen and small nuclear reactors. This was followed by the largest public investment ever in semiconductors, the building blocks of the next economy.Notably, these initiatives are targeted to companies that employ American workers.Biden has also embarked on altering the balance of power between capital and labor, as did FDR. Biden has put trustbusters at the head of the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the justice department. And he has remade the National Labor Relations Board into a strong advocate of labor unions.Unlike his Democratic predecessors, Biden has not sought to reduce trade barriers. In fact, he has retained several from the Trump administration. But unlike Trump, he has not given a huge tax cut to corporations and the wealthy. It’s also worth noting that in contrast with every president since Reagan, Biden has not filled his White House with former Wall Street executives. Not one of his economic advisers – not even his treasury secretary – is from the Street.I don’t want to overstate Biden’s accomplishments. His ambitions for childcare, eldercare, paid family and medical leave were thwarted by senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. And now he has to contend with a Republican House.Biden’s larger achievement has been to change the economic paradigm that has reigned since Reagan. He is teaching America a lesson we once knew but have forgotten: that the “free market” does not exist. It is designed. It either advances public purposes or it serves the monied interests.Biden’s democratic capitalism is neither socialism nor “big government”. It is, rather, a return to an era when government organized the market for the greater good.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
      TopicsState of the Union addressOpinionJoe BidenBiden administrationUS politicsDemocratsUS domestic policyUS economycommentReuse this content More

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      Trump documents: Congress offered briefing on records kept at Mar-a-Lago

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      Trump documents: Congress offered briefing on records kept at Mar-a-LagoLawmakers may not be satisfied given subsequent discoveries involving Joe Biden and Mike Pence US officials have offered to brief congressional leaders on their investigation into classified documents found at Donald Trump’s Florida residence, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.Ted Cruz wants two-term limit for senators – and a third term for himselfRead moreA briefing could come as soon as this week but may not meet demands from lawmakers who want to review documents taken not just from Mar-a-Lago but also from the Delaware home and former Washington office of Joe Biden and the Indiana home of Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence.Six months after agents at Mar-a-Lago conducted an unprecedented search of a former president’s home, the Biden White House faces bipartisan pressure to share what it found. Separate special counsels are investigating documents found in the possession of Trump and Biden.Officials have declined to answer most questions about what they found at Mar-a-Lago, citing the ongoing criminal investigation and a separate “risk assessment” of possible damage to intelligence sources.Mike Turner, who chairs the House intelligence committee, told NBC’s Meet the Press the administration told him it would brief this week.“This administration needs to understand we do have national security urgent matters,” the Ohio Republican said. He also called on the White House to brief him on the Chinese balloon shot down off the Carolinas on Saturday.He said: “What’s interesting is that the moment this balloon became public, I got a notice not from the administration that I’m going to get a briefing on this balloon, but they have to rush to Congress now to talk to us about Donald Trump’s documents.”Three people familiar with the matter confirmed a briefing was offered to the “gang of eight” – the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate and both intelligence committees. The people spoke on condition of anonymity. Any briefing is not expected to include direct access to documents, the people said.Senators Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate intelligence committee, asked for that access in a letter to the attorney general, Merrick Garland, and the director of national intelligence, Avril Haines.It was unclear if the administration will discuss the Biden and Pence records. Turner told NBC records linked to Biden and Pence would be included but two sources said the briefing was expected to focus on Trump.The director of national intelligence and Department of Justice declined to comment.The justice department says around 300 documents with classified markings, including at the top-secret level, were recovered from Mar-a-Lago last August. FBI agents executed a search warrant after evidence led them to believe Trump and his representatives had not returned all classified files.Material taken included around 13,000 government documents, about 100 bearing classification markings. Some material was so sensitive justice department prosecutors and FBI investigators required additional security clearance.A special counsel, Jack Smith, is investigating whether to bring charges against Trump or anyone else. Prosecutors have said they are investigating possible violations of criminal statutes including willful retention of national defense information and obstruction. A grand jury in Washington has been hearing evidence and prosecutors have interviewed Trump associates.Trump has claimed the materials were declassified and that he had the power to do so just by thinking – a claim his lawyers have not repeated. They tried to have an independent arbiter conduct a review of the documents. A federal appeals court said Trump’s team was not entitled to that assessment.TopicsDonald TrumpTrump administrationUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesUS SenateUS politicsUS national securitynewsReuse this content More

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      Buttigieg backs Biden 2024 run but poll says most Americans don’t

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      Buttigieg backs Biden 2024 run but poll says most Americans don’tPoll shows 60% of Democrats want someone else as 2024 nominee and nearly 50% of Republicans want someone other than Trump Nearly 60% of Democrats and nearly 50% of Republicans want someone other than Joe Biden or Donald Trump to be their party’s nominee for president in 2024, a new poll showed on Sunday.Biden faces ‘tightrope’ in balancing realism and optimism in State of the UnionRead moreA key member of Biden’s cabinet, however, insisted Biden’s record in office was more important than any “generational argument” for change.Among Americans overall, the poll by the Washington Post and ABC News, released two days before Biden’s State of the Union address, showed that 62% would be “dissatisfied” or “angry” if Biden were re-elected in two years’ time, while 56% said the same about Trump returning to the role he lost in 2020.A little more than a third of all respondents (36%) said they would be “enthusiastic” or “satisfied but not enthusiastic” if Biden were re-elected. For Trump, that total was 43%.Biden’s secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, appeared on CNN’s State of the Union.Asked if he thought arguments for generational change, such as he advanced in his own presidential run two years ago, might be gaining strength, the 41-year-old said: “Generational arguments can be powerful [but] the most powerful argument of all is results.“I would say you can’t argue with a straight face that it isn’t a good thing that we have had 12 million jobs created under this president. And, by the way, a lot of the jobs are in manufacturing.“As somebody who grew up in the industrial midwest, it’s been so moving to see hundreds of thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs being created, including in rural areas, small towns in places like Tennessee and Louisiana, and Georgia and Indiana, the kind of growth that benefits the entire American people.”In 2020, a presidential election between Biden and Trump was fought in the shadow of Covid-19 but produced huge turnout, Biden taking more than 81m votes to more than 74m for Trump.Pursuing his lie about voter fraud, Trump sought to overturn his defeat, leading to the deadly Capitol riot and a second impeachment, for inciting that insurrection.Acquitted after sufficient Republicans stayed loyal, Trump is still the only declared candidate for the GOP nomination in two years’ time. Biden has said he intends to run but has not officially declared his candidacy.Already the oldest president inaugurated for the first time, Biden would be 82 when inaugurated for a second term and 86 by the end of his time in office. Trump would be 77 on his return to the White House.On leaving the White House this week, Biden’s first chief of staff gave a heavy hint that Biden will run.“As I did in 1988, 2008 and 2020, I look forward to being on your side when you run for president in 2024,” Ron Klain said, prompting applause from staff and a smile from Biden.Buttigieg said: “I think, when you look at what America was up against when President Biden took office, and what has been delivered just in these first two years of this administration … I think those results are going to continue to accumulate.“People will toss whatever argument they can into the mix that they think is going to benefit them the most. But at the end of the day you can’t argue with the extraordinary accomplishments, more than almost any other modern president, that President Biden has achieved under the toughest of circumstances.”According to the Post-ABC poll, a 2024 match-up between Biden and Trump would land 48%-45% in Biden’s favour: “A gap within the poll’s margin of error”.TopicsUS elections 2024US politicsPete ButtigiegJoe BidenDonald TrumpDemocratsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden faces ‘tightrope’ in balancing realism and optimism in State of the Union

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      Biden faces ‘tightrope’ in balancing realism and optimism in State of the Union President’s second address on Tuesday comes at a critical moment, as House Republicans are eager to damage his 2024 election prospectsJoe Biden’s second annual State of the Union address on Tuesday comes at a critical juncture for the president, as he contemplates a second term. ​The race for the 2024 election is on. But who will take on Trump?Read moreHe faces a newly empowered House Republican majority eager to damage ​his political prospects with investigations into him, his administration and his family while a special counsel investigation into his handling of classified documents brings a degree of legal uncertainty.​In recent weeks, the country has also been convulsed yet again by mass shootings and police brutality while states continue to grapple with the consequences of the supreme court decision ending the constitutional right to abortion. And on Saturday the US military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon​ ​​after it floated across the country, roiling diplomatic relations between the nations at a time of already heightened tensions. ​Yet there are welcome bright spots for a president emboldened by his party’s history-defying performance in the November midterm elections. Since then, Democrats have largely rallied around Biden as their standard-bearer in 2024, amid the possibility of a rematch against Donald Trump.The economic outlook has brightened. The coronavirus public health emergencies are set to expire in May, three years after they were declared, with the majority of US adults now vaccinated. At home, Biden has an arsenal of legacy-defining achievements to tout. And on the world stage, the global coalition he rallied in support of Ukraine remains strong.Chris Whipple, author of The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said the president’s challenge on Tuesday will be to strike the right balance between optimism and realism – highlighting the progress he’s made since his last address to a joint session of Congress, particularly on Covid and the economy, while acknowledging that there is more work left to do.“It’s a tightrope,” he said. “He has to take credit for what he’s achieved without sounding too celebratory.”Halfway through his first term, the president’s own position is precarious. Nearly two-thirds of Americans, on average, believe the country is on the wrong track. His approval ratings remain mired in the low 40s with many Americans unconvinced of the 80-year-old’s desire to stand for re-election.Striking a defiant tone ahead of Tuesday’s primetime address, Biden previewed his diagnosis of the state of the union. Like many of his recent predecessors, he declared it “strong.”“I’m happy to report that the state of the union and the state of our economy is strong,” Biden said on Friday, celebrating an unexpectedly strong jobs report.“Today’s data makes crystal clear what I’ve always known in my gut,” he added. “These critics and cynics are wrong. While we may face setbacks along the way, and there will be some, there is more work to do, it’s clear our plan is working.”EconomyOn the economy, Biden is likely to point to signs of improvement.Unemployment is the lowest it’s been in nearly half a century. Inflation, after reaching a 40-year peak, is finally relenting, though still painful for many American households. On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve announced the smallest hike in interest rates in almost a year, signaling a more cautious approach as it tries to rein in inflation without triggering a recession. But worrying indicators remain.“Looking backward, the economy is in a very good place, with the good things still good and the bad things getting better,” said Jason Furman, who served as the chair of the White House council of economic advisers under Barack Obama. “Looking forward, there’s still a tremendous amount of uncertainty as to whether that can last.”A major focus for the Biden administration over the next two years will be to implement the sweeping legislative policies he enacted during the first years of his presidency – a trillion-dollar infrastructure law; a sweeping health and climate package and major new investments in domestic, hi-tech manufacturing.Of pressing concern is the looming deadline to raise the federal debt ceiling. Economists are warning of a financial crisis if Congress fails to lift the country’s borrowing cap as House Republicans are threatening to do unless the president accepts steep cuts to federal spending. Already the treasury department has said it is resorting to “extraordinary measures” to ensure that the US can continue paying its bills.It is unclear if Biden will explicitly address the brinkmanship on Tuesday, with the new House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, seated behind him on the dais for the first time. But the stakes remains high for the president – and the country’s economy.UkraineNearly a year ago, Biden’s state of the union address – and his presidency – were upended by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Assuming the mantle of world leader, the US president used his speech to rally the nation and its allies behind Ukraine. Since then the US has sent billions of dollars in humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine. Last month, Biden approved sending battle tanks to Ukraine, a significant escalation in the US effort to counter Russian aggression.But with the war nearing its first anniversary, and public support for Ukraine softening slightly, analysts hope Biden uses Tuesday’s address to explain why the US is committed to Ukraine’s success – and what that support will look like going forward.“The future of the international system as we understand it runs through Ukraine,” said Heather Conley, president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. From China to Iran to North Korea, she said anti-democratic forces are studying how the global response to the brutal war in Ukraine.“If Ukraine and therefore the United States and the west are not successful, that sends a powerful message to [those] leaders,” Conley said. “So I hope the president uses this moment to make a convincing case to the American people why we have to stick to this course of action.”Police reformA president’s state of the union address is often a highlight reel of accomplishments, mixed with a wishlist of policy proposals and direct appeals to the American people. The president will invite guests who represent policy successes or help to make the moral case for action.Ahead of the speech, activists have urged the president to use his executive authority to expand abortion protections and declare a climate emergency. And the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who was brutally beaten by Memphis police officers and died days later, has reignited calls for police reform.Nichols mother and stepfather are expected to be in the chamber for Biden’s speech on Tuesday, likely ensuring the issue will not go unaddressed.Vice-president Kamala Harris, who will also be seated behind Biden on Tuesday, delivered a call to action at Nichols funeral last week. Yet the prospect for passing federal policing reforms remains dim.Rashad Robinson, president of the racial justice organization, Color of Change, urged Biden to come with a plan – not a list of policies that will never pass a Republican-controlled House.“Beyond rhetoric and tone or even specific policies, I’m interested in the president talking about strategy,” Robinson said, adding: “You don’t get a whole lot of moments like a State of the Union. We need to use this opportunity to give people marching orders.”Other guests on Tuesday include Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old man hailed as a hero after he disarmed a gunman who opened fire at two dance halls in Southern California during Lunar New Year celebrations earlier this month.After a spate of mass shootings last year, Biden signed into law the first gun reform legislation in decades. But the legislation fell far short of what the president and activists had called for.Moments after the president finishes his remarks, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the newly elected governor of Arkansas and Trump’s former press secretary, will deliver the Republican rebuttal.“The American people deserve better than Democrats’ runaway inflation, surging crime, open borders, and failing schools,” the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said in a statement. He added that Sanders, who at 40 is currently the youngest governor in the country, would deliver a “sharp contrast with this exhausted and failing administration”.Embracing the opportunity, Sanders said: “We are ready to begin a new chapter in the story of America – to be written by a new generation of leaders ready to defend our freedom against the radical left and expand access to quality education, jobs, and opportunity for all.”With Republicans intent on making Biden a one-term president, should he run again, the president has signaled that he will spend the next two years focusing the public on what he has already accomplished – and making the case for the policy priorities he has yet to achieve.The president “looks forward to speaking with Republicans, Democrats, and the country about how we can work together to continue building an economy that works from the bottom up and the middle out, continue boosting our competitiveness in the world, keep the American people safe, and bring the country together”, the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said in a statement.Following the state of the union she said Biden, Harris and other cabinet officials ​would “blitz” the country to promote his agenda.TopicsState of the Union addressJoe BidenUS politicsRepublicansDemocratsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Democrats’ Ilhan Omar defence weakened by party’s own attacks over Israel

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      Democrats’ Ilhan Omar defence weakened by party’s own attacks over IsraelParty’s criticism of Omar’s Israel position has greased the path for Republicans to oust her from the foreign affairs committee The resolution that set in motion the removal of the only African immigrant, Muslim and former resident of a refugee camp on the congressional committee overseeing US foreign policy paid scant attention to Ilhan Omar’s views on anything but a single issue: Israel.“Omar has attempted to undermine the relationship between the United States and Israel,” said the author of the resolution, Republican congressman Max Miller. “She has disqualified herself from serving on the foreign affairs committee.”The Democratic leadership accused Republicans of a vendetta. Omar said she was targeted as a Muslim immigrant who “needs to be silenced”, and that “when you push power, power pushes back”.But Democratic attempts to defend the Minnesota congresswoman were undercut by the party’s own record of attacking Omar over her statements about Israel almost from the day she was sworn in four years ago, greasing the path for Republicans to vote her off the foreign affairs committee on Thursday.Several Jewish American organisations came out in support of Omar, including Jewish Voice for Peace Action, a group lobbying for a change in US policy on Israel.“These attacks on Representative Omar are about her identity as a Black Muslim progressive woman. But this cannot be removed from the fact that she wants to hold the Israeli government accountable and speak out for Palestinian human rights,” said its political director, Beth Miller.Miller said that while she welcomed the support of the Democratic leadership for Omar in Thursday’s vote, it was hamstrung by its own criticisms of her.“Since she got to office she has been vocally opposed to Israeli occupation and speaking out for Palestinian human rights. And time and time again members of her own party have attacked her for it,” she said.“The actions of the Democratic leadership, and the failure to not just defend her, but sometimes jump on attacks against her, has helped foster an environment that allowed this to happen.”Max Miller’s resolution to remove Omar repeatedly cited Democratic criticisms of her statements on Israel and allegations of antisemitism.“Congresswoman Omar clearly cannot be an objective decision-maker on the foreign affairs committee given her biases against Israel and against the Jewish people,” he said when introducing the resolution.Omar has apologised for the wording of some of her statements while sticking by her points, including criticism of the influence of groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and pro-Israel money on US politics.Several liberal Jewish American groups, including J Street, Americans for Peace Now, and the New Israel Fund, said that none of Omar’s policies or statements merited her removal from the committee. They added that accusations against her by the Republican speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, seem “especially exploitative in light of the rampant promotion of antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories by him and his top deputies amid a surge in dangerous right-wing antisemitism”.The groups noted that McCarthy himself had deleted a tweet accusing Jewish billionaires of trying to “buy” an election.But while Republican leaders may not really care about antisemitism, they are serious about defending Israeli governments from criticism. Many Democrats support them in that.Miller said the criticisms of Omar were less about the language she used than trying to silence her.“These attempts to smear and attack her, to police her language, are all part of attempt to silence and threaten anyone who trying to speak out against the Israeli government,” she said.As Omar’s record on the foreign affairs committee shows, she rarely drew public criticism from fellow Democrats even for strident criticisms of US foreign policy in other parts of the world, including accusations that it undermined democracy and helped to fuel terrorism.At a hearing on the erosion of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020, the Democratic chair at the time, Karen Bass, spoke of the US as “the global champion for democracy”. Omar, on the other hand, asked about the US counter-terrorism training of security forces responsible for massacres in Cameroon and of coup leaders in Mali.“This trend of supporting militarised brutality in the name of counterterrorism is widespread in the continent. I have mentioned Cameroon and Mali, but I could easily mention Somalia, Mozambique, Kenya, or a number of other countries in the continent,” Omar said.At a hearing on US-Africa relations a year earlier, Omar agreed with a witness from the conservative Heritage Foundation that Saudi Arabian promotion of Wahhabism in Africa “has contributed to the rise of jihadist thinking and terrorist recruitment on the continent”.Then Omar asked: “Is it fair to say that our unwavering support for the Saudi government has been counterproductive to our security goals in Africa?”.Omar also used the hearing to challenge claims by the US Africa Command, responsible for American military operations on the continent, that its escalating use of drone strikes in her homeland, Somalia, had not resulted in civilian casualties.None of this brought the attention or orchestrated backlash prompted by her views on Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians.The Republican chair of the foreign affairs committee, Michael McCaul, made plain that his concern lay with Omar positions on this one issue.“It’s just that her worldview of Israel is so diametrically opposed to the committee’s. I don’t mind having differences of opinion, but this goes beyond that,” he said.Some of the most furious and, according to Omar’s supporters, unreasoned criticism came over a single tweet following a foreign affairs committee meeting in June 2021.Omar asked the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, about Washington’s opposition to international criminal court (ICC) investigations in Israel and the occupied Palestine territories, and Afghanistan shortly before it fell to the Taliban.The ICC reached a preliminary conclusion that both Israel and Palestinian armed groups have both committed war crimes that include the unjustified killing of civilians and Israel’s illegal construction of sprawling settlements in the occupied territories. In Afghanistan, the ICC is investigating actions by the Taliban, the former Afghan government’s forces, the US military and the CIA.Omar made it clear in her questions to Blinken that she agreed with the expansive nature of the court’s investigation and that she was not singling out one side in either conflict.“I would emphasise that in Israel and Palestine this includes crimes committed by the Israeli security forces and Hamas. In Afghanistan it includes crimes committed by the Afghan national government and the Taliban,” she told him.“So in both of these cases, if domestic courts can’t or won’t pursue justice – and we oppose the ICC – where do we think the victims of these supposed crimes can go for justice? And what justice mechanisms do you support for them?”The question was typical of the global perspective Omar brought to the foreign affairs committee, shaped by her early life amidst armed conflict in Somalia and in a United Nations refugee camp in Kenya. At its core was Omar’s persistent scrutiny of whether the US lives up to its self-assessment as a force for good in the world when, in this case, it shields itself and its friends from accountability.Blinken made no objection to the framing of the question, and lamented the deaths of Israelis and Palestinians. He said there was no need for ICC investigations because existing national courts in Israel and the US were sufficient to ensure accountability, a claim disputed by human rights organisations that have documented unprosecuted war crimes and crimes against humanity by both countries.The storm broke when Omar tweeted Blinken’s testimony with the comment: “We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the US, Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban. I asked [Blinken] where people are supposed to go for justice.”Republicans came out of the gate claiming that single tweet was evidence of everything that was wrong with Omar.They said it exposed her hostility to Israel and America, and her antisemitism. They accused her of drawing “moral equivalence” between democratic governments and suicide bombers. Few cared that while Omar’s framing of her tweet may have been impolitic, it was not the congresswoman who linked Israel and Hamas, or the Taliban and the US military, but the ICC in its investigations.Republican Senator Tom Cotton resorted to what is widely regarded as a classic racist taunt to Omar to go back to where she came from: “[She] was a refugee from Somalia and America welcomed her. If she really believes America is a hateful country on par with the Taliban and Hamas, she’s welcome to leave.”It did not take long for Democrats to pile in as well. Fellow party members in Congress issued a statement claiming that Omar’s “false equivalencies give cover to terrorist groups”.The Democrats urged Omar “to clarify her words”. The congresswoman responded by condemning the “constant harassment and silencing” from fellow Democrats.A few Democrats did come to her defence, including Representative Cori Bush.“I’m not surprised when Republicans attack Black women for standing up for human rights. But when it’s Democrats, it’s especially hurtful,” she said.Omar was forced into a retreat after the then Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, joined the fray to condemn “false equivalencies”, saying they foment prejudice and undermine progress toward peace.Omar issued a statement “clarifying” that she was not making moral comparisons and was “in no way equating terrorist organisations with democratic countries”.But by then, the debate and news coverage had shifted from scrutiny of why the US was protecting Israel and itself, and by extension Hamas and the Taliban, from war crimes investigations to a debate about Omar’s motives.And the Republicans had another arrow in their quiver when the time came to move against her.TopicsDemocratsIsraelIlhan OmarMiddle East and north AfricaPalestinian territoriesUS foreign policySomalianewsReuse this content More