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      White House calls Trump’s remarks on American Jews ‘antisemitic and insulting’ – as it happened

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      The White House press briefing is underway, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre began with a question about Donald Trump’s attack on American Jews.She called the former president’s comments “antisemitic, as you all know, and insulting both to Jews and to our Israeli allies.”“But let’s be clear, for years, for years now, Donald Trump has aligned with extremists and antisemitic figures and it should be called out,” she added. “We need to root out antisemitism everywhere it rears its ugly head. … With respect to Israel, our relationship is iron clad and it’s rooted in shared values and interests. Donald Trump clearly doesn’t understand that either.”She also condemned Ye’s antisemitic posts, but said she was not able to comment on the announcement this morning that he intends to purchase the far-right social media site, Parler.Good afternoon. We’re closing the liveblog for the day. Here’s a look back at what’s happened so far today.
      Georgia Republican senate candidate Herschel Walker admitted to writing $700 check to his ex-girlfriend but denies it was for abortion. Walker, who is running in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, has spent weeks dogged by reports that he sent the unnamed woman money to end her pregnancy. Running as a staunch conservative with Trump’s backing, Walker has publicly argued that abortion should be illegal nationwide without exceptions.
      The US Secret Service was made to pay as much as $1,185 a night to stay at properties belonging to former president Donald Trump, a congressional committee said on Monday as it released documents that appeared to show the former president profiting from his protection details in and out of office.
      Steve Bannon should be sentenced to six months in prison and a $200,000 fine for “his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress”, the justice department said in a legal filing on Monday. Bannon was found guilty on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress in July for ignoring a subpoena from the US House committee investigating the January 6 attack.
      White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned remarks by Donald Trump about American Jews as “antisemitic” and “insulting” to both Jewish people and Israelis. She also announced that Biden will host president Isaac Herzog of Israel at the White House on 26 October.
      The White House formally unveiled its website for student loan forgiveness applications. “This is a game-changer for millions of Americans,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. He added that “it took an incredible amount of effort to get this website done in such a short time.”JUST IN: Pres. Biden unveils website for federal student loan debt relief application. “It takes less than five minutes…This is a game-changer for millions of Americans.” https://t.co/1SlS2LJ69i pic.twitter.com/zWAe1RUCjT— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 17, 2022
      A beta version of the website, studentaid.gov, launched on Friday. Biden said 8 million Americans used the website over the weekend to apply for student-loan forgiveness. This summer, under immense pressure from progressives, Biden announced that he would cancel up to $10,000 in student loan debt for individuals making less than $125,000 a year or more for Pell grant recipients. Asked if Biden regretted his comment that British Prime Minister Liz Truss’ tax -cut plan was a mistake, Jean-Pierre responded simply: “No.”Commenting on another world leader’s domestic policies, especially those of a close ally, is usually seen as taboo. Biden, an institutionalist who usually adheres to the norms and codes of foreign relations, is also prone to blunt admissions that often send his aides scrambling to clarify.Pressed further about the remark – Biden said he wasn’t the only one who thought her economic policies were a mistake – Jean-Pierre said she had no further comment on who the president might have been referring to. The reporter said he was curious if Biden was referring to discussions with world leaders or if it was a reference to a staff member who viewed the move as a “mistake”.Liz Truss admits ‘mistakes have been made’ as Jeremy Hunt says ‘eye-watering’ decisions on tax and spending need to be made – liveRead moreThe plan, which sent financial markets into a tailspin and caused a sharp drop in the value of the pound, was widely criticized by economists and experts.Jean-Pierre also wouldn’t weigh in on the UK’s new finance minister, Jeremy Hunt nor his plans to drop much of Truss’ tax plan.“The UK is a close ally … and we work with them on a range of issues, including on strengthening the global economy,” she said.Joe Biden calls Liz Truss tax cuts a ‘mistake’ as political fallout continuesRead moreOn Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, Jean-Pierre said: “The United States strongly condemns Russia’s missile strikes today which continues to demonstrate Russia’s brutality.” She said the administration is in touch with Ukraine across the administration and noted that Biden spoke to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week when he addressed the leaders of the Group of 7 nations.Russia attacked Kyiv with nearly 30 “kamikaze” drones on Monday morning, killing at least four people, including a pregnant woman and her partner, the Guardian is reporting.“We are going to continue to work with our allies and partners, continue to impose costs on Russia to hold them accountable for their war crimes,” Jean-Pierre said. Jean-Pierre has fielded a few questions on the midterms and Biden’s travel schedule in the final weeks of the election cycle, particularly why he isn’t appearing at more campaign events.Jean-Pierre, caveating her response by saying she is prohibited from talking about politics from the podium, pushed back. She argued that he has been “traveling nonstop,” noting his recent swing through Colorado, Oregon and California. This week he’ll travel to the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Florida.Reporters kept pressing. The subtext of their questions is that Biden is unpopular and his presence in some states could do more harm than good for Democrats in contested races. Biden has long joked that he would campaign for or against a Democrat – whatever would help them more.She would not say whether Democrats in states like Arizona and Georgia are asking the White House for help, saying only: “He is going to go where he is needed the most.”In Pennsylvania, Biden will appear alongside the Democratic candidate for Senate, John Fetterman, whose health has been under scrutiny since he suffered a stroke earlier this summer. Asked whether Biden has any concerns about Fetterman’s health, Jean-Pierre said: “The president has found him to be an impressive individual who is just as capable as always.”The White House press briefing is underway, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre began with a question about Donald Trump’s attack on American Jews.She called the former president’s comments “antisemitic, as you all know, and insulting both to Jews and to our Israeli allies.”“But let’s be clear, for years, for years now, Donald Trump has aligned with extremists and antisemitic figures and it should be called out,” she added. “We need to root out antisemitism everywhere it rears its ugly head. … With respect to Israel, our relationship is iron clad and it’s rooted in shared values and interests. Donald Trump clearly doesn’t understand that either.”She also condemned Ye’s antisemitic posts, but said she was not able to comment on the announcement this morning that he intends to purchase the far-right social media site, Parler.During Donald Trump’s presidency, hotels and properties owned by the former president charged the Secret Service “exorbitant” rates – as much as $1,185 per night at the Trump International Hotel in DC – according to new documents released on Monday by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.The secret service was tasked with protecting the safety of Trump and his family during his presidency, and therefore followed them on their travels.“The exorbitant rates charged to the Secret Service and agents’ frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise significant concerns about the former president’s self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for former president Trump’s struggling businesses,” the committee chair, the New York representative Carolyn Maloney, said in a statement.According to the Washington Post, which first reported on the payments, the new documents reveal, based on the committee’s review, that US taxpayers paid the president’s company at least $1.4m for Secret Service agents’ stays at Trump properties for his and his family’s protection.The analysis shows that the Secret Service received more than 40 waivers from the Secret Service to let the agency spend more than the recommended rates.In a new interview, Fiona Hill says Putin is adapting, not giving up and is using messengers like Elon Musk to propose an end to the conflict on his terms.“Putin plays the egos of big men, gives them a sense that they can play a role. But in reality, they’re just direct transmitters of messages from Vladimir Putin,” Hill told Politico.Hill, one of the nation’s foremost experts on Russia and Putin, argues that the west has been slow to realize that Putin is waging a world war, what she describes as a “great power conflict over territory which overturns the existing international order and where other states find themselves on different sides of the conflict.”“This is a great power conflict, the third great power conflict in the European space in a little over a century,” Hill said. “It’s the end of the existing world order. Our world is not going to be the same as it was before.”Read the full interview here.Donald Trump attacked US Jews on his social media platform last night, saying that they should “get their act together” and show more appreciation to Israel “before it’s too late.”“No President has done more for Israel than I have. Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.“Those living in Israel, though, are a different story — Highest approval rating in the World, could easily be P.M.!” he added.It is not the first time Trump has flirted with the antisemitic trope that Jews hold “dual loyalty” or are more loyal to Israel than the US. As in this post, he suggested that American Jews, who traditionally favor Democrats, should be more supportive of him because of his policies toward Israel.Former US president warns US Jews to get their “act together,” be more like Israelis, and appreciate him more pic.twitter.com/taRYa53d74— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 16, 2022
      In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Dr Anthony Fauci warned about the dangers of long Covid, which he called an “insidious” if hard-to-diagnose public health emergency for millions of people.Speaking to the Guardian’s David Smith, the nation’s top infectious disease expert explained that the rates of long Covid are worrying, even if they receive far less attention than death and hospitalization rates.“It isn’t that you have people who are hospitalized or dying, but their function is being considerably impaired,” he said.One of the major challenges to diagnosing and treating long Covid is that relatively little is known about it. There is no test for long Covid, Smith writes, and its precise causes remain mysterious. Fauci said long Covid is likely more prominent among those with existing psychological issues, but he adds: “The one thing you don’t want to fall into the trap of saying is well, it’s all psychological, because it’s not, it’s real.”Fauci urged Congress to continue investing in efforts to combat the virus and long Covid..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“We’ve hit a wall when it comes to further resources for Covid, including long Covid. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of resources that are waiting for us right now,” he said. “I hope that changes. If you declare victory, you’re declaring an imaginary victory because we haven’t won the battle yet.”Read the full interview here:Dr Anthony Fauci: long Covid is an ‘insidious’ public health emergency Read moreMajor retailers will begin selling hearing aids over the counter without a prescription and at a much lower cost, as part of a new Biden administration rule that take effect today.“Starting today, hearings aids are now on store shelves across the country — for thousands of dollars less than they previously cost,” the White House said in a fact sheet on Monday.The move comes as Democrats tout their efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs and ease the economic burden of high inflation and rising cost of living ahead of the midterms. According to the White House, several major retailers, Walgreens, CVS and Walmart among them, will begin selling the devices today. It estimates that the rule could lower average costs by as much as $3,000 per pair of hearing aids. Nearly 30 million Americans have hearing loss, according to the fact sheet, including nearly 10 million adults under age 60.Today the Guardian launched a four-part series on Latino voters – a fast-growing, incredibly diverse voting bloc with the collective power to sway the 2022 midterm elections. Though Latino voters have historically favored Democrats – and recent polling suggests that they still do – the party’s grip on these voters is slipping as economic forces provide an opening for Republicans. This year, due in part to population growth and redistricting, Latino voters make up a significant slice of the electorate in several of the most competitive House and Senate races. The stakes for both parties could not be higher. In the first installment, yours truly provides a very broad overview of the well-financed fight to engage and mobilize Latino voters this cycle. But look out for the rest of the series, with reports from Florida, Texas and the mountain west. Other pieces coming through Thursday look at why hopes that the south FL Latino vote would eventually turn aren’t materializing, what drives Latino voter turnout and changing patterns in south TX, and a profile of a Mtn. West community where Latino voters are unexpectedly mighty. https://t.co/F3Sf2VasDN— Ramon Antonio Vargas (@RVargasAdvocate) October 17, 2022
      Read more:Democrats and Republicans fight to make inroads with Latinos ahead of midtermsRead moreMy colleague Joan Greve recently published this report from Maine, where she assessed the state of Paul LePage’s political comeback. The state’s famously belligerent former governor – Trump before Trump, as he once claimed – announced his retirement from politics in 2018 and decamped to Florida. But now he’s back, challenging the state’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills. Now, in his campaign to return to the governor’s mansion, LePage is distancing himself from the former president. He believes Biden won the 2020 election, a fact few Republicans are willing to accept publicly. But has he really changed?Read the full report here.Paul LePage: is Maine ready to welcome back the ‘Trump before Trump’?Read moreKevin McCarthy expects to be the next speaker of the US House of Representatives.That is the takeaway from a frenetic two days on the campaign trail with the Republican leader, according to a new report in Punchbowl news. Along the way, McCarthy spoke candidly about his path to the speakership, how difficult it is for Republicans to keep the job and offered his view of why he thinks his party is on track to wrest the majority from Democrats.McCarthy tells donors and supporters that Republicans’ chances are improving by the day. He is blunt that August was a bad month for Republicans, but says the tide is turning and the election is increasingly being fought on issues that advantage Republicans, such as the economy, immigration and crime..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“What happened was all the issues came back on the front page. The cost of living continued to rise. Kids are going back to school and you’re concerned about what type of education you’re getting. And if you question your school board, somehow you’re a terrorist. The price of gas was up seven cents last week with no hope of America being energy independent. We watch crime rise every single day,” McCarthy said at a fundraising event in Chicago.Interestingly, McCarthy believes the tide began to turn sharply against Democrats after Biden’s Philadelphia speech, in which the president warned that Trumpism posed an acute threat to American democracy.“It all stops Sept. 1, the night that President Biden gave a speech in Philadelphia – an angry speech,” McCarthy added.He also believes he’ll be speaker no matter how big – or small – Republicans’ winning majority is, meaning he thinks he can unite his fractious party behind him.“If I’m even up for speaker, that means we won seats. I’ve been [the top House Republican for] two cycles. I’ve never lost seats, I’ve only won,” he tells Punchbowl.I was shocked by McCarthy’s candor about just how hard it is for Republicans to stay speaker. pic.twitter.com/4c1PLjtqnT— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 17, 2022
      McCarthy is also open about how hard it is for a Republican to keep the job, noting that his most recent predecessors left after only a few years. By contrast, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has led her party for decades.First lady Jill Biden sat down for an interview this weekend with Newsmax, the far-right news network that cast doubt on her husband’s election victory in 2020. According to a press release touting the 20-minute interview, Biden discussed her efforts to combat cancer and her meeting with Ukraine’s first lady. “There are things Americans disagree with, but fighting cancer is one thing that unites Americans; and we’re honored to have Dr. Biden talk of her efforts and President Biden’s to combat this deadly condition,” Newsmax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy said.The Newsmax host, Nancy Brinker, is the founder of the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The interview airs at 9pm. A new NYT/Siena poll looks glum for Democrats. After their fortunes appeared to reverse this summer, Republicans have regained their edge with voters just weeks left before election day.NEW: NYT/Siena poll shows Republicans opening up a 49-45 lead in race for Congress as the economy becomes dominant concern of 2022.The swing toward the GOP among women voters who identified as independent in the last month is striking.https://t.co/JPRgHo55iZ— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) October 17, 2022
      According to the poll, Republicans hold a 49-45 lead in the race for Congress, with the economy being a top priority for voters in 2022. The shift was driven by women who identified as independent voters.“In September, they favored Democrats by 14 points. Now, independent women backed Republicans by 18 points.”The poll found the share of voters who ranked the economy or inflation as a top issue climbed nearly 10%. Republicans have long held an advantage on the economy, a trend that is even more pronounced with inflation at a 40-year-high and Democrats in control in Washington. A far smaller share of voters prioritize issues that favor Democrats, such as abortion and guns. Moreover, voters are extremely dissatisfied with the president, a factor that further hurts Democrats. Read more here and play with the crosstabs here. Steve Bannon should be sentenced to six months in prison and a $200,000 fine for “his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress,” the justice department said in a legal filing on Monday..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Bannon, the former Donald Trump White House strategist, was found guilty on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress in July for ignoring a subpoena from the committee investigating the January 6 attack.
      The department submitted its recommendation for his punishment on Monday ahead of his scheduled sentencing on Friday.Steve Bannon: justice department urges six-month prison term in contempt caseRead moreSome early-breaking news: Ye, formerly Kanye West, is buying the rightwing social media network Parler for an undisclosed sum, the platform announced on Monday.The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, the Guardian reports. News of the purchase comes a week after Twitter and Instagram locked the rapper’s accounts over antisemitic posts.“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” Ye said in a statement.Last year, Parler was effectively forced offline for allowing violent videos of the January 6 Capitol attack to circulate on its platform.Kanye West to buy rightwing social network Parler Read moreThis is only the latest in a series of controversial moves by the artist. Over the weekend, Ye claimed in a podcast appearance that George Floyd died from a drug overdose. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of Floyd’s murder in May 2020. Floyd’s family is considering taking legal action.Family of George Floyd considers legal action over Kanye West commentsRead moreAnd that was after Ye appeared wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt at Paris Fashion Week.Good morning, US politics blog readers. I hope everyone had a nice weekend. We’re in the heat of election season, with just a handful of weeks left before Americans go to the polls.Hours ago, Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with “kamikaze” drones, killing at least three people. For the latest, we encourage you to follow our Ukraine live blog.Here’s a look at what else is happening today in US politics:
      Last night, Georgia Senate GOP candidate Herschel Walker was a no-show for his second and final debate with Democratic senator Raphael Warnock, hosted by the Atlanta Press Club debate on Sunday. The race is among the most competitive in the country and polling suggests the candidates are effectively tied.
      We’re also watching an NBC interview with Walker set to air tonight. In a preview, Walker admits giving his ex-girlfriend a $700 check, but denies it was for an abortion after being “confronted with a receipt from an abortion clinic and a check dated days later and bearing his name”.
      ‘That’s my check’: Walker acknowledges giving $700 to his ex, but denies her claim he knew it was for an abortion https://t.co/uS1svxsGQI— Kristen Welker (@kwelkernbc) October 17, 2022

      This evening, candidates in battleground states will square off in a series of crucial debates. In Georgia, Republican Governor Brian Kemp will debate Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams. In Utah, Republican senator Mike Lee debates his independent challenger, Evan McMullin. The candidates for Ohio’s open senate seat – Democratic congressman Tim Ryan and Republican JD Vance – will hold their second debate this evening. While in Iowa, Republican governor Kim Reynolds faces her Democratic challenger, Deidre DeJear, in a debate.
      Meanwhile, Joe Biden is returning to the White House after spending the weekend in his home state of Delaware. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will brief reporters at 1.30pm.
      The January 6 committee is expected to formally subpoena Donald Trump this week, in an attempt to compel the former president to answer questions about his role in the deadly insurrection at the Capitol. More

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      Democrats and Republicans fight to make inroads with Latinos ahead of midterms

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      Democrats and Republicans fight to make inroads with Latinos ahead of midtermsHispanic voters could tip the scales next month in a number of battleground states Arizona’s Democratic senator Mark Kelly frequently consults his “Latino kitchen cabinet”. In south Texas, the Democratic House candidate Michelle Vallejo hosted a neighbourhood quinceañera. And in Georgia, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams appeared on stage at La Raza’s Fiesta Mexicana. Across battleground states this midterm cycle, Democrats are urgently working to engage and mobilize Hispanic voters.Their push comes two years after Donald Trump made surprising but substantial inroads with Latinos despite his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race. Democrats started to fear their party was losing its hold on a historically reliable cohort, while Republicans became hopeful.Now Democrats and Republicans are engaged anew in a pitched – and expensive – political battle for Hispanic voters, an electorate both parties see as critical not only to their chances this November but also to their electoral hopes in the future.Latino voters are a significant part of the electorate in battleground states likely to decide control of the US Senate, including Arizona, Nevada and even Georgia. They also form a powerful cohort in districts with highly competitive House races across California, Texas and Florida.US midterms 2022: the key racesRead more“Latinos get to decide the future of these states, which means they get to decide the future of our entire country with their vote,” said Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president of the progressive youth voting group, NextGen America.That wasn’t always the case. In 1970, just 5% of the US population was Hispanic. But now, they represent nearly one in five Americans. In the last decade, Latinos accounted for 52% of the nation’s population growth.They also make up one of the largest and fastest-growing parts of the electorate. Latino voters cast roughly 16m votes in 2020, accounting for more than 10% of the total vote share.Most Hispanic voters – 56% – say they plan to vote for Democrats in November, compared with 32% for Republicans, a New York Times/Siena College poll found. But the survey showed Democrats’ support was weaker than in previous years, primarily over economic concerns.America’s ‘weird’ economy isn’t working – can Democrats convince voters they can fix it? Read moreSimilarly, a recent Washington Post/Ipsos poll found Democratic support among Latino voters lagged behind the 2018 level.The economy and rising cost of living is by far the top issue for Latinos this year, yet the Times/Siena poll indicated that they are evenly split over which party they agree more with. And after the US supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, several surveys – including the Post/Ipsos poll – have found that abortion rights are now also among the top voting issue for Latinos.“What we’re seeing here is Latino voters very much concerned about their quality of life as they consider who they’re going to vote for and how they’re going to vote,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund (Naleo), which has commissioned a tracking poll of Latino voters this cycle.‘Win enough’Like the rest of the country, Latinos are dissatisfied with the direction of the country and divided over Joe Biden’s handling of the economy. Republicans see that as an opening to peel away disaffected Latino voters.“Republicans are not going to win the Hispanic vote but they don’t need to,” said Mike Madrid, a veteran Republican strategist who co-hosts the Latino Vote podcast. “They’re just trying to win enough at the margins to win statewide contests.”Madrid says neither party has an obvious grip on the future of the Latino electorate. He argues that Latinos’ preference for Democrats in the past has been driven by their opposition to Republicans’ embrace of hardline anti-immigrant policies – not loyalty to the Democratic party.Younger voters tend to be more ambivalent about party politics. And Latino voters are young, and they are getting younger. It is estimated that each year 1 million US-born Latinos turn 18 and become eligible to vote.“The party that is able to capture the hearts and minds and loyalty of a multi-ethnic working class will be the dominant party of the next generation,” Madrid said.Hoping to capitalize on the gains they made in 2020, Republicans have ramped up their outreach to Latino voters. They celebrated victories by Republican Latinas like Mayra Flores in Texas. And in battleground states across the country, the Republican National Committee has invested millions in community outreach centers targeting Latinos, along with Black voters and Asian Americans.Those efforts are bolstered by the work of groups like the Libre Initiative. For the past decade, Libre – an arm of the Koch family’s Americans for Prosperity – has worked to build support for conservative economic principles in Hispanic communities.The Libre Initiative’s president, Daniel Garza, said they are playing a long game, investing in states where the Latino population is still relatively small but growing: Georgia, Virginia, Wisconsin, even Arkansas. The organization has helped Latinos learn English, get driving licences and even attain high-school equivalency degrees.“The end game is not electing politicians,” Garza said. “It’s not even policy. The idea is for Latinos to become the ‘vanguard of the kinds of free market policies that allow waves of poor immigrants to achieve the American dream.’”A historic underinvestmentFor years, Latino Democratic leaders and strategists have warned the party that it needs to invest more money in outreach, hire Latino staff and engage voters on issues beyond immigration.Democrats have indeed spent more than $54m in elections ads on Spanish-language TV and radio stations since the beginning of 2021 as compared to $19m from Republicans, according to the ad-tracking service AdImpact. Yet advocates argue that more can be done.“The fact is that we need a lot more resources, coming in early so that we can do the appropriate work needed to reach out to the Latino community, and especially young voters,” said Lizet Ocampo, executive director of Voto Latino, an online voter registration organization.Ad campaign targets Latino voters as key bloc for Democrats in midtermsRead moreOcampo said there have been improvements this cycle, but more money is needed to be in constant contact with these voters.“We know that consistent engagement around the year is better at getting folks out, especially young people,” she added. “They do not like when people parachute in at the last minute and ask for their vote.”And what worries leaders like Ocampo is not that Latinos may vote for Republicans. It’s that Latinos may not vote at all.Ramirez, whose group, NextGen, works to mobilise young voters, says both parties are guilty of a “historic underinvestment in the Latino community”. But she argues that Democrats have the better economic message: lowering the cost of prescription drugs, raising the minimum wage and guaranteeing parental leave are popular policies.“The solutions and economic policies of the Democratic party speak to the greatest number of Latinos’ pain, but that’s not enough to make sure that they come out and vote for Democrats,” she said. “If Democrats want their vote, they need to spend more money and time speaking to the Latino community, especially younger Latinos.”TopicsUS midterm elections 2022US politicsDemocratsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Divided midterms: parties play up different issues as US elections loom

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      Divided midterms: parties play up different issues as US elections loomDemocrats and Republicans are largely talking past each other as they campaign, with little to no overlap on what they consider major issues Ron Johnson’s priorities were clear. “We have a huge problem with skyrocketing crime,” insisted the US senator for Wisconsin, accusing his debate opponent, Mandela Barnes, of pushing to reduce cash bail, release violent criminals and slash police funding.Minutes later it was Barnes’s turn to go on the offensive. Johnson, the lieutenant governor said, had described the end of the constitutional right to abortion as a “victory” and shown himself to be “callous” and “out of touch”. Barnes promised to codify that right into law if elected.US midterms 2022: the key racesRead moreA casual observer could have been forgiven for thinking the two candidates were fighting two different elections. For in split-screen America, Democrats and Republicans are largely talking past each other as they campaign for midterms that will decide control of Congress on 8 November.Each party is playing to its perceived strengths. A recent poll by the political research firm Public Opinion Strategies for NBC News found that 90% of voters would prefer Republican control of Congress for the issue of immigration and the border, 65% favour Republicans on crime and 60% want Republicans to handle jobs and the economy.The same survey showed that 86% of voters would prefer Democratic control of Congress to address climate change, 74% favor Democrats on guns, 71% prefer Democrats on abortion and 67% choose Democrats to cope with threats to democracy. The divide is unusually stark.“In past campaigns, the top one or two issues in the election were closely contested and divided between the two political parties,” said Bill McInturff, a partner of Public Opinion Strategies. “This election is different. Each party holds a wide marginal advantage on a distinct set of issues.”McInturff added: “America is more polarised than at any point in the last 40-plus years. Partisans have retreated to their own corners, with limited engagement between partisans, and very little to no overlap of agreement on any major issue.”Perhaps the most vivid illustration of America’s divide is abortion. In June the supreme court’s rightwing majority overturned the landmark Roe v Wade ruling that had enshrined it as a constitutional right for nearly half a century. The political consequences could be profound.The court’s decision prompted a surge among women registering to vote in some states. In conservative Kansas, people overwhelmingly voted to continue to protect abortion in the state constitution.The upshot is a Democratic campaign intensely focused on mobilising women and young people around reproductive rights. Citing data from Bully Pulpit Interactive, the Axios website reported that Democrats have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Facebook ads about abortion over the past three months.They were handed more ammunition when Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator for South Carolina, proposed a national abortion ban at 15 weeks, and when Herschel Walker, who supports an absolute national ban and is running for a Senate seat in Georgia, was reported to have encouraged and paid for an abortion in 2009 for a woman with whom he later fathered a child.Just as Democrats are eager to talk about abortion rights, Republicans – who spent decades promoting it as a hot button topic – are now equally eager to avoid the topic. Candidates are waffling around it in debates and interviews, deleting hardline positions from their campaign websites and seeking to change the subject whenever they can.But Democrats can take nothing for granted. Writing in the Guardian this week, Bernie Sanders, a senator for Vermont, said he was “alarmed” to hear that Democratic candidates are being advised that their closing arguments should focus only on the right to choose. “In my view, while the abortion issue must remain on the front burner, it would be political malpractice for Democrats to ignore the state of the economy and allow Republican lies and distortions to go unanswered,” Sanders wrote.James Carville, a veteran Democratic strategist, also struck a note of caution, telling the Associated Press: “A lot of these consultants think if all we do is run abortion spots that will win for us. I don’t think so. It’s a good issue. But if you just sit there and they’re pummeling you on crime and pummeling you on the cost of living, you’ve got to be more aggressive than just yelling abortion every other word.”Democrats have other cards to play: the climate crisis, gun safety and threats to democracy. While the last of these may be complex and abstract to some voters, former president Donald Trump’s continued scandals and campaign rallies are helping to keep it front and centre.House Republicans, meanwhile, made their priorities clear with last month’s launch of a “Commitment to America” policy agenda, emphasising the economy, crime, freedom of choice and government accountability. They claim that Democratic rule has produced 40-year high inflation, 12 cities with record murder rates, a 60% increase in petrol prices, 3.5m illegal border crossings under Joe Biden and record-high drug overdoses.Some of the attacks could be touching a nerve. Only 36% of Americans say they approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, according to a poll by the Associated Press-Norc Center for Public Affairs Research, while 63% disapprove. Although the president has blamed rising energy and food prices on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, critics argue that his $1.9tn coronavirus relief package last year was excessive.In a mirror of Republicans’s dissembling around abortion, Democrats are being forced on the defensive despite low unemployment. Biden told CNN this week: “I don’t think there will be a recession. If it is, it’ll be a very slight recession. That is, we’ll move down slightly.”With Democrats similarly reluctant to discuss border security, Republicans believe that they hold the winning hand. Ed Rogers, a political consultant who worked in the Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush administrations, said: “Both parties are talking about what they can talk about. Republicans have the big four: inflation/economy; crime/lawlessness; public education, underreported in the US; the border/immigration.“The Democrats have abortion and name-calling – you’re a fascist, you’re a Nazi, you’re an extremist. That’s all they have. I can’t believe how the Democrats have abandoned the big four. They just don’t talk about them. They’re in a swirl of denial, of obfuscation, of defeat.“They just abandoned the ground. They’re not looking at the polling and selfishly saying, ‘Hey, gang, look at what people care about. We should have a well-crafted, affirmative message about these things.’ They didn’t have that meeting this cycle for some reason. It’s inexplicable to me.”For voters, it can often seem like two campaigns running in parallel with little overlap. Instead of coming at the same issue from different sides, now the issues themselves are different. One team is playing baseball, the other cricket. Longtime political observers say it used not to be this way.John Zogby, an author and pollster, said: “Usually there’s one set of issues. Pro, con, yay, nay. Not always but generally the economy. In the mid-90s crime was a big issue and there was no changing the subject. ‘Here’s our approach, here’s their approach.’ There was a common set of issues with different approaches. This is an election about different realities.”He added: “We talked politics even when I was a little kid and there were always disagreements but what makes this so unique is, as [former White House counselor] Kellyanne Conway pointed out, there’s ‘alternative facts’ that are involved.”The parties’ supporters do agree on one issue: last month a Quinnipiac University poll found that 69% of Democrats and 69% of Republicans say that democracy is “in danger of collapse”. But they have fundamentally divergent explanations: Democrats blame Trump and “ultra-Maga Republicans”, Republicans condemn Biden and socialism.Biden ran for election as a moderate promising to heal divisions and he still peppers his speeches with an emphasis on the “United States of America”. But the past two years have seen continued acrimony and even talk of civil war as Trump continues to dominate an extremist Republican party.US midterms 2022: the key candidates who threaten democracyRead moreNot everyone believes that the trend is irreversible, however. The Common Ground Committee, a non-partisan organisation, has launched a “score card” to assess the degree to which elected public officials and candidates for office seek points of agreement. Bruce Bond, co-founder and chief executive of the committee, argues that bipartisanship can actually be a selling point in the midterms.He said via Zoom: “Because politics have become national and if I’m a Republican I’m going talk about inflation, and if I’m a Democrat I’m going to talk about the Dobbs decision [by the supreme court on abortion], there’s now a little bit more interest in saying, ‘I have this strong position on this issue and I agree with my base but I also can work with people from the other side’.”Bond pointed to the example of Tim Ryan, a Democratic candidate for the Senate in Ohio, who has said he wants to represent “the exhausted majority” and work across the aisle. “What we’re seeing is that the candidates recognise that people are tired of the political divide. If you’re going to talk about the issues that you know your guys care about, that’s not going to be enough.”TopicsUS midterm elections 2022The ObserverUS politicsRepublicansDemocratsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Barack Obama to campaign for Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin Senate race

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      Barack Obama to campaign for Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin Senate raceBarnes, who would be the first Black senator from Wisconsin, is looking to unseat Republican Ron Johnson Barack Obama, who twice won Wisconsin by large margins, will travel to the battleground state in the final weeks of the current midterm elections, seeking to boost Mandela Barnes, the young lieutenant governor looking to unseat the Republican Ron Johnson in a key US Senate contest.Barnes would be the first Black senator from Wisconsin. He held early leads over Johnson but the Republican, a prominent figure on the GOP hard right, has surged back. This week, a Marquette University Law School poll showed Johnson in the lead.Herschel Walker denies abortion ban support and brandishes ‘police badge’ in Georgia debateRead moreBarnes, who is from Milwaukee, has been trying to energize Black voters in a contest that could decide control of the Senate, which is currently split 50-50 and controlled by Democrats through the vote of the vice-president, Kamala Harris.Obama, the first Black US president, is set to hold an early voting event on 29 October, less than two weeks before election day, in Milwaukee, the largest city in Wisconsin and home to its largest group of African American voters.Politico reported this week that the Barnes campaign was reaching out to high-profile Democrats, seeking support as he slips in the polls. Joe Biden, Harris and Bernie Sanders were also named as potential guests.Since his first run for the Senate in 2010, Johnson has marketed himself as a successful businessman upholding conservative values.But he has leaned heavily into rightwing conspiracy theories around the 2020 presidential election and Covid-19 vaccines and remedies. In turn, his approval rating has dropped to 45%, the second-lowest for a Republican senator.In a recent editorial, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the largest newspaper in the state, called Johnson “the worst Wisconsin representative since the infamous Joseph McCarthy” and reminded readers he promised to serve no more than two terms, which he has now completed.“Voters should hold him to that pledge in November,” the newspaper said.But Johnson’s campaign has been gaining steam. Early polls showed Barnes with a slight edge but Johnson has launched an intense negative ad campaign, attempting to portray Barnes as bad for the economy in a time of high inflation and as a supporter for activists who want to defund police departments.The lieutenant governor has not backed such campaigns.At a heated debate last Thursday, Johnson, when asked to say something nice about his opponent, said that Barnes had loving parents and added: “What puzzles me about that is with that upbringing, why has he turned against America?”Wisconsin has long been a swing state. After voting for Obama twice, Donald Trump beat Hilary Clinton in 2016 by less than one point. Biden won with a similarly small margin four years later.The state is home to more tight races this midterm season, including the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, being challenged by Tim Michels, a construction company co-owner endorsed by Trump. Marquette polls have for months shown that race to be about even.Tammy Baldwin, the state’s other US senator, and Gwen Moore, a congresswoman who represents Milwaukee, are also slated to appear with Democratic candidates for office, including the serving attorney general, Josh Kaul.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022Barack ObamaWisconsinDemocratsUS SenateUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Senate candidate Herschel Walker brandishes 'police badge' in Georgia debate – video

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      The Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker addressed his past claims about being a law enforcement officer by producing what he said was a police badge. The former college football and NFL star, who is endorsed by Donald Trump, was accused of ‘pretending to be a police officer’ by his rival, Democratic senator Raphael Warnock, during a debate on Friday. Saying ‘I have to respond to that,’ Walker produced his badge. Walker has never been a trained law enforcement officer, though he has law enforcement endorsements 

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      Unchecked review: how Trump dodged two impeachments … and the January 6 committee?

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      Unchecked review: how Trump dodged two impeachments … and the January 6 committee? Rachael Bade and Karoun Demirjian’s account of how the Democrats failed to oust Trump is timely – and worryingOn Thursday, the House January 6 committee voted unanimously to issue a subpoena to Donald Trump. He has indicated he is considering testifying but surely the likelihood of him doing so under oath is nil. He lacks all incentive to appear. The committee’s long-term existence is doubtful.Trump a narcissist and a ‘dick’, ex-ambassador Sondland says in new bookRead moreIn their joint account of Trump’s two impeachments, Rachael Bade of Politico and Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post suggest the US is exhausted by the pandemic and perpetual investigation. The quest for “Capitol riot accountability became an afterthought to … other crises”, they write.Trump lost to Joe Biden by more than 7m votes nationally but only by the thinnest of margins in the battleground states. Trump is on the ballot this November, even if his name does not appear. The Republicans are primed to take the House and possibly the Senate.In other words, Trump’s future rests with the courts and the electorate, not Congress. For all the committee’s efforts, Trump remains either hero or villain depending on demographics, habits and preferences. Political identification is an extension of self.Against this dystopian backdrop, Bade and Demirjian deliver a granular examination of both Trump impeachments and the work of the January 6 committee. Their joint effort is a stinging indictment of what they see as Republican cravenness and Democratic ineptitude.The former allowed Trump to evade consequences, the latter failed to master the levers of power. The authors are alarmed but their words are measured. They worry about what might be next.“Even if they did not intend to, the Democrats’ efforts to oust Trump created a paradigm for hostile presidents to ignore subpoenas and buck [Capitol] Hill oversight,” Bade and Demirjian write.They also posit that “a party with congressional supermajorities may one day oust a president with no evidence at all”. Said differently, the impeachment process will become wholly debased, a cudgel to be deployed as the US careens through its cold civil war. House Republicans have raised the possibility of a Biden impeachment already.As is to be expected, Unchecked is well-sourced and noted. The book records the give-and-take between congressional leaders and members, at the same time helping the reader understand how the US reached this point.During the first impeachment, the authors capture Mitch McConnell as he rallies his Republican Senate troops. His pitch centers on power. He depicts impeachment over Ukraine as a smokescreen for the Democrats’ ambition to take the chamber.“This is not about this president,” McConnell said. “It’s not about anything he’s been accused of doing,” Rather, “it has always been about 3 November 2020. It’s about flipping the Senate.”McConnell loathed Trump but understood their fates could not be separated. If McConnell were pitted against Trump in a Republican popularity contest, the Kentuckian would be squashed. He lacked Trump’s appeal and was overtly linked to the donor base. Banker’s shirts do not signal “man of the people”. For McConnell, populism was an acquired taste, if that. He could fake it, to a point. But in the Senate, he held sway.At the same time, there was the reality of Trump’s approaches to Ukraine. As much as Trump lawyers argued there was no quid pro quo, in private, Senate Republicans weren’t buying it.Before the first impeachment trial, Ted Cruz of Texas met Trump’s team. He argued it was irrelevant whether their client engaged in a quid pro quo. Rather, the issue was one of intent. If uprooting foreign corruption motivated the contemplated transaction, that would be legally permissible. Cruz failed to persuade the White House counsel, Pat Cipollone. As the action shifted to the Senate, Trump’s lawyers angered Republican jurors. Alan Dershowitz equated presidential power to that of a king unchecked by parliament. “If the president does something which he believes will help get him elected, in the public interest”, that would be fine.Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of Republican leadership, was not amused. He demanded that Dershowitz be fired. The next day, the Harvard professor was gone.As for the Democrats, they failed to internalize that their audience was the Republican Senate. With Trump in the White House, Adam Schiff enjoyed a meteoric rise among Democratic House colleagues. But he left Senate Republicans unmoved. In the end, they were yawning.Fast forward to the second impeachment. Here, Bade and Demirjian depict Kevin McCarthy in all his oleaginous glory. The House minority leader devolves from someone who confronted Trump to an out-and-out sycophant.On January 6, McCarthy lambasted Trump over the riot. Within weeks, the man who would replace Nancy Pelosi as speaker traveled to Mar-a-Lago with hat in hand. He too realized that it was Trump’s party now.At its core, removing a president is about politics. For impeachment to succeed, it must transcend raw partisanship, a reality Pelosi expressed early on. Richard Nixon resigned because congressional allies would no longer protect him. The Watergate tapes were the smoking gun.Confidence Man: The Making of Trump and the Breaking of America review – the vain sadist and his ‘shrink’Read moreNow, with or without a criminal referral by the January 6 committee, justice department investigations of Trump are in full swing. On Friday, the Washington Post reported that a federal judge ordered Mike Pence to testify before a grand jury, and that earlier in the week the US Court of Appeals refused to block Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, from doing the same.But that is not the end of the story. Inflation continues, interest rates on home mortgages have shot above 7%, and Biden’s relationship to basic facts appears situational at best.With cost-of-living outstripping take-home pay, the saliency of abortion and the supreme court Dobbs decision diminishes. The Democrats also appear out of step on crime. In the midterms, shouting that democracy and the constitution hang in the balance will not be enough. Culture will always matter. Whether the Democrats can figure this out remains to be seen.
      Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump is published in the US by HarperCollins
      TopicsBooksDonald TrumpTrump administrationTrump impeachment (2019)Trump impeachment (2021)US politicsUS Capitol attackreviewsReuse this content More

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      Herschel Walker denies abortion ban support and brandishes ‘police badge’ in Georgia debate

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      Herschel Walker denies abortion ban support and brandishes ‘police badge’ in Georgia debateRepublican spars with Democratic senator Raphael Warnock in one-off contest in vital midterms race The Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, a staunch anti-abortion politician accused by a former girlfriend of encouraging and paying for her abortion in 2009, used his only debate against the Democratic senator Raphael Warnock on Friday to deny his previous support for an outright national abortion ban.The former college football and NFL star, who is endorsed by Donald Trump, was asked about his support for “a complete ban on a national level”. He said the moderator misstated his position. That contradicted statements made repeatedly on the campaign trail, including in July when Walker said it was “a problem” that no national ban existed.Walker also answered an attack from Warnock about his past claims about being a law enforcement officer by producing what he said was a police badge.Woman tells New York Times that Herschel Walker urged her to have second abortionRead moreWarnock said: “You can support police officers as I’ve done … while at the same time holding police officers, like all professions, accountable. One thing I have not done, I’ve never pretended to be a police officer. And I’ve never, I’ve never threatened a shootout with the police.”Saying “I have to respond to that”, Walker produced his badge.Walker has never been a trained law enforcement officer, though he has law enforcement endorsements.As Walker brandished his badge, the debate moderator said: “Mr Walker, Mr Walker – excuse me, Mr Walker. I need to let you know, Mr Walker, you are very well aware of the rules tonight. And you have a prop that is not allowed. Sir, I asked you to put that prop away.”Walker did not do so immediately.The moderator said: “Excuse me, sir. You’re very well aware of the rules, aren’t you?”Walker said: “Well, let’s talk about the truth.”Walker’s apparent battle with the truth over abortion has become a theme of the midterm elections. On Friday, he said his position was the same as Georgia’s state law, a so-called heartbeat bill that bans abortion at six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant. That law went into effect this year after the US supreme court overturned the right to abortion.The heated exchange on abortion was one of many that highlighted stark differences between Warnock and Walker. Warnock did not directly bring up the allegation about Walker paying for an abortion, leaving moderators to elicit a flat denial. Walker blasted Warnock for being a Baptist pastor who supports abortion rights.“Instead of aborting those babies, why aren’t you baptizing those babies?” he said.Warnock said “God gave us a choice and I respect the right of women to make a decision”, adding that Walker “wants to arrogate more power to politicians than God has”.Warnock and his fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff won their Senate seats in a January 2021 special election, two months after Joe Biden beat Trump in Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes. It was the first time in two decades Democrats won federal elections in the state, raising questions about whether Warnock can win again as Biden’s popularity falls.In-person voting begins on Monday. The outcome will help determine control of the Senate, currently split 50-50.Republicans throw support behind Herschel Walker after abortion denialRead moreOnstage, Walker claimed Warnock was a Biden puppet, saying the election was about what they “had done to you and your family” in an inflationary economy. Warnock said the election was about “who is ready to represent Georgia”.Walker blamed Warnock and Biden for inflation but offered little when asked what he would do to fix it. Walker said the first step was “getting back” to energy independence rather than depending “on our enemies”. The US had never been free from fossil fuel imports, some from countries such as Russia.Warnock highlighted Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, focusing on provisions he sponsored capping insulin and other healthcare costs, the extension of the child tax credit and infrastructure provisions he shepherded with Republicans. He offered few specifics about further steps.Warnock declined to say if Biden, nearing 80, should seek re-election in 2024. Walker deviated from Trump by saying Biden won legitimately in 2020. But he said he would support Trump if he ran in 2024. Both Walker and Warnock said they would accept the outcome of their election.Both men discussed their personal lives. Recent reporting by the Daily Beast disclosed records of an abortion receipt and personal check from Walker to a woman who said he paid for her abortion. Walker’s denials have continued even after the woman identified herself as the mother of one of his four children. Walker acknowledged three children publicly for the first time only after Beast reporting.Other reports have detailed how Walker has exaggerated academic achievements, business success and philanthropic activities, as well as accusations he threatened the life of his ex-wife beyond details acknowledged in a 2008 memoir. In perhaps his most effective debate move, Warnock alluded to such stories.“We will see time and time again tonight, as we’ve always seen, that my opponent has a problem with the truth,” said Warnock.Dismissing reports that a foundation tied to Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he is senior pastor, had evicted tenants from real-estate holdings, Warnock said Walker was trying to “sully the name of Martin Luther King’s church”.Walker pointed to his memoir, in which he detailed a diagnosis of dissociative personality disorder. Walker said he had “been transparent” and “continue[d] to get help if I need help, but I don’t need any help. I’m doing well. I’m ready to lead today.”Walker declined three debates typical in Georgia campaigns. The Savannah debate did not include the libertarian Chase Oliver, who did not meet a polling threshold. Warnock will meet Oliver in a Sunday debate sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club. Walker will be represented by an empty podium.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022GeorgiaUS politicsUS CongressUS SenateRepublicansDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

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      Democrats suggest shifting weapons from Saudi Arabia to Ukraine

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      Democrats suggest shifting weapons from Saudi Arabia to UkraineDemocrats call for suspension of transfer of Patriot missiles in wake of ‘turning point’ in relationship with Saudis Democrats on Capitol Hill have suggested transferring US weapons systems in Saudi Arabia to Ukraine and suspending a planned transfer of Patriot missiles to Riyadh in the wake of what they call a “turning point” in Washington’s relationship with the kingdom.Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman from California who is a leading supporter of a weapons freeze, said he believed that “at the very least” Congress would move to halt the transfer of Patriot missiles to the kingdom, and probably pause other defense initiatives.US-Saudi rift grows over decision to cut oil productionRead moreKhanna is a longtime critic of Saudi Arabia and was one of the original sponsors of a 2019 measure that received bipartisan support and would have forced the US to end military involvement in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. That resolution was vetoed by then-president Donald Trump.In an interview with the Guardian, Khanna said tensions had reached a boiling point that was comparable to US sentiment following the murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.The break in the relationship followed an announcement last week that Opec+, the oil cartel, had agreed to cut oil production by 2m barrels a day over the strong objections of, and lobbying by, the administration of Joe Biden. The move was seen as both a boost to Vladimir Putin and his war effort in Ukraine, and a stunning betrayal of Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the US, just weeks after the president had visited Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah.“I think President Biden is judicious and pragmatic by temperament but this was a real slap in his face,” Khanna said. While lawmakers like him have long advocated for a tougher response to Saudi on human rights grounds, Khanna said the Opec+ move had galvanized members across Congress.“This is a second moment like Khashoggi’s murder. I believe it is a total miscalculation by the Saudis,” he said, adding that there was still time for the kingdom to change course.Pressed on whether Democrats were likely to move beyond rhetoric, Khanna pointed to recent comments by his colleague Robert Menendez, a Democratic senator who as chairman of the foreign relations committee said he was prepared to halt Saudi weapons sales.“At the very least, the Patriot missiles will be suspended,” he said. “The fact that Menendez has spoken out means that at a minimum it is going to happen.”Meanwhile, Chris Murphy, an influential Democratic senator from Connecticut, said he believed the US ought to suspend the sale of advanced air-to-air missiles to Saudi Arabia and repurpose these missiles to Ukraine.“For several years, the US military had deployed Patriot missile defense batteries to Saudi Arabia to help defend oil infrastructure against missile and drone attacks. These advanced air and missile defense systems should be redeployed to bolster the defenses of eastern flank Nato allies like Poland and Romania – or transferred to our Ukrainian partners,” Murphy said in a statement.While physically transferring existing weapons systems in Saudi Arabia to Ukraine would not be particularly complicated logistically, experts said it could risk accusations that the Biden administration was escalating its support for Ukraine beyond levels that it considered appropriate, because the systems might require on-the-ground US personnel for support.William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute, said at a minimum, any such move to shift weapons would be met by serious debates within the White House and Congress. At the same time, he said, Russia’s continuing assault on Ukraine meant that “political considerations are shifting”.Changes to planned deliveries of Patriot missiles would probably cause “consternation” in Saudi Arabia, but changes to delivery of spare parts and maintenance could ground large parts of the Saudi air force, he said.Hartung said he believed the Saudis might be underestimating the impact of the sudden break in relations with Washington, given the relationship appeared to survive the Khashoggi murder. In that case, however, Trump was in the White House and steadfastly loyal to the Saudis. Hartung said he believed it was unlikely that Biden would veto a congressional resolution aimed at the kingdom, as Trump did in 2019.“It’s not a done deal, but the political tides are stronger against the Saudis than they have been – possibly ever,” he said.The Saudi foreign ministry this week rejected the criticism of its Opec+ decision and insisted the cartel had acted with unanimity and in its own economic interest. It also rejected any assumption that it could be forced into a policy U-turn.“The kingdom stresses that while it strives to preserve the strength of its relations with all friendly countries, it affirms its rejection of any dictates, actions, or efforts to distort its noble objectives to protect the global economy from oil market volatility,” it said.Khanna hit back at that claim.“The reality is that there is no economic case for what they are doing. This was punitive for Americans and it is aiding Putin,” he said.A spokesperson for the national security council said Opec’s decision last week to “align its energy policy with Russia’s war and against Americans” underscored Biden’s earlier call to set a “different sort of relationship” with Saudi Arabia.“We are reviewing where we are, we’ll be watching closely over the coming weeks and months, consulting with allies, with Congress – and decisions will be made in a deliberate way,” the spokesperson said.TopicsUS foreign policySaudi ArabiaUkraineDemocratsUS CongressUS politicsMiddle East and north AfricanewsReuse this content More