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      Democrats need to address economic fears now – or risk losing their majorities | Robert Reich

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      Democrats need to address economic fears now – or risk losing their majorities Robert ReichUntil Democrats tell it like it is, their electoral majorities will continue to be fragile A milder version of Liz Truss’s economically induced vanishing act may be occurring on this side of the Atlantic.Despite the Federal Reserve’s most aggressive campaign in generations to slow the economy and bring price increases under control, prices continue to climb.This could have severe political consequences for Democrats in the midterm elections in a little over two weeks. The economy is the most important issue on voters’ minds.Prices rose at a brutally rapid pace in September, with a key inflation index increasing at the fastest rate in 40 years. For this reason, investors expect the Fed to announce another rate increase at the end of its next meeting on 2 November, just six days before election day.Republicans are focusing on inflation because voters see it as their biggest immediate problem, and it’s easy to pin blame on the Democrats because they’re in charge.But the Biden administration and the Democrats aren’t responsible.Inflation is worldwide. It’s being propelled by continuing global supply shocks – including Putin’s war in Ukraine and China’s Covid lockdowns – which are contributing to shortages of energy, food and hi-tech components.The shortages are coming just at a time when consumer demand is soaring in the wake of what is hopefully the end of the worst of Covid.Inflation in the United States is also being caused by corporations raising their prices faster than their costs to fatten their profit margins.The evidence of this is now all around us. Corporate profit margins are at record highs.“The companies who set prices are really reluctant to stop increasing them,” says Jeanna Smialek, who writes about the Fed for the New York Times. “What we saw was that corporations were actually pocketing quite a bit more profit off this …. They’re still putting up prices very rapidly, even in instances where their own costs are starting to fall.”Corporate profits continue to climb even as consumers are taking it on the chin. It’s a giant redistribution from consumers to corporations.This would seem to be a natural issue for Democrats to be sounding off about.The Fed’s rate hikes aren’t working because they’re based on the anachronistic idea that slowing consumer demand automatically causes prices to fall or to climb more slowly.But with global shortages of supplies, and monopolistic corporations raising prices to preserve or enlarge their profits, the Fed would have to raise interest rates far higher before having the desired effect. The Fed would very likely bring the economy to a crawl, by which time the human cost will be overwhelming.Better to wait out the global supply shocks and deal with corporate power with a temporary windfall profits tax and more vigorous antitrust enforcement.Why aren’t Biden and the Democrats hammering away with this message?Nine months ago, the White House’s National Economic Council was putting out research papers on the relationship between corporate power and inflation, but then abruptly stopped.The reason was conventional economists claimed the theory didn’t hold water. They argued that monopolistic corporations would have exercised their pricing power all along, not just during this burst of inflation.That conventional view is being proven wrong. Corporations have been more willing to exercise monopoly power over the past year because inflation has given them cover to do so. While telling retailers and consumers they have no choice but to raise prices because their own costs are rising, they’ve been raising prices higher than their rising costs in order to expand their profit margins.Another reason the White House stopped blaming inflation on big corporations is that the corporate funders of Democrats have made it clear they don’t want the White House or Democratic candidates to blame this inflation on them.That’s a pity, because until Democrats tell it like it is – and talk accurately and clearly about such abuses of corporate power – their electoral majorities will continue to be fragile. And they’ll never get the political mandate they need to take on corporate power as directly and forcefully as it must be taken on.And in two weeks, they may lose control over Congress.
      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
      TopicsInflationOpinionUS politicsDemocratsUS midterm elections 2022US economycommentReuse this content More

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      ‘I just care about change’: Nevada’s Latinos on their cost-of-living fears

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      ‘I just care about change’: Nevada’s Latinos on their cost-of-living fears Nevada has an acute shortage of affordable housing – but do Republicans or Democrats have practical answers to curb one of America’s most pressing issues?Claudia Lopez, 39, is worried for her children.As her curly haired seven-year-old daughter bounced around a play area inside El Mercado, a shopping center within the Boulevard Mall in Las Vegas where the smell of arepas and tacos hovers over the shops, Lopez soaked in her day off from knocking on doors and talking to residents about the upcoming election.Latino activists have been changing Arizona politics. The midterms are their biggest challenge yetRead moreFor much of her life, Lopez, whose parents emigrated from Mexico to California, where she was born, didn’t care for politics. This year, that changed: since Lopez moved to Las Vegas seven years ago, rents have rocketed. In the first quarter of 2022, the Nevada State Apartment Association found that rent had soared, on average, more than 20% compared to the same period last year. That growth has since slowed, but the self-employed house cleaner worries about her children’s future: their safety, their schools, their shelter.“I don’t care about Democrats or Republicans,” Lopez says. “I care about change. I just want change for the better. Everything’s getting worse. You see little kids like, ‘Are they going to live to my age?’”In Nevada, the political stakes of this election are high. Latino voters are projected to account for one for every five potential voters in November, turning the state into a microcosm of the national influence voters of color will have on the election. While Nevada voted Democrat in the last election, its contests were won by slim margins. And as a voting bloc, Latinos are not monolithic: what they care about ranges from immigration to the economy and depends on where throughout the country they live.An emerging, central, and practical concern for this group, however, rests in the rising costs of living – especially housing. The state has the steepest affordable housing shortage in the country. For every 100 renters in Nevada, there are just 18 affordable homes available to extremely low-income households, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. By comparison, Mississippi, which has the highest poverty rate in the country, has 58 homes available for every 100 renters.“It’s a perfect storm,” said Melissa Morales, founder of Somos Votantes, a non-profit focused on encouraging Latino voter participation. “You have the state that was hardest hit by unemployment and its economy was the hardest hit by the pandemic. You have the first Latina US senator ever in American history that’s up for re-election.”“For Latino voters, they are less interested in a blame game and much more interested in solutions,” she added. “When they’re placing the economy and these sorts of costs that are at the top of their list, they are really looking at which party is providing hard solutions to these issues.”In the governor’s race, the Democratic incumbent Steve Sisolak, who approved $500m in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan toward developing housing, plans on working with state lawmakers to curtail corporations from buying properties, reform evictions and impose rent control. He extended an eviction moratorium through last May in the midst of the pandemic.But on his website, his opponent Republican Joe Lombardo slammed Sisolak’s administration as a “roadblock for affordable housing”, stating that Lombardo would streamline permitting and licensing for housing.Despite political posturing, there’s concern about whether Latino voters will show up at all. That presents a vexing question for organizers attempting to cut past political rhetoric to capture Latino voters’ attention: who has the practical answers to curb America’s most pressing issues: the rising cost of living? And what will convince them that politicians will actually make good on these promises?Advocacy groups have taken to the pavement to try and bridge any voter education gaps.Morales says that of their canvassing operations in Nevada, Arizona and Michigan, those in Nevada spoke the most about the rising costs of housing and healthcare.Morales serves as president of Somos PAC, which has supported Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, the first Latina elected to the US Senate, who is vying for re-election against former Nevada attorney general and Republican Adam Laxalt. While Cortez Masto’s website lauds her work to “expand affordable housing” and “combat housing discrimination”, Laxalt’s makes no mention of housing as an issue, focusing instead on the economy, crime, immigration and other issues.The Culinary Workers Union, whose membership of 60,000 hospitality workers is mostly made up of people of color, are also engaging in what they hope will be their largest canvassing operation in history, dispatching at least 350 canvassers, with more closer to election day, to neighborhoods six days a week.With hopes of reaching 1 million households, the union’s canvassers’ focus on calling for blocking rent hikes and curtailing the cost of living, responding to a national crisis that upended the lives of voters of color in the area.On a recent trip to a quiet neighborhood in north Las Vegas, where roughly four in 10 Latinos live, Miguel Regalado trudged from door to door under the sweltering desert heat.A lead canvasser who has embarked on multiple campaigns since 2016, Regalado, like hundreds of others, had taken a leave of absence from his job to talk with voters. So did Rocelia Mendoza and Marcos Rivera, who joined him to stroll through the neighborhood full of nearly identical houses, with white exteriors and red roofs, Halloween decorations on their front yards.Regalado, a utility porter at The D Casino, and Mendoza, a dining bus person at the Wynn who worked her fourth campaign since 2017, checked their tablets for the list of addresses. When knocks went unanswered, they affixed literature and endorsement guides to people’s doors.Those who answered were largely Black and Latino residents, with Regalado and Mendoza relating to some in Spanish. They often framed their pitches around signing a petition calling for “neighborhood stability” – a collection of proposals to stop rent increases in Clark and Washoe counties, where Las Vegas and Reno are – and to support candidates, largely Democrats, who have signed on to support the cause. Those two cities represent battlegrounds for Republicans and Democrats alike as Republicans managed to persuade more Latino voters in Las Vegas since 2020 but lost ground with them in Reno.David Damore, chair of the political science department at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said that the door-knocking operations were key to encouraging turnout from Latino voters. Without door-knocking from the union, whose membership is majority people of color, “Nevada would not have shifted from red to blue,” Damore wrote in an email. “There are hard-fought wins on the line this cycle.”Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Workers Union, told the Guardian that working-class Nevada residents across racial and ethnic backgrounds have expressed concern to members about rent, the cost of inflation and rising healthcare costs.“Our members can’t afford homes like they used to,” Pappageorge, who spent a decade as the union’s president, says. “We’re finding that folks are concerned, and they want to know what to do. And we have a plan to win.”The canvassers themselves are dealing with the housing constraints. Before the pandemic, Regalado tried to buy a house. He made offers and felt qualified. “I got outbid every time I did it,” Regalado says. He worried about what he had heard from community members about companies that have bought properties in Las Vegas as investments and the pressure that puts on people’s lives.“The price-gouging is making it harder for everyone to buy a house and find a place to live. They are buying up the rentals and jacking up all the prices at the same time, making it harder and harder for the community to have a decent place to live. We’ve seen eviction notices in apartment complexes, too, because of rents going up.”Marcos Rivera, who was canvassing for the first time, noted that he too wanted to buy a house but was forced to rent an apartment. His family’s rent rose more than 40 percent. He worried about landlords lobbying to raise rents mid-year.“If we don’t do something about it, it’s going to continue to grow. It’s absolutely insane,” Rivera says. “We should just have one job to support our family and our rent. We shouldn’t have to have two jobs to have a decent living.”In its latest canvassing operation announcement, the union noted that its goal of 1 million door knocks in Reno and Las Vegas would reach “more than half of the Black and Latinx voters and more than a third of the Asian American Pacific Islander voters in Nevada”.While her daughter fiddled with food at El Mercado, Lopez, who doesn’t support abortion rights, recounted how since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, questioned what other constitutional rights would be taken away from women like her and her daughter.Underpinning that was the anxiety that she would be unable to provide the life her parents had for her, that as the costs of living in America, she would be unable to buy a home, even as her parents owned two houses.“As a Hispanic woman, I would love to say that we’re able to do what my parents came out to do,” Lopez says. “It’s crazy how my parents came here illegally. They own two houses. And I was born here and I’m not able to afford a house because they’re going up sky-high.”Lopez, who canvasses for the Culinary Workers Union, registered herself and her family to vote for the first time. She understood those she had encountered who were disenchanted with politics, who faced the evictions and instability from unaffordable living situations as their jobs were upended by the pandemic. But she is determined to make sure they have a say in the state’s political future.“Our voice does count,” Lopez told the Guardian when asked about the collective power of Latino voters. “We can make a change.”TopicsNevadaUS politicsUS midterm elections 2022RepublicansDemocratsRacenewsReuse this content More

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      Ilhan Omar on the critical issues of the midterm elections: ‘People understand what’s at stake’

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      InterviewIlhan Omar on the critical issues of the midterm elections: ‘People understand what’s at stake’Nina Lakhani in New YorkFrom abortion rights to climate action, the Minnesota congresswoman outlines the work ahead for Democrats The snow is already falling in Minnesota and with less than three weeks until election day, the priority for congresswoman Ilhan Omar and the state Democrats is getting people out to vote early before enthusiasm – and the temperature – dips.“The number one concern for a lot of people I am talking to is Roe – it’s reproductive rights,” Omar said. “There’s also concern about inflation and what that means for people. We’re seeing a lot of enthusiasm. I hope it holds … We can pay attention to the polls, but if we don’t get the people out to vote, nothing else matters.”It’s not so long ago that polls, political analysts and even straight-talking party officials were forecasting humiliating losses for the Democrats in the November midterm elections. But then came the supreme court’s devastating and largely unpopular decision in June to strip away the constitutional right to abortion access.It was a ruling that enraged and mobilised Democrats and independents across the country, but whether it’s enough to outweigh concerns about the rising cost of living that Republicans are blaming squarely on Joe Biden, is yet to be seen.And while this could be framed as an abortion versus inflation election, issues like climate and migration are also playing on voters’ minds, according to Omar.“People are trying to wrap their heads around the investments made in the Inflation Reduction Act, and when they’ll be able to access the home improvement subsidies in the climate provisions. There’s just a lot of excitement about that,” she told the Guardian.The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was passed in August after months of wrangling by Omar’s fossil fuel friendly colleagues in the Senate, and only after progressives were forced to drop anti-poverty measures like the child tax credit.Still, when the Biden administration signed America’s first-ever climate legislation there was a collective sigh of relief among the Democratic party – finally. Omar says people are genuinely enthused about the historic $369bn climate investment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and invest in renewable energy sources.But they’re also a bit confused, as there’s no money in people’s pockets yet – that will take months or even years.“People are excited about what we’ve been able to do with a slim majority – three [representatives] in the House and almost zero in the Senate – so it’s been easy to translate that into campaign conversations around what happens if you continue to elect Democrats, that we are going to do the work even if it’s hard.”And it is going to be hard. Despite Biden polling upwards since a slew of policy victories this summer, polls still suggest that Democrats will probably lose the House and possibly the Senate. In addition, the supreme court’s extreme right majority is likely to follow last year’s controversial rulings with even more constitutional rollbacks.“Some days it is hard to stay motivated and optimistic,” admitted Omar. “But people understand what’s at stake and they know that if we are back in the majority, we will take action to mitigate a lot of the harm coming from our courts.”Earlier this week Biden promised to make codifying abortion rights his legislative priority next year if the Dems take back both Houses. But it’s a big if.Born in Mogadishu in 1982, Omar was elected to the House in 2018 – the first Somali American and one of the first two Muslim women in Congress. She is in the most progressive wing of the party, one of six newly elected representatives from communities of color, collectively known as the squad.Her seat, which includes the city of Minneapolis and some of its suburbs, is considered solidly Democratic; however Omar’s primary race was much closer than expected and she won by just two percentage points.Omar says that she is frequently asked questions about the country’s failed immigration system.. There has been no meaningful reform for decades and 2022 has been truly awful, with a record number of deaths at the southern border and thousands of refugees sent to Democratic-controlled northern cities by southern Republican governors. Then, just last week the Biden administration expanded Title 42 – a controversial Trump-era order that denies people from a handful of countries the chance to seek asylum on the false pretense of Covid prevention, given how selectively it is enforced.“In many ways a country that was once seen as a beacon of hope for those escaping persecution has now become one that persecutes those who are escaping persecution. It’s become easier to use these desperate immigrants as a political pawn,” said Omar.Congress did pass immigration reforms, but the measure predictably perished in the Senate. “It’s where all good ideas go to die,” said Omar. We have to find a way to make immigration not be a politically toxic conversation.”Immigration is another important issue for voters, according to national polls, but there’s little evidence that many are worried about root causes like political repression, corruption, and climate disasters – or the role the US plays in creating these conditions that drive people to flee their homes. “The fact that these linkages are not evident to the everyday American voter is alarming.”The climate breakdown is increasingly forcing people to migrate. And as voters go to the polls in the US, the UN climate negotiations will be getting under way in Egypt after a year of catastrophic extreme weather events that include deadly floods in Florida, Nigeria and Pakistan, destructive wildfires in Alaska and western Europe, as well as historic drought in the greater Horn of Africa (which includes Somalia), where 37 million people face hunger and starvation.In what’s been called the African Cop, the US and other large polluting economies like the UK, Germany and France will face growing pressure to pay for the loss and damage being suffered by developing countries that have contributed little to the climate breakdown.“In order to make things right, I think it is important for the US and other countries to make heavy investments, and [part of that] can come in the form of reparations,” said Omar.Africa is the continent confronting the worst climate impacts despite having contributed least to greenhouse gases. It is also the region where American and other transnational companies continue to extract fossil fuel and are cutting deals with governments to extract minerals needed for green technologies.If internationally financed green energy projects – like lithium mines or windfarms – are imposed on communities just like fossil fuel projects, talk of a just transition will be just talk.“If we are not serious about consulting Indigenous and impacted African communities, we are allowing for their exploitation to take place.”But that’s not enough, argues Omar. “We need to back up and make sure that countries like the United States and China are also doing their part by ending new [fossil fuel] expansion and phasing out the existing oil, gas and coal in a fair and equitable way.”On a recent trip to Honduras, Omar witnessed first-hand the lasting impact of the US having propped up for more than a decade a repressive regime that terrorized communities and killed environmental defenders such as Berta Cáceres. “It was easy to see the ways in which the United States and Canada are complacent in brutal extraction practices where people’s livelihoods and sheer existence are being destroyed.” ”It’s not just the US that needs to be held to account of course. The decision to hold this year’s climate talks in Egypt – and next year’s in the UAE – has been widely criticised given that both governments have a propensity for arbitrary detentions, torture and cyber espionage against citizens, and the failure by many governments to raise the issue of human rights.Omar said: “The United States needs to centre human rights in all our foreign policy and it certainly needs to do it with our climate action. Egypt is one of the most repressive regimes in the world and one that the United States continues to prop up with weapons. The UAE is one of the largest exporters of fossil fuels, not to mention their complicity in the brutal war in Yemen. There can be no safe or habitable planet without the protection of human rights.” TopicsIlhan OmarUS politicsDemocratsinterviewsReuse this content More

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      Steve Bannon vows ‘very vigorous appeal’ to four-month prison sentence – as it happened

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      Steve Bannon has been sentenced to four months in prison for contempt of Congress.Donald Trump’s former chief strategist was sentenced to serve four months on each of the two contempt counts for defying a congressional subpoena issued by the January 6 House panel investigating the former president’s efforts to reverse his defeat by Joe Biden.The prison terms will be served concurrently, district court judge Carl Nichols ruled. But the judge said he would stay the sentence pending an appeal by Bannon, as long as the legal paperwork is filed promptly.The statutory minimum was one month in prison on each count.BREAKING: Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon sentenced to four months of prison on each count of contempt of Congress concurrently and $6,500 in fines — and will stay the sentence pending appeal if that is filed in timely fashion— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) October 21, 2022
      We’ll have more details shortly…We’re closing our live blog now at the end of another tumultuous day, and week, in US politics. Thanks for joining us.
      The House panel investigating Donald Trump’s January 6 insurrection issued a subpoena to the former president for documents and testimony.
      Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, was sentenced to four months in prison for contempt of Congress, and fined, for defying his own subpoena. But he was allowed to remain free pending his appeal.
      The White House dismissed claims by Russia’s ambassador to the US that it had shut down communication with Moscow as the war in Ukraine continues. US defense secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu earlier.
      The Washington Post reported that documents seized by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida contained secrets about Iran’s missile program, and China.
      Joe Biden touted a “record” reduction of the federal deficit, $1.4tn since last year and the largest one year drop in American history, the president said.
      A Miami judge dismissed one of the 19 voter fraud prosecutions loudly trumpeted by Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis. Former felon Robert Lee Wood, 56, voted after being sent a registration card by the state.
      Joe Biden is appealing to younger voters in a speech Friday afternoon touting his student debt relief program. The president is addressing students at the historically black Delaware state university in Dover.Ahead of his address, the supreme court gave Biden a lift on Thursday by refusing a request by a taxpayers’ group in Wisconsin to block the program, which cancels up to $20,000 in student debt for millions of borrowers.Biden addressed an enthusiastic crowd:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}You are an example of why I’m so optimistic about the future. You are the most involved, the most educated, the most engaged, least prejudiced generation in American history.Biden says the debt relief program is changing lives, and urged those qualified to sign up online:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}This is a game changer. We’re hearing from people all over the country. Over 10,000 students have written me letters so far. It’s as easy to sign up as hanging out with your friends or watching a movie.
      My commitment when I ran for president was if I was elected I’d make the government work and deliver for the people.And he attacked congressional Republicans for attempting to block the aid “to their own constituents”:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}As soon as I announced my administration’s plan on student debt they started attacking it and saying all kinds of things. Their outrage is wrong and it’s hypocritical.
      But we’re not letting them get away with it. They’ve been fighting us in the courts. But just yesterday, state courts and the supreme court said no, we’re on Biden’s side.Read more:Supreme court declines to stop Biden’s $400bn student debt relief planRead moreThe Biden administration’s strategic communications coordinator has dismissed claims by Russia’s ambassador to the US that Washington is blocking conversations with Moscow over the Ukraine war.Newsweek reported on Thursday the belief of Anatoly Antonov that no direct open lines of communication existed between the countries similar to the Kremlin-White House hotline credited with preventing nuclear war during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.“The attempts of Russian diplomats in Washington to re-establish such contacts have been futile,” he said. “The administration is unwilling to talk with us as equals.”But in an interview on CNN Friday, John Kirby, the national security council coordinator for strategic communications, said that was not true.He pointed to defense secretary Lloyd Austin’s conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu earlier today, their first known contact for more than four months, as evidence:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}There’s many channels open with Russia even down to the fairly low operational level. We still have a deconfliction line set up in Europe so that we can properly deconflict operations with respect to Nato’s eastern flank.
      You saw today the secretary of defense spoke with with his counterpart. The secretary of state has an open line of communication with foreign minister [Sergey] Lavrov if needed. There are many channels at various levels throughout our government to continue to communicate with Russia.
      That’s important, particularly now when when bellicose rhetoric by [Russian president Vladimir] Putin about the potential use of nuclear weapons only could lead to confusion and miscalculation.Maya Yang reports…The rightwing TV network Newsmax has said it had no plans to interview Lara Logan again, after the award-winning war correspondent turned rightwing pundit launched a QAnon-tinged tirade on air.Speaking to host Eric Bolling, Logan said “the open border is Satan’s way of taking control of the world” and claimed world leaders drank children’s blood.QAnon is a pro-Trump conspiracy theory which holds that leading liberal figures in US and world politics are, among other things, secretly murderous pedophiles.Logan told Bolling: “God believes in sovereignty and national identity and the sanctity of family, and all the things that we’ve lived with from the beginning of time.“And he knows that the open [southern US] border is Satan’s way of taking control of the world through all of these people who are his stooges and his servants.“And they may think that they’re going to become gods. That’s what they tell us … You know, the ones who want us eating insects, cockroaches and that while they dine on the blood of children? Those are the people, right? They’re not going to win. They’re not going to win.”Newsmax said in a statement it “condemns in the strongest terms the reprehensible statements made by Lara Logan” and had “no plans to interview her again”.Full story:Newsmax bans Lara Logan after QAnon-tinged on-air tiradeRead moreThe White House won’t comment specifically on the subpoena issued to Donald Trump by the January 6 House panel this afternoon. But it has thoughts on the direction of the inquiry.Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is addressing reporters aboard Air Force One as the Joe Biden makes his way to Delaware to speak on his student loan forgiveness program.Asked if she believed Trump would comply, Jean-Pierre said:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I’m going to speak broadly, as we do not comment on any ongoing investigation, the department of justice is independent, but the president has spoken to this many times, it is important to get to the bottom of January 6.
      January 6 was one of the darkest days in our nation, and it’s important for the American people to know exactly what happened, so that it doesn’t happen again, so we don’t repeat that very dark day in our nation.The subpoena issued by the January 6 House panel this afternoon demands that Donald Trump provide documents and testimony under oath.It requires documents to be submitted to the committee by 4 November, and for Trump to appear for deposition testimony beginning on or about 14 November.“As demonstrated in our hearings, we have assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power”, a four-page letter accompanying the subpoena said.It was signed by panel chair Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, and vice-chair Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican.In a tweet, the panel says the vote to issue the subpoena was approved by a unanimous vote. The nine-member committee includes two Republican House members, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Cheney.In a letter to Mr. Trump, Chair @BennieGThompson and Vice Chair @RepLizCheney underscored Trump’s central role in a deliberate, orchestrated effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and block the transfer of presidential power. pic.twitter.com/rg7R37YE11— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) October 21, 2022
      Shortly before news broke that Donald Trump has been issued a subpoena by the House panel investigating his 6 January insurrection, the former president was lashing out over another episode.The Washington Post drew Trump’s ire for its story that classified papers seized by the FBI at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida allegedly included documents containing secrets about Iran and China.Predictably, in a statement, Trump claims it’s a hoax:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The FBI and the department of ‘justice,’ which paid a man $200,000 to spy on me, and offered a $1 million ‘bounty’ to try and prove a totally made up and fake ‘dossier’ about me (they went down in flames!), are now leaking nonstop on the Document Hoax to the Fake News.
      Who could ever trust corrupt, weaponized agencies, and that includes Nara [the US national archives and records administration] who disrespects our constitution and Bill of Rights, to keep and safeguard any records, especially since they’ve lost millions and millions of pages of information from previous Presidents.
      Also, who knows what NARA and the FBI plant into documents, or subtract from documents – we will never know, will we?It’s safe to say Trump will have other things on his mind as the afternoon wears on.The House January 6 select committee has issued a subpoena to Donald Trump, compelling the former president to provide an accounting under oath about his potential foreknowledge of the Capitol attack and his broader efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.The subpoena of constitutional and investigative consequence made sweeping requests for testimony about some of the most key moments before January 6, as well as documents and communications about his role in multi-pronged schemes to return himself to office.BREAKING: Jan. 6 committee formally issues subpoena to Donald Trump — https://t.co/OzljsNT0oF— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) October 21, 2022
      It comes on the same day as Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, was sentenced to four months in prison for refusing to comply with his own subpoena.We’ll have more details soon …Our Washington bureau chief, David Smith, has filed a terrific interview with Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, the crack reporter and “Trump whisperer” whose new book seeks to explain the rise and fall and rise (and rise and fall and rise, ad infinitum) of the 45th president. It’s certainly worth your time this lunchtime. Here’s a taster, with a link at the bottom to follow:“He’s become something of a Charles Foster Kane-like character down in Mar-a-Lago these days,” observes Maggie Haberman, a Pulitzer-winning reporter for the New York Times, political analyst for CNN and author of Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, which has a black-and-white photo of Trump on its cover.Her analogy raises the question: what is Trump’s Rosebud, the childhood sled that symbolised Kane’s lost innocence? “His father is Rosebud, and I don’t think it’s one particular moment,” Haberman replies. “There’s no single childhood memory that is the key. It’s a series of moments that interlock and they point back to his father.”Fred Trump was a property mogul who had been disappointed by his eldest son Fred Jr’s lack of commitment to the family business. Donald Trump, by contrast, impressed his father by cultivating a brash “killer” persona and became heir apparent. Decades later, in the first weeks of his presidency, Trump had one photo on the credenza behind him in the Oval Office: his father, still watching.Speaking by phone from her car in midtown Manhattan, Haberman reflects: “His father basically created this endless competition between Trump and his older brother Freddie, and pitted them against each other. Donald Trump spent a lot of time seeking his father’s approval and that became a style of dealing with people, which was certainly better suited for a business than for a household.”“But it became one that Trump recreated in all aspects of his life. It became how he dealt with his own children. It became how he dealt with people who worked for him and then, in the White House, you read a number of stories about these battles that his aides would have. A lot of it was predetermined by lessons from his father.”But if Trump is Kane, who is Haberman?Maggie Haberman on Trump: ‘He’s become a Charles Foster Kane character’Read moreThe Biden administration is taking steps to protect residents of nursing homes, promising what it calls “aggressive action… to keep American seniors safe”.A White House fact sheet released Friday lays out measures including financial penalties for failing nursing homes, improved safety standards and more and better technical support for homes in need.The labor department is providing $80m in grants for nursing training and development, while the department of health and human services providing a further $13m for education and training initiatives.“Covid-19 laid bare the challenges in America’s nursing homes,” Biden’s domestic policy adviser Susan Rice said in a tweet.“Today, we’re announcing new steps to improve nursing home quality and accountability”.COVID-19 has laid bare the challenges in America’s nursing homes. In his State of the Union, @POTUS laid out an action plan to address these challenges—and, today, we’re announcing new steps to improve nursing home quality and accountability. https://t.co/yNG6rLn757— Susan Rice (@AmbRice46) October 21, 2022
      Joe Biden may have coined a phrase earlier, or tried to coin one at this late stage in the midterms race, when he said Republican economic policy amounted to “Maga-mega trickle down”.Trickle down economics is the idea that slashed taxes on the wealthy mean benefits for all those below them. Liz Truss was a devotee. She was also British prime minister for all of 45 days before announcing her resignation yesterday, after crashing the markets and cratering the UK economy.Biden may have been seeking to remind any Americans even vaguely aware of events across the pond when he told reporters: “If Republicans get their way, the deficit is going to soar, the burden is going to fall on the middle-class … They’re not going to stop there. “It’s Maga-mega trickle down.”For the avoidance of doubt, here’s how Larry Elliott, the Guardian’s economics editor, defines “trickle down”:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The theory is simple. Governments should cut taxes for the better off and for corporations because that is the key to securing faster growth. Entrepreneurs are more likely to start and expand businesses, companies are more inclined to invest and banks will tend to increase lending if they are paying less in tax.
      Initially, the beneficiaries are the rich, but gradually everyone gains because as the economy gets bigger well-paid jobs are created for working people. Governments should stop focusing on how the economic pie is distributed and focus on growing the pie instead.
      Supporters of trickle down often cite the work of the US economist Arthur Laffer as proof that the theory works. Laffer said tax cuts for the wealthy had a powerful multiplier effect and any revenues lost by governments from reducing tax rates would be more than compensated for by the fruits of higher growth.For the further avoidance of doubt, Maga, written like that here because of Guardian style rules on acronyms, stands for “Make America great again”, aka Donald Trump’s campaign slogan in 2016.Biden was speaking at the White House, about the US deficit and efforts to reduce it. He said: “The federal deficit went up every year in the Trump administration – every single year he was president. On my watch, things have been different. The deficit has come down both years I’ve been in office, and I’ve just signed legislation that will reduce it even more in the decades to come.”Republicans will counter that Biden has passed a lot of legislation increasing government spending. And so the dance toward election day goes on.It’s a busy Friday again…In a bombshell scoop launched just as Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former campaign chair and White House adviser, was handed a four-month jail sentence for contempt of Congress, the Washington Post reports that some of the classified documents recovered from Trump’s Florida home in August included “highly sensitive intelligence regarding Iran and China”.The Post cites anonymous sources who said that “if shared with others … such information” as found by the Department of Justice at Mar-a-Lago “could expose intelligence-gathering methods that the United States wants to keep hidden from the world”. Exposure of such information, the paper reports, could endanger people aiding US intelligence efforts or invite retaliation from the powers concerned.The Post also says at least one document described Iran’s missile programme while others described “highly sensitive intelligence work aimed at China”.Trump or his spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the paper said.The FBI search of Mar-a-Lago on 8 August set off a monumental tussle between the former president and the Department of Justice. The contest has gone back and forth in the courts ever since, lawyers for Trump fighting a delaying action, a watching nation wondering if Trump might yet be indicted.Trump claims to have done nothing wrong by taking records from the White House after he was beaten by Joe Biden in 2020. Most observers say otherwise.More:‘Where’s the beef?’: special master says Trump’s Mar-a-Lago records claims lack substanceRead moreJoe Biden is speaking at the White House about the achievements of his economic plans, and what he says is a “record” reduction of the federal deficit.“This year the deficit fell by $1.4tn, the largest one year drop in American history,” the president said.“We’re rebuilding the economy in a responsible way.”In an earlier treasury department statement, the Biden administration said the annual deficit plummeted from $2.8tn in 2021 to about $1.4tn this year, the Washington Post reported.Biden is touting a “historic” Covid-19 vaccination effort for saving lives and helping the economy recover from the pandemic, and hailing successes in passing bipartisan bills such as the inflation reduction act, the Chips act boosting semiconductor production, and last year’s infrastructure act.Today’s speech is, however, a thinly disguised party political broadcast on behalf of the Democrats barely two and a half weeks before midterm elections in which they are expected to cede control of at least one chamber of congress.Warming to that theme, Biden said:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Congressional Republicans love to call Democrats big spenders. And they always claim to be for less federal spending. Let’s look at the facts. The federal deficit went up every single year in the Trump administration, every single year he was president, and went up before the pandemic, and went up during the pandemic.
      In three years before Covid hit, the deficit ballooned by another $400bn. One big reason for that is the Republicans voted for a $2tn Trump tax cut, which overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and the biggest corporations. That racked up the deficit significantly.
      On my watch, things have been different. The deficit has come down in both years that I’ve been in office.Here’s Hugo Lowell’s report on the Steve Bannon sentencing hearing this morning:Donald Trump’s top former strategist Steve Bannon was sentenced Friday to four months in federal prison and $6,500 in fines after he was convicted with criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to comply last year with a subpoena issued by the House January 6 select committee.The punishment – suspended pending appeal – makes Bannon the first person to be incarcerated for contempt of Congress in more than half a century and sets a stringent standard for future contempt cases referred to the justice department by the select committee investigating the Capitol attack.The sentence handed down by the US district court judge Carl Nichols in Washington was lighter than recommended by prosecutors, who sought six months in jail and the maximum $200,000 in fines because Bannon refused to cooperate with court officials’ pre-sentencing inquiries.Bannon, 68, had asked the court for leniency and requested in court filings for his sentence to either be halted pending the appeal his lawyers filed briefs with the DC circuit court on Thursday or otherwise have the jail term reduced to home-confinement.But Nichols denied Bannon’s requests, saying he agreed with the justice department about the seriousness of his offense and noting that he had failed to show any remorse and was yet to demonstrate that he had any intention to comply with the subpoena.The far-right provocateur now faces a battle to overturn the conviction on appeal, which, the Guardian first reported, will contend the precedent that prevented his lawyers from disputing the definition of “wilful default” of a subpoena, and arguing he had acted on the advice of his lawyers, was inapplicable.Read the full story:Steve Bannon given four months in prison for contempt of CongressRead more More

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      Ocasio-Cortez to Pence: ‘No one wants to hear your plan for their uterus’

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      Ocasio-Cortez to Pence: ‘No one wants to hear your plan for their uterus’Congresswoman makes remark after former vice-president says there will be ‘pro-life majorities’ in House and Senate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a simple message for Mike Pence on abortion, after the former vice-president predicted “pro-life majorities” in both houses of Congress after the midterm elections.“I’ve got news for you,” the Democratic New York congresswoman wrote. “Absolutely no one wants to hear what your plan is for their uterus.”The ‘election-denier trifecta’: alarm over Trumpists’ efforts to win key postsRead morePence was speaking in response to Joe Biden, after the president announced that if Democrats hold Congress in the midterm elections next month, he will seek to establish the right to abortion in law.The right was removed in June by the conservative-dominated supreme court, when it struck down Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion legal.Pence, once a conservative congressman and governor of Indiana, is maneuvering for a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.Asked this week if he would support his old boss, Donald Trump, should he mount a third White House campaign, Pence said: “Well, there might be somebody else I prefer more.”He added: “All my focus has been on the midterm elections and it’ll stay that way for the next 20 days. But after that, we’ll be thinking about the future, ours and the nation’s. And I’ll keep you posted, OK?”The tweet that stoked the ire of Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent House progressive, said: “I’ve got news for President Biden. Come January 22nd, we will have Pro-Life majorities in the House and Senate and we’ll be taking the cause of the right to Life to every state house in America!”According to most polling, Republicans are well placed to take the House and possibly the Senate.Boosted by results in special elections and ballot measures earlier this year, Democrats hope turnout among women angered by the supreme court decision on abortion can help them keep control of Congress and important state posts.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022Alexandria Ocasio-CortezMike PenceUS politicsAbortionDemocratsUS CongressnewsReuse this content More

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      US says Iranian troops ‘directly engaged’ in Crimea supporting Russian drone strikes – as it happened

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      Iranian troops are “directly engaged on the ground” in Crimea supporting Russian drone strikes against Ukrainian forces, the White House said this afternoon.“The information we have is that the Iranians have put trainers and tech support in Crimea, but it’s the Russians who are doing the piloting,” said John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council.According to Kirby, a “relatively small number” of Iran’s troops are helping Russian forces launch the Iranian-made drones. The US said over the summer that Iran was selling its drones to Russia, but Tehran has denied the charge. That’s all from the US politics live blog today. Here’s how the day unfolded in Washington and across the pond:
      The White House said Iranian troops are assisting Russia’s drone operations against Ukraine. According to John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, a “relatively small number” of Iran’s troops are helping Russian forces launch the Iranian-made drones. The US said over the summer that Iran was selling its drones to Russia, but Tehran has denied the charge.
      Republican leaders are clashing over sending additional military aid to Ukraine. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who could become speaker after the midterm elections next month, has expressed skepticism about approving more funding to assist Ukraine in its fight against Russia. But Mike Pence, former vice-president to Donald Trump, said yesterday, “There can be no room in the conservative movement for apologists to Putin.”
      Lawmakers of both parties are reportedly considering passing another Ukraine aid package during the lame-duck session. According to NBC News, the lawmakers are discussing passing a very substantial funding bill – potentially in the neighborhood of $50bn – to keep Ukraine well supplied even if Republicans refuse to approve more aid after January.
      British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned after just 45 days in office. Becoming the shortest-serving prime minister in UK history, Truss was forced to step down after proposing (and then scrapping) a widely unpopular budget plan and losing the confidence of many fellow Tories.
      Joe Biden thanked Truss for her service and her partnership in helping to hold Russia accountable for its war against Ukraine. “We will continue our close cooperation with the UK government as we work together to meet the global challenges our nations face,” Biden said in a statement.
      Biden traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to tout the enactment of the bipartisan infrastructure law. The president spoke at the site of the Fern Hollow Bridge, which collapsed into a ravine earlier this year. A new section of the bridge is now being constructed, and Biden credited infrastructure law with helping to make the project possible. “For too long, we talked about building the best economy in the world and the best infrastructure in the world,” Biden said. “We’re finally getting to it.”
      The US politics blog will return tomorrow with more updates from Washington and the campaign trail, so make sure to tune back in.Lawmakers of both parties are considering trying to pass another Ukraine aid package during the lame-duck session, according to a new report from NBC News.The report comes days after House minority leader Kevin McCarthy suggested he would block additional military aid to Ukraine if Republicans regain control of the lower chamber in the midterm elections next month, as they are favored to do.NBC reports:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}With that threat to Ukraine aid looming, the bipartisan idea under consideration would use a government funding bill during the lame-duck session after the midterms to secure a much higher level of military and other assistance than prior aid packages for Ukraine, according to [one] lawmaker and [congressional] aides.
      Congress last month approved $12 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine, but the package being contemplated would be dramatically larger, the sources said.
      The amount would be enough ‘to make sure [Ukraine] can get through the year,’ a Republican senator with knowledge of the matter told NBC News. ‘It’ll make the $12 billion look like pocket change.’
      The new aid package, which most likely would be part of an omnibus spending bill, could be within the range of roughly $50 billion, congressional aides and a source close to the Ukraine government said.Some Republicans have signaled they would be open to approving additional funds for Ukraine, and Mike Pence, the former vice-president to Donald Trump, called on his party to stand up against Russia in a speech yesterday.“As Russia continues its unconscionable war of aggression to Ukraine, I believe that conservatives must make it clear that Putin must stop and Putin will pay,” Pence said. “There can be no room in the conservative movement for apologists to Putin.”Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a spokesperson for the defense department, said the drones that Iran is allegedly providing to Russia are being deployed as “psychological weapons used to create fear” in Ukraine.Ryder emphasized that Ukrainian forces are still notching some important victories against Russian troops, which “continue to lose territory or at best hold ground” in the war.The Pentagon spokesperson reiterated that Russia appears to be reaching out to countries like Iran and North Korea as its own munitions stockpile gets depleted because of the war in Ukraine.Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a spokesperson for the defense department, was asked what role Iranian troops are playing in Crimea as they assist Russia’s drone operations against Ukraine.“My understanding is, it’s the Russians who are flying the drones, and yes, [Iranians] are assisting the Russians in those operations,” Ryder said.Ryder declined to comment on press reports that US intelligence officials have assessed photos of drone strike sites in Ukraine to determine that Russia has been using Iranian-produced weapons in their attacks. The US said over the summer that Iran was providing Russia with drones, but Tehran has denied that allegation.The Pentagon echoed the White House’s assessment that Iranian troops have been on the ground in Crimea to assist Russia’s drone operations against Ukraine.“We continue to see Iran be complicit in terms of exporting terror, not only in the Middle East region, but now also to Ukraine. And so I think that speaks for itself,” Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a spokesperson for the defense department.When asked about potential sanctions against Iran for working with Russia, Ryder deferred those questions to the state department, but he reiterated America’s commitment to providing all available support to Ukrainians as they seek to defend their country.Iranian troops are “directly engaged on the ground” in Crimea supporting Russian drone strikes against Ukrainian forces, the White House said this afternoon.“The information we have is that the Iranians have put trainers and tech support in Crimea, but it’s the Russians who are doing the piloting,” said John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council.According to Kirby, a “relatively small number” of Iran’s troops are helping Russian forces launch the Iranian-made drones. The US said over the summer that Iran was selling its drones to Russia, but Tehran has denied the charge. Joe Biden closed his infrastructure remarks in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his standard message of optimism about the future of the nation.“For most of the last century, we led the world by a significant margin because we invested in our people. We invested in ourselves, we invested in our land. But along the way, we stopped doing that – but not anymore. We’re back on track,” Biden said.“We’re proving our best days are ahead of us, not behind us. We just have to keep going, and we know we can. I have never been more optimistic about America’s future.”With that, Biden wrapped up his speech. He will soon start his trip to Philadelphia, where he will participate in a fundraiser with Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman.Joe Biden expressed pride that the bipartisan infrastructure bill he signed into law last year is helping to improve the roads and bridges of Pennsylvania, where the president was born in 1942.Biden said his staff informed him that he has visited Pittsburgh 19 times since he launched his presidential campaign there in 2019. After securing the Democratic nomination in 2020, Biden’s first campaign stop was in Pittsburgh.“Let me tell you, I’m a proud Delawarean, but Pennsylvania is my native state. It’s in my heart,” Biden said. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me to be part of rebuilding this beautiful state.”Joe Biden is now delivering remarks on strengthening America’s infrastructure in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as the president seeks to tout Democrats’ legislative accomplishments ahead of the midterm elections next month.The president chose to speak at the site of the Fern Hollow Bridge, which collapsed into a ravine earlier this year. Democrats have cited the bridge collapse, which thankfully resulted in no deaths, as an alarming example of the country’s crumbling infrastructure.A new section of the bridge is now being constructed, and Biden credited the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law last year with helping to make the project possible.“For too long, we talked about building the best economy in the world and the best infrastructure in the world,” Biden said. “We’re finally getting to it.”A portion of the bridge is expected to be completed by December, and Biden joked in his speech, “I’m coming back to walk over this sucker.”Congressional Republicans introduced a measure Tuesday that would prohibit federal money from being used to teach children under 10 about LGBTQ issues.The bill would prohibit the use of federal funds to teach children about “sexually-oriented material” as well as “any topic involving gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgenderism, sexual orientation, or related subjects.” The effects of such a law, if enacted, would be far-reaching since a range of institutions – schools, libraries, among them – receive public money.The bill also gives parents the ability to sue in federal court if their child is exposed to the barred material that is funded “in whole or in part” by federal funds.The bill was introduced by Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, and 32 other GOP members of Congress.Read the Guardian’s full report:Republicans aim to pass national ‘don’t say gay’ law Read moreHere’s where the day stands so far:
      Republican leaders are clashing over sending additional military aid to Ukraine. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who could become speaker after the midterm elections next month, has expressed skepticism about approving more funding to assist Ukraine in its fight against Russia. But Mike Pence, former vice-president to Donald Trump, said yesterday, “There can be no room in the conservative movement for apologists to Putin.”
      British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned after just 45 days in office. Becoming the shortest-serving prime minister in UK history, Truss was forced to step down after proposing (and then scrapping) a widely unpopular budget plan and losing the confidence of many fellow Tories.
      Joe Biden thanked Truss for her service and her partnership in helping to hold Russia accountable for its war against Ukraine. “We will continue our close cooperation with the UK government as we work together to meet the global challenges our nations face,” Biden said in a statement.
      The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.More Americans are getting the latest Covid-19 booster shot, but the White House warns that vaccination rates are still too low headed into the winter months when cases could surge again.Speaking to reporters on Air Force One moments ago, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said 4.5 million Americans received booster shots in the past week.A White House official told CNN that about 20 million Americans in total have now gotten their booster shots, but that number represents less than 10% of the country’s eligible population.“The work we’re doing to reach Americans through on the ground work with trusted organizations in communities across the country and paid media is helping drive the urgency for all Americans to get the protection they need ahead of the winter,” White House Covid-19 coordinator, Dr Ashish Jha, said in a statement to CNN.“But to be very clear: it’s going to take everyone talking to their family and friends to ensure the country is as protected as possible. Our message is simple: do not wait to get your updated vaccine.” More

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      Biden to release 15m barrels from strategic reserve in effort to tamp down gas prices – as it happened

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      Here’s a quick summary of what happened today:
      Joe Biden announced the release of 15m barrels of petroleum from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a move he says will keep gas prices down. Biden pushed back on criticism that the timing of the announcement, which confirmed plans to release barrels from the reserve, was politically motivated by the looming midterms.
      John Fetterman, a key Democratic candidate in the US senate race in Pennsylvania, released a detailed doctor’s report that said he is fit to work and fully serve in office following a stroke in May. This was the first official medical report from Fetterman since June.
      At a speech at a conservative think tank, Mike Pence criticized the Republican party for straying from its values and said the party should be cautious of developing an isolationist mindset, particularly regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
      A district court judge said that emails from Donald Trump’s attorney, John Eastman – a key architect in his plan to overthrow the 2020 election – should be released to the House special committee investigating the insurrection. The judge said emails from Eastman prove Trump signed legal documents that contained information on election fraud that he knew was false.
      We’ll be closing the blog for today, but we will be back tomorrow with more live politics updates. A US district court judge said that Donald Trump signed legal documents that contained evidence of election fraud that he knew was false, Politico is reporting. Based on emails from Trump attorney John Eastman, “President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public,” wrote district court judge David Carter in an opinion. The opinion said that Eastman’s emails need to be turned over to the House select committee investigating the insurrection. Eastman refused to turn over their emails, citing attorney-client privilege. Carter wrote that while most of the emails may remain private, “the Court finds that these four documents are sufficiently related to and in furtherance of the obstruction crime”.A majority of Americans believe Donald Trump should testify over his involvement in the January 6 insurrection on the US Capitol, according to a Monmouth University poll released today. Six out of 10 Americans polled said that Trump should have to testify before the House committee investigating the attack. Unsurprisingly, Democrats and Republicans were split on whether Trump should have to testify, with 89% of Democrats saying he should and 67% of Republicans saying he shouldn’t. Most independents, 61%, said that he should have to testify, and only 34% said he should not have to appear at all. The American people: “We feel bad for the country, but this would be tremendous content.”60% of Americans want Trump to testify before the Jan. 6 committee, according to a new Monmouth poll; 77% say it should be public if he does. https://t.co/RBXB6IMo40 pic.twitter.com/WATj0owRcO— Kevin Robillard 🇺🇸 (@Robillard) October 19, 2022
      It is unclear whether Trump will testify before the House committee, which concluded its public hearings which it says proves Trump’s involvement in the attack by voting to subpoena Trump. A formal subpoena will likely be issued this week. Trump’s public response so far has been a rambling letter addressed to representative Bennie Thompson, who chairs the special committee. Sources close to Trump said last week that he is considering testifying in front of the committee. The committee said they do not expect to make criminal referrals to the department of justice, though they have laid out their findings to help federal investigators.A group of four members of Joe Biden’s Covid advisory board just published an op-ed in the New York Times saying that there needs to be more work to address the pandemic.“We are deeply dismayed by what has been left undone,” the group, which includes Ezekial Emanuel, David Michaels, Rick Bright and Michael Osterholm, wrote. “There were many opportunities that would have permanently improved American health and the public health system. They have not yet been pursued.”“There is no question other health crises lie ahead. We need to assess the opportunities squandered or missed in the Covid pandemic and seize them now.”The group wrote that rapid, low-cost at-home-testing could be used to detect multiple infections at once. But there is no comprehensive reporting system for individuals to submit their at-home test results to public health agencies, “rendering a broad swath of infections across the country invisible to officials trying to slow their spread.”The writers note that much of the blame for inaction can be put on the lack of funding from Congress, but “not all [are] attributable to financial limitations”.They write that one big missed opportunity was one to enhance indoor air quality, particularly in schools. They recommend improving national indoor air quality standards, with focuses on schools, nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, jails and prisons and other high-risk settings.Better data collection, more paid sick leave, stronger vaccine outreach and better domestic production of medical supplies were also needed during the pandemic, they wrote.“The list could go on and on, including the poor response to long Covid.”In a speech at conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, Mike Pence criticized the direction of the Republican party saying, “I think we need to chart a course that doesn’t veer off too far in either direction.” “Our movement cannot forsake the foundational commitment that we have to security, to limited government, to liberty and to life,” Pence said. “But nor can we allow our movement to be led astray by the siren song of unprincipled populism that’s unmoored from our oldest traditions and most cherished values.” Pence seemed to criticize the “America First” mindset, particularly in the midst of Russia invasion of Ukraine. “As Russia continues its unconscionable war of aggression to Ukraine, I believe that conservatives must make ti clear that Putin must stop and Putin will pay,” he said. “There can be no room in the conservative movement for apologists to Putin. There is only room in this movement for champions of freedom.” Pence at Heritage Foundation making an impassioned plea to continue to help Ukraine. There are those in the movement that “would have us disengage with the wider world,” he says. “But appeasement has never worked.”— Caitlin Huey-Burns (@CHueyBurns) October 19, 2022
      Opposition to isolationist ideals has not stopped Pence from endorsing candidates who have ultimately voiced opposition to involvement in the conflict, including Blake Masters, who is running for an Arizona US senate seat and called the war a “European problem”.Mehmet Oz, who is running as the Republican candidate in a key senate race, responded to today’s announcement from his opponent, John Fetterman, that a doctor clear Fetterman to work after a stroke in May. “That’s good news that John Fetterman’s doctor gave him a clean bill of health… Now that he is apparently healthy, he can debate for 90 minutes, start taking live questions from voters and reporters, and do a second debate now too,” a campaign spokesperson said. Oz senior comms adviser Rachel Tripp responds: “That’s good news that John Fetterman’s doctor gave him a clean bill of health…now that he apparently is healthy, he can debate for 90 minutes, start taking live questions from voters and reporters, and do a second debate now too.”— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 19, 2022
      Oz and other Republicans have been using Fetterman’s stroke as an attack against him, saying that he is unfit to be in office. Fetterman’s campaign, on the other hand, has carefully been talking about his stroke as a way to gain empathy from voters. At a rally in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, Fetterman asked the audience if they or a loved one had ever dealt with a serious health issue, and nearly every hand went up. Until the doctor’s report that was released, the last official medical update from Fetterman’s campaign on his health was released in June. At his press conference moments ago announcing the release of petroleum from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Joe Biden was asked to comment on criticism that he was making the announcement for political reasons ahead of the midterms.“I’ve been doing this for how many months now? It’s not politically motivated at all. Its motivation is to make sure that I continue to push on what I’ve been pushing on. And that is making sure there’s enough oil being pumped by the companies so that we have the ability to produce enough gas that we need here at home,” Biden said. “The problem is these guys were asleep. I don’t know where they’ve been.’”Joe Biden spoke on the release of 15m barrels of petroleum from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a move to seemingly signal to voters ahead of the midterms the White House’s efforts to tamper gas prices. Biden announced earlier this year that the energy department will be released 180m barrels from the strategic reserve this year. The 15m barrels announced today will complete the 180m barrels promised by the White House. The administration says the release will add 500,000 barrels per day of supply to the market in December. In a speech, Biden pointed to the war in Ukraine as the main reason for increasing gas prices and said that he “acted decisively” over the summer, and gas prices in turn have dropped $1.50 per gallon since their peak over the summer. “That’s progress, but they’re not falling fast enough,” Biden said. Gas prices are felt in almost every family in this country. It squeezes family budgets when the price of gas goes up, and other expenses get cut. That’s why I’ve been doing everything in my power to reduce gas prices.” “With my announcement today, we’re going to continue to stabilize markets and decrease the price at a time when the actions of other countries have caused such volatility.” Biden said that he has instructed his team to look into further releases from the reserve in the months ahead if needed. He also defended his administration against “myths” that he has slowed gas production.“Quite the opposite. We’re producing 12m barrels of oil per day. And by the end of the year, we will be producing 1m barrels a day – more than the day in which I took office.” Biden also said that the administration will repurchase crude oil from the strategic reserve once prices fall to $67 to $72 a barrel, incentivizing production for the future, and called on oil and gas companies to pass lower energy costs to consumers.Donald Trump in 2021 asked a group of people whether a Jewish documentary filmmaker was “a good Jewish character”, according to a video of the former president that was released as part of footage that was subpoenaed by the House special committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, the New York Times reports. The interaction was recorded by documentary filmmaker Alex Holder at an event at Trump’s New Jersey golf club in May 2021. Trump, speaking to several people, was responding to a woman’s comment about “Jews who didn’t vote for you”. Trump reportedly started talking about how he signed an executive order in 2019 that recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, yet he still polled low with Jewish voters in the US. “In Israel, I’m at like 94 percent, but I got 27, 28 percent [in the US],” Trump said at the time. “In Israel, I’m the most popular. With Orthodox, I’m the most popular.” Trump points to Holder, who is Jewish, “is this a good Jewish character right here?” At the end of the clip, before it cuts off, Trump asks, “You Persian? Very smart. Be careful, they’re very good salesmen.” News of the clip comes on the heels of a post Trump made on his social media platform Truth Social in which he lamented the lack of Jewish support for him despite his pro-Israel policies. “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 Jewish faith, especially those living gin the US,” he wrote. “US Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel – before it is too late!”The Guardian’s voting rights reporter Sam Levine writes: Georgia has seen an “astounding” increase in turnout through the first two days of in person early voting, the state’s top election official said on Wednesday.Early voting began on Monday in the state, where there are closely watched gubernatorial and senate races. 268,050 people voted in person during the first two days. At the same point in the 2020 presidential election, 266,403 had voted in person. That differential is notable because presidential elections usually have higher turnout than midterms. At the same point in the 2018 midterms, 147,289 people had voted in person.Georgia has been at the center of high-stakes battles over voting access and this is the first general a new law with sweeping new voting restrictions is in effect. The law shortens the window in which voters can request a mail-in ballot and places new identification requirements on both the mail-in ballot application and ballot itself. Stacey Abrams, the gubernatorial candidate for governor, as well as voting rights groups are encouraging voters to cast their ballots as early as possible to avoid any issues.Republicans in the past have pointed to surging turnout to push back on accusations of voter suppression. But voting advocates say that is misleading and does not take into account the increased obstacles voters face in getting to the polls, even if they are able to navigate them successfully.John Fetterman’s primary care physician said the Democratic senate candidate for Pennsylvania has no restrictions “and can work full duty in public office” following a stroke in May. Fetterman’s campaign released a detailed medical report today based on an examination that took place on Friday. His doctor, Clifford Chen, said that Fetterman’s strength was normal and has no coordination deficits. He also noted that he “spoke intelligently without cognitive deficits”.Fetterman continues to show symptoms of auditory processing disorder (trouble understanding certain spoken words) but “his communication is significantly improved compared to his first visit, assisted by speech therapy, which he has attended on a regular basis since the stroke.” Currently the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, Fetterman is in a heated election for an open Senate seat against celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, who is running as a Trump-endorsed Republican. Fetterman’s campaign celebrated the doctor’s report on Wednesday. “Bad news for Dr. Oz, who has been rooting hard against my recovery: I’m doing great + remain fully ready to serve,” Fetterman tweeted. Bad news for Dr. Oz, who has been rooting hard against my recovery: I’m doing great + remain fully ready to serveSo grateful to all of you who’ve stood with me. I’ll be fighting for each and every one of you in D.C. ❤️ https://t.co/RMUCsGpOpG— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) October 19, 2022
      Polls have shown Fetterman with a slight lead over Oz, though Oz has been narrowing the gap over the last week as the GOP has been hitting voters hard with messaging about Democrats and the economy.The Texas state government is sending DNA and fingerprint identification kits to parents with kids in kindergarten through eight grade in case of an emergency. The law that established the kit distribution was passed in 2021 and was meant to “help locate and return a missing or trafficked child”, though the timing of the kits’ distribution has reminded parents of the Uvalde shooting, where 19 children and two adults were killed. In the aftermath of the shooting, parents were asked for DNA samples of their children to help medical examiners identify the victims. AR-15s, the type of gun that was used in the shooting, is a powerful weapon that can leave victims unrecognizable. Brett Cross, the father of a student who was killed in Uvalde, tweeted of the kits: “Yeah! Awesome! Let’s identify kids after they’ve been murdered instead of fixing issues that could ultimately prevent them from being murdered. It’s like wiping your ass before you take a shit.” Yeah! Awesome! Let’s identify kids after they’ve been murdered instead of fixing issues that could ultimately prevent them from being murdered. It’s like wiping your ass before you take a shit. https://t.co/1V3i1lIfTc— Brett Cross (@BCross052422) October 18, 2022
      Kits have started to be distributed this week. Parents are not obligated to send in DNA samples, though schools are obligated to inform parents about the kits.House speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview published today that Democrats need “to message [inflation] better in the next three weeks ahead” but ultimately expressed optimism over the election.“Inflation’s an issue, but it’s global,” she said. “What’s [Republicans’] plan? They ain’t go nothing.”.@PunchbowlNews AM: Our wide-ranging interview with @SpeakerPelosi. Here’s Pelosi on inflation: “We’ll have to message on it better.”Much more here: https://t.co/lhCIUjCrLg pic.twitter.com/AcbALvTV4K— Punchbowl News (@PunchbowlNews) October 19, 2022
      Pelosi also said that the key for Democrats will be turnout. “We know the public is with us. But it’s about turnout. So I’m excited. We’ve outraised them, except for their big, dark money, which is endless.”When asked whether she’s worried about House minority leader Kevin McCarthy becoming speaker after the elections, Pelosi said: “We’re going to win this election so I don’t even entertain that notion. But it should be of concern to the Republicans.”Polls are showing a more uncertain future for Democrats, who have been slammed by Republicans over the economy and inflation over the last few weeks. A recent CBS News/YouGov survey found Democrats were two points behind Republicans on the congressional ballot.Democrats are using these next three weeks to try to electrify their base, sending out some of their prominent members to stump for candidates and encourage voters to head to the polls. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is heading west to speak to young voters at the University of California Irvine this Sunday. Irvine is in US representative Katie Porter’s swing district. .@AOC is heading to UC Irvine this Sunday to rally young voters: pic.twitter.com/nVXJMgx3Xc— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) October 18, 2022
      Meanwhile senator Bernie Sanders is heading to eight states for at least 19 events over the next two weeks, including California, Nevada, Texas and Florida. “It’s about energizing our base and increasing voter turnout up and down the ballot,” Sanders told the New York Times. “I am a little bit concerned [about] energy level for young people, working-class people… And I want to see what I can do about that.” Last week, Barack Obama’s team announced that the former president will be heading to Milkwaukee to rally for Mandela Barnes, who is looking to unseat Republican incumbent Ron Johnson in a seat that Democrats see as vulnerable.Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate in a heated Georgia senate race against Democrat Raphael Warnock, is planning to hand out fake law enforcement badges that say “I’m with Herschel” as part of his campaign. During a debate with Warnock last week, Walker held up an honorary deputy sheriff’s badge after Warnock attacked him on his claims of being a law enforcement officer. Walker has never been a trained officer, though he has received the endorsement of law enforcement groups. In the debate, the moderator told Walker that props are not allowed on the debate stage.“Let’s talk about the truth,” Walker said while holding his honorary badge. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D): “One thing I have not done — I have never pretended to be a police officer, and I’ve never threatened a shootout with the police.”In response, Herschel Walker (R) pulled out a prop badge: “I am work with many police officers.” pic.twitter.com/Wyh6oYD9zB— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) October 14, 2022
      Now, Walker’s campaign told NBC News that it has ordered 1,000 imitation badges as part of his campaign. “Herschel Walker has been a friend to law enforcement and has a record of honoring police, said Gail Gitcho, Walker’s campaign strategist. “If Senator Warnock wants to highlight this, then bring it on.”Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist in the Trump White House who is at the forefront of the Republican march toward hard-right populism, is throwing his weight behind a movement to radically rewrite the US constitution.Bannon has devoted recent episodes of his online show the War Room to a well-funded operation which has stealthily gained ground over the past two years. Backed by billionaire donors and corporate interests, it aims to persuade state legislatures to call a constitutional convention in the hope of baking far-right conservative values into the supreme law of the land.The goal is, in essence, to turn the country into a permanent conservative nation irrespective of the will of the American people. The convention would promote policies that would limit the size and scope of the federal government, set ceilings on or even abolish taxes, free corporations from regulations, and impose restrictions on government action in areas such as abortion, guns and immigration.“This is another line of attack strategically,” Bannon told his viewers last month. “You now have a political movement that understands we need to go after the administrative state.”By “administrative state”, Bannon was referring to the involvement of the federal government and Congress in central aspects of modern American life. That includes combating the climate crisis, setting educational standards and fighting health inequities.Mark Meckler, a founder of the Tea Party who now leads one of the largest groups advocating for the tactic, the Convention of States Action (Cosa), spelled out some of the prime objectives on Bannon’s show. “We need to say constitutionally, ‘No, the federal government cannot be involved in education, or healthcare, or energy, or the environment’,” he said.Meckler went on to divulge the anti-democratic nature of the state convention movement when he said a main aim was to prevent progressive policies being advanced through presidential elections. “The problem is, any time the administration swings back to Democrat – or radical progressive, or Marxist which is what they are – we are going to lose the gains. So you do the structural fix.”The “structural fix” involves Republican state legislatures pushing conservative amendments to America’s foundational document. By cementing the policies into the US constitution, they would become largely immune to electoral challenge.Inside Steve Bannon’s ‘disturbing’ quest to radically rewrite the US constitutionRead moreFlorida senator Marco Rubio had an intense debate last night with his opponent, Val Demings, currently a US representative. Demings, who is trying to be Florida’s first Black senator, pushed Rubio on issues ranging from abortion to gun control. Rubio, who is running for a third term, would not confirm whether he would support a federal ban on abortion that has no exceptions for rape on incest but sai, “every bill I have ever sponsored on abortion and every bill I’ve ever voted for has exceptions.” Demings responded by saying, “What we know is that the senator supports no exceptions. He can make his mouth say anything today. He is good at that, by the way. What day is it and what is Marco Rubio saying?” On gun control, Demings asked Rubio, “How long will you watch people being gunned down in first grade, fourth grade, school, college, church, synagogue, grocery store, movie theater, a mall and a nightclub and do nothing,” she asked. Demings is in an uphill battle trying to unseat Rubio in a state that has gone further to the right in recent years. Earlier this month, a poll showed Demings six points behind Rubio.Good morning, and welcome to the politics live blog. Joe Biden is set to announce the release of 15m barrels of gas from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve later today as the administration attempts to tamp down gas prices.The national average for gas prices stands at $3.85 a gallon today, according to AAA, slightly higher than the $3.34 a gallon that was seen this time last year. But it’s still lower than this summer, when gas peaked at over $5 a gallon.The move is Biden’s attempt to mitigate growing concerns over the economy as the midterms approach. Democratic candidates in heated races across the country have been facing attacks from their Republican candidates over inflation, which stood at 8.2% in September. Biden will make the announcement around 1 pm today.Here’s what else we’re watching:
      Donald Trump is heading to DC court today for a deposition in the lawsuit brought by former magazine columnist E Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual assault. Carroll is suing Trump for defamation.
      A Politico/Morning consult poll shows that Republicans may have an edge over Democrats in the midterms due to the economy: 81% say the economy will play a major role in their vote, and 80% said the same about inflation.
      Stay tuned for more live updates. More

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      Are Democrats messing up their midterm messaging? Our panel responds

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      Are Democrats messing up their midterm messaging? Our panel respondsCas Mudde, Ilyse Hogue, David Sirota, LaTosha Brown and Liza FeatherstoneDemocrats have come under fire from critics like Bernie Sanders, who say the party isn’t focusing enough on the economy. Is that right? Cas Mudde: Democrats are right not to focus on the economyIt is true that the economy and inflation are seen as the top problems by most Americans, but that does not necessarily mean that Democrats should run their midterm campaigns on economic issues. The country has been dealing with continued inflation, the possibility of a recession, and the prospect of an even worse energy crisis for months now.The vast majority of Americans say they personally feel the pain of inflation and believe that the US economy is getting worse, not better. Running on the economy will make these feelings even more salient, while centering President Biden, whose approval ratings are near their lowest level during his presidency, and the Republican party, which is still more trusted on the economy than the Democratic party.So how about running on the economic accomplishments of the Biden administration, like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)?Turns out, while the individual policies of the bill are popular, only about one-third of Americans have heard of the IRA. That’s why, in this particular economic and political context, running primarily on abortion and the extremity and incompetence of Republican candidates like Doug Mastriano and Herschel Walker makes more sense.Clear majorities of Americans, including independents, oppose the overturning of Roe v Wade, while there has been a “surge” in voter registration of women, including in battleground states like Arizona and Georgia. Although they mainly offset earlier increases in registration of Republicans, it is crucial for Democrats to get these newly mobilized voters to the voting booths in November. Will it be enough? I doubt it. But I am pretty certain it gives Democrats a better chance than a mainly socioeconomic campaign.
      Cas Mudde is a Guardian US columnist and the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia
      David Sirota: ‘It’s the economy, stupid’Eight years ago amid the wreckage of the financial crisis, Democrats lost a key US Senate race in Colorado when their candidate focused almost exclusively on abortion rights and did not have a compelling economic message. The episode served as a cautionary tale warning Democrats that they may lose winnable elections if they are not willing to break with their big donors and offer a populist economic message. Without that kind of message, they may lose even if they’re right about conservatives’ social-issue extremism.And yet, that 2014 cautionary tale now seems like a preview of Democrats’ 2022 election strategy. Polls show voters’ top two issues in the election are the economy and inflation – and yet Democrats have decided to spend much of their advertising resources on abortion-related messages, not inflation-related messages.There is still time for a turnaround – and there is plenty for Democrats to say. They could be blaming Republicans for blocking the extension of the expanded child tax credit. They could pledge more direct economic help if they win the midterms. They could hammer Republicans for protecting their oil donors from price-gouging legislation.In short, Democrats could be vilifying the entire plague of greedflation, whereby corporate oligopolies are using their market power to hike prices.Doing that would require Democratic leaders to do the one thing they always seem most reluctant to do: offend their big donors.But if they don’t do that – if they don’t remember their own “it’s the economy, stupid” mantra – then the national election could turn out like the Colorado election of 2014, and everything they purport to stand for could be lost: reproductive rights, democracy, everything.
      David Sirota is a Guardian US columnist and an award-winning investigative journalist. He is an editor-at-large at Jacobin, and the founder of the Lever
      LaTosha Brown: ‘The abortion message needs to be layered with other messages’For Democrats to win, it’s all about three things: money, message and mobilization. And when it comes to the message, the message needs to be more layered.Democrats should lead with a trifecta of messages focused on the economy, voting rights and racial justice.They need to speak about the economy from a worker’s perspective. They need to humanize the issue and focus on the struggles of ordinary people, like wage stagnation and rising costs. They need to ditch the jargon. They need to lay the blame for the mess we’re in on Republicans and their corporate tax cuts, which only benefit the ultra-wealthy.We also need to hear more on white nationalism, white supremacy and the continuing attack on voting rights. Democrats are side-stepping one of the biggest threats to our democracy, which voters, especially voters of color, want to hear about.If Republicans are using racial fear as weapon, we need to lean into racial justice as a tool. There is an organizing opportunity in racial justice. That’s what will activate young people and voters of color, who are the fastest-growing electorate in the country.We have to stop repeating this mantra that Republicans are good on message. It’s easier to have an elite message than an inclusive message. Republicans are just focused on the consolidation of white power and control by any means. The Democrats have a much more diverse and nuanced base, so the message needs to be layered.Finally, Democrats should stay on the abortion message. Democrats didn’t have a fighting chance to win in the midterms, and that only changed thanks to Roe v Wade being overturned. It’s a message that’s important, but it needs to be layered with other messages in order to have most impact.
      LaTosha Brown is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter
      Ilyse Hogue: ‘Democrats need to go on the offensive’Democrats have solid policy wins under their belts and even better ones in the pipeline if they can expand their margins in the Senate and hold the House. So why aren’t they polling better?Simply put, because the national information landscape is a nightmare. Die-hard Republicans have a monolithic information system in Fox News. This machine puts Democratic candidates at a disadvantage out of the gate, which is too often compounded by an instinct to let the right trip themselves up instead of forcing the questions in the eyes of the voters. Only one party wants to cut social security, keep drug prices high, and criminalize pregnancy. Don’t make the voters guess. Lean into it.Obama admits Democrats can be a ‘buzzkill’ and urges better messagingRead morePolls are like snapshots of moods on any given day, but in aggregate, the polls show that women are motivated right now and being pulled in many directions. They are deeply affected by the fall of Roe and understand the Republican position on criminalizing abortion as a cascading crisis of autonomy, economic viability and health care access – all issues on which the Republican party has abandoned the mainstream. Women – especially women of color – who bear the brunt of these compounding crises, are highly energized to vote, as is evidenced by voter registration numbers around the country. The trick for Dems in the closing weeks of this consequential election is a one-two punch: go on offense and lift up the messengers that already have social currency in your electoral coalition. Invest in your community leaders, your PTA chairs, your TikTok influencers, your clergy, your warehouse workers.There’s so much to tout: life-changing money to replace lead pipes in the infrastructure bill? Check! Get that to parents in unserved parts of Michigan. Incentives to bring clean-energy, high wage manufacturing jobs in the Inflation Reduction Act? Check! Get that to economically distressed families in the south-east. One more Senate seat and Biden promises to suspend the filibuster and codify Roe? Check! Get that to, well, women everywhere.
      Ilye Hogue is the president of Purpose. She was formerly the president of Naral
      Liza Featherstone: ‘Abortion alone can’t deliver the midterms’When the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, a yard sign appeared around the corner from my home: “This is what happens when you don’t vote.”By the next day, someone had fixed it, using a Sharpie to cross out the word “don’t”.The quiet dispute in a reliably blue neighborhood seemed to underscore the perils of assuming that attacks on abortion rights will scare voters into voting Democratic.Granted, most Americans disagree with the supreme court’s decision, and many are more motivated to vote this year as a result. But abortion alone can’t deliver the midterms to the Democrats.Some wonder, with my Sharpie-wielding neighbor, how voting for Democrats has helped protect abortion rights lately. Besides, inflation is an even higher priority for more than eight out of 10 voters, and only 30% approve of Biden’s leadership on that issue.Democratic leaders have sometimes seemed dismissive of inflation. The White House has repeatedly shrugged it off, and this summer, the Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman mocked a campaign video featuring his opponent in a grocery store discussing high food prices.Worse, national Democratic leaders have been partying with wealthy donors, from the billionaire James Murdoch in Manhattan to real estate moguls in Los Angeles. No wonder they seem out of touch with people visiting food pantries or struggling to make rent.If the Democrats can’t deliver a better economic message, many Americans may conclude that like the repeal of Roe v Wade, inflation is what happens when you vote.
      Liza Featherstone is a columnist for Jacobin and the New Republic. She is the author of Divining Desire: Focus Groups and the Culture of Consultation (OR Books), among other titles
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