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      Trump’s ex-lawyer Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia election case

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      Former lawyer for then-president Donald Trump Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty in the Georgia election interference case in Fulton county, just days before jury selection for her trial was scheduled to start.The plea agreement has Powell paying a $6,000 fine and $2,700 restitution to the state of Georgia as well as writing an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia, testifying at trial, and serving six years of probation.More details soon … More

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      Jim Jordan vows to press on for speaker’s chair despite second election loss – as it happened

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      Republican nominee Jim Jordan will continue his campaign for speaker of the House despite losing the second round of balloting for the position this afternoon.“We’re going to keep going,” Jordan’s spokesman Russell Dye told me.The House has once again failed to agree on electing a speaker, with Jim Jordan rejected for the second time in two days after 22 Republicans said no to their party’s nominee. What happens now? Who knows. Some Republicans want to hold a vote on giving acting speaker Patrick McHenry the job’s full powers so the chamber can get back to legislating on issues like aid to Israel and government funding. Jordan has said he would be in favor of holding a vote on that motion, but has also vowed to stay in the race. It appears we will not find out how Republicans’ conundrum resolves itself today – no more votes are expected in the House.Here’s a look back on the day:
      Capitol police were arresting protesters in a House office building, who had entered by the hundreds to demand a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for Israel to allow humanitarian aid.
      Jordan pleaded for unity, but one of his supporters warned he would lose more support in the second round of voting – and was right.
      Romney-Cruz 2016? Not as far-fetched as it sounds, former Republican presidential candidate turned senator from Utah Mitt Romney writes in a new book.
      McHenry’s acting capacity means pretty much all he can do is gavel the House into and out of session, and count the votes for speaker.
      A Jordan opponent voted for John Boehner. Remember him?
      The House is done with voting for the day, a source familiar with the matter tells me, as Republican lawmakers remain unable to agree on elevating rightwing congressman Jim Jordan to the speaker’s post.Hours ago, the second election to install Jordan as Kevin McCarthy’s successor failed after 22 Republicans and all Democrats rejected his candidacy for speaker. The House then adjourned, though there was speculation lawmakers could return for another round of voting, or to consider a resolution to give acting speaker Patrick McHenry the job.Police have arrested some of what appear to be hundreds of protesters who converged on the US Capitol calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter the territory.The protest was organized by activist group Jewish Voice for Peace, which said some of its members had planned acts of civil disobedience. Reporters in the Capitol say the arrests took place in the Cannon office building, where House lawmakers have their chambers and which is open to the public:Here are more photos from the protest:For the latest on the conflict in the Gaza Strip, and Joe Biden’s just-concluded visit to Israel, follow our live blog:Texas’s Republican representative Chip Roy said that to grant further powers to the House’s speaker pro tempore in order to resume the House’s business “makes no sense” and is “directly contradictory to the Constitution.”Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Roy said:
      “We should do our job and select a speaker. The constitution says that so any move to do otherwise is contrary to the Constitution and would do enormous damage to not just the Republican party but the House of Representatives. I violently oppose any effort to do that on the floor of the House…
      I think it is directly contrary to the Constitution in terms of saying that we shall choose a speaker and to go appoint somebody with the full powers of the speaker without having chosen the speaker. It makes no sense so I think we need to take a step back, do our job and choose a speaker.”
      He went on to add that he will support Jim Jordan for House speaker “for however long it takes.”As Jim Jordan fails for the second time to garner enough votes to become speaker, a handful of Republicans are speaking out about the strong-arming they have been facing by Jordan’s allies in attempts to make him speaker, including allegedly sending anonymous text messages.On Tuesday, 20 Republicans voted against the hard-right Ohioan’s speakership, continuing to leave the House in a state of limbo since extremist Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy in a historic vote earlier this month.With Jordan struggling to secure the 217 votes needed to become speaker of the House, several Republicans have told Politico of Jordan’s “broader team … playing hardball” in attempts to garner votes.The Nebraska congressman Don Bacon – one of the 20 Republicans who voted against Jordan in the first vote – told the outlet that his wife had received anonymous texts that warned of her husband never holding office again.Screenshots of the alleged text messages sent to Bacon’s wife and shared with Politico showed one saying: “Talk to your husband tell him to step up and be a leader and help the Republican party get a speaker. There’s too much going on in the world for all this going on in Republican party. You guys take five steps forward and then turn around take 20 steps backwards – no wonder our party always ends up getting screwed over.”For further details, click here:Here is video of the moment a pro-Palestinian protestor interrupted the former treasury secretary Jack Lew’s Senate confirmation hearing for ambassador to Israel.“How many children need to be killed? Our families are dying! We need a ceasefire now!” the protestor yelled at Joe Biden’s pick as security escorted him out of the room.Another protestor then appeared, yelling: “Israel is committing genocide in Gaza … and we’re funding it!” She also was escorted out by security.Utah’s Republican senator Mitt Romney considered a third presidential bid in 2016 in attempts to stop Donald Trump with “scary” Texas senator Ted Cruz, a new book reveals.The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:“Romney was willing to wage a quixotic and humiliating presidential bid if that’s what it took,” McKay Coppins writes in Romney: A Reckoning, a biography of the 2012 Republican nominee written in close cooperation with its subject.“He might even be able to swallow sharing a ticket with Cruz, a man he’d described as ‘scary’ and ‘a demagogue’ in his journal. But Romney didn’t think the gambit would actually succeed in taking down Trump. The problem was that no one else in the party seemed to know what to do about Trump, either.”Widely trailed, Coppins’ book will be published in the US next Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy. A spokesperson for Cruz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.For further details, click here:Democratic minority House speaker Hakeem Jeffries who received 212 votes on Wednesday urged Republicans to work alongside Democrats, tweeting:
      “The time has come for House Republicans to reject extremism and embrace bipartisanship.”
      Jeffries’ tweet follows another one he made earlier in the day in which he called on House Republicans to “get real, end the Republican Civil War and join House Democrats in a bipartisan path forward.”The House has once again failed to agree on electing a speaker, with Jim Jordan rejected for the second time in two days after 22 Republicans said no to their party’s nominee. What happens now? Who knows. Some Republicans want to hold a vote on giving acting speaker Patrick McHenry the job’s full powers so the chamber can get back to legislating on issues like aid to Israel and government funding. Jordan has said he would be in favor of holding a vote on that motion, but he has also vowed to stay in the race. We’ll see if he opts to push for a third round of voting.Here’s a recap of the day so far:
      Jordan pleaded for unity, but one of his supporters warned he would lose more support in the second round of voting – and was right.
      McHenry’s acting capacity means he can pretty much just gavel the House into and out of session, and count the votes for speaker.
      A Jordan opponent voted for John Boehner. Remember him?
      It’s tough to tell what happens next in the House.Democratic whip Katherine Clark has told members “additional votes are possible today”, but there’s no saying when, or if, that happens.A Republican aide told the Guardian’s US politics live blog that the party’s lawmakers were told to expect a meeting of the Republican conference, but that has not yet been officially scheduled.The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell is at the Capitol, and spotted one of the surest signs that lawmakers aren’t leaving anytime soon: pizza is being delivered.With their party apparently deadlocked over making Jim Jordan speaker of the House, more Republicans are calling to make Patrick McHenry the chamber’s leader.McHenry took over as acting speaker following Kevin McCarthy’s ouster two weeks ago, while the GOP has nominated Jordan to become his permanent replacement. But Jordan has now twice failed to secure a majority of votes necessary to ascend to speaker’s chair, and some supporters now think it would be best to give McHenry the job and allow the chamber to begin functioning again.Here’s California’s David Valadao, who represents a Democratic-leaning district and backed Jordan in the just-concluded round of voting:Jordan’s detractors are also making their case to give McHenry the job. Here’s Jen Kiggans, a recent arrival in the House who represents a Virginia swing district:And another vulernable Republican, Carlos Gimenez, remains upset about McCarthy’s removal. He, too, is in favor of putting McHenry in charge:Republican nominee Jim Jordan will continue his campaign for speaker of the House despite losing the second round of balloting for the position this afternoon.“We’re going to keep going,” Jordan’s spokesman Russell Dye told me.“No person having received a majority the whole number of votes cast by surname, a speaker has not been elected,” Patrick McHenry declared from the House dais.What now? Some Republicans want to hold a vote on expanding McHenry’s powers from acting speaker to full speaker of the House. Earlier today, Jim Jordan said he would be in favor of putting that resolution up for consideration.That could be a very interesting affair, since Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the party may be open to supporting that, but McHenry gaveled the House into recess, so it seems that vote won’t happen right away.Jim Jordan has lost the second election for House speaker, as more Republicans voted against elevating him to the chamber’s leadership role.Jordan lost 22 GOP votes, two more than in the initial round of balloting on Tuesday. He received 199 votes in total, while Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries received 212.Voting appears to be over, and we are now waiting for acting speaker Patrick McHenry to make the result official.Jim Jordan has for the second day in a row failed to receive a majority vote to become speaker. After McHenry confirms the election, the question will become: what will the GOP do now?There are now 21 no votes against Jordan – one more than in the first round of balloting yesterday.The election has not yet concluded, but his margin of defeat is an indication of the amount of opposition Jordan will have to overcome if he is ever to get the speaker’s gavel.Democrats, meanwhile, have unanimously voted for their minority leader Hakeem Jeffries. He has received 200 votes to Jordan’s 184.Jim Jordan’s Republican objectors have voted for other politicians, usually former members of the House.Pennsylvania’s Mike Kelly voted for John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House from 2011 to 2015, who resigned his position in part due to trouble with the party’s conservative wing:Michigan’s John James voted for former GOP congresswoman Candice Miller, one of the more obscure names called out in this round of voting, More

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      Mitt Romney mulled unity ticket with ‘scary’ Cruz to stop Trump, book says

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      Mitt Romney considered a desperate, third presidential bid in 2016, aiming to stop Donald Trump as part of an unlikely unity ticket with Ted Cruz – a hard-right Texas senator who Romney privately considered “scary” and “a demagogue”, a new book reports.“Romney was willing to wage a quixotic and humiliating presidential bid if that’s what it took,” McKay Coppins writes in Romney: A Reckoning, a biography of the 2012 Republican nominee written in close cooperation with its subject.“He might even be able to swallow sharing a ticket with Cruz, a man he’d described as ‘scary’ and ‘a demagogue’ in his journal. But Romney didn’t think the gambit would actually succeed in taking down Trump. The problem was that no one else in the party seemed to know what to do about Trump, either.”Widely trailed, Coppins’ book will be published in the US next Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy. A spokesperson for Cruz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Trump stormed to the nomination. Beating Hillary Clinton, he had four chaotic years in power before losing to Joe Biden. Trump refused to go quietly, however, inciting the deadly January 6 attack on Congress and now dominating polling for the next Republican nomination despite facing 91 criminal charges and an array of civil cases.Romney, now 76, is a former venture capitalist, Massachusetts governor and Winter Olympics chief executive who ran for the Republican nomination in 2008 then won it in 2012. Beaten by Barack Obama, he entered the next election as a party grandee.Describing backstage machinations by power players seeking to stop Trump, Coppins says Romney was approached five days before the New Hampshire primary by Robert O’Brien, a friend and adviser, and Jim Talent, a former senator from Missouri.“The party was in crisis,” Coppins writes. “An interloping frontrunner was on the verge of hijacking the GOP, and the rest of the field had shown they couldn’t beat him. If no one else stepped up by 1 March, they argued, Romney should enter the race and tap Cruz as his running mate to unite Republican opposition to Trump.“O’Brien and Talent called this the ‘Robert Kennedy’ strategy – get in late to build momentum, win enough delegates to keep the frontrunner from clinching the nomination, then march into the convention girded for a floor fight.”Robert F Kennedy entered the 1968 Democratic primary late, tapping a surge of support before being assassinated in California.Coppins says Romney entertained the Cruz idea, telling Talent and O’Brien his “number one priority is to stop Trump”.Formally, Romney broke with Trump after Trump refused to disavow support from David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader. Quoting Romney’s journal, Coppins says he reached for the words of Winston Churchill, writing: “It is nearly certain that he will be the nominee. I am not tempted in the slightest to retreat. I will fight him on the beaches. I will fight him in the air …” In public, Romney denounced Trump in a speech, calling him a “phony” and a “fraud”. That didn’t move the needle, so Romney reportedly sought to form another anti-Trump ticket, with Cruz as nominee for president and Marco Rubio, the Florida senator also in the race, as the Texan’s running mate. That didn’t work either. The two men were “just too self-interested”, Coppins writes, adding: “With each passing day of inaction, Trump gained more votes, more delegates and more momentum.”Coppins’ reporting lands amid a 2024 primary in which a huge Republican field has again refused to coalesce round one alternative to Trump.In 2016, Romney also tried to “usher John Kasich out of the race”, Coppins writes. The former Ohio governor refused, prompting Romney to write in his journal: “Delusion runs deep in politicians’ veins.” Romney sent Kasich “a series of increasingly gruff emails”, telling him to drop out, back Cruz then fight for the nomination at the convention. Kasich, Coppins writes, responded with “more stump speech pablum”.“Refusing to believe that Kasich was so obtuse that he couldn’t grasp basic math, Romney began to entertain the theory that Kasich was somehow back-channeling with Trump. How else to explain his bullheaded commitment to a nonsensical strategy that only helped the frontrunner?”Nothing worked. Trump became president.In a move symbolic of how many top Republicans soon resigned themselves to Trump, O’Brien, the man with the Romney-Cruz plan, ultimately became Trump’s last national security adviser.Romney became a Utah senator in 2018, going on to twice vote to impeach Trump and then call him a demagogue in a stinging retirement announcement last month. But even Romney was not immune to temptation. Coppins describes a famously humiliating flirtation with becoming secretary of state after Trump won power in 2016.“Finally, Trump cut to the chase. ‘You really need to say that you’ve come to the conclusion that I’m terrific and that I’ll be a great president. We need to clear this up.’“But Romney couldn’t bring himself to do it.” More

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      House in limbo after 20 Republicans sink Jim Jordan’s first attempt to win speaker vote – live

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      While Jim Jordan may not have enough votes to become House Speaker, another round of voting is expected today.A spokesperson for Jordan confirmed to CNN’s Manu Raju that Jordan will force another round of votes.“The House needs a speaker as soon as possible. Expect another round of votes today. It’s time for Republicans to come together,” said Jordan spokesperson Russell Dye.In his bid to become the next speaker, far-right representative Jim Jordan quickly ran into the same problem Kevin McCarthy did during his speakership election in January: the GOP is deeply divided and unable to agree on a leader.Jordan was unable to secure a majority after 20 Republicans voted for another candidate. Jordan will have another try tomorrow, but it’s unclear whether the Ohio congressman has enough clout to sustain multiple rounds of balloting to win the speakership.Democrats meanwhile were united in voting for House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Without any Republican support, Jeffries can’t win the speakership either.
      Democrats plan to turn Jordan’s speakership, if he is actually elected, into a campaign issue, by highlighting his extreme positions and arguing there are no moderates in the House GOP.
      Calling Republicans the “chaos caucus”, DNC spokesperson Sarafina Chitika accused GOP members of making “a mockery of our institutions” and being “incapable of governing”.
      Former speaker Kevin McCarthy was optimistic Jordan would be elected, perhaps even on the first round of votes. He has already turned out to be part wrong.
      Remember, Jordan was a “significant player” in Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, according to the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack.
      Meanwhile, Joe Biden is heading to Israel to “consult on next steps”, the White House said, as the country prepares for an invasion of the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Hamas’s terrorist attacks less than two weeks ago. For the latest on the conflict, follow our blog.
      – Guardian staffEr, scratch that. The latest is that Jordan will try to win the speakership again tomorrow. Per House GOP whip Tom Emmer, the House will vote on the speaker tomorrow at 11am.It’s looking like the House may hold another vote this evening, after Jordan supporter Gus Bilirakis returns from a funeral.Representative Pramila Jayapal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called on the “handful of Republicans who try to portray themselves as reasonable” to step up and work with Democrats.“The dynamics any Republican speaker would face is the same: a slim majority, an empowered Maga wing and a divided government. Jim Jordan did not even get as many votes as Kevin McCarthy’s lowest vote total – and that was with all bullying tactics in full force,” she wrote in a statement.“Republicans simply have not been able to govern and the stakes are high. We have just a month left until the next government funding deadline. Come to the table, work with us, and let’s get real work done.”The heads of MI5 and the FBI have issued an unprecedented joint warning that the threat of a domestic terrorist attack could rise as a result of the crisis in the Middle East.The counter-terror chiefs said Jewish communities and organisations, as well as other groups, may face a heightened danger from lone actors, Hamas militants, and Iran, a supporter of Hamas, on British or US soil.Ken McCallum, the director general of Britain’s domestic spy agency, MI5, said there was a risk that “self-initiated” individuals who may have been radicalised online might respond in “spontaneous or unpredictable ways” in the UK after the terrorist attacks on Israel and what could become a drawn-out conflict.Speaking before a public summit of intelligence chiefs in California, and seated alongside the FBI director Christopher Wray, McCallum said there was also a danger that terror groups or Iran may step up violent activity and that Jewish individuals or organisations could be targeted by neo-Nazis and Islamists.“There clearly is the possibility that profound events in the Middle East will either generate more volume of UK threat, and/or change its shape in terms of what is being targeted, in terms of how people are taking inspiration,” he said.On Monday night, a gunman shot dead two Swedish football fans in Brussels. The Belgian prosecutor’s office originally said there was no evidence the attack was related to the Israel-Gaza conflict, but on Tuesday a spokesperson said a link was being explored.France was put on its highest level of security alert on Friday after a suspected radical Islamist killed a teacher and injured three others in the north of the country.The incidents come at a time of heightened counter-terror concern, given the scale of violence unleashed by Hamas’s attack on Israel 10 days ago.Wray, the FBI director, said terrorist threats were fast-evolving in the US and that “we cannot and do not discount the possibility that Hamas or other foreign terrorist organisations could exploit the conflict to call on their supporters to conduct attacks on our own soil.”Read more:It is unclear how a Jim Jordan speakership will affect US aid to Ukraine and Israel.Far-right Republicans, including Jordan, have argued that aid to Ukraine is taking funds away from domestic security issues. In line with an “America First” principle that Donald Trump touts, the hard right has advocated for a more isolationist foreign policy.Though Democrats and many Republicans still support the idea of sending funds to Kyiv, Jordan could limit what legislation reaches the House flood and therefore impact whether future aid bills are prioritized.The White House and lawmakers are currently considering emergency national security legislation that would send aid to Ukraine as well as Israel, among other things.Jim Jordan is finding support from Republicans for another round of voting on his bid to become House speaker – but not from his allies.Florida’s Mario Diaz-Balart wants the chamber to reconvene and vote again. In the first round of voting earlier today, Diaz-Balart backed majority leader Steve Scalise for House speaker:Jim Jordan is down, but he’s not out yet, and could yet become speaker of the House. From the Guardian’s Sam Levine, Joan E Greve and Lauren Gambino, here’s a rundown of what we know about the Ohio Republican and far-right fixture:As the House gears up to vote for its new speaker, all eyes are on Jim Jordan, a founder of the hard-right Freedom caucus. But while the Ohio congressman and his allies say they will have the votes soon, Jordan also has a long history of controversial views that many of his own party members and constituents are not aligned with.Here are some of the key things to know about Jordan as a politician – and a look into how he might act in the role of speaker.Jordan was closely involved in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the electionJordan was a “significant player” in Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, according to the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. As early as November of 2020, he was part of discussions with Trump campaign and White House officials examining whether Mike Pence could overturn the election. Immediately after the election, he met with Trump campaign and White House officials at the campaign’s headquarters to help develop a strategy of repeatedly, and falsely, saying the election was fraudulent, the New York Times reported.On 2 January 2021, Jordan led a conference call with members of Congress and the White House in which they discussed urging Trump supporters to march to the Capitol. The day before the January 6 attack, Jordan texted the then White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to pass on advice that Pence should “call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all”.After the violence at the Capitol, Jordan was one of several members of Congress to whom the White House reached out to try to delay counting of electoral votes. He received five calls from Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s closest allies, that night, according to the January 6 committee. The two men spoke at least twice that night. Jordan later said he spoke with Trump on January 6, but could not recall how many times.While Jim Jordan may not have enough votes to become House Speaker, another round of voting is expected today.A spokesperson for Jordan confirmed to CNN’s Manu Raju that Jordan will force another round of votes.“The House needs a speaker as soon as possible. Expect another round of votes today. It’s time for Republicans to come together,” said Jordan spokesperson Russell Dye.New York representative Anthony D’Esposito, who voted against Jordan, released a statement following the first round of votes. In his statement, D’Esposito alluded to concerns that Jordan may not understand the concerns of his district.“I want a Speaker who understands Long Island’s unique needs. Restoring the SALT deduction, safeguarding 9/11 victim support funding, and investing in critical infrastructure are our priorities,” said D’Esposito, who voted for former US representative Lee Zeldin.“I look forward to discussions with candidates.”The DNC released a statement chiding Republicans for failing, once again, to elect a House Speaker.Calling Republicans the “Chaos Caucus”, DNC spokesperson Sarafina Chitika accused GOP members of making “a mockery of our institutions” and being “incapable of governing.”“Serious times demand serious leadership, not the GOP’s MAGA clown show with Trump as its ringleader,” said Chitika, in part.North Carolina representative Wiley Nickel issued a statement calling Jim Jordan a “problem starter” after Jordan failed to gain enough votes to become House speaker.Nickel, a Democrat, emphasized that Jordan remains “Donald Trump’s biggest ally in spreading false claims about the 2020 election” in a statement released shortly after the failed first vote.“I came to Congress because pro-democracy Republicans, Independents, and Democrats made their voices heard in my district,” Nickel said.“My constituents want a House Speaker who can bring Congress together, find common ground, and get things done. During his 16-year tenure in Congress, Jim Jordan has done none of that.Republicans held a floor vote to elect rightwing firebrand Jim Jordan as speaker of the House, and quickly ran into the same problem Kevin McCarthy did during his speakership election in January: the GOP is deeply divided and unable to agree on a leader. Jordan was unable to secure a majority after 20 Republicans voted for other candidates, and the Democrats offered him no support. The Ohio congressman has vowed the press on, much like McCarthy did earlier this year, but it’s unclear if Jordan has enough clout to sustain the 15 rounds of balloting it took McCarthy to secure his election as speaker. We’ll find out in the hours and days to come.Here’s what else has happened today:
      Democrats plan to turn Jordan’s speakership, if he is actually elected, into a campaign issue, by highlighting his extreme positions and arguing there are no moderates in the House GOP.
      McCarthy was optimistic Jordan would be elected, perhaps even on the first round of votes. He has already turned out to be part wrong.
      Matt Gaetz, who orchestrated McCarthy’s removal, backed Jordan for speaker.
      After announcing the final vote tally, Patrick McHenry, the acting speaker of the House, gaveled the chamber into recess.Besides GOP nominee Jim Jordan and Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, McHenry listed the others who had received votes in the inconclusive election. These were:
      Republican Majority leader Steve Scalise, who received seven votes.
      Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy, who received six votes.
      Former New York congressman Lee Zeldin, who received three votes.
      California congressman Mike Garcia, who received one vote.
      Minnesota congressman Tom Emmer, who received one vote.
      Oklahoma congressman Tom Cole, who received one vote.
      Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, who received one vote.
      It’s a similar, perhaps worse, level of dissent to what McCarthy faced at the start of the year. In his speakership election’s first round of balloting, he received 203 votes, while Jeffries received 212 votes, and other candidates received 19 votes. More

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      Trump vows to expand Muslim ban and bar Gaza refugees if he wins presidency

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      Doubling down on the hardline immigration policies that have long animated his base, Donald Trump on Monday vowed to bar refugees from Gaza and immediately expand his first-term Muslim travel ban if he wins a second term following the deadly attack on Israel last week.Speaking to supporters in Iowa, the former president said that if he returns to the Oval Office, he will immediately begin “ideological screening” for all immigrants and bar those who sympathize with Hamas and Muslim extremists. The war between Israel and Hamas has sparked what is now the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides, with more than 4,000 dead.Though Trump’s audience in the Horizon Events Center in Clive cheered his proposals, 31-year-old information technology specialist Ritu Bansal said she supported Trump but hoped he would also show compassion for the people of Gaza.“In my opinion the US government should care for the victims of the Hamas attack on Israel and the civilian victims in Gaza,” Bansal said. “The US can care for both.”Trump’s proposals would mark a dramatic expansion of the controversial – and legally dubious – policies that drew alarm from immigrant rights and civil liberties activists, but helped him win the presidency in 2016.Trump has long railed against the US taking immigrants from countries he has called inferior, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, and told the crowd Monday that while he was president the US stood up for Israel and “Judeo-Christian civilization and values”.Trump also continued to paint himself as a martyr for his loyal supporters, railing against the four indictments he is facing along with a narrow gag order that was imposed Monday by the federal judge overseeing the 2020 election interference case against him in Washington. The order, which Trump has pledged to appeal, bars him from making statements targeting prosecutors, possible witnesses and court staff.“I am willing to go to jail if that’s what it takes for our country to become a democracy again,” he said in Clive.Trump pledged to bar the entry of refugees from Gaza fleeing Israel’s retaliatory strikes after the surprise 7 October attack, just as he tried to bar citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries during his first term with an executive order. The executive order, however, was met with fierce opposition and was fought all the way to the US supreme court. The high court eventually upheld a third version of the ban, which included travelers from North Korea and some from Venezuela.Current and former members of communist and totalitarian parties and their sympathizers are already banned from entry into the US. But Trump told about 1,500 people in suburban Des Moines that if he wins a second term, the US would no longer allow what he called “dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots and maniacs to get residency in our country”.“If you empathize with radical Islamic terrorists and extremists, you’re disqualified,” he said. “If you want to abolish the state of Israel, you’re disqualified. If you support Hamas or any ideology that’s having to do with that or any of the other really sick thoughts that go through people’s minds – very dangerous thoughts – you’re disqualified.”The ex-president and 2024 Republican frontrunner also said he would aggressively deport resident aliens with “jihadist sympathies” and send immigration agents to “pro-jihadist demonstrations” to identify violators.“In the wake of the attacks on Israel, Americans have been disgusted to see the open support for terrorists among the legions of foreign nationals on college campuses. They’re teaching your children hate,” he said. “Under the Trump administration, we will revoke the student visas of radical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners at our colleges and universities and we will send them straight back home.” More

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      Jim Jordan to force floor vote for House speaker on Tuesday after consolidating Republican support – as it happened

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      Jim Jordan has told CNN that he will force a floor vote tomorrow at noon for House speaker.The Ohio representative previously walked back a stance that he would only call a vote if he reached the necessary 217 votes.Jordan told CNN that his stance changed due to fighting between Israel and Hamas.“You can’t open the House, and do the work of the American people, and help our dearest and closest friend Israel if you don’t have a Speaker,” said Jordan.On if he can get 217 votes, Jordan said: “I don’t know if there’s any way to ever get that in the room. … But I think the only way to do this is … you have the vote tomorrow.”Federal judge Tanya Chutkan partially granted prosecutors’ request for a gag order on Donald Trump in his trial over charges related to the trying to overturn the 2020 election. The former president will be banned from attacking special counsel Jack Smith and his team, as well as witnesses in the case and court staff, but Chutkan declined to stop him from alleging the case is politically motivated, or criticizing the government generally. Nonetheless, Trump’s presidential campaign condemned the decision as “another partisan knife stuck in the heart of our Democracy”.Here’s what else happened today:
      Jim Jordan is consolidating Republican votes ahead of tomorrow’s election that could see him take over as speaker of the House from the ousted Kevin McCarthy.
      Joe Biden postponed a trip to Colorado to stay at the White House and meet with his national security team ahead of Israel’s expected invasion of Gaza.
      Chutkan turned down a request from Smith’s team to limit how Trump’s attorneys could question potential jurors.
      The election subversion case is one of several Trump is involved in, both at the state and federal level. Here’s a recap of his many legal troubles.
      Biden and Kamala Harris condemned the murder of a six-year-old Palestinian Muslim boy in Illinois, and warned against Islamophobia.
      Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have condemned the killing of six-year-old Palestinian Muslim Wadea Al-Fayoume in Illinois, who police say was targeted over the Israel-Hamas war.“Doug and I grieve with the family of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian-American Muslim child who was stabbed to death on Saturday. We also pray for the recovery of Wadea’s mother, Hanaan Shahin, who was stabbed 12 times in the same attack,” Harris said in a statement released this afternoon. “The Department of Justice has announced a hate crimes investigation.”Yesterday evening, the president said:
      Jill and I were shocked and sickened to learn of the brutal murder of a six-year-old child and the attempted murder of the child’s mother in their home yesterday in Illinois.The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek – a refuge to live, learn and pray in peace. This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are. As Americans, we must come together and reject Islamophobia and all forms of bigotry and hatred. I have said repeatedly that I will not be silent in the face of hate. We must be unequivocal. There is no place in America for hate against anyone.
      Here’s the Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo with more on Wadea’s murder:Quinn Mitchell, a 15-year-old resident of early voting state New Hampshire who could give many reporters a run for their money in terms of political knowledge, has had yet another run-in with Republican officials who apparently do not want him around, the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reports:A 15-year-old aspiring journalist who had a viral encounter with the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, earlier this year was escorted out of a Republican political event by armed police after he was accused of being a Democratic operative.Quinn Mitchell – a politics enthusiast who has attended more than 80 presidential campaign events – said he was given a credential to the First in the Nation Leadership Summit, an event organized by the New Hampshire Republican party.After arriving on Friday, Mitchell watched a speech by Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who is running for president. Mitchell – who is from New Hampshire – then prepared to watch Perry Johnson, a long-shot Republican candidate.But he was prevented from doing so.“This woman comes up to me, I don’t know who she is, but she says to me: ‘I know who you are, you’re a tracker,’” Mitchell said on his podcast.A tracker is a political operative who records rival candidates. Mitchell, who is not a tracker, was then escorted into a room at the Sheraton Nashua hotel, where the event was being held. The woman, who Mitchell said was a Republican official, was joined by a man, and the pair accused Mitchell of having misrepresented himself to gain access.From the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell, here’s a full rundown of what happened earlier today, when the federal judge handling his trial on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election imposed a partial gag order on Donald Trump:Donald Trump has been issued a limited gag order by the federal judge overseeing the criminal case over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, prohibiting him from making public statements attacking prosecutors, court staff and potential trial witnesses.The former president was not prohibited from generally disparaging the Biden administration, the US justice department and the trial venue of Washington DC, and will continue to be allowed to allege that the case was politically motivated.Those were the contours of a tailored protective order handed down on Monday by Tanya Chutkan, the US district judge who said she would enter a written ruling at a later date but warned Trump’s lawyers that any violation of the order could lead to immediate punitive sanctions.The ruling was the culmination of a two-hour hearing in federal district court after prosecutors in the office of the special counsel Jack Smith had asked the judge to impose restrictions on Trump’s attacks that they felt could intimidate witnesses – and Chutkan agreed.“There is a real risk that witnesses may be intimidated,” Chutkan said as she explained her decision from the bench, adding that just because Trump was a 2024 presidential candidate and the GOP nomination frontrunner did not give him free rein to “launch a pre-trial smear campaign”.Joe Biden was scheduled today to travel to Colorado to promote clean energy policies, but this morning made the unusual decision to postpone the event, apparently to address the crisis in the Middle East.The White House has announced that the president spent this afternoon meeting with his national security team about Israel’s looming invasion of the Gaza Strip:Meanwhile, his re-election campaign has made its own foray into hostile territory, by setting up an account on Donald Trump’s Truth Social. That’s the platform the former president turned to after being banned from X, formerly known as Twitter, following the January 6 insurrection, and has continued to use even after Elon Musk let him back on last year:We have a live blog following the latest on the war between Israel and Hamas:A spokesperson for the Trump campaign has denounced a judge’s recent partial gag order against Donald Trump in the 2020 election case.In a statement shared with the Hill, the spokesperson called the order “an absolute abomination and another partisan knife stuck in the heart of our Democracy.”“President Trump will continue to fight for our Constitution, the American people’s right to support him, and to keep our country free of the chains of weaponized and targeted law enforcement,” read the statement, shared by Trump’s campaign.Judge Tanya Chutkan’s ruling prohibits Trump from attacking special counsel Jack Smith and his staff. The former president is also banned from attacking witnesses in the case as well as court staff.Read the full article here.It’s unclear if Jordan will secure the 217 votes necessary for House Speaker. But his team has been making significant headway, CNN reports.As of Monday, less than 10 Republican representatives don’t support Jordan’s bid for House speakership–compare to 20 members on Sunday.From CNN’s Manu Raju:Jordan’s supporters are attempting to garner support as the House speaker vote approaches.Tennessee representative Andy Ogles posted a public letter on Monday, imploring Americans to contact their representatives to support Jordan.In a post to X, formerly known as Twitter, Ogles said: “My Fellow Americans, .. Our Nation is in crisis, we need a leader, we need a fighter like [Jim Jordan]”.Jim Jordan has told CNN that he will force a floor vote tomorrow at noon for House speaker.The Ohio representative previously walked back a stance that he would only call a vote if he reached the necessary 217 votes.Jordan told CNN that his stance changed due to fighting between Israel and Hamas.“You can’t open the House, and do the work of the American people, and help our dearest and closest friend Israel if you don’t have a Speaker,” said Jordan.On if he can get 217 votes, Jordan said: “I don’t know if there’s any way to ever get that in the room. … But I think the only way to do this is … you have the vote tomorrow.”Federal judge Tanya Chutkan partially granted prosecutors’ request for a gag order on Donald Trump in his trial over charges related to the trying to overturn the 2020 election. The former president will be banned from attacking special counsel Jack Smith and his staff, as well as witnesses in the case and court staff, but Chutkan declined to stop him from alleging the case is politically motivated, or criticizing the government generally.Here’s what else is going on today:
      Jim Jordan is consolidating Republican votes ahead of tomorrow’s election that could see him take over as speaker of the House from the ousted Kevin McCarthy.
      Chutkan turned down a request from Smith’s team to limit how Trump’s attorneys could question potential jurors.
      The election subversion case is one of several Trump is involved in, both at the state and federal level. Here’s a recap of his many legal troubles.
      Jim Jordan, the GOP nominee for House speaker, has spent today consolidating support ahead of a vote scheduled for tomorrow to pick a new leader of Congress’s lower chamber.While it still remains unclear if he has the 217 votes necessary to succeed Kevin McCarthy, the Republican who was earlier this month booted from the speaker’s chair by eight far-right GOP lawmakers and the chamber’s Democrats, Jordan has made important progress today.He notably won the support of Mike Rogers, an Alabama congressman who had previously refused to vote for him:Jordan has supported baseless conspiracy theories about Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss and received the former president’s endorsement in the speaker’s race. In a letter he sent to his GOP colleagues today, he has pitched himself as a uniter of a conference that’s deeply divided over many issues, including McCarthy’s removal:Judge Tanya Chutkan says with Trump’s public prejudicial statements in the 2020 election case, there is a real risk that witnesses may be intimidated.Trump cannot “launch a pre-trial smear campaign,” Chutkan says, adding violations of order could lead to sanctions.Federal judge Tanya Chutkan has imposed a limited gag order against Donald Trump in the 2020 election subversion case.Chutkan’s order prevents posting or reposting attacks against the special counsel, his staff, court staff or personnel, and statements against potential witnesses or expert testimony. The judge declined to impose restrictions on criticizing the government in general, including the justice department and Biden administration. She also will allow statements alleging the case is politically motivated.Over the past two hours the judge, Tanya Chutkan has heard arguments from both Donald Trump’s attorneys and prosecutors for special counsel Jack Smith over whether she should impose a gag order on the former president.Prosecutors have asked her to do so, citing inflammatory statements he has made targeting various players in his federal election subversion case, including witnesses, court staff and attorneys. At the hearing, Trump’s lawyer John Lauro has argued such an order would be unnecessary, saying he can stop the ex-president from making outrageous statements, and unsuccessfully trying to get Chutkan to delay the trial until after the 2024 election.The judge has yet to rule, but as her statement before the hearing went into recess makes clear, she seems to be leaning towards imposing some kind of order limiting what the former president can say.Federal judge Tanya Chutkan has signaled she is partial to a request from prosecutors to impose some kind of gag order on Donald Trump in the election subversion case.“I’m not confident that without some sort of restriction, we’ll be in here all the time,” she said after hearing about two hours of arguments from special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors and Trump’s defense attorneys.The court is now taking a brief recess.Judge Tanya Chutkan is now back to the argument, put forward by Donald Trump’s attorney, about how a gag order could affect a debate with his former vice-president turned rival Mike Pence.Chutkan says she understand how it could be detrimental to their speech, but then asks Trump’s lawyer John Lauro why she could not issue an order stopping him from attacking other witnesses – such as former joint chief of staff chairman Mark Milley. Last month, Trump suggested Milley deserved “DEATH” over a phone call with his Chinese counterpart near the end of his term, where the army general assured him the president would not order military action.Lauro replies that the first amendment does not restrict speech simply because it could be used to spur someone to violence.Judge Tanya Chutkan asks Donald Trump’s lawyer John Lauro why the former president needed to attack the spouse of special counsel Jack Smith.Lauro replies that he gets attacked as well, but that’s permitted under the first amendment, and nothing stops Trump from arguing the case against him is politically biased.Chutkan then turns to Trump’s attacks against court staff, such as the New York City court clerk who he maligned earlier this month. Lauro concedes that comment was out of bounds for a judicial proceeding.The judge then wanted to hear from Lauro his argument against her issuing an order blocking Trump from making derogatory public statements about the court or its staff. His attorney says such a step is not necessary, nothing the civil case in New York is different from the federal criminal proceedings in Washington DC. Lauro adds that he will make sure Trump does not make similar statements.Judge Tanya Chutkan then considers another question: why Donald Trump feels the need to call a prosecutor a “thug” to make the point that the case against him is politically motivated.His attorney John Lauro asks what else he should do in the face of oppression. “Let’s tone this down,” Chutkan replies.“If your honor wants to censor my speech”, Lauro retorts.Judge Tanya Chutkan poses the hypothetical question of how a statement by Donald Trump attacking the election subversion case as political and brought by Joe Biden should be handled.Trump’s attorney John Lauro asks if such a statement would violate the potential gag order. The prosecution initially argues that yes, it would, before backtracking and saying it would not, because Biden is not a party to the case. More

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      Trump given limited gag order in criminal case over efforts to overturn 2020 election

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      Donald Trump has been issued a limited gag order by the federal judge overseeing the criminal case over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, prohibiting him from making public statements attacking prosecutors, court staff and potential trial witnesses.The former president was not prohibited from generally disparaging the Biden administration, the US justice department and the trial venue of Washington DC, and will continue to be allowed to allege that the case was politically motivated.Those were the contours of a tailored protective order handed down on Monday by Tanya Chutkan, the US district judge who said she would enter a written ruling at a later date but warned Trump’s lawyers that any violation of the order could lead to immediate punitive sanctions.The ruling was the culmination of a two-hour hearing in federal district court after prosecutors in the office of the special counsel Jack Smith had asked the judge to impose restrictions on Trump’s attacks that they felt could intimidate witnesses – and Chutkan agreed.“There is a real risk that witnesses may be intimidated,” Chutkan said as she explained her decision from the bench, adding that just because Trump was a 2024 presidential candidate and the GOP nomination frontrunner did not give him free rein to “launch a pre-trial smear campaign”.At issue were dozens of public remarks by Trump and Truth Social posts from him disparaging the case since he was indicted in August on charges he conspired to reverse his 2020 election defeat and obstructed the transfer of power, including the January 6 congressional certification.The judge separated into five categories Trump’s inflammatory comments about: the trial venire of Washington DC, the Biden administration and the justice department, Smith and his staff, Chutkan and her staff, as well as people who might be called to testify at trial.Chutkan appeared to have decided that she would not restrict Trump from disparaging the trial venue because biased jurors could be filtered out before trial. She also indicated she would not restrict Trump from attacking the government because it would be within the scope of political speech.But the judge took issue with Trump’s attacks on the special counsel. Chutkan repeatedly asked Trump’s lead lawyer John Lauro why the former president needed to call Smith a “thug” in order to suggest that the criminal case against him was politically motivated.In a contentious moment, Lauro asked rhetorically what Trump was supposed to do “in the face of oppression”. Chutkan sharply raised her finger and instructed him: “Let’s tone this down.”An aggrieved Lauro retorted: “If your honor wants to censor my speech.”The judge also took issue with Trump’s track record of attacking court staff. Chutkan suggested she was less concerned by Trump’s personal attacks on her as an “Obama-appointed hack” but was disturbed by his recent post in his New York civil fraud trial where he disparaged the judge’s clerk.Lauro tried to insist that the New York case was the New York case, and he repeated his assertion that nothing like that happened in this case. Chutkan disputed that claim with an exasperated laugh earlier in the hearing.The judge appeared most unconvinced by the Trump legal team’s contention that the former’s president’s statements against certain potential trial witnesses were not intimidating or might chill other witnesses from testifying against him at trial.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionProsecutors had flagged, among others, attacks on Gen Mark Milley, the former chair of the joint chiefs of staff. “In times gone by,” one post said, “the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act. To be continued!”The Trump legal team had argued that prosecutors had no evidence that people like Milley or Trump’s former attorney general William Barr had felt intimidated by the former president’s criticisms of them, adding that they were high-profile public figures who were used to political rhetoric.But Chutkan remained skeptical. She told the Trump legal team that the ex-president, as a criminal defendant, did not have unfettered first amendment rights and did not get to respond to every criticism levelled by Milley or Barr or others.The point was buttressed by the assistant special counsel Molly Gaston who argued to the judge about Trump: “He isn’t campaigning – he’s using his campaign to intimidate witnesses and pollute the jury pool.”Before Chutkan finally made her decision, she ran through a list of four hypothetical Trump statements that she had drawn up. She asked Lauro to say whether he thought the statements violated the conditions of Trump’s release conditions about intimidation or should be permissible generally.The hypotheticals included one about if “Barr was a slimy liar”. Lauro responded half-jokingly he did not want to say that the truth was a defense but insisted that it was not intimidating.Chutkan appeared to disagree and suggested it impermissibly cast doubt on Barr’s testimony. More

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      Judge to consider imposing gag order on Trump in 2020 election interference case

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      A federal judge is expected to consider on Monday whether to impose a limited gag order on Donald Trump in the criminal case over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, potentially restricting what he can say about potential trial witnesses and prosecutors.The decision for US district judge Tanya Chutkan at the hearing, scheduled for 10am in Washington, comes with unique challenges given the potential for Trump to test the limits of a protective order or even flout it outright – opening the explosive sanctions question of whether to jail him in response.Since Trump was charged in August with conspiring to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power, prosecutors have complained in court filings that Trump has made dozens of prejudicial statements that could intimidate people from testifying against him at trial and poison the jury pool.The filings cited, in particular, Trump’s posts attacking his former vice-president, Mike Pence, for testifying during the criminal investigation, and posts suggesting the former chair of the joint chiefs of staff Gen Mark Milley, another potential trial witness, should be executed.“In times gone by,” Trump wrote in one post of Milley and his move to insulate the US defense department at the end of the Trump administration, “the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act. To be continued!”The proposed gag order drafted by prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, would limit Trump and his lawyers from making public statements about the identity or testimony of prospective witnesses, and allow Trump to say only he denied the charges “without further comment”.Trump’s lawyers have responded by saying prosecutors were absurd to argue high-profile public officials would be intimidated by his social media posts, and characterized the gag order request as infringing on Trump’s first amendment rights as he makes another bid for the White House.The motion for a protective order against Trump marks a tricky situation for the judge, because ruling in favor of prosecutors could also inadvertently play into Trump’s hands.There is little precedent for how Chutkan should approach the issue of a gag order, balancing the strong constitutional protections for political speech in a case that could affect the outcome of the presidential election against ensuring the proper administration of the judicial process.Trump and his lawyers have made clear for months that they want the public to falsely think the 2020 election case is about whether he had a first amendment right to say it was stolen, even though the charges are actually concerned with obstruction and defrauding the United States.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIf Chutkan grants the gag order, and directly restricts what Trump can say, that could be used by the Trump campaign as additional fodder to malign the case as politically-motivated or unfair – which could have the same prejudicial effect on the case prosecutors were trying to prevent.There is also the question of what Chutkan would do if Trump decided to skirt the edges of the order or defy it completely. Even if Trump was fined for contempt, Trump could decide it was just a price of doing business, and Chutkan might be confronted with the prospect of jail to enforce it.That step would be legally and politically explosive and, rather than risking such a course, Chutkan could decide to cycle through other options to limit Trump from attacking prosecutors or potential trial witnesses; for instance, she has previously said she might move up the trial date.The trial in this case is currently set to start on 4 March 2024, a day before the busiest date on the presidential primary election calendar, when 15 states are scheduled to hold Republican primaries or caucuses. More