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      Trump calls FBI, DoJ ‘vicious monsters’ in first rally since Mar-a-Lago search

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      Trump calls FBI, DoJ ‘vicious monsters’ in first rally since Mar-a-Lago searchFormer president also calls Joe Biden’s Philadelphia address the ‘most vicious, hateful, divisive speech’02:19Speaking in Pennsylvania on Saturday, at his first rally since the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago for top-secret material taken from the White House and since Joe Biden used a primetime address to warn that Republicans were assaulting US democracy, Donald Trump lashed out. Democracy is under attack – and reporting that isn’t ‘violating journalistic standards’ | Robert ReichRead moreThe former president said: “The FBI and the justice department have become vicious monsters, controlled by radical-left scoundrels, lawyers and the media, who tell them what to do.”Trump nominated the FBI director, Christopher Wray, in 2017.Biden spoke outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, a site with tremendous resonance in US history, on Thursday night.Presenting a “battle for the soul of the nation”, he said: “This is a nation that rejects violence as a political tool. We are still, at our core, a democracy. Yet history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and the willingness to engage in political violence is fatal in a democracy.”In Wilkes-Barre on Saturday night, Trump called Biden’s remarks “the most vicious, hateful, and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president”.The former president was appearing in support of Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidate for US Senate, and Doug Mastriano, the candidate for governor.Oz, a TV doctor, is struggling against the lieutenant governor, John Fetterman. On Saturday night, Trump called the Democrat “a socialist loser”. He also claimed without evidence that Fetterman, who recently suffered a stroke and whose health has been mocked by the Oz campaign, used illegal drugs.“Fetterman supports taxpayer-funded drug dens and the complete decriminalization of illegal drugs, including heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, and ultra lethal fentanyl,” Trump said. “By the way, he takes them himself.”Trump also said: “Fetterman may dress like a teenager getting high in his parents’ basement, but he’s a raging lunatic hell-bent on springing hardened criminals out of jail in the middle of the worst crime wave in Pennsylvania history.”Mastriano is a supporter of Trump’s lie that Biden’s 2020 election victory was the result of electoral fraud. The candidate has compared the January 6 assault on the US Capitol to the Reichstag fire, the event in Berlin in 1933 which propelled Adolf Hitler to power. He has also been photographed wearing the uniform of a Confederate soldier.Biden’s speech continues to resonate. In Philadelphia, he spoke against a dramatic, deep-red background. Republicans protested, some saying the speech was too political to be delivered amid the trappings of the presidency, including attendant US Marines.On Sunday, Tiffany Smiley, the Republican candidate for Senate in Washington state, was asked on CNN’s State of the Union if she believed Biden won the 2020 election fairly and legitimately – a question now asked of most Republican candidates for state and national office.Smiley said she did. But she also said she was “extremely disappointed” with the speech in Philadelphia, “because unity is not conformity. And I think President Biden got that really, really mixed up”.Michael McCaul, a Republican congressman from Texas, told ABC’s This Week: “If this was a speech to unify the American people, it had just the opposite effect. It basically condemned all Republicans who supported Donald Trump in the last election. That’s over 70 million people.”More than 81 million voted for Biden. In his speech, the president said he wanted “to be very clear, very clear up front: not every Republican, not even a majority of Republicans, are Maga [pro-Trump] Republicans … [who] represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”In Wilkes-Barre, Trump told his audience that under Biden, they were “enemies of the state”. Of Biden, he said: “He’s an enemy of the state, you want to know the truth.”Of the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said: “It was not just my home that was raided last month. It was the hopes and dreams of every citizen who I’ve been fighting for.”Calling the search “one of the most shocking abuses of power by any administration in American history” and “a travesty of justice”, he said: “They’re trying to silence me and more importantly they’re trying to silence you. But we will not be silenced, right?”Investigators recovered thousands of documents, including more than 100 with classified and top-secret markings. A Trump-appointed judge is considering Trump’s request for the appointment of a court official to review the documents for any covered by executive privilege.Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016, one success in a string of usually Democratic states which fueled his victory over Hillary Clinton. But Biden won it in 2020, its call four days after election day putting him in the White House. As the 2022 midterms approach, Biden is due back in the state on Monday, the Labor Day holiday, for an event in Pittsburgh.Trump in increasing legal peril one month on from Mar-a-Lago searchRead moreReporters in Pennsylvania for Trump’s rally found support for the former president over the Mar-a-Lago search. Roy Bunger, 65, told the New York Times the Biden administration was “deliberately targeting” Trump “to keep him from running again”.But there are signs that Trump’s endorsement will not be enough to help Oz win a Senate seat Republicans have targeted in their attempt to take back the chamber. Larry Mitko voted for Donald Trump in 2016. He told the Associated Press he would not back Oz, “No way, no how.”Mitko said he did no feel like he knew the celebrity heart surgeon, who narrowly won his May primary with Trump’s backing. Mitko said he would vote for Fetterman, with whom he has been familiar with since Fetterman was mayor of nearby Braddock.“Dr Oz hasn’t showed me one thing to get me to vote for him,” he said. “I won’t vote for someone I don’t know.”TopicsDonald TrumpUS midterm elections 2022US politicsUS CongressRepublicansPennsylvanianewsReuse this content More

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      Democracy is under attack – and reporting that isn’t ‘violating journalistic standards’ | Robert Reich

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      Democracy is under attack – and reporting that isn’t ‘violating journalistic standards’Robert ReichBiden gave a rare primetime address on the most important challenge facing America – and the media coverage was just more he-said/she-said reaction Joe Biden’s message Thursday evening was clear. American democracy is under attack.This was a rare primetime address on the most important challenge facing the nation.But the media treated the speech as if it were just another in an endless series of partisan vollies instead of what it was – a declaration by the president of the United States that America must choose between democracy and authoritarianism.The major networks didn’t broadcast the speech.Friday’s media coverage of the speech was just more he-said/she-said reaction.The New York Times quoted the Republican House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, as claiming Democrats are the ones “dismantling Americans’ democracy”.The Times failed to point out that McCarthy’s claim is a lie. Nor did it state that McCarthy himself was one of 139 House Republicans who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election even after the attack on the Capitol.The same Times article quoted Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, as calling Biden “the divider in chief” and accusing him of exhibiting “disgust and hostility towards half the country”. But there was no mention of McDaniel’s role in advancing Trump’s “big lie”.The Times characterized a more general Republican objection to Biden’s speech – that he “was maligning the 74 million people” who voted for Trump in 2020. But the Times didn’t mention that Trump has illegally refused to concede the election.It is dangerous to believe that “balanced journalism” gives equal weight to liars and to truth-tellers, to those intent on destroying democracy and those seeking to protect it, to the enablers of an ongoing attempted coup and those who are trying to prevent it.Two Sundays ago, CNN’s Brian Stelter, host of the show Reliable Sources, put it well:“It’s not partisan to stand up for decency and democracy and dialogue. It’s not partisan to stand up to demagogues. It’s required. It’s patriotic. We must make sure we don’t give platforms to those who are lying to our faces.”Not incidentally, that was Stelter’s last show on CNN.On Friday, CNN White House reporter John Harwood said:“The core point [Biden] made in that political speech about a threat to democracy is true. Now, that’s something that’s not easy for us, as journalists, to say. We’re brought up to believe there’s two different political parties with different points of view and we don’t take sides in honest disagreements between them. But that’s not what we’re talking about. These are not honest disagreements. The Republican party right now is led by a dishonest demagogue.”Harwood went on to say:“Many, many Republicans are rallying behind his lies about the 2020 election and other things as well. And a significant portion – or a sufficient portion – of the constituency that they’re leading attacked the Capitol on January 6. Violently.”Shortly after making these remarks, Harwood announced he was no longer with CNN.A source told Dan Froomkin of Press Watch that CNN had informed Harwood last month that he was being let go. That was despite his long-term contract with the network. The source also said that Harwood had used his last broadcast to “send a message”.Why must we wait until some of America’s ablest journalists are sacked before they are willing and able to tell America the truth?It is not “partisan” to explain what Trump and his anti-democracy movement are seeking.It is not “taking sides” to point out that the Trump Republicans are trying to establish an authoritarian government in America.It is not “violating journalistic standards” to tell the unvarnished truth about what America is facing today.In fact, a failure to call out the Trump Republicans for what they are – liars, enablers, and accessories to crimes against the constitution – itself violates the most basic canons of journalistic ethics.“Balanced journalism” does not exist halfway between facts and lies.
      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
      TopicsUS politicsOpinionJoe BidenDonald TrumpRepublicansDemocratscommentReuse this content More

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      Trump in increasing legal peril one month on from Mar-a-Lago search

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      Trump in increasing legal peril one month on from Mar-a-Lago search The photo released by the justice department of materials seized at his resort sends a message: the time for frivolity is overThe photo tells it all. There is the overabundance of the carpet in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida resort, with its elaborate floral design presumably intended to suggest taste and luxury but merely signaling excess.There is the tackiness of the cheap gilded frames stuck in a box on the right of the picture, an echo of the golden skin plastered all over Trump Tower in Manhattan. In the front frame, the ego of the owner rings out – it is a Time magazine cover from 2019 showing Trump’s Democratic presidential challengers, Joe Biden among them, peering enviously at him as he sits in the Oval Office.FBI materials seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home included 90 empty foldersRead moreAnd then there is the stuff that truly matters: the six folders of documents strewn across the floor marked “Secret/SCI” or “Top Secret/SCI”. Immediately, the papers point the viewer in a very different direction: this image is not about excess or tackiness or ego; it is about secrecy, danger, illegality.The photo is to be found appended to the 36-page court filing released by the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday in its battle with Trump over classified records. Attachment F displays some of the confidential documents that the FBI discovered during their hotly contested search of Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.The picture encapsulates not only Trump’s disdain for democratic norms and laws, but also the thickening legal peril that is now closing in on him. It is carefully composed, allowing the viewer just enough legible detail to draw deductions.Here is a document stamped 9 May 2018 – the day after Trump announced he had pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal, as Bloomberg noted. Here’s another White House document marked “Secret, Limited Access”, dated 26 August 2018.Was that classified because that was the day after Trump’s nemesis, Senator John McCain, died? Or was there some other reason to explain its “NOFORN” designation – not for the eyes of any foreign national?Trump tried to belittle the importance of the photograph. “Terrible the way the FBI threw documents haphazardly all over the floor (perhaps pretending it was me that did it!)” he fulminated on his Truth Social social media network.But his trademark flippant-dismissive tone might not suffice on this occasion. Not when on Friday the most detailed itinerary yet of the materials seized at Mar-a-Lago was unsealed, showing that it included 103 classified documents, including 13 marked “Top Secret”, as well as 90 folders that were classified or marked for return to the White House staff secretary or a military aide but which were mysteriously empty.And not when another document in the DoJ photo contains the four devastating letters: HCS-P. That signifies that the document contains intelligence gathered from clandestine human sources – often spies or informants working undercover. Such “Humint” must be exceptionally closely guarded for the safety of America’s own people.That was the message the DoJ wanted to transmit in releasing the photo: the time for frivolity is over.“We now know that some of the information recovered was labeled in a way that could indicate it was derived from confidential human sources,” Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director under both Barack Obama and Trump, told the Guardian.“There’s a chance that information was collected from people who are working on behalf of the US overseas, including potentially CIA sources. You are literally talking about people’s lives.”On 8 August, when dozens of FBI agents fanned through Mar-a-Lago bearing a search warrant issued by a federal judge, Trump lashed out. . “These are dark times for our nation,” he said, describing the legally authorised search as a “raid” and portraying it as a blatantly political attack akin to one of those “broken, Third-World Countries”.He added: “Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before.”Unusually for Trump, that last statement was correct. Never has a US president been subject to an involuntary search of their home by federal agents pursuing evidence in a criminal investigation.Over the past four weeks a cascade of information has been released that tells the other side of the story. It transpires that the unprecedented nature of the FBI search was posited on the even more unprecedented behavior of the 45th president of the United States.Trump has been archivally challenged, to coin a phrase, for many years. The roots of his refusal to abide by normal rules relating to documents stretch back at least to his refusal to disclose his own tax returns during the 2016 presidential campaign – a resistance to accepting public access to his personal papers that is the mirror image of his current claim that presidential records from his time in the White House belong to him.Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University history professor who is author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present and publisher of the Lucid newsletter about threats to democracy, says this blurring of public and private is central to his autocratic style of leadership.“For Trump, records are not just documents. They are a measure of control – leverage over enemies and over his inner circle. This kind of leader doesn’t recognize the division between public and private. They have a proprietary mode of exercising power in which everything is theirs.”By June 2018 such proprietary behavior was expressing itself in the White House. Politico reported that Trump was routinely tearing up official records rather than filing them for safekeeping in the National Archives as he was legally obliged to do.White House aides were left desperately attempting to tape the documents back together – a farcical vignette of government in the Trump era. After he was forced out of the White House, many presidential papers were received by the archives in similarly torn-up condition.Documents that weren’t ripped up were often hoarded. Stephanie Grisham, a senior White House aide, described the pattern to the Washington Post.At the end of each day boxes would be carried upstairs to the White House residence. “They would get handed off to the residence and just disappear.”Grisham gave a memorable insight into the chaotic wiring of Trump’s mind, rendered in physical form through the contents of the boxes. “There was no rhyme or reason – it was classified documents on top of newspapers on top of papers people printed out of things they wanted him to read. That was our filing system.”Since the Mar-a-Lago search Trump has pleaded innocence, acting like the schoolboy who mumbles denials as he sucks brazenly on a stolen lollypop. “They could have had it anytime they wanted – and that includes LONG ago. ALL THEY HAD TO DO IS ASK,” Trump spluttered.Over the past month, however, it has become abundantly clear that the archivists did ask – over and over and over again. They began asking for boxes of documents, in fact, even before Trump quit the White House, and carried on doing so throughout 2021.On 18 January this year, Trump finally returned 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago. Just like the jumbled contents Grisham described, they contained a mishmash of newspaper clippings, handwritten notes, memos, dinner menus, letters, a cocktail napkin, briefing papers – the archival equivalent of a yard sale.They also contained records that confirmed the archivists’ worst fears. Tucked among the bric-a-brac were 184 classified documents, including 25 marked “Top Secret” and several with the chilling HCS human intelligence stamp indicating that lives were potentially at risk.It did not end there.Federal investigators who were brought in to investigate the matter became convinced that Trump was still hiding stuff. A grand jury subpoena was issued in May demanding the return of any classified document, and on 3 June three FBI agents and a DoJ official visited Mar-a-Lago to take possession of a further 38 classified documents, including 17 marked “Top Secret”, that Trump professed to have just discovered.During that visit a Trump lawyer signed a sworn certification that stated – on Trump’s personal authorization – that “a diligent search” had been conducted of all boxes brought from the White House. “Any and all” of the documents that were subject to the subpoena had been handed over and there were “no other records stored in any private office space or other location”.The FBI remained suspicious. Maybe it was because, when the agents were taken to look around the storage room at Mar-a-Lago, they were pointedly forbidden from opening or looking inside any of the White House boxes.Maybe it was the surveillance footage captured outside the storage room, which the FBI obtained under a separate subpoena, which reportedly showed employees going in and out of the space that was supposed to have been secured.Or maybe it was because the DoJ has had a rich network of informants operating within Mar-a-Lago. Prosecutors have hinted strongly that they did, referring in the affidavit released last week to “a significant number of civilian witnesses” whose identities needed protecting.That in turn might help explain why the justice department eventually came to the end of its tether and at the highest level – that of US attorney Merrick Garland – decided to press the button on the Mar-a-Lago search. After all, if the US government could so easily extract insider information from Trump’s sanctuary, what was preventing foreign governments doing the same?“Mar-a-Lago is not Donald’s home, it’s a social club,” said Michael Cohen who, as Trump’s longtime lawyer until 2018 when he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and other offenses, knows what he is talking about. “There are thousands of people who are members and, along with their guests, come and go from the premises at will. The premises are unsecured and no place for top secret documents.”McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI, also knows what he is talking about. “Mar-a-Lago is a spy’s dream. It’s a public place, easy to get into. A determined trained intelligence officer could get themselves in and likely get an audience with the former president who had access to the utmost sensitive secrets that we have.”The full horror may never publicly be known of what lies inside the more than 320 classified documents that have been recovered from Mar-a-Lago since January. Some of the items listed in the property receipt the FBI compiled after the 8 August search are intriguing: what do the “handwritten notes” contain?Others are titillating and alarming in equal measure, such as listing 1A – “info re: President of France”. Rolling Stone reported this week that Trump has bragged to associates that he has knowledge, some of it gleaned through US intelligence, of Emmanuel Macron’s illicit love life – though it is not clear whether that has any relevance.But above all, there were the staggering 55 top secret documents in total that were retrieved from Mar-a-Lago, some with HCS and NOFORN markings. As an unnamed source familiar with the search told the Washington Post, the stash contained “among the most sensitive secrets we hold”.All of this leaves several burning questions. Could any of this hyper-sensitive material already have found its way into the wrong hands?Again, we don’t know, other than that the director of national intelligence is reviewing the Mar-a-Lago documents to assess their possible impact on national security. One critically obvious but unstated issue is whether undercover agents will need to be relocated to guard their lives.Then there is the overriding puzzle: what, if anything, was Trump intending to do with the documents and why has he gone to such tortuous lengths to hold on to them? Cohen, who watched Trump’s antics up close for many years, thinks he knows the answer.“Donald intended to use the documents to extort the US government and prevent an indictment and conviction. In essence: a get out of jail free card.”Which brings us to the third pressing question: will Trump be indicted? Certainly, the peril of a criminal prosecution now looms large.The DoJ has made clear in recent filings that it feels it has evidence of obstruction of a federal investigation. He also faces possible indictment under the Espionage Act, which punishes unauthorized retention or disclosure of national security information, and a third law prohibiting mishandling of sensitive government records.“There’s no question what he had, there’s no question where he had it,” McCabe said. “We now know there was some reason to believe the Trump team was potentially misrepresenting things and lying to the FBI, so this is very serious.”McCabe says the investigation into such a prominent political figure who has indicated he might stand in the 2024 presidential election is fraught with peril. “You could appear as though you were conducting some sort of political retaliation, and we are absolutely not that kind of nation.”But, then again, there are perils the other way too. McCabe looks back on his own interactions with Trump and is struck by the high price of inaction.In March 2018 he was fired from the FBI two days before he was due to retire, having been the target of Trump’s constant attacks. McCabe had incurred the president’s wrath by approving an FBI investigation into possible obstruction of justice relating to Trump’s earlier dismissal of FBI director James Comey.McCabe, who has since had his dismissal rescinded, told the Guardian that “it’s clear from the decisions that I made, or was part of, when I was in government, that I believe very strongly that the decision not to investigate can be as impactful and as political as the decision to investigate.”If prosecutors are staved off because the subject is a politician who might be running for office, McCabe said, “or because they’ve said nasty things about us – then we actually have given in to politicization. And we’ve begun to create a class of citizens in this country who are above the law.”TopicsDonald TrumpUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Biden targets Trump and says ‘anyone who fails to condemn violence is a threat to democracy’ – as it happened

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      Joe Biden delivered a brief and impromptu speech seemingly targeting Donald Trump as “a threat to Democracy”. Responding to a question from a reporter on whether “all Trump supporters are a threat to this country”, Biden said he does not consider any Trump supporter to be a threat. “I do think that anyone who calls for the use of violence, fails to condemn violence when it’s used, refuses to acknowledge when an election has been won, insists upon changing the way in which you count votes, that is a threat to democracy and everything we stand for,” Biden said. “Everything we stand for rests on the platform of democracy.” Biden continued by saying that those who voted for Trump in 2020 “weren’t voting to attack the Capitol, they weren’t voting for overruling the election. They were voting for a philosophy he put forward.”The comments came after Biden shifted his tone in a primetime address last night, directly calling out Trump and his allies, saying “democracy is under assault”. Here’s a quick summary of what happened today:
      Joe Biden implicitly criticized Donald Trump for threatening democracy, saying that anyone who fails to condemn violence is a threat. Both Biden and Trump will be in Pennsylvania this weekend rallying for candidates in their respective parties.
      Gina McCarthy, Biden’s top climate adviser, is stepping down in less than two weeks. The White House announced that John Podesta, former top adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, will be senior clean energy adviser to Biden.
      The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released data today that showed 315,000 jobs were added to the US economy in August. Biden celebrated the numbers, saying “American has some really good news going into Labor Day weekend”.
      As Trump heads back onto the campaign trail for Republican candidates, there are rumblings about a potential 2024 bid from the former president. Son-in-law Jared Kushner said in an interview that Trump has been thinking about it, while a former Trump White House official predicted that Trump will bow out after raising cash for his campaign.
      That’s it for the live blog today. Thanks for reading.Bill Barr, former attorney general, think that Florida governor Ron DeSantis could be elected president if he runs in 2024.“I don’t know Ron DeSantis that well, but I’ve been impressed with his record down in Florida,” Barr told Bari Weiss on her podcast, “Honestly”.Though Barr was once a part of Trump’s band of loyalists, he has taken to lightly criticizing his former boss, who in turn referred to him as “slow and very boring”.Whether Barr is right ultimately depends on how much of a sway Trump still has over voters.DeSantis has posited himself as a potential successor to the Maga throne, bringing the flare of Trumpism without the baggage of investigations and the Capitol insurrection. Though he has not confirmed any presidential ambitions, Republican voters picked him as a second choice, behind Trump, in a theoretical 2024 election.Two of Donald Trump’s former lawyers appeared in federal court today to testify in front of a grand jury investigating the January 6 insurrection.Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone arrived at the courthouse first and was with the grand jury for over two hours, according to Reuters. Former White House deputy counsel Pat Philbin arrived at the courthouse shortly after and was also with the grand jury for over two hours. Cipollone and Philbin are the most high-profile witnesses the grand jury has seen. The grand jury is investigating the “fake electors” plot to send fake slates of electors to Congress to fraudulently inflate the number of electors in Trump’s favor, despite him losing the election.The Department of Veteran Affairs announced Friday that it will provide access to abortions to pregnant veterans and veteran beneficiaries. Abortions will be available for those whose life or health is endangered through their pregnancy or if it is a result of rape or incest. The rule will allow VA employees, “when working within the scope of their federal employment” to “provide authorized services regardless of state restrictions”. “This is a patient safety decision,” VA secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement. “Pregnant veterans and VA beneficiaries deserve to have access to world-class reproductive care when they need it most. That’s what our nation owes them.” New: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs “is taking steps to guarantee Veterans and other VA beneficiaries abortion-related care anywhere in the country. VA employees…may provide authorized services regardless of state restrictions.” https://t.co/ysv96U4FZT— Gabriella Borter (@gabriellaborter) September 2, 2022
      Donald Trump will continue to flirt with a third White House run in 2024 in order to raise money but will ultimately choose not to mount a campaign, a Trump White House official predicts.In communications reviewed by the Guardian on Friday, the official said Trump would look to “Bring in the $$$ then bow out gracefully before announcing”.The 45th president, in office from 2017 to 2021, dominates polling of possible Republican nominees in 2024. He has amassed a significant campaign war chest and is generally held to have maintained his grip on his party despite being impeached twice, the second time for inciting the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol.On Thursday, senior Republicans sprang to Trump’s defense – and eagerly expressed their own sense of offense – when Joe Biden used a primetime address to outline the threat to American democracy posed by Trump and his supporters.Trump himself floated pardons – and official apologies – for January 6 rioters should he return to the White House. Lest anyone forget, nine deaths have been connected to the Capitol attack, including suicides among law enforcement officers.Regarding the former White House official’s prediction that Trump will not run, the Guardian recently reported the contrary view of a senior source close to Trump, who said Trump “has to” announce a 2024 campaign soon, to head off being indicted under the Espionage Act after the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago in August.That source indicated Trump needed to announce because politically it would be harder for the Department of Justice to indict a candidate for office than a former president out of the electoral running.Developments since then have in most eyes increased the likelihood of an indictment over Trump’s handling of classified records. But most observers believe an indictment is not likely until after the midterm elections on 8 November, given DoJ policy regarding avoiding politically insensitive moves close to polling day.Hugo Lowell has more:FBI materials seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home included 90 empty foldersRead moreThe White House has announced that John Podesta will become senior advisor to US president Joe Biden for clean energy innovation and implementation, among other developments following the news earlier today that top climate advisor Gina McCarthy plans to step down.Podesta was White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton when he was president, a climate adviser to Barack Obama and – infamously as it became, chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid.Current deputy White House national climate advisor, Ali Zaidi will be promoted to assistant to the president and national climate advisor.The White House statement noted that: “In his new role, Podesta will oversee implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act’s expansive clean energy and climate provisions and will chair the president’s national climate task force in support of this effort.”Meanwhile, Zaidi will also be vice-chair of the national climate task force. Gina McCarthy will leave her current role on September 16.Biden expressed gratitude to McCarthy and said of his new appointees: “Under Gina McCarthy and Ali Zaidi’s leadership, my administration has taken the most aggressive action ever, from historic legislation to bold executive actions, to confront the climate crisis head-on. The Inflation Reduction Act is the biggest step forward on clean energy and climate in history, and it paves the way for additional steps we will take to meet our clean energy and climate goals. “We are fortunate that John Podesta will lead our continued innovation and implementation. His deep roots in climate and clean energy policy and his experience at senior levels of government mean we can truly hit the ground running to take advantage of the massive clean energy opportunity in front of us.”Podesta, 73, is a veteran Washington establishment insider and Democratic party stalwart. But he achieved infamy in the 2016 presidential election campaign when, as a result of a chain of mishaps, his email was breached.As the Guardian reported in late 2016, the blunder gave Kremlin hackers access to about 60,000 emails in Podesta’s private Gmail account. According to US intelligence officials, Moscow then gave the email cache to WikiLeaks. The website released them in October, and the email scandal dominated the news cycle and was exploited by Donald Trump, who went on to a shock victory over Hillary Clinton in the November election.The revelation gave further credence to a CIA finding that the Moscow deliberately intervened to help Trump.Here’s a summary of everything that’s happened so far today:
      Off the heels of his eviscerating speech last night, Joe Biden is continuing to attack Donald Trump, saying today that anyone who fails to condemn violence “is a threat to democracy and everything we stand for”.
      Biden touted the jobs figures that were released today that showed the US added 315,000 jobs in August, saying that “American workers are back to work”.
      Gina McCarthy, Biden’s top climate adviser, is planning to step down in less than two weeks, according to the New York Times. McCarthy had privately expressed frustration with the pace of climate policy.
      Stay tuned for more live updates.At the White House press briefing just now, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spoke on Joe Biden’s speech last night where he warned that Donald Trump and “MAGA Republicans” are a threat to democracy. “The president was trying to give the American people a choice: how do we move forward in this inflection point?” Jean-Pierre said. “When it comes to the soul of the nation, that is something the president has talked about for years… He has been concerned about where our democracy is going.” Responding to criticism that Biden’s speech was politically charged despite it being an official White House event, Jean-Pierre said that “standing up for democracy is not political”. “Denouncing political violence is not political. Standing up for freedom and rights is not political,” she said. “We don’t call any of that political. We see that as leadership and as presidential.” Jean-Pierre on Biden speech: “Standing up for democracy is not political. Denouncing political violence is not political. Standing up for freedom and rights is not political… We see that as leadership and as presidential.”— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) September 2, 2022
      Joe Biden delivered a brief and impromptu speech seemingly targeting Donald Trump as “a threat to Democracy”. Responding to a question from a reporter on whether “all Trump supporters are a threat to this country”, Biden said he does not consider any Trump supporter to be a threat. “I do think that anyone who calls for the use of violence, fails to condemn violence when it’s used, refuses to acknowledge when an election has been won, insists upon changing the way in which you count votes, that is a threat to democracy and everything we stand for,” Biden said. “Everything we stand for rests on the platform of democracy.” Biden continued by saying that those who voted for Trump in 2020 “weren’t voting to attack the Capitol, they weren’t voting for overruling the election. They were voting for a philosophy he put forward.”The comments came after Biden shifted his tone in a primetime address last night, directly calling out Trump and his allies, saying “democracy is under assault”. Gina McCarthy, Joe Biden’s top climate adviser, is stepping down on 16 September, the New York Times is reporting, citing people familiar with her plans.Rumors have swirled around her departure for months as McCarthy privately expressed frustrated with the “slow pace of climate progress” in the administration.McCarthy was an Environmental Protection Agency administrator during the Obama administration.In a press conference on the American Rescue Plan – the $1.9tn coronavirus stimulus package passed in March 2021 – Joe Biden celebrated today’s jobs report that said the US added 315,000 jobs in August. “We received more good news. American workers are back to work, earning more, manufacturing more, building an economy from the bottom up and the middle out,” Biden said. “We have created nearly 10m jobs since I took office. The fastest growth in all of American history.” Biden noted that the labor participation rate, or the number of people working or looking to work, is up and that more working-age women have come back to work. He also noted that gas prices have been going down over the last few weeks. “America has some really good news going into Labor Day weekend,” he said. Biden has been trying to emphasize the positive benefits to his stimulus package, particularly in light of claims from conservatives that it contributed to inflation. In his press conference, Biden emphasized that the stimulus created jobs, especially in manufacturing.A new Pew Research poll shows that opinions of the supreme court are more polarized than ever. Just 28% of Democrats and liberal independents have a favorable view of the court, versus 73% of Republicans and conservative independents.The gap is the largest since Pew started polling Americans on their opinion of the court. The court is also facing their lowest approval rating, with 48% of American having an unfavorable view of the court versus 49% with a favorable view.Today, 49% of Americans have a favorable view of the Supreme Court. Among partisans, just 28% of Democrats say they have a favorable view, while 73% of Republicans say the same. https://t.co/iLKP70pW4n pic.twitter.com/hqnVm0degr— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) September 1, 2022
      More Americans also believe the court is Republican/Conservative-leaning, with 49% of Americans saying they view they court as conservative versus 30% in August 2020.This Labor Day weekend kicks off the midterm election season which will put both the lasting sway of Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s presidency to the test with American voters.The primary election showed that the myth that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump is potent with voters: Many candidates who publicly questioned the election results won their primaries over the last few months.Now that these Trump-backed Republican candidates are in place heading into the general election, the test now shifts to how strong “Maga Republicans” – as Joe Biden put it Thursday night – are among the broader electorate.Pennsylvania is being seen as a key state to watch this midterm season. Trump is traveling to northeastern Pennsylvania this weekend to rally for two Republican candidates, Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano, who are running for US Senate and governor, respectively.Both candidates have vied themselves for Trump’s endorsement, but they are also trailing in the polls behind their Democratic opponents. Oz is eight points behind Democratic candidate John Fetterman, while Mastriano is seven points behind that state’s attorney general, Josh Shapiro.Oz, a one-time heart surgeon and celebrity television doctor, has had a particularly hard time convincing conservative voters that he is no longer attached to his liberal Hollywood persona. Oz “looks forward to President Trump talking to Pennsylvanians about the importance of fighting the radical, liberal agenda,” a spokesperson told Politico.New York City mayor Eric Adams released a joint statement with family and friends of 9/11 victims criticizing a Saudi-funded women’s golf tournament that is to be hosted at a Trump golf course in the city. “It is outrageous that the Trump Organization agreed to host a tournament with this organization while knowing how much pain it would cause New Yorkers,” Adams said. Last September, the FBI declassified documents related to 9/11 that revealed that the Saudi government provided logistical report to the attackers and helped fund the attacks.The tournament is scheduled to be held at Trump Golf Links, a Trump golf course in the Bronx, in October. Mayor Eric Adams quietly releases a statement online after meeting with the families of 9/11 victims about their opposition to a Saudi-backed golf tournament at the city-owned Trump Ferry Point course, h/t @maggieNYT: https://t.co/tOXL0OT1ep pic.twitter.com/ZghLXpd9Iv— Emma G. Fitzsimmons (@emmagf) September 2, 2022
      Donald Trump is “obviously thinking about” running for president in 2024, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner told Sky News in an interview Friday. “He hates seeing what’s happening in the country,” Kushner said. Though Trump has not officially announced a run in 2024, he and his allies have dropped plenty of hints that he is wanting to. On Thursday, Trump said that he would pardon the January 6 rioters if he were elected president again. Trump is, of course, facing multiple investigations into his business dealings as well as unauthorized retention of sensitive government documents.The US added another 315,000 jobs in August as the jobs market remained strong amid signs of a worsening economy.The US jobs market lost 22m jobs in early 2020 at the start of the pandemic but roared back after the Covid lockdowns ended. It has remained strong despite four-decade high rates of inflation and slowing economic growth. In July, the US unexpectedly added 528,000 new jobs, restoring employment to pre-pandemic levels.The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.7% in August from 3.5% in July but is still close to a 50-year low.The remarkable strength of the jobs market has spurred the Federal Reserve to sharply increase interest rates in the hopes of cooling the economy and bringing down prices.Last week the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, made clear the Fed intends to keep raising rates sharply as the central bank struggles to tamp down inflation. His speech triggered a meltdown on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones index losing 1,000 points. The latest jobs report is the last to be released before the Fed meets again in September.US added 315,000 jobs in August as strong market defies signs of worsening economyRead moreGood morning, and welcome to the Guardian’s US politics live blog. It’s 10 weeks before the midterms, and it’s starting to feel like it’s 2020 again. Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are in Pennsylvania this weekend to rally for candidates in their respective parties.Donald Trump will go to Wilkes-Barre in northern Pennsylvania on Saturday support two Pennsylvania Republican candidates: Mehmet Oz (known as “Dr Oz”), who is running for US Senate, and Doug Mastriano, who is running for governor. Trump, despite intensifying investigation into alleged unauthorized retention of sensitive government documents, has also geared up his talk about the 2024 election, saying on Thursday that he would seriously consider full pardons for participants of the January 6 US Capital insurrection.Joe Biden, on the other hand, in turn delivered a speech last night from Philadelphia attacking Trump and “Maga Republicans”.“There’s no question that the Republican party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the Maga Republicans, and that is a threat to this country,” Biden said. “Maga Republicans are destroying American democracy.”Biden will travel further into Pennsylvania this weekend with a planned stop in Pittsburgh to continue pushing for Democratic candidates running in the state.Here’s what else we’re watching today:
      The US added 315,000 jobs in August, a sign of continuing growth in the labor market despite high rates of inflation and slowing economic growth.
      Biden is scheduled to discuss the American Rescue Plan on the heels of today’s jobs report release.
      Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and former deputy Patrick Philbin are appearing before a grand jury that is investigating the January 6 insurrection.
      Stay tuned for more live updates. More

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      FBI materials seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home included 90 empty folders

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      FBI materials seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home included 90 empty foldersRevelation raises possibility that some of government’s most highly sensitive documents may still be unaccounted for Among the items the FBI retrieved from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort this month were 90 empty folders marked classified or for return to the White House staff secretary or a military aide, according to a detailed inventory of items made public on Friday.The inventory – unsealed by a federal judge overseeing the former president’s request to get a so-called special master to determine what materials the justice department can use in its investigation – provided the fullest picture to date of what Trump had retained.New legal filings paint Trump as a flailing liar surrounded by lackeys | Lloyd GreenRead moreIn itemizing the contents of boxes of seized materials, the inventory, put together by the justice department, showed the FBI retrieved 71 empty folders from Trump’s office and 19 empty folders from a storage room when agents executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.The empty folders carried one of two designations, according to the inventory: some files had “Classified” banners, while other files were labeled “Return to Staff Secretary/Military Aide”, appearing to indicate that highly sensitive documents were not returned as designated.The startling discovery immediately raised, for the first time, the prospect that some of the US government’s most closely guarded secrets could remain unaccounted for, even after the FBI went through Mar-a-Lago and retrieved vast amounts of materials from the property.Still, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is conducting a risk assessment – not a damage assessment – of Trump’s unauthorized retention of classified documents, signaling that at least for now, it believes the material has not otherwise been compromised.Federal agents also seized thousands of government documents – some with classification markings ranging from “Confidential” to “Top Secret”, and others that appeared to be presidential records – as well as hundreds of newspaper and magazine clippings from 2008 to 2020, gifts and clothes, the inventory showed.In a status report from its case team conducting the criminal investigation into the Mar-a-Lago documents that accompanied the inventory, the justice department said that although it had completed an initial review of the materials, its full review process was ongoing.“The seized materials will continue to be used to further the government’s investigation, and the investigative team will continue to use and evaluate the seized materials as it takes further investigative steps, such as through additional witness interviews and grand jury practices,” it read.The justice department added in the status report that it intended to use all evidence about the documents, including their nature and their location, to inform the criminal investigation examining potential obstruction and potential violations of the Espionage Act.Trump remained quiet about the release of the inventory on Friday, though a spokesman said it showed the FBI overreached: “The new ‘detailed’ inventory list only further proves that this unprecedented and unnecessary raid of President Trump’s home … was a smash and grab.”The detailed list of 33 boxes seized from Mar-a-Lago, which followed the release of the initial property receipt filled out by the FBI at the time of the search, additionally provided more information about how sensitive documents were commingled with more general items Trump potentially kept as souvenirs.Item number 26 – described by the Justice department as a “Box/Container from Storage Room” – included, for example, eight press clippings from 2017-2020, three documents marked “Top Secret”, an article of clothing, a book, and 1,841 government documents or photographs without classification markings.The chaotic and wide-ranging contents of the boxes reflected previous reporting by the Guardian and others that the West Wing and the White House residence was packed up in a hurry, and in haphazard fashion, during the final days and hours of the Trump presidency.Trump was something of a “pack rat” who hoarded materials he saw as his, according to former aides, and partly as a consequence of his refusal to accept he lost the 2020 election, many items from the White House were collected into boxes that were transported to Mar-a-Lago.The items listed in the inventory have already been screened for potential attorney-client privilege, the justice department said. Judge Aileen Cannon is expected to rule shortly on whether to grant Trump’s request to have a special master conduct the filter instead.At least 320 classified documents have been recovered from Mar-a-Lago since January. More than 100 of those were seized in the August search. The justice department has also released a photograph of folders marked “Secret” and “Top secret” scattered over a Mar-a-Lago carpet. Some were stamped “NOFORN”, indicating they should not be seen by any non-US citizen without permission.Trump has decried the investigation as a politically motivated attack on him and nearly all top Republicans have closed ranks around him and rallied to his defense. His lawyers have sought to argue that the case should be treated akin to failing to return a late library book – not a real threat or conspiracy.Trump has never explained his motive in retaining the documents, and top Democrats have said his resistance to returning them to the justice department – even after being subpoenaed – is evidence of obstruction that the justice department should prosecute.Democrats have also said the documents reveal a fundamental lawlessness in Trump’s behavior, characterized by acting with impunity and a disregard for the US norms and traditions that usually govern former presidents.At the same time the scandal has probably harmed Trump’s frequent hints that he wants to run for the White House again in 2024. Joe Biden has used the FBI search as part of a general warning of the extremist nature of Trump and his followers which in a primetime speech on Thursday night he portrayed as a growing threat to American democracy and a potential cause of political violence.Since the FBI raid numerous law enforcement officials have warned that federal buildings and government workers are at risk of attack, especially as rightwing politicians and media pundits have sought to blame them for seeking to stop any Trump political comeback.TopicsDonald TrumpMar-a-LagoFBIUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      House select panel asks Newt Gingrich to testify in effort to overturn election

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      House select panel asks Newt Gingrich to testify in effort to overturn electionThe former Republican House speaker is believed to have repeatedly contacted White House aides about fake electors The House January 6 select committee on Thursday asked former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich to testify about his repeated contacts with White House aides in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, even in the evening after the Capitol attack had taken place.The request to Gingrich was for voluntary cooperation – though the select committee showed it now appears to believe he was involved in a potential conspiracy planned ahead of time to lay the groundwork that would lead to reversing Trump’s defeat on January 6.Ginni Thomas lobbied Wisconsin lawmakers to overturn 2020 election Read moreCongressman Bennie Thompson, the committee chair, said in a letter to Gingrich that investigators were interested in him counseling Trump aides to make TV ads about debunked election fraud conspiracies to pressure state legislators into decertifying Biden electors.The letter detailed that it had communications that showed he tried to liaise with former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone about the fake elector scheme, asking whether anyone was coordinating Trump slates to Congress so that he could be declared the winner.The select committee noted that Gingrich then furthered that effort as he emailed Meadows at 10.42pm on January 6 – hours after the Capitol attack had already largely concluded and Congress was preparing to confirm Biden’s win – asking whether there were “letters from state legislators about decertifying electors”.“Surprisingly, the attack on Congress and the activities prescribed by the Constitution did not even pause your relentless pursuit. On the evening of January 6, you continued to push efforts to overturn the election results,” the letter said.The select committee stopped short of issuing a subpoena to Gingrich, but also asked him to preserve his communications with Trump, the White House and the Trump legal team led by Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, as well as anyone else connected to January 6.TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsDonald TrumpRudy GiulianiUS Capitol attackNewt GingrichnewsReuse this content More

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      Retired NYPD officer receives longest sentence yet for attack on Capitol

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      Retired NYPD officer receives longest sentence yet for attack on CapitolThomas Webster was given a 10-year prison time for six charges, including assaulting an officer with a metal flagpole A retired New York police department officer has received a record-setting 10- year sentence for his involvement in the Capitol attack, during which he used a metal flagpole to assault one of the police officers trying to hold off a mob of Donald Trump supporters.Thomas Webster was sentenced on Thursday, and his prison time will represent the longest punishment so far for the roughly 250 people facing punishment for their role in the January 6 attack.Donald Trump says he plans to pardon US Capitol attack participants if electedRead moreThe previous longest was shared by two other rioters, who were sentenced separately to seven years and three months in prison.Webster, a 20-year NYPD veteran, was the first Capitol riot defendant to be tried on an assault charge and the first to present a self-defense argument. A jury rejected Webster’s claim that he was defending himself when he tackled Noah Rathbun, a Metropolitan police department officer, and grabbed his gas mask outside the Capitol.US district judge Amit Mehta sentenced Webster, 56, to 10 years in prison plus three years of supervised release. He allowed Webster to report to prison at a date to be determined instead of immediately ordering him into custody.“Mr Webster, I don’t think you’re a bad person,” the judge said. “I think you were caught up in a moment. But as you know, even getting caught up in a moment has consequences.”“The other victim was democracy, and that is not something that can be taken lightly,” Mehta added.Webster turned to apologize to Rathbun, who was in the courtroom but didn’t address the judge. Webster said he wishes he had never come to Washington DC.“I wish the horrible events of that day had never happened,” he told the judge.In a court filing, prosecutors accused Webster of “disgracing a democracy that he once fought honorably to protect and serve”. Webster led the charge against police barricades at the Capitol’s Lower West Plaza, prosecutors said. They compared the attack to a medieval battle, with rioters pelting officers with makeshift projectiles and engaging in hand-to-hand combat.Defense attorney James Monroe said in a court filing that the mob was “guided by unscrupulous politicians” and others promoting the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. He questioned why prosecutors argued that Webster didn’t deserve leniency for his 25 years of service to his country and New York City.“That is not how we measure justice. That is revenge,” Monroe said.In May, jurors deliberated for less than three hours before they convicted Webster of all six counts in his indictment, including a charge that he assaulted Rathbun with a dangerous weapon, the flagpole.The sentencing was one of several developments related to the Capitol attack on Thursday. A New Jersey man pleaded guilty to using pepper spray on police officers, including Officer Brian Sicknick, who later suffered a stroke and died. Julian Khater, 33, pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon and could face up to 20 years in prison. Kellye SoRelle, a lawyer for the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group, was arrested in Texas on charges including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.Webster retired from the NYPD in 2011 after 20 years of service, which included a stint on then mayor Michael Bloomberg’s private security detail. He served in the US Marine Corps from 1985 to 1989 before joining the NYPD in 1991.The Associated Press contributed reportingTopicsUS Capitol attackUS politicsNew YorkPoliceDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden to warn ‘extremist’ Republicans loyal to Trump threaten US democracy

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      Biden to warn ‘extremist’ Republicans loyal to Trump threaten US democracy President is expected to cast midterms as high-stakes battle for the ‘soul of the nation’ in primetime address from PhiladelphiaJoe Biden will warn on Thursday that an “extremist” faction of the Republican party loyal to former president Donald Trump presents a direct threat to American democracy.In a primetime address from Philadelphia, the city where American democracy was born, Biden is expected to cast the November midterm elections as a high-stakes battle for the “soul of the nation”, reprising a theme that animated his campaign for the White House in 2020.The speech is part of a newly aggressive line of attack Biden has unleashed on Republicans ahead of the midterm elections, as his party enjoys a brightening political outlook helped by a string of significant legislative wins and building public backlash to the supreme court’s decision to end the constitutional right to abortion.At a recent political rally in a well-heeled Washington suburb, Biden accused the Republican party of embracing “semi-fascism”.Previewing Biden’s remarks, the press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters on Wednesday that the president believes “Maga Republicans” present “an extreme threat to our democracy, to our freedom, to our rights”.Thursday’s primetime speech is the second of three visits by the president in less than a week to battleground Pennsylvania, home to several consequential races this election season.In the US Senate race, Mehmet Oz, the Trump-backed heart surgeon turned celebrity doctor, is squaring off against the state’s lieutenant governor, Democrat John Fetterman, in a contest that could determine which party controls the chamber, evenly divided at present.Meanwhile, Democrats have warned about the risks of Doug Mastriano, the far-right Republican nominee for governor, a leading figure in Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Pennsylvania who helped shuttle people to Trump’s rally in Washington on 6 January that preceded the attack on the US Capitol.In Pennsylvania, the governor appoints the secretary of state, giving the next governor enormous sway over how the 2024 presidential election is conducted in the state. Mastriano faces Democrat Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s attorney general.In a speech not far from Biden’s birthplace of Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, the president lashed “Maga Republicans in Congress” over their attacks on the FBI after agents seized boxes of classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last month. The remarks were designed to counter Republican attacks on Democrats as “soft on crime”, with Biden casting his opponents’ rhetoric as a threat to law enforcement and the rule of law.“The idea you turn on a television and see senior senators and congressmen saying, ‘If such and such happens there’ll be blood on the street’?” he said in Wilkes-Barre. “Where the hell are we?”TopicsJoe BidenUS midterm elections 2022US politicsDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More