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      Speaker Johnson says decision coming ‘very soon’ on Biden impeachment – as it happened

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      The Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson said a decision will be made “very soon” on whether to push forward with the effort to impeach Joe Biden.His predecessor Kevin McCarthy announced the inquiry into the president’s conduct in September, weeks before rightwing Republicans and Democrats removed him from the speaker’s post. The investigation centers on allegations of corruption surrounding the president and his family, particularly his son Hunter Biden.Republicans held a single committee hearing into the matter, which was widely seen as a flop after their witnesses said the investigation had merit but there was still no evidence the president broke the law. Another blow to the effort came when Ken Buck, a conservative Republican who yesterday announced he would not seek re-election in 2024, wrote a column in the Washington Post to argue that impeaching Biden was a bad idea.The investigation was put on pause for weeks while the House grappled with McCarthy’s ouster, and whether and how to continue it is one of the major issues Johnson has to decide. Here’s what the speaker had to say when asked about it at a press conference today:The Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, says the party will soon decide on whether to continue its impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, but all indications point to the GOP pressing on. Republicans have been showing off evidence they say proves the president received money from a Chinese company, but the White House says Biden merely received a loan repayment from his brother during the period when he was out of office. Elsewhere in the House, George Santos survived a removal attempt, while Marjorie Taylor Greene is furious at some of her Republican colleagues for refusing to support her resolution to censure progressive Democrat Rashida Tlaib, which died on the House floor last night.Here’s what else happened:
      The White House said Biden would veto the House GOP’s proposal to send Israel security assistances while slashing funding to the IRS, and Senate leader Chuck Schumer said he would not bring the bill up for a vote anyway.
      Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who voted against expelling Santos, said he did so over concerns for due process.
      Biden appeared to endorse “a pause” in Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
      The Minnesota supreme court began hearing a case in which voters want to keep Donald Trump off the ballot for his involvement in an insurrection.
      Indiana’s supreme court found that the state’s Republican attorney general, Todd Rokita, “engaged in attorney misconduct” for comments he made about an obstetrician-gynecologist who performed an abortion for a 10-year-old rape survivor.
      Indiana’s supreme court has found that the state’s Republican attorney general, Todd Rokita, “engaged in attorney misconduct” for comments he made to Fox News about a doctor in the state who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old girl who had traveled from Ohio, the Indianapolis Star reports.The incident was one of the first high-profile examples of the fallout from the supreme court decision in June 2022 to overturn Roe v Wade and allow states to ban abortion entirely. In Ohio, a state law immediately went into effect that cut off access to the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, but it was later halted by a court ruling.The Indiana supreme court took issue with Rokita’s description of Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist, as an “abortion activist acting as a doctor – with a history of failing to report” in a Fox News interview in July 2022. In September, the supreme court’s disciplinary commission filed charges against Rokita, saying he violated professional conduct rules, and three of the state’s five supreme court justices agreed in today’s ruling. The court has ordered that Rokita receive a public reprimand and pay a $250 fine, though the two justices who dissented said the punishment was too lenient.Ohio voters will next week decide on a ballot measure to enshrine abortion access in the state’s constitution. Here’s the latest on that, from the Guardian’s Carter Sherman:The Senate’s Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, now says the House GOP’s Israel aid proposal will not be put up for a vote in his chamber:That means that even if the House approves the bill, the Senate will not send it to Joe Biden’s desk – whose administration said he will veto it anyway.Joe Biden would veto a proposal by House Republicans to send military aid to Israel while slashing funding for the IRS tax authority, White House national security council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at today’s briefing.“The president would veto an only Israel bill. I think we’ve made that clear,” Kirby said.Biden last month requested a $106b security measure to help Israel respond to Hamas’s terrorist attack, shore up Ukraine’s defenses against Russia’s invasion and improve border security. Led by speaker Mike Johnson, House Republicans responded by offering to approve Israeli security assistance, while considering funding for Ukraine and the southern border at a later date. Johnson has billed cutting the IRS as a way to pay for the cost of the foreign assistance, but an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office yesterday found it would actually cost the government money because it would lower tax revenues.The White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said that a call by Joe Biden on Wednesday evening for a pause in fire by both Israel and Hamas in Gaza “does not mean we are calling for a general ceasefire”.At the daily press briefing from the west wing, Kirby asked rhetorically whether the White House thought a strategic and temporary “pause by both sides” was a good idea to help facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the evacuation of foreign citizens and hostages taken by Hamas from southern Israel on 7 October. Kirby answered himself: “You betcha we do.”He went on to explain why the US is willing to accept Qatar’s assistance with the passage of Americans and hostages out of Gaza, despite the small Arab country’s harboring of Hamas members, including the leader Ismail Haniyeh. Reporters questioned Kirby about this at the daily briefing at the White House moments ago.“Qatar has lines of communication with Hamas that almost no-one else has,” Kirby said.A reporter asked why the US was not asking Qatar to hand over the Hamas chief. Kirby said the US was busy working with Qatar on evacuations “and we are also helping Israel go after Hamas”.Kirby also said the US supports pauses in hostilities, not just a single pause. This is a point he’s made before.Kirby said the White House “has not seen evidence that Hezbollah is ready to go full force”. Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militant group, said it had attacked 19 positions in Israel on Thursday evening in the latest escalation on Israel’s northern border. The Guardian’s report is here.The Guardian’s global live blog with all the details on the crisis in Gaza and the Israel-Hamas war is here.Antony Blinken has urged Russia to hold to its commitment not to resume nuclear weapons testing, Reuters reports.The secretary of state said the US is deeply concerned by Moscow’s planned action to withdraw its ratification of the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT).“Unfortunately, it represents a significant step in the wrong direction,” Blinken said in a statement released by the state department.The latest development happened this last month, when, the Guardian’s Julian Borger reported, a senior Russian diplomat said that Moscow will revoke its ratification of the CTBT, in a move Washington denounced as jeopardising the “global norm” against nuclear test blasts.Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian representative to the international nuclear agencies in Vienna, was speaking after Vladimir Putin suggested Moscow might resuming testing for the first time in 33 years, signalling another downward turn in relations between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.Ulyanov said on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Russia plans to revoke ratification (which took place in the year 2000) of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.“The aim is to be on equal footing with the #US who signed the Treaty, but didn’t ratify it. Revocation doesn’t mean the intention to resume nuclear tests.”The US signed the CTBT in 1996 but the Senate did not ratify the treaty. Successive US administrations however have observed a moratorium on testing nuclear weapons.Any Russian nuclear test would be the first since 1990, the last conducted by the Soviet Union. Renewed testing by a nuclear superpower would undo one of the principal advances in non-proliferation since the cold war.Since the all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin and other Russian officials have frequently drawn attention to the country’s nuclear arsenal, the biggest in the world, in an attempt to deter other countries from helping Ukraine resist the invasion.The US has been able to get 74 Americans with dual citizenship out of Gaza, Joe Biden said at the White House a little earlier, one day after evacuees began crossing into Egypt, Reuters reported.Meanwhile the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, talked to reporters before leaving Washington for a flight to Israel and said the US is determined to prevent escalation of the war there on all fronts, including southern Lebanon, the West Bank or elsewhere in the region.He will be talking to the Israeli government “and partners” in the region, he said.You can follow more details on all the developments in the crisis in Gaza and the Israel-Hamas war in our global live blog, here.This post was updated at 2.56pm ET to reflect a clarifying detail in a later wire piece by Reuters to specify that the 74 dual citizens Biden referred to were Americans with dual citizenship.The Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, says the party will soon decide on whether to continue their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, but all indications point to them pressing on. The GOP has been showing off evidence it says proves the president received money from a Chinese company, but the White House says the president merely received a loan repayment from his brother during the period when he was out of office. Elsewhere in the House, George Santos survived a removal attempt, while Marjorie Taylor Greene is furious at some of her Republican colleagues for refusing to support her resolution to censure progressive Democrat Rashida Tlaib, which died on the House floor last night.Here’s what else is going on:
      Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who voted against expelling Santos, said he did so over concerns for due process.
      Biden appeared to endorse “a pause” in Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
      The Minnesota supreme court began hearing a case in which voters want to keep Donald Trump off the ballot for his involvement in an insurrection.
      All signs point to the House GOP continuing its impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.Yesterday, the oversight committee, one of three bodies tasked with handling the effort, published an infographic purporting to show how the president received money from a Chinese company that was funneled through his family members:They even have an image of the check:The White House replied by saying that the money was a loan repayment to Biden from his brother, James, and it all took place in the period after Biden concluded his term as vice-president, and before he returned to the White House in 2021.As Ian Sams, the Biden administration spokesman handling the GOP’s inquiries, put it:This post has been corrected to say Biden received the loan repayment from his brother James.The Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson said a decision will be made “very soon” on whether to push forward with the effort to impeach Joe Biden.His predecessor Kevin McCarthy announced the inquiry into the president’s conduct in September, weeks before rightwing Republicans and Democrats removed him from the speaker’s post. The investigation centers on allegations of corruption surrounding the president and his family, particularly his son Hunter Biden.Republicans held a single committee hearing into the matter, which was widely seen as a flop after their witnesses said the investigation had merit but there was still no evidence the president broke the law. Another blow to the effort came when Ken Buck, a conservative Republican who yesterday announced he would not seek re-election in 2024, wrote a column in the Washington Post to argue that impeaching Biden was a bad idea.The investigation was put on pause for weeks while the House grappled with McCarthy’s ouster, and whether and how to continue it is one of the major issues Johnson has to decide. Here’s what the speaker had to say when asked about it at a press conference today: More

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      George Santos pleads not guilty to new fraud charges

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      US congressman George Santos pleaded not guilty on Friday to revised charges accusing him of several frauds, including making tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges on credit cards belonging to some of his campaign donors.The New York Republican appeared at a courthouse on Long Island to enter a plea to the new allegations. He had already pleaded not guilty to other charges, first filed in May, accusing him of lying to Congress about his wealth, applying for and receiving unemployment benefits, even though he had a job, and using campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses like designer clothing.The court appearance came the morning after some of Santos’ Republican colleagues from New York launched an effort to expel him from Congress.Santos’ attorney entered a not guilty plea on his behalf and a tentative court date of 9 September 2024 was set.Santos has been free on bail while he awaits trial. He has denied any serious wrongdoing and blamed irregularities in his government regulatory filings on his former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, who he claims “went rogue”.Marks in turn has implicated Santos. She told a judge when she recently pleaded guilty to a fraud conspiracy charge that she had helped Santos trick Republican party officials into supporting his run for office in 2022 through bogus Federal Election Committee filings that made him look richer than he really was, partly by listing an imaginary $500,000 loan that had supposedly come from his personal wealth.Santos has continued to represent his New York district in Congress since he was charged, rejecting calls for his resignation from several fellow New York Republicans.Congressman Anthony D’Esposito, who represents a congressional district next to the one that elected Santos, introduced a resolution on Thursday calling for Santos to be expelled from the House, saying he wasn’t fit to serve his constituents. He was joined by four other New York Republicans, US representatives Nick LaLota, Michael Lawler, Marc Molinaro and Brandon Williams.Santos posted a cryptic note on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying: “Everything has an end in life,” but later added three points of clarification.“1. I have not cleared out my office. 2. I’m not resigning. 3. I’m entitled to due process and not a predetermined outcome as some are seeking,” he wrote.He has previously said he intends to run for re-election next year, though he could face a lengthy prison term if convicted.During his successful 2022 run for office, Santos was buoyed by an uplifting life story that was later revealed to be rife with fabrications. Among other things, he never worked for the major Wall Street investment firms where he claimed to have been employed, didn’t go to the college where he claimed to have been a star volleyball player, and misled people about having Jewish heritage. More

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      Republicans to introduce resolution to ‘rid the House of George Santos’

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      New York Republicans in the US House on Wednesday moved to expel one of their own: George Santos, the serial fabulist and accused fraudster who faces new charges under a superseding federal indictment.“Today, I’ll be introducing an expulsion resolution to rid the People’s House of fraudster George Santos,” the GOP congressman Anthony D’Esposito said in a post on social media.In response, Santos said he was going nowhere, asking his “fellow Americans” to “stay strong … and trust that the process will unfold as it should”.D’Esposito said the resolution was co-sponsored by Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy and Brandon Williams – all House Republicans from New York.Santos won his own New York seat last year, in midterm elections that saw the House swing to Republican control in no small part due to success in the Empire state.Santos’s résumé swiftly unraveled, as news outlets reported allegations of wrongdoing beyond the mere “embellishment” to which he admitted, even bringing into question his actual name.Santos remained defiant and party leaders, beholden to a narrow majority, chose not to act against him.That stance endured even after Santos pleaded not guilty in New York in May to multiple charges of fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements.Last week, Santos’s former campaign treasurer pleaded guilty to fraud. Then, on Tuesday, a superseding indictment introduced 10 new charges against Santos relating to allegedly stealing donors’ identities and charging thousands of dollars to their credit cards.Santos now faces 23 criminal charges. As reported by CNN, on Wednesday he told reporters: “I’m pretty much denying every last bit of charges.” He also said he would not resign and still intended to run for re-election.The same morning, Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, a watchdog group, said Santos was the only member of the current Congress who has not yet filed a mandatory personal financial disclosure. Consequences can include fines and civil or criminal penalties.Expulsions, however, are rare: only five House members have ever been expelled: three for fighting for the Confederacy in the civil war and two after being convicted of crimes including fraud and bribery.Kevin McCarthy, the speaker ejected by hard-liners last week, had resisted attempts to add Santos to that list, instead referring him to the House ethics committee.On Wednesday, as Republicans voted to make Steve Scalise of Louisiana their nominee to succeed McCarthy, Lawler told CNN: “It takes two-thirds [of the House] to expel a member from Congress. There were not two-thirds votes back in May when the initial expulsion resolution was brought, which is why it was referred to the ethics committee.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Myself and my New York colleagues wanted to allow the time for the investigation to be handled. But with the guilty plea of [Santos’s] treasurer, admitting to the very scheme he has been now twice indicted on, with 23 felony counts, he cannot serve.“I’ve said repeatedly since December he needed to resign. I believe that in the absence of his resignation, the time to act is now … it’s clear with his treasurer’s guilty plea what occurred, and as far as I’m concerned he should not be a member of Congress.”Santos issued a statement.Republicans, he said, “must remain steadfast in our commitment to upholding due process and respecting the constitution”, which he called “the cornerstone of our democracy and the guiding light that ensures justice and fairness for all”.Santos added: “An expulsion of myself as a member of Congress before being found guilty from a criminal investigation will set a dangerous precedent. This will do nothing other than erase the voices of the electorate. Let us not succumb to the distractions and let the political games take precedence over the people’s welfare. We must stay focused on the task at hand, working diligently to address the pressing issues that affect the lives of our constituents.D’Esposito said in a statement that Santos’s “many deceptions coupled with the ever-expanding legal case against him further strengthen my long-held belief that he is unfit to serve in Congress”. More

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      More charges for George Santos: stealing donors’ identities and credit cards

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      Federal prosecutors added major allegations to the indictment charging the House Republican George Santos with fraud and lying about his campaign finance disclosures, presenting evidence that he stole donors’ identities and charged thousands of dollars to their credit cards without their knowledge.The new charges, revealed in a superseding indictment returned on Tuesday by a grand jury in New York, increases the legal peril for the embattled congressman, given that his former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, last week pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States.The original indictment filed in May accused Santos of engaging in multiple instances of fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements. Santos, who won his congressional seat through a campaign built partly on falsehoods, pleaded not guilty to those charges.The updated, 23-count indictment detailed two more fraudulent schemes: the credit card scheme, and a conspiracy to submit to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) false reports that inflated his campaign’s fundraising so it could deceive the Republican party into extending financial support.In the credit card scheme, Santos is alleged to have devised a way to steal the identities and financial information of his campaign donors, which were used to charge their credit cards and caused money to be deposited into his campaign, other campaigns, and his own bank account.The scheme involved one instance where Santos allegedly stole the billing details of a donor’s two credit cards and made transfers to his campaign. To get around the fact that they exceeded legal limits, prosecutors said, Santos falsely listed himself and relatives as the sources of the funds.On one occasion, prosecutors said, Santos charged $12,000 to the donor’s credit card – money that mostly ended up in his personal bank account.In the Republican party deception scheme, Santos is alleged to have conspired with Marks to file FEC reports that falsely claimed his campaign had raised $250,000 from third-party donors in a single quarter, the threshold needed to unlock financial support from the GOP.The deception included false FEC reports that said at least 10 family members of Santos and Marks had made significant contributions to the campaign, as well as false reports that said Santos had loaned large amounts of money to his campaign, including one $500,000 loan.Confronted on Capitol Hill as he emerged from a closed-door House Republican conference meeting, shortly after the superseding indictment was unsealed by reporters, Santos insisted he had not seen the new allegations and that he would not resign his seat.“I did not have access to my phone. I have no clue what you guys are talking about,” Santos told CNN.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe congressman is set to appear in federal court on 27 October, where he is likely to be arraigned on the new charges against him. A spokesperson for Santos did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday night and on whether he would plead not guilty.Santos faces escalating legal peril after Marks last week pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States by committing one or more federal offenses after cooperating with prosecutors, even if her lawyer claimed she had not entered into a formal plea agreement.Marks said in a prepared statement at her arraignment in federal district court on Long Island that she had given the FEC a list of fake people who had supposedly given money to the campaign. Outside the courthouse, her lawyer said she could testify against Santos at trial.“If we get a subpoena, we’ll do the right thing,” said her lawyer Ray Perini. “There’s a manipulation involved that had to do with her family and the death of her husband,” he added without elaborating further. “There were lies told.” More

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      Former aide to Republican fabulist George Santos pleads guilty to fraud

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      The ex-treasurer for US congressman George Santos pleaded guilty Thursday to a fraud conspiracy charge and implicated the indicted New York Republican in a scheme to embellish his campaign finance reports with a fake loan and fake donors.Nancy Marks, who was a close aide to Santos during his two congressional bids, entered the plea at a federal courthouse on Long Island, where she was a longtime political operative and bookkeeper for multiple candidates.Speaking to the judge, Marks said that among other things, she and Santos had submitted bogus campaign finance reports falsely saying he had loaned his campaign $500,000 – even though in reality he did not have that kind of money and the loan did not exist. She said the purpose of the fake loan was to make it look as if he was richer than he really was, which might attract other donors, including a Republican committee.Reading from a prepared statement, Marks also said she had provided the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) with a fake list of people who had supposedly given money to the campaign.“The donors, who are real people, didn’t give me permission to use their names,” Marks said in court.Her plea agreement comes with a recommendation that she serve three and a half to four years in prison.Outside the courthouse, Marks’s lawyer said that while his client had not formally entered into a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, she would be willing to testify against him if asked.“If we get a subpoena we’ll do the right thing,” said the attorney, Ray Perini. He said Santos had “mentally seduced” his client.“There’s a manipulation involved that had to do with her family and the death of her husband,” Perini said, declining to elaborate. “There were lies told.”Any such testimony could be a severe blow to the congressman, who faces separate charges that he embezzled money from his campaign, lied in financial disclosures submitted to Congress and received unemployment funds when he wasn’t eligible.An attorney for Santos, Joseph Murray, attended the court hearing and said afterward that he expected Marks was cooperating with the government. A congressional spokesperson for Santos declined to comment.Marks resigned as Santos’s treasurer amid growing questions about his campaign finances and revelations that the Republican had fabricated much of his life story.After his election, news reporters revealed that Santos had made up stories about where he went to college and where he worked, telling people he was a Wall Street dealmaker with a real estate portfolio when he was actually struggling financially had had faced eviction from multiple apartments. Santos also lied about his heritage, saying he was Jewish, when he wasn’t.Santos has acknowledged embellishing his resume but has accused people of overreacting.Santos faces a 13-count federal indictment centered on charges of money laundering and lying to Congress about his wealth in a financial disclosure.Marks had not previously been charged. Thursday marked her first appearance in court. More

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      Democrat calls McCarthy ‘pathetic and shameful’ for protecting Santos after aide charged

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      A senior Democrat called Kevin McCarthy “pathetic and shameful” on Wednesday, for continuing to protect George Santos even as a staffer to the fabulist Republican congressman faced charges for impersonating the House speaker’s own chief of staff.Daniel Goldman of New York said: “According to a federal indictment, George Santos paid someone to impersonate Kevin McCarthy’s chief of staff to raise money, yet McCarthy continues to protect Santos.“Pathetic and shameful.”The indictment of Samuel Miele on four counts of wire fraud and one of aggravated identity theft was issued in the same New York court where in May Santos pleaded not guilty to charges including fraud, theft and money laundering, CNBC reported.Miele did not immediately comment.Santos was elected to his New York seat last November. He was soon found to have fabricated most of his résumé and to be under investigation in multiple jurisdictions for alleged misdeeds including campaign finance violations, dubious business schemes and sexual harassment.McCarthy removed Santos from committee assignments but otherwise refused to move against a congressman who backed him through 15 votes for speaker, saying investigations should run their course.In May, Republicans dodged a Democratic attempt to make Santos only the sixth member ever expelled from the House. Santos, who has admitted “embellishing” his résumé but denies wrongdoing, is running for re-election next year.CNBC first reported Miele’s impersonation of a senior McCarthy staffer, saying he called “wealthy donors” during the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, identifying himself as Dan Meyer.In that report, in January, CNBC said: “The impersonation of the top House Republican’s chief of staff adds to an emerging picture of a winning congressional campaign propelled by fabrications and questionable tactics.”Since then, almost every aspect of Santos’s political career, even his real name, has been brought into question.Republicans under McCarthy control the House by just five seats, making Santos’s seat a key target for Democrats.Goldman, a former prosecutor and lead counsel to the first impeachment of Donald Trump, has worked with another New York Democrat, Ritchie Torres, to keep Santos in the spotlight.In remarks on the House floor in June, Goldman told Republicans: “You are the party of George Santos.“… The guy is an alleged and acknowledged liar and indicted, and you protect him every day … It’s pathetic, and it’s beneath you and it’s beneath this body.” More

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      Republican fabulist George Santos compares himself to Rosa Parks

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      George Santos, the Republican congressman whose résumé has been shown to be largely fabricated and who has pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds, stoked outrage by comparing himself to the great civil rights campaigner Rosa Parks.“Rosa Parks didn’t sit in the back, and neither am I gonna sit in the back,” Santos told Mike Crispi Unafraid, a rightwing podcast.Santos also said he will run for re-election in his New York seat, which covers parts of Long Island and Queens.A prospective opponent, the Democratic former state senator Anna M Kaplan, said: “George Santos is an absolute disgrace who continues to embarrass New Yorkers.”Now honoured by a statue in the US Capitol, Parks was a seamstress and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People secretary who carved her place in history when on a bus in Alabama in 1955 she refused to move to make way for a white passenger and was arrested and jailed.According to the Architect of the Capitol, Parks “remained an icon of the civil rights movement to the end of her life. In 1999, the United States Congress honored her with a Congressional Gold Medal. Following her death on 24 October 2005, she was accorded the rare tribute of having her remains lie in honor in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in recognition of her contribution to advancing civil and human rights.”The Parks statue is the first full-length representation of an African American person in the US Capitol. Made of bronze and granite, it is close to 9ft tall and, according to its official description, “suggests inner strength, dignity, resolve and determination, all characteristic of her long-time commitment to working for civil rights”.Santos, 34, compared himself to Parks while sitting in what appeared to be a parked car, wearing a powder blue zip-up hoodie.Since being elected last year, he has consistently attracted controversy over reports of behavior ranging from the bizarre to the picaresque and allegedly criminal. Charged in New York, his bail was guaranteed by relatives. No trial date has been set.Republican House leaders, governing with a small majority, have not seriously moved against him. A motion to expel, and make Santos only the sixth House member ever ejected, failed after Republicans refused to back it.Speaking to Crispi, a former Republican congressional candidate in New Jersey, Santos said of critics in his own party: “They come for me, I go right back for them … So, you know, it’s not gonna stay that way any more. I’m gonna call them out. You want to call me a liar? I’ll call you a sellout.”In February, at Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, Santos was confronted by Mitt Romney, the Utah senator and former Republican presidential nominee.Romney called Santos a “sick puppy”. Among Santos’s many controversies is a dropped charge of theft in Pennsylvania in 2017, over a purchase of puppies.Santos told Crispi: “The man goes to the State of the Union of the United States wearing the Ukraine lapel pin and tells me, a Latino gay man, that I shouldn’t sit in the front, that I should be in the back. Well, guess what, Rosa Parks but didn’t sit in the back and neither am I gonna sit in the back.“That’s just the reality of our work. Mitt Romney lives in a very different world. And he needs to buckle up because it’s gonna be a bumpy ride for him.” More

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      George Santos: father and aunt revealed to have guaranteed $500,000 bail

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      The two people who guaranteed George Santos’s $500,000 bail after the Republican congressman was charged with 13 counts of fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds have been revealed to be his father and an aunt.The revelation that Gercino dos Santos Jr and Elma Preven were behind Santos’s bail solves a running mystery that fascinated Washington-watchers and also an American public obsessed with the travails of a politician famous for playing fast and loose with the truth.Santos tried to stop his guarantors being named, arguing disclosure could threaten their safety amid a “media frenzy” and “hateful attacks”.Santos’s lawyer said that his client would rather go to jail himself than have his guarantors unmasked. But Santos seemed to have backed off that wish, by not asking to change the conditions of his bail after a federal judge in New York dismissed his appeal to keep the names sealed.Media organisations and the House ethics committee asked that the names be revealed.Santos, 34, won election in New York last year, in a district covering parts of Long Island and Queens. His résumé has been shown to be largely made-up and past behavior – sometimes allegedly criminal, other times bizarrely picaresque – widely reported.Santos has admitted to embellishing his résumé but denies wrongdoing. In court in May, he pleaded not guilty to all charges. If found guilty, he could face up to 20 years in prison.He has been dogged by controversy and calls to resign. House Republicans, however, deflected a motion to censure Santos while party leaders have chosen not to move against him.In January, Santos backed Kevin McCarthy of California through 15 votes for speaker, in the face of a rightwing rebellion. McCarthy must govern with an extremely narrow majority. Santos has said he intends to run for re-election next year. He is next due in court on 30 June.Neither Santos nor his lawyers immediately commented on the identification of his guarantors.In Washington on Wednesday, Santos was among Republicans who voted to censure Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who led impeachment efforts against Donald Trump.The motion passed. On the House floor, Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat, told Republicans: “One of my colleagues says, ‘We will hold members accountable.’ You are the party of George Santos. Who are you holding accountable?“The guy is an alleged and acknowledged liar and indicted, and you protect him every day. Don’t lecture us with your projection and your defense of Donald Trump. It’s pathetic, and it’s beneath you and it’s beneath this body.” More