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      Biden says his student loan relief is ‘life-changing’. Will it fix the system’s inequities?

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      Biden says his student loan relief is ‘life-changing’. Will it fix the system’s inequities?The initiative’s income cap and unclear bureaucratic process could fail to address the racial disparities that already exist01:15As Joe Biden announced the details of his plan to help those with student loan debt, Kat Welbeck wrestled with the idea. For millions of Americans, the unprecedented relief would be “life-changing”, especially for low-income and Black and Latino Americans, who are disproportionately saddled with decades-long debt, she said.But the plans’ income cap on who can receive cancellation, and its unclear bureaucratic process for Americans seeking debt relief could perpetuate the inequities that underpin the nation’s student loan system, Welbeck, director of advocacy and civil rights counsel for the Student Borrower Protection Center, said.Student loan forgiveness: what you need to know about Biden’s planRead more“While a $10,000 cancellation is so meaningful for millions of student loan borrowers, there’s a lot that’s still to be done to fix this student debt crisis,” Welbeck says.On Wednesday, the White House released its long-anticipated plan on how to tackle the nation’s mounting $1.6tn student loan debt, accounting for more than 43 million people, with almost a third owing less than $10,000, according to federal data.The initiative would cancel up to $10,000 in debt for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 a year ($250,000 for married couples). Borrowers whose low income level qualified them for a Pell Grant will receive up to $20,000 in relief. The White House also extended a pause for “one final time” on student loan payments through January.The White House has projected that the plan would eliminate full debt balances for 20 million Americans and that 90% of debt relief dollars would go toward people with incomes less than $75,000. The White House also touted it as an effort to “advance racial equity”, pointing to its targeted relief for those who received Pell Grants. Officials noted that Black Americans were twice as likely to receive such grants as white Americans.Senator Elizabeth Warren, who, like others, have advocated for cancelling at least $50,000 in student debt, praised the administration’s plan as “transformative for the lives of working people all across the country” and would “help narrow the racial wealth gap among borrowers”.Still, some argue that the cancellation of just $10,000 for most borrowers would fail to substantially affect the racial disparities within the student loan system. Black and Latino borrowers disproportionately come from poorer households and, as a result, take on more debt than white Americans. At the same time, white American households have, on average, 10 times the wealth of Black households.Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, which had been advocating for cancellation of $50,000, wrote in an op-ed that Biden’s plan would “do little to help” Black Americans who, on average, hold nearly twice as much student debt as white borrowers. “Canceling just $10,000 of debt is like pouring a bucket of ice water on a forest fire,” he said. Canceling $10,000 in student debt when the average white borrower is $12,000 in debt, while Black women hold on average over $52,000 isn’t just unacceptable, it’s structural racism.— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) August 23, 2022
      The emphasis on income in the White House’s cap represents a possible barrier that could exclude borrowers of color who meet the income threshold yet their families lack the wealth to tackle the debt, Welbeck says. A June 2020 report from the Student Borrower Protection Center found that 90% of Black Americans and 72% of Latino Americans took out student loans, a far cry from the 66% of white Americans.And 20 years after graduating college, the median Black borrower still owed 95% of their original debt while the median white borrower paid down the same amount. For Latinos, after 12 years, they owed 83% of their original debt, more than the white borrower over the same time.Given that Black and Latino Americans typically earn less than white Americans, borrowers of color will start from behind without the intergenerational wealth available to reduce the debt they already hold.“So if you’re already coming from a lower-wealth household, you now have more debt, and then that cuts into opportunities for you to build wealth for the next generation,” Welback says. “You might see higher-income households that are Black or Latino, but that does not take away the fact that you still have those wealth disparities.”Student loan forgiveness: what does it mean for the US debt crisis?Read moreHistorically, the education department has complicated access to loan forgiveness through the programs it creates, such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program for non-profit and public service workers seeking relief and the borrower defense program for those who were defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges.The White House initiative does nothing to address private student loan debt, which accounts for more than $140bn in debt. Although Latino borrowers were more than twice as likely to report struggling with private student loan debt as white borrowers, Black borrowers were a staggering four times as likely to fall behind on private debt payments, according to the Student Borrower Protection Center.An application process could make it harder for people to access relief, Welbeck says. But recent decisions by the education department to automatically discharge debts for hundreds of thousands of students who attended ITT Technical Institute and Corinthian Colleges, two for-profit college chains that imploded, show that a widespread relief without bureaucratic hurdles is possible. The two debt cancellations at the for-profit institutions amounted to roughly $10bn affecting more than 700,000 students.“The student debt crisis is a result of the longstanding history of racial discrimination that we have in our country, and it continues to perpetuate them,” Welback says. “So until we address student debt as a civil rights crisis, we’re not going to be able to make meaningful gains toward equity.”TopicsUS student debtBiden administrationUS student financeRaceJoe BidenUS politicsUS educationnewsReuse this content More

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      I’m 65 and have $300,000 in student debt. I and other older debtors are going on strike | Lystra Small-Clouden

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      I’m 65 and have $300,000 in student debt. I and other older debtors are going on strikeLystra Small-CloudenWe know that this debt won’t go away – for us or Americans of any age – unless we stand up and fight it On Wednesday, the White House announced its long-awaited debt cancellation plan. Joe Biden will erase $10,000 for borrowers who make under $125,000 a year, and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. The federal student loan payment moratorium will also be extended until December 31.Sadly, this news does almost nothing for me and millions of others. It falls far short of what economic and racial justice demands. That’s why I have joined over 250 people, all over age 50, who are pledging to strike our student loans when payments resume. Our numbers are growing every day.Most people think of the student loan crisis as a problem affecting young people. As a 65-year-old woman, however, I am actually among the fastest-growing demographic of student debtors. We know that this debt won’t go away – for us or Americans of any age – unless we stand up and fight it. That’s why we’re prepared to strike.I have over $300,000 in student debt. The burden is negatively affecting my emotional and physical existence. You may wonder how it is possible to accumulate such a large amount of student debt, so let me explain.As a single, Black, immigrant woman, I always told my four kids that education was the most important part of their upbringing. But it didn’t take me long to realize that I was hardly following my own advice: I was not comfortable advising my children to achieve the highest level of education when I myself didn’t. I am a mentor, educator and adviser to my kids. I wanted my mentorship and advice to be built on a strong educational and intellectual foundation.In January 2010 I began a doctoral degree program in human resources management. My biggest mistake was enrolling in a for-profit school. I did achieve my academic goals in August 2016. That feeling of success was short-lived, however. After graduation, I had to begin repaying student loans.My school didn’t play fairly with me while I pursued my doctoral degree. The administrators changed the length of my program from three to six years. They actively steered me away from my research interest in the effects of slavery and globalization, adding more time to my program of study. Meanwhile, I continued to pay. From an initial loan payoff of $75,000 per year, my debt rose to $300,000.Then my children started college. Because of my own debt, I was unable to qualify for parent loans to help my younger two children pay for their undergraduate studies. I was also unable to plan for the future. I exhausted my retirement funds trying to repay these loans and have not been able to replenish them because, as a good citizen, I prioritized repaying my student loans above all else.Biden must cancel all student loan debt, including for those with graduate degrees | Derecka PurnellRead moreMy debt is an economic drain but it’s also an emotional one. I have been stressing over it for 12 years now, and the stress has taken a very real toll on my physical health. I suffer from hypertension and high cholesterol and recently had emergency surgery to remove my gall bladder due to digestive issues caused by unnecessary stress. I spend a lot of time thinking about the fact that I am 65 years old, with projected loan repayments for the next 21 years of my life – meaning I will be 86 when I pay them off. When you are burdened by student debt, there is no quality of personal or work life. You are stuck at home – foregoing vacations, visiting family and friends, professional conferences, everything.Like so many debtors, I’ve found it hard to see a way out. As an older person, I’ve often felt particularly alone as a student debtor. When I learned of the Debt Collective, the nation’s first debtors’ union, I realized I was not alone. I found others with similar stories and experiences, including many other older people. As a group, we understand that we’re stronger together. And we are taking action. If Biden won’t cancel our debt, we will go on strike.I joined the 50-over-50 debt strike to make sure that the world knows that older debtors exist, and that we are growing in number. Because student loans are structured as a debt trap, there are more and more older debtors every day. My fellow strikers and I can’t pay – and won’t. We shouldn’t have to take money from our retirement to pay for college. I accumulated this massive student debt because of the inhumane policies of lending institutions and for-profit schools, and the lack of support and intervention from government agencies. Biden has the power to cancel student debt for all of us, automatically and immediately. Why isn’t he using it?I am pleading with Joe Biden: please make things right – by cancelling all student debt.TopicsUS politicsOpinionJoe BidenBiden administrationDebt reliefUS student debtHigher educationHigher education policycommentReuse this content More

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      Biden unveils plan to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for millions

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      Biden unveils plan to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for millionsPresident delivers on campaign promise and outlines debt relief measures for those on lower incomes in White House speech01:15Millions of Americans received welcome news on Wednesday when Joe Biden delivered on a campaign promise to provide $10,000 in student debt forgiveness.Borrowers who earn less than $125,000 a year will be eligible for loan forgiveness, with those whose low incomes qualified them for federal Pell Grants receiving up to $20,000 in relief. About a third of US undergraduate students receive Pell Grants.Biden also extended a pause on federal student loan payments through the end of the year. The White House said it would be the last pause, and borrowers should expect to resume payments in January.If it survives probable legal challenges, Biden’s plan could offer a windfall to many Americans in the run-up to midterm elections in November. More than 45 million owe a combined $1.7tn in federal student debt. Almost a third owe less than $10,000, according to federal data.Biden also proposed a new income-driven repayment plan that would cap loans for low-income future borrowers and introduce fixes to the loan forgiveness program for non-profit and government workers.“Twelve years of universal education is not enough,” Biden said, announcing the plan at the White House. “How do we remain the most competitive nation in the world with the strongest economy in the world with the greatest opportunities?“That’s what today’s announcement is about. It’s about opportunity. It’s about giving people a fair shot. It’s about the one word America can be defined by: ‘possibilities’. It’s about providing possibilities.Biden noted that the federal government gave loans to small businesses during the Covid pandemic.“Now, it’s time to address the burden of student debt the same way.”Biden added that “an entire generation is now saddled with unsustainable debt.“The burden is so heavy that even if you graduate, you may not have access to the middle-class life that the college degree once provided. The burden is especially heavy on Black and Hispanic borrowers who, on average, have less family wealth to pay for it.”Biden said more information on the plan would soon be released and borrowers who qualify for forgiveness could expect a “short and simple form to apply for this relief”, sent by the Department of Education.The US has a long history of student debt, the vast majority owed to the federal government, which has been offering loans for college since 1958. US student debt has more than tripled over the last 16 years.Senior Democrats on Capitol Hill cheered Biden’s announcement. The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, a longtime advocate of the policy, issued a joint statement.They said: “With the flick of a pen, President Biden has taken a giant step forward in addressing the student debt crisis by cancelling significant amounts of student debt for millions of borrowers.“The positive impacts of this move will be felt by families across the country, particularly in minority communities, and is the single most effective action that the president can take on his own to help working families and the economy.”The senators added that Democrats would continue with efforts “to help close the racial wealth gap for borrowers and keep our economy growing”.Biden has faced pressure from liberals to provide broader relief. The cancellation falls short of the $50,000 many activist groups wanted. Some groups have called for full student debt cancellation.“If we can cancel $10k, we can cancel it all,” the Debt Collective, a union of debtors, tweeted on Wednesday.Administration officials claimed the plan could reduce inflation. The top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell, argued that it would worsen the problem.McConnell said: “Biden’s student loan socialism is a slap in the face to every family who sacrificed to save for college, every graduate who paid their debt, and every American who chose a certain career path or volunteered to serve in our armed forces in order to avoid taking on debt. This policy is astonishingly unfair.”Biden’s continuation of the pandemic loan payment freeze came just days before millions were set to find out when their next student loan bills were due. The end of the payment freeze extension was set for 31 August.During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden was initially skeptical of student debt cancellation as he faced progressive candidates including Warren and Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist senator from Vermont.On Wednesday, Sanders hailed “a great step forward” but said: “We have got to do more.”New York special election victory gives Democrats hope for midterms – liveRead moreAs he tried to shore up support among younger voters, Biden unveiled a proposal for debt cancellation of $10,000 per borrower, with no mention of an income cap. That campaign promise was narrowed in recent months by embracing the income limit.Democrats pushed the administration to go as broad as possible, seeing debt relief as a galvanizing issue, particularly for Black and young voters.‘There’s been a dramatic shift in how Americans think about the role of government in helping people out for college,” said Brian Powell, professor of sociology at Indiana University Bloomington who co-authored a book on the student loan crisis.Powell noted that support for debt cancellation and college affordability has grown. Those who go to college make on average $30,000 more a year than those with just a high school degree.TopicsUS student debtJoe BidenUS politicsUS educationUS domestic policynewsReuse this content More

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      Student loan forgiveness: Biden hails plan for ‘generation saddled with unsustainable debt’ – as it happened

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      Declaring “education is a ticket to a better life”, Biden is outlining his plan to relieve student debt in a speech at the White House.“Over time, that ticket has become too expensive for too many Americans. All this means is the entire an entire generation is now saddled with unsustainable debt,” Biden said, speaking alongside education secretary Miguel Cardona. “The burden is so heavy that even if you graduate you may not have access to middle-class life that the college degree was” meant to provide.President Joe Biden announced his long-awaited plan to provide student loan relief, which he said would allow tens of millions of Americans to “finally crawl out from under that mountain of debt”. Meanwhile, Democrats are celebrating after their candidate prevailed in a politically finicky House district’s special election last night, a sign that the party may be more popular than expected.Here’s more about what happened today:
      A Republican lawmaker who had his phone seized as part of the justice department’s probe into 2020 election meddling by Donald Trump’s allies is suing to stop them from accessing its data.
      The White House decried a Texas court ruling that blocked a requirement hospitals carry out abortions in emergencies.
      Trump appeared to concede that he illegally kept official documents at Mar-a-Lago.
      Biden said that he was not told in advance about the FBI’s search of Trump’s resort.
      Florida Democrats in a very conservative district have chosen a former health worker who was a fierce critic of governor Ron DeSantis’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic as their House candidate, but her chances of victory appear slim.
      Opponents of Biden’s student debt plan have claimed it is unfair to Americans who already paid off their loans. The president was asked about this as he wrapped up his speech at the White House.In his response, he draws a comparison to the business-friendly cuts that exist across America’s tax code:REPORTER: Is this unfair to people who paid their student loans or chose not to take out loans?BIDEN: Is it fair to people who, in fact, do not own multi-billion-dollar businesses if they see one of these guys getting all the tax breaks? Is that fair? What do you think? pic.twitter.com/HA9LzLBMSC— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) August 24, 2022
      As he spoke at the White House, Biden made special mention of how his plan would give racial minorities some relief from their heavy debt loads.“About a third of the borrowers have debt but no degree, the worst of both worlds, debt and no degree. The burden is especially heavy on Black and Hispanic borrowers, who on average have less family wealth to pay for it… they don’t own their homes to borrow against to be able to pay for college. And the pandemic only made things worse,” Biden said.The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) civil rights group has been vocal in encouraging Biden’s student debt relief efforts. NAACP president Derrick Johnson expressed some support for the White House plan, but added it didn’t go as far as the group hoped.A notably supportive statement from the NAACP, which had been extremely critical of Biden on student debt in recent months: pic.twitter.com/LlrF21Xj3N— Andrew Restuccia (@AndrewRestuccia) August 24, 2022
      Biden has concluded his White House address on student loan relief, but as the president was heading out the door, a reporter asked whether he had any advance knowledge of the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.“I didn’t have any advance notice,” Biden answered. “None, zero, not one single bit.”The White House has previously said the president was not told ahead of time of the FBI’s plans to search the south Florida property as part of its investigation into the former president’s alleged retention of government secrets.Biden has compared his measure relieving some student debt to his administration’s efforts to revive the economy following the Covid-19 pandemic.“Our approach is why America’s economic recovery … was faster and stronger than any other advanced nation in the world. And now it’s time to address the burden of student debt the same way,” the president said. His administration’s goal is “to provide more breathing room for people so they have less burdened by student debt.”Biden predicted his plan would provide relief to 43 million people, comprised of two groups: those who received a Pell Grant and will be eligible for $20,000 in relief, and those who received other federal student loans and will be eligible for $10,000 in relief. Both groups will need to make under $125,000 a year to qualify, or $250,000 for families. “All this means people can start finally crawl out from under that mountain of debt,” Biden said, predicting the relief would completely cancel the debts of 20 million people.Among his measures, Biden extended the pause on student debt repayments to the end of the year, but has made clear he won’t do that again. “I’m extending to December 31, 2022. And it’s going to end at that time,” he said.Declaring “education is a ticket to a better life”, Biden is outlining his plan to relieve student debt in a speech at the White House.“Over time, that ticket has become too expensive for too many Americans. All this means is the entire an entire generation is now saddled with unsustainable debt,” Biden said, speaking alongside education secretary Miguel Cardona. “The burden is so heavy that even if you graduate you may not have access to middle-class life that the college degree was” meant to provide.Joe Biden is over 15 minutes late to his planned speech on student loan relief, but the White House just released the below video, in which he explains the plan. Perhaps this is what’s been keeping him:.@POTUS breaks down our student debt relief announcement pic.twitter.com/D1yrpii2Hu— Herbie Ziskend (@HerbieZiskend46) August 24, 2022
      President Joe Biden will soon make an address from the White House, where he’ll detail his plan to relieve student loan debt.You can follow along at the live stream at the top of this page. For those just tuning in, here’s a link to the department of education page explaining how the program will work.Earlier today, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned the Texas court decision that blocked hospitals from being required to carry out emergency abortions.“Today’s decision is a blow to Texans,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “Texas filed this suit to ensure that it can block medical providers from providing life-saving and health-preserving care. Because of this decision, women in Texas may now be denied this vital care – even for conditions like severe hemorrhaging or life-threatening hypertension. It’s wrong, it’s backwards, and women may die as a result. The fight is not over. The President will continue to push to require hospitals to provide life-saving and health-preserving reproductive care.”The Biden administration’s attempt to preserve abortion access in states with governments hostile to the procedure faced a setback in Texas, as Edwin Rios reports:A federal judge in Texas has blocked a Biden administration guidance that required hospitals to provide emergency abortions, even in states like Texas, which prohibits the practice following the supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade.The legal effort by the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, a stalwart Republican, represents the latest attempt to stop the federal government from influencing the reproductive access landscape in the aftermath of the supreme court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned longstanding constitutional protections on abortion.Such preventions on abortion access could have devastating financial and health consequences on women, especially Black, Latino and Indigenous women who already disproportionately suffer from deaths during childbirth.Texas judge blocks Biden order requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortionsRead more More

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      Jill Biden tests negative for Covid and will end isolation in South Carolina

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      Jill Biden tests negative for Covid and will end isolation in South CarolinaFirst lady will travel to Delaware to rejoin the president after getting negative results from two consecutive tests First lady Jill Biden has tested negative for Covid-19 and will leave South Carolina – where she had isolated since vacationing with Joe Biden – and rejoin the president at their Delaware beach home, her office said Sunday.The White House announced on Tuesday that the first lady, 71, who like her husband has been twice-vaccinated and twice-boosted with the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, had tested positive for the coronavirus. She first had symptoms on Monday.The president, 79, recovered from a rebound case of the virus on 7 August.Jill Biden was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid and isolated at the Kiawah Island vacation home for five days before receiving negative results from two consecutive Covid-19 tests, spokesperson Elizabeth Alexander said. Jill Biden planned to travel to Delaware later Sunday.TopicsJill BidenJoe BidenUS politicsCoronavirusInfectious diseasesnewsReuse this content More

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      Americans should focus on Biden’s accomplishments, says chief of staff – as it happened

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      Here’s the meat of White House chief of staff Ron Klain’s argument to American voters, as he put it to Politico:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“Elections are choices, and the choice just couldn’t be any clearer right now. Democrats have stood up to the big special interests. They stood up to the big corporations and insisted that all corporations pay minimum taxes, stood up to the big oil companies and passed climate change legislation. They stood up to Big Pharma and passed prescription drug legislation. They stood up to the gun industry and passed gun control legislation. Things that this city [was] unable to deliver on for decades because the special interests had things locked down, Joe Biden and his allies in Congress have been able to deliver on.”The point of interviews like these is to get the administration’s message out ahead of November’s midterms, when voters will get a chance to decide which lawmakers they want representing them, and ultimately which party controls Congress. Considering Biden’s low approval ratings, the base case now is that Republicans have a good shot at taking the House, while Democrats seem favored to narrowly keep the Senate, though anything could happen.The White House would, of course, prefer Democrats hold onto both chambers. If one falls into the hands of the GOP, the prospects for any major legislation getting through Congress become dramatically slimmer for the next two years. Klain and others seem to be hoping that two things will happen: either enough voters change their minds about Biden, or they divorce their dislike of the president from their opinions of Democrats on the ballot. It may be premature to say whether the latter is happening, but when it comes to the former, polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight does show the president’s approval rating recovering from something of a nadir reached in mid-July.In closing, Klain offered this comment on Biden’s public profile, as compared to the previous White House occupant:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“I don’t think it’s true he’s out there less than his predecessors. I just think Donald Trump created an expectation of a president creating a shitstorm every single day.”The Biden administration took advantage of a quiet week in Washington to lay the groundwork for the roughly two months of campaigning before the November midterm elections, when Democrats will have to fight for control of Congress.Here’s what else happened today:
      White House chief of staff Ron Klain gave an interview to Politico, where he promoted Biden’s legislative accomplishments and previewed Democrats’ message to voters.
      A Georgia judge blocked senator Lindsey Graham’s attempt to quash a subpoena compelling his appearance before the special grand jury investigating election meddling in the state.
      Democrats attacked Mike Pence’s trip to Iowa, as the former vice president continues exploring whether to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
      An Ohio House Democrat criticized Biden in a television advertisement. She is fighting to keep her seat representing a district whose boundaries have been redrawn to include more Republican voters.
      More LGBTQ politicians are holding elected office in America than ever before, according to a new survey.
      The supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade may be causing a surge in women registering to vote, a political data firm has found.
      “Joe Biden’s letting Ohio solar manufacturers be undercut by China.” Sounds like a Republican campaign advertisement. It’s not – instead, it’s a television spot from an Ohio House Democrat fighting for her seat in a newly redrawn district that’s become much more friendly to the GOP.The New York Times reports that Marcy Kaptur has become the latest and most prominent Democratic lawmakers to publicly break with Biden with an ad that also highlights her collaboration with Rob Portman, Ohio’s retiring Republican senator. It’s a reversal from just last month, when she greeted the president at the airport in Cleveland during his visit to the city. However, such conduct is not unheard of for Democrats this election cycle. Maine representative Jared Golden aired an ad where he described himself as an “independent voice” that voted against “trillions of dollars of President Biden’s agenda because I knew it would make inflation worse,” according to the Times.Then there are the somewhat bizarre actions of Carolyn Maloney of New York, who is fighting to keep her House seat against a challenge from Jerry Nadler, a fellow Democrat. She had to apologize after saying Biden wasn’t planning to stand for reelection in 2024, only to make the same comment again. Democrat apologises for saying Biden won’t run in 2024 – then says it againRead moreRepublican House candidates who are facing close races are being advised not to talk too much about Donald Trump, but rather try to concentrate voters’ attention on the issues where they see an advantage over Democrats, CNN reports.“I don’t say his name, ever. I just avoid saying his name generally,” a Republican lawmaker in a tight race told the network. “I talk about the policies of his that I like.”The advice comes from Tom Emmer, a GOP House representative and chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is tasked with reclaiming Congress’ lower chamber in the November elections. While a spokesman for Emmer didn’t address the report about Trump, he told CNN, “Candidates know their districts best,” and “public and private polls show the midterms will be a referendum on Joe Biden and Democrats’ failed agenda that’s left voters paying record prices, dealing with soaring violent crime and facing billions in middle-class tax hikes.”As the report notes, this strategy could become complicated if Trump opts to announce another campaign for the presidency before the November midterms. Earlier this week, The Guardian reported he was being counseled to do so to avoid an indictment by the justice department over his handling of classified material.Trump should announce run for 2024 soon to avoid indictment, source saysRead moreThe investigation into Donald Trump’s ties to Russia was one of the earliest and most intense scandals of his presidency, and the legal wrangling over it still hasn’t finished.The Associated Press reports that a federal court of appeals panel has found that William Barr, Trump’s attorney general in 2019, wrongly withheld a memo that he cited to say that Trump did not obstruct justice during in the investigation into his ties with Moscow.Here’s more from the AP:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}At issue in the case is a March 24, 2019, memorandum from the head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, or OLC, and another senior department official that was prepared for Barr to evaluate whether evidence in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation could support prosecution of the president for obstruction of justice.
      Barr has said he looked to that opinion in concluding that Trump did not illegally obstruct the Russia probe, which was an investigation of whether his campaign had colluded with Russia to tip the 2016 election.
      The Justice Department turned over other documents to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington as part of the group’s lawsuit, but declined to give it the memo. Government lawyers said they were entitled under public records law to withhold the memo because it reflected internal deliberations among lawyers before any formal decision had been reached on what Mueller’s evidence showed.
      But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said last year that those arguments were disingenuous because the memo was prepared for Barr at about the same time as a separate Justice Department letter informing Congress and the public that Barr and other senior department leaders concluded that Trump had not obstructed justice.
      The memo noted that “Mueller had declined to accuse President Trump of obstructing justice but also had declined to exonerate him” and “recommended that Barr ‘reach a judgment’ on whether the evidence constituted obstruction of justice,” the panel wrote Friday. The memo also noted that “the Report’s failure to take a definitive position could be read to imply an accusation against President Trump” if the confidential report were released to the public, the court wrote.Busy day for courts in Georgia. A federal judge in the state has just rejected another bid by Republican senator Lindsey Graham to quash a subpoena compelling his appearance before a special grand jury probing attempts to meddle in the 2020 elections by Donald Trump’s allies.“Senator Graham raises a number of arguments as to why he is likely to succeed on the merits, but they are all unpersuasive, not least because they largely misconstrue the Court’s holdings,” judge Leigh Martin May wrote in denying the senator’s motion.“A stay is not justified even assuming for the sake of argument that Senator Graham has shown ‘a substantial case on the merits.’”Earlier this week, Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani appeared before the panel, which has informed him he is a target of their investigation.Rudy Giuliani informed he is target of criminal investigation in GeorgiaRead moreHowever in Georgia, a judge will allow a state law provision that bans giving food and water to voters standing in line to go into effect for the November midterm elections, though it is still subject to further legal challenges, the Associated Press reports. The law, passed last year, was part of a Republican-backed effort to reform the state’s election system, which Democrats attacked as an attempt to make it harder for the poor and racial minorities to vote. But as the AP notes, the legal battle isn’t over:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee said the voting rights groups may ultimately prevail on part of their challenge, but he agreed with the state that it’s too close to the election to block any part of the provision. He noted that requiring different rules for the general election than those in place for the primaries earlier this year could cause confusion for election workers.
      Boulee said that voting rights groups had failed to show that prohibiting the distribution of food and drinks within 150 feet (45 meters) of a polling place violates their constitutional rights. But he said that another part of the provision that bars people from offering food and drink within 25 feet (7.6 meters) of any person in line is probably unconstitutional because that zone is tied to the location of voters and could stretch thousands of feet from the polling place. More

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      Biden’s chief of staff says president is comparable to historic predecessors

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      Biden’s chief of staff says president is comparable to historic predecessorsRon Klain compares Biden’s achievements to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson in interview In a bullish interview, the White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, compared Joe Biden’s achievements in his first two years in office to historic successes under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson.‘Biggest step forward on climate ever’: Biden signs Democrats’ landmark billRead moreSpeaking to Politico, Klain said: “The president has delivered the largest economic recovery plan since Roosevelt, the largest infrastructure plan since [Dwight D] Eisenhower, the most judges confirmed since Kennedy, the second-largest healthcare bill since Johnson, and the largest climate change bill in history.”Klain’s comments, aimed at voters contemplating the midterm elections, are an indication that Democrats plan to campaign heavily on their accomplishments in the less than two years they have been in power. He also pointed to “the first time we’ve done gun control since President Clinton was here, the first time ever an African American woman [Ketanji Brown Jackson] has been put on the US supreme court.“I think it’s a record to take to the American people.”Klain’s references to historical figures chimes with Biden’s own interests. The president has regularly consulted historians, among them Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michael Beschloss and Eddie Glaude Jr, while Jon Meacham, a biographer of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and George HW Bush, has been a close adviser in shaping Biden’s effort to restore “the soul of the nation” after the presidency of Donald Trump.Democrats control Congress by narrow margins. Opposition parties commonly do well in the first elections of a presidential term, and Republicans remain favoured to take control of one or both chambers. But legislative successes, most recently the passage of a major domestic and climate crisis spending plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, have given Democrats hope.One senator, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, pointed to the need to communicate better, writing: “I feel like the media is having a hard time metabolising the fact that this Congress has been historically productive. And acknowledging the size of these accomplishments, and the degree of difficultly – it’s just hard to do accurately without sounding a bit left-leaning.”There is some indication that Democrats are becoming more popular. They have established polling leads in key Senate races including Arizona, Pennsylvania and Ohio, against Trump-endorsed Republicans who are struggling to attract moderates and independents.In Kentucky on Thursday, Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, seemed to downplay expectations. McConnell said: “I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different – they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.“Right now, we have a 50-50 Senate and a 50-50 country, but I think when all is said and done this fall, we’re likely to have an extremely close Senate, either our side up slightly or their side up slightly.”In his Politico interview, Klain said: “Elections are choices, and the choice just couldn’t be any clearer right now.“Democrats have stood up to the big special interests. They stood up to the big corporations and insisted that all corporations pay minimum taxes, stood up to the big oil companies and passed climate change legislation. They stood up to Big Pharma and passed prescription drug legislation. They stood up to the gun industry and passed gun control legislation.“Things that [Washington DC was] unable to deliver on for decades because the special interests had things locked down, Joe Biden and his allies in Congress have been able to deliver on.”Asked about the Republican counter-offer, he cited issues Democrats hope can galvanise voters, prominently including attacks on abortion access after the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, the ruling which protected the right.“We have an extreme Maga group in the Republican party that has no real plan to bring down inflation,” Klain said, referring to Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, Make America Great Again. “They obviously want to pass a nationwide ban on abortion. They sided with big pharma. They sided with the climate deniers … most of them sided with the gun lobby.“And so I think that choice [is] between a party that’s standing up to the special interests and delivering change and … an extreme party, a party that’s talking about … abolishing social security and Medicare every five years.“The extreme nature of our opponents, whether it’s with regard to democracy or social security, are all part of a movement that is just very different than we’ve seen in recent years in this country.”Klain said the worst day of the presidency was 26 August 2021, when 13 US service members were killed by a suicide bomb during the evacuation of Kabul.That, he said, was “just a terrible tragedy and certainly the darkest day”.Questions have been raised, including by Democrats, about whether Biden is too old to run for a second term. Klain said Biden’s experience – he will turn 80 in November – helped make him an effective leader.Judge orders DoJ to prepare redacted Trump search affidavit for possible releaseRead moreBiden, he said, has “a personal history of tremendous, joyous successes and devastating tragedies. And I think that helps moderate his spirit at all times.“There is nothing I can ever walk into the Oval Office and tell him that’s any bigger than the bigger things he’s already experienced in life. And nothing I could ever tell him is any sadder than the saddest things he’s already experienced in life. And I think that gives him a very level temperament as president.”Klain was also asked about complaints, particularly from Republicans, that Biden does not maintain a high public profile.“I don’t think it’s true he’s out there less than his predecessors,” Klain said. “I just think Donald Trump created an expectation of a president creating a shitstorm every single day.”TopicsJoe BidenBiden administrationUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden to host ‘United We Stand’ summit to address hate-fueled US gun violence

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      Biden to host ‘United We Stand’ summit to address hate-fueled US gun violenceGathering in September at the White House intends to bring together Democrats and Republicans to seek solutions Joe Biden will host a White House summit next month aimed at combating hate-fueled violence.The White House announced on Friday that Biden will host the United We Stand Summit on 15 September, seeking to highlight the “corrosive effects” of violence on public safety and democracy.Advocates pushed Biden to hold the event after 10 Black people were killed at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in May, aiming as well to address hate-driven violence in cities including El Paso, Texas, Pittsburgh and Oak Creek, Wisconsin.“As President Biden said in Buffalo after the horrific mass shooting earlier this year, in the battle for the soul of our nation, ‘We must all enlist in this great cause of America,’” the press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said in a statement.“The United We Stand Summit will present an important opportunity for Americans of all races, religions, regions, political affiliations, and walks of life to take up that cause together.”Biden will deliver a keynote speech at the gathering, which the White House says will include civil rights groups, faith leaders, business executives, law enforcement, gun violence prevention advocates, former members of violent hate groups, the victims of extremist violence and cultural figures.The White House emphasized that it intends to bring together Democrats and Republicans, as well as leaders on the federal, state and local levels.Biden has frequently cited a 2017 white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, for bringing him out of political retirement to challenge Donald Trump in 2020. He promised in that campaign to work to bridge political and social divides and to promote national unity.Sindy Benavides, chief executive of League of United Latin American Citizens, said the genesis of the summit came after the Buffalo massacre, as her organization, the Anti-Defamation League, the National Action Network and other groups wanted to press the Biden administration to more directly tackle extremist threats.“As civil rights organizations, social justice organizations, we fight every day against this, and we wanted to make sure to acknowledge that government needs to have a leading role in addressing rightwing extremism,” she said.The White House did not outline the line-up of speakers or participants. It also would not preview any policy announcements. Officials noted Biden last year signed the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act and released the first National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.Benavides said the summit would help the country address hate-inspired violence but also said she hoped for “long-term solutions” to emerge.“What’s important to us is addressing mental health, gun control reform, addressing misinformation, disinformation and malinformation,” she said.“We want policy makers to focus on common sense solutions so we don’t see this type of violence in our communities. And we want to see the implementation of policies that reduce violence.”TopicsUS gun controlJoe BidenUS politicsnewsReuse this content More