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      Mike Pence lays groundwork for potential 2024 run with Iowa and New Hampshire visits – as it happened

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      Today, he’s in New Hampshire, promoting conservative policies while calling on fellow Republicans to hold off on attacking the FBI and signaling a willingness to talk to the January 6 committee. Next, he’ll be in Iowa, where he is to attend the state fair and meet with the state’s GOP honchos.Just what is Mike Pence doing? Laying the groundwork for a potential presidential run in 2024, that’s what. Iowa and New Hampshire are both early voting states in the Republican presidential primary, and stops by prospective candidates such as Pence are not out of the ordinary. Where Pence would fit into the 2024 Republican field is unclear. Donald Trump is seen as champing at the bit to return to the campaign trail, and reportedly has little love for his former number two. If Pence hopes to capture the support of Republicans who have tired of Trump, he may have to vie against Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who could tailor his campaign to the same voters. Then there’s Liz Cheney, a conservative Republican who was last night ousted from the House by the Wyoming GOP in favor of a Trump-backed attorney. If Pence opts to run as a defiantly anti-Trump Republican, she would be his chief opponent, assuming she decides to aim for the presidency.But that’s not all. Pence could find himself up against Trump’s former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, or his former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, or even South Dakota’s governor Kristi Noem, not to mention conservative senators like Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, or Tom Cotton. In a field with this much potential for crowding, one can see why Pence may want an early start.Mike Pence’s visit to New Hampshire has added to speculation that he may be mulling a presidential run in 2024. Meanwhile, Liz Cheney announced she was considering her own bid for the White House as a defiantly anti-Trump Republican, hours after GOP voters in Wyoming rejected her bid to continue as the state’s House representative. Here’s a rundown of today’s news:
      Donald Trump sure seems to like a Wall Street Journal column suggesting a Republican-led Congress or White House could retaliate against Democrats over the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago.
      A poll from Wisconsin indicates Democrats may have momentum in the state’s Senate race, though the contest for the governorship appears to be tightening.
      Rudy Giuliani has appeared before a special grand jury in Atlanta that is investigating attempts to meddle with the state’s election results in 2020. He has been told he is a target of the investigation.
      The memoir of Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser Jared Kushner was torn apart by The New York Times’ book reviewer.
      A court ruling allowed the Biden administration to again pause new oil and gas drilling leases on federal land.
      Donald Trump and his political action committee have promoted a Wall Street Journal column suggesting that Republicans could seek revenge against Democratic politicians for the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago.Attorney general Merrick Garland’s “raid has made even the highest political figures fair prosecutorial game, and the media’s new standard is that the department can’t be questioned as it goes about ensuring ‘no one is above the law.’ Let’s see how that holds when a future Republican Justice Department starts raiding the homes of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Eric Holder, James Comey and John Brennan,” writes Kimberley A. Strassel, a member of the Journal’s editorial board.She also posits that a GOP-controlled House, which could come as soon as next year, might create their own select committees similar to the one investigating the January 6 attack, and perhaps subpoena Democratic lawmakers. “What goes around always comes around. What went around this week will come around hard,” Strassel wrote in the piece published August 11.Trump was apparently a fan of the column:Trump reposts an op-ed describing the likelihood of payback — such as raiding homes of Biden, Clinton, Comey etc — if he retakes the White House. pic.twitter.com/v067yHOK69— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 17, 2022
      As was the Trump War Room, managed by his Save America PAC:ICYMI: “The Payback for Mar-a-Lago Will Be Brutal”https://t.co/58YugoDe8m— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 17, 2022
      Today, he’s in New Hampshire, promoting conservative policies while calling on fellow Republicans to hold off on attacking the FBI and signaling a willingness to talk to the January 6 committee. Next, he’ll be in Iowa, where he is to attend the state fair and meet with the state’s GOP honchos.Just what is Mike Pence doing? Laying the groundwork for a potential presidential run in 2024, that’s what. Iowa and New Hampshire are both early voting states in the Republican presidential primary, and stops by prospective candidates such as Pence are not out of the ordinary. Where Pence would fit into the 2024 Republican field is unclear. Donald Trump is seen as champing at the bit to return to the campaign trail, and reportedly has little love for his former number two. If Pence hopes to capture the support of Republicans who have tired of Trump, he may have to vie against Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who could tailor his campaign to the same voters. Then there’s Liz Cheney, a conservative Republican who was last night ousted from the House by the Wyoming GOP in favor of a Trump-backed attorney. If Pence opts to run as a defiantly anti-Trump Republican, she would be his chief opponent, assuming she decides to aim for the presidency.But that’s not all. Pence could find himself up against Trump’s former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, or his former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, or even South Dakota’s governor Kristi Noem, not to mention conservative senators like Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, or Tom Cotton. In a field with this much potential for crowding, one can see why Pence may want an early start.Planned Parenthood plans to spend a record $50 million ahead of November’s midterm elections, pouring money into contests where access to abortion will be on the ballot.The effort, which breaks the group’s previous $45 million spending record set in 2020, comes about two months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It will be waged by the organization’s political and advocacy arms and will focus on governor’s offices, U.S. Senate seats and legislative races in nine states where abortion rights could be restricted or expanded, depending on the outcome at the ballot.The historic proportions of the midterm campaign, when less money is usually spent than in presidential races, were made possible by a torrent of money raised after the decision by the high court’s new conservative majority, touching off a tectonic shift in abortion politics. For the first time, Republicans who have long campaigned against abortion will face voters on an issue that is no longer hypothetical and carries real life consequences.​​As Republicans move towards an election season rife with internal disagreements and mixed public opinions on exceptions in abortion bans such as instances of rape and incest, many rightwing lawmakers are finding it increasingly difficult to implement cohesive abortion policies.The phenomenon has been starkly illustrated by Kansas’s referendum a few weeks ago, where the usually Republican state voted to keep abortion protections in its constitution, providing an unexpected boost from red state America to the abortion rights movement.Planned Parenthood says its spending will help remind voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin what’s at stake in a bid to drive turnout by Democratic and independent voters.“Who wins in these midterm elections will determine whether a state has access to abortion and potentially determine whether we will face a national abortion ban,” said Jenny Lawson, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes. “We will be clear about who is on which side.”Planned Parenthood says it intends to contact 6 million voters through door knocking, phone calls, digital advertising, mailers and radio ads.It also is launching a website, takecontrol2022.com.According to a survey conducted between 27 June and 4 July by the Pew Research center, a majority of the American public disapproves of the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe: 57% of adults disapprove of the court’s decision, including 43% who strongly disapprove, and 41% of American adults approve while 25% strongly approve of the court’s decision.The survey also found that 62% of Americans say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 36% of Americans say that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. Only 38% of Republicans say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, marking a 1-point decrease from poll results obtained in 2007.A poll from Wisconsin is adding credence to the idea that Democrats are gaining strength in congressional races.The survey from Marquette University Law School shows the Democratic nominee for Senate, Mandela Barnes, up by 51 percent against Republican incumbent Ron Johnson’s 44 percent. The race for governor is much closer, with Democratic incumbent Tony Evers coming in with 45 percent of support against Tim Michels, the Republican challenging him, whose preference was at 43 percent.The data confirms increased momentum for Barnes, who was polling at 46 percent against Johnson’s 44 percent in a mid-June survey. In the governor’s race, it suggest tightening, as Evers was up by 48 percent against Michels’ 41 percent in the earlier poll.It appears Harriet Hageman, the attorney who ousted Liz Cheney from the House of Representatives in the Wyoming Republican party primary, has no interest in talking to her predecessor.Politico reports that Cheney attempted to concede in a phone call to Hageman, but ended up leaving a voice message:NEW: Rep. Liz Cheney tells me her concession call to Harriet Hageman ended up being a “clear and direct” voicemail that she left before she went on stage last night, after trying multiple times to get in touch w/ her. Cheney says she still has not heard anything back.— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) August 17, 2022
      “I left her a message before I went on stage — again, after we tried three different times to reach her,” Cheney told me in an interview today. “And that was that was that.”— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) August 17, 2022
      As afternoon turned to evening on January 6, 2021, the US Capitol Police received the following message from the US Secret Service: “Good afternoon, The US Secret Service is passing notification to the US Capitol Police regarding discovery of a social media threat directed toward Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”The Secret Service sent along a social media post containing threats to lawmakers, including Pelosi. But according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which obtained Secret Service emails containing the warning, the agency had first learned about it two days before the insurrection at the Capitol, during which many of Donald Trump’s supporters made no secret of their desire for revenge against lawmakers who were a thorn in his side.The investigation adds to the questions swirling around the Secret Service. The agency is embroiled in a scandal after it was revealed it allowed agents’ text messages from around the time of the attack to be deleted, prompting calls in Congress for accountability.Secret Service watchdog suppressed memo on January 6 texts erasureRead moreFlorida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis is facing a federal lawsuit from a state attorney he suspended earlier this month for “wokeness”.In a Twitter post, Andrew Warren said he filed papers in Tallahassee this morning, calling his removal as state attorney for Hillsborough county “a blatant abuse of power”. Today we took action against Ron DeSantis’ abuse of power and unlawful suspension. Please join us in this fight at https://t.co/mebZt8It8i #DefendDemocracyNow pic.twitter.com/ekluzexc2H— Andrew Warren (@AndrewWarrenFL) August 17, 2022
      DeSantis suspended Warren on 4 August for “neglect of duty” after the twice-elected official said he would not enforce the state’s new 15-week abortion ban. The governor said Warren was following a “woke agenda,” although some analysts question the legality of the move based on an action that hasn’t taken place yet.“The governor has broken two laws. He’s violated my first amendment rights by retaliating against me for speaking out on abortion and transgender rights, and he’s violated the Florida constitution by removing me from office without any legal justification,” Warren said in the post.There was no immediate reaction from DeSantis’s office.The Orlando Sentinel noted that DeSantis, seen as a likely candidate for the Republican party’s 2024 presidential nomination, has taken no action against so-called “constitutional” sheriffs who say they won’t enforce certain Florida gun laws.Former vice-president Mike Pence asked fellow Republicans to stop lashing out at the FBI over their recent search of Donald Trump’s house, reports the Associated Press.During an event in New Hampshire, Pence called demands from Republicans to defund the FBI “just as wrong” as previous calls from activists to divest funding from the police for other needs. “The Republican Party is the party of law and order,” said Pence. “Our party stands with the men and women who stand on the thin blue line at the federal and state and local level, and these attacks on the FBI must stop. Calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund the police.” Pence added Republicans can criticize attorney general Merrick Garland and ask for more transparency around the search without condemning the FBI. FBI officials have said that law enforcement have encountered a number of Trump supporters who seem ready to attack the FBI or those they believe are investigating Trump too much, following the search. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today that the agency will undergo a massive restructuring following failures during the Covid-19 pandemic. CDC director Rochelle P. Walensky announced the planned changes during a meeting with senior staff today, acknowledging the CDC’s botched response to Covid-19, reported the New York Times. “For 75 years, C.D.C. and public health have been preparing for Covid-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” said Walensky on the agency’s shortcomings. “My goal is a new, public health, action-oriented culture at C.D.C. that emphasizes accountability, collaboration, communication and timeliness.”Changes will be aimed at increasing the CDC’s ability to faster respond to major health crises and restoring public trust. Critics of the CDC say that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the agency failed to scale up testing, vaccination efforts, and data collection. The CDC has also been accused of publishing ineffective and contradictory health advice on Covid-19. Similar issues have been raised about the CDC’s response to the spread of monkey pox in the US. Yesterday’s elections in Wyoming and Alaska have ousted Liz Cheney from her House seat while giving Sarah Palin a shot at getting her own spot in the chamber. But Cheney has vowed to keep fighting Donald Trump and his allies, a task at which many before her have failed.Here’s a rundown of what has happened so far today:
      Former vice-president Mike Pence signaled a degree of openness to talking to the January 6 committee, though with several caveats.
      Rudy Giuliani has appeared before a special grand jury in Atlanta that is investigating attempts to meddle with the state’s election results in 2020. He has been told he is a target of the investigation.
      The memoir of Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser Jared Kushner was torn apart by The New York Times’ book reviewer.
      A court ruling allowed the Biden administration to again pause new oil and gas drilling leases on federal land.
      While Alaska’s elections were held yesterday, it may take till the end of the month to determine the winner of closely fought races, such as the special election for the state’s vacant House of Representatives seat.According to the Anchorage Daily News, “As of 2 a.m. Wednesday, the Alaska Division of Elections had counted over 150,000 ballots in the race that will determine Alaska’s next representative in Congress, in a special election to replace 49-year Rep. Don Young, who died unexpectedly in March. The Division will continue to accept ballots until Aug. 31, as long as they were postmarked on or before election day. Once the last ballots are counted — if no candidate crosses the 50% threshold needed to win under the state’s new ranked choice voting system — the candidate in last place will be eliminated and the second-place votes of that candidate’s supporters will be redistributed.”Sarah Palin may nearing a return to the national political stage, Maanvi Singh reports, after Alaska voters gave her decent support in last night’s special election:Sarah Palin looks set to be on the ballot in November’s general election after the former governor of Alaska and ex vice-presidential candidate clinched one of four spots vying for a seat in the US House, according to the Associated Press.Palin, who rose to fame more than a decade ago as John McCain’s running mate, advanced to the general election along with her two challengers, Nick Begich III, a tech millionaire backed by the Alaska Republican party, and Mary Peltola, a former state legislator and Democrat. It was too early to call the fourth spot.Palin, Peltola and Begich are competing for Alaska’s only House seat, formerly occupied by Don Young, who died in March. The trio were also competing in a special election to serve the remainder of Young’s term, which ends early next year.Sarah Palin advances to November election for Alaska House seatRead more More

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      Biden bounces back: Inside 19 August Guardian Weekly

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      Biden bounces back: Inside 19 August Guardian Weekly Joe Biden rides high. Plus, 75 years since the Partition of India
      Get the Guardian Weekly delivered to your home address Joe Biden’s political capital is riding high after a key plank of his legislative programme came to fruition. But the US president has greeted this “hot streak” in his usual quiet fashion. For his predecessor, it was a decidedly rough week after his home was raided by the FBI, looking for official documents that Donald Trump had held on to after his presidential term had ended. The reaction was a typical explosion of rage and accusation. David Smith, our Washington bureau chief, follows this compare-and-contrast theme to see which of the two men, who at this juncture still look likely to face each other again in the 2024 presidential election, came out on top.We report on two anniversaries in one region this week as Monday marked 75 years since the Partition of India, as well as a year since Afghanistan returned to Taliban rule. Our world affairs editor, Julian Borger, examines the extent to which Pakistan and India are still scarred by a final, brutal colonial flourish that divided communities, while Stefanie Glinski’s photo essay from Kabul focuses on how women’s rights have been eroded in the past year.The shocking news of the stabbing of Salman Rushdie reminded the world of the importance of free speech and how the efforts of ideological fanatics to curb it must be resisted. As Margaret Atwood writes on our Opinion pages, attacks on writers are a cheap populist distraction, while on the news pages we look at how Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses triggered hatred against him.Leading our features section this week is a story about a reversal in reputation. Peru-based writer Dan Collyns explains how Bolivian tin baron Moritz Hochschild, had been viewed as an exploitative oligarch until the discovery of a cache of papers revealed his role in saving thousands of Jews from Nazi Germany and how he used his power to overcome antisemitism in the ruling elites. And then we take a full and frank look at the growing popularity of naturism in Britain. The photographs are necessarily coy, with artfully placed props, but writer Sally Howard takes the pastime as seriously as its practitioners. We hope you enjoy this week’s issue.Get the magazine delivered to you at homeTopicsUS politicsInside Guardian WeeklyDonald TrumpJoe BidenSalman RushdieFreedom of speechIndiaAfghanistanReuse this content More

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      ‘Biggest step forward on climate ever’: Biden signs Democrats’ landmark bill

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      ‘Biggest step forward on climate ever’: Biden signs Democrats’ landmark billParty leaders hope approval of Inflation Reduction Act will boost their prospects in the midterm elections this November Joe Biden signed Democrats’ healthcare, climate and tax package on Tuesday, putting the final seal of approval on a landmark bill that party leaders hope will boost their prospects in the midterm elections this November.During a bill-signing ceremony at the White House, the US president celebrated the bill as a historic piece of legislation that would reduce healthcare costs for millions of Americans and help address the climate crisis.“With this law, the American people won and the special interests lost,” Biden said. “Today offers further proof that the soul of America is vibrant, the future of America is bright and the promise of America is real and just beginning.”The signing came four days after the House passed the bill, formally known as the Inflation Reduction Act, in a party-line vote of 220 to 207. The bill had previously passed the Senate in a party-line vote of 51 to 50, with Vice-President Kamala Harris breaking the tie in the evenly divided chamber.The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act capped off more than a year of negotiations among Democrats, after the bill’s predecessor, the Build Back Better Act, stalled in the Senate due to opposition from one of the party’s centrist members, Joe Manchin.The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, spent months quietly negotiating with Manchin over a more narrow spending package, resulting in the Inflation Reduction Act.While the Build Back Better Act was much larger in scope, Democrats have still celebrated the climate and healthcare provisions included in their compromise bill.The law directs $369bn toward investing in renewable energy and reducing America’s planet-heating emissions, marking the country’s most significant effort yet to combat the climate crisis. Experts have estimated the bill could reduce US emissions by about 40% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels, close to Biden’s goal of cutting emissions in half by the end of the decade.“This bill is the biggest step forward on climate ever,” Biden said Tuesday. “It’s going to allow us to boldly take additional steps toward meeting all of my climate goals, the ones we set out when we ran.”In terms of healthcare provisions, the bill will allow Medicare to start negotiating the price of certain expensive drugs and will cap out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year for those in the government insurance program for seniors and some with disability status. It will also alleviate premium hikes for those who receive insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, the federal program informally known as Obamacare.The cost of the legislation is covered through a series of tax changes, which are expected to bring in hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue for the US government. Those changes include a new corporate minimum tax, a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks and enhanced enforcement from the Internal Revenue Service targeting high-income households.After the House passage of the bill last Friday, Democratic party leaders took to the airwaves to tout the benefits of the legislation, promising that it would help ease the financial burden for Americans struggling under the weight of record-high inflation.“It’s making sure that billionaires in corporate America are paying their fair share, making sure that the tax code is a little bit more fair,” the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told ABC News on Sunday. “When you put it in its totality, you will see that it will lower the deficit, which will help fight inflation.”But Republicans have dismissed Democrats’ arguments that the bill will help ease inflation, accusing them of ramming through a reckless spending spree that will do little to aid working Americans.“[Democrats’] response to the runaway inflation they’ve created is a bill that experts say will not meaningfully cut inflation at all,” the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, said earlier this month. “Democrats have proven over and over they simply do not care about middle-class families’ priorities.”According to a report issued by Moody’s Analytics, Democrats’ spending package will “modestly reduce inflation over the 10-year budget horizon”. But regardless of the bill’s impact, there have been some signs that inflation may be cooling off.US inflation hit an annual rate of 8.5% last month, which represented a slight decrease from the 40-year high of 9.1% recorded in June. If inflation does indeed start to taper off and Democrats can sell the passage of their spending package on the campaign trail, it could help them prevent widespread losses in the midterm elections this November.“I’ve been prepared to win the midterms all along. It depends on getting out the vote. This probably could be helpful,” the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said of the bill’s passage last week. “But I do know it will be helpful to America’s working families, and that’s our purpose.”TopicsJoe BidenUS politicsUS domestic policyClimate crisisUS healthcarenewsReuse this content More

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      Biden hails ‘biggest step forward on climate ever’ as he signs Inflation Reduction Act – as it happened

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      Joe Biden has signed into law a plan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the climate crisis and lowering healthcare costs for Americans, capping more than a year of negotiations ahead of elections in which voters may oust his Democrats from control of Congress.Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act was a major accomplishment for the Biden administration, and marks the first time the United States has passed legislation specifically geared towards lowering its carbon emissions.“With this law, the American people won, and the special interests lost,” the president said as he signed the legislation in a White House ceremony. He called it proof for “the American people that democracy still works in America, notwithstanding … all the talk of its demise, not just for the privileged few, but for all of us”.The act will invest $386bn into programs to speed the transition into energy and climate programs, most of which are meant to speed the transition towards renewable sources. It will also extend health insurance subsidies, and expand coverage under government health care programs.“This bill is the biggest step forward on climate ever,” Biden said.Joe Biden signed into law his landmark spending plan to fight the climate crisis and lower healthcare costs, in what his administration hopes will turn around the president’s fortunes after months of worrying unpopularity. Elsewhere, more details about the many investigations surrounding Donald Trump were revealed.Here’s a look back at today’s news:
      Two Democratic committee chairs accused the homeland security inspector general of not complying with their investigations into the January 6 attack. Meanwhile, the New York Times reported two of Trump’s former lawyers were interviewed by the FBI regarding classified documents that made their way to Florida.
      Jill Biden has tested positive for Covid-19, and will isolate in South Carolina, where she was on vacation with her husband. Joe Biden remains negative, but will wear a mask indoors and around others for the next 10 days.
      The White House is making plans for a campaign to convince men and women alike of the harm of abortion bans, and to sue states that restrict the procedure.
      Democrats consider the Inflation Reduction Act to be a major win, but in an interview with the Guardian, independent senator Bernie Sanders outlined the many ways in which he feels it falls short.
      Joe Biden has signed into law a plan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the climate crisis and lowering healthcare costs for Americans, capping more than a year of negotiations ahead of elections in which voters may oust his Democrats from control of Congress.Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act was a major accomplishment for the Biden administration, and marks the first time the United States has passed legislation specifically geared towards lowering its carbon emissions.“With this law, the American people won, and the special interests lost,” the president said as he signed the legislation in a White House ceremony. He called it proof for “the American people that democracy still works in America, notwithstanding … all the talk of its demise, not just for the privileged few, but for all of us”.The act will invest $386bn into programs to speed the transition into energy and climate programs, most of which are meant to speed the transition towards renewable sources. It will also extend health insurance subsidies, and expand coverage under government health care programs.“This bill is the biggest step forward on climate ever,” Biden said.In a few minutes, Joe Biden will sign the Democrats’ marquee spending plan into law, channeling hundreds of billions of dollars towards fighting climate change and lowering health care costs.Biden and other Democrats have been trying to hype up the legislation – dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act – as much as they can. Here’s how he cast it on Twitter:Later today, with the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act into law, we make history.— President Biden (@POTUS) August 16, 2022
      Congress is in recess and many lawmakers are visiting their districts across the United States. In a letter to Democrats sent this afternoon, House speaker Nancy Pelosi offered advice on how to sell constituents on the legislation:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It is crucial that, during this District Work Period, we communicate to our constituents how America’s families will benefit from this new law:
      Health: reducing pollution to secure clean air and clean water in every community across the country.
      Economy: securing an estimated nine million new good-paying jobs, saving families around $1000 per year on their energy bills and offering more stability from the volatile oil market that inflames inflation.
      National Security: declaring our energy independence so that foreign dictators cannot hold families and our economy hostage by manipulating the price of oil.
      Justice: delivering $60 billion in environmental justice initiatives so that we repair the mistakes of the past and ensure all communities feel the benefits of a cleaner, greener economy.
      Future: taking a giant step to honor our sacred responsibility to build a healthier, more sustainable future for our children.
      It took more than a year of negotiations to reach an agreement on the Inflation Reduction Act, which garnered no Republican votes in either chamber. Its name is a nod to the ongoing wave of high inflation in the United States, though the legislation itself may not make much difference. According to the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model, it will lower the US’ budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars, but “the impact on inflation is statistically indistinguishable from zero.”At the same time as voters in Wyoming head to the polls, the top House Republican is in the state for a fundraiser that Bloomberg reports will feature a special guest: Elon Musk.The Tesla boss is considered the world’s richest man, but has kept his politics murky, often announcing that he had voted for Democrats but lately expressing sympathy with some Republican positions. McCarthy, meanwhile, is likely to become speaker of the House of Representatives should Republicans win a majority following the November midterm elections. He also also been vocal in support of Harriet Hageman, the Trump-backed candidate expected to triumph over Liz Cheney in today’s GOP primary.Despite the investigations swirling around him, Donald Trump’s influence within the GOP will likely be confirmed again today in Wyoming, where Republicans are expected to oust Liz Cheney from her seat in the House of Representatives in favor of a challenger backed by the former president. The Guardian’s David Smith reports:Widely praised for her defence of democracy during the January 6 committee hearings, Liz Cheney looks set to lose her seat in Congress on Tuesday to a rival backed by former US president Donald Trump.Opinion polls show Cheney trailing far behind conservative lawyer Harriet Hageman – who has echoed Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud – in a Republican primary election to decide Wyoming’s lone member in the House of Representatives.Victory for Hageman would continue a recent winning streak for Trump-backed candidates in congressional primaries and deal a blow to remnants of the Republican party establishment.Liz Cheney looks set to lose Congress seat to Trump-backed rivalRead moreThe New York Times reports that the FBI has interviewed Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel under Donald Trump, and his deputy Patrick Philbin regarding classified documents the former president may have taken with him to Florida after he left office.The lawyers are the most senior Trump White House officials the FBI has contacted as it investigated the documents, according to the report, which cites people familiar with the matter. The two men were appointed by Trump to deal with the National Archives, which usually takes possession of an outgoing president’s documents. Philbin spoke to investigators in the spring, while it was unclear when Cipollone was interviewed, the Times reports.The FBI last week searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida as part of their investigation into the documents, and turned up papers that were deemed “top secret” and other classifications that require special handling. Cipollone and Philbin have also been subpoenaed by a grand jury investigating the January 6 attack.Trump under investigation for potential violations of Espionage Act, warrant revealsRead moreTwo House Democratic committee chairs have today sent a letter to Joseph V. Cuffari, the department of homeland security’s inspector general, accusing him of blocking their probe into the January 6 insurrection.Cuffari has been at the center over the scandal caused by the Secret Service’s deletion of texts from around the time of the attack on the US Capitol, which the agency has said was caused by a change in their phone technology, but which lawmakers investigating the attack worried may be an attempt to cover up details of what happened that day.“In response to the committees’ requests, you have refused to produce responsive documents and blocked employees in your office from appearing for transcribed interviews. Your obstruction of the committees’ investigations is unacceptable, and your justifications for this noncompliance appear to reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of Congress’s authority and your duties as an inspector general,” Carolyn B. Maloney, chairwoman of the oversight and reform committee, and Bennie G. Thompson, chairman of the homeland security committee, wrote to Cuffari.“If you continue to refuse to comply with our requests, we will have no choice but to consider alternate measures to ensure your compliance.”Last week, it was revealed that Cuffari apparently failed to act on a memo from top career officials in his office to Congress informing lawmakers that the texts had been erased.Secret Service watchdog suppressed memo on January 6 texts erasureRead moreIndeed, the federal government has followed through on its plans to ration water as the west faces a “megadrought”, with the interior department announcing it will again cut water releases from the Hoover and Glen Canyon Dams.The two embankments create lakes Powell and Mead, which together provide water to 40 million people in the southwestern United States.Here’s more from deputy interior secretary Tommy Beaudreau:Today, @Interior announced urgent actions to improve and protect the long-term sustainability of the Colorado River System in the face of climate change-driven drought, extreme heat and low precipitation. https://t.co/bPFnmy3nwF— Tommy Beaudreau (@DepSecBeaudreau) August 16, 2022
      We are committed to using every resource available to conserve water and ensure that irrigators, Tribes and communities receive assistance and support to build resilient communities and protect our water supplies.— Tommy Beaudreau (@DepSecBeaudreau) August 16, 2022
      As drought shrivels Lake Powell, millions face power crisisRead moreThe federal government may today announce water cuts in western states in an attempt to conserve resources amid the region’s “megadrought”, Richard Luscombe reports:Water cuts are expected to be announced on Tuesday to western states in the grip of a severe “megadrought” that has dropped levels in the country’s largest two reservoirs to record lows.The flow of the Colorado river, which provides water to more than 40 million people across seven states and Mexico, will be stemmed to reduce supply to Arizona and Nevada initially, if the federal government confirms the proposal.The crisis, which has dropped levels in Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US to an 80-year low of barely one-quarter its 28.9m acre-feet capacity, is threatening the future of the crucial river basin.It has also led to potential disruption of water delivery and hydropower production, forcing the US Bureau of Reclamation to consider drastic action.Drastic water cuts expected as ‘megadrought’ grips western US statesRead moreJoe Biden will this afternoon sign into law his marquee spending plan to fight climate change and lower healthcare costs, as his administration looks to make the most of hopeful political developments ahead of November’s midterm elections.Here’s a look back at what has happened today so far:
      First lady Jill Biden has tested positive for Covid-19, and will isolate in South Carolina, where she was on vacation with her husband. Joe Biden remains negative, and is heading back to the White House for the 3.30pm eastern time signing of the Inflation Reduction Act spending plan.
      The White House is making plans for a campaign to convince men and women alike of the harm of abortion bans, and to sue states that restrict the procedure.
      Democrats consider the Inflation Reduction Act to be a major win, but in an interview with the Guardian, independent senator Bernie Sanders outlined the many ways in which he feels it falls short.
      The Guardian’s Ramon Antonio Vargas spoke with the mother of a man who shot himself after driving into a barricade at the US Capitol. She attributed his actions not to politics, but rather brain trauma from playing football:The mother of a Delaware man who shot himself to death after driving into a US Capitol barricade over the weekend says she believes he was struggling with brain trauma from growing up playing football.Richard Aaron York III’s mother, Tamara Cunningham, said she suspects his past as a high school football player left him with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain condition colloquially known as CTE. Some football players develop CTE because of repeated head blows that are common to the sport.“Something was going on for a while,” Cunningham told the Guardian in an interview Tuesday. “And it was progressively getting worse.”Mother of man who shot himself after driving into Capitol barrier speaks outRead moreThe Biden White House has plans for capitalizing on both the defeat of the anti-abortion ballot initiative in Kansas this month and the supreme court’s June decision overturning Roe v Wade, Reuters reports.The campaign is targeted at both women and men, and among its goals is getting Americans to better understand the economic and mental health effects abortion bans can have. The justice department also plans to use two laws to sue states that try to crack down on access to the procedure, as well as on abortion pills.“The idea is to be much more disciplined and consistent in messaging to break through to the everyday American,” a source with direct knowledge of the plans told Reuters. More

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      Fears of violence grow after FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago – as it happened

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      According to the memo from the FBI and department of homeland security, the federal agencies have identified an increase in threats “occurring primarily online and across multiple platforms” including social media.They specifically link the increase to the August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago, a strong sign of yet more legal trouble to come for the former president.“The FBI and DHS have observed an increase in violent threats posted on social media against federal officials and facilities, including a threat to place a so-called dirty bomb in front of FBI Headquarters and issuing general calls for ‘civil war’ and ‘armed rebellion,’” the agencies wrote.Far-right Republican lawmakers in the House have joined in the attacks on federal law enforcement, including Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene:Impeach Merrick Garland and Defund the corrupt FBI!End political persecution and hold those accountable that abuse their positions of power to persecute their political enemies, while ruining our country.This shouldn’t happen in America.Republicans must force it to stop!— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) August 15, 2022
      She was joined by Arizona’s Paul Gosar:It is crucial that we hold our Department of Justice accountable after the obvious political persecution of opposition to the Biden Regime.The “national security state” that works against America must be dismantled.— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) August 14, 2022
      Yet there seems to be an awareness among Republicans that the attacks don’t match the message of a party that attempts to cast itself as supporters of law enforcement. “We cannot say that whenever they went in and did that search, that they were not doing their job as law enforcement officers,” Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson said of the FBI in a Sunday interview on CNN:”We need to pull back on casting judgment on them.”Gov. @AsaHutchinson (R-AR) responds to Republicans attacking the FBI after investigators seized classified documents from Trump’s home. @CNNSotu #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/o1CtvURUmB— CNN (@CNN) August 14, 2022
      The investigations into the Trump administration continued today, with Rudy Giuliani being informed that he was a target of the special grand jury looking into election meddling in Georgia, while another former Donald Trump lawyer, Eric Herschmann, was subpoenaed by the federal grand jury looking into the January 6 attack. Republican senator Lindsey Graham also lost his attempt to quash a subpoena compelling his appearance before the Georgia panel, though he has vowed to appeal. Meanwhile, a Trumpworld source said the former president should declare his 2024 run for the presidency soon to avoid indictment.Here’s what else happened today:
      US defense secretary Lloyd Austin tested positive for Covid-19 for the second time this year, he announced. His symptoms are mild and he’ll work remotely.
      President Joe Biden will tomorrow sign the Inflation Reduction Act into law, his marquee plan to lower both America’s carbon emissions and costs for health care.
      Democrats fear that if the Republicans win the House this fall they could reinstate the Holman Rule, which allows the party in control of the chamber to write language into spending bills to cut the salaries of federal employees such as the attorney general or FBI officials, The Washington Post reports.
      Much attention tomorrow night will be on the Wyoming and Alaska primaries, where congresswoman Liz Cheney is battling a Republican challenger in Wyoming and former vice-presidential candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin is hoping for a comeback by winning the state’s lone congressional seat.
      The FBI and department of homeland security have warned of an increase in violent threats posted on social media against federal officials and facilities, including a threat to place a so-called dirty bomb in front of FBI headquarters in Washington DC and the issuing of general calls for “civil war” and “armed rebellion”.
      The Senate Republican campaign fund is slashing its ad purchases in three crucial states, The New York Times reports.The cuts made in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Arizona total about $10 million, and are a sign of lackluster fundraising for the GOP’s attempt to retake the upper chamber of Congress, where it needs only one additional seat to create a majority. The Republican candidates in Pennsylvania, Mehmet Oz, and in Arizona, Blake Masters, are both down in the polls, according to FiveThirtyEight, although incumbent Republican Ron Johnson is leading in Wisconsin.President Joe Biden will tomorrow sign into law the Inflation Reduction Act, his marquee plan to lower both America’s carbon emissions and costs for health care.Tomorrow’s event will take place in the White House State Dining Room, the Biden administration announced. In the coming weeks, Biden “will host a Cabinet meeting focused on implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, will travel across the country to highlight how the bill will help the American people, and will host an event to celebrate the enactment of the bill at the White House on September 6.”The act’s passage came after more than a year of negotiations among Democrats, who set out to pass what the Biden administration hoped would be transformational legislation addressing a range of issues from the high costs of child and elder case, to the nationwide housing shortage, to immigration reform. But Republicans refused to support the bill, and the party’s razor-thin margin of control in Congress meant many of those proposals were stripped out of the bill, chiefly due to opposition from conservative Democratic senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin.US House passes Democrats’ landmark healthcare and climate billRead moreThe Guardian’s Hugo Lowell has further details about Rudy Giuliani’s new legal trouble in Georgia:Donald Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani is a target of the criminal investigation in Georgia that has been examining efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in that state by the former president and his allies, a source briefed on the matter confirmed on Monday.The move to designate Giuliani, 78, as a target – as opposed to a subject – raises the legal stakes for the ex-New York mayor, identified as a key figure in the attempt to reverse the former president’s electoral defeat to Joe Biden in the state.The office of Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney prosecuting the case, told Giuliani he was a target of the criminal investigation into that attempt.Rudy Giuliani informed he is target of criminal investigation in GeorgiaRead moreA source close to former president Donald Trump says he should announce his 2024 campaign for presidency soon if he wants to avoid indictment, Martin Pengelly reports:Donald Trump “has to” announce a campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 in the next two weeks, a senior Trumpworld source said, if the former president wants to head off being indicted under the Espionage Act after the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago last week.In communications obtained by the Guardian, the source indicated Trump needed to announce because politically it would be harder for the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to indict a candidate for office than a former president out of the electoral running.The source also suggested Ron DeSantis, Trump’s only serious competitor in Republican polling, will not run in 2024 if Trump chooses to enter the race.Trump should announce run for 2024 soon to avoid indictment, source saysRead moreEric Herschmann, a lawyer who advised Donald Trump and has become one of the more well known witnesses before the January 6 committee, has received a subpoena from the federal grand jury investigating the attack, Politico reports.He joins former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy Patrick Philbin in receiving summons from the panel looking into the breach of the US Capitol by Trump’s enraged supporters.With his witty ripostes and salty language, Herschmann’s testimony was among the more memorable aired by the January 6 committee. The lawyer detailed his opposition to other officials in the Trump White House, who wanted to take drastic actions to overturn the president’s loss in the 2020 election. More

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      The Guardian view on Biden’s green deal: leadership after Trump’s denialism | Editorial

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      The Guardian view on Biden’s green deal: leadership after Trump’s denialismEditorialThe first major climate law passed in the US comes not a moment too soon for a burning planet When the House of Representatives passed landmark climate legislation on Friday, Joe Biden chalked up one of the surprise successes of his presidency. Only last month his ambitious agenda appeared sunk after a conservative Democrat and coal baron, Joe Manchin, refused to back it. His vote is crucial in an evenly divided Senate. However, the climate proposals were largely resurrected in the form of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), co-authored by Mr Manchin, which Congress approved.The first major US climate law comes not a moment too soon. It is the country’s best and last opportunity to meet its goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and, with it, a world where net zero by mid-century is possible. After Donald Trump, Mr Biden can reclaim the mantle of global climate leadership for the US. But the act reveals the limits of his power.The Democrats’ initial $3.5tn plan was to expand education, fight poverty, lower healthcare costs and tackle climate change. That was whittled down to a $1.75tn bill that the House passed last year. But it got nowhere in the Senate. Mr Manchin refused to back the social security programmes and his centrist colleague Kyrsten Sinema refused to back the tax rises. What was left was $490bn in climate and healthcare investments.This deserves a small cheer from progressives. Mr Biden is pursuing a muscular policy of state intervention in the economy. The act for the first time gives the federal government the power to negotiate lower drug prices. Significantly for the climate, it represents a new US industrial policy that subsidises zero-carbon power production via tax credits. It also recognises that the US is falling behind China in green technology – spending $152bn less on renewable investments last year – and focuses on ways to encourage clean-energy manufacturing.Politics in the US is unfortunately far too influenced by the power of vested interests. The US remains addicted to fossil fuels, which generate 61% of its electricity. Its shale gas industry is looking to replace Russia as the major energy supplier to Europe. The upshot was that fossil fuel lobbyists won concessions in the climate legislation. The compromise means linking renewable development to new oil and gas extraction for which many communities will bear the disproportionate cost.Nevertheless, for every one tonne of emissions caused by the act’s fossil fuel provisions, the non-partisan Energy Innovation thinktank says 24 tonnes of emissions are avoided by its green provisions. This ought to help energise Mr Biden’s base ahead of the midterm elections. Despite Republican antagonism, climate action enjoys broad support in the US. A Pew Research Center poll suggests that 58% of voters think the federal government is doing too little to “reduce the effects of global climate change, compared with just 18% who say it is doing too much”.To be a truly transformative president, Mr Biden will need to remake society. What the act demonstrates is that he does not have the votes – yet – in his own party for such a programme. Mr Biden’s climate plans may fall short because he is relying on the carrot of spending rather than the stick of taxes to underpin an energy transition. Yet the wasteful consumption of the wealthy will have to be reduced with progressive taxation to make resources available for socially-useful spending. Ultimately the climate emergency needs a fundamental economic restructuring. Mr Biden’s new environmental law is a good start, but there’s a very long way to go.TopicsClimate crisisOpinionUS politicsJoe BidenNancy PelosiDemocratsRepublicanseditorialsReuse this content More

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      How a wild week in Washington changed the game for Biden and Trump

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      How a wild week in Washington changed the game for Biden and Trump As the midterms approach, Biden’s climate success and Trump’s legal troubles could offer Democrats unexpected hopeDeparting his small, unshowy home state of Delaware, Joe Biden roared into the sky aboard Air Force One, borne aloft by jet fuel and a dramatic uplift in his political fortunes.A thousand miles away, some unexpected guests had just arrived at the opulent Florida estate of the US president’s predecessor, Donald Trump, but not for its champagne, sumptuous buffet or two pound lobsters.At about 9am on Monday, FBI agents – said to number between 30 and 40, some wearing suits, most in T-shirts, casual trousers, masks and gloves – began a search of Mar-a-Lago for government secrets that should not have left the White House.It was a tale of two presidents: Biden at his zenith, gaining praise for a “hot streak” and earning comparisons with the master legislator Lyndon Johnson; Trump at his nadir, under criminal investigation for potential violations of the Espionage Act and earning comparisons with the 1920s gangster Al Capone.And yet, such is the upside down nature of American politics in 2022, determining who won and who lost the week was less clear cut. For Biden, to be sure, it was a much needed boost after months of Washington gridlock, miserable poll ratings and speculation that he could face a challenger from his own Democratic party in the 2024 presidential election.But Trump, perversely, also appeared to end the week stronger within his party than he began it. He had faced growing dissent over damaging revelations from the congressional committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. Yet his claim that his home had been “raided” by law enforcement prompted Republicans to unite behind him with renewed zeal.The upshot was that Biden, 79, and 76-year-old Trump had each received a political blood transfusion when they needed it most. If recent events proved anything, it was that they are still the most likely contenders for the White House in 2024. America’s gerontocracy is not done yet.For a president long called a carnival barker and reality TV star reveling in spectacle, the FBI search on Monday began innocuously enough, with neither Trump nor cameras present (his son, Eric, told Fox News that he had been the first to learn of it and informed his father).Democrats’ midterm prospects perk up as Biden finally hits his strideRead moreThe FBI agents had a search warrant as part of a justice department investigation into the discovery of classified White House records recovered from Mar-a-Lago earlier this year. They wore plain clothes and were given access by the Secret Service without drama.The agents reportedly seized 11 sets of classified information, some of which was marked “top secret”, along with binders, handwritten notes and information about the “President of France”. Trump denied a Washington Post article that said the search was for possible classified materials related to nuclear weapons.It ended at about 6.30pm on Monday and word broke on social media a few minutes later, quickly followed by confirmation from Trump himself. In a characteristically hyperbolic statement, he fumed that Mar-a-Lago was “currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents. Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before… They even broke into my safe!”Trump claimed the search was politically motivated and attempted to draw a contrast with his old foe Hillary Clinton, but perhaps the most important sentence asserted: “It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.”Like a herd of wildebeest, Republicans stampeded thunderously as one. “Weaponization”, “banana republic” and “dictatorship” were the go-to words of the week along with a blitz of fundraising emails. Some in the party of law and order, which had castigated Democrats over the “defund the police” slogan, were now calling for the FBI to be defunded.Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, claimed that the government has gone the way of “the Gestapo”, the secret police in Nazi Germany. Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona tweeted: “We must destroy the FBI. We must save America. I stand with Donald J Trump.”Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, warned the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, to “preserve your documents and clear your calendar” because, if Republicans take control of the House in November’s midterm elections, they will hold oversight investigations into the justice department.So far, so Maga. Perhaps more tellingly, even Republicans who had previously distanced themselves from Trump felt compelled to toe the line. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell demanded a “thorough and immediate explanation” of what led to the search.The former vice-president Mike Pence, who fell out with the former president over January 6, said “the appearance of continued partisanship by the justice department must be addressed”. Other potential contenders for the Republican nomination in 2024, including Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, joined the chorus.Opinion polls confirmed that the FBI search had given Trump at least a modest boost among Republicans. A survey by Morning Consult found that 57% of Republican voters and Republican-leaning independents would vote for Trump if the 2024 primary were being held today, up from 53% in mid-July. DeSantis fell from 23% to 17% over the same period.This followed a run of victories for Trump-backed candidates in congressional primary elections. In the spring and early summer, his record had been uneven with notable setbacks in states such as Georgia. But this month, his slate of election-deniers beat establishment-backed candidates in Arizona.The businessman Tim Michels won the Republican primary for governor of Wisconsin with Trump’s backing. Most of the 10 Republican members of Congress who voted to impeach Trump have either retired or lost. Liz Cheney, the vice-chair of the January 6 committee, will be on the Wyoming ballot on Tuesday and is widely expected to lose her seat.A the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, 69% of attendees said they wanted Trump as the Republican nominee in 2024, well ahead of DeSantis on 24%. Jim McLaughlin, who conducted the straw poll, said: “He’s more popular than ever.”Yet even as Trump tightens his grip on the Republican base, his new status as the first former US president to suffer the indignity of having his home searched by the FBI offers another reason why moderate and independent voters could slip through his fingers.Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said: “There are two contrary effects. With Republicans, or at least the Republican base, this has caused them to rally around not the flag but Donald Trump. It has strengthened him within the party and discouraged people like DeSantis, whether he admits it or not, and the others aren’t even on the radar screen at this point.“But the contrary effect for not just Democrats but also independents is it makes Trump less electable in 2024. People look at him and even if they like him they say his time has passed and he’s too controversial, I’ve heard this a million times and I don’t think it’s exceptional.”Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, agrees that Republicans’ fast and furious defense of Trump should not necessarily be taken at face value as the midterms approach.An anxious American west sizes up historic climate bill: ‘We need every tool’Read moreShe said: “They’re squeezing all of this enthusiasm out of his base, promising them all sorts of things, just to make sure that they get out and vote on 8 November.”Schiller added: “They’re using Donald Trump to get to the promised land in November but, as soon as they get there, it’s not clear to me that they stay loyal to him particularly. They don’t have to. Once they get the Congress, particularly if they get the Senate, and if Ron DeSantis wins big in Florida for re-election, he doesn’t need Donald Trump to get the nomination or the presidency.”Whatever their motivations, Republicans’ rush of incendiary and reckless rhetoric also came with a dark and dangerous side. Pro-Trump online chatrooms filled with calls for violence and phrases such as “lock and load” while “civil war” trended on Twitter.On Thursday an armed man wearing body armor tried to breach a security screening area at an FBI field office in Ohio, then fled and was later killed after a standoff with law enforcement. The man is believed to have been in Washington in the days before the assault on the US Capitol and may have been there on the day it took place.Trump’s legal perils – federal and state, civil and criminal – continue to mount. In a separate case, he sat for a deposition on Wednesday as the New York attorney general, Letitia James, wraps up a civil investigation into allegations that his company misled lenders and tax authorities about asset values.Even as Trump invoked his fifth-amendment protection against self-incrimination more than 400 times, Biden was at the White House celebrating another victory. He signed bipartisan legislation to pour billions of dollars into care for military veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.It was one of several victories for a president who just last month was being written off as a likely one-term president with an approval rating below 40% – worse even than Trump’s – because of inflation, a stalled agenda and a desire for generational change. The Axios website started a list of Democratic officials’ positions on whether they want Biden to run again in 2024, noting that two gave firm “no”s and 19 dodged the question.But the narrative has shifted quickly in just a few weeks even as Biden battled a coronavirus infection and lingering cough. Congress, where Democrats have wafer-thin majorities, sent bipartisan bills addressing gun violence and boosting the nation’s high-tech manufacturing sector to his desk.On Friday, the president secured what he called the “final piece” of his economic agenda with passage of a $740bn climate and prescription drug deal once thought dead. In addition, petrol prices dipped below $4 a gallon for the first time since March, inflation appears to be stabilising and the economy added 528,000 jobs in July, bringing the unemployment rate to 3.5%, the lowest in half a century.And Biden successfully ordered the killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri in a US drone strike in Afghanistan, the most significant blow to the terrorist network since the death of Osama Bin Laden. Democrats and the White House hope the run of victories will revive their their political fortunes in time for the midterms.Bob Shrum, a veteran Democratic strategist, said: “When you combine what’s happened in the last month legislatively with the supreme court decision overturning Roe v Wade [the constitutional right to abortion], you may have a very different situation for Democrats going into the midterms and for Biden in the second half of his term and a possible re-election.”Shrum, director of the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California Dornsife, does not buy the notion that Trump has been strengthened by his latest crisis. “He’s still the dominant force in the Republican party but he’s not as dominant as he was a year ago. He might be able to win a plurality nomination, but I actually think he’d be a very weak Republican nominee. He literally could get into a position where running would be a part time occupation and defending himself in court would be the full time occupation.”The 2024 election is an age away. Most commentators agree that, despite all the unknowables facing both men, including those related to being older than any other American presidents in history, a Biden v Trump rematch remains the most likely scenario.Michael Steele, a Trump critic and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said: “Let’s settle this once and for all. Let’s stomp Trump’s ass into the ground one more time. He lost by 8m votes last time; he’ll lose by 16m next time. You want to play? Let’s play. Democrats, with all their navel gazing, whining and bellyaching about Joe Biden’s age and this and that, shut the hell up!”Steele added: “The most likely outcome going into 2024 is that it will be a repeat of the 2020 election. All stakes remain the same, if not higher, and the American people are going to have to decide once and for all: are we down with autocracy or are we up with democracy?”TopicsUS politicsJoe BidenDonald TrumpDemocratsRepublicansfeaturesReuse this content More

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      ‘Truth, courage, resilience’: Biden hails Salman Rushdie after attack

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      ‘Truth, courage, resilience’: Biden hails Salman Rushdie after attackPresident says author stands for ‘essential, universal ideals’ and ‘the ability to share ideas without fear’ A day after Salman Rushdie’s stabbing in western New York, Joe Biden on Saturday issued a statement hailing the author as standing “for essential, universal ideals”.“Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear,” the president’s statement added about Rushdie, who spent years in hiding after a former leader of Iran put out a call for the writer’s death over one of his novels. “These are the building blocks of any free and open society. And today, we reaffirm our commitment to those deeply American values in solidarity with Rushdie and all those who stand for freedom of expression.”Biden also said he and Jill Biden offered prayers to Rushdie, and he thanked those who came to the writer’s aid after the stabbing, which left Biden “shocked and saddened”.Rushdie, 75, was at a literary festival hosted by the Chautauqua Institution to speak about how important it was for the US to give asylum to exiled writers when he was stabbed.Authorities allege Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, rushed on stage and knifed Rushdie repeatedly before being tackled by spectators, institution staffers and police providing security.Rushdie suffered three stabs wounds to the right front of his neck, another four to his stomach, one each to his right eye and chest, and a cut to his right thigh, the local district attorney, Jason Schmidt, said Saturday.A helicopter crew flew Rushdie to a hospital in nearby Erie, Pennsylvania. He remained hospitalized on Saturday, with his liver damaged, nerves in his arm severed and at the risk of losing an eye, according to his literary agent.New York officials have charged Matar with attempted murder as well as assault on a man who was sharing the stage with Rushdie and suffered a relatively small facial wound during the stabbing. Matar has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.Investigators haven’t said why they believe Matar may have wanted to kill Rushdie. But at a preliminary court hearing on Saturday, the local district attorney alluded to the fatwa – or decree – calling for his life that late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini put out in 1989.The fatwa – well before Matar was born – was in retribution for Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. Many Muslims interpreted the Indian-born author’s book as blasphemous because it included a character they found insulting to the prophet Muhammad, the founder of their faith.Iran’s government has since tried to distance itself from the fatwa, but with the help of religious extremists, an accompanying bounty was increased in recent years to more than $3m.Matar’s social media activity reportedly reflects an admiration of Iran’s government as well as Islamic extremism.Rushdie lived in hiding and under police protection for years after the fatwa. But more recently he had been living openly in New York, which Biden’s statement hailed as “a refusal to be intimidated or silenced”.Biden – whose administration is trying to re-enter a nuclear deal with Iran – also said Rushdie had demonstrated “insight into humanity with his unmatched sense for story”.TopicsUS newsSalman RushdieJoe BidenUS politicsIranReuse this content More