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      Too old to run again? Biden faces questions about his age as crises mount

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      Too old to run again? Biden faces questions about his age as crises mount Faced with a grim outlook for 2022, some Democrats are looking ahead to 2024 and asking, is Joe Biden the best person to lead the party and the US?Joe Biden is having a rough summer. The US supreme court has overturned Roe v Wade, ending federal protections for abortion access. Although gas prices are now falling, they remain high and have driven inflation to its largest annual increase in more than 40 years. West Virginia senator Joe Manchin has finally ended any hopes that the president had of passing a climate bill in Congress. With an evenly divided Senate, Biden’s options for addressing these problems – or enacting any of his other legislative priorities – are bleak.The American people have taken note. Biden’s approval rating has steadily fallen since April and now sits in the high 30s. A recent Monmouth poll found that only 10% of Americans believe the country is heading in the right direction.Biden in crisis mode as specter of one-term Carter haunts White HouseRead moreAmid this pessimism, Democrats are bracing for a potential shellacking in the midterm elections, as Republicans appear poised to regain control of the House of Representatives. Faced with a grim outlook for 2022, some Democrats are already looking ahead to 2024 and asking, is Joe Biden the best person to lead the party and the nation?Questions over whether Biden should seek re-election in 2024 have grown louder in recent weeks. A New York Times/Siena College poll taken this month found that 64% of Democrats say they would prefer a different nominee for 2024. Among Democrats under 30, that figure rises to 94%.Ellen Sciales, a spokesperson for the youth-led climate group Sunrise Movement, said voters of her generation have grown disillusioned with Biden and other Democratic party leaders. After turning out to vote at near-record levels in 2020, young voters are now watching in dismay as the climate crisis accelerates and reproductive rights are stripped away, Sciales said.“Democrats should be treating the loss of my generation as an existential threat,” Sciales said. “We’ve been warning Democrats that unless they pass real meaningful policy immediately, like what was promised in Build Back Better, they are going to lose the engagement of so many voters, threatening their chances in 2022, 2024 and even further.”In addition to his sinking approval rating, Biden is facing increasingly pointed questions about his age. At 79 years old, Biden is already the oldest president in US history, and if re-elected, he would be 86 when his second term ended. The Times/Siena poll found that age and poor job performance ranked as the top two reasons why Democrats said Biden should not run again in 2024.The White House has publicly dismissed concerns about Biden getting older. “That is not a question that we should be even asking,” the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said last month.But some of Biden’s aides privately tell a different story. According to a recent New York Times report, White House staffers have expressed hesitation about scheduling long international trips for Biden, out of concern that they are too taxing for him. They also worry that Biden’s slower, more shuffling gait could cause him to fall, and they fret over his tendency to jumble words in speeches. David Axelrod, who previously served as Barack Obama’s chief campaign strategist, has said that Biden’s age could be a “major issue” if he seeks re-election.A New York Times columnist last week wrote an article titled “Joe Biden is Too Old to be President Again”, but pointed out that this was a wider problem with US politics. “There’s a problem here that goes beyond Biden himself. We are ruled by a gerontocracy. Biden is 79. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is 82. The House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, is 83. The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, is 71. Often, it’s not clear if they grasp how broken this country is.”Biden insists he still plans to run again in 2024, assuming his health cooperates. “I’m a great respecter of fate. Fate has intervened in my life many, many times,” Biden said in December. “If I’m in the health I’m in now, if I’m in good health, then in fact, I would run again.”But those comments have not quelled the 2024 conversation, even among fellow Democrats. When progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was asked whether she would endorse Biden as the Democratic nominee in 2024, she demurred.“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Ocasio-Cortez said last month. Weeks later, she dodged questions from late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert about whether she would consider launching her own presidential campaign in 2024.If Ocasio-Cortez or another progressive leader chose to challenge Biden, it would be a historic candidacy. No sitting Democratic president has faced a primary challenge since 1980, when Ted Kennedy chose to run against Jimmy Carter as the country faced record-high inflation and gas shortages. Carter was able to defeat Kennedy in the primary, but he ultimately lost the general election to a Republican candidate who promised to “make America great again”: Ronald Reagan..Jon Ward, author of Camelot’s End, which chronicles the 1980 Democratic primary, said there are some clear parallels and important distinctions between Carter and Biden. While Carter had a clear-cut opponent in Kennedy, it remains unclear who – if anyone – from the Democratic party’s highest ranks would challenge Biden.But one element working in Biden’s favor is time, Ward said. The 2024 presidential election is still more than two years away, giving the economy some breathing room to return to a place of greater stability.“There’s time for inflation to ease and for the economy to turn around,” Ward said. “However, it’s not clear that’s where we’re headed, since there are a lot of forecasts of recession and even the prospect of the very ‘stagflation’ that crippled Carter.”Biden’s allies insist he has time to improve the economy and the nation’s broader outlook, and they are generally dismissive of polls indicating he should step aside in 2024.“Polls are a snapshot of the time,” said Antjuan Seawright, Democratic strategist and senior adviser to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Truth be told, what’s hot today could be cold tomorrow, and what’s cold today, it could be very hot tomorrow.”Seawright criticized the recent 2024 chatter as “a manufactured outrage from a few in our party”, suggesting those who are engaging in the speculation should instead rededicate themselves to the midterm elections.Even some of the progressives who did not support Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary echo that point. Rahna Epting, executive director of the progressive group MoveOn, said she has not yet been talking about the 2024 election because of her single-minded concentration on the midterms.Emphasizing the urgency of the upcoming elections, Epting noted that some of the gubernatorial, state legislative and secretary of state races being held this year will have sweeping implications for 2024. A number of Republican candidates who have embraced Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 race are now running for posts that could help them determine election rules in 2024.“We’re going to find out whether our elections in 2024 are going to be free and fair, based on who ends up in office in 2022,” Epting said. “The very terrain of our democracy and our election system is going to be decided this election cycle.”TopicsJoe BidenUS elections 2024US politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Bernie Sanders condemns Joe Manchin for sabotaging president’s agenda

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      Bernie Sanders condemns Joe Manchin for sabotaging president’s agenda Senator also rebukes Biden for Saudi Arabia trip: ‘I don’t believe we should maintain a warm relationship with a dictator like that’ Bernie Sanders harshly criticized prominent fellow Democrats on Sunday, accusing his Senate colleague Joe Manchin of sabotaging the president’s agenda and rebuking Joe Biden for traveling to Saudi Arabia last week.During an appearance on ABC’s This Week, Sanders interrupted host Martha Raddatz when she said Manchin had “abruptly pulled the plug” on supporting a scaled-back version of a spending bill that is crucial to Biden’s agenda. Manchin said he would not support provisions in the bill that increase spending to combat climate change and close tax loopholes. Democrats cannot pass the bill without Manchin’s support in a US Senate that is divided 50-50, with vice-president Kamala Harris serving as a tiebreaker in the event one is needed.The other Joe: how Manchin destroys Biden’s plans, angering DemocratsRead more“He didn’t abruptly do anything – he has sabotaged the president’s agenda,” Sanders said. “If you check the record, six months ago, I made it clear that you have people like Manchin, Sinema to a lesser degree, who are intentionally sabotaging the president’s agenda, what the American people want, what a majority of us in the Democratic caucus want.”“Nothing new about this,” he added. “The problem was that we continued to talk to Manchin like he was serious. He was not,” noting how the West Virginia senator and coal baron has benefited from campaign contributions from fossil fuel companies.Manchin said last week that he wants to delay any major decisions on the bill because of high inflation. Sanders said Sunday he wasn’t buying that justification, saying the people of West Virginia would support the provisions in the bill.“It’s the same nonsense Manchin has been talking about for a year,” he said. “In my humble opinion, Manchin represents the very wealthiest people in this country, not working families in West Virginia or America.”Biden tells summit of Arab leaders the US ‘will not walk away’ from Middle EastRead moreSanders also criticized Biden for his recent trip to Saudi Arabia, where the president fist-bumped and met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.The president has faced heavy criticism for the trip largely because Prince Mohammed personally approved the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, US intelligence agencies have concluded.As a presidential candidate Biden said he would make Saudi Arabia a “pariah”, but has defended the trip as necessary to promote US interests in the Middle East, including stabilizing troubled oil markets. Biden said to reporters on Friday that he personally told the Saudi crown prince he believed he was responsible for Khashoggi’s murder.Sanders said Biden should not have gone to Saudi Arabia.“You have a leader of that country who was involved in the murder of a Washington Post journalist,” Sanders said. “I don’t think that that type of government should be rewarded with a visit by the president of the United States.“I just don’t believe that we should be maintaining a warm relationship with a dictator like that.”TopicsJoe BidenBernie SandersJoe ManchinUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      The other Joe: how Manchin stands in the way of Biden, angering Democrats

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      The other Joe: how Manchin stands in the way of Biden, angering Democrats The centrist Democrat senator has repeatedly stood in the way of the president’s most ambitious legislative aspirations and derailed fragile negotiationsJoe Biden calls him “Jo-Jo”, an affectionate nickname for the West Virginia senator who, at critical moments during his presidency, has been the Joe holding all the cards.And this week Joe Manchin, a lonely coal state Democrat who has repeatedly stood in the way of the president’s most ambitious legislative aspirations, derailed weeks of negotiations in pursuit of a deal on a scaled-back version of Biden’s economic agenda that would win his support.Anger as Manchin kills Democrats’ climate plans – what happens now?Read moreWith control of Congress at stake, Democrats had hoped to reach a deal that fulfilled their campaign promises to combat global warming and expand the social safety net by the end of the month, giving lawmakers a legislative achievement to campaign on in the fall. But Manchin’s latest gambit all but ensured Democrats’ biggest ambitions would go unrealized.“Rage keeps me from tears,” Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts and sponsor of the Green New Deal, wrote on Twitter late Thursday, as news broke of Manchin’s opposition. “Resolve keeps me from despair.”In a private discussion on Thursday, Manchin told Democratic leaders that he could not support a bill that contains new spending to combat climate change or raises taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations.By Friday morning, he had clarified his position. It was “not prudent” for Democrats to approve a major spending package while Americans faced painfully high costs for food, fuel and rent, the 74-year-old said in a radio interview.“Inflation is wreaking havoc on everybody’s life,” Manchin told the host, Hoppy Kercheval.But he offered an ultimatum: Democrats could accept a narrow deal now or try to pass a larger plan later, if the economic forecast improves.With his economic agenda in peril, Biden urged Democrats in Congress to accept what they could get done immediately to lower healthcare costs and vowed to act unilaterally on the climate crisis.The demands came at an inauspicious moment for the party’s leaders: the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, who has been leading the fragile talks with Manchin, is stuck quarantining at home in Brooklyn after a Covid diagnosis while Biden was on a high-stakes trip to the Middle East. The president outlined his preferred course of action in a statement sent after he held a controversial meeting with the Saudi leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, during which rising fuel prices and oil production were top of the agenda.“Let me be clear: if the Senate will not move to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, I will take strong executive action to meet this moment,” he said.It was in effect an acknowledgment that after more than a year of tortuous negotiations, Manchin could not be moved, not by activists, not by his colleagues, and not even by the president of the United States.“At some point you have to take the man at his word that he is not going to do that which he says he is not going to do,” said Christopher Regan, a former vice-chair of the West Virginia Democratic party who worked with Manchin.In a Senate divided evenly between the parties, any one Democrat could play king or queenmaker. But no one has done so more boldly or more frequently than Manchin.Fiscally conscious and socially conservative, Manchin is glaringly out of step with today’s Democratic party – and he knows it. At one point, he even offered to leave the Democratic party if his colleagues thought he’d become too much of an “embarrassment” – an offer he said they roundly rejected.Manchin comes from a political family in West Virginia, part of a legacy of Industrial-era Democrats who formed the party’s blue-collar base. Once one of the most reliably Democratic states, West Virginia began to turn sharply against the party, as the party bled support from white, working-class voters. In 2020, every single county in West Virginia voted for Donald Trump.Manchin, who began his career in state politics and served as governor, has so far defied the state’s lurch to the right. He was elected to the Senate in 2010, two years after Biden left to become vice-president, and won re-election in 2018.His victory helped Democrats build their fragile majority, with vice-president Kamala Harris serving as the 51st and tie-breaking vote.Reaching consensus hasn’t been easy. Manchin’s vote has been critical to approving Biden’s judicial nominees, and he ultimately signed off on the president’s massive Covid relief legislation over unanimous Republican opposition.But Manchin has joined Republicans to imperil some of Biden’s nominations, including Neera Tanden, who the president tapped to run the Office of Management and Budget and Sarah Bloom Raskin, who he chose to serve on the Federal Reserve. Neither were confirmed.Manchin is also a staunch defender of the filibuster, a Senate rule requiring 60 votes to advance legislation which he insists encourages consensus in a deeply tribal chamber. Even when Republicans tested that view by obstructing a voting rights bill he crafted as a compromise solution to the matter, Manchin, joined by Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, remained firm.It’s a stance that puts the Democrats at odds with Biden, an avowed institutional who has nevertheless endorsed changing the filibuster rules to pass votings right legislation and abortion protections.In recent weeks, Biden has made repeated reference to their opposition, telling Democrats “we need two more senators” to break the current gridlock that has paralyzed much of his agenda.Nothing has angered Democrats more than Manchin’s opposition to Biden’s economic agenda.Known as Build Back Better, it began with New Deal-sized ambitions that, even at its slimmest, would still have dramatically expanded the social safety net and invested in critical efforts to lower carbon emissions.After months of frantically trimming and tailoring the legislation to meet Manchin’s demands, the senator abruptly drove a stake through the heart of the Democrats’ plan. Adding insult to injury, in the eyes of his colleagues, he announced his decision during an interview on Fox News. The revelation was so unexpected, it startled the host, Bret Baier, who asked for clarity: “You’re done? This is a no?”He was done.Talks on a stripped-down version of the bill began quietly earlier this year. Democratic leaders and the White House sought to keep expectations low even as the party’s demoralized supporters demanded action. Manchin says he’s open to a plan that would lower the cost of prescription drugs and extend Affordable Care Act subsidies set to lapse at the end of the year.Manchin’s approach has infuriated Democrats, particularly progressives who feel he has negotiated in bad faith, raising hopes before dashing them right when a deal seems within reach.“What he makes clear over and over again is that he can’t close the deal, and that you can’t trust what he says,” Washington congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters on Friday.Manchin, apparently impervious to liberal pressure, argues that it’s him who has been consistent from the outset, voicing concern over rising inflation even when the president was arguing, wrongly, that it would prove “transitory”. New data showing that prices rose by an astonishing 9.1% in June prompted Manchin’s apparent reversal on the tax and climate provisions of the Democrats’ plan. In a statement, Manchin warned that new spending proposals risked inflaming inflation, which he called a “clear and present danger to our economy”.Activists in West Virginia and Washington have tried to cajole him with protests, sit-ins and ad campaigns to . Once a group of climate advocates in kayaks held signs that read “don’t sink our bill” during a “flotilla” protest outside his houseboat, Almost Heaven, where he lives when he is in Washington. Even Senator Bernie Sanders weighed in, with an op-ed in a West Virginia newspaper that drew Manchin’s ire.The West Virginian has always argued that he votes in the interest of his state, historically poor and hurt by the coal industry’s decline.But critics are skeptical, particularly when it comes to his position on climate legislation. Manchin is the Senate’s top recipient of campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry and has made millions from his family’s coal firm.“Senators have told me and others that negotiating with Joe Manchin is like negotiating with an Etch-a-Sketch,” Norm Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said of Manchin’s opposition. “It appears to be a coal-powered Etch-a-Sketch.”In the radio interview on Friday, Manchin, who chairs the Senate energy and natural resources committee, indicated he might be interested in additional action on the climate crisis, if inflation begins to ease this summer.Whether Manchin and Biden can reach an agreement on the president’s biggest legislative priority before the November election will likely have profound implications for their party, but also, potentially, for the senator’s own political future.“There’s no friends for [Manchin] after this,” Regan, who worked in West Virginia Democratic politics, said. “He’s completely alienated the Democratic Party that supported him all the time and he’s nowhere near right-wing enough for the West Virginia Republican Party.”TopicsJoe ManchinJoe BidenDemocratsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden tells summit of Arab leaders the US ‘will not walk away’ from Middle East

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      Biden tells summit of Arab leaders the US ‘will not walk away’ from Middle EastThe president delivered his remarks on the final leg of a four-day tour, also announcing a $1bn effort to relieve hunger in the region Joe Biden, speaking at a summit of Arab leaders, said Saturday that the United States “will not walk away” from the Middle East as he tries to ensure stability in a volatile part of the world and boost the global flow of oil to reverse rising gas prices.The president also announced $1bn in US funding to relieve hunger in the region.His remarks, delivered at the Gulf Cooperation Council on the final leg of a four-day Middle East tour, came amid concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and support for militants in the region.“We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran,” Biden said. “We will seek to build on this moment with active, principled, American leadership.”Joe Biden lands in Saudi Arabia seeking to halt shift towards Russia and ChinaRead moreAlthough US forces continue to target terrorists in the region and remain deployed at bases throughout the Middle East, Biden suggested he was turning a page after the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.“Today, I’m proud to be able to say that the era of land wars in the region, wars that involved huge numbers of American forces, is not under way,” he said.He pressed his counterparts, many of whom lead repressive governments, to ensure human rights – including for women – and allow their citizens to speak openly.“The future will be won by the countries that unleash the full potential of their populations,” Biden said, and that includes allowing people to “question and criticize leaders without fear of reprisal”.Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, convened the summit, which gave him an opportunity to showcase his country’s heavyweight role in the Middle East. He also hinted that the kingdom could pump more oil than it is currently, something Biden is hoping to see when an existing production deal among OPEC+ member countries expires in September.Biden’s attendance at the summit followed his Friday meeting with the Saudi prince, heir to the throne currently held by his father, King Salman.The 79-year-old Biden had initially shunned the 36-year-old royal over human rights abuses, particularly the killing of US-based writer Jamal Khashoggi, which US intelligence officials believe was likely approved by the prince.But Biden decided he needed to repair the longstanding relationship between the two countries to address rising gas prices and foster stability in the volatile region.“It is only becoming clearer to me how closely interwoven America’s interests are with the successes of the Middle East,” the president said Saturday. Ending his speech on a hopeful note, Biden expressed his belief in cooperation among the nations.“This is a table full of problem solvers,” he said. “There’s a lot of good we can do if we do it together.”After a lunch with other leaders, Biden began his trip back to Washington, flashing a thumbs up and waving to reporters as he boarded Air Force One.Earlier, Biden met individually with the leaders of Iraq, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, some of whom he had never sat down with since taking office in January 2021.He invited Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who became president of the UAE two months ago, to visit the White House this year.Biden also met with King Abdullah II of Jordan. The White House later announced that the US was extending and expanding financial assistance to the country, to no less than $1.45bn per year.The summit in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah was an opportunity for Biden to demonstrate his commitment to the region after spending most of his presidency focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s growing influence in Asia.On Saturday, the White House released satellite imagery indicating that Russian officials visited Iran in June and July to see weapons-capable drones it is looking to acquire for use in Ukraine. The disclosure appeared aimed at drawing a connection between the war in Europe and Arab leaders’ own concerns about Iran.So far, none of the countries represented at the summit has moved in lockstep with the US to sanction Russia, a foreign policy priority for the Biden administration. If anything, the UAE has emerged as a sort of financial haven for Russian billionaires and their multimillion-dollar yachts. Egypt remains open to Russian tourists.Meantime, there are sharp divisions on foreign policy among the nine Middle East heads of state who attended the summit.For example, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE are trying to isolate and squeeze Iran over its regional reach and proxies. Oman and Qatar have solid diplomatic ties with Iran and have acted as intermediaries for talks between Washington and Tehran.Qatar recently hosted talks between US and Iranian officials as they try to revive Iran’s nuclear accord. Iran not only shares a huge underwater gas field with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, but it also rushed to Qatar’s aid when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut off ties and imposed a years-long embargo on Qatar that ended shortly before Biden took office.Biden’s actions have frustrated some of the leaders. Although the US has played an important role in encouraging a months-long cease-fire in Yemen, his decision to reverse a Trump White House move that had listed Yemen’s rebel Houthis as a terrorist group has outraged the Emirati and Saudi leadership.Saudi news outlet Al-Arabiya reported on Saturday that students were protesting in Tehran over Biden’s meeting with Israel leaders in Tel Aviv as part of his trip. Protesters burned the American and Israeli flag, opposing the normalization of relations with Israel.The Associated Press contributed to this report.TopicsJoe BidenMiddle East and north AfricaUS politicsReuse this content More

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      Joe Biden scraps plan to nominate anti-abortion lawyer to Kentucky judgeship

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      Joe Biden scraps plan to nominate anti-abortion lawyer to Kentucky judgeshipSenator Rand Paul announced Friday he would not consent to Chad Meredith’s nomination, vetoing the president’s effort After weeks of criticism from fellow Democrats and abortion advocacy groups, Joe Biden has deserted plans to nominate an anti-abortion lawyer to be a federal judge in Kentucky.The White House said on Friday that Republican Kentucky senator Rand Paul would not be consenting to the nomination of Chad Meredith, effectively vetoing Biden’s move to put him on the bench.Biden planned to nominate anti-abortion lawyer to federal judgeship, emails showRead more“In considering potential district court nominees, the White House learned that Senator Rand Paul will not return a blue slip on Chad Meredith,” said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates on Friday, referring to the “blue slip” tradition that allows senators to veto judicial nominations from their home states. “Therefore, the White House will not nominate Mr Meredith.”Had Biden nominated Meredith, the attorney’s promotion to the court would have been unusual in the lineup of Biden’s judicial picks. The president has made it a point to nominate people from underrepresented backgrounds, public defenders and those with experience in civil rights law to the court instead of the usual slate of corporate lawyers and prosecutors.Meredith served as chief deputy general counsel to former Republican Kentucky governor Matt Bevin, who was in office from 2015 to 2019. In this role, Meredith helped the state defend a 2017 law that required doctors to perform ultrasounds and show images of the fetus to patients before performing an abortion. The law was ultimately upheld by a federal appeals court.Working under Bevin, Meredith also helped put together the former governor’s slate of controversial pardons, which included people convicted of murder and rape, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.After Bevin left office, Meredith began working for a private law firm in Cincinnati, Ohio.News of his nomination was first reported by the Courier-Journal on 29 June. Democrats started hounding the White House for an explanation behind its intention to nominate the anti-abortion lawyer on the heels of the 24 June US supreme court decision overturning the nationwide right to terminate pregnancies embedded in Roe v Wade.In a group statement, a coalition of national abortion advocacy groups denounced news of the potential nomination.“We are in this moment because anti-abortion judges were intentionally nominated at every level to take away our fundamental right to abortion – and given his record, we know Chad Meredith would be no exception,” the statement read.When White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was questioned about the potential nomination, she said, “We make it a point here to not comment on any vacancy, whether it is on the executive branch or the judicial branch, especially those where the nomination has not been made yet.”While the White House has been quiet behind its reasoning for considering Meredith, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said that Biden was close to taking up his judicial pick “as a personal friendship gesture”, the Kentucky senator told the New York Times. McConnell said that no specific deal between himself and Biden was made, and it simply represented the “collegiality” that exists between them.Paul, who ultimately shut the nomination down, has not commented on his veto of Meredith’s nomination. McConnell suggested to the Times that Paul may believe it is his turn to pick a judicial nominee, though he has not made such an agreement on judicial nominees with Paul.TopicsKentuckyUS politicsJoe BidenAbortionDemocratsRand PaulUS justice systemnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden pledges executive action after Joe Manchin scuppers climate agenda

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      Biden pledges executive action after Joe Manchin scuppers climate agendaWest Virginia senator refuses to support funding for climate crisis and says he will not back tax raises for wealthy Americans Joe Biden has promised executive action on climate change after Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator who has repeatedly thwarted his own party while making millions in the coal industry, refused to support more funding for climate action.Did Joe Manchin block climate action to benefit his financial interests?Read moreIn another blow to Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, the West Virginia senator also came out against tax raises for wealthy Americans.Manchin’s opposition became clear on Thursday night. On Friday, with Biden in Saudi Arabia, the White House issued a statement.Biden said: “Action on climate change and clean energy remains more urgent than ever.“So let me be clear: if the Senate will not move to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, I will take strong executive action to meet this moment.“My actions will create jobs, improve our energy security, bolster domestic manufacturing and supply chains, protect us from oil and gas price hikes in the future, and address climate change. I will not back down: the opportunity to create jobs and build a clean energy future is too important to relent.”Biden and Democrats hope to include environmental measures in a $1tn version of the $2tn Build Back Better spending bill Manchin killed last year in dramatic fashion.Then, the Biden White House angrily accused Manchin of breaching “commitments to the president and [his] colleagues in the House and Senate”. Bridges were rebuilt but on Thursday night Manchin appeared to reach for the dynamite once again.According to a Democrat briefed on negotiations, Manchin told Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, he would oppose legislation if it included climate or green energy provisions or higher taxes on the rich and corporations.The Democrat also said Manchin told Schumer he would support a new spending package only if it was limited to curbing pharmaceutical prices and extending federal subsidies for buying healthcare insurance.Manchin disputed that version of events in a call to a West Virginia radio show. He said he told Schumer he would not commit to environmental or tax measures until he saw the inflation rate for July, which is due out on 10 August, and the size of the expected interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve at the end of July.“Let’s wait until that comes out, so we know that we’re going down a path that won’t be inflammatory, to add more to inflation,” Manchin said. “I can’t make that decision … on taxes … and also on the energy and climate because it takes the taxes to pay for the investment into clean technology that I’m in favor of. But I’m not going to do something and overreach that causes more problem.”Manchin said he asked Schumer for time.“I said, ‘Chuck, can we just wait. How much more and how much damaging is that going to be?’ He took that as a no, I guess, and came out with this big thing last night, and I don’t know why they did that.”In Riyadh, Biden told reporters: “I’m not going away. I’m using every power I have as president to continue to fulfill my pledge to move toward dealing with global warming.”Asked if Manchin had been “negotiating in good faith”, Biden said: “I didn’t negotiate with Joe Manchin.”In his earlier statement, Biden also promised progress on healthcare.He said: “After decades of fierce opposition from powerful special interests, Democrats have come together, beaten back the pharmaceutical industry and are prepared to give Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices and to prevent an increase in health insurance premiums for millions of families with coverage under the Affordable Care Act.“Families all over the nation will sleep easier if Congress takes this action. The Senate should move forward, pass it before the August recess, and get it to my desk so I can sign it.”To pass legislation, Democrats are dependent on Manchin’s vote in a Senate divided 50-50 and controlled by the vice-president, Kamala Harris.In March last year, Manchin backed Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief package after tense negotiations during which, according to the Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Biden told him: “Joe, please don’t kill my bill.”But the senator has since stood in the way of much of Biden’s agenda, from the Build Back Better package to measures which would require reform to the filibuster, the Senate rule which requires a 60-vote supermajority for most legislation.Democrats and progressives have argued for scrapping or reforming the filibuster in order to legislate on key issues under attack from the right, including voting rights and abortion.But Manchin and others opposed to such moves, prominently including Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, are in part aligned with Biden, a former senator opposed to abolishing the filibuster entirely.Manchin will not face re-election as the only Democrat in statewide office in West Virginia, a state with a powerful coal industry lobby, until 2024. His business, Enersystems, has earned millions of dollars as the only supplier of low-grade coal to a high-polluting power plant near Fairmont, West Virginia.‘A modern-day villain’: Joe Manchin condemned for killing US climate actionRead moreAccording to campaign finance filings, in 2021-22 Manchin is the senator who has received most money from donors in coal mining, natural gas transmission and distribution and oil and gas. He is second for donations from alternate energy production and services.Climate advocates reacted angrily to Manchin’s move.“It’s outrageous that Manchin and the Republican party have killed climate legislation this Congress,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity advocacy group.Norm Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said: “Senators have told me and others that negotiating with Joe Manchin is like negotiating with an Etch-a-Sketch. It appears to be a coal-powered Etch-a-Sketch.”John Podesta, founder of the Center for American Progress, said: “It seems odd that Senator Manchin would choose as his legacy to be the one man who single-handedly doomed humanity. But we can’t throw in the towel on the planet.”TopicsJoe ManchinClimate crisisUS politicsDemocratsJoe BidenBiden administrationUS CongressnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘I will not back down’: Biden vows executive action if Senate cannot pass climate bill – as it happened

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      President Joe Biden has just issued a statement calling on the Senate to pass legislation that would lower prescription drug prices and extend health insurance subsidies, while vowing to sign executive orders meant to fight climate change. The announcement comes after Democratic senator Joe Manchin said yesterday he would not support legislation intended to curb America’s carbon emissions, nor new tax proposals to offset its costs. His statement was the latest complication for Democrats’ long-running efforts to pass a major spending bill despite their narrow majority in Congress, where they can afford to lose no votes in the Senate and few in the House. While the initial proposals for the bill released last year showed it would address a host of the party’s priorities, it is now set to be much narrower in scope.Here’s more from Biden’s statement:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} Action on climate change and clean energy remains more urgent than ever.
      So let me be clear: if the Senate will not move to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, I will take strong executive action to meet this moment. My actions will create jobs, improve our energy security, bolster domestic manufacturing and supply chains, protect us from oil and gas price hikes in the future, and address climate change. I will not back down: the opportunity to create jobs and build a clean energy future is too important to relent.
      Health care is also critical. After decades of fierce opposition from powerful special interests, Democrats have come together, beaten back the pharmaceutical industry and are prepared to give Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices and to prevent an increase in health insurance premiums for millions of families with coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Families all over the nation will sleep easier if Congress takes this action. The Senate should move forward, pass it before the August recess, and get it to my desk so I can sign it.=
      This will not only lower the cost of prescription drugs and health care for families, it will reduce the deficit and help fight inflation.After more than a year of negotiations, was today the beginning of the end for Democrats’ long-running effort to pass a spending bill improving America’s social services? It very well may have been, after Senator Joe Manchin nixed provisions to raise taxes and fight climate change, and President Joe Biden called on Democrats to pass a narrow agreement that would lower drug costs and extend health insurance subsidies.Here’s what else happened today:
      Democrats in the House passed two bills to preserve access to abortion nationwide, but they are unlikely to pass the Senate due to Republican opposition.
      Biden fist bumped Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after arriving in the country, drawing a rebuke from The Washington Post’s publisher. Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in an operation US intelligence concluded the crown prince approved, wrote for the newspaper. The president later said he brought up Khashoggi’s murder with MBS.
      Peter Navarro, a former top advisor to Donald Trump, declined a plea deal from federal prosecutors over his refusal to cooperate with the January 6 committee.
      A House committee announced it would take up a Democratic proposal to ban assault weapons.
      A deposition of Donald Trump and his children was postponed due to the death of his first wife Ivana Trump.
      A Georgia district attorney has warned some Republicans lawmakers in the state that they could be indicted for their role in helping Donald Trump overturn the results of the 2020 election.
      In Riyadh, Joe Biden was also asked about Joe Manchin’s apparent torpedoing of Democrats’ attempt to pass spending legislation targeting the climate crisis, healthcare and other party priorities before the midterm elections.Asked for “your message to those Americans right now who were looking for that relief that would have a wide impact as it affects the climate and energy specifically”, the president said: “I’m not going away. I’m using every power I have as president to continue to fulfill my pledge to move toward dealing with global warming.”On his way out of the short and slightly testy briefing, Biden was asked if he thought Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat who has nonetheless stymied his party’s agenda over and over again, had been “negotiating in good faith” over the spending deal and its climate-related provisions.“I didn’t negotiate with Joe Manchin,” Biden said.It’s true that Manchin has been talking to Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic Senate majority leader, this time.It’s also true that Manchin has an outsized influence on Democratic policy priorities in the 50-50 Senate and has been at the centre of almost every legislative drama since Biden took back the White House.In their book Peril, about the end of Trump and the beginning of Biden, Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of the Washington Post devote considerable space to Manchin’s machinations around the $1.9tn Covid relief package Biden got through in March 2021.At one point, they write, Biden told the senator: “Joe, please don’t kill my bill.”He didn’t. That time.More:Biden pledges executive action after Joe Manchin scuppers climate agendaRead moreSpeaking from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Joe Biden said he brought up the murder of Jamal Khashoggi when he met with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier today.“I made my view crystal clear. I said very straightforwardly, for an American president to be silent on an issue of human rights, is this consistent… with who we are and who I am? I will always stand up for our values,” Biden said.Asked how the crown prince responded, Biden replied, “He basically said that he he was not personally responsible for it. I indicated I thought he was”. The president has previously said he wanted to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah state” for the murder, and was asked if he wanted to take those words back. “I don’t regret anything that I said. What happened to Khashoggi was outrageous,” Biden said.The House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection has announced its next hearing for 8 pm eastern time on Thursday, July 21.Just in: Jan. 6 committee formally announces eighth hearing on Thursday, July 21 at 8p ET— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) July 15, 2022
      The lawmakers are expected to explore what Donald Trump was doing as the Capitol was attacked.New: Jan. 6 committee member Elaine Luria on CNN confirms @GuardianUS reporting that she and Adam Kinzinger will lead the eighth hearing, taking place in prime time next week, about how Trump did nothing during the 187mins of the Capitol attack.— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) July 14, 2022
      The publisher of The Washington Post has condemned Joe Biden’s fist bump with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom US intelligence concluded ordered the operation that resulted in the murder of Jamal Khasshogi, a contributor to the newspaper.pic.twitter.com/l2EDKZOLsS— Kristine Coratti Kelly (@kriscoratti) July 15, 2022
      Biden, who is visiting Saudi Arabia, will address the press in about 20 minutes, according to CNN. The event was not previously scheduled.In a last minute addition to his schedule, President Biden will address reporters at 3:30 ET/10:30 P.M. local following his meeting with the Saudi crown prince.— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 15, 2022
      President Joe Biden has just issued a statement calling on the Senate to pass legislation that would lower prescription drug prices and extend health insurance subsidies, while vowing to sign executive orders meant to fight climate change. The announcement comes after Democratic senator Joe Manchin said yesterday he would not support legislation intended to curb America’s carbon emissions, nor new tax proposals to offset its costs. His statement was the latest complication for Democrats’ long-running efforts to pass a major spending bill despite their narrow majority in Congress, where they can afford to lose no votes in the Senate and few in the House. While the initial proposals for the bill released last year showed it would address a host of the party’s priorities, it is now set to be much narrower in scope.Here’s more from Biden’s statement:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} Action on climate change and clean energy remains more urgent than ever.
      So let me be clear: if the Senate will not move to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, I will take strong executive action to meet this moment. My actions will create jobs, improve our energy security, bolster domestic manufacturing and supply chains, protect us from oil and gas price hikes in the future, and address climate change. I will not back down: the opportunity to create jobs and build a clean energy future is too important to relent.
      Health care is also critical. After decades of fierce opposition from powerful special interests, Democrats have come together, beaten back the pharmaceutical industry and are prepared to give Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices and to prevent an increase in health insurance premiums for millions of families with coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Families all over the nation will sleep easier if Congress takes this action. The Senate should move forward, pass it before the August recess, and get it to my desk so I can sign it.=
      This will not only lower the cost of prescription drugs and health care for families, it will reduce the deficit and help fight inflation.Joe Biden is making his controversial visit to Saudi Arabia, with an increase in oil production seen as the goal. The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan reports:Three years after Joe Biden vowed to make Saudi Arabia a pariah state over the assassination of a prominent dissident, the US president greeted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump as his administration attempts to reset relations and stabilise global oil markets.Whereas Donald Trump was personally welcomed to the conservative Gulf kingdom on his first presidential visit by King Salman, Biden was met on the tarmac on Friday evening by the governor of Mecca and the Saudi ambassador to the US in a subdued ceremony before travelling to the city’s al-Salam palace, where he held talks with the 86-year-old king and his powerful heir, Prince Mohammed, before a working meeting.Fist bumps as Joe Biden arrives to reset ties with ‘pariah’ Saudi ArabiaRead moreLast week, we learned that Herschel Walker, who’s the Republican nominee for a Senate seat in Georgia, lied to his own campaign team about how many children he had. This is not his only misstep, but the longtime friend of Donald Trump continues to have the support of Georgia Republicans. The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland speaks to Roger Sollenberger of the Daily Beast about why Walker might prove a fatal blow for the GOP in November’s midterm elections.Politics Weekly AmericaWhy Republicans are backing a controversial former NFL star: Politics Weekly AmericaSorry your browser does not support audio – but you can download here and listen https://audio.guim.co.uk/2020/05/05-61553-gnl.fw.200505.jf.ch7DW.mp300:00:0000:24:04The passage of two bills preserving the right to abortion is likely to temporarily buoy Democrats, even if both bills are extremely unlikely to pass the Senate.One thing is clear though: the issue of abortion access is not going away.According to the Wall Street Journal, Democrats are “increasingly talking about abortion in their midterm campaign advertising,” while Republicans are shying away from the issue.In June the Supreme Court reversed the Roe v Wade ruling which enshrined the right to abortion in federal law. On Friday almost all House Republicans voted against the bills which would restore and protect access to abortion – but the GOP is out of step with Americans, a majority of whom think abortion should be legal. Ahead of the November mid-term elections, Democrats seem to be tying Republicans to the reversal of Roe v Wade, the WSJ reported:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}[An analysis] of broadcast and national cable data from the ad-tracking firm AdImpact shows more than a third of all spots aired by Democrats and their allies in congressional and gubernatorial campaigns from July 1-12 have mentioned abortion.
      Republicans are focusing their ads on inflation, which voters have consistently cited as their top concern heading into November’s elections. Less than 3% of all spots run by GOP candidates and their allies during that period included the abortion issue, the analysis showed.A second bill protecting the right to abortion has passed the US House.HR 8297, the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022, passed by 223 votes to 205 no votes. Three Republicans did not vote.The bill would prohibit restrictions on out-of-state travel for the purpose of obtaining an abortion service.Like HR 8296, the bill is likely to fail in the Senate, where there is not enough support for either bill to survive the 60-vote filibuster threshold. There are 50 Republicans in the Senate.223-205: House passes abortion access legislation prohibiting restrictions blocking out of state travel to obtain an abortion in response to Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.3 Republicans joined all Democrats in voting Yes.Ensuring Access to Abortion Act now heads to Senate. pic.twitter.com/a3nAuTLnvp— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) July 15, 2022
      The US House of Representatives has approved a law which would preserve access to abortion nationwide at the federal level – but the bill is still expected to fail in the Senate.HR 8296, the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022, passed the House by 219 yes votes to 210 no votes. Two members did not vote.The law would preserve access to abortion, after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade.The bill is expected to fail in the Senate, however. In May a vote in the Senate failed, with Joe Manchin, the Democrat who has repeatedly blocked his own party’s legislative efforts, joining Republicans to vote the bill down by 51 votes to 49.The House will now consider another abortion rights bill, HR8297 – the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022. That bill would protect individual’s right to travel for abortion access.President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda is reeling after a crucial senator said he wouldn’t support proposals to address climate change or raise taxes to pay for it. Meanwhile, Democrats in the House are moving to pass a measure to codify abortion rights.Here is what has happened today so far:
      Peter Navarro, a former top advisor to Donald Trump, declined a plea deal from federal prosecutors over his refusal to cooperate with the January 6 committee.
      A House committee announced it would take up a Democratic proposal to ban assault weapons.
      A deposition of Donald Trump and his children was postponed due to the death of his first wife Ivana Trump.
      A Georgia district attorney has warned some Republicans lawmakers in the state that they could be indicted for their role in helping Donald Trump overturn the results of the 2020 election.
      House lawmakers have taken to the floor to speak for and against a proposal from the chamber’s Democratic leadership to protect abortion rights nationwide.The speeches split along party lines, with Republicans decrying the bill and Democrats casting it as a necessary response to the supreme court’s decision last month overturning Roe v. Wade and handing states the power to ban the procedure outright.California Democrat Barbara Lee condemned Republicans’ proposals to restrict abortion access, asking, “What in the world is this?” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) directly addresses Republicans during debate on bill protecting right to travel for an abortion:“You’re trying to take away people’s right to travel. What in the world is this? Is this America? … They come for me today, they’re coming for you tomorrow.” pic.twitter.com/Qkv7at6h9m— The Recount (@therecount) July 15, 2022
      Brian Mast, a Republican from Florida, put a $20 bill on the table and said to Democrats, “Any one of you or your colleagues wants to speak up and tell us when life begins, it’s sitting here for you.”Pelosi and her allies are pushing for bills that would allow abortion to the very last moment before birth. I asked if they can tell me when a life begins, but I was met with silence. pic.twitter.com/xytK5yUYza— Rep. Brian Mast (@RepBrianMast) July 15, 2022
      A Georgia district attorney has sent “target” letters to prominent Republicans in the state, warning them they could face indictments for their attempt to help Donald Trump overturn the results of the 2020 election, Yahoo! News reports.Fani Willis, the Democratic district attorney for Fulton county, which includes the capital and largest city Atlanta, has sent the letters to Republicans including Burt Jones, a state senator who is standing as Georgia governor Brian Kemp’s running mate in this year’s election, and David Shafer, chair of the state’s Republican party, as well as state senator Brandon Beach.According to the report:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} Jones and Shafer were among those who participate in a closed-door meeting at the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, in which 16 Georgia Republicans selected themselves as the electors for the state, although they had no legal basis for doing so. Shafer, according to a source who was present, presided over the meeting, conducting it as though it was an official proceeding, in which those present voted themselves as the bona fide electors in Georgia — and then signed their names to a declaration to that effect that was sent to the National Archives.In an interview with Yahoo! News, Willis said she was also considering asking Donald Trump to testify before the grand jury investigating the plot.A colleague of Indiana doctor Caitlin Bernard, who provided the 10-year-old girl from Ohio with an abortion after her rape, has written an op-ed in The New York Times about how the episode, and the downfall of Roe v. Wade, has affected reproductive health.Tracey A. Wilkinson, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, wrote:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} Political attacks on abortion providers are, of course, nothing new. And that’s not all that providers and their staff face: They have been targeted, harassed and in some cases even murdered for providing legal health care to their patients; some types of attacks against them recently have increased. This moment, post-Roe v. Wade, feels particularly frightening and is chilling to anyone who cares for patients, especially those providing reproductive health care.
      This saga has had real-world repercussions for Dr. Bernard. The local police have been alerted to concerns for her physical safety.
      My colleagues and I have watched all this in horror. We are worried that this could happen to us, too. A law that recently went into effect in Indiana mandates that doctors, hospitals and abortion clinics report to the state when a patient who has previously had an abortion presents any of dozens of physical or psychological conditions — including anxiety, depression, sleeping disorders and uterine perforation — because they could be complications of the previous abortion. Not doing so within 30 days can result in a misdemeanor for the physician who treated the patient, punishable with up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.Here’s more on the story, which has become an example of the real consequences of the supreme court’s landmark decision last month:Man charged with rape of 10-year-old who had abortion after rightwing media called story ‘not true’Read moreThe depositions of Donald Trump and two of his children planned for Friday will be delayed following the death of Ivana Trump, his first wife and the childrens’ mother. “In light of the passing of Ivana Trump yesterday, we received a request from counsel for Donald Trump and his children to adjourn all three depositions, which we have agreed to,” the New York Attorney General’s Office said. “This is a temporary delay and the depositions will be rescheduled as soon as possible,” the office also said. “There is no other information about dates or otherwise to provide at this time.”Trump and his two eldest children, Ivanka and Donald Jr., were scheduled to give sworn testimony in the office’s three-year civil investigation into potential misconduct surrounding property values. The office is probing whether the Trump Organization provided inaccurate valuation to secure loans at favorable rates, or improperly claim tax breaks. Trump’s attorney has reportedly indicated that the former president will invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination and refuse to respond to questions. The Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, is facing a tax fraud trial amid a parallel investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. House Democrats will today make a renewed push to pass legislation protecting the right to abortion nationwide and the ability of Americans to cross state lines to seek the procedure. But the bills’ chances of passing the Senate are slim due to opposition from Republicans.House speaker Nancy Pelosi just held an event with other Democrats prior to the vote, declaring, “As we pass his landmark legislation today, Democrats will not stop ferociously defending freedom for women and for every American. And we want everybody to know, women out there who are concerned about their own personal reproductive freedom and what it means to their health, that… the message from the House Democrats in our groups here today is, we are not going back”, sparking a chant that was joined by the lawmakers assembled behind her.You can watch the full speech below:Join @DemWomensCaucus and me at the U.S. Capitol ahead of the passage of legislation to protect women’s reproductive freedom and to stop Republicans from criminalizing women exercising their constitutional right to travel to obtain an abortion. https://t.co/yHypmYBTR5— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 15, 2022 More

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      Joe Biden lands in Saudi Arabia seeking to halt shift towards Russia and China

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      Joe Biden lands in Saudi Arabia seeking to halt shift towards Russia and ChinaAnalysis: US president aiming to convince Jeddah to increase oil supply in order to calm global energy markets00:24Joe Biden landed in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah to a tepid welcome from the Saudi crown prince whose country he once pledged to make a “pariah” on the world stage.While Saudi Arabia announced it would open its airspace to flights from Israel, making Biden the first US president to fly directly from Tel Aviv to the kingdom, expectations of further gains during his visit remained low. The US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told journalists onboard Air Force One not to expect any bilateral announcements in response to American demands that Saudi Arabia pump more oil to calm global energy markets after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Fist bumps as Joe Biden arrives to reset ties with ‘pariah’ Saudi ArabiaRead moreSaudi Arabia is keen to prove its independence from US interests as it increasingly courts Russia and China.“From the start, my aim was to reorient – but not rupture – relations with a country that’s been a strategic partner for 80 years,” Biden wrote in the Washington Post prior to his visit, sidestepping his pledge on the campaign trail to make Saudi Arabia “a pariah”, and the later release of a US intelligence report stating that Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince, “approved” an operation to capture and murder the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.“It’s a completely different Saudi Arabia, one that in many ways has modernised and opened up a bit, but is also seeing greater crackdowns – and the Biden administration is brutally aware of all this,” said Dina Esfandiary of the NGO Crisis Group.Biden’s visit means carefully stage-managing relations with Prince Mohammed, the Kingdom’s powerful de facto ruler, who observers say has the upper hand as Biden courts his goodwill at a time of rising global oil prices mounting a challenge to his presidency domestically.The two shared a fist bump on Biden’s arrival, although the president later warmly shook hands with the king, Salman bin Abdulaziz. At the start of the president’s Middle East trip, officials said he would avoid close contact such as shaking hands as a precaution against Covid.The US president is under intense pressure to repair the fragile relationship between two nations, one that traditionally relied on the kingdom liberally supplying oil to the global market in exchange for the US’s backing in areas of security and defence.This has increasingly shifted in recent years, exacerbated as the relationship between Biden and Prince Mohammed has soured and Saudi Arabia looks to Russia and China to diversify its interests.“The message from Saudi is you can’t tell us what to do, we’ll help you as far as it suits us but we won’t go against our own interests,” said Esfandiary.Cinzia Bianco, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, agreed. “The Saudi leadership has learned to do without seeking validation from the United States, and Bin Salman in particular – he’s learned to survive and maybe even thrive within the region and to some degree internationally, without getting validation from the US administration,” she said.Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said that, with the visit to Saudi Arabia, Biden was reneging on previous promises to prioritise human rights. “It’s a very huge backing down actually,” Cengiz told the Associated Press. “It’s heartbreaking and disappointing. And Biden will lose his moral authority by putting oil and expediency over principles and values.”Saudi Arabia’s recent cooperation with Russia has included an agreement for Rosatom, a Russian state company, to build a nuclear power plant in the kingdom, as well as signing an agreement last year to “explore ways to develop military to strengthen the military and defence cooperation” between the two countries according to the deputy defence minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman.China is historically the largest importer of Saudi Arabian oil, while the kingdom has bought Chinese arms including drones and fighter aircraft. Last November, US intelligence agencies concluded that Saudi Arabia is manufacturing its own ballistic missiles with the help of China, according to satellite imagery.Bianco stressed that the US administration saw Biden’s visit as a vital opportunity to intervene and warm relations before Saudi Arabia moves ahead with Chinese and Russian deals that largely remain in their infancy. “The US administration sees an opportunity to undo all of that or take a step back and create some space,” she said. “There’s a lot on paper rather than in reality, and there’s still space for the administration to try to create some distance between Saudi Arabia, Russia and China.”Yet as Biden landed in Jeddah to discuss how to increase the global supply of oil in order to bring down prices, doubts persisted as to whether he would fly home with anything to show for his visit at all. Shortly before his arrival, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia had more than doubled its imports of Russian oil in order to free up more of its own crude for export, shunning demands for sanctions from the west while increasing profit margins amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.“Maybe the US administration had good intentions when it began setting up this trip, but ultimately it’s making them look bad – they’re losing the public relations war,” said Esfandiary. “It’s not clear that they’re going to make any gains, my sense is that everyone will walk away disappointed.”TopicsUS foreign policyJoe BidenUS politicsSaudi ArabiaMiddle East and north AfricaBiden administrationMohammed bin SalmananalysisReuse this content More