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      American muckrakers: Peter Schweizer, James O’Keefe and a rightwing full court press

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      American muckrakers: Peter Schweizer, James O’Keefe and a rightwing full court pressThe author of Clinton Cash takes aim at the Bidens, the founder of Project Veritas stakes a claim for legitimacy. The results are murky – but offer a map for political battles to come The official investigation of Hunter Biden’s dealings in China and elsewhere rests in the hands of David Weiss, a Trump-appointed federal prosecutor in Delaware, and the US justice department under Joe Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland. Politically speaking, we now have Red-Handed by Peter Schweizer, who would very much like to help us digest the business past of the 46th president’s troublesome son.Clinton Cash: errors dog Bill and Hillary exposé – but is there any ‘there’ there?Read moreSchweizer’s works include Clinton Cash, a compendium of opposition research that helped shape the presidential election in 2016. These days, he is president of the Government Accountability Institute, a think tank funded by the Mercer family, part of the rightwing ecosystem.Rebekah Mercer chairs the GAI board, a position previously held by Steve Bannon, whom Donald Trump pardoned of fraud charges but who is now under indictment for contempt of Congress. Mercer is also a founding investor in Parler, a rightwing alternative to Twitter and communications vehicle for Trump’s faithful in the run-up to the 6 January insurrection.The Mercers are mainstays of Breitbart News and once funded James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas – of which, more later. Via Cambridge Analytica, the Mercers helped hijack Brexit. Not surprisingly, Nigel Farage counts the Mercers as allies.If Republicans recapture the House in November, as expected, most see investigations of Hunter Biden and his father an inevitable sequel. Schweizer has published a roadmap, from sources including Secret Service travel logs, materials from former business associates and that infamous laptop.Schweizer argues that the rich and powerful have grown too cozy with China, at the expense of their own country. His central contention is that the Biden family garnered approximately $31m from individuals with direct ties to Chinese intelligence.Hunter Biden has denied wrongdoing. In 2020, Politifact said Schweizer’s claims about Joe Biden did “not add up to a picture” of his “being corrupt or pursuing policies contrary to the national interest”.Schweizer, however, fires shots across the political spectrum. John Boehner, a Republican speaker of the House, and Henry Kissinger, secretary of state to two Republican presidents, are in his sights. So are the Bushes. Chuck Schumer, Mark Warner, Chris Coons and Joe Manchin, all Democratic senators, are praised.Schweizer lambasts Silicon Valley for enabling China’s rise and turning a blind eye to human rights abuses. Elon Musk and Bill Gates are criticized, Wall Street (prominently Goldman Sachs, Blackstone and Black Rock), the National Basketball Association and academe too. Yale University receives particular attention.Not surprisingly, Schweizer does not consider links to China enjoyed by Trump and his most ardent followers. He ignores, for example, tax records that show Trump International Hotels Management paid more than $188,000 in China while pursuing licensing deals between 2013 and 2015, and maintained a bank account there.Likewise, Schweizer looks away from Ted Cruz. The Texas senator’s wife is a banker at Goldman. The Cruzes hold direct investments of between $15,000 and $50,000 in the Goldman Sachs China Equity Fund Class P, a mutual fund with positions in Alibaba and Tencent – companies firmly in Schweizer’s sights.Then again, the Mercers are Cruz donors. In 2016, Cruz’s presidential campaign was a Cambridge Analytica client.Schweizer calls for a US lobbying ban on companies linked to the Chinese military and Chinese intelligence, and their exclusion from US stock exchanges. He also demands the press pursue big tech involvement with China.As models for how to resist the Chinese, he holds out Peter Thiel and his company Palantir. Thiel, a rightwing megadonor, gained notoriety when he wrote in 2009 that women and minorities had mucked up democratic capitalism. A Palantir employee planted the concept of data harvesting with Cambridge Analytica.The scandal that wasn’t: Republicans deflated as nation shrugs at Hunter Biden revelationsRead moreAs for China’s territorial ambitions? In another book, Trump was quoted by the Washington Post’s Josh Rogin. If the Chinese were to invade Taiwan, he told a senator, “there isn’t a fucking thing we can do”.It seems unlikely the US could be capable of decoupling its economy from China while avoiding clashes. China’s opacity with regard to Covid does not instill confidence. Schweizer’s book does at least deliver food for thought.‘Free speech for me …’If Red-Handed is an amalgam of more than 1,100 footnotes, facts, arguments and innuendos, American Muckraker by James O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, is a 288-page exercise in self-reverence.“The American Muckraker understands that the path to truth involves suffering and sacrifice,” O’Keefe writes. OK. Elsewhere, he compares his plight to that of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Alabama in the late 1950s, as it worked for “equality”. Really. He also repeatedly refers to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian dissident.What does O’Keefe do for a living? Mostly, he makes sting videos targeting Democrats and progressives. Targets have included Planned Parenthood and a teachers’ union.Practically speaking, American Muckraker is O’Keefe’s attempt to bolster his claim of being a journalist while re-defining what the media actually is in an era of cold civil war. On that note, he recounts a conversation with Brian Karem after the Playboy White House reporter had a dust-up with a Trump loyalist, Sebastian Gorka.“I’m on the same team as you,” said O’Keefe. “I respect you guys.”Really? Project Veritas counts the Donald J Trump Foundation among past donors and Erik Prince, former head of the Blackwater private security company and brother of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, was involved in its sting operations against Trump adversaries. O’Keefe makes clear he is not keen on a shedding a light on those who fund his work.He does have a genuine grievance. In early November 2021, the FBI raided his apartment, handcuffed him in his underwear and seized two phones. He was not arrested.Reportedly, the feds swooped in connection with the disappearance and unauthorized publication of a diary kept by Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter. Project Veritas never wrote anything on the topic and handed the document over. The justice department had placed the first amendment and O’Keefe’s civil liberties in its crosshairs, notwithstanding a court-ordered warrant.But that is only part of the story. In 2020, O’Keefe sued the New York Times for libel in connection with its coverage of videos concerning alleged voter fraud in Minnesota. A New York judge refused to dismiss the suit and O’Keefe has obtained an injunction that bars the paper from publishing documents written by a Project Veritas lawyer.O’Keefe’s mantra might be: “Free speech for me – but not for thee.”Despite the efforts of Richard Nixon in the case of the Pentagon Papers, prior restraint remains anathema to a free press – as Donald Trump’s late brother, Robert, learned when he failed to block publication of a niece’s tell-all.Nonetheless, Trump allies are urging the supreme court to reconsider protections afforded to the media under US libel law. Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch have indicated they are willing. The fact that the decision in question was rendered by a unanimous court a half-century ago means little. American Muckraker is a book for such troubled times.
      Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win is published in the US by Harper. American Muckraker: Rethinking Journalism for the 21st Century is published by Post Hill Press
      TopicsBooksPolitics booksUS politicsJoe BidenHunter BidenRepublicansChinareviewsReuse this content More

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      ‘Be thankful you don’t have our poison’: US pollster Frank Luntz’s warning to UK

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      Interview‘Be thankful you don’t have our poison’: US pollster Frank Luntz’s warning to UKDavid Smith in WashingtonLuntz spent years sampling opinion for Republicans before a stroke changed his outlook: ‘I’m not afraid any more, so you will hear me criticise people I never would have two years ago’ When he suffered a stroke, Frank Luntz blamed it on the anger and tension coursing through him after decades of inhaling America’s toxic political culture. The country’s best-known pollster found himself hospitalised for nearly a week with dangerously high blood pressure.Two years later, Luntz regards the experience as a turning point. “That completely changed my outlook,” he says. “The loudness of my voice has changed. The speed in which I speak is changed. I’m slower and I’m quieter and I think about what I say. It’s not that I’m trying to be careful, it’s that I really analyse stuff that comes out.”The 59-year-old, well known from countless media appearances and for running focus groups that provide an insight into America’s political psyche, has also now chosen a less partisan path. Having once worked for rightwing Republicans such as Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani, he no longer hesitates to condemn Donald Trump’s pernicious influence or fears the conservative media backlash.Attack, attack, attack: Republicans drive to make Biden the bogeymanRead more“If I didn’t die, I’m not afraid any more, so you will hear me criticise people I never would have criticised two years ago. What are they going to do to me? It can’t be any worse than what I’ve been through and, when you become more fearless, it makes life easier to navigate.”Often seen on TV as ebullient and garrulous, Luntz has felt tired all the time following the stroke. He is visibly so as he holds court with half a dozen British newspaper journalists in his downtown Washington luxury condo, a kitsch affair with faux classical columns, built-in saloon bar (“Frank’s sports bar”) and busts of presidents George Washington (wearing a mask) and Abraham Lincoln.Luntz’s motivation for this unusual gathering, it seems, is to express gratitude to Britain. He is one of those old school American conservatives who says, “I believe in the special relationship very much,” and is tickled by how the nations rhyme and how they don’t. Last year he went to the UK for a month and ended up staying nearly eight, finding an antidote to American’s poison.“I was in real trouble when I got to Britain, in real emotional trouble,” he admits. “I still haven’t fully recovered from my stroke, and what goes on in this country, I couldn’t talk about it. I got in the middle of it. Tucker Carlson [a host on Fox News] was killing me every fucking night.”Luntz, who studied British voters for a conservative thinktank, the Centre for Policy Studies, also invited UK journalists to disseminate a warning: don’t let British politics become as polarised and debased as the American system.“You still like each other, you still respect each other, you still value public debate: your democracy is still functioning,” he insists. “Ours has seized up and I don’t know how to get ours flowing again. Be thankful that you don’t have our poison … I’m very afraid of the American system being hopelessly damaged.”Doesn’t the acrimony of the post-Brexit era suggest that the UK is already heading in that direction? Not so, Luntz insists. “You all have proven that there’s still a desire for substance in politics, not just slogans and soundbites, and thank God you haven’t completely embraced American politics because your elections are of substance rather than style.“I know that you guys are critical of the UK in recent times for being too American in your elections. You’re not. We are becoming more and more superficial. You are still substantial.”Later he plays a video clip of one of his US focus groups descending into angry shouting and recriminations, a glimpse of a society that seems to be falling apart. He comments: “The worst of the worst. This is my warning to you. This is shit. This is a disaster and it will come to you if you let it happen.”During his time in Britain, Luntz met several prime ministers in quick succession: John Major (“he’s the most sensible person in the UK”), Tony Blair (“brilliant – he gets it more than anyone”), David Cameron (“still the best communicator that I’ve ever worked with”) and Boris Johnson (“the most fun: when I saw him, he spent 10 minutes just ripping me before I even got to the stuff I wanted to show him because we knew each other at Oxford”), who had not yet become embroiled in “partygate”.Ever the anglophile, Luntz does not share a view expressed by Joe Biden in 2019 that Johnson is a “physical and emotional clone” of Trump. “Boris Johnson has written more books than Donald Trump has read. Boris is the real Trump. He understands the hopes and dreams of the public. He gets the historic context. He can wax poetically about 2,000 years ago, 200 years ago and two years ago. Trump could not do that.“Trump captured the anger and the desire for revenge; that is not Boris at all. Think about it: Boris is amusing whereas Trump was vitriolic and mean; Boris is compelling whereas Trump was insulting. There’s a big difference. Boris is more likable, more approachable, more human than Trump was. Trump is more the middle finger; Boris was the kind of guy that you wanted to hang out with at the pub.”Last week Luntz was hired by the New York Times to take the temperature of 14 independent voters after Biden’s first year in the White House. They weren’t happy. “Biden does not understand the hopes and dreams of the average American,” says the messaging expert, who remains on the centre-right. “He does not empathise with them. His team is ideological rather than emotional and so he’s missing all this. It’s how people feel even more than how they think; feeling is a deeper emotion and Biden is not connecting to them at all.“Inflation is ‘transitory’? The line that I would use would be we should transitory Joe Biden right out of office, and the public would do that. Secondly, you got Kamala Harris, who comes across as inauthentic with that laugh. He picked her up and put her there, so they’re regarded as a team, and as a team they’re failing.”Biden’s approval rating is hovering in the dismal low 40s as the coronavirus pandemic drags on interminably. Luntz argues that he overpromised. “He created unrealistic expectations. He’s a very arrogant human being and very flawed and the combination of flaws and arrogance is a really unhealthy cocktail.”Wasn’t Biden supposed to be Mr Empathy? “There’s nothing about him that screams empathy. There’s everything about him that screams someone who’s already made up their mind.”A referendum on Biden looms in the midterm elections in November. Luntz agrees with the conventional wisdom that Republicans will win the House of Representatives but thinks Democrats will cling on to the Senate. He identifies six issues that will determine voters’ choices: crime, immigration, shortages, prices, education and the January 6 insurrection. “Democrats have a huge problem on five out of the six.”Prices, the cost of living, are the biggest problem. “This is the issue that’s going to kill the Democrats because it affects every single voter in every possible way every day of the year, whether it’s food or fuel, whether they’re trying to buy a house or car or something small. They know that it’s impacting them and it’s going to continue for a little while longer. Every day that it continues, you can assume that another member of Congress loses their job. It’s that big a deal.”An Atlantic magazine interview with Luntz in 2014, a year before Trump began his run for president, was prophetic about his health as a metaphor for America. He complained about a six-day headache and sleeping two or three hours at a time. Voters were “contentious and argumentative” and “didn’t listen to each other as they once had”. The article’s author, Molly Ball, wrote: “Frank Luntz is having some kind of crisis. I just can’t quite get my head around it.”Today, after the catharsis of his stroke, Luntz finds plenty of blame to go around. He casts a harsh light on the media, social media and his own younger self. In an infamous 2003 memo, for example, he advised George W Bush’s Republican party to abandon the phrase “global warming” in favour of “climate change” because it is “less frightening”. He is now an advocate of climate legislation. “I’ll take my blame for the stuff that I did 20 years ago. But I figured it out.”He touches a button and a giant painting of man walking on the moon slides up to reveal a TV screen and slideshow presentation of polling data entitled The Great Rethink. It is a study of America voters’ attitudes and disillusionment with their leaders. “The only thing we agree on is that politicians suck,” Luntz says. “If you’re American, this is a very depressing time right now.”One slide is about what people want most in life: fewer hassles, more money, no worries, better work, more choices, more time, better lifestyle, better work-life balance. Another offers some words to use (I am your voice, accountability, fact-based) and words to lose (agenda, I’m listening, transparency).Luntz argues that even in a polarised society such as America, every parent asks the same question: will my child/grandchild be happy? Perhaps rather optimistically, he urges politicians to focus on children as “the great unifier”.“If you want to bring people together, you do it over their children. You guys are divided on just about everything; this crushes that divide. This brings people together and it’s not been done before. I’m waiting for a political party or movement to capture the next generation as their focus.”Luntz, who does not think he will be in the polling business much longer, hopes politicians will consider the lessons of his “Great Rethink” presentation and rethink their own ways before democracy seizes up for good. “I want to hit them over the head with this,” he says. “I want to be able to say to them: cut it out. Just stop. Nothing is worth destroying the country – and you are this close to destroying the country.”TopicsUS politicsJoe BidenDemocratsRepublicansUS midterm elections 2022interviewsReuse this content More

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      in US Politics

      Ukraine president Zelenskiy thanks Biden for military aid – live

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      Key events

      Show

      4.30pm EST

      16:30

      Zelenskiy speaks to Biden and thanks US for military assistance to Ukraine

      2.32pm EST

      14:32

      Harris will play ‘central role’ in supreme court nomination process, Psaki says

      1.17pm EST

      13:17

      Today so far

      1.11pm EST

      13:11

      Breyer offers optimistic outlook for America’s future as he announces retirement

      12.50pm EST

      12:50

      Biden reiterates commitment to nominating Black woman to supreme court

      12.40pm EST

      12:40

      ‘I’m here today to express the nation’s gratitude to Justice Stephen Breyer,’ Biden says

      12.29pm EST

      12:29

      Breyer confirms retirement, saying he will step down this summer

      Live feed

      Show

      Show key events only

      From

      12.50pm EST

      12:50

      Biden reiterates commitment to nominating Black woman to supreme court

      Joe Biden applauded Justice Stephen Breyer’s work on the supreme court over the past 27 years, and he pledged to nominate someone who would follow in his footsteps.
      The president also reiterated his commitment to nominating a Black woman to the supreme court, which will mark a historic first for the US.

      CSPAN
      (@cspan)
      President Biden: “The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court.” #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/M1e0IJVPWu

      January 27, 2022

      “I‘ve made no decision except one,” Biden said of his chosen nominee. “The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity, and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States supreme court.”
      Biden said it was “long overdue” to have a Black woman on the high court, adding, “I made that commitment during the campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment.”
      While he has not yet chosen his nominee, Biden said he will review candidates’ qualifications and make a decision “before the end of February”.

      Updated
      at 12.54pm EST

      4.53pm EST

      16:53

      Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said that Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s team had seen the US response to Russia’s demands before it was delivered to the Kremlin yesterday.
      “No objections on the Ukrainian side,” Kuleba said in a tweet earlier today. “Important that the U.S. remains in close contact with Ukraine before and after all contacts with Russia. No decisions on Ukraine without Ukraine. Golden rule.”
      Joe Biden and Zelenskiy likely discussed the US response during their phone call this afternoon as well. In its response, the White House made clear it still supports Ukraine’s right to pursue Nato membership.

      Dmytro Kuleba
      (@DmytroKuleba)
      We had seen the written response of the U.S. before it was handed over to Russia. No objections on the Ukrainian side. Important that the U.S. remains in close contact with Ukraine before and after all contacts with Russia. No decisions on Ukraine without Ukraine. Golden rule.

      January 27, 2022

      4.30pm EST

      16:30

      Zelenskiy speaks to Biden and thanks US for military assistance to Ukraine

      Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Joe Biden spoke by phone this afternoon about the ongoing efforts to deescalate tensions at Ukraine’s border and avoid a Russian invasion.
      “Had a long phone conversation with @POTUS. Discussed recent diplomatic efforts on de-escalation and agreed on joint actions for the future,” the Ukrainian president said on Twitter.
      “Thanked President @JoeBiden for the ongoing military assistance. Possibilities for financial support to Ukraine were also discussed.”

      Володимир Зеленський
      (@ZelenskyyUa)
      Had a long phone conversation with @POTUS. Discussed recent diplomatic efforts on de-escalation and agreed on joint actions for the future. Thanked President @JoeBiden for the ongoing military assistance. Possibilities for financial support to Ukraine were also discussed. pic.twitter.com/pAsQLYAuig

      January 27, 2022

      Biden and Zelenskiy were expected to speak this afternoon, but the White House has not yet released its own readout of the conversation.
      The call came one day after the US delivered its written response to Russia’s demands on Ukraine, as Vladimir Putin builds up his troop presence along the border. In its response, the White House made clear that it still supports Ukraine’s right to pursue Nato membership.

      4.20pm EST

      16:20

      The Guardian’s Jennifer Rankin and Julian Borger report:
      Russia has said it is willing to continue talks with the US over European security, but is not optimistic about their prospects after Washington and Nato allies again rejected a key part of Russia’s proposed new order for post-cold war security.
      On Thursday, Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said “there isn’t much reason to be optimistic” after the US and Nato rejected Moscow’s demands for a veto on Ukraine’s potential membership of Nato in a co-ordinated response the day before.
      Moscow needed time to analyse the US document and would not “rush into assessments”, Peskov added.
      Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow’s main concern – the potential for Ukraine to join Nato – had not been addressed, but there was hope “for the start of a serious conversation on secondary issues”.
      “There is no positive response in this document on the main issue,” he said.
      One of Lavrov’s spokespeople appeared to rule out war with Ukraine, in comments that led to a jump in the value of the Russian rouble, as investors gained confidence that conflict could be avoided.

      4.02pm EST

      16:02

      Joe Biden met with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in Washington today to discuss the diplomatic efforts to avoid a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
      “The two discussed joint efforts, including through Nato and the OSCE, to address Russia’s destabilizing military buildup along Ukraine’s borders,” the White House said in its readout of the meeting.
      “They also discussed enhancing the US-Norway partnership in tackling a range of challenges, including climate change, ending the Covid-19 pandemic and establishing sustainable health security financing, and humanitarian support for Afghanistan. President Biden thanked the Prime Minister for Norway’s leadership as president of the UN security council this month.”
      Biden was also expected to speak to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, this afternoon, but the White House has not yet released any readout from that conversation.

      Updated
      at 4.05pm EST

      3.42pm EST

      15:42

      Senator Joe Manchin said today that he would feel comfortable supporting a supreme court nominee who may be more liberal than he is.
      In an interview with West Virginia MetroNews’s Hoppy Kercheval, Manchin said he takes the process of considering a supreme court nominee very seriously and looked forward to meeting the person chosen by Joe Biden.

      MetroNews
      (@WVMetroNews)
      Justice Stephen Breyer will formally announce his retirement from the Supreme Court. Manchin supported 2 of the 3 nominees from Donald Trump. Manchin talks about whether or not he will support President Biden’s nominee to @HoppyKercheval. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nm85Y pic.twitter.com/HHp8Mrom7Y

      January 27, 2022

      “It’s not too hard to get more liberal than me. So, it would not bother me having a person who was sound in their thought process, had been sound in their disbursement of justice and the rule of law, just because their personal beliefs [are different than mine],” Manchin said.
      “As far as just the philosophical beliefs, no, that will not prohibit me from supporting somebody.”
      Because of the 50-50 split in the Senate, Biden’s supreme court nominee will need the support of every Democratic member to get confirmed (assuming all Republicans oppose confirmation), so Manchin’s vote is crucial.

      3.13pm EST

      15:13

      Ed Pilkington

      Joe Biden’s confirmation that he is still studying the résumés of supreme court candidates and has yet to make his pick will do little to settle nerves among progressives still smarting from Donald Trump’s three supreme court appointments.
      Many Democrats want the president to emulate the warp speed with which the Trump administration drove through the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett in less than six weeks following Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in September 2020.
      The Washington Post, citing an anonymous source, said that the majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, is aiming for a similar timeline.
      Replacing Breyer with a like-minded justice is seen by many Democrats as critical in preserving the already beleaguered rump of liberals on the bench. The retiring justice is one of only three such individuals on the nine-justice court, and they are so outnumbered that the country now faces drastic changes in several key areas from abortion to guns and affirmative action.
      Despite the pressure for haste among his party’s members, Biden insisted that he would be “rigorous” in choosing the nominee. He would listen to advice from senators and meet candidates, indicating a selection process that is likely to take weeks not days.

      2.56pm EST

      14:56

      Jen Psaki also criticized some Republicans who are already attacking Joe Biden’s supreme court nominee as “radical”, even though they do not yet know who the nominee will be.
      “As you heard the president say directly, he’s going to work in good faith with senators of both parties,” the White House press secretary said at her daily briefing.
      But Psaki added that it was important to be clear about some of the “games” Republicans are already playing as Biden begins the search for a nominee to replace Stephen Breyer on the supreme court.

      Bloomberg Quicktake
      (@Quicktake)
      Biden will work “in good faith” with members of both parties to select a nominee to replace Justice Breyer on the Supreme Court, @PressSec says https://t.co/jGLZWsQkuD pic.twitter.com/7DK3fxcjnB

      January 27, 2022

      “We have not mentioned a single name. We have not put out a list. The president made it very clear he has not made a selection,” Psaki said.
      “If anyone is saying they plan to characterize whoever he nominates, after thorough consideration with both parties, as radical before they know literally anything about who she is, they just obliterated their own credibility.”
      Psaki reiterated that Biden is committed to consulting with members of both parties to ensure his nominee is “worthy of the excellence and decency of Breyer’s legacy”.

      Updated
      at 3.14pm EST

      2.32pm EST

      14:32

      Harris will play ‘central role’ in supreme court nomination process, Psaki says

      Vice-President Kamala Harris is expected to play a “central role” as Joe Biden selects his nominee to replace Stephen Breyer on the supreme court, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
      A reporter at the daily White House briefing asked Psaki which members of the Biden administration will be closely involved in the search for a supreme court nominee.

      CSPAN
      (@cspan)
      .@PressSec Jen Psaki on Supreme Court nominee selection process: “The Vice President will play a central role in this process.” pic.twitter.com/yizd5GMaib

      January 27, 2022

      “The vice-president will play a central role in this process, and the President intends to consult with her very closely,” Psaki replied.
      “Obviously, she has a long history as a former attorney general, as a member of the judiciary committee, and he respects her opinion greatly.”
      The press secretary noted that White House chief of staff Ron Klain and some of Biden’s senior advisers, including Cedric Richmond, will also be involved in the process.
      Harris had been mentioned as a potential choice for Biden’s nominee, but the White House has downplayed that possibility, saying the president and the vice-president look forward to running for reelection together in 2024.

      2.13pm EST

      14:13

      Russia remains open but ‘not optimistic’ over Ukraine talks
      The White House has said it will have a read out later this afternoon after US President Joe Biden is expected to speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The call is being described by the White House as a ‘check in’ rather than about a specific announcement.
      Meanwhile, Jennifer Rankin in Brussels and Julian Borger in Washington DC have the latest news wrap on the diplomacy.
      They report: ‘Russia has said it is willing to continue talks with the US over European security, but is not optimistic about their prospects after Washington and Nato allies again rejected a key part of Russia’s proposed new order for post-cold war security.
      Tensions have soared in recent weeks as Russia massed more than 100,000 soldiers and heavy weapons at its border with Ukraine, raising fears of an invasion.
      On Thursday, Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said “there isn’t much reason to be optimistic” after the US and Nato rejected Moscow’s demands for a veto on Ukraine’s potential membership of Nato in a co-ordinated response the day before.’
      Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow’s main concern – the potential for Ukraine to join Nato – had not been addressed, but there was hope “for the start of a serious conversation on secondary issues”.’ More

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      in US Politics

      Biden to nominate first Black woman to sit on supreme court by end of February

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      Biden to nominate first Black woman to sit on supreme court by end of FebruaryUS president announced plans for court at White House event marking retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer01:04Joe Biden intends to announce his nominee to become the first Black woman to sit on the US supreme court by the end of February, the president said on Thursday at a formal White House event to mark the retirement of the liberal-leaning justice Stephen Breyer.Lauding the retiring justice as a “beacon of wisdom” and a “model public servant at a time of great division in this country”, Biden pledged to replace him with someone worthy of Breyer’s “legacy of excellence and decency”. He said the nominee would have “extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity, and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States supreme court.”He added: “It is long overdue in my view.”Biden’s confirmation that he is still studying the résumés of candidates and has yet to make his pick will do little to settle nerves among progressives still smarting from Donald Trump’s three supreme court appointments. Many Democrats want the president to emulate the warp speed with which the Trump administration drove through the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett in less than six weeks following Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in September 2020.The Washington Post, citing an anonymous source, said that the majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, is aiming for a similar timeline.Replacing Breyer with a like-minded justice is seen by many Democrats as critical in preserving the already beleaguered rump of liberals on the bench. The retiring justice is one of only three such individuals on the nine-justice court, and they are so outnumbered that the country now faces drastic changes in several key areas from abortion to guns and affirmative action.Despite the pressure for haste among his party’s members, Biden insisted that he would be “rigorous” in choosing the nominee. He would listen to advice from senators and meet candidates, indicating a selection process that is likely to take weeks not days.For his part, Justice Breyer is hoping that his successor can be confirmed and in place within the next six months. In his formal retirement letter to Biden, he said he would step down at the start of the court’s summer recess in June or July, “assuming that by then my successor has been nominated and confirmed”.Speaking in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Breyer made a lyrical paean to American unity. Recalling a speech he likes to deliver to school students, he said that the US was an experiment that is still going on.“My children and grandchildren will determine whether the experiment will last, and as an optimist I’m pretty sure that it will,” he said.Biden first committed himself to promoting a Black woman to the nation’s highest court at a presidential debate against Trump during the 2020 presidential campaign. The promise was reportedly made after intense prodding by the prominent South Carolina Democrat Jim Clyburn, who endorsed Biden the following day in a move that helped propel him into the White House.Though the race is now on to confirm Breyer’s replacement before the court’s term reaches its summer recess, there are large hurdles ahead. Looming over the proceedings is the evenly divided 50-50 split in the US Senate, the chamber that will preside over the confirmation hearings of whomsoever Biden picks.The Democrats hold the casting vote with Vice-President Kamala Harris, but they will need to keep all 50 senators on board during the process. That is a challenge that has eluded the Biden administration in recent months with the high-profile defections of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema over vital issues ranging from the president’s Build Back Better legislation to overcoming the filibuster to secure essential voting rights reforms.To reduce any risk of Democratic splits, Schumer will also be looking to lure Republican moderates such as Susan Collins from Maine and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska to their side.Then there are the nationwide midterm elections in November which will inevitably place a partisan political pall over the confirmation process. Republicans have already begun to test out lines of attack, predicting that Biden’s nominee will be, in the words of the senator from Florida Rick Scott, “a radical liberal with extremist views”.Rightwing Twitter feeds have also lit up with claims that Biden’s choice of a Black woman would constitute unlawful sex and race discrimination. Those playing the affirmative-action card were forgetting that in 1980 Ronald Reagan pledged to pick the first woman to sit on the nation’s highest court, appointing Sandra Day O’Connor the following year.Republican leaders will be hoping that by portraying Biden’s choice as a culture wars threat to American values they will help to drive out the party’s base to the polling booths on 8 November.Similar calculations will be at play on the Democratic side. Party strategists will want to leverage the nomination of a Black woman as an energizing factor at the polls for important elements of its electorate who include African Americans, women and progressive voters. TopicsUS supreme courtJoe BidenLaw (US)US politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Fair Observer’s New Feature: “Language and the News”

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      After running the feature called “The Daily Devil’s Dictionary” for the past four years, Fair Observer is expanding its coverage of the culture of media and public discourse. The Devil’s Dictionary moves to a weekly format and will be accompanied by a developing reflection on the language of the news.

      Fact-checking Is Not Enough. Sense-checking Is Equally Important.

      One of the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has been to highlight the awkward gap between what our institutions and media express in official language and people’s sense of reality. From our school days behind a desk to sitting down in front of the evening news after a hard day’s work, we have been conditioned to trust a class of people we call professionals who know things we don’t know. These professionals feed us not just what they present as facts, but also the message and especially the meaning that results from interpreting those facts. Once their job is done, the media in particular count on us to share the information we have received with family, friends, coworkers and acquaintances we happen to converse with. And all of us most of the time obey. That is what keeps our private conversations going.

      In recent times, certain anomalies and blatant contradictions in the news cycles have upset this pattern of behavior that formerly structured civilized life. We have experienced a series of major crises that end up dominating the news cycle, including financial meltdowns, climate change, pandemics, to say nothing of the damage resulting from mass surveillance and meaningless wars. The not always convincing reporting on these events has seriously disrupted the ability of information professionals in both the media and education to maintain the stable cultural order that once seemed so sure to so many people.

      Coming to Terms With the Game Being Played on the Russia-Ukraine Border

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      This has led to a well-documented serious loss of confidence in the authority of democratic governments and their institutions on a global scale. Yahoo Finance recently cited Edelman’s Trust Barometer for 2022 that describes a global trend. “Among the key findings of the report was the overall lower trust in world leaders and institutions around the world, with 67% of respondents saying they worry that journalists and reporters were ‘purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.’ The figures were 66% and 63% for government and business leaders, respectively.” 

      Unique Insights from 2,500+ Contributors in 90+ Countries

      With few exceptions, the populations of nations across the globe have deemed the performance of their government leaders seeking to manage the now two-year-old pandemic unsatisfactory, if not worse. A much longer trend reveals that confidence in the media has never been more shaky. Many governments and media pundits have attempted to blame social media for this visible decline in trust. But that seems like a ruse or at best a distraction, encouraged by the very authorities in whom the public has been losing trust. Though the owners and promoters of social media platforms, motivated by profit, narcissism and especially rapidly expanding power, are by no means to be trusted, most ordinary people understand that social media itself is little more than an extended space of personal conversation. For that reason, some in the political world see it as a threat to the established order.

      Commercial media and political authorities have increasingly touted the idea that fact-checking will solve the problem of restoring trust in information providers. But that is naive. We have already seen that making decisions about what is true and false is a perilous undertaking, not only because the boundaries between the two is often fuzzy, but also because powerful interests will inevitably step in to impose their preferred distinctions. 

      Things become even more complex when we realize that truth is not simply a set of verifiable facts, but an understanding that can be built up of the complex relationships and patterns those facts combine to create. We try to make sense of the world, but the act of making sense should require its own quality control. Expecting those who “manage” the information to provide that control is as dangerous as it is naive.

      Is There an Answer? Can Sense-checking Exist?

      Fair Observer’s “Language and the News” launched at the beginning of this year will focus on the curious ways in which public personalities — those who have knowledge to impart — literally play with the range of meaning language permits. On the face of it, playing sounds entertaining. And indeed, the purveyors of news understand that. It is why so many people now count on the news for entertainment. It is also why so much of the news is indistinguishable from entertainment. It is a game, but it’s a game in which there are clearly winners and losers. One of those losers is not so much the facts themselves, which do of course get distorted, but our perception and understanding of the reality we live in.

      Only by looking at the variety of resonances produced by language does the true complexity of reality come into view. But something else, slightly more sinister also comes into view. It is the relentless effort engaged by those who are empowered to use language for our information and entertainment to reduce complexity to a simple idea that serves some practical or ideological end that they are attached to. Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky once described the processes in detail in their book, “Manufacturing Consent.”

      Embed from Getty Images

      At the end of the month of January 2022, Fair Observer launches its feature, “Language and the News.” It includes a “Weekly Devil’s Dictionary” but will also be composed of short vignettes that pick up salient examples from the current news cycle to highlight how they produce or obscure meaning. In the coming weeks, we will open the channel of communication for our readers to provide their own sense-checking. Think of it as a communication game. But it is the kind of game in which there should be no losers, since — at least theoretically — everyone in a democratic society profits from clarity. 

      Here are the first two examples to inaugurate the new feature.

      Example 1: Mitch McConnell’s America

      Newsweek reported Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s objections to the voting rights bill the Democrats proposed. With impeccable self-revelatory logic, he derided the need for reform or the fact that the current system in many places was built to reduce access to the polls for black Americans. “Well, the concern is misplaced,” he said. “Because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.”

      Sigmund Freud maintained that verbal slips reveal deeper levels of psychical truth. What would he say about this? 

      Coming from the senator from Kentucky, one of the Confederate states during the Civil War, he would see a true continuity with the spirit and culture of the Old South. It is likely that at the nation’s founding, blacks who were in their vast majority slaves were not considered Americans. Even though each slave counted, for the needs of representation, as three-fifths of a “real” American, they could not vote. They were property. McConnell may feel that because the black community consistently votes at more than 90% for Democrats, they are the property of Democrats rather than “Americans.”

      Example 2: Joe Biden’s Extended Property

      In his extended press conference last week, US President Joe Biden offered his updated interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. “We used to talk about, when I was a kid in college, about “America’s backyard,” the president reminded the press. “It’s not America’s backyard. Everything south of the Mexican border is America’s front yard.”

      Everyone in the United States knows that your front yard is not only identified as your property, but more significantly it represents the image of yourself you wish to convey to the outside world. The traditional reference to a backyard contained the idea that it was a stretch of land that was far less significant, required less upkeep, if any at all, and could even merge with the countryside. Calling Latin America America’s backyard was disrespectful but suggested the possibility of benign negligence.

      Embed from Getty Images

      Biden most certainly believed his metaphor would convey a notion of respect and even solidarity with the people who inhabit the land in front of his house. But that is the crux of the problem. People who live in your front yard are squatters, not neighbors. The very idea that there may be people in a space the owner controls and designs to convey the family’s image is shocking. At least it should appear shocking to anyone who lives anywhere between El Paso and Tierra del Fuego.

      To avoid misunderstanding, though with no real intention to correct the terrifying image he created, Biden added: “And we’re equal people. We don’t dictate what happens in any other part of that — of this continent or the South American continent. We have to work very hard on it.”

      And so, between Mitch McConnell and Joe Biden, we learned that blacks are not quite the same thing as Americans and that Latinos and Latinas are at best thought of as tolerated squatters. The land of the free continues, at least unconsciously, to make distinctions between those who are authentically free and those who may, according to their ethnic or cultural identity, simply aspire to be free. 

      The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy. More

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      The leading female contenders to succeed Breyer on supreme court

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      The leading female contenders to succeed Breyer on supreme court Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement allows Biden to make history by appointing its first Black womanThe liberal supreme court justice Stephen Breyer is retiring and Joe Biden has said he will stand by a previous promise to nominate a Black woman to America’s highest legal body.Stephen Breyer to retire from supreme court, giving Biden chance to pick liberal judgeRead moreAt 83 years old, Breyer is the oldest justice of the court and his retirement will give Biden his first seat to fill on the supreme court, which is currently conservative-leaning by six to three. Replacing Breyer won’t allow Biden to change that dynamic but it does allow him to ensure the liberal contingent is not reduced further and make history by appointing its first Black woman.Here are some of the women considered leading contenders for the seat:Ketanji Brown JacksonBorn in Washington DC and raised in Miami, Florida, Jackson has been a judge of the US court of appeals for the DC circuit since June 2021 after the 51-year-old Harvard graduate replaced the attorney general, Merrick Garland.The DC circuit has historically been seen as a stepping stone to the supreme court. From 2010 to 2014, Jackson served as vice-chair of the United States sentencing commission, during which the commission significantly reduced sentences for numerous drug offenders.Leondra KrugerKruger, a native of Los Angeles, is an associate justice of the supreme court of California. The 45-year-old was previously the acting principal deputy solicitor general under the Barack Obama administration.Supreme court justice Elena Kagan once called Kruger “one of the best advocates in the Department of Justice”. Kruger has argued 12 cases in front of the supreme court. She has previously described her approach to the law as one that “reflects that fact that we operate in a system of precedent”.J Michelle ChildsChilds is currently serving as a district judge of the US district court for the district of South Carolina. Appointed by Obama in 2009, the 55-year-old Detroit native has also been nominated by Biden for a seat on the DC circuit court of appeals. Childs was also the first Black woman to become a partner at Nexsen Pruet, LLC, one of South Carolina’s major law firms.She has served as the deputy director in the labor division at South Carolina’s department of labor, licensing and regulation. Congressman Jim Clyburn, a close ally of Biden, is fiercely supports Childs and has previously pushed the Biden administration to nominate her as the supreme court’s next liberal justice. “She is the kind of person who has the sort of experiences that would make her a good addition to the supreme court,” Clyburn said.Wilhelmina WrightWright is a district judge of the US district court for the district of Minnesota. A favorite of Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the 58-year-old is also Minnesota’s first African American justice. Wright has previously said that fairness, impartially and respect for the rule of law have been her “lodestar”, adding that she “give[s] no consideration to whether I agree or disagree with a party”. She has also emphasized the importance of diversity in the judicial system, at one point writing: “I believe it would undermine the public’s trust and confidence in the judiciary if there were no judges who are women or judges of color.”Eunice LeeSince August 2021, Lee, 52, has been a judge of the US court of appeals for the second circuit after being nominated by Biden. Lee has worked at the office of the appellate defender in New York City from 1998 to 2019. In addition, from 2019 until her bench appointment, Lee was an assistant federal defender in the appeals bureau of the federal defenders of New York.Candace Jackson-AkiwumiJackson-Akiwumi is currently a US circuit judge of the US court of appeals for the seventh circuit since July 2021. Jackson-Akiwumi is the first judge appointed to the seventh circuit who has a background as a federal public defender.Nominated by Biden in April 2021, Jackson-Akiwumi was also a staff attorney at the federal defender program in the northern district of Illinois from 2010 to 2020 where she represented indigent people who were accused of federal crimes. From 2020 to 2021, Jackson-Akiwumi served as a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder, a DC-based law firm where she focused on civil litigations and white-collar criminal defense.Sherrilyn IfillIfill is the president and director-counsel of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Before joining LDF as an assistant council in 1988, the 59-year-old New York native was a fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union.Ifill taught civil procedure and constitutional law for over two decades and pioneered numerous law clinics, including one of the first in the country that focused on challenging legal obstacles to the re-entry of ex-offenders. In 2021, Time named her one of the world’s 100 most influential people.TopicsUS supreme courtLaw (US)Biden administrationJoe BidenUS politicsnewsReuse this content More