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      Republican debate: chaos erupts as Christie defends Haley and Ramaswamy calls her ‘fascist neocon’ with lipstick – as it happened

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      We’ve reached the shouting stage of the debate. It started with Christie trying to defend Haley against Ramaswamy – “This is a smart, accomplished woman and you should stop insulting her” – and descended into a shout-off between the two men.Ramaswamy punched back with a reference to Bridgegate and some casual fat shaming. He then seemed to compare Nikki Haley to Dick Cheney. “You can put lipstick on a Dick Cheney – it is still a fascist neocon,” he said.Haley and DeSantis, who have the most to gain or lose tonight, have bubbled back into the background.That wraps up the fourth Republican primary debate. There was shouting, there was misinformation, and there was a lot of discussion of the one candidate not in the room – Donald Trump.
      Nikki Haley delivered a relatively muted performance, ultimately presenting herself as a calm foil to Trump’s chaos. She arguably had the most to gain – or lose – tonight, given her recent momentum in polls.
      Ron DeSantis doubled down on far-right talking points on transgender rights and immigration, and was feisty in his attacks of Haley, who has been gaining on him.
      Chris Christie was one of the feistiest debaters, coming down especially hard on Trump and DeSantis, whom he accused of parroting the former president.
      Vivek Ramaswamy was characteristically on the attack, swiping especially hard at Haley.
      The moderators posed some of the sharpest questions we’ve yet seen at a Republican debate, asking direct, pointed questions about these candidates’ viability against Trump and their past equivocating.
      Read more:In the final question, the candidates were asked which former president they draw inspiration from.Christie said Ronald Reagan, because he was a “slave to the truth”. Haley said George Washington. DeSantis said Calvin Coolidge, someone who “knew the proper role of the president” and small government. Ramaswamy chose Thomas Jefferson, for his youth.DeSantis promoted the election police force he created.The force arrested 20 people. More than half of the cases have either been dismissed or have resulted in plea deals with no jail time. Several of those charged did not know they couldn’t vote and were not informed of their ineligibility.Turns out Vivek Ramaswamy is still going to be a bully. When a question about Ramaswamy’s swipes about Nikki Haley’s faith and identity as a fellow Indian American arose, he attempted to spin a response into doubts about her authenticity and then tried to redeem sexist comments from past debates.He then held up a sign that said “Nikki = Corrupt”. The audience audibly booed at Ramaswamy, and cheered when Haley said she wouldn’t bother to respond.On gender-affirming care, for example, the candidates repeatedly made reference to “genital mutilation”, baselessly implying that the gender-affirming care – which is endorsed by major medical associations – was abuse.One-upping each other, DeSantis and Haley sparred over who had been more restrictive of the rights of queer people.“I did a bill in Florida to stop the gender mutilation of minors. It’s child abuse, and it’s wrong. She opposes that bill. She thinks it’s fine and the law shouldn’t get involved with it,” DeSantis said.DeSantis took a rare swing at Trump. He said Trump didn’t use his executive powers to fire Dr Anthony Fauci and FBI head Christopher Wray, or to deport even more undocumented migrants. He then mentioned Trump’s age and said the American people shouldn’t vote for someone who is nearly 80.But Christie still pounced on DeSantis, saying he was too scared to directly take on Trump.Discussion had turned back to Trump, and his assertion that he’d restrict immigration from Muslim countries.Haley said she opposed a “straight Muslim ban”, and said policy should focus on countries that are a threat to the US. DeSantis, meanwhile, framed the issue of Muslim people immigrating to the US as a cultural issue.“Look what’s happened in Europe,” he said. “They imported mass numbers of people who reject their culture. Europe is committing suicide with the mass migration.”Echoing a common, xenophobic talking point, he baselessly implied that immigrants were responsible for antisemitism in the EU.Turning to questions of what’s ailing the economy, and what to do about it, the candidates had different theories on the former issue, but few concrete ideas on the latter.Haley said inflation and high interest rates were making it difficult for Americans seeking homeownership. DeSantis said both parties were borrowing, printing and spending too much money, while Ramaswamy said that he wanted to reduce the central bank’s headcount by 90%.Ramaswamy accused China of sending chemicals to Mexico for the manufacture of fentanyl.Here’s more context on that:Picking up a familiar line of attack, DeSantis also attacked Haley as sympathetic to China.This is something he’s attacked her on at previous debates, capitalizing on a letter she wrote to China’s ambassador to the US in 2014, thanking him for congratulating her on her re-election.After a short break, we are back with discussion of fentanyl and the southern border of the US.DeSantis, who had made this a key political issue – flying asylum seekers to Democrat-led areas – said he would make it legal to shoot suspected drug traffickers at the border, whom he would classify as terrorists.We’ve reached the shouting stage of the debate. It started with Christie trying to defend Haley against Ramaswamy – “This is a smart, accomplished woman and you should stop insulting her” – and descended into a shout-off between the two men.Ramaswamy punched back with a reference to Bridgegate and some casual fat shaming. He then seemed to compare Nikki Haley to Dick Cheney. “You can put lipstick on a Dick Cheney – it is still a fascist neocon,” he said.Haley and DeSantis, who have the most to gain or lose tonight, have bubbled back into the background.Haley, meanwhile, has had to clarify her past inscrutable responses to questions about Israel and Hamas.“You said in last month’s debate that by contrast to the Biden administration’s approach to Iran, you would ‘punch them once and punch them hard’. Were you saying that it’s time to bomb Iran?” asked Eliana Johnson.Haley said that’s not what she meant, but that the administration has been too accommodating of Iranians by weakening sanctions to secure the return of American prisoners.So far any discussion on Israel has been focused on the Israelis killed by Hamas in the deadly 7 October attack. The candidates have not mentioned the more than 16,000 people killed largely by Israeli strikes in Gaza, including thousands of children.The next set of questions is about Israel.The question comes on the same day that Senate Republicans blocked a supplemental funding bill that included financial aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and border security provisions. The vote was held up by Republicans who wanted more stringent border policies in exchange for their support.DeSantis accused the Biden administration of hurting Israel’s ability to defend itself. Christie said he would send troops to save hostages held by Hamas.Kelly is out with another biting question, this time for Chris Christie:“Your best state is New Hampshire and even there, two thirds of GOP voters say they would be angry and disappointed if you won. Respectfully, Governor, you have not stopped Mr Trump, and voters may wonder how you could possibly become the nominee of a party that does not appear to like you very much.”Christie responded that Trump (who he referred to as “Voldemort – he who shall not be named”) was the candidate that everyone here is really competing with. “I’m in this race because the truth needs to be spoken,” he said. “He is unfit. This is a guy who just said this past week that he wants to use the Department of Justice to go after his enemies when he gets in there. And the fact of the matter is, he is unfit to be president, and there is no bigger issue in this race, Megan, than Donald Trump.”“I love all the attention, fellas, thank you for that,” said Haley, as DeSantis and Ramaswamy piled on her about cybersecurity and her corporate donations.Vivek Ramaswamy made a splash in the first Republican debate, but what some considered witty, antiestablishment repartee has now been deemed bullying. A low point for Ramaswamy came after he evoked Nikki Haley’s daughter’s TikTok account in the last debate. As Ramaswamy continues to drop in polls and popularity, some are waiting to see if he will change tact. More

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      Swings, misses but no clear winner: five takeaways from the fourth Republican debate

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      The fourth Republican debate in Alabama featured just four people – winnowing the broad pool down to Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy – but once again missing the frontrunner Donald Trump.The debate, hosted by NewsNation and moderated by Megyn Kelly, Elizabeth Vargas and Eliana Johnson, devolved into conspiracy theories and confusing personal attacks despite some clear and forthright questions.With primary elections just weeks away now, the four candidates tried to make their mark on stage yet again, but largely fell short. Here are the key takeaways.When pressed on Trump, the candidates took some swings and many misses at the likely Republican nomineeChris Christie again positioned himself as the anti-Trump candidate, pointing to Trump’s legal issues and calling him a “dictator” who would weaponize the justice department to settle his scores.Haley and DeSantis focused instead on specific policy issues. Haley said she opposed a “straight Muslim ban”. DeSantis avoided saying if Trump was unfit for office, but said the former president had not delivered on several promises, and the American people should want a young president.Christie chided his opponents for continuing to skirt around direct Trump attacks.The Israel-Hamas war once again featured heavily in the debate, largely centered on antisemitismThe candidates, other than Ramaswamy, doubled down on their aggressive, pro-Israel rhetoric. Haley said she would introduce legislation to tie anti-Israel sentiment with antisemitism and made a comparison between pro-Palestinian protests and KKK marches.DeSantis accused Biden of restricting support for Israel (Biden has requested at least $14bn in additional funding for Israel aid) and once again touted his own actions as governor of Florida.Personal attacks were common, and Vivek Ramaswamy was at either end of many of themWith four desperate candidates pulling out all the stunts, Ramaswamy once again stood out for his antics on stage. From holding up a paper saying “Nikki = Corrupt”, to making fat phobic digs at Christie, the entrepreneur attempted to stay relevant, but was met multiple times with audience boos.But there were some other attacks too. Haley and DeSantis, both struggling to save a second-place spot, called each other hypocrites on China policy, transgender issues and other conservative red meat topics.Transgender issues cycled in and out of both the answers and questions in the debate, though the issue doesn’t seem to be a decisive vote winner for most RepublicansDeSantis attacked Haley on a failed “bathroom bill” in South Carolina and touted his own anti-trans bills in Florida. Ramaswamy called transgender identity a mental health issue. Christie attempted to walk the middle road by saying he would let parents decide and stay out of the discussion on whether children should be able to get gender-affirming treatment.There was no clear winnerAll the candidates seemed to do what they were expected to do. Christie focused on his anti-Trump posturing. DeSantis focused on his wins as a governor. Haley played the role of steady conservative hand. And Ramaswamy attempted to make memes and headlines by being a bully and firebrand. More

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      Six Nevada Republicans charged with casting fake electoral votes in 2020

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      Six Republicans who cast fake electoral votes for Donald Trump in Nevada in 2020 were charged with two felonies each by the state’s attorney general on Wednesday.The Democratic attorney general, Aaron Ford, announced the charges, saying a grand jury had decided to charge the six fake electors with “offering a false instrument for filing” and “uttering a forged instrument” for sending documents claiming to be the state’s electors.Fake electors in Georgia and Michigan have already been charged, while others of the seven states with similar schemes are still investigating the issue. A separate civil lawsuit in Wisconsin over the fake electors settled this week, with the Republicans who claimed Trump won the state acknowledging Biden’s victory and agreeing not to serve as electors next year.“When the efforts to undermine faith in our democracy began after the 2020 election, I made it clear that I would do everything in my power to defend the institutions of our nation and our state,” Ford said in a statement. “We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged. Today’s indictments are the product of a long and thorough investigation, and as we pursue this prosecution, I am confident that our judicial system will see justice done.”Ford had previously said the state’s laws didn’t address a situation like this. The state legislature passed a bill to make it a felony to be a fake elector, but the governor vetoed the bill.The six Nevadans charged are Michael McDonald, Jesse Law, Jim DeGraffenreid, Durward James Hindle III, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe filing a false instrument charge is a category C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, while the uttering a false instrument charge is a category D felony, with potential for up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine. More

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      Kevin McCarthy, ousted House speaker, says he will leave Congress at end of the year – US politics live

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      In an address today, Joe Biden urged Congress to pass his national security supplemental request, including funding to support Ukraine.Speaking from the White House’s Roosevelt Room, the president said:
      Congress has to uphold the national security needs of the United States and, quite frankly, of our partners as well. This cannot wait. Congress needs to pass supplemental funding for Ukraine before they break for the holiday recess. It’s as simple as that.
      Biden also touched on border policies, saying:
      Extreme Republicans are playing chicken with our national security, holding Ukraine’s funding hostage to their extreme partisan border policies.
      Let me be clear: we need real solutions. I support real solutions at the border. I put forward a comprehensive plan the first day I came into office. I’ve made it clear that we need Congress to make changes to fix what is a broken immigration system, because we all know it’s broken. And I’m willing to do significantly more. But in terms of changes to policy and to provide resources that we need at the border, I’m willing to change policy as well.
      The Senate has begun a procedural vote on Joe Biden’s national security supplemental funding request. Sixty votes are required surrounding the $106bn Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan funding.So far, there are 30 yes’s and 29 no’s. The voting remains underway.In an address today, Joe Biden urged Congress to pass his national security supplemental request, including funding to support Ukraine.Speaking from the White House’s Roosevelt Room, the president said:
      Congress has to uphold the national security needs of the United States and, quite frankly, of our partners as well. This cannot wait. Congress needs to pass supplemental funding for Ukraine before they break for the holiday recess. It’s as simple as that.
      Biden also touched on border policies, saying:
      Extreme Republicans are playing chicken with our national security, holding Ukraine’s funding hostage to their extreme partisan border policies.
      Let me be clear: we need real solutions. I support real solutions at the border. I put forward a comprehensive plan the first day I came into office. I’ve made it clear that we need Congress to make changes to fix what is a broken immigration system, because we all know it’s broken. And I’m willing to do significantly more. But in terms of changes to policy and to provide resources that we need at the border, I’m willing to change policy as well.
      A new school board president in Pennsylvania was sworn in on Monday on a stack of frequently banned books.In a video posted by the Recount, Karen Smith, the new Central Bucks school board president can be seen saying her vows on a stack of six banned books.According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the books include Night by Elie Wiesel, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M Johnson, Flamer by Mike Curato, and Beyond Magenta by Susan Kukin.According to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), between 1 January and 31 August, OIF reported 698 to censor library materials and services and documented challenges to 1,915 unique titles.The ban marks a 20% increase from the same reporting period in 2022, OIF said.Four Republican presidential candidates are set to meet onstage in Alabama tonight for the fourth Republican presidential debate.The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino reports:Four White House hopefuls will meet onstage in Alabama for the fourth Republican presidential primary debate, the smallest lineup yet as the window for denting Donald Trump’s lead narrows.Wednesday night’s debate, hosted by the cable network NewsNation at the Moody Music Hall at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, offers one of the last major opportunities for the candidates to make their case to Republican voters before the party’s nominating contest begins next month.The two-hour event will feature Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, and Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and former United Nations ambassador, who are locked in an increasingly combative scrap to be the second-place alternative to Trump. They will be joined by Chris Christie, a former governor of New Jersey and Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur, who both trail far behind.Read the full story here:Joe Biden has announced that his administration is approving another $4.8bn in student debt cancellation for 80,300 people.In a statement released on Wednesday, the president said that this brings the total debt cancellation that his administration has approved to $132bn for over 3.6 million Americans.Biden said:
      Today’s announcement comes on top of all we’ve been able to achieve for students and student loan borrowers in the past few years.
      This includes: achieving the largest increases in Pell Grants in over a decade to help families who earn less than roughly $60,000 a year; fixing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program so that borrowers who go into public service get the debt relief they’re entitled to under the law; and creating the most generous Income-Driven Repayment plan in history – the Save plan.
      The Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison has released the following statement on Kevin McCarthy’s resignation announcement in which he said the US will be “better off without Kevin in office”:
      In his short time as speaker, Kevin McCarthy managed to plunge the People’s House into chaos in the name of serving one person and one person alone: Donald Trump. At every turn, Kevin sought to give his puppet master a lifeline, even after the horrific events of January 6, and spent his embarrassing speakership bending the knee to the most extreme factions of the MAGA base. This anticlimactic end to Kevin’s political career is in line with the rest of his time on Capitol Hill – plagued by cowardice, incompetence, and fecklessness. Our country will be better off without Kevin in office, but his failed tenure in the House should serve as a stark warning to the country about the future of the GOP – no matter how much he kowtowed to the extreme right, no matter how much he kissed the ring, none of it was MAGA enough for the de facto leader of the Republican Party, Donald Trump.
      Wisconsin’s Democratic governor Tony Evers has vetoed a Republican bill that would have banned gender-affirming care including surgeries and hormone treatments for minors in the state.In a statement released on Wednesday, Evers said:
      I promised I would veto any bill that makes Wisconsin a less safe, less inclusive, and less welcoming place for LGBTQ folks and kids—and I keep my promises.
      George Santos, the expelled Republican representative from New York, is reportedly making six figures by selling Cameo videos.The Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo reports:The disgraced lawmaker George Santos is reportedly making six figures by selling videos on the platform Cameo, generating more income than his previous salary as a US congressman, Semafor first reported.Santos, a former Republican representative from New York state, was expelled from Congress last Friday following a blistering ethics report that detailed his misuse of campaign funds.Since his removal, Santos has been publishing videos on Cameo, a website that allows users to purchase personalized videos from celebrities. The disgraced congressman has drastically increased the price of his videos, now selling them for $400 a pop from his initial $75-per-video price point.Read the full story here:Here is a video Kevin McCarthy released surrounding his resignation announcement:In the video, McCarthy said:
      Traveling the country and serving with all of you, I have encountered far more people that want to build something than those who want to tear it down. I have faith in this country because America is more than a country, America is an idea.
      Today, I am driven by the same purpose that I felt when I arrived in Congress but now it is time to pursue my passion in a different arena.
      Joe Biden has responded to a question on whether he thinks there are any Democrats who could beat Donald Trump other than himself.”Probably 50 of them,” replied Biden.He then went on to say, “I’m not the only one who can beat him, but I will beat him.”In response to Kevin McCarthy’s resignation announcement, California’s Democratic representative Adam Schiff said:
      “My dad asked me recently what I thought of Kevin McCarthy. In light of his retirement, I figured I’d share …”
      He went on to post a video in which he spoke about McCarthy, saying, “I think he’s a bad egg.”South Carolina’s Republican senator Lindsey Graham has released the following statement on Kevin McCarthy’s resignation announcement:
      I wish Kevin McCarthy well in his future endeavors to help the conservative cause. Kevin has much to be proud of, rising through the ranks to Minority Leader and Speaker of the House. He navigated the Republican Party through some of the most turbulent periods in recent history, getting results in difficult circumstances.
      “He will be missed, but I am sure his contributions to the future of the Republican Party will be enormous.”
      California’s Democratic representative Eric Swalwell, who predicted earlier this week that McCarthy would leave Congress, has responded to McCarthy’s resignation with a check mark emoji.Earlier this week, Swalwell tweeted:
      “With Santos gone, you’re hearing it here first: the next GOP member to leave Congress will be@SpeakerMcCarthy. No way he stays. A guy who kidney punches his colleagues from behind is too afraid to serve out a full term with them. I bet he’s gone by end of year. What say you?”
      In an odd and fairly threatening post, Georgia’s Republican representative Majorie Taylor Greene responded to the news of Kevin McCarthy resigning, saying:
      “Well..
      Now in 2024, we will have a 1 seat majority in the House of Representatives.
      Congratulations Freedom Caucus for one and 105 Rep who expel our own for the other.
      I can assure you Republican voters didn’t give us the majority to crash the ship.
      Hopefully no one dies.”
      Kevin McCarthy’s resignation will come before the special elections which are expected to take place either next February or March to fill the vacancy left by George Santos who was expelled from the House last Friday.With McCarthy gone, there will be two Republican vacancies in the House. More

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      Four Republican presidential hopefuls to meet for fourth debate in Alabama

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      Four White House hopefuls will meet onstage in Alabama for the fourth Republican presidential primary debate, the smallest lineup yet as the window for denting Donald Trump’s lead narrows.Wednesday night’s debate, hosted by the cable network NewsNation at the Moody Music Hall at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, offers one of the last major opportunities for the candidates to make their case to Republican voters before the party’s nominating contest begins next month.The two-hour event will feature Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, and Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and former United Nations ambassador, who are locked in an increasingly combative scrap to be the second-place alternative to Trump. They will be joined by Chris Christie, a former governor of New Jersey and Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur, who both trail far behind.The three previous debates have so far failed to pull Republican voters away from Trump, who maintains a dominant lead in national and early-state polls with six weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses launch the 2024 GOP nomination calendar.A national Monmouth University poll released on Wednesday before the debate found Trump 40 percentage points ahead of DeSantis, his next closest rival. Nodding to her momentum on the campaign trail, the poll found Haley’s standing rose the most since July, climbing 9 points from 3%.The vast majority of Republican voters said Trump would be their strongest candidate against Joe Biden, including four in 10 Republicans who currently support another candidate. Further complicating their path to the nomination, supporters of Trump’s Republican rivals are divided on whether the remaining candidates should stay in the race or coalesce around a single alternative.“We can parse these numbers until the cows come home, but the results don’t look good for any candidate not named Trump,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.DeSantis, whose campaign has stalled since he entered the race this summer, has staked his campaign’s success on a strong showing in Iowa, which holds its caucuses on 15 January.“We’re going to win Iowa,” DeSantis said during a Sunday interview on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I think it’s going to help propel us to the nomination.”DeSantis earned the high-profile endorsement of Iowa’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, and is touting his visits to all of the state’s 99 counties. Yet an NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll released at the end of October showed DeSantis tied for second with Haley in Iowa and lagging far behind Trump.Haley is hoping to build on her campaign’s momentum following a series of strong debate performances. In recent weeks, she has closed in on DeSantis, pulling ahead of him in New Hampshire, while winning over Wall Street donors and racking up endorsements from anti-Trump Republicans, including Americans for Prosperity Action, the political network founded by conservative billionaires, Charles and David Koch.Trump, who faces 91 federal charges in four cases, including his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost, has sought to portray himself as the inevitable nominee. A series of recent polls showed him leading Biden in several swing states even as he continues to articulate an increasingly anti-democratic vision for a second term. In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Trump vowed to only be a dictator “other than day one”.To qualify for the fourth debate, candidates needed at least 6% support either in two national polls or one national poll as well as two polls from states with early nominating contests. They also needed to have at least 80,000 unique donors, up from 70,000 for last month’s debate.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAll candidates must also have signed a pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee, which Trump has refused to do. That means the former president, who is trouncing the field in polling and fundraising, technically would not qualify for the debate, even if he chose to attend.Unlike past debates, Trump is not planning to hold a dueling rally at a location near the debate venue. Instead he will spend the evening at a fundraiser in Florida.Earlier this week, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, who failed to qualify for the third debate and was on track to miss the fourth, suspended his campaign, denouncing the RNC’s “clubhouse debate requirements” that he said were “nationalizing the primary process”.Burgum’s departure came after Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina abruptly ended his campaign, saying that voters “have been really clear that they’re telling me, ‘Not now, Tim.’”Wednesday’s debate will be hosted by Elizabeth Vargas of NewsNation alongside conservative moderators Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News anchor and Eliana Johnson, editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon. More

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      Senate Republicans set to block advancement of Ukraine-Israel aid bill

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      The Senate will hold a key procedural vote on whether to advance a supplemental funding bill that includes financial aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as well as provisions aimed at bolstering border security.The vote, which will be held on Wednesday afternoon, is expected to fail due to opposition from Senate Republicans, who have demanded stricter border regulations in exchange for their support.The vote comes one day after Senate Democrats formally unveiled the $111bn supplemental security bill, reflecting the funding request that Joe Biden issued in October to provide assistance to the US’s allies abroad.Ahead of the vote, Biden delivered an address to urge Congress to pass the bill, warning that a failure to act would only benefit Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, in the war against Ukraine.“Who is prepared to walk away from holding Putin accountable for this behavior? Who among us is really prepared to do that?” Biden said. “I’m not prepared to walk away, and I don’t think the American people are either.”Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressed leaders of the G7 group of nations and called on them to confound Vladimir Putin by winning “the battle of motivations” and not showing weakness.The G7 leaders met by video at short notice in a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian leader that included trying to breathe new life into the sanctions against Russia.Zelenskiy thanked G7 leaders for their support, and warned that Moscow was counting on collapse of western support for Ukraine. “Russia believes America and Europe will show weakness and will not maintain support for Ukraine at the proper level. Putin believes the free world will not fully enforce its own sanctions and the Russian elite mocks the world’s doubts about using Russian assets to compensate for damage from Russian aggression,” he said.“All these are part of a much broader issue – what can freedom do and what can dictatorships do. We must answer these questions together.”Although the bill includes a number of border security measures, Republicans in both chambers have insisted the legislation must go further in restricting migrants’ asylum and parole applications. Those proposals are a non-starter for many Democrats, making it unclear how a supplemental bill can pass the divided Congress.Biden said on Wednesday that he was willing to make “significant compromises on the border,” but he accused Republicans of taking an all-or-nothing approach to the immigration talks.“This has to be a negotiation,” Biden said. “Republicans think they can get everything they want without any bipartisan compromise. That’s not the answer.”Those tensions spilled over on Tuesday night, when a classified Senate briefing on Ukraine erupted into a shouting match. Zelenskiy was scheduled to speak at the briefing, but he was forced to cancel due to a “last-minute” issue, according to the Democratic Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer.The briefing still occurred despite Zelenskiy’s absence, but Schumer then accused Republicans of having “hijacked” the meeting to discuss border security. Republicans then criticized Schumer for refusing to address the crucial issues that created the current standoff.“Republicans are just walking out of the briefing because the people there are not willing to actually discuss what it takes to get a deal done,” Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican of Utah, said.With no resolution in sight, Senate Republicans are expected to successfully filibuster the supplemental security bill, blocking it from advancing. The impasse increases the likelihood that Congress will fail to approve more aid for Ukraine before the end of the year, as the White House has warned that Kyiv is desperately in need of more financial assistance.“I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine and to provide equipment from US military stocks,” Shalanda Young, the director of the office of management and budget, wrote in a letter to congressional leaders on Monday.“There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment. We are out of money – and nearly out of time.”Even as Republicans have raised serious concerns about the border provisions of the bill, the $10bn allocated for aid to Israel has sparked criticism from Bernie Sanders . In a letter sent to his colleagues on Tuesday, the progressive Vermont senator warned against providing a “blank check” to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, as the death toll in Gaza continues to climb.“No, I do not think we should be appropriating $10.1bn for the right-wing, extremist Netanyahu government to continue its current military strategy,” Sanders wrote. “What the Netanyahu government is doing is immoral, it is in violation of international law, and the United States should not be complicit in those actions.” More

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      Fake electors in Wisconsin first to admit Biden won election and face penalty

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      A group of Republican fake electors in Wisconsin acknowledged Joe Biden won the presidency and agreed they would not serve in the electoral college in 2024 as part of a settlement agreement in a civil lawsuit on Wednesday.The settlement, first reported by the Washington Post, marks the first time any of the fake electors from 2020 have formally acknowledged wrongdoing in a legal case and have faced any kind of penalty. The case was filed by two Biden electors and a Wisconsin voter last year. They sought up to $2.4m in damages, in addition to permanently barring the fake electors from ever being able to serve as presidential electors again.No money is involved in the settlement, according to a copy of the agreement that was obtained by the Washington Post. The fake electors agreed to never serve in an election in which Donald Trump is on the ballot. They also agreed to fully cooperate in any justice department investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.The lawsuit is continuing against Jim Troupis, a Wisconsin attorney who helped organize the effort there, as well as Ken Chesebro, a lawyer who was the architect of the effort to convene false slates of electors across the country.The effort to get pro-Trump slates of electors in place if allies were able to stop the certification of the presidential vote has drawn scrutiny from both federal and state prosecutors. The Michigan attorney general, Dana Nessel, has criminally charged those who served as fake electors there. Chesebro and some of the Georgia fake electors were also charged as part of the wide-ranging Rico prosecution into Trump’s efforts to overturn the election there.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe attorney general of Nevada is also reportedly investigating the fake elector slate there as is the Arizona attorney general. More

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      The 15 questions that will not be asked at the Republican debate | Sidney Blumenthal

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      The next Republican debate, like every previous one, is a staged performance simulating a debate. It is in the spirit of a Potemkin Village, the painted wooden facade of a thriving town transported place to place on the orders of Prince Gregory Potemkin to impress his lover Catherine the Great on her grand tour of the new lands of the Russian empire in 1783. The legend of the Potemkin Village gained currency with the publication of the Marquis de Custine’s Russia in 1839. Inspired by the first volume of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, Custine decided he would secure his fame by the parallel feat of traveling through Russia. “The Russians have only names for everything, but there is nothing in reality. Russia is a country of facades,” he wrote. His insight has never faded, from the Romanovs through the Soviet Union down to Putin, where nothing is true.The Potemkin Village of the Republican contest, conducted under the shadow of a tyrant, is more Custine than Tocqueville, more Russia in 1839 than Democracy in America. It is the triumph of scenography above ideology. Revealing the reality behind the theatrical setting is too terrifying to contemplate for the participants. The pasteboard facade of a debate is shuttled into the pasteboard facade of an impeachment.Yet the utter political and moral collapse of the tattered remnants of the Republican party has been the subject of several recently published exposes. McKay Coppins’ Romney: A Reckoning has disclosed the lonely ruminations and regrets of the Republican presidential nominee of 2012. Mitt Romney is unrestrained in his contempt for Trump, his venality and threat to the constitution. Romney’s scorn for Trump is equaled by his disdain for Trump’s cowardly enablers, especially his fellow senators. “I don’t know that I can disrespect someone someone more than JD Vance,” he said. Observing from his unique perch, Romney wrote out for himself a line from William Butler Yeats’s apocalyptic poem, The Second Coming, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” “A very large portion of my party,” he told Coppins, “really doesn’t believe in the constitution”.Liz Cheney’s new memoir, Oath and Honor, draws the same conclusion of a party jettisoning its principles in the embrace of a despot who would overturn the constitution. Her story describes herself running from Republican leader to leader as a modern-day Paul Revere sounding the alarm on the eve of the January 6 coup to find herself standing alone on Lexington Green. The only patriots joining her are Democrats. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, would-be master of strategy, tells her not to worry, there’s no need to do anything, he wouldn’t support Trump’s impeachment and removal after the coup, that Trump will “fade away”. She mounts her horse again to warn that Trump intends to establish a dictatorship for life.Cheney’s memoir has followed on the heels of Robert Kagan’s dark essay making the same point in the Washington Post. Kagan, like Cheney, a neoconservative turned Never Trumper, wrote, “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending.” Trump mocked Kagan and his ominous prediction by approvingly posting a link to the article on his Truth Social account, turning forewarning into vindication. Trump retweeted one of his acolytes, Congressman Cory Mills, of Florida, who wrote that Kagan proved the case for Trump: “For months, the radical left and never Trumpers tried to claim President Trump could not win a general election. They tried to launch countless indictments & false allegations to get him off the ballot. Now, it’s obvious the Americans from all walks of life, not from any singular socioeconomic background, are in staunch support of Donald J Trump.”Then there has been the publication of Tim Alberta’s book on the moral corruption of the evangelical right, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. Alberta, an evangelical himself, disillusioned by the movement’s turn to Trump, whom he calls a “lecherous, impenitent scoundrel”, chronicles its leaders’ sinful descent to idol-worshipping Trump as their “mercenary” redemptive Christ. It does not matter that Trump, as Alberta reports, considers “these so-called Christians” as “some real pieces of shit”. Christian nationalism is now completed with its fusion with Trump. Nothing illustrates Alberta’s shudder more than the rise of Mike Johnson, evangelical true believer and Trump coup plotter, to become speaker of the House.So far, the decadent ruination of the Republican party, the threat to the constitution and Trump’s brazen plans for a dictatorship have not been seen fit to discuss as the centerpiece of any Republican debate. Role-playing is the essence of sustaining the suspension of disbelief. The mise en scene of a weighty event is physically replicated to complete the picture – the podiums, the long desk, the patriotic backdrop – the Potemkin Village. But the pretense only further contributes to the flattening of the party that has been trampled by the despot in waiting.This particular charade of a debate has most recently taken the form of Nikki Haley’s media-driven star turn as an alternative to Donald Trump. Having won the support of Charles Koch, the surviving Koch brother, she has, in the common parlance, “momentum”. But, a few weeks ago, before wandering Republican donors inflated the Haley boomlet, an influential Republican in Washington touted to me anticipation of her “momentum”. Haley’s backers would concentrate behind her, he explained, but she would lose; they would mostly oppose Trump, who he hoped would lose; and then they would reclaim the party. Haley is a vehicle for keeping hope alive. This scenario imagines that there is another Republican party lying beyond the mists, the world of the past, still intact, only waiting to be reclaimed. Haley is their unlikely figure of restoration, hardly carrying a nostalgic impression, but she is the final thin reed left to grasp, at least for a moment. As Liz Cheney has written in her memoir, that party is gone. Her encounter with McConnell, and his certainty that Trump would “fade”, proves both her point and that the assumptions of a return to normalcy is illusory. How are things in Glocca Morra?Haley exists in a strange bubble, allowed to float unobstructed, poked at by no one except hapless Ron DeSantis, as she drifts toward her ending foretold by TS Eliot, “not with a bang, but a whimper”. Her candidacy will show once again why Trump strides like a colossus over the Republicans. Her inherent unpopularity has yet to be explored. To the extent she stands for the old conservatism, she is discreditable with the Trump base. His unabashed white supremacist national socialism always beats unvarnished laissez-faire. Her position in favor of what is euphemistically called “entitlement reform” of social security and Medicare is exactly why working-class Republicans adhere to Trump and not to traditional Republicans. “I recognize that social security and Medicare are the last thing the political class wants to talk about,” she has said. “Any candidate who refuses to address them should be disqualified. They’ll take your vote and leave you broke.” She has a record of repeatedly calling for the repeal of Obamacare. “We have fought Obamacare in South Carolina as much as we possibly could,” she has said. And, recently, she added, “It’s not about one small policy of, you know, Affordable Care Act. It’s about fixing the entire healthcare system.” She also had endorsed a series of rightwing nostrums such as “term limits” to fire all federal civil servants after five years (air traffic controllers, food inspectors, scientists?), defunding the Internal Revenue Service, and forcing congressional votes on every single federal rule and regulation (3,000 to 4,500 a year).Haley’s balloon would puncture if and when the public ever plays attention to her draconian conservatism. In the meantime, she has tried to edge to the right of Trump into RFK Jr territory by giving credence to wild anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories. “You took people’s rights away in the process,” she said, about the federal government funding of Covid-19 vaccine development. “You said, ‘Oh, we have all these vaccines. Make people get it.”In the coming debate, Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News host and NBC personality, diving into career vertigo, but lately recovered as a podcaster and YouTuber, is the more relevant figure than the pretenders who are to be her props. Her comeback provides greater drama and broader audience appeal than Haley’s remote chance.In the posturing of seriousness on the part of the questioners, it seems unlikely that the debate will focus on the urgency raised by Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Robert Kagan and Tim Alberta. Nonetheless, here are a few questions that Megyn Kelly, et al, might pose:*Donald Trump has said Gen Mark Milley, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, should be tried and executed for treason. Do you agree?*Explain why you would support as a presidential nominee someone who a judge has stated is a rapist “as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape’”.*Explain why you would support for president a financial fraudster convicted of grossly lying on his bank loans.*Do you agree with Donald Trump’s assessment of his vice-president, Mike Pence, for fulfilling his constitutional duty to preside over the counting of the electoral college votes that he was a “pussy?”*Do you agree with Donald Trump, who in speaking about the 2020 election, has said: “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”*Do you agree with Donald Trump that Putin after his invasion of Ukraine was “genius” and “savvy”?*Should the Department of Justice drop its indictments of Donald Trump for alleged criminal violations of federal laws? If yes, why, and if not, why not?*In your view, does Donald Trump have the right to pardon himself for any crimes for which he is being prosecuted?*Can a person found guilty of a sexual assault be allowed to hold federal office? Should he?*Can a person who has been involved in more than one bankruptcy case be allowed a role in developing or implementing the federal budget? Should he?*Is section 3 of the US constitution’s 14th amendment, which prohibits those involved in insurrection against the United States from holding federal office, self-executing?*Can state legislatures replace a state electorate’s choice for president with their own pick under any circumstance?*Are the January 6 insurrectionists who have been convicted of violent assault of police officers and are now serving prison sentences being held as hostages who should be pardoned?*Do you agree with this statement? “If I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them.’ They’d be out of business. They’d be out of the election.”*Finally, in honor of the House speaker, creationist Mike Johnson, how old is the Earth?
      Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth More